DSL testing
by Keith Wright
After several years of near flawless working,
I am starting to have trouble with my DSL
connection. A few times per year the modem
would lock-up. It was rare enough that I did
not worry much, I figured it was due to
lightening or cosmic rays. In any case, it
was rare enough that I could think of no way
to debug it, and there seemed to be no real
reason to, the power went out more often than
the DSL.
Lately it has been happening several times
a day, I just got done with a burst of about
ten consecutive lock-ups.
I will be browsing the web, or something
and it will just quit working. Ping of
the ISP's nearest computer (by IP addr) does
not work. I go to the modem, pull out the
power plug, wait a few seconds, plug it in,
wait for it to boot up, and it works again
until the next time.
I complained to the ISP (Speakeasy) and
the nice guy there said:
> I had a look at your circuit and see a sync at 1536
> kbps Downstream / 384 kbps Upstream with decibel
> margins of 2.0 dB Downstream / 17.0 dB Upstream. The
> downstream decibel margins are very low and as a
> result, your line is incrementing heavy errors.
I asked if I could see these numbers myself,
so that I could try some re-wiring to see if
it made the problem better (or worse).
He said:
> You won't be able to see real time Layer 2 stats of
> your circuit, as this information is accessed from
> the DSLAM in the Central Office.
But I know I have heard some of you talking about
statistics gathering programs for network performance.
Does anyone know of a program that might help to
see how well a DSL line is working, or other
diagnostic tools for this?
-- Keith
12 years, 3 months
Re: [Wlug] Seeking help with a USB barcode scanner
by Jamie Guinan
On Fri, 30 Mar 2007, Andy Stewart wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
>
> HI everybody,
>
> Does anybody in the group have any experience using a USB barcode
> scanner with Linux? Its tough to google for "barcode scanner" since
> each term brings up its own set of things which aren't what I seek.
>
> In particular, I have been loaned a USB barcode scanner which is made by
> PSC, Inc. with model number QS2500. When I plug it into my laptop, the
> USB vendor and device IDs are 04B4:0101. I looked this up on the Linux
> USB devices website and it has multiple references (mostly to USB
> keyboards).
>
> I think this device is being handled as a USB HID device, but I'm not
> certain.
Hi Andy,
See if "evdev" is loaded, then try reading the various
/dev/input/event* nodes.
I have a USB keyboard here. Oh neat, under 2.6.19, they even give you
a path that matches the device ids,
# od -x /dev/input/by-id/usb-1241_1203-event-kbd
(tap tap tap...)
0000000 92a9 460e 0000 0000 36dc 000b 0000 0000
0000020 0001 001c 0000 0000 92a9 460e 0000 0000
0000040 36e0 000b 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
...
C code,
#include <linux/input.h>
int keyboardFd = open(kbdev, O_RDWR);
struct input_event ev;
int n = read(keyboardFd, &ev, sizeof(ev));
See the fields in ev, you'll get events for press/release,
keycode, etc.
Have fun!
-Jamie
>
> I'm wondering if Linux has any software that would read the value from a
> barcode scanner and do something with it. If I knew which device file
> was used, maybe I could "cat <devfile>" and see some output when I
> scanned a barcode.
>
> Note that there are several examples of software for printing barcodes,
> but that's not what I need (at least not yet).
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Andy
>
> - --
> Andy Stewart, Founder
> Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org)
> Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393)
> Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ
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> _______________________________________________
> Wlug mailing list
> Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org
> http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
>
12 years, 3 months
Gigabit NICs for Linux
by sageman＠WPI.EDU
All,
Recently, I've been looking to upgrade my current network setup and make
the push to gigabit. At the moment, I'm looking for any suggestions on
gigabit NICs that folks have got working under the 2.6 kernel, preferably
without too much effort. I'm currently looking at the Rosewill RC-400,
which supposedly uses the r8169 module. Any one happen to have any luck
with that?
Additionally, I'm looking for a gigabit switch. Only need like 4-8 ports
and would like it, again, to work very easily. Never used a switch, just
hubs and routers. Right now, have a hub hooked into a router. From what I
understand, if I replace the hub with a switch, it should *just work*.
Basically, a switch is like a hub, but with full duplex support and maybe
some fancy QoS features or something, right?
My plan is to plug the high bandwidth internetwork connections into the
switch which then connects into my router and through to a cable modem.
Basically, fast connection on the network for transferring files,
streaming and such, but, when it comes to the internet, cable modem is the
bottleneck, so who cares if the router supports gigabit, right? Does this
sound reasonable to you network folks out there?
Thanks for all your help!
Carlton Stedman
12 years, 3 months
Re: [Wlug] Seeking help with a USB barcode scanner
by Mike Leo
we had a demo model, too....it basically just scanned in the data as if you typed it in on the keyboard.
----- Original Message ----
From: Mike Frysinger <vapier(a)gentoo.org>
To: wlug(a)mail.wlug.org
Cc: Brian J. Conway <bconway(a)alum.wpi.edu>; andystewart(a)comcast.net
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 10:44:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Wlug] Seeking help with a USB barcode scanner
On Friday 30 March 2007, Brian J. Conway wrote:
> We used similar devices extensively in our wafer fab at my old job (hi
> Mike),
moo
> though not under Linux more than a couple times as my desk. Since
> my experience is only partially relevant, I can offer a few words as a
> start. The scanners we used had interchangeable cables: When using a PS/2
> wedge (pass-thru) cable, it sat between the keyboard and the computer and
> passed data as a standard keyboard, no drivers required and OS-agnostic.
> When using a USB cable, it functioned as an HID device, and required only
> the standard Windows HID keyboard driver. Scanning would send data as an
> HID keyboard input. In both cases, it was transparent to any program we
> were using (a simple terminal emulator, in our case), but we did need to
> scan a configuration code out of the manual each time we changed cable
> types.
yeah, the scanners tend to be pretty simplistic ... they usually just send the
scanned barcode values straight through ...
actually, you'd be surprised how many of these things are runnnig Linux
themselves ... some of them you can hijack, but once you get past the novelty
of it, the device isnt terribly useful without their application ...
-mike
_______________________________________________
Wlug mailing list
Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org
http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug
12 years, 3 months
Seeking help with a USB barcode scanner
by Andy Stewart
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
HI everybody,
Does anybody in the group have any experience using a USB barcode
scanner with Linux? Its tough to google for "barcode scanner" since
each term brings up its own set of things which aren't what I seek.
In particular, I have been loaned a USB barcode scanner which is made by
PSC, Inc. with model number QS2500. When I plug it into my laptop, the
USB vendor and device IDs are 04B4:0101. I looked this up on the Linux
USB devices website and it has multiple references (mostly to USB
keyboards).
I think this device is being handled as a USB HID device, but I'm not
certain.
I'm wondering if Linux has any software that would read the value from a
barcode scanner and do something with it. If I knew which device file
was used, maybe I could "cat <devfile>" and see some output when I
scanned a barcode.
Note that there are several examples of software for printing barcodes,
but that's not what I need (at least not yet).
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Andy
- --
Andy Stewart, Founder
Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org)
Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393)
Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ
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12 years, 3 months
Re: [Wlug] Upcoming meeting topic(s)
by Terry S
I have a new digital camera I haven't even used yet. I'd be more than
happy to bring my camera.
I'm curious to understand, will these be publicly viewable pictures, or
*only* viewable to those who have your key?
(P.S. I've never made a key before, so this is a good topic for me.)
On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 11:03:05PM -0400, Keith Wright wrote:
> > Also, maybe somebody with a digital camera
> > could take pictures of WLUG leaders and
> > followers, and put them on the web site,
> > together with public key identifiers.
> > Despite being told several times over the
> > past few years, I don't remember most
> > people's names, but I might be able to
> > if I had a chance to practice at home
> > with my web browser.
> >
> > It is only somewhat useful to have a
> > record in your keyring that says you were
> > once convinced that the name goes with the
> > key, if you have totally forgotten what
> > person goes with the name.
12 years, 3 months
Upcoming meeting topic(s)
by Andy Stewart
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
HI Everybody,
We appear to have a choice of meeting topics for April:
1) PGP Key signing party
2) My talk about the USB Delcom driver that goes with this piece of
hardware:
http://www.delcom-eng.com/productdetails.asp?productnum=802004
I'd rather move my talk out to May, but I could do it for April if that
what folks desire.
If we do the key signing party, I am wondering if Eric and Chuck would
like to team up to run it. If so, does the April meeting work for you?
Thoughts?
Thanks,
Andy
- --
Andy Stewart, Founder
Worcester Linux Users' Group (http://www.wlug.org)
Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group (http://linux.meetup.com/393)
Amateur Radio: KB1OIQ
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12 years, 3 months
JOBS - Linux consultants needed
by John Spencer
We have 2 clients in MA that have needs for Linux expertise. Both
descriptions are below. Please call or email me if you are qualified or
have additional questions.
Software Tools Engineer (6+ mths; temp to perm possible)
Consultant needed to develop software tools using C++ and Perl scripting
to develop and implement flows for verification infrastructure. Skills
needed are strong software development skills using C++, Perl, Linux,
some Web dev't, and SQL databases(MySQL). Candidate will implement and
improve model build, regression and metric measurement tools for unit
and full chip level microprocessor verification flows.
************************************************************************
****************
Consultant needed (6+ mths., temp to perm possible) as part of a small
team to produce high quality functional specifications, design
specifications, product code, unit tests, and build scripts as needed.
You must also be able to rapidly and effectively troubleshoot, diagnose,
and resolve defects in an existing code base. You must be comfortable
selecting and maintaining an appropriate focus in your daily work that
will range from broad and abstract system architecture issues to
detailed and concrete implementation issues.
This is a currently a small team so anyone joining will be involved with
a number of things. The main focus will be at the Linux Kernel /
Hardware integration layer but you may be involved at multiple levels of
the product software and build environment.
Responsibilities:
- Provide software support and integration for new hardware features as
they get added to the platform
- Provide Linux support to upgrade Linux distribution as well as
associated build environment
- Work on low level features such as Software Upgrade
- Instrument code and help analyze resource utilization
- Maintain code repository
- Address operational issues
- Work with team on code releases
Requirements
- BS or MS in Computer Science, or equivalent experience
- Either Real-Time OS or DSP experience
- Experience in Linux, C, C++, Perl
- Innovation and attention to detail
- Ability to work independently but to know to get direction when you
need it
- Ability to work well with others on a small focused team
- Excellent written and oral skills
- Ability to obtain security clearance
Regards,
John
John Spencer
(978) 256-1113 ext 7608
jspencer(a)optimaleng.com
OPTIMAL ENGINEERING PARTNERS
"Your Optimal partner for full-lifecycle engineering services in
embedded and real-time, systems and application development"
www.optimalengineering.com <http://www.optimalengineering.com/>
12 years, 3 months
Re: [Wlug] Hello from new member. April topics?
by Terry S
Thanks Christian and Eric,
That's something I will take a look at sooner or later.
If it's in "/etc/make.conf", that info would be applied in a recompile,
correct?
>
> This is in fact specified in /etc/make.conf.
>
> The configuration line is SYNC="<SERVER>"
>
> - Christian Roy
Eric Stein wrote:
> > That is probably specified in /etc/make.conf.
> >
> > Eric
> >
> > Terry S wrote:
>> >> Well, it was a while ago...
>> >>
>> >> ...in a nutshell, I was rebuilding base system and the portage
tree a
>> >> few months after install, following instructions posted and detailed
>> >> reasoning explained by a senior Gentoo developer.
>> >>
>> >> After a few problems problems, the error that blocked me from fixing
>> >> anything else was that the rsync server I chose at install time
was no
>> >> longer valid, which I verified by looking at the list again. But no
>> >> one seemed to know how to change it, and I just couldn't deal with
>> >> re-installing the whole thing at that time
12 years, 3 months
GPS on Linux
by Richard Klein
Andy,
I think you were talking about using a GPS receiver with Linux after
the last meeting. The receiver I had mentioned came in a couple days
ago. It's a Navibe SP611
(http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=NAVIBE-ORN), and it does indeed output NMEA 0183.
The Navibe website is easy enough to find (http://www.navibe.com/), but
it doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the SP611.
Linux seems to recognize the serial/USB bridge in the GPS as a Prolific PL-2303:
dmesg says:
usb 2-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
pl2303 2-1:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
usb 2-1: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0
But I can't get GPSMan or GPSDrive to recognize it. "cat /dev/ttyUSB0" gets no response, and I have to hit CTRL-C to get the command prompt back.
Per this page (http://koti.mbnet.fi/lonnberg/pl2303x.html) I found that bMaxPacketSize0 = 64, which suggests the bridge is a PL-2303X rather than a plain vanilla PL-2303. Apparently this used to require a patch, but only up to kernel 2.6.8. uname -r says I'm at 2.6.15-1-686, so this shouldn't be an issue.
What should I try now?
Oh, the GPS receiver did send a stream of NMEA data to my Windows computer at work with GPSDiag, so the reciever doesn't seem to be defective.
--
Rich
12 years, 3 months