More on Backuppc on the Linkstation

I found that the default setup is woefully short of swapspace. Fixed it by making a swapfile:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/disk1/swapfile bs=1024 count=524288
mkswap /mnt/disk1/swapfile
swapon /mnt/disk1/swapfile


It's humming along nicely now!

I reduced the number of simultaneous jobs earlier, but I think I can increase that again.

Backuppc on the Linkstation

A primary reason for purchasing the Linkstation was to be able to automatically backup the computers on the home network.

It turned out the version of BackupPC that gets installed with the Freelink Debian revision is ancient (2.1). I had to add the 'etch-backports' repository to the apt config file, then I could install the latest stable release (3.1.0).

Buffalo Linkstation with Freelink

Purchased the Linkstation Live v2, and installed Freelink. Made the mistaking of updating to the latest Buffalo firmware before installing Freelink - had to downgrade to the previous version - took many iterations, including use of the tftp recovery package.

Using Windows on Linux with VirtualBox

Trying to follow section 9.10.2 of the manual. Host OS is openSUSE 11.1.

(Note that the "physical" Windows instance has been set up with an additional profile, and the MergeIDE utility has been run).

First step:

# VBoxManage internalcommands listpartitions -rawdisk /dev/sda
Number Type StartCHS EndCHS Size (MiB) Start (Sect)
1 0x07 0 /1 /1 1023/254/63 20018 63
2 0x12 1023/254/63 1023/254/63 5945 58749705
3 0x83 1023/254/63 1023/254/63 70 70926975
4 0x8e 1023/254/63 1023/254/63 87580 71071560

My Windows partition is number 1.

Next, we need an MBR file. The various Howtos recommend using 'install-mbr' from the Debian 'mbr' package . To build it, 'as86' is required, from the 'bin86' package.

MBR file is created using 'sudo install-mbr ./mbr -f -p 1' (partition 1).

Next step is to create the VM definition, per manual: VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /home/pjt//.VirtualBox/WinXP1.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1 -relative -register -mbr ./p1.mbr

When I started the VM, I got the infamous "disk read error". It turned out to be the Thinkpad BIOS CHS error: http://l4x.org/unix/virtualbox_disk_read_error.html

Running geometry (hd0) at the grub boottime prompt gave the the settings for adjusting the .vmdk file. XP booted correctly at this point.

Philips Streamium SLA5500 Wireless MP3 player

These little units worked well for us with our "slug" running Twonkymedia, and we ended up buying three over the years, using them around the house.

However, over the past year, they stopped working, one by one. Two succumbed to the "blue screen of death" (as described in the FAQ on the Philips site), and the final straw was the third suddenly could not "find" the home network.

I was able to recover all three using the procedure in the FAQ, but the following tips might help someone with the same problem:

1. The procedure requires setting your home wifi network to an SSID of 'Philips" with no encryption. The instructions are incorrect - the SSID should have all characters lower-case.

2. The Utility software set up does not work if you have it unpacked in too "deep" a subdirectory. I got it to work my moving its directory to the Desktop, then running Setup.

3. The unit that could not find the network showed up straight away. Even though it showed as having current firmware, reinstalling the firmware brought it back to life.

4. The other two were not detected until I did a power-on reset (i.e., sticking a paper clip in the hole above the power connector, and holding the button down while plugging in, then releasing when the screen lit up. They had no coherent firmware version showing in the Utility - reinstalling the firmware brought them back to a working state.

I'm thinking these units are somewhat susceptible to power surges (we go through periods of brief power interruptions), so I will make sure they are plugged into good surge suppressors now.