The default install of aptosid (formerly sidux) maps the windows key to compose (Multi_Key), which is used for entering special characters with key combinations. This drives me nuts, because (a) I use the windows key as a modifier for launching my most common applications and (b) I never need to enter the special characters. Today […]
Archive of posts filed under the Computers category.
simulating network delay in Linux
At work we are having a problem with OpenWRT, where daemons like wifidog and dnsmasq can’t get information about the wan network interface when they’re started if the wan uses DHCP and it takes too long to get a lease. I was having trouble reproducing the issue, so I decided to force some extra delay […]
Installing Python 2.6 in Sidux/Debian/Ubuntu
Install Build Requirements If you have the appropriate deb-src entries in your sources.list files, then you can do this: apt-get build-dep python2.5 Replace 2.5 with the default version in your distro. Unfortunatly in sidux this wanted to install emacs (NEVAR!!!!) and remove my password manager (the unstable repo has been changing rapidly since the new […]
Installing Python 2.6 in CentOS 5 (or RHEL5)
CentOS 5 uses python 2.4, and replacing it is not really on option since yum and other core packages depend on it. My solution is to compile 2.6 and use /opt or /usr/local for the prefix. I also create a virtualenv with the new python executable, so when I’m in the environment 2.6 becomes the […]
sidux kernel upgrade without dist-upgrade
Update: sidux is now called aptosid, updated package name. Debian “lenny” was released mid Feburary, and since then experimental packages have been making their way into sid much more quickly then usual. This makes dist-upgrade a bit dangerous, but kernel upgrades are not installed when doing a normal upgrade. Here’s a shell command I use […]
855GM tv-out not supported by new intel driver
I tried to connect my aging Inspiron 700m to my TV with S-Video, which has worked well in the past, only to discover that tv-out is no longer supported with the new intel driver (see this discussion at Ubuntu’s bug tracker ). And the old driver is no longer included in debian/ubuntu/sidux. I installed the […]
Multicast routing UPnP traffic with Linux
I use my Linux desktop, which has both wired and wireless network adapters, to connect my Xbox 360 to the wireless network. My wireless driver (rt73usb in 2.6.28) does not support source address spoofing, which is needed for bridging, so I used routing instead. This broke UPnP IGD port forwarding, which uses multicast and doesn’t […]
pulseaudio module-combine arguments
I installed pulseaudio 0.9.13 in sidux (from experimental), and discovered that the FAQ about sending playback to two devices simultaneously is out of date. The correct syntax is: load-module module-combine sink_name=combined slaves=output0,output1 i.e. the master argument is no longer used. I discovered this by looking at src/modules/module-combine.c: … PA_MODULE_USAGE( Â Â Â Â Â Â Â “sink_name=<name for the sink> ” […]
“How not to erase an old hard disk”, a new comedy by bda
The Cast: bda, veteran Linux user of 9+ years Dell Dimension P166, long time resident of basement storage unit Inspiron 700m laptop, secondary computer used regularly by bda bda – “I should get rid of this old P166. Maybe goodwill will accept it? But first I need to purge the disk”. P166 – silence bda […]
error: ‘malloc’ was not declared in this scope
Translation: You are a bad person and did not include stdlib.h. Older versions of gcc let you get away with this. Not so with 4.3. I had similar errors for strcmp when not including string.h. I got this trying to compile my thesis code on my laptop. The exact same code worked on my desktop, […]
