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GRAFFITI -- June 20, 2005 thru June 26, 2005 >> Link to the Current Week << Last Week << Mon   Tues   Wed   Thu   Fri   Sat   Sun >> Next Week Search this site : Welcome to Orb Graffiti, a place for me to write daily about life and computers. Contrary to popular belief, the two are not interchangeable.     About eMail - I publish email sometimes. If you send me an email and you want privacy or anonymity, please say so clearly at the beginning of your message.

MONDAY    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
June 20, 2005

0641 - Good morning. I sent an email to Xandros support last night...

Brian Bilbrey
bilbrey at orbdesigns.com
XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
Xandros Desktop 3.0.2 Business
Download Version

Problem Summary:

Netgear WG511v2, NDISwrapper, and hotplug configuration.

Problem description in some detail

I installed the XP driver from CD via
  Control Center ->
    Network ->
      Network Connection : Wireless tab.
        Windows (NDIS) Wireless Drivers

The installation was successful, I was able to configure WPA, and
connect to the network. So far, so good. Now for the problems:

1.  [SOLVED MANUALLY] Upon reboot, the ndiswrapper kernel module isn't
loaded, so I had to manually load:

root% modprobe ndiswrapper
root% ifconfig eth1 up

And everything worked. So I put 'ndiswrapper' in the file /etc/modules.
Now ndiswrapper is loaded at boot time, and the network comes up IF the
card is in place during boot.

Suggestion: Putting ndiswrapper in the /etc/modules file automatically
when a windows driver is registered with ndisdriver. If I'd been a Linux
newbie instead of using Linux since Yggdrasil days, I'd have been
tearing my hair out.

Yeah, I upgraded my Xandros to the new Business edition a couple of weeks ago, but was driven to new wireless gear by Marcia's desire to work untethered (out on the deck, say) combined with my desire to never just use WEP, as provided by the old MR314 WAP that didn't do WPA, though it probably could have, with a firmware upgrade, except that Netgear doesn't seem to want to provide that, preferring to sell more net gear. Grin. Is that a long enough sentence? So, if you use Xandros 3 dot mumble, make sure when you've used a windows driver, that your /etc/modules file (editable by the root user) has a line in it that says 'ndiswrapper'.

I did get the pictures from the Barnes' gardens off the camera late last night, but I chose to sleep rather than parse through those, so you'll have to wait another day for some really lovely flowers and trees. Now I'd best go join the Monday commute -- have a great day!

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Mon    TUESDAY    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
June 21, 2005

0642 - Good morning. Xandros support came back with a sane response and a request for more information, so I've sent that to them, and we'll see what transpires hereafter. Oh, on the computer front, another one bites the dust at $FIRM, as yet another dev makes the leap to Apple PowerBook ownership. There's a significant fraction of our developer base that's switched to Mac. Hmmmmm.

I promised pictures from the Arboretum at the Barnes Foundation. Here's some of them...

Walking down along a slate path winding among the trees, leading away from the postage-stamp size parking lot that serves the Barnes, I turned a corner and found a trellis arch covered with climbing roses. Passing through, I was in a lovely rose garden, unfortunately a couple of weeks past the peak for many of the featured roses, although climbing and tea roses all around the periphery were bright and blooming with great fecundity. The prime feature of this terrace is the larger rose plants in a "pot" of squared off boxwoods, as you can see around the fountain. The larger ones were all out of scale with their contained rose bush, I presume there was a pruning this year that gave us that look. I did fine one stellar white rose, though. Down three stone steps and through a narrow intermediate terrace, I was down in the lilly garden. I looked to the right to see the stone steps and grassy path leading up towards the residence (now used as an administrative building).

The lillies were spectacular. And there were many other varieties of flowers around the borders, from bright yellow buttercups to something white and bell-shaped that I personally can't identify. I think I need a flower encyclopedia.

I started quickly running up against my limits in terms of plant names and whatnot, but there are some really lovely bright colors strewn throughout. I kept descending through the terraces, some 5 or six thereof...

Leaving the flower gardens, the path lead me through a variety of trees, the original focus of the gardens. Trees, especially tightly grouped, are surprisingly hard to photograph. Past that section, a mulched walk lead down through the fern garden to a pond full of goldfish abutting a tea house. At that point I glanced at the time, and hustled back up the path just in time to jump on the shuttle back into Merion. It was a good trip!

Today, I'm building up a new OpenBSD box to serve in a remote capacity, so it's grossly overpowered, dual PS, dual CPU, loads of ram, and three SCSI drives setup in a RAID1 + hot spare. Huge waste of storage space, but for a remote box, it's nice not to have to go haring off on an expedition to replace a drive, which we'd have to do if I'd setup for RAID5. Okay, time to get to work, yeah, even on the Summer Solstice. Have a great day!

1203 - Howdy. Here's a cool moon-shot sequence that I found tracking through some links from a Doc Searls post. Thanks to "Stephens". Enjoy!

Oh, and Don Armstrong informs us that the white flowers I couldn't identify are foxgloves. A quick image search later on Google, and I can confirm that identification. Thanks, Don!

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Mon    Tues    WEDNESDAY    Thu    Fri    Sat    Sun   
June 22, 2005

1105 - Good morning. Late waking up, rush out the door, a sucky commute that got me here later than I like to be, anyway. Not a good start to the day. Then, yesterday, it turned out that I can't install OpenBSD on the Dell 1650 as I was planning. Due to failed communications between Theo and Adaptec, there's no AAC raid adapter support in the GENERIC kernel. I'm torn between blowing it onto different hardware, or changing OS's. Plus I have an eval server to fettle... Best get to work. Have a great day!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    THURSDAY    Fri    Sat    Sun   
June 23, 2005

2032 - Good evening. Falling behind, a bit. Ice cream to forget: Eddy's (Dryer's) Cinnamon Bun. You'll recall I made a terrible mistake with that one a few years back. Well, we picked up some Eddy's Cherry Chocolate Chip last Sunday. I'm just now trying it ... interesting. At the first bite, I was pretty sure I hated it, but it's growing on me. Hang on a minute while I finish this, will you?

If you're a Mystery fan, and looking for a picture to take you back more than a few years, check out this snap of Helen Mirren taken back in the 70's by Allan Tannenbaum. I have seen the talented woman that that girl grew into... But we were all younger, once upon a time. (Oh, some of the pictures there are definitely not work-safe).

See you tomorrow, Lucy's outside going insane over something happening outsider her fence. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    FRIDAY    Sat    Sun   
June 24, 2005

No Post!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    SATURDAY    Sun   
June 25, 2005

1049 - Good morning. I've been busy, as usual. Yesterday was take up with a variety of tasks, including working on the design for a new subnet to be a VPN landing-zone. Then I started building the OpenBSD 3.7 box that's going to run OpenVPN and be the endpoint for road warriors and internal users alike. Back home, I watered the gardens (needed after a hot day). In the later evening, I blew away Debian unstable on Vimes (my main workstation, a dual Athlon box) and installed Xandros 3.0.2 Business Edition. As it's bought and paid for, I might as well use it on the hardware where I most just want things to work -- Xandros is very good at that. And getting DVD's to play nice only required getting the latest libdvdcss RPM from http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/ and installing it. Yes, Xandros can handle RPM's, too -- thanks to Joey Hess' package conversion tool, alien.

Okay, enough fun for now, I'm supposed to do yardwork, but it's already bloody hot out there. I may go shopping for the bits I need, then do the work tomorrow. Back later, if I'm so inspired. Ciao!

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Mon    Tues    Wed    Thu    Fri    Sat    SUNDAY  
June 26, 2005

2200 - Good evening. An odd day... We got to bed late, and someone in the neighborhood was having a 400 person party, so there were cars parked all around. Less noisy than previous events, but really, get a room (okay, a big room, but someplace with decent parking, and no one trying to sleep when the last of your guests leave after 4 in the morning). We didn't drag out of bed until nearly 10, but still had the shopping done and back home by 1230. The afternoon went like the wind, nothing much accomplished. I've only one responsibility left today - mourn our soldiers who died in service to Freedom:

• Lance Cpl. Adam J. Crumpler, 19, from Charleston, W.Va., died June 18 as a result of small-arms fire while conducting combat operations against enemy forces during Operation Spear in Karabilah, Iraq.
• 1st Lt. Noah Harris, 23, of Ellijay, Ga. died on June 18 in Baqubah, Iraq, from injuries sustained on June 17 in Buritz, Iraq, when he was conducting a mounted patrol and his HMMWV was attacked by enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades.
• Cpl. William A. Long, 26, of Lilburn, Ga. died on June 18 in Baqubah, Iraq, from injuries sustained on June 17 in Buritz, Iraq, when he was conducting a mounted patrol and his HMMWV was attacked by enemy forces using rocket-propelled grenades.
• Master Sgt. Robert M. Horrigan, 40, of Austin, Texas died on June 17 in Al Qaim, Iraq, while conducting combat operations.
• Master Sgt. Michael L. McNulty, 36, of Knoxville, Tenn. died on June 17 in Al Qaim, Iraq, while conducting combat operations.
• Pfc. Christopher R. Kilpatrick, 18, of Columbus, Texas, died June 20 in Tal Afar, Iraq, during convoy operations when enemy forces attacked his HMMWV with an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.
• Spc. Nicholas R. Idalski, 23, of Crown Point, Ind., died June 21 in Ramadi, Iraq, where his unit was conducting combat operations and were attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Spc. Christopher L. Hoskins, 21, of Danielson, Conn. died on June 21 in Ramadi, Iraq, where his unit was conducting combat operations, and was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Spc. Brian A. Vaughn, 23, of Pell City, Ala. died on June 21 in Ramadi, Iraq, where his unit was conducting combat operations, and was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Sgt. James D. Stewart, 29, of Chattanooga, Tenn., died June 21 in Ar Rutbah, Iraq, where an improvised explosive device detonated near his military cargo truck.
• Maj. Duane W. Dively, 43, of Rancho California, Calif., died June 22 in Southwest Asia, in the crash of a U-2 aircraft.
• Sgt. Arnold Duplantier II, 26, of Sacramento, Calif., died June 22 in Baghdad, Iraq, where he was providing cordon security, and was attacked by enemy forces using small arms fire.
• Sgt. Joseph M. Tackett, 22, of Whitehouse, Ky., died June 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, of a non-combat related injury.
• Lance Cpl. Holly A. Charette, 21, from Cranston, R.I., died June 23 from wounds sustained when a suicide, vehicle-borne, improvised explosive device struck her vehicle in Fallujah, Iraq.
• Cpl. Carlos Pineda, 23, Los Angeles, Calif., died June 24 as a result of wounds sustained from enemy small-arms fire while conducting combat operations in Falluhah, Iraq.
• Sgt. 1st Class Christopher W. Phelps, 39, of Louisville, Ky., died June 23 in Baghdad, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV.

Well, I should sleep. See you tomorrow.

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