Monday - 28 February 2000
Linux and Win98. This post is a little late because I've been playing with Linux again. This time, rather than installing to a clean disk I decided to take a look at what was available as far as versions that can co-exist with Windows. By that I mean without having to create new partitions, load lilo, or any of the other things you usually do when you want to dual boot Linux and Win32.
I first checked in with module maven Brian "Mr. Linux" Bilbrey to see if he knew of any appropriate distributions. Brian mentioned that Red Hat 6.2 beta, Corel, and Caldera might work but that he hadn't tried them in that capacity yet. He kindly forwarded my request to Dave "Mr. O'Reilly" Farquhar (shameless plug: buy his book "Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics, & Multimedia" Right Now!) and he mentioned a link I had already been looking at. I reckoned that if he knew about this site, it must be a good starting point.
The site lists the various Linux distributions (see it here), including four that seemed to fit the bill. In alphabetical order they are: Armed Linux, Dragon Linux, Phat Linux, and WinLinux.
I had heard about WinLinux earlier and decided to try theirs first. Unfortunately, perhaps this is one of those times where if you don't hold your mouth just right it won't work but I could not download the whole file. It would get to a certain point, then stop. And then WS_ftp would just time out. It did this several times so I gave up on that.
I then took a look at Armed and Phat Linux. Both seemed to be pretty similar so I just flipped a coin and chose Phat Linux. Phat Linux is about 185MB zipped and requires about 685MB once uncompressed. It appears to create a virtual drive similar to how some disk compression and drive encryption programs work. Namely, as far as DOS is concerned, it just sees one huge file. But within that file lives the Linux system.
Anyway, all you have to do to get going is to unzip the
file into a directory (/phat), and then execute, from a DOS
prompt, the linux.bat file. The batch file has the
following lines:
loadlin vmlinuz initrd=ramdisk.gz mem=128M
echo Linux failed to load.
pause
And that's it. Presto Chango, and you are logging into Linux! Amazing. Of course, nothing involving Linux is that easy. I did have problems with the configuration of the X server. It did not like my MS Mouse (MS Explorer) but once that was cleared up KDE started up just fine.
The big problem I'm working on now is to either find a version of Linux which supports IBM PCI Token-Ring network interface cards, which is what we use here (this being a true blue IBM shop), or how to patch the 2.2.9 kernel I'm using now. More as I learn more.
***** Noon Update *****
Armed Penguins. OK, as in the last time I played with Linux, one of the big stumbling blocks is a total lack of support for IBM PCI token-ring network adapters. And since we aren't about to switch hundreds of people over from token-ring to Ethernet any time soon, support is required.
I found a site (located here) that had a patch file for the IBM Olympic chip set (PCI). So I copied the file into the following directory I had created: /usr/src/patches/token/directory, then changed directory into /usr/src/linux and executed the patch command: patch -p1 < /usr/src/patches/token/patch.txt. Then it was make config, make dep, make clean, and make bzImage. I then copied the resulting file from usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/ to my mount point for my DOS files /dos/phat. Once there, rename vmlinuz to vmlinuz.old and rename bzImage to vmlinuz.
Do a shutdown, reboot, and running the batch file to start Linux indicated that the patch had worked. But, communications with the token-ring card was still not working. I got the following:
PCI: Enabling bus mastering for device 00:70
Olympic.c v0.2.0 6/8/99
tr0: IBM PCI tokenring card. I/O @ 5800, MMIO @ 00000000, LAP at 00000000, using irq0.
IBM PCI tokenring card not responding.
Sigh. As far as I know, IRQ0 is reserved for the system timer. You do not want to use IRQ0. In windows, IRQ10 is being used. However, I know of no way to configure the driver/kernel/Linux such that a particular IRQ is used. This is a Bad Thing.
And given the email I had gotten earlier from Dave Farquhar (below), I decided to give up on this distribution and try to find a newer distribution or a Madge NIC in the hopes that it would have better support for token-ring adapters.
----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Farquhar [dfarq@swbell.net]
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Sunday, February 27, 2000 5:08 PM
Subject: Re: Phat Linux and WindowsToken Ring on Linux with an IBM PCI card? Good luck. IBM regards Token Ring as an illegitimate child these days, unfortunately. Great technology, coulda woulda shoulda been a contenda, but they're not very interested in it. (Unlike Intel's Not-Invented-Here syndrome, IBM seems to have an Invented-Here syndrome.)
You'll probably be better off talking to Madge, frankly. Madge is much more interested in keeping Token Ring alive and providing drivers for OSs that people actually use. Fortunately, their cards are less expensive than IBM's. I think their low-end card runs 70 bucks.
<snip>
But thanks for reminding me that someone else might be interested in Linux on Token Ring. My previous employer was a Token Ring shop. My current employer makes weird hand gestures at me any time I mention anything that smacks of Big Blue, but I still remember the technology fondly. I'd run Token Ring at home if I ran across a cache of cards and a MAU for the right price.
Dave
So, I am now downloading the Armed version of Linux. It will take about two hours to do so (as it did for phatlinux). As soon as I get that loaded and running I will let you know how it works.
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 29 February 2000
Broken Windows. This morning, when I turned on my PC I was greeted with an error message saying Windows could not find NIOS.vxd. Thus began three hours of frustration which has still not ended. So far, I have formated my C: drive and am still rebuilding things. As such, there will be very little in this post whilst I regroup.
I would like to congratulate and welcome Tom Syroid back to the land of the living. He's been working on finishing his latest book. And a good one I'm sure it will be. Please check out his page. Thanks.
Aloha!
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Hump Day Wednesday - 1 March 2000
Over the Hump. OK, my PC is about 90% back to what it was before. I do not know why Windows blew up. It had been acting strangely for about a week or two. By that I mean disk I/O slowed to a crawl. Strange error messages about insufficient SPs. Random GPFs of kernel32. And, when I went to reload Win98SE, it said that there appeared to be a disk compression program installed and therefore it would not install.
I assume this last error is related to my earlier experiments with PhatLinux. To recap, PhatLinux appears to use a system similar to what disk compression programs use to create a virtual drive that lives in one huge file. As far as DOS is concerned, it's just another file. But within that file, PhatLinux lives in its own partition. I tried deleting the directory and then re-installing Win98 but it still gave the same error. The last thing I tried was doing a fdisk /mbr. But that didn't work either. So, I ended up formating my C: drive. Fortunately, all of my data resides on D: and, as a backup, on one of our Novell network volumes. Still, I had to reload all of my current applications. Which, for the most part, I've done.
Even though PhatLinux probably didn't cause the root problem (pun intended), it made it more difficult to recover. So, I don't think I'll play with it anymore.
Onward and Upward. Mililani Trask, Office of Hawai'ian Affairs Trustee, is calling for acts of civil disobedience in the form of sit-ins/marches to close down the airports and harbors. I should note that Trask is perhaps the most, how should I put it, outspoken, of the trustees. I doubt most people will listen to her but I thought it would be interesting to note what she is saying. But then again, maybe not.
Merge This. Cap Gemini SA announced agreement to acquire Ernst & Young's consulting business for a reported $11.1 billion USD in cash and stock. Cap Gemini is Europe's biggest computer services company.
Over and Almost Out. Race four of the best of nine America's Cup yachting race ended the same way the first three did. New Zealand comfortably ahead. Today's race (HST) could close the series out if the Kiwi's Black Magic wins.
Oh. By the way. The Lakers beat the Trail Blazers, 90-87 to take sole possession of first place in the National Basketball League. Sorry Doc.
Aloha!
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Thursday - 2 March 2000
Virtual Dan. I'm not here right now. Actually, I am but I'm busy re-formatting the hard drive. Again. It seems that nios.vxd is corrupted. Again. Why? I don't know. But it seemed to happen as soon as a single parameter was changed in network properties (receive buffer size). Trying to restore the file or to re-install Novell Client32 did not help. NIOS.vxd stays corrupted. At least according to bootlog.txt.
By the way, nios.vxd is a Novell file that stands for Netware I/O Subsystem for Windows95. I have version 2.02 (991119), which came with Novell's Client32 ver. 3.20. As the name seems to imply, it handles, among other things, disk I/O. Which may explain why my disk access slowed down so much. But then, being Novell gurus (like John Doucette ;), you knew that already.
So. I'm busy re-formatting and will load the MS Netware Client and NDS support service instead of the Novell client. I hope, if nothing else, this will cure the nios.vxd problem. CU:=stupid.novell.kill.kill
Sorry I haven't been able to post much but the dog ate my re-director.
***** Noon Update *****
Back in the Saddle. No. Not me (well, almost). Tom "Mr. O'reilly" Syroid, who just finished one book, is now signed (or is it resigned) to writing another. This one on MS FrontPage. Sheesh, Tom. Give some other guys a break why don't you? <g>
Strong Magic. The 1999-2000 edition of the America's Cup Race came to a conclusion yesterday with New Zealand's "Black Magic" trouncing Italy's "Luna Rossa" by 48 seconds to end with a 5 to nil record. An amazaing defense by the Kiwis and a hearty 'well done' to their team.
----- Original Message -----
From: Don Armstrong
To: Dan Seto
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 2:22 AM
Subject: KiwisWell, it's nice to see the Kiwi's win something recently, even if they had to contest with the Italians to do it (five-nil in a best of nine to retain the America's Cup). The inferiority complex New Zealanders were displaying every time they met an Australian was becoming a little wearing.
Best wishes, Don Armstrong
From: Dan Seto
To: Don Armstrong
Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: KiwisThis is true. Although this takes nothing away from their lop-sided wins against Luna Rossa. The Kiwi's team, boat, and entire organization are all well done. They should be proud of their achievement.
Really Hot Mail. A while back, I noted that I was using a digital certificate to verify who I was when I sent email. I note this because from at least that time, someone had apparently hacked into the server of the company (9netave.com) that used to host this site and set-up multiple email accounts. All with my domain name. That is, for example, bob@seto.org and jane@seto.org. I suspected this, but did not have any proof until now (although I notified 9netave of my suspicions at the time).
When I moved over to pair.com, I began to get these bogus emails to my mailbox since pair funnels all email to one box. At that point, it became clear that several people had been using my domain for some time. I'm saying this now because I think the person, or persons, who originally broke in is finally aware that I (and 9netave) is aware of what they did. Whether they were the source of the recent dDOS attack on pair.com is unknown at this time. But we live in spooky times. And if you think it can't happen to you, think again.
Aloha!
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Aloha Friday - 3 March 2000
Happy Hina Matsuri Day Everyone! Part of living in Hawai'i is accepting and celebrating the cultural traditions of others. In this case, we are celebrating Girl's Day, or perhaps as is it is more properly known, Doll Festival. A Japanese tradition dating back to the Edo period of 1603. Those Japanese sure know how to keep traditions alive. See the story here (note that this is on a server in Japan and may take awhile to load).
Optimizing Windows, The Brute Force Way. Hmmm. Brute Force. Sounds like a character in an Arnold movie. But I digress. While I do not think everyone should take such drastic action as to reformat their drive every six months or so, it sure does help to speed things up under Windows. Yes, for those who do not wish to do so, you can and should run to your local book store and buy Dave Farquhar's "Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics & Multimedia" O'reilly, ISBN 1-56592-677-3. But for the rest of us, perhaps a little revolution is a good thing.
In any case, Windows runs much more crisply then it used to on my Dell OptiPlex GX1 PII 333Mhz. Even shut down works consistently, which it didn't do before. Screen redraws are faster. Disk access is faster. Everything is faster. And more stable. Perhaps, many of the problems attributed to Windows are actually caused by the applications that we load on top of it?
Bambino Talk. The LA Times is reporting that the mayor of Cerosomo, a small (pop. 864) town in southern Italy, is offering a $2,500 bonus to those families who have children this year. The Times reports that; "Italy's birth rate has dropped to among the lowest in Europe, in part because Italians increasingly are trimming family size to fit incomes. The drop is projected to cut Italy's population from 57 million to 41 million in the next 50 years." See the story here [sorry - link is no longer active].
Man Bites Dog. Well, OK. Not really. In what is being described as "road rage", a man in San Jose, California is reported to have; "grabbed a lap dog from another car and hurled it into oncoming traffic, killing the beloved family pet." The story here.
Black Magic II. This in from Don Armstrong in Australia (who seems to have had email problems yesterday):
To: Dan Seto
From: Don Armstrong [darmst@yahoo.com.au]
Subject: Kiwis
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 22:54:13 +1100 (EST)You said "The Kiwi's team, boat, and entire organization are all well done. They should be proud of their achievement."
Agreed. Although they didn't actually HAVE to WIN - the Italians consistently made mistakes you wouldn't expect even from me - and I'm not a sailor.
My father-out-law played a significant part in modeling the hulls for earlier NZ challengers, and I had the opportunity to see how seriously and thoroughly professionally Kiwis approach yacht design and construction in general, and the America's Cup in particular. As said, I am not a sailor; but I can recognize good use of computing, effective use of technology and science, and sheer pride of workmanship when I see it.
Of course, we Australians enjoy our trans-Tasman gibes whenever we have reason for it - although I feel the laughter may be a little strained from the other side of the ditch. New Zealand generally has something they can point to where they excel, but recently every sport which they and Australia have contested has gone against them. Well, I'll quietly ignore what happened to the Australian challenge bid this time, I'll let the Kiwis have their moment of glory, and I won't even point out that it took an Australian team to wrest the Auld Mug from the USA in the first place - particularly since we had to gaol the financier of our winning team for corporate fraud not too many years later. I'd say he was following good Australian traditions if he hadn't been born in England.
Regards, Don Armstrong
And then this from my friend John Doucette on my problems with the Novell Client32:
From: John Doucette [John.Doucette@telus.com]
To: Dan Seto
Subject: nios.vxd
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 13:16:22 -0700Hi Dan
Are you changing the receive buffer size manually or is the install of Client 32 changing it?
I have been trying to do some research for you but am not finding much on the Novell web site. The only references to nios.vxd I can find are in relation to clients for DOS and Windows 3.1.
Novell clients are strange birds. You never want to be the first to try the latest version as the new versions are typically buggy to the point of being counter productive.
"Perhaps, many of the problems attributed to Windows are actually caused by the applications that we load on top of it?" I agree. A fresh bare bones Windows install almost always runs well. Add some apps and the system slows. I attribute this mostly the registry grows when are added. I read up on the supreme court rulings as you suggested. Not easy reading but very informative.
John
From: Dan Seto
To: John Doucette
Subject: Re: nios.vxd
Date: Fri, 3 Mar 2000 11:57:30 -1000Hey John,
Thanks for doing some investigate work for me on the Novell stuff. I too looked at the Novell site trying to figure out why nios.vxd was blowing Windows out of the water and why over-writing the old file with a fresh one from the Client32 download did not help. All I could do is scratch my head and do the re-format and re-install. Even then, I decided not to use the Novell client. I switched to the MS re-director and it seems to be running fine (famous last words).
1. As far as changing the buffer. That was done, manually, under the direction of our Novell SysAdmin, in Windows in the Properties/Advanced Tab for the IBM PCI Token-Ring Adapter. That was the only change made. However, whatever contributed to Windows falling over was probably extent before the change. The change itself seems only to have been the straw that broke the camels back. Sigh.
2. And as far as new software being buggy. Sheesh. No kidding. People say MS sells buggy software. They should take a look at Novell. Especially their Win Clients. Big Sigh.
3. And finally, thanks for reading the US Supreme court opinion on the Rice v. Cayetano case (Office of Hawai'ian Affairs Elections Invalid). As I said before, I don't expect everyone to agree that Hawai'ians should be able to vote for our own trustees. But if you are trying to fully understand why this process was there in the first place, you have to understand the history of these islands. I am glad you took the time to get at least a short primer on our history. Perhaps it helps in understanding what is going on. Perhaps not.
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.