Well, turns out the answer may already exist. YDL already uses console helper to elevate the privileges of all the current system-config-* graphical utilities, and it looks like with a little work we take regular ol’ gedit Text Editor and make it into the configuration editor we’re looking for:

This is just a testing example so I don’t forget what I did:

1. First, copy the regular gedit to our new gedit-root

bash# cp /usr/bin/gedit /usr/sbin/gedit-root

2. Create link for console helper

bash# ln -s /usr/bin/consolehelper /usr/bin/gedit-root

3. Based on the system-config-services file, create a PAM entry

bash# vi /etc/pam.d/gedit-root

#%PAM-1.0
auth include config-util
account include config-util
session include config-util

4. Create console security console.app entry

bash# vi /etc/security/console.app/gedit-root

USER=root
PROGRAM=/usr/sbin/gedit-root
SESSION=true

5. Create YDL Menu entry based on existing gedit entry. I just copied the existing file into a new version and edited the following lines:

bash# cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-gedit.desktop /usr/share/applications/gedit-root.desktop

bash# vi /usr/share/applications/gedit-root.desktop

Name=Configuration Text Editor
Comment=Edit Configuration Files
Exec=gedit-root

That should place the icon under Menu -> Application -> Accessories -> Configuration Text Editor. With a little digging, probably could put it under system tools like it belongs.

Anyhow, now when you are a regular user and click it, you will be prompted to enter the root password. From there you can edit yum.conf, yaboot.conf, smbconf or whatever in a simple GUI environment.

You can even drag the file from nautilus and drop it on the editor and it will open automagically to edit.

The solution turns out to be relatively simple.  So, if you too are stuck with an ill-fitted desktop here is how to fix it:

1.  Log in and open a terminal window (or press <CTRL+ALT+F2> if you can’t see your desktop)

2.  edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 [billdar@mr-blue ~]$ vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3.  scroll down and find the Device section.  press “i” to start editing and add the following line:

  Section “Device”
Identifier      “Card0″
Driver  “nv”
Option “HWCursor” “true”
Option “ModeValidation” “NoEdidDFPMaxSizeCheck”
EndSection

4.  Press <ESC> to exit edit mode, then type “:wq” to save and quit

5.  Restart X by either rebooting or pressing <CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE>

That should fix it.  Now you can use the display utility to set your desired resolution.

If not, To add gnash support, click YDL -> Applications -> System Tools -> Add/Remove Programs. Under the search tab, enter “gnash” and click search. Click the check boxes and hit apply, the plugin will install automatically. Thanks for the tip Andrew.

Kai had me try to get gnash working, a GNU flash player with a firefox plugin. It was a pain in the ass to get
going, but I got a couple rough rpms together that seem to work well here:

http://cvs.terraplex.com/~billdar/gnash/gnash-0.8.1-2.ppc.rpm
http://cvs.terraplex.com/~billdar/gnash/gnash-plugin-0.8.1-2.ppc.rpm

There are a couple more in that directory you may or may not need. To install, just run:
rpm -Uvh gnash-0.8.1-2.ppc.rpm

You’ll get a list of packages you may not have already installed. I used yum to get the deps satisfied. Just type:

yum install [missing package]

Might take a couple iterations to clear them all. There are a ton of warnings from the gnash-0.8.1 rpm when it finally installs. They appear to not break anything though, and can be ignored for now.

For the plugin, I messed up a bit and you have to create the directory:

/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins

And install the rpm with the –nodeps option. Then copy the libgnashplugin.so file to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins. Don’t forget to close/restart firefox to make it work.

Youtube and Homestar Runner seems to work ok, though the load times are longer than they should be. The stand alone swf player I tested with the file:

http://www.beetlebailey.com/images/flag.swf

It seems to work better on my ibook than the PS3 for some reason, so I’m interested in seeing how it works for you all.

Oh yeah, thanks to whoever packaged the original srpm. It was tough to get all the deps, and the spec needed a little tweaking, but it made things a lot simpler.

-Bill

   "i've got no real complaint about ext3 - with the obligatory
    qualification that "noatime,nodiratime" in /etc/fstab is a
    must ...  So for most file workloads we give Windows a
    20%-30% performance edge, for almost nothing. (for RAM-starved
    kernel builds theperformance difference between atime and
    noatime+nodiratime setups is more on the order of 40%)"

I’d consider the PS3 to have RAM constraints. So I tried out the noatime options in my /etc/fstab with some mixed results (below). First, here is what my default fstab looked like:

/dev/sda2        /           ext3       defaults  1 1
/dev/sda3        swap        swap       defaults  0 0

This I changed to:

/dev/sda2        /           ext3       noatime,nodiratime,defaults  1 1
/dev/sda3        swap        swap       noatime,nodiratime,defaults  0 0

So, first thing I did was the test suggested in the thread in compiling the kernel sources:

make distclean
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
make allnoconfig
time make

The results, minimal change:

defaults: real= 4m2.331s, user 3m27.480s, sys 0m28.352s
noatime:rea= 4m1.176s, user 3m26.680s, sys 0m27.512s

Given the guy who made the test experienced little to no increase with the same test, and Ingo insisted the improvements were significant, I tried a couple more little (very unscientific) tests.

Opening firefox, then closing window once up (time firefox)

default(noncached)- real= 9.259s, user= 2.624s, sys= 0.296s
default(cached)- real= 4.177s, user= 2.52s, sys= 0.308s

noatime(noncached) real=8.887s, user- 2.604s, sys=0.380s
noatime(cached) real= 3.907s, user = 2.504s, sys=0.336s

It “felt” faster, but the numbers are too close together given human reaction time to close the window to be significant.

Then I tried Open Office writer, and the increase was huge:

default = real=27.381s, user 4.512s, sys= 0.804s
noatime = real=15.100s, user=4.352s, sys=0.732s

When the splash screen popped up with noatime, it went right through the loading phase and popped up a working window fairly quickly.

Conclusions:

I will leave noatime in my /etc/fstab. Even though I couldn’t get any numbers to prove it, the system did seem noticeably faster. I’m thinking the numbers are more an indication that I don’t know how to properly test for these performance increases.

Ah well, I’ll follow up when I can do proper testing.

I got to say, blog spam is at least 45% more annoying than regular spam.  Not only do you have to moderate through 60+ comments on clothing or pr0n sites, I get an email reminding me to delete it

When I figure it out, I’ll re-enable comments and post a howto to set it up yourselves.

-Bill

In that spirit, I am declaring independence from my old Via micro-ATX based Myth TV box and switching over some similar function to the PS3 (I know I’ve said it before, but I’m doing it this time).

There are plenty of howtos and articles out there to get it all set up, but I’m more interested in getting it to act like a slingbox. I have a dual tuner DVR from my satellite company that I can feed a dedicated input into the PS3. From there, I can encode TV, store it on a network share, and make it available to my other computers at home and on the internet.

Got my USB TV tuner card on order.  So I’ll keep you all posted on my progress and post up a full howto when I’ve got it running.

I’ll probably not use Myth TV, and just make some hacked frontend to do what I want.  If anyone has any suggestions, now’s the time to speak up.

I used to get hacked once every three months, like clockwork. I’d be sitting at my desk late at night, enjoying an adult beverage and all the sudden my router would light up like a christmas tree. The load on my cpu would spike and the fans would fire up to cool the system down.

Being the sophisticated admin, I yanked the ethernet cord and tried doing an autopsy. Twice, I found nothing other than a couple new users created. Once I found a 1.4 gig flat text file with IP addresses and SMB user name/password combos some automated script kiddie tool that someone was running on my machine was generating.

Only once did a hack do any damage. I was testing some YDL stuff with Mr. Owen, and I lost use of the basic ‘ls’, ‘grep’, ‘ps’, etc commands. With his help, found out some dude/script exploited a hole I created and replaced all the commands with hacked equivalents. The funny part, the hacked commands were x86 binaries! (they don’t run well on a PPC machine)

Ok, so back to the every three month thing. Turns out during an argument with Kai (our CEO) over passwords, someone brought up Jack the Ripper complete with a table of password complexity vs. hack time. Yep, my passwords took ~3 months to brute force. Now my passwords are 20+ character phrases, convoluted to use a little bit of the entire ASCII set. I still don’t dig on random passwords, but am all for complex ones.

So now all my hacks are from exploits that I either created or didn’t keep some service updated. But I’m getting better. Since I think I’ve been hit again, found a cool little posting that is good quick overview of a forensic deconstruction. Enjoy:

http://www.fedora-linux.org/content/view/26/33/

It’s a Walther PPK replica (James Bond’s old gun). It sports a metal
slide, composite frame, and the slide blows back after each shot.
Firing it feels just like a little .22 semi-auto pistol.

In and of itself, it is a nice little CO2 semi-auto bb gun. The
dangerous part: I modified it to “Slam fire”. By disassembling the
action and a little spacer behind the firing pin, you can make it so
that every time the slide comes forward the CO2 valve actuates.

The result is the ability to fire 15 shots @400fps in just over
1 second. The drawback: “Slam Firing” removes the normal requirement
of actually pulling the trigger Once it starts firing, it doesn’t
stop until the clip is empty.

Or, as my dad found out, if you pull back the slide (with safety on)
and let it go, it will go into full auto mode.

As cool as it is, I think it might be a little too dangerous. It may
be that I’m finally getting old enough to take heed to that gut feeling
that I’m going to seriously injure myself.

Then again, it could just be the realization that at that rate of fire,
any accident will result in multiple gunshot wounds…

Thats about when you start noticing the little things.  Things like, there is a difference between my 6 and 7 irons.  One biggie that can be solved with a little $$ upfront is the type of ball you use.

With no review geared to the mid-high handi-cap geek golfer easily available, by buddy and I have been testing quite a few types of balls in the $15 - $28 /dozen range.  Any less is a range ball, any more and you’ll tear up when your shank is lost in the trees.

Given that, here are the balls we’ve tried so far, ranked from my favorite to poorest performance:
Callaway CX8 Hots ($25) - Triple core ball with Iomer cover.  Not sure what that means, but the marketing material on the package says it is “Hot off the clubface”.  And it definatly seems to be.  It does stretch the distance about 10% for all clubs, but it is really soft to hit.  By soft I mean it feels weird not to have much feedback on my driver to 6 irons.  But it is plush with 8 to wedges, a lot of control to where I can get the ball to ’stick’ to the green.  Gives me the chance to 2 putt a par.

Bridgestone E6 ($25) - Another triple core ball like the Hot, has even better feel with the short irons.  The cover also can take a cart path or chopping wood without scuffing.  The drawback seems to be off the driver, woods, and hybrid.  No tactile feedback and seems to come up short.  Might have just been the two rounds I shot with these balls, but just didn’t seem to have that pop the Hots did.

Callaway Warbirds ($16) - My old favorite ball, but they are getting phased out I hear.  So you can find them on sale for < $10 some places.  This ball is the baseline for my driving (~250 - 270).  Just seems to do the job everywhere, and it won’t break the bank to come up short and hit the water.

Noodle Long and Soft ($16) - This is my go-to ball if I am running low.  Proshops stock this ball and don’t seem to mark them up as bad as the others.  These are on-par with the Warbirds, but the name is much cooler

Nike Powerdistance, Power Control, etc.. ($15) - Other than the package color, I can’t feel any difference between them.  They seem to want to be placed in the Noodle/Warbird class, but just not there for me.  Not a bad ball, and if I have a bad day I’d rather drop one of these than the above.

Nike Juice (aka Ginormous) ($21) - I really wanted to like this ball.  The packaging is funny as hell, and the ball numbers are all Ginormous^2 or Ginormous^4, etc..  But the ball is as hard as a rock.  I use this ball to validate my spending time writing/talking about golf balls.  You putt a Hot or E6 then imediatly putt a Juice, and anyone will feel the difference.  The plus for this ball is off the driver.  When hit well, it is rediculous the feel and distance you get off it.  This is the only ball I’ve broken 300 yards with.  But is not enough for me to want to play with it.

Wilson Hyper-Ti Performance ($9) -  Nice packaging, and with that many adjatives it must be good.  I bought 4 boxes at a 2 for $10 deal.  What I got is a bunch of range balls.  They hit poorly, and the sound they make off the club some how sounds… sick.  As in, diseased.  The upside is that if you can’t hit over water, or trying out that driver next to ravine, this is the ball to reach for.  Belive me, you’ll be glad you lost it.

There has been other balls I’ve tested that I’m still deciding on.  Nike Mojo’s, Pinacle XT, Titliest NXT, and Nike NX’s are in my bag now.  But after finding the Hots and a deal on cheap logo overruns, I can’t say I’m looking that hard now.

Well, better get back to this computer stuff now.

There are several little projects I’m working on with the PS3 and other YDL-based endevors that may have a nugget or two of knowledge that, when indexed properly, may help some poor b*stard looking for that last hint to get something else working.

Thats about as good of an introduction I have in me, so here’s to me keeping the content fresh.