Category: Linux

Booting from USB

Posted by Eric – September 26, 2008

The Shuttle PC arrived today! At this moment, I’m doing the Gentoo install. The first issue I had to figure out was the exact sequence to make the machine boot from my usb key. Pressing Escape during post brings up a screen to change the first boot device.

LS120
Hard Disk
CD-ROM
ZIP100
USB-FDD
USB-ZIP
USB-CDROM
LAN

None these options worked, however. The correct option was found buried deeper in the BIOS options.

  1. Boot the Shuttle PC with the thumb drive plugged in and press delete during POST to enter setup.
  2. Select Integrated Peripherals
  3. Select USB Device Setting
  4. Under the “USB Mass Storage Device Boot Setting” section there will be an entry for the USB thumb drive.

For my thumb drive I had three choices “auto”, “FDD only”, and “HDD only”. Choosing “HDD only” causes my thumb drive to show up as a standard hard disk in my boot options.

A New Toy for Me

Posted by Eric – September 22, 2008

Shuttle PC K4500

Shuttle PC K4500

Today, I ordered a new toy for me. It’s a Shuttle PC model K4500 from Newegg. Actually, I want it to have a dual purpose. It’s primary purpose will be to operate the flatbed scanner when Mom wants to copy something. Right now, she depends on me to operate it for her but I plan to automate the process so she only has to type a few simple commands such as “scan” or “copy”. The second purpose will be a platform for my self-education. The various computers I have owned have all eventually become unusuable due to age. After, the previous computer’s video started to give out and it later died. I was in search of a replacement but I didn’t want to spend $500 to a $1000 on a normal tower PC. The K4500 model does not include a internal CD-ROM but for Mom’s use it isn’t neccessary to have one. I did confirm that the Shuttle PCs can boot from an external USB disk like a flash thumb drive. Which is all I need to install Gentoo.

It Lives!

Posted by Eric – June 25, 2008

Sunday afternoon I sucessfully flashed the WRT54GL router with DD-WRT. In the preparations for doing the flash, I read alot on the DD-WRT website making certain I knew what to expect. The website makes it very clear that an improper flash can brick your hardware. Following the instructions exactly made the process relatively uneventful though I did have a momentary panic after doing the second hard reset. After the firmware flash was complete I did another 30/30/30 reset as per the instructions the power light continued blinking for longer than it ought to. So I hit the reset button briefly without power cycling the router and then it booted correctly. It has been working ever since.

Now that I have the router working correctly with it handling DHCP and DNS. I’m considering what the home server is going to be doing in the future.

The Belkin is dead! Live Long Linksys!

Posted by Eric – June 18, 2008

This past Sunday I was unfortunate enough to watch the untimely death of my old Belkin wireless router. I wasn’t sad to watch it go but I did miss having my wireless available. That afternoon when I was deciding what I wanted to replace it with I didn’t want to go the “El Cheapo” route again. So what better choice was there than the very hackable Linksys WRT54GL. Newegg shipping was fast; I bought it on Sunday afternoon and it arrived Tuesday. The Linksys was quick to setup without using the included setup disk. However, since it was too easy setting it up with factory firmware. I’m going to push my luck and try installing the DD-WRT firmware. Some of my most wanted features from DD-WRT are the full-featured NTP, DHCP, and DNS daemons. NTP and DNS I already run on a box in the house it would be nice to move those services to a silent blue box sitting on the desk. DHCP support on most routers is anemic at best but with the new firmware I’ll have the power of a full-fledged daemon to configure.

Maintenance: 6/4/2008

Posted by Eric – June 4, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies  .  ... done!
[ebuild     U ] sys-devel/gnuconfig-20080123 [20070724] 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-libs/timezone-data-2008b [2008a] USE="nls" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] dev-libs/openssl-0.9.8g-r2 [0.9.8g] USE="zlib -bindist -gmp -kerberos -sse2 -test (-emacs%)" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/python-2.4.4-r13 [2.4.4-r9] USE="berkdb cxx%* gdbm ncurses readline ssl threads%* -bootstrap -build -doc -examples -ipv6 -tk -ucs2 -wininst% (-nocxx%) (-nothreads%)" 0 kB

Total: 4 packages (4 upgrades), Size of downloads: 0 kB

When you install openssl it may warn you about old libraries. You need only follow the instructions portage gives you.

Maintenance: 5/28/2008

Posted by Eric – May 28, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies     ... done!
[ebuild     U ] dev-libs/libevent-1.4.3 [1.3a] 469 kB

Total: 1 package (1 upgrade), Size of downloads: 469 kB

After upgrading libevent make sure to run revdep-rebuild or else it will break nfs-utils.

Maintenance: 5/23/2008

Posted by Eric – May 23, 2008

Upgrades

These are the packages that would be merged, in order:

Calculating world dependencies  .  ... done!
[ebuild     U ] net-ftp/ftpbase-0.01-r1 [0.01] USE="pam" 0 kB
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/libgpg-error-1.6  USE="nls" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] app-arch/tar-1.20 [1.19-r1] USE="nls -static" 1,868 kB
[ebuild     U ] app-admin/sudo-1.6.9_p13 [1.6.8_p12-r1] USE="pam -ldap -offensive (-selinux) -skey" 0 kB
[ebuild  NS   ] sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-2.6.24-r8  USE="-build -symlink" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] sys-devel/libperl-5.8.8-r2 [5.8.8-r1] USE="berkdb gdbm -debug -ithreads" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] dev-lang/perl-5.8.8-r5 [5.8.8-r4] USE="berkdb gdbm -build -debug -doc -ithreads -perlsuid" 0 kB
[ebuild  N    ] dev-libs/libgcrypt-1.4.0-r1  USE="nls -bindist -idea" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] net-libs/libpcap-0.9.8-r1 [0.9.8] USE="-ipv6" 0 kB
[ebuild     U ] net-print/cups-1.3.7-r1 [1.2.12-r8] USE="acl%* nls pam perl%* ppds python%* -X -avahi% -dbus -java% -jpeg -kerberos% -ldap -php -png -samba -slp -ssl -static% -tiff -zeroconf%" LINGUAS="-de% -en% -es% -et% -fr% -he% -it% -ja% -pl% -sv% -zh_TW%" 3,805 kB

Total: 10 packages (7 upgrades, 2 new, 1 in new slot), Size of downloads: 5,673 kB

Been awhile since I last upgraded the server.

Workaround for heavy CPU load in Firefox Beta5

Posted by Eric – May 11, 2008

Gkrellm2 display showing high cpu/disk usage
For the people using Firefox Beta 5 on Linux. You probably noticed a curious bug where Firefox freezes for a moment accompanied by extreme CPU load and disk usage. Well, the problem is that Firefox3′s support for anti-phishing is saved to a SQL-lite database that grows larger than its cache can handle. The fix is to disable the anti-phishing features and delete the files beginning with “urlclassifier” from your profile. After doing this I haven’t had any problems since. The SQL-lite database grows quite large when these problems start occurring, 18 Meg for me.
-rw-r--r-- 1 ebrake ebrake 18M May 11 12:40 ./urlclassifier3.sqlite