After upgrading my system from libsmbios-2.0.3 to libsmbios-2.2.19 my scripts for setting up wireless failed. After a short search on dell linux wiki I found out, that some Scripts have got a new name. So dellWirelessctl is now smbios-wireless-ctl. The usage seems to be the same.

What is libsmbios?

It is a cross OS library intended to be used to obtain common information available in BIOS using a unified API. Currently, it can programmatically access any information in the SMBIOS tables. It also has the ability to obtain Dell system-specific information such as the Dell System ID number, service tag, and asset tag. Future plans include APIs for $PIR, and mptable mapping.

If you want to know more about libsmbios, have a look at http://linux.dell.com/libsmbios/main/cmdlinetools.html

I hope this information is useful for you

best regards

Thorsten

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I just upgraded the vserver kernel in my test environment to 2.6.31-vs2.3.0.36.23. After rebooting the machine I recognized that the hostname of the host machine was set to the hostname of the last vserver started. Checking all vservers I found out that all had the same hostname.

A quick google search revealed, that I am not the only one having this problem: linux.derkeiler.com. But the search revealed no solution.

Afterwards I remembered that I masked util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2841 as I described in util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2841 vserver startup fails.  So I removed the mask and installed the newer version of util-vserver. Afterwards everything was normal and the vservers, as well as the host machine had the correct hostnames.

It is important to use the  version of util-vserver matching the vserver kernel version running. The vserver kernel 2.6.31-vs2.3.0.36.23 seems to work with util-vserver-0.30.216_pre2841 and the vserver-kernel 2.6.28-vserver-2.3.0.36.4 works with util-vserver-0.30.215-r3.

Jürgen

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Posted in gentoo, kernel, linux | 2 Comments »

Today I patched the  new zen-sources-2.6.31-r1 with tuxonice. This time it was a bit more complicated since the two patches are conflicting. So I modified the tuxonice patch to apply cleanly over the zen-kernel.

Suspend to RAM works at least on my Dell Precison M65 as well as suspend to disk does.

Download the zen-sources 2.6.31-zen1 patch here: zen-sources.org. Then apply the patch to vanilla kernel sources. Afterwards download my modified tuxonice patch from here: [download#29]. Then apply it.

For Gentoo users there is a more easy way: Download my modified overlay (including the patches) from [download#30] and extract it in /usr/local/portage. Be sure to include the following line in your /etc/make.conf:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=”/usr/local/portage”

Then emerge zen-sources-toi and buld the kernel as you wish.

To work around the black screen problem with some nvidia-drivers versions occuring with 2.6.30 kernels, discussed at gentoo forums, I had to upgrade to nvidia-drivers-190.18. Most probably this problem persists with 2.6.31. Strangely the issue did only occur on my Precision M65 with a Quadro FX350M. It did not occur with the Quadro FX3400 in my Desktop PC, Nvidia-drivers-185.18.31 are running there without any problems.

Tuxonice is not officially supported in zen-sources. So If you’re using the files above, don’t report any bugs to zen-sources.org. You are on your own.

For my Precision M65 I used the following kernel config: [download#31]

If you want to use all channels with the iwl3945 driver change the line static char *ieee80211_regdom = “US”; to static char *ieee80211_regdom = “JP”; in the file net/wireless/reg.c.

If you also own of those old 16 Bit Adaptec pcmcia scsi cards using the aha152x_cs module you might want to enable it also for 64 Bit kernels. It was masked for 64 Bit kernels somewhere before 2.6.13. I was unable to find out the reason for this so I tried to compile the module. When I insert the card, the module loads properly. Since the drive I could test it with, is currently attached to another box and in use, I can´t try it out for the moment. Once I tried I´ll keep you updated.

To enable the driver remove the line

depends on !64BIT

in the config PCMCIA_AHA152X section in /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/pcmcia/Kconfig and select the module in menuconfig.

Addon: I tried a SCSI cdrom with this and it works perfectly. I just filed a bug on this on bugzilla.kernel.org and hope for the driver being unmasked for future  64 Bit kernels.

If you are using this kernel on a notebook with i.e. a Core2 CPU you might be interesting to undervolt your CPU to save power and to produce less heat (keeps the fan off longer). This works like a charm on my M65. Information on this topic can be found here: aldeby.org. The linux-pch patch mentioned there is already included in zen-sources, thus you only have to perform the userspace part begnning at (3).

For image compression in tuxonice include Compressor lzo in your suspend2.conf file.

Sadly the iptables mirror target I published here does not work anymore with the 2.6.31 kernel. A newer version will be available soon on mygnu.de.

For more information on the zen-sources patchset see www.zen-sources.org.

best regards

Jürgen

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Posted in gentoo, kernel, linux, zen-sources | 1 Comment »

After updating my gentoo-linux boxes I recognized enigmail asking for the password multiple times when decrypting a single mail. Some days later, when I rebooted the system gnome did not start anymore.

A quick look into my/var/log/messages showed:

Oct  2 10:50:43 hostname seahorse-agent[419]: segfault at 0 ip 0000000000432fb8 sp 00007fff01ceb150 error 4 in seahorse-agent[400000+50000]
Oct  2 10:50:43 hostname seahorse-agent[419]: init_gpgme: assertion `GPG_IS_OK (err)’ failed
Oct  2 10:50:43 hostname seahorse-agent[419]: seahorse_pgp_source_init: assertion `GPG_IS_OK (err)’ failed
Oct  2 10:50:43 hostname seahorse-agent[419]: unsupported key server uri scheme: ldap

So I suspected seahorse to be responsible for this missbehaviour. When searching the net for the problem I found the corresponding bug entry on bugs.gentoo.org. The problem was caused by some changes in gpgme-1.2.0.  The patch from there solved the problem for me. After reemerging seahorse and rebooting the system gnome did start again and enigmail worked properly.

You may download the ebuild I used from here: [download#28]

Extract the archive in /usr/local/portage. Be sure to include the following line in your /etc/make.conf:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY=”/usr/local/portage”

Then emerge seahorse again and reboot.

regards

Jürgen

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Today I patched the brand new zen-sources-2.6.30-r4 with tuxonice. This was necessary since I need tuxonice on my notebook for suspend modes and tuxonice has been removed permanently from zen-sources. Suspend to RAM works at least on my Dell Precison M65 as well as suspend to disk does.

I recommend using this version over using the r3-version, because it fixes the root exploit vulnerability mentioned on www.linux-magazine.com.

Download the zen-sources 2.6.30-zen4 patch here: zen-sources.org Then apply the patch to vanilla kernel sources. Afterwards download the tuxonice patch from http://www.tuxonice.net/downloads/all/current-tuxonice-for-2.6.30.patch-20090620-v1.bz2 and apply it.

For Gentoo users there is a more easy way:

Download my modified overlay (including the patches) from [download#26] and extract it in /usr/local/portage. Be sure to include the following line in your /etc/make.conf:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

Then emerge zen-sources-toi and buld the kernel as you wish.

To work around the black screen problem with some nvidia-drivers versions, discussed at gentoo forums, I had to upgrade to nvidia-drivers-190.18. Strangely the issue does only occur on my Precision M65 with a Quadro FX350M. It does not occur with the Quadro FX3400 in my Desktop PC, Nvidia-drivers-185.18.31 are running there without any problems.

Tuxonice is not officially supported in zen-sources. So If you’re using the files above, don’t report any bugs to zen-sources.org. You are on your own.

For my Precision M65 I used the following kernel config: [download#27]

If you want to use all channels with the iwl3945 driver change the line

static char *ieee80211_regdom = “US”;

to

static char *ieee80211_regdom = “JP”;

in the file net/wireless/reg.c.

If you are using this kernel on a notebook with i.e. a Core2 CPU you might be interesting to undervolt your CPU to save power and to produce less heat (keeps the fan off longer).  This works like a charm on my M65. Information on this topic can be found here: aldeby.org. The linux-pch patch mentioned there is already included in zen-sources, thus you only have to perform the userspace part begnning at (3).

For image compression in tuxonice include

Compressor lzo

in your suspend2.conf file.

For more information on the zen-sources patchset see www.zen-sources.org.

best regards

Jürgen

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Posted in gentoo, kernel, linux, zen-sources | No Comments »

Today I managed to patch the brand new zen-sources-2.6.30-r3 with tuxonice. This was necessary since I need tuxonice on my notebook for suspend modes and tuxonice has been removed permanently from zen-sources. Suspend to RAM works at least on my Dell Precison M65 as well as suspend to disk does.

Download the zen-sources 2.6.30-zen3 patch here: zen-sources.org Then apply the patch to the vanilla kernel sources available from kernel.org. Afterwards download the tuxonice patch from http://www.tuxonice.net/downloads/all/current-tuxonice-for-2.6.30.patch-20090620-v1.bz2 and apply it to the kernel sources with the zen patchset already applied.

For Gentoo users there is a more easy way:

Download my modified overlay  (including the patches) from [download#24] and extract it in /usr/local/portage. Be sure to include the following line in your /etc/make.conf:

PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"

Then emerge zen-sources-toi and continue with building the kernel as you wish.

To work around the black screen problem with some nvidia-drivers versions, discussed at gentoo forums, I had to upgrade to nvidia-drivers-190.18. Strangely the issue does only occur on my Precision M65 with a Quadro FX350M. It does not occur with the Quadro FX3400 in my Desktop PC, Nvidia-drivers-185.18.31 are running there without any problems.

Tuxonice is not officially supported in zen-sources. So If you’re using the files above, don’t report any bugs to zen-sources.org. You are on your own.

For my Precision M65 I used the following kernel config: [download#25]

If you want to use all channels with the iwl3945 driver change the line

static char *ieee80211_regdom = “US”;

to

static char *ieee80211_regdom = “JP”;

in the file net/wireless/reg.c.

For more information on the zen-sources patchset see www.zen-sources.org.

best regards

Jürgen

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Posted in gentoo, kernel, linux, zen-sources | No Comments »

Today, when I tried to sync the portage overlays on my gentoo linux boxes, I got the error:

ImportError: No module named layman.config

The recent update from python-2.5 to python-2.6 has broken several applications. This issue was solved by running python-updater, which re-emerges all broken python packages. Besides from layman not working, the python upgrade may cause several other problems in portage and in the whole system. Thus just be sure to run python-updater after the python-upgrade.

Jürgen

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Posted in gentoo, linux, tools | No Comments »