tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2811687189544390862024-02-20T03:58:01.613-08:00UltravioletA student developers life using open-source software in a closed-source education environment..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-27768615992734872292009-09-27T19:53:00.000-07:002009-09-27T21:17:44.648-07:00OpenSolaris distro - AuroraUX makes Frontpage of Reddit !<span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/9ole9/the_auroraux_project_an_opensolarisderived/">Reddit Article.</a></span><br /><br />I know I have not updated my blog in a year or so now, Simply not had the time due to working on AuroraUX^[1] and LLVM/Clang and Compiler-RT (Our toolchain) upstream as well so that everyone will benefit.<br /><br />I think there maybe is a bit of misconception that we are trying to reinvent the wheel totally.<br /><br />This of course is not practical to make a *usable* OS today.<br /><br />We simply just would like to bring together some partially good technologies such as LLVM and rewrite some things in Unix that have long needed a revisit for usage on the desktop in 2009 and onwards.<br /><br />A good quality window manager that is not over convoluted, stable and no memory leaks however still easy to use and very *fast*/desktop interactiveness is key.<br /><br />We would like to revisit Xorg, However we need more developer traction and needs to be talked about in a lot of depth. However a rewrite of the Unix windowing system is far more needed then yet another kernel. Something portable that everyone can benefit from, not just AuroraUX.<br /><br />Please do drop around #auroraux on irc.freenode.net and say good day.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Edward.<br /><br />[1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AuroraUX.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-91694434190912426562009-03-09T09:28:00.000-07:002009-03-09T09:31:36.877-07:00Qt Creator 1.0 is out with Qt4.5. Installing on Ubuntu HOWTOHi,<br /><br />Here is a quick and dirty HOWTO:<br /><br />Download yourself the SDK from here: http://www.qtsoftware.com/downloads<br /><br />sudo apt-get install libfontconfig1-dev libxext-dev libxrender-dev libSM-dev libglib2.0-dev<br /><br />They have a nice IRC room on Freenode, #qt-creator<br /><br />Have fun,<br />Regards,<br />Edward O'Callaghan..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-30724439672182622282009-02-07T19:41:00.000-08:002009-02-08T17:10:28.844-08:00The World Is Ending, So What !<span style="font-weight:bold;">T<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>oday I received a somewhat distressing text message that I would like to hear by quote,<br /><br /><blockquote>"Over half the country is 40c. Fire storms hit Victoria last night killing over 40 people and wiping out 26 towns and the heat wave in Adelaide still hasn't stopped; nearly two weeks of 40c there. Death toll picking up there in a big way."</blockquote><br /><br />After thinking about this for approximately 60-odd seconds, I propose the following response, as a viable solution, to the above problems which appear to be emerging around the planet.<br /><br />Shut up and deal with it! These are the consequences of your actions, i.e. driving your 2L+ motor vehicle to the shops around the corner just to pick up a can of Cola, not taking a "real" active interest in your home power usage.<br /><br />Instead you "choice" to spew out your constant worthless propaganda that has absolutely no effect at all on climate change!<br /><br />You also make the choice not to educate yourselves in any of the relevant matters only to uses others 'opinions' in newspapers from people who really don't have a clue instead of reading something more worth while, such as, for example, The New Science magazine, which has been written by people with real "understanding" on the highly complex matters involved in large scale ecological changes.<br /><br />A quick test to prove the above point would be to ask a 'climate change propaganda fanatic' what the base units are of a kW ( 1,000 J/sec ) or about the materials used in the manufacturing or disposing of low energy usage fluorescent lighting.<br /><br />I also like to throw this one point in about the usage of non energy responsible software - something we will be strongly innovating with AuroraUX. Take antivirus type products as an example: I ask the reader to take it upon themselves to work out the amount of carbon put into the atmosphere per year purely from the power required in the usage of a Norton AV running over 40min, once per week on a 350watt system running XP (noting that AV max's out CPU and Disk), thus putting the system under stress and waking the CPU up out of its C states while spinning up the disk over all the installs in the UK alone. You may get an estimate from BroadBand user numbers for PC's in the UK that maybe running AV software like the above.<br /><br />Another hot topic is that of Nuclear power. This is something that few people have any real comprehension about and what our power requirements "really" are in cities such as Sydney, London, etc...<br />People would rather have a 20-30 year old reactor running than an updated, safer reactor that could meet our exceedingly high power demands. As Coal and Nuclear are the "only current" viable solution to meet our demands, the following "must" happen:<br /><br />A) Drastically reduce round the clock power usage.<br />B) Use more Nuclear based power generation or continue to burn metric tons of Coal per min! <br /><br />Feel good campaigns, such as turning off all your lights for an hour each year (Earth Hour), mean nothing at all apart from pissing off power companies.<br /><br />You can NOT spin down the massive multi-phase generators used in power electricity production. Power companies will simply have to find other ways to waste hours worth of Coal generated electricity and the likes instead of making good use of it!<br /><br />In summary,<br /><br />People who spew constant uneducated, non-researched propaganda should shut the hell up and stop complaining about the consequences of their actions. Go research a topic in depth and then make a productive contribution to the matters at hand. Try taking a real and active interest in your own power usage.<br /><br />Note that the Victoria fires and Queensland floods could be considered 'bad examples' although this has no effect the above points.<br /><br />Thank you for reading,<br />Edward O'Callaghan.<br /><br />-- Update 09/02/09 --<br />Death Toll up to 111 people in Victoria..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-74599052159526574062009-01-24T16:26:00.000-08:002009-01-24T16:29:16.630-08:00Mounting a FreeBSD partition on Ubuntu 8.10I though I would make a note of this:<br /><br /> # export DISK=sda1 MOUNT_POINT=sda1<br /> # mkdir -p /mnt/${MOUNT_POINT}<br /> # mount -r -t ufs -o ufstype=ufs2 /dev/${DISK} /mnt/${MOUNT_POINT}<br /><br />Hope this helps someone :p<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-39978299097856258322008-11-18T08:07:00.000-08:002008-11-18T08:10:01.841-08:00I love hg.No no.. not the element.<br />I though I would share the rollback thing hg has and how neat and easy it is to use.<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/AuroraUX/KDE4/KDE4-Testing/kde4-specs-dev:~>hg rollback<br />rolling back last transaction<br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/AuroraUX/KDE4/KDE4-Testing/kde4-specs-dev:~>hg head<br />changeset: 202:ebee44fa159b<br />tag: tip<br />user: evocallaghan <edwardoc@blastwave.org><br />date: Tue Nov 18 06:06:13 2008 +1100<br />summary: Fix KDE bugID 175420<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/AuroraUX/KDE4/KDE4-Testing/kde4-specs-dev:~>hg commit -m "Add Kmix support, needs testing."<br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/AuroraUX/KDE4/KDE4-Testing/kde4-specs-dev:~>hg head<br />changeset: 203:cbbcb0228bf2<br />tag: tip<br />user: evocallaghan <edwardoc@blastwave.org><br />date: Tue Nov 18 16:04:20 2008 +1100<br />summary: Add Kmix support, needs testing.<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/AuroraUX/KDE4/KDE4-Testing/kde4-specs-dev:~>uname -sv<br />SunOS snv_99<br /><br />~.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-7741462137664859522008-11-10T04:42:00.000-08:002008-11-10T14:29:17.670-08:00Learn Ada, not C++.<p><strong><em>I</em></strong>ts common these days for students to learn C++ , and many apps are indeed written in C++ as a side effect of the above endless circle.</p><p>However, The truth is C++ is not all that great really. </p><p>**But why Ada..**</p><p>Over the next few blogs I am going to just throw(hehe) out a few examples and you can see for yourself.</p><p>The important thing here is to learn both before making calls on what is better for what. Clearly everything has its place. Although its good to know a little more then just past your nose ;)</p><p>Here goes...</p><p>Exception handling;</p>As you know exception handling consists of three components, the<br />exception (derr), raising the exception and handling the exception.<br />However, In C++ there is no exception type. When you raise an<br />exception you pass out any sort of type while selecting the exception<br />on its type. In Ada, there is a 'psuedo-type' for exceptions.<br /><br />So here is some example code:<br /><br />In C++<br /><br />try {<br /> my_func();<br />} catch (declaration) {<br /> clean_up();<br />}<br /><br />In Ada<br /><br />begin<br /> my_func();<br />exception<br /> when ident => clean_up();<br /> when others => clean_up();<br />end;<br /><br />OK, now here is a example where we call a function which we know may<br />raise a particular exception. Although it _may_ raise one that we<br />don't know about so we *must* pass everything else back up to whoever<br />called the function.<br /><br />try {<br /> func_call();<br />} catch (const char* string_exception) {<br /> if(!strcmp(string_exception, "what_we_are_look_for")) {<br /> handle_it();<br />} else {<br /> throw;<br /> }<br />} catch (...) {<br /> throw;<br />}<br /><br />OK, now in Ada:<br /><br />begin<br /> func_call();<br />exception<br /> when what_we_are_look_for => handle_it;<br /> when others => raise;<br />end;<br /><br />Yes it even looks better !<br /><br />This shows how much safer the Ada version is, we know exactly what we<br />are waiting for and can immediately process it. In the C++ case, all we<br />know is that some kind of exception occured of type 'const char*' had<br />been raised, we must then check it still further before we can handle<br /><p>it !<br /></p><p>I will try to keep these short, so that is it for now.</p><p>Regards,</p><p>Edward O'Callaghan.</p>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-47361389466158353622008-10-24T23:27:00.000-07:002008-10-24T23:29:10.035-07:00VirtualBox 2.0.4 is out !Nothing really very interesting.. Still no USB host support for Solaris :(<br />When is this going to be fixed Sun ?<br /><br />http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog<br />http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads<br /><br />~.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-67566765468382107272008-10-19T04:26:00.000-07:002008-10-19T04:34:19.168-07:00Brand new USB pen.So while I was shopping for caffeine supplements in the *super* market I saw a 2GB USB pen for 5$AU. As it had "Linux support" on the front over I though I would buy it out of principle and the fact that I need some flash storage.<br /><br />Here is what I did when I plugged it in:<br /><br />Intel(r) Pentium(r) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz<br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>/usr/bin/rmformat<br />Looking for devices...<br /> 1. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0p0<br /> Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@1f,2/ide@0/sd@1,0<br /> Connected Device: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H62N CL00<br /> Device Type: CD Reader<br /> Bus: IDE<br /> Size: <unknown><br /> Label: <unknown><br /> Access permissions: <unknown><br /> 2. Logical Node: /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0p0<br /> Physical Node: /pci@0,0/pci1458,5006@1d,7/storage@6/disk@0,0<br /> Connected Device: Verbatim Store'n'Go Mini 1.30<br /> Device Type: Removable<br /> Bus: USB<br /> Size: 1.9 GB<br /> Label: <unknown><br /> Access permissions: Medium is not write protected.<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>mount | tail -n 1<br />/media/STORE'N'GO on /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p0 read/write/nosetuid/nodevices/hidden/nofoldcase/clamptime/noatime/timezone=-36000/dev=6c0090 on Sun Oct 19 11:22:17 2008<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>/usr/bin/pfexec umount /dev/dsk/c2t0d0p0<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>pfexec zpool create MYDATA c2t0d0<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>zpool status<br /> pool: MYDATA<br /> state: ONLINE<br /> scrub: none requested<br />config:<br /><br /> NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM<br /> MYDATA ONLINE 0 0 0<br /> c2t0d0 ONLINE 0 0 0<br /><br />errors: No known data errors<br /><br /> pool: rpool<br /> state: ONLINE<br /> scrub: none requested<br />config:<br /><br /> NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM<br /> rpool ONLINE 0 0 0<br /> c0d0s0 ONLINE 0 0 0<br /><br />errors: No known data errors<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>zfs list | grep -i MYDATA<br />MYDATA 69K 1.83G 18K /MYDATA<br /><br />I can only conclude one thing from this.<br />Solaris needs to support auto mounting of usb pens that are formated with the ZFS FS.<br /><br />~.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-31785956749452147932008-10-17T06:48:00.000-07:002008-10-17T06:53:52.865-07:00Scons for Solaris - lol, no really..Due to popular demand, here is a spec file to build Scons for SXCE and Solaris 10.<br />OpenSolaris is useless for building anything past HTML thus I don't care if it does not work on OpenSolaris.<br /><br />Thanks for everyones feedback on my last post.<br />The following can be build as follows; N.B. you will need CBE installed.<br /><br />First save the below file in a file called EVOscons.spec<br />Then follows this;<br /><br />Intel(r) Pentium(r) Dual CPU E2180 @ 2.00GHz<br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>/opt/dtbld/bin/env.sh<br />Desktop CBE version 1.7.0-rc1 built on 2008-10-07 by edward@SXCE-Workstation<br />Unsetting ORBIT_SOCKETDIR<br />Unsetting DTSOURCEPROFILE<br />Unsetting SDT_NO_TOOLTALK<br />Unsetting GTK_RC_FILES<br />Unsetting WINDOWID<br />Unsetting DTHELPSEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting USER<br />Unsetting DTDEVROOT<br />Unsetting OPENWINHOME<br />Unsetting DTXSERVERLOCATION<br />Unsetting XMBINDDIR<br />Unsetting GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET<br />Unsetting SESSION_SVR<br />Unsetting HELPPATH<br />Unsetting START_SPECKEYSD<br />Unsetting LANG<br />Unsetting GNOME_KEYRING_PID<br />Unsetting DTAPPSEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting SDT_NO_DTDBCACHE<br />Unsetting XFILESEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting VTE_CJK_WIDTH<br />Unsetting SESSIONTYPE<br />Unsetting DTSCREENSAVERLIST<br />Unsetting GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID<br />Unsetting G_FILENAME_ENCODING<br />Unsetting AB_CARDCATALOG<br />Unsetting DTDATABASESEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting XMICONSEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting DTUSERSESSION<br />Unsetting XMICONBMSEARCHPATH<br />Unsetting G_BROKEN_FILENAMES<br />Unsetting dtstart_sessionlogfile<br />Unsetting COLORTERM<br />Using CC=/usr/bin/cc<br />Using CXX=/usr/bin/CC<br />Setting PATH=/opt/dtbld/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/sfw/bin<br />Setting CONFIG_SHELL=/bin/bash<br />Setting MAKESHELL=/bin/bash<br />Setting MAKE=/opt/dtbld/bin/make<br />Setting M4=/opt/dtbld/bin/m4<br />Starting subshell /bin/ksh93 -p<br />$pkgtool -v --pkgformat=ds build-only EVOscons.spec<br /><br /><br />------------------------ Start of EVOscons.spec --------------------------------<br />#<br /># spec file for package EVOscons.spec<br />#<br /># includes module(s): SCons<br />#<br />%include Solaris.inc<br /><br />%define src_name scons<br />%define src_url http://waix.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge<br /><br />Name: EVOCscons<br />Summary: Substitute for the classic Make utility.<br />Version: 1.0.1<br />Release: 1<br />Source: %{src_url}/%{src_name}/%{src_name}-%{version}.tar.gz<br />SUNW_BaseDir: %{_basedir}<br />Vendor: Refer URL<br />URL: http://ultravioletos.blogspot.com/<br />Packager: EdwardOCallaghan<br />BuildRoot: %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build<br />Requires: SUNWPython<br />BuildRequires: SUNWPython-devel<br /><br />%include default-depend.inc<br /><br />%prep<br />%ifarch sparc<br />echo "Sorry no sparc version yet! - Need testing.."<br />exit 1<br />%endif<br /><br />%setup -q -n scons-%version<br /><br />%build<br /># python bootstrap.py build/scons<br />python setup.py build --build-base=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_prefix}<br /><br />%install<br />rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT<br />python setup.py install --prefix=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_prefix}<br />mkdir $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_datadir}<br />mv $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_prefix}/man $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_datadir}<br /><br />%{?pkgbuild_postprocess: %pkgbuild_postprocess -v -c "%{version}:%{jds_version}:%{name}:$RPM_ARCH:%(date +%%Y-%%m-%%d):%{support_level}" $RPM_BUILD_ROOT}<br /><br />%clean<br />rm -rf $RPM_BUILD_ROOT<br /><br />%files<br />%defattr (-, root, bin)<br />%dir %attr (0755, root, bin) %{_bindir}<br />%{_bindir}/*<br />%dir %attr (0755, root, bin) %{_libdir}<br />%{_libdir}/scons-*<br />%dir %attr (0755, root, sys) %{_datadir}<br />%dir %attr(0755, root, bin) %{_mandir}<br />%dir %attr(0755, root, bin) %{_mandir}/man1<br />%{_mandir}/man*/*<br /><br />%changelog<br />* Fri Sep 10 2008 - edwardoc _@_ blastwave.org<br />- Initial version<br /><br />------------------------ End of EVOscons.spec --------------------------------<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-34540707436157208752008-10-13T05:40:00.000-07:002008-10-13T05:41:44.558-07:00How to *not* go mad.<span style="font-size:100%;">echo 'set bell-style none' > ~/.inputrc<br />usermod myuser -s /bin/ksh93<br /><br />[edward@SXCE-Workstation]:/export/home/edward:~>cat .kshrc<br />/usr/sbin/psrinfo -vp | sed 's/[^t]//' | tail -1<br />set -o ignoreeof<br />stty susp '^z'<br />export PS1=$'\E[0m['$'\E[1;32m'`logname`$'\E[0m'@$'\E[1;36m'`hostname`$'\E[0m]':$'\E[1;34m''$PWD'$'\E[0m:~>' #Custom prompt settings<br />export PATH=/usr/xpg6/bin:/usr/xpg4/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/opt/SUNWspro/bin:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/gnu/bin:/opt/scons/bin/<br /><br /># If there is no VISUAL or EDITOR to deduce the desired edit<br /># mode from, assume vi(C)-style command line editing.<br />if [ -z "$VISUAL" -a -z "$EDITOR" ]; then<br /> set -o vi<br />fi<br /><br /></span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-53597848920449771662008-10-09T23:44:00.000-07:002008-10-09T23:45:36.325-07:00Broadcom NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet Support in snv_100 !Broadcom NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet Support in snv_100 !<br />http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6603710<br /><br />Looks like snv_100 is going to be a massive release !.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-44640982336974479942008-10-09T06:59:00.000-07:002008-10-09T19:25:19.294-07:00Panic on boot of install DVD (SXCE snv_99) - HP Pavilion 6129TX.<pre>Workaround<br /> Disable the audiohd druver with kernel command line option<br /><br /> -B disable-audiohd=true<br /></pre><br />HP Pavilion dv6129TX.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lwt78VDV2mY/SO4Odj1ESiI/AAAAAAAAAII/kGS3Wkc8XM4/s1600-h/09102008%28003%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lwt78VDV2mY/SO4Odj1ESiI/AAAAAAAAAII/kGS3Wkc8XM4/s400/09102008%28003%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5255153716184762914" border="0" /></a> Kernel panic from audiohd driver in snv_99 :[.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-9104173040162133312008-10-08T21:34:00.000-07:002008-10-08T21:40:38.066-07:00Installing Scons-1.0.1 on Solaris (SXCE)I starting porting Ardour Music workstation software to Solaris (built with SunStudio 12) today and they use a build chain called 'Scons', _more info here_ :<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCons<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardour_(audio_processor)<br /><br />As Scons was *so* so easy to install I thought I would share it here:<br /><br />Installing Scons-1.0.1 on SXCE :<br />------------------------ start -------------------------------<br /><br />/usr/bin/gunzip -cd scons-src-1.0.1.tar.gz | tar -xvf -<br />cd scons-src-1.0.1/<br />python bootstrap.py build/scons<br />pfexec python build/scons/setup.py install --prefix=/opt/scons<br />export PATH=$PATH:/opt/scons/bin<br /><br />------------------------ end -------------------------------<br /><br />~.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-80443832669705903782008-10-07T12:55:00.000-07:002008-10-07T13:21:01.899-07:00Thinking out loud.I saw this NetBook today,<br />http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150183<br /><br />So I thought to myself; Would it not be more:<br /><br /> * Cost effective.<br /> * Environmentally friendly.<br /> * Safer (data safety).<br /> * Accessible.<br /><br />To consolidate a students, business worker or home user for that matter compute needs onto a home server.<br /><br />Your home server will consolidate all your data saftly on ZFS which is setup to snap shot your VM's at the end of each week (Friday evening say..) so that if your VM of XP gets a virus or whatever, your protected. If your laptop gets lost, stolen or the HDD fails or you need to upgrade it. There is no need to move your data around.<br /><br />Also, you could be in a airport or internet cafe or even at a friends house and you need access to *your* computer, then its just a matter of calling up FireFox and logging into your home server.<br /><br />A example config would be something like as follows;<br /><br /> * At least 3 SATA disks to keep your data safe in a zfs mirror with a hot spare.<br /> * One of them nice new AMD quad cores that are so cheap these days.<br /> * A low end Tyan MB with a few SATA ports and a nforce chipset such as a Tomcat n3400B (S2925-E).<br /> * At least 4GB of Kingston value RAM, its dead cheap so why not !<br /><br />You can grab most of the above hardware from ebuyer.co.uk and scan.co.uk or newegg.com in the US.<br /><br />In regards to software configuration;<br /><br /> * Fresh install of Sun xVM server. - http://xvmserver.org<br /> * A VM of Windows XP SP3 as you prob use that.<br /> * A VM of SXCE setup with SSGD/VDI. - http://www.opensolaris.org<br /><br />You can grab VDI from; http://www.sun.com/software/vdi/<br />SSGD from; http://www.sun.com/software/products/sgd<br /><br />All of the above software is free.<br /><br />I will follow this blog up with another that outlines the compleate setup of the above.<br /><br />~<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-1344390907738834102008-09-29T14:38:00.000-07:002008-09-29T14:40:14.710-07:00HPC but no OpenSolaris ??<p>One could question why are these not delivered with OpenSolaris..</p><p>http://www.cray.com/Products/CX1/Product/Software.aspx</p><p>http://www.cray.com/Assets/Demos/cx1/index.html</p><p>We need to pick up the demand for OpenSolaris on things such as this market !</p><p>~</p>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-85399056454287021992008-09-14T04:53:00.000-07:002008-09-14T04:56:39.821-07:00VirtualBox 2.0.2 is out !!!I highly recommend people upgrade to this release, in particular Solaris hosts.<br />As this rev. seems to have solved a kernel panic I had from vbox :/<br /><br />Downloads here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads<br />and<br />Release Notes here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog<br /><br />~<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-64631780715780406452008-09-13T12:09:00.000-07:002008-09-13T12:11:56.843-07:00Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100/5300 Driver in ON 99.yay for the integration of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100/5300 Driver</span> in ON/Net 99.<br />Looking forward to snv_99 updated LiveCD ISO.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-55056077512283487392008-09-03T03:35:00.000-07:002008-09-03T03:41:16.089-07:00Google's Chrome Browser.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">I </span>had a email from a dear friend of mine today about where we should be skeptical about Google's new Browser.<br /><br />So I though I would share my reply and analysis of it:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">2008/9/3 Neil <foo@bar.com>:</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008154594_googlebrowser030.html</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">></span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> What gives????</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">></span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> This undermines FF!</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">></span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> --</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> All Documents adhered to the ISO/IEC 26300 standard file format for</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> electronic office documents, such as spreadsheets, charts,</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> presentations and word processing documents from this email address.</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> The author does not take responsibility of the recipients inability to</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> read international standards and who use proprietary products such as</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> MS Office.</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> See: http://www.openoffice.org/</span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">></span><br /> <span style="font-style: italic;">> Neil</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I'm fine with it; Its built on Webkit which is open source. It promotes competition which intern promotes innovation !</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">98% of FF users will not change over as FF is clearly technically a better browser.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">However, we need all the *strength* we can get, Google inc. to bring Microsoft's Internet Explorer to a 'responsible' market share. No one browser is going to be able to do it on its own.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Hense we have:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Opera</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*FF</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Chrome</span><span style="font-style: italic;"></span> - http://webkit.org/<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Konquer</span> - http://webkit.org/<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">*Safari <-- Retard Browser (For Mac and PC).</span> - http://webkit.org/<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">About the only problem I have with it, is that its a Windows only application. However I can see Google's logic, and that is, to target a very particular market segment, that is, to take away IE's market share from the Windows OS platform.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Regards,</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >"</span><br /><br />Please *do* comment with your views,<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-31570360636041104412008-09-02T10:43:00.000-07:002008-09-02T10:46:08.660-07:00VirtualBox 1.6.6 is out !!<strong>VirtualBox 1.6.6</strong> (released 2008-08-26)<br />A *must* for any snv_95+ user due to the fix for strange linker issue that was seen.<br />yay!<br />Change Logs here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog<br />and<br />Download here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads<br /><br />Regards,<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-22448541737372813492008-08-13T05:05:00.000-07:002008-09-03T00:49:43.030-07:00Broadcom 5722 NIC support under Solaris.<6726056><br />http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6726056<br />http://cia.vc/stats/project/opensolaris/.message/33f940<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;"><fixed><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0); font-weight: bold;" >snv_97>.</span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-39975877146465025512008-08-07T09:17:00.000-07:002008-08-07T10:49:43.517-07:00Installing Sun Studio 12 on Ubuntu 8.04.1This is really just a quick HOWTO on installing Sun Studio 12 on Ubuntu 8.04.1 or Xubuntu for that matter.<br /><br />Here is a quick Overview of the Sun Studio tool chain and IDE.<br />===============================================<br /><br />"Sun[tm] Studio 12 software, available for free on Solaris and Linux<br />platforms, includes the following:<br /><br /> Parallelizing C, C++, and Fortran compilers<br /> Code-level debugger<br /> Memory debugger<br /> Performance profiling<br /> OpenMP support<br /> IDE<br /> Optimized libraries<br /> Thread analysis"<br /><br />===============================================<br />Anyway;<br /><br />Download yourself the tarfile version of the installer from (Hint:Click "Free Download"):<br /><a href="http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/index.jsp">http://developers.sun.com/sunstudio/downloads/index.jsp<br /></a><br />Then update your box so its current and run this;<br />$ sudo apt-get install netbeans gawk scons<br /><br />Make sure you in the current dir of the downloaded tar file (Hint:Make a new dir and stick the tar inside as we are going to expand it);<br /><br />$ bunzip2 -cd SunStudio12ml-linux-x86-200709-ii.tar.bz2 | tar -xvf -<br /><br />$ mv SunStudio12ml-linux-x86-200709-ii.tar.bz2 ../<br />$ sudo mv sunstudio12 /opt/<br />$ sudo mv lib /opt/<br />$ sudo mv netbeans-5.5.1 /opt/<br /><br />And that should be all !<br /><br />To run;<br /><br />$ /opt/sunstudio12/bin/sunstudio &<br /><br />If you like, you can,<br /><br />* Add the following to your PATH environment variable:<br />/opt/sunstudio12/bin<br /><br />* Add the following to your MANPATH environment variable:<br />/opt/sunstudio12/man<br /><br /><br />If anyone has a better way please *do* comment.<br />Thanks,<br />Edward..:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-31905834263019845282008-07-26T02:57:00.000-07:002008-07-26T03:00:21.892-07:00OpenSolaris2008.11 PreInstalled on Dell hardware.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">I </span>got the idea to get the ball rolling now its your turn as the community to <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">make your vote</span> count here;<br /><a href="http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/10090983/OpenSolaris_200811_PreInstalled">OpenSolaris2008.11_PreInstalled.</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">~</span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-13682076078161472822008-07-25T21:01:00.000-07:002008-07-26T01:13:52.456-07:00Boycott Foxconn ! ~ A worth while read ~<span style="font-weight: bold;">T</span>his is one of the great reason why people buy hardware not just from Sun but from Tyan and others..<br /><br />A very worth while read indeed; <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249">here</a>.<br />You can <span style="font-style: italic;">Digg it</span>, <a href="http://digg.com/linux_unix/Foxconn_deliberately_sabotaging_their_BIOS_to_destroy_Linux">here</a>.<a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249"><span style="font-style: italic;"><url></url></span></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">~</span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-91181637317653073582008-07-24T04:15:00.000-07:002008-07-24T04:23:20.467-07:00A great reply to a Broadcom chipset user.This was a fantastic reply to a Broadcom chipset user complaining about kernel panics on his old laptop!<br /><br />"<span style="font-size:85%;">Hi,<br /><br />Can't you just buy a better mini pci wifi card that is properly supported ?<br />Avoid using ndiswrapper, it will course kernel panic such as what your getting..<br /><br />Regards,<br />Edward</span>."<br /><br />The user then goes on to complain about not wanting to spend any money on the laptop.<br /><br />Which James came out with a perfect reply which I will probley have to reuse in the future;<br /><br />"<span style="font-size:85%;">Apparently you fail to understand that Broadcom cards are not supported<br />by Broadcom due to internal policy and frivolous control restraints they<br />feel they need to put on everyone. It's not any system's fault for not<br />supporting Broadcom, they will not provide documentation for developers<br />to write anything decent, so is it any coincidence that it causes<br />systems to crash? Employing an interpreter for Windows drivers due to<br />Broadcom's deaf ears is a stop-gap measure but hardly qualifies as the<br />way to ensure yourself a good experience with a system as you've said<br />have not used until now. Such a small investment will save your hours of<br />problems with the OS, plus the bonus that you save time from not fixing<br />Windows problems, like the mundane and time consuming defragmentation<br />due to bad file system design or cleanup of redundant files, registry<br />garbage or update backups.<br /><br />Do yourself a favor it's $10-15 (Nothing considering the devalued US<br />dollar), get an Atheros or Intel wireless card off eBay, there's quite a<br />few supported by OpenSolaris. There's a list under the laptop community<br />for wireless cards and their respective chip set, as Atheros and Intel,<br />like NVIDIA are merely the ones that write the specification, not the<br />fabricators. (At least not to consumers typically) They work with<br />Windows (Obviously) but as an added bonus if OpenSolaris doesn't work<br />out for you, you have a card that'll work well with the other<br />alternatives too! (FreeBSD and Linux)</span> "<br /><br />The moral of this story is, Don't wast your time/days over something that cost 15$ and is usually better hardware in any case.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">~</span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-281168718954439086.post-63091504420537307182008-07-13T21:59:00.000-07:002008-07-13T22:04:02.313-07:00New Indiana/OpenSolaris spin - snv93.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">T</span>orrent file:<br /><a href="http://dlc.sun.com/torrents/info/osol-0811-93-global.iso.torrent">http://dlc.sun.com/torrents/info/osol-0811-93-global.iso.torrent</a><br /> All Languages, LZMA compression, 652 MB - Fits on a 700MB CD.<br />MD5 check sum ; (osol-0811-93-global.iso) = d9138221bb7b7306c7b7356d0c578c51<br /><br />Forum post:<br />http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=258248#258248<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">~</span>.:: AuroraUX ::.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14669243369588912147noreply@blogger.com1