[gentoo-user] usb HD cannot boot without initramfs

[Xi Shen]

hi,

i installed my gentoo on a usb HD disk, and i have compiled scsi, usb,
ata drivers into the kernel. but when boot, the system still cannot
find my usb hd, but it did find my hd on my laptop. what i missed?


-- 
Best Regards,
David Shen

http://twitter.com/davidshen84/
http://meme.yahoo.com/davidshen84/

Re: [gentoo-user] Native vs Core2

[Graham Murray]

"Jason Carson"  writes:

> Hey everyone,
>
> This guy (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-806844.html#6097354) says
> that -march=native and -march=core2 differ. Which one do I choose for my
> Core i5 CPU?

As long as you are only building binaries for the system you are
building on, then use -march=native.

Re: [gentoo-user] Broken upgrade from udev troubles.

[Joshua Murphy]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Tom Bennet  wrote:
> I spent the day recovering from a Gentoo upgrade, and thought I'd document
> the experience in case it helps someone else.
>
> I'm running a custom kernel 2.6.25-gentoo-r7 on amd64, though I don't think
> the rarer hardware is relevant.
>
> I tend to put off upgrading my Gentoo box because anytime I do, something
> breaks.  I'm afraid I haven't changed my opinion about that.  Anyway, I did
> "emerge --update --deep world" and plugged my ears. Some 600-odd packages
> (and a few simpler problems) later, the system seemed to be doing okay.  So
> I thought I'd see if it could survive a reboot.  No, it couldn't.
>
> On boot it failed checking the root file system and dropped into the repair
> shell.  The reason the fsck failed is that the root pseudo device file
> /dev/md0, didn't exist.  The root file system was actually, fine, though.
> Inside the repair shell, I could see all the files from my root, but there
> wasn't much in /dev.  (I have the md stuff compiled in to the kernel, and
> don't use an initrd, so it wasn't an initrd problem.)
>
> Short Solution
>
> The problem was with udev, the facility which automatically populates the
> /dev directory.  During the upgrade, emerge noted that my kernel version was
> a bit early, but acceptable.  What was missing, apparently, was the signalfd
> syscall, which that kernel version either doesn't have or I hadn't
> configured.  Apparently, udev has only started using signalfd recently, so
> the solution was to downgrade to an older version of udev (udev-141 to be
> precise).
>
> What I Actually Did To Get There
>
> Of course, I didn't know that at first.  Just had a fun unbootable system.
> I might have been able to simply emerge the downgrade from the repair shell
> (the network did come up), but I didn't know to try that yet.  I figured I
> wanted to find some way to make the system boot.  Since the failing file
> check is done from /etc/init.d/checkroot, I added a mknod command to create
> the device node before trying to run the file check.  At the start of the
> start() method:
>
>     if [ ! -e /dev/md0 ] ; then
>    mknod -m 0660 /dev/md0 b 9 0
>     fi
>
> It's a hack, not a solution, but it did make the system boot, to a rather
> crippled state.  Since there were a lot of devices missing, a lot of
> services wouldn't start.  (If you're using a more boring root partition, it
> might be something like "mknod -m 0660 /dev/sda1 b 8 1")
>
> So I had managed by now to gather that udev wasn't working, but I didn't
> know why.  My first thought was to try "/etc/init.d/udev start", to see if
> it would start.  But it told me that the script is written for baselevel-2,
> and I shouldn't use it on baselevel-1.  Following a bit of googling about
> what the heck a baselevel is, I gathered that I was using baselevel-1, and
> so the service wasn't supposed to be started that way.   So it wasn't a bug
> that it wouldn't start that way.  Another page suggested trying to run it
> directly, with "/sbin/udevd --daemon", which gave the message "error getting
> signalfd".  That told my why it didn't start. This message was also in the
> logs, but for some reason I didn't look there until later.
>
> So back to Google, and I found a message on a Debian board noting that udev
> had started using signalfd recently.  This suggested an old version might do
> the trick.  I tried one, and it did.

I really only have two things to say, after reading this... First, and
this really does overshadow the second in weight, thank you for the
excellently presented writeup of problem *and* solution, as more often
than ever should be (less so here, but across the net as a whole),
problems are mentioned, solutions are offered, and rarely does a good,
clear, "this worked" follow. Secondly... it's been my experience, with
Gentoo, that things break far more often when I allow longer delays
between updating than when I keep up to date with everything, and it's
held true for me on both x86 and ~x86 systems (as has the headache
when I've put updates off).

And.. I reiterate a part of the "first"... Thank you for the writeup.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Joshua Murphy]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:49 PM, Dale  wrote:
> Joshua Murphy wrote:
>> That is, of course, when shredding individual files, where the final
>> location and initial locations for them may not wind up being the same
>> place on disk. When 'shredding' a whole partition, though, the file
>> system itself ceases to matter, as it in itself is being overwritten
>> as well as all the data it provides a means of indexing for.
>>
>> Incidentally, I believe the oft referenced here DBAN uses shred
>> internally, last I looked.
>>
>>
>
> That makes sense.  So, the OP shouldn't mount the drives but shred the disk
> itself?
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)

I'm not at all sure *how* running shred on a mount point, as is
mentioned in one of the responses, would really work... as I can't
imagine it would have direct access to the underlying filesystem, and
as it's pointed at, as far as it ought to care, a folder... I don't
think it would do much of anything... but since my curiosity's
piqued...

chicane ~ # dd if=/dev/zero of=tmp.img bs=1M count=20
20+0 records in
20+0 records out
20971520 bytes (21 MB) copied, 0.102701 s, 204 MB/s
chicane ~ # mkfs.ext3 tmp.img
mke2fs 1.41.9 (22-Aug-2009)
tmp.img is not a block special device.
Proceed anyway? (y,n) y
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=1024 (log=0)
Fragment size=1024 (log=0)
5136 inodes, 20480 blocks
1024 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=1
Maximum filesystem blocks=20971520
3 block groups
8192 blocks per group, 8192 fragments per group
1712 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
8193

Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (1024 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 23 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
chicane ~ # mount -o loop tmp.img test/
chicane ~ # echo hello > test/test.txt
chicane ~ # shred test/
shred: test/: failed to open for writing: Is a directory
chicane ~ # shred -v -n 25 -z -u ~/test/
shred: /root/test/: failed to open for writing: Is a directory
chicane ~ # umount test
chicane ~ # shred -v -n 25 -z -u tmp.img
shred: tmp.img: pass 1/26 (random)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 2/26 (924924)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 3/26 (6db6db)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 4/26 (22)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 5/26 (55)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 6/26 (aa)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 7/26 (77)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 8/26 (db6db6)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 9/26 (dd)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 10/26 (11)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 11/26 (492492)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 12/26 (249249)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 13/26 (random)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 14/26 (88)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 15/26 (cc)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 16/26 (ee)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 17/26 (33)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 18/26 (44)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 19/26 (bb)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 20/26 (99)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 21/26 (00)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 22/26 (b6db6d)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 23/26 (ff)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 24/26 (66)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 25/26 (random)...
shred: tmp.img: pass 26/26 (00)...
shred: tmp.img: removing
shred: tmp.img: renamed to 000
shred: 000: renamed to 00
shred: 00: renamed to 0
shred: 0: renamed to 
shred: : renamed to 000
shred: 000: renamed to 00
shred: 00: renamed to 0
shred: tmp.img: removed

(note that for 'special files' like real block devices, it doesn't do
the rename/remove that it does for normal files)

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

Re: [gentoo-user] gmonstart / jvregisterclasses in tons of binaries with commands,malware?

[Joshua Murphy]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:01 PM,
 wrote:
> In linux binaries, in any linux distro, I've discovered the same strings
> which I believe may be due to a virus or trojan.
>
> Yet, clamav, rkhunter, chkrootkit do not detect abnormalities.
>
> Whether I run 'strings' on the binary files or view with vim or gedit, here
> is what is always seen inside the binaries:
>
>
> __gmon_start__

http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2001/03/msg00034.html

poi...@chicane /data/distfiles $ /lib/libc.so.6 --version
GNU C Library stable release version 2.9, by Roland McGrath et al.


hmm... it could be an issue, I suppose... but given I'm on a version
of glibc far newer than the 2.1 to 2.2 transition that caused issues
regarding that relocation, according to the mail referenced above... I
think I'm safe, don't you? And... that's on my x86 *stable* system.

> _Jv_RegisterClasses
>

http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-06/msg00112.html

> Followed by commands which differ within each binary.
>
> If, by some luck, I've downloaded a fresh Linux ISO where binaries do not
> include the above two strings followed by commands, after I run an update
> the updated binaries suddenly contain the above two strings and other, what
> I believe to be, rogue strings. I've avoided the possible infection with an
> OpenBSD install, yet all the Linux installations and burned ISOs contain
> binaries with the above two strings followed by commands.
>
> Search using find within your bin and sbin directories for those two strings
> and see how many positives you find. Now use a text editor like vi or gedit
> and search through the gibberish, locate these strings and isolate the
> commands, if any, which follow them. Searching for gmonstart, gmon,
> registerclasses, jv, etc. variations of works. If you find results in your
> binaries, please copy/paste the commands following the gmonstart and
> jvregisterclasses strings so I may compare them to mine.
>
> I've purchased Linux CDs from brick + mortar stores, downloaded ISOs from
> different physical locations and found some CDs contained these strings
> in the binaries and one or two rare ones did not, but when installed/updated
> on a network connection the binaries replaced in the update process would
> show these strings!! These strings are not alone by themselves in the
> binaries they follow with commands with a @ mark before each command.
>
> Google results are vague, some suggest shell backdoors, every Linux user
> I've asked to date calls me paranoid while at the same time this knowledge
> comes as a surprise to them, too, when they search their binaries and find
> the same strings. I'm amazed by how quickly some rush to judgement and call
> you a paranoid for being curious about the files on your system. The strings
> may/may not be common, but in comparing commands which follow these strings
> I've noticed some which seem down right malicious!
>
> Maybe they're right, I'm just paranoid, but what am I seeing and why
> are these strings so common across Linux distros binaries, esp. the
> Jv (java?) reference? Please, any help?
>

They're so common because they're binaries compiled with the same
compiler against the same libc implementation, for the most part, and
there will *always* be very similar strings resulting from BOTH of
those states across anything they've had a hand in. Yes, of course,
it's reasonable to be security concious, but both of the links I found
for those strings are first page on Google. There's also the confusing
fact that you look so heavily at the binaries while failing to take a
look at the things that would be sensible reasons for the same strings
between them... and grep is your friend if you're going to do any
sensible auditing...

you have...
1) Their own source code (may or may not have a reference)
2) Toolchain (and, really, it's the source code for these you'll want
to look through)
  2a) Compiler -> gcc suite
  2b) Linker -> ld from binutils
  2c) Assembler -> Also binutils
3) Libraries -> Anything *all* of them link to. ldd is an amazingly
handy tool...
  3a) libc.so.6 -> glibc
  3b) linux-gate.so.1 -> part of the the kernel (not a real file on the system)
  3c) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 -> runtime component for the linker (which
would be ld from binutils)

And... when your own phrasing of things shows you don't even know
*what* these two strings you found *do* or are *really* related to...
cross posting to gentoo-security is really not necessary, though I
can't guarantee the actual security experts on that list would
agree... I get that feeling.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

[gentoo-user] Re: Correcting some misconceptions (was: What magic does portage use?)

[Leslie Turriff]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 20:22:33 Bruce Hill wrote:

> I appreciate you addressing the previous FUD in such a professional manner.

Just thought that I should set the record straight. :-)

Leslie

[gentoo-user] Native vs Core2

[Jason Carson]

Hey everyone,

This guy (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-806844.html#6097354) says
that -march=native and -march=core2 differ. Which one do I choose for my
Core i5 CPU?

[gentoo-user] Upgraded gcc 4.1.2 to 4.3.4; dosemu 1.4.0 won't emerge

[Walter Dnes]

  Attached is the emerge log.  I'm running 32 bit on an Intel Core Duo
(Dell D530) USE="-X -debug -gpm -svga".  The last step of the gcc
upgrade is "emerge -eav world".  dosemu 1.4.0 built under gcc 4.1.2 but
not under 4.3.4.  I've added my report to
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=294843  Any ideas from the log?

-- 
Walter Dnes 
>>> Unpacking source...
>>> Unpacking dosemu-1.4.0.tgz to 
>>> /var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work
 * Applying dosemu-1.3.4-shm.diff ...
  [ ok ]
 * Running eautoreconf in 
'/var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work/dosemu-1.4.0' ...
 * Running aclocal ...
  [ ok ]
 * Running autoconf ...
  [ ok ]
 * Running autoheader ...
  [ ok ]
>>> Source unpacked in /var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work
>>> Compiling source in 
>>> /var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work/dosemu-1.4.0 ...
./configure --prefix=/usr --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu --host=i686-pc-linux-gnu 
--mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share 
--sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --without-x --disable-svgalib 
--disable-debug --without-gpm 
--with-fdtarball=/var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/distdir/dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz
 --sysconfdir=/etc/dosemu/ --with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/dosemu-1.4.0
/var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work/dosemu-1.4.0/mkpluginhooks 
enable kbd_unicode yes extra_charsets yes term yes X yes sdl yes midimisc yes 
translate yes commands yes demo no
exec /var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/work/dosemu-1.4.0/configure 
--enable-cpuemu --prefix=/usr/local --bindir=${prefix}/bin 
--sysconfdir=/etc/dosemu --libdir=${prefix}/lib --datadir=${prefix}/share 
--mandir=${prefix}/man --with-docdir=${datadir}/doc/dosemu 
--with-syshdimagedir=/var/lib/dosemu --with-x11fontdir=${datadir}/dosemu/Xfonts 
--with-fdtarball=dosemu-freedos-bin.tgz --prefix=/usr --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu 
--host=i686-pc-linux-gnu --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info 
--datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --without-x 
--disable-svgalib --disable-debug --without-gpm 
--with-fdtarball=/var/tmp/portage/app-emulation/dosemu-1.4.0/distdir/dosemu-freedos-1.0-bin.tgz
 --sysconfdir=/etc/dosemu/ --with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/dosemu-1.4.0 
build_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu host_alias=i686-pc-linux-gnu CFLAGS=-O2 
-march=prescott -mmmx -msse -msse2 -msse3 -mfpmath=sse -fomit-frame-pointer 
-pipe -fno-pic LDFLAGS=-Wl,-O1
checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc... i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables... 
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking whether i686-pc-linux-gnu-gcc needs -traditional... no
checking for gawk... gawk
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for flex... flex
checking lex output file root... lex.yy
checking lex library... -lfl
checking whether yytext is a pointer... yes
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for i686-pc-linux-gnu-ranlib... i686-pc-linux-gnu-ranlib
checking for bison... bison -y
checking for dirent.h that defines DIR... yes
checking for library containing opendir... none required
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking whether sys/types.h defines makedev... yes
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking for inline... inline
checking for off_t... yes
checking for pid_t... yes
checking return type of signal handlers... void
checking for size_t... yes
checking for uid_t in sys/types.h... yes
checking for struct stat.st_rdev... yes
checking whether struct tm is in sys/time.h or time.h... time.h
checking if C compiler has "__FILE__" macro... yes
checking if C compiler has "__LINE__" macro... yes
checking if C compiler has "__FUNCTION__" macro... yes
checking for gettimeofday... yes
checking for sigaltstack... yes
checking for shm_open in -lrt... yes
checking for shm_open... yes
configure: Linking for shared libraries...
configure: Using dynamically loaded plugin

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Allan Gottlieb]

At Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:26:57 +0800 Bruce Hill  wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 04:36:45PM -0500, Albert Hopkins wrote:
>> FWIW, I have a Logitech mouse with a wheel that scrolls up and down,
>> presses down, and clicks left and right.  All seem to work fine, except
>> I don't use the latter as I haven't found any purpose for it although I
>> could possibly see it replacing ALT-Tab.  Nah... to confusing.
>> 
>> -a
>
> What settings do you use for all those events? I have a mouse with right/left
> buttons, scroll wheel that also tilts right/left, and two side buttons.
> Nothing works atm but regular right/left, scroll wheel to scroll and press to
> paste, and side buttons. So scroll wheel tilt does nothing.

Perhaps it does something and the app ignores it.
xev will settle that question.

Also, are you using the right driver.  I use xorg.conf and have
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Logitech MX1000"
Driver "evdev"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
EndSection

allan

Re: [gentoo-user] Is rc.conf no longer used by Gentoo (baselayout-1.12.13)?

[Allan Gottlieb]

At Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:16:30 +0100 pk  wrote:

> Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>
>> Does that get sourced by the gnome panel so that launchers see it?
>> I hadn't thought so, but will try it.
>
> Hm... X/xDM is started from a virtual console (mine is usually started
> from VC-7, which is the default). That's where your login should happen,
> so everything started after that should inherit the environment
> variables. I would assume gnome DE (everything related to) uses the same
> "tactic"... but given the gnome developers ms-windows fanatiscism I
> wouldn't be surprised if it didn't.

Adding
  export $PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH
to ~/.profile does seem to work so thank you.

But I am surprised.  X/xDM runs as root so wouldn't look in my .profile
when *IT* starts.  I had assumed (incorrectly) that I had to put the
above export into one of the startup files mentioned in the man pages,
but couldn't figure out which one.
It is indeed much easier than I thought!

thanks again,
allan

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Allan Gottlieb]

At Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:36:45 -0500 Albert Hopkins  
wrote:

> On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 11:06 -0800, walt wrote:
>> > If you look at the amazon page you can sort of see the left and
>> right
>> > arrows.
>> 
>> I think a mouse that complicated would make me crazy.  
>
> There was a time when Windows and Mac users criticized X11 because it
> had too many buttons (3).
>
> Nowadays, Windows users seem to require 20 different buttons, wheels,
> knobs, and whatever else they can throw on a pointer device, whereas
> Macs seem to want to get rid of buttons altogether but require the user
> to do cartwheels and other acrobatics with their fingers in order to do
> a simple cut/paste.
>
> FWIW, I have a Logitech mouse with a wheel that scrolls up and down,
> presses down, and clicks left and right.  All seem to work fine, except
> I don't use the latter as I haven't found any purpose for it although I
> could possibly see it replacing ALT-Tab.  Nah... to confusing.

Right.  Mine (MX 1000) has those plus others (I inherited the mouse).
My problem is that several of these send multiple events (i.e. clicking
one physical button results in two button-down events for different X11
buttons and then the corresponding two button-up events).

I wonder how to handle this.  Actually, I have trouble believing it so
wonder if I have some config wrong, but mine are very simple configs.

allan

Re: [gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Joshua Murphy]

2009/12/16 Jesús Guerrero :
> On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:44:29 +, Alan Mackenzie  wrote:
>> Hi, gentoo,
>>
>> I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
>> VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
>> only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
>> to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
>> found this situation addressed.
>
> What you failed to see if that VIDEO_CARDS flags are just an special type
> of USE flags. Using -auDvN world will fix everything. Truly speaking,
> xorg-server wouldn't even need to be recompiled (though that's what portage
> will do). As far as I know, all these special USE flags for xorg-server
> just push one of another xf86-video-* package(s) as dependencies, which in
> turn install the required driver(s).
>
> The rest of Xorg components do not relate to this, you shouldn't need to
> recompile anything else unless it also depends on VIDEO_CARDS (only several
> packages do, like DirectFB if I remember right).
>
> --
> Jesús Guerrero

Actually, as I ran across on my ~x86 systems, x11-base/xorg-drivers is
now a separate ebuild from
 xorg-server, keeping the latter from trying to be rebuilt every time
you change what drivers you want to have built... and looking at
gentoo-portage.com, xorg-drivers-1.6 is stable on both amd64 and x86.
It really is a much more sensible approach, and appears to work rather
well.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

[gentoo-user] Broken upgrade from udev troubles.

[Tom Bennet]

I spent the day recovering from a Gentoo upgrade, and thought I'd document
the experience in case it helps someone else.

I'm running a custom kernel 2.6.25-gentoo-r7 on amd64, though I don't think
the rarer hardware is relevant.

I tend to put off upgrading my Gentoo box because anytime I do, something
breaks.  I'm afraid I haven't changed my opinion about that.  Anyway, I did
"emerge --update --deep world" and plugged my ears. Some 600-odd packages
(and a few simpler problems) later, the system seemed to be doing okay.  So
I thought I'd see if it could survive a reboot.  No, it couldn't.

On boot it failed checking the root file system and dropped into the repair
shell.  The reason the fsck failed is that the root pseudo device file
/dev/md0, didn't exist.  The root file system was actually, fine, though.
Inside the repair shell, I could see all the files from my root, but there
wasn't much in /dev.  (I have the md stuff compiled in to the kernel, and
don't use an initrd, so it wasn't an initrd problem.)

*Short Solution

*The problem was with udev, the facility which automatically populates the
/dev directory.  During the upgrade, emerge noted that my kernel version was
a bit early, but acceptable.  What was missing, apparently, was the signalfd
syscall, which that kernel version either doesn't have or I hadn't
configured.  Apparently, udev has only started using signalfd recently, so
the solution was to downgrade to an older version of udev (udev-141 to be
precise).

*What I Actually Did To Get There*

Of course, I didn't know that at first.  Just had a fun unbootable system.
I might have been able to simply emerge the downgrade from the repair shell
(the network did come up), but I didn't know to try that yet.  I figured I
wanted to find some way to make the system boot.  Since the failing file
check is done from /etc/init.d/checkroot, I added a mknod command to create
the device node before trying to run the file check.  At the start of the
start() method:

if [ ! -e /dev/md0 ] ; then
   mknod -m 0660 /dev/md0 b 9 0
fi

It's a hack, not a solution, but it did make the system boot, to a rather
crippled state.  Since there were a lot of devices missing, a lot of
services wouldn't start.  (If you're using a more boring root partition, it
might be something like "mknod -m 0660 /dev/sda1 b 8 1")

So I had managed by now to gather that udev wasn't working, but I didn't
know why.  My first thought was to try "/etc/init.d/udev start", to see if
it would start.  But it told me that the script is written for baselevel-2,
and I shouldn't use it on baselevel-1.  Following a bit of googling about
what the heck a baselevel is, I gathered that I was using baselevel-1, and
so the service wasn't supposed to be started that way.   So it wasn't a bug
that it wouldn't start that way.  Another page suggested trying to run it
directly, with "/sbin/udevd --daemon", which gave the message "error getting
signalfd".  That told my why it didn't start. This message was also in the
logs, but for some reason I didn't look there until later.

So back to Google, and I found a message on a Debian board noting that udev
had started using signalfd recently.  This suggested an old version might do
the trick.  I tried one, and it did.

Re: [gentoo-user] gmonstart / jvregisterclasses in tons of binaries with commands,malware?

[Robert Bridge]

http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-06/msg00112.html

They are GCC related.

Second result for _Jv_RegisterClasses on google :p

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Dale]

Joshua Murphy wrote:

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Dale  wrote:
  

Mick wrote:


On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:

  

I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
however that works.



First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:

# shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition

Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them
as required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what
you're telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite
partition tables, but I would probably not bother.

Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button,
but I haven't looked into it in any detail.

HTH.

  

Also note that shred, at least the last I read, doesn't work to well on some
file systems.  I know this used to be true for reiserfs and some other
journalized file systems.

I'm thinking the dd thing may be the best way here.  I don't think it cares
about file systems when it does its thing.

Dale

:-)  :-)




That is, of course, when shredding individual files, where the final
location and initial locations for them may not wind up being the same
place on disk. When 'shredding' a whole partition, though, the file
system itself ceases to matter, as it in itself is being overwritten
as well as all the data it provides a means of indexing for.

Incidentally, I believe the oft referenced here DBAN uses shred
internally, last I looked.

  


That makes sense.  So, the OP shouldn't mount the drives but shred the 
disk itself?


Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Correcting some misconceptions (was: What magic does portage use?)

[Bruce Hill]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 06:56:00PM -0600, Leslie Turriff wrote:
>   As a 30-year veteran of the IBM mainframe programming environment, I 
> can say 
> with authority that most of the enterprises that use them for 
> mission-critical business applications (banking, stock-brokerage, etc.) are 
> running systems that are updated frequently (sometimes daily) and are fully 
> capable of being shut down and restarted (on purpose :-D ).  Yes, some of 
> them are front-ended with Linux servers; mainframe systems are not well 
> designed for managing dynamic web traffic, although systems that do not have 
> to support very high-volume workflows can do it themselves.  The last system 
> that I worked on was only shut down and restarted twice per year, because 90% 
> of maintenance could be done while it was running (just like Linux), and 
> because it was not a business-critical system, it was only required to be 
> available 99.95% of the time. :-)
> 
>   The banking and brokerage systems that I first referred to use a more 
> robust 
> configuration than we did, which is capable of providing services 100% of the 
> time, much like a Linux cluster system does.  IBM calls the 
> configuration "Parallel Sysplex." Here's an excerpt of their technical 
> description, from 
> :
> 
>   'This "shared data" (as opposed to "shared nothing") approach enables 
> workloads to be dynamically balanced across all servers in the Parallel 
> Sysplex cluster. This approach allows critical business applications to take 
> advantage of the aggregate capacity of multiple servers to help ensure 
> maximum system throughput and performance during peak processing periods. In 
> the event of a hardware or software outage, either planned or unplanned, 
> workloads can be dynamically redirected to available servers thus providing 
> near continuous application availability.
>   Another significant and unique advantage of using Parallel Sysplex 
> technology 
> is the ability to perform hardware and software maintenance and installations 
> in a nondisruptive manner. Through data sharing and dynamic workload 
> management, servers can be dynamically removed from or added to the cluster 
> allowing installation and maintenance activities to be performed while the 
> remaining systems continue to process work. Furthermore, by adhering to IBM's 
> software and hardware coexistence policy, software and/or hardware upgrades 
> can be introduced one system at a time. This capability allows customers to 
> roll changes through systems at a pace that makes sense for their business. 
> The ability to perform rolling hardware and software maintenance in a 
> nondisruptive manner allows business to implement critical business function 
> and react to rapid growth without affecting customer availability.'
> 
>   Respectfully,
> 
> Leslie

Leslie,

I appreciate you addressing the previous FUD in such a professional manner.
-- 
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
lesson afterward. But properly learned, the lesson forever changes
the man."

[gentoo-user] gmonstart / jvregisterclasses in tons of binaries with commands,malware?

[whereislibertyandjustice]

In linux binaries, in any linux distro, I've discovered the same strings
which I believe may be due to a virus or trojan.

Yet, clamav, rkhunter, chkrootkit do not detect abnormalities.

Whether I run 'strings' on the binary files or view with vim or gedit, here
is what is always seen inside the binaries:


__gmon_start__
_Jv_RegisterClasses

Followed by commands which differ within each binary.

If, by some luck, I've downloaded a fresh Linux ISO where binaries do not
include the above two strings followed by commands, after I run an update
the updated binaries suddenly contain the above two strings and other, what
I believe to be, rogue strings. I've avoided the possible infection with an
OpenBSD install, yet all the Linux installations and burned ISOs contain
binaries with the above two strings followed by commands.

Search using find within your bin and sbin directories for those two strings
and see how many positives you find. Now use a text editor like vi or gedit
and search through the gibberish, locate these strings and isolate the
commands, if any, which follow them. Searching for gmonstart, gmon,
registerclasses, jv, etc. variations of works. If you find results in your
binaries, please copy/paste the commands following the gmonstart and
jvregisterclasses strings so I may compare them to mine.

I've purchased Linux CDs from brick + mortar stores, downloaded ISOs from
different physical locations and found some CDs contained these strings
in the binaries and one or two rare ones did not, but when installed/updated
on a network connection the binaries replaced in the update process would
show these strings!! These strings are not alone by themselves in the
binaries they follow with commands with a @ mark before each command.

Google results are vague, some suggest shell backdoors, every Linux user
I've asked to date calls me paranoid while at the same time this knowledge
comes as a surprise to them, too, when they search their binaries and find
the same strings. I'm amazed by how quickly some rush to judgement and call
you a paranoid for being curious about the files on your system. The strings
may/may not be common, but in comparing commands which follow these strings
I've noticed some which seem down right malicious!

Maybe they're right, I'm just paranoid, but what am I seeing and why
are these strings so common across Linux distros binaries, esp. the
Jv (java?) reference? Please, any help?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Albert Hopkins]

On Thu, 2009-12-17 at 06:26 +0800, Bruce Hill wrote:
> What settings do you use for all those events? I have a mouse with
> right/left
> buttons, scroll wheel that also tilts right/left, and two side
> buttons.
> Nothing works atm but regular right/left, scroll wheel to scroll and
> press to
> paste, and side buttons. So scroll wheel tilt does nothing. 

I didn't make any settings other than all of my input devices in X are
evdev managed and queried via hal.

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Joshua Murphy]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 6:36 PM, Dale  wrote:
> Mick wrote:
>>
>> On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
>>> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
>>> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
>>> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
>>> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
>>> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
>>> however that works.
>>>
>>
>> First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:
>>
>> # shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition
>>
>> Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them
>> as required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what
>> you're telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite
>> partition tables, but I would probably not bother.
>>
>> Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button,
>> but I haven't looked into it in any detail.
>>
>> HTH.
>>
>
> Also note that shred, at least the last I read, doesn't work to well on some
> file systems.  I know this used to be true for reiserfs and some other
> journalized file systems.
>
> I'm thinking the dd thing may be the best way here.  I don't think it cares
> about file systems when it does its thing.
>
> Dale
>
> :-)  :-)
>

That is, of course, when shredding individual files, where the final
location and initial locations for them may not wind up being the same
place on disk. When 'shredding' a whole partition, though, the file
system itself ceases to matter, as it in itself is being overwritten
as well as all the data it provides a means of indexing for.

Incidentally, I believe the oft referenced here DBAN uses shred
internally, last I looked.

-- 
Poison [BLX]
Joshua M. Murphy

[gentoo-user] Correcting some misconceptions (was: What magic does portage use?)

[Leslie Turriff]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 16:25:43 Dale wrote:
> Alan McKinnon wrote:
> > On Wednesday 16 December 2009 01:34:33 Dale wrote:
> >>> A real world scenario would be a bank server doing transactions. Those
> >>> big irons do never ever get shut down.
> >>> (But they also don't ever get really updated ;)
> >>>
Not true.* :-)

> >>> Did you know, that they still use cobol-code from decades ago. The code
> >>> has to interact with newer systems, but the existing code is not
> >>> allowed to be altered, they just run it inside hugh java application
> >>> servers on their main frames :D
> >>>
Somewhat true, but inaccurate. :-)
> >>> Bye,
> >>> Daniel
> >>
> >> Well, I wish someone would tell my bank that.  They are down pretty
> >> regular "upgrading" something.  I use the term upgrading lightly here.
> >> It usually makes things worse but anyway.  They run windoze on their rig
> >> so they most likely can't help that.  ;-)
> >
> > They upgrade the *front*ends*, not the real stuff at the back.
> >
> > Switching a mainframe off is not a supported activity :-)
> >
Again, not true.  But sometimes they run so long between IPLs the 
operations 
staff have to look up the procedures for doing it. :-)

> > Along those lines I could tell you some funny stories about monumental
> > cockups banks do to their front ends (my S.O. does banking data
> > warehousing), but I'm not actually supposed to know some of that stuff so
> > I won't :-)
>
> I'm not sure about back end or front end but they sure make a mess of it
> at times.
>
Of course, not all banks use the same technology, nor do they all have 
the 
same level of competence. :-)

> >> Hearing they use old code is not to surprising actually.  Look at air
> >> traffic control.  Every time they try to upgrade, it crashes.  I guess
> >> the cheapest bidder is not always the best.  o_O
> >
> > Every such crash after an upgrade I know of is trying to run the thing on
> > Windows...
>
> Yep, I read the same thing.  Why not use a real OS?  I'm thinking BSD or
> something.  Linux would be good but I think BSD is even better suited
> for basically 100% uptime.
>
> Dale
>
*   This is an interesting discussion, but I feel obligated to point out 
that 
much of it is fantasy. :-)

As a 30-year veteran of the IBM mainframe programming environment, I 
can say 
with authority that most of the enterprises that use them for 
mission-critical business applications (banking, stock-brokerage, etc.) are 
running systems that are updated frequently (sometimes daily) and are fully 
capable of being shut down and restarted (on purpose :-D ).  Yes, some of 
them are front-ended with Linux servers; mainframe systems are not well 
designed for managing dynamic web traffic, although systems that do not have 
to support very high-volume workflows can do it themselves.  The last system 
that I worked on was only shut down and restarted twice per year, because 90% 
of maintenance could be done while it was running (just like Linux), and 
because it was not a business-critical system, it was only required to be 
available 99.95% of the time. :-)

The banking and brokerage systems that I first referred to use a more 
robust 
configuration than we did, which is capable of providing services 100% of the 
time, much like a Linux cluster system does.  IBM calls the 
configuration "Parallel Sysplex." Here's an excerpt of their technical 
description, from 
:

'This "shared data" (as opposed to "shared nothing") approach enables 
workloads to be dynamically balanced across all servers in the Parallel 
Sysplex cluster. This approach allows critical business applications to take 
advantage of the aggregate capacity of multiple servers to help ensure 
maximum system throughput and performance during peak processing periods. In 
the event of a hardware or software outage, either planned or unplanned, 
workloads can be dynamically redirected to available servers thus providing 
near continuous application availability.
Another significant and unique advantage of using Parallel Sysplex 
technology 
is the ability to perform hardware and software maintenance and installations 
in a nondisruptive manner. Through data sharing and dynamic workload 
management, servers can be dynamically removed from or added to the cluster 
allowing installation and maintenance activities to be performed while the 
remaining systems continue to process work. Furthermore, by adhering to IBM's 
software and hardware coexistence policy, software and/or hardware upgrades 
can be introduced one system at a time. This capability allows customers to 
roll changes through systems at a pace that makes sense for their business. 
The ability to perform rolling hardware and software maintenance in a 
nondisruptive manner allows business to implement critical business function 
and react to rapid growth without affecting 

[gentoo-user] skip some package in glsa-check

[Crístian Viana]

hi,

I run "glsa-check -f affected" to update a Gentoo system, but there's one
specific package I can't update, because it's a C library someone is using
and the 'secure' version is causing segmentation fault on her program, so I
added it to packages.mask. but as I run glsa-check in a cron job, if there's
one package it can't emerge, it won't emerge the rest of them (if only I
could add "--keep-going").

does anyone have a solution to this? I want to keep running glsa-check to
update my system, but I don't want to update one specific package.

thanks!

-- 
Crístian Deives dos Santos Viana [aka CD1]
Sent from Campinas, SP, Brazil

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Robert Bridge]

dd is pretty thorough... afterall, it writes to every single block on the disk.

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Dale]

Mick wrote:

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
  

I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
however that works.



First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:

# shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition

Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them as 
required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what you're 
telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite partition 
tables, but I would probably not bother.


Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button, but I 
haven't looked into it in any detail.


HTH.
  


Also note that shred, at least the last I read, doesn't work to well on 
some file systems.  I know this used to be true for reiserfs and some 
other journalized file systems.


I'm thinking the dd thing may be the best way here.  I don't think it 
cares about file systems when it does its thing.


Dale

:-)  :-)

Re: [gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Jesús Guerrero]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:44:29 +, Alan Mackenzie  wrote:
> Hi, gentoo,
> 
> I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
> VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
> only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
> to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
> found this situation addressed.

What you failed to see if that VIDEO_CARDS flags are just an special type
of USE flags. Using -auDvN world will fix everything. Truly speaking,
xorg-server wouldn't even need to be recompiled (though that's what portage
will do). As far as I know, all these special USE flags for xorg-server
just push one of another xf86-video-* package(s) as dependencies, which in
turn install the required driver(s).

The rest of Xorg components do not relate to this, you shouldn't need to
recompile anything else unless it also depends on VIDEO_CARDS (only several
packages do, like DirectFB if I remember right).

-- 
Jesús Guerrero

Re: [gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 23:06:00 Xavier Parizet wrote:
> Le mercredi 16 décembre 2009 21:44:29, Alan Mackenzie a écrit :
> > Hi, gentoo,
> >
> > I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
> > VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
> > only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
> > to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
> > found this situation addressed.
> >
> > Thanks for the help!
> 
> Actually it's not possible because when a package is merged with success,
>  the build tree is deleted from /var/tmp/portage.
> The only choice you have is to rebuild the whole package using emerge --
> oneshot package.
> By the way, the rebuild will also pull the new dependencies implied by the
>  new use flags settings.


OT for the original question, but there is a way to lessen the amount of work 
done if a package may need to be merged (or attempted to be merged) 
repeatedly. You have to do it manually though:

- ensure all needed deps are already installed
- ebuild  

where  is on of fetch, unpack, compile, install, etc as detailed in 
the ebuild man page. You can't restart a failed compile from where it left off 
[you can do that if you are running make manually, but ebuild abstracts that 
away] but at least some work can be omitted.

If course, this in no way answers the original question, but it's occasionally 
useful to know

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Marcus Wanner]

On 12/16/2009 2:24 PM, Mick wrote:

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
   

I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
however that works.
 

First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:

# shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition

Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them as
required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what you're
telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite partition
tables, but I would probably not bother.

Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button, but I
haven't looked into it in any detail.

HTH.
   

What's wrong with "dd if=/dev/zero of/dev/sdxx"?

Marcus

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[Marcus Wanner]

On 12/16/2009 1:14 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote:



Alex Schuster  [09-12-16 19:12]:
   

meino.cra...@gmx.de writes:

 

I did by hand and now I have another problem:

(II) Loading extension RECORD
(II) LoadModule: "dri"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri
(II) UnloadModule: "dri"
(EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) LoadModule: "dri2"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri2
(II) UnloadModule: "dri2"
(EE) Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)
   

I read here that this is okay for the nvidia drivers, they do the dri
stuff on their own.

Wonko

 

Wonderful...now I can live in peace and X again ! :)
THX a lot!
   

Actually, if you want, you can put
Disable "dri"
Disable "dri2"
in the modules section of your xorg.conf, and that will get rid of the 
messages.


Marcus

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Bruce Hill]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 04:36:45PM -0500, Albert Hopkins wrote:
> FWIW, I have a Logitech mouse with a wheel that scrolls up and down,
> presses down, and clicks left and right.  All seem to work fine, except
> I don't use the latter as I haven't found any purpose for it although I
> could possibly see it replacing ALT-Tab.  Nah... to confusing.
> 
> -a

What settings do you use for all those events? I have a mouse with right/left
buttons, scroll wheel that also tilts right/left, and two side buttons.
Nothing works atm but regular right/left, scroll wheel to scroll and press to
paste, and side buttons. So scroll wheel tilt does nothing.
-- 
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
lesson afterward. But properly learned, the lesson forever changes
the man."

Re: [gentoo-user] What magic does portage use?

[Dale]

Alan McKinnon wrote:

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 01:34:33 Dale wrote:
  

A real world scenario would be a bank server doing transactions. Those
big irons do never ever get shut down.
(But they also don't ever get really updated ;)

Did you know, that they still use cobol-code from decades ago. The code
has to interact with newer systems, but the existing code is not allowed
to be altered, they just run it inside hugh java application servers on
their main frames :D

Bye,
Daniel
  
  
Well, I wish someone would tell my bank that.  They are down pretty 
regular "upgrading" something.  I use the term upgrading lightly here.  
It usually makes things worse but anyway.  They run windoze on their rig 
so they most likely can't help that.  ;-)



They upgrade the *front*ends*, not the real stuff at the back.

Switching a mainframe off is not a supported activity :-)

Along those lines I could tell you some funny stories about monumental cockups 
banks do to their front ends (my S.O. does banking data warehousing), but I'm 
not actually supposed to know some of that stuff so I won't :-)


  


I'm not sure about back end or front end but they sure make a mess of it 
at times.


Hearing they use old code is not to surprising actually.  Look at air 
traffic control.  Every time they try to upgrade, it crashes.  I guess 
the cheapest bidder is not always the best.  o_O



Every such crash after an upgrade I know of is trying to run the thing on 
Windows...


  


Yep, I read the same thing.  Why not use a real OS?  I'm thinking BSD or 
something.  Linux would be good but I think BSD is even better suited 
for basically 100% uptime.


Dale

:-)  :-) 

Re: [gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Neil Bothwick]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:44:29 +, Alan Mackenzie wrote:

> I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
> VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
> only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
> to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
> found this situation addressed.

VIDEO_CARDS sets USE flags, so emerge -uavDN world.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Angular Momentum Makes The World Go 'Round


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Heads up: KDE 4.3 does *not* work OK with Qt 4.6

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 01:03:01 Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 12/15/2009 10:14 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > bottom line your system is screwed and you think it is qt4.6
> 
> If it got screwed, certainly not by me.
> 

emerge -e world

retest, compare, post results. No other way to be sure.

Apart from long logout times (more likely firefox as that's the last visible 
window to close; and/or skype and opera) I do not experience any of the 
troubles you report. But I had an emerge -e world in between merging qt-4.6 
and now (courtesy of patch)

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] What magic does portage use?

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 01:34:33 Dale wrote:
> > A real world scenario would be a bank server doing transactions. Those
> > big irons do never ever get shut down.
> > (But they also don't ever get really updated ;)
> >
> > Did you know, that they still use cobol-code from decades ago. The code
> > has to interact with newer systems, but the existing code is not allowed
> > to be altered, they just run it inside hugh java application servers on
> > their main frames :D
> >
> > Bye,
> > Daniel
> >   
> 
> Well, I wish someone would tell my bank that.  They are down pretty 
> regular "upgrading" something.  I use the term upgrading lightly here.  
> It usually makes things worse but anyway.  They run windoze on their rig 
> so they most likely can't help that.  ;-)

They upgrade the *front*ends*, not the real stuff at the back.

Switching a mainframe off is not a supported activity :-)

Along those lines I could tell you some funny stories about monumental cockups 
banks do to their front ends (my S.O. does banking data warehousing), but I'm 
not actually supposed to know some of that stuff so I won't :-)

> Hearing they use old code is not to surprising actually.  Look at air 
> traffic control.  Every time they try to upgrade, it crashes.  I guess 
> the cheapest bidder is not always the best.  o_O

Every such crash after an upgrade I know of is trying to run the thing on 
Windows...


-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Albert Hopkins]

On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 11:06 -0800, walt wrote:
> > If you look at the amazon page you can sort of see the left and
> right
> > arrows.
> 
> I think a mouse that complicated would make me crazy.  

There was a time when Windows and Mac users criticized X11 because it
had too many buttons (3).

Nowadays, Windows users seem to require 20 different buttons, wheels,
knobs, and whatever else they can throw on a pointer device, whereas
Macs seem to want to get rid of buttons altogether but require the user
to do cartwheels and other acrobatics with their fingers in order to do
a simple cut/paste.

FWIW, I have a Logitech mouse with a wheel that scrolls up and down,
presses down, and clicks left and right.  All seem to work fine, except
I don't use the latter as I haven't found any purpose for it although I
could possibly see it replacing ALT-Tab.  Nah... to confusing.

-a

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Albert Hopkins]

On Wed, 2009-12-16 at 19:24 +, Mick wrote:
> 
> First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:
> 
> # shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition
> 

I wouldn't even mount it. I'd shred the entire block device (may take a
while) then repartion/reinstall.

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Dan Cowsill]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:49 PM, Grant  wrote:
> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
> however that works.
>
> - Grant
>
>

Hiren's Bootcd contains a bunch of useful tools for the computer
professional, and a few that will help you in your disk wipery.  It
also comes in a convenient USB image.

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5090985/Hirens_Boot_USB_10.0

Re: [gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Xavier Parizet]

Le mercredi 16 décembre 2009 21:44:29, Alan Mackenzie a écrit :
> Hi, gentoo,
> 
> I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
> VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
> only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
> to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
> found this situation addressed.
> 
> Thanks for the help!
> 

Actually it's not possible because when a package is merged with success, the 
build tree is deleted from /var/tmp/portage.
The only choice you have is to rebuild the whole package using emerge --
oneshot package. 
By the way, the rebuild will also pull the new dependencies implied by the new 
use flags settings.

HTH.

--
Xavier Parizet
YaGB: http://gentooist.com

[gentoo-user] Can I (partially) rebuild a package with emerge?

[Alan Mackenzie]

Hi, gentoo,

I've just emerged xorg-x11, and noticed that I had a wrong setting for
VIDEO_CARDS in /etc/make.conf.  Does emerge have a facility to rebuild
only those portions of xorg-x11 dependent on that setting, or do I have
to start again from scratch?  I've perused the emerge man page, but not
found this situation addressed.

Thanks for the help!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[John Lowry]

Darik's Boot and Nuke is a good projects for wiping.

http://www.dban.org/

On 12/16/2009 10:49 AM, Grant wrote:
> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
> however that works.
> 
> - Grant
> 

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Robert Bridge]

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda (or what ever)

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 6:49 PM, Grant  wrote:
> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
> however that works.
>
> - Grant
>
>

Re: [gentoo-user] How do I restore special keys in X?

[Mick]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 06:05:04 Walter Dnes wrote:
>   We've all heard about the DontZap fiasco, caused by a few whiners.  I
> managed to restore that, but there seems to be even more lost
> functionality.  "MagicSysReq" no longer works in X.  In addition, I've
> made a slight change in /etc/inittab...
> 
> ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/usr/bin/chvt 1
> 
> ...which should cause ctrl_alt_del to kick me into tty1, rather than
> rebooting.  Here is the "InputDevice" section in my xorg.conf which
> (along with DontZap) restores ctral_alt_bksp functionality.
> 
> Section "InputDevice"
> Identifier  "Keyboard0"
> Driver  "kbd"
>   Option  "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
>   Option  "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_del"
> EndSection
> 
>   MagicSysReq and the modified ctrl_alt_del both work from a text
> console, but not from X.  What do I have to do to enable them?  BTW, I
> am not running HAL or DBUS.

Option "DontZap"  "false"
Option  "VTSysReq" "true"

This is from the good ol' xorg.conf days.  Today you can use similar entries 
in the fdi XML files - but I am not really up to speed with those.  Google 
might help.
-- 
Regards,
Mick


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Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Mick]

On Wednesday 16 December 2009 18:49:07 Grant wrote:
> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
> however that works.

First I'd mount the partitions and then emerge/use shred:

# shred -v -n 25 -z -u /mnt/a_partition

Then I would delete old partitions, create new partitions and format them as 
required.  If you're really paranoid about your data (which from what you're 
telling me you're not) you can also use dd to randomly overwrite partition 
tables, but I would probably not bother.

Now, there may be more modern tools to do all this with a single button, but I 
haven't looked into it in any detail.

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick


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Re: [gentoo-user] Is rc.conf no longer used by Gentoo (baselayout-1.12.13)?

[pk]

Allan Gottlieb wrote:

> Does that get sourced by the gnome panel so that launchers see it?
> I hadn't thought so, but will try it.

Hm... X/xDM is started from a virtual console (mine is usually started
from VC-7, which is the default). That's where your login should happen,
so everything started after that should inherit the environment
variables. I would assume gnome DE (everything related to) uses the same
"tactic"... but given the gnome developers ms-windows fanatiscism I
wouldn't be surprised if it didn't.

Best regards / MfG

Peter K

[gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[walt]

On 12/15/2009 10:05 PM, Allan Gottlieb wrote:

At Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:09:15 -0800 walt  wrote:


On 12/15/2009 11:11 AM, Allan Gottlieb wrote:

It seems to me that this mouse sends two button events for some of the
"physical buttons".  For example moving the wheel to the left reports
 button press 13
 button press 6
...
  Identifier "Logitech MX1000"


To clarify a bit, what program are you using to identify the mouse events?

I looked up the Logitech MX 1000 on amazon.com, and the photos show only
one wheel, which is front-to-back, not left-to-right.  Am I getting this
wrong?


I used xev and also looked at emac's "view lossage".
The wheel rotates front-to-back, but can be pushed left or right.

If you look at the amazon page you can sort of see the left and right
arrows.


I think a mouse that complicated would make me crazy.  The front-back wheel
rotation should map to buttons 4 and 5.  Does that part work correctly?

Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Neil Bothwick]

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:49:07 -0800, Grant wrote:

> I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
> install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
> more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
> would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
> easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
> wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
> however that works.

Darik's Boot and Nuke (http://www.dban.org) will wipe it, Ubuntu can be
installed quickly from a USB stick.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

This message has been cruelly tested on sweet little furry animals.


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[gentoo-user] {OT} Preparing a laptop for sale

[Grant]

I'm about to sell my old laptop and I'd like to wipe out the data and
install any flavor of Linux via USB (the CD drive doesn't work any
more).  I've got a bootable USB key that will get me into Gentoo.  How
would you take it from there?  I'm looking for something quick and
easy.  My data isn't too sensitive, but I'd like to do some type of
wiping so it isn't all just sitting there with a deleted flag or
however that works.

- Grant

Re: [gentoo-user] gentoo on ssds? intel anyone?

[Stefan G. Weichinger]

Am 20.11.2009 00:05, schrieb Volker Armin Hemmann:

> since ssds don't like write/erase cycles you should only put your system on 
> the ssd. Everything else, PORTDIR, PKGDIR, /var, /tmp, /usr/tmp and /usr/src 
> should be on a harddisk.

What do you think about /home ? ssd or hdd ?

I tend to ssd as my thunderbird-3-profile-dir is in there as well and
might profit much of the local caching/indexin of my imap-dirs ...

Looking forward to getting my shiny new ssd, my dealer informed me that
he will send it tomorrow ;-)

Stefan

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[meino . cramer]

Alex Schuster  [09-12-16 19:12]:
> meino.cra...@gmx.de writes:
> 
> > I did by hand and now I have another problem:
> > 
> > (II) Loading extension RECORD
> > (II) LoadModule: "dri"
> > (WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri
> > (II) UnloadModule: "dri"
> > (EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module does not exist, 0)
> > (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
> > (WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri2
> > (II) UnloadModule: "dri2"
> > (EE) Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)
> 
> I read here that this is okay for the nvidia drivers, they do the dri 
> stuff on their own.
> 
>   Wonko
> 

Wonderful...now I can live in peace and X again ! :)
THX a lot!
Mcc

-- 
Please don't send me any Word- or Powerpoint-Attachments
unless it's absolutely neccessary. - Send simply Text.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
In a world without fences and walls nobody needs gates and windows.

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[Alex Schuster]

meino.cra...@gmx.de writes:

> I did by hand and now I have another problem:
> 
> (II) Loading extension RECORD
> (II) LoadModule: "dri"
> (WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri
> (II) UnloadModule: "dri"
> (EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module does not exist, 0)
> (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
> (WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri2
> (II) UnloadModule: "dri2"
> (EE) Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)

I read here that this is okay for the nvidia drivers, they do the dri 
stuff on their own.

Wonko

Re: [OT] [gentoo-user] xinerama on dual head radeon 9600

[Roger Mason]

Willie Wong  writes:


>> Zaphod style?  What is that?
>> 
>
> You perhaps are not familiar with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
> Galaxy. A picture is worth a thousand words:
>  http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/gallery/tv/zaphod2.shtml
> Meet Zaphod Beeblebrox. 
>
> (Unfortunately you don't get quite the same effect using the Zaphod
> from the new movie. Nobody stacks twinview/cinerama like *that*!)

Two headed.  Duh!  I should have figured it out.  I heard HGG on the
radio in the 1970's (?).

Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[meino . cramer]

Marcus Wanner  [09-12-16 17:04]:
> 
> 
> On 12/16/2009 2:54 AM, Bruce Hill wrote:
> >On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 05:32:41AM +0100, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote:
> >   
> >>I am still haveing one "EE" in my Xorg.0.log which says the
> >>following:
> >>
> >>(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the GLX module; please check in 
> >>your X
> >>(EE) NVIDIA(0): log file that the GLX module has been loaded in 
> >>your X
> >>(EE) NVIDIA(0): server, and that the module is the NVIDIA GLX 
> >>module.  If
> >>(EE) NVIDIA(0): you continue to encounter problems, Please try
> >>(EE) NVIDIA(0): reinstalling the NVIDIA driver.
> >>(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 7600 GT (G73) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0)
> >>
> >>Module "glx" is accessed via xorg.conf like this
> >>
> >>Section "Module"
> >> Load   "glx"
> >>EndSection
> >>
> >>but seems not successfully loaded according to the EEs above.
> >> 
> >Have you run "eselect opengl set nvidia" yet? There is a nice guide 
> >here:
> >http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml
> >   
> I was having the same problem and that command fixed it for me. I 
> noticed that before it was fixed, there was no 3d acceleration when 
> using opengl, making for very slow framerates with most 3d apps...
> 
> Marcus
> 


...and I was sure, that the emerge process did this for me...
I did by hand and now I have another problem:

(II) Loading extension RECORD
(II) LoadModule: "dri"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri
(II) UnloadModule: "dri"
(EE) Failed to load module "dri" (module does not exist, 0)
(II) LoadModule: "dri2"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module dri2
(II) UnloadModule: "dri2"
(EE) Failed to load module "dri2" (module does not exist, 0)


Any eselect magic needed here ?



-- 
Please don't send me any Word- or Powerpoint-Attachments
unless it's absolutely neccessary. - Send simply Text.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
In a world without fences and walls nobody needs gates and windows.

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[Marcus Wanner]

On 12/16/2009 2:54 AM, Bruce Hill wrote:

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 05:32:41AM +0100, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote:
   

I am still haveing one "EE" in my Xorg.0.log which says the
following:

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the GLX module; please check in your X
(EE) NVIDIA(0): log file that the GLX module has been loaded in your X
(EE) NVIDIA(0): server, and that the module is the NVIDIA GLX module.  If
(EE) NVIDIA(0): you continue to encounter problems, Please try
(EE) NVIDIA(0): reinstalling the NVIDIA driver.
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 7600 GT (G73) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0)

Module "glx" is accessed via xorg.conf like this

Section "Module"
 Load   "glx"
EndSection

but seems not successfully loaded according to the EEs above.
 

Have you run "eselect opengl set nvidia" yet? There is a nice guide here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml
   
I was having the same problem and that command fixed it for me. I 
noticed that before it was fixed, there was no 3d acceleration when 
using opengl, making for very slow framerates with most 3d apps...


Marcus

Re: [OT] [gentoo-user] xinerama on dual head radeon 9600

[Graham Murray]

Roger Mason  writes:

> Zaphod style?  What is that?

Two headed

Re: [OT] [gentoo-user] xinerama on dual head radeon 9600

[Willie Wong]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 08:26:15AM -0330, Penguin Lover Roger Mason squawked:
> Willie Wong  writes:
> 
> > On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:42:18PM +0100, Penguin Lover Sebastian Be?ler 
> > squawked:
> >> the reason for segfaulting is that you try to use a zaphod style
> >  
> >> xorg.conf with xrandr. That don't mix. I learned that the hard way.
> >
> > You just made my day :)
> 
> Zaphod style?  What is that?
> 

You perhaps are not familiar with the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy. A picture is worth a thousand words:
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/gallery/tv/zaphod2.shtml
Meet Zaphod Beeblebrox. 

(Unfortunately you don't get quite the same effect using the Zaphod
from the new movie. Nobody stacks twinview/cinerama like *that*!)

:)

Cheers, 

W
-- 
A lot of money is tainted. It taint yours and it taint mine.
Sortir en Pantoufles: up 1104 days, 11:15

Re: [OT] [gentoo-user] xinerama on dual head radeon 9600

[Roger Mason]

Willie Wong  writes:

> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 10:42:18PM +0100, Penguin Lover Sebastian Be?ler 
> squawked:
>> the reason for segfaulting is that you try to use a zaphod style
>  
>> xorg.conf with xrandr. That don't mix. I learned that the hard way.
>
> You just made my day :)

Zaphod style?  What is that?

Cheers,
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] xinerama on dual head radeon 9600

[Roger Mason]

Sebastian Beßler  writes:

> Am 14.12.2009 21:39, schrieb Roger Mason:
>> 
>> Hello,
>> 
>> I'm trying to set up a radeon 9600 in an Apple G5 with two monitors.
>> I've tried both Xinerama and MergedFB.
>
> Hello,
>
> the reason for segfaulting is that you try to use a zaphod style
> xorg.conf with xrandr. That don't mix. I learned that the hard way.
>
> Xinerama is deprecated and replaced by xrandr so you need to configure
> that if you want use a Xinerama-like layout.

Many thanks for the help.  I tried it yesterday without success,
possibly because my windowmanager (fvwm) needs tweaking.  I will post
back with succes or failure in the next few days.

Best wishes,
Roger

Re: [gentoo-user] GLX module not loaded...

[Bruce Hill]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 05:32:41AM +0100, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote:
> I am still haveing one "EE" in my Xorg.0.log which says the 
> following:
> 
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the GLX module; please check in your X
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): log file that the GLX module has been loaded in your X
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): server, and that the module is the NVIDIA GLX module.  If
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): you continue to encounter problems, Please try
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): reinstalling the NVIDIA driver.
> (II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 7600 GT (G73) at PCI:1:0:0 (GPU-0)
> 
> Module "glx" is accessed via xorg.conf like this
> 
> Section "Module"
> Load   "glx"
> EndSection
> 
> but seems not successfully loaded according to the EEs above.

Have you run "eselect opengl set nvidia" yet? There is a nice guide here:
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml
-- 
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
lesson afterward. But properly learned, the lesson forever changes
the man."

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: off-topic: logitech mice (MX1000)

[Allan Gottlieb]

At Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:09:15 -0800 walt  wrote:

> On 12/15/2009 11:11 AM, Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>> It seems to me that this mouse sends two button events for some of the
>> "physical buttons".  For example moving the wheel to the left reports
>> button press 13
>> button press 6
>> ...
>>  Identifier "Logitech MX1000"
>
> To clarify a bit, what program are you using to identify the mouse events?
>
> I looked up the Logitech MX 1000 on amazon.com, and the photos show only
> one wheel, which is front-to-back, not left-to-right.  Am I getting this
> wrong?

I used xev and also looked at emac's "view lossage".
The wheel rotates front-to-back, but can be pushed left or right.

If you look at the amazon page you can sort of see the left and right
arrows.

Thanks for any help you can give.
allan

[gentoo-user] How do I restore special keys in X?

[Walter Dnes]

  We've all heard about the DontZap fiasco, caused by a few whiners.  I
managed to restore that, but there seems to be even more lost
functionality.  "MagicSysReq" no longer works in X.  In addition, I've
made a slight change in /etc/inittab...

ca:12345:ctrlaltdel:/usr/bin/chvt 1

...which should cause ctrl_alt_del to kick me into tty1, rather than
rebooting.  Here is the "InputDevice" section in my xorg.conf which
(along with DontZap) restores ctral_alt_bksp functionality.

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier  "Keyboard0"
Driver  "kbd"
  Option  "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
  Option  "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_del"
EndSection

  MagicSysReq and the modified ctrl_alt_del both work from a text
console, but not from X.  What do I have to do to enable them?  BTW, I
am not running HAL or DBUS.

-- 
Walter Dnes