Setting up a Linux box as an iTunes Server redux

Following up on my post on Setting up a Linux box as an iTunes Server, it would appear that someone has taken alot of the hardwork out of setting this up. The Multi-Threaded DAAP Daemon has everything you need to get a linux box started as an iTunes server. All that’s needed is to install the software (available as RPMs for Fedora Core 1, Redhat Linux 9 and Debian), created a directory with the music in it, tell the configuration file where the mp3s are, and start the service. Away you go! And it also has a web interface for configuration as well.

Setting up a Linux box as an iTunes Server

Both Mac OS X Hints have articles on setting up a Linux box as an iTunes Server. Basically three things are required: the Apple Rendezvous multicast DNS advertiser, a daapd service and a Samba share called “music”. Very nice. This could solve the problem of having music spread across a couple of computers at home. Now all I need is a larger hard drive for my server.

Currently there are no rpm packages for Rendezvous or daapd, so I guess I could build some of those up during the week. Also of note (to perhaps put in the daapd package) is an init script for the daapd service.

Continue reading “Setting up a Linux box as an iTunes Server”

Weapons of Mass Distraction exhibition opening night

WOMD CrowdVarious game consolesNintendo PowergloveSharp Twin Famicom

So last night I hit up the Weapons of Mass Distraction exhibition opening night with Rozie, Adam, Thommy (sorry for making you miss the bus, sorry for giving you a lift there mate! :P) and Hal. BJ rocked up later as well. Absolutely heaps of consoles, Hanimex’s, Sega’s, Nintendo’s, ColecoVision’s, Intellivision’s and other systems I’ve never heard of or seen before. Crazy stuff. There was also artwork there from Caib, Shute, Boots, Sayno and others. Rozie even decided to buy one of the pieces. Wow, our first piece of bought art!

And there are photos of pretty much every console in the exhibtion in my gallery.

Netboot/Netinstalling Mac OS X with a Linux server

At the moment BJ’s old Apple Powerbook G3 laptop seems to have crapped out. It can’t boot off its hard drive (it times out and then eventually boots in read-only mode after a while) and booting off CD media seems to have just as pathetic results. I guess the hard drive, the DVD-ROM drive and possibly the entire ATA bus are ratshit.

Anyway, not being one to bow out of a challenge (or the jibes from my wife that I might have to get a “Mac Guy” to help me out, pffft), I’ve been looking into possibilites of getting this thing going. Being the kind of that I am in the line of work that I’m in, I instantly thought “Aha, network install. How hard can that be?” I do these everyday at work and their easy as all hell.

Well not in the Mac world (well OK, its kinda easy, but involved at the same time). Basically you need a Mac OS X Server (which I don’t have a copy of, nor do I have a spare Mac lying around to setup anyhow). So I thought, someone has to have figured out to setup a Linux box to serve out Netinstall requests of Mac OS clients. Thankfully, I was in luck. It looks like it requires patching ISC DHCP server, and then the request requires pretty standard open source software which comes with pretty much any distro of Linux or *nix.

It looks like there is some binary RPMs for distros that swing that way. If I get the time I guess I’ll compile some Fedora RPMs. Might even stick ’em online if I get the time.

Hopefully I’ll have this all up and running by tomorrow, and I’ll be able to report back some success. If I fail, I’ll guess I’ll probably go for the install off a firewire drive option (Yeah, I know. Its easier than setting up a Netinstall server, but it ain’t as much of a challenge 🙂 )

Booting Mac OS X in verbose mode (and other boot time options)

Just to remind myself 🙂

Press Option during startuo to boot into Open Firmware to select a boot device
Press :@:+Option+P+R to reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
Press (mouse button) to eject (internal) removable media
Press X during startup Force Mac OS X startup
Press :@:+Option+Shift+Delete during startup to bypass primary startup volume and seek a different startup volume (such as a CD or external disk)
Press C during startup to start up from a CD that has a system folder
Press N during startup to attempt to start up from a compatible network server (NetBoot)
Press R during startup to force PowerBook screen reset
Press T during startup to start up in FireWire Target Disk mode
Press Shift during startup to start up in Safe Boot mode and temporarily disable login items and non-essential kernel extension files (Mac OS X 10.2 and later)
Press :@:+V during startup to start up in Verbose mode
Press :@:+S during startup to start up in Single-User mode (command line)

To turn on verbose boot logging all the time, in the terminal, type:
sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
You can find out the status of your boot args with
sudo nvram boot-args

Fedora Core 1 Released

Amidst all the hoo haa over the impending dropping of support of Redhat linux, Fedora Core 1 was released today. Of interest to me is definitely the graphical boot, laptop IO mode and CPU powersaving, ACPI support, 2.6 kernel preview, GNOME 2.4 and OpenOffice.org 1.1.

I’m hoping there’ll be an apt repository available somewhere so I can dist-upgrade my laptop to the new core.

Also of pretty large interest (‘sif you didn’t already know!) is Novell’s acquisition of SuSE.

HOWTO: Applying Australian Date & Time Settings to WINE applications

I’ve been trying to set the correct date and time settings for WINE application on my work PC for a while, as I use Lotus Notes for my work email, and some bloody HR application insists on my date and time settings being set to Australian standard, even though I’m only retriving information.

Anyway, I finally managed to set the correct settings, so now I can use it properly. Continue reading “HOWTO: Applying Australian Date & Time Settings to WINE applications”

Bring back your C64 to life

Well, I’d bring back mine to life if some bastard who I lent mine to 9 years ago would give it back (its probably a burnt out door stop now 🙁 ) Slashdot.org is running a story on an ethernet adapter for the old personal computer. It apparently hooks into the expansion port of a Retro Replay card. The operation system Contiki has support for the card. Contiki featues a TCP/IP stack, a web server, a web browser, a VNC client and a GUI. Have a look here for a screenshot of this in action.

Apparently it’s not the only option for networking your C64 either. There is also The Final Ethernet as well. It looks like its more of a DIY job though, with no plans to put it into production. Also, if you’re still wanting to upgrade your C64, CMDRKey.com offer hard drives, CPU accelerators and RAM drives.