• update grade not-z scripts to handle/be aware of winter terms
• update system page for (new)www
• scripts to write:
  • user homedir backup pruning script
  • deploy studentlistcreate as a cron job once again
  • machine backup pruning script
  • status page monthly cycle script
  • revive gimmeh script, now that text access seems possible
• manual pages to write:
  • lab46 usage tutorial
    • include mercurial repository checkout info
    • include irc class chat tutorial
  • data structures, sll/dll library functions as their own manual pages

Some links of interest:

• LLVM
• GLglobe
• Heavens Above
• http://wiki.debian.org/kristian_jerpetjoen
• http://www.webupd8.org/2010/11/alternative-to-200-lines-kernel-patch.html
• http://myproxylists.com/nix-brute-force
• My Plan9 Documentation page
• The Sokraits/Halfadder System Documentation page
• http://www.egghelp.org/commands/channels.htm
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/470617/get-current-date-and-time-in-php
• http://www.rjsystems.nl/en/2100.php
• BitSavers
• Time Zone HTML5 app
• http://toic.org/2009/01/18/reverse-ssh-port-forwarding/
• Divergent Thinking
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_thinking
  • http://faculty.washington.edu/ezent/imdt.htm
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/QemuEmulator
• Socket Programming
  • http://www.linuxhowtos.org/C_C++/socket.htm
  • http://www.few.vu.nl/~jms/socket-info.html
  • http://www.lowtek.com/sockets/
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module40.html
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module42.html
  • http://www.tenouk.com/Module43a.html
• ALIX
  • http://markshroyer.com/guides/router/
  • http://markshroyer.com/2010/12/openbsd-alix-via-ubuntu/
  • http://www.martinmellor.com/freebies/pinouts/IDE44_2_5_pinout.htm (IDE 44-pin pin-out)
• BeagleBoard
  • http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardDebian
• Xen
  • http://www.tumfatig.net/20110125/running-openbsd-on-xen/ (OpenBSD HVM)
  • https://wiki.debian.org/Xen
• http://www.mydigitallife.info/fix-gmail-imap-invalid-credentials-or-web-login-requires-failure-error/
• http://manoharvanga.com/hackme/
• http://chneukirchen.github.com/sabotage/
• http://www.linusakesson.net/programming/pipelogic/index.php
• Free Data Structures eBook: http://dotnetslackers.com/Community/files/folders/data-structures-and-algorithms/entry30283.aspx
• Polyphasic Sleep and Napping
  • http://priceonomics.com/the-nasa-studies-on-napping/
  • http://www.opinionspost.com/longevity-greek-island-way/
  • http://io9.com/the-science-behind-power-naps-and-why-theyre-so-damne-1401366016
• Brain Hacks
  • http://www.cracked.com/article_20166_5-brain-hacks-that-give-you-mind-blowing-powers.html?wa_user1=4&wa_user2=Science&wa_user3=article&wa_user4=recommended
• BASH sockets
  • http://hacktux.com/bash/socket
  • http://terminallinux.org/p/69/
• Debian Jessie daily builds (June 25th): http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/amd64/20140625-00:18/netboot/gtk/debian-installer/amd64/
• NFSv4: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NFSv4Howto
• Nettle/libhogweed crypto: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/nettle/nettle.html#Example
• Debian RAMdisks: http://reboot.pro/topic/14547-linux-load-your-root-partition-to-ram-and-boot-it/
• Zeo
  • https://forum.quantifiedself.com/showthread.php?tid=1421
  • http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t98659/New-Zeo-Sleep-Monitor-for-Bedside-Units.html
  • https://github.com/zeoeng/zeo-android-api
  • http://eric-blue.com/2013/06/09/life-beyond-zeo/
• rxvt / .Xresources
  • http://www.askapache.com/linux/rxvt-xresources.html

Aside from an attempt at restarting my status-reporting habits in January of 2017, I totally neglected it for the remainder of the year.

So here we go, attempting another go. Will we be successful?

In other recent projects, I encountered some useful configuration options to improve performance, and avoid some anti-longevity side-effects of default settings.

I ended up taking a Debian USB installer, booting each pod in rescue mode, getting to a prompt, and running the following on EACH:

# umount /
# tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/sda1
# tune2fs -o discard /dev/sda1

Then on the master nodes, I enhanced both /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.local as follows:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>         <dump>  <pass>
/dev/sda1       /               ext4    noatime,nodiratime,discard,commit=600,errors=remount-ro 0       1
tmpfs           /tmp            tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs           /var/log        tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs           /var/spool      tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs           /var/tmp        tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

Note how I put the log files in RAM too (on the pods)… this should greatly reduce extraneous writes.

Then at the bottom of /etc/rc.local, I added:

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
IPADDR=
while [ -z "${IPADDR}" ]; do
        IPADDR=`/usr/local/bin/iface | /bin/grep -v 'lo' | /usr/bin/head | /usr/bin/cut -d' ' -f2`
        sleep 1
done
/bin/hostname `/usr/bin/host ${IPADDR} | /usr/bin/cut -d' ' -f5 | /bin/sed s/\.$//`
/usr/bin/host ${IPADDR} | /usr/bin/cut -d' ' -f5 | /bin/sed s/\.$//  > /etc/hostname
echo "${IPADDR}    `cat /etc/hostname`"                              > /etc/hosts
echo "127.0.0.1    localhost"                                       >> /etc/hosts
echo "10.80.2.46   lab46.g7n.org lab46.corning-cc.edu"              >> /etc/hosts

echo deadline > /sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler
echo 1 > /sys/block/sda/queue/iosched/fifo_batch

exit 0

As the deadline scheduler has frequent mention of usage with SSDs.

Useful URLs:

• https://github.com/alghanmi/ubuntu-desktop_setup/wiki/SSD-Configuration-on-Linux
• https://www.howtogeek.com/62761/how-to-tweak-your-ssd-in-ubuntu-for-better-performance/
• https://wiki.debian.org/SSDOptimization

With the pods having seen their SSD updates, I am looking to do the same for lab46too, testing to make sure the similar changes can be applied to that machine before rolling them over to lab46 proper.

I've updated the /etc/fstab and /etc/rc.local files accordingly on lab46, so those changes have been synced over to lab46too on a recent rsync run.

I had to remove the commit=600 from the /home partition. For some reason it didn't want to mount with that.