nuxx.net
Making, baking, and (un-)breaking things in Southeast Michigan.

Category computers

rez.nuxx.net Outage

January 24, 2006

rez.nuxx.net Outage

To everyone who I host things for on my server, rez.nuxx.net. It seems that /dev/ad10 (one of the 120GB disks in the RAID 0+1 array which holds all the web and email data, databases, logs, aggregated backups, etc) actually has gone south. It’s still spinning and all, but when I tried to run a SMART extended offline test, there was a read error:

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       20%      5330         208317256

So, I’m looking at replacing the drive sometime around 11am tomorrow, which means that the server and such will be unavailable. It’ll be back up ASAP, hopefully by noon.

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More lightbulb stuff…

January 24, 2006

Hrm, more thinking about bulbs is leading me to believe that the GE Photofloods which I purchased earlier today just aren’t right for the job. I came across these Sunwave full spectrum compact fluroescent bulbs, which look like they may be just about right. 150W equivilent, CF, 5500K, and a CRI of 93, which should be plenty good for my needs. The bulbs will run about $60-something for four, but the lifetime on them should be great. I’m now thinking this may be the way to go…

At least I can return these bulbs, having not even used them. < shrug >

Additionally, instead of replacing the disk tomorrow I just rebuild the array, including the failing disk. It appears to complete offline SMART tests properly, so it looks like it’s just beginning to have issues. I’ll replace it when I have more time… It seems to be working for the time being, though.

UPDATE: I just got off of the phone with Cindy from Cloud Dome during which time I ordered four of the aforementioned CF bulbs. I’m going to return the three GE BCA lamps to Camera Mart on Thursday, return the non-daylight ‘Daylight Plus’ lamp to Lowes, return the crappy CFs to Home Depot tomorrow, and pick up one more clip-on work light. This should work out well.

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Good Morning…

January 23, 2006

Well, this is just what I wanted to see when I read my webserver’s log files this morning.

rez.nuxx.net kernel log messages:
> ad10: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=208317255
> ad10: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (1 retry left) LBA=208317255
> ad10: FAILURE - READ_DMA timed out
> GEOM_MIRROR: Request failed (error=5). stripe/stripe1[READ(offset=213316869632,length=4096)]
> GEOM_MIRROR: Device mirror1: provider stripe/stripe1 disconnected.

And the output from a script I wrote to check the RAID status daily:

GEOM mirror status:
Name Status Components
mirror/mirror0 COMPLETE ad0
ad2
mirror/mirror1 DEGRADED stripe/stripe0

GEOM stripe status:
Name Status Components
stripe/stripe0 UP ad4
ad6
stripe/stripe1 UP ad8
ad10

< sigh > At least I’ve got some spare disks… And I just happened to run a backup last night.

(Just FYI, there’s no data loss. One of the stripes which makes up half of the 0+1 array I use for data has gone offline due to a disk faililng.)

computersmoved from livejournal

AEx 6.3 & iTunes 6.0.2

January 12, 2006

[Cross posted to and …]

Upgrade iTunes to 6.0.2, put the v6.3 firmware on your Airport Express, restart iTunes, and there will be a ‘Multiple Speakers…’ option at the bottom of the drop-down to pick through which Airport Express (or local) to play the music. Select it and one gets the above dialog box.

Nice, eh?

Sync also appears to be dead on…

acquired thingscomputersmoved from livejournal

Arcade Update

January 3, 2006

Well, the plans to run AdvanceMame under Linux on my arcade game are now out the window. It just seems too complex for what I’m wanting to do.

I’m now going to try it with FreeDOS for sake of simplicity.

If things go according to plan, I’ll have the whole thing (nearly silently) running off of a CF card by this time next month. (Waiting for parts…)

computersmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Leenucks

January 1, 2006

Gur. I’d forgotten what a pain in the ass it is to get anything working under Linux. I want to install one silly app and the requirements become a strawman diagram. :\

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Stuff done today…

January 1, 2006

Well, since Kompressor has taken his site down, I have mirrored it here.

I also just finished upgrading the hardware in my MAME cabinet. The Slackware 10.2 discs are coming down via BitTorrent right now, then I’ll get to work on redoing the software. I’ll also try and get some good photos of it once it is done, too.

computersmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Broken Laptop (Unable To Login)

December 27, 2005

Problem with my laptop fixed.

First I had to edit the userinit line per KB Q249321 using the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, then I logged in, got a blank screen, hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, fired up Task Manager, used that to launch regedt32, followed 223188 to change the boot volume back to C:, rebooted, and all was good.

The problem was caused by C: somehow changing to E: (WTF?). Yeah, I’ve got no idea how, but the problem is solved.

The error which was received is as follows:

Your system has no paging file or the paging file is too small.

This was received on my Windows XP SP2 laptop after logging into the machine with any username, then the machine would slowly return to the login screen. If one tried to log in via safe mode, they would immediately be returned to the login window.

Well, hopefully this will help someone somewhere down the line…

computersmoved from livejournal

Dell 2005FPW

December 4, 2005


Click for more…

On Friday I came home from work and rather unexpectedly found the box containing my new monitor, a Dell 2005FPW, sitting on the front porch. This wasn’t supposed to be delivered until Monday, and it had a light dusting of snow on it, so I brought it inside to warm up. I let the monitor sit until today (well, Saturday) and after getting home from visiting and in Ann Arbor I decided to go set things up. So, the photo you see up above is the result of tonight’s efforts to get a new monitor set up on my desk. I have to say it went pretty well… The area remains nice and clean, and with the removal of the keyboard drawer and pushing everything back towards the wall, I can type a lot more comfortably, too It’s quite similar to my desk setup at work. I like it lots.

Today while out and about I also purchased my first tank of gas for the new car and got a first car wash. I’ll get a better handle on this number after a few more tanks and a bit more mixed driving, too. I also grabbed some photos of the car outdoors and in the daylight (photo gallery retired), both in an unwashed state and after getting it all cleaned up.

Oh, one last thing? Those two monitors that I want to sell? They can be seen in this photo and are a pair of IBM P260 displays with perfectly flat (vertically and horizontally) Sony tubes. They are really, really nice, and after doing a bit of research into market price, I’m going to ask for US$200 for the pair. So, if you want them, let me know and I can bring them to you or whatever. They work quite well. Also, please note that the color is off in the photo I linked to because I figured the white balance based on the room and the lights currently in there, not on the displays. So they will naturally look a bit off. But, yeah. $200. Not bad at all.

Hrm, now I think I’ll go start thinking about bed. It’s getting late.

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