Entries by Khanh Tran

Firefox 3 RC1 was just released and boy is it snazzy. So far, I can only see a small increase in page rendering times. Hopefully, after running it for a few more hours, it won't wreak havoc on my RAM and stay at a lean 79MB.

Anywho, it disabled my delicious bookmarks plugin, but you can get one that works with Firefox 3 here:

http://del.icio.us/extensions/firefox/delicious.xpi

I've been using MRTG for years to graph traffic on switch ports, but only recently started using it to graph other fun things.

Recently, I've started using it for latency.

/usr/local/bin/ping-host.sh:

#!/bin/sh
PING="/bin/ping"
ADDR="172.16.0.100"
DATA=`$PING -c10 -s500 $ADDR -q `
LOSS=`echo $DATA | awk '{print $18 }' | tr -d %`
echo $LOSS
if [ $LOSS = 100 ];
then echo 0
else
echo $DATA | awk -F/ '{print $5 }'
fi

Then in your mrtg.conf file:

Title[ping-host]: RTT to host
PageTop[ping-host]: <H1>Host Round Trip Time</H1>
Target[ping-host]: `/usr/local/bin/ping-host.sh`
MaxBytes[ping-host]: 2000
Options[ping-host]: growright,unknaszero,nopercent,gauge
LegendI[ping-host]: Pkt loss %
LegendO[ping-host]: Avg RTT
YLegend[ping-host]: RTT (ms)
ShortLegend[_]: p/s

You can also execute remote commands over SSH. I use that for load averages. You'll have to figure out how to set up authentication keys. Otherwise, the automated script will be prompted for a password on the console, which you won't be attached to. I might post later about setting up authentication keys for password-less login, but for now, here's my load average script, to be run on the remote host:

loadavg.sh:

#!/bin/bash
awk /proc/loadavg '{print (100*$1) "\n" (100*$2) }'

Then on your MRTG host do something like:

Target[Mail-LoadAvg]: `ssh -l mailnull mail.host.tld ./loadavg.sh`

A few months back I wrote about how I wanted to replace my iPod with my PocketPC. Alas, I've conceded to the mainstream. The iPod has won out for it's end-user experience. There's simply too much work involved in the PocketPC and the user interface is still stuck in its old roots. The stylus is still the primary form of "interface" and in the car, that just doesn't work. I'm sure it'd be fine for someone else, but I spend a lot of time in the car. I'll still use the PocketPC for phone, email, browsing, etc. Also, I actually really like iTunes. The interface is exactly how I like to manage my 40+GB of music and the podcasts just sync. The podcast client (Egress) I was using on the PocketPC was just too clumsy, never seemed to really "sync" the right way, and then of course there was that pesky ease-of-use issue. Once in Egress, there was little integration with Windows Media Player. Granted, it was functional, but it just wasn't easy to swith between podcasts and know which I've already listened to or not. Since my music library is also in iTunes already, I just didn't have the necessary investment in Windows Media Player. Back to iTunes for me for now.

On a similar note, I have iTunes running on a fairly new Mac Book. Since I have a large library, which I also like to access remotely, I put the whole thing on an NFS share from my MythTV box. The MythTV box is currently openSuSE 10.2. Everything was running great on Mac OS X 10.4, but I decided to upgrade to 10.5 this weekend and finally throw on Office 2008. Everything runs a bit slower than it used to, but I suppose that's to be expected with new OSes. OS X is probably suffering from Vista-style bloat. One thing that did improve was Quicken 2007 (PowerPC) stability, but that was a minor issue for me. At work, I've been running 10.5 and setting up a 10.5 server for ActiveDirectory integration and I've had nothing but issues with network mounts and network integration in general. So, when I found out last night that my iTunes library wouldn't open over NFS, it didn't surprise me. The issue was that the Mac had no problem mounting the NFS volume, but once you started clicking on files in Finder, they'd show up as zero length files and then they'd disappear. In the terminal, they showed as normal files, but of course, I was just doing directory listings, not actually opening the files.

Apparently, OS X 10.5 changes the NFS client behavior. However, there is a "fix" that I've implemented on the NFS server side, since I don't care enough to debug OS X in my personal life. I deal with it enough in the work environment. On the server side, I kept seeing these errors:

lockd/statd: failed to create /var/lib/nfs/sm/: err=-21

The problem there is that there's no hostname at the end of that path. For whatever reason, the OS X 10.5 is either not reporting the hostname, not the way openSuSE 10.2 expects it, or openSuSE 10.2 has an issue. Since I didn't have this problem under OS X 10.4, I'm guessing the first two options are the reason, not the third. Anyway, change the following value in /proc. I'm going to throw it in boot.local to survive reboots probably.

echo "0" >/proc/sys/fs/nfs/nsm_use_hostnames

MythTV 0.21 was recently released. I've been compiling and running from the 0.21-fixes CVS branch, but still have audio issues in MythVideo with some videos that have AC3 audio. It's been found that the NuppelVideoPlayer expects the audio not to be more than 2 seconds out of sync with the video.

It hasn't made it's way into the -fixes branch as a patch, but someone on the mythtv-dev list was kind enough to help me out with this patch, so I'm keeping it here for my own records. Maybe it'll help out some other MythTV users:

mythtv_increaseAudioTolerance.patch

There is an open ticket in the MythTV Trac system #4764, but the posted patch doesn't exactly patch well against the current -fixes release, nor does it compile after manual changes.

I've got a few more software packages I've been playing with to make my new Tilt look more like an iPhone. These are some nice plugins/themes that make the AT&T (HTC) Tilt look and function much better. Stay tuned for that and my comments on using the Tilt to replace my iPod. I received my 8GB MicroSD card in the mail the other day, but I'm still waiting on the audio adapter for mini jack output. By the way, MicroSD cards are REALLY TINY. Amazing.

On a more functional note, I noticed Internet Passthrough wasn't working via ActiveSync. The default not for modern Windows Mobile and ActiveSync versions is to disable the wireless connectivity when connected to ActiveSync on a host PC. However, it wasn't working without the help of this tip about bypassing LSP (Layered Service Provider) and this AT&T Tilt forum post

For Valentine's day my valentine got me an AT&T Tilt (HTC 8925). Nice. I'm still working out the details, but I plan to use it to replace my iPod. Since it has awesome connectivity to the Internet, it would be great for updating podcasts. Also included is a decent 3 megapixel camera, although I'll probably limit it to 2 megapixels. There's no flash or zoom, so I won't be replacing the still camera. I'm still searching for Micro SDHC cards, but in the meantime, I've picked out the following as must-have apps.

PocketPuTTY:
SSH, Telnet, Serial connectivity! A must have for any command line UNIX/LINUX junky and it's free. Also features tunneling, color terminal and private key authentication!

AOL Instant Messenger:
My phone comes with one, but it only works via the Edge/3G Network. I don't know why, but I insist on using Wi-Fi when available. You should too if you don't have a flat rate data plan. You can still sneak a download of the old 2.0 mobile version at AOL UK for free. Otherwise, it's a paid program now.

Google Maps Mobile:
Why? I don't know yet. I have the TomTom One 3rd Edition. Maybe I'll get lost walking from my car somewhere. The non-GPS based location finder is kinda neat, but obviously not as accurate. It uses your current cell tower proximity and wi-fi network? location to judge your almost-whereabouts.

Dope Wars:
This has been a longtime favorite, even with my short-lived Dell Axim. It was even a favorite on my old Packard Bell 286-SX. Nothing special, but still oddly fun.

PocketMusic:
WinAmp for your PDA. Get it. Windows Media Player has always sucked on mobile devices, and still does with Windows Media 6. I don't know why Microsoft doesn't do something about that. Get the paid version (PocketMusic Bundle) if only to support the developer, but also because it will give you power options to dim the screen while your music is playing.

Egress:
The absolute ONLY decent RSS reader/podcatching client for Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, that also means you have to pay, but get lifetime upgrades. I can't believe Microsoft doesn't have this built in, but then again the Zune can't either. Every other podcast client requires sync from a host PC, but again, I think syncing such content via a data network (wi-fi or cell) is the future. You can also try Pocket Podcasts for Windows Mobile. That one's free, but it will only save content to \My Documents, which unfortunately means your small internal memory storage only. Ouch.

TCPMP:
TCPMP is THE media player for practically every format. This is a must have for video podcasts or other downloaded video content. I haven't played with it much, but you can add plugins for things like AAC audio, subtitles, and Flash Video. It's really hard to find, but Google is your friend.

Resco Explorer:
I haven't installed it yet, but I read it's the best for accessing network drives. It even features an FTP client, ZIP support, registry editor, and encryption. Most of that is already included on the Tilt, but for whatever reason, Windows Mobile doesn't support accessing UNC paths with authentication nicely.

I remember lots of hours spent in front of the NES playing the so-so remake of Operation Wolf. It was a popular arcade game for its time, due to the heavy-duty light gun. The NES version had watered down graphics, but because it was a Zapper game, it was a must buy. Remember how you had to hit the "B" button on the NES controller to throw a grenade? Remember how you used to tie it to the Zapper with a rubber band? Well, I did. Sadly, the Virtual Console revived this game without support for the Wii remote as a psudo-light gun. It was almost an assumed give that it should be this way, but alas it is not. The NES version also supported NES controller-only, via the D-pad and the "A" button and this is the version you'll get if you shell out 500 Wii points in the Shop Channel. Lame.

I recently came by a new Dell Inspiron 1525 that someone I know purchased. It originally came with Windows Vista Home Premium loaded from the factory, but the owner (like many others) preferred Windows XP Professional. With a little help from the links below, you can install all of the necessary drivers needed to get this laptop working with Windows XP!

First off, you'll need the SATA drivers on a USB floppy. There are other means of satisfying the Windows XP installer's lack of SATA drive support, but you're own your own past this link:
SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)

Once XP is installed, I went straight for the wireless card driver:
Dell Wireless 1390 (Broadcom BCM 4311) Windows Update has the Creative Labs Webcam (built in to the top of the screen) and the Marvell Yukon 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller drivers. If you need the wired ethernet controller driver before the wireless, you can try the Marvell site and search for the Yukon family driver. It will have the driver, plus other utilities if you need support for things like 802.1q VLANs, etc.

Finish out the drivers, chipsets, and Dell hotkey support with:
SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio Chipset Conexant D330,HDA,MDC,v.92,modem Touchpad Intel GM965 (Video Card) Dell Quickset Ricoh R5C833 (Flash Drive controller)

This particular Dell Inspiron didn't have bluetooth installed (the BIOS showed no card, even though there was an LED for it), but if your's has the Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module, you'll need the XP Downgrade patch to enable Bluetooth and then the actual Windows XP Driver

The Asus Eee PC comes with most of the basic tools the average sysadmin needs for remote console access to his/her servers: krdc (for VNC and Remote Desktop), xterm (command line for ssh or telnet; press ctrl+alt+t), but it's missing VMware server console. Unfortunately for Xandros Eee PC users it's distributed as an RPM. However, with a quick apt-get of alien (and some dependencies), converting it to a compatible .deb is easy! Don't forget to read my previous post about adding comunity repositories (and pinning your system).

1. download the RPM from VMware's site: http://vmware.com/download/server/. You want the Linux client package only. Don't worry about registering. No serial number is required for the client package.

2. sudo apt-get install alien
This will prompt for the installation of dependencies (about 13). Answer 'Yes' to install them.

3. sudo alien --scripts VMware-server-console-1.0.4-5629.i386.rpm
This will result in a .deb file of the same name.

4. sudo dpkg --install vmware-server-console_1.0.4-56529_i386.deb
Once the pacakge is installed, I went back and uninstalled alien and its dependencies. You can leave them around if you like (at a cost of 25MB of storage).

5. sudo /usr/bin/vmware-config-server-console.pl
This will do a quick config for the server console. You can now run /usr/bin/vmware-server-console and access your VMware server intances!

The same method would probably work for the full server installation. You'll need to register for your free serial number. I didn't due to the small storage capacity and limited hardware (base Eee PC 701 only has 512MB of RAM). The Eee would need a slightly better CPU before I'd run virtualized OSes on it, but it makes for a great remote console to a more powerful system. Enjoy.

After several hours of beating my head against the wall with pcsx, I finally switched over to pSX and got PSX emulation working under Xandros on the Eee PC. I was trying to get pcsx to work because it's in the community repositories, but alas, it has memory card file issues with anyhing BUT the included HLE BIOS, which of course, prevents you from playing anything really good like FF VII . No overclocking or upgrades were made to the basic 701 model.

1. In order to get pSX to work, you need to have the additional repositories configured. Follow the Eee PC User Wiki article on Adding Additional Repositories. PLEASE don't forget to do the part about PINNING YOUR SYSTEM. This will prioritize the Asus "official" versions of the packages over the user contributions. If you don't you may make your system very unstable.

2. Next, download the Linux package from the official pSX website and then do "sudo apt-get install libgtkglext1" from the command line. That was the only dependency you should be missing from the base install of Xandros on the Eee PC.

3. Once that's done, follow the prompts to point to the BIOS (sorry, no help from me here) and a memory card file for at least slot 1. There's one requirement for the Sound options to prevent that stuttering. Set the latency to 64.1 ms and the XA latency to 40.1 ms (double the defaults). Any other stuttering should be due to a slow SD card, but even my cheap 1GB card (Transcend) managed to make it through the opening FMV and first fight scene at acceptable frame rates. Also under Sound, I have Reverb, Sync sound, and Interpolate on.

4. Under Graphics, you can have Bilinear interpolation on (for smoothing out those pixels, although at the expense of some blurriness and speed). I also turned on the Status icons and set the Full screen mode to 16:10. Nice. Pcsx couldn't even do full screen for me, although it did have lots of scaling options.



For those interested in ripping their PSX CDs to bin/cue format, you can use the following command line example in your terminal:

cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile my_game_rip.bin --device ATAPI:0,0,0 --driver generic-mmc-raw my_game_rip.toc

Recently, I obtained the new ASUS 701, aka the eeePC. I have the 4G model (512MB of RAM, with the camera). Everyone's first reaction is that it's small and that the keyboard suffers because of it. I don't have giant hands, but it is awkward to type on. It's the opposite extreme of the problem the Macbooks have with the keys being spaced apart. These keys are tiny and tightly packed. The screen is also a little small, but you really don't notice on anything but web surfing. Outside of that, everything is fast, due partly to the SSD (solid state drive). Boot times are as advertised (under 15 seconds). The battery life is average or as-expected. I almost expected more, but because of the small internal storage and being a portable device, the wireless network is usually on. Don't worry about the 900Mhz Celeron CPU or the small storage though. It's not really designed for replacing your primary PC. The small screen and storage defeats CPU intensive video tasks.

I read just about everything there is about replacing the included XandrOS with the "easy" user interface. I don't mind it. I actually enjoy it since it keeps me from trying to push this thing past what it's designed for. The more advanced things I would use it for are really sysadmin type remote access, which I painfully do on the command line. Now it'll be more painful with the small keyboard, but the portability and the short boot time outweigh that. The XandrOS uses IceWM and some custom UI stuff done by ASUS, making for more of a smartphone/PDA style experience when choosing your next application. However, once that's out of the way, the windows and controls look like your basic Windows XP and almost certainly intentional. Even updating the system software insists upon reboots after every install!

The first thing I noticed was that re-joining the wireless network is not automatic and it was a little confusing to have the two wireless icons in the system tray. One is really for wireless, the other is for network interfaces in general. Once that was out of the way, the "Add/Remove Programs" made sense. Nothing populates there unless you are online. Why? Well, it's more of a software update than an Add/Remove, so be sure to be online before running it. I ran it (January 18, 2008) and there were a few updates like Skype and the BIOS, which I did. You'll get a new application called EeeAP which is rumored to be for wireless mesh networking, but there's little on that. On that note however, there's checkboxes in all the right places for sharing your existing internet connection with others. This isn't always obvious on other distros.

I doubt I'll be replacing XandrOS with WinXP or some other Linux. First of all the SSD lifespan isn't the same as a spinning disk and I don't care to push it. Plus, Asus customized this OS to work with the hardware and I don't fear Linux. Strangely, they included Anti-Virus, but I think that's for more WinXP user cross-over hand-holding. I disabled it from startup, but I didn't remove it. Asus also included UnionFS for the root partition. This allows them to have a base image on a non-writeable partition. Any root partition changes are not made to the image, but to what's left of the SSD. You'll get 1.4G of useable drive. This non-traditional method means software updates use up the base image's space, plus the updated program takes up space. Software "removals" just kill a pointer to the base image, so you don't really free up any space at all. More than likely, it'll take up more space just to make that reference. Confusing? Not really. You just have to undertand that the drive available to you is really just keeping track of changes since a starting point.

On to more useful information! I did follow the ASUS eeePC wiki article on adding additional repositories. PLEASE do yourself a favor and listen to their suggestions on configuring "pinning". I didn't hose this system, but it's I've experienced it in other Linux adventures. Let the Asus "official" repositories win in a dependency battle. The http://xnv4.xandros.com/xs2.0/upkg-srv2 repository does not have a public key, which isn't well explained on the wiki. Just ignore the errors, don't forget to do a "sudo apt-get update" afterwards, and reboot. I didn't reboot and almost through the eeePC against a wall when fceultra kept segfaulting. After the reboot, everything was fine and Spy Hunter came right up

By the way, that's done via the command line. Press CTRL+ALT+T to get a shell. It's nothing to write home about. Just a basic shell. I did find it nice that krdc (the KDE client for remote desktop and VNC) are readily there. I configured a PPTP VPN client easily in the network configuration, but unfortunately has no options for custom routes (so not ALL of my traffic goes through the VPN like web surfing). Also, nslookup and dig and host are missing. I'm not sure why, but ping and traceroute resolve names too, so I used those.

I haven't done much else, but poking around in the Messenger app (which is just Pidgin) and the file manager, I'm amazed at how Windows XP-like they made this thing look. Again, I'm sure it's to make newbies feel comfortable. The system tray is a little over-populated (another XP-ism) and I really need to read more on making my own shortcuts. I could do without individual big-button shortcuts to each of the Google Apps, and replace them with krdc and the terminal.

Just before the holiday I obtained a TomTom One 3rd Edition. It's my first of the recent portable GPS systems. So, while I can't really compare against current devices, I have owned several of the PC/Laptop and PDA based solutions.

First off, I had the "white screen of death issue", described here: http://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=5291. Tech-support was prompt and efficient in handling my issue. Luckily I called it in just before the Christmas holiday and I had a return unit delivered just before New Year's.

With that out of the way, let me say, this is a great unit for a great price. First off, the screen is great. It's bright enough to be seen, even in bright daylight. The speaker is loud enough to be heard, even in louder cars like a Jeep. The battery lasts for several hours, although the lack of power switchover sensing was pointed out to me. What does this mean? Well, some GPS units, when plugged into the car's power outlets, will know when the car has been turned off so that the GPS unit will automatically shut off and not run out of battery power. I don't really care, nor did I even notice until it was pointed out to me. This IS a portable unit after all. By the way, it's TINY! Portability is really paramount here. The design is great, so it stands without mounting almost anywhere in my cars. Oh, and they do a great job with maximizing the screen real estate. I haven't taken it on long trips, but the navigation is great where I've taken it so far. I did notice that the auto-zoom feature is great when you don't care about getting a really zoomed out view. I like the big picture zoom when taking long drives. However, this unit auto-zooms back to about a 1/4 mile level after a few seconds. Lastly, the GPS unit is FAST. It calculates (and re-calculates) routes quickly, finds the satellite signals quickly, and is one of the few that receives good satellite signal for me indoors as well as in the car when not placed directly under the windshield.

TomTom is known for being user friendly, and it is. Everything was easy to read, easy to find and very intuitive. Practically no help or manual is necessary. Maps and POIs for North America and Guam are built in (for when I drive to Guam) and the TomTom comes with software for Mac and PC (but you'll never really need it). There are no fancy extras like MP3 or video playback, but lets leave that for the devices that should be doing that. I give the TomTom One 3rd Edition a 4 out of 5!

I never was too impressed with dgen on Linux (for emulating a Sega Genesis, 32X, SegaCD). It was simple to setup and worked with a lot of roms, but not enough of them. I never could get Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to work, nor ANY of the 32X games, even with the appropriate BIOS files. However, because of the simple setup and flexible command line, integration with MythTV's mythgame almost required it.

I wanted to move because I wanted 32X support (and I had the BIOS files), plus better compatibility for games like Sonic 2. I started to research gens, which was supposed to work better, but the more common sources and rpms were older, without the necessary patches to make a command line setup work. For example, the escape key was linked to pause the emulator, not exit it. Boo. Everything on the web points to "gens for linux - mythgame edition" (found at http://mythtv.wbond.net/gens_for_linux_mythgame_edition/). This release also includes patches for GCC4. It compiled fine, but had a weird quirk with gens' double winows and fullscreen mode. Gens runs one window for the emulation and another for the menu. When applying --fs from the command line, it enters fullscreen, but the menu window cancels that until you click or ALT-TAB to focus the emulation window. Again, boo.

I stumbled upon this Ubuntu forum thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=290008. This is gens 2.13 alpha aka gens CVS 20070625. You can browse it on SourceForge here: http://gens.cvs.sourceforge.net/gens/Gens-MultiPlatform/

Follow the links for the RPM, or compile from source if you insist. Beware of the ads and the popups, but don't worry, the download is there. Make sure you delete your old configs in ~/.gens because this version uses a slightly different format. Also, running gens on the command line without a config in ~/.gens will result in a segfault. How do you get the gui to do the basic config? Feed gens a rom file on the command line like: gens /path/to/rom/game.bin so that it'll start a rom and bring up the gui. Best part about this release is that it's a single window now and fullscreen works. I'm using the following as my command line for MythTV:

gens --rompath / --quickexit --fs "$1"

I've got that in a shell script wrapper, because I also call qjoypad to integrate the escape key to exit the emulator.

enjoy.

I actually finished it on December 22, the same night as my last post, but never got around to posting the screenshots. I don't feel like battling through the ghost ship boss again, so here's a shot of the ghost ship on the map and my mighty-fine looking boat! I guess they don't have completed game save screens like in FF...

I've been busy with work and life, so the Final Fantasy saga was sidetracked. Woops. I've been playing through Phantom Hourglass, as well as some other random DS games like Contra 4. I'm just about done with Phantom Hourglass, so I guess I'll post a completed screenshot of that when it happens.

I've finally found the need to do flash video, elsewhere on the site. I've always known FFMPEG was able to do it, but I can't figure out how to make it index (for seeking in a Flash Video player) on the command line. Just to get the immediate project done, I've found flvtool2 is able to do it. It's open source and came out of the Riva VX project. I've never used the Riva encoder, but flvtool2 indexed and inserted proper metadata to enable sync, even after the FLV was already encoded:

flvtool2.exe -U video.flv

It'll work on the Linux command line with wine as well. Just append it to the beginning of the line.