Archive for August, 2009
Slackware 13.0
Posted by bumscientist in Computing on August 31, 2009
Yippee, Slackware 13.0 is out. Since I’m supposed to care about security, I should write down how to properly download Slackware.
First download with bittorrent
$ bittorrent-curses http://www.slackware.com/torrents/slackware64-13.0-install-dvd.torrent
Download and verify the gpg signature
$ wget http://www.slackware.com/gpg-key $ gpg --import gpg-key $ gpg --verify slackware64-13.0-install-dvd.iso.asc
Then check the md5sum
$ md5sum -c slackware64-13.0-install-dvd.iso.md5
I normally only check the md5sum, because I can’t find anyone to use gpg with me.
Floods
Posted by bumscientist in Ramblings on August 29, 2009
Floods are never good. I need to slow down and take a calm approach rather than rush straight ahead into the unknown. Too many screw-ups means that I learn a lot, but also means I don’t get very far. I need to ride on top and let the wave propel me.
Network Administration
Posted by bumscientist in Computers on August 25, 2009
I never knew how involved setting up and maintaing a network could be. Maybe I bit off a little more than I can chew with this new job I got. Only time will tell. The job is definitely doable, but expending the effort will take some, well, effort. I’m going to try to automate things as much as I can, but the only reason I’m employed is that things get sticky and need a human touch. Most people who know me wouldn’t call me a people person. This is something I need to work on.
Getting Faster: Eating Less
Posted by bumscientist in Health on August 24, 2009
If you eat less, you will gain less weight and only eat what is needed to heal and fuel you. Most Americans overeat anyway. You should know how much you need to eat. Eating healthy is important too, because you will be eating less, so every bit counts. One way to eat less to to switch your bowls, pots and pans with smaller ones. that way you can only cook a set amount. When you eat less, you will get hungry more often, so you will be eating more meals. Eventually you will eat very frequently in small portions. This is the path to getting faster.
Getting Faster: Shaving
Posted by bumscientist in Health on August 23, 2009
Another way to get faster is shaving. You get faster, because you lose weight, but the most important thing is that you feel faster. The mind can be a limiting factor in a person’s performance.
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, Longer
Posted by bumscientist in Ramblings on August 23, 2009
Time to work harder, better, faster, stronger and longer. Life is short, so there is no time to live with regrets. You must do all you can while you are still able.
Nomadic Life
Posted by bumscientist in Ramblings on August 23, 2009
When I was an undergraduate I lived with minimal possessions, since I took a plane to school and back. All my belongings fit into 2 suitcases, a carry-on, a backpack and a laptop bag. One suitcase for clothes, another for my comforter and other things. My backpack had my personal care items. My carry-on had my textbooks. Since I’m going to graduate school close to home, I’ve become a pack rat. All those car trips added up. I recently had to change apartments, which took me 10 trips to move most of my stuff instead of the one trip I’m used to. To lead a nomadic life is to lessen waste. I had to throw out a lot of junk from previous residents when I was moving out. When I moved out from undergrad, I didn’t have much to throw away. We live in a society of excess. So much packaging, so many throwaway items.
I think it is time I return to my nomadic roots. Time to live as light and as free as possible.
Getting Faster: Weight Loss
Posted by bumscientist in Health on August 23, 2009
The quickest way to get faster is to lose weight. Now that I have lost some weight, I am indeed faster. Exercising is like a positive feedback loop. The more fat you lose, the faster you can run, so you can lose more fat. I’m loving it. The only problem with losing weight is that whenever you see your family, they try to feed you to fatten you up.
MythTV and Slackware 13.0
Posted by bumscientist in Computers on August 19, 2009
Installing MythTV on Ubuntu 8.10 was pretty easy, but Ubuntu 9.04 just wasn’t stable for me with firefox crashing with Flash. I’ve had no problems with flash in firefox displaying in fullscreen on Slackware 13.0. It was a pain however to get my ATI HDTV Wonder to work on Slackware 13.0
First off, I had to get the svn version of mythtv since the packaged source used Qt3 instead of Qt4 or at least that’s what I’ve read from message boards.
Then I had a “_X_SENTINEL” error, which from reading this turned out to be something with gcc4. I had to add something to the header of Xlib.h
/* _X_SENTINEL BS */ #if defined(__GNUC__) && (__GNUC__ >= 4) # define _X_SENTINEL(x) __attribute__ ((__sentinel__(x))) # define _X_ATTRIBUTE_PRINTF(x,y) __attribute__((__format__(__printf__,x,y))) #else # define _X_SENTINEL(x) # define _X_ATTRIBUTE_PRINTF(x,y) #endif /* GNUC >= 4 */
But I had problems loading the firmware. Turns out i2c prevents it from loading firmware according to this. I had to recompile the kernel with I2C device interface unchecked.
I2C support --->
< > I2C device interface
I would think this would be the last thing, but then my sound stopped working. Turns out the audio chip on the TV tuner messes up the order of sound cards detected
You can check the order with
$cat /proc/asound/cards
and add to /etc/modprobe.d/sound to force it to be assigned a later index and my real sound card is the first index.
options cx88_alsa index=2
Finally, I think I have a working tuner. I can’t really test it without an antenna.
Slackware 13.0
Posted by bumscientist in Computers on August 16, 2009
Slackware64 13.0 RC2 is working out quite well. I think it will be a great when it is released. The audio works quite easily and it doesn’t have the annoying full screen Flash not working on Intel video chipset bug.