A Man and his Penguin

Judge Linux on one bug

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:27:12 +1000
From: "Null Ack" <nullack ("at" symbol) gmail com>
Subject: On Bugs and Linux Quality
To: ubuntu-au
 

I would like to respond to Dan's comments about Linux/Ubuntu quality. To not
dilute the discussion on my specific bug Ive moved it over here.

Like all of you, I share the enthusiasm for Linux and open source software.
To me, the greatest features are the ability to see the inner mechanisms of
the software, for not just security reasons ( which is a compelling reason
all in itself) but also for the ability to understand / change core
components. However it is vitally important we do not remain critical in a
constructive way to improve the software, or more importantly, improve the
user experience.

I disagree with the notion that one bug should not effect the global
perception of Ubuntu quality. The point is, for software to be generally
useful, an expected level of robustness and capability is generally expected
in core features. If a bug prevents this from happening then the software is
not generally useful, or at the very least, is not very usable without
protracted workarounds and other annoyances.

Ubuntu has a number of flawed approaches to release management and support.
For example, not updating the Nvidia 169.12 driver in Hardy. 169.12 has
numerous oopses and other bugs, and there subsequently has been three
revisions of the driver since. Not to mention the old driver revision does
not support new Nvidia cards that have been released. Or lets look at the
many, many other device driver fixes in the vanilla kernel tree that have
not been backported into Hardy's old kernel revision. Its wishful thinking
to somehow arbitarily declare that a release is "stable" and then hardly do
any device driver updates ongoing in the "support" phase. Clearly the word
support isnt actual support - I think its more driven by a lack of resources
to upgrade the baseline as is commonly done in Vista and Leopard.

Ubuntu has tens of thousands of bugs in the bug database. Reporting bugs
does not ensure that the bug is actually fixed or indeed investigated at
all. Of those that are, many of those are sent up stream where they again
sit like a statue and not seem to be resolved.

It doesnt take much of a look at say X for example, to see the countless
people complaining about X bugs that have not been fixed. Or, how X was
"released" and declared "stable" with a known blocker and other bugs that
could be argued to actually be blockers as well.

Lets look at what the insiders are saying. A kernel hacker recently said
"I'll typically read the linux-kernel list in 1000-email batches once every
few days and each time I will come across multiple bug reports which are one
to three days old and which nobody has done anything about! And sometimes I
*know* that the person who is responsible for that part of the kernel has
read the report" He continues on answering a question about the declining
quality of Linux "I used to think it was in decline, and I think that I
might think that it still is. I see so many regressions which we never fix.
Obviously we fix bugs as well as add them, but it is very hard to determine
what the overall result of this is.When I'm out and about I will very often
hear from people whose machines we broke in ways which I'd never heard about
before. I ask them to send a bug report (expecting that nothing will end up
being done about it) but they rarely do.So I don't know where we are and I
don't know what to do. All I can do is to encourage testers to report bugs
and to be persistent with them, and I continue to stick my thumb in
developers' ribs to get something done about them.I do think that it would
be nice to have a bugfix-only kernel release. One which is loudly publicised
and during which we encourage everyone to send us their bug reports and
we'll spend a couple of months doing nothing else but try to fix them. I
haven't pushed this much at all, but it would be interesting to try it once.
If it is beneficial, we can do it again some other time." His name is Andrew
Morton.......

Linux needs to have less scatterbrain behaviour where half done things are
left and the chaos moves forward to the next semi complete feature. It needs
to consolidate and have a unified effort to really work on stability and bug
fixing.

Does Linux require use of the terminal?

Recently I've been hearing more people saying "If Linux is to succeed on the desktop, it needs to bury the terminal".

I'd take exception to this: As someone else recently pointed out, Windows 3.1 was a successful desktop operating system that required the terminal, and one of Vista's selling points is the improved terminal. What things do users need the terminal for on Linux? Can we maybe debunk some myths?

1. Installing Linux. No, not unless you're installing Slackware. Not even Gentoo requires it.

2. Monitor configuration. It's still possible that Xorg won't correctly detect your monitor and you'll have to go into /etc/X11/Xorg.conf, but such things are getting very rare. Very rare indeed. Xorg switches automatically to a "safe" graphics mode if all else fails, so you can use a GUI-based monitor configuration program.

So, generally no terminal use needed.

3. Installing drivers for things that are not supported in-kernel. Yes. If you have a device that is supported by a third-party driver that is not already either in your kernel or packaged for your distribution, then you will need the kernel headers (easily installed), build-essential (easily installed) and your terminal.

I once had to compile a newer version of ALSA to deal with the sound chipset on someone's brand-new laptop. Once I had the kernel headers and build-essential, both of which are installed through Synaptic, it took three short commands in the terminal to install the new ALSA.

./configure
make
sudo make install

Not rocket science. Answer: Terminal use required, but it's reasonably unlikely and not hard.

4. Installing software. Terminal use is not necessary as the most popular and most mature software is available either from the Synaptic Package Manager or as Debian packages straight from the developer. Software that doesn't require the terminal to install is also likely to become more popular. Even things like the Google Earth installer, which requires invoking from a terminal, is not strictly necessary, as Google Earth is packaged up as a .deb anyway and put onto Medibuntu. Same with Flash Player and Skype.

The only exception is if you were going to compile software from source code. This definitely requires the terminal. However, who actually *needs* bleeding-edge versions of the software? I know I don't - I haven't compiled any software for a long time. I'm even surprised I have build-essential installed on my system. The fact is, most software ends off getting compiled FOR YOU ALREADY.

The only exceptions would be if you wanted to install new software on an outdated distro, or if you wanted to install semi-obscure software on a non-x86 platform. Most people do neither, preferring to keep their distro up-to-date and stick to commodity Intel/AMD processors.

Answer: Terminal not necessary.

5. Mounting devices: Happens automatically for you. No terminal needed.

6. Video Editing: No terminal needed. To capture video from a Firewire device like a digital video camera, you need to give your user account permissions to access the Firewire device:

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/raw1394

This is actually a security feature, because once it is possible for your user account to read and write directly to Firewire devices, an attacker working from within your user account can read or write the entire system memory. I believe you can create a new group called "disks" and add your user account to this group, to gain raw access to Firewire devices without having to put in that command. This would require no terminal commands, it just depends if you want to live with the risk. Millions of Windows users live with the "Firewire being able to access your whole system memory" feature turned on. Maybe it's an acceptable risk for you.

7. Setting up a web server. I know it's not something that "ordinary users" generally do, but there are useful benefits to setting one up temporarily. It's easily accomplished without the terminal: Just install the Apache2 package from the Synaptic Package Manager. It's automatically started for you, and set up to start on bootup. If you want to make it unavailable temporarily, just block port 80 on your ADSL router. To put files into your web server's folder, just drop them into /var/www/. You need to be root to do this - just install the package "nautilus-gksu", reboot, right-click the /var/www directory and choose "Open as Administrator".

Answer: No terminal needed.

8. Printing and wireless configuration: Choose what printer you have. That's it. No terminal needed there. To set up my wireless connection, I just went to NetworkManager on my top panel and told it which network to connect to, and then I put in my password. Piece of piss. No terminal needed. No geekishness; it's all a friendly GUI that shows the names, signal strengths and whether or not a network is encrypted.

9. Video encoding. I maintain that this is better done in the terminal with ffmpeg, but if you're squeamish you can use any number of GUI frontends for ffmpeg, mencoder or transcode. I even use Kdenlive (video editor) as a video encoder if I don't care so much about having precise control over the output.

I did find a time when no transcoding frontend utility worked; that's when I bought a Sony Walkman MP3/Video player which is incredibly fussy about video formats. It requires H.264 of a precise bitrate, AAC audio with Low-Complexity compression, and for the moon to be 30 degrees above its zenith, before it will play the video. No GUI-based video encoder could set those settings with such fine granularity to satisfy the Walkman. So I figured out how to do it in the command-line, and then wrote a nice GUI program to run the command-line program.

10. Run Windows programs. Yes, you do really need the terminal for this. Wine is the program that allows some Windows programs to run on Linux. Since it's not perfect, it sometimes spits out error messages into an attached terminal to help you find the right DLLs or settings to have it run your program properly. To recieve these error messages, you need to have started the Windows program in a terminal.

So yes, you need a terminal to run Windows programs. Once again, though, it's an *easy* command:

wine "/home/chris/Elastomania/Elma.exe"

You don't even need to type in the path of the program - just type "wine " and a space, and then drag the file onto the terminal.

Let it also be said that if you were to run a Linux or Unix program in Cygwin on your Windows computer, you'd need an MS-DOS prompt open to conduct the installation. And once you know that your Windows program works in Wine, you won't need to start it in a terminal, and you can just set up a launcher for it.

11. Adding repositories. A resounding "No" - just go to Software Sources under System > Administration, and add your repos there. You will get warnings about unauthenticated packages, but if you're installing software from a third party repository I imagine that you have accepted the risk of malicious software.

So, does Linux require you to learn complicated, archaic commands? Of course not. Does Linux require any terminal use for regular tasks? Yes, if it doesn't get your monitor settings right (uncommon these days!), if you want to run Windows programs, or if you need hardware support over and above what shipped with your distribution. Are those commands difficult? Hell no!

Many people believe that Linux requires terminal commands because of either social inertia (they still believe what was once true) or because they see Linux users helping eachother with problems by using terminal commands. The latter has a simple explanation: It's quicker and more precise to give a terminal command rather than GUI clicks and drags. So that's the advice that is given.

If you're an avid tweaker or if you want to set up advanced things like RAID, proxies, or thin-clients; then you'll need the command-line. But then you probably won't mind the command-line, and you'll certainly appreciate the extra flexibility it gives you. If you're a regular user, then don't worry about the terminal, because you probably won't need to use it!

Please reply with a comment to this message if you can think of something else a "regular joe" would do that requires the terminal.

No problems

I noticed recently that I haven't recieved any automated e-mails from my workmate containing her IP address. She came in today briefly, so I asked her about it. Her response? "Everything's going great".

I'm really happy with this. I just need to find her a printer; preferably not HP as they seem to be very expensive to change the ink cartridges. Canon I believe makes drivers for their printers under a reasonably unrestricted license, which is great.

I'm also thinking of getting a Bebo credit card and hiring some web space; and then get this computer-building lark really underway making some money for me.

Feeling of Power

My workmate phoned me this evening, asking me about something to do with K9Copy. I think the sole purpose of her computer is to pirate DVDs.

Anyway, after I finished on the phone, I checked my Hotmail inbox, to find that she'd double-clicked the program that sends me her IP address. For some reason, VNC didn't work to her box... it just gave me a blank screen. But SSH happily connected. I scouted around her computer and found some files she was missing (DVD images, of course), set up the IP-address-sending program so it launches every time she logs in, and left her a message on her desktop.

And I loved the feeling of power it gave me. I guess you've never experienced what it's like to be a Linux user until you've used SSH.

I bought Linda an older copy of Linux Format magazine, so maybe she'll find some inspiration from that to use her computer in different ways. I hate the thought that she's bought a $620 DVD copier.

Two Fun Things

165 applications running on Linux simultaneously, showcased with Compiz.

I've only got 2 gigabytes of RAM and no swap, but I can use my 2 gig flash drive as temporary swap. Compiz is a little unstable on my computer (Nvidia drivers suck) but I'll give it a go.

On Digg, somebody said "I'd like to see a video of someone ripping a DVD, rendering out from a video editor, surfing the web, doing IM, checking e-mail, listening to music..." etc. I've done very nearly that much on my computer, so I'm thinking I'll put together a video!

The other fun thing is about SysRq keys. If your Linux system crashes, there's a way to shut it down safely, using Alt-SysRq and a bunch of keys that you press in order. (the keys individually are useful in other situations, and sometimes it works better with a different order, but this is the most recognised combination and order).

The order is:

REISUB

(Alt+SysRq+R, Alt+SysRq+E, etc).

There are often mnemonics made up to try and help people remember the combination, but I never remember them. This one, posted to Ubuntu Forums, is the most memorable one (it made me laugh):

Arrr! Everything Is Shitty! Un-Boot!

It's alive! Alive!

I'm posting this from the brand-new computer that I've just finished building.

Case: Coolermaster Elite
Motherboard: Asus M2A-VM-HDMI (integrated ATI graphics, grrr)
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4200
Ram: Kingston 1 gig DDR2 800MHz
Hard drive: Seagate SATA2 160gig HDD
DVD-burner: Pioneer PATA 20x DVD burner (chose PATA because it gets mapped to /dev/dvd like most Linux applications expect)
Chassis fan: Linda bought this herself. I asked her to get the cheapest one the shop had. She brought me one worth $35 with blue LEDs around the outside. The front of the case is basically a fine mesh, so when you turn the lights out you can see the lights inside the computer. Cool.
Operating System: Ubuntu GNU/Linux 8.04 beta

Hardy Heron is certainly a hardy little bird. It's still in beta but it feels rock-solid. I now have every confidence in it working very nicely on Linda's new computer. I'll still dist-upgrade it to the release version, when it comes out. And I'll have no hesitations in dist-upgrading my main computer to it at that time too.

Once I've configured everything, I'll take it around to Linda's place and set it up for her with her existing e-mail account. As this is the first computer I've built for someone else, I'm going to make up a case badge for myself so others can identify my work :-)

Writing a new article

I'm writing a new article at the moment called "Why Linux is the way it is". It's more like a FAQ - taking complaints about Linux and explaining why things in Linux are different to in other operating systems.

Once it's got a bit of breadth, I'll release it and then we'll all be able to point newbies toward it whenever they complain.

It will cover things like:

Why don't program developers just use .debs for installing?
Why do I have to put in my password to install programs (and how can I turn this off)?
Why won't Linux play my DVDs out-of-the-box?

etc.

Oh my god, I don't run anti-virus!

My workmate Linda brought her computer in to work the other day to get help with copying DVDs. There's basically two things she does with her computer: Receives e-mails, and copies DVDs. She's got a hacked-up version of Windows XP on there now that's been heavily modified to look like Vista, and unfortunately it inherits Vista's speed disadvantage too. Not too pretty on a low-end laptop!

Anyway, she ended off begging me to reinstall Ubuntu on there for copying her DVDs. I guess I'll do it when I find time, although I'm not happy that Ubuntu is only being used for DVD burning. Her wireless card doesn't work on Ubuntu Feisty, so I might wait until Hardy comes along and see if it's supported.

On that same day, my boss had a phone call from an associate, asking whether we could get in anti-virus software. Since my boss knows nothing about computers, he got me to call Ingram Micro and find out.

While I was doing this, I made some sort of remark about "This is a case of the blind leading the blind". Linda asked what I meant by this, and I said "Oh, I've never installed anti-virus software before". She was quite amazed, and asked why I didn't have anti-virus. I'm sure you can guess what the answer was.

You can author DVDs!

I got a copy of Tovid the other day. I'd heard that it was pretty much the easiest DVD authoring package for Linux, and that on the default settings it creates fully compatible DVDs.

I decided to use the GUI as opposed to the CLI version (the CLI was recommended to me) and, barring an Xorg crash (which could have been, and probably was, due to something else), it all worked fine. I tried the resultant DVD in my Samsung combi, and it worked well except for one particular video which had stuttery sound at the beginning. Unusual. I also tried on my very-finiky LG recorder combi, and even that video worked brilliantly.

There was one problem: The menu didn't seem to work when there were very long filenames in the videos. Take out those long filenames or replace them with shorter ones, and everything was fine.

You don't get a lot of control over the menus, but the amount of control is sufficient to create home DVDs with background pictures, background audio, thumbnails, submenus etc. I'm happy with the result, and this ticks the final "Linux can do all I want of it" box!

Another mysterious kernel panic

I just had another kernel panic... well, if I hadn't rebooted, it would have panicked.

Same symptoms as before - Firefox froze, Compiz crashed, X froze. I managed to pull out the dmesg from Feb 14, which was the first time it happened:

Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.22-14-generic
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: Loaded 25445 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.6.22-14-generic.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.6.22.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: No module symbols loaded - kernel modules not enabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.22-14-generic (buildd@palmer) (gcc version 4.1.3 20070929 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.2-16ubuntu2)) #1 SMP Sun Oct 14 23:05:12 GMT 2007 (Ubuntu 2.6.22-14.46-generic)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000000e4000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000007ff80000 (usable)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 000000007ff80000 - 000000007ff8e000 (ACPI data)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 000000007ff8e000 - 000000007ffe0000 (ACPI NVS)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 000000007ffe0000 - 0000000080000000 (reserved)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]  BIOS-e820: 00000000ffe00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] 1151MB HIGHMEM available.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] 896MB LOWMEM available.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] found SMP MP-table at 000ff780
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Entering add_active_range(0, 0, 524160) 0 entries of 256 used
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Zone PFN ranges:
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   DMA             0 ->     4096
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   Normal       4096 ->   229376
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   HighMem    229376 ->   524160
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]     0:        0 ->   524160
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] On node 0 totalpages: 524160
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   DMA zone: 32 pages used for memmap
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   DMA zone: 0 pages reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   DMA zone: 4064 pages, LIFO batch:0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   Normal zone: 1760 pages used for memmap
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   Normal zone: 223520 pages, LIFO batch:31
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   HighMem zone: 2303 pages used for memmap
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000]   HighMem zone: 292481 pages, LIFO batch:31
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] DMI 2.4 present.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP signature @ 0xC00FBB80 checksum 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: RSDP 000FBB80, 0014 (r0 ACPIAM)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: RSDT 7FF80000, 003C (r1 A_M_I_ OEMRSDT   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: FACP 7FF80200, 0084 (r2 A_M_I_ OEMFACP   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: DSDT 7FF805C0, 8C4B (r1  A0840 A0840001        1 INTL 20060113)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: FACS 7FF8E000, 0040
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: APIC 7FF80390, 006C (r1 A_M_I_ OEMAPIC   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: MCFG 7FF80400, 003C (r1 A_M_I_ OEMMCFG   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: OEMB 7FF8E040, 0081 (r1 A_M_I_ AMI_OEM   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: HPET 7FF89210, 0038 (r1 A_M_I_ OEMHPET   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: OSFR 7FF89250, 00B0 (r1 A_M_I_ OEMOSFR   6000726 MSFT       97)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x808
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Processor #0 6:15 APIC version 20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x02] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Processor #1 6:15 APIC version 20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x03] lapic_id[0x82] disabled)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x04] lapic_id[0x83] disabled)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Enabling APIC mode:  Flat.  Using 1 I/O APICs
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] ACPI: HPET id: 0xffffffff base: 0xfed00000
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Allocating PCI resources starting at 88000000 (gap: 80000000:7ee00000)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Built 1 zonelists.  Total pages: 520065
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=baa19901-5745-4273-a755-75d3022c97d5 ro quiet splash
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] mapped APIC to ffffd000 (fee00000)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] mapped IOAPIC to ffffc000 (fec00000)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Initializing CPU#0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 16384 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [    0.000000] Detected 3005.689 MHz processor.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.296506] Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.296637] Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.296792] Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344183] Memory: 2067212k/2096640k available (2015k kernel code, 28220k reserved, 916k data, 364k init, 1179136k highmem)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344188] virtual kernel memory layout:
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344189]     fixmap  : 0xfff4d000 - 0xfffff000   ( 712 kB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344189]     pkmap   : 0xff800000 - 0xffc00000   (4096 kB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344190]     vmalloc : 0xf8800000 - 0xff7fe000   ( 111 MB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344191]     lowmem  : 0xc0000000 - 0xf8000000   ( 896 MB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344191]       .init : 0xc03e3000 - 0xc043e000   ( 364 kB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344192]       .data : 0xc02f7d26 - 0xc03dce84   ( 916 kB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344193]       .text : 0xc0100000 - 0xc02f7d26   (2015 kB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344194] Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344216] SLUB: Genslabs=22, HWalign=64, Order=0-1, MinObjects=4, CPUs=2, Nodes=1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344299] hpet0: at MMIO 0xfed00000, IRQs 2, 8, 0, 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.344302] hpet0: 4 64-bit timers, 14318180 Hz
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425146] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 6014.93 BogoMIPS (lpj=12029879)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425159] Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425163] SELinux:  Disabled at boot.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425170] Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425240] CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 20100000 00000000 00000000 0000e3fd 00000000 00000001
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425245] monitor/mwait feature present.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425246] using mwait in idle threads.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425248] CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425250] CPU: L2 cache: 4096K
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425251] CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425252] CPU: Processor Core ID: 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425253] CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 20100000 00000000 00003940 0000e3fd 00000000 00000001
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425258] Compat vDSO mapped to ffffe000.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.425265] Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.441191] SMP alternatives: switching to UP code
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.441461] Early unpacking initramfs... done
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.623800] ACPI: Core revision 20070126
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.623832] ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initramfs... error, file /DSDT.aml not found.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.683057] CPU0: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6850  @ 3.00GHz stepping 0b
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.683067] SMP alternatives: switching to SMP code
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.683109] Booting processor 1/1 eip 3000
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.693311] Initializing CPU#1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772423] Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 6011.09 BogoMIPS (lpj=12022180)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772427] CPU: After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 20100000 00000000 00000000 0000e3fd 00000000 00000001
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772429] monitor/mwait feature present.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772431] CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 32K
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772432] CPU: L2 cache: 4096K
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772433] CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772434] CPU: Processor Core ID: 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772435] CPU: After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 20100000 00000000 00003940 0000e3fd 00000000 00000001
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772896] CPU1: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E6850  @ 3.00GHz stepping 0b
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.772908] Total of 2 processors activated (12026.02 BogoMIPS).
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.773042] ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.773196] ..TIMER: vector=0x31 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.920168] checking TSC synchronization [CPU#0 -> CPU#1]: passed.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.940137] Brought up 2 CPUs
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980464] migration_cost=18
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980541] Booting paravirtualized kernel on bare hardware
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980584] Time:  5:18:32  Date: 01/14/108
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980595] NET: Registered protocol family 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980643] EISA bus registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980646] ACPI: bus type pci registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980741] PCI: PCI BIOS revision 3.00 entry at 0xf0031, last bus=5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980743] PCI: Using configuration type 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.980743] Setting up standard PCI resources
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.983180] ACPI: EC: Look up EC in DSDT
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.987152] ACPI: Interpreter enabled
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.987154] ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.987164] ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.993018] ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.993028] PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994182] PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994225] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994314] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P2._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994367] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994444] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P4._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994499] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P8._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   24.994554] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P9._PRT]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005279] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 *11 12 14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005355] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 *10 11 12 14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005429] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 *5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005504] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 *14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005578] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005652] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs *3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005726] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12 14 *15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005800] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 *7 10 11 12 14 15)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005864] Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005869] pnp: PnP ACPI init
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.005872] ACPI: bus type pnp registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.007968] pnp: PnP ACPI: found 15 devices
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.007969] ACPI: ACPI bus type pnp unregistered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.007972] PnPBIOS: Disabled by ACPI PNP
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.007994] PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.007995] PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017670] NET: Registered protocol family 8
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017671] NET: Registered protocol family 20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017696] pnp: 00:01: iomem range 0xfed14000-0xfed19fff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017701] pnp: 00:07: ioport range 0x290-0x297 has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017704] pnp: 00:08: iomem range 0xfed1c000-0xfed1ffff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017705] pnp: 00:08: iomem range 0xfed20000-0xfed3ffff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017707] pnp: 00:08: iomem range 0xfed50000-0xfed8ffff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017709] pnp: 00:08: iomem range 0xffa00000-0xffafffff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017712] pnp: 00:0b: iomem range 0xfec00000-0xfec00fff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017713] pnp: 00:0b: iomem range 0xfee00000-0xfee00fff could not be reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017716] pnp: 00:0d: iomem range 0xe0000000-0xefffffff has been reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017719] pnp: 00:0e: iomem range 0x0-0x9ffff could not be reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017721] pnp: 00:0e: iomem range 0xc0000-0xcffff could not be reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017722] pnp: 00:0e: iomem range 0xe0000-0xfffff could not be reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.017724] pnp: 00:0e: iomem range 0x100000-0x7fffffff could not be reserved
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.019913] Time: tsc clocksource has been installed.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.019975] Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.023905] Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047822] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047823]   IO window: b000-bfff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047827]   MEM window: fa000000-fe8fffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047829]   PREFETCH window: d0000000-dfffffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047831] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047832]   IO window: disabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047834]   MEM window: disabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047837]   PREFETCH window: f8f00000-f8ffffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047840] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.4
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047842]   IO window: d000-dfff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047845]   MEM window: fea00000-feafffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047847]   PREFETCH window: disabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047850] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1c.5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047851]   IO window: c000-cfff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047854]   MEM window: fe900000-fe9fffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047857]   PREFETCH window: disabled.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047860] PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047862]   IO window: e000-efff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047865]   MEM window: feb00000-febfffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047867]   PREFETCH window: 88000000-880fffff
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047876] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:01.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047879] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:01.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047890] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1c.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047893] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047905] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1c.4[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047908] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.4 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047919] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1c.5[B] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047922] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.5 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047929] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.047935] NET: Registered protocol family 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.099749] IP route cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.099782] TCP established hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1572864 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.100206] TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.100325] TCP: Hash tables configured (established 131072 bind 65536)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.100327] TCP reno registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.115793] checking if image is initramfs... it is
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.476621] Freeing initrd memory: 7096k freed
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.476950] audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.476959] audit(1202966311.500:1): initialized
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.477009] highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478001] VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478026] Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478074] io scheduler noop registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478075] io scheduler anticipatory registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478076] io scheduler deadline registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478083] io scheduler cfq registered (default)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478179] Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478228] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:01.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478248] assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478250] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:01.0:pcie00]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478292] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478321] assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478322] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.0:pcie00]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478337] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.0:pcie02]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478384] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.4 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478413] assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478414] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.4:pcie00]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478431] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.4:pcie02]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478479] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1c.5 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478507] assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478508] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.5:pcie00]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478524] Allocate Port Service[0000:00:1c.5:pcie02]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.478604] isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.830634] isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841075] Real Time Clock Driver v1.12ac
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841181] hpet_resources: 0xfed00000 is busy
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841211] Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841287] serial8250: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841623] 00:0a: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.841954] RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.842022] input: Macintosh mouse button emulation as /class/input/input0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.842061] PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.842063] PNP: PS/2 controller doesn't have AUX irq; using default 12
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844646] serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844649] serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844715] mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844764] EISA: Probing bus 0 at eisa.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844782] Cannot allocate resource for EISA slot 8
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844783] EISA: Detected 0 cards.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844826] TCP cubic registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844833] NET: Registered protocol family 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844845] Using IPI No-Shortcut mode
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.844940]   Magic number: 12:823:314
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.845078] Freeing unused kernel memory: 364k freed
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   25.864513] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /class/input/input1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.952746] AppArmor: AppArmor initialized<5>audit(1202966313.000:2):  type=1505 info="AppArmor initialized" pid=1253
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.955892] fuse init (API version 7.8)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.958233] Failure registering capabilities with primary security module.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.988546] ACPI Warning (tbutils-0217): Incorrect checksum in table [OEMB] -  CB, should be C2 [20070126]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.988550] ACPI: SSDT 7FF8E0D0, 01D2 (r1    AMI   CPU1PM        1 INTL 20060113)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.988772] ACPI: SSDT 7FF8E2B0, 0143 (r1    AMI   CPU2PM        1 INTL 20060113)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.988891] ACPI Exception (processor_core-0783): AE_NOT_FOUND, Processor Device is not present [20070126]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   26.988897] ACPI Exception (processor_core-0783): AE_NOT_FOUND, Processor Device is not present [20070126]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206144] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbfs
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206159] usbcore: registered new interface driver hub
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206169] usbcore: registered new device driver usb
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206571] USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v3.0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206607] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1a.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206614] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1a.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206616] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206686] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206708] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.0: irq 16, io base 0x0000a800
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206769] usb usb1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206781] hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.206784] hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.252904] SCSI subsystem initialized
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.255503] libata version 2.21 loaded.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.300598] Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307349] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1a.1[B] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307357] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1a.1 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307359] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307427] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307447] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.1: irq 18, io base 0x0000a880
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307610] usb usb2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307680] hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.307683] hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.318772] FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411034] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1a.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411041] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1a.2 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411044] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.2: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411060] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411081] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1a.2: irq 19, io base 0x0000ac00
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411147] usb usb3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411169] hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.411172] hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514798] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514804] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514807] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514822] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514843] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 20, io base 0x0000a080
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514909] usb usb4: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514927] hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.514932] hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618578] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618586] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618589] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618604] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618625] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 21, io base 0x0000a400
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618697] usb usb5: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618715] hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.618719] hub 5-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.650458] usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722362] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722368] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722371] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: UHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722385] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 6
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722404] uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 19, io base 0x0000a480
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722472] usb usb6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722491] hub 6-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.722495] hub 6-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.820458] usb 2-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.826606] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1a.7[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.826612] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1a.7 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.826615] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: EHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.827549] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 7
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.827568] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: debug port 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.827573] PCI: cache line size of 32 is not supported by device 0000:00:1a.7
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.827575] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: irq 19, io mem 0xf9fffc00
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.831515] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1a.7: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.831555] usb usb7: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.831568] hub 7-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.831571] hub 7-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.933965] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:03.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.985593] ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.0 (PCI): IRQ=[21]  MMIO=[febff000-febff7ff]  Max Packet=[2048]  IR/IT contexts=[8/8]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.993571] r8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver 2.2LK loaded
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.993582] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:04.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.993739] ahci 0000:03:00.0: version 2.2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.993755] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   27.993771] eth0: RTL8169sc/8110sc at 0xf8884c00, 00:1b:fc:e1:6d:7b, XID 18000000 IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.364974] usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.575725] usb 5-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.578756] usb 2-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.943770] usb 7-3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995690] ahci 0000:03:00.0: AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995694] ahci 0000:03:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995701] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995802] scsi0 : ahci
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995835] scsi1 : ahci
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995882] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8890100 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   28.995885] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xf8890180 ctl 0x00000000 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.085943] usb 7-3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.259177] ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[0011d80001637d43]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.307020] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618372] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618714] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.11
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618717] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618733] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.2[B] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618750] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618767] scsi2 : ata_piix
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618849] scsi3 : ata_piix
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618961] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00019000 ctl 0x00018c02 bmdma 0x00018480 irq 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.618963] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00018880 ctl 0x00018802 bmdma 0x00018488 irq 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.782188] ata3.00: ATA-8: WDC WD5000AAKS-65YGA0, 12.01C02, max UDMA/133
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.782191] ata3.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.798163] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.801986] usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   29.976709] usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.217147] usb 3-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.273175] ata4.00: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-215, 1.06, max UDMA/66
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.413808] usb 3-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.416826] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.429857] input: Logitech USB Optical Mouse as /class/input/input2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.429872] input: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Logitech USB Optical Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1a.2-1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.429880] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.429883] /build/buildd/linux-source-2.6.22-2.6.22/drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.444810] ata4.00: configured for UDMA/66
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.444879] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD5000AAKS-6 12.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.450945] scsi 3:0:0:0: CD-ROM            PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-215  1.06 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.450987] ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451003] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451023] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451046] scsi4 : ata_piix
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451075] scsi5 : ata_piix
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451148] ata5: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x0001a000 ctl 0x00019c02 bmdma 0x00019480 irq 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.451150] ata6: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00019880 ctl 0x00019802 bmdma 0x00019488 irq 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   30.923812] ata5.00: ATAPI: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B, SB00, max UDMA/100
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.095456] ata5.00: configured for UDMA/100
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262185] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM            TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S203B  SB00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262291] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262299] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262302] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262321] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 8
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262343] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: debug port 1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262349] PCI: cache line size of 32 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.262355] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 20, io mem 0xf9fff800
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.266244] ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 started, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.266296] usb usb8: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.266310] hub 8-0:1.0: USB hub found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.266313] hub 8-0:1.0: 6 ports detected
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.270936] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.270943] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.270944] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.270952] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.271392] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.271397] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.271399] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.271406] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.271409]  sda: sda1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.276213] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.297584] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.297587] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.297612] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.300002] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.300087] sr 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.300176] sr 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.306850] sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/48x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.306872] sr 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370842] PCI: Enabling device 0000:03:00.1 (0000 -> 0001)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370848] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.1[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370877] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:03:00.1 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370910] scsi6 : pata_jmicron
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370947] scsi7 : pata_jmicron
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.370998] ata7: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x0001dc00 ctl 0x0001d882 bmdma 0x0001d400 irq 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.371001] ata8: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x0001d800 ctl 0x0001d482 bmdma 0x0001d408 irq 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.434497] kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.434502] EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.610262] usb 5-2: USB disconnect, address 2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   31.853723] usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   32.068514] usb 5-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   34.888092] pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   34.909534] shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.079406] Linux agpgart interface v0.102 (c) Dave Jones
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.108978] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:00.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.108987] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:02:00.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.109004] sky2 0000:02:00.0: v1.18 addr 0xfe9fc000 irq 17 Yukon-EC Ultra (0xb4) rev 3
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.109082] sky2 eth1: addr 00:1b:fc:e1:77:24
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.413868] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.663363] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.663370] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:01:00.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.663436] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  169.07  Thu Dec 13 18:42:56 PST 2007
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.676097] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.709315] input: PC Speaker as /class/input/input3
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.724325] /build/buildd/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-2.6.22/debian/build/build-generic/media/gspcav1/gspca_core.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found.(SPCA561A)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.729868] usbcore: registered new interface driver gspca
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.729870] /build/buildd/linux-ubuntu-modules-2.6.22-2.6.22/debian/build/build-generic/media/gspcav1/gspca_core.c: gspca driver 01.00.12 registered
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.874157] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1b.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.874168] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1b.0 to 64
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.979211] ieee80211_init: failed to initialize WME (err=-17)
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.997586] iwlwifi_rc80211_simple: Unknown symbol iwlwifi_ieee80211_rate_control_unregister
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.997607] iwlwifi_rc80211_simple: Unknown symbol iwlwifi_sta_info_put
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.997625] iwlwifi_rc80211_simple: Unknown symbol iwlwifi_sta_info_get
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.997655] iwlwifi_rc80211_simple: Unknown symbol iwlwifi_ieee80211_rate_control_register
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   35.997823] wmaster0: Selected rate control algorithm 'simple'
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.046438] phy0: hwaddr 00:15:af:22:88:65, rtl8187 V1 + rtl8225z2
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.046454] usbcore: registered new interface driver rtl8187
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.116338] usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.340753] coretemp coretemp.0: Using undocumented features, absolute temperature might be wrong!
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.341203] coretemp coretemp.1: Using undocumented features, absolute temperature might be wrong!
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.367369] lp: driver loaded but no devices found
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   36.734624] EXT3 FS on sda1, internal journal
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   37.710897] input: Power Button (FF) as /class/input/input4
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   37.710907] ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   37.710965] input: Power Button (CM) as /class/input/input5
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   37.710974] ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]
Feb 14 14:18:44 chris-desktop kernel: [   37.747777] No dock devices found.
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.676349] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.746902] audit(1202966325.230:3):  type=1503 operation="inode_permission" requested_mask="a" denied_mask="a" name="/dev/tty" pid=5340 profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd"
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.746960] audit(1202966325.230:4):  type=1503 operation="inode_permission" requested_mask="w" denied_mask="w" name="/etc/krb5.conf" pid=5340 profile="/usr/sbin/cupsd"
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.848945] apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.848948] apm: disabled - APM is not SMP safe.
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.927964] r8169: eth0: link down
Feb 14 14:18:45 chris-desktop kernel: [   38.997231] sky2 eth1: enabling interface
Feb 14 14:18:54 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.207161] Failure registering capabilities with primary security module.
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.514881] Bluetooth: Core ver 2.11
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.514927] NET: Registered protocol family 31
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.514928] Bluetooth: HCI device and connection manager initialized
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.514931] Bluetooth: HCI socket layer initialized
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.572275] Bluetooth: L2CAP ver 2.8
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.572277] Bluetooth: L2CAP socket layer initialized
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.664898] Bluetooth: RFCOMM socket layer initialized
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.664986] Bluetooth: RFCOMM TTY layer initialized
Feb 14 14:18:55 chris-desktop kernel: [   48.664988] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.8
Feb 14 14:19:13 chris-desktop kernel: [   67.180855] NET: Registered protocol family 17
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.578435] wlan0: Initial auth_alg=0
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.578440] wlan0: authenticate with AP 00:1b:2f:a6:ba:0c
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.579937] wlan0: RX authentication from 00:1b:2f:a6:ba:0c (alg=0 transaction=2 status=0)
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.579940] wlan0: authenticated
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.579943] wlan0: associate with AP 00:1b:2f:a6:ba:0c
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.582931] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:1b:2f:a6:ba:0c (capab=0x411 status=0 aid=1)
Feb 14 14:19:28 chris-desktop kernel: [   81.582933] wlan0: associated
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101193] Eeek! page_mapcount(page) went negative! (-1)
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101237]   page pfn = 7feb2
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101275]   page->flags = 80000004
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101313]   page->count = 1
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101350]   page->mapping = 00000000
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101391]   vma->vm_ops = generic_file_vm_ops+0x0/0x18
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101432]   vma->vm_ops->nopage = filemap_nopage+0x0/0x340
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101473]   vma->vm_file->f_op->mmap = generic_file_mmap+0x0/0x40
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101528] ------------[ cut here ]------------
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101566] kernel BUG at /build/buildd/linux-source-2.6.22-2.6.22/mm/rmap.c:628!
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101608] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1]
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101645] SMP
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.101751] Modules linked in: aes p80211 af_packet binfmt_misc rfcomm l2cap bluetooth ppdev acpi_cpufreq cpufreq_userspace cpufreq_stats cpufreq_ondemand cpufreq_powersave freq_table cpufreq_conservative video ac dock sbs container button battery sbp2 parport_pc lp parport coretemp w83627ehf i2c_isa arc4 ecb blkcipher rc80211_simple snd_usb_audio snd_usb_lib snd_hwdep snd_seq_dummy snd_hda_intel snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_timer rtl8187 snd_seq_device mac80211 snd cfg80211 gspca eeprom_93cx6 pcspkr psmouse serio_raw videodev v4l2_common v4l1_compat soundcore snd_page_alloc nvidia(P) sky2 intel_agp agpgart i2c_core shpchp pci_hotplug evdev ext3 jbd mbcache sg sd_mod sr_mod cdrom usbhid hid pata_jmicron ata_piix floppy r8169 ohci1394 ieee1394 ata_generic ahci libata scsi_mod ehci_hcd uhci_hcd usbcore thermal processor fan fuse apparmor commoncap
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105358] CPU:    1
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105359] EIP:    0060:[page_remove_rmap+233/256]    Tainted: P       VLI
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105359] EFLAGS: 00013286   (2.6.22-14-generic #1)
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105498] EIP is at page_remove_rmap+0xe9/0x100
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105545] eax: 0000004a   ebx: c1ffd640   ecx: 00003046   edx: 00000000
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105594] esi: f76065d8   edi: b7d12000   ebp: f75fa540   esp: f7625eb0
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105642] ds: 007b   es: 007b   fs: 00d8  gs: 0000  ss: 0068
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105691] Process Xorg (pid: 5781, ti=f7624000 task=f75ecf90 task.ti=f7624000)
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.105740] Stack: c037ae8d 00000000 c1ffd640 fffa7448 c016b5c2 c016ae72 7feb2025 79628065
Feb 14 15:16:40 chris-desktop kernel: [ 3506.106107]        b7e53fff 00000000 f76065d8 f7625f44 00223f47 00000000 00000001 b7e54000

The second time it happened (which was tonight), I was running Kdenlive, which for some reason had started killing Xorg whenever it started up. Switching to Metacity allows Kdenlive to start up, and then I could switch back to Compiz. But Kdenlive was sitting idle in the background - I was using Firefox again, just as I was the first time.

But this time, the only thing in the system log is the "Eeek! page_mapcount(page) went negative! (-1)" message. For Windows users, you might think that the "page" is talking about my lack of swap space. It's not, as my memory usage was only about a quarter of my total RAM. Only Windows users call it "paging". Unix users call it swap, and Mac OS users call it "virtual memory".

Alarming kernel panic

This morning I was flicking through a new issue of Atomic magazine. In the questions and answers section, someone asked about whether you can turn off the pagefile if you're got lots of RAM.

The answer given was along the lines of "You can, but your operating system is smart enough not to use the pagefile if it doesn't need to so there's no performance hit; and besides, without a pagefile if you ran out of RAM your computer would crash".

I don't have a swap partition.

I was just looking up pictures of Miley Cyrus (at that stage I didn't know about her more Hudgeons-esque photos, honest!) and had quite a few tabs open, when Firefox froze up and went dark. I left it be for a few seconds, hoping it would become responsive again. But instead, the Gnome panels died! Alt-F2 didn't work for "xkill" so I had to press the X on the Firefox window and wait.

After a few seconds, Compiz died and I was left without a window manager! At that stage I realised that something Very Bad was happening. I tried opening a terminal by right-clicking on the desktop and going "Open Terminal", but the Gnome Terminal never appeared.

So I killed X - control-alt-delete. When I did and was dropped to a text terminal, I found the kernel printing all sorts of messages about memory addresses - it looked like a core dump. X didn't restart. I tried switching to another terminal and logging in to look at "top" or at least find out what the hell was going on, but the kernel printed messages all over whatever terminal I was in. Eventually, I got the "Kernel Panic: Not synced - attempted to kill init!" message.

Rebooted, then tried to look at /var/log/kern.log. The logs only went to 70 seconds into the last bootup. I guess the bit about "not synced" meant that it hadn't synchronized the kernel log before it panicked.

I have a theory about what caused the problem. Some sort of errant Javascript caused Firefox to start using up massive amounts of memory. When the system's RAM usage hit 2 gigabytes, the kernel started killing the smaller programs to try and free up memory. This would explain why Gnome-panel and Compiz died - these programs don't use up much memory.

I always thought that killing X would also kill all graphical programs. Maybe this isn't inherently so - maybe killing X only kills graphical programs that are still communicating with X. Firefox had stopped communicating, so it must have still been resident in RAM after X was gone. It continued to use memory until eventually the only thing left for the kernel to kill was Init.

But killing Init crashes the computer. Why wouldn't the kernel kill Firefox instead?

The other possibility is a fork bomb - a malicious DoS attack against my computer.

But I don't have any ports poked open in my firewall, and when I went to the same websites again I haven't had any troubles. What is going on?

Packaged lunch with Ubuntu

I joked to someone the other day that you could apt-get a picnic lunch from the Ubuntu repos. And you could!

Start with jam and scons
Then have burgerspace and xserver-xorg-driver-chips
If you're watching your weight, you could instead have an r-cran-sandwich, or a blt
For dessert, you could have cakephp with your choice of cream or icecream
And as for drinks, you can have a qbrew or even a sun-java6-jre

NetworkManager

Is it just my misconception, or does NetworkManager suck arse?

Every so often when I start up, NetworkManager won't connect. Rebooting does not help. Using the Networking panel manually doesn't help either - the connection always fails.

I have to use the NetworkManager applet to switch to a different network, wait until it's pretty much connected, and then switch to my actual network. It's a major PITA. But this time that procedure didn't work the first time, and I spend a good 20 minutes trying to fiddle with things to get it working.

I've heard good things about Wifi Radar - I might use that instead.

I'm not dissing the developers of NetworkManager, I just don't think it's in a ready state for use at least on my machine.

In other news, some dickhead wrote in to APC magazine and complained that Linux "is not ready for the desktop" because sound stutters when you try to use it within... SHOCK HORROR... Virtual PC. Cue lots of n00b ranting. What he fails to realise is that Microsoft has a vested interest in stopping Linux from working properly on Virtual PC, and they chose to have their virtualiser emulate a Soundblaster 16 because the drivers for it are not in the Linux 2.6 kernel.

"But I want to try Linux without wiping my Windows install!". Well then, why don't you dual-boot, and that way you can see how Linux performs on a real computer without the overhead of Windows? Or you could use a half-decent virtualisation suite like Virtualbox (free download for Windows, supports Linux without any problems).

In fact, I'm going to add another item to my article "Mac OS X - Desktop Ready?", regarding this virtualisation thing. Because you cannot run Mac OS X under virtualisation from within Windows unless you download a hacked version of OS X.

Found a workaround!

It's not perfect, but it's a workaround to the Nvidia driver problem I was having where all the videos turn green.

I started by studying Gmplayer - what makes it different? While looking through the preferences, I notice that it used X11 as the output module. I changed it to "Xv" (which is what I would have expected it to be on) and I got the green video. Changing it back to X11 brought the video back to its colourful best.

I found a similar option in VLC (my favourite DVD player) and now that uses X11 with no problem.

And, to top things off, I found an option in Gconf-editor that tells Gstreamer to use it too. It's a little bit obscure though: First go into gconf-editor, then open up the key "/system/gstreamer/0.10/default". Change the option "videosink" to the value "ximagesink".

If you want to change it back, the original value was "autovideosink".

So now all Gstreamer-based programs, like Elisa and Totem, will display video correctly!

Before you claim that "This means that Linux isn't ready for the desktop", just remember that Nvidia (proprietary software) introduced the problem, and open-source frameworks gave me the workaround.

Maxing out my CPU!

This is the first time I've managed to do it with this computer: My CPU is operating at 100% capacity. Yes, both cores, maxed out!

I'm doing this courtesy of Kdenlive, the great video editing suite for GNU/Linux. I edited out the ad breaks on my recorded DVD of "The Orange Line", and I'm putting it straight back into DVD format.

I'm a little disappointed with the speed - should I be? It's going to take 30 minutes to encode 40 minutes of footage from DVD format to DVD format, using both cores. It's probably Kdenlive's rendering that is taking longer - if I was just using a regular transcoder it would probably be much faster.

Recently I've had a bit of a kernel panic problem, with the computer freezing and the keyboard lights blinking on and off. I added to an existing bug report and followed some suggestions, and we'll see if it happens again. Somebody suggested that it was probably a thermal issue, which is bunkum - the last time it happened, my CPU was not under load, and right now both cores are at 43 degrees C under 100% load, so it's got to be something else.

Even though the CPU is working at 100% capacity, the computer is still surprisingly responsive. Maybe it's not a surprise, considering that I've seen this before on Linux.

Who said webcams on Linux was hard?

Today I decided to go out and buy a cheap webcam, so I can do amateur pornography video chat to my friends. Cheap being the operative word, because I don't want to buy something expensive and then find that it doesn't work with Linux!

The shop I went to had two in my price range: A Dick Smith's el-cheapo webcam for $30, and a Logitech Quickcam Go for $35. Naturally, I'd heard about how Logitech cameras work well with Linux, so I chose the Go (surprisingly, I only got charged $30 for it anyway!)

Upon plugging it in, I did "dmesg" and was told this:

[  156.670421] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[  156.706767] ubuntu/media/gspcav1/gspca_core.c: USB SPCA5XX camera found.(SPCA561A)
[  156.715560] usbcore: registered new interface driver gspca
[  156.715566] ubuntu/media/gspcav1/gspca_core.c: gspca driver 01.00.12 registered

Linux had automatically recognised the camera and loaded the driver.

Kopete immediately brought up the camera's picture. Skype doesn't seem to be working with it, but then Skype is still in beta, and I don't know if Kopete has a lock on the camera device.

Logitech Quickcam Go. Works out-of-the-box with Linux.

Godwin's Law

There's been a dumb slagging match happening on the Ubuntu-Au mailing list, which started off being about whether Automatix was harmful, and quickly turned into flaming and counter-flaming.

I recieve the Ubuntu-Au mailing list digest, which comes to me every day or so - more often if there's more posts.

If I hadn't already been beaten to the punch in invoking Godwin's Law, I would have replied:

Hitler. Now let's end the thread.

lol.

Having said that, any program which purposely kills Nautilus is terrible, in my book. What if you had a copying operation happening? What if you had a copying operation happening between your computer and an OS X machine; the sudden loss of connection to Nautilus would probably freeze the Mac.

In conversation with a newbie

I have been chatting to a new Linux user online; I'm sorta mentoring him and answering his questions. Here's a recent exchange:

Hey 3rdalbum,

Thank you for answering my question, man. And no one has answered it in such depth. Thanks again. I have one more doubt.

As you may know, the whole internet revolves around various extentions like .html, .xml, .avi, .mp3 etc. So, if Linux doesn't need extentions (and since Windows requires it), is the internet a technology inspired from Windows ?

Thanking you again,
Techdudezz

It's actually the other way around - the Internet has always been run on and designed around Unix and Unix-like systems (Linux, mostly). You've probably noticed that the "path delimiter" on Linux is a forward slash (/), on Windows it's a backslash (\), and on the classic Mac OS it was a colon (:). The path delimiter on the Internet is a forward slash, which tells you that the Internet was designed around Unix systems. Also, I don't know if you've done web development before, but in a hyperlink you use "../" to specify the directory above the current one - you also use it for the same purpose on a Linux system.

The suffixes aren't even necessary on the Internet - the HTTP header that is sent by the server and recieved by the web browser specifies a "MIME type", which says what sort of document is being transferred. Suffixes were used in the early days to differentiate HTML documents and plain text documents (HTML is plain text with markup tags), because at that time HTML and plain text were identified with the same MIME type. These days, the suffixes are used out of inertia and for Windows compatibility, and let's face it, they're good for security as you can tell from the address bar exactly what you are downloading :-)

Before you go and delete the file extensions on all your files, though, you should be aware that Abiword, OOo, MS Office 2007, and Scribus save their documents into XML files that are placed inside tarballs. Without the file extension to identify the program, Linux just assumes that these are ordinary archives. Make a copy of an OOo document and get rid of the filename extension, reload the folder list and see what I mean :-)

A handy command is "file". Type "file " and then the name of a file into the terminal, and you'll be told what sort of file it is; for some files you even get very specific information. This magic is performed, funnily enough, by a package called "libmagic". It looks at the file's contents and determines what sort of file it is. This is in contrast to the Mac OS, which instead relies on the creator of the document to store a 4-character "creator code" identifying the program that created it and another 4-character "file type" identifying the type of file.

Now, an unusual twist to the conversation.

Hey 3rdalbum,

You're right. There are a lot of stuff in the internet which are really close to Unix. I'm not well-versed with much details about this as I'm just starting to learn web technologies and network programming.

Anyway, isn't Mac a Unix ? I've heard this elsewhere. And one more thing which pisses me off is the thing that in linux, its really hard to visualize a program's associated files and structure in Unix that you need to a computer scientist to do fun & easy tweaks in Windows.

I mean, in Windows, ONE/multiple folder hosts (almost) all the files for a software so that its easy for me to play with it. But in Linux, I've to read their "Noobs will be prosecuted" kinda documentation and figure out basic stuff.

I mean, consider me as an average Joe starting off with Linux. You know what its like ? Its like being captivated in a box that is called the "Home". Everything outside this black-box seems to be a mystery. Its like looking at a rock and wondering how the electrons and atoms are running inside it.

I'm confident in saying that "THIS IS WHY LINUX WILL NEVER BE A SUCCESS" for everyday purposes. No matter how much you market the thing or how much you bring up a hype, it will never penetrate into the general public.

I agree that people should be working on a much more stable and intact OS that Windows. But, I think freedom and more importantly, "ease of freedom" is the right track. And, this is why Microsoft has been successful all these days (and maybe in the future too) or why Apple is going to be successful in the coming years.

The whole linux community is working in the wrong direction. Unless its not changed, no way am I going to adopt it (really man, I'm really pissed off). And, you know why people aren't actually going on a riot and killing every Linux developer they see ? Because its given for free. What are your thoughts ?

Of course, I have some thoughts about this:

Lots of people do say that the Macintosh is Unix, but in reality it's a messy mismash of a 1980s BSD fork, modern FreeBSD, some NetBSD, Carbon, and a big chunky proprietary Apple layer that is developed by people who don't know the first thing about working *within* an existing security system.

If Mac OS X is Unix, then it's the only Unix with such a f*cked up security system you need to "reset the permissions" every so often.

If you feel like you're inside a black box on Linux, then there's something wrong. For instance, look inside the file /etc/gdm/gdm.conf - this file, which is excellently commented, defines virtually everything about the login screen. You can modify it by hand if you want, to completely customise it. (although in this case, it's recommended that you instead edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom - which is the same sort of thing).

Take a look inside /etc some time - it's a treasure trove of interesting things you can do with your system. I understand if you would prefer GUIs for everything, but if you try to pack all the text-file configuration options into a GUI, you quickly get something intimidating. I seem to have developed a phobia of Windows XP's configuration GUIs after clicking too many buttons marked "Properties..." and "Advanced...".

For everyday purposes, people don't want to delve down into the parts of the system and do advanced tweaking. I use Linux for very ordinary, everyday purposes - shrinking DVDs, loading my MP3 player, web surfing, VoIP, office documents. I even do some video editing. I didn't need to drop to the CLI or hand-modify root-owned files to perform these tasks.

I think the successes of the Asus EeePC and the Everex gPC are evidence that "regular" people can use a pre-installed, pre-configured Linux.

As for Windows and Mac OS being easy to use, it's really all to do with your familiarity. If you've been brought up with Windows, you'll be able to use Windows without too much difficulty. If you've been brought up with Windows, you will probably find it easy-ish to switch to the Macintosh - after all, Windows has always been based on the concepts from the Mac OS. However, Linux is based around a completely different system. There are fundamental reasons why things are done in particular ways in Linux.

I've been using Linux for close on 2 years (time flies!). Before that, I was a Mac user. Somehow, I switched from Mac to Linux quite easily. Last year I bought my first Windows PC for use with Linux. Every time I have to do any sort of configuration with this machine, I struggle against it. People consider me to be a "computer whiz" and they ask me to come over to their house and fix some problem with their Windows computer... but I often fail, and even when I succeed it usually involves a trip to the Microsoft Knowledge Base. A trip to the MKB ends off being a trip to the DOS prompt or the Registry Editor, and don't think that those DOS commands are something you can understand! They usually require 3 or more mandatory parameters before they will do anything.

No, Windows is easy to use if you don't have to administer it. Linux is easy to use if you don't have to administer it. Mac OS is easy to use if you believe it to be secure, which it isn't; but administration can also be tricky. In particular, recovery from unbootable situations is immensely difficult on the Mac OS, and always involves either a reinstall or another bad crash 2 months down the track.

Oh, don't get me wrong. Some things on Linux need improving. Compiling software needs to be easier - there's no reason why it couldn't be (note that compiling software on Linux is easier than on Windows). The kernel needs a stable ABI for drivers. Otherwise, the Linux desktop is here and ready for everyday use, as long as people are willing to accept that it is different to the other operating systems that are out there.

Stick with Linux. You're still new to the operating system, and I'm sure things will become less of a black box once you start looking through the files in /etc.

I sometimes want to kill Windows developers - that operating system frustrates me with its intrusiveness and confounds me at every turn. But that's neither here nor there :-)

A newbie's questions about Ubuntu and the filesystem

In reply to my Youtube video of "Where did my installed program go on Ubuntu?", I recieved the following question:

May I ask a doubt. In Windows, when you install a program, everything comes up in the folder where its installed (eg. Program Files) and everything is pretty straight forward.

In Linux, I don't understand where the files are going and what are the .exe equivalents in Linux ? And, its quite annoying that I get access to only the home folder (I mean, even if get full access, its really confusing whats going on) :(

My answer
The files go all over the filesystem. Depending on what you've installed, files could go into /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /lib, /sbin, /var... there are a lot of places that files can go.

But you don't need to know where these files go. If you ever do, go into the Synaptic Package Manager as I do in this tutorial and look for yourself! The Linux way (where a program will put files in all sorts of different places) is better as it allows other programs to use the same files - less duplication, less bloat.

This message is too short for a tour of the filesystem, but it's easier than it looks. /bin is for the basic programs that make the computer run. /boot contains the kernel of the operating system. /lib contains basic libraries that your programs need to run. /home contains home directories. /etc contains a lot of miscellaneous stuff, including configuration files for basic parts of the system. /usr/bin contains your everyday programs. /usr/share contains miscellaneous stuff that your everyday programs require, as does /usr/lib. /var contains some other stuff; the most interesting are /var/apt/ and /var/www (the latter is where web pages get served from, if you have Apache installed). /sbin contains programs that can only be run by root (the administration account - the one that you must use "sudo" or "gksudo" to get into). Finally, /tmp contains temporary files which get wiped on shutdown.

Linux doesn't rely on file extensions like .exe to know what is executable and what isn't. If you open up your file browser to the /usr/bin or /bin directories, you'll see what is executable by what icon it has. If you're using Ubuntu, it will be a purple diamond icon. Otherwise, it might have the extension ".sh" or ".run".

Ubuntu's security mechanism prevents you, malicious programs, and prankster colleagues from modifying the filesystem without your authorisation. Go to the terminal or the Alt-F2 Run dialog and type "gksudo nautilus". From there you should have read/write access to everything. But 99.99% of the time you don't need to directly touch anything outside your home directory.

If there's something in particular that you're trying to get access to your filesystem for, tell me and I'll see if it's something that can be done more safely another way. But you've really got to remember that Linux is a completely different operating system to Windows, and if you don't understand yet, it's not because it's necessarily more difficult - it's just not what you're used to.

How to break your Linux system and then fix it

From the vault of Bad Things To Do.

I've been trying to install Kdenlive lately. There's a dependency problem in the version from Trevino's repos - it depends on libfreetype6 (>=2.3.5) but Feisty only has 2.2.1 or something like that. I tried compiling from source, but there were some fatal errors during build.

So my next idea was to compile libfreetype 2.3.5 and use Checkinstall to install it with the correct name and version, so that the Trevino dependency would resolve and I could install Kdenlive. So I tried that - and promptly found that I could no longer start graphical programs!

I Control-Alt-F1'ed to the terminal, and was trying to think of solutions. Apt-get install -f proposed a dumb solution - to get rid of libfreetype6-dev, which wouldn't have done anything.

I was thinking along the lines of "reinstall libfreetype6", but that would likely only reinstall the faulty version. So I thought "Maybe I should remove the .deb package I just created", but then it might complain that it couldn't reinstall libfreetype6 because it couldn't find the package! (and then I'd really be up shit creek).

Luckily, Aptitude saved the day, and from the textual-graphical mode it came up with the correct solution - downgrade libfreetype6 to the Ubuntu version. It also thought it would be fun to reinstall Gaim and remove Exaile, but at least it got me out of a tight spot.

Now, I'm sure there would have been other solutions, such as locking the libfreetype6 package to the older version and then running apt-get install -f; but I couldn't be bothered to look up how to do that on the command line. But the point is that I'm now back to my fully-functional desktop, thanks to Aptitude :-)

"Make a backup." Nah, I'll be right...

On Ubuntugeek.com today, I saw a post on how to easily encrypt folders. I thought "This is great, now I can encrypt my entire directory of *pictures and videos* without having to encrypt each file individually".

So I went to Google Code and downloaded the program "Conceal". This is a handy GUI frontend for the whole process which can be done at the command-line. The Readme file says:

!!! READ THIS BEFORE ANY USE !!!

This is a BETA software pulished ONLY FOR TEST purpose !
It can DESTROY your data.
Test it only on BACKUPED directories.

Nah, I'll be right.

I tried to demonstrate the multi-tasking power of my Linux system by encrypting the directory while also ripping a DVD's audio to MP3. The ripping went fine, but as soon as the encryption process started, Beagle kicked in and started trying to index the encrypted directory as it was being created.

I went away and had dinner. When I came back, Conceal still seemed to be encrypting, and Beagle was still running the CPU at 100%. So I killed Conceal, killed Beagle, and even uninstalled Beagle. I intended to start the encryption process again, and I didn't want to run out of disk space like I did last night when Transcode went haywire, so I deleted the encrypted files that had already been created. (after checking that my originals were still safe).

Big mistake. It turns out that the entire encryption process had already finished, and the *pictures and videos*