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Fun linux facts
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Aug-11 at 01:22:52 in Computers (Login to reply)
Its entirely possible for your kernel to tell you it got a happy meal with fry guys.
HUSKIES!!!!!!!!
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Aug-02 at 22:30:08 in HSHV (Login to reply)
First we have an awesome female husky named Zuky:
Then I found an unnamed male husky stray in K2:
I'm not allowed to adopt them cause I live in an apartment, turds :(
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Ur doing it wrong!
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Aug-02 at 22:23:19 in SNAFU (Login to reply)
Took these two screenshots while watching the webcast of a space launch:
So far the launch is going about as well as their webcast :P
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oh noes! my memory has been teh stoeled!
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Jul-21 at 23:43:54 in Computers (Login to reply)
So despite most of my projects sitting around half completed. I've decided to finally start one I've been threatening to do for awhile.
Ever wonder how much RAM programs really use? I intend to find out. BTW /proc/<pid>/(maps|stat|status) lies to you regarding memory usage. Just in case you missed that memo ;)
The trick is getting all the data I want atomically without introducing a deadlock. Did I mention this involves a kernel hack? I don't know what I'll find out, but if I knew what I was doing it wouldn't be called research.
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vmware + debian sid == fail
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Jul-13 at 02:46:18 in Computers (Login to reply)
So lots of people have been getting a problem where trying to start the vmware GUI on sid results in a nice backtrace and the final line:
vmware: ../../src/xcb_lock.c:77: _XGetXCBBuffer: Assertion `((int) ((xcb_req) - (dpy->request)) >= 0)' failed.
If LIBXCB_DISABLE_SLOPPY_LOCK the traceback changes slightly:
vmware: xcb_xlib.c:82: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion `c->xlib.lock' failed.
This will fix both of those problems and probably any others that have errors that involve the acronym xcb in it somewhere.
The solution is actually pretty simple, you just need to let vmware use an older copy of libX11. Although how to do this without holding half of X back is a bit trickier. First we need the library, you can get it from me or get it from Debian. I might as well show how to manually extract a .deb:
mkdir /tmp/foo
cd /tmp/fpp
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libx/libx11/libx11-6_1.0.3-7_i386.deb
ar -x libx11-6_1.0.3-7_i386.deb
tar -zxf data.tar.gz
data.tar.gz contains all the stuff related to actually using the package. control.tar.gz contains all the control scripts for apt and dpkg. Both of these are tarbombs which is why you make a new folder to unpack them in.
/tmp/foo/usr/lib/libX11.so.6 is the library
$VMWARE_PREFIX is wherever you told vmware to install. I keep mine in /usr/local and I forget where the default is. Its easily spotted in that backtrace you get when you try to start vmware if you forget where you put it ;)
mkdir $VMWARE_PREFIX/lib/vmware/lib/libX11.so.6
cp libX11.so.6 $VMWARE_PREFIX/lib/vmware/lib/libX11.so.6/libX11.so.6
Then edit $VMWARE_PREFIX/lib/vmware/lib/wrapper-gtk24.sh. Look for the part that looks like this: (For 1.0.6 this is line 65)
vm_append_lib 'libfreetype.so.6'
vm_append_lib 'libXft.so.2'
vm_append_lib 'libXrender.so.1'
Add a line after these that says:
vm_append_lib 'libX11.so.6'
vmware's GUI should run now and you don't have to actually downgrade libX11-6!
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Blue Plate Special!
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Jul-09 at 21:52:43 in SNAFU (Login to reply)
Okay so a while ago I noticed that a car in the parking lot had a blue plate. For those not from Michigan (do any of those actually read this blog?) up until January 2007 the basic license plate was blue with white letters. Like this:
Now for some reason (ie. money) starting in 2007, anyone with a blue plate was given a new plate that is white with blue letters and looks really gay. I believe people re-registering early for January 2007 was the last group allowed to keep their old plates. So by the end of January 2008, no blue plates should be left. (With the exception of permanent plates for trailers and stuff)
So this car with a blue plate that expired in August 2007 was a curiosity. I didn't remember when it showed up, but after thinking about it a while I realized it hadn't moved in a long time either. I remember it being there all winter because it and my car always had huge piles of snow around them. I never used my car during the day when they plowed and always took the same spot when I did use my car.
So I notice a white pickup truck has parked directly behind that car and an official looking person was walking around while on the phone. When he got back in his truck and closed the door I could read the name of the company that owned my apartment complex on the door. He drove to the end of the parking lot, stayed down there for a bit (IIRC there is another car down there with a current registration sticker illegally stuck onto a blue vanity plate) and then drove back. Got out of his truck again, and wrote down some stuff while walking around the car. I assume he copied down the VIN and license plate numbers.
I'm now waiting for them to finally tow this car out of the lot. The complex has all our plate numbers and can easily determine if its one of our vehicles. I'm assuming they are gonna run a check on the VIN just to make sure its not a tenant's before towing it. Its a violation of the lease to park a vehicle in the parking lot lacks a current registration or is not highway driveable. They are pretty lax about rules, if its a tenant's car they will probably just tell him to hurry up and get a new registration. I bet its abandoned here though.
Is it me or does the rear seem a bit low? Are there bonus points if the cops show up and find bodies?
If you think I spent too much work on this post, you have to remember I'm trying not to go ballistic about another thing that happened today. Although if everyone wants a rant on that I'd be happy to oblige.
Also, see the puppy poop bag dispenser and trash can? Yeah the owners of the complex are awesome about having dogs. I'll have one RSN.
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Towel Day
Posted by nuxi on 2008-May-27 at 14:12:49 in My Life (Login to reply)
Sunday was towel day, do you know where your towel is?
Cleo knows where mine is:
In other news, mary took her doggy home. Now I'm lonely.
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vmware serial console
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Mar-27 at 20:57:06 in Computers (Login to reply)
Running vmware headless is very convient for running servers to debug various things. The real trick is getting the serial port working because vmware doesn't make a TTY device, it makes a named pipe. Luckily someone on IRC helped me out with that part by recommending an application called Socat. Now I can do kernel hacking in vmware without needing the GUI open in case networking doesn't come up!
socat UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/vmware-console PTY,link=/tmp/vmware-serial,raw,echo=0
/tmp/vmware-console is the named pipe created by vmware. The correct settings for the serial device are:
* Use named pipe
* This end is the server
* The other end is an application
/tmp/vmware-serial is the TTY device to give to minicom or your serial console app of choice. The speed settings don't seem to matter.
You can put those files anywhere, but minicom has been modified by some distros to not like TTYs that aren't in /dev
vmrun can be used to control the state of the VM.
This is also good if you are running production boxes in vmware.
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HUSKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Mar-15 at 16:37:40 in HSHV (Login to reply)
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If the thought of something makes me giggle for more than 15 seconds, its probably a bad idea...
Posted by nuxi on 2008-Mar-04 at 21:46:59 in Computers (Login to reply)
nuxi@junkers:~(0)$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
4866 pts/10 00:00:00 bash
4871 pts/10 00:00:00 \_ ps
nuxi@junkers:~(0)$ gdb /usr/bin/gdb 4872
GNU gdb 6.7.1-debian
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu"...
(no debugging symbols found)
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1".
I refuse to debug myself!
/home/nuxi/4872: No such file or directory.
(gdb)
Apparently I have to be more clever:
nuxi@junkers:~(0)$ gdb /usr/bin/gdb
GNU gdb 6.7.1-debian
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu"...
(no debugging symbols found)
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1".
(gdb)
(1)+ Stopped gdb /usr/bin/gdb
nuxi@junkers:~(148)$ ps
PID TTY TIME CMD
4866 pts/10 00:00:00 bash
4885 pts/10 00:00:00 \_ gdb
4887 pts/10 00:00:00 \_ ps
nuxi@junkers:~(0)$ fg
gdb /usr/bin/gdb
set args /usr/bin/gdb 4885
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/bin/gdb /usr/bin/gdb 4885
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled)
(New Thread 0xb7ccb6b0 (LWP 4888))
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
GNU gdb 6.7.1-debian
Copyright (C) 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i486-linux-gnu"...
(no debugging symbols found)
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1".
Attaching to program: /usr/bin/gdb, process 4885
WIN!