By Strog
So an email comes in the other day asking about PEM’s theme that I tweaked for FreeBSD. He was asking about running it on OpenBSD and wasn’t having much success. The problem is OpenBSD is using an older version (another oldish version in ports) and the theme requires some things from the “unstable” 2.5 series. OpenBSD has integrated the last version (2.2.5) before the license change so it hasn’t been updated. There’s a 2.4.x port since that’s the “stable” branch. OpenBSD doesn’t import beta software into ports/packages. This is a great idea but unfortunately some things are in perpetual beta. FVWM 2.5.0 was released in Jan ’02 so it’s only a month or so younger than my son and he started school this year. heheh
The first obstacle to overcome is getting 2.5.x on the machine. I found an an unofficial 2.5.21 port but it was giving me some errors on my OpenBSD 4.1 laptop. I look around some more but didn’t find a more recent port. I did find directions for compiling 2.5.16 on OpenBSD 3.8/3.9 so I pulled some configure options and hacked together a rough port of my own using version 2.5.23 since it’s current. My build errors went away but I had some errors on install while it was building the package. It was basically some man pages that existed but were in a different directory than it was looking for and a defaults file. I copied the man pages to the right working directory and created an empty defaults file. It installed fine and created a package. I used this package on a clean install since this laptop has been upgraded a couple times to be sure it was working cleanly. I upgraded both machines to OpenBSD 4.2 today and FVWM is still working fine. I’m going to do a fresh install of 4.2 on the test machine and give the port another look to see if I can get it to compile and install cleanly.
Download and install the theme and it looks like it’s supposed to but the scripts for wifi, battery and volume aren’t working since it’s trying to pull values from FreeBSD’s sysctls. This was to be expected since the original scripts were on linux and pulling stuff from /proc. A little fiddling with wicontrol, apm and mixerctl using awk, cut, etc. and I had working scripts again. I just added the FreeBSD portions of the scripts back in and used uname and some if statements to determine which to run. I guess I could add the linux version back in for completeness.
I did notice I was missing a couple things on the fresh install since it was pretty minimal. I needed to add ImageMagick, imlib and Esetroot (from eterm port) to get everything working. If you already have a fairly complete desktop then you likely already have it all but just double check before you decide it’s not working. You’ll also need to edit ~/.fvwm/config to set the path to your icons and set your preferred apps. I’m using aterm for the terminal and aumix for the volume but you can change it easily enough in the config file.
Here’s what it looks like now:
Downloads:
fvwm2-devel-port.tar.gz
fvwm2-devel-2.5.23.tgz
fvwm2 configs ver 1.1
The port file is hackish but I’ll add checksums if/when I clean it up. The pkg was compiled on a 4.1 box but it’s working on a couple of upgraded 4.2 boxes now. You are welcome to it but use at your own risk. :^)
By Strog
I’ve had the motorcycle for 5 weeks now and I’m really digging into it. I’ve moved the plate back to the back and have an alarm ready to finish installing once I get the new shorty turn signals. I drilled eight 1/4" holes in the baffles to let it breath and make some more sound. It’s a bit louder idling and sounds nicer while engine braking. I flipped the arm around on the shifter to convert to GP style (reverse with clicking down for upshifting) and will probably try it for a while longer. I still need to hook up the garage door opener to the flash to pass switch. I’m going to get some matching shorty turn signals to replace these quick flashing LED turn signals.
Sometimes I even drive the bike. I’ve been taking a few trips on the weekends and losing track of time. I try to take the camera with me and get some shots whenever I get to a town I haven’t shot before. Last few rides, the camera has been staying home. I’m trying to find the balance in riding and picture taking. Guess I need to get a nice tank bag to keep the camera in so it’s not in the way. I’ve put some pictures up in the gallery over on my other site (strog.org). I went to Spavinaw, OK the other day and it has a really nice windy road heading there. It was pretty in town with the creek running by. I wish I had the camera with me. The first longer trip I took on the bike was to go to Tahlequah, OK.
The more time I’ve put on the bike, the more I realize that it’s like starting over after being away for several years. Sometimes I want to get nervous at a turn that seems too fast when I know it’s easily within my skill level and capabilities of the bike. I take a breath, think my way through the turn, look through and exit cleanly. The turn wasn’t too fast or difficult, I just need to get comfortable again. I need to take the motorcycle safety course(s) to speed up the process. I’d like to eventually do some track days on the bike but that will be down the road. I’ll go out to Hallett next weekend and just watch.
By Strog
I bought a 2006 Suzuki SV650 today. It’s been 18 years since I’ve driven a bike from the dealer. It was as much fun today as it was when I was 14 with a brand new shiny ’88 Yamaha TW200 dirtbike.The foot pegs are higher and farther back than any other bike I’ve driven before. I know it’s not much at all compared to a full blown sport bike but I’m a bit rusty. There’s still wet spots and sand everywhere after all the ice last week. The clutch starts engaging as soon as I released a little bit and the power came on smooth. I started feeling comfortable quickly.
The banker and I talked quite a bit about motorcycles since he rode bikes too. I had tried to get Ducati Multistrada and had made a few trips to talk to him and actually made my bids from my laptop in his office. He asked me to bring the bike by sometime so he could see it. It was a few minutes till 5:00 so I brought it over. We talked for 20 minutes while Ellen went down the street to pickup Gabriel from preschool. Ellen pulled up next to me and rolled Gabriel’s window down. He was grinning from ear to ear.
We went to Rib Crib to eat and then I went for a ride. It cruised along nicely around 5000rpm or so and picked up a little vibration around 5500rpm. A twist of the throttle and the vibration goes away and the motor comes to life. 8500rpm and it’s music but I’m already passing the posted speed and have to let off. I decided it was time to head over to the expressway to open it up a bit. We roll up to 70mph quite easily and I take the next exit off.
I went home to meet a co-worker that was giving us his son’s old bed for Gabriel. After Gabriel went to bed, I decided to go out again while the weather was still cooperating (they are talking snow tomorrow). I head south toward some curves a couple miles from the house. Then head on down county line road and follow it around to south of Coweta. I had some gloves and a turtleneck on this time and it wasn’t too bad (mid-40′s when I started). I get into the hills with the creek bottoms and it’s freezing in the valleys. It’s the burning cold going down and actually feels warm coming up the hills. I head through town and north on the highway. That wind is finally starting to get to me on the open highway at 55-60mph.
Finally time to roll into the garage and thaw out. It’s been a fun evening and I can’t wait for it to warm up properly. Now it’s time to see what the bike needs next. Perhaps heated grips? heheh
By Strog
The webserver that I hosted my websites on died and the backups were dated. That poor old Sun box decided it couldn’t take anymore and imploded. The box belongs to a friend of mine and he let me and another friend host our sites on it. It was in a colo facility in a rack that his worked owns. He changed jobs and they allowed him to keep his stuff there but the future looked uncertain for a while. I debated on moving off the box but as time went on, it seemed that everything would be fine where it was. That’s why there hasn’t been a lot of updates on any of my sites. I should have made a new backup anyway because I started updating everything right before it died.
All my website stuff has been moved to another box in the same rack but it’s much more powerful. The bad news is that it’s a production box so I can’t do whatever I want. It’s not that bad since basically everything I need is already installed and I was keeping an eye on a website running on it anyway. I already have a full backup saved offsite and will be setting up regular syncs to keep it going.
Unfortunately Google forgot me in the month of downtime. I used to have the top result for shrauger and strog. Now I can’t even find the main pages in the first several pages of results. Oh well, I don’t know of anyone who was acutally trying to find me that way. We are back on track and will be updating with some kind of frequency now.
