netconsole

Yet another mechanism to get the kernel debug messages is netconsole which sends the messages over Ethernet. You would not be able to get those early printks or crashes but it is useful nonetheless.

Setting up netconsole is fairly easy. You can either pass the netconsole parameters at the boot time or enable it after the machine has booted using modprobe.

Setting netconsole using boot parameters

Add the following parameter to the kernel boot string

netconsole=[s-port]@[s-ip]/[dev],[t-port]@[t-ip]/[t-mac]

s-port = source port, default is 6665

s-ip = source IP address

dev = device (eth0, eth1 ...)

t-port = target port, default is 6666

t-ip = target  IP address

t-mac = target MAC address

For example:

netconsole=1234@10.1.1.152/eth0, 1235@10.1.1.153/11:22:33:44:55

Setting netconsole using modprobe

It is preferred to use modprobe instead of insmod

$ sudo modprobe netconsole netconsole="@/,@t-ip/"

For example:

$ sudo modprobe netconsole netconsole="@/,@10.1.1.153/"

Target (receiver) side 

Use netcat to get the messages

$ nc -l -u [t-port]

The full documentation on using the netconsole can be found in the "Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt" file in the kernel folder.

Online resources -  1, 2, 3 (some of these might be dated ... )

Kernel debugging using KGDB

KGDB is full integrated with the latest kernel. These instructions are for linux-2.6.31.12. Not sure if these will work for any previous or later versions.

1. make menuconfig and select the following
1. Select Kernel Hacking → KGDB: kernel debugging with remote gdb
1. Select KGDB: use kgdb over the serial console
2. Build the kernel
    make bzImage; make modules; sudo make modules_install
3. Install the kernel. Copy bzImage, System.map and .config into /boot
4. On another machine (say remote) where the serial null modem cable is connected, copy the entire kernel folder that you compiled on the target machine. 
5. Restart the target machine.  At the grub menu, select your kernel, edit it and add the following at the end of the kernel line:
    kgdboc=ttyS0,115200 kgdbwait
   This is assuming that you have a serial port and it is connected on ttyS0. Boot into your kernel. It will wait for gdb to connect.
6. On the remote machine, go in the kernel folder you copied over and debug vmlinx by starting gdb
1. gdb ./vmliux
2. Set the baud rate - (gdb) set remotebaud 115200
3. Connect to the target - (gdb) target remote /dev/ttyS0
4. Run the kernel - (gdb) continue

For more details, refer to the docbook on KGDB in the kernel documentation folder. Just do a make htmldocs to convert into a readable format. You would have to install xmlto first. sudo aptitude install xmlto should help.

Force fsck on reboot

If you want to force an fsck check on your drives on reboot do the following:

sudo touch /forcefsck
sudo shutdown -r now

Serial console debugging

Setting up the serial console

1. First find which devices are attached to the system

dmesg | grep "tty"

2. For the device found above (say ttyS0), create the /etc/event.d/ttyS0 file with the following contents

# ttyS0 - getty
#
# This service maintains a getty on ttyS0 from
# the point the system is started until it is
# shut down again.

start on runlevel 2
start on runlevel 3
start on runlevel 4
start on runlevel 5

stop on runlevel 0
stop on runlevel 1
stop on runlevel 6

respawn
exec /sbin/getty -L 115200 ttyS0 vt102

3. Edit /etc/securetty and add ttyS0

4. During reboot edit the kernel in grub menu (press 'e'). At the end of the kernel line add console=ttyS0,115200n8 tty1

5. Boot into your kernel

6. Once you log in, if you want all the dmesg output to go on the serial console do the following:
sudo tail -f /var/log/kern.log > /dev/ttyS0

Setting up the client

1. Open minicom and set the port as the one you are talking on, it could be ttySn or ttyUSBn depending on if you are using a serial port or a USB to serial converter. (e.g. ttyS0, ttyUSB0)

2. Set the setting as 115200 baud, 8 bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, no flow control

Update: There is another program called gtkterm if you don't fancy the command line applications. Also I would recommend using konsole to run minicom within as it supports unlimited buffer, which can be very useful if you are trying to look at the /var/log/kern.log of the target machine, for example.

Update (Apr 20, 2010): Only if you want to have a serial console (like a bash on the serial port) should you do the getty for ttyS0. If you just want all the kernel message sent to the terminals just do the following:

 # echo 8 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk

Read this article for more details on kernel oops.

Texmaker

Texmaker is yet another GUI centric tool for LaTeX and a pretty good one. The latest edition (1.9.9) has been spruced up and looks pretty neat. One of the best features in Texmaker that is not available in other tools like Kile, LyX,  is the online spell-check. For a person like me who makes a billion spelling mistakes, the online spell-check is a savior. Texmaker is available across platforms for free. Check the download page for more details.

For Ubuntu users

$ sudo aptitude install texmaker

HDR Photography open source tool

Luminance HDR is an open-source tool for creating HDR images (for example). The idea is to take multiple shots with varying exposure across the dynamic range and then merge all of these together to create one beautiful HDR image.

The package name is called qtpfsqui and it is available via Ubuntu's package manager. I have not installed it yet, would be doing it later. I am waiting to get a tripod first. :)

Graphical SVN clients on Ubuntu

Two ways of doing it.

Kdesvn: (http://kdesvn.alwins-world.de/) - A client that works well with GNOME as well.

But, the winner is:

RabbitVCS: (http://rabbitvcs.org/). RabbitVCS integrates with Nautilus and works like glue. People used to TortoiseSVN on Windows won't miss a thing. Easy to configure and use.

On the same note, if you are looking for free hosting service for your project look at Unfuddle (for a free single user private account) or Google project hosting if you are looking for open-source.

PC Speaker

If you are getting mad by the sound of the PC Speaker while you are working in the console mode, kill it before it drives you mad.

sudo rmmod pcspkr

Update: It is better to do,

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

Latex tip - how to include graphics

Tools

First convert your PNG file to EPS format. For that the png2eps can be used. To make png2eps work you would need to install the following:

1. pngcheck (part of netpbm)
2. pngtopnm (part of netpbm)
3. pnmtotiff (part of netpbm)
4. tiff2ps (part of libtiff-tools)
5. sed basename bc (should come default with your distro)

$ sudo aptitude install pngcheck libtiff4 libtiff-tools netpbm
$ wget http://www.henlich.de/media/png2eps/png2eps
$ chmod a+x png2eps
$ ./png2eps myimage.png > myimage.eps

Using graphics

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{article}
\usepackage{graphics}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{figure}
\caption{some figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[bb=0 0 438 476]{myimage.eps}
\end{center}
\end{figure}

NOTE: Although I prefer PNG, if you have a jpj file, the jpg2eps tool can be used.

[Source: A PNG to EPS convertor, Images in LaTeX]

Update:
I have found it much easier to create illustrations in Dia and export them directly in the eps format. Dia is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Empathy has a long way to go!

The new IM client on 9.10, Empathy, is not at all impressive or may I say that I am so used to Pidgin that I had to switch back.

What is bad?

1. Notification mechanism - when someone pings you, the new chat window does not show up but is hidden in the notification area, which is really weird
2. Does not give too many options under preferences
3. You can't search for contacts while they are offline (which is required because most of the people are invisible these days)
4. You can't add a buddy pounce
5. Empathy would always remember your password. If you tell it not to, it won't log you in and once you give your password, it stays there. (this is really weird)
6. You can't close a conversation with the ESC key

The GREAT news is that Pidgin now supports voice and video, so can someone please tell me why they hell did Gnome decide to dump Pidgin for Empathy :-o

How to install Pidgin?

sudo aptitude install pidgin pidgin-themes pidgin-facebookchat pidgin-musictracker

Latex tip - don't forget to run bibtex

If you compile your .tex file and end up seeing an error ".bbl could not be located", after you open the .dvi file generated, you will notice that the reference section is missing. This is because in the first run LaTeX created the .aux file which needs to be fed to Bibtex which will generate the .bbl file.

So,

#1 $ latex source.tex
#2 $ bibtex source.aux (generated in Step #1)
#3 $ latex source.tex

Kile does this in one shot, it is able to figure out that bibtex needs to be run in the middle.

Q: Is there any another way to do this in one shot from the command line?

Sqlite

SQLite is a C library that implements an SQL database engine. Programs that link with the SQLite library can have SQL database access without running a separate RDBMS process. (src: aptitude show sqlite)

To install sqlite on Ubuntu

$ sudo aptitude install sqlite3

Help
SQLite documentation,
SQLite in 5 minutes or less,
Using SQLite for simple database storage
C\C++ API reference

Ubuntu 9.10 is here

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala is here. Download now or upgrade from existing installation.

Check the upgrade notes before going for an upgrade.

[Source: Upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10]

1. Start System/Administration/Update Manager
2. Click the Check button to check for new updates
3. If there are any updates to install, use the Install Updates button to install them, and press Check again after that is complete
4. A message will appear informing you of the availability of the new release
5. Click Upgrade
6. Follow the on-screen instructions

On the blog-sphere

LifeHacker, Slashdot, LinuxInsider,LinuxToday, ZDNet, TheRegister