Clutter Learns Linux

[Bruno]

Can I do these # dd commands from a live CD copy of Ubuntu as a user, not root?

Hi Clutter, these commands are root commands, but you can use "sudo" too if you use Ubuntu.And yes you can use any Live CD, because the dd command is a standard Linux command included in every distro and rescue CD.Just make sure you delete the data on the correct HD . . . first doublecheck if the HD you want to wipe really is /dev/hda ( else adapt the commands )Also, the partitions/drive should not be "mounted" when executing the commands. ( you can check what is mounted just by typing "mount" ) Bruno

[Cluttermagnet]

Amusing...Trying to boot with only the suspect/virus hard drive into a live CD session of Dapper, things ran quite sluggish, often a sign of the BIOS encountering a 'bad' drive. Then, after getting into the part where data loads from the CD, slow at "Starting RAID devices", a very long delay to get past "Setting up LVM Volume Groups", and absolutely hung up at "Starting Enterprise Volume Management System".But then, after about a 5-10 minute delay, suddenly it finished off the list and began showing the familiar brown background. Mouse cursor working, still very sluggish to finish loading the Desktop. As I type this, another 10 minutes has passed and the Desktop never did finish loading. But it might! Heh! :whistling:Bruno- If I ever get a chance to get at this disk, I'm going to $sudo those commands and just wipe this sucker. But it looks like the drive is actually not so 'good' after all. At least, it provided an occasion for me to study and learn a bit about the powerful "dd" commands. Edit: Fascinating!When I moved the HD jumper from Master to C/S, all of a sudden I had the drive behaving entirely normally. Go figure.So I did the dd command with the 446 bytes, then I wiped the entire drive with the last 1024 byte version, for good measure. All went fine. Gparted now reported an Unformatted drive, rather than a drive with an Unknown file system. I had Gparted format it as FAT32, a single 1.51G partition. Done. Thanks, guys!Looks like I better go back through my stack of bad/questionable drives and move their jumpers from Master to C/S and recheck them all. Something funky about this particular mother board, perhaps? I've never seen this before, where a drive out at the end of an IDE ribbon cable needs to be C/S when it's the only drive connected. Usually the Master setting has been OK, as I recall? Oh well, this particular MB has been a little squirrelly anyway, which is why it ended up as a 'functional spare'. But it seems to adapt very well to Ubuntu, and vice versa. Heh! You gotta love that Linux...

Edited April 16, 2007 by Cluttermagnet

[Bruno]

At least, it provided an occasion for me to study and learn a bit about the powerful "dd" commands.

. . . Always good to learn new stuff . . . . . be careful with the dd command though it is very powerful and requires the correct syntax BrunoPS: There will be a "Tip" about he dd command posted on Sunday at http://brunolinux.com

[Urmas]

As I type this, another 10 minutes has passed and the Desktop never did finish loading. But it might! Heh!

Please see my edited post above for the final outcome- good news, too...

Edited April 16, 2007 by Urmas

[Cluttermagnet]

. . . Always good to learn new stuff . . . . . be careful with the dd command though it is very powerful and requires the correct syntax BrunoPS: There will be a "Tip" about he dd command posted on Sunday at http://brunolinux.com

Please see my edited post above for the final outcome- good news, too...

[striker]

You gotta love that Linux...

Yes !

[Urmas]

Looks like I better go back through my stack of bad/questionable drives...

In that case... next time you're d-loading/burning stuff:http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

[Bruno]

Clutter . . . . . good job well done !!! :lol: Bruno

[Cluttermagnet]

Now that I've figured out the peculiarities of this mother board in the Cluttermaster 2007, I took a couple of hours and retested a bunch of hard drives. This time I set them for C/S rather than Master (even though all were tested alone, and on the end of the IDE ribbon cable). I was pleased to note that the majority of them actually were good drives, about 6 of them. 3 drives were bad, but all of those made obvious 'wrong' noises. So I netted a couple of 40G, several 4.2/4.3G, and one 1.6G drive. These will get used as 2nd drives in various computers; one 40G I will put in my portable USB case to lug around and put Linux distros on. Several drives were prepared using Bruno's "dd" commands, including the 1.6G which had a boot sector virus.I used two of the commands, one to wipe the boot record, and a second to wipe the entire drive.

clutter@clutter-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1

produced (working from notes, may not be exact:)

1+0 records in1+0 records out446 bytes copied 0.027148 seconds 16.4kB/s

clutter@clutter-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1024 count=10

produced:

10+0 records in10+0 records out10240 bytes (10kB) copied 0.029545 seconds 347kB/s

Anyway, this stuff worked for me (so far as I can tell) in wiping drives I considered suspect or definitely virused. BTW, those were all in the hands of others. I'm more careful! Then I reformatted them all to FAT32 for now. On one or more drives, I saw Gparted report the partition had changed from Unknown (before) to Unformatted (after), surely a good sign. I will remember this routine, since I probably will want to do this again at times. During the reformat, Gparted creates a new MBR, and warns that this is a 'no going back' sort of operation ("are you sure..." etc.), then you get to do the actual repartition.All went well. It was a pretty smooth operation. See, I'm not afraid of doing a little command line Linux- Heh! But I do understand the power, and thus, the danger in doing this sort of thing. I'm real careful with syntax. As I've said, give me a few years and I might actually get pretty good with this stuff.

[Urmas]

As I've said, give me a few years and I might actually get pretty good with this stuff.

Naah... the way you're making progress... "pretty good" will take a few months, more like it.

[Cluttermagnet]

"We are Linux... resistance is futile... you will be assim...Mmmmm! Doughnuts!" Registered Linux User 446867

[Urmas]

[Cluttermagnet]

I just wanted to mention that I finally got around to revisiting my zip drive mounting issue and I find that all my problems are solved on my main Linux (Ubuntu 6.06) machine. I reverted that install to the setup with Bruno's bash script "S95zipnode" placed in /etc/rcS.d as per page 9 of this thread. After rebooting, I checked repeatedly with a couple of different disks- inserting, mounting, reading the disks, ejecting, etc. I was able to repeatedly swap disks during the same OS session, i.e. no rebooting necessary. So aside from the Linux practice of mounting, it's pretty much as easy as in Windows. BTW I believe that ejecting a disk must also cause it to unmount at the same time, since after I insert a new disk, I must then mount it.I'm about to install Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 on a 2nd machine, so I can play with wireless a bit while I'm waiting for my Feisty CD's to get here. Edgy was able to find my USB wireless dongle just fine, out of the box (in a live CD session).

[Urmas]

Dev... Linus finds tools for idle hands!Go Clutter!

[ross549]

:)Very cool Cluttermagnet......For a long time, USB dongles were a major headache for linux and ndiswrapper. I am glad it works out of the box!Adam

[Bruno]

. . . way to go Clutter !! . . . Bruno

[V.T. Eric Layton]

I just wanted to mention that I finally got around to revisiting my zip drive mounting issue and I find that all my problems are solved on my main Linux (Ubuntu 6.06) machine.

YAY!

[Urmas]

Hey Clutter,How's this one... eh... hanging?

I disabled the screensaver, per the Help menu. Let's see if that does it, before I try anything more. BTW came home late tonight and the computer had sat, turned on, for around 8 hours. Sure enough, it was frozen and needed a hard Reset and reboot to get it going.

[Cluttermagnet]

Hey Clutter,How's this one... eh... hanging?

On that computer, it does seem to have caused system hangs when the screensavers are enabled and the OS goes into 'hibernation' (or whatever) for a long while. Therefore, I simply left screensavers disabled and that problem disappeared. BTW I now have running copies of Dapper installed on 3 hard drives. More about that in my next post, below. I will let screensavers run on those two and see how they do. So far the no-case "Cluttermaster 2007" does not seem to hang like my main box does. And the 3rd unit is so freshly installed with Dapper that the HD is still smoking. Heh! So we'll see...

[Cluttermagnet]

Clutter got lucky and inherited an old Dell Dimension 8300 which the previous owner apparently considered a total loss and gave away. It appears it just had a bad power supply. I don't know the original owner. They did remove all RAM and the AGP video card, and also pulled the hard drive, which is certainly a sensible move. Now I have the computer. I cobbled together some DDR RAM and a video card and went to work on it. (Yes, I raided the Cluttermaster 2007 for parts, but it will also live again...)I quickly figured out that swapping in another P4 power supply brought it back to life. Then I sort of flailed around and struggled with it for some hours until I had all the details of its funky BIOS setup utility figured out. Then I eventually got a copy of Win98SE installed on a 4.3G drive, just for grins. Finally, I ran the Live CD for Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, didn't even bother much figuring out what hardware it found, but just went right into the install, doing the manual partition setup. About 1G for 98SE, 2+G for root, 300G for Linux swap (256M RAM at the moment), and the rest as a spare FAT32 partition. Sound familiar? Heh! So that was my 3rd Linux installation, to date. I'm sure there will be plenty more, as I crash and burn it a few times.There are still details such as the need to cut an extra hole in the rear panel sheet metal for the IEC power connector (mains power), since I have a generic P4 supply, and nothing Dell builds is generic. Heh! The power connector is on the opposite side of center line. But I'm an old hand at radio construction, so a little custom sheet metal work doesn't bother me in the least. Also I'm going to want to get the DVDRW/ CDRW drive hooked back up and working, in place of the CDRW drive I started with. I'll also add a Zip100 drive.But here is the really great part in all this- what the guy threw away was a screaming, 3.2GHz machine with nothing much wrong, it seems, except for a dead power supply. 3.2GHz! Imagine it! Clutter is all excited. Heh! The plastic case is a little beat up, with the hinged, front USB cover missing. I think I can live with that if I can't find a replacement. I'll have it all checked out better in a few days, but I'd say it's not a bad find, eh? A 3.2GHz screamer for the cost of a generic power supply and video card, and a little DDR RAM. I've never owned anything this fast before.

Edited April 26, 2007 by Cluttermagnet

[Urmas]

But here is the really great part in all this- what the guy threw away was a screaming, 3.2GHz machine with nothing much wrong, it seems, except for a dead power supply. 3.2GHz! Imagine it! Clutter is all excited. Heh!

Wow! All it needs now is more RAM and a nVidia video card (beats Ati 6-0 when it comes to Linux).

[Cluttermagnet]

Wow! All it needs now is more RAM and a nVidia video card (beats Ati 6-0 when it comes to Linux).

Well, how about an nVidia GeForce FX5200 for now? I swiped that card out of the Cluttermaster 2007 and popped it into the Dell. Meanwhile, I have come up with a spare TNT2-Vanta/M64 to replace it. Should be OK, as I'm not a gamer. My video requirements are minimal, so that keeps my hardware quite reasonably priced.The RAM I'll actually have to buy. I need the faster stuff for a fast processor- otherwise I'd probably be RAM-limited for speed.

[Urmas]

Well, how about an nVidia GeForce FX5200 for now?

The best - simply because it's the one I'm currently using.

[Cluttermagnet]

I just spent the past 2+ hours machining a new opening in the rear panel sheet metal for the IEC connector. The power supply is inside the case, properly mounted. Now, for the first time, I can operate the tower right-side-up instead of on its side. It still boots up and loads Dapper. Rear Panel detail photoFinding device drivers is soooo easy for Ubuntu. Just install and let it find them all. Done! For 98SE, I have to hunt around the Dell website and try to figure out which are the right drivers, then download, then transfer them to the new computer, then install, then cuss when things go wrong... (Clutter pauses to catch breath) Fortunately I already had the ~11M drivers package for nVidia/Windows on hand. Now if it will just install... :whistling:Oh, BTW I should mention that I have actually been running the Dell with a 2.4GHz Celeron 128K L2, in place of the 3.2GHz P4- and yes, I'm aware of the problems in 98SE with faster CPU's (although I don't remember many details). But then I don't really have to have 98SE on this box. I needed it so I could run a live CD Linux distro and then install from that CD. Later on I'll learn how to install Linux to an empty hard drive. Heh!

Edited April 28, 2007 by Cluttermagnet

[Urmas]

Finding device drivers is soooo easy for Ubuntu. Just install and let it find them all. Done! For 98SE, I have to hunt around the Dell website and try to figure out which are the right drivers, then download, then transfer them to the new computer, then install, then cuss when things go wrong...

You're soooooo wrong... says so here:

Microsoft Challenges Linux's Legacy Claims By Peter Galli January 6, 2006 News Analysis: Tests run in Redmond's Linux lab seek to dispel the myth that Linux can run on anything, especially older legacy hardware.Microsoft Corp.'s Linux and open-source lab on the Redmond, Wash., campus has been running some interesting tests of late, one of which looked at how well the latest Windows client software runs on legacy hardware in comparison to its Linux competitors.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1908908,00.asp

[Bruno]

But here is the really great part in all this- what the guy threw away was a screaming, 3.2GHz machine with nothing much wrong, it seems, except for a dead power supply. 3.2GHz! Imagine it! Clutter is all excited. Heh!

Woooow . . . . . that does look like a real nice system . . . I can see why you are happy with it ! Bruno

[Urmas]

huh. what will microsoft think of next?

http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...p;taxonomyId=89Well, you DID ask.

[Guest LilBambi]

Please see my edited post above for the final outcome- good news, too...

AWESOME! Clutter!!!

Clutter got lucky and inherited an old Dell Dimension 8300 which the previous owner apparently considered a total loss and gave away. It appears it just had a bad power supply. I don't know the original owner. They did remove all RAM and the AGP video card, and also pulled the hard drive, which is certainly a sensible move. Now I have the computer. I cobbled together some DDR RAM and a video card and went to work on it. (Yes, I raided the Cluttermaster 2007 for parts, but it will also live again...)I quickly figured out that swapping in another P4 power supply brought it back to life. Then I sort of flailed around and struggled with it for some hours until I had all the details of its funky BIOS setup utility figured out. Then I eventually got a copy of Win98SE installed on a 4.3G drive, just for grins. Finally, I ran the Live CD for Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake, didn't even bother much figuring out what hardware it found, but just went right into the install, doing the manual partition setup. About 1G for 98SE, 2+G for root, 300G for Linux swap (256M RAM at the moment), and the rest as a spare FAT32 partition. Sound familiar? Heh! So that was my 3rd Linux installation, to date. I'm sure there will be plenty more, as I crash and burn it a few times.There are still details such as the need to cut an extra hole in the rear panel sheet metal for the IEC power connector (mains power), since I have a generic P4 supply, and nothing Dell builds is generic. Heh! The power connector is on the opposite side of center line. But I'm an old hand at radio construction, so a little custom sheet metal work doesn't bother me in the least. Also I'm going to want to get the DVDRW/ CDRW drive hooked back up and working, in place of the CDRW drive I started with. I'll also add a Zip100 drive.But here is the really great part in all this- what the guy threw away was a screaming, 3.2GHz machine with nothing much wrong, it seems, except for a dead power supply. 3.2GHz! Imagine it! Clutter is all excited. Heh! The plastic case is a little beat up, with the hinged, front USB cover missing. I think I can live with that if I can't find a replacement. I'll have it all checked out better in a few days, but I'd say it's not a bad find, eh? A 3.2GHz screamer for the cost of a generic power supply and video card, and a little DDR RAM. I've never owned anything this fast before.

WOW! That's great!!!!Congrats!

[Cluttermagnet]

Here's a photo of the back of my 'new' 3.2GHz Dell computer, showing the hole I machined in the rear panel to fit a standard P4 power supply. Rear Panel detail photo (495x371pixels, 68K)This work was done using an electric drill, a 3/4in (19mm) chassis punch, an Adel nibbling tool, and a file. Care was taken to keep metal pieces and filings out of the mother board. Afterwards, it was carefully vacuumed, then blown out with compressed air. Back before the days of home computing, we Radio Geeks did stuff like this routinely- 'home construction', a practice which has largely gone out of style. Heh! Here's a photo of some of the metal pieces removed. (495x371pixels, 68K) The round ones were produced by the punch, the others by the nibbler. Although I'm not thrilled with Dell's flimsy plastic clamshell case, they did at least use a good, harder grade of aluminum alloy sheet metal for the rear panel and chassis. This makes it pretty easy to machine.This weekend I'll be adding a Zip100 drive, perhaps later I'll hook up the original DVD burner that came with it. I ordered a 1G DDR400 RAM strip for it on the internet- I found a pretty good price. Also got another P4 supply to replace the one I stole from the Cluttermaster 2007. . Always good to have spares. I'm going to put a bigger hard drive in later, as well.

Edited April 28, 2007 by Cluttermagnet

[Urmas]

Here's a photo of the rear panel of my 'new' 3.2GHz Dell computer, showing the hole I machined in the rear panel to fit a standard P4 power supply. Rear Panel detail photo

Dang... cuter than a wee piglet. ClutterLabs™ is a quality outfit, it seems.