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Multiple RS232 Com Ports...
by Stephen C. Daukas 21 May '07

21 May '07

Hi all! I'm wondering if anyone knows how many RS232 devices a "vanilla" Linux kernel can manage simultaneously. I'd like to be able to have up to 32 going at once, with data taken from each device written to its own file via the standard I/O subsystem. As far as I know, wouldn't Linux simply fork the appropriate number of driver threads to read as many RS232 ports as are attached with each device's stream written to a "/dev" file? Why do I want to do this? Glad you asked... I'm investigating an issue at work that involves our instrumentation lab having to upload/download/calibrate multiple sondes and have them ready for field deployment the next day. Currently, we can do three at a time and this takes about 8-9 hours providing everything goes well. The manufacturer's software application claims to supports the simultaneous upload/config of up to 32 sondes. The application will scan "installed" COM ports looking for recognizable sondes, and present those found to the user. Yes - this is a windows solution, so I first began looking for products that would play with Windows... I began looking for hardware solutions (PCI boards, break-out boxes, etc.) on the net and I found a few that will provide 16 DB-9 RS232 ports with full pin-out support as well as so-called "true" interrupt and FIFO support on the host (via their own custom Windows driver, no doubt). And then I started wondering about how to get all of this to work in a Windows environment where "IT" is the only group allowed to install software and otherwise configure a PC for most users whose biggest concern is email... All this got me thinking about avoiding the whole Windows issue and instead thinking about using Linux to take care of the RS232 part, with the newly created files moved to a Windows box (sneakernet to start with), with the normal post-processing of the data taking place as usual in the Windows environment the staff is used to... I'm hoping an "out of the box" distro will be able to handle say 16 RS232 ports and that Linux-based terminal emulation software is available to simultaneously handle those ports as well so I can capture the data using the appropriate protocols... Anyone know of a similar application using RS232 and Linux, or have some thoughts on this? Thanks! Steve

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My Ultra sparc64 booted!!
by ken jones 21 May '07

21 May '07

Thank you everybody for your help. My sparc64 finally booted. I used genkernel with the livecd cdrom's kernel 2617 /proc/config.gz. The last piece of the puzzle was getting fstab correct. Here is proof. -----------snip of uname -a ----------------------- kjones-sun2 / # uname -a Linux kjones-sun2 2.6.20-gentoo-r5 #3 SMP Thu May 17 13:58:22 Local time zone must be set--see zic sparc64 sun4u GNU/Linux kjones-sun2 / # -------------end snip-------------- I am not sure whether I learned anything specific to gentoo or to sparc64. I did learn that creating good open source documentation is difficult and that finding one's way through unfamiliar documentation is daunting. Thanks, again. Ken Jones

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Fwd: Urgent Need for Software QA Instructor in Boston, MA
by albutler33＠netscape.net 20 May '07

20 May '07

Hello all, Here's an opportunity I thought I'd pass along. Al Butler member of WLUG (haven't attended for quite a while) -----Original Message----- From: april01(a)o-s-tech.com To: albutler33(a)netscape.net Sent: Thu, 17 May 2007 8:59 PM Subject: Urgent Need for Software QA Instructor in Boston, MA Dear Aljerin, Open Systems Technology Services has an urgent need for an experienced Software Quality Assurance Instructor. Topics Software development life cycle-the product view Software configuration management (SCM) Software quality assurance Testing, validating and evaluating Special topics Planning, organizing, implementing and managing for SQA ------------------- Location: Boston, MA Date: June 11-13 Rate: $300 day/ 1099 Please let me know ASAP if you are available or know of someone who have experience teaching Linux. Classes will begin at 8am each day. Introduction to Linux, 3 days March 19th - 21st Linux Admin I, 5 days March 26th - 30th Linux Admin II, 5 days April 9th - 13t Rate: $500.00/day Job Description: . If you are available, email your resume (in word format) and availability with a contact number by 5:00pm, Monday, May 21, 2007. Thank you, April Washington Open Systems Technology Services, Inc. Email: April01(a)o-s-tech.com ________________________________________________________________________ Check Out the new free AIM(R) Mail -- 2 GB of storage and industry-leading spam and email virus protection.

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ALSA hanging (Gentoo AMD64)
by Eric Stein 18 May '07

18 May '07

Hi all, I have a very strange problem. Last night I updated all my packages and rebooted. On boot, alsasound started (boot runlevel), but while trying to restore mixer levels, it hung. I had to boot to a livecd and remove alsasound from boot to even start my system. I tried removing the old state file (in case the format changed and it was breaking because of that), but it wouldn't start without it. glamdring ~ # /etc/init.d/alsasound start * One of the files in /etc/{conf.d,init.d} or /etc/rc.conf * has a modification time in the future! * Loading ALSA modules ... [ ok ] * Restoring Mixer Levels ... * No mixer config in /var/lib/alsa/asound.state, you have to unmute your card! [ ok ] glamdring ~ # cd /var/lib/alsa/ glamdring alsa # l total 9 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 152 May 17 16:26 ./ drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 568 May 17 03:17 ../ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 17 16:26 .keep_media-sound_alsa-utils-0.9 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8073 May 17 12:50 asound.state.old drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 144 May 17 12:50 oss/ glamdring alsa # mv asound.state.old asound.state glamdring alsa # cd glamdring ~ # /etc/init.d/alsasound zap * Manually resetting alsasound to stopped state. glamdring ~ # /etc/init.d/alsasound start * Loading ALSA modules ... [ ok ] * Restoring Mixer Levels ... Which is where it hangs. Other alsa programs like alsaconf and alsamixer hang on startup, along with programs that attempt to use ALSA to output sound. I've tried reinstalling ALSA, I've tried revdep-rebuild, I've done modules-rebuild, and I'm at my wit's end. None of it seems to make sense, and Gnome isn't very happy about not having a sound output, so half of my GUI is missing. If anyone has some idea why this could be happening to me, please let me know. Eric

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OT: HP9k E-class
by Desdinova 17 May '07

17 May '07

A bit OT, if you can reply off-list, that's fine. I just figure there's probably guys who know about crappy old minis here. I've got an E25 and I'm planning to replace the internal scsi drive, it shouldn't be any big deal, but this *is* HP. Are there any gotchas on drive geometry or size that I should watch for? Take care, des

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Re: [Wlug] Follow-Up to Key Signing Party
by Jamie Guinan 17 May '07

17 May '07

On Thu, 17 May 2007, Eric Martin wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Thanks to everyone who showed up to tonight's key signing party. Now > that we verified everybody had the correct key info and identification, > we actually have to sign each other's keys. We are using the keyserver > pgp.mit.edu. If that isn't your default, you can set it either in > ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf or at the command line for each command by using the > argument > - --keyserver pgp.mit.edu Is the "hkp://" prefix needed in gpg.conf? keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu > Below is an excerpt from the gpg Key Signing Party HowTo that explains > things in detail.(http://www.rubin.ch/pgp/kspa/gpg-party.en.html#ss3.8): > > 3.8 How to sign others' keys > > Step 1: Get a copy of the key > > Normally, you'll be working from a keyserver. However if you are signing > the key that is not available on a keyserver, you can use simply import > the key with gpg --import. If you are working with a keyserver, the > following command will download the key from the keyserver into your > public keyring. > > bash$ gpg --keyserver <keyserver> --recv-keys <Key_ID> > > If you get a read error, it means the keyserver is overloaded. Please, > try again in a few seconds. That worked Ok. > > Step 2: Fingerprint and Verify the key > > bash$ gpg --fingerprint <Key_ID> That too. > GPG will print out the fingerprint of the Key with <Key_ID > (the key > you just downloaded). Check the fingerprint against the checklist that > you where given at the party. Note: Don't check the fingerprint on your > checklist against the fingerprint on the web page as the server may not > send you the same key it displays on the web page. > > Step 3: Sign the key > > bash$ gpg --sign-key <Key_ID> Ok. > > If you have multiple private keys, you can specify which of your private > keys to sign the other persons public key with like this: > > bash$ gpg --default-key <Key_to_use> --sign-key <Key_ID> > > Step 4: Return or Upload the signed key > > If you are working with an entity which does not want their key on a > public keyserver, you should at this point you should return their > signed key back to them by their method of choice - normally encrypted > email. You should not send a public key to a keyserver with out the > permission of the key's owner. Publicizing a public key slightly reduces > the security of a key pair, therefor it is considered rude to make a key > more public than its owner desires. > > Most likely you are working with a keyserver. If that is the case, you > can send the signed key back to the keyserver like this: > > bash$ gpg --keyserver <keyserver> --send-key <Key_ID> > > You should see a success message like this: > > gpg: success sending to `<keyserver>' (status=200) > Congratulations, the signature of the other entity's key is now complete > and your signature has been incorporated into their public key. A trust > path has been established. This looked different for me, $ gpg --send-key A9413B9F gpg: sending key A9413B9F to hkp server pgp.mit.edu $ No affirmative response, it just returned to the prompt. But the exit code was 0. $ echo $? 0 -Jamie [ not yet using gpg for mail ]

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Follow-Up to Key Signing Party
by Eric Martin 17 May '07

17 May '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Thanks to everyone who showed up to tonight's key signing party. Now that we verified everybody had the correct key info and identification, we actually have to sign each other's keys. We are using the keyserver pgp.mit.edu. If that isn't your default, you can set it either in ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf or at the command line for each command by using the argument - --keyserver pgp.mit.edu Below is an excerpt from the gpg Key Signing Party HowTo that explains things in detail.(http://www.rubin.ch/pgp/kspa/gpg-party.en.html#ss3.8): 3.8 How to sign others' keys Step 1: Get a copy of the key Normally, you'll be working from a keyserver. However if you are signing the key that is not available on a keyserver, you can use simply import the key with gpg --import. If you are working with a keyserver, the following command will download the key from the keyserver into your public keyring. bash$ gpg --keyserver <keyserver> --recv-keys <Key_ID> If you get a read error, it means the keyserver is overloaded. Please, try again in a few seconds. Step 2: Fingerprint and Verify the key bash$ gpg --fingerprint <Key_ID> GPG will print out the fingerprint of the Key with <Key_ID > (the key you just downloaded). Check the fingerprint against the checklist that you where given at the party. Note: Don't check the fingerprint on your checklist against the fingerprint on the web page as the server may not send you the same key it displays on the web page. Step 3: Sign the key bash$ gpg --sign-key <Key_ID> If you have multiple private keys, you can specify which of your private keys to sign the other persons public key with like this: bash$ gpg --default-key <Key_to_use> --sign-key <Key_ID> Step 4: Return or Upload the signed key If you are working with an entity which does not want their key on a public keyserver, you should at this point you should return their signed key back to them by their method of choice - normally encrypted email. You should not send a public key to a keyserver with out the permission of the key's owner. Publicizing a public key slightly reduces the security of a key pair, therefor it is considered rude to make a key more public than its owner desires. Most likely you are working with a keyserver. If that is the case, you can send the signed key back to the keyserver like this: bash$ gpg --keyserver <keyserver> --send-key <Key_ID> You should see a success message like this: gpg: success sending to `<keyserver>' (status=200) Congratulations, the signature of the other entity's key is now complete and your signature has been incorporated into their public key. A trust path has been established. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGS+VsaiVxdKlBO58RAs3xAJ0W7SyjfbQtwHwDaHeWG5EgeWWXzgCfQ8pT W40gnhPVnkQ3u7E1jbXALvU= =GM/c -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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PGP Key Signing Party
by Eric Martin 17 May '07

17 May '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Just a reminder that we are having a PGP Key Signing Party tomorrow for WLUG. If you're name isn't listed below, I do not have your info (and you should get it to me if you want to be on the list). I know Andy said noon tomorrow but I'll take stuff until 4pm. Don't forget your two forms of ID and I'll see you tomorrow. Eric Martin Gregory M. Avedissian Walt Sawyer Alexander Pennace Doug Mildram Keith Wright Alex Weiss Andrew M. Stewart James Philip Gray - -Eric -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGSj+vaiVxdKlBO58RAmxgAJ0QaQlNCSrw58e80VeQjjGL/GKsOwCdErcn vMjPw9eiQD4zXEzjNWPBKa4= =KiW+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Last-Minute Emergency, Unable to Attend
by Terry S 17 May '07

17 May '07

Hello, I had a phone call at 6:07 that required me to go out for a while, and did not have time to email. (I'm the one with the camera.) Hopefully, someone else just "happened" to have one, but I can take pictures at our next meeting if needed. How did the key-signing go? Terry

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large file performance on linux
by brad noyes 16 May '07

16 May '07

Hello All, I am seeing some really slow performance regarding large files on linux. I write a lot of data points from a light sensor. The stream is about 53 Mb/s and i need to keep this rate for 7 minutes, that's a total of about 22Gb. I can sustain 53Mb/s pretty well until the file grows to over 1Gb or so, then things hit the wall and the writes to the filesystem can't keep up. The writes go from 20ms in duration to 500ms. I assume the filesystem/operating system is caching writes. Do you have any suggestions on how to speed up performance on these writes, filesystem options, kernel options, other strategies, etc? Things I have tried: - I have tried this on a ext3 file system as well as an xfs filesystem with the same result. - I have also tried spooling over several files (a la multiple volumes) but i see no difference in performance. In fact, i think this actually hinders performance a bit. - I keep my own giant memory buffer where all the data is stored and then it is written to disk in a background thread. This helps, but i run out of space in the buffer before i finish taking data. Thanks, -- Brad

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