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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1><font color="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</font></H1>
<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike "Iron" Orr</a></H4>
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<H2>Horror Story</H2>
By <A HREF="mailto:CraigR@servex.com.au">Craig Reeson</A>
<P> Here's a quick horror story for you.
I was recently admin-ing one of my Linux servers. This server is the
company print server.
What had happened was a user was connected to a legacy system via a
terminal program. Somewhere along the line there was a screwup and his
system starting dumping lots of extraneous data to the nearest printer. The
user tried to power-cycle the printer to no avail. Thankfully, they came to
me next to try and resolve the problem.
<P> Anyway, I ssh'd into the Linux box, changed to the 'spool/' directory and
did an 'ls' of the appropriate folder. After noting that there were a few
hundred print jobs waiting in the print queue I decided it was best if I
just deleted them all...
<P> Here is where the proverbial hit the spinning thing!
<P> ...I decided to 'rm -rf *' all the files. The problem is I did it from the
'spool/' directory rather than the proper printer directory. This had the
effect of deleting everything in my system spool directory!
<P> After realising my error I tried to fix it. First thing was trying "unrm".
This did not work as I could not read from the filesystem without errors.
Next I tried using a boot floppy and trying 'unrm' again. But no that would
not work because I could not get the RAID array to be recognised!!! Tried a
few other options until I gave up and decided it was time for an "upgrade".
<P> Problem solved after 3 hours :)
<H2></H2>
By <A HREF="mailto:craigshelley@yahoo.com">Craig Shelley</A>
<P> After buying an all-on-board style PC and installing linux, I wanted to
try out a dual-headed configuration. This was mainly because I found
myself with a spare graphics card and monitor. I plugged in the new
graphics card, and realised that the super complex modular BIOS system
was automatically disabling interrupts from the on-board graphics
system. According to the manual, it was impossible to turn off this
'feature'. Then I had an idea!
<P> The idea was that if the new graphics card could be disabled while
booting, the BIOS may ignore it. Then, I could re-enable the card for
normal use.
<P> After studying the PCI bus pinout and specs, I decided to disconnect the
reset line from the graphics card using a sharp screwdriver to destroy
the track. I then re-connected the reset line through a switch, and then
down to the ground connection. (Reset is Active Low)
<P> Using the switch I could disable the card, but it then became
impossible to re-enable it because the PC could not reset it when it
wanted to. I then decided to connect a resistor across the broken track
so that the card could also be reset by the PC, and my switch would not
affect anything else.
<P> The switch was neatly mounted on the metal back plate of the card, and
can be switched when required.
<P> Using the switch, I put the card into reset mode, booted the PC, then
turned the card back on, and found myself with two working monitors ;-) ;-)
<P> Also, have you ever wondered how to get out of the situation where X
does not return VGA text mode? Adding one of these switches to your card
solves this problem.
<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%%"> <!--*********************** -->
<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
[If you have a story about something foolish or ingenious you
did to your computer, send it to
<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A>-Iron.]
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he has
to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux enthusiast
since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
Non-computer interests include Ska/Oi! music and the international language
Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
hahaha.</EM>
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
Copyright © 2002, Mike "Iron" Orr.<BR>
Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
Published in Issue 76 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, March 2002</H5>
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