Android keyboard to Linux
Hi, Is anyone aware of an app that will let you type on an Android device's on-screen keyboard and send the keystrokes to a Linux box via an HID device? (ie. So X etc sees the input.) Thanks, Toby
On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 5:23 PM, Toby Corkindale <tobyc@strategicdata.com.au>wrote:
Hi, Is anyone aware of an app that will let you type on an Android device's on-screen keyboard and send the keystrokes to a Linux box via an HID device? (ie. So X etc sees the input.)
Mark "Pockets" Clohesy Mob Phone: (+61) 406 417 877 Email: hiddensoul@twistedsouls.com G-Talk: mark.clohesy@gmail.com
Not quite what you want but Valence connects to a PC via VNC, it doesn't display the host PC screen just a keyboard and touch pad, works with any PC Linux, Win or Mac that is running a VNC server, market link is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cafbit.valence It is what I use at home to drive a debian machine when I am kicking back watching movies etc and use it as a remote control hope that helps you out - GNU/Linux.. Linux Counter #457297 "I would love to change the world, but they won't give me the source code" "Linux is user friendly...its just selective about who its friends are" "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a V8 station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway" "The difference between e-mail and regular mail is that computers handle e-mail, and computers never decide to come to work one day and shoot all the other computers"
On 6 December 2012 18:02, Hiddensoul (Mark Clohesy) <hiddensoul@twistedsouls.com> wrote:
On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 5:23 PM, Toby Corkindale <tobyc@strategicdata.com.au> wrote:
Hi, Is anyone aware of an app that will let you type on an Android device's on-screen keyboard and send the keystrokes to a Linux box via an HID device? (ie. So X etc sees the input.)
Not quite what you want but Valence connects to a PC via VNC, it doesn't display the host PC screen just a keyboard and touch pad, works with any PC Linux, Win or Mac that is running a VNC server, market link is
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cafbit.valence
It is what I use at home to drive a debian machine when I am kicking back watching movies etc and use it as a remote control
hope that helps you out For what it is worth - I recently got a cheap recharge-able blue tooth keyboard that works fine with my Samsung SII for $22
http://dx.com/p/flexible-silicone-bluetooth-foldable-keyboard-black-white-50... It's a bit soggy - but to carry around compactly at a low price it's ok. Andrew
It's buggy, and it requires root, and will not work with Android 4.2 (as 4.2 I'm told has a new BT stack from one of chip manufacturers instead of based on bluez). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=berserker.android.apps.blueput... It makes the phone act like a Bluetooth HID. Things I've noticed is that occasionally it'll need you to force quit and flush its preferences, and it will crack the shits if you don't start bluetooth early enough before starting it. Free version gives trackpad functionality along with basic keyboard (but doesn't support some keypresses). Some people have complained about it not just detecting, but actively interfering with ad blocking software. FWIW, I didn't try blocking any ads it ran and still found it unsteady at times. I'm not sure why phone as HID device isn't more common. Besides this, old Sony Ericcsons used to have a bluetooth pointer mode, where they'd act as HIDs. Perhaps there's some patents at play, as it seems like a logical feature to me. The idea I should have to install some software on the receiving workstation (VNC, dedicated client etc.) seems like working around a problem that shouldn't technically be there... Now if this app wasn't so buggy.
Oh, also seems there's a Google Code project as well: http://code.google.com/p/androhid/ ... again talks about needing root and relying on Bluez based stack.
Hi, Can anyone offer any suggestions regarding the following requirement for a new motherboard/system. It is only being used for business, and mainly for compiling/running multiple back end Java, C+++ etc applications: 1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine. 2. Stability & performance are most important. 3. MUST be *certain* that it is possible to disable UEFI secure boot on the mobo, to hence run any Linux distro without any secure boot hassles. 4. Want to be able to install at least 64G of RAM on the mobo, to be able to run a big ramdisk for very fast I/O when repeatedly & concurrently building (fast rebuild times) & testing database intensive applications - all on ramdisk. 5. 4 core CPU would be ideal (singlethreaded performance is important, so don't want to spread CPU grunt across too many cores, but a degree of application concurrency is important too for concurrent building/running applications in the background). 6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge. 7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok. 8. Boot drive will be an SSD (probably 256G Crucial m4 or Samsung 840 Pro), backup drive probably a 1TB non raided WD RE4. 9. Want a fast CPU, but not willing to pay sqillions for the absolute fastest - maybe an i7-3770K ? 10. Don't use wireless, so wifi features on the mobo are unimportant. At least 1 GBE Lan port is necessary. Cost is not the main criteria .. but I don't want to waste it either. A budget of 1500 would be good if it could get me what I want but can spend more if need be. Probably looking at running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04.x (Gnome) or Kubuntu 12.04.x (KDE) as the host (to get LTS & a traditional desktop UI), with 32 bit Windows XP in a virtualbox for occasional use with basic business & legacy applications. I have seen various comments on chipsets (Q77, H77, Z77 in particular), but am not a great deal the wiser as a result :) Prefer mainsteam mobo manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI etc) for (usually better) firmware upgrade support. Many Thanks for any suggestions, Andrew
Hi Andrew, On 5 Jan 2013 09:22, "Andrew Voumard" <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
Have you looked for a USB adapter for either of those? That would probably give you more options. Cheers, Bianca
Any z77 motherboard is going to fit all of those requirements with just two outliers - the memory (many will have a maximum of 32GB) and the ps2 mouse port/serial port. I can absolutely guarantee you that any modern motherboard will be without a ps/2 port, the serial port I'm less sure about. I would suggest looking for an add-on card you can use as it will make searching simpler. Sorry I can't make a recommendation on a board as I've never had to use that much memory, but given that is your only special requirement, it should make narrowing the choice down much easier. If you have a preferred retailer you could try looking through the z77motherboards in their pricing list for one that handles 64GB+ (or if its one of those older-style stores that actually offers decent service, phone them and ask - nostalgic!).
thelionroars <thelionroars1337@gmail.com> wrote:
Any z77 motherboard is going to fit all of those requirements with just two outliers - the memory (many will have a maximum of 32GB) and the ps2 mouse port/serial port. I can absolutely guarantee you that any modern motherboard will be without a ps/2 port, the serial port I'm less sure about.
I've heard positive comments about Supermicro boards, and they usually include serial ports. I don't have one here however. If you want a pre-built machine, you could get a slightly used workstation as I did (in my case, an HP machine that came up in an online auction in 2007). It was a demonstration machine used by a reseller who decided to divest themselves of it after a year.
1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine.
Given the above, a remote desktop setup may be an option to consider to work around your mouse requirements, although this add hardware to the setup. Daniel
2. Stability & performance are most important.
3. MUST be *certain* that it is possible to disable UEFI secure boot on the mobo, to hence run any Linux distro without any secure boot hassles.
4. Want to be able to install at least 64G of RAM on the mobo, to be able to run a big ramdisk for very fast I/O when repeatedly & concurrently building (fast rebuild times) & testing database intensive applications - all on ramdisk.
5. 4 core CPU would be ideal (singlethreaded performance is important, so don't want to spread CPU grunt across too many cores, but a degree of application concurrency is important too for concurrent building/running applications in the background).
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
8. Boot drive will be an SSD (probably 256G Crucial m4 or Samsung 840 Pro), backup drive probably a 1TB non raided WD RE4.
9. Want a fast CPU, but not willing to pay sqillions for the absolute fastest - maybe an i7-3770K ?
10. Don't use wireless, so wifi features on the mobo are unimportant. At least 1 GBE Lan port is necessary.
Cost is not the main criteria .. but I don't want to waste it either. A budget of 1500 would be good if it could get me what I want but can spend more if need be.
Probably looking at running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04.x (Gnome) or Kubuntu 12.04.x (KDE) as the host (to get LTS & a traditional desktop UI), with 32 bit Windows XP in a virtualbox for occasional use with basic business & legacy applications.
I have seen various comments on chipsets (Q77, H77, Z77 in particular), but am not a great deal the wiser as a result :) Prefer mainsteam mobo manufacturer (Asus, Gigabyte, MSI etc) for (usually better) firmware upgrade support.
Many Thanks for any suggestions,
Andrew
_______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andrew Voumard <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions regarding the following requirement for a new motherboard/system. It is only being used for business, and mainly for compiling/running multiple back end Java, C+++ etc applications:
1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine.
2. Stability & performance are most important.
You might want to check what Dell offers. The bigger PowerEdge workstations support 64G of RAM and probably get a lot more testing than any white-box motherboard that can support so much RAM.
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
Why specifically Intel?
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
As has already been noted a PS/2 mouse port will be a really difficult requirement. Getting a system that has a PS/2 port and supports 64G of RAM will be really difficult. Maybe one option to consider would be NVRAM devices for swap to support the large tmpfs you need. Some of the better NVRAM devices are fast enough that you probably won't notice that it's not in main memory.
10. Don't use wireless, so wifi features on the mobo are unimportant. At least 1 GBE Lan port is necessary.
Gigabit Ethernet has been standard for ages. Even my EeePC 701 has it.
Probably looking at running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04.x (Gnome) or Kubuntu 12.04.x (KDE) as the host (to get LTS & a traditional desktop UI), with 32 bit Windows XP in a virtualbox for occasional use with basic business & legacy applications.
I haven't been following UEFI etc because for quite a while I've been getting my workstations from second-hand sales and recycling so it will be quite a while before I get hardware such secure boot support. But from what I recall Ubuntu will be using a shim boot loader to support secure boot, so this shouldn't be a problem for you. Given some of your other requirements you might want to rely on Ubuntu supporting secure boot (or using Fedora/RHEL otherwise) and concentrate on other issues. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Hi Russell, At 12:22 PM 5/01/2013, Russell Coker wrote:
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andrew Voumard <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions regarding the following requirement for a new motherboard/system. It is only being used for business, and mainly for compiling/running multiple back end Java, C+++ etc applications:
1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine.
2. Stability & performance are most important.
You might want to check what Dell offers. The bigger PowerEdge workstations support 64G of RAM and probably get a lot more testing than any white-box motherboard that can support so much RAM.
Ok, will look at them.
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
Why specifically Intel?
Previously had heat & driver issues with AMD (can't recall which chipset that was now), while I am sure many folks are happy with them, I am happy with all the Intel based boards I've used and haven't had similar issues with them.
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
As has already been noted a PS/2 mouse port will be a really difficult requirement. Getting a system that has a PS/2 port and supports 64G of RAM will be really difficult. Maybe one option to consider would be NVRAM devices for swap to support the large tmpfs you need. Some of the better NVRAM devices are fast enough that you probably won't notice that it's not in main memory.
I am thinking NVRAM performance would be slower (to some degree) than main memory, and I expect the hardware is less mainstream & hence more expensive ?
Probably looking at running 64 bit Ubuntu 10.04.x (Gnome) or Kubuntu 12.04.x (KDE) as the host (to get LTS & a traditional desktop UI), with 32 bit Windows XP in a virtualbox for occasional use with basic business & legacy applications.
I haven't been following UEFI etc because for quite a while I've been getting my workstations from second-hand sales and recycling so it will be quite a while before I get hardware such secure boot support. But from what I recall Ubuntu will be using a shim boot loader to support secure boot, so this shouldn't be a problem for you.
Given some of your other requirements you might want to rely on Ubuntu supporting secure boot (or using Fedora/RHEL otherwise) and concentrate on other issues.
My only concern is if I want to write/load any custom drivers, that I don't want to be spending time sorting out any driver signing hassles, & it also gives me the freedom to run a non signed distro if I find the need - I like choice to be completely in my hands if I spent the money on the hardware :) I am expecting most mobo suppliers will provide such an option (for x86, they _have_ to, to comply with putting a Win8 sticker on their hardware), but it's awlays easier getting confirmation of that before, rather than after purchase :) Thanks Andrew
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andrew Voumard <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
Why specifically Intel?
Previously had heat & driver issues with AMD (can't recall which chipset that was now), while I am sure many folks are happy with them, I am happy with all the Intel based boards I've used and haven't had similar issues with them.
Generally heat will be an issue of system design. Intel CPUs have broken many records for heat dissipation, the relevant issue is whether the cooling system can support the CPU properly. Get a name-brand system with all parts designed to work together and there shouldn't be any heat problems. If you buy a name-brand system you generally don't get a choice between AMD and Intel as it's not common for a company to make systems that are identical apart from CPU brand. If Dell makes systems that you consider to be good enough then a Dell system with an AMD CPU should be good enough - it will be as good as a Dell system with an Intel CPU. Generally AMD CPUs work well with Linux.
As has already been noted a PS/2 mouse port will be a really difficult requirement. Getting a system that has a PS/2 port and supports 64G of RAM will be really difficult. Maybe one option to consider would be NVRAM devices for swap to support the large tmpfs you need. Some of the better NVRAM devices are fast enough that you probably won't notice that it's not in main memory.
I am thinking NVRAM performance would be slower (to some degree) than main memory, and I expect the hardware is less mainstream & hence more expensive ?
A NVRAM storage device is a PCIe card with RAM, a battery, and a controller. It will be more expensive than a DIMM alone. But if you are comparing two different systems which support different amounts of RAM then the price difference can be significant. Supporting a large amount of RAM is a server feature and tends to attract a higher price. In terms of performance as a rule of thumb the more RAM you have the slower it will be. Sometimes the same system will run the RAM at a slower clock speed if you populate all DIMM sockets, sometimes to get the amount of RAM you want you need a system that has more sockets and a slower RAM clock speed. This is because longer wires to the DIMMs have higher capacitance which causes clock skew at high speeds. This is also why in the past it's been common for white- box systems to have higher RAM speeds than similarly specced name-brand systems - they just take a chance on data loss due to clock skew. So it is conceivable that a system with less RAM and some NVRAM will give better performance for some work. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
What about a server like a HP ML350 G6? Fits all your requirements including ps2 and serial ports. Only downside could be cost of memory. They run quite quietly for servers. Just a thought. Andy Sent from my Android On 5 Jan 2013 04:07, "Russell Coker" <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andrew Voumard <andrewv@melbpc.org.au> wrote:
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
Why specifically Intel?
Previously had heat & driver issues with AMD (can't recall which chipset that was now), while I am sure many folks are happy with them, I am happy with all the Intel based boards I've used and haven't had similar issues with them.
Generally heat will be an issue of system design. Intel CPUs have broken many records for heat dissipation, the relevant issue is whether the cooling system can support the CPU properly. Get a name-brand system with all parts designed to work together and there shouldn't be any heat problems.
If you buy a name-brand system you generally don't get a choice between AMD and Intel as it's not common for a company to make systems that are identical apart from CPU brand. If Dell makes systems that you consider to be good enough then a Dell system with an AMD CPU should be good enough - it will be as good as a Dell system with an Intel CPU.
Generally AMD CPUs work well with Linux.
As has already been noted a PS/2 mouse port will be a really difficult requirement. Getting a system that has a PS/2 port and supports 64G of RAM will be really difficult. Maybe one option to consider would be NVRAM devices for swap to support the large tmpfs you need. Some of the better NVRAM devices are fast enough that you probably won't notice that it's not in main memory.
I am thinking NVRAM performance would be slower (to some degree) than main memory, and I expect the hardware is less mainstream & hence more expensive ?
A NVRAM storage device is a PCIe card with RAM, a battery, and a controller. It will be more expensive than a DIMM alone. But if you are comparing two different systems which support different amounts of RAM then the price difference can be significant. Supporting a large amount of RAM is a server feature and tends to attract a higher price.
In terms of performance as a rule of thumb the more RAM you have the slower it will be. Sometimes the same system will run the RAM at a slower clock speed if you populate all DIMM sockets, sometimes to get the amount of RAM you want you need a system that has more sockets and a slower RAM clock speed. This is because longer wires to the DIMMs have higher capacitance which causes clock skew at high speeds. This is also why in the past it's been common for white- box systems to have higher RAM speeds than similarly specced name-brand systems - they just take a chance on data loss due to clock skew.
So it is conceivable that a system with less RAM and some NVRAM will give better performance for some work.
-- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
On Sat, 5 Jan 2013, Andy Dean <andy@xtianhosting.co.uk> wrote:
What about a server like a HP ML350 G6? Fits all your requirements including ps2 and serial ports. Only downside could be cost of memory. They run quite quietly for servers.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF06a/15351-15351-241434-241646-2414... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ddr3 http://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html That's a server from 2009, it takes Xeon 5500/5600 CPUs which only support DDR3-1333 RAM when there's DDR3-2133 on the market for newer systems. The CPUBenchmark.net single thread list has an X5690 scoring 1490 while other CPUs on the list score as high as 2171. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html For high end CPUs the X5679 scores 10,183 compared to the best being 15599. But the price is listed as "NA" and I'm not sure if HP even offers it. http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm/WF05a/15351-15351-241434-241646-2414... HP has a G8 on sale now, so it seems that the G6 is really outdated. I doubt that the OP's desire for good performance would be met by a G6 server. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
What about a server like a HP ML350 G6? Fits all your requirements including ps2 and serial ports. Only downside could be cost of memory. They run quite quietly for servers.
They tend to be a bit noisy on startup though. A few of our customers have been quite alarmed when they've heard them :) When cost cutting has been required, we have sometimes used Kingston branded memory for HP servers and have never had a problem with it, and it's often less than half the price. With a brand new system you'd need to be aware that for a warranty call HP may require you to reproduce a problem with the non-HP parts removed, but that rarely comes up. Also, you can get empty SAS/SATA disk caddies and buy your own disks and save quite a bit that way too, although I wouldn't recommend it for the higher end HP RAID controllers like you'd find in the ML 350 servers. I've only done it with the low end servers where I use Linux software RAID (and bcache). James
Russell Coker <russell@coker.com.au> writes:
Gigabit Ethernet has been standard for ages.
Right.
Even my EeePC 701 has it.
Wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC#Specifications IIRC my 701 had 100baseT and my 1008P had 1000baseT. I'm not certain about the latter.
On Mon, 7 Jan 2013, "Trent W. Buck" <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
Even my EeePC 701 has it.
Wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC#Specifications
IIRC my 701 had 100baseT and my 1008P had 1000baseT. I'm not certain about the latter.
I've just done some tests. My EeePC supports negotiating crossover (so you can use the same cable to connect to a switch or another PC), I previously had the impression that only GigE systems had that feature - which for my personal use is the main benefit of GigE. But it seems that my EeePC has it without support for speeds over 100baseT. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On 7/01/2013 1:50 PM, Russell Coker wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asus_Eee_PC#Specifications
IIRC my 701 had 100baseT and my 1008P had 1000baseT. I'm not certain about the latter.
I've just done some tests. My EeePC supports negotiating crossover (so you can use the same cable to connect to a switch or another PC), I previously had the impression that only GigE systems had that feature - which for my personal use is the main benefit of GigE. But it seems that my EeePC has it without support for speeds over 100baseT.
Is your EeePC falling apart? I had one, gave it to my son to use and it's literally falling apart. Apparently this is not uncommon, what a pity; ASUS will not do anything about it for owners of EeePC netbooks afflicted by the issue. Cheers A.
Is your EeePC falling apart? I had one, gave it to my son to use and it's literally falling apart. Apparently this is not uncommon, what a pity; ASUS will not do anything about it for owners of EeePC netbooks afflicted by the issue.
If the following article is to be believed (it isn't very credible IMHO), netbooks apparently aren't being produced any more. http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/how-apple-nixed-the-netbook-... -- Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au>1
On Mon, 7 Jan 2013, Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au> wrote:
Is your EeePC falling apart? I had one, gave it to my son to use and it's literally falling apart. Apparently this is not uncommon, what a pity; ASUS will not do anything about it for owners of EeePC netbooks afflicted by the issue.
My EeePC 701 is in almost exactly the same condition as when it was "new". I got it at a discount because someone had returned it due to a stuck pixel, it was in almost factory condition then and hasn't worn much since. There are some scratches on the case (including some relatively deep ones that indicate it has survived some punishment) and the space bar is a little shiny from my thumb. But I didn't use it for the demanding writing I do on my laptop which wears the tops off keys.
If the following article is to be believed (it isn't very credible IMHO), netbooks apparently aren't being produced any more.
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/how-apple-nixed-the-netbook -20130104-2c7wc.html
http://etbe.coker.com.au/2013/01/08/death-netbook/ A quick review of product specs shows that the Macbook Air is a Netbook and that the market for small and light devices with hardware keyboards hasn't gone away. See the above URL for more of my thoughts on that issue. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
I was looking at ssds for my laptop around the middle of last year. My choices were restricted to Intel, Samsung or crucial due to a slim bay. I ended up picking the Intel, but here's a summary of what I found: Intel: good but expensive Samsung: good apart from the massive power consumption (many saw it use twice as much power as other ssds) Crucial: avoid. Very unreliable, some even had them fail, got them replaced and failed again in the same year. Bianca On 8 Jan 2013 23:56, "Russell Coker" <russell@coker.com.au> wrote:
On Mon, 7 Jan 2013, Brian May <brian@microcomaustralia.com.au> wrote:
Is your EeePC falling apart? I had one, gave it to my son to use and it's literally falling apart. Apparently this is not uncommon, what a pity; ASUS will not do anything about it for owners of EeePC netbooks afflicted by the issue.
My EeePC 701 is in almost exactly the same condition as when it was "new". I got it at a discount because someone had returned it due to a stuck pixel, it was in almost factory condition then and hasn't worn much since. There are some scratches on the case (including some relatively deep ones that indicate it has survived some punishment) and the space bar is a little shiny from my thumb. But I didn't use it for the demanding writing I do on my laptop which wears the tops off keys.
If the following article is to be believed (it isn't very credible IMHO), netbooks apparently aren't being produced any more.
http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/how-apple-nixed-the-netbook
-20130104-2c7wc.html
http://etbe.coker.com.au/2013/01/08/death-netbook/
A quick review of product specs shows that the Macbook Air is a Netbook and that the market for small and light devices with hardware keyboards hasn't gone away. See the above URL for more of my thoughts on that issue.
-- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ _______________________________________________ luv-main mailing list luv-main@luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main
Russell Coker wrote:
My EeePC supports negotiating crossover [...] But it seems that my EeePC has it without support for speeds over 100baseT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Dependent_Interface#Auto-MDIX It's required by 1000baseT but is also found in some 100baseT units.
On 7/01/2013 4:00 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
Russell Coker wrote:
My EeePC supports negotiating crossover [...] But it seems that my EeePC has it without support for speeds over 100baseT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Dependent_Interface#Auto-MDIX It's required by 1000baseT but is also found in some 100baseT units.
I think it's been a very long time since we've had to use crossover cables for any connections as we've had Auto-MDIX being standard on lots of equipment (switches / routers) for yonks. Cheers A.
Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> writes:
On 7/01/2013 4:00 PM, Trent W. Buck wrote:
Russell Coker wrote:
My EeePC supports negotiating crossover [...] But it seems that my EeePC has it without support for speeds over 100baseT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Dependent_Interface#Auto-MDIX It's required by 1000baseT but is also found in some 100baseT units.
I think it's been a very long time since we've had to use crossover cables for any connections as we've had Auto-MDIX being standard on lots of equipment (switches / routers) for yonks.
Note that you obviously only need auto-mdix on one end, so e.g. if your switch has auto-mdix, then you won't notice if your servers lack it. That aside, I agree with you; I can't remember the last time I reached for a crossover cable.
On Sat, Jan 05, 2013 at 09:22:10AM +1100, Andrew Voumard wrote:
Can anyone offer any suggestions regarding the following requirement for a new motherboard/system. It is only being used for business, and mainly for compiling/running multiple back end Java, C+++ etc applications:
1. Gaming/overclocking not a priority at all. A $20 graphic card or onboard graphics should do fine.
2. Stability & performance are most important.
3. MUST be *certain* that it is possible to disable UEFI secure boot on the mobo, to hence run any Linux distro without any secure boot hassles.
4. Want to be able to install at least 64G of RAM on the mobo, to be able to run a big ramdisk for very fast I/O when repeatedly & concurrently building (fast rebuild times) & testing database intensive applications - all on ramdisk.
AFAIK, if you want 64GB then you need an X79 motherboard (all Z77 motherboards I've found only have 4 DIMM sockets, and support a maximum of 32GB). e.g. Asus P9X79 LE ($217) or P9X79 PRO ($319) or Sabertooth-X79 ($348) they all have 8 DIMM sockets and one serial port. amazingly, they all also have a ps/2 port. http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/P9X79_LE/#specifications http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/P9X79_PRO/#specifications http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_2011/SABERTOOTH_X79/#specifica... i quite like the Sabertooth series boards - i've got a couple of AMD CPU Sabertooth 990FX boards here, high quality boards aimed at professionals rather than gamers (as their Rampage boards are)
5. 4 core CPU would be ideal (singlethreaded performance is important, so don't want to spread CPU grunt across too many cores, but a degree of application concurrency is important too for concurrent building/running applications in the background).
yeah, don't underestimate the usefulness of 'make -j' - multicore compile is really worthwhile. and multi-core CPUs won't sacrifice the speed of single cores (Speeds start from around 3.2Ghz these days and both amd and intel have similar-but-differently-trademarked features which will boost the speed of one core if the others are idle).
6. Want Intel (not AMD) based, probably i7 & proably Ivy Bridge.
X79 is for the LGA2011 socket, so your CPU choices would be Core i7-3820 ($295), i7-3930K ($579), or i7-3930X ($1076). the i7-3820 seems to best match your criteria, 4 cores at 3.6GHz (and TurboBoost to 3.8GHz) The 3930K is 6-core @ 3.2GHz (Turbo-Boost to 3.8GHz)
7. Either a PS/2 mouse port or 9 Serial port is essential (for the special mouse I use) - either onboard or via a PCI/e expansion board are ok.
8. Boot drive will be an SSD (probably 256G Crucial m4 or Samsung 840 Pro),
The OCZ Vector is getting excellent reviews too. $289 for 256GB.
backup drive probably a 1TB non raided WD RE4.
I would recommend two drives in RAID-1 (or btrfs for snapshot capability) for your backup/bulk-storage drive.
Cost is not the main criteria .. but I don't want to waste it either. A budget of 1500 would be good if it could get me what I want but can spend more if need be.
some rough figures for you to play around with: Sabertooth X79 $348 i7-3820 $295 SSD $300-ish 2 x WD RE4 $248 case, psu $200-ish or more, a good PSU is essential 4 x 16GB kits @ $80 = $320 2x8G sticks each, DDR3-1600 (faster would be more expensive) GT210 video card $26 ----- $1737 ----- It'd be hard to shave off much from that...a cheaper SSD maybe, and the extra WD RE4 adds $124. if you prefer Radeon GPUs (better GPL drivers than nvidia but worse proprietary drivers), a Radeon 5450 is $1 more. (i tend to put stuff like this in a spreadsheet with various options for m/b and cpu and play with it until i get the best bang for the buck...and then have a shopping list for MSY or whoever) if you can live with 32GB RAM then you could do it for under $1600 with the same CPU & M/B as above with only 32GB (but room to add another 32GB later) or with a Z77 motherboard and LGA1155 CPU for around $1500. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #404: Sysadmin accidentally destroyed pager with a large hammer.
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
yeah, don't underestimate the usefulness of 'make -j' - multicore
Note: trying this (without specifying a number) in a project like busybox, without ulimits, is a good way to fork-bomb yourself. BTW, the cool kids on ##workingset prefer make -l; I'm still ambivalent.
On Mon, Jan 07, 2013 at 11:25:47AM +1100, Trent W. Buck wrote:
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
yeah, don't underestimate the usefulness of 'make -j' - multicore
Note: trying this (without specifying a number) in a project like busybox, without ulimits, is a good way to fork-bomb yourself.
yep, 'make -j N' where N ~= the number of cpus/cores you want to use. other useful tools to make full use of multi-core systems include the -P or --max-procs option of xargs: --max-procs=max-procs -P max-procs Run up to max-procs processes at a time; the default is 1. If max-procs is 0, xargs will run as many processes as possible at a time. Use the -n option with -P; otherwise chances are that only one exec will be done. depending on exactly what you're trying to do, this can result in enormous speedups of 'find ... | xargs ...' and imilar common idioms. and, of course, there is GNU parallel which can be used as a substitute for xargs (the command line options are deliberately the same), or even as a #!/usr/bin/parallel script. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au> BOFH excuse #267: The UPS is on strike.
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
On Mon, Jan 07, 2013 at 11:25:47AM +1100, Trent W. Buck wrote:
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:
yeah, don't underestimate the usefulness of 'make -j' - multicore
Note: trying this (without specifying a number) in a project like busybox, without ulimits, is a good way to fork-bomb yourself.
yep, 'make -j N' where N ~= the number of cpus/cores you want to use.
In fact, against all common sense I have this in my .profile: export MAKEFLAGS=j$(getconf _NPROCESSORS_ONLN || echo 1)
Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
yep, 'make -j N' where N ~= the number of cpus/cores you want to use.
I recently did this with -j4 (on my machine with 4 CPU cores) to compile Chromium sources - for purposes related to their accessibility support. Two worrying observations: 1. Temperature sensors in the machine were disturbingly high, upward of 83. 2. There was unusual, intermittent noise (presumably fan noise). I hit ctrl-c at that point and tried again with -j1, which took most of the day to complete... We do have evaporation cooling around here which should help somewhat with the room temperature. I could try 2 or 3, of course. Current temperatures on this machine (with a 0.19 load average): coretemp-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Core 0: +50.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 1: +50.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) coretemp-isa-0003 Adapter: ISA adapter Core 0: +56.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) Core 1: +56.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C) i5k_amb-isa-0000 Adapter: ISA adapter Ch. 0 DIMM 0: +58.0°C (low = +127.5°C, high = +127.5°C) Ch. 1 DIMM 0: +122.0°C (low = +127.5°C, high = +127.5°C) Ch. 2 DIMM 0: +127.0°C (low = +127.5°C, high = +127.5°C) Ch. 3 DIMM 0: +91.0°C (low = +127.5°C, high = +127.5°C) nouveau-pci-4000 Adapter: PCI adapter temp1: +78.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +120.0°C) Of course, the drives are getting old now, so I suppose we're into high risk territory (I have backup of everything that matters). What would you suggest as best preparation for heavy compilation tasks? Is there anything on here I should check out regarding the hardware, or preemptively replace/upgrade? Here's smartctl -a for both drives: smartctl 5.43 2012-06-05 r3561 [x86_64-linux-3.2.0-4-amd64] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net Vendor: SEAGATE Product: ST373454SS Revision: HPS3 User Capacity: 73,407,865,856 bytes [73.4 GB] Logical block size: 512 bytes Logical Unit id: 0x5000c5000043ef13 Serial number: 3KP2RC6B00007641E2MM Device type: disk Transport protocol: SAS Local Time is: Tue Jan 8 12:09:18 2013 EST Device supports SMART and is Enabled Temperature Warning Enabled SMART Health Status: OK Current Drive Temperature: 48 C Drive Trip Temperature: 65 C Elements in grown defect list: 0 Vendor (Seagate) cache information Blocks sent to initiator = 3918518339 Blocks received from initiator = 161292342 Blocks read from cache and sent to initiator = 1034486167 Number of read and write commands whose size <= segment size = 360848807 Number of read and write commands whose size > segment size = 1372 Vendor (Seagate/Hitachi) factory information number of hours powered up = 24869.65 number of minutes until next internal SMART test = 78 Error counter log: Errors Corrected by Total Correction Gigabytes Total ECC rereads/ errors algorithm processed uncorrected fast | delayed rewrites corrected invocations [10^9 bytes] errors read: 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 write: 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 Non-medium error count: 21 No self-tests have been logged Long (extended) Self Test duration: 1064 seconds [17.7 minutes] smartctl 5.43 2012-06-05 r3561 [x86_64-linux-3.2.0-4-amd64] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-12 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net Vendor: SEAGATE Product: ST373454SS Revision: HPS3 User Capacity: 73,407,865,856 bytes [73.4 GB] Logical block size: 512 bytes Logical Unit id: 0x5000c50000474187 Serial number: 3KP3FAA600007645PUBM Device type: disk Transport protocol: SAS Local Time is: Tue Jan 8 12:09:54 2013 EST Device supports SMART and is Enabled Temperature Warning Enabled SMART Health Status: OK Current Drive Temperature: 46 C Drive Trip Temperature: 65 C Elements in grown defect list: 0 Vendor (Seagate) cache information Blocks sent to initiator = 3758196373 Blocks received from initiator = 245812821 Blocks read from cache and sent to initiator = 1051276525 Number of read and write commands whose size <= segment size = 340335533 Number of read and write commands whose size > segment size = 7 Vendor (Seagate/Hitachi) factory information number of hours powered up = 26430.55 number of minutes until next internal SMART test = 76 Error counter log: Errors Corrected by Total Correction Gigabytes Total ECC rereads/ errors algorithm processed uncorrected fast | delayed rewrites corrected invocations [10^9 bytes] errors read: 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 write: 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0 Non-medium error count: 8 No self-tests have been logged Long (extended) Self Test duration: 1064 seconds [17.7 minutes]
On Tue, 8 Jan 2013, Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> wrote:
2. There was unusual, intermittent noise (presumably fan noise). I hit ctrl-c at that point and tried again with -j1, which took most of the day to complete... We do have evaporation cooling around here which should help somewhat with the room temperature. I could try 2 or 3, of course.
If you have access to a server on the net then that can be a good option to compile things. Sometimes I use a server in Germany for some of my Debian development work, I compile the packages there and install them locally. Even the older Hetzner servers are significantly faster than my Thinkpad T61 for anything big and using Hetzner servers allows me to use my EeePC for development work. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
Jason White <jason@jasonjgw.net> writes:
No self-tests have been logged No self-tests have been logged
This is wrong. The most useful thing SMART can do is tell the drives to run a self test and tell you what the result was. IIRC, smartctl /dev/sda -d sat -t short smartctl /dev/sda -d sat -l selftest If it passes short and long tests it's probably OK. If it fails a short test you should think about replacing it. I also heartily second Russell's suggestion, viz. do compiles on rack-mounted servers, not laptops.
Jason White wrote:
Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
I also heartily second Russell's suggestion, viz. do compiles on rack-mounted servers, not laptops. and here was me thinking the really hairy-chested thing was to cross-compile it on one's Android phone !O:-) regards Rohan McLeod
Rohan McLeod <rhn@jeack.com.au> writes:
Jason White wrote:
Trent W. Buck <trentbuck@gmail.com> wrote:
I also heartily second Russell's suggestion, viz. do compiles on rack-mounted servers, not laptops. and here was me thinking the really hairy-chested thing was to cross-compile it on one's Android phone !O:-)
BTDT; I got superior results with http://wiki.debian.org/QemuUserEmulation Hm, that page seems to have gotten confusing. Basically all I did was 1) install binfmt-misc and qemu-system-armel; 2) debootrap -a armhf; 3) chroot /target and do whatever.
On 6/01/2013 9:59 AM, Craig Sanders wrote:
8. Boot drive will be an SSD (probably 256G Crucial m4 or Samsung 840 Pro),
The OCZ Vector is getting excellent reviews too. $289 for 256GB.
I've heard that OCZ should be avoided, wish I had a better reference, but the guy (tech guy at Centrecom) said go with Intel ... I mentioned Samsung, he said, yes, either of those two, but NOT OCZ. In fact he told my friend that OCZ was so bad that he would de-friend him if he chose one. The main two main reasons were that OCZ had too many returns and that OCZ is like a marketing brand which just puts together parts from other manufacturers .... which I add is a bit like like Belkin whom don't build anything themselves, but rather find products and have them branded as Belkin to sell. Me, myself, well I don't know, but nobody got fired choosing <s>IBM</s> Intel...... just sayin' Otherwise I think your response was fantastic Craig. Cheers A.
On Mon, 7 Jan 2013, Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
I've heard that OCZ should be avoided, wish I had a better reference,
http://www.behardware.com/articles/862-7/components-returns-rates-6.html The above URL documents the return rates of various brands/models of SSD, some OCZ products are as bad as 15.58% ! http://etbe.coker.com.au/2012/08/28/ssd-workstation/ I found that from a comment on the above blog post. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
On Mon, Jan 07, 2013 at 01:46:13PM +1100, Andrew McGlashan wrote:
The OCZ Vector is getting excellent reviews too. $289 for 256GB.
I've heard that OCZ should be avoided, wish I had a better reference, but the guy (tech guy at Centrecom) said go with Intel ... I mentioned Samsung, he said, yes, either of those two, but NOT OCZ. In fact he told my friend that OCZ was so bad that he would de-friend him if he chose one.
apparently the first few OCZ models were crap, but then so were the first few models of most other brands....lack of TRIM support, firmware bugs. from what i've read this hasn't been a problem in recent years, including the OCZ Vertex 3 and the OCZ Vector model I mentioned. I certainly hope so, I just bought a 256GB OCZ Vector to replace the 128GB Patriot Torqx in my main machine (haven't got around to it yet, have been stufffing around with my new asus notebook instead) craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
On Tue, 8 Jan 2013, Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> wrote:
from what i've read this hasn't been a problem in recent years, including the OCZ Vertex 3 and the OCZ Vector model I mentioned.
http://www.behardware.com/articles/862-7/components-returns-rates-6.html The above article claims that OCZ had problems in the middle of last year. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
participants (18)
-
Andrew McGlashan -
Andrew Voumard -
Andrew Worsley -
Andy Dean -
Anthony Hogan -
Bianca Gibson -
Brian May -
Craig Sanders -
dan062＠yahoo -
Hiddensoul (Mark Clohesy) -
James Harper -
Jason White -
Rohan McLeod -
Russell Coker -
thelionroars -
Toby Corkindale -
Trent W. Buck -
trentbuck＠gmail.com