misc tidbits:

Tips for compiling fontconfig on Mac OS X when you run into the “configure: line [0-9]*: PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG: command not found” error. The clue was found on a page about Autoconf Macros “Autoconf Building Blocks: Macros”.

Most likely you have been installing to the default location, /usr/local/ , but the standard macro location for autoconf is /usr/share/aclocal and it doesn’t know where to pick up the files you’ve been installing in /usr/local/share/aclocal . Just run autoconf -I /usr/local/share/aclocal and then your ./configure should run OK.

Tips for pairing an Apple Remote:

• Log all users out.
• Log in an administrative user.
• Pair the remote (hold down menu & play/pause simultaneously).
• Log out the administrator and log back in as administrator. Test.
• Log out administrator, log in as regular user. Test.

recompiling OpenBSD 3.9 (and higher) to use Adaptec (aac) adapters

The difference between "single ranked" and "dual ranked" DIMMs. See page two of this PDF.

Some server class motherboards require an EPS12v power supply. An example is the Tyan i7320 S5350G2NR dual Xeon motherboard.

Also note that this motherboard has a PCI-Express bus, but no slots for any PCI-Express cards. The PCI-E bus is apparently dedicated to the onboard dual Gigabit Ethernet.

SuSE LES 9 wouldn't give me an alternate console (alt+f2, etc.) until I booted with ACPI disabled.

1. 17" Aluminum PowerBook disassembly guide
2. QuickerTek's external antenna instructions do not mention the T8 Torx bit required to remove the keyboard.
3. Be careful with the Airport card's antenna lead. If the thin insulation gets cut on the PCMCIA card cage's sharp metal it can kill the card.
4. Stop agreeing to work on other people's computers. Strongly reiterate that laptops are not meant to be modified.

Compiling netatalk 2 and can't find / doesn't build uams_dhx.so?

Install openssl-devel headers and configure again...

ld: cannot find -lgmodule-2.0

make sure the glib2 dev files are installed...

The BOM (Byte Order Mark) of UTF files can interfere with sending HTTP headers from PHP. I was getting a "cannot modify header information" error trying to set a cookie on UTF-8, but not Macintosh character encoding... setting the file type to "UTF-8 no BOM" did the trick.

iChat saves your sessions in ~/Documents/iChats

Free 3d modeler (and supports Linux!): Wings 3D
Very inexpensive 3d modeler: Silo
Not bad with an educational discount: LightWave 3D
Less expensive than LightWave, but seems to lack a good modeler (and defaults to a centimeter scale rather than meters, so doing architectural work at scale seems to disappear the reference grid): Carrara Pro

Salmon Open Framework for Internet Applications (SOFIA) is a bit touchy about its X11 $DISPLAY environment variable. At least it is on SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 w/Tomcat 4.1 with this crappy facilities management web interface Java app. Of course, this crappy FM web interface seems considerably better than the one it replaces.

Solution: set DISPLAY=localhost:0.0 in one of the startup scripts.

On SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 w/Tomcat 5.0, set the variable like this: export DISPLAY=:0.0

You have to have an X session logged in and issue either "xhost +localhost" and/or "xhost +[your ip here]" .

Mac OS X (not server) has a default of allowing guest access if you turn Personal File Sharing on. Instructions on how to fix that.

Nessus is a nice security assessment package. Here's how to install it on Mac OS X.

Three useful extensions for Firefox:

• Spellbound: can spell check forms, such as post fields for forums such as this
• PrefBar: one-click access to often-used preferences
• FlashBlock: allows you to only view the Flash animations of your choice, rather than every fscking flashing/noisy/CPU-sucking advert on the page

If you go to about:config in Firefox, you can change raw preference values. I had to change accessibility.tabfocus to 3 so I could tab through form control fields.

OpenBSD 3.9 AAC Adaptec adapter boot instructions

You won't be able to build on that system unless you arrange HDD space to bypass the Adaptec adapter in question. Do that or find a similar system with a compatible HDD.

These instructions are also a slight modification of the release(8) instructions found in the BSD man pages. They should take, counting compilation, about 5 hours. There are likely faster ways to do this. Total man hours should be about an hour. The OpenBSD team has disabled AAC for good reasons, please evaluate the reliability of using the AAC module within your own requirements.

1. Grab the following files from a mirror. (Instructions assume you wish to install these on a local web server for faster access.):
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/*
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/src.tar.gz
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/sys.tar.gz
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/packages/i386/expat-1.95.6p1.tgz
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/packages/i386/gettext-0.14.5p1.tgz
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/packages/i386/libiconv-1.9.2p3.tgz
   • - pub/OpenBSD/3.9/packages/i386/wget-1.10.2p0.tgz
2. Burn a CD from the pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/cd39.iso image.
3. Boot from the CD.
4. Install a default system. (Instructions for that may be found elsewhere on the net.) (You may safely skip installing "game39.tgz".) (Answer "no" to the prompt "Do you expect to run the X Window System? [yes]". You may also opt to not run sshd.)
5. Log in as root.
6. pkg_add http://local.mirror/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/packages/i386/wget-1.10.2p0.tgz
7. wget http://local.mirror/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/src.tar.gz
8. wget http://local.mirror/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/sys.tar.gz
9. cd /usr/src
10. tar xzf /root/src.tar.gz
11. tar xzf /root/sys.tar.gz
12. cd /usr/src/sys/arch/i386/conf
13. cp GENERIC GENERIC_aac
14. vi GENERIC_aac
    • - find the line beginning with aac and uncomment
    • - uncomment line below "scsibus* at aac?"
15. vi RAMDISK_CD
    • - find the line beginning with aac and uncomment
    • - uncomment line below "scsibus* at aac?"
16. config GENERIC_aac
17. config RAMDISK_CD
18. cd ../compile/GENERIC_aac
19. make clean depend && make
20. scp bsd you@yourserver:/path/to/webroot/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/bsd_aac
21. cd ../RAMDISK_CD
22. make clean depend && make
23. cd /usr/src
24. make obj
25. cd /usr/src/etc && env DESTDIR=/ make distrib-dirs
26. cd /usr/src && make build
27. cd /usr/src/distrib/crunch
28. make obj depend && make all install
29. export DESTDIR=/DEST
30. export RELEASEDIR=/REL
31. mkdir /DEST /REL
32. cd /usr/src/etc
33. make release
34. scp /REL/cd39.iso you@yourserver:/path/to/webroot/pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386/cd39_aac.iso
35. burn the image to a CD-R(W) and test it. At the "boot> " prompt type: "boot -c", then, at the "UKC" prompt type: "find aac*". The result should look like; " 44 aac* at pci* dev -1 function -1 flags 0x0" for a machine without the adapter. If find has nothing, then this image does not have the AAC module enabled, double-check or redo your steps.
36. Duplicate the pub/OpenBSD/3.9/i386 directory on your web server, renaming it to i386_aac. Replace the bsd kernel in i386_aac with the bsd_aac kernel. You can now point to this as an http repository during your installation to get the AAC enabled kernel.

Say you did something dumb: you took the battery out of your 1996 Jaguar XJ6 and closed the trunk, but the key doesn't open the trunk. (My key mechanism must be broken.) There are two points to energise your vehicle to enable the electric release mechanism.

One is on the firewall, passenger side, /1/3 down from the windshield. It is protected by a black rubber boot.

The second is behind the footwell of the rear-passenger. There should be a thick cable with a crimp mounted to a bolt running across the top of the fuse / relay area. It should be protected by a black rubber boot.

Last Modified: Saturday, September 26, 2009

Copyright 2007: Michael Skora