163 lines
7.6 KiB
HTML
163 lines
7.6 KiB
HTML
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<HTML><HEAD>
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<title>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers LG #76</title>
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<H4 ALIGN="center">
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike "Iron" Orr</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<H2>Horror Story</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:CraigR@servex.com.au">Craig Reeson</A>
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<P> Here's a quick horror story for you.
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I was recently admin-ing one of my Linux servers. This server is the
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company print server.
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What had happened was a user was connected to a legacy system via a
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terminal program. Somewhere along the line there was a screwup and his
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system starting dumping lots of extraneous data to the nearest printer. The
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user tried to power-cycle the printer to no avail. Thankfully, they came to
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me next to try and resolve the problem.
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<P> Anyway, I ssh'd into the Linux box, changed to the 'spool/' directory and
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did an 'ls' of the appropriate folder. After noting that there were a few
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hundred print jobs waiting in the print queue I decided it was best if I
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just deleted them all...
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<P> Here is where the proverbial hit the spinning thing!
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<P> ...I decided to 'rm -rf *' all the files. The problem is I did it from the
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'spool/' directory rather than the proper printer directory. This had the
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effect of deleting everything in my system spool directory!
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<P> After realising my error I tried to fix it. First thing was trying "unrm".
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This did not work as I could not read from the filesystem without errors.
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Next I tried using a boot floppy and trying 'unrm' again. But no that would
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not work because I could not get the RAID array to be recognised!!! Tried a
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few other options until I gave up and decided it was time for an "upgrade".
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<P> Problem solved after 3 hours :)
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<H2></H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:craigshelley@yahoo.com">Craig Shelley</A>
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<P> After buying an all-on-board style PC and installing linux, I wanted to
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try out a dual-headed configuration. This was mainly because I found
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myself with a spare graphics card and monitor. I plugged in the new
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graphics card, and realised that the super complex modular BIOS system
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was automatically disabling interrupts from the on-board graphics
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system. According to the manual, it was impossible to turn off this
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'feature'. Then I had an idea!
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<P> The idea was that if the new graphics card could be disabled while
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booting, the BIOS may ignore it. Then, I could re-enable the card for
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normal use.
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<P> After studying the PCI bus pinout and specs, I decided to disconnect the
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reset line from the graphics card using a sharp screwdriver to destroy
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the track. I then re-connected the reset line through a switch, and then
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down to the ground connection. (Reset is Active Low)
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<P> Using the switch I could disable the card, but it then became
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impossible to re-enable it because the PC could not reset it when it
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wanted to. I then decided to connect a resistor across the broken track
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so that the card could also be reset by the PC, and my switch would not
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affect anything else.
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<P> The switch was neatly mounted on the metal back plate of the card, and
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can be switched when required.
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<P> Using the switch, I put the card into reset mode, booted the PC, then
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turned the card back on, and found myself with two working monitors ;-) ;-)
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<P> Also, have you ever wondered how to get out of the situation where X
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does not return VGA text mode? Adding one of these switches to your card
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solves this problem.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%%"> <!--*********************** -->
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<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
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[If you have a story about something foolish or ingenious you
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did to your computer, send it to
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<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>-Iron.]
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</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
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<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
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<P>
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
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<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he has
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to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux enthusiast
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since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
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coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
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Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
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Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
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hahaha.</EM>
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<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
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<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2002, Mike "Iron" Orr.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 76 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 2002</H5>
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