Ubuntu and the Windows MBR

I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on an external usb drive yesterday, with Windows XP on the primary drive. I forgot that Ubuntu decides by default to write grub to the primary drive in this situation, overwriting the Windows MBR. Ergh! Why doesn't Ubuntu warn about that first?!

In addition to overwriting the Windows MBR, this grub setup also won't boot anything without the external usb drive connected.

I wanted to simply put back the XP MBR, but in this case I don't have the XP Administrator password, so I couldn't boot into the Recovery Console. Why does XP only offer this method for fixing the MBR?!

Ubuntu and Windows are annoying me today.

Fortunately I do have a local admin account on Windows, so I was able to use the third-party mbrfix.exe to rewrite the MBR. Again, why doesn't Windows include such a utility? *sigh*

"An error occurred while querying your Garmin GPS for information. Please ensure its software is current, and retry the Setup."

I bought a map update for my Garmin StreetPilot c330 the other day. I tried multiple troubleshooting steps, but every time I ran the map update utility, the goofy thing failed with:

An error occurred while querying your Garmin GPS for information. Please ensure its software is current, and retry the Setup.

There were no good google hits for this error message. And the Garmin support website was no help either.

I eventually resigned myself to calling tech support. The first-level guy didn't have any new ideas, so he passed me on to a second-level support tech. That guy used a special utility to make sure the unlock codes were cleared, but the install still failed. He said that the unit was hosed and had to be sent in for factory repair. I was irritated and frustrated at the whole situation.

Today I called Garmin again to demand a refund for the map update. In the course of handling that, I got through to a support manager. In our conversation he mentioned that norton antivirus is known to interfere with the map update process. Sure enough, I went into symantec antivirus, chose "unload service", and then the map update succeeded.

Why didn't the 1st and 2nd level support techs know to suggest disabling the antivirus? *sigh*

Pandora

A recent IEEE article sidebar discussed pandora.com. I've been trying Pandora tonight, and I'm liking it.

Coal Creek Park

I got out for the first hike of the year today. I did a six-mile out and back that's very near the house. It's Coal Creek Park, and the interesting thing is that it used to be a major railway and mining center, but now it's pretty much returned to nature.

map

Finally got some photos posted

It's been a long time since I posted new photos at Pbase. I had a big backlog of photos, and I finally finished processing them all this weekend. So I uploaded Seattle and Northwest photos from 2007.

http://www.pbase.com/saalwaechter/cwb

http://www.pbase.com/saalwaechter/pnw07

X server problem with Debian etch in VMware

When I install Debian etch in VMware, the system comes up on first boot with:

"Failed to start the X server (your graphical user interface). It is likely that it is not set up correctly. Would you like to view the X server output to diagnose the problem."

The log contains: "(EE) No devices detected. Fatal server error: no screens found".

Fix this by editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the ``Driver "apm"'' line to ``Driver "vesa"''. Here's the diff:

--- xorg.conf.orig 2008-12-05 15:10:43.000000000 -0800
+++ xorg.conf 2008-12-05 15:23:59.000000000 -0800
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@

Section "Device"
Identifier "VMware Inc [VMware SVGA II] PCI Display Adapter"
- Driver "apm"
+ Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:0:15:0"
EndSection

Permanently ignore packages in Apple Software Update

An annoyance of using iTunes is the Apple Software Update. At one point it forcibly pushed Safari on users. At least now Safari is an optional package. The problem is that Safari, and other packages, are "checked" for install by default. I was constantly having to pay attention to make sure I didn't accidentally trigger Apple's relentless quest to get Safari on to my machine.

Well, there is a solution. Under the Tools pull-down menu, there is an "Ignore Selected Updates" option. So one can simply check Safari and other packages, then use "Ignore Selected Updates". From then on, Apple Software Update will behave as though those packages don't exist.

error: install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping coreutils

I've been working lately on OS installation into image files, along the lines of the process here.

The "/usr/bin/yum -c yum.conf --installroot=/mnt/foo.img -y groupinstall Base" step for me kept producing significant errors of the form: "error: install: %pre scriptlet failed (2), skipping coreutils-x.y.z". This occurred for 16 packages in my case.

Several google hits suggested problems with selinux, but that wasn't the source of the problems in my case. After much troubleshooting I finally discovered that an RPM macro was the culprit.

In my ~/.rpmmacros file I had this entry:

%_tmppath %(echo $HOME)/rpmbuild/tmp

That's because on some hosts the default %_tmppath of /var/tmp has insufficient space, but my home directory generally has plenty. During install, yum/rpm writes out rpm scriptlets to %_tmppath. Using --installroot with yum causes a chroot(), so that path is invalid within the chroot() environment, and for some reason a number of %pre scriptlets fail in a way that causes yum to not install the package.

I did look through the Base package group, and it wasn't just the rpms that happen to have a %pre scriptlet that failed. It was a subset of them, and I haven't had the time to determine what it is about those particular %pre scriptlets that invoked the error. Regardless, removing the %_tmppath macro from my ~/.rpmmacros eliminated the error and let the yum install work properly.

(Use the "rpm --showrc" command to see your current value for %_tmppath.)

ChaCha

I occasionally use Google SMS to check sports scores or flight info, but its query ability is limited to a few topic areas that it knows how to process. Today I checked on an Indianapolis-based startup that I've followed over the years. It's called ChaCha and it's at http://www.chacha.com/. ChaCha uses human guides as part of its search processing, so you can send conversational free-form questions.

The interesting thing is that they now specialize in mobile searches. You simply text your question to CHACHA (242242), and you'll get a reply. This is much more flexible than Google SMS, because you can ask anything. It's basically like calling a friend and asking them to quickly research a question for you.

For example, you could text this to ChaCha: "Does everyone in Minnesota like chocolate pudding pops?"

Anyway, give ChaCha a try.

Pumpkin Seeds

In recent years our family jack-o-lantern tradition has come to include roasting the pumpkin seeds. Here's what we do:

1. preheat the oven to 300 F

2. Remove all the seeds, separate them from the pumpkin goo, and clean them. This is tedious and usually takes me 20-30 minutes.

3. Dry off the seeds with paper towel. They don't have to be completely dry.

4. Put them in a bowl and add the following per cup of pumpkin seeds: a) tbsp olive oil, b) 1/2 tsp salt, c) tsp garlic powder. Mix and coat well.

5. Spread the seeds on a cookie sheet

6. Bake in oven for 45-55 minutes, stirring/flipping every 15 minutes.

Mmmmmm... pumpkin seeds

request_module: runaway loop modprobe binfmt-464c

Short answer: If you are getting this error right after linux kernel initialization, you are likely booting a 32-bit kernel with a 64-bit OS.

Long answer: If you boot a 32-bit kernel with a 64-bit OS, when the kernel tries to start /sbin/init (a 64-bit binary), it won't recognize the binary format, and it'll try to load the binfmt-464c kernel module, which is ELF support. (ELF support is generally compiled into the kernel, not built as a module, by the way.)

The reason for the loop error is that the kernel is trying to invoke modprobe to load the module, and modprobe is itself an ELF binary, resulting in a recursion loop...

Ambiguous Ad

On my way in to work this morning I noticed this ad in the bus: "Working in healthcare and love technology?" It then went on to give information about a local community college's medical informatics program. For 15 seconds I was wondering what "love technology" is a euphemism for... Then I saw what the writer really intended.

What words cause gmail to not display any ads?

I've noticed that email messages that include the word "funeral" trigger gmail to not display any ads. What other words result in this behavior?