The Computer Corner Take II (#40) by Bill Kibler
To see more Computer Corner articles look here:
CCII page or check out the
Home Page .
Catching up
The year - 2015
It has been some time since I wrote one of my Computer Corner articles and I feel
it is time to start catching up. Let me say that both 2015 and 2016 were not some
of the best of times, nor great times for doing projects. I did do one update in
November of 2015, but mostly I spent my time on my back. Let me explain.
For many years now, I have walked my two dogs in our regional park three days a week.
The walk of 3.3 miles is up and down some hills and has kept me healthy for sure.
Except for early 2015 when I started having right leg only pains. The pain got so
bad I could not do much more than lay on the floor all day. After many doctor visits
and tests, turns out I had ruptured a disk and needed surgery to relieve the pressure
on a nerve. That all happened one week before my son's zombie wedding and my wife took
her annual trip overseas. Although I literally walked out of the hospital after
the operation the same day, I spent several months taking it easy and not doing
much, including projects.
It took some time but I did do an update to CCII 39, warning Win10 users about
default settings that send all your keystrokes to MS. I had started fixing a S100
system, but even that is still sitting in the same spot it landed at during the start of 2015.
In fact I suspect it is responsible for my back problems. It easily weighs in at
75 pounds and needs a new home. I will be listing all my S100 stuff for sale soon.
The year - 2016
Some of my back problem was caused by making many trips to my Mothers place in
Napa, about an hour and a half trip one way. My mother at the time was 98 years
of age and for some of 2015 was still taking complete care of herself. Starting in
late 2015 and into 2016, she started having minor issues that eventually became major
problems. By early 2016 she was having issues regularly and I spent many a night
or week at her place. This all ended in March after 30 days in a nursing home.
That then started the clean her house out and get it ready for selling. My older brother
is the trustee and basically was doing a good job of running everything. But, it did
mean many trips in my monster van bringing things home for later disposal. I now have
many more tools and house items than I need. To say that all took up lots of time is
putting it simply.
To end out 2016, I can say the house is sold, most of the "junk" from my mom's
place is gone to new homes, and that is all looking good. On the bad side of things,
we had the election, not good, and my brother's wife died after fighting cancer
for 12 years. Needless to say, I am looking forward to 2017 being better that the
last two years have been.
What next
I am starting to do some catching up on projects, with the beer temperature article
to be finished next. I have started cleaning things out, a carry over project of
cleaning out my mom's place. My wife will be retiring this summer and we are thinking
about more and longer trips overseas - maybe even moving for good. We started thinking
about moving about ten years ago but just have too much "stuff". We did get rid of
some of the "stuff" but now have more. So check back here soon to see my list of
items for sale, including books and S100 stuff.
I primarily use Linux, but from time to time turn on the Windows 10 system to get
updates and see if anything works better. I still can not recommend it, way too
many things you can not change or stop happening. I have had it update and reset
the whole computer while in the middle of a Skype session. I reset one setting only
to have it say it would reset the change during the next update. I have talked
about the default setting of Win10 sending all your keystroke to MS, and my guess
to the NSA as well. So for me I keep on using Linux, it only gets better with time.
The Debian live or build your own tools has had some changes but will still
allow you to "roll" you own Linux. I have updated my last set of CDROM disks
and will be adding them to this page. The overall size has increased and so the
tools in my CDROM versions have dropped some, but the idea of custom or specific
releases still works. I have even made a version with the next release of Debian
on it - that will be version 9 and called "stretch".
I was using a RaspberryPI 2 for almost everything, as you can buy them at Fry's, off
the shelf. Pretty neat just walking in and out with a new RaspberryPI system. Although
I checked over the Xmas holidays and they were well out of stock. A while back
I checked out my old beagle bone systems, one had died or was killed by the
Harbor Freight solar charger - not sure which happened, but it doesn't work
after a year on line. I look at what is going on with RaspberryPI and compare it to
most of the alternatives, including the beagle bone and the RaspberryPI has the
market cornered and then some. I like beagle bone design and I/O but they haven't
upgraded it or provided alternatives at all. While the RaspberryPI people keep
putting out new designs every few months. Talk about people knowing how to
make and market a product properly, it is certainly the RaspberryPI folks.
It wouldn't be proper without a word about 64 bit systems and lack of i386
releases of Linux. First off, support for i386 is still on going, and several
versions are being created specifically for older systems. It is important to
understand that i386 is just short for 32 bit systems. The CPU types supported
are now the 586 and 686, with I think the actually 386/486 chips being dropped
from the kernel updating. Having said that,
those systems are getting rather old and starting to just die. I recently
did some old system cleaning and updating for selling at the next ham swap meet. All
got updated to Debian 8 with no problem, however they took forever to do the
updating. When comparing an old i386 system next to a 64 bit system one can
see that most of the newer products just do things faster. Where the real
difference comes in is in number of cores or CPU's to throw at any task.
Having more CPU's always works better.
Will I be completely getting ride of all my i386 systems - NO. Most of
these older systems have real serial and parallel ports. Doing embedded
projects, often requires a good working serial port which newer systems
don't have. You can buy serial cards and I have, but having one or two
older systems makes some projects so much easier to do. For example, I
have an old laptop with Linux, that is currently connected to the serial
port of my S100 system. I remember too, that some of the real old laptops
had a terminal mode, where you could turn them into a terminal with a
series of keystrokes - sweet.
Some time back I was trying to read some of my 8 inch disks using tools
I had set up for that. It seemed what I really needed was an old PC
that still had ISA bus and not the newer PCI setup. I looked and none
of my old systems had the bus. I corrected that at the next swap meet
and it is another project to be worked on later this year and a good
reason to keep some of the old systems. Don't forget that these old
systems make great routers or firewalls. I got one I plan on setting
up to switch between two networks when the network bogs down with
traffic or goes off line due to weather.
Linux 102
Some time back I did an update to my Linux for new people and did
ccii_38. I covered some new concerns for user, like keeping hacker
out of your system. Recently I was catching up with a system I had setup
for a relative and tried to log in remotely. Something had changed in
the couple years since I logged in and was unable to do my magic.
Since what I do whether remote or in person is pretty much the same,
I put together a list of steps for him to try till I can get there
in person. The idea is to first understand what system I am working on
and what state it is in. My relative couldn't find the Chrome browser
and so I also list how to search for special or funny named packages.
Overall the steps are simple and might help anyone understand Linux better.
These are all command line steps, so enter a terminal to do them.
1) Bring me up to speed on what is there, hardware then software.
what system am I on:
> uname -a
Linux work 3.2.0-4-486 #1 Debian 3.2.81-2 i686 GNU/Linux
What version of debian
> cat /etc/debian_version
7.11
what is my CPU?
> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : AMD Duron(tm) processor
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 1792.730
cache size : 64 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow vmmcall
bogomips : 3585.46
clflush size : 32
cache_alignment : 32
address sizes : 34 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management : ts
How much RAM is there?
> cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 1489740 kB
MemFree: 529448 kB
Buffers: 334480 kB
Cached: 358376 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 259636 kB
Inactive: 573556 kB
Active(anon): 140992 kB
Inactive(anon): 2748 kB
Active(file): 118644 kB
Inactive(file): 570808 kB
Unevictable: 0 kB
Mlocked: 0 kB
HighTotal: 597960 kB
HighFree: 159248 kB
LowTotal: 891780 kB
LowFree: 370200 kB
SwapTotal: 3076412 kB
SwapFree: 3076412 kB
Dirty: 44 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 140348 kB
Mapped: 62540 kB
Shmem: 3408 kB
Slab: 80460 kB
SReclaimable: 62268 kB
SUnreclaim: 18192 kB
KernelStack: 2096 kB
PageTables: 2944 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 3821280 kB
Committed_AS: 810688 kB
VmallocTotal: 122880 kB
VmallocUsed: 7524 kB
VmallocChunk: 110580 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 4096 kB
DirectMap4k: 57336 kB
DirectMap4M: 851968 kB
How many hard drives?
> cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
11 0 1048575 sr0
8 0 293036184 sda
8 1 40041981 sda1
8 3 1 sda3
8 5 3076416 sda5
8 6 63906570 sda6
8 7 20972794 sda7
8 8 96365871 sda8
What are the drives status?
> df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
rootfs 20641788 6912300 12680852 36% /
udev 10240 0 10240 0% /dev
tmpfs 148976 860 148116 1% /run
/dev/disk/by-uuid/81ed4a09-28e9-4b8b-8326-0bca8a429d51 20641788 6912300 12680852 36% /
tmpfs 5120 0 5120 0% /run/lock
tmpfs 913220 92 913128 1% /run/shm
/dev/sda8 94852232 44587264 45446676 50% /home
/dev/sda1 40041976 31025340 9016636 78% /winC
/dev/sda6 63906568 27513592 36392976 44% /winD
What I/O is there
> lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 01)
00:09.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306/7/8 [Fire II(M)] IEEE 1394 OHCI Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] (rev 01)
Do we have all the firmware drivers?
> dpkg -l | grep -i firmware
ii amd64-microcode 1.20160316.1 i386 Processor microcode firmware for AMD CPUs
ii firmware-linux 0.36+wheezy.1 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel (meta-package)
ii firmware-linux-free 3.2 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
ii firmware-linux-nonfree 0.36+wheezy.1 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
ii firmware-realtek 0.36+wheezy.1 all Binary firmware for Realtek wired and wireless network adapters
ii intel-microcode 1.20150121.1 i386 Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
2) At this point I would feel that I know and have most of the basic things covered.
Since you might have a software problem, need to check for proper update/upgrading.
Is my sources list correct for updating?
> cat /etc/apt/sources.list
#
# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux Wheezy_ - Official Snapshot i386 xfce+lxde-CD Binary-1 20120206-04:56]/ wheezy main
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
NOTE: if we want to upgrade to jessie, we edit the above file and change all the wheezy
to jessie, save, then run "sudo apt-get update" followed by "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade"
and answer yes to the 1500 to 2000 packages to be upgraded. This should take over an
hour to download and upto/over five hours to install everything. You will need to watch (somewhat)
the installing step, as there are several prompts that must be answered to keep it going.
Hitting return for all of the prompts is the default and works just fine....
Have good sources.list, is system up to date?
> sudo apt-get update
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy Release.gpg
Get:1 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release.gpg [1,554 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy Release
Get:2 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates Release [39.0 kB]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Sources
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/contrib Sources
Get:3 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Sources [304 kB]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/non-free Sources
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main i386 Packages
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/contrib i386 Packages
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/non-free i386 Packages
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/contrib Translation-en
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-en
Get:4 http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-nb [1,302 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-ko
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-da
Get:5 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib Sources [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-fr
Get:6 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free Sources [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-km
Get:7 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main i386 Packages [464 kB]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-cs
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-sk
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-nl
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-vi
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-pt
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-sr
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-ja
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-de
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-it
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-uk
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-ro
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-ru
Get:8 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib i386 Packages [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-ca
Get:9 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free i386 Packages [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-pl
Get:10 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/contrib Translation-en [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-eo
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-sv
Get:11 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/main Translation-en [253 kB]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-id
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-eu
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-hu
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-zh
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-es
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/main Translation-fi
Get:12 http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates/non-free Translation-en [14 B]
Hit http://debian.uchicago.edu wheezy/non-free Translation-en
Fetched 1,063 kB in 28s (37.1 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
The system catalog of packages is now up to date - how much to upgrade?
> sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
bash bind9-host dnsutils exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light firefox-esr ghostscript ghostscript-cups gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-0.10 gstreamer0.10-alsa
gstreamer0.10-gconf gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad gstreamer0.10-plugins-base gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-x host hpijs hplip
hplip-data iceweasel imagemagick-common libapache2-mod-php5 libarchive12 libass4 libavcodec53 libavformat53 libavutil51 libbind9-80 libcairo-gobject2 libcairo2
libcurl3-gnutls libdns88 libgc1c2 libgd2-xpm libgme0 libgs9 libgs9-common libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-0 libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 libhpmud0 libicu48
libisc84 libisccc80 libisccfg82 libjasper1 liblwres80 libmagick++5 libmagickcore5 libmagickwand5 libmpg123-0 libmysqlclient18 libnspr4 libnspr4-0d libnss-winbind
libnss3 libnss3-1d libpam-winbind libpcsclite1 libpostproc52 libpq5 libsane-hpaio libservlet2.5-java libsmbclient libssl1.0.0 libswscale2 libsystemd-daemon0
libsystemd-login0 libtiff4 libupnp6 libwbclient0 libwmf0.2-7 libx11-6 libx11-data libx11-dev libx11-doc libx11-xcb1 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxml2 libxrandr2
libxrender1 libxslt1.1 libxtst6 libxv-dev libxv1 libxvmc-dev libxvmc1 linux-image-3.2.0-4-486 linux-libc-dev mpg123 mysql-common openjdk-7-jre
openjdk-7-jre-headless openssl php5-cli php5-common printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-hpijs printer-driver-postscript-hp python-imaging python-imaging-tk
python-libxml2 samba samba-common samba-common-bin samba-doc smbclient sudo swat tar tzdata tzdata-java unzip vim-common vim-tiny winbind
119 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 203 MB of archives.
After this operation, 3,111 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?yes
......
Fetched 203 MB in 6min 14s (542 kB/s)
Reading changelogs... 8%
(use "q" to quit changelog and start uppacking)
.....
119 downloads, followed by unpacking, then install and setup.
3) At this point I would feel pretty good that all the software is current and installed.
If the kernel got updated, I would probably reboot to be sure the system is using the latest.
Most other software doesn't need a reboot, as next time it is used it will get the latest version.
Since there was a concern about using Chrome or video drivers, I might check them out.
> sudo apt-cache search chrome
chromium - Google's open source chromium web browser
chromium-browser - Chromium browser - transitional dummy package
collabtive - Web-based project management software
dicomscope - OFFIS DICOM Viewer
....
...
> sudo apt-cache search chrom
acoustid-fingerprinter - Acoustid fingerprinter
bowtie - ultrafast memory-efficient short read aligner
bowtie-examples - Examples for bowtie, the ultrafast memory-efficient short read aligner
libchromaprint-dev - audio fingerprinting library - development files
libchromaprint-tools - audio fingerprinting library - tools
libchromaprint0 - audio fingerprint library
chromium - Google's open source chromium web browser
chromium-browser - Chromium browser - transitional dummy package
chromium-browser-dbg - chromium-browser debug symbols transitional dummy package
chromium-browser-inspector - page inspector for the chromium-browser - transitional dummy package
chromium-browser-l10n - chromium-browser language packages - transitional dummy package
chromium-dbg - Debugging symbols for the chromium web browser
chromium-inspector - page inspector for the chromium browser
chromium-l10n - chromium-browser language packages
chromium-bsu - fast paced, arcade-style, scrolling space shooter
chromium-bsu-data - data pack for the Chromium B.S.U. game
clam-chordata - CLAM Chordata, chord detection tool
clonalframe - inference of bacterial microevolution using multilocus sequence data
NOTE: see difference returned when chrom is used instead of chrome!
Now what is in the package?
> sudo apt-cache show chromium
Package: chromium
Source: chromium-browser
Version: 37.0.2062.120-1~deb7u1
Installed-Size: 140681
Maintainer: Debian Chromium Maintainers
Architecture: i386
Replaces: chromium-browser (<< 10.0.648.82~r75062-1~), chromium-codecs-ffmpeg, chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra, chromium-testsuite
Provides: chromium-testsuite, gnome-www-browser, www-browser
Depends: gconf-service, libasound2 (>= 1.0.16), libc6 (>= 2.11), libcairo2 (>= 1.6.0), libcap2 (>= 2.10), libcups2 (>= 1.4.0), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.2.14), libexpat1 (>= 2.0.1), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.9.0), libfreetype6 (>= 2.3.9), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1), libgconf-2-4 (>= 2.31.1), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.28.0), libgnome-keyring0 (>= 3.2.2-2~), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.24.0), libjpeg8 (>= 8c), libnspr4 (>= 2:4.9-2~), libnss3 (>= 2:3.14.3), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.22.0), libspeechd2, libspeex1 (>= 1.2~beta3-1), libstdc++6 (>= 4.6), libudev0 (>= 146), libx11-6 (>= 2:1.4.99.1), libxcomposite1 (>= 1:0.3-1), libxcursor1 (>> 1.1.2), libxdamage1 (>= 1:1.1), libxext6, libxfixes3 (>= 1:5.0), libxi6 (>= 2:1.2.99.4), libxml2 (>= 2.7.4), libxrandr2 (>= 2:1.2.99.2), libxrender1, libxslt1.1 (>= 1.1.25), libxss1, libxtst6, xdg-utils, chromium-inspector
Suggests: chromium-l10n
Conflicts: chromium-browser (<< 10.0.648.82~r75062-1~), chromium-codecs-ffmpeg, chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra, chromium-testsuite
Description-en: Google's open source chromium web browser
Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster,
and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web.
.
Chromium serves as a base for Google Chrome, which is Chromium rebranded (name
and logo) with very few additions such as usage tracking and an auto-updater
system.
.
This package contains the Chromium browser.
Homepage: http://www.chromium.org/Home
Description-md5: 3f87c5bcfd7b39991068637ef7724890
Tag: devel::lang:ecmascript, implemented-in::c++, implemented-in::ecmascript,
interface::x11, network::client, protocol::TODO, protocol::ftp,
protocol::http, protocol::ipv6, protocol::ssl, role::program,
scope::application, uitoolkit::TODO, uitoolkit::gtk, use::browsing,
use::downloading, use::viewing, web::browser, works-with-format::TODO,
works-with-format::gif, works-with-format::html,
works-with-format::jpg, works-with-format::json,
works-with-format::mp3, works-with-format::oggtheora,
works-with-format::oggvorbis, works-with-format::plaintext,
works-with-format::png, works-with-format::svg, works-with-format::xml,
works-with::audio, works-with::image, works-with::image:raster,
works-with::image:vector, works-with::text, works-with::video,
x11::application
Section: web
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/c/chromium-browser/chromium_37.0.2062.120-1~deb7u1_i386.deb
Size: 55699138
MD5sum: 7ca0dcea183b4ca402a1b6d4bbe3525a
SHA1: c1145d491648f7b64e939f93e5755949cf237b0c
SHA256: 4056a38131db2e25f5e61b75642610dad7e686092041016c4602c15aa3829f4e
Typically at this point you would do "sudo apt-get install chromium".
In looking at the "show" listing it looks like it becomes the default gnome browser.
So while using gnome, the browser might just be chrome....
4) Time to check out video system. My lspci returned
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. KM400/KN400/P4M800 [S3 UniChrome] (rev 01)
or needing the chrome driver, so:
> dpkg -l | grep -i chrome
ii xserver-xorg-video-openchrome 1:0.2.906-2+deb7u1 i386 X.Org X server -- VIA display driver
Let's see what is in that package
> dpkg -L xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
/.
/usr
/usr/lib
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMCPro.so.1.0.0
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMC.so.1.0.0
/usr/lib/xorg
/usr/lib/xorg/modules
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/openchrome_drv.so
/usr/share
/usr/share/bug
/usr/share/bug/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/NEWS.gz
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/changelog.Debian.gz
/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/copyright
/usr/share/lintian
/usr/share/lintian/overrides
/usr/share/lintian/overrides/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man4
/usr/share/man/man4/openchrome.4.gz
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMCPro.so
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMC.so
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMCPro.so.1
/usr/lib/libchromeXvMC.so.1
/usr/share/bug/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/script
So we have the proper driver, did the display driver get loaded?
> sudo cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[ 49.228]
X.Org X Server 1.12.4
Release Date: 2012-08-27
[ 49.228] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[ 49.228] Build Operating System: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 i686 Debian
[ 49.228] Current Operating System: Linux work 3.2.0-4-486 #1 Debian 3.2.81-2 i686
[ 49.228] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-486 root=UUID=81ed4a09-28e9-4b8b-8326-0bca8a429d51 ro quiet
[ 49.228] Build Date: 09 February 2015 10:12:47AM
[ 49.228] xorg-server 2:1.12.4-6+deb7u6 (Julien Cristau )
[ 49.228] Current version of pixman: 0.26.0
[ 49.229] Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
[ 49.229] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 49.229] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Jan 9 08:21:16 2017
[ 49.263] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
[ 49.264] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[ 49.376] (==) ServerLayout "X.org Configured"
....
.....
[ 50.138] (II) UNICHROME: driver for VIA UniChrome/Chrome integrated graphics.
[ 50.138] (II) VT3122: CLE266 (CastleRock).
[ 50.138] (II) VT7205: KM400, KM400A, KN400, P4M800 (Unichrome).
[ 50.138] (II) VT3108: K8M800, K8N800, K8N800A (Unichrome Pro, aka Pro B).
[ 50.138] (II) VT3118: CN400, PM800, PM880, PN800 (Unichrome Pro A).
[ 50.138] (II) VT3344: VN800, P4M800Pro, CN700, P4M800CE (Unichrome Pro).
[ 50.139] (II) VT3157: CX700, CX700M, VX700, CX700-M2 (Unichrome Pro).
[ 50.139] (II) VT3230: K8M890 (Chrome9 IGP).
[ 50.139] (II) VT3343: P4M890, VN890 (Unichrome Pro).
[ 50.139] (II) VT3371: P4M900, VN896, CN896 (Chrome 9 HC IGP).
[ 50.139] (II) VT1122: VX800, VX820 (Chrome 9 HC3 IGP).
[ 50.139] (II) VT5122: VX855 (Chrome 9 HCM IGP) [UNRELEASED].
[ 50.139] (II)
[ 50.139] (II) Not all of the listed chips are actually supported at this time.
...
...
[ 50.190] (--) UNICHROME(0): Found VT7205 UniChrome/Chrome IGP
[ 50.190] (--) UNICHROME(0): Found KM400/KN400 HostBridge (rev. 0x81).
[ 50.190] (WW) UNICHROME(0): Manufacturer plainly copied main PCI ids to Subsystem/Card ids.
[ 50.190] (WW) UNICHROME(0): VT7205 based device is not identifiable.
[ 50.190] (--) UNICHROME(0): mapping MMIO @ 0xd4000000 with size 0x9000
[ 50.190] (--) UNICHROME(0): mapping BitBlt MMIO @ 0xd4200000 with size 0x10000
[ 50.190] (==) UNICHROME(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
[ 50.190] (==) UNICHROME(0): RGB weight 888
[ 50.190] (==) UNICHROME(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[ 50.190] (**) UNICHROME(0): Attempting to use AccelMethod "XAA"
[ 50.190] (II) Loading sub module "ramdac"
[ 50.190] (II) LoadModule: "ramdac"
[ 50.190] (II) Module "ramdac" already built-in
[ 50.191] (II) Loading sub module "xaa"
[ 50.191] (II) LoadModule: "xaa"
[ 50.191] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libxaa.so
[ 50.253] (II) Module xaa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 50.253] compiled for 1.12.4, module version = 1.2.1
[ 50.253] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 12.1
[ 50.253] (--) UNICHROME(0): Using 65536kB of RAM (166MHz DDR - PC-2700)
[ 50.254] (II) Loading sub module "i2c"
[ 50.254] (II) LoadModule: "i2c"
[ 50.254] (II) Module "i2c" already built-in
[ 50.254] (II) UNICHROME(0): I2C bus "Bus 1" initialized.
[ 50.254] (II) UNICHROME(0): I2C bus "Bus 2" initialized.
[ 50.254] (II) UNICHROME(0): I2C bus "Bus 3" initialized.
[ 50.254] (II) Loading sub module "ddc"
[ 50.254] (II) LoadModule: "ddc"
[ 50.254] (II) Module "ddc" already built-in
[ 50.258] (II) UNICHROME(0): I2C device "Bus 1:ddc2" registered at address 0xA0.
[ 50.319] (--) UNICHROME(0): CRT: Attached!
and it goes on for many more lines. Basically it loads and runs, but log shows some minor
issues, such as some mode might not be supported in this chipset. Some browsers use the
chipset for scrolling and as such, if not supported, might not have smooth scrolling.
So - doing a good read of the Xorg.0.log file might give some clues about what is going
on, if it is a chipset issue.
5) It might help if I show what a new 64 bit CPU info list looks like. Note the "flags"
list, which are supported modes internal to the cpu - or features that make things work better.
Also consider bogomips, cache size, and number of cores.
My web server - the first of two cpu's (total system power usage = 12W):
> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 54
model name : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU D2500 @ 1.86GHz
stepping : 1
microcode : 0x10d
cpu MHz : 1866.697
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36
clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon
pebs bts nopl nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl tm2 ssse3 cx16
xtpr pdcm movbe lahf_lm arat dtherm
bogomips : 3733.39
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management :
How about this workstation - first of 4 cpu's (older standard system - about 40/50W):
> cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz
stepping : 7
microcode : 0x70a
cpu MHz : 2000.000
cache size : 3072 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 4
core id : 0
cpu cores : 4
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush
dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts
rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2
ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips : 5000.07
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management :
And so we have a list of commands you might want to try to see what is going on with your system.
The user was having slow browser scrolling and minor problems related to using the internet and
a few programs. I suggested time to upgrade to a 64 bit system, as some issues might be just the
slow speed of the cpu or features that the new CPU's have and might be called by more current
programs to get better speed.
Till Later
That should bring you up to date with what has been eating up my
time for the last two years. I expect to have more free time, but
clearly expect things to pop up and fill all that so called free
time before I have a chance to think about it. I hope your next year
goes better than my last two. By the way - Happy New Year!
Links
NOTE: The below images have been tested using virtualbox and worked fine
using it. They may or may not work on your actual hardware, although they
do contain some firmware and most graphic cards are supported. See my
corner #31 and #32 for more details.
Live example of jessie i386 500MB image - with install.
Live example of jessie amd64 600MB image - with install.
Live example of stretch i386 600MB image - with install.
Live example of stretch amd64 600MB image - with install.
Kibler Electronics, PO Box 535, Lincoln, CA 95648-0535, USA.
Email: bill@kiblerelectronics.com
Copyright © 2017, Kibler Electronics
Written in Jan-2017 by Bill Kibler