YAHTNG

Yet Another Helping The Next Guy

I bought my son a shiny new Ivy Bridge based Asus laptop from dealnews for high school graduation. Of course, he only runs Ubuntu, but I wanted to keep the Win 7 64 around for flashing BIOS and related reasons (and someday he may need to run some Windows program....)

It's pretty straight-forward to install Ubuntu alongside windows in a dual-boot fashion as the Live installer knows how to do this. But apparently not on some UEFI based systems--or that's what I thought. It turns out, the installer knows how to work with UEFI systems as well. It just doesn't know how to do it on a system with a broken/corrupt/obscured GUID Partition Table (gpt).

I've used gpt for years as I used to work in HP's Itanium Linux lab. And I've seen some GPT tables corrupted before. The ASUS (at least this one) ships with the secondary GPT corrupted. The last partition (I think 5th) somehow extends INTO the secondary GPT. (Think of the secondary as a backup table in case the primary gets corrupted--a failsafe.) This corrupt secondary table makes the partition table unreadable or possibly unusable to Ubuntu (and moreover, to the underlying libparted and the parted utility.)  The installer just "determined" that the disk was unformatted so it kindly offered to just install Ubuntu to this blank disk (destroying all the existing partitions in the process.) Not so good.

I downloaded gdisk (from Universe) as it seems to be designed from the ground up for GPT tables and it was able to read the partition table and show me the partitions. These matched up with what /proc/partitions was showing me (which seemed to be right all along.) It also matched up with what I was seeing in Windows 7. ASUS ships with a C drive, a D drive, and a recovery drive along with the normal EFI system partition (ESP) and a Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR). So the layout looked something like this:


Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   2          411648          673791   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved part
   3          673792       339511295   161.6 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   4       339511296       925575167   279.5 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   5       925575168       976773167   24.4 GiB    2700  Basic data partition

Where 3 is C (OS) drive, 4 is D (DATA) drive, and 5 is the ASUS Recovery partition. It is partition 5 that seemed to be the source of the error:


Warning! Secondary partition table overlaps the last partition by
33 blocks!
You will need to delete this partition or resize it in another utility.


To resolve this issue, I simply deleted partition 4 and recreated it from the same start point but smaller and ending sooner. Then I dd'd partition 5 to another disk, deleted it and recreated it (same size) but now it ended before the end of the disk. I then restored it via dd.  (The partition Warning! went away as soon as 5 was deleted and did not reappear when it was recreated at a new start sector.)

I failed to grab a snapshot of the final partition table entries but I basically shortened 4 by a couple GiB (and didn't try to "nail" it to exactly 33 blocks shorter.)

Once the GPT table had a functioning secondary GPT, the Ubuntu installer was able to find it without problems. I just used gdisk to make the D partition into a Linux format partition (8300). (There was nothing on the D drive.) The installer did create a GRUB entry for the Win 7 but that doesn't really work. However, using ESC, I can select the Windows partition from the UEFI boot menu and it dual boots just fine.  After the installation was done, I upgraded from the Precise install release bits to the latest bits (including newer kernel) and the grub update worked fine as well--so it seems to be a rock solid dual boot machine now.

Holler if this helps you or if you know more about why ASUS formats the disk this way--there could be an underlying reasons. Oh, and one more thing, I actually did make the Win 7 recovery disks PRIOR to doing any Ubuntu at all and I've not tried to do anything since with the recovery partition.

You can reach me via the comments below or email me at asus DOT dowdberry AT medberry DOT net.

And some final words: Ubuntu Live Installer makes an awesome detective kit and this Ivy Bridge notebook truly rocks.

Helping the next guy

Just a bit of IRC discussion I thought I'd share. A friend was looking for a way to disable X on an Ubuntu install converted to be a mythtv backend. After a web discussion, another friend suggested passing "text" in on the cmdline. That's a darn good suggestion.

This works in both gdm and lightdm as they both search for this in their startup script (/etc/init.d/gdm and /etc/init/lightdm). Lightdm is the default display manager in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric and gdm was the default display manager in prior versions.

Read Later Fast aka Diigo

Just checking to see if RLF is really all it is cracked up to be (by forcibly changing the content of my blog.)

Flickr Uploading from Ubuntu

As a linux user, I've long been frustrated with the tools available for uploading pix or vids to Flickr. I thought I'd give using Wine a shot with the Windows uploadr today. No luck. It gives an error "No XPCOM".

I was stumped and frustrated at this point. Sadly, if I had really been paying attention at UDS-O in Budapest, I would have immediately tried the winetricks hacks. (Winetricks were shown as a way to get performance measures during Wednesday's plenary session.) But no, I wasn't that swift.

Fortunately, someone else was... even swifter: Thank you  Sandip Bhattacharya. Your blog post Using the official Flickr uploadr on Ubuntu made my day. Kudos Sandip!

Chroot Setup

Another in a series of notes to help me find and remember things. When setting up a chroot, immediately after, examine and if necessary rectify the /etc/resolv.conf settings. A Debian debootstrap chroot will use a default of 192.168.1.1 but you might want something other than that. The first clue will be when you can't ping or apt-get something.

Another rant -- Colorado Public ... Radio?

www.cpr.org is not a site dedicated to cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. No, the letters stand for Colorado Public Radio. RADIO, yes, RADIO. However, I challenge you to find their radio broadcast frequencies on the home page. Or even an obvious link. FAIL.

A search for frequency will bring you to the Station Map where you will find that in and around Denver, the classical music station is 88.1 and the news (and news talk) is on 90.1.

Now you may be asking why in the world I'd be looking up an FM transmitter in this day and age. I still have analog radios. Really. And my ogg music player has one built-in and I regularly have it with me when exercising. And it's the holiday season here in the states... and I need to exercise. And yes, I can exercise to classical music.

FBReader full-screen feature

Let's get this out of the way first: This is a totally self-serving post.

FBReader, an e-book reader that can handle EPUB, has a feature to go full-screen. This is very useful--but also quite confusing. None of the menubar buttons seem to enable/disable this feature. Yet, it's fairly easy to accidentally turn on or off--and completely baffling when it happens. A quick google turned up nothing really obvious about how to enable/disable/toggle fullscreen mode. Thus, this blog entry.

Without further ado, here's the shortcut key: <RET>. Yes, the return key or enter key is the way you toggle fullscreen, full screen, full-screen off and on. And this does make some sense. The return key is pervasive on most PDAs, handhelds, and certainly on the author's laptops. So, it is nearly universally available (and moreover the enter key makes little sense in the body of a more-or-less read-only document format like EPUB.)

I've intentionally loaded this blog entry with searchable terms so that others trying to figure this out can easily find the information. That's why keyboard shortcuts and the word fullscreen appears several times with various spellings. Likewise, FBReader appears repeatedly. FBReader, which has nothing to do with FaceBook and does not predate FB, was certainly something I was aware of prior to my knowledge of facebook.

I don't yet own a Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader or any other dedicated ebook reader. Moreover, I don't have an iPhone, Android phone, Palm or other smartphone. I do have a Nokia that can apparently also run FBReader and I may try that out at some point but I have not yet done so. And no, I've never owned the original FBReader device, Sharp Zaurus.

Undocumented ILO2 Settings

There appear to be some undocumented ILO2 settings, as a google search for:

oemhp_rawvspport

turns up zero hits as of this date.

However, by logging into a DL380 G62 ILO-2 CLI console, you can see this setting:

hpiLO-> show /map1/config1  
status=0
status_tag=COMMAND COMPLETED


/map1/config1
  Targets
  Properties
    oemhp_mapenable=yes
    oemhp_timeout=30 minutes
    oemhp_passthrough=disabled
    oemhp_rbsuenable=yes
    oemhp_rbsulogin=no
    oemhp_rbsushowip=yes
    oemhp_telnetenable=yes
    oemhp_httpport=80
    oemhp_sslport=443
    oemhp_rcport=23
    oemhp_vmport=17988
    oemhp_tsport=3389
    oemhp_sshport=22
    oemhp_sshstatus=yes
    oemhp_serialclistatus=yes
    oemhp_serialcliauth=yes
    oemhp_serialclispeed=115200 bits/sec
    oemhp_minpwdlen=7
    oemhp_hotkey_t=NONE
    oemhp_hotkey_u=NONE
    oemhp_hotkey_v=NONE
    oemhp_hotkey_w=NONE
    oemhp_hotkey_x=NONE
    oemhp_hotkey_y=NONE
    oemhp_high_perf_mouse=automatic
    oemhp_enforce_aes=no
    oemhp_authfailurelogging=3
    oemhp_computer_lock=disabled
    oemhp_rawvspport=3002
    oemhp_console_capture_port=17990
    oemhp_console_capture_enable=no
    oemhp_interactive_console_replay_enable=no
    oemhp_capture_auto_export_enable=no
    oemhp_capture_auto_export_location=http://192.168.1.1/REDLOF/capturePCThPCTt.ilo
    oemhp_capture_auto_export_username=0
    oemhp_capture_auto_export_password=0
    oemhp_console_capture_boot_buffer_enable=no
    oemhp_console_capture_fault_buffer_enable=no
    oemhp_shared_console_enable=no
    oemhp_shared_console_port=0
    oemhp_key_up_key_down_enable=yes
  Verbs
    cd version exit show set oemhp_loadSSHkey

And as you can plainly see,
oemhp_rawvspport appears therein.

Mentioned Elsewhere

Okay, I was reading scrollback from a chatroom at work and saw this phenomenally cool video (that kind of makes me wish I was still 20 y.o.) Probably best viewed with volume off, there's just the camera operator's commentary and a few honks from passers-by.

Props to Vinsh for sharing.

Uncle's Day -aka- Cub Lake Trail

CUB LAKE
Originally uploaded by MERLIN08

My neice Jessica invited our family along with part of hers for a pre-Father's Day hike in RMNP. We hiked along the Cub Lake Trail which starts in the meadow and works its way up to Cub Lake. I'm now calling the day before Father's Day Uncle's Day in commemoration (though there probably already is an Uncle's Day according to Hallmark.)

Summertime

Today was glorious, warm, sunny, and summery. It was so nice out when I got up, I went out to "flush" the backyard of canine detritus. That was quick as it had been done recently. This was prep for mowing. However, it looked like string line trimming needed to happen, so I grabbed my trusty B&D whacker and went to work... After cutting for a couple minutes, it dawned on me that 6am* might be a bit early for the fam and the neighbors... :^) So I set down the whacker and had some breakfast. But it does illustrate how glorious today was.

As I was eating breakfast, I noticed birds retrieving dog hair from the back deck welcome mat. I grabbed some video equipment to record this (as last summer there was quite a pecking order established between a few birds competing for materials that was hilarious.) Unfortunately, by the time the gear was gathered and aimed, the birds had given up.... Maybe tomorrow.

I did ultimately get five hours of yard work completed before lunch. And followed that up with a high school graduation (air conditioned!) And then a bit of tool shopping to replace the worn out string trimmer. I picked up another B&D trimmer. I went for battery operated this time so that we don't have to string power cords all over the yard. (I don't think gas-powered are all that good for the air.)

And now, blogging from the coffee shop during a thunderstorm. Northern Colorado, late May, delightful.....

*I regularly wake up before 5:30 a.m. to feed the spoiled rotten Shih Tzu.

Presidential Memorial Day Observance

I found this nugget:

[President] Obama is not retreating on Memorial Day. Instead of visiting Arlington cemetery, Obama and the first lady will participate in a Memorial Day ceremony at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill., about 50 miles south of Chicago. Moreover, not every president has spent Memorial Day at Arlington. In 1983, President Reagan was at a summit meeting, and the deputy secretary of defense -- not even the veep! -- placed the wreath. Nine years later, President George H.W. Bush passed off the wreath to Vice President Dan Quayle. And in 2007, Vice President Dick Cheney took on the wreath mission, while President George W. Bush was in Texas.

References:

http://www.cem.va.gov/cems/listcem.asp list of National Cemeteries (why not visit one near you?)

http://www.cem.va.gov/ includes the info on President Obama's visit to Lincoln National Cemetery

http://www.cem.va.gov/MemorialDayVisit.asp

Fort Logan National Cemetery
4400 W. Kenyon Avenue
Denver, CO 80236

Blog Post-A-Day, NaNoWriMo Redux

As anyone (anyone, please, throw me a bone, anyone?) who reads this blog knows, I epically failed at the "blog-a-day" for 30 consecutive days plan last November. However, the long days (sunshine from 5am to 9:30pm) are motivating me to blog again. No promises (or even plans at this point) on frequency, but hopefully MORE than once every half-year.

Middle of Nowhere Update

I went back to Albin over the weekend. Prior to that, I sent my son up there with a Cradlepoint router and a Verizon Wireless USB EVDO cell phone modem. This particular Cradlepoint has an external antenna. Once again it worked fine. And by worked fine, I mean if you were in the garage with it, you got a great WiFi signal from the Cradlepoint (and its MIMO rigging.) However, the garage is detached and 40+ yards away from the house. Within the house, the signal only penetrated 1/2 a room--so you had to be almost staring out the garage-facing window to use the WiFi-Cell router.

I had brought a Netgear wireless router and about 50' of Cat5E. However, the reason the Netgear was scrapped became obvious. Although the WiFi on it was working fine, the WAN port apparently was not. So, I got a nice signal from the Netgear but a signal to nowhere.

And on that note, I'm full circle--back to the middle of nowhere. I don't plan to return to the hinterlands for a while, so I've terminated the Verizon Wireless account. (As always, Verizon Customer service was quick, knowledgeable, and efficient--no joke.) There was at least one other bit of good news. There were many other folks at the family reunion, many sporting AT&T phones, mostly iPhones, and they were able to get a cell signal much of the time at the north end of the house.

Toy or Tool

I've been looking at getting a new toy/tool and am leaning towards this one:

Asus Eee PC T101MT.

This machine comes from the long line of eee pcs from Asus. This one is a Tablet computer--so it's not just a "pad", it's also a computer. It does have a few shortcomings, primarily that it is limited to 2G of RAM. It's also a bit tricky to convert it from 160GB HD to an SSD (rumors of 16 screws to do so.)

However, it does run Ubuntu Lucid Lynx and that (with a few tweaks/fixes) enables about everything except a fully functional multi-touch and pressure sensitivity. I'll likely keep this multiboot. If you are one of 'doze kind of people, bear in mind that the Starter edition is pretty much a non-starter on this box and you'll need to pay the Ballmer for something more (or re-read that first line: IT RUNS LINUX.)

There is a promotional video here and a "hands on" video here (but a bit long.) I think if I purchase this, I'll do a "hands on Lucid" video for teh Intartube.

Nanu Nanoo Nanowrimo

NaNoWriMo (National Nobody Writes Month?) is on and although I'm not entered into that fine group of folks and have no intent to crank out a 50000 word novella this month, I thought I'd use their inspiration as my own (albeit 19 days late) and try and crank out a blog-a-day for 30 days.

This idea came to me yesterday so I'm counting my start date as 2009-11-19. (And unsuprisingly, I already have another thought to blog so want to get "mental" credit for two consecutive days.)

Oh and for those of you dereferencing the title, here's the obligatory Mork &Mindy links:

• Nanu Nanu!
• more IMDB
• photo/fansite
• Mork calling Orson

... and, jftr, it's National Novel Writing Month--not really Nobody Writes Month.

Laptop Display Attracts Flies

Okay, I've not heard of anyone else complaining of this--but my laptop screen REALLY attracts flies. I've never had a machine do that before. (This is probably my 15-20th different laptop.)

This particular unit is an HP Mobile Workstation, the HP EliteBook 8530w. It's a very nice machine--it just has this one peculiarity.

I'm blogging this primarily for folks to weigh in if they have seen something similar. Please email me or post against this blog entry if you are having a similar problem (with any notebook or laptop or netbook.) Thanks.

laptop.flies@dowdberry.net

Now, where did I leave that swatter.

The Middle of Nowhere

I took the MiFi to PhilBurn Pharms, northwest of Albin, WY. Yes, this is one of those middle of nowhere places.

I set up the MiFi in the detached garage and got a very nice EV-DO signal--1Mb down, 400 Kb up. More than sufficient for this type of remote access. However, I noticed the signal / connection varied a lot depending on unknown factors (though potentially my location with respect to the MiFi.)

After the successful garage test, I tried to connect to the MiFi's wifi router from the house. There are 50 yards are so from the house to the garage. No joy. My laptop couldn't make a solid connection to the Verizon SSD over that distance. I then repositioned the MiFi within the garage trying to get a connection to the house. No location provided a connection.

The next step was to try the MiFi itself in the house. The MiFi never saw an EVDO signal. I could generally get a low grade 1xRTT signal (19-90k at times), but that is no better than dial up (which is already available in the house.)

The garage is situated south of the house on slightly higher ground. Anecdotally, some folks were able to get cell phone coverage on the south end of the house or on the porch steps at the south end of the house. So I next positioned the MiFi on the Southeast corner of the roof of the house. Bingo. This provided an EV-DO connection (albeit somewhat slower than the garage's connection.) It also was a bit flakier than the garage connection. I might get an EV-DO signal long enough to run a dslreports.com test but then have it decay to 1xRTT immediately thereafter. (The signal type is reported by the MiFi web gui.)

I then proceeded to try the other three corners of the house and the ridgeline on the north and south sides of the house--no joy. Only the southeast corner of the roof would pickup a signal. Also, it seemed vary dependent on how the MiFi was oriented. No signal at all at times and a flakey signal at best. At this point, I tried to regain a strong signal in the garage. No luck. It appears to be very, very transient and spotty. Here is the Verizon wireless coverage map. Select Broadband and V-CAST and see what coverage is near Albin, WY. Lot's of pockets where there is no connection and nothing much north of Albin more than a mile or so.

It's also difficult to assess where there cell towers might be located as there is no clearly defined direction from the map.

MiFi -- Wifi via EVDO

Well, nothing but kudos for the folks at Novatel and Verizon Wireless for coming out with the MIFI 3G Hotspot. Works like a champ here at my office and at my home. The real test will be the middle of nowhere. I'll give an update then.

The short story is: works as advertised. It does seem to require Windows or Mac to perform the initial activation via USB but works fine providing WiFi and DHCP afterwards. (It will connect wifi prior to being activated, but you have no uplink.) Also, you can view some statistics/configuration information via the MiFi's web interface with any device after it gets a dhcp lease.

More about this new toy later.

Webby?

I don't get the webby awards. I probably never will. There were sooooo many categories I didn't even have the patience to scroll through the list.

The name of one, Wordle, did intrigue me. By referencing this blog, it generated the following image: