Hello Familiar Linux!

w00t! It works!

root@h3900:/# uname -a
Linux h3900 2.4.19-rmk6-pxa1-hh41.1 #1 Tue Aug 15 05:10:33 CEST 2006 armv5tel unknown

Familiar Linux

I foresee that embedded programming would play a large part in my future. Web application development will no longer pay as much as it used too, because scripting is too easy. I was already coding in PHP while I was still in highschool, when that language was not yet in vogue. Now that it is being offered in some schools, I need to learn something else. I need to start early so that I will be ready when the time comes.

I'm now installing Familiar Linux on my iPAQ in preparation for my experiments. It's now being reflashed as I type this blog. I'm crossing my fingers. I hope my iPAQ won't end up as a very expensive paperweight. =)

Logging in to Unactivated Windows XP

I was looking for a way to log in to an unactivated Windows XP so that I could back up some files and load a few applications before I completely erase it from my partition.

I found this tip very helpful: http://tomorrowtimes.blogspot.com/2006/12/how-to-login-to-expired-windows.html.

It works.

Display IPv6 routes in Ubuntu

Unlike FreeBSD, Ubuntu doesn't show the IPv6 routes when netstat -rn is invoked. To display the routes, just do ip -6 route show dev <interface> or route -A inet6.

KDE in Ubuntu

I've just installed KDE on my Ubuntu box. It's been a long time since I've last used KDE. I want to try it to see how things have improved over the years.

Installation via Synaptic was very simple. KDE is now running on my left box, and the UI looks impressive at first glance. One problem though: the menu is a mess. The programs are packed into big sub-menus, and it's very annoying to sift through the labels just to find what I need. The problem is aggravated by the fact that Gnome apps are mixed with KDE apps in the menu. Where the bleep is the KDE Control Center? How the frack will I change the screen resolution without directly modifying xorg.conf? I don't need all of these programs in the menu. I just need to change the screen resolution and customize my box via Control Center. Aaaaaaaargh... KDE has become bloated.

pfSense HTTPS fixed

OK, I found the problem. The fix is very simple:

$SERVER["socket"] == "0.0.0.0:443" {
    ssl.engine = "enable"
    ssl.pemfile = "/var/etc/cert.pem"
}

I'll commit this change soon.

fixing pfSense' HTTPS support

lighttpd seems to have an issue when enabling both IPv4 and IPv6. With plain HTTP, enabling them both is a simple matter of adding the following lines:

server.use-ipv6            = "enable"
$SERVER["socket"]          == "0.0.0.0:80" { }

With HTTPS, however, $SERVER["socket"] == "0.0.0.0:443" doesn't seem to work. Although sockstat reports that lighttpd is indeed listening to port 443, https://<ip_address> doesn't work. http://<ip_address>:443 work, but this is just plain HTTP served on port 443. Weird. the following is sockstat's output:

root     lighttpd   53320 4  tcp6   *:443           *:*
root     lighttpd   53320 5  tcp4   *:443           *:*

Hello DragonFly!

        ,--,           |           ,--,
        |   `-,       ,^,       ,-'   |
         `,    `-,   (/ \)   ,-`    ,-'
           `-,    `-,/   \,-`    ,-`
              `------(   )------'
          ,----------(   )-----------,
         |        _,-(   )-,_        |
          `-,__,-`   \   /   `-,__,-'
                      | |
                      | |
                      | |
                      | |
                      | |
                      | |
                      `|'

simoncpu@dragonsentinel:~> uname -a
DragonFly dragonsentinel.experiments.simoncpu.com 1.10.1-RELEASE DragonFly 1.10.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Aug 20 17:42:05 PDT 2007 root@:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386

I've successfully installed DragonFly on Soekris net4801. Installation was very simple.

Configuring the box is not much different from FreeBSD. The only problem that I've encountered is that DragonFly stops and asks me where /boot/loader is, if I specify -Dh at /boot.config. Weird. The boot menu doesn't even show up in the serial console. Everything works fine if I just specify -h.

xmms-wma on Ubuntu

To play Windows Media Audio (WMA) files on XMMS, just do the following steps:

1. Open Synaptic Package Manager.
2. Install xmms-dev.
3. Download xmms-wmma plugin from <http://mcmcc.bat.ru/xmms-wma/>.
4. Extract the package.
5. In the current directory of your extracted files, do make install.

Rock on!

buffer overflow

Aaaaargh! I'm getting too many interrupt-level buffer overflows with FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT. I can't connect to the network. Yeah, yeah. I know that using the bleeding-edge development branch is tantamount to suicide. But what the heck.

Should I experiment on using DragonFlyBSD?

My Soekris net4801 box, which acts as my Ethernet switch by bridging all of its ports, is experiencing intermittent slowdown, especially under heavy load. This has occurred after replacing its OS from FreeBSD 6.2 to FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT, March snapshot. I think it's because it had some critical bugs last March (I was too lazy to download a September snapshot) and because WITNESS, INVARIANTS, and other debugging options have been enabled in the kernel. Instead of rebuilding the kernel, I'm thinking of using DragonFlyBSD instead. I want to experiment. I'll do this on Saturday so as not to interfere with my work.

xmms-shn on Ubuntu

To play Shorten (SHN) files on XMMS, just do the following steps:

1. Open Synaptic Package Manager.
2. Install xmms-dev.
3. Download xmms-shn plugin from <http://www.etree.org/shnutils/xmms-shn/>.
4. Extract the package.
5. In the current directory of your extracted files, do ./configure, make, and make install.

Yeah, yeah. My instructions are not very precise. It should give you sufficient idea though. Just post a comment if any of the steps are unclear.

Rock on!

women on unix

simoncpu@localhost:~$ man woman
No manual entry for woman

simoncpu@localhost:~$ finger woman
finger: woman: no such user

simoncpu@localhost:~$ fsck woman
fsck: cannot open `/dev/woman': No such file or directory

w00t GPRS!!!

Hello world! I'm scriblling this entry using my iPAQ that is connected to my cellphone via Bluetooth.

I'll post the details later on how I made my ancient iPAQ H5550 GPRS-capable. w00t! :)

Virtualization Killer App

Citrix is acquiring XenSource (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2171251,00.asp). Very cool.

As grid computing becomes reality and as processing power, memory, and bandwidth become utilities just like water and electricity, I see that the future lies in virtualization technologies + remote X sessions and/or VNC.

I see that the future in creating an online and pervasive workspace lies on running multiple operating systems and offering it as a service. Each user can have his own virtual machine, and each user can pay the provider based on his memory and processing requirements for each session.

This will be the killer app once the infrastructure is in place.

Sorry, but we are interrupting your GRPS session because of insufficient balance. Pls. reload your account and try again. You have not been charged for this download attempt.

There you go. I feel so suddenly enlightened.

SMART 3G

SMART 3G is so sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow... I can't browse external WAP sites!!!

Or is it because my prepaid load has already ran out? Oopsy.

New Title

I should replace my blog's title.

Initially, my plan was simply to chronicle my learnings with the FreeBSD Operating System. I was planning to make this similar to The FreeBSD Diary, hence my original title of "A Neophyte's Journey to FreeBSD".

Blah blah blah. Shit. It's 5:42PM already. I have to stop writing this entry. I'm late for church. =)

pfSense IPv6

Basic IPv6 support in pfSense is almost ready now. Although I expect that this still has some bugs, IPv6 support is already usable.

This is only available in the HEAD branch as of this moment. I may merge it to RELENG_1 as soon as it is deemed stable. You may download the daily snapshot at http://snapshots.pfsense.org/FreeBSD6/head/iso/.

I'm setting up a pfSense CVS mirror right now, and I'm using nginx server for the CVS Web interface. nginx server is kindda weird-- everything has to done manually, even for setting up a Perl process that will bind to a Unix socket in order to run Perl scripts.

Here's the URL for my mirror:
http://www.simoncpu.com/freedom/pfSense/CVS/cvsweb.cgi

Please note that not everything will work, as this is still highly experimental.