Case in point: File server and torrent slave

I like to show off these things when I put them together, so I hope you’ll forgive me if it looks like I’m gloating again.

 

This is a combination home file server and remote torrent downloader — nothing particularly fancy or unique at all. This is something any moderately capable geek can put together in under 30 minutes or so, plus installation time, and keep in use for a decade at least.

Personally I consider this overpowered for what it does. This is the 600m I have mentioned (unfortunately) several times in the past weeks — a 1.4Ghz Celeron with a better-than-average video card, a pair of Broadcom-based network interfaces and a long history of hardware failures.

The failure du jour, if we don’t count the fact that the wired network port is unresponsive, is a rather important series of keys on the keyboard. As I mentioned before, I do suppose I could set this free on ebay, recoup a little of the value and wash my hands of it, but I have run out of favors with my associate in America, and rather than run the risk of irritating a friend with too many requests to piggyback on their ebay account … it can become a file server.

As you can see I used Gnome Ubuntu for this, which is probably sheer madness, except that just getting the system installed was a bit of a trick. Without that 1-q-a-z-Tab row of keys, there is a lot that is missing from a console environment.

And it’s not just that the keys don’t work, they send garbage to the system, usually in a high-speed burst. So pressing “a”, for example, causes the volume to decrease, the window to maximize and four random characters to spill into the terminal. And sometimes the touchpad gets in on the action, forcing the pointer into the lower left corner. Bad news.

The obvious solution that you should already be typing into the “Reply” box is “ssh.” And for that answer your teacher would give you a gold star. The problem is that the network requires a little coaxing, since Ubuntu 9.10 cannot, apparently, install a Broadcom 4318-series wireless card without access to the Internet.

It’s the old Catch-22: You can’t get your network running, without access to the network.

My solution was to use a leftover PCMCIA card to connect, install the fwcutter stuff with the Hardware Drivers utility, and then free myself of the cable. It was a liberating moment.

Now that I had full access to the wireless network, I installed ssh with Synaptic (because typing “sudo aptitude install openssh-server -y –without-recommends” has two a’s in it), edited the /etc/hosts.allow file by copying and pasting the letter “a” into the terminal anywhere “nano” or “allow” was necessary, and added sshd: ALL.

The rest becomes quite easy. ssh from the Thinkpad, install rtorrent, elinks, mc, htop, iftop, nfs-kernel-server and do a little text file setup.

Originally I was going to set nfs to offer only the “Public” folder for sharing, since that was created automatically for me. But it turned out to be somewhat impractical, and since I sometimes ssh into the machine and use the terminal while the system is mounted, there was little logic in forcing myself to move files out of one folder when I had access to its parent from another terminal. Or maybe that doesn’t make sense. …

In normal running mode, there is a detached session of screen in place, with rtorrent, mc, elinks and htop running in separate “windows.” I detach and let it run on its own, and reattach any time I want to check the system or make an adjustment. If I find a torrent I want to download, I can simply dump it in a watched folder, and rtorrent starts it automatically.

At the same time, I added the shared folder to my /etc/fstab, and set it to automatically mount on startup. Something like this works fine.

192.168.x.x:/home/guest /media/nas nfs auto,users,nolock 0 0

I couldn’t imagine a situation where the storage machine would be offline, and the Thinkpad would need access and not have it, so mounting on start seemed okay. I’m sure however, that Fate will have a situation to offer, given enough time.

One strange thing: Apparently, under Gnome, the network is inaccessible until someone signs in. No doubt there is a setting for that somewhere, but rather than actually search for the answer, I decided I was happy to sign in once, cue the network, then log off. The network apparently stays up in that situation, and I wanted the system to run with the login screen displayed anyway, so it works fine for me.

I also tweaked Gnome’s power management so I could close the lid on the machine without sending it to sleep. If for some reason the machine loses power (like, I kick the plug), it should survive for an hour or two before powering itself down. Of course, if it loses power, chances are the network has lost power, so … ?

But the best part really, and my favorite part of the entire experiment, was to imprison it in my closet. I picked up about US$6 in hardware at a local 100-yen shop, and I now have extension cords tacked to the corners, leading up to the topmost cavity of my closet. See for yourself.

 

If it looks like the cords are disappearing into the closet, they are. I needed about 5 meters of cord but the longest ones were 3 meters, so they couple in the closet, then run back out. I am a hack when it comes to cabling, but this isn’t too bad.

The beauty of this, of course, is that it is out of the way, takes up no space on my desk, needs no 10-meter network cable to reach the router, and has a battery backup for the 65W power supply. Mentally, I put that in the same bracket as my kitchen light bulb.

The downsides … well, like I said, I consider this an otherwise usable machine. If the keyboard weren’t so annoying — or if I were willing to drop US$65 for a keyboard plus shipping — it would go back to being functional, and not just a closet dweller. And although it’s not much of a fault, it’s a lot more powerful than it really needs to be.

But I have to repeat one small admission before closing: It’s true, like I said, I probably could not have put this together in Arch or Crux, because I couldn’t rely on the keyboard. For once, the GUI made it possible.

Things we all know

I haven’t tried this yet, but I love the idea: Use the Arch Linux PKGBUILDs to streamline the creation of packages in SliTaz. It’s like a graft of two of my favorite operating systems, one fast and light and the other fast and small and light.

It also suggests something small on the side: That maybe this sort of scripted package creation system — while certainly not invented by Arch — is a really great tool that ought to show up in some other, larger distributions (hint, hint). But Arch fans don’t need me saying out loud the things they already know. …

Kernel configuration guide

I have time for only a quick note and a link this evening, so I will make this short and to the point: If you are experimenting with custom kernels, or if you are new to building your own kernel and would like some sort of guide to the configuration process, you might try out the guide here, on wikia.com.

I haven’t been through every page of course, so I can’t be sure it’s 100 percent up-to-date, but a lot of the explanations and rationales are useful. It’s quite clear-cut about which parts are generally safe to trim, and which parts are probably essential. Most of it appears to come from the kernel help pages themselves, but there are parts that are clearly annotated by an outside source.

In any case, it’s worth looking at if you are new to The Big Show, or if you are an old hand and just want to review your own notes. If you know of any other kernel guides (my own not included ), feel free to clue me in; I make a habit of jotting down references for the future.

Keyboard failures

I had a strange feeling about that 600m, and now my concern has been validated: It’s back, and with crippling keyboard issues.

It didn’t last long. My neighbor was quite happy with it as a replacement for the Pavilion, but it was less than a month before pressing certain keys caused the entire keyboard to lock, random gibberish to appear on the screen, or for windows to bounce around uncontrollably as if possessed.

The issue is 100 percent obviously hardware related. It’s about five keys in vertical line — the 1, Tab, q, a and z keys on a standard US keyboard, which says to me that the part of the funny little grid that monitors that particular row has gone south.

The machine as a history of motherboard issues, but I’m fairly certain this is the keyboard alone that is misbehaving. And unfortunately, I checked with the original owners and they said it has a history of keyboard problems as well — some as recent as six months ago, when the current keyboard was installed as a repair.

Needless to say I refunded my neighbor, and I took back the machine — call it customer service, I guess. My plan at this point is … rather sketchy. Under other circumstances I might replace the keyboard, but shipping to Japan for that part might be cost-ineffective. And reselling it locally isn’t an option, since the market has no place for non-Japanese keyboards (desktops are a different story).

My best plan at this point is to use it as a file server and download client, much like the old Thinkpad used to do. It’s overkill in that role, but until I can figure out exactly how and what I want to achieve with it, it’s a worthy function.

I’ve already set up nfs and ssh, and of course with the latter in place, there’s nothing that I need the standing keyboard for at all. Score another one for ssh.

Next stop is to put rtorrent and maybe fttps on there, and then stash it in the closet with an extension cord and a few specific power settings. Once I have the whole thing in place, I’ll put up a howto or at least a case-in-point page, maybe with a photo or two. Everybody loves a picture.

Today, I say don’t bother

I’m in a curious mood today, and it has manifested itself in a rather peculiar way — today I am suddenly no longer interested in evangelizing for free software. Moods come and go and no doubt this one will too, but for the moment, I feel rather ambivalent toward which software you use, or what computer, or even if you consign your entire well-being to the whims of a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Part of my indifference stems from the interview between the BBC’s Gary Parkinson and Ubuntu director of business Chris Kenyon. The interview itself is nothing particularly noteworthy — it runs barely three minutes, a little more focus on the desktop itself would have been nice, etc., etc. — unless you count the fact that, aside from casual jabs about Linux’s viability as an OS, it’s nice to have mainstream media at least acknowledge Tux exists.

No, what has me in a funk is really just the fact that most of the interview seemed to be spent asking what chance there is running Windows programs on Ubuntu, or Apple software on Ubuntu. The last question that I remember offhand was whether or not iTunes is available in Ubuntu.

What happened to Ubuntu software on Ubuntu?

I am not criticizing Parkinson in this post, because really, from a complete newcomer’s point of view, those are the right questions to ask. Do I have to start over from scratch? Do I have to abandon the software I know and understand? Do I have to reinvent the wheel?

But my mood today says, “If you have to ask those questions, don’t bother trying it out.” Today my mood says, “If you’re not interested in trying something new, don’t try it.”

Today, if you’re new to Linux or Ubuntu and you want to use the same software you have already, then I say just keep using Windows. If you can’t bear the idea of living without iTunes, then stick with your Mac. The erstwhile rambunctious voice in my head that usually fuels my passion for free software is, today, rather grumpy. Unless you’re interested in change, it says, don’t trouble yourself.

Linux is not for everyone, and that is an inescapable truth. I know people who have started it, played with it for ten seconds, and said, “No thanks.” There’s nothing wrong with that, and nothing I can do to change it. Principles, purposes, practicality be damned, there are just some folks who are better off sticking with Microsoft or Apple. On another day, I might try to talk them out of it.

But today, I say don’t bother. Sorry.