Went to the Rosie this afternoon for a thirty two week growth scan. As per last time we went everything was fine and the mid-wifes were wondering why we'd been told to come back. As the wee blighter is getting so large, it's increasingly harder to get good ultra sound scan as the paddles they can't scan enough of an area to show much.
If you'd told me that three games into the RBS Six Nations Scotland would be above England in the table I'd have laughed. Oh how the mighty have fallen. You'd have to say they'll still end up above us in the table as with us and Ital left to play you've still got to fancy them to beat the pair of us. Can't wait to see the Wales versus Ireland match for the Grand Slam though, should be a corker.
After fixing Grub to enable me to use both Linux and Windows on the same box I decided that it was time to sort out the X Windows system and get a decent resolution. I'd installed Mozilla Firefox so that I could view the Debian website and stuff from inside Gnome, but I couldn't change the configuration as the OK button was off the bottom of the screen, I had to do something.
I tried to start of with dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86, but this just lead to me absolutely knackering Xfree86 to the point where it wouldn't start. So after a quick change of operating systems I did a bit of reading and remembered seeing lots of posts on the Debian user list from people running nVidia cards and motherboards.
Since I run both a nVidia graphics card (ancient) and a nForce 2 motherboard (not so ancient), I thought I'd better investigate. I found a load of nVidia packages via apt-cache search nvidia and I installed a couple of them. I also downloaded a couple of Linux installers from the nVidia website.
Armed with all of these packages I changed a few settings in the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file, but to no avai as I kept on getting a Fatal Error No screens found error message. Doing a search for this in Google, was like pulling teeth, it seemed like every problem you might have would result in this error, so I had no idea where to begin.
After reading the help on the nVidia website I decided to make a few further changes to the XF86Config-4 file, but that didn't seem to make any difference. I was was beginning to get a bit annoyed at this point as Knoppix can automatically detect all my hardware and set X up and running correctly, so why can't Debian do it as well?
Then I had a brain wave, if Knoppix can do it and it's based on Debian, shirley I can just take the config file it produces and use that? So that's what I did, after a couple of minutes of trying to find a disk that would let me copy the config to it, I finally rebooted back into Debian and switched the config files.
Upon the next reboot, X started up and into 1280x1024 resolution, perfect. After that I installed Mozilla Thunderbird and switched window managers from Gnome (yuk) to KDE. I now have a Linux desktop machine that I can surf the web, send and receive email and read newsgroups from; in essence, almost everything I was doing on my windows box. All that is left now, is to put a Java development environment on it and start finishing a couple of the projects I've got going.
Since I'm off ill, I've been trying to get my dual boot Linux/Windows box working. Firstly I thought I have a go at trying to get Grub to boot Windows XP, which is running on a second hard drive. Grub was throwing the following error:
Booting 'Microsoft Windows XP Pro'
root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
...
After much reading of websites at work during the week I found the answer. Well, I didn't find the answer, but I found pointers to what might be wrong, so I tried something out and it worked. Evidently if Windows isn't on the first disk Grub throws this error, so you have to map the disks so Grub thinks it's on the first disk. So you need to change the windows entry in your Grub configuration (/boot/grub/menu.lst) from:
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/hdb1 title Microsoft Windows XP Professional root (hd1,0) savedefault makeactive chainloader +1
To this:
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/hdb1 title Microsoft Windows XP Professional map (hd0) (hd1) map (hd1) (hd0) root (hd1,0) savedefault makeactive chainloader +1
Selecting XP from the boot menu after doing this worked a treat and I now have a working dual boot machine. This is making life just a bit easier as I now don't have to switch hard drive cables if I want to read my email.
I'm off work ill at the moment, turns out I've got the flu bug thing that's doing the rounds. The doctor wasn't too impressed with me turning up at the surgery, but I thought I was coming down with a throat infection. Ho hum.
We got switched on to broadband today, but not in the way I was expecting. For some reason I didn't see the email that was sent to me in the early hours of the morning at work, only when I got home at night. I was also expecting the phones to stop working as they didn't have microfilters on them, but it seems they only do that when you're actually connected to the Internet or something.
So I've just set up the wireless modem/router and check that I can view web pages and read email etc and I've also tested Karen's laptop to make sure she can connect wirelessly and it all seems to be working fine. I must say the download speed is fantastic, no more waiting for the graphics to slowly appear on the screen. Now I just need to get my server box up and running and we'll be all set to go.
I had another go at installing Debian Sarge on my desktop last night (a bit sooner than I expected, but there you go) and this time it was slightly more successful than the last attempt. I decided that I shouldn't really play around with the installation much, but just select that default and get to a working base system that I could then tweak; which is pretty much what I did.
The only problem with selecting all the defaults is that you end up with a really crap resolution for your X Windows system to run under. At least I got the box up and running though which is the main thing, so I can now concentrate on getting things like X and Grub configured properly.
I had my first attempt at creating a dual boot Linux desktop machine last night; for the most part it went smoothly, but it wasn't all plain sailing. I first had to switch disks inside the machine as I didn't want the disk with Windows XP on it to be the main disk. This done I stuck the first Debian Sarge CD into the machine and rebooted.
There is a new installer with the Sarge release and I must admit to it making the whole thing much easier to install. When I installed Debian Woody on another machine over a year ago I had to have a Debian expert with me; I really wouldn't have understood what was going on otherwise.
I did manage to knacker the installation somewhat though, after getting through the initial portion I managed to get Aptitude, a front end to the package management system, into a tizz and had to reboot the machine. Every reboot after that went back to the start of the second phase of installation and since it was late I just gave up.
Also Grub, the GRand Unified Bootloader wouldn't load Windows XP, something about:
Booting 'Microsoft Windows XP Pro'
root (hd1,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
...
So it wasn't the most successful evenings work, but then again it probably wasn't he best idea to try and install something like this at eleven o'clock at night anyway. So I'll be having another go at some point soon I hope.
So the push to get fit for my first Triathlon is under way as I've finally got my arse in gear and gone out for a run. I've been meaning to go running during Tuesday and Thursday lunch times for a while, but just never got round to it. This morning while looking for my crusty trainers to use while unblocking the drains I came across my running shoes, so I just got all my kit out and put it in my rucksac.
Milton Country Park isn't too far from where I work on Cowley Road, so I ran from the office over the A14 and round the park before heading back to the office. I was going to go round the whole park but I got confused and too a wrong turn and thus only ran round half the park. It was probably just as well as my right calf was screaming at me to stop by the time I got back to the bridge over the A14.
I'm now back at my desk after a quick stretch and shower and my legs feel like they've been assaulted with baseball bats. My right calf is absolutely killing me; obviously my attempts at stretching were pathetic. I've learned a few things from doing the run:
- get a pair of light weight gloves for when you start off
- get a headband to stop the sweat getting in your eyes
- get a top that wicks better than the skiing thing I'm using at the moment
- get a pair of proper running shoes with insoles
Until I manage to get myself to Profeet in London I might try chopping up the insoles in my hiking boots to see if they will improve the position of my feet and thus not knacker my knees and calf so much.
All in all it was good to get out; it would have been nice if it wasn't drizzling. I now just need to keep it up and do a cycle at the weekend followed by swimming and running during the week. The final thing to do is decide which six triathlons I'm going to attempt.
Before having breakfast this morning I was out with the drain rods unblocking our septic tank. I can't think of a nicer way to start the day than being covered in liquid shit...
Just got round to ordering an ADSL package for the house, it's only two months since they enabled the exchange so I have been a bit tardy. I've bought a 1Mbps package from Zen Internet and I'm hoping that we will be all up and running by the end of next week. The eventual idea is that I will stop my current hosting and run a server from home, so I've then got control over what software is on it etc.
Since Karen will be off work for quite a few months after the baby is born, she will need a good connection while at home to run Acne Advice with, so it makes sense to go with a good provider. I've also bought a Linksys wireless modem/router as Karen's laptop has a wireless card in it, so she'll be able to be outside with the baby while working, which should be quite nice.
The best thing about it all though is that we won't have to suffer BT Shitenet and their amazing disconnection service any more. I canny wait!
Just before Christmas I purchased an Adaptec ARO-1130U2 RAID add-on card for one of my computers which runs on a Chaintech 6BDU motherboard. The add-on card plugs into a proprietary RAID-Port II slot and takes over from the onboard SCSI controller. It will also do RAID modes 0, 1, 10 and 5 and handle four arrays so there is scope for modes 0 and 1 over multiple arrays etc.
The idea behind getting this board was to turn the machine into a server that will then attach to our broadband connection (when we get one) and run a web, mail, news server etc. Well that was the plan...
It's increasingly looking like the motherboard and the card don't like each other as the card doesn't get recognised each time the machine boots up. Even worse is that when it does get recognised it doesn't boot, it just hangs after finding the card.
I've tried the last two nights to get it working and Googling doesn't turn anything up, as only one other person has posted about this problem and that was in 1999! So it's looking increasingly likely that I will ditch the RAID card and just do daily and weekly backups and run the server that way. Bit of a pain in the arse really as I was quite looking forward to playing with RAID...
