PPC iMac Network Fault

A PPC iMac was brought in and it was found that dhcp was not working (it wasn't receiving an IP address from the server).

It did work if the IP address was set manually. On further investigation it was found from the system logs that all dhcp requests were being denied. So the firewall was modified to allow dhcp requests and this fixed the problem.

Setup Gamepad in Ubuntu

The USB Gamepad was plugged in and the command dmesg
shows the following.

[74836.932026] usb 5-1: new low speed USB device number 3 using uhci_hcd
[74837.348311] input: GreenAsia Inc. USB Joystick as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input7
[74837.348529] pantherlord 0003:0E8F:0003.0004: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Joystick [GreenAsia Inc. USB Joystick ] on usb-0000:00:1d.3-1/input0
[74837.348540] pantherlord 0003:0E8F:0003.0004: Force feedback for PantherLord/GreenAsia devices by Anssi Hannula
[335187.792075] usb 5-1: USB disconnect, device number 3
[335190.016042] usb 5-1: new low speed USB device number 4 using uhci_hcd
[335190.219466] input: GreenAsia Inc. USB Joystick as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.3/usb5/5-1/5-1:1.0/input/input8
[335190.219646] pantherlord 0003:0E8F:0003.0005: input,hidraw3: USB HID v1.10 Joystick [GreenAsia Inc. USB Joystick ] on usb-0000:00:1d.3-1/input0
[335190.219657] pantherlord 0003:0E8F:0003.0005: Force feedback for PantherLord/GreenAsia devices by Anssi Hannula

The USB Devices were listed using lsusb giving the output

Bus 005 Device 004: ID 0e8f:0003 GreenAsia Inc. MaxFire Blaze2
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 045e:009d Microsoft Corp. Wireless Optical Desktop 3.0
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 045e:0023 Microsoft Corp. Trackball Optical
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:0840 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Express
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:0161 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Mass Storage Device
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 4971:ce17 SimpleTech 1TB SimpleDrive II USB External Hard Drive
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub


A soft-link has to set using sudo ln -s /dev/input/js1 /dev/js1

The gamepad is calibrated using sudo jscal -c /dev/js1

It is now ready for use.

Using Rsync

Some quick rsync examples

rsync -av /memstick/ /mymaindisk/
This will rsync the memstick directory to mymaindisk directory preserving all aspects of the files with the archive switch and the verbose switch will show whats happening.

rsync -avz /memdisk/ me@myserver:/backupdir/
This will do rsync over ssh rather than scp, using -a archive switch -z switch this signifies use compression over the link.

Ubuntu Server Screen Blank

Problem when rebooting Ubuntu 11.04 Server X86 after fresh install.
It caused the screen to be blank and a monitor message of overrange settings. This was traced to the setting of gfxmode=auto in the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.

Note: you have to boot Ubuntu into rescue mode using the media CD/DVD/Memory Stick you used to install the system with.
From the command prompt make the /boot/grub/grub.cfg writable using chmod +w /boot/grub/grub.cfg command.
Now edit the file using vim /boot/grub/grub.cfg command.

The settings that worked for me were as follows gfxmode=1024x768 and with an entry gfxplayload=keep added directly after the gfxmode line.
After editing hit esc key then type wq and then hit enter this will write the file and quit vim.

Now reboot your system and hope it works.

What a mucking around to fix this stupid fault.

Information Source I used