ben mctee . com

Drew, day 5

2012-02-08T17:38:00.001-10:00

He's still a very happy baby and mother is doing quite well!

Now we just need to get him on a normal sleep schedule instead of up at night and sleep during the day.

We're at Ko'Olina again to eat dinner with her parents.

@ Tripler (again)

2012-02-06T14:53:00.001-10:00

Here for his first wellness checkup since leaving the hospital. Seems like our waits get longer each time we visit.

Resting for the trip home

2012-02-05T09:13:00.000-10:00

Baby Drew!

2012-02-05T08:35:00.000-10:00

Our beautiful son was born at 1445 on 2/3/12 at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, HI

Both mom and Drew are doing fantastic. We will be leaving this morning to bring him into our home after staying at the hospital for 2 nights.

Media Server - Share files to an Xbox 360

2012-01-04T13:36:00.000-10:00

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Xbox360Media

Ushare has been working flawlessly to stream media to my Xbox 360 for about a month now. It does not, however, stream mkv or mp4 files. Those must be converted to m4v or avi.

Google Tricks

2012-01-04T13:32:00.000-10:00

Try typing these into Google (it helps to turn off instant search results):

do a barrel roll
let it snow
askew
google gravity and then click "I'm feeling Lucky"

Play pacman:
www.google.com/pacman

Media Server - Hard drive spindown time

2012-01-04T12:47:00.000-10:00

Hard drives that constantly spin are more prone to errors than those that spin down after some pre-determined time. I usually run Ubuntu on a laptop, and with that configuration it is set to conserve power by spinning down hard drives from the Power Management dialog. Due to knowing this, it never crossed my mind to even check the server for hard drive spin-down because I had just assumed it was already implemented, which was not the case.
In order to "buy" more life out of your hard drives, or to conserve electricity, use hdparm to spin down the hard drives. If you do not have hdparm installed, run:
sudo apt-get install hdparm

To set the hard drive to spin down, issue the following command:
sudo hdparm -S 120 /dev/sda
This will spin down the sda drive in 10 minutes. The number scheme is weird. Since it is based on a 0-255 range, the following correlate the minutes:
0: disabled (will never enter standby mode)
1-240: multiples of 5 seconds (ie 2=10 seconds and 120=10 minutes)
241-251: multiples of 30 minutes (ie 242=1 hr and 251=5.5 hrs)
252: 21 minutes (don't ask me why)
253: vendor supplied, somewhere between 8-12 hrs
254: reserved
255: 21 minutes, 15 seconds (again, no clue)

If you have multiple drives in your computer, this command must be run for each drive you want to spin down.
There is a downfall: the setting goes away once the computer is restarted. Fear Not! Add it in to rc.local to make it run on any change of runlevels (ie, during a startup):
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

Unless you have already added something to rc.local, the only thing currently in there should be:
#!/bin/sh -e
exit 0

Or something along those lines (there may be a few commented lines describing what the file does between those two)

My rc.local now looks like the following, set up to spin down my system drives after 1 hr and my RAID drives after 10 minutes:
#!/bin/sh -e
#Set system drives to spin down after 1 hr idle time:
hdparm -q -S 242 /dev/sde
hdparm -q -S 242 /dev/sdf
#Set RAID drives to spin down after 10 min idle time:
hdparm -q -S 120 /dev/sda
hdparm -q -S 120 /dev/sdb
hdparm -q -S 120 /dev/sdc
hdparm -q -S 120 /dev/sdd
exit 0
The reason I want to wait a longer time for the system drives is that those get used more often for every-day tasks, and I don't want to wait for the hard drives to spin up each time I need to use the computer. Since the RAID is going to constantly be seeking data while I stream to my TV and not at all when I do not, spinning down after 10 minutes seemed to be the logical choice. The "-q" means it does it "quietly" (no visible output) during the startup.

Apple TimeMachine backup to Ubuntu 11.10 over network

2011-12-27T14:06:00.000-10:00

Time Capsule is a great way to backup your MacBook over the network. But at $500 for the 3 terabyte version, why spend the money when you have an Ubuntu 11.10 media server with 6 TB of storage and an Airport Extreme base station (which is 1 of the 2 things the Time Capsule accomplishes)? It does take a little bit of configuration to get it running, so here goes:

1) In the terminal, install netatalk so that your Ubuntu machine will communicate via AppleTalk. While you're there, make sure that avahi-daemon is installed (it is by default on 11.10):

sudo apt-get install netatalk avahi-daemon

2)  Now edit the afpd config file (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) so we can communicate with the directory properly over the network.  To see a description of each option, view the afpd website or "man afpd" in terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/netatalk/afpd.conf
Add this to the bottom of the file:
- -tcp -noddp -uamlist uams_guest.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so -n

3) Create the directory for you TimeMachine backups:
mkdir /dir/dir/YourBackup/Folder
I chose /media/Backups/macbook/TimeMachine

4) Edit the permissions for that folder so that everyone can have read/write access.

5) Edit the netatalk AppleVolumes.default file to point to your directory:
sudo gedit /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default 
/media/Backups/macbook/TimeMachine "TimeMachine" cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,tm,upriv
The "tm" enables for TimeMachine use.  This page details all the options for AppleVolumes.default

6) Tell the avahi daemon to broadcast AppleTalk over the network:
sudo gedit /etc/avahi/services/afpd.service
This will open an empty (hopefully) file.
Enter the following, save, and close:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone='no'?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
  <name replace-wildcards="yes">%h</name>
  <service>
    <type>_afpovertcp._tcp</type>
    <port>548</port>
  </service>
  <service>
    <type>_device-info._tcp</type>
    <port>0</port>
    <txt-record>model=Xserve</txt-record>
  </service>
</service-group>

7) Restart the services to read in the new config files:
service netatalk restart
service avahi-deamon restart

8) In order to not fill all of the hard drive space on the Ubuntu server with MacBook backups, create a disk image from OS X:
Disk Utility > New Image
Create whatever size image you'd like.  This will look like an external hard drive to TimeMachine, which it will fill until it is out of space, and then start replacing the oldest data first.
Save this to your networked folder on the Ubuntu server (/media/Backups/macbook/TimeMachine/backup.dmg)

9) On the Mac, select the Go menu > Connect to Folder > Browse > TimeMachine

10) Enable TimeMachine and see if that drive is available.  If not, I found this small hack for OS X on engadget.com:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1
Enter that into your terminal and try again.

At Shore Birds

2011-12-25T23:02:00.001-10:00

Waikiki for Christmas!

Citizen Cope

2011-05-28T20:58:00.000-10:00

On Maui @ Lahaina Theatre.

Troy's 3rd Birthday

2011-04-27T22:00:00.000-10:00

I'm on leave in Henderson for Troy's 3rd birthday (24th)! Can't believe how quickly time has flown and how grown up he is getting.

I've posted some pictures on Picasa of his party at my parents' house.

Troy playing in his new pool

Removing extra OS X partitions (and troubleshooting)

2011-04-21T11:28:00.000-10:00

I recently ran into a problem regarding partitions on my MacBook Aluminum. Originally I dual-booted OS X and Linux (Ubuntu), which means that there were 4 partitions on the hard drive. I was using rEFIt as the initial boot manager, and then once the Linux option was selected, it would go into GRUB for me to select from the normal menu. I know what 2 of the partitions are (Linux filesystem and swap space), but I don't know what the 3rd partition is (FAT 511.7MB in size)... possibly a share that I set up between OS X and Ubuntu back in the day.

At any rate, I now have another laptop that I use solely for Linux, and then the Ubuntu media server... negating my need to dual boot the MacBook. Using the Disk Utility, I erased these 3 extra partitions successfully, but hit the problem while trying to remove them. Once I pressed the "-" to remove 1 partition (any of them), it would go into Verifying disk, get about 10% complete, hang for a while, then come back with the error "Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed". This seemed very cryptic, and provided no path forward, only "OK", and the partition remained. After a bit of Googling, I found an article regarding this exact issue that talked about booting from the OS X install DVD and run Disk Utility from there. Since I'm not working on my filesystem partition, but rather one that can be unmounted within OS X, I figured this wasn't required, but decided to give it a shot anyways.

After searching around for my DVD of Snow Leopard, I came up with nothing... probably lost in one of the moves since buying it 3 houses ago...

So I "obtained" a copy, only to find out that it's filesize was obviously for a dual-layer DVD, leading me down this path: tonymacx86 Blog: Fit Mac OS X Snow Leopard on a Single Layer DVD

Great tutorial, except I didn't want to download ShowAllFiles and run it because it is a binary program (ie I can't see the source code), so I don't know what it actually does to the computer other than just show hidden files. Therefore, in Step 2 .1-2, just do this:

1) Open Terminal

2) Type the following: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

3) (enter)

4) And then: killall Finder

5) (enter)

This will show any file with a "." at the beginning of the name, which causes it to be hidden in OS X. At the end of deleting all the unnecessary files, simply repeat the above steps, changing TRUE to FALSE.

...

Back to the troubleshooting.

I have currently booted from the DVD and am in Disk Utility, only to find that the same problem arises. Except this time, it allows me to Repair the volume. Once the volume repaired successfully (with the only red errors showing on the OS X partition, it seems that I could move forward with removing the 3 extraneous partitions. I've attempted to remover "NO NAME" (the FAT partition), with the same error, "Could not modify partition map because filesystem verification failed". So I attempt to remove the aptly named after erasing "blank_01", again, with the same error message. On to "blank_02", same.

Now I go back and select my hard drive (top of the list), and Repair Disk again, with the following problems found and corrected:
Macintosh HD:
Volume bitmap needs minor repair
Volume header needs minor repair
...The volume Macintosh HD was repaired successfully (same thing I got the first time)

NO NAME:
Phase 1 - Preparing FAT
Phase 2 - Checking Directories
Phase 3 - Checking for Orphan Clusters
57 files, ...
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required

blank_01:
...The volume blank_01 appears to be OK.

blank_02:
...The volume blank_02 appears to be OK.
Volume repair complete.
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.

Now, this seems odd, NO NAME produced no errors, but it still updated the boot support partitions. blank_01 didn't do anything, and blank_02 said it was OK, but then "Volume repair complete" and then updated the boot support partitions. Not sure why this is.

I am back at the Partition tab, press the "-", it goes into Verifying disk, moves on to Shrinking disk, and then comes back with Partition failed with the error: The partition cannot be resized. Try reducing the amount of change in the size of the partition.

Now I am fed up with dealing with this. Most Googling on this specific errors shows that the free space is probably fragmented, and requires the purchase of software to defrag it... or you can just wipe the entire drive and restore from a backup. I regularly make backups using SuperDuper, so it sounds like it's time to start erasing...

The sun has set on another day...

2011-04-14T20:18:00.001-10:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS0Lxa8l-VA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Mexican Pointy Boots

2011-04-12T07:04:00.001-10:00

Wow...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEiMA3QtYWc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Media Server - on a side note

2011-02-26T20:47:00.000-10:00

Not anything related with media server building, but just a little tidbit of information for the D-Link DWA-160 wireless 802.11N USB dongle. Once again, using Ubuntu 10.10. Follow this guide, mostly, with the exception of download the compat-wireless from here instead of where he says in the tutorial - that is, if you are using the .35 kernel. Obviously this is not a future-proof blog, so when the linux kernel gets updated to a later version (current is linux-headers-2.6.35-23), you too will need to update where you download from.

Deftones!

2011-02-18T22:08:00.001-10:00

At Aloha Tower.

USS Texas Submarine Tour

2011-02-04T21:33:00.001-10:00

In case you've never been on a modern submarine, this is a tour video the Navy made for their website on board our boat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjjVXLRaiw4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Hawaiian Monk Seal at Kapolei

2011-02-03T17:15:00.001-10:00

Media Server - The Media

2010-11-30T23:40:00.000-10:00

Now that the RAID is setup, ready to receive all sorts of media, now's the time to start populating it.

I will be using Transmission BitTorrent client to download torrents, TED to monitor for new TV shows, and MediaTomb to share this media to things on my network (computers, PS3, etc.).

Transmission comes with Ubuntu Desktop, so that's easy. Just open it (Applications > Internet > Transmission), go to Edit > Preferences. In here, it's pretty self-explanatory. I created a Torrents directory under /mnt/Media (My RAID partition), which has Downloading and Complete folders in it. I've set Transmission to monitor the Torrents folder for new .torrent files, the Save To location is Complete, and Keep Incomplete in Downloading. From here, TED will be configured to download .torrent files to /mnt/Media/Torrents.

Ensure that the Java Runtime Environment (jre) is installed using Synaptic Package Manager, then download TED. Once it has downloaded, go to the folder and unzip it. Delete the MacOS, Windows, and Sun folders. Right click on ted.jar, and click Open With OpenJDK Java 6 Runtime. Now, configure TED: Extra > Preferences. "When ted finds a torrent..." browse to your .torrent location (ie /mnt/Media/Torrents), and select that folder. Now TED will download the .torrent file, and Transmission will automatically download it.

For sharing, I am using MediaTomb. You will also need ffmpeg and VLC to enable media conversion on the fly. Synaptic Package Manager is the best choice for this. Once installed, download MediaTomb (also via SPM), and then follow these instructions.

References:
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/feature-linux-media-server-using-ubuntu-810-2009065/
http://robertpyke.blogspot.com/2008/07/ubuntu-mediatomb-vlc-and-ps3-match-made.html

Media Server - Setting up the RAID 5

2010-11-25T11:07:00.000-10:00

Now the fun part...

Moving right in to creating the RAID 5 for all the media:
sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
n (to create a new partition)
p (for primary partition)
1 (to create partition 1)

....If for some reason at this point it tells you there is already a partition there, that's fine. Just press d, and it will delete it, then go back to "n".

<enter> (to begin on cylinder 1 of the hard drive)
<enter> (to end on the last cylinder of the hard drive)
t (for type of partition this will be)
fd (to make it a RAID autodetect)
w (to write changes)

Repeat these steps for each hard drive you want in the array... (ex: /dev/sdd, /dev/sde, /dev/sdf)

Now you can either use apt-get install, or use the Synaptic package manager (whichever you prefer), but we need mdadm to proceed to creating the RAID. If you are using this as a tutorial, mdadm was used to create the RAID 1 for the OS drives.

sudo mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=5 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1

This will start creating the RAID 5 (--level=5) using 4 hard drives (--raid-devices=4), on their first (and only) partitions (/dev/sdb1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdf1)

If you want to see the status of the RAID build, use:
cat /proc/mdstat
It should say something like:
md0 : active raid5 sdf1[4] sde1[2] sdd[1] sdb[0]
5860535808 blocks level 5, 64k chunk, algorithm 2 [4/3] [UUU_]
[>............................] recovery = 0.5% (11036672/1953511936) finish=545.0min speed=59392K/sec
unused devcies: <none>

This is saying that its creating the RAID. This will take some time, depending on the size of your hard drives, how many you are using, etc. Make sure that your power settings will not sleep your computer after a period of time, and don't do things like system updates that will cause a computer restart. It's best just to leave it alone until the process is complete.

If you want to continuously watch the status (ie: you don't have anything to do for several hours):
watch cat /proc/mdstat
Once you are bored with that <Ctrl+c> to get out of watching it

Sweet... you have a RAID! However, nothing will be managing it. Tell mdadm to scan the raid config file or /proc/mdstat for missing information:
sudo mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

Go into this file and comment out (or delete) any other entries with /dev/md0 in them:
sudo gedit /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
You should see the "ARRAY /dev/md0..." line at the very bottom. Any other lines in this file will need to have a "#" in front of them so that md0 will get mounted properly. Also, I took out "metadata=00.90" because it gave me errors, and everything still seems to work fine.

Now we need to format the RAID:
sudo mke2fs -t ext4 -j /dev/md0
-or-
mke2fs.ext4 /dev/md0 (this is the one that worked for me)
This will make an ext4 filesystem with journaling on the RAID (/dev/md0)
If you are using ext3 filesystem, leave off -t ext4

Create a mount point anywhere on the system for your md0:
sudo mkdir /mnt/Media
Putting it in /var means that everyone can read it. You may also want to put it in /mnt and then change permissions later.

Edit the fstab so that the RAID will get mounted each time the system boots:
sudo vi /etc/fstab
Ađd the following line to the bottom of the file:
/dev/md0 /var/media ext4 defaults 1 2
From here you can reboot to see if the RAID gets mounted at /var/media, or you can mount it now without a reboot:
mount -a
This will read from the fstab and mount everything from it.

Hopefully this was all very helpful.

End notes:
I went back to not using a RAID1 for the OS. After giving it a day of thought, there really is no reason for me to waste a 250GB hard drive on something that can easily be reinstalled and configured from a CD. Plus, I've been running Ubuntu on my MacBook for over a year now with no issues, so there should be none on the server. If the time comes down the road where the hard drive where Ubuntu is installed fails, I would just replace it with a new one and reconfigure everything from a backup that will reside on the RAID.
That all being said, if you used a RAID for the OS, then the RAID for the media would be md1 for the above steps that reference md0.

Reference:
sonniesedge

Media Server Update - Setting up RAID 1

2010-11-24T01:30:00.000-10:00

To set up the OS on a RAID 1 (the 2 250GB HDDs), I followed this wiki pretty much verbatim:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Convert_a_single_drive_system_to_RAID

To get to this point, however, I simply installed Ubuntu using all the normal setup options onto a single 250GB hard drive. I have a 100GB partition for the ext4 filesystem, a 10GB partition for swap, and whatever was left over for future use. This was on /dev/sda (sda1 being the 100GB, sda2 being the 10GB). So when I went to go set mine up, I started with a fresh wipe of /dev/sdc - nevermind the incorrect cable configuration - and followed the wiki. The only difference I noted was that he created the swaps physically before the OS on the hard drive (starting with cylinder 1), so when the wiki talked about created a swap at /dev/sdb1, I simply did mine at /dev/sdc2.

I'm using a later version of Grub, so I did not configure the menu.lst (Grub 2 will do this for me automagically).

Quick tips in the alter Fstab part:
blkid will get you the UUIDs of the hard drives... but why would you want to break out the pen and paper, then risk the chance of getting a character wrong? Try this:
mv /mnt
cp /mnt/new-raid/etc/fstab fstab.txt
blkid >> fstab.txt
This copies the current fstab and appends the output of blkid to the end of the fstab file
Now, pear it down to the info you need:
vi fstab.txt
Comment out the old stuff, and make the new stuff match the old stuff (ie: take out the "...", labels, etc.) New to VI? Take a look at these basic vi commands.

After running mdadm --detail --scan >> /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
you may like to vi that file as well to remove the metadata=00.90 (at the very end) to avoid getting an error. If not, update-initramfs will just throw a flag and then say it ignored it... which shouldn't be an issue

After running the perl script, it should come back with nothing. To exit the perl script command line, Ctrl+C

Media Server Update - (cont from Part 1)

2010-11-23T23:35:00.000-10:00

To get the most up to date video output, I attempted enabling propriety drivers under System > Administration > Additional Drivers. Once I rebooted, it took me straight to a command line vice the nice Ubuntu Desktop GUI. My advice: do NOT use the drivers Ubuntu recommends (atleast while running 10.10 and with a GeForce GTS450 video card).

My workaround:
Download updated drivers from here to your home directory (~/).
sudo stop gdm
sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current
cd ~/
sudo ./NVIDI<tab> -a (something like NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.12.run
startx (or sudo shutdown -r now)

The ./ before NVI... is important, don't forget that or it won't run. Also, if it won't run, try ls -a. If it doesn't atleast say -rwx, then you can't execute it. So:
chmod 755 NV<tab>
Now try to run it again.

I got an error saying the pre-install script failed, would I like to continue? I chose yes, clicked yes on all the other prompts, then "sudo reboot".
Once rebooted, the graphical desktop was back. Not to say I don't like command line stuff.... I just would rather only use it when needed, and not for everything.

More trials and tribulations to follow.

Ubuntu Media Server - Part 1

2010-11-23T23:25:00.000-10:00

My Goal:
1) Create a home media server that can stream video across the LAN to an iPhone, PS3, TiVO, and several computers
2) Use the same computer to display high definition video and output full surround sound
3) Possibly use for a gaming platform (not a must - but could be nice)

My Setup:
Motherboard - Intel DP55KG
   -Carries up to 16 GB of RAM
   -Supports the Intel i7 processors
   -Has optical audio (TOSLink) in/out
   -Has 8 SATA ports for many HDDs (plus 2 eSATAs on the back)
   -Built-in bluetooth module (convenient; one less thing to purchase to make my keyboard / mouse work)
Processor - Intel i7-870 (1156 chipset)
Memory - OCZ 3P1600LV4GK
   -4 GB total
   -I originally went with the Corsair Dominator 8GB via 2 DDR3 sticks, but thought to be having parity issues and no boot. After sending those back and ordering the OCZ, I had the same E7, E9, and 5A postcode errors. After further research, turns out my video card was not properly powered. In the future, I may go back to the 8GB sticks.
Video - Nvidia GeForce GTS450
   -This gets me 2 DVI outs, and 1 mini HDMI out
   -Mini HDMI to HDMI cables are easy to find; ~$20 on Amazon
Hard drives -
   - 2 SATA Seagate Barracuda 7200 250GB for the OSes (100 GB for ubuntu, 10 GB for swap, and ~140GB for possible future Windows install)
   - These are setup in a RAID 1 format
   -4 SATA Western Digital WD20EARS Caviar Green 2 TB
   - These are setup in a RAID 5 format, with 1 spare for all media storage

Misc:
Case - NZXT Phantom Full Tower (has remove enough for the 6 hard drives and plenty of external connections. I love how many fans this thing has and is capable of. Currently, out of the box, I have the Processor heat sink fan, an 80mm in front, 2 80mm on the side, and 1 200mm on the top (not including the PSU and Graphics card fans)... and this running with all HDDs is still very quiet with very little power draw. My APC unit is showing a range of 110-140 Watts power draw.
Processor heat sink - Corsair H50 high performance heat sink
- self contained water cooling... the fan / radiator on the back of the case has 2 hoses that go down to the top of the processor. Internally there is a pump. Hookup is quite simple and all necessary adapters are included for common processors
PSU - Ultra X4 750W ATX Power Supply

More to follow on the Ubuntu configuration. I will be using 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) with a variety of software to automate my streaming and organizational processes as much as possible.

Feliz Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:51:00.001-10:00

Yo preferiría estar comiendo un burrito en este momento.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T10:44:00.001-10:00

Troy is going to be a train engineer today.