Showing posts with label pc-bsd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pc-bsd. Show all posts

Monday, October 19, 2009

A look at a *good* PBI install script from 2007.

In looking around my ~/Projects folder, I found an old PBI install script I wrote a couple years back. When I was working on a TexLive PBI (only me and Oko were interested), I wrote a very robust script. Most PBI that use install scripts should be nearly like this but normally, they only handle the GUI case and screw you if you use text mode or have special need.


This script was written to the published API at the time, which basically amounted to $INSTALLMODE being set to tell you if you were in a GUI or not; a variable to tell you what name your PBI would have inside /Programs. This was an improvement over using "$1" everywhere, as was required in previous versions of the PBI API.

Here is my old script:

#!/bin/sh

# the year of this release, e.g. 2007, 2008 e.t.c. -> This should be equal to
# the Program Version we set in PBC.
YEAR="2007"

# the size of all our installed files in $PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR/
TEXSIZE="1.1GB" # as a string

# compat check.. should be unecessary but I don't trust PC-BSD. Since users can
# now override our install location and documentation does not talk to us about
# coping with it not being /Programs/$PROGDIR/, abort install rather then risk
# performing undefined/undocumented behavior should /Programs/$PROGDIR be
# overrided.

if [ -d "/usr/Programs" ]; then
    PBI_BASE="/usr/Programs"
elif [ -d "/Programs" ]; then
    PBI_BASE="/Programs"
elif [ -d "/usr/local/MyPrograms" ]; then
    PBI_BASE="/usr/local/MyPrograms"
else
    if [ $INSTALLMODE = "GUI" ]; then
        kdialog --sorry "Can't find PBI Installation Directory... aborting"
    else
        echo "Can't find PBI Installation Directory... aborting"
    fi
    exit 255
fi

# set the path
MY_TEX_PATH="$PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR/bin/i386-freebsd/"


# XXX check if we are already installed or improperly installed

if [ -d "$PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR" ]; then
    if [ $INSTALLMODE = "GUI" ]; then
        kdialog --sorry "$PROGDIR appears to be already installed, aborting"
    else
        echo "$PROGDIR appears to be already installed, aborting"
    fi
    exit 255
fi

# give the user a chance to abort the installation
if [ $INSTALLMODE = "GUI" ]; then 
    kdialog --warningyesno \
    "The installation requires approximatly $TEXSIZE of disk space Continue?"
    if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
        exit 1
    fi
else
    echo "The installation requires approximatly $TEXSIZE of disk space"
    echo -n "Continue?[yes/no]"; read GO
    echo $GO | grep -i "no"
    if [ $? = 0 ]; then
        exit 1
    fi
fi


# Do installation
echo 'MSG: Setting up TeX Live directory'
mkdir -p $PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR
ln -s $PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR $PBI_BASE/$PROGDIR/TEXLIVE_$YEAR

echo "MSG: Installing TeX Live files..."

# extract our texlive installation
cd /$PBI_BASE/texlive/$YEAR/ && \
    lzma d texlive${YEAR}.tar.lzma -so | tar -xpf -

# prompt for a default paper size
if [ $INSTALLMODE = "GUI" ]; then 
    PAPER=`kdialog --combobox "Select default paper size" \
            "A4 Paper" "US Letter"`
else
    echo -n "default paper size [A4 Paper, US Letter]: "; read PAPER
fi

echo $PAPER | grep -i "Letter"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    texconfig-sys paper letter
fi

echo $PAPER | grep -i "A4"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    texconfig-sys paper a4
fi


echo "MSG: Updating TeX filename databases"
texconfig-sys rehash


if [ $INSTALLMODE = "GUI" ]; then 
    kdialog --yesno \
    "Congratulations! Installation complete -- test installation?"
    if [ $? = 0 ];then
        cd /tmp/
        $MY_TEX_PATH/pdflatex sample2e.tex && kpdf /tmp/sample2e.pdf
        if [ $? -gt 0 ]; then
            kdialog --error \
        "The test may have failed to load, please report any errors: $?"
        fi
    fi
    echo "MSG: Displaying readme file"
    kwrite $PBI_BASE/$PROGDIR/PBI_README.txt 
else
    # I don't know a programa off hand to use for console output.
    more $PBI_BASE/$PROGDIR/PBI_README.txt
fi


What is wrong with that script? Nothing compared to what is wrong with the PBI script API.


$PROGDIR should expand to /Programs/ProgNameVer instead of ProgNameVer.

The maintainer shouldn't have to treat GUI and TEXT mode differently - the API should do it. In fact, that was the main impetus for the EPI spec creating platform independence. In an EPI, people would have said ask the user a question. Not have to understand shell script and massive toggles for GUI/TEXT mode install.


I believe PBI now also do similiar idiocy in regards to fonts handling that should be done at a higher level. However, according to the officially published documentation, my old script is still the correct way to go with a PBI.


One of the reasons I gave up on Kris Moores PBI, was the brain damaged design, the other reasons were the total miss management of PBI...



Under the draft spec's I wrote for EPI, the above script would have become something like this:

# optional EPIL script for EPI

define question dialog with
        title = "TextLive EPI"
        message = "Please set a default paper size"
        default = "A4 Paper"
        options = ['A4 Paper', 'US Letter']
launch as paper_size

if paper_size == "A4 Paper" then do
        execute "texconfig-sys paper a4"
else
        execute "texconfig-sys paper letter



Now I ask you, if you were not a programmer, which one do you understand? Then let me ask you, if you just want to get on with your life, which would you rather write?


Both the PBI sh and EPI EPIL scripts would result in a simple dialog asking you to choose from one of two options. If you know how to use TexLive, the EPIL script would be totally unnecessary because you already know how to change paper sizes. That means you don't even have to write a script at all in a normal case.



End result? Oh so simpler.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

A few Thoughts turn to PC-BSD

Considering recent threads in the PC-BSD forums, largely centred around the projects deficiencies I've made a decision.


I have the DVD version of PC-BSD 7.1.1 x86 down loading, when it is complete, I'll load it into a virtual machine for testing. Once that is done, I will conduct a 'deep' inspection of the systems current state—including the source code. The aim of it is to analyze the distributions weak spots, noting the areas where it does need improvement. After that is completed, I intend to publish my catalogue of the projects deficiencies along with suggested paths for improvement. It'll probably be posted here on my LiveJournal, with links shared in the appropriate forums and mailing lists.


Why do I feel like doing this? Well, PC-BSD while it has some good qualities, generally fails (in my honest opinion) because of how it is handled. As I have often said and people can feel free to quote me on it, PC-BSD feels like a project born in Kris Moore's garage: that never left. And like wise, as I have often expressed, PC-BSD development practices do *NOT* reflect those of a real BSD project.


In my experience getting anything done there, that is also worth doing: has usually been caused by the community screaming the developers ears off... perhaps consistently so. So writing an open letter might poke the project into cleaning up their ship, or at least demonstrate to the rest of us what "Not to do", lol.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

nights log

So far it has been a fairly uneventful night. I've been contemplating taking up another language, I'm interested in both Latin and Spanish, but have started studying neither yet. Mathematically, I would have to favour Spanish... because shall we say, while exposure to Spanish is fairly easy for me, Latin is a bit of a dead language! Really the only languages of value out here, is what *passes* for English, and of course Mexican / Puerto Rican dialects of Spanish. Considering the simpler grammar, studying Spanish in the long run: might also help to improve my German, which is useless at the compositional level, but occasionally handy at the reading level. I think the entire world would agree though, that I should work on improving my English skills, or at least stop the mixture of US/UK elements.


For time passing, I setup sudo on my laptop; had done it some years back, when I was running PC-BSD, but haven't used it since an updated overwrote my sudoers file, as I had forgotten to backup /usr/local/etc. I knew that PC-BSD was taking ownership of /etc/rc.local and making overwriting changes to sudoers, but didn't use sudo enough to care lol. That's one thing that has always pissed me off about PC-BSD, yet I have always respected about the *real* BSD projects: a concept of user edited files. You can play with /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.conf on FreeBSD without getting biten, on PC-BSD you should use an rc.conf.local file: OpenBSD style. I'm always running the latest FreeBSD STABLE branch on the laptop, in this case RELENG_7, and anxious to see RELENG_8 become a practical reality. Heh, even on the OpenBSD box (which as sudo preinstalled) I don't bother using sudo that much. What I like about sudo however, is the ability to skip 'su - root', and limit access in a more general way—to specific commands. It's probably one of the best programs of its kind written, since su.

In getting playful, I split up my word lists (:help spellfile) in vim, into smaller organized chunks, and added a few more entries from FreeBSDs system dictionaries. As time goes on, I might expand things further, based on the kinds of texts I end up editing. All of my text editing is basically done in vim, so it also does most of my spell checkin' by virtue of that. Of course, Vi IMproved has an excellent spell checker, and perhaps the only one I've met that could be considered superior to MS Words. While I utterly hate word processors, and find them to be useless paper weights; I generally consider Microsoft Word the best known example of spell checking lol. I'm happy to say though, that I've evolved somewhat in the past eleven or twelve years ;). Now if only I could do something about the having-to-type-as-fast-as-i-can-freaking-think-problem, maybe my writing might actually be worth something, someday lol.

The 'Burbs was on TV, and coming on in a little bit is a good film that I really haven't seen in a long time. It's called Throw Momma from the Train, best described as a comedic remake of Strangers on a Train. I plan to log off, lay down, and try to relax for a bit.... hopefully relax. Probably will try to dig up another quick snack, something light but useful.


The internet connection has been offline for the last couple hours, first found out it was up when an instant message popped up on me mid-sentence! Hmm, got about 10 minutes until the movie starts, so it's time tos tart winding down. I'll probably be awake early tomorrow, assuming I get any sleep before work..... sigh.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Pondering: should I ever go back (regularly)?

I used to spend a lot of time at the PC-BSD tech support forums (forums.pcbsd.org). As some should know, it is not one of my 'favorite' projects for numerous reasons.

I haven't been active there in I guess, nearly a year now. Should we say, shuffling though like 50 threads a day and being one of the few paying attention got quiet old, when I've so much else to worry about after work. Ending up as little more then a spam-patrol man wasn't very interesting either. Although things have been realitively docile since FreeBSD opened their own forum, I hang my hat over at DaemonForums.org - a place that's worth visiting.

One of the alarming things about forums.pcbsd.org even while I am inactive, I still have several orders of magnitude more posts then everyone else... Man I used to check that forum several times a day. At one point, I may have been the last skilled snook left, I hope that has changed....

Sunday, April 12, 2009

What I hate about programming

Some months ago when it reached Kris Moore's attention (late as usual) that I had brought up security issues with his Firefox3 PBI, he changed it to something almost as bad. A couple weeks ago, I heard back from Kris that he had [naively] changed the code for making Fx3 the users default browser would no longer run as "root". After a little more conversation he split it off to something better.

Originally it was a part of the script that runs during PBI installation (and worse then the below script), probably tired of my replies he made an extra wrapper around the Firefox3, that asks the user if they want Firefox3 set default or not, rather then workin' the user database at install time. (I refuse comment on the following scripts predecessors: if you want to know more, read his SVN). The solution he came up for that wrapper, was to invokes the following code as the user when necessary:

#!/bin/sh
# Helper script to make FF the default browser for a user
##############################################################################

# Get the users homedir
USER="`whoami`"
HOMEDIR="`cat /etc/passwd | grep ^${USER}: | cut -d ":" -f 6`"

if [ -e "${HOMEDIR}/.kde4" ]
then
   KDEDIR=".kde4"
else
   KDEDIR=".kde"
fi

if [ ! -e "${HOMEDIR}/${KDEDIR}/share/config/kdeglobals" ]
then
  echo "ERROR: No kdeglobals file for $USER"
  exit 1
fi


TMPKFILE="${HOMEDIR}/.kdeglobals.$$"
TMPKFILE2="${HOMEDIR}/.kdeglobals2.$$"
rm ${TMPKFILE} >/dev/null 2>/dev/null

cat ${HOMEDIR}/${KDEDIR}/share/config/kdeglobals | grep -v '^BrowserApplication' > ${TMPKFILE}

rm ${TMPKFILE2} >/dev/null 2>/dev/null
touch ${TMPKFILE2}
while read line
do
  if [ "$line" = "[General]" ]
  then
    echo "$line" >> ${TMPKFILE2}
    if [ "${KDEDIR}" = ".kde4" ]
    then
      echo "BrowserApplication[$e]=!/Programs/bin/firefox3" >> ${TMPKFILE2}
    else
      echo "BrowserApplication=!/Programs/bin/firefox3" >> ${TMPKFILE2}
    fi
  else
    echo "$line" >> ${TMPKFILE2}
  fi
done < ${TMPKFILE}

# all finished, now move it back over kdeglobals
rm ${TMPKFILE}
mv ${TMPKFILE2} ${HOME}/${KDEDIR}/share/config/kdeglobals

exit 0
which is more secure then the original implementation, and more efficient also. Tonight I sent Kris a casual (read: adapt to need, don't take as is) suggestion from yours truly:
#!/bin/sh
# Helper script to make FF the default browser for a user
# Should work for KDE3 and KDE4.
##############################################################################

PROG="!/Programs/bin/firefox3"
FILE="./share/config/kdeglobals"

for D in "${HOME}/.kde" "${HOME}/.kde4"
do
   cd $D 2>/dev/null || break;

   if [ ! -e "$FILE" ]
   then
       echo "ERROR: No kdeglobals file, unable to set $PROG as default"
       exit 1
   fi

   ed -s "$FILE" <<EOF
       /\[General\]/
       /BrowserApplication.*=/
       s/=.*/=${PROG}/
       wq
   EOF
   # write your own error handlers
done

exit 0
which should work as far as I can test; since I lack a working KDE install (compiling KDE4.2+ is on my todo list). It's not perfect, but it sure is nicer then what he had a few months back. I included the a diff of the two scripts in my last message, which may very well go against my decision to "never" send these people patches. But I really don't care if he accepts it or not, because while I believe in being helpful, I also I do not like doing peoples jobs for them.





I'm a lazy good for nothing creep, but I am lazy of muscle - not lazy of mind. The most productive code I have ever written, is the code I was smart enough /not/ to write in the first place.

Monday, April 6, 2009

lol@someproject

I don't know what is more funny, reporting potential security errors to a project or looking at the even worse 'solutions' they cook up.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Annoyance with half assed work

I will never understand why so many people seem to do so much insecure $h|+ with temporary files.... for the love of petes sister, if the system provides secure alterntiives -- use them for cryoing out !)%(!%)!(%Y)!ing loud. Is it really that hard? It's not like you have to implement the damn wheel everwhere.... And if osme one is going to reimplement the damn wheel -- make it a better one, not even worse one shaped like a triangle!!!




Some times... people really, really, really annoy me with what they do....

Thursday, January 8, 2009

I really hate to tell people how to do their job

I really hate to tell people how to do their job, especially when they are the ones who should be getting paid to do it; but sometimes I can't help but wonder, if some people have ever heard of the words race condition or predictability, being used in the same sentence as exploit or security vulnerability?

Friday, January 2, 2009

Getting playful

I've been experimenting with extracting PC-BSD PBI on FreeBSD; mainly because I would like to do a little postmortem analysis on a couple of PBI's, to see if the "Officially sanctioned" PBI Developers are still following the rules.


The process is actually a lot simpler then I thought it would be, the only problem is doing it in a chroot lol. Already more then 200MB in files in /tmp/chroot, and I've found that PBI must "assume" the presence of a lot of shit, because it will segfault if even simple things like awk or whoami are missing, let along bigger things 8=), what ever happened to error checking? But anyway, it's a fairly easy thing to sort out, even with having to take a fair number of libraries and programs into the chroot, in order to fool the thing into -extract'ing. So far, I've only hit one snag:

/home/0/.PBItmp/.pbistart: ./PBI: not found

which I have not figured out yet.


I think I've also found the origin of one of the more stupid elements of the PBC Sh API, and it seems to reflect the PBI sub systems source, judging by what I see in PC-BSDs Subversion >_>. It also reminds me, that some people seem to have never heard of a symbolic constant in their entire lives.... which also explains a few other things about the PBI Creation process and PC-BSD in general. Since PC-BSD, unlike a *real* BSD system, does not believe in documenting anything. I've had to go straight to the (also undocumented) source for answers, it also temps me to write a detailed review and commentary - but I'll keep my mouth shut for now. The number of people they will probably buttfuck in the long run is their own concern, I've already left. I'm not really interested in shifting through several thousand lines of intermixed Bourne, Bourne Again, and C++ code just to audit a few PBI; let some other poor schlep, eh Good Samaritan deal with this schlockware.



If my post doesn't make it obvious by now, the reasons why I was conducting the tests within a chroot environment, rather then sparing myself the trouble -> I wouldn't let the PC-BSD developers, or most peoples PBI touch one of my systems with a ten-thousand foot cattle prod, and I don't have time for setting up a jail. That is the kind of feelings I've got for the project, after using PC-BSD for years; now OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and NetBSD on the other hand, them I trust... and have seen the resulting work to warrant it lol.


- A strict son of a bitch.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Well, it's been on my list for awhile, but I finally got around to posting it on the PC-BSD forum. Poll: Common problem/questions FAQ for each release branch. It was one of the things on my list of project short comings, that reminds me... I need to add more >_>

One reason why I use FreeBSD and OpenBSD on my machines, they do a professional job of things lol. Maybe it's the nature of projects like PC-BSD and Ubuntu, to pay less attention to things then the systems they've ripped use Both FreeBSD and Debian do a much better job them PC-BSD and Ubuntu at many things, hell even Slackware and Windows does better lol.


As to the thread I started on forums.pcbsd.org, I also sent out a PM to 20~30 people in the forum regular, semi-regular, and past regular visitor range, asking for their inputs. With a little luck, between anyone that actually reads their PMs and our current crowd, that'll help contribute feedback in the thread, to prove I'm not just talking out my ass...

Monday, December 15, 2008

Hmm, I was dreaming about being involved in a proper SAS assault this morning, nothing like that to get ya blood pumping before work lol. Managed to survive work, cut my other thumb (for korn skae!), got off work late and missed a tea appointment :\, got dragged out grocery shopping *again*,m and I think my mothers finally finished spending all forms of savings lol; she also owes me money >_>.


I'm like the only one in my family that knows how to save money lol. Not looking forward to the rest of th eweek that much, but I'll be off much of next week; I am really not looking forward to Christmas lol.


On a lighter note, I've been promoted from Moderator to an Administrator on forums.pcbsd.org along with jnixon. Kris Moore and James (jnixon) have been improving the spam protection, much to the relief of forum regulars; and there is now the big red button I've been longing for in dealing with spammers! With luck, jnixon will keep some activity on forum matters, so I won't be the only active admin, which probably wouldn't much nicer a task then being the only active moderator was lol. Admin on the forum, is a bit of a closer association then I want with the PC-BSD project.... but I also don't want to see the forums go to pot, so I ain't arguing. I personally prefer newsgroups (USENET) for such matters, but most PC-BSD users seem to hit the forums when they need help. Hmm, that reminds me, I need a new news reader lol.


Hmm... maybe, this means we can finally get a proper (sticky) F.A.Q. and Common Issues thread going when new releases come out; although me ablibing it myself, wasn't my idea of how to fix the problem lol.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

PC-BSD, 3 years of PBI corruption continues!

Username: mrhbit

Hi@

This is available in FreeBSD ports.

Here some screenshots.
--
http://www.ultimatestunts.nl/index.php?page=1&lang=en
--

regards Soeren

Username: mrhbit

Or a package for PC-BSD 7.x ?

Username: Gon

have done it. Gimme a week and i will approve it into pbidir.com

_________________
Gonzalo Martínez-Sanjuan Sánchez
PC-BSD Core Team Member


Problems with this:

  1. Getting a PBI approved is supposed to involve community testing, and review by those in charge of our PBI'safety (e.g. Gonzalo and a few others on the team page), which should also be impartial auditors - it's called common sense.
  2. This would make Gonzalo a repeat offender in by-passing the normal approval procedures for his own PBIs, if he does what he says he will do.
  3. If he does as his record and choice of words suggests, this is a conflict of interest, which I deem unethical.
  4. This is not the first time. someone involved in the PC-BSD project has "bent" the PBIDir rules, or endorsed doing so... when they are supposed to be enforcing them, for everyone including themselves!
  5. In the past a number of PBI's that have "skipped approval", and have resulted in stinging users or violating the rules of the day (ref: Kris (Realplayer, Java, BSD4Win), Charles (Firefox, Thunderbird), Gonzalo (Gnome, ...)), or just had half assed [lack of] testing that didn't catch obvious problems (ref: the 2nd Amarok PBI, Gnome 2). Considering the state of Documentation (how many general users know how to extract PBI w/o install, or how to reach the scripts before they are run), users will not see the code executed when they install a PBI (and most woulnd't understand it, or the implications), which IMHO is a major security risk -- unaudited PBI.


Is it a wonder, that I never send patches to these people... I wouldn't want my name associated with PC-BSD in any such capacity, period and end of quote. I remember I once compiled a list of the PC-BSD projects deficiencies, and took it up with one of the team members.... That was quite a while ago now; but no actual changes seem to have occured, beyond referencing revisions in the changelog for 7.0.1.

I think, if Gonzalo doesn't go by the book, maybe I will just happen to go public with them this time -- and expand the list!


I've had about enough of watching this chicken shit project. I may have mellowed in my increasing age, but not that far just yet.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

how to apply pc-bsd updates manually

http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11261&hilit=lzma+update

how to apply pc-bsd updates manually

Saturday, September 20, 2008

the past ~48 hours

Been quite a busy time, I guess lol.


I think I royally fragged my blood sugar; after last nights gorging on beefaroni, I've been pissing my brains out (every ~30min). Things are finally starting to resync with the usual input equals output style equation. I'm not diabetic (as far as I know), but many people in my family have had diabetes, most dying of heart attack, stroke, and cancer even when fully healthy. Of course, I've always figured it's a case of which of the 3 will get me first.... But I expect the third, if the first permits in the long term.



I really should watch what I eat, and an extreme amount of pasta and meet is probably a bad idea. As I understand it, carbohydrates from pastas breaks down into glucose slowly over time, slower then a lot of snacks anyway. I've no idea whether that is good or bad thing; but I like pasta, in almost all of it's forms ^_^. Eating a shit load of it on the other hand, is probably just as bad as eating a lot of sugar though :\.


My guess is that it caused enough of a glucose spike, that my kidney's have been workin' overtime to deal with it. Biology (in general) was never really one of my strong points, in fact... My high school text book put me to sleep lol. The fact that searching the web and thumbing through old encyclopedias was better for passing exams, then remembering the text books contents, is besides the point :-P.


For the time being: I've cut the soda from my fluid intake, shit load of HFCS in that stuff... And replaced it with water, I usually drink soda during the day and bottled water at work & at night. Along with sweets, my diet usually consists of lunch, dinner, and a sweet or salty snack or two every few days (although I avoid junk food, because if I had it, I'd eat it).







I managed to download and install Virtual Box. I've also got PC-BSD7 in both the 3 CD and 1 DVD sets, the CD ISOs are on my laptop, and the DVD ISO on the desktop (I figured it would be easier to use with VB). When booting off the DVD ISO in VirtualBox, the boot process fails: snap shot. I intend to install it on my desktop, but after one of the posts I read on forums.pcbsd.org (by Graedus I thin), I'm not willing to let PCBSD7 touch my harddrive, until I've taken a full backup of my Windows install.... took to many hours to set it up the way I wanted, and I still have no wall paper lmao.


As to the image, I posted a thread on PC-BSDs support forum, not that I actually expect any help lol. In fat, one of the reasons I elected to test with VB first, is in he hopes I might be able to help some of the people having problems with PCBSD7 under VirtualBox.


I can't make heads or tails out of the output before BTX halted. I know most of the names, corrispond to processor registers. In fact, to be more precise, I believe the 'e' is some extended-mnemonic from when Intel's chips moved into the 32-Bit world. I don't understand the output though, because I never had time to learn about assembly or dive deep into documentation on IA-32.






I managed to get a little time in, training with Jonsi on TG#1. Do to current affairs, I've been spending most of my server time in SWAT (PG3/TG3), but it's nie to be reminded; I am still limber enough to put recruits through their paces :-). I need to take a look and see what's going on these days, training wise in RvS.




I also spent sometime to help a friend with porting a page from (invalid) HTML 4.01 Transitional to XHTML 1.0 Strict. Not to hard for me, since I work with XHTML like most people I know, would use MS Word. Although, I personally prefer LaTeX for documents, for a long time; I did use XHTML+CSS as a replacement for word processors. If I had the time to learn to do as much as I can in LaTeX/TeX, I probably would prefer troff; but a more TeXuaL solution is where I ended up investing time.


Also my brain was complimented today, but despite the things I know, it doesn't do me much good; because no one in this rats nest, will actually pay me for what I know or for using my brain lol. That's one reason, why I try to be content with the fact, that most of what I know, I learned because I wanted to and enjoyed learning, as opposed to ever learning stuff to make money off it. Although, I do admit... getting paid for what I know, would seriously be an improvement over my current line of work lol. But I'm generally content with enjoying it on my own time.





Now, if only I could change the one point that really does bother me...



Hmm, with about 34% of battery power remaining (according to hw.acpi.battery.life), I think it is time for bed !!!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Taking the day off.... Camped out in front of the with my laptop atm, watching the end of the The Illusionist.


I've downloaded all 3 ISO Images for PC-BSD 7Release. I intend to test it in VirtualBox and natively on my test machine. But, because my test machine is also my games box... I'm backing the sucker up first ;-). I've booted the test machine into it's maintenance partition (FreeBSD 7, my failsafe if WinXP goes belly up hehe). ssh'd in and am backing up each drive letter to Vectra (the file server). I'll setup VirtualBox later and see how it works out, I don't really care much for such things though, but VB may be handier then QEMU. After that, I'll try installing it native, and see if the release likes my DVD Burner better then the Alpha/Beta versions did, lol.



I figure, for good measure I can take care of updating my laptop while I'm at it, probably lay down for a bit.... Assuming there is anything on this afternoon lol. It would be nice to gt *some* rest, but knwoing my family, it's far from likely :\

Thursday, June 26, 2008

BSD Forever

Well, my Darling Dixie is now running FreeBSD 7.0-Release :-)


I finished last minute backups of files and off loaded them to Vecta, just in case hehe. Unlocked my wireless network and installed from the three CDs I have for FreeBSD 7.0-Release. Since I don't use the CD sets to install more extras then X.Org, I only needed disk one as usual.


I almost always use a custom installation of FreeBSD because I find it more expedient and very concise. Used sysinstall to finish the last bit of configuration before the first boot: nfs client on, sshd on, dhcp on ath0, set root password.


With the first boot I mounted my backups over NFS, copied the over and unpacked for reference -- rc.conf, rc.conf.local, xorg.conf, and wpa_supplicant.conf. I also setup my users and groups via pw and edited loader.conf to load my sound driver.


Merged changes as desired into rc.conf and an xorg.conf file generated via X -configure. Then copied over a small script I had made to automate installing most software I use and started a review of it while running porsnap on anohtr vtty.


While the script ran, I poked around /usr/src with vi to pass the time. All went well until I started getting funky errors from pkg_add. Killing the script, I checked with df and sure enough, / was showing at 107% of capacity! Now that all is said and done, it seems I miscalculated about 600MB of dependencies lol.

mv /root/pkgs /usr/pkgs
sh
for JUNK in `du -ch /usr/pkgs/* | grep 0B | awk '{ print $2 }'`; do rm $JUNK; done

problem solved. I also found out the hard way that the csh is a pain in the ass, hence starting a new shell to handle the removal of empty packages. Used the scroll lock to check the terminals backlog for the last successful package add and modified my script to pick up where it left off.



/usr/pkgs is 834M of packages -- just in case I need to reinstall, I won't have to download them from my $PACKAGEROOT again, I can just bring them over from Vectra and save bandwidth for both my favorite mirror and myself.

I also had a bit of a problem with some port installations failing with strange pkg-descr missing messages, found out today while wrapping up that it was referecin $PKGDIR => /usr/pkgs :\.



my packing list so far:

#!/bin/sh

cd /where/ever

# environment / compat
PKGDIR="`pwd`/pkgs"; export PKGDIR
GCC_VER="42"
PHP_VER="5"
MYSQL_VER="50"
pkg_add -Kr compat6x-i386

# languages
pkg_add -Kr javavmwrapper
# manual install needed for JDK/JRE
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jdk-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
(cd $PKGDIR; pkg_add diablo-jre-freebsd6.i386.1.5.0.07.01.tbz)
pkg_add -Kr gcc${GCC_VER}
pkg_add -Kr perl
pkg_add -Kr python
pkg_add -Kr php${PHP_VER}
pkg_add -Kr ruby 
pkg_add -Kr rubygem-rtags && pkg_add -r rubygem-rake
pkg_add -Kr guile
pkg_add -Kr scheme48

# libraries
pkg_add -Kr qt4
pkg_add -Kr gtk-2
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBD-mysql${MYSQL_VER}
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-SQLite
pkg_add -Kr p5-DBI-CSV
pkg_add -Kr p5-Digest


# development tools
pkg_add -Kr gmake
pkg_add -Kr ctags
pkg_add -Kr cscope && pkg_add -Kr kscope
pkg_add -Kr webcpp
pkg_add -Kr subversion

# games
pkg_add -Kr kdegames
pkg_add -Kr xgalaga
pkg_add -Kr prboom
pkg_add -Kr doom-data
pkg_add -Kr wesnoth
pkg_add -Kr supertux
pkg_add -Kr chromium

# graphics software
pkg_add -Kr gimp && pkg_add -Kr gimp-gap
pkg_add -Kr inkscape
pkg_add -Kr xv
pkg_add -Kr kdegraphics
pkg_add -Kr dia

# browsers
pkg_add -Kr linux-flock
pkg_add -Kr lynx

# e-mail and news
pkg_add -Kr thunderbird && pkg_add -Kr thunderbird-i18n
pkg_add -Kr mutt

# kontact and related
pkg_add -Kr kdepim


# chat
pkg_add -Kr konversation
pkg_add -Kr pidgin && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-hotkeys 
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-guifications && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-libnotify
pkg_add -Kr pidgin-otr && pkg_add -Kr pidgin-encryption
pkg_add -Kr teamspeak_client

# install vim / emacs
pkg_add -Kr emacs || pkg_add -Kr xemacs 
pkg_add -Kr mg
(bunzip vim-7.1.tar.bz2; tar -C /tmp -xf vim-7.1.tar; cd /tmp/vim71/src; \
  ./configure \
 --enable-perlinterp --enable-pythoninterp --enable-rubyinterp \
 --with-x --enable-cscope --enable-fontset --enable-gnome-check \
 --with-features=huge --enable-gui=gtk2 && gmake && gmake install)

# multimedia
pkg_add -Kr nspluginwrapper
pkg_add -Kr libdvdread
pkg_add -Kr libdvdplay
pkg_add -Kr libdvdnav
pkg_add -Kr cdrtools
pkg_add -Kr mplayer
pkg_add -Kr linux-mplayerplug-in
pkg_add -Kr xmms && pkg_add -Kr xmms-pipe && pkg_add -Kr xmms-skins
pkg_add -Kr k3b
# this is an rpm
(cd /usr/ports/multimedia/linux-realplayer && make install clean distclean)

# documents
pkg_add -Kr gnumeric && pkg_add -Kr abiword
pkg_add -Kr koffice

# personal
pkg_add -Kr zsh
pkg_add -Kr rxvt-unicode 
pkg_add -Kr terminus-font
pkg_add -Kr windowmaker
pkg_add -Kr blackbox
pkg_add -Kr bbkeys && pkg_add -r bbrun && pkg_add -r bbpager
pkg_add -Kr docker
pkg_add -Kr hsetroot
pkg_add -Kr fastest_cvsup
pkg_add -Kr psearch

# misc
pkg_add -Kr bsdstats
pkg_add -Kr amarok
pkg_add -Kr lzma
pkg_add -Kr unrar
pkg_add -Kr zip
pkg_add -Kr e2fsprogs
pkg_add -Kr pdksh
pkg_add -Kr sudo
pkg_add -Kr v7sh
pkg_add -Kr xcb


I had to install the ports manually because of the $PKGDIR thing, did that this afternoon. Which amounted to multimedia/libdvdcss, x11-wm/fvwm-devel, sysutils/gkrellm2, and just for the heck of it, www/linux-flashplugin9 and www/flashplugin-mozilla hehe. I also had the JDK and JRE packages in cold storage from my last installation, so no need for manual fetching them.

Some last minute additions were gdm and trayer -- I actually like Gnomes Display Manager. I still need to compile mencoder, maybe install a few Perl/Python/Ruby binndings for good measure, etc but I'm basically done.


One thing that shocked me, The flash plugin v9 is working !!! I installed it just to see if the thing would crash my webbrowser but it works :\


I need to get pf, sshd, and my kernel configuration setup and probably play with freebsd-update (I've never used it) but I'm essentially ready to rock and roll, it only took about 4 hours, because I downloaded all of the packages I wanted.


Compared to reinstalling Windows XP? Hahahahhahahahah !!!!


If I ever reformated my XP machine, it would take 3 hours to install XP from the vendors disks, 2 weeks to download all of the hotfixes, updates, and patches and crap, reinstall my firewall and ruleset from backup, then systematically install all of my games, programs, and such by manually visiting each website or inserting each disk -- then spend time re-shoehorning XP into something livable with all of the little setting tweaks here and there.


FreeBSD, back online in a flash -- hehe.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Converting FreeBSD into PC-BSD

Abstract


This post describes an example of how one can manually convert a FreeBSD installation into a PC-BSD one using the install disk. There are more elegant ways of doing it, such as pulling things from PC-BSDs SVN and compiling only PC-BSD specific components.



Disclaimers and warnings


This was done purely for 'fun' to see if the programs would work reasonably well. Which is why FreeBSD 7.0-Release was used as a base and PC-BSD 1.5.0 as the overlay (which is based on an old build of FreeBSD 6.3). I do not recommend, endorse, or even suggest actually doing something like this beyond exploratory or playful thoughts at heart !!!


If anyone actually tries this, your on your own.


If someone actually tries this they should probably use a PC-BSD 1.5.1 disk build, the files are newer.


Installing the PC-BSD v1.5.0-v1.5.1 update will install FreeBSD 6.3 files and may break your system -- note that I didn't enable the updater for my user account during this process.



Now that you are warned...


My test partition is reserved fro testing various alpha/beta/rc releases of operating systems I wish to test. So I wiped it clean and set out to install a basic working FreeBSD system.


I Installed FreeBSD 7.0-Release via CD-ROM, using the express option, auto
partitioning to save time, X-Developer dist set, and configured the system
lightly (set root pw, network services etc).


You want the X.org and related drivers from the disk, so they match your release level -- you also want source code for later to build a custom kernel (optional)


Booted the system and logged in as root, one vtty for work and one for logging my notes in vim over ssh.


Then began converting the system to a FreeBSD-PC-BSD hybrid. Since the FreeBSD auto mode for partitioning the slice only gave me a 512mb / and 512mb /tmp, I created a /usr/work directory to use.



NOTE:
actual PC-BSD systems require several gigs of space for / to ensure safe updates and this is noted during previous upgrade notes. My guess after reading some of the 1.4/1.5 scripts is the developers have 'yet' to figure out how to use mount -a for mounting the needed file systems before extracting files and reserved storage places with the default partitioning scheme


pkg_add -r lzma && rehash  # to unpack pc-bsd files
mount -t cd9690 /dev/acd0 /mnt  # mount pc-bsd disk 1
mkdir -m 0700 /usr/work
lzma d /mnt/PCBSD.tar.lzma /usr/work/PCBSD.tar
 ...
     # lzma has fast decompression speeds but
     # this is a ~451mb lzma file being
     # unpacked into a 1.9gb tar file!

tar -C / -kpf /usr/work/PCBSD.tar # extract files without overwrite 

cp /etc/rc.conf /etc/rc.conf.local # fix rc.conf
tar -C /tmp -f /usr/work/PCBSD.tar -px './etc'
cp /tmp/etc/rc.conf /etc/rc.conf
cp /tmp/etc/devfs.conf /etc/devfs.conf # modified in pc-bsd

vi /etc/ttys    # start x on boot up
 ...    # note the ttyvNum is arbitrary
 #ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure
 ttyv8   "/PCBSD/bin/pdm"                xterm   on secure
 ...
X -configure && mv /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

#
# create users and groups that come with PC-BSD 1.5.0 but not FreeBSD
# 7.0-Release. Numerical values for -u userid and -g groupid are taken from
# viewing a unified diff of the group files.
#
pw groupadd -n haldaemon -g 560
pw groupadd -n cups -g 193
pw groupadd -n cyrus -g 60
pw useradd -n haldaemon -u 560 -g 560 -L daemon -d /nonexistent \
  -s /usr/sbin/nologin
pw useradd -n cups -u 193 -g 193 -L daemon -d /nonexistent -s /usr/sbin/nologin
pw useradd -n cyrus -u 60 -g 60 -L daemon -d /nonexistent -s /usr/sbin/nologin

#
# add my own user with the bash shell as a test (because it. Note that I typically set
# user/group id numbers by year of birth.
#
pw groupadd -n Terry -g 1988
pw useradd -n Terry -u 1988 -L default -m -s bash -g Terry \
  -G wheel,operator
passwd Terry
 ...

#
# now build a custom kernel merging GENERIC with /PCBSD/conf/PCBSD.i386
# I find Micro GNU Emacs (mg) to be both light and effective for this task.
# -- normally I would use vimdiff
#
pkg_add -r mg && rehash    # if using mg !
cat > ~/.mg
auto-fill-mode
set-fill-column 78
global-set-key "\^x\^f" find-file
global-set-key "\^h" delete-backward-char
set-default-mode blink
^D      # end of ~/.mg

diff -u /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC /PCBSD/conf/PCBSD.i386 > /tmp/kern.diff
cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf
mg KAI
 ...    # kernel config attached at EOF
     # used GENERIC and /tmp/kern.diff to
     # write the file if needed.

cd /usr/src    # compile & install kernel
make -j12 buildkernel KERNCONF=KAI
 ...    # roughly 10 minutes later..
make -j12 installkernel KERNCONF=KAI
 ...    
umount /mnt && cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 eject
reboot     # let's rock it and roll on to KDE


On reboot, I was greeted with KDM, PC-BSDs login theme, and a clean startup of KDE (no error message popups). I was able to install and use the Firefox PBI from PBIDir without problems. But as one can see in the screen shots, there are sound system related core dumps


Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us

Free Image Hosting at www.ImageShack.us


I was also interested to see that there is now a 'snd_emu10kx' driver added in FreeBSD 7.0-Release which supports my card. So I guess I won't have to manually compile the 'outdated, unmaintained, etc' audio/emu10kx port to get working sound, the manual page seems to suggest it is the same driver more or less. I only had to add an entry to my loader.conf file to get it loaded before PC-BSD sound detection system, just like audio/emu10kx from ports it won't work (for me) if kldload'ed later on.


I found that although everything I tested was working fine, audio and video related apps were dumping core (mplayer at start, kaffeine during playback). So I did a pkg_delete on kaffeine and kaffeine-mozilla and reinstalled from packages and soon was blasting MP3's from a FAT32 partition ;-)


MPlayer needs to be recompiled as expected, The KDE sound system will likely need that to but otherwise I've observed no real breakages. Not that I've taken the time to test every single program!



Personal Opinions


If like me, your primary reason for using PC-BSD is a quick way of grabbing KDE -- you would be better off installing PC-BSD! As far as setting up a working desktop system, one can do that easy through FreeBSD. If one doesn't want to go into configuration details for 'extra's like PF or X11 using PC-BSD or DesktopBSD is a better idea anyway.



If all you want is PBI, export, compile, and install the necessary files from PC-BSDs SVN repository.




Kernel Configuration: KAI


Note to SATA hard drives out there, the ATA_STATIC_ID option effects device numbering. FreeBSD GENERIC kernel configuration uses it and detects my SATA drive as 'ad4', PC_BSD kernel configuration has it turned off and detects my drive as 'ad0' -- I only have one SATA II hard drive installed.


Changing the ATA_STATIC_ID kernel option means you will havve to make sure /etc/fstab is in working shape unless you want to see a mount root prompt.


#
# Custom FreeBSD 7.0 kernel based on PC-BSD 1.5 Kernel config for FreeBSD 6.3
#

cpu  I686_CPU
ident  KAI



#options  SCHED_$BSD  # 4BSD scheduler
options  SCHED_ULE  # ULE scheduler ;-)
options  PREEMPTION  # ENABLE KERNEL THREAD PREEMPTION
options  INET   # INTERNETWORKING
options  INET6   # IPV6 COMMUNICATIONS PROTOCOLS
options  SCTP   # STREAM CONTROL TRANSMISSION PROTOCOL
options  FFS   # BERKELEY FAST FILESYSTEM
options  SOFTUPDATES  # ENABLE FFS SOFT UPDATES SUPPORT
options  UFS_ACL   # SUPPORT FOR ACCESS CONTROL LISTS
options  UFS_DIRHASH  # IMPROVE PERFORMANCE ON BIG DIRECTORIES
options  UFS_GJOURNAL  # ENABLE GJOURNAL-BASED UFS JOURNALING
options  MD_ROOT   # MD IS A POTENTIAL ROOT device
options  NFSCLIENT  # NETWORK FILESYSTEM CLIENT
options  NFSSERVER  # NETWORK FILESYSTEM SERVER
options  NFS_ROOT  # NFS USABLE AS /, REQUIRES NFSCLIENT
options  MSDOSFS   # MSDOS FILESYSTEM
options  CD9660   # ISO 9660 FILESYSTEM
options  PROCFS   # PROCESS FILESYSTEM (REQUIRES PSEUDOFS)
options  PSEUDOFS  # PSEUDO-FILESYSTEM FRAMEWORK
options  GEOM_PART_GPT  # GUID PARTITION TABLES.
options  GEOM_LABEL  # PROVIDES LABELIZATION
options  COMPAT_43TTY  # BSD 4.3 TTY COMPAT [KEEP THIS!]
options  COMPAT_FREEBSD4  # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD4
options  COMPAT_FREEBSD5  # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD5
options  COMPAT_FREEBSD6  # COMPATIBLE WITH FREEBSD6
options  SCSI_DELAY=5000  # DELAY (IN MS) BEFORE PROBING SCSI
options  KTRACE   # KTRACE(1) SUPPORT
options  SYSVSHM   # SYSV-STYLE SHARED MEMORY
options  SYSVMSG   # SYSV-STYLE MESSAGE QUEUES
options  SYSVSEM   # SYSV-STYLE SEMAPHORES
options  _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING # POSIX P1003_1B REAL-TIME EXTENSIONS
options  KBD_INSTALL_CDEV # INSTALL A CDEV ENTRY IN /DEV
options  ADAPTIVE_GIANT  # GIANT MUTEX IS ADAPTIVE.
options  STOP_NMI  # STOP CPUS USING NMI INSTEAD OF IPI
options  AUDIT   # SECURITY EVENT AUDITING

# TO MAKE AN SMP KERNEL, THE NEXT TWO LINES ARE NEEDED
options  SMP   # SYMMETRIC MULTIPROCESSOR KERNEL
device  apic   # I/O APIC

# CPU FREQUENCY CONTROL
device  cpufreq

# BUS SUPPORT.
device  eisa
device  pci


# FLOPPY DRIVES
device  fdc

# ATA AND ATAPI deviceS
device  ata
device  atadisk  # ATA DISK DRIVES
device  ataraid  # ATA RAID DRIVES
device  atapicd  # ATAPI CDROM DRIVES
device  atapifd  # ATAPI FLOPPY DRIVES
device  atapist  # ATAPI TAPE DRIVES
options  ATA_STATIC_ID # STATIC device NUMBERING
device   atapicam # Atapi CAM support

# SCSI CONTROLLERS
device  ahb  # EISA AHA1742 FAMILY
device  ahc  # AHA2940 AND ONBOARD AIC7XXX deviceS
options  AHC_REG_PRETTY_PRINT # PRINT REGISTER BITFIELDS IN DEBUG
     # OUTPUT.  ADDS ~128K TO DRIVER.
device  ahd  # AHA39320/29320 AND ONBOARD AIC79XX deviceS
options  AHD_REG_PRETTY_PRINT # PRINT REGISTER BITFIELDS IN DEBUG
     # OUTPUT.  ADDS ~215K TO DRIVER.
device  amd  # AMD 53C974 (TEKRAM DC-390(T))
device  isp  # QLOGIC FAMILY
#device  ispfw  # FIRMWARE FOR QLOGIC HBAS- NORMALLY A MODULE
device  mpt  # LSI-LOGIC MPT-FUSION
#device  ncr  # NCR/SYMBIOS LOGIC
device  sym  # NCR/SYMBIOS LOGIC (NEWER CHIPSETS + THOSE OF `NCR')
device  trm  # TEKRAM DC395U/UW/F DC315U ADAPTERS

device  adv  # ADVANSYS SCSI ADAPTERS
device  adw  # ADVANSYS WIDE SCSI ADAPTERS
device  aha  # ADAPTEC 154X SCSI ADAPTERS
device  aic  # ADAPTEC 15[012]X SCSI ADAPTERS, AIC-6[23]60.
device  bt  # BUSLOGIC/MYLEX MULTIMASTER SCSI ADAPTERS

device  ncv  # NCR 53C500
device  nsp  # WORKBIT NINJA SCSI-3
device  stg  # TMC 18C30/18C50

# SCSI PERIPHERALS
device  scbus  # SCSI BUS (REQUIRED FOR SCSI)
device  ch  # SCSI MEDIA CHANGERS
device  da  # DIRECT ACCESS (DISKS)
device  sa  # SEQUENTIAL ACCESS (TAPE ETC)
device  cd  # CD
device  pass  # PASSTHROUGH device (DIRECT SCSI ACCESS)
device  ses  # SCSI ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES (AND SAF-TE)

# RAID CONTROLLERS INTERFACED TO THE SCSI SUBSYSTEM
device  amr  # AMI MEGARAID
device  arcmsr  # ARECA SATA II RAID
device  asr  # DPT SMARTRAID V, VI AND ADAPTEC SCSI RAID
device  ciss  # COMPAQ SMART RAID 5*
device  dpt  # DPT SMARTCACHE III, IV - SEE NOTES FOR options
device  hptmv  # HIGHPOINT ROCKETRAID 182X
device  hptrr  # HIGHPOINT ROCKETRAID 17XX, 22XX, 23XX, 25XX
device  iir  # INTEL INTEGRATED RAID
device  ips  # IBM (ADAPTEC) SERVERAID
device  mly  # MYLEX ACCELERAID/EXTREMERAID
device  twa  # 3WARE 9000 SERIES PATA/SATA RAID

# RAID CONTROLLERS
device  aac  # ADAPTEC FSA RAID
device  aacp  # SCSI PASSTHROUGH FOR AAC (REQUIRES CAM)
device  ida  # COMPAQ SMART RAID
device  mfi  # LSI MEGARAID SAS
device  mlx  # MYLEX DAC960 FAMILY
device  pst  # PROMISE SUPERTRAK SX6000
device  twe  # 3WARE ATA RAID

# ATKBDC0 CONTROLS BOTH THE KEYBOARD AND THE PS/2 MOUSE
device  atkbdc  # AT KEYBOARD CONTROLLER
device  atkbd  # AT KEYBOARD
device  psm  # PS/2 MOUSE


device  vga  # VGA VIDEO CARD DRIVER

device  splash  # SPLASH SCREEN AND SCREEN SAVER SUPPORT

# SYSCONS IS THE DEFAULT CONSOLE DRIVER, RESEMBLING AN SCO CONSOLE
device  sc

device  agp  # SUPPORT SEVERAL AGP CHIPSETS

# POWER MANAGEMENT SUPPORT (SEE NOTES FOR MORE options)
#device  apm
# ADD SUSPEND/RESUME SUPPORT FOR THE I8254.
device  pmtimer

# PCCARD (PCMCIA) SUPPORT
# PCMCIA AND CARDBUS BRIDGE SUPPORT
device  cbb  # CARDBUS (YENTA) BRIDGE
device  pccard  # PC CARD (16-BIT) BUS
device  cardbus  # CARDBUS (32-BIT) BUS

# SERIAL (COM) PORTS
device  sio  # 8250, 16[45]50 BASED SERIAL PORTS
device  uart  # GENERIC UART DRIVER

# PARALLEL PORT
device  ppc
device  ppbus  # PARALLEL PORT BUS (REQUIRED)
device  lpt  # PRINTER
device  plip  # TCP/IP OVER PARALLEL
device  ppi  # PARALLEL PORT INTERFACE device
#device  vpo  # REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA

# IF YOU'VE GOT A "DUMB" SERIAL OR PARALLEL PCI CARD THAT IS
# SUPPORTED BY THE PUC(4) GLUE DRIVER, UNCOMMENT THE FOLLOWING
# LINE TO ENABLE IT (CONNECTS TO SIO, UART AND/OR PPC DRIVERS):
#device  puc

# PCI ETHERNET NICS.
device  de  # DEC/INTEL DC21X4X (``TULIP'')
device  em  # INTEL PRO/1000 ADAPTER GIGABIT ETHERNET CARD
device  ixgb  # INTEL PRO/10GBE ETHERNET CARD
device  le  # AMD AM7900 LANCE AND AM79C9XX PCNET
device  txp  # 3COM 3CR990 (``TYPHOON'')
device  vx  # 3COM 3C590, 3C595 (``VORTEX'')

# PCI ETHERNET NICS THAT USE THE COMMON MII BUS CONTROLLER CODE.
# NOTE: BE SURE TO KEEP THE 'device MIIBUS' LINE IN ORDER TO USE THESE NICS!
device  miibus  # MII BUS SUPPORT
device  bce  # BROADCOM BCM5706/BCM5708 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  bfe  # BROADCOM BCM440X 10/100 ETHERNET
device  bge  # BROADCOM BCM570XX GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  dc  # DEC/INTEL 21143 AND VARIOUS WORKALIKES
device  fxp  # INTEL ETHEREXPRESS PRO/100B (82557, 82558)
device  lge  # LEVEL 1 LXT1001 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  msk  # MARVELL/SYSKONNECT YUKON II GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  nfe  # NVIDIA NFORCE MCP ON-BOARD ETHERNET
device  nge  # NATSEMI DP83820 GIGABIT ETHERNET
#device  nve  # NVIDIA NFORCE MCP ON-BOARD ETHERNET NETWORKING
device  pcn  # AMD AM79C97X PCI 10/100 (PRECEDENCE OVER 'LE')
device  re  # REALTEK 8139C+/8169/8169S/8110S
device  rl  # REALTEK 8129/8139
device  sf  # ADAPTEC AIC-6915 (``STARFIRE'')
device  sis  # SILICON INTEGRATED SYSTEMS SIS 900/SIS 7016
device  sk  # SYSKONNECT SK-984X & SK-982X GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  ste  # SUNDANCE ST201 (D-LINK DFE-550TX)
device  stge  # SUNDANCE/TAMARACK TC9021 GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  ti  # ALTEON NETWORKS TIGON I/II GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  tl  # TEXAS INSTRUMENTS THUNDERLAN
device  tx  # SMC ETHERPOWER II (83C170 ``EPIC'')
device  vge  # VIA VT612X GIGABIT ETHERNET
device  vr  # VIA RHINE, RHINE II
device  wb  # WINBOND W89C840F
device  xl  # 3COM 3C90X (``BOOMERANG'', ``CYCLONE'')

# ISA ETHERNET NICS.  PCCARD NICS INCLUDED.
device  cs  # CRYSTAL SEMICONDUCTOR CS89X0 NIC
# 'device ED' REQUIRES 'device MIIBUS'
device  ed  # NE[12]000, SMC ULTRA, 3C503, DS8390 CARDS
device  ex  # INTEL ETHEREXPRESS PRO/10 AND PRO/10+
device  ep  # ETHERLINK III BASED CARDS
device  fe  # FUJITSU MB8696X BASED CARDS
device  ie  # ETHEREXPRESS 8/16, 3C507, STARLAN 10 ETC.
device  sn  # SMC'S 9000 SERIES OF ETHERNET CHIPS
device  xe  # XIRCOM PCCARD ETHERNET

# WIRELESS NIC CARDS
device  wlan  # 802.11 SUPPORT
device  wlan_wep # 802.11 WEP SUPPORT
device  wlan_ccmp # 802.11 CCMP SUPPORT
device  wlan_tkip # 802.11 TKIP SUPPORT
device  wlan_amrr # AMRR TRANSMIT RATE CONTROL ALGORITHM
device  wlan_scan_ap # 802.11 AP MODE SCANNING
device  wlan_scan_sta # 802.11 STA MODE SCANNING
device  an  # AIRONET 4500/4800 802.11 WIRELESS NICS.
device  ath  # ATHEROS PCI/CARDBUS NIC'S
device  ath_hal  # ATHEROS HAL (HARDWARE ACCESS LAYER)
device  ath_rate_sample # SAMPLERATE TX RATE CONTROL FOR ATH
device  awi  # BAYSTACK 660 AND OTHERS
device  ral  # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2500 WIRELESS NICS.
device  wi  # WAVELAN/INTERSIL/SYMBOL 802.11 WIRELESS NICS.
#device  wl  # OLDER NON 802.11 WAVELAN WIRELESS NIC.

# PSEUDO deviceS.
device  loop  # NETWORK LOOPBACK
device  random  # ENTROPY device
device  ether  # ETHERNET SUPPORT
device  sl  # KERNEL SLIP
device  ppp  # KERNEL PPP
device  tun  # PACKET TUNNEL.
device  pty  # PSEUDO-TTYS (TELNET ETC)
device  md  # MEMORY "DISKS"
device  gif  # IPV6 AND IPV4 TUNNELING
device  faith  # IPV6-TO-IPV4 RELAYING (TRANSLATION)
device  firmware # FIRMWARE ASSIST MODULE

# THE `BPF' device ENABLES THE BERKELEY PACKET FILTER.
# BE AWARE OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF ENABLING THIS!
# NOTE THAT 'BPF' IS REQUIRED FOR DHCP.
device  bpf  # BERKELEY PACKET FILTER

# USB SUPPORT
device  uhci  # UHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE
device  ohci  # OHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE
device  ehci  # EHCI PCI->USB INTERFACE (USB 2.0)
device  usb  # USB BUS (REQUIRED)
#device  udbp  # USB DOUBLE BULK PIPE deviceS
device  ugen  # GENERIC
device  uhid  # "HUMAN INTERFACE deviceS"
device  ukbd  # KEYBOARD
device  ulpt  # PRINTER
device  umass  # DISKS/MASS STORAGE - REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA
device  ums  # MOUSE
device  ural  # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2500USB WIRELESS NICS
device  rum  # RALINK TECHNOLOGY RT2501USB WIRELESS NICS
device  urio  # DIAMOND RIO 500 MP3 PLAYER
device  uscanner # SCANNERS
# USB ETHERNET, REQUIRES MIIBUS
device  aue  # ADMTEK USB ETHERNET
device  axe  # ASIX ELECTRONICS USB ETHERNET
device  cdce  # GENERIC USB OVER ETHERNET
device  cue  # CATC USB ETHERNET
device  kue  # KAWASAKI LSI USB ETHERNET
device  rue  # REALTEK RTL8150 USB ETHERNET

# FIREWIRE SUPPORT
device  firewire # FIREWIRE BUS CODE
device  sbp  # SCSI OVER FIREWIRE (REQUIRES SCBUS AND DA)
device  fwe  # ETHERNET OVER FIREWIRE (NON-STANDARD!)
device  fwip  # IP OVER FIREWIRE (RFC 2734,3146)
device  dcons  # DUMB CONSOLE DRIVER
device  dcons_crom # CONFIGURATION ROM FOR DCONS


#
# from PC-BSD conf
#
options  LIBICONV
options  LIBMCHAIN
options  CD9660_ICONV
options  MSDOSFS_ICONV
options  NTFS
options  NTFS_ICONV
options  UDF
options  UDF_ICONV
options  GEOM_UZIP  # read only compressed disks
# wifi
device  wlan
device  wlan_wep
device  wlan_ccmp
device  wlan_tkip
device  an
device  ath
device  ath_hal
device  ath_rate_sample
device  awi
device  ral
device  wi
device  iwi
device  ipw
device  firmware
options  DEVICE_POLLING
device  pf
device  pflog
device  pfsync
options  ALTQ
options  ALTQ_CBQ
options  ALTQ_RED
options  ALTQ_RIO
options  ALTQ_HFSC
options  ALTQ_CDNR
options  ALTQ_PRIQ
options  ALTQ_NOPCC

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Knee deep in flood, shells, and bullets.

Managed to fight through the flood running gun battle levels all the way to Cortana popping up to save the universe >_>


Perhaps it's just me but I think it was actually harder playing it the first time way back when, rather then playing through on Heroic of late :\


Or maybe it's because I concentrated more on wiping out the flood then just keeping in Master Chief in one piece lol.



If my ISP could keep the (snip) connection working things would be much easier... Made it to 455MB on the last ISO Kriss Moore posted for PC-BSD 7Alpha before it the aDSL finally died.


Why pay for service that works like crap?


I want to get it setup for some testing, the PC-BSD install on my test machine uses a partition that I've reserved largely for testing Linux/BSD alpha/beta/release candidates any way so it's no loss. Later on I also would like to 'play' with an idea that needs a fresh FreeBSD-7 install... ;-)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Hmm, I'm rather getting interested in giving some thign 'odd' a go.


Installing FreeBSD 7 on the test machine, then converting it into a fully functional PC-BSD system.

It's doable, just takes time and effort, and well, I like to tinker with programs from time to time ^_^.



Yes, I'm that bored trying to pass time between /actually/ being able to work lol.


I need a vacation...

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Dails efforts...

Finally a productive day... Because every one else but me slept through most of the afternoon ^_^

I finished adding a summary mode to my script, later I want to put in user agent exclusions among other things; so it can be tuned to more automated traffic hehe.


I also managed to install Ubuntu 8.04 on SAL1600 today, I'm very happy to say that the boot time is a heck of a lot better then 6.06 was when I inertially tested the distribution. The installer is more complex then PC-BSDs but still quite simple, last time I needed to use an 'alternate' install CD with a hacked debian installer in order to get GRUB in Ubuntu's / rather then screwing with GAG. This time, I only had to scratch my head enough to choose the 'advanced' button before commiting to the format & install -- and select the location to install GRUB to hehe ;-)


Got done in about a half hour, counting setting up a few packages (nVidia drivers, g++, JDK, zsh, etc) and I can finish the rest later. I'm not very partial to Ubuntu although I do greatly like the human theme for Gnome they use. While both FreeBSD 6.x and Linux 2.6.x are fully able to support my desktops hardware: FreeBSD works perfectly out of the box other then sound, which is just a driver away. Most Linux distro on the other hand, need me to screw with things. Debian Sarge for example tried to convice me I had no hard drive controller or network interface, for which NetBSD agreed and Slackware concurred about the NIC ^_^.


I want to test CrossOver Games to see if I could get Rvs or SWAT4:TSS working in it... There is a trial for PC-BSD but the Linux version is supposed to work better and is officially supported. I've heard that WINE has improved greatly on FreeBSD (and PC-BSD 1.5.x includes patches to aid it afaik). Even with the gripes of WINE working much better on Linux then FreeBSD, I only tested it on FreeBSD two years ago and threw it out as useless for even light duty gaming.


I'd really prefer to be running Slackware or Gentoo if I had to run a GNU/Linux distro off my desktop... But I don't have time to muck about just for testing this thing, hence the Ubuntu installation lol. I expect it will fail horribly and I'm not expecting much more then being able to get RvS installed but I'll give it a go. And to be frank, with how poorly done Rvs and SWAT4 are from a software perspective... I'm really supprised people can run then on Vista, hell we have to side-step problems the games have with modern graphics cards (and SWAT4:TSS ain't that fucking old!)


To be honest, I think I would have to create my own "Linux From Scratch" system to ever truly be happy with a Linux distro, that or just install OpenBSD instead and be perfectly happy hehe xD. But, in terms of having to run a specific OS, I'd be much more happy with GNU/Linux then I am with Windows XP. The only reason I've never removed WinXP from my desktop is I need one game box, you could say... If I wasn't in [SAS] then I would be totally and 100% free of Windows for the rest of my days. But I love my team to damn much to leave, even if it means having to keep one working copy of Windows around.


The thing that really pisses me off, I can run FreeBSD and Linux on my desktop and it is rock solid for all I need it to do (y). Running Windows XP on the same machine, I only *wish* I could say the same hahaha. Between the nVidia drivers, Direct X 9, and Creative Labs + Raven Shield not playing nicely together it loves to get blue screens of death under XP.


At least when a machine has problems with running BSD or Linux, you generally get what you paid for but when Windows has problems, it blows because you got charged by every bastard along the way and his dog too!