May 07
ErinFLOSS, Technology
As I have mentioned before, Archer was my first Linux installation wherein I was able to get NTFS writing right from the get go. That means that I no longer have a FAT32 partition in my desktop harddisk as everything is already in NTFS. This helps in downloading those Linux DVD ISO images since I no longer have to think about freeing enough space on my NTFS drive if I want to be able to continue the download on whatever OS is booted up.
Lately Windows has been ruling the desktop since I need some Windows-specific apps for work. I was transferring some files from the desktop hard drive into the portable hard disk (backups are not paranoia). I was moving some stuff so I don’t leave outdated rubbish files in the desktop HDD then suddenly Windows gave an error that the file was in use so the move operation is being denied access and the delete operation cannot continue. I can’t track the process holding it as only Windows Explorer is touching the file so I scheduled a checkdisk execution at the next boot and then rebooted the machine. During startup, Windows checkdisk found and fixed the entries from some file which I assume is the file I was moving. Upon completion of the checkdisk execution I logged again in Windows and tried doing the move. The same thing happened. I just shrugged my shoulders and rebooted to Archer. It was about time to get the latest package updates from the repository anyway.
I boot all of my Linux systems into run level 3 (console mode). I would like to say it has something to do with the speed to get between when the BIOS screen and the login prompt but I think this has just been my force of habit as my desktop has enough processing power that I am in the prompt in less than 1 minute, and another 10 seconds to enter XFCE. This time booting in a console mode a good thing because I saw that mounting the NTFS drives were encountering errors since they are tagged as in use. I am presented with the following messages for each NTFS partition:
Failed to mount ‘/dev/sda7’: Operation not supported
Mount is denied because NTFS is marked to be in use. Choose one action:
Choice 1: If you have Windows then disconnect the external devices by clicking on the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon in the Windows taskbar then shutdown Windows cleanly.
Choice 2: If you don’t have Windows then you can use the ‘force’ option for your own responsibility. For example type on the command line:
mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda7 /windows/d -o force
Or add the option to the relevant row in the /etc/fstab file:
/dev/sda7 /windows/d ntfs-3g defaults,force 0 0
Being a firm believer in Murphy’s laws, I opted to be on the safe side and just let them be and tried to mount them manually. The mount message provided an additional clue that I might be able to leverage in fixing the problem: the NTFS drive log file says it was not cleanly unmounted!
I tried searching for the answer on how to clear the partition log from Windows but I came up with nothing. Constantly rebooting Windows does not help either. The log is still being marked as in use whenever I try mounting them in Linux. After two nights I was already exasperated so I went for the force route. I mounted the partitions manually as root and specified the -o force option. The forced mount directive did the trick and cleared the NTFS partition log. I haven’t found any data loss YET but I have a nagging feeling that I might and at the worst possible time (again, Murphy’s law).
I am still at a loss on who messed up the partitions. The partitions were being utilized exclusively by Windows for the past few days but I know that there were times that I used Archer and started utorrent in wine so the partition was also being used even for only a while. I am getting frustrated with Windows since it should have been able to clear the dirty markings on the partition logs since it was able to complete its shutdown sequence properly. If I am going to defend Windows I will say Linux messed up the log which prevents it from marking it correctly after a clean shutdown. But that is hogwash since I should have been notified that something is wrong after the initial bootup, or even before it enters the shutdown sequence.
I think my finger knows which OS is the culprit but until I get more information on this problem (and how to clear the log from within Windows), I am going to be on the fence on who is really at fault. I am just crossing my fingers that I haven’t damaged any data since there are some stuff in the hard disk that I am not putting in my portable HDD and I still haven’t gotten around to putting them in DVD.
ciao!
Apr 14
ErinFLOSS, Garbage, Reviews, Technology
Metrobank’s eBanking interface rates a notch better in my book since it now supports Firefox, where previously it only supports IE and *gasp* Netscape. The stupid ActiveX control that was previously required (which effectively locks the interface to IE) is also gone. Actually that is the first clue I had since I transferred to another PC at work and was curious why I didn’t get the irritating prompt about the ActiveX installation.
The office network prevents me from uploading the screenshot but you can test it for yourself. I did it with the beta 5 of Firefox 3. 🙂
Kudos Metrobank Online! But I still despise you for that 10-character password requirement. 🙂
[edit] I finally grabbed a screenshot while in Archer (my Arch system). The picture is using “Bon Echo” which is a rebranded Firefox browser. The version is 2.0.0.14.
MetrobankOnline in Linux!
ciao!
Feb 01
ErinFLOSS
This is a post on my attempts to run an ArchLinux-based desktop on Leo thus the codename “Leo the Archer”. Leo by the way is Betsy’s replacement which we picked up last July prior to my Denmark assignment. The attempt to create an ArchLinux system is partly due to the lack of support of the Mandriva 2007.1 installer (the one I had handy at the time) for the JMicron motherboard controller. Between Ubuntu and ArchLinux, I think I would learn more if I use ArchLinux. 🙂
Last night’s development included the following
- Update to the latest release. This is what is great about rolling distributions, the option to use the latest and the greatest are always at your fingertips, assuming you have an available broadband. 🙂
- better acquaintance with pacman. Installing new packages from Internet repositories does not include specifying -A or –add in the command line. That is reserved for installing local packages.
- NTFS-3G works. This is my first Linux distro that I have easily achieved successful NTFS writing support.
- Sound still does not work. I followed the beginner’s guide for getting sound but no sound devices are being detected.
As it was already getting late, I decided to call it a night. The fact that my wife is practically breathing down on my neck to go to sleep had nothing to do with it. PROMISE! 😉 I hope the restart would make udev detect and produce the right devices when I start it up again. All in all, not a bad piece of update.
[edit] the sound device got created after the reboot but for some reason flash sound (i.e., youtube) is not being processed.
ciao!
Oct 25
ErinFLOSS
Day 3.
Starting up the laptop again to try my luck in getting wireless and wired connections working side by side. My laptop is now a permanent resident of the living room that it is so sad. 🙁
Every sign still point to the same effects: no wireless connection, missing wlan0 device during startup, lots of errors about a thousand things during shutdown but I guess I can skip them for now.
I tried reading materials on the web specifically on the Arch Linux site as I like the way information are posted there. I can’t find any stuff that seems applicable to what I am experiencing. I tried restarting a couple of times but I am still stuck. And twice the shutdown got stuck literally.
I tried shutting down eth0 again and the keyboard input went nuts again and stopped responding. I tried rebooting using the touchpad and was able to get out of X then everything went blank. I am missing my toothpick today so I just took a pen and did a hard reset.
Next step I did was to uninstall mandi which I read does the hotplugging of network devices. I am not sure of the impact but I am getting desperate and I want to isolate where the problem really is. Bye-bye mandi service which took out two other mandi package which I am assuming is for the ethernet and wireless connections. The Windows habit kicks in and I rebooted to make sure all changes are in.
After the reboot (and the message that wlan is missing), I am back into KDE. I tried reconfiguring the Wireless connection, and it was able to connect and get an IP address. I was already smiling then I made the unthinkable: the Yes option was selected in the screen asking if I want the connection to start at boot. That effectively killed the wireless connection.
I tried bringing down eth0 to test the effect of gutting the mandi service out and then I lost my keyboard input again. Ballpoint pen to the rescue, and now I am typing this in Windows in a wireless connection.
From what I can see right now I have two options:
- Post this problem in the Mandriva Users Board and wait two days for some suggestion on how to fix this problem, or
- Reinstall another distribution. I already have finished downloading the latest Arch release and have it burned into a CD.
Hmmn, one is for patience and the other is for another adventure. I think I will go for the first option first and see if I can learn something new in return.
Since this might be the end of this series, at least MDV2008 gave me something good that I haven’t experienced before: the scroll button on the touchpad works out of the box. Even Windows can’t make that work. 🙂
ciao!
Oct 24
ErinFLOSS, Garbage
Last night I decided to continue digging around the problems I had with my spanking new Mandriva 2008 installation. Booting my laptop shows that the wlan0 device is still missing during network initialization. This is going to be a problem so I lug my laptop and power brick to the living room so I can have a wired connection to help solve the problem.
I am assuming that the problem is somehow related to the way the wireless connection is being brought up. I read some information about ndiswrapper and iwconfig and decided to do some tinkering. I decided to shutoff the wired connection to better know when I finally get my wireless connection working. This is when the proverbial s#17 hits the proverbial fan.
Shocker of the night #1.
After clicking the system tray network utility to close down eth0 the processor then starts to do something. And then somewhere between something and nothing. Ten minutes and I still haven’t got anything and the menu windows has started to be rendered as blank squares.
Mouse works. I can move my pointer but the keyboard is dead. The capslock, numlock and scroll lock keys are not inducing any reaction. Since the mouse is still usable and I am in KDE then there is still a way out. I clicked on the K button, and proceeded to restart the laptop.
Shocker of the night #2.
Shutdown seems to work but stopped during the shutdown of the mandi service. My only option at this point is push the hard reset button with a toothpick. Exasperated and since the night is still early I decided to perform another clean install over my new Mandriva 2008 installation.
Installation #2.
Same drill. I just selected to reuse my partitions since I don’t want to mess with the partitioning. During the package selection I checked the manual package selection option (like always) and then proceeded to the next screen.
Shocker of the night #3.
The installer proceeded with the installation. What!?! Where did the manual selection screen go? I was thinking when I saw that the installation will take around an hour. I don’t want this selection as the default selection will consume about 90% of my root partition where my /usr resides. I think streamlining the packages afterwards is going to be far difficult than starting all over again. Out cames the toothpick to press the hard reset and restart the installation process.
Installation #3.
Same drill except the installer now hanged after the license screen. I waited 15 minutes before taking out the magic toothpick. Man, this toothpick is my McGyver’s all-around magic utility tonight.
Installation #4.
Same installation drill. I am beginning to hate the Mandriva 2008 installation background. No fiasco on the package selection and I would only need to wait 26 minutes for all selected packages to be installed. Neat. I think I spent more time than that during the past few attempts.
At the configuration page I decided to skip the configuration of the network. I figure to do it once the system is functioning. Restarted the Linux system twice just to be sure (I think I am developing an OC identity 😀 ).
Booted into KDE and then installed ndiswrapper which prompted the installation of other packages. I also installed the prism54 firmware that I have saved in /storage/packages/NoArch. After this I tried configuring the wireless connection first by using the Intersil Javelin drivers (prism54). At the end of the configuration wizard I still don’t have any wireless connection. The system can’t even list the wireless routers in the vicinity.
I fired up the network connection wizard again and selected the ndiswrapper option. This time the system is able to list the connections found in the apartment. I configured the parameters for our router that uses a WPA PSK. I still can’t get any connection. Just for the heck of it, I rebooted the machine and LO AND BEHOLD the dreaded error message is back informing me that the wlan0 driver is back.
Hell. I give up for now. If I don’t get my wireless connection up within the week then I am ditching Mandriva for now since my 2007.1 installer is in Manila. I will take this as a sign for me to try other distributions in this laptop.
Time to sleep.
ciao!
Oct 20
ErinFLOSS
After almost a week of downloading it via torrent, I have finally finished downloading the latest and the greatest of Free DVD version of Mandriva Linux. The md5sum checks out so I off to burning it goes so I can begin installation on the following day (I still need to go to work!)
Machine: Fujitsu Siemens Amilo ProV7010, 3.0Ghz, 1.5GB. Code name: Lala (the laptop)
Installation _the first time_ was pretty painless. Mandriva was up and running within 30 minutes. I performed an install and reused my partitions, retaining only the contents of /home and /storage.
First problem: Wireless was not working.
No problemo as this already happened with 2007. Lugged my laptop in the shared living room and used a wired connection to connect to the Internet. Configured a DHCP connection using the network utility in the system tray. Did a quick visit to rpmfind.net to look for the prism54-firmware package. Download, open terminal, su to root , install firmware package. Disconnect wired connection.
Using the network utility in the system tray, I tried to configure a Wireless connection. I opted to use the Intersil Javelin driver instead ndiswrapper. Configuration was reported to be successful. Weirdly, there is no wireless connection.
Tried the network configuration utility again to redo the wireless connection. This time I opted to use the ndiswrapper route. Everything looks good. Along the way the wireless connection got connected and the system tray got the ! Yipee! At the last screen I was asked if I want to start the connection during startup. Oh yes! Press OK.
Network system tray popped with a red error message. No connection. Eyebrows began to meet. What the? Right-click on the system tray->Manage Wireless Connections, select wireless router that is a few feet of me. Laptop does something. After a few minutes still no connection. ifconfig, iwconfig , man. Nothing.
Open network system tray again. Do the wireless configuration again. Before the last screen I noticed that the system tray network utility reports a connection again. Do you want to start the connection at startup? Thanks but no thanks buddy. I selected no and dismissed the wizard.
Ok, so I now have a wireless connection. I lugged my laptop back to my room at the other end of the apartment. So far so good. Started up Mozilla Thunderbird to get my mail. Nothing happens. My accounts were recognized but my mails are not in the mailboxes!
Reboot to Windows to check. Goodie, my mails are still all there. I checked the Thunderbird version and they are the same: 2.0.0.6.
Rebooted to Mandriva, and then I got my second shock. During the network boot scripts, an error was shown that the wlan0 device is not available. Upon boot-up I did the trick with the network utility and all is fine again.
Time to sleep. I need to figure out what went wrong with the initialization part of the wireless boot up.
ciao!
Sep 19
ErinFLOSS, Technology
Today my webbrowsing with Firefox just got a little bit better since I stumbled upon the FasterFox extension. I have been reading here and there about tweaking the network configuration (hint: type about:config in the address bar) to get better network mileage when browsing but FasterFox brought everything under one roof. It provides 4 preset configurations ranging from default(non-optimized) to turbo-charged (increased webserver load) and an option to customize the settings to your liking.
 I only used the optimized preset and the difference was very noticeable. I am satisfied with that setting so I opted against trying the turbo-charged setting since that will just add to the webserver load for a few measly seconds. A few seconds is not enough justification for being greedy. 🙂
ciao!
Mar 16
ErinFLOSS, Technology floss, Tech
This week I encountered an error when writing the wget post since saving or publishing it causes a page not found (or 404 in techie parlance) error. I found this thread in the wordpress support forum and tested the “limit” scenarios which did not fully apply in my case. Posting a short test message works but somehow even one paragraph from my wget post causes the 404 message.
Later on the support thread I read a mod_security issue that causes in the post with the word curl in the post. That hit me, curl is a download utility similar to wget!!! Just like in the post, I just enclosed wget in span element and voila, problem solved!
+1 karma for internet support groups!
Mar 13
ErinFLOSS, Technology
I use wget from time to time (via cygwin when I am in the office) but the most I have used on its parameter is the -c option. This post is a reminder of the options and tips that I could use and have used for the wget utility. Why not just consult the manpage? It is because it is easier to put it here for further reference. There are a thousand wget tutorial sites out there, so why waste space here? The answer to that is because I can. 😛
Usage: wget [options] URL
- Instead of specifying the proxy using the environment variable http_proxy, consider putting it in /etc/wgetrc instead. Not advisable if you dont have a consistent single source of connection (e.g. prepaid cards,etc)
- -c – continue the file being downloaded. nifty if you are downloading a big file although it requires the download site to support resuming.
- –user-agent=”UA_STRING” – based on a tip from the PLUG list. Spoofs the user agent to look like the download request is from a browser. This is good for sites that disallow dowloads from download managers. Example would be
-user-agent="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0b1; Windows NT 5.1*) "
- –limit-rate=[number] – limits the download rate so wget does not hog all the bandwidth. Appending a k at the end of the number signifies kilobytes per second.
More updates as I use more options. 🙂
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