Yesterday...

.. I got married :D

Power consumption with Ubuntu on Samsung NP350U2A

For couple of weeks I have been searching for new laptop (replacement for my old ThinkPad T61).
As I remember on my old T minimum power consumption was something about 19W.
Now with new Intel Core i5 my Ubuntu can work with only 8W!


Powertop on normal work - screen backlight on 50%, WiFi on and Chromium browser running (in background apache, mysql and so on)


Powertop on minimum power usage (almost everything turned off, screen backlight to minimum)

/var/log/messages on ubuntu 11.4

Why they do that?? Writing log's to /var/log/messages should be enabled by default...
To often I use this file to figure out what is going on. But there is simple solution for that:

vim /etc/rsyslog.d/50-default.conf

and uncomment lines in section caled

# Some "catch-all" log files.


HP Laser Jet P1102w on Ubuntu 11.4

On my previous installation of ubuntu (10.10) dealing with my printer was a piece of cace. But now with 11.4 i was unable to print with default drivers or configuration with hp toolbox. It's strange that I had to compile drivers on such popular distro like Ubuntu...

http://foo2zjs.rkkda.com/

Time to make some cleaning

From over 4 years I have been working on my T61 laptop. Meantime I replaced disk and stored data on other media. My work is spread on too many location, and I have to say that I feel a bit lost. Also last accident with my hosting (rootnode.net) taught me to make backups - but to do that i have to sort all data I have.

So, the plan for this week is:
1. Sort all files from 3 disks.
2. Clean my "server" and place it on "datacenter" - heh I put that i quotation mark because server it's small computer based on Intel Atom and 1GB of ram, and datacenter it's a wooden wardrobe with 10Mb/s fiber internet connection ;D
3. Create script to rsync all data from my personal laptop and computer from work.

It sound easy...

Alle drogo...

Drogo, drogo - ale na razie za darmo :)
Powstało ciekawe narzędzie do analizy sprzedawców allegro
http://alledrogo.pl/

Umożliwia ono zerknięcie do danych historycznych - szkoda że ja na to nie wpadłem wczesniej.

SEO - znowu drupal

Ciekawe czy wystarczy jeszcze do pozycjonowania kilka podstawowych technik. Strona właściwie banalna http://www.fotorygospaw.pl/, wizytówka wykonana dla znajomego (spawalnictwo w Opolskim).
W przypadku drupala jeden moduł przypomina o tych technikach - SEO Checklist http://drupal.org/project/seo_checklist. Poza tym: google webmaster tools + analytics.
Czy to wystarczy - przekonamy się za kilka tygodni :)

Emprex dartboard under linux

Couple days ago I get from my friend Emprex dart board (http://www.emprex.com/02_products_02.php?id=348)




Of course there is no linux software for this device, so I decide to create one.
First think was to detect this device. After plug in 2.4GB reciver under /dev/usb directory device hiddev0 apear. There is also some hidrav device but hiddev is what I need.

To test if there is any data from dart board, I simply type:

cat /dev/usb/hiddev0 | hexdump

Then I presed any field (field 1 and 2) on board hexdump return code of pressed "button"

ex:

0000000 0081 ff00 0001 0000 0081 ff00 0000 0000
0000010 0082 ff00 0001 0000 0082 ff00 0000 0000

It no hard to figure out that there are 2 codes on one pres (one on key down and one on up). First numbers its offset of data (0000000) then code of key - field pressed (0081), the last sequence (I'm preety sure) is state of key - down or up (ff00 0001 0000 - for down, ff00 0000 0000 - for up).

The problem for using this device is name of this device in linux system. Sometimes it apear under hiddev0 or hiddev1 (depends on other devices plugged in to computer like mouse).
The best solution for this is to write udev rule.
My steps to create one is:

1) Read something about udev rules :) http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#syntax
2) Check what information system provides obout this device, simply type udevadm info --attribute-walk --name=/dev/usb/hiddev0
3) Create file ex: /etc/udev/rules.d/10-emprex.rules with

KERNEL=="hiddev*", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="046e", ATTRS{idProduct}=="d300", MODE="0666", NAME="usb/emprexdart", SYMLINK+="emprexdart"

4) Restart udev system: restart udev
5) Type udevadm monitor and plug in device, or test your new rule with udevadm test /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb5/5-2/5-2:1.1/usb/hiddev0 (device path if from udevadm info command).
6) If you have a trouble with rule try to stop udev (stop udev) and start it in debug mode (udevd --debug)
7) Also have in mind that there is ATTRS rule (look at udevadm info) not ATTR (I made that mistake :))

To figure out that key number is a field on dart board I created simple PHP script:


$filename = "/dev/emprexdart";
$sMapFile = "map.bin";

if(!file_exists($sMapFile)) {
$map = array();
}
else {
$map = unserialize(file_get_content($sMapFile));
}

$handle = fopen($filename, "r");
$hexCode = dechex(ord(" "));
$iCount = 0;
while( true ) {
$contents = fread($handle, 8);
if(ord($contents[4]) == 0) {
echo "Key up (".bin2hex($contents[4])."),\t int code: ". ord($contents[0])."\n";
}
else {
echo "Key down (".bin2hex($contents[4])."),\t int code: ". ord($contents[0])."\n";
// writing key code to map
$map[$iCount] = ord($contents[0]);
echo $iCount." ".(floor($iCount/4)+1)." ".(($iCount%4)+1)."\n";
exec("espeak '".(floor($iCount/4)+1)." ".(($iCount%4)+1)."'");
$iCount++;

}
//echo 'hidraw4 = asci: '.$contents[0].', hex: '.bin2hex($contents)."\n";
if($iCount == 85) {
// saving map file
file_put_contents($sMapFile, serialize($map));
break;
}
}
fclose($handle);


This code create map.bin file with mapping dart board fields (from 0 to 84) to numeric representation. It's just serialized array. Creating map file required pressing every field from dart board, to avoid mistake I use espeak linux tool to tell me which key I had presed. The result of this is my map file:


a:85:{i:0;i:65;i:1;i:129;i:2;i:97;i:3;i:33;i:4;i:66;i:5;i:130;i:6;i:98;i:7;i:34;
i:8;i:67;i:9;i:131;i:10;i:99;i:11;i:35;i:12;i:68;i:13;i:132;i:14;i:100;i:15;i:36
;i:16;i:69;i:17;i:133;i:18;i:101;i:19;i:37;i:20;i:70;i:21;i:134;i:22;i:102;i:23;
i:38;i:24;i:71;i:25;i:135;i:26;i:103;i:27;i:39;i:28;i:72;i:29;i:136;i:30;i:104;i
:31;i:40;i:32;i:73;i:33;i:137;i:34;i:105;i:35;i:41;i:36;i:74;i:37;i:138;i:38;i:1
06;i:39;i:42;i:40;i:75;i:41;i:139;i:42;i:107;i:43;i:43;i:44;i:76;i:45;i:140;i:46
;i:108;i:47;i:44;i:48;i:77;i:49;i:141;i:50;i:109;i:51;i:45;i:52;i:78;i:53;i:142;
i:54;i:110;i:55;i:46;i:56;i:79;i:57;i:143;i:58;i:111;i:59;i:47;i:60;i:80;i:61;i:
144;i:62;i:112;i:63;i:48;i:64;i:81;i:65;i:145;i:66;i:113;i:67;i:49;i:68;i:82;i:6
9;i:146;i:70;i:114;i:71;i:50;i:72;i:83;i:73;i:147;i:74;i:115;i:75;i:51;i:76;i:84
;i:77;i:148;i:78;i:116;i:79;i:52;i:80;i:57;i:81;i:89;i:82;i:4;i:83;i:3;i:84;i:1;
}


To test my idea I created simple scrit which should read poins throw at dart board.


$filename = "/dev/emprexdart";
$sMapFile = "map.bin";

$map = unserialize(file_get_contents($sMapFile));


$handle = fopen($filename, "r");
$hexCode = dechex(ord(" "));
$iCount = 0;
while( true ) {
$contents = fread($handle, 8);
if(ord($contents[4]) == 0) {
//echo "Key up (".bin2hex($contents[4])."),\t int code: ". ord($contents[0])."\n";
}
else {
//echo "Key down (".bin2hex($contents[4])."),\t int code: ". ord($contents[0])."\n";
$iNum = array_search(ord($contents[0]), $map);
$value = 0;
// czytamy

switch($iNum) {
case 80:
$value=50;
break;
case 81:
$value=60;
break;
case 82:
$value="Bounce out";
break;
case 83:
$value="Dart miss";
break;
case 84:
$value="Next player";
break;
default:
$segment=floor($iNum/4)+1;
$pole=(($iNum%4)+1);
if($pole==1)
$value=$segment*3;
elseif($pole==2)
$value=$segment;
elseif($pole==3)
$value=$segment*2;
else
$value=$segment;
}
//echo "Numer: $iNum, Pole: $pole, Segment: $segment, wartość: $value\n";
exec("espeak '".$value."'");
}
}
fclose($handle);


And that works pretty well :)

Ciekawostka

Jeśli w netbeans c++ stworzymy projekt a po tym dodamy nowe biblioteki do systemu (np. glut) to edytor zobaczy nowe pliki nagłówkowe dopiero jeśli w projekcie wykonamy Code Assistance -> Reparse project

ffserver + ps3 eye or logitech webcam = madness

I tried many times run streaming server from server room. I'm using ffmpeg for converting video files so I would use that software for streaming (default ffmpeg rpm from OpenSuse 11.3). Finally after many changes of configuration. I understand that my version of ffmpeg is just broken (I didn't found any solution to my problem's). Latest sources from http://www.ffmpeg.org/ (http://www.ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-0.6.1.tar.gz) works very well with minimum of configuration.

All I had to do is comment lines for streaming in mpeg and uncomment streaming in swf:

<Stream test.swf>
Feed feed1.ffm
Format swf
VideoSize 320x240
VideoFrameRate 10
VideoIntraOnly
NoAudio
</Stream>

Finaly and executed:

./ffserver -f ffserver.conf &
./ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 -f ffm http://127.0.0.1:8090/feed1.ffm


How to configure linux to act as advertisement display part 1

From some time I'm working on system to display ads (this is not main purpose of this system) in places like pub's and shops.
Every device consist of 17 inch display and computer (HP t5720 thin client) with linux installed on pendrive. Computer is connected to internet by wireless network (usb wifi card).
I chose OpenSuse 11.3 distribution because I used this distro before (I think that's good reason :)
There was couple of problems with installation (mostly with grub) but now I have a installed system which i can simply copy many time without a problem. The main problem is a configuration of grub to run copied system on every pendrive. We have to change mapping of storage device in /boot/grub/menu.lst

Default settings after OpenSuse installation

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Kingston_DT101_II_0019E06B0840AA3107620383-0:0-part2 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-Kingston_DT
101_II_0019E06B0840AA3107620383-0:0-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a

Change to (in my situation):

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-desktop root=/dev/sda2 resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a

I updated grub from my development computer so I had to change also /boot/grub/device.map to

(hd0) /dev/sdb

and run command:

root# grub-install.unsuported --root-directory=/media/mounted_disk/ /dev/sdb

Thank's to simple linux tool called dd:

Example for backup whole pendrive image:

root# dd if=/dev/sdb of=my_iso.iso

We can of course reverse this for creating new installation:

root# dd if=my_iso.iso of=/dev/sdb

If you have to look into this raw image and found a specific file You have to just mount saved disk image. But I made backup of all partitions of disk and can't mount like mount -o loop -t ext4 file.iso /mnt/image.

Solution is to show mount command where is the beginning of my root partition, we can found start byte using parted utility.

parted my_image.iso

next type u b for change default unit to bytes
and p to print partition

this is a example result:

GNU Parted 2.2
Using /home/marian/my_image.iso
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) u b
(parted) p
Model: (file)
Disk /home/marian/my_image.iso: 8024752128B
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1048576B 731906047B 730857472B primary linux-swap(v1) type=82
2 731906048B 8024752127B 7292846080B primary ext4 type=83

(parted) q

now we know that root partition starts with 731906048B byte so:

mount -o loop,offset=731906048 -t ext4 my_image.iso /mnt/image

we can mount and start using root filesystem.

Dobra rada...

... dla zapominalskich jak ja.
Zawsze rób listę zakupów mimo że to czego potrzebujesz wydaje się oczywiste.