Archive for January, 2008
USB Hard Drive in RAID1
Jan 31st
This concept works just as for an internal hard drive. Although, USB drives seem to not remain part of the array after a reboot, therefore to use a USB device in a RAID1 setup, you will have to leave the drive connected, and the computer running. Another tactic is to occasionally sync your USB drive to the array, and shut down the USB drive after synchronization. Either tactic is effective. You can create a quick script to add the USB partitions to the RAID1. The first thing to do when synchronizing is to add the partition: sudo mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdb1 I have 4 partitions therefore my script contains 4 add commands. Then grow the arrays to fit the number of devices: sudo mdadm --grow /dev/md0 --raid-devices=3 After growing the array your USB drive will magically sync 
USB is substantially slower than SATA or PATA. Anything over 100 Gigabytes will take some time. My 149 Gigabyte /home partition takes about an hour and a half to synchronize. Once its synced I do not experience any apparent difference in system performance.
Brown’s Gas Wikipedia Article – Academia – Citation – The Works
Jan 16th
I use this blog to talk about my computer experience, and have stuck rather strict to this theme, but I must digress slightly. First and foremost Wikipedia is the 9′th most visited website in the world according to Alexa; exposure is king. For years there has been a debate on the Brown’s Gas information to be included in the online encyclopedia, with not much progress being made. Then I decided to pull together all the documents I’ve collected over the years, and viola, a properly sourced encyclopedic article. It really clarifies many misconceptions about Brown’s Gas. It’s a well rounded, and thorough article covering design, efficiency, and an assortment of popular claims. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxyhydrogen#Brown.27s_gas
PXE Network Boot VirtualBox
Jan 12th
You need host networking enabled to boot via the network. Check here for prerequisite configuration.
VirtualBox is capable of network boot, and is practically indistinguishable in configuration as compared to a real machine. To PXE boot a VirtualBox guest OS open the settings of a guest OS:
Click the system tab:
To enable PXE boot you have to configure the following section:
Then use the up and down arrows to set the priority of the network boot feature, as shown above.
You can create a guest OS that has no hard drive; there is no need for one. In such a configuration make network boot the first on the list.
Since you intend to use PXE boot, you may consider setting up a LTSP server.
VirtualBox Windows Vista – Host Network Bridge and Tap
Jan 12th
This entire post is no longer applicable to the most recent version of VirtualBox. Here is a more recent post.
VirtualBox is well equipped for a Windows environment. Most of its features have a mechanism for automatic installation and setup. To get your guest OS, in Windows Vista, to have a real IP address from your router you first need a network bridge and tap. Open the VirtualBox manager:
Then select a guest OS and open its settings. Then click the network tab:
Then click the add network tap button:
It doesn’t matter what the name is Then adjust your guest OS networking adapter accordingly.
Now open your Windows Vista network configurations manager:
This screenshot is what your network configurations should be after everything is done. To achieve this simply select both the VirtualBox tap, that was previously created, and bridge it to your LAN connection. Select both by click on each adapter while pressing the shift key. Then right click on either of the two highlighted icons and select “bridge”. This will automatically create a bridge between the tap and your real host networking adapter. Wham bam, now you can select a real static IP in your VirtualBox guest OS on a Windows Vista system
Update (12/4/2009); At the top of this post I say that the information here is outdated. You can view the post listed above if you want, but here are the pertinent screenshots also:
Here is a screen from Windows Vista. Go to the network tab of the virtual machine settings:
Then select the attach to drop down menu:
Then change the attach to, drop down menu, to bridged adapter:
LTSP-Build-Client Arch option not in Help
Jan 12th
To find the options for a command you type: command --help It spits out a bunch of options that you can use to tweak the parameters of a command. On the --help for the ltsp-build-client script is the --dist option, which I thought can be used to install a different distribution that the one you are current using on the host. For instance:
sudo lts-build-client --dist lenny
There is another option, and it is not specified in the --help. The --arch option allows the specification of different architecture than your host. For instance:
sudo ltsp-build-client --arch -i386
If you are using a 64 bit host, you can install an i386 client file system with this.
Blogging – the Start of a New Year
Jan 4th
The start of a new year requires making new decisions, and trying different paths. I highly recommend diversifying your blog topics. If your blog is about electronics, talk about research. Or dare to talk about politics. Maybe interject some hot news topics, and dabble with pop culture. Overall what you blog about it not as important as the quality; be thorough and explicit. Provide substantial and useful information. Disseminate ideas, and rational. Post your thoughts, your ideas, your dreams. The internet is about content, and the best original content is what you think about. Maybe start a new website. Current hosters know thats as simple as buying a new domain, and adding a virtualhost configuration. I like to play with CMS software every once in a while. Joomla 1.5 is coming soon, and given the tremendous hype it should make for highly controllable website interface. I have been extremely impressed with the progress of Joomla 1.5. Its simply cool. If your reading this and do not currently have a Wordpress blog, please start one Its simple, I promise.
