Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus

Posted by Bill McGonigle Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:35:00 GMT

There's a problem when running two X-displays with MythTV - some events on the non-Myth screen will steal focus and then the MythTV controls will no longer respond. This thread describes the problem well, but is now closed for comments.

Since then, mouse-switchscreen has been written, and solves the problem correctly. It's possible to bind the program to a hotkey.

In the end, I found it better to just run one display at a time since I couldn't prevent the focus stealing.

del.icio.us:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus digg:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus reddit:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus spurl:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus wists:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus simpy:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus newsvine:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus blinklist:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus furl:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus fark:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus blogmarks:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus Y!:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus smarking:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus magnolia:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus segnalo:Dual Screen vs. MythTV vs. Mouse Focus

Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers 1

Posted by Bill McGonigle Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:23:00 GMT

Redhat recently released a set of virtualized I/O devices for KVM, the kernel virtual machine. This short post will outline a method of converting a Windows Vista install (on KVM) to the new drivers using Virt-Manager. It has been tested on Fedora 11.

  1. Make sure Vista VM is up to date on patches and the disk is error free.

  2. Download drivers from Redhat network or here.

  3. Mount the .iso file as a CD-ROM device.

Now you might think you can use the ‘Add Hardware Wizard’ here and add the drivers, add the hardware, and be good. I did. I wound up with an unbootable disk. Apparently Vista’s autodetection is required in this process. So…

  1. Add a new network device of type ‘virtio’. Vista will do its “you’ve got hardware” routine and run you through all of its wizards. When it asks you for drivers, point it at the i386/2008 directory on the driver disc image. Yes, Yes, OK, Yes, Really, Continue, etc.

  2. Shutdown the VM and remove the old ethernet controller. Boot up Vista and make sure the network works. You can conceivably skip this step for now if you want to make troubleshooting harder.

  3. Add a new Storage controller. Leave the existing one as-is for now. You’ll have to pick a disk image you’re not using right now, or make a new one. Anything is fine, we’re not going to ever use it inside Vista. Do the driver dance again.

  4. Shutdown Windows. Remove the storage controllers, and add a new one, type ‘virtio’, with your normal hard drive image. Take care of the old ethernet controller here too, if you ignored my previous advice.

  5. Boot Windows normally. It should now be coming up on VirtIO disk and network drivers. If you get a bluescreen or a plea to use the RepairCD, something went wrong. Use the repair CD to restore to a previous restore-point and try again.

If anybody knows where to find a sound driver, please leave a comment!

del.icio.us:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers digg:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers reddit:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers spurl:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers wists:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers simpy:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers newsvine:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers blinklist:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers furl:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers fark:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers blogmarks:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers Y!:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers smarking:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers magnolia:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers segnalo:Converting a Windows Vista KVM Virtual Machine to Redhat VirtIO Drivers

Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage 2

Posted by Bill McGonigle Wed, 20 May 2009 20:43:00 GMT

I recently had the power supply fail on my SOHO server, which was a mongrel of old parts, far too many USB cables, and was pretty darn slow. It was also very expensive to run, having a Pentium IV in it, the worst of Intel's line.

My goals for a new server were:

  • quiet
  • energy efficient
  • virtualization support
  • lots of storage
  • easy to take backups offsite
  • rackmount
  • budget-friendly.

After poking around NewEgg for a while (I think I enjoy shopping there a bit too much) I came up with a list of parts (after reading many of the helpful reviews), and I have to say I couldn't be happier with the system.

It's almost inaudible, runs at about 105W under normal load, has seven hard drives in it, of various capacities, fits in my rack, has a hot-swap drive for off-site backups, and runs Fedora 10 like a charm. The case is especially nice to work inside, and is of higher quality than you'd expect for the price.

I'm acually using the 2.66GHz version of the Core2Duo, but they don't seem to make that anymore - 3.0GHz seems to be the low-end. It's worth noting here that most of the commercial server builders try to force you into the Xeon line with a rackmount server and those are both more expensive and more power hungry than the Core2Duo and Core2Quad lines. Get what you really need, keeping in mind that virtualizing multiple systems onto one is a huge energy win.

Additionally, I got a cooler from BestBuy (surprisingly their in-stock cooler is the nicest I've found) and used Arctic Silver 5 thermal compound to bond the CPU. Plus a bunch of SATA cables I have in a box (they seem to spontaneously generate in there). The whole package comes in under $1200 even if you have to buy every part. Compare at fifty percent more to purchase pre-assembled.

Here's the parts list:

The secondary SATA controller is only needed if you're going over the number of drives the motherboard supports, and likewise the power splitters. If you were buying all new 1.5TB drives you'd likely not need this. Obviously the memory card reader is only if you need it. But who wants a floppy drive anymore?

Happy building!

del.icio.us:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage digg:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage reddit:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage spurl:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage wists:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage simpy:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage newsvine:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage blinklist:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage furl:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage fark:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage blogmarks:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage Y!:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage smarking:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage magnolia:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage segnalo:Quiet Rackmount Server w/ Lots of Storage

Portable Computer States

Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:15:00 GMT

Here's a technology idea: combine a solid-state flash drive, a synchronization engine, advanced virtual memory techniques, and a portable hardware abstraction layer to create a portable computer state device.

The idea would be like this: you have a small hardware device that you bring with your anywhere. When you plug it into one of your computers, it would synchronize the filesystem states, restore memory images, and resume your computing environment the way you left it at the last location.

It's roughly equivalent to the idea of network computers, except you don't need the ubiquitous ultra-high-speed Internet that doesn't really exist (when wireless gigabit is pervasive, this would become passe).

Current reasons this can't work, using linux as the obvious OS to start with, include the lack of an abstract HAL (root drive, home drive, etc) and the lack of virtual-memory restore on a per-process basis. Lots of the other parts exist already.

Initial limitations would probably be a restriction to the same hardware architecture (x86, AMD64, ARM, etc), inability to deal with filesystem changes greater than the capacity of the SSD, and an inability to restore stateful network connections (an IP proxy might work around the last one).

One company has made an approach at this experience by running the environment directly on the portable device, but this forfeits local resources and demands power draws unachievable on an external bus (for simple connectivity). That approach may gain viability over time, though, but not yet.

Would you, gentle reader, use such a device?

del.icio.us:Portable Computer States digg:Portable Computer States reddit:Portable Computer States spurl:Portable Computer States wists:Portable Computer States simpy:Portable Computer States newsvine:Portable Computer States blinklist:Portable Computer States furl:Portable Computer States fark:Portable Computer States blogmarks:Portable Computer States Y!:Portable Computer States smarking:Portable Computer States magnolia:Portable Computer States segnalo:Portable Computer States

Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive

Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:22:00 GMT

Intel thoughtfully has some ISO images of their BIOS flash upgrades, so you don't need to worry about finding the right flash software for your operating system and then timidly hoping that all works OK. You burn the image to a CD and reboot, then it flashes for you (using a FreeDOS/ISOLINUX system).

However, if you have a SATA CD-ROM drive, the device driver in FreeDOS doesn't support that. There is a SATA-compatible FreeDOS driver, but rather than rebuild Intel's ISO, there's an easier solution - make the BIOS emulate an IDE drive.

Go into BIOS Setup (F2 at boot), then Advanced ... Drive Configuration, and set 'Configure SATA as' to 'IDE' (mine was AHCI) and ATA/IDE Mode to 'Legacy'.

Reboot, allow the flash to succeed, then switch your BIOS settings back.

There's nothing wrong with this method, but Intel should highlight it on their download page.

del.icio.us:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive digg:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive reddit:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive spurl:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive wists:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive simpy:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive newsvine:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive blinklist:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive furl:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive fark:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive blogmarks:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive Y!:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive smarking:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive magnolia:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive segnalo:Intel BIOS ISO image with SATA CD-ROM Drive

Where are the $1 Flash Cards?

Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:48:00 GMT

It used to be you could get a floppy disk for about a dollar. If you needed to give a colleague a document it was easy to do so with a floppy disk, and there was no point in returning it.

Today, it's easy to get a 1GB flash drive/card for $8 or so, but that's a bit beyond the point of just handing them out like candy and far too much capacity for simple document exchange.

Moore's Law says we ought to expect 512MB flash cards these days for about a dollar. Something like an SD card would be a perfect replacement for these cases where e-mail isn't the best solution, and surely manufacturing costs are such that a 3.5" floppy disk had a higher materials cost than a SD card, just in terms of plastic and metal.

Here's to finding a $10 10-pack of 512MB SD Cards at Staples sometime soon. Next up: very tiny pens to label them.

del.icio.us:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? digg:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? reddit:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? spurl:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? wists:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? simpy:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? newsvine:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? blinklist:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? furl:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? fark:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? blogmarks:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? Y!:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? smarking:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? magnolia:Where are the $1 Flash Cards? segnalo:Where are the $1 Flash Cards?

Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger

Posted by Bill McGonigle Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:04:00 GMT

Apple's Snow Leopard (10.6) operating system is due out in the next quarter according to slides shown recently at the LISA conference. It adds a small handful of features but it's mainly an architecture, performance, and bugfix release. Leopard (10.5) is pretty buggy and Apple readily admits it's not what an OS should be. So they're coming out with an update less than a year and a half since the last one, which is by most counts what Leopard should have been. This isn't really disputed, even Apple's name isn't for a new cat, this is the one with all the 'marks cleaned off'.

OK, so it's great that Apple's getting everything squared away so quickly, right? Yeah, it is if you've got recent hardware.

But what if you have a computer that was purchased in, say, the first half of 2006? It's going to have a PowerPC processor in it, and Snow Leopard doesn't support PowerPC. OK, so then you can run Leopard, which does support PowerPC. But, wait, Leopard is buggy, that's why they're fixing it.

OK, so you can run Tiger (10.4). Well, no, if you're going to be connected to a network you'd be foolish to do that; Apple only issues security updates for the current and previous versions of its OS, and with 10.6, 10.4 will go by the wayside. Within months there will be public exploits for your 10.4 machine available and the time to your machine being compromised is just a roll of the dice.

"Wait," you may be saying, "my machine is less than three years old and it's now unsupported?" "It's still under AppleCare warranty and I can't even get security updates?"

Yep, and there we see the tactical brilliance behind splitting the Leopard and Snow Leopard releases - Apple gets to book its revenue early on a not-ready OS, beat Microsoft to the market, and save a ton of money really only supporting one majoor version of its operating system. So, this doesn't really work out well for you? Just buy a new Mac, they're probably not going to do this again in three more years. Right?

This may be a dangerous gamble for Apple in a recessionary economic period, so perhaps they'll do the right thing and simultaneously keep their customer base. If not, Ubuntu 8/PPC isn't eligible for a commercial support contract but it'll run on your Mac and its security updates will be current for another two years. At that point your machine will be five years old and you can keep it around with debian or netbsd or if we're coming out of the downturn get yourself a brand new machine. By then you'll be so used to Ubuntu you'll have broad purchase options.

del.icio.us:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger digg:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger reddit:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger spurl:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger wists:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger simpy:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger newsvine:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger blinklist:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger furl:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger fark:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger blogmarks:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger Y!:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger smarking:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger magnolia:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger segnalo:Snow Leopard Comes in the Dark and Kills Your Tiger

New server

Posted by Bill McGonigle Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:39:00 GMT

This blog is on a shiny (ok, flat black, really) new server, with much faster everything, and it’s a half-U low-power para-virtualized beta product I’m working on (more on that to come, now that I have room for pictures!). Just typing this it’s immediately apparent that there’s way more snappy (live preview with round-trips to the server) but there’s bound to be a bug or two somewhere. Please let me know if you see anything amiss.

As mentioned before, all BFC Computing servers are named for real-life heroes, and this one is no exception. stevens.bfccomputing.com is named for Brenda Stevens, a grandmother from Deerfield, N.H., who was killed when a tornado struck her home on July 24th and the building collapsed onto her. As the tornado destroyed her home she held onto her stepson’s baby boy, whom she was babysitting, long enough to keep him from sustaining any more than minor injuries. Mrs. Stevens didn’t survive, but her grandson lives due to her ultimate sacrifice.

del.icio.us:New server digg:New server reddit:New server spurl:New server wists:New server simpy:New server newsvine:New server blinklist:New server furl:New server fark:New server blogmarks:New server Y!:New server smarking:New server magnolia:New server segnalo:New server

The End of CD-R

Posted by Bill McGonigle Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:49:00 GMT

I noticed today that quality CD-R media has crossed the price line with quality DVD-R media, and is now more expensive than DVD-R*. This means for daily data archiving purposes CD-R is dead. I'm ordering one last hundred pack for specialty use in machines that cannot handle DVD-R (very old computers, CD players, and my wife's crummy Pontiac). At 700MB vs. 4.7GB the bit per dollar line was crossed quite a while ago, but CD-R still held the crown for lowest-cost for small jobs.

It's only been a dozen years since I got my first usable CD-R device (I'm not counting the 1X Kodak job; that was more industrial) and it's now functionally obsolete. I waited on DVD-R until the dual-format (-R, +R) devices were readily available, c. 2005, so that's only three years in (I'm considering the merging of competing standards the point at which the format was actually ready for use). BluRay-R is now available but due to parts shortages is still priced outside the mainstream, but given current trends those discs should be 'cheap' within three years, likely marking DVD-R as obsolete within eight years of its launch. If one can apply Moore's Law-type logic to the trend, then BluRay's successor ought to have the crown by 2017. At some point it's not worth the manufacturers' effort to build new factories for a disc format that will be obsolete, say, in four years. However, by 2017, flash memory should be as cheap as spinning optical media, so this probably won't be a practical consideration, the disc will be obsolete.

Since the spinning disc as a commercial playback medium only began in 1892, though they seem so commonplace to us, the mechanism appears likely be seen as only a 150-year blip in human technological history. I'm skeptical there will be any working BluRay players in 2042, and given the digital origin of all BluRay data, the need for such machines among archivists ought likely be low as well. Rip 'em while you got 'em.

* Plus or minus shipping costs, it's approximately a wash.

del.icio.us:The End of CD-R digg:The End of CD-R reddit:The End of CD-R spurl:The End of CD-R wists:The End of CD-R simpy:The End of CD-R newsvine:The End of CD-R blinklist:The End of CD-R furl:The End of CD-R fark:The End of CD-R blogmarks:The End of CD-R Y!:The End of CD-R smarking:The End of CD-R magnolia:The End of CD-R segnalo:The End of CD-R

Anti-Virus on Voting Machines

Posted by Bill McGonigle Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:10:00 GMT

There’s been much made of the revelation that Diebold voting machines run an install of McAfee Anti-Virus, and that it’s caused trouble with the voting software.

The arguments against it typically boil down to:

  • Your voting machines shouldn’t be use for anything else
  • Your voting machines should be secured against anybody installing software on it
  • You can’t verify the operation of MAV so it could possibly tamper with votes
  • You should be running an operating system which is not so easily infected

Those arguments all have merit, but skip the fundamentals - the software image on a voting machine should not be running on read/write media, that is hard drives. If that basic criteria isn’t met, AV software might actually be a good idea, but missing the fundamentals is no excuse for dirty hacks.

I build my first appliance computer that could run from a CD in a CD-ROM drive in 2002. It’s neither new nor a difficult concept. When you need things to be secure, in that case under HIPAA regs, in this case for votes, you mount your media device (hard drive, flash memory, etc) with the ‘noexec’ flag, and then no software installed on the read/write media can be run from that media. Since you can’t write to the CD, software can’t be run from there either. You provide a stripped down OS image to make doing any more than the minimum very difficult, certainly requiring physical access to the machine.

This isn’t to say your machine shouldn’t be kept secure - of course it should, and the BIOS needs to be correctly configured (many of you know the security problems with certain BIOS configurations) - but read-only media and a good Q/A process obviates the need for anti-virus software. Certainly some software selection choices can make this difficult, but any good architecture starts with the requirements and works towards software selection, not the other way around. Assuming good security is a requirement.

del.icio.us:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines digg:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines reddit:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines spurl:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines wists:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines simpy:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines newsvine:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines blinklist:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines furl:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines fark:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines blogmarks:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines Y!:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines smarking:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines magnolia:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines segnalo:Anti-Virus on Voting Machines

Older posts: 1 2 3 ... 5