Real men compile their own programs

Mplayer instalation guide:

- Download the CVS version
(http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html)
- bunzip and untar it somewhere

- Download the essential (or essential-all) codec pack
- bunzip and untar it to /usr/local/bin/codecs

- Download a font [Arial - Western (ISO 8859-1) (4 sizes)] (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html)
- bunzip and untar it to /root/mplayersource/font

- Download a Skin [DVDPlayer]
(http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design7/dload.html)
- bunzip and untar it to /whatever/mplayersource/Skin

- Create a symlink at /root/.mplayer
#ln -s /whatever/mplayersource/font/font-arial-iso-8859-1/font-arial-24-iso-8859-1/ font

- Get FFMpeg
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@mplayerhq.hu:/cvsroot/ffmpeg login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@mplayerhq.hu:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co -P ffmpeg/libavcodec ffmpeg/libavutil

- copy the newly created libavcodec and libavutil to the directory you untarred the Mplayer CVS (there's already a dir there, but it doesn't work, overwrite it)
- edit the "Entries" file found at /directory_you_untarred_CVS/CVS/Entries
append:
D/libavcodec////
D/libavutil////


- run #./configure --enable-gui --enable-largefiles --enable-menu --enable-lirc

--datadir=/whatever/mplayersource
PS: /whatever/mplayersource is the directory where the fonts and Skins are untarred.

- Check the available codecs/options before compiling:

Checking for FFmpeg libavutil (static) ... yes
Checking for FFmpeg libavcodec (static) ... yes

Checking for lirc ... yes

Optimizing for: athlon-xp mmx mmx2 3dnow 3dnowex sse sse2 mtrr

Enabled optional drivers:
Input: ftp network tv-v4l2 tv-v4l edl tv matroska mpdvdkit2 vcd dvb
Codecs: qtx divx5linux libavcodec real xanim dshow/dmo win32 faad2(internal) libmpeg2 libdts liba52

mp3lib libtheora tremor(internal) gif
Audio output: alsa esd arts oss nas mpegpes(dvb)
Video output: xvidix cvidix vesa gif89a md5sum pnm jpeg png mpegpes(dvb) fbdev svga aa opengl xv x11

xover tga
Audio filters:

Disabled optional drivers:
Input: vstream tv-bsdbt848 live.com cdda dvdread smb
Codecs: divx4linux x264 xvid libdv amr_wb amr_nb musepack twolame toolame libmad liblzo faac
Audio output: sgi sun jack polyp dxr2 dsound win32 sdl macosx
Video output: winvidix bl zr zr2 dxr3 dxr2 directx sdl caca ggi xmga mga dga xvmc directfb tdfx_vid

tdfxfb 3dfx quartz
Audio filters: ladspa

- If everything is ok:
#make
#make install

Job Description

One of these days I was reading A.S.R.[1] and I found a great way to describe my job:

> So, what do *you* do for a living?
I sit in a chair, pressing small plastic rectangles with my fingers while peering at many tiny, colored dots.
- Peter Manders

[1] - alt.sysadmin.recovery (very nice group where grammar rules still apply, and people are cool)

USB Headache

My USB & BIOS headache.

As I written before, when I updated my BIOS to 1014 (Asus A8V-Deluxe) I had several usb related problems as consequence. It went like this:

- Update bios to 1014.
- Happy happy! Powernow works!!
- Sad sad, USB doesn't.

The system wouldn't work with USB 2.0, only with 1.1... and even so, it was unstable.

The errors where:
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.4: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.4: BIOS handoff failed (104, 1010001)
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.4: can't reset
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.4: init 0000:00:10.4 fail, -95
ehci_hcd: probe of 0000:00:10.4 failed with error -95

This happened with kernel 2.6.8 (my current one) and with 2.6.11.

Browsing around I discovered that there was an error with asus BIOS handoff procedure, ok, so I tried to keep using usb 1.1, because at least it DOES work, right?

NO, it doesn't.

It corrupted my thumbdrive.
Great, now, when I plug my thumbdrive anywhere, I get a bunch of kernel errors:

USB Mass Storage device found at 2
scsi3 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: SanDisk Model: Cruzer Mini Rev: 0.1
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sde: 1000944 512-byte hdwr sectors (512 MB)
sde: assuming Write Enabled
sde: assuming drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host3/bus0/target0/lun0: unknown partition table

And sometimes even:
Aug 18 00:12:10 kernel: SCSI error : <4 0 0 0> return code = 0x70000
Aug 18 00:12:10 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sde, sector 0

So, I guess is time to go hard on this guy.
Got KillDisk (www.killdisk.com) which has a demo download available, it writes an "1" on each and every sector of the thumbdrive/harddrive.

Erased it.
Plugged it on in windows (now that's a mistake) and formatted it with FAT32.

Strange, in linux the SCSI errors continue, the kernel recognizes the device but, ah, it doesn't mount, fsck nor fdisk/parted it.

Now I think my drive went nuts.. but the odd thing is that with windows it works perfectly(copied a fair amount of data from and to it, went ok so far)
Some googling around and it seems that when linux recognizes the drive, it reads the partition table and compares with the physical boundaries of the drive, this is to keep the system stable and consistent, and windows simply 'believe' in the partition table.
What happened is that KillDisk had erroneously formated the thumbdrive to have more sectors than it has.

Another killdisk, and this time, seems that the sector counting is correct.
Now I boot to linux, fdisk it, mkfs.dos it and it worked.
Not for long.

Plugged in windows, and copied some data to it, plugged it back in linux and some data was readable, but most wasn't.

Soooo, now I'm getting upset.

killdisk it again.

Booted in linux, and instead of partitioning it, I just created the filesystem (that whas the original setup) with mkfs.dos /dev/sde and that's it...

Works perfectly now.

Yes, but there's still a problem, the main problem.
My motherboard doesn't like linux.
So now my quest is to find a good bios version.
Tried 1009, 1011, 1013 and 1014. None worked very well (only 1009 works with USB, but powernow doesn't)

So I found ftp://ftp.asuscom.de/pub/ASUSCOM/BIOS/Socket_939/VIA_Chipset/K8T800Pro/A8V_Deluxe/ and there's this 1014d version, let's try it.
AND WORKS!

Future

Things I want to make work for the future (as soon as possible)

- PVR
This guy here is a bit of a distant dream. :) I used to have a PowerVCR back in windows, and it was fairly good, it recorded shows in a pretty decent quality, but was to big to save them. My idea anyway is to record TV while I'm not home. I won't be using this in a long time, because there's nothing good enough on TV these days, but if in the future we get cable, I might want to start recording some shows.

- VLC
VLC is a streammer (among some others things), My idea is to use a run-of-the-mill camera as a hi-def webcam, for security purposes...
And even want to remove the IR filter from the CCD, as it may function as a nightshot camera.. well, who knows, this is extremelly low priority stuff.

- dvdrip and cdrip
Back in windows I used AutoGK to compact dvds to divx, now in linux I'm still searching for a nice and easy ripper+encoder.
The same with cdrip, I had CDex (which is great BTW), any suggestions?

- TV out
I have a Nvidia Geforce 2 Mx400, with TVout.
So far, so good. I installed the nvidia driver (works nicely), but the TV out is a no-go.
J. sent me his config, but it doesn't work... I don't really know why, I guess my video card is on the frenzy.

Focus

As J. realized, I'm not posting much tech stuff in here.

So what?

I doubt anyone actually reads it anyway.

But I've got some texts that worth posting, they were written a some weeks ago, and may not be completely up to date..

Have fun.

TeePee

One of these days I noticed a very unusual kind of TP[1] at the supermarket, it had drawings all over it, of course, it was some kind of logo, but a /IDEA/ quickly came up: "What if they print cartoon strips on it?"

I'll be rich.

or not. :)

It remembers me this quote:"God, I'm so funny. People should be grateful when I talk to them, instead of telling me to shut up, which happens too often to be coincidence. -- Ashley Pomeroy, in the (void)"

[1]-Toilet Paper