To Do

General

21 March 2006

• Put your keys on a usb stick with putty -- see portaPutty
  

22 September 2005: top tasks

• cyberspace
• connect a monitor and check it out locally -- done
  
• make a tar file of the tikiwiki project and send it to Xavi -- done
  
• ask Shinn and Daniel if they are willing to take a look at it -- done
• if they can solve the problem right away, just leave the machine as is
• at some point do a fresh kubuntu install
• the main thing for me is to have access to /vm
• trevi
  
• install 2.6.14 when it's out
  
• install the pcHDTV card and test closed captioning
  
• configure the UPC to shut down the machine
• configure trevi to boot when the power returns

6 August 2005: ipaq

• First priority
• get the stowaway keyboard working, so you can use it to take notes
• Connection options, in order of preference
• USB
  
• get the connection to the USB cradle working, so you can sync with the laptop
  
• Bluetooth
  
• get a sleeve for the ipaq -- a single may be enough (for bluetooth)
  
• get a pcmcia bluetooth card -- can you get one with extra RAM?
• the TDK Bluepaq -- bluetooth with sleeve and CF slot -- is ideal but not supported in Linux
• use it to sync with the laptop
  
• Serial PCMCIA
  
• can you get a pcmcia card with a serial port? Or USB to serial? Firewire to serial?
• ask on a laptop mailing list: I have a laptop and would like to add a serial port. What are my options? The laptop has USB, ieee1394a, parallel, and PCMCIA
  

5 August 2005: SMS from modem

• smsclient can set up SMS messaging on a server, using a modem
  
• you could in principle also allow dialup and use it from home
• can you make it secure?
• do you have a phone line in 3113?

1 March 2005: Promise cards on libata?

• libata is getting support for Promise PDC20269
• when that support is in the kernel, and the kernel has stabilized (2.6.12?), test it
  
• I think gubbio, cybers, and spello all have these cards
• md raid is faster than 3ware's raid
• when you get the new Seagate 400GB drives, try using md
• use XFS instead of ReiserFS
  

22 February 2005

• mencoder can use -ovc nuv for nuppelvideo! See info mencoder
  
• try to find a syntax for this -- it compresses to RTjpeg...
  
• VMware 5.0-rc2 working on trevi
  

21 February 2005

• Should also work on the USB2.0 cards on gubbio (?) and cyberspace
• Benchmark the combo drive on USB2 vs Firewire on Spello
  
• See if the 6-6 firewire cable also supplies power
• I'm assuming the 6-4 cable doesn't
• Test firewire on sigillo and spello (the 2.6 kernel)

13 February 2005

• Sigillo
• Sigillo's microphone is now working -- had to set alsa from the CLI (see ~/scripts)
• The CPiA web cam is also working now -- not sure what made the difference (new kernel?)
  
• This means GnomeMeeting and Skype are now working, for the first time on Sigillo!
• Sigillo's battery is more or less shot, so no need to worry about power management
• Trevi
• TV capture works like a dream (quality could be better)
• Set up as a thin client server? You don't have time
• Minor tweaking to fill in functionality is all you should do
  

2 January 2005 

• Spello can't change timestamp on files on a samba share -- means rsync doesn't work (works fine on clitunno). Spello works as a samba server.
• Clitunno thus needs to take over the job of sync'ing cogweb -- and it needs the exclusion files that are on sigillo
• Remote TV sound still not working (but remote music works)
  
• Security:  use a port other than 22 for ssh?
  

 9 August 2004 

• Aim: convert sigillo:/vx to ext3
• Install explore2fs under XP (no write access)
  
• Install the NTFS reader/writer (check for conflicts with current reader first)
  
• Does alsa not create /dev/dsp? xmms lists the audio device as "hw:0,0" -- how can you use "say.sh"?
  
• Can you use the null modem cable to connect two laptops together? See serial cable article
  
• Power management -- software suspend may start working in the 2.6 kernel after 2.6.8
  
• Reformat /vx from vfat to ext2
  
• Install the captive package for writing to NTFS once some wrinkles have been sorted out
• Install an ext2 reader in WinXP, for the occasional need
  
• Format all new server drives to XFS -- better performance for large files
  
• Install a PCI chip disk as big as you can afford. These are just banks of memory (RAM) chips that are designed to appear as a disk drive in your system. Put your swap disk there. This should increase performance quite a bit.
• See discussion under Harddrives.html (7 Sep 2002)
• Update the Crossover plugin (you had a subscription)
• Get gnlogin, the GTK graphical frontend to ncpmount
• Try Comanche, a frontend to Apache configuration (source)
• Get Wine or more likely Codeweaver's version of it once it supports Dreamweaver

Server plans

• Check out Virtual Manhattan -- a classroom suite which may have everything you need
• Install an FTP server, such as ProFTP (I may even have installed it already on Cyberspace)
• Run Apache. "Have a look in your /etc/httpd/conf directory and you'll find some useful configuration files. If you fear editing any configuration files by hand, you should download Comanche, which puts a nice friendly GUI over the Apache configuration process." Source.
• Run a usenet server (likely included in Virtual Manhattan)
• Check out Discus, a web-based discussion board software

August 2004 update

On the laptop, fax is now working from the built-in modem, the wireless modem is working, and the headphone jack is working. The only remaining issue is power management.  I now have cpufreq working, and hard drive spindown, screen blanking, battery detection, but none of the sleep modes work.

Linux is running great on the office machines, allowing me to back up current work safely and to maintain a large video storage library. Scale back on new plans, and don't get involved in the OGS installation -- Andrey now has the required expertise, which is a lot of fun to see. Improvements in support and software happen slowly but steadily, so just let things improve while you sit back and focus on other things.

September 2002 update

The strategy for Linux during the coming year should be use it but leave it alone. There's not even a need to upgrade to Debian -- give Tom a chance to do that. Don't copy a harddrive for him, let him install Debian and use apt get. Swap out the CD drive for the DVD player, and see if you can copy a DVD straight -- or else to and from an ISO. Make room on /vm. That's the right level of ambition. Don't lose sight of the fact that you've basically got everything working -- Samba networking, ssh, NFS, 100Mbit Ethernet, VNC, Novell File Server access, capture video, play video, edit video, convert to mp3 / mpeg4, webcam, writing back to camcorder, reading the Archos. In the short run, it's not clear that you can do any better. Yes, one thing: Dreamweaver. It's very likely that Codeweavers will make it work over the next year -- just wait for that to happen. So here's to do:

• Swap in the new DVD player
• Make a copy of Debian 3 for Tom
• Make copies of Libranet CDs when they arrive

That's it. No new harddrive, no framegrabber cards; let Tom do this.

Now, for the following year -- after next summer -- you might move to stage 2, where you get a powerful server that runs Debian, and one or even two terminal servers in the office. You have Codeweavers Office running on it, under Linux, and you have students access it for video work. You don't need to have this done this first year -- just focus on writing. You have all the tools you need.

History

The first stage of Linux was just getting the system up and running -- struggling with Debian and SuSE's reiserfs.

The second stage was designing a very stable system on 2.4.16 and getting all the video programs going. This is duplicated on cyberspace, and Jirina is using it. This is what I'll be keeping for the 2002-3 academic year, without any significant changes. When codeweavers office supports Dreamweaver, I'll install that -- it seems likely that this will be in place by the end of the year, but if it's not until next summer, that's fine. I might install Libranet's debian or not -- there's really no hurry.

The third stage will be transferring from Windows, for which I need a version of Codeweavers Office that handles all the major Windows applications I need, and some major new hardware. I'll set up a powerful server and experiment with thin clients.