IRL Status Page

2002 Archive

11/23/02
- Installed and configured Mozilla 1.3 (alpha) on baldwin. On request, I can install baldwin locally on any solaris machine in the mills group. Launching performance for mozilla was dramatically improved over launching it from the server "nfs" in the department.
- Work has begun to connect the mills group to the 6BONE. (www.6bone.net)
- Mark finally came and threw out his old monitor. Yay!
- Got flash and java (1.4.1) working on the local copy of mozilla.
- /etc/nsswitch.conf on albert has been configured to allow albert to operate without NIS. This tested and works. Serial consoles are now always available as long as albert has power.
- Had another shot at configuring and compiling GateD, but the included parsing rules for the configuration (I assume) are bad, and the setup gives pre-compilation errors that I pretty much stand no chance of fixing on my own.
- General cleaning.
- Re-ran some of porkypine's ethernet cabling to make the room look less cluttered. I'm still looking for a good place to permanently house porkypine.
11/16/02
- Compiled, printed, and attached an information sheet to bunnylou.
- Cleaned up more cabling.
- I would just like to make a note for posterity that Mark still hasn't picked up his trashy monitor.
- Compiled a new kernel for albert that has more robust routing support for the eventual installation of some manner of RIP routing package, maybe GateD or Zebra. The new kernel is not installed.
- More general cleaning
11/11/02
- Moved albert to its own switch port on 121-3 B.
- Broke down the nasty serial breakout to make life neater.
- Moved roogey to its own switch port on 121-4 A.
- Cleaned bookshelf above snavely in preparation for moving bunnylou to beside snavely.
- I have removed myself from /etc/sudoers on cowbird. I am a member of group "root" so I don't need it and it's a security risk should my password be compromised.
- I have removed myself from /etc/sudoers on bunnylou.
- Bunnylou has been moved. It is now currently positioned in Snavely's old spot, and snavely has been bumped a slot to the left. Bunnylou is now connected to 121-5 (A or B, can't recall. Snavely's the other one).
- Took off (at great exasperation) bunnylou's old melted feet and replaced them with new feet obtained from Chuck.
- Rigged up a new extension cable so we can get at bunnylou's console in its new location. I need a better cable but it'll be a day or two before I can get/make one.
- Porkypine is currently the last machine on the center bench in the lab.
11/9/02
- Made a serial patch panel for all of albert's breakout cables to keep things neat and tidy.
11/8/02
- Tested all the hot ports in the lab, and noted that port 121-4 A has been fixed (It had a bad pin in the box.)
- Got Ben to light up 121-3 A and B.
- ~~Stole~~ Borrowed a bunch of network equipment from Ben. Hopefully he won't ask for it back, since it's great to be able to swap out components like AUI transceivers and hubs when I suspect a problem. We now have a handful of extra transceivers and a 10baseT fixed-speed 8-port hub as backups if the network goes wonky at 2AM.
- Talked to M. Davis about GateD. He said talk to Ben, but I didn't get a chance before the end of the day. I'll be investigating things on my own over the weekend, most likely, or with Ben on Monday.
- Fixed snavely's ethernet port. (Attached a repeater to the port to buffer between snavely and the switch -- Snavely doesn't autonegotiate happily, and will complain bitterly about it in the form of slow network traffic.)
- Moved cowbird to its own switch port (121-3 A) and to the corner of the room behind my desk -- The center of the room looks much nicer now!
- Machines still on the hub are albert, roogey, bunnylou, and porkypine. I'll be working on getting more off as I can get to it, since it requires Ben Miller's help with the routing and whatnot.
- Configured cowbird with "set ethernet tenbt" in PROM to use the onboard Lance 10baseT transceiver. No more AUI dongle!
- Configured bunnylou the same way with the 10baseT. All of the non-necessary AUI dongles in the lab have been retired. Bunnylou gives on boot:
```
Configuring network                                                             
hostname: bunnylou.udel.edu                                                     
Nov  9 02:44:31 gated[100]: inet_init: *WARNING* IP forwarding disabled!        
Loading LMF licenses                                                            
Nov  9 02:44:31 gated[100]: rt_add: interface not found for 127.0.0.1/255.255.2l
Nov  9 02:44:31 gated[100]: KRT READ REMNANT 127.0.0.1       mask 255.255.255.2e
```
- Set up a nice supply cabinet in the lab.
- Did a lot of cleaning, including scraping the crap that cowbird's melting feet leave on everything they touch. Eww.
- Taped up a nice paper mat for cowbird to sit on so it doesn't keep leaving nasties everywhere.
- Dealt with the HUGE box of power cables that's been laying in here for nearly a year. They're now in a drawer so they're neatly tucked away.
- Replaced our large, noisy (fan noise) hub with a smaller, fan-less hub that makes life more pleasant for me sitting in here. The loudest thing in the lab is still snavely, but once I ~~smash it with a sledge~~ find a way to quiet it down, life will be good.
- Called Mark to complain about him leaving his trashy 17" monitor in here for me to deal with. He pledges that he will remove it. I am skeptical.
- Made a shopping list to keep track of stuff that we need. I'm going to have to make a run to Happy Harry's soon.
- Wrote this web page to keep everyone abreast of what's going on. Done in emacs-21 as XHTML-4, completely to spec.