zeroxcool.net Things I like to talk, think or dream about, in every sense of the word

Mounting JFFS2 images

Today I tried to mount a JFFS2 image at work. Normally you mount ISO files and other images like 'mount test.img /mnt -o loop'. However, JFFS2 is not capable of mounting the image this way. So I searched a while before I found the right solution. Well, here it is .

Upgrade to Wordpress 2.1.1 – update

I just updated my Wordpress from 2.1 to 2.1.1. Thanks to Mark Jaquith it was easy, by using the diff (patch) file he created. Not many things have been changed. Just some XSS-fixes and HTML code improvements...

A little update of this post. Wordpress just announced that the 2.1.1 release has been breached! The code that was available contained malicious hacks! So, everyone who upgraded to 2.1.1 should immediate update to 2.1.2! I've just done it. However, I'm having problems with uploading every file. It looks like my FTP client is uploading the files and name them differently, really annoying!

Smilies in Wordpress 2.1

I got my smilies working again . After upgrading to Wordpress 2.1 they were gone. This was because of the fact that the people of Wordpress decided that there should be either a newline or a 'word' character behind your smilie. So a dot (.) was not enough. Kind of strange mutation, however, I was able to fix it.

Open wp-includes/vars.php and look near line 90. There you will find a line like:
$wp_smiliessearch[] = '/(\s|^)'.preg_quote($smiley, '/').'(\s|$)/';
Replace it with:
$wp_smiliessearch[] = '/(\s|^)'.preg_quote($smiley, '/').'/';
And you're done .

Another thing. If you also don't like the fact that there is always a space after you're smilie, you can change it. Scroll down a few lines (line 92 in my case). Change this line from:
$wp_smiliesreplace[] = " <img src='" . get_option('siteurl') . "/wp-includes/images/smilies/$img' alt='$smiley_masked' class='wp-smiley' /> ";
To:
$wp_smiliesreplace[] = " <img src='" . get_option('siteurl') . "/wp-includes/images/smilies/$img' alt='$smiley_masked' class='wp-smiley' />";

Yes, indeed, just remove the space afterwards.

Wordpress 2.1

Zojuist even Wordpress 2.1 geïnstalleerd. Ziet er goed uit. Aan de voorkant is niet veel veranderd. De achter- en onderkant (ja, die bestaat ook) echter behoorlijk. De achterkant is wat anders ingedeeld en het managen van links is wat makkelijker geworden. Ook is de visual editor aangepast zodat je snel kunt switchen tussen de WYSIWYG editor en de code editor, wat voor een geek als ik wel makkelijk is. De onderkant is door Domas Mituzas onder handen genomen en heeft nogal wat SQL performance verbeteringen ondergaan. Ben benieuwd of m'n logje er morgenvroeg nog is .

Ik zie alleen dat m'n smilies kapot zijn . Iemand daar een oplossing voor?

The DigiMatrix project starts + Perdition

Well, after a long time some updates. The DigiMatrix project can start, I have received all the materials, looking for the Celeron FSB400 CPU was the hardest part. It was set EOL (End Of Life) in December 2004 so almost no (web)shop had it available. However Alternate did. As said, I ordered the memory, harddisk and CPU at Cool Prices, but the CPU delivered with this package was a FSB500 (Prescott-core) processor, which can not be ran on the motherboard. So I had to look for another. Besides the not very good experiences with the delivery they were kind enough to take back the CPU (slightly used of course and with some cool pasta on it). Good job Cool Prices!

The Linux part with the DigiMatrix has to wait. As stated on my ASUS DigiMatrix page I had also found Media Portal, which runs under Windows (blame me ) and .Net (blame me even more ), so I'm going to try that first.

Also some news from work. Our first mail server is heavily overloaded, load doesn't get below 4 and that's on a single CPU box. So, it was time to either upgrade the machine to a dual CPU box and faster I/O or to split accounts to a new server. We made the last choice. So, now a way to avoid e-mailing those 4000 clients who are going to be transferred to the new box. A colleague of me came up with Perdition (no, not from the movie). Perdition is a POP proxy, it is able to reroute a POP-request to the right server. So if a user connects to let's say pop.example.com (192.168.0.1) Perdition checks its own database (ODBC, MySQL, PostgreSQL, LDAP, BDB, GDBM) to determine where the request has to be forwarded to. Mail for example.net is handled by pop01.example.com (192.168.0.5) and mail for example.org is handled by pop10.example.com (192.168.0.10). So, all the traffic will be transferred through Perdition. Now the user doesn't have to know on whether POP server it is, we (well, Perdition) decide for them. We use the GDBM database, because it's familiar with the data format used on qmail's smtproutes. The only (big) thing left is to split the accounts to the new server and put the real mail box on another IP. This will be done on a Saturday night (less traffic and we have whole Sunday left to 'repair' things if necessary), we have to determine what date exactly because we're still waiting for the new mailserver. I just finished configuring the new Perdition proxy server, so that part is finished. Next time hopefully more about this !

Another cool fact, tomorrow trainings of my footbal team starts. I have already tried to build up my condition by doing some running. Let's see if that was enough to run the warming-up without gasping .

Linux on the ASUS DigiMatrix

I'm thinking of buying I have bought an ASUS DigiMatrix 'Home Theater PC' (HTPC), to put Linux on it.I've won the box on eBay and have received it a few days ago. Today (16-7) I have received the processor (Intel Celeron D 2,4GHz), memory (Kingston 512MB DDR PC2700) and harddisk (Western Digital 200GB PATA 7200RPM). But there's a big problem. The mainboard isn't able to run with a Precott-core based CPU, like the one I've ordered. So, I'm waiting for the webshop if they can trade this one with a Northwood-based core. Nevertheless, I have done some research and there are quite some interesting projects running:

• Linux on ASUS DigiMatrix
• AsusHomeTheater forum ('part of' site above)
• Review on X-bit labs
• Review on Digit-Life
• Media Portal - A free (open-source) MCE like framework
• Media Portal - A FreeVO like (free) Windows 'framework'

On this page I would like to share my experience of setting up Debian GNU/Linux on that box. It will look a lot like the Linux on ASUS DigiMatrix page, from the list above.

So, hopefully soon some more info about this really great product!

Migrating Debian to SATA disks

what's this?

At work we weren't able to install a Dell PowerEdge 750 with real (read: libata) SCSI-level support. So we had installed the drive just as an IDE-disk using the standard Intel ICH5 chipset support in the kernel. One big problem, it doesn't support DMA at all. So readtimes are very slow, not very attractive if the server is a webserver :]. So, I went to the Gathering of Tweakers to discuss what to do. They tipped me to try a 2.6 kernel. Good idea, hadn't really thought about that, because I was more wondering how to turn off the emulated (PATA)-mode in the BIOS. Because of those Mickey Mouse BIOS used in Dell servers. And I can tell you that was the solution. So on this page you will find a description how everything took place. I have already published some of this info at my log.

who needs this?

Anyone who have installed their Debian Woody or Sarge to a normal harddisk (or at an emulated SATA-disk) and like to migrate it to a real SCSI-layer driver SATA disk (sdx).

starting

As said, I should have tried the 2.6-kernel according to the people at GoT. Because I was still running the 2.4-tree I also needed to upgrade some small libraries by hand. That (together with the LILO/Grub) difference makes it hard to make this howto also work for both Debian Woody and Sarge, so I have splitted it up.
Woody
First we've compiled a newer version of module-init-tools, which is needed due to the new module system in 2.6. Compiling shouldn't be to hard, but use `--prefix=''' instead of the regular path (/usr/local). You maybe also need to remove the SGML lines from your Makefile after you have ran configure rule. Then, before running `make install' make sure that you have moved the old modutils (/sbin/lsmod, /sbin/rmmod, /sbin/insmod, /sbin/depmod and /sbin/modprobe) to a backup directory. Otherwise module-init-tools will not copy the new binaries to the right destination.

Next thing to do is edit your /etc/fstab. Here you have to change your hd partitions to sd partitions. For example, if you had a line like:
/ /dev/hda1 ext3 yadayadayada
change it to
/ /dev/sda1 ext3 yadayadayada
Now you have to download and burn a Knoppix Live CD. Don't reboot to the normal situation yet! It won't work because your modified fstab.

Now it's time to compile your new 2.6 kernel, I hope you don't need much help here, in the future there maybe some helpt at my kernel page. What you have to enable is SCSI-support and SATA support under the SCSI low-level drivers category. Also pick the right SATA chipset out of that submenu. In our case that would be: `Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support'. Now compile your kernel and put it into your /boot directory. Now comes the tricky part. Reboot but boot on your Knoppix CD-ROM. When the Knoppix menu is on boot in console mode only (type `knoppix 2').

After the boot, you have to mount the root partition like this:
mount -o dev /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
Huh? SCSI-disks? That's right, Knoppix detected the SATA-disks as SCSI-disks, that's exactly what our kernel has to do next reboot...

When you have mounted the root disk it's time to chroot to that disk:
chroot /mnt/sda1
You're back in your own system. Now edit `nano /etc/lilo.conf' and replace every /dev/hda for example to /dev/sda, and /dev/hda1 to /dev/sda1, etc. etc. Close the editor and run:
lilo
Your system has to be ready to reboot by now. So: let's `exit' the chroot, `unmount /mnt/sda1' the disk and `reboot'. If you had run through everything ok your system has to be boot like a SCSI-system! So your SATA-disk drivers run onder the SCSI-layer.

Sarge
Just run:
apt-get install module-init-tools
Yep, Sarge has a package for that. Now you have to edit fstab just like described above at the Woody-setup.

Because Sarge does not use LILO as its standard boot loader but Grub there's a small difference between both setups. We don't need a Knoppix CD here (unless you screw up ;]). What you have to do is open `/boot/grub/menu.lst' and put a new title section up with the name of your fresh-compiled kernel. Copy the `root' value from the previous kernel, don't change it (if it was root (hd0,0), leave it to (hd0,0)). The only thing you have to change is the root value after kernel. If you had for example this title block:
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.31
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.4.31 root=/dev/hda1 ro
savedefault
boot

Change it like this:
title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.12, with sata
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.12 root=/dev/sda1 ro
savedefault
boot

Note the difference at the root parameter. Double check everything, otherwise you either have to get your Knoppix CD. When everything has been changed it's time te reboot. This also goes like the Woody setup.

sources

• Debian install manual - Technical information on the Boot Floppies
• Intel® PRO/10/100/1000/10GbE Drivers

enhancements, questions, etc.

I hope this was quite useful, if you have any enhancements/questions/other things don't hesitate to contact me.