The expanses of WolfWings' land

My comment to the TSA regarding AIT...

wolfwings — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 11:06:53 GMT

I just sent this in as my comment (not yet visible as of this posting, give it a couple days) to the public comment on TSA-2013-0004-0001 docket and felt I should share it here as well.

I believe AIT should be discontinued for a period of one (1) year at a minimum, then re-assessed entirely from base principles.

The existing AIT solution is muddled in the public eye due to a combination of factors:

Long-term medical risks were not properly documented or disseminated during the initial rollout in a way according to any one of numerous well-respected scientific journals or standards. As a result the documentation that was provided became lost in a sea of doubt.
The rollout of two very dissimilar technologies under very similar packaging and terminology further confused the general public that attempted to be well-informed.
The numerous initial flaws in the roll-out regarding how images were presented versus later revisions, claims of storage abilities versus later admissions, etc, also damaged the reputability of the program.
The required alternative pat-downs had insufficient initial training (as evidenced by the numerous newsworthy reports of issues w/ the disabled or those wearing medical devices), further marring what could have otherwise been a very simple alternative and adding a feeling of being 'backed into a corner' to many that were uncomfortable with either.
No appreciable benefit has been shown to the more invasive scanning versus the simple change in policy of 'never submit' versus plane hijackings, and both reinforcing and locking the cockpit door versus the previous open-door policy.
The well documented bottlenecks the slow scanning AIT machines have versus the 'walking pace' and much lower cost metal detector arches cause traffic jams which in many airports are now larger gatherings than the planes themselves, and these traffic jams are OUTSIDE the scanner-secured area and thus more likely targets as a result.

As an alternative TO the pat-down for a failed metal-detector arch scan? That is where the AIT has the most promise I believe, by attempting to add dignity versus removing it.

Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

UEFI Linux w/ SSDs

wolfwings — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:51:08 GMT

This is partially some notes, and partially a guide to setting up a fully UEFI (though not Secure Boot enabled) Linux laptop, optimized for use with any and all SSD's including the most recently known details (as of January 2013) on how to get the best performance and endurance from consumer-grade SSD's, including minimizing I/O latency and allowing as many features of Linux as possible to work.

Note, however, that I am making one specific trade-off: I'm optimizing for a machine with 8+GB of memory, and an SSD under 100GB when we're done, so I'm not even attempting to add swap space or enable disk hibernation as a result.

This work was done to configure a Dell Latitude E6430 w/ 16GB of RAM, and a Samsung 840 Pro 120GB SSD. I must give Dell EXTREMELY high marks for their UEFI BIOS, BTW. It's the best I've seen for dealing with advanced setup and configuration and made this a breeze compared to my ThinkPad W530's BIOS.

Overview

There are several items of note regarding SSD's that drive the choices made later on:

They 'erase' data in large blocks.
Usually at least 128KiB, sometimes as large as 2MiB.
This is the data-block size they love to see most.
ALL data interactions when possible should be on a multiple of this size.
They perform best long-term with at least 25% of the drive left unprovisioned.
This means for my 120GB drive, I'll have around 90GB usable.
I'm opting for hard-limiting the drive capacity to enforce this.
They have effectively zero seek time.
This means disabling the I/O scheduler in Linux for them.

Regarding UEFI, I'm opting for an EXTREMELY minimal approach:

No dedicated bootloader.
This means no GRUB, nadda. Direct EFI-Stub booting.
Only two partitions as a result.
You can extend this to dual-booting Windows, etc, and in fact it's easier to keep the Windows boot-loader than chain-load to it later.

Finally, one item regarding x86/x86_64 platforms where UEFI are most commonly encountered by those installing Linux:

Huge Pages are 2MiB in size.
This is a convenient size to focus everything around; while non-optimal for many SSDs it's a valid least-worst option.

Partitioning the Drive

First, we need to check how many total sectors the drive says we have, so limit overall size/use to 75% of that to maintain performance long-term:

root@sysresccd /root % hdparm /dev/sda | egrep -o "sectors = [0-9]+"
sectors = 250069680

In this case, my SSD has 250069680 512-byte sectors available. We'll only use 75% of those, and want to keep that 2MiB alignment to keep things universal, so:

root@sysresccd /root % echo $[250069680*3/4/4096*4096-1]
187551743

Note this number down, we'll need it in a here as we partition things:

root@sysresccd /root % gdisk /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.5

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present

Creating new GPT entries.

Command (...): x

Expert command (...): l
Enter the sector alignment value (...): 4096

Expert command (...): m

Command (...): n
Partition number (...): <Enter>
First sector (...) or ...: <Enter>
Last sector (...) or ...: 204799
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (...): EF00
Changed type of partition to 'EFI System'

Command (...): n
Partition number (...): <Enter>
First sector (...) or ...: <Enter>
Last sector (...) or ...: 187551743
Current type is 'Linux filesystem'
Hex code or GUID (...): <Enter>
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'

Command (...): i
Partition number (1-2): 2
Partition GUID code: ... (Linux Filesystem)
Partition unique GUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
First sector: ...
Last sector: ...
Partition size: ...
Attribute flags: ...
Partition name: 'Linux filesystem'

Command (...): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda.
The operation has completed successfully.

Creating the Filesystems

The filesystem presents another stage where we need to enforce the alignment. We do this via 'lying' to the mkfs utility and treating the SSD as a RAID w/ a "chunk" or "stripe" size equal to the erase-block size. In this case I am assuming a 2MiB erase-block size so these instructions stay as universal as possible.

The UEFI boot partition is written to almost never, so alignment is a non-issue by comparison. It also is required to be FAT32, so there's no tweaks possible really. The 'root' filesystem by comparison has two valid options currently, EXT4, or XFS.

FAT32 UEFI Partition

root@sysresccd /root % mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sda1

EXT4 Root Partition

root@sysresccd /root % mkfs.ext4 -E stride=512,stripe-width=512 /dev/sda2

XFS Root Partition

root@sysresccd /root % mkfs.xfs -d su=2048k -d sw=1 /dev/sda2

Proceed with normal installation of a root filesystem, etc. Make sure to add the 'discard' flag to your root filesystem also.

Kernel Configuration

Now that you have your base OS installed on /dev/sda2, we need to make sure a couple of kernel configuration options are enabled to allow it to be booted directly:

Power management and ACPI options --->
[*] ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support

Processor type and features --->
[*] EFI runtime service support
[*]   EFI stub support
 ⇓
[*] Built-in kernel command line
(root=PARTUUID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 ro)
[*]   Built-in command line overrides boot loader arguments

Anything else you enable is your choice, there's plenty of guides detailing that. These are the only options you truly need to enable for this stage though.

EFI Stub Bootloader Configuration

Once you have a bzImage of your kernel, you're going to laugh at how simple it is to update your kernel image so it will boot from EFI, assuming /boot is mounted:

root@sysresccd /root % mkdir -p /boot/efi/boot
root@sysresccd /root % cp /usr/src/linux/arch/x86_64/boot/bzImage /boot/efi/boot/bootx64.efi

That's is. Really. No configuration files, nadda. Downside: No recovery options if something breaks, but I've never had good luck with those 'included' tools so I end up relying on... yup, that System Recovery CD/USB you're already using to install the system with. So is there really any downside? Not that I've found yet.

Dual-Boot w/ Windows

On pure UEFI configurations it's actually incredibly easy to add a Linux option while maintaining the Windows Bootloader. I prefer this approach as it avoids having to boot a series of bootloaders when most of the time you always boot into the same operating system.

For frequent travelling it can be nice as well because it leaves the laptop on initial boot looking like a normal Windows machine if you wish but leaving Linux available with a single keystroke.

First, copy your kernel to some other place on the EFI System Partition, such as \EFI\Linux\kernel.efi instead of \EFI\boot\bootx64.efi.

Next, we'll need to run two commands so Microsoft's BCD bootloader knows how to boot Linux without dealing with DD and GRUB and boot sectors and other crap:

C:\Windows\system32> BCDEdit /copy {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795} /d "Linux"
The entry was successfully copied to {########-####-####-####-############}.
C:\Windows\system32> BCDEdit /set {########-####-####-####-############} PATH "\EFI\Linux\kernel.efi"

Secure Boot (Coming Soon)

If you've come here before this section is ready, I deeply apologize. I haven't had time to write it yet! It does work, though in this case it's far easier to accomplish on a fully-featured UEFI BIOS like the Dell Inspirions because they let you directly modify the Secure Boot key databases without relying on external tools.

I'm ironing out the specific steps needed that will work across at least both my Dell and my Lenovo laptops, to avoid manually importing keys and such. Single-model instructions aren't helpful to the ecosystem as a whole, and Secure Boot-related tools are still in flux as well.

Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

So... I want to commission a new power supply for Lumi.

wolfwings — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:05:19 GMT

The pouch it has to fit in, batteries and all, is currently just barely able to fit a 10-cell 2x5 AA battery holder, and the 0.5" thick circuit board that slips in beside that and is almost exactly (down to the mm) as large as the battery holder's flat side. The parts work, and they work well, but they're cumbersome (especially recharging 10-20*2200mAh AA's after an outing/con) so I'd like to switch to fewer but higher-power-capacity cells powering it. Either 1 or 2 10000mAh-ish NiMH D-cells. I have no interest, nor do I care about discharge rate, I top this off just before use so self-discharge rates are not something I care about. And yes, I realize that 1*D would end up roughly half the effective duration of my AA pack now, the convenience of having a single big-ass battery I can fumble even with paws on versus battery holders I need to get a screwdriver out to pry the batteries loose would be worth it to me. The output is feeding a large parallel bank of LEDs (between 10 and 30 depending on 'compile time' configuration of the rest of the suit when being put on) w/ one micro-fan in my direct breathe path, so power draw does vary slightly but not appreciably once it's powered on and is very stable. The components are all rated for 12V, I'm running them at 9-10V to reduce heat and brightness to more reasonable levels for longer sessions in the 8+ hour range, run at a full 11.5-12V things get uncomfortable in the head after about 2-3 hours and the lights blow out mosaic-sensor digital photographs quite badly due to the brightness. So my rough technical specs that I'm looking for as a contract-project I'm willing to pay $100-200 for someone willing to design and prototype a proof-of-concept of this for me since it's beyond my technical skills and learning the technical knowledge to do it is beyond my time available: DC-to-DC regulator that takes your choice of rechargeable battery source and outputs 9-10V@1A for 4+ hour runs without component failure, without any active or 'finned' cooling solutions, pure fanless passive, while fitting inside of a roughly 2"x2.5"x1.5" box w/ rounded (NOT sharp) corners, and which can have the battery changed out when discharged to extend runtime. If the battery technology for your design requires low-voltage cut-outs for safety and/or a hard case, I'd consider including those in the design as part of this project/RFQ/etc. I.E. Please don't offer to do this w/ LiPo unless you can fabricate the case/design the safeties as well. A basic 'short circuit cutout' is expected since this will operate in a damp/humid/hot environment due to sweat and what-not. I'll pay additional for some kind of battery gauge being included, a LOT additional if it can have a remotely-mounted LCD showing actual voltage from the batteries. I have plenty of space inside the head, and there's sufficient-to-extreme levels of backlighting occuring already so a naked LCD panel is very readable inside the head polarized as black digits on a clear background. My budget range I have estimated is $100-200 for the design side, +50-100% if it includes some sort of remote-mountable battery meter depending on complexity and detail level of the readout that provides. Note that is not to deliver a finished product, just for the design work including a bill-of-materials to make one, a first milestone if you will. I'll pay additional at that time for one to be produced and assembled, or take the construction step elsewhere if you're not interested in doing that but only want to do the design work. Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

So... possible replacements for OpenCanvas.

wolfwings — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 20:30:39 GMT

I'm seeing one major obstacle to why things like Open Canvas don't take off more:

They require you to use/learn their tools to make art. This is rather a large obstacle to a lot of artists, who find the tools that work best for them, and don't like re-learning things over, and over, and over as times change.

So remove that requirement for the streaming tool to provide any actual art tools itself. What are you left with?

A tool much like join.me, but that server-side remembers a much larger canvas for multiple users, and can somehow broadcast both that large canvas (shrunk somehow?) to read-only viewers, and broadcast overlays (differences if you will) of that meta-canvas versus a given user's local canvas.

Handling conflicts is very difficult, but I'm realizing it may not be required to handle them transparently. Allowing for a simple interface for a given read/write user to pull a clipboard-like snapshot from the master-canvas they can paste into their own canvas would be sufficient I believe. It would allow for cooperative collaboration, not conflicting collaboration, but still allow for the social doodling-beside-each-other aspect.

But the basic idea would be define (with a client akin to Join.Me's) "here is my canvas" and "here are my scroll bars" and then begin streaming, or joining into an existing stream/meta-canvas. First person in defines the overall canvas dimensions, and the meta-stream says what those are right at the top, so new folks joining in know what size canvas to take (meta-canvas sized or smaller) and can tie in.

Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

I deleted my Google+ account for now.

wolfwings — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:56:58 GMT

The following is, verbatim, what I submitted as feedback to Google for why I left Google+

TL;DR version: I refuse to risk losing access to my GMail account and other Google services because of my name.

When the reports were only of people having their Google+ access suspended pending reviews, I was understanding and patient, and documented on my profile why I had the name I do to hopefully stave off any reports that my name might generate.

When the reports turned to people losing access to their GMail account as well, I am forced to delete myself from Google+ as I cannot risk losing access to my primary e-mail and single-signon for the majority of the online services I use.

If your name policy ends up banning all but government-issued photo-ID names from being visible, then I am unable to come anywhere near your Google+ service or other future services that rely on Google+ to function and I believe this breaks your "Do No Evil" motto as it does do evil to some.

Please understand that what I believe the intent of this policy (must have a real person associated with it) is something I agree with and understand, but your apparently implementation of policy to date (the visible/public name/title must match your government-issued photo-ID) is the unacceptable component.

Please understand I have no issue with providing my government-records name for Google to have in its databases. But that is not the name I go by anywhere in my life, socially or otherwise, and trying to force me to use that birth name as my name on Google+, a social networking site, is counter-productive as that is not the name I go by, ESPECIALLY not in social circles.

I look forward with hope to the policy changing so I can re-join Google+ as I am incredibly enthusiastic about the service and interface, and both had and have very high hopes for it. But I cannot risk using it at this time due to the current track-record for the apparent implementation of your profile-name policy.

Amusingly, this re-activated my "Google Profiles" link, so that is active instead of a redirector to my Google+ account. So http://profiles.google.com/wolfwings still works and displays correctly.

Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

So what have I been up to lately?

wolfwings — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:00:51 GMT

First: Got Lumikelluke v2.0!

Picture of the entire fursuit.

Close-up of the head in the dark.

Sorry, nothing to vote on currently, best pic I've taken of him so far though and can't find the original handy at the moment. :)

Second: Started working with a very good friend on getting their business rolling.

I'm Onai's Financial Advisor for her fursuiting business, mostly helped her get organized and wriggle free from some morass she was under w/ friends and family so she felt a lot better digging into things and really making a try at turning this into a full business!

It also doubled as when I took some pictures/video of Lumi2.0, I always love visiting the Chicago-area furs.

Third: FINALLY set up my seed account on DreamWidth!

As you can see, my LJ is imported here, crossposting it set up, etc. Welcome aboard!

Crossposted: scribbles on the wall, add your own scribble?

wolfwings — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 00:31:50 GMT

So... where the hell have I been lately?

Working.

I wish it was more complex than that, that I had some amazing thing to show for all this time busy besides more cash in the bank, but I don't.

I've had several projects I've been promising to work on, and they've all sat nearly 100% idle because I've been so run ragged I can't focus to code or work on anything detailed... I'd love a good old-fashioned night of physical exertion right now. And no, I'm not being subtle here... camping, wrenching on cars, hiking, sparring, BDSM, sex, a mix of the above, but something physical is what I crave lately that doesn't involve staring at a screen or sitting on my ass for hours.

As to why? That's simply. I haven't had two contiguous days off in around a month now.

I took two days off of work (last saturday/sunday) so I could rescue a friend by driving out to Las Vegas and back. 50+ hours sitting in a vehicle as a result across roughly 6 days. That was a big marker that got called in.

This weekend I've gotten called into work, opposite my normal shift of midnight->noon to cover someone for noon->midnight, so I'm basically losing this weekend as well. I've heard something about the earthquake in Japan, but I'm oddly detached from it... I just don't have the brain-power to spare to dedicate to that it seems.

This last Mon/Tues/Wed ended up spent almost entirely sleeping instead, and doing a crap-ton of chores like my own laundry and bedding that had been badly neglected until I realized my own bedding smelled funny, then (again) getting called in to help with something suddenly.

So... there goes the last 4 weeks of my life, and before that it's just way too much of a fucking blur at about the same tempo. And the annoying part to me is so much of it is tasks that simply force me to drop all my side-projects suddenly, without having a chance to explain why or schedule ways around my absenses, which hurts.

Help? =^.^=

Writer's Block: Trick or treat

wolfwings — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:26:07 GMT

I'll actually be running around as a werehyena, possibly for three nights in a row. =^.^=

I've made some 'ragged, burst-out-of clothing' to wear over my brown-hyena fursuit Split Paw, leaving the pockets intact on the remnants of the jeans so I have somewhere to store ID in case it's needed.

Friday evening, I'm going to a big-time local party that takes over the local central train station area for the evening, then heading in to work directly from there.

Saturday, I'm going to another party before work.

Sunday, once I get off work, I'm hanging around to tromp around the trick-or-treat areas around town as much as I can, hopefully with a friend driving around in their vehicle so I can bounce around more easilly from area to area.

I'll likely toss on my Cal-Trans-style reflective vest over everything else just to make sure I'm good and visible to cars when I'm outside, but otherwise just screwing around as a hyena as much as I can. =^.^=

PING SoCal friends: My grandmother just had a stroke. Mom needs a lift!

wolfwings — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 02:10:20 GMT

UPDATE: Ride obtained! Thank you!

Original post follows.

My grandmother just had a stroke, and my mom's the only one in-state that can go visit her at the hospital, etc.

My mom needs a lift from either San Pedro, CA or Long Beach, CA or Dana Point, CA to pick up the car and various supplies at my grandmother's place either Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Name a time on Tuesday or Wednesday, she'll be there by the time you specify, just realize she lives in Avalon on Catalina Island, and thus has limited options for travel to/from the mainland.

Can anyone out there give her a lift? If so, please reply here. I'll give you her phone number, just doing that to avoid having ten people call to offer and have her have to turn down nine of them. =^.^=

Help a fox out!

wolfwings — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:53:27 GMT

Clementine Fox needs some cash in a hurry and is doing some hella-cute badges of various types for $15 to get their phone reactivated!

Go here and sign up for a badge if ya' can help out!

Thank you for making me waste some time hacking on YOU, LiveJournal, instead of my own website.

wolfwings — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:15:55 GMT

What so many others have said: Bad rollout and badly breaking the 'least surprise' theory of UI design with this new release with a crap-ton of social-site cross-linking options being added.

It's all blocked at the style-code layer for my own journal now using CSS abuse for now mostly because it's finally reaching the tipping point that makes the site obnoxious to use via my BlackBerry and noisy/cluttered on even my 1920x1200 screen browser at the small font size I use.

ping Anyone out there dealt with knee problems?

wolfwings — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 23:48:39 GMT

I have a friend that's kinda freaking out because they found out the doctor they'd been going to that'd been having them do basic physical rehab for knee pain hadn't been telling them the whole truth of the MRI results: They actually have a hole in the cartilage and some bone damage. They hadn't mentioned either of these things on any of the previous visits, just offered the occasional cortisone injection.

They (my friend) finally has an appointment with a sports-medicine doctor on Monday, but this sudden shift in what's wrong from 'not much, possible tilted knee cap' to 'Yeah... you have a hole in your cartilage, not a tear, and your bones have ground together some already!' had them kinda freaked out and they're wanting to talk to someone that's dealt with knee problems before, to get some second-hand knowledge and talk to someone else that's gone/going through similar to themselves.

Anyone out there on my wide-ranging friends list care to talk to them? Comment here, I'll grant access to a second post that'll be up immediately after this one with contact details.

I voted for him. My mistake.

wolfwings — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:29:24 GMT

Someone that's worked in this country for a decade, payed their taxes, is flying home in a couple weeks because nobody can hire them because they've been unable to be allowed to immigrate.

It disgusts me that this happens, while those that bum-rush across the border by any means they can and disregard our laws entirely are now being given a free pass.

Both aspects disgust me, that they both in effect mean the same thing: It doesn't pay to even try to obey the immigration laws in this country anymore, a country that is one of the most immigrant-based countries of a large size I know of, second only to Australia.

No, we can't afford to actually 'secure our borders' like people keep preaching, I hold no illusion on that. And deporting them doesn't slow anything down, if anything I'd be all for imprisioning them for 30 days before deportation just to delay the flow of them back in and impact the money going back out to discourage things.

The core problem to me is simply the unfairness that someone perfectly willing to pay taxes and obey the laws of the land is banned from working here, but those that flaunt our laws and flip the bird to us, get in and get work.

Unless you can justify why my friend I've known for years is having to fly home after living in this country for a decade working at a single job for the majority of that, but was unable to immigrate despite their proven work ethic and ability and willingness to obey our laws and regulations, don't try to convince me that this ruling is a good one. Save your typing. I'll leave comments enabled for now though.

Looking for an Artist interesting in something steampunk-ish.

wolfwings — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 01:20:32 GMT

As usual, just what it says on the tin. Looking for an artist willing to design a bit of steampunk-ish gear, specifically: I'm getting a fursuit of my actual fursona, WolfWings, and I'd like to get a bit of jangly, steampunkish kit to wear over the fursuit mostly over the front chest, shoulders, and arms.

The only real way to describe the idea is a post-apocalyptic steampunk urban shaman. Or to use a lot less fancy words: Drop a stereotypical Amerind 'shaman' into the wrecked cities of the movies "I Am Legend" or "Book of Eli" or the games "Fallout 3" or the "Left 4 Dead" series and imagine how they'd piece together a ceremonial outfit. Just realize this would be worn over top of a fursuit based on the character sheet I've had drawn by Wolf Nymph. Think things like using a driveshaft from a car as a ceremonial staff, and the like.

So... anyone out there know any artists that'd be interested in a commission like this? There's no rush on it, I won't have the fursuit itself for many, many moons yet.

A twist on an old question...

wolfwings — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:27:53 GMT

View Poll: How far would you go for love?

Just what it says on the tin, how far away would you be willing to have a relationship with someone else? Conversely, it's kinda related to how often do you need to see your other half or halves, I suppose, since the further away something is the less often you can see it.

wolfwings — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 01:24:23 GMT

You know how sometimes people on your friends-list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes. Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out!

First Name:
Chris, even my own mother calls me Wolf freely however.
Age:
30.32
Location:
Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation:
I.T. junior sys-admin at a compliant-systems hosting provider. If it has to get audited every 3 months or so, and has clumps of three-letter acronyms describing the standards it has to comply with, we host it.
Partner:
None right now, would welcome it though.
Kids:
None
Brothers/Sisters:
None
Pets:
None
List 3-5 biggest things going on in your life right now:
- Driving, has been as long as I've been able to. 20k miles/year seems to be my average.
- Fursuiting. I just drove 12 hours to attend RCFM for 8 hours just to fursuit with a friend.
- Being with friends, see previous item. Note the 'with a friend' part. Just the suiting by itself wasn't the reason I went, just what pushed me 'over the fence' into going.
Parents:
Mother is single (not divorced), in the furry fandom with me (hi, batnwolf!), and goes to cons with me. Dad is divorced, aware of the fandom, and may get drug to a con in 2011. Both are good people, and help me when I really need it.
Who are some of your closest friends?:
My closest friends are ones I treasure too much to drop their names like achievments in a video game. If you don't know if you're one of them? Just ask. I answer questions truthfully.

Man... sometimes I just don't realize I'm pissing someone off until they say it.

wolfwings — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:47:21 GMT

Casually discussing a technical problem with a house-mate that works in IT as well: Just upgraded the core switch at a friend's house to gigabit, had someone in the house make a quick test to/from the NAS I set up for them, still only getting 5 megabytes/second throughput. Mention 'whew, there, ethtool set up... yeah, the NAS is running gigabit' casually, and start discussing it with my housemate. Only option since the other server we tested from, under Linux, claims gigabit support at full and half duplex.

So I mention, "Either the cable's lost one of the non-crucial pairs on the home-run or his patch cable, or the plugs have a fouled pin somewhere along the way." Housemate mentions, "No, that'd stop even 100-Base," and it degrades quickly when I mention, "Um... 100-Base only requires two pairs, gigabit requires four pairs," as he thinks 100-base-T also requires all four pairs.

I just got quiet, pulled up the spec, and verified. Nope, 100-Base-T requires two-pair CAT-5 or better cabling. 1000-Base-TX requires four-pair CAT-5 or better, with CAT-5e or CAT-6 recommended to improve tolerances. Mention this, apparently that was pushing too far... =-.-=

I just saw a technical question, with a possible technical counter-point raised, and so I figured, "Go check the spec," while my housemate saw it as, "RAR! Won't stop arguing until you admit I'm right!" mentality, and I didn't realize it could be interpreted that way. *sighs* Sorry?

Anyways... yeah, rant over.

Setting up a software-RAID server under Gentoo Linux w/ initramfs the simple way.

wolfwings — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 05:19:02 GMT

This can technically cover a NAS, a file server, a web server, or anything else. In my case, it's being used as a borderline NAS/file server/media server for a household.

All drives are hot-swap, the RAID is heavilly growable (from 4-8TB usable w/ 5 drives up to 16+TB with more drives, all hot-swap), and this is based on the newest tech out there so things are fast, stable, and I'm focussing on the 'easy' side of the 80/20 equation: I'm putting in the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the benefit, so please don't make recommendations like "why didn't you use XYZ file system, or set ABC tunable based on I, J, K, and L aspects of your syetem?" because my answer for all of those is: Because I didn't need to eek out 100% performance.

Even with sub-7200RPM drives, and only five of them, this RAID array built in about 5 hours, and reshapes to/from RAID 6 in around 8-12 hours. A rebuild takes about 6-8 hours, using these relatively slow but modern drives. With a 4k-chunk size, aligned with the 4k sectors, I'm seeing write speeds in excess of 90MB/second, and read speeds in excess of 200MB/second, so this thing can theoretically saturate a single Gig-ethernet link pretty handilly as a file server.

First, this is based on Gentoo. I go with Gentoo because they have a rolling-release schedule, versus a backporting schedule. This server was based on the 29th March 2010 sync-point. It varies very little from the normal Gentoo Handbook. I reconfigured the hard drives in fdisk to 32 sectors per track, 128 heads per cylinder, and adjusted cylinders-per-drive accordingly. This results in 2MB cylinders, which also align with the 4K sector size on newer hard drives no matter what you do in fdisk at that point. All partitions are normal, none of them are the 'RAID automount' type.

MDADM is included in the autobuilt install-CD, so I just used that to configure the RAID initially, then made a filesystem and installed normally on top of it. I specifically tuned the file-system to reserve 1% of the resulting 5.3TB available for root only, instead of making a seperate 'operating system' partition. So there's two partitions on each drive: 1) a 40MB 'boot' partition RAID1 across all drives, and the remainder of each drive as the 'system' partition in RAID5 or RAID6 (your choice, you can change this choice later) for the 'system' partition.

All of this is fairly simple, and the normal Gentoo Installation Handbook steps are taken with one exception: Manual Kernel Configuration, to include initramfs support and add mdadm support.

First, we need to set two packages to include the 'static' USE flag, which forces their binaries to be statically linked so they can be safely included on the initramfs easilly.

1) Make a directory on your new system during the installer:

mkdir /etc/portage

2) Then run these commands:

echo sys-apps/busybox static >> /etc/portage/package.use echo sys-fs/mdadm static >> /etc/portage/package.use emerge busybox mdadm

That'll rebuild busybox, and install mdadm as static-linked binaries. Next, a few options to enable on the kernel:

Enable initramfs support, but disable all forms of compression of the initramfs, because the entire image (including the compiled-on initramfs) will be compressed at once instead. I pointed it at the /usr/src/initramfs directory for where to pull the initramfs from. Now, configure that directory:

mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/dev mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/proc mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/sys mkdir -p /usr/src/initramfs/newroot cp -a /dev/{console,null,tty,tty1} /usr/src/initramfs/dev chown -R root:root /usr/src/initramfs

Copy your busybox and mdadm binaries to /usr/src/initramfs:

cp `which busybox` `which mdadm` /usr/src/initramfs

Now, you need to write your 'init' for the initramfs as a shell script. Yes, a shell script. It's tricky to get right, so here's a full copy of the one I use. :-)

#!/bin/busybox sh
/bin/busybox mount -t proc proc /proc
/bin/busybox mount -t sysfs sys /sys
/bin/busybox mdev -s

# We have a basic /dev tree configured now. We can manually assembly the md* devices:
/bin/mdadm -A /dev/md0 /dev/sd?2
/bin/mdadm -A /dev/md127 /dev/sd?1

# We need to 'rebuild' the /dev tree before the md* devices will show up though:
/bin/busybox mdev -s

# Now we can mount the root file system, and drop the temp file systems:
/bin/busybox mount -t ext4 -o ro /dev/md0 /newroot
/bin/busybox umount /proc
/bin/busybox umount /sys

# And finally... switch to the new root filesystem:
exec /bin/busybox switch_root /newroot /sbin/init

# Oh-shit panic code, to drop us to a minimal busybox shell to examine the wreckage:
echo Failure! Press enter to boot a shell instead...
read
exec /bin/busybox sh > /dev/tty1 < /dev/tty1 2>&1

Make that owned by root:root, and RWX permissions for root as a user at least, and you're set. You can now compile your kernel like normal, though it'll end up just shy of 1MB larger than normal due to the initramfs. This is assuming you compile your hard-drive drivers into the kernel, and I recommend leaving your USB drivers as modules so if you leave a USB device plugged in it won't error on you strangely. This is a first-pass init script, better can be done, and note this isn't using LVM's but just raw MD devices for the RAID.

And on a unanimously happy note...

wolfwings — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:12:58 GMT

...someone with a few grand can still one-up all the multi-hundred-thousand-dollar racing teams.

Seriously. $500 craigs-list BMW with NO EXTRA CREW AT ALL takes third place at WRC Mexico.

And today gets twice as bad...

wolfwings — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:42:37 GMT

...with two souls passing before their time to remember on this day from now on...

Hopefully next year I'll be working this day, so it can pass me by without having time to dwell too heavilly on it.

You're remembered. And hopefully will be when many are but dust and ash...

wolfwings — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:39:55 GMT

Like many others, I have an anniversary. That of evil_dwagon's death by DUI, or as more among my friends know/knew of him, Furp, or Patrick Reed. A year ago today, he was taken from us. And I've been working to give him a proper memorial in the only way I know how... this is the first step, it's a shortened re-mix/re-blend of a VNV Nation song, Beloved, from their full version and their 'official' short version down to one that's just under 3 minutes long now when I was done, rendered into mono since for the intended purpose stereo would provide no advantage.

Now... construction and planning of the rest begins. I had hoped to have it done for FC this year, but realized getting it done right is infinitely more important than getting it done by any artificial deadline.

Beloved - Heartstring Mix - VNV Nation

It's colder than before... The seasons took all they had come for.
Now winter dances here; it seem's so fitting don't you think?
To dress the ground in white... And grey...

It's so quiet I can hear... My thoughts touching every second, that I spent, waiting for you...

Circumstances afford me, no second chance to tell you... how much I've missed you...

My Beloved, do you know?
When the warm wind comes again,
Another year will start to pass.

And please don't ask me why I'm here...
Something deeper brought me, than a need to remember...

We were once young and blessed with wings!
No heights could keep us from their reach!
No sacred place we did not soar...

Still greater things burned within' us...
I don't regret the choices that I made...
I know you feel the same.

My Beloved, do you know? How many times I stared at clouds, thinking that I saw you there...
These are feelings that do not pass so easilly; I can't forget... what we claimed as ours!

Moments lost and time remains! I am so proud of what we were!
No pain remains, no feeling... eternity awaits!
Grant me wings that I might fly; my restless soul is longing...
No pain remains, no feeling... eternity awaits!

Nick Granato - Color Outside the Lines

wolfwings — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:31:18 GMT

There's a song that I'll admit I've adopted, sorta sworn by just before FC, and I think is one reason I've (for better or worse) taken less shit from others lately and inparticular one of the reasons I've more-or-less blown off people trying to blame me for the various drama that happened at FC that I was involved with.

It's not the best singer, I love the song though, and I'm tempted to try to record my own version if I could find someone to play music for it. It... fits a lot of folks in our fandom, I think. For better or worse.

You can do what you want,
As long as you keep to yourself.

You can be who you are,
As long as it's somewhere else...

It's a "Simon Says" life;
You must do what's expected!
After all, it's our way of life they're protecting...
So we follow the obvious,
The blind leading the blind...

And no one cares until you color outside the lines...

It's a paint-by-number... predictable... situation...
A black and white world with, Technicolor... implications...

Move to the rhythm, of a different drum?
One steps out and they all come undone!
They try to ignore, the things that they can't define...

And no one cares until you color outside the lines!

When it's not picture perfect,
And you dare to be different?
That's when they open their eyes!

Well they'll try to deny it,
And then try to hide it, by,
Covering up what they find!

The only time they look your way,
Is when you mess with their precious designs!

And no one cares until you color outside the lines...

It's not about how you look;
It's just your appearance.

No it's not about what you say;
It's just how they hear it.

Speak out of turn; they put a mark on the page!
Say too much? You'll be feeling their rage!
You must conform, to what they all decide...

`Cause no one cares, until you color outside the lines!

When it's not picture perfect,
And you dare to be different?
That's when they open their eyes!

Well they'll try to deny it,
And then try to hide it, by,
Covering up what they find!

The only time they look your way,
Is when you mess with their precious designs!

And no one cares until you color outside the lines...

'Cause they don't like your crayon shades,
Or the pictures that you choose!

And you're abstract style's just a bit too wild?
To say the least they're not amused...

Nah, don't let them stop you!
Don't let them tell you!
That you're "not doing it right!"

'Cause no one cares until you color outside the lines...

No one cares until you color outside the lines...

You see, God smiles, when you color outside the lines...!

Download (4.0MB)

Am I really that strange of a commissioner?

wolfwings — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:46:10 GMT

I just realized... I've made (or committed to making, technically, though basically just holding final payment for delivery in both cases) two seperate $2k-ish purchases.

One of them, I'm working patiently to be meticulous about getting every detail right, for multiple reasons, then will hand off final approval and get out of the way as the final piece is made. And by patiently I mean I'm willingly taking extra months here and there to let the concept-artist work out details until they're happy with the options they make, and then we discuss the options, lather, rinse, repeat until we're both satisfied.

The other? I basically handed the money across, and am waiting for the product to very loose specs. Species, name that indicates an easy-to-integrate theme without specifying how to integrate it, etc. No concept art, just 'get to it!' and let the artist chart their own course on things.

I just... something says it's the 'right way' to do each of these commissions, but I wonder am I really that odd to try to take such a hands-off, no-bother approach with the artists I commission as much as possible? Even on the detailed one, I'm quite happy biding my time while life works it's kinks out and moves along around the commission.

Dunno why I'm being so introspective lately, but between that, and someone commenting that my ratio of credit cards to bank accounts is backwards compared to most folks, am I really doing things that out of whack with how most people think they should be? =^.^=

I may be insane for considering this... thoughts?

wolfwings — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:50:27 GMT

There's a $10k contest for anyone able to avoid being found for one month.

Someone tell me if I'm insane for considering applying to this or not? I have no clue if my job would even allow it, but gods... this sounds so tempting to me...

Meme Sheep time!

wolfwings — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:14:12 GMT

Ask me a question!

The expanses of WolfWings' land

My comment to the TSA regarding AIT...

UEFI Linux w/ SSDs

Overview

Partitioning the Drive

Creating the Filesystems

FAT32 UEFI Partition

EXT4 Root Partition

XFS Root Partition

Kernel Configuration

EFI Stub Bootloader Configuration

Dual-Boot w/ Windows

Secure Boot (Coming Soon)

So... I want to commission a new power supply for Lumi.

So... possible replacements for OpenCanvas.

I deleted my Google+ account for now.

So what have I been up to lately?

Writer's Block: Trick or treat

*PING* SoCal friends: My grandmother just had a stroke. Mom needs a lift!

Help a fox out!

Thank you for making me waste some time hacking on YOU, LiveJournal, instead of my own website.

*ping* Anyone out there dealt with knee problems?

I voted for him. My mistake.

Looking for an Artist interesting in something steampunk-ish.

A twist on an old question...

Man... sometimes I just don't realize I'm pissing someone off until they say it.

Setting up a software-RAID server under Gentoo Linux w/ initramfs the simple way.

And on a unanimously happy note...

And today gets twice as bad...

You're remembered. And hopefully will be when many are but dust and ash...

Nick Granato - Color Outside the Lines

Am I really that strange of a commissioner?

I may be insane for considering this... thoughts?

Meme Sheep time!

PING SoCal friends: My grandmother just had a stroke. Mom needs a lift!

ping Anyone out there dealt with knee problems?