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

OpenBSD Serial Console

February 3, 2008

Serial consoles are cool, and OpenBSD on a machine with Open Firmware makes it easy.

First, I came across these directions for making Mac to PC (MiniDIN 8 to DB9) null modem cables and made one out of a spare connector from the Honda Music Link work, some CAT5, a new female DB9, and a old DB9 shell.

After hooking this up and starting PuTTY as VT220 on COM1 at 57600 I booted into OF and ran the following commands:

setenv input-device scca
setenv output-device scca
reset-all

After this the box rebooted, the monitor stayed blank, and the OpenBSD bootloader showed up on the serial terminal. One of the many nice things about OpenBSD macppc is that it’s bootloader and kernel boot messages automatically go to the output to the OF console. All I had to do was ensure that this line was in /etc/ttys and the first serial port becomes a real console:

console "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600" vt220 on secure # for serial

Oh, and in case you’re wondering how I got a serial port on the G4 AGP I’ve been fooling with: I picked up an old Griffin G4Port on eBay. This is a drop-in replacement for the modem which provides an old MiniDIN 8 Apple-type serial port on the back panel.

I’m going to write up a lot more about this box on my main site after it’s up and running.

computersmaking thingsmoved from livejournal

Creaking Bike

February 3, 2008

Also, I need to figure out why my bike is creaking. The sound appears to be coming from the center of the top tube when weight is shifted between the seat and pedals. Online research is saying that it may be a seat post in need of lube.

cyclingmoved from livejournal

Winter Cycling

February 3, 2008

56 minutes, 8.1 miles, most of that through snow, about 1/4 of that through snow-covered fields and front lawns where people don’t have sidewalks.

I’m a bit winded.

Only bottomed out once, where a pile of snow along the edge of a curb dropped about 16 inches to the road, and I got stuck on it.

cyclingmoved from livejournalweather

Pork.

February 3, 2008

Yesterday Danielle and I trekked over to Zingerman’s Deli to pick up the half-pound of jamón ibérico which she ordered. Total for that was just about $60.

That’s it right there, sliced thin, and wrapped in paper. We then took it to her parents house where it was shared with her parents, grandma, and her grandma’s best friend. There was also chorizo served, although I didn’t have any of it.

I’m still not sure how much I liked the jamón ibérico. The fat melts in the mouth and is extremely strongly flavored, almost too much for me. The muscle parts were just… excellent and sublime.

I’d also picked up some cheddar; 1/4 pound each of both Keen’s Cheddar and Montgomery’s Cheddar. The Keen’s has an incredible bite to it, almost stinging the roof of my mouth while eating it. The rind is really powerful, and I’m not quite sure it should be eaten. The Montgomery’s is a bit softer and creamier, but still wonderfully powerful. Mmm. I can’t get over how absolutely excellent it is.

We also decided to get some lunch at Zingerman’s, and while I was originally going to get a bacon-riffic sandwich, the guy cutting the cheese for me suggested that I grab a #99, the Randolph’s Grand Début (scroll down). It is described as:

The Deli’s take on a classic Parisian croque monsieur – Arkansas peppered ham, Switzerland Swiss cheese & Dijon mustard grilled on farm bread with an extra layer of butter & Swiss cheese grilled on the outside.

Yes, that’s precisely what it was. Cheese. Fried. On. The. Outside. Here’s photos of the whole thing and after eating half of it.

I then had a latte after eating and Danielle had a small cup of hot chocolate with chilis and cinnamon in it.

On the way home from Danille’s house we stopped by IPM where I actually played some silly records while other folks played less… campy stuff. At least I got to hear Kyper’s Tic Tac Toe and some Chaka Kahn. Yay!

I can’t stop eating this cheddar. At least I can refuse to Rent-a-rim.

foodmoved from livejournal

VMware and Promiscuity

February 1, 2008

VMware Fusion Prompting For Authentication
(Click for full resolution…)

This is nice to see. When an OS running under VMware Fusion tries to take a nic into promiscuous mode, this warning is presented. I like that.

computersmoved from livejournal

February 1, 2008

Most people I know who have a Canon DSLR also know about the el-cheapo and really quite nice EF 50mm f/1.8 II.

It’s pretty obvious that it’s a fragile lens, but I hadn’t seen photos of it broken before. Danielle sent me this link to a food porn (SFW) blog which includes photos of someone’s toppled XT / 350D and the broken lens.

found thingsmoved from livejournal

OpenBSD 4.2 (macppc) on Powermac G4 AGP

January 29, 2008

Shiny serif console font on OpenBSD 4.2 (macppc).
(Click for bigger…)

OpenBSD 4.2 (macppc) on the console (framebuffer) on a Powermac G4 AGP has a nice, shiny, traditional UNIX-y hardware (think Sun) serif font. Normally I don’t like serif fonts, but for some reason I really like this.

Of course, the Open Firmware stuff is still a nice, small monospaced font, and the bootloader is dark grey text on a light grey screen in the same font as OF.

Hopefully once I have this box installed I’ll have a serial port to be used as the console, and the video card will be removed, but I still have to wait for the G4Port to be delivered. It replaces the modem and provides a mini DIN 9 Apple-style serial port. I’ll be replacing the mini DIN 9 cable / connector with a DB9 which will be fitted in place of the modem port on the back of the chassis. This will be wired crossed over so that a straight-through cable will provide a console.

Oh, and tonight I was able to confirm that the bridge works as I want. So, in the end I’ll have:

gem0: public interface
fxp0–fxp7: bridge0, acting as a switch

fxp0 will also have an IP and be the gateway / DNS / whatever for the internal network.

fxp7 may be used as a span port for troubleshooting, but I’m not sure of this yet.

computersmoved from livejournal

Address Cache Timeout

January 28, 2008

Do any of you know what is a typical timeout for the address cache on a switch? After some initial problems with the default 240 second address timeout, I’ve found that dropping the timeout back to 5 seconds clears up the problems I was having with moving machines to other ports.

That said, 5 seconds seems a bit low to me, as every time a machine starts to talk after that there will be a brief broadcast to all interfaces. So, I’m thinking 30 seconds, but I’m not sure…

Any idea what the default is on commercial network gear? I’m thinking that Cisco stuff is five minutes, but that seems a little low to me…

computersmoved from livejournal