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Universal Live Linux Backup

I’m I strong believer of making backups of backups, etc.. But not willing to down my LinuxMCE server for ‘x’ amount of hours/days to do it. I used to use Seagate DiscWizard to do it in 8.10, but 10.04 only comes up with kernel errors and I gave up. So I’ve come up with a few other ways of doing it, although some of them are more appropriate to use for milestones or once offs due to the mucking around required to do it. Live Media RAID backup This was easiest, I just peiced together a server with enough storage space to hold every thing. PXE boot the server and setup it up as an additional unmanaged MD. From there you can either manually create a software RAID or try to do it in the… Read More »Universal Live Linux Backup

Observations 15-5-12

This would be the reason why a PC would have loud fans: (taken at work) Windows 7 now comes with “diskless” option?  The following is the options I have on my laptop when I click on “Safely Remove hardware and Eject Media”. The reason is because my laptops’ HDD is in a caddy usually reserved for a DVD (Lenovo T410s). I haven’t tried to eject the C Drive yet. It makes sense, although it’s stupid.  

HP T5500 series Squeezeslave V2

If you haven’t figured out by now, I’ve been keen on small network sound devices for a while, although this should be the last revision. As a carry on from this article, I’ve kept with OpenWRT but moved to a different architecture (arm -> x86) to support the thinclients I have and will be getting. In comparison the wireless router was easy to get the base image installed but Squeezeslave wasn’t. This time the base image was stupidly difficult, and Squeezeslave was a cut’n’paste job. The reason why I couldn’t use a pre-built image was because the x86 image doesn’t support booting from a USB device and it needed sound card support. This article doesn’t cover making the image from scratch, just installing the image I created for the HP t5500 series. I did however… Read More »HP T5500 series Squeezeslave V2

Turn a WRT350Nv2 into a Squeezeslave (networked audio)

Brought a WRT350N v2 from the flea markets last week ($20), installed OpenWRT 10.03.1 using the WinXP firmware upgrade utility. After that installed I then installed some additional packages (full list). So at this point I was able to insert a cheap USB sound card in the rear and it would detect it. I was able to change the volume using alsamixer for testing. Now for the frustrating part, cross compiling squeezeslave to execute it on the WRT350Nv2. I tried a few precompiled binaries, but they were no good. The basic steps I took were: Download OpenWRT SDK. Make sure you’ve gotten the required packages installed in your host machine, check here as a reference. Download additional packages for the router using opkg or the web-interface, this will allow the use of the USB port and install alsa for… Read More »Turn a WRT350Nv2 into a Squeezeslave (networked audio)

New Server Arrived

To summarize, we were away for 4 weeks and all computers (including server) were turned off, this in turn saved us about $70 off our power bill, so with that, and the average 380-400W of power the server uses I figured a smaller server would pay for itself in no time. Firstly I looked at getting an ITX mobo, then buying RAM, CPU, CASE, etc.. Turned out to be cheaper to buy it as a complete system or buy them second hand. So I bought it as a package, and the one I ended up buying was HP ProLiant N40L from eBay, paid slightly more than the cheapest quote I found, Harris Technologies (Office Works in Perth). It didn’t come with an optical drive, or OS (didn’t need either), I was looking forward to the… Read More »New Server Arrived

Been A While

Yeah it’s been a while since the last post, ALOT has been happening, I am hoping to have some good projects coming up, no details yet, still working out the budget $-) I have updated my Linuxmce diagram for those who might be interested.

Network Audio from Thinclient

This is an extension to HP T5000 As a Network Stereo. Rather than use the thin client as a fully qualified MD where boot times are slow, and it has a lot of non-required process’s running on it, etc… I’ve decided to explore the possibility of making a DIY squeezebox. I figured the Logitechs’ squeezebox would have lower specifications as far as CPU, RAM and storage are concerned. First Option: SqueezeOS Followed this tutorial and it created the images for an arm processor… Failed many times while trying to create a qemux86 and BootCDx86 base. I had tried using many different toolchains although it got to about a days worth of time when the idea was scrapped. Second Option: Andriod install with Squeeze Player App. This was a short lived idea as Andriodx86 ports needed… Read More »Network Audio from Thinclient

Hax on Holidays

Dumb idea #1: Bring new touchscreen tablet (ZTE V9) on holiday. Dumb idea#2: Fall asleep while watching movie on it and leaving it on the bed to fall to the floor. End result: Tablet falls from bed to floor directly on USB charger cable snapping the internal micro USB connector off the mainboard… Not all that noticeable until you go to charge it again… Hmmm battery indicator isn’t changing and the cable is loose. DAMN!! Currently not at home where tools are available to solder the connector back on, or solder a new one on. Whats available: knife, small (but not small enough) flat head screw driver, sticky tape, paperclip, and the USB and mains chargers. Macgyver would be proud! First take off the plastic back, remove the battery and SD card. Use a pointy… Read More »Hax on Holidays

Cheap Pickup: WRT54G2 = $2

Yep, a working WRT54G2 (version 1.0) for $2, just required a 12v power cable, which I’ve a few spares. This is the third WRT54G I’ve owned: First one was purchased o modify the flash and use as a bridge. Unfortunatly it was version 7 so it had no known third party firmware available, (atleast at the time)  mainly due to an under sized flash chip and non-supported wireless chipset. Second was an American import and one of the originals flashed with DD-WRT.  Worked perfectly until the loose power cable came out during a reflash… Bricked. As explained, this wireless router is a WRT54G2 v1.0. A quick google found this page. A few downloads and two firmware flashes later, the micro version of DD-WRT is installed, setup and working properly as a secondary WAP to provide… Read More »Cheap Pickup: WRT54G2 = $2