Time Has Past

Hum…it has been almost 6 months since I last posted here, And only two total last year. Not very good record on my part.

The ${JOB} has not change, still building Linux stuff for a large bank. The family is still doing well. And the weather sucks. It is currently 27F (-2C) with a windchill nocking it even colder. This time, it supposed to only be 36-48 hours, unlike two years ago

This is a quick post so I can remember these details.

So, on the R810, I am currently running ArchLinux, which uses by default NetworkManager, which I have a love/hate relationship with. At my last job, I recommended removing it from our servers, as under RHEL6, it does very odd things to the network and is hard to manage. I have heard that it is better under RHEL7. But, it does let you do some really cool things. On the R810, there is a cellular modem, and on previous installes, I have had it configured and scripted using nmcli to easily bring up and down the cellular connections.

So, in the last couple of weeks, I have had the following issues:

• The CMOS battery dies on my file-server (a FreeNAS box), taking it, and the zpools down with it. I fought over a long weekend to recover the data, and in the end, got it mounted read-only, and copied it off. New hardware, and new zpools, and we seem to be going again. Recovering services is taking a bit of time.
• There is a bug with the ZFS on Root for Antergos Linux. Seems that it does not put all the kernel drivers in the init image when you upgrade. Last time, I booted off the instal media to fix it. I lost that USB stick, so I downloaded a new one. Guess what? They have turned that feature off ZFS, so there is no way to recover. Since FreeBSD still does not support suspend/resume on the Acer C720 that is my small travel laptop, I have to reinstall Antergos and reload my data. Which I had to do because
• My main laptop, the HP R810G1 seems to be having major battery issues. I bought a new battery in Novembers, and it died. I bought a new one a couple of weeks ago, and it at first did not seem to be holding a charge. Now, the OS does not see the battery. I think I might need a ’new’ laptop.

I am torn between getting something one or two reves old with a solid record in the size I want (sub 13", under 1" thin, and good 6+ hours of battery) or the latest shiny.