Adam Hinz: The Blog
Silly Windows
On 2007-12-18 at 12/18/2007 02:38:00 AM...
Beta Band - The House SongI just fixed my IP problem.
When I ran ipconfig /renew I got the following error:
An error occured while renewing interface local area connection 3 : The system cannot find the file specified
Microsoft's solution was to run:
netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
And if that didn't work, do a repair install of XP (what I just did).
Google's second result was much better:
Get to the computer manager (right-click My Computer->Manage->Services)
Make sure DHCP client starts automatically.
Start the client if it hasn't already.
Turns out the DHCP client wasn't even on. Silly Windows.
The next thing I did was unplug the ethernet cable. Since I repaired windows with a SP1 version of XP, I have hereby declared this computer unfit for Internet usage. Hopefully it can survive just long enough to backup whatever hasn't been backed up already, then I can just format this beast. It needs it; my brother has lots of crap on here that's bogging it down.
Just when you think you know it all
On ...
Brendan Benson - Just Like MeIf there's one truth about going home, it's that computer problems await me. I'm our family's resident techy guy, and it usually results in at least one call a week from my Mom.
A couple weeks ago she called about her computer not booting up. She described a screwey screen with jumbled letters (which we reproduced tonight, here:
)Luckily, I was able to boot into safe mode, so the first thing I did was back all her pictures, documents, and emails. Next, I tried a repair install. I've never done this before, but how hard could it be?
About halfway through it complained about not finding a file on the cd: licwmi.dl_ (even though there was a licwmi.dll right in the root directory). A little google work got me to this:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread51919.html
and son of a gun it worked. The steps are reproduced here for my own sake:
"So, here's the solution: I did this based off of http://support.microsoft.com/kb/818464. I rebooted off the Windows install CD, and hit R to go to the repair console. I then proceeded to delete c:\windows\security\edb.log. Then I rebooted the computer without going into the CD, and let the Windows installer continue (where in previous reboots it complained of not being able to copy files again). Once the installer loaded up, and before it could complain of not copying (which it would take about 5 minutes to get to), I hit Shift + F10. In the command prompt, I typed "esentutl /p c:\windows\security\database\secedit.sdb". And then I deleted c:\windows\security\edb0000x.log. And this time, there was no complaint of inability to copy files. Yay!"
The only thing I didn't do was delete the edb0000x.log file because it didn't exist.
So now I'm running a newly installed and barely-usably slow XP Home on the machine.
Now for some reason it can't grab an ip. Stay tuned!
anything python can do, scheme can do better
On 2007-12-16 at 12/16/2007 10:07:00 PM...
Jens Lekman - A Man Walks Into a BarI started learning Python today just for the hell of it, and I found out you can access the last items in a list with a negative index. I thought, "shit, I bet Scheme can do that just fine," and here's my solution:
(define list-ref-a
(lambda (ols n)
(letrec ([list-ref-n-help
(lambda (ls count k)
(cond
[(and (null? ls) (> (- n) count))
(error 'list-ref "index ~s is out of range for list ~s"
n ols)]
[(null? ls) 0]
[else (let ([res
(add1
(list-ref-n-help (cdr ls) (add1 count) k))])
(cond
[(= n (- res)) (k (car ls))]
[else res]))]))])
(cond
[(>= n 0) (list-ref ols n)]
[else (call/cc (lambda (k) (list-ref-n-help ols 0 k)))]))))
i want mo motown
On 2007-12-12 at 12/12/2007 04:08:00 AM...
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the GrapevineAfter running a software update, Firefox started crapping out. It would freeze and turn completely grey, but after a minute or two it would return to normal.
My guess was that it had something to do with Flash. I (mistakenly) used this script to install it:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=476924
It was a mistake because I got my names mixed up (I thought 7.10 was Feisty Fawn). Therefore i ran the script, telling it that I was running Feisty Fawn. After that, Flash worked great in Firefox.
Later, Ubuntu tells me that nspluginwrapper is out of date. After updating that, I started getting the grey out that people have talked about.
My solution was to remove nspluginwrapper with Synaptic (and probably any other flash-related packages installed) and run the script in the thread above. Then, avoid the new update for that damn plugin wrapper
Flash Gordon
On ...
The Temptation - My GirlThanks to the great Ubuntu people, I now have Flash working for Firefox. The Automatix version didn't work at all (a known issue, probably should be fixed).
At the forums, someone made a script to install everything:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=476924
And the video I watched to test it: The Temptation - My Girl
i play in the river
On ...
Credence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon RisingAs expected my Iriver works great in Ubuntu. That firmware upgrade just might be the greatest thing ever (except sex).
ubuntu x64 pt 2
On ...
Conan O'Brian and some annoying animal kidAfter restarting, ndiswrapper apparently did not start automatically. I re-ran these two commands, and hopefully I won't have to do it again:
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m
I might have had a typo on the second command the first time (I think I typed a instead of m. I should sleep).
Holy crap, this animal kid on Conan has a little baby two-headed turtle.
Back to the story.
Next, I installed Automatix. It was absolutely as easy as could be. I found lots of fun stuff to install with that.
After that, Ubuntu told me it had updates to download and install, and that took about 15 minutes.
Next, I'm installed gnome-compiz-manager from synaptic. Now I have more control over some of the fun gnome stuff, though I still think wobbly windows is annoying. It gives me a headache. I do like the rotating cube.
Ubuntu x64 pt I Section A v. 1
On ...
I installed Ubuntu x64 on my new desktop today, and so far so good.
I installed drivers my Netgear WG311v3 wireless card first. It was pretty easy because I already had the windows drivers. I followed these directions exactly:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Device/Netgear_WG311_v3
I was sure to grab the 64 bit version of ndiswrapper.
Wireless worked immediately. This was so much easier than my old d-link card.
Next, I wanted to install the drivers for my Nvidia card. Ubuntu makes this easy with their restricted drivers menu option. Unfortunately it didn't work the first time. It complained about not having nvidia-glx-new enabled. I figured it wasn't even on here, but it should be in the repository. The solution was to enabled the restricted repositories in Synaptic. Then, in the restricted drivers window, hitting "enable" downloaded the packaged and installed.
Now all I have to do is restart. Be back soon.
em pee tree pwayer
On 2007-12-10 at 12/10/2007 10:25:00 PM...
Jens Lekman - Pocketful of MoneyIn my continuing saga with XP x64, I present my most excellent solution on how to get my iriver ifp-890 mp3 player to work.
I was still using the original firmware that came with it (part of the "if it ain't broke" mentality). Unfortunately, the drivers from the website did not agree with my fresh new 64 bit operating system.
I rad read some time earlier about someone who hacked this mp3 player to make it appear as any other usb storage device. Turns out it wasn't a hack at all, but instead a firmware upgrade from iriver.
Lucky for me, I still have my laptop which works (if I didn't have that, I'd probably fail miserable at getting anything working). I downloaded the firmware here:
http://www.iriver.com/support/down_view.asp?idx=832
and followed their instructions here:
http://www.iriver.com/support/faq_view.asp?idx=252
It was almost too easy. Now my mp3 player shows up as any other usb storage device, and I can drag and drop files right inside of explorer. Plus, this as the added benefit of most likely working with Ubuntu right out of the box.
I got 64-bit problems but a bitch ain't one
On 2007-12-08 at 12/08/2007 08:56:00 PM...
I just built a new computer. My old one was, well, getting old, and I need a new project to work on. I ordered everything off of newegg.com (I'm reusing my hard drives, monitor, and wireless card). Here's a quick rundown of the setup:
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB RAM
ASUS P5N-E SLI Motherboard
Nvidia 512 MB something-or-other
black case with a bug honkin' fan
First things first, I had to backup my main hard drive. I've done this a couple times in the past, and luckily I've adopted the habit of saving everything personal in My Documents. That helped. Using my old hard drive, I was able to boot into Ubuntu (but not XP), and backup worked fine after remounting my hard drives.
Next I restarted and popped in my XP cd. It installed no problem, but when I tried installing my Dlink 520e wireless card, it complained about a memory conflict. My best guess was that with 2 GB of ram and 512 MB memory card, XP might be having trouble allocating memory address to everything. The only thing I knew to do was try out some 64 bit operating systems.
Lucky for me, IU's CS department has an awesome deal with Microsoft that lets me download tons of software for free. It's called the MSDN Academic Alliance, and through that I downloaded XP 64-bit version.
I burnt it to a cd and booted up, but I ran into another problem. When the XP installer tried to format my hard drive, it game me this error:
Setup Cannot Format the Partition
Your computer may not have enough memory to examine the drives, or your windows CD may contain some corrupted files.
Well crap. About an hour of Googling found me this site:
http://www.planetamd64.com/index.php?showtopic=8567
Apparantely this cd doesn't always work on CD-RW drives, but it will work fine in DVD drives. I popped the cd in my DVD-RW drive, changed my boot order, and lo-and-behold it worked.
Install went fine, and soon enough I was running XP x64. I ran into some problems with the cd my motherboard came with. The autorun program would crash when I ran it. Instead, I browsed the cd and ran the installers manually.
Next I tried installing my Dlink wireless card. The installer ran fine, but the drivers did not work. Turns out this card is just old enough for Dlink to not care about writing 64 bit drivers for. Seems my only solution was to buy a new wireless card (no reason to go back to 32 bit now because I'll probably run into the same problem).
I ran to Best Buy after watching IU kill Kentucky. I found on Best Buy's website a Dlink card that definitely had 64 bit drivers (and worked automatically in Ubuntu!), but of course the store did not have it in stock. I took a gamble on the cheapest Netgear ($45) and ran home. Just my luck, Netgear doesn't like 64 bit either. Lucky for me, planetamd64.com came through again:
http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php?t28765.html
Turns out the chip manufacturer for Netgear is nicer than Netgear, and after downloading this driver, it worked just fine:
1. Go to:
http://www.skd.de/e_en/support/driver_searchresults.html?navanchor=&term=typ.treiber+produkt.SK-54C1&produkt=produkt.SK-54C1&typ=typ.treiber&system=
2. Click on "Download" for "SK-54C1 Windows XP and 2000 x64 driver".
3. Accept, download, extract.
4. Install Driver.
5. "Continue Anyways"
6. It Works!
With wireless, I can finally start downloading Windows updates. I'm currently grabbing SP2 (I downloaded it on my laptop while running other updates, because I'm fast like that).
This is more of a note to myself, because I will likely have to do this again some time in the future. Let me know if any of this info was helpful.
After XP is fine and happy, I'll start working on Ubuntu (64-bit baby!)