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haas:status:status_201210

<html><center></html>STATUS updates<html></center></html>

TODO

  • the formular plugin is giving me errors, need to figure this out (email assignment form)
  • update grade not-z scripts to handle/be aware of winter terms
  • update system page for (new)www
  • redo DSLAB tweedledee/tweedledum with squeeze rebuilt tweedledee, tweedledum on the way
    • rebuild DSLAB www, irc, auth as squeeze VMs
  • load balance/replicate www/wiki content between LAIR and DSLAB
  • adapt LAIR irc and lab46 to use self-contained kernels (how to do this?)
  • update system page for db
  • migrate nfs1/nfs2 system page to current wiki
  • update nfs1/nfs2 to squeeze
  • flake* multiseat page

URLs

Other Days

October 19th, 2012

serial rescue of alix box

So I wanted to move the default ethernet port to vr2 (from vr0)… I ended up losing contact with the machine and didn't want to reboot it.

Out came I'd also like to thank my wonderful girlfriend- she has supported me completely through this whole thing. My adaptation pal Blake, who was on SPAMAYL for quite a while (and is planning on returning to polysleep) is the reason I got so far on Uberman, and he was definitely a huge help.

Here are things that contributethe USB/serial adaptor.

Only trouble- cable wasn't long enough to reach my iMac, so I tried it on the Air. For whatever reason, Prolific drivers are NOT included on OS X… a familiar recollection from as far back as Tiger.

After attempting to install drivers (apparently Plugable has modern, ie Lion/Mountain Lion drivers) and enduring a kernel panic, I decided to use a much better tool for the job- OpenBSD. So on a new VM it went.

Passed the USB device through to the VM, and at the OpenBSD command-line:

$ sudo cu -l ttyU0

bam! Console access. cu is my new favorite terminal program… so much easier than minicom… not sure why I have always avoided it in the past.

At any rate– all it needed was a reboot and it came up fine.

setting dvorak on OpenBSD install

As it turns out– when it c omes to keybroad layouts during the OpenBSD install, specify “us.dvorak” to get DVORAK-y goodness.

Useful link:

October 14th, 2012

Zeo hacking

Back on the 2nd, I got my hands on a Zeo Sleep Manager, which is a consumer EEG device for monitoring sleep patterns. I've been playing with it ever since, and finally in the last few days have gotten around to getting ready for phase 2 of Zeo hacking: reading the data raw off the device.

For this I am going to use my alix box as in intermediary (low power, quiet, out of the way)… which as of yesterday sports a fresh install of OpenBSD 5.1 on its solid state card.

Updated the firmware this morning without a hitch (if the zeo.img isn't in the right place, it TELLS you the path it expects- perfect)– incidentally, you need to put zeo.img IN the ZEO/ directory. Then navigate to the appropriate menu option and apply it. I also cleared the SD card, as recommended.

Then, following the instructions on this page: http://www.sleepstreamonline.com/rdl/starting.html

I hacked up the suggested cable to be pin compatible with the zeo (I broke one of the plastic tabs, but it was my first time and a learning experience).. hopefully the rig remains rather stationary so this won't be a problem.

Got everything taped up and plugged in.. and finally got around to sourcing an ethernet cable long enough. Powered it on, and it came up without a hitch.

And then, according to this link: http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20070207152423

The device I want is /dev/ttyU0, as it did detect the device.

So now it is just a matter of generating some data and seeing what happens. I'd like to, for starters, just start storing all the raw data, perhaps correlating the raw data against the official Zeo data so I can be reasonably assured I'm receiving and parsing it correctly, and then perhaps start generating my own pretty graphs and looking for whatever trends of the day I might be interested in.

Other nifty links:

October 13th, 2012

alix OpenBSD install

I installed OpenBSD 5.1 on the alix box… noticed the power connector is loose– pretty much touching it causes the machine to reboot. Not sure if it is just the plug, the connector as soldered onto the board, or what. Hopefully it won't be a problem as I intend for the machine to be out of the way.

October 2nd, 2012

gimmeh assessmess

The gimmeh assessmess functionality is mentally approaching actual implementation. Excited to potentially get that out of the way.

October 1st, 2012

OPUS Part 2

New month, new OPUS part to roll out. My mkopus script seemed to work fine. I even rolled out a modification that has it pulling any selected OPUS keyword (via gimmeh) from the user's appropriate data file and inserts it inline into the document.

Now all I need to do is route out the permissions problems in gimmeh with respect to keyword selection, and we should be good to go!

gimmeh enhancements

gimmeh now supports multiple choice questions, and I applied some group/permission logic that may fix the issues we've been having with keyword selection (dunno if fixed yet).

Neat new command of the day: sg (switch group, in the same vein as su). Seems to handle my group switching needs just fine, AND doesn't seem to ask for a password (guess there's no need if it sees you are a member).

This should see cleaner operations, and I may migrate the group stuff over to the tmp files as well, since occasionally I will see a stale file unable to be removed for some strange reason.

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haas/status/status_201210.txt · Last modified: 2012/11/01 01:12 by 127.0.0.1