Re: Worst Admin Mistake? was --> Re: /usr broken, will the machine reboot ?
On 9/13/11 3:15 PM, Bryan Irvine wrote: > Which brings me to another fun question. What's your worst > administration mistake and how did you recover? Years ago on my main workstation back in my slackware days, I was upgrading samba from the source tarballs. I had everything compiled and installed in /usr/local and was trying to remove the old binaries in /usr/bin. The command was something like this: root:/usr# rm /usr/bin/smb * The command ran quickly, and obviously I realised something was wrong when various things, like ls, stopped working. Fortunately I had an open instance of midnight commander, so I was able to ftp the now-missing binaries from the original install media in a secondary windows machine and use the built-in chmod/chown functions in mc to unarchive and fix the files so they could be run. >From this, I learned the importance of watching the spaces in a command and being aware of what the value of cwd is. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4e710087.6030...@penguinness.org
Re: [OT] Mice
On 6/8/2011 15:15, Ron Johnson wrote: What's "bluetrack"? I agree with not wanting wireless, though. Bluetrack in mice is a proprietary Microsoft made tracking method for their optical mice. Physically, they have larger holes for the emitter and the light is blue instead of red. A quick searched turned up this link which gives a basic rundown between Microsoft Bluetrack and Logitech Darkfield: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2351775,00.asp I have a 'notebook' wireless mouse from Microsoft that has Bluetrack and uses one of the 'nano' USB dongles. The battery life is pretty good and when the wireless works, it works pretty well. Bad points would be that the larger sized hole seems to collect more crud than a 'typical' optical mouse would, and occasionally I've had the signal 'go strange' and the mouse not work as it should. However, the tracking is pretty good (I've tested it on beat up metal cigarette tin), and the dongle does work with anything that supports HID's. Minor note on the one I have, the dongle apparently supports mice and keyboards, which has confused a few things at times when they see a new keyboard interface but not a new keyboard to go with it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4df04652.9090...@penguinness.org
Re: A question about DNS.
On 3/16/11 11:42 PM, Magicloud Magiclouds wrote: > Hi, > I do not know how to summarize my problem in a short sentence, sorry > for the meaningless title. > I cannot access *.dropbox.com here. But lucky I have a ipv6 tunnel > working. So I have an idea here: > redirect all queries to *.dropbox.com to *.dropbox.com.sixxs.org > to make dropbox tools working. > So I installed bind9 and set it as local DNS service. But then I > missed. CNAME does not seem work. > Any idea? Thanks. I'm assuming that access to dropbox is blocked somewhere upstream of you via a filter of some kind. With that in mind... $dig dropbox.com ; <<>> DiG 9.6.0-APPLE-P2 <<>> dropbox.com ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7943 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;dropbox.com. IN ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: dropbox.com.10800 IN SOA dns1.nettica.com. hostmaster.nettica.com. 2539 3600 600 86400 43200 ;; Query time: 9923 msec ;; SERVER: 192.168.78.65#53(192.168.78.65) ;; WHEN: Thu Mar 17 00:58:57 2011 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 89 Considering that dropbox doesn't appear to have an IPv6 side, your only option that I can think of is to find a IPv6 to IPv4 proxy, which I don't think exists, or a 'standard' IPv4 proxy. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4d81c06c.7050...@penguinness.org
Re: lenny squeeze etc etc
On 12/20/2010 20:45, Petrus Validus wrote: On Mon, 2010-12-20 at 18:18 -0800, Jim Pazarena wrote: what possessed the debian people to tack names on to the OS? having actual version/release numbers seems so much clearer. And there does appear to BE release numbers. So why promote the goofy naming system which throws the novice? Don't forget Apple's OS X: Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, etc... Or Microsoft with longhorn, blackcomb, mantis, and so on. Heck, for that matter, Linus named one of the kernel releases something along the lines of 'rabid badger' (it was in the readme, wish I had kept it as I can't find any reference to it now). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4d103ead.4070...@penguinness.org
Re: OTT: OpenFiler vs Thecus N4200?
On 8/5/10 11:18 PM, Phillipus Gunawan wrote: > Hi There, > > Sorry if this is a bit 'Off The Topic' discussion. I am planning to get > fileserver dedicated for iSCSI. > > My option is to grab Thecus N4200 or to build OpenFiler with any Duo-Core > CPU, >> 1G RAM, RocketRAID 644 controller, and other basic PC stuff. > > I have been googling to compare OpenFiler vs FreeNAS (winner for me: > OpenFiler) > and cheap iSCSI capable barebone NAS from Thecus vs QNAP (winner: Thecus > N4200) > > When it come to comparing between OpenFiler vs Thecus N4200, I can not get > any > goodies from google. I used OpenFiler for a bit, creating 2 or 3 iSCSI > target, > share folder, but only for short time, just for a fun. > > My concern: > - HDD realibility check (live error check, reporting when one of the HDD > faulty/bad sector/etc) > - RAID/iSCSI re-sizing when I add another HDD > - Easy to maintain > > So, if anyone expert can give me a light, would be much appreciated. For a > started, I will only go with 3x2TB HDD for either option, to be RAID-ed as > RAID5 Have you looked at NexentaStore? Free community addition is good for up to 12 TB. It's based on OpenSolaris, not Linux, but it uses apt-get for packages and upgrades. CIFS: Check NFS: Check iSCSI: Check ZFS: Check ZFS at this time isn't all that good at dynamic resizing, but I believe Sun/Oracle is working on that functionality. I looked at FreeNAS myself, but the ZFS level it supports is very experimental. OpenFiler, while I like the idea behind it, is based on CentOS (which is a clone of that bloated thing called RedHat. Ugg). Not to start a flame war or argument, but I'd skip the hardware RAID card and go software. Most CPU's available have plenty of power to handle the calculations needed for RAID. Also, you are not locked into a single vendor, nor do you have to worry about replacement when the RAID card dies (and it will eventually). I'm running three VM's from an ESXi 4 machine using the NexentaStore on an iSCSI datastore before moving my production VM's over to it, and so far, I'm liking what I see overall. It seems to be a bit on the hungry side, like OpenFiler would be, but it's quite usable with the 4 gigs and the C2D 7500 CPU I have in it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c5c7f8d.80...@penguinness.org
Re: No sound from Flash, but other methods work well
On 7/18/10 6:21 AM, Ron Johnson wrote: > On 07/18/2010 06:03 AM, Justin The Cynical wrote: > [snip] >> >> Try this: >> >> http://www.macewan.org/2006/06/01/howto-firefox-flash-video-sound-on-ubuntu-linux-dapper/ >> >> >> IIRC, I had this problem on an old Linux install I was using for MythTV, >> and it did come down to a lack of OSS support with the installed ALSA. >> >> (And I googled for 'linux flash sound' and that was the first hit :-) ) >> > > Is that 4yo post regarding Flash v7 or v9? I believe I used it when I had 9 installed, but I've seen reports that it affects 10 as well. Old or not, it still might work. Doesn't hurt to try. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c43fa5d.3000...@penguinness.org
Re: No sound from Flash, but other methods work well
On 7/17/10 11:02 AM, Ron Johnson wrote: > Hi, > > My Google-fu must not be up to snuff, because I've Googled much without > any luck. > > USB Audio > 32-bit Sid > ALSA 1.0.23+dfsg-1 > Flash 10.1r53 (from adobe.com) > Iceweasel 3.6.4-1 (experimental) > vlc 1.1.0 > users are in group audio > > Sound plays fine from local sources but not from Flash/Iceweasel. (Yes, > Flash *video* works.) > > Any thoughts on how to solve this would be much appreciated, since > otherwise my wife will insist on moving back to Windows. Try this: http://www.macewan.org/2006/06/01/howto-firefox-flash-video-sound-on-ubuntu-linux-dapper/ IIRC, I had this problem on an old Linux install I was using for MythTV, and it did come down to a lack of OSS support with the installed ALSA. (And I googled for 'linux flash sound' and that was the first hit :-) ) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c42df92.9070...@penguinness.org
Re: [OT] First computer (was Re: LVM)
On 6/18/2010 15:58, ABS Doug wrote: On Thursday 17 June 2010 15:03:52 Hugo Vanwoerkom wrote: What was that thing that was only a keyboard that had the cpu and memory built into it? You connected a tape player for the I/O and a TV for the display. I used it to play chess on and to do astrology programs. It took hours to get that thing to read in a tape without errors. It was around 1977 I think. I had a Vic-20, but that was 1980 I think. Tape cassette, hooked to TV... I'm feeling old. My neighboor had the Commador64 with a Floppy drive, MUCH better set-up. She got the modem, then I did. Chatting sucked as I recall. What was that online service that was available then... was it Compuserve? As others have said, Compuserve was a big player. I seem to recall Genie as well. *still has a working VIC-20 in the garage, next to the Amiga 500, think the 128 is still in there as well* -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c1c1559.7070...@penguinness.org
Re: problems with dell poweredge server R140 (rack) [solved]
On 6/15/10 11:59 PM, Eero Volotinen wrote: > Looks like problem is on iDrac, because it is connected as scsi device. > > solution was: deattach iDrac after boot and fix the root device on > grub commandline. There you go, Dell's virtual media stuff throwing it off. For the record, USB storage (along with parallel and serial IDE) is handled via the SCSI I/O subsystem, so it makes sense that the virtual media interface on the DRAC, which looks like a USB device, showed up as a SCSI device. Glad you got it working. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c1877f2.9040...@penguinness.org
Re: problems with dell poweredge server R140 (rack)
On 6/15/10 1:09 PM, Eero Volotinen wrote: >> As for the SAS, what errors are you seeing? Do you see the megaraid-sas >> (I believe that is the correct one, depends on the chipset used on your >> particular PERC) even load? > > Server is Dell R410, so I think controller is perc 6/i *snip* >> I also may have had to manually roll the initrd with the megaraid driver >> as well, don't quite recall. > > A bit complex issue, anyway boot works on ubuntu server. Maybe this is > installer bug? Perhaps, I don't quite recall. >> But without some kind of error message, this is speculation. > > Well, it just drops to busybox complaining it cannot mount rootfs. > Maybe I need to use camera/screencapture to get error messages, since > it's a bit complex to get errormessages our of drac. OK, so you are using the DRAC? Are you using the virtual media options? When I used them, they threw off the install as the virtual optical and floppy are presented to the system as USB devices, which were enumerated before the install target. I forget, but does dmesg work when the system stops on boot? dmesg | grep sas dmesg | grep mega I think one of those two commands /should/ return the driver stanza if it's loading. I'd also be interested in looking at what grub is pointing to and what / is pointed at in your fstab. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c1869bf.3040...@penguinness.org
Re: problems with dell poweredge server R140 (rack)
On 6/15/10 11:50 AM, Eero Volotinen wrote: > I tried to install Debian Lenny on Dell Poweredge R140 with no success. > > First problem is with netword card bnx2? It is not working with > default install, but > with this workaround it works: > > -> http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/ (this image support bnx2 from scratch) > > another problem is that default kernel cannot mount rootfs from perc > raid (sas) controller after boot? why? tool old kernel? > > I tried this workaround (rootdelay=35) but with no success. > > RHEL and UBuntu server works fine on this hardware, main reason to > install debian is that we are trying to avoid support costs from > redhat. > > Any ideas how to install debian with success to this machine? I just > bought three of these .. Quick google for "lenny bnx2" revealed this: http://packages.debian.org/lenny/firmware-bnx2 The firmware for the cards is in the non-free repository. One way to make this work is here: http://insanelabs.com/debian/debian-lenny-cannot-load-broadcom-nic-drivers-asking-for-firmware-bnx2-06-405fw-during-install/ As for the SAS, what errors are you seeing? Do you see the megaraid-sas (I believe that is the correct one, depends on the chipset used on your particular PERC) even load? It was a while aqo, but I installed Debian on a 2950 with a PERC, and after the initial install, for some %$#^ reason (believe it had to do with the installed DRAC and it's virtual drives), /boot was showing up on a different drive (think /dev/sda vs /dev/sdb). I also may have had to manually roll the initrd with the megaraid driver as well, don't quite recall. But without some kind of error message, this is speculation. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4c17da73.9060...@penguinness.org
Re: [Solved] Re: Ctrl+alt+Fn not showing consoles
rudu wrote: Le 29/04/2010 20:42, Hugo Vanwoerkom a écrit : rudupere wrote: Bingo !! That was it, an old bug from nvidia drivers. The workaround that worked for me : Append the line : options nvidia NVreg_UseVBios=0 to the file /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc.conf A big thank you to Justin and everyone who helped. Good that you got it solved. Except I don't understand when the problem started. You must have run at one time w/o black screens. And then they started. Hugo Well, I've lived with it for quite a long time before calling for help here, but IIRC it started after a kernel upgrade, then I couldn't install the nvidia driver so I switched to nv, and so on. I hadn't enough time at the moment to investigate ... Glad one of those solutions worked for you. That one in particular I think is a new one (to me anyway). It's been a while since I've had a need to flip between the consoles, much less turn on the laptop, so I'll have to try that one and see if it works. I'm sure that in the grand scheme of things, this is a very minor issue, but it's annoying and surprising, IMO, that it still exists considering the age of the bug. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4bdbb17a.20...@penguinness.org
Re: Ctrl+alt+Fn not showing consoles
rudu wrote: In single user mode, I can login on the first virtual console but every other ctrl+alt+Fn I hit only gives me a black screen with a prompt flashing in the upper left corner ... IIRC, in single user mode, this is normal. Launching a graphic session with startx instead of gdm/kdm doesn't change anything except that I don't even have any flashing prompt on my black screen anymore. This is an old, old bug (IMO) in the binary nvidia module. I've had this problem since getting Linux running on my old pentium m laptop with a 6000 go series chip. For example: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=131639 and possible fix (seems to be hit or miss): http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=120492 -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4bd90340.3030...@penguinness.org
Re: can't get CUPS working with Xerox Phaser 6280DN
James Brown wrote: I installed a driver for my Xerox Phaser 3117 from the openprinting project http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting and it works nice. I think that it it possible to try such for 6280DN Umm, no, no, n... The Phaser 3117 is one of those so-called host printers (all the printer functions are run on the machine that sends the print job) according to the Xerox site. The OP's printer is a /real/ printer, one that can speak and understand a printer language on it's own, has it's own CPU, memory, and potentially local hard drive storage (my old Phaser 850 did). This is why I insist on networked, Postscript groking printers: Drop them on the network, assign an IP (makes it easier in the long run to make it static), feed the OS print subsystem the address and the PPD, and they Just Work(tm). None of this "driver" BS to worry about. The Dell 3110cn I have (yes, I know, Dell. Got to play with one at work so I knew what I was getting into. So far, it's been a surprisingly good printer) is Postscript level 3 capable and networkable, so getting it to play with the Mac's, Windows (multiple versions) and *NIX machines via a centralized printer server (CUPS, gotta keep the kids from burning up all the toner) was mind-numbingly easy. The hardest part was getting the access controls set up for the two print queues (one colour, one B&W only) and making the older Windows machines use IPP. Looking back at the original email, your problem is that the system is not seeing the printer via USB. Is there some reason why you are using the USB interface? Looking at the Xerox page for the printer, it lists a network interface (hence the N bit on the end of the model). I would strongly suggest putting that device on your LAN, it would make things a heck of a lot easier to setup. If you must use the USB interface, from what I can find, it looks like CUPS should see the printer when you add it to the system. Try this: Attach the printer to the system Restart the CUPS software (pure paranoia) Hit http://localhost:631/ in a web browser (I'm assuming you are running this from the machine that has CUPS on it) Click on the admin tab Click on the add printer tab Feed CUPS the Name/Location/Description info Next page is the "Device for $NAME" page. The drop down /should/ have the printer listed there on a USB port. Select, continue Model/Driver page, browse for the PPD file Next step is to confirm the settings for the print queue Profit! If the "Device for $NAME" doesn't have the printer listed, then we need to look deeper as the OS itself isn't detecting the printer via USB correctly. But try those steps first, and again, I strongly suggest scrapping the USB idea and drop it on the network. If it's an access issue you are worried about (keeping others from burning through your toner), set up access lists on CUPS and tell the printer to ignore connections from anything but the CUPS machine (which is what I did) or drop another network card in your machine and use a crossover to the printer so they are on their own physically private network. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian Etch Install
Rick Thomas wrote: The Lenny "businesscard" iso at http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/release/current/i386/iso-cd/debian-503-i386-businesscard.iso is only 36 MBytes. It contains everything you need to start the installation. It will dynamically download all the other packages you need for your *particular* installation, and *only* those things. When you are bandwidth constrained, it's by far the best installation method for minimizing total waiting time. And, it has the advantage of automatically giving you -- as an integral part of the installation process -- all the security and stability updates that have happened since the distribution was created. And to improve upon this, let me suggest setting up an apt-get cache, such as apt-cacher or apt-cacher-ng, and tell the machines to use the new apt proxy. This alone will save you a lot of time (and bandwidth) when installing on multiple machines of the same arch when using a net install. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian can not boot from RAID-1
Yuriy Kuznetsov wrote: Hi Justin, This is the problem: system does not boot at all; it goes as far as DRAC check and stopped; it does not even try to load the kernel. It looks like the system can not see RAIDs at all. May be I need to install some Dell modules for my RAID controller to be recognized as one of he boot options? Dell modules? Are you thinking like a kernel module? No, if the system doesn't even show the initrd loading, that won't do any good. I've never heard of anyone needing anything special to boot linux on a Dell. What is the last thing that displays on the screen when you power it on? A non-system disk error? Swear words in Mongolian? Knowing this should help diagnose the issue. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian can not boot from RAID-1
Yuriy Kuznetsov wrote: Check that the megaraid_sas driver is loading. When I installed Etch, I had to rebuild the initrd with that module after the initial install. Could advice on how I can check this please? I reckon that this is my problem as when system is trying to boot - it looks like it's not even reach as far as HDDs at all. Boot the system as far as you can and check the scrollback to see if the module is being loaded. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian can not boot from RAID-1
Yuriy Kuznetsov wrote: In short: Dell Power Edge 2970; 6X3" HDDs: 2-RAID1, 4-RAID5 Etch on a 2950 at work. Installed latest Debian on RAID1, which is VD-00. Installation went through without any issue. After installation system can not boot. Checked BIOS and there are only 3 options to boot from: CD-ROM, NIC, Drive C(I'm not sure where drive C came from???). The "C" drive is from Dell (part of the OS/diagnostic stuff they include). You should be able to delete that if you like as, IIRC, the tools are available via a bootable CD that is included with the machine. I believe the ISO is also available for download, In the RAID configuration utility VD-00(2 HDD in RAID1)is set as boot device but it's still can not see the boot sector. Is it something wrong with the system or did I need to set some settings on software level? PERC card, yes? Check that the megaraid_sas driver is loading. When I installed Etch, I had to rebuild the initrd with that module after the initial install. Also, do you have a DRAC in that box? If so, check the /dev/sd* list in the fstab and menu.lst files. The DRAC has a 'virtual drive' that is presented to the kernel as a USB device and in my case, was enumerated before the RAID card, throwing off the drive list (/dev/sda* became /dev/sdb* or some such thing). PE2950 PERC RAID card one RAID 1 (/dev/sda) one RAID 10 (/dev/sdb) ~$ mount /dev/sda3 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw) udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755) tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev) devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620) /dev/sdb1 on /mnt/vm_storage type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro) ~$ fdisk /dev/sda -l Disk /dev/sda: 72.7 GB, 72746008576 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 8844 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 28 224878+ de Dell Utility /dev/sda2 29 290 2104515c W95 FAT32 (LBA) /dev/sda3 * 291849065866500 83 Linux /dev/sda484918844 28435055 Extended /dev/sda584918844 2843473+ 82 Linux swap / -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
SOLVED: Re: VMI support in lenny kernel 2.6.26-2-686
Justin The Cynical wrote: Short version: Does a stock 2.6.26-2-686 32-bit lenny kernel have vmi support compiled in? *snip* Figured this out today. Apparently VMWare, in their infinite wisdom, made VMI support depend on the guest OS selection. As etch (the latest supported debian version) didn't apparently have VMI support in the kernel, it's disabled and not selectable. Adding the VMI line in the VM config file didn't work for two reasons: If I touched the VM config via the UI, it removed the added line as long as it was set to debian4 I forgot to shut down the VM after making a change to the file. Note for those who may wonder: Rebooting the guest alone doesn't work. So, changing the guest OS setting to ubuntu and enabling the VMI option let it work and I see the correct lines in dmesg now. I don't know if it's due to the restarts or the setting changes, but my load average dropped from an average of 4 to less than 2. Will have to wait and see if it's stable with the setting at ubuntu (I don't know if that option makes any real difference, or if it does, if ubuntu is close enough to debian for it to work correctly). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
VMI support in lenny kernel 2.6.26-2-686
Short version: Does a stock 2.6.26-2-686 32-bit lenny kernel have vmi support compiled in? Longer version: I make heavy use of VMWare Server 2 on a 64-bit lenny host, 32-bit guests. I was looking at ways to improve performance and noticed that VMI Paravirtualization was not turned on. I did some searching and found that VMWare disables VMI support via a setting in the VMX file, depending on the guest OS selection. I did some more searching and found this page: http://www.electricrelaxation.com/2007/05/27/building-a-vmi-enabled-kernel-for-debian-lenny-testing According to this, if VMI is enabled, I should see the following in dmesg: vmi: registering clock event vmi-timer. mult=11715026 shift=22 Booting paravirtualized kernel on vmi vmi: registering clock source khz=2793080 Time: vmi-timer clocksource has been installed. After adding the line manually in the vmx file and verifying that it stuck around after a restart, I'm not seeing the above listed lines in dmesg. I pulled the needed packages for compiling a kernel and checked the menuconfig file, VMI is enabled per that file. So either I'm missing something, or the stock 32-bit kernel doesn't have it already compiled. I would normally compile and try, but I don't want to potentially break a perfectly good working system, and it's almost 5AM my time and I need to get to sleep. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: motherboad for desktop
Charles Kroeger wrote: virtually any board easily available today is going to make use of DDR2 memory What about DDR3 memory, is that preferable? IMO, YMMV, IMNAL, etc and so on, DDR3 would only be of any real use with higher end CPU and motherboards that can take advantage of the extra memory bus bandwidth. DDR3 still has a price premium over DDR2, so it's not as cost effective. Granted, it's not much, but it is there. DDR3 does have the advantage of being a bit more future proof as it is 'the future' for system memory. It all depends on the budget and the intended purpose for the system. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: motherboad for desktop
Francesco Pietra wrote: Hi: My old K7S5A (SiS735 chipset) Athlon i386 lenny desktop has died and I am wondering how to set up a new one for the same service (running 32bit graphic scientific programs, besides office use, and establishing scp connection with my amd64 computing machines). That machine has been around for a while, yes? Looking at the specs and a review that mentions that they would have liked to see the AMR slot removed in favour of another PCI or perhaps even an ISA, I'm going to guess this isn't what one would call an insanely fast machine. :-) Absolutely no need of multicore, rather, a single fast processor would be of use for scientific purposes as parallelized codes are rare stuff. I thought to by a second hand single-processor motherboard but it might result as a bad jump into the past. Also, I have a couple of unused 150GB Raptor WD HDs that could only be used if nthe motherboard has SATA connections (better two, so as to set up a RAID1). Any suggestion on which motherboard (or motherboard type if you prefer to be uncommittal about brand) would be greatly appreciated. Motherboard manufactures all have good and bad designs and runs, so recommending a brand isn't such a good approach IMO. Anyway, (and I'm sure that you probably already know this) virtually any board easily available today is going to make use of DDR2 memory, will have SATA ports (usually 4, but I've seen some very low end ones that only had a pair), and may require a 24-pin power supply (some will still run with 20 pin or you might be able to get away with a 20 to 24 pin adapter). Another thing to consider is PCI slots. I do not know how your old system is set up, but that board has five PCI slots. That many PCI slots is becoming hard to find on current motherboards with the average being three, perhaps four, sometimes as low as a single slot. Myself, if I had a system similar to what you listed at the beginning, I'd find one of those low-end cpu/motherboard combo deals that show up at Fry's or newegg every so often. These usually consist of a Core2 based Celeron and an ECS (sometimes biostar) board. In my experience, the Core2-based Celerons running at around 2 Ghz (or less) are every bit as capable as a P4 3 GHz, but use considerably less power and generate a heck of a lot less heat. If I needed a bit more CPU grunt, I'd get a CPU that is built on the Core2 platform that isn't a Celeron. IMO, there isn't much point in not getting a multi-core CPU. Looking at Newegg for example, a 1.8 Celeron single core and a 2.2 Celeron dual core has a price difference of 10 US dollars, and just about any CPU commonly available is going to have 64-bit capabilities, not that you have to us them. Ultimately it depends on what your budget is, what is available in your area, and how much you want the newer board to do. But unless you are going to look at a machine that is about the same vintage as the old system, you are going to have to pick up more than just a new board. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian and the future: IPv6
Paul E Condon wrote: *snip* Lenny, and Debian stock linux kernel, 2.6.26-1-686. Is this host capable? If not, what is the current thinking about when IPv6 might actually arrive? Or is it likely to be one of those things, like World Peace, that has been in future and likely always will be --- in the future? I have been making use of a tunnel broker for a few weeks now and from my limited experience and exposure to IPv6, I would have to say that the base OS is capable, some of the supporting packages are not. For example, the version of ISC DHCP that's included with Lenny is not IPv6 ready (need version 4 at a minimum). Of course, the general feel I get from my web searching for various subjects regarding IPv6 is that a lot of it is still considered experimental and unfinished (another example, per the docs, the wide-dhcpv6 doesn't support all of what IPv6 can do). Then there is the howtos and such that assume that a user (heh, originally typed that as usr) is going to go the autoconfig route and never goes into how to assign it all manually (router advertisement daemon anyone?). So while the foundation is there, what comes after that is incomplete or poorly documented. It's frustrating at times (which is why I'm looking at replacements for ISC BIND for the IPv6 subdomain I'm trying to configure), but also kind of fun figuring it out. YMMV -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Blank TTYs using the nvidia binary driver
Steve Kreyer wrote: Hi *, thank you all for your help on this issue. With Justins advice on the nvnews forum thread I was able to fix it using the Glad it helped. This bug has been around for a /long/ time, and it seems the fix is different for a lot of people. In my case, I narrowed it down to the PCIe video card in this laptop I'm using now as I didn't see this problem on an old AGP based system, nor do I see it on the Myth system I've got in the living room. $ cat /etc/modprobe.d/options options nvidia NVreg_UseVBios=0 Heh, I guess I should try this as well. It wasn't given as an option last I looked into this, and I just grumbled about it and learned to deal with it. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Blank TTYs using the nvidia binary driver
Steve Kreyer wrote: Hi all, I have a problem using my TTYs in conjunction with the nvidia binary driver: When I want to switch to any tty using Ctrl+Alt+FX, the graphic card doesn't want to output anything, and my monitor turns off. This is an old issue with the NVidia binary blog drivers. I've had this problem as well on my laptop, but not an older AGP card. This thread on the nvidia forums may have your fix: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=126534&highlight=black+tty -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: firmware-linux
Chris Davies wrote: It's now become /really/ awkward to install Debian on DELL 2950s or any other kit containing Broadcom NICs. You need to have a USB stick that contans the relevant firmware package, and have that present during the installation process. In and of itself this is only mildly fiddly. However, it gets /very/ interesting indeed when using the Remote Access features in LOM grade servers such as the 2950. (Virtual console. Virtual CDROM. Fortunately, also virtual USB stick.) Exactly. One of my co-workers was bit by this with a Lenny install on a 1950. This is part of the reason why we haven't moved the existing etch install on our department 2950. IIRC, he did manage to get Lenny on the 1950, but something about it wasn't right due to the fiddly way he got it working and ended up putting etch back on it. I'll have to ask him again how he got it done. Personally, my fix would to either get better kit than Dell or install an Intel based NIC, but since I don't control the purse strings in the company, I'll take what I can get. If I wasn't such a diehard Debian advocate, I'd have seriously considered moving to another distribution. On the other hand, I can completely understand /why/ Debian installations no longer include non-free software. I'm not completely sure where I sit on the Convenience vs FOSS seesaw. From my own personal experience, the grass isn't any greener on the other side of the install disc. I have experimented with CentOS installs within VM's and compared to this annoyance in Lenny, Lenny is still a walk in the park. While there is a tarball available for the firmware that was moved around (http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/firmware/lenny/current/), I do feel that the issue is big enough that a bigger warning should be made in the install notes (http://debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian RAM supporting.
Bret Busby wrote: And, from that, and, the material that has so far been posted, my understanding is: 1. the original poster actually has 4 x 64 bit CPU's in his server that he was asking about, and 2. the response above indicates that yes, 4G (and maybe more) RAM can be used with 32 bit CPU's and 32 bit OS, with (what I understand to be, basically) a software patch to allow access to the memory that lies outside the limits of a 32 bit OS, but using that patch has its own problems, and so 3. it is recommended that, if a person (like me) wants to buy a new computer with 4GB of RAM (my current desktop system and laptop system are each limited to 2GB RAM), then the person should get a 64-bit CPU based system and 64 bit OS, to avoid the overheads cost (in processing) of the software patch, and thus 4. while it is not absolutely necessary to get a 64 bit system, to have 4GB RAM, it is strongly (?) recommended, for efficiency. Yes? Yes, that about sums it up. If one wanted to be nitpicky, I would say that #1 isn't quite correct as the quick specs on HP"s site show that the system board can handle a pair of CPU's, so more than likely what the OP has is a pair of dual core chips, but that's being overly snotty. s for the assumptions I made on the CPU's, I must apologise to the list as somewhere along the line, the list posts that contained that info made it into my trash bin unread. Aside from that, one of our customers at work used those HP's... Very nice machines, I"d trade the Dell crapola we have now for those inna heartbeat. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian RAM supporting.
Andrei Popescu wrote: *snip* The one starting with "Personally, I think..." and ends with enumerating compatibility issues with some other OSes? My point was that PAE isn't exactly the best idea out there, there are known issues with it (the list of other operating systems and environments were there to help illustrate this), and that I feel that installing a 64bit capable chip in the OP's system is the better path to take to make use of more than 3 gigs or RAM. *snip* Maybe if you would give more details about your specific application the answers would be more direct. Irrelevant to the thread and original question. "Dear ALL. I have HP proliant DL380 G4 with 12 GB ram. I want to install debian lenny on it. Orocessors are 32bit. Installing debian from standard small cd debian-500-i386-netinst.iso will allow me to use whole 12 GB or additional setup will be needed? Thank you in advance." Question was can it be done with a machine that has 32bit processors. Answer was yes it can be done with a bigmem kernel, but there are potential compatibility problems, here are a few other major operating systems and environments that have problems with it as examples. Opinion was given that they would be better off with changing the CPU's to 64bit capable, but was not said to be a have-to-do-this. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: Debian RAM supporting.
Daniel Suleyman wrote: Dear ALL. I have HP proliant DL380 G4 with 12 GB ram. I want to install debian lenny on it. Orocessors are 32bit. Installing debian from standard small cd debian-500-i386-netinst.iso will allow me to use whole 12 GB or additional setup will be needed? If you only have a 32-bit processor, you will need to install and use the bigmem kernel after the initial install, which will make use of PAE. Search for PAE for more info if you are interested. Personally, I think you would be better off finding a 64-bit Xeon for that machine (http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12028_div/12028_div.html lists it as an option). PAE is somewhat of a hack IMO, and there are known incompatibilities with some operating systems (FreeBSD, Solaris) and environments (desktop Windows versions). -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: VMware
Sjoerd Hiemstra wrote: On 21 Mar, Justin The Cynical wrote: (about VMware Server 2.0) And if you find a better way to access the server under Linux that that $%#$^%! web UI crap, please let me know!!! Use version 1 instead? 1.0.8 is the latest, it was updated even after 2.0 was released. It is far less resource hungry than 2.0. I know. However, I wasn't able to get it compiled at all on a fresh lenny AMD64 install (looking back, it was prolly some missing 32bit system libs) and I had to have the 64 bit to really make full use of the 6 gigs of RAM I installed. I have to admit that version 2 runs /much/ better than 1.0.8 and I've found that in spite of the craptastic UI and resource requirements, my VM's run much smoother as well. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: VMware
Sjoerd Hiemstra wrote: On Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:53 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote: On 2009-03-20 21:43 +0100, Sjoerd Hiemstra wrote: The older gcc 4.1.3 is not available in debian.snapshot.net . But it is available from the Debian mirrors in the gcc-4.1 package: , | % LANG=C gcc-4.1 --version | gcc-4.1 (GCC) 4.1.3 20080704 (prerelease) (Debian 4.1.2-25) ... Please install gcc-4.1 and retry. Ahh - but I do have gcc-4.1 installed. If you still have problems, you may need to set "CC=gcc-4.1" for the vmware modules build. Did that and it solved the problem. Thanks (again! ;-) ) a lot! For those who may not know why this worked... ~$ ls -l /usr/bin/gcc lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2009-02-18 01:03 /usr/bin/gcc -> gcc-4.3 ~$ ls -l /usr/bin/gcc* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7 2009-02-18 01:03 /usr/bin/gcc -> gcc-4.3 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 90712 2008-10-25 02:38 /usr/bin/gcc-3.4 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 226568 2009-01-18 10:44 /usr/bin/gcc-4.1 -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 239000 2009-01-02 03:16 /usr/bin/gcc-4.3 Lenny AMD64 As I understand it, specifying CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1 forces the build environment to use the chosen version of GCC, ignoring the default of /usr/bin/gcc. This got me as well when I was experimenting with VMWare Server/Client Tools and Lenny, still does on occasion. *grin* One other thing, the client tools for VM 2.0... One of the more important modules won't compile with the kernel shipped with Lenny (vsock = VM communication interface socket). Search around (I don't recall the exact URL where I found it, I think it was on the Ubuntu forums) for vmware-config.pl.patch and vmware-config-tools.pl.patch, you will need them to get that module compiled. The VM will run without it, but it won't run as well. And if you find a better way to access the server under Linux that that $%#$^%! web UI crap, please let me know!!! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
SOLVED, sortof... Re: I'm rather embarrassed to even be asking this...
Jimmy Johnson wrote: Justin I would call SuperMicro, I see their phone number in the manual. Well, I didn't call, I emailed. This is what I got in response: "The ECC function is automatically enabled when you plug in an ECC memory. Attached is a testing BIOS that will show "ECC mode" on the Post screen." Wow, they want me to flash the BIOS with a 'testing bios' just so I can see it on POST. Looks like next time I have to reboot the machine, I'll run memtest and see what it says. :-/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: I'm rather embarrassed to even be asking this...
Douglas A. Tutty wrote: On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 07:03:39PM -0800, Justin The Cynical wrote: I recently picked up a SuperMicro X7SBE board and populated it with ECC RAM. Among my random wanderings, I realized that I didn't recall seeing anything in the BIOS or manual on if the ECC functionality is even turned on. I've googled around and I can't seem to find anything that would let me make sure. Install memtest+. It shows if ECC is being used. Cool, thanks for that. *apt-get..* Ah crap, it needs to run in real mode... Didn't want to reboot the machine if I could help it as I've got a domain, mail, and a few svn servers going. I will if I have no other choice but... Ah well. Any ideas out there to check for this without downing the server? :-) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: I'm rather embarrassed to even be asking this...
Jimmy Johnson wrote: I manual says it detects the "type" of memory installed and it says with ECC that it takes 25-40 seconds for video to start, I would say that is the time needed to check RAM, so I would say that it is auto, 2-4 in the manual. Actually, it reads that it /may/ take 25-40 seconds for the VGA to display. I read that as it might take that long, it might not. That being said, while it does seem to take longer than most desktop systems I've used that didn't have ECC and it does seem roughly equivalent to the 4 gig Xeon system at work. However, without something that shows that 'ECC is ON', as it were, I'm not going to know for sure, and that kind of bugs me not knowing. Upon doing more digging, I did find the edac-util package. This merry chase led to the i$FOO_EDAC.ko modules, to which the 3200 chipset isn't supported at this time. Supposedly it's been submitted to Linus' tree, but it's not been accepted yet. So right now, as far as I can tell, I won't be able to see any ECC errors, assuming it's working, in the syslogs at this time until that drive is approved, put into the kernel, and backported to Lenny or whatever kernel version is current at the time. However, dmidecode has shown stuff such as this: Handle 0x0011, DMI type 15, 29 bytes System Event Log Area Length: 16 bytes Header Start Offset: 0x Header Length: 16 bytes Data Start Offset: 0x0010 Access Method: General-purpose non-volatile data functions Access Address: 0x Status: Valid, Not Full Change Token: 0x000F Header Format: Type 1 Supported Log Type Descriptors: 3 Descriptor 1: POST error Data Format 1: POST results bitmap Descriptor 2: Single-bit ECC memory error Data Format 2: Multiple-event Descriptor 3: Multi-bit ECC memory error Data Format 3: Multiple-event ...as well as Handle 0x0012, DMI type 16, 15 bytes Physical Memory Array Location: System Board Or Motherboard Use: System Memory Error Correction Type: None Maximum Capacity: 8 GB Error Information Handle: Not Provided Number Of Devices: 4 ...which compared to the previously mentioned Dell 2950 running Etch... (System Event Log section above not found) Handle 0x1000, DMI type 16, 15 bytes Physical Memory Array Location: System Board Or Motherboard Use: System Memory Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC Maximum Capacity: 32 GB Error Information Handle: Not Provided Number Of Devices: 8 This is why I asked and felt embarrassed asking, I figured that it would be a fairly easy thing to find, especially considering the chipset isn't all that new, but it's looking to be a bit more involved that I thought. On one hand, there apparently isn't kernel support for edac On the other, dmidecode shows that it appears there is some kind of ECC going on, but at the same time it makes it look like there isn't. So what the utils are showing might be caused by a lack of support from kernel modules and other assorted internal databases that need to be updated (for example, dmidecode reports the CPU Family as out of spec and I'm running an 8400, and the bastille package doesn't support Lenny), or the board just isn't running the ECC code like it should be. I've shot a message off to SuperMicro's support address, I'll have to see what they say as well, but if any one else has any ideas, I'm all ears. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Re: I'm rather embarrassed to even be asking this...
Jimmy Johnson wrote: Justin The Cynical wrote: Long time lurker with a fresh install of Lenny x64 I recently picked up a SuperMicro X7SBE board and populated it with ECC RAM. Among my random wanderings, I realized that I didn't recall seeing anything in the BIOS or manual on if the ECC functionality is even turned on. I've googled around and I can't seem to find anything that would let me make sure. I feel like I should know the answer to this already, but damned if I can find it. Anyone have any pointers? From here: www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon3000/3210/X7SBE.cfm it takes both ECC and NON-ECC I know it takes either one (it was something I was specifically looking for when I was researching mainboards), but there isn't any kind of status indicator that I can find that shows that it's enabling/making use of the ECC capabilities. VMWare 'machines' have a setting in their 'BIOS' where one can turn the ECC functions on and off (and it shows up regardless if the host does ECC or not), but there isn't anything I can find in the BIOS for this board to turn it on or off. Unless it's some kind of auto-detect thing I've never run into before and that I can't find any documentation on. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
I'm rather embarrassed to even be asking this...
Long time lurker with a fresh install of Lenny x64 I recently picked up a SuperMicro X7SBE board and populated it with ECC RAM. Among my random wanderings, I realized that I didn't recall seeing anything in the BIOS or manual on if the ECC functionality is even turned on. I've googled around and I can't seem to find anything that would let me make sure. I feel like I should know the answer to this already, but damned if I can find it. Anyone have any pointers? -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
