mahalo.

There’s a site that goes over the more correct way to setup networking from the commandline:
Linux Headquarters - Network Configuration Using the Command Line

It looks like the network script they mention in /etc/rc.d/init.d/network setup is actually the script that calls the wireless script that i referred to earlier. so again, a matter of knowing what level i should be operating at. one thing they don’t mention is the PEERDNS option in the ifcfg-eth* file… but maybe that’s yes by default.

Also, I mentioned that I didn’t know how to restart the network. In the article, they mention that the correct way to do this is to run:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart

Actually, the entire www.linuxheadquarters.com site is pretty useful for n00bs like me. answers a lot of common questions and basically takes care of what to do after you’ve installed linux.

last couple of days, i’ve continued to struggle with linux, but i’m finally making some headway. i’m going to write these things down as a reference for myself, and maybe anyone else that happens to run into these problems in the future.

the first problem i had was getting the wireless card to work. it turns out, with the older version of the kernel i had, the pcmcia socket module wasn’t being loaded automatically. in order to get that to happen, i had to manually enter the command:
/sbin/modprobe yenta_socket

i don’t remember why exactly yenta_socket is associated with pcmcia… but that’s just how it is. i think in the end, this command is called as part of a higher level script in /etc/init.d called “pcmcia” and you can get things running by issuing the command
/sbin/init.d/pcmcia start

once i got the wireless working, i was pretty happy because this meant all of my basic networking connections (ethernet, wireless) were working. the problem now is, lack of DNS servers. i was basically forced to manually input DNS server ips into /etc/resolve.conf through the /usr/bin/system-config-network command. however, with more exploration, i found that if you Edit a device listed in the system-config-network configuration screen, you can choose to make that device use the DHCP specified DNS servers. that certainly did the trick. to manually edit this option (i want to try not to be too dependent on the GUIs now available for linux… just in case someday i find myself at the mercy of the commandline again… hence also the reference to resolve.conf), find the /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth* file corresponding to your ethernet device and set PEERDNS=yes. how to reset the network connection after that point… i dunno.

anyhow, cool. all my networking stuff is up and running now. exciting =).

additionally, allen and mimi both came back from their respective remote locales today. so we played some hold’em and i got destroyed from holding two pairs all the time. that sucks. but oh well. at least we weren’t playing for money.

hockey hasn’t been so great recently… been losing a lot of one goal games late. hopefully things shape up before the playoffs.

last but not least… need to learn how to make soup. will try to make this something of a priority. if that doesn’t pan out, i hear trader joe’s has some pretty good soup in a box?

in the short-term is to learn how linux works.

i first said to myself, okay, the key is to learn about the linux kernel. so i went to www.tldp.org - The Linux Documentation Project and took a look at the document labeled something to the effect of - Linux Kernel v2.4 Internals. After being thoroughly being owned, i’ve moved down to: Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide. Yes, I’m a n00b. Really though, I think it’s a pretty good read. The doc starts off with the basic commands (about 8 i think… of which I didn’t know 1, and another, I had just learned about yesterday), and now he’s moved onto the filesystem.

In the one subsection on file systems that I’ve completed, I’ve already learned quite a bit. It mostly has to do with the conventions of how the root filesystem is set up, which seems minor, but I think it’s pretty important when it comes to figuring out what you’re looking for. I’m now moving onto Orientation in the file system looks like path and which stuff. neat-o.

my dell laptop came in yesterday… spent some time at work today getting it set up. actually, spent some time at work today getting a hub set up in my cube. it involved a bit of hunting. first, i found two spare ethernet cables. then i found the hub, but with no power adapter. after digging around a bit, i found the appropriate AC adapter, and I can now connect multiple computers from my cube into the network =). good stuff. probably going to bring my old laptop (the fedora-ized one) in tomorrow and mess around with it a little.

Interesting scenario where the electoral college ties…
electoral college tie

somehow, after doing some googling, i appear to be able to get the PCMCIA card reader activated by using “modprobe yenta_socket”.

Now the question is, what the heck is a yenta_socket? And why is it that in system-config-network I still can’t get eth1 up and running?

The error message continues to be:
“orinoco_cs device eth1 does not seem to be present, delaying initialization.”

mild mcl tear (grade 1). doctor says that i can resume activity on it immediately, and says that the pain should be gone in 3-6 weeks. if things are still acting up by then, he gave me instructions on how to schedule an MRI for the knee.

still a little scary though. i’d think that if a ligament tears, you want to take it easy… or wear a brace or something… because it’s weaker now right? but he didn’t suggest any of that. can ligament figers reconnect? or are they just gone? i guess if that’s the case, then yeah… you can keep on doing what you’re doing… at the risk of totally blowing your knee out some day.

starting to download fedora now to install on my old laptop. i was going to use suse, but you have to pay for that. then i looked at debian, but that was 7 discs. so good ol unoriginal redhat for me. i wonder how easy it is to switch the windowing over from gnome to kde.

marc was visiting from new york this weekend so some of us got together and had dinner at house of prime rib. for the first time ever, i didn’t like it that much. the salad was really good, but the meat was sort of dry and not that tasty.

and after we finished dinner, they didn’t even bring out seconds. but i guess that’s partially due to the fact that we had reservations at 10, got served around 10:30-11, and they had already put the cart away by the time we were done.

it’s always good have a chance to hang out with friends i haven’t seen in a while though and see how they’re doing. especially these guys… after living in a house/apt/dorm with them for 2-3 years, it’s difficult to explain, but it’s sometimes not enough just to know how everyone’s doing, and it’s important to just all be together again once in a while.

most of us do pretty menial things… writing pieces of software to build on other pieces of software that take advantage of some other engineer’s hardware. but some the stuff that these bio/electrical engineers can do is pretty amazing.

this wired article talks about engineers working on a chip to imitate the short-term to long-term memory encoding process typically handled by the hippocampus:
Chips Coming to a Brain Near You.

it’d also be interesting if in the course of their studies of the signals, that they can give some insight as to why you forget dreams so easily. another cool/scary is the possibility of memory hacking. like, reading the input into one chip and feeding as input into another… encoding a person’s short term memory data into someone else’s long term memory. seems kind of unlikely to be able to get a group of neurosurgeons and engineers together to do this, but possible nevertheless.

scheduled an appointment with SOAR facilities in redwood city. in addition to spending money when steady income might be ending soon, i’m also now seeking possible long-term medical attention when my insurance may end. this is some poor timing going on here.

and upon further research, it’s not a lateral collateral ligament injury i think i have. it sounds a lot more like a MCL injury. i had just misread some of the information at the previous source. the MCL also plays a factor in being knock-kneed. maybe they can go in and tighten that up for me and help that out as well.

yeah… the knee is definitely not so good now… walking is kind of a chore. and gravity applied to my leg while extended horizontally sort of hurts. time to look for a knee doctor.

looking around the web, i think i have a lateral collateral ligament strain. the pain is on the outside of my knee on the side, so i think that rules out ACL and MCL. There is also a small amount of swelling right at and above the knee joint. So if the pain doesn’t improve in 48 hours, it’s time to make the call.