So for several years and several providers (Verizon DSL, Comcast Cable, and until recently Time Warner Cable), I’ve been running a small laptop as a web host.  It runs WordPress, Mediawiki, some static pages, and some other applications that I use (like MyTinyTodo).  I’ve also used it to host FTP for large files that I couldn’t attach to an e-mail, and many many other uses. It has proved a geeks invaluable tool. I used dyndns.org to keep up with any IP changes (which has happened a total of three times in five or six years). Now my upstream traffic is tiny and is probably not even noticed. The site gets very few visitors and viewing my web stats only a few MB per day worth of traffic. It was nice to have the ability to reach my home from the public internet.

Recently due to some changes, Time Warner has blocked incoming connections to my little server (I can’t even SSH to my home anymore) (and reading their fine print on their service they do not allow users to “run servers”). So while this pisses me off, I’m actually getting ready to physically move (again) from NC to NY so was considering hosting my sites anyway.

I went with the super budget hosting (iPage.com). In the event that I don’t like it, I can pay for a more expensive hosting solution, but I just needed basic transfer, MySQL, PHP5 and some tools to manage it with.  I also took good notes on things that worked and things that didn’t and kept good backups of my work and will continue to take backups of databases and file structure so I can move easily.

I didn’t transfer my domains, just updated their nameservers to the new hosting company. This in essence commoditized hosting as I can move at will to the provider which provides me what I need at what I am willing to pay (granted there is some elbow grease involved in the process).

Here is what I had to do:

Static Files – FTP them to the correct directory, point the subdomain to that directory, update nameservers on the Domain Manager on GoDaddy.

WikiMedia – a little more complex and I possibly could have simplified things – install new version of WikiMedia (create database, etc.), perform export on old server, perform import on new server, point subdomain to correct directory, update nameservers on GoDaddy. I also moved the extensions by simply moving the extension directory over and adding the extensions in LocalSettings.php … there are some files that I will move manually and one of my extensions isn’t working properly (probably a version issue with the new version of MediaWiki, but I bet I can fix that one by hand (sometimes coding is actually fun)).

MyTinyTodo – expand tar file, move database (export from old server, import to new server), run setup … super easy, point subdomain to correct directory

WordPress – followed instructions here – there were some limitations on the size of the SQL Import on my new hosting company (via their phpMyAdmin version) so moving the database had to happen in parts (the one large table had to be broken up into 8MB segments (I just used vi)), but it’s done now – point subdomain to correct directory, copy MX records and some other domain specific (subdomain) information from my old nameservers (dyndns.org) to the hosting company, update nameservers on GoDaddy.

Overall it was not too complicated. If you are methodical about the process you can move from one hosting company to another with little trouble and minimum downtime (or like I did from your own host to a hosted solution).

The battery life, while I do get a solid 5 or 6 hours of constant use out of it, could be a bit longer. The 1000HE looks to fit that bill with an advertised 9 hours. I bought a car charger for the EeePC on eBay for $8 + $3 S&H have have charged it in the car a couple of times while on the road.

The WiFi on the EeePC works as well as my MacBook Pro and much better than my wife’s Dell Inspiron Laptop.

I’ve adapted to the keyboard, but I do have to agree with those that say it is tiny. I have only used OpenOffice to draft a document a few times because typing more than a page of text is cumbersome. If it was my only computer, I could live with it, but when I need to create some serious content, I usually just use one of my Macs.

I did have one other problem, which because I purchased it from Amazon was not as big a problem as it could have been. I had a hardware issue with the video card on the mother board (at least that’s what my experience indicates (and Asus Technical Support agreed)). Asus said I could RMA it and they would either fix it or send me a new one but I would be without it while they made that determination. They suggested that I use the return policy of who I bought it from. The Amazon return policy is great. They shipped me a new one. I just had to ship my initial EeePC back within 30 days. This gave me plenty of time to compare them head-to-head and to copy settings, content, etc. from the defective one to the new one.

Before doing that I compared the default Fedora install and Eeebuntu. The Fedora install boots and wakes from sleep much faster. Opening applications on them is identical and I didn’t notice any incompatibilities on the internet or using hardware between the two. I’m hoping that Jaunty will catch up (one of the core improvements in Jaunty will be boot and wake speed).

Overall, I’m very pleased with the purchase. I really like Eeebuntu but I may be jaded as I run it on several other PCs and like to tinker under the hood. I also recommend upgrading the memory to 2GB for any operating system you are running if you plan on multi-tasking (or running Tweetdeck with a memory leak over a weekend).

I’ll attempt to describe all that I had to do to get it installed and go into some of the customizations or additions I’ve made and why.

Installing Eeebuntu was not very difficult but I did have a few challenges and even did a re-install to change the default partitioning to use both SSD drives.

The first problem I came across was that I could not boot from the USB stick I created using another Ubuntu box I had which is running 8.10. I changed the settings in the BIOS to boot from the USB stick first, but it still wasn’t booting. I read online that if you press ESC during the initial splash screen that you can choose the boot device, which is true. However, even when I did that and selected the USB stick it still wouldn’t boot from the USB stick.

I had an old PC that I was cannibalizing for parts and I had a USB to IDE adapter (which has come in handy before), so I took the old DVD player out of my old PC and used that to install Eeebuntu NBR (2.0).

During the install, the GUI in which you make all your selections in is larger than the screen so the Back and OK buttons can not be reached. That was  easy to overcome, but is nevertheless a minor annoyance.

My first install was just accepting the defaults and went very smooth. The machine came up clean and I poked around for a while. The main issue I had with the default install and using the “Guided” partition setup is that it installed  the entire system on the larger of the two SSD drives on the system (the 901 Linux version comes with two SSD drives, a 4GB and a 16GB). It didn’t even format or mount the second SSD. I decided that I would reinstall the system and put everything but the /home directory (and swap) on the 4GB drive. I also called my local PC store and they said that a 2GB upgrade for my EeePC was only $34.99 so I ran out and picked up the memory.

The memory install was a snap and not even worth going into.

For the second install I put the / mount point on the entire 4GB disk, created a 15GB primary partition for the /home directory and left the remainder of the second SSD drive for swap in a logical partition (I think it was just under 1GB).

The first problem I came across was during the system update, I was getting a message that some of the repositories had an unknown public key and therefore were not being updated. I think this was an oversight of the Eeebuntu repository so I did some searching and determined that I had to add the key for that repository:

sudo gpg --armor --export <INSERT KEY HERE> | sudo apt-key add -

After this, all updates completed successfully.

I have to say that I really like NBR launcher. It’s slick and easy to customize. It works very well with the EeePC form factor. I like the Eeebuntu distro much more than the OOB Xandros distribution, but there are some tweaks that have to be added if you want to use some of the hardware features.

The next step was to install the eee-control tool set and set it to load on restart. The eee-control tools allow you to assign actions to the silver hotkeys, turn on and off hardware (wifi, bluetooth, webcam, SD card reader), and control the system performance mode (which is a requirement, in my mind, to take advantage of the Atom processor and get decent battery life). To add the eee-control system tray icon add an entry to the Session in the Control Center.

Once I was satisified with my install I installed the following applications:

1. Gnome Do
2. Skype
3. Songbird
4. Gnome games
5. Tomboy

I removed:

1. Banshee
2. Gnome PPP and other PPP utilities
3. gtkpod and other iPod utilities

Overall, the installation process was not unexpectedly difficult based upon prior experience with Linux (I started with Slackware and kernel 0.82 in 1993) and Ubuntu. It’s still not Windoze but I doesn’t come with all the problems that you get with Windoze.

My biggest gripe at this point is the trackpad issue. The trackpad is super sensitive and it’s very easy to inadvertantly touch it with your thumb when typeing (even more so with this form factor as the keyboard is tiny and one thumb has to be tucked under the other while typing). I tried several options that I found on the eeebuntu forums including uninstalling eee-control and installing eee-acpi-utilities, enabeling the kernel module for the elantech touchpad, and any combination of the above. I still haven’t found a solution to that issue, but I did revert back to eee-control and set one of the hotkeys to disable the touchpad. It’s a solution, but I would prefer to have  the option of disabling the touchpad while typing which is an option with the Xandros distro and workes with some of the other EeePCs that have a different trackpad.

I’ll continue to see if I can find a solution for the touchpad issue and post as soon as I do. If anyone has a solution for the 901 using Eeebuntu or easy peasy please let me know.

Specs:

• 12″ PowerBook G4 1.33 GHz
• 256 MB RAM
• 80 GB Hard Drive

I was able to replace the Hard Drive rather easily by following the instructions at iFixit. I wanted to do a compare of speeds of doing normal tasks so I tried to install Leopard, but after the DVD spinning for a few hours I learned that the minimum requirements for Leopard is 512 MB RAM.

I downloaded the PowerPC Port of Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 LTS and burned it to a DVD. I put it in the DVD drive and rebooted (as there was nothing on the Hard Drive I didn’t even have to force it to boot from the optical drive). It came up with the live image (basically running the OS off of the DVD Drive) but when I went to install it was painfully slow.  I figured I just didn’t have enough memory for the OS and the installation program (256 MB is not much memory at all). I did find that there is an alternate image which has a text based installer so I downloaded that and repeated the process.

The PowerBook came up clean with the text installer.  I accepted all the defaults and let it rip. It took a little over an hour for the install and the Mac came up with Ubuntu. The wireless card wasn’t working so I used the physical network and did a full update using the included update manager. After the update, the wireless card worked (I’m assuming it was an updated driver module in the kernel).

I’ve been playing with it for a few days. My only real complaint is that I seem to be stuck in 8 or 16-bit color mode (the desktop image has a series of concentric rings). I can’t really tell when browsing the web and images and videos look full color to me.  However, I’ve been browsing the Web, watching YouTube videos, and editing documents in OpenOffice Write and have been pleasently pleased with the speed.  If anyone knows how to get it into 24-bit color mode drop me a note.

The first order of business was to update my Mac and iPhone and they were pretty easy and benign (and the latest iPhone upgrade rocks).  I applied all the updates to several Windoze computers or Virtual Machines, and performed all the updates for the various flavors of Linux running around the house.  No problems with the basic updates.  Everything went as planned.

The next order of business was to upgrade my desktop to Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibix) from 8.04 (Hardy Heron).  This didn’t go as smooth as I had hoped and was not as smooth as my previous experiences with Ubuntu release upgrades (I had even upgraded a virtual machine running on VMWare Fusion on my MacBook at work with zero problems).  It turned out that my video cards (it’s a gaming machine pulling double duty as an Ubuntu desktop) were configured in SLI and the driver installed with 8.10 didn’t support my cards (2x Nvidia GEForce 8600 GT).  It took quite a bit of messing around, but I finally determined I needed to download the latest (beta) driver from Nvidia, compile and install, and also make one change to the configuraion file (I needed to add a BusId “1:0:0″ line to the Device section of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file).  This complete, I upgraded to OpenOffice 3.0, installed Songbird, Gnome Do, Avant, and a few other odds and ends.  Overall was not too big of a hassle, but I can imageine if I wasn’t familiar with downloading drivers and compileing them I would have been up a creek.  With that said, at least there were drivers…

Even though I had that problem with the desktop, I upgraded my MythTv box (Mythbuntu) and another Ubuntu desktop with no problems.  I decided to leave my Webserver (blackcow) as it is running Ubuntu 8.04 which is a LTS or Long Term Support release and the laptop isn’t doing much but sitting under my desk serving up the occasional blog entry.

I did upgrade my WordPress version on blackcow with no problems (which prompted me to write this blog entry).

HDTV

So, I’ve been configuring my Mythbox as I have time.  Some of my hardware arrived late, but I put together the basic PC the first weekend, installed Ubuntu and did a burn-in (I am very happy with how quiet it runs).  My HDHomerun arrived a few days later and decided to interrupt my burn-in. I installed Mythbuntu and attempted to configure it. I hooked up my coax cable to the HDHomerun and ran a Cat5 to my switch and I was able to see it immediately in the MythTV configuration utility. I did a channel scan and was surprised to have 80 unencrypted hits. My jaw dropped, I had 80 HD channels over basic (analog) cable?

I need to backup here a bit and explain what I had learned through the internet and from a flier that I picked up at the local Comcast office, but even with the flier in my hand, I could not get a Comcast salesperson to give me a straight answer. It clearly states in the brochure that:

HDTV broadcast signals are included with subscription to Limited Basic Service. To receive other HDTV signals provided by the Company, an HDTV capable television set (not provided by the Company), Standard Service and an HDTV digital converter and remote are required. In addition to receive Expanded Service, Digital Starter, Digital Classic, Digital Preferred, Sports Enterntainment, Package or premium (i.e., HBO, Showtime) HDTV signals, a subscritpion to that service is required. (sic)

However, the salesperson was adamant that I needed to rent a digital cable box to get any HD (I did check and there is a Firewire out on the Scientific Atlanta box) even though it clearly states in the brochure that HDTV is included with the analog (limited basic) service (only the broadcast channels (NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and PBS)).

So, I was surprised and vindicated when I had 80 unencrypted hits. Unfortunately, I was soon to learn that some of those must be placeholders (for what I can’t imagine). I also can find NO information which channels are the networks, Fox, and PBS so I had to slowly change channels through all 80 and hope Myth didn’t crap out when there wasn’t actually any content on that channel. I have found the 5 19×8 (i) channels and plenty of upconverted 4×3 channels, but getting them to match up with the schedules from Schedules Direct is still somewhat of a mystery (help would be appreciated … please leave a comment). I do have to admit that watching the last few days of the Olympics in HD was very sweet … I’m still using a computer monitor as I haven’t convinced the wife to let me get an HDTV yet but the picture quality is great.

The remaining tasks are to install an analog capture card to get non-HD channels, figure out how to get the BlueRay drive working (if possible), get an HDTV (if possible), get the schedule to match up to the HD channels, and a few other odds and ends.

If anyone lives in the Blacksburg, VA area and has been able to decrypt the Comcast HDTV signals over the analog (limited basic) service, please drop me an e-mail or leave a comment here.

Mythbuntu

My DVD player, which is a Sony and only about 5 years old, is on the fritz.  My Tivo, likewise 5 years old, is showing heavy pixilation which I’m going to assume is related to it’s hard drive being 5 years old and having run 24×365 and starting to go (over 43,000 hours).  My (current) TV is standard definition, but I plan on upgrading to HDTV this Christmas (or sooner if my plans pan out). I wasn’t looking forward to the price of a set-top Blu-Ray player nor an HD Tivo, both of which would be limited to playing content only on the TV they were attached to, so I decided to go it alone and build a media center computer.

I poked around a lot and have setteled on an Ubuntu implmentation of MythTV called Mythbuntu. I seriously considered adding some stuff (a video capture card, larger hard drive, HDMI output, etc) to an older PC which I had just decomissioned and was planning on donating (wiped the hard drive and installed Ubuntu Hardy). However, after doing some research I decided to build a decently powered frontend/backend combination which will later be the hub of my content.  I’m going to be assembling the system this weekend and plan on tinkering a few days with it before moving it into the living room. I did my research and setteled on the following hardware:

• Micro ATX Case (Ultra Micro Fly) … may be a bit large, but I wanted plenty of room. I’m also concerned with the noise as I’ve returned a Ultra power supply in the past as I couldn’t think over the noise.
• EVGA e-7150 which has onboard HDMI, DVI, VGA as well as Optical and Coax S/PDIF
• Intel Q6600 (Quad @ 2.4GHz) as I want something with some horsepower which will not require a massive fan to keep it cool
• ZeroTHERM CPU Cooler
• 2GB 800MHz RAM
• 1TB Hard Drive
• Lite-On Blu-Ray Burner
• PCHDTV-5500 as one HD OR only SD capture card
• HDHomerun for 2 other HD captures

I plan on spending some time this weekend assembling and will blog my experience with setup of Mythbuntu, hardware and driver setup and the like.

Check back for more info soon….

Comcast

I’m not sure when this started happening, but I can’t seem to isolate the problem and I’m assuming that Comcast is to blame. I’m running this blog on a PC in my house connected to the interWeb via Comcast residential high speed Internet. I’m keeping DNS humming along using DynDNS even though my “dynamic” IP address (via DHCP) has not changed since the Adelphia to Comcast migration (and hadn’t changed on Adelphia prior to that migration). Even before I was running this blog, I had a wiki using MediaWiki running (it still is).

Here’s what’s happening….I can add a comment or a new wiki page (which is an HTTP POST transaction) from home or remotely (outside of my LAN). However, I’m limited to the size of my comments (or wiki pages) when I’m remote (outside of my LAN).  Once I get more than a paragraph or so in a comment (or a wiki page) and hit “send” my browser just hangs.  Incidentally, this also happens when creating a blog post while logged in to WordPress.

I decided to run a test and had tail running on my apache server logs.  I noticed that when remote and creating small posts that my Web server would see the transaction and it would be posted.  I followed this with a large post and my Web server never registered the hit and my browser just hung.

I know for a fact that I created and edited several of the large posts on the wiki when I was away from home, so I know that this “issue” is new, but I’m just not sure how new.

Anyone have any suggestions or have a similar problem? If so, please post a comment below, but keep it short as if it’s long it won’t be posted…..

What I’m getting at is that MobileMe does not support Linux.  I’m pretty sure it isn’t a compatibility or a features issue as if you spoof your browser using a well known FireFox extension (user agent switcher) you can get it to work, but why bother?  What is Apple saying to the non-Apple Hardware, non-Microsoft crowd out there?

I have an iPhone and a MacBookPro for work, but I’m pissed that I can’t have access to my address book from my eeePC or from any of my other Linux boxes.

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In an effort to clean up my URLs for my personal Web site as well as the wiki I have been running, I decided to add virtual hosting to my Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) box. The most difficult and time consuming part of it was keeping what I was doing straight.  I was frustrated as hell with it until I realized that I had to continualy clear my cache of my Firefox broswer when I wanted to test a new setting in the /etc/apache2/sites-available directory.

The process included:

1. enabling the virtual hosting module (a2enmod vhost_alias)
2. creating virtual host config files in /etc/apache2/sites-available
3. enabling the new virtual sites (a2ensite sitename)
4. restarting apache (apache2ctl restart)

I’ve created multiple domains now on this single server which point to different DocumentRoot directives in the sites-available directory (including boswellwiki.com, sidboswell.com, blog.sidboswell.com).

Prior to this, I had used my domain registrar to forward URL requests and in some places mask the true domain.  This never was really what I wanted so I’m glad that I spent the time to enable and figure out virtualization.

As I mentioned, I was a bit frustrated as I would make a minor change to test something, restart Apache and then reload from my browswer window to no avail.  I learned the hard way that sometimes it’s best to clear your cache when testing changes made on the server.