dm93 * home DirkMachine

After pondering the question of whether ToMacOrNotToMac for entirely too long, while I was at the Kansas City Micro Center on an errand on 30Dec2001, I saw this plane-jane Powerspec PC for $999, and it looked like a good enough match for my PerfectOffice. (boy, if I had read djb's advice on hardware I might have had the confidence to build my own machine, cheaper and faster.)

This is a Powerspec PS8420. DebianLinuxJustWorks, for this hardware, for the most part; I use see also: WinFourLinOnDebian to run quicken.

Some detail:

I took the linmodem out because it's junk.

I moved the 52x CD-ROM to AmdAntec.

I have an old WinCast?/TV PCI card for VideoPresence. Almost works, but I took it out.

See also: details from epinions.

29May2004: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)

OK, installing DebianPackage:lvm2 allowed me to boot with with DebianPackage:kernel-image-2.6 and use the snd-es1371 module with DebianPackage:alsa-base.

Also updated my WinFourLinOnDebian setup to 2.6. kernel-image-2.6.6-win4lin_winl.1_i386.deb is the product of an hour of kernel compilation, not to mention the 2 attemps before I got the make-kpkg prayer right.

30Jan2003: My keyboard suddenly stopped working yesterday. I tried everything short of rebooting to fix it yesterday. Today, not even rebooting works. The ps2/usb dongle seems to have gone KerFlewey?. Not only that, but the machine won't boot cleanly. It still thought hdb8 was an ext2 filesystem, but I changed it to LVM a while ago (forgot to update /etc/fstab; perhaps there's something to this business where MS windows reboots every time you change something...). But even fixing that doesn't work.

Meanwhile, the Nov 2003 installation seems to work (ssh key fingerprint 9c:52:14:e1:94:4f:b6:a3:d6:46:79:de:5b:59:06:0f). I updated DebianPackage:gnome, then did a dist-upgrade, then discovered DebianPackage:galeon conflicts with mozilla-psm and hence with gnome... though upgrading to sid would clear that, but no joy. So I'm using DebianPackage:mozilla-firebird. (epiphany doesn't have a google search deely, at least not by default.)

ToDo: restore DNS cache: powered by djbdns

More WirelessNetworkingUpsAndDowns: the PCI<->PCMCIA gizmo that I bought [@@LDH report; cuecat the UPC code...] turns out to be not a PCMCIA thingy at all. I'm not sure how I'm gonna get 802.11 going on this thing.

I think I'll get back to work on MarysFirstCdMix, my foray into the world of digital music.

Install notes were taken in the fogo channel. It comes with Windows XP, but I have not used it at all; I don't intend to execute any agreements with Microsoft to use this machine (well, actually, to run quicken, I use WinFourLinOnDebian). I thought I would keep the factory software around in case I needed it, but XP was set up with one huge (60GB) NTFS partition, and DebianPackage:parted can't resize NTFS partitions (yet?). So after agonizing over whether I'd need access to Windows later for a couple hours, I nuked it and started fresh... I'm happy to say: DebianLinuxJustWorks.

earlier notes


comments:

USB keyboard wierdness --connolly, Fri, 11 Feb 2005 16:50:45 +0000 reply
Trying to upgrade to Amaya 8.7, which uses F2 rather than escape; F2 does nothing here. xev doesn't show an event for F2. It seems to be a kernel level problem: 

 keyboard.c: can't emulate rawmode for keycode 247

Details for: Logitech Logitech USB Keyboard in the linux USB database notes this problem; it says it's easy to fix, but does not answer the question "how?"

Keyboard and console howtwo doesn't apply to X. xfree86 docs and mandrake bug #9183 suggest: 

 Option "XkbModel" "logiinetnav"

or perhaps: 

 Option          "XkbModel"      "logiink"

added DVD-ROM; glad I donated to freenode --connolly, Fri, 13 May 2005 17:31:07 +0000 reply
When I put together AmdAntec, I discovered I had two dead CD drives. Last week (2005-04-23) I picked up a Samsung SM-352 Combo at Microcenter for $39.99. It works pretty well.

OK, actually, I had to figure out permissions problems, a SHELL variable problem, and so on, but the folks in #gstreamer and #debian and #xine on freenode sure were helpful. I'm glad I donated yesterday. I consider it an incredibly cheap annual support contract.

new USB "Keyboard for Life" --connolly, Fri, 10 Mar 2006 02:48:58 +0000 reply
I went for a random browse around the Microcenter as a reward for getting some dental work done. I picked up a Kensington Keyboard for Life, $15 at microcenter

It comes with an adapter for computers with a ps/2 port. I wonder if I already had one (or more?) of those.

UPACode 085896643708. Model K64370. S/N 99...549

Mar 6 17:02:55 dirk kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Keyboard [Darfon USB Combo Keyboard]? on usb-0000:00:1f.4-1.2.2

I tested it with xev, and sure enough, the F2 key works. ctrl-alt-Fn works for switching virtual consoles.

It has a nice big enter key, though it pushes the pipe symbol up higher than I'm used to.

The key click sound is kinda cheap, but the feel isn't bad.

It's very low-profile; maybe too low profile. I miss the stubby little legs on the logitech keyboard that tilted it up. I brought a wrist-rest out of the closet.

It doesn't have media keys (volume up/down etc.); I think those worked on the logitech keyboard, but I never used them. I wonder if I'll miss the little scroll wheel.

It's warranteed for life.