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2004.10.25 ~16 Fujitsu Lifebook S7010 notes
I'm keeping notes of my progress on my notebook at
http://www.icculus.org/~phaethon/notebook/lifebooks7010.htmlThe target audience is people seeking to get GNU/Linux running on the
notebook, so I aim to minimize historical notes and journal-like rambles
as I am wont to do.
The link for it is already listed on
http://www.linux-laptop.net/2004.09.28 ~22 New notebook, Fujitsu S7010, installing Linux
Got a new notebook computer yesterday, a Fujitsu S7010. It's actually a
refurbished machine, which may explain some of the variations from the
posted specs. Intel Penium M 1.7GHz, 512M RAM, 80G HDD. WLAN is an Atheros
adapter of some sort (PCI ID 168c:0013); the built-in ethernet is a
Broadcomm gigabit adapter (PCI ID 14d4:165e). This machine apparently also
has built-in bluetooth, a nice bonus. There's a hardware kill switch for
the wireless stuff on the front bevel.
I first booted this machine with Knoppix 3.2 EN, but nothing was usable, not
even network. After waiting for Knoppix 3.6 EN to download and burn, I
booted that. Suddenly just about everything worked: wireless, wired
ethernet, bluetooth, infrared... dunno about modem. Also that SpeedStep
thingy kicked in under Knoppix 3.6, whereas the CPU always went full-tilt
under 3.2 (read: very very hot).
First order of business was to image the hard drive. This took close to
three hours, shoveling 80G through gzip then 100baseT onto a remote machine
on the LAN. I want to image the hard drive so that I have a known starting
point in the event of total hosing. The final archive weighed in at 4.9G,
quite a bit more than a DVD+R's capacity. I may either split it into a DVD
and CD pair, or just keep it on the desktop's hard drive.
Next I resized the NTFS partition until it barely had enough room to
breathe. It was something like 9.43G used, so I use qtparted to resize it
from 77.8G down to 9.6G. There was already some sort of recovery partition
on the drive as well (FAT32 labelled "DISE_BACKUP", apparently for "Disk
Image Special Edition"... imo, I don't know what's so "special" about
something that could be accomplished with dd(1) and bzip2(1)).
After resizing the NTFS, I fell back to familiar grounds and ran cfdisk to
partition the drive to my liking. I carved out a 9.6G /, 2 of 4.2G swap (one
for suspend, the other for regular swapping), and another 9.6G for /home.
Then I formatted them, using Knoppix.
Next came about five hours trying to get from a running Knoppix system to a
Debian installation. To distill it, it basically come down to this:
Installing Debian sarge (testing) from a running Knoppix session.
Under Knoppix, mounted what would be /home as /mnt/hda6. Downloaded debian
initrd, vmlinuz, and sarge-i386-businesscard.iso to it. Then I set up grub
to use this partition: "grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/hda6 /dev/hda".
Rebooted off HDD.
At the grub prompt, "root (hd0.5)" (which is linux's /dev/hda6), then
"kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0", then "initrd /initrd", then "boot".
This booted into the Debian installer, which found the relevant .iso image,
then things went off from there. In the installer, I then selected the
originally to-be "/" to be Debian's "/", since the installer insists on
being able to mount / during the install process. At the end of
installation, Debian pointed GRUB at proper new root partition.
On reboot, the rest of Debian installation went smoothly. Now to pick and
choose packages...
2004.09.26 ~01 Radeon 64DDR, X.Org 6.7, GATOS CVS, linux 2.6.8.1
Finally I got both 3D and vidcap simultaneously again, after I don't
know how long. Prior to today, I had two sets of X installed, one that
works with DRI but no vidcapping, and the other with vidcapping but no
accelerated 3D. To make matters worse, I couldn't straighten out
the modules mess, so using the other X install meant having to reboot
into the other kernel as well (linux 2.4.26 with vidcap, linux 2.6.7
with 3D).
I compiled stock X.Org 6.7. The radeon (radeon.ko) module was from the
X.Org tree under programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support/linux/drm/kernel
(I cd'd to there so many times I have the path memorized by heart now).
The KMultimedia modules were from GATOS CVS as of 2004.09.26; these are
km_api_drv.ko and km_drv.ko. I used the ati.4.4.0 drivers from GATOS
cvs as well; had these installed into the XOrg tree with "make install".
Upon running avview (also from GATOS cvs), the kernel module (km_drv, I
think) kept complaining about the Radeon memory controller being
misconfigured. Searching the GATOS mailing list, I came across a post
from Jan 2003 --
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=5014&style=flat&viewday=14&viewmonth=200301 --
indicating that I may skip the check causing this error messsage if I
were certain the memory controller was indeed configured properly. I
assumed it was, since other posts implied that ati.4.4.0 properly
configures the Radeon memory controller for linux 2.6.x. So I edited
km/radeon.c so that it always returned 1.
Testing avview... well, avview from CVS doesn't seem to vidcap properly,
so I reverted to the older version (which has always worked before),
which was from GATOS CVS 2003.03.22. Testing the recorded MPEG with
xine, I was satisfied that recording actually worked.
I tested 3D first with glxinfo (said Yes for Direct Rendering), then
glxgears (got 1300fps, 200 if software rendered), then Blender, then
finally Quake 3. Everything worked as expected.
I had checked out DRI, but those drivers seem to conflict in existence
with GATOS's ati.4.4.0. So no Mesa cvs either. As circumstances have
it, XOrg 6.8 is already released, but someone else has tried GATOS on
XOrg 6.8, without success.
In summary, linux 2.6.8.1, XOrg 6.7, GATOS cvs for km and ati.4.4.0, old
GATOS avview; radeon.ko from XOrg 6.7, km_api_drv.ko and km_drv.ko from
GATOS km (with one-line change).
On another note, km_drv.ko cannot coexist happily with fbcon. Best as I
can tell, the fbcon calls dibs on the Radeon device before km_drv can
get to it, so the kernel never gives km_drv a chance to probe devices.
I wonder if there's a way for them to coexist.
2004.07.05 ~01 Making a fighter game
On the Samurai Spirits Forever (SSF) forums, someone (else) has embarked
on an attempt to create a Samurai Showdown-esque fighter game.
http://samuraispirits.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard/topic.cgi?forum=5&topic=296The general consensus seems to be against this fellow. Personally, I
think it's doable.
In any case, I've been working on my own fighter-type game for about a
decade or so. Shortly after my introduction to Street Fighter II, I
attempted to mimick it... in GW-BASIC. Well, I didn't get very far; as
the years passed, I tried redoing it again and again, in Pascal, in C,
and now Python (+ pygame).
The forum thread on SSF essentially ends on an ultimatum to deliver
something by July 25, twenty days from now. I decided to take this
chance to try to finish my own version of a fighter game. I probably
won't have anything decent by the 25th, but I figured I may as well
build up the underlying technologies.
I intend to journal my progress, to extract components reusable in other
languages.
If I can figure out where to start documenting...
2004.06.26 ~11 Radeon 7200 gatos, packet-cd (pktcdvd)
So now I'm trying get back to online FPS gaming after a five-month
hiatus due to a curious {video-capture} XOR {hardware-3d} dichotomy
(long form short, I became a TV junkie).
I finally managed to compile me a new X from the XOrg tree. The final
stretch was finding the page of release tags, which finally got me a
XOrg tree that actually compiles (fwiw, 'xorg-6_7_0').
For 3D drivers, it was the DRI tree. After some minor fiddling, it got
installed, and glxinfo and glxgears seemed happy.
Trying to retain video-capture, I dropped by gatos.sourceforge.net.
For some reason, all the pages haven't been updated at all. And the CVS
module 'ati.2' is outdated as well. Poring through the mailing list
archive, I found there's a new module 'ati.4.4.0', presumably the set
intended for XFree86 4.4. Well, it compiled cleanly for XOrg-6_7_0,
so whatever. Haven't tried actually vidcapping since the kernel module
"km" wasn't ready yet.
Then I realized I was in ye olde linux 2.4. So it was time to bake a
new kernel of the 2.6 variety.
I got a DVD+RW burner back in late April. I've been using UDF and
packet-writing for DVD+RWs. So I wanted to retain packet-writing under
linux 2.6. Though packet-cd.sourceforge.net is the website for linux
packet-writing, again it suffers from outdated content (it claimed
latest patch targeted linux 2.4.0). Prior visits to the website and
it's mailing list turned up a site that actually carries up-to-date
patches, but the url is ridiculously long and complicated. On the
off chance that google might be helpful, a search for "packet-cd" turned
up the very site that carries the "live" packet-cd patches.
2004.05.23 ~11 Pokemon of the ancient past
Oops. Forgot about my .plan. I'm not even going to bother finishing
the prior post.
On IRC, someone mentioned ye olde SNES game "Super 3D Noah's Ark".
Fresh from a bout of Pokemon movies on Cartoon Network, my first two
thoughts upon reading the game's title were "two of every creature" and
"gotta catch 'em all".
Early morning/very very late night being what it is, I started rambling
to no one in particular on tangents. I pondered a fusion of the Pokemon
"creature management" with Noah's Ark, in particular the Pokemon
battles. So I started thinking of some rather ludicrous battle
scenarios. Such as Kangaroo Rat vs. Blue Whale. Not only the size
disparity, but environmental disparity as well (Kangaroo Rat requires to
water; Blue Whale dies without copious water). Or arctic Seal (very
cold temperature... on ark...) vs Komodo Dragon (mostly hot
temperature... on the ark... simultaneously...). Basically, I kept
runninng into pairings that would mean impossible (or at least requires
space-age level technology) climate control given the ark's size.
That's when a solution to this quandary hit me, courtesy of Pokemon. In
the Pokemon world, captured pokemons (POcKet MONsters) are kept in
Pokeballs. The Pokeballs remain a consistent size and weight, no matter
the size and weight of the contained Pokemon, even when empty.
Therefore, Noah may well very have had access to Pokeballs and Pokemon
physics. The whole notion of getting creatures (in twos, no less)
logically follows the mantra of "Gotta Catch 'Em All". All the more
apt, as the entire surface of Earth was to be eradicated of all life.
The environmental disparity is moot; Noah (or one authorized by such to
act on his behalf) goes out and catches geographically-unique creatures
(Kangaroo Rats, Kiwi, Lemur), then stores them in the ark in the form of
pokeball-compressed creatures. Being self-contained environments,
leaving the creatures in the pokeballs renders moot the issue of climate
control in the ark (the captured penguin would not be exposed to
above-freezing temperatures of the ark). A whale could easily fit
within the confines of the ark, as they are (magically) reduced to
something about the size and weight of a baseball. Or smaller,
depending on the physics of Pokeballs (the animated cartoon seems to
illustrate "unused" pokeballs as roughly the size of a marble).
I don't have the dimensions of Noah's Ark off-hand, to roughly calculate
the maximum potential capacity of the vessel. I imagine the number of
baseballs that can fit in it would be staggering. Anyway, I find the
notion of an ark filled with pokeballs to be easier to swallow than one
that held orcas, desert foxes, sea lions, pirhanas, goats, and
chupacabras within teeth's reach of each other.
Noah lived in a Pokemon world.
2004.01.06 ~10 "The Purpose-Driven Life", by Rick Warren, Day 2
This entry is a tad late, but hey, I'm intent on recording my responses.
- Point to Ponder: "I am not an accident."
This chapter spends a good deal of time trying to drive home the point
that one's (my) birth is not an accident, that there is a purpose (God's
purpose) to it.
All this presupposes the existence of God in the Christian form. I have
yet to see anything that demonstrates why the Christian notion of God is
any more correct than any other religion. Christianity isn't even the
most dominant religion in the world (by sheer population count).
Really, the only thing the Christian mythos has in Western Civilization
is having been in the foothold since the Western's growth, and thereby
being the dominant underpinning since. Just because it's popular
doesn't make it right.
I don't doubt there is a purpose to life, some obscure esoteric reason.
But I don't buy into Warren's particular interpretation of life's
purpose.
- Verse to Remember: "I am your Creator. You were in my care even
before you were born." Isaiah 44:2 (Contempory English Version
translation)
I don't know the context of this particular passage, but somehow I can't
help but think this applies on so far as the (approx.) nine months prior
to birth. But otherwise, I'm not gonna bother remembering stuff from a
tertiary-(if not more)hand translation of an ancient book written in a
living language (both source and destination), any more than I would
bother memorizing Shakespeare ("modernized" or not).
- Question to Consider: "I know that God uniquely created me. What
areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I
struggling to accept?"
* my own meanderings
Life: No Life found.
Project:
1. Project FI, Quake 3 mod (
http://www.icculus.org/fi/)
a. provide an extensible environment for a Q3 mod. The intended notion is that of "mutators" in Unreal Tournament.
b. FI:WFC, a more faithful reproduction of Q2WF for Q3 than WFA.
2. QuakeScheme
* Extensible language for Project FI.
* Builds on TinySCHEME (
http://tinyscheme.sourceforge.net/)
* Deal with idiosyncrasies of Q3VM not handled by most other Scheme impls.
3. Q3VM libc
* Implementation of Standard C Library for Q3VM bytecode.
* Implementation of a subset of Single Unix Specification v2 (SUS v2).
* Help import third-party library into Q3VM.
4. QS GUI/widget set
a. Need to research advanced OO and GUI of Scheme derivatives and Common Lisp.
b. Replication/extension of boxy widgets in Q3TA (Q3 PR 1.27+).
c. Pie menus -- just to annoy theoddone33.
5. Q3 compilation toolchain
[X] q3lcc sources (official version out with Q3A SDK 1.32)
[X] q3asm - get static to work, dammit.
[ ] q3as - assemble-only (.asm to .o).
[ ] q3ld - link-only (.o/.a to .qvm).
5. PalmOS stuff
a. PiNGer (gfx viewer)
* generalize interface to a "any-gfx" viewer (libpnm?)
b. ZBoxZ (file manager)
* beef up its appness: menus, dialogs, pen actions
6. Blender development (
http://www.blender.org)