Updates, ugh... Part 2

Well, I thought it was the theme that broke it, so I moved it to where it was supposed to be, but it didn't do anything, so I deleted it, which didn't do anything either. I looked at the log file and couldn't really figure out what was going on, so I'm going to have Mei-chan be the first official installation of 12.3. Hopefully it all goes well.

Updates, ugh... Part 1

Well, I did an update for Mei-chan a couple days ago and X broke... so badly in fact, that I couldn't even get to the login screen to change GUI. I thought it was the same problem I had with Melty a while ago, but after installing unico and mist, it wasn't fixed. I saw "gtk-fallback.css" a number of times in the error log, so I'm thinking it might be my custom theme?

Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of the theme I borrowed to make my custom one, and the fact that I didn't post it also bothers me... I think I got it from DeviantArt, so I'll look there when I have the time.

If I can figure out how to switch themes, X might work again... Perhaps deleting the theme itself might help (or it might break it even more XD)

Luckily, it's only Mei-chan that's affected right now, so it's not a huge deal, just annoying.

I think that's all for now.

openSUSE 12.3 Part 2

I'm too lazy to edit, but I forgot to add that LTS is no longer in effect... ALL openSUSE versions have the same lifespan of 2 versions + 2 months. I suppose it makes it easier on the development team (or whoever) to only have 3 (if I'm doing my maths right) versions out instead of 4, the fourth of which would be getting old kinda quick.

openSUSE 12.3 Part 1

I finally got around to installing it on the test partition on Triela. I like a lot of the changes, but for some reason, I can't get access the internet... not even ifup is working to get me online :/

Instead of there being two tabs under activities for windows and applications, they moved the additional programs in the favourites bar at the bottom. This accomplishes two things, (1) it gets rid of the trash can to remove as favourites, and (2) it removes the lag when loading the list of applications after the first time (I guess this was fixed for 12.2 as well, I just never noticed; 12.3's version is a bit cleaner IMO).

The lock screen is different, you have to drag the time up before you can type your password in, I'm assuming this is for tablet/touchscreen users.

The "advanced settings" tool is renamed as "tweak tool" and features more options. there's more options in the trackpad/mouse section as well, including a switch to turn the trackpad on/off.

That's about all for now, I'll have to test it with Melty later in live mode and see if I can use the internet. If not, I might have to wait :/

(edit)

I tested the live version on Melty and the ethernet worked just fine :D

Looks like my old GTK 2.x window bar theme doesn't work in 12.3... I guess the compatibility for anything pre-GTK 3.x is dropped, so I gotta poke around for something that might work better... or maybe find a way around it XD (perhaps the latter)

Everything else seemed fine, so I think I can install it on at least Melty for now (I'd have to do the Wifi-testing with Mei-chan to see if it's something with the laptop's hardware, or if 12.3 is just being weird. I'm going to tinker with the theme first before installing on Melty... Not to mention, I need to stuff Rhythmbox's preferences before I lose it (there's also the need to Firefox sync afterwards too :/)

(edit)

I download the full install DVD and the ethernet and wireless worked on the laptop after reboot; must have been some sort of glitch or something I dunno. I tried some GTK 3.x themes and none of the window bars worked, so something's not working right; the default one, Adawatta or something like that, looks fine, but is just larger than i like my window bars (I like it at about 24px). I'm just gonna have to deal with it I think.

(edit)

I found a nice theme I like (called Mire for future reference), and while searching for themes, I learned that I'm supposed to put them in /usr/share/themes and not ~/.themes like back in the day with GTK2. I tried this out on the Dell (which is my test-bed now), and the window bar came up for my custom theme! Even though it works now, I like the theme I found better, even though the window bar is the same size as the default one. I could use my custom one, but it doesn't look as good (not to mention the highlight colours don't match either).

Upgrades (Round 2) Part 2

I upgraded the sound card for Melty, since I thought that's what was causing an audible choppiness every now and then... and turns out it's Sound Blaster's surround engine just failing for that particular case...

Anyway, the new sound card isn't compatible in openSUSE, so I made a switch box to switch between the sound card and the onboard audio.



I might have returned the card had I known it was the surround engine at fault... Though there's a fun piece to the sound card where it can modify your voice to sound much different, which works pretty well, and in most cases is quite uncanny.

Network Attached Storage 1

I got my NAS a couple weeks ago, and it's nice having it, now that have a redundant copy of my files in a centralized location.

It was a roller-coaster learning it though... After the initial setup, I did the quick setup which I couldn't figure out how to set up RAID1 and it ended up setting it up with the "Synology Hybrid RAID" whatever that is. After that I figured it out and deleted the hybrid RAID and set up RAID 1 like I wanted. It had to do some sort of disk/parity check even though it was RAID1... took a few hours to complete, but luckily, I was setting it up before work, so I just let it do it's thing while I went to work.

I attempted to fiddle with the settings to try to make it accessible over the internet, but to no luck. I'm not horribly concerned about it, since I mainly want to access it via LAN.

I had also set up the blocking feature, where I thought would just block IPs with bad logins.... but it turns out that it also blocks a login with a different IP/OS combo... In other words, the first instance I was making users for each of the computers (since you can't log "user a" on multiple computers at the same time), from Mei-chan. After making the first one, I got booted out and couldn't log back in as the admin... So I had to boot Melty back on to get into it and make a secondary admin account and unblock Mei-chan. Second time it happened, I was in openSUSE with Melty, and was trying to access the files and it locked me out, both admin accounts. Rebooting to windows didn't help, so I had to boot up Mei-chan and clear out the block and turn the feature off. If it had worked like I wanted, it would've been nice, but it was more of a hassle than it was worth. (By the way, I had it set to 1 login attempt within a 10 hour period with a 1 day lockout)

The on/off schedule is nice as well, I set it to be off while I'm at work, since there's no point for me to have it on when I'm not accessing it.

Raspi 1

Note: Raspi = Raspberry Pi

I'm surprised I haven't even posted a thing about my Raspi... Anyway....

It's not horribly powerful, though it's supposed to be able to stream 1080p video... Chrome kicks the SoC to 100%... so yeah, idk :/

I plan on doing a few tests with Transmission (BitTorrent program) to see how it works out... Otherwise, I'll have to drop the idea of holding openSUSE torrents, which would be a bit of a bummer.

I made a "case" for the Raspi... it's quite crude and actually doesn't hold the Raspi 100% securly. BUT! It does have a fan! XDDDD

Just a fan that blows on the ARM chip, none of the funny heat-sinks that I've seen... too much drilling XD

The case is made from a optical disk drive shell, a 5.25" bay tear-off cover, and some tear-off PCI covers XP



You can see the SD card sticking out and the anti-static foam that the Raspi sits on (rather have any ESD from the case go to the Raspi power cable that's not plugged in for the picture, not to mention, it needs to sit on something anyway). The fan is on, it was the stock fan from Ziggy's CPU cooler, and you can also see the fan controller I added so it's not blasting at full speed. All the "case" parts are from computer parts as previously stated XP

The ARM chip stays relatively cool even though I keep the fan speed at lowest. Funny thing is that when I plug the fan in, I have to kinda turn the knob a smidge higher (enough to where it "bounces" back like when you turn the key of a car to start the engine, which is about 1-2 degrees on the knob) spin the fan with a finger and then let go. At worst though, I just turn it up and then ease it down.

The "shroud" has a spring underneath with some rubber pads and mounts to the case with a couple motherboard stand-off screws.

There are three screws in a triangular formation that make up the feet (since the motherboard stand-off screws protrude from the bottom).

Two of the fan's mounting brackets are screwed into the case to make sure it doesn't decide to fly away or something XD

I think I'm done now.