31st october 1998
Wrote a script to do root mirroring on demand for the FFM
server.
This one includes redundancy in case of usage failures or
even
complete crash of the first harddrive. The second part
mirrors
the home, usr and var areas to set up a fully functional
webserver
with the most recent data in case of an emergency due to
drive
failure of the main data harddisk.
I think this way is much better than the current raid-1
option.
Heard from Computrclub on WDR that they’ll set up a cluster
of
300 Linux machines and will report live all the night from
december 5th to 6th. So stay tuned. Live on the internet.
30th october 1998
Had some AIX trouble at work, where the ulimit says unlimited
and
an uncompress to an archived +2GB file says ulimit reached.
Maybe its just uncompress itself, that can only handle files
smaller
2GB. How boring…..
Prepared SSA harddisk drives for installing on tomorrow.
Kept looking for a tool to easy created an interactively
update
HTML pages, through a browser page itself and groups or users
should be support with read only and write access. Any proposes
?
Reactivated the CD-ROM drive of my fathers computer, which
hasn’t
been turned on for a half year now. (Meanwhile it may happen,
that
Win95 forgets its hardware settings and drivers…????) 
Played with Tom a few rounds of “You don’t know Jack !”
29th october 1998
Installed a netware 4.1 server at work to catch all the
NOT-LOGGED-IN
connections of the whole campus produced by our NT machines
because
of a failure in the old intranetware client 4.11(+a).
Met with Gerd and had japanese sushi dinner at Munichs Enshu.
Spent the rest of the night at the “Vogler Bar” where Lutz is
giving
a boogie piano gig. Met there with Karl and everyone of us played
a
short boogie medley. (I hate that cold
wheater….fingerfreezer…)
28th october 1998
Wrote to Novell to ask for any suggestions on making our
netware
server as fast as possible including software and OS updates
as
well as for any cost.
Discovered a giant archive of MP3s at work. Urgently need
something
to store all the files. It’s growing day for day, almost
scaring.
A 650 MB CD-ROM cannot be the final solution. Also DVD-RAM
seems
to be dying because of its low dimensioned capacity.
Installed Gimp on NT4, if you delete the script-fu part it’ll
work. Not fast and sometimes very odd in graphics redraw, but
it
works. Maybe this will force Adobe to lower prices for PS5.
Experimented with some new diary styles, but after showing
the
first results to some colleagues and reviewing the extended
code
I decided to live with the old style layout.
Copied the whole mailbox and a few archives of japanese
programs
into the FFM servers ftp area. As long as locally possible.
Lutz is playing boogie tomorrow evening so I’ve to go there.
Hey Karl, Reyk, Babsi and Gerd would you like to join ?
27th october 1998
Had a big meeting at work today. Although we gave the
responsible
persons many different solutions, they wont accept anything
that
fixes problems finally. Instead they’re giving up more and
more
of the fine features. And IMHO it’s simply unfair to compete
with
a netware 4 750 user ppro200 machine against a 100 user p2/350 NT
4.
I regret it not being allowed to give them a linux samba machine
on
a p133. Maybe death rate of NT admins would increase to
much…
Made big plans how to increase performance of a netware 4
server
updating several hardware and software components.
Installed a scsi tape drive and made backups from my mailbox
and
the FFM server. Can’t remember how to store only files from
within
a list, so I discovered “taper”. Hey, what’s tar, doc ?
Got a big problem solved.
It’s not easy to rsync a big directory tree when you
configure
a module for /home/ftp/ab and try to search the files in
/home/ab.
8-)) (This costs me two weeks of my life.)
Now the backups have to be remade….. grrrrr….
I forgot to mention that I discovered autoexpect about three days
ago.
It’s like a macro recorder which makes it very easy to cron
file
transfers and telnet sessions….
(Take a look at it ! The output is a fully functional expect
script.)
26th october 1998
What a day of horror today. Arrived at work and instantly
joined
a group of six other technicians to fix some serious problems
on
our new fast-ethernet migrated secondary network.
Most of the NT machines showed up blue screen after about 10
minutes
running. Switch to switch connectivity was ok, but every
connection
from a PC to its default gateway had about 40 pc misses.
Wow…..
And a third failure seems to be a problem on the UPS power
line.
If two lasers heat up at the same time, some of the newer
ATX-PCs
showed “Out of scan range” monitor messages because of the
graphics
adapter failed to work immediately.
Now think again what would happen if we would use cheaper
monitors.
Blast away…. )))))))))))))))
Have to install a fan on the 4 GB harddisk of the FFM server
because
it heats up much too high. Ouch.
BTW: Aussies would call them Barramundi harddisks ))))))))))
25th october 1998
My parents arrived early morning 5:40 AM directly from Kuala
Lumpur,
so I got to get up much to early for a sunday morning.
Uahh…
Much stories from my parents to listen to…
24th october 1998
Bought 128MB memory for the FFM server, installed it and rerun
lilo
with the memory option. Time that they add automatic memory
detection
for more than 64MB main memory in the next Linux kernel.
Updated the FFM page. Hey Gerd, would you recalculate costs ?
One of my colleagues had panic at work, since he discovered
that
no one has joined him to track the secondary network
problems.
I’m sorry, but today is the big meeting with my old school
friends.
First time, I saw that crazy Beatles movie “Yeah, yeah, yeah” on
TV.
Looks like the male version of “Spice World”.
23rd october 1998
Reached place 3500 at RC5 statistics. But I’m sure I’ll fall in
the
next estimated 20 years… )))))
RC5 64-bit encryption seems to be enough for this century.
Tried to get RSync running when copying many files to the
server
but yet I don’t know how to automaticaly create the neede
directory
branch structure.
Wrote the FFM admin kernel howtos using m4 macro language for
design changes.
Hey Gerd: please upload me the m4 for NT. Thx.
Again much trouble at work, this time most of our bigger
secondary
networks, experienced heavy load problems on routers and
switches.
And additionally they wont upgrade their 1500 intranetware
clients,
which at the moment is only a fourth of all planned NT
workstations.
ts, ts, ts… You know most people are lazy, but those are
really
stupid ones. You want support ? If so, do it, and don’t ask,
or move over to Linux, finally.
Gone for chinese dinner together with Gerd and finished the
evening
with a cool Guinness. (It seems I found someone to translate all
the
boogie text stuff, I never had time for.)
22nd october 1998
Installed GNOME 0.30 completely with all the newest packages
available. Had absolutely no problems uninstalling the old
GNOME
core, libs, gtk, glib etc. Really good work !!!!!!!!!
(For those of you doing the same: Be informed to install the
glib and gtk compatibility versions (gtk+10 and glib10)
before,
and the developement versions 1.1.x after.)
Found the solution how to get rid of the NOT-LOGGED-IN
connections
on our Netware 3.x and 4.x servers when using NT clients on
the
same network. (Hey that will be much fun to upgrade the
intranetware
clients on all NT machines installed to version 4.2)
Made MP3s of four older CDs on NT 4. Hell, they’d never heard
of
process priority and correct memory management, I guess.
Ever tried to remove a CDROM when NT is under heavy load ?
After load goes back to normal the explorer refuses to do
anything
before you put back the SAME CD into the drive.
Of course you can feel free to reboot your machine to solve this.
)))
Got invited for roastbeef dinner by my uncle and aunt. Thanks,
yummie !
Finally got my Skokiann by Louis Armstrong (+6min version) from
my
uncle. (Just know, whom to ask.)
21st october 1998
And again, tons of stuff to do at work. Had to restore 160 MB
file structures with ADSM, but server load and stone old
tapes
made it a real horror trip. (Did I mention users, which can’t
wait ’til it’s all done. So I earned some nice file locks.)
It seems that no one was delighted of working this morning,
when I arrived at highnoon.
Collected almost all available images of didgeridoos on the
net
to set up a new personal didge homepage. Since someone ask me
for that yesterday.
Wrote two new admin howtos for www.stun.de.
Using Rsync and Secure Shell.
20th october 1998
Tried to configure telnet forwarding via ssh to the FFM
server,
but this looks like there are some tricks needed.
At work they told me that the server crashed two times after
our
big work. But IMHO this will be another mans problem.
As far as I can say, the server is up and running from that
minute
on when I walked through the door this morning. You know.
God loves some people.
Maybe because of the bible. (Linux in a nutshell, you remember
???)
Installed new harddisks on a netware server and did some
profiling.
Wrote a really cool HTML page, where you can have an overview
of
all german TV stations at once. )) Pretty cool, this is something
for FFM (http://andys.stun.de/tv)
Played around with some Winamp audio plugins.
Hey Azzurro speeded up to 50 pc could be the next chartbreaker.
I’ll look forward to mix a new techno version of it. Be
tensed…
19th october 1998
Finished the server reconstruction early 5 AM in the
morning….
Damn, we’re now working for 21 hours. Mad, really mad…..
Now it’s urgently time to get some sleep.
18th october 1998
Started rearranging Netware volumes on our big 4.1 server
together with Cetin early morning at 8:30 AM.
We expected to have everything done at latest 8 PM, but
our estimated schedule differs more and more…
Never trust a schedule….
17th october 1998
Installed and tested around the RSync-Server on the FFM
machine,
which still resides in Munich. Hey Reyk what’s fact ???
Did some Chinese cooking with Tom at his new apartment.
Will have to work tomorrow….
16th october 1998
Did some documentation of new AIX systems and a run around
hunting
for the serial numbers of all AIX storage sub systems.
Spent the rest of the day at Birgit’s birthday party.
15th october 1998
Hey I’m on place 3600 with RC5. Not bad for an individual.
Had some (human) trouble at work, sometimes they drive me mad.
8-(=)
Got another two job announcements for web page design.
Thanks, but first of all, I even got no time to update my own
pages
and second, I regret your ignorance for all the really cool
web sites around. Maybe later when I reached that level too.
(Wait for my new boogie pages…)
A propos boogie pages:
My scanner is still inactive, so you all have to wait for the
new
pictures you sent to me. (It’s more a problem of space on my
desk
to put the scanner in range of the computer.)
I also need a solution for my 300 CDs, maybe someone make me a
gift?
A 500 disk changer should be ok for the beginning.
14th october 1998
Met with IBM for AIX hardware support. Hey those guys are lightning
fast.
Installed the 4 GB harddisk on the FFM server and moved some
filesystems.
Works great, absolutely no problems, also the mirror copy of the
whole
root partition disk. So we now can boot from the second disk, just
in case.
Hey, I got innd working as news-server. Great ! Subscribing,
posting
and reading with Netscape. Pretty cool.
My ISP is again unreachable…. hey guys don’t go on with that, I
don’t
want to move again that soon.
13th october 1998
HACMP now works again after some praying, but the lf-terminal
is defect. Will met with IBM on thursday.
Installed Winamp 2.03 at work, hey who needs that CD-Audio drivers
????
Instead use the whole space on CD for MP3’s )))))))
Deinstalled my future network cupboard for soon transport next week
or so.
Discovered how to install stable and unstable code libraries for
use
at the same time. (I hope that works also on the next stable
version update.)
Gerd is hopefully working on the FFM password rotation
concept.
Invited my uncle and aunt to japanese dinner. Very delicious…
12th october 1998
HACMP trouble on an AIX cluster….huahhhh, not my day.
Introduced Alex into real web-chat, not just company-wide.
Maybe she’ll manage IRC someday. I’m working on it !
Gerd still has trouble connecting via PPP to the FFM-server
but I’m sure not for long, cause it’s moving on saturday.
We’ll discuss that this evening with some Guinness at Shans.
11th october 1998
Studied the new c’t magazine. And seen a documentation on TV
how to easy implementing structures of real AI to machines.
Hey that looks like a new project to me:
Simple, cheap and fascinating(c)Spock.
Tried to recompile BeRo-FTPD for use with shadow passwords
and
statistics. But suddenly everything seems broken. ???
First compilation was without any problems, I thougth…
10th october 1998
Bought a new videorecorder. Hey this one has some really nice
features like synchronizing the channles from my TV and
indexing
videotapes via videotext onto special chiplabels.
Hey that works great, but I’m missing RS232 and /dev/sony-vcr0 ?
9th october 1998
Had much trouble at work, lots of network problems.
Did some buffer tuning on 14 Cisco routers, much work….
8th october 1998
Some new AIX problems. 9 GB disks on 4 GB volume groups with 4
MB
PP size. Hmm….
Installed my japanese word processor and dictionary tools on
my
new machine at work. Hey that works…. Kanji, Kata-,
Hiragana….
Met with Tom at Shanannigans.
7th october 1998
L0pht has done it’s work Only 13 hours )))))))))
Now, everything works and gets installed.
Again did some code tracing on the Newbridge software, after
some
of the newest patches have found their way into the machine.
I hate those script writers and environment exporters.
Encountered some obscure sendmail failure messages when emailing
to
unknown users. Somehow the whole process did some funny
things.
Had dinner at my preferred Chinese with Gerd and showed the
world
some snooker after that. (Without Guinness, bad quote.)
6th october 1998
Did some debugging on Solaris XDM and on the newbridge
management
software. Ugly. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Maybe a NT
WS
licensed connections problem.
A propos NT, tried to install some programs and gone crazy.
Now it’s time for L0pht
RC5 got 1,1Mkey/sec on the 400MHz machine, maybe it’d be
better
running Linux instead of NT. Just for performance. ))
5th october 1998
Got my 400 MHz Pentium II at work today.
They’ve installed NT and restricted almost everything. Ugly.
What shells, as long as RC5 gets more power ))))
Had to solve sendmail problems on an Ultra-Sparc at work.
Torture that man who had installed this machine ! >
Now the POP3 server on the FFM machine works fine.
Also tried to setup temporary PPP dialin. Try again Gerd.
Finally my videorecorder is broken. Damn, have to buy a new
one
this week. Unrepairable defect. But a good stand-by tuner with
IR.
4th october 1998
Sendmail now works fine, also on my own system with fidonet and
uucp,
since I downgraded to the glibc compatible version 8.8.7.
Mail delivery between www.stun.de and zuse1.fps-net.mbox were
completely
successful, I hope that’s enough testing offline. Time for
SPOP.
Also did IP address change just for testing without problems.
The Net-Fu server is now running without problems as it
seems,
but I think it’s better we’ll start it only when we need to.
3rd october 1998
Configured sendmail on the FFM server. Some of the host
aliasing
function don’t work, but the rest is fine.
2nd october 1998
Did some Excite page updates on the FFM server.
1st october 1998
Played around with WGET which is really a fantastic tool, almost
like
Netcat but much better for automatic download scripts of all
kind.
With the ability to mirror or index whole websites.
But I was not able to get it work on the FFM’s raw RH51.
My personal daily upgraded systems had absolutely no
problems.