R810 on duckland.org

Check-in, 2024-01

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 04:00:00 -0700

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

Quick nmcli notes

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 19:38:42 -0700

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.

Home Network Updates

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 21:51:50 -0700

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.

Goodbye 2014!

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:44:55 -0700

As 2014 draws to a close, I look back at the year.

Overall, it was a good year. The family staid reasonably health (just a case of the flu which every one of us caught).

Work slowed down a bit after only three trips, and the last one was in June, but I did get to spend two weeks in London which was cool. While the work has been not what I really want to be doing, it has been interesting, and next year promises to be very interesting. I have no clue if travel is in the cards or not, but I will keep the camera handy.

FreeBSD Switch

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 04:07:42 -0700

I just noticed I have not updated this in a few weeks. Sorry about that.

I have my R810 running PCBSD 10.0.2, and I just patched and configured WiFi on it. I need to figure out how to submit a patch to see if I can get the Centrino supported in the main-line kernel so I do not have to compile a custom kernel just for that.

I almost have this working where I can switch to it full time. I need to deal with getting my killer apps installed and working. I had most (all?) of them working before, so I know I can do it again.

Back to FreeBSD (maybe back to the challenge)

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:06:09 -0700

So, I had a bit of time over the weekend, and spent it doing a bit of hacking around.

I had re-installed PC-BSD on my HP EliteBook R810. I used 10.0.2, and everything but the wireless looked good. I decided to try to get the wireless working with the internal WNIC. Previously, I used an external dongle to get WiFi working, but it was a pain to remember to pull it out, so I decided to try again.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 12-15

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:03:20 -0700

Half-way point.

Much progress made in the world of a bootable USB stick to get my new-fangled WiFi chip working. I was able to make a new image, wrote it to a new USB stick, booted it, and was able to successfully scan for my Access Points! W00t!

Tomorrow, I will take the second laptop (HP EliteBook Revolve 810), and load it with 10-Release (slightly patched). I do not expect everything to work (it has a touch screen), but enough should work that I can start using it for the daily driver. Having real wifi will help a lot.