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mylinuxrig-deactivated20190501

I used Skype to communicate with my editor while working on my book. I don’t love Skype but it’s popular, so I’m glad to see they finally updated the Linux client.

mylinuxrig-deactivated20190501

The Linux Setup - Jerry Bezencon, Linux Lite

Jerry is behind Linux Lite, an acclaimed Ubuntu-based distribution that, as the name implies, is lightweight. Jerry, like Cassidy from elementary brings up the importance of distro-creators using the same tools they’re offering their users. It’s a practice that seems to lead to usable distributions.

You can find more of The Linux Setup here.

You can follow My Linux Rig on Google+ here and follow me on Twitter here.

Who are you, and what do you do?

My name is Jerry Bezencon and I’m a technology consultant, investor, programmer and promoter of/advocate for free and open source software.

Why do you use Linux?

If you’re referring to the kernel then I use it because it’s at the heart of my choice of desktop distribution and because I believe Linus Torvalds has contributed something wonderful to the software world. But I suspect the question is phrased in such a way because most people just associate the word ‘Linux’ with a combination of a desktop environment, free and open source software, and the Linux kernel. I try to encourage the proper use of technology terminology, especially for those new to these software communities. It’s important to get them using the correct terms from day one. Either way, I use free and open source software because, on a human level, it intuitively seems like the right thing to do. I love being part of a sharing philosophy, it fulfills my need to contribute to and be part of something that does good in the world.

What distribution do you run on your main desktop/laptop?

I run Linux Lite on my workstation and on my laptop.

What desktop environment do you use and why do you use it?

I use Xfce mainly because that’s what Linux Lite uses as it’s desktop environment. It’s not a personal preference—I run it because as a Linux distribution developer, I think it’s important to use what you distribute on a daily basis, so that you can be more hands-on with your community in terms of understanding their needs. If you use what your community uses, then you have a better understanding of their computing, and it makes support much easier too.

What one piece of Linux software do you depend upon? Why is it so important?

I think it would be grossly unfair to single out one piece of software. This would mean that I consider one piece of software above all others. I certainly don’t. In the free and open source software community, all software is of equal importance and plays a vital role in the proliferation of freedom in computing.

What kind of hardware do you run this setup on?

I use a HP Z800 Workstation: 2 x Intel Xeon CPU E5645 2.40GHz (24 threads), 16GB ECC REG DDR3-1333, Crucial CT512MX1 512Gb SSD, NVIDIA Quadro 4000, Philips 27" LCD 1920x 1080. Purchase of the workstation was partly funded by the Linux Lite community.

Will you share a screenshot of your desktop?

Interview conducted January 5, 2016

The Linux Setup is a feature where I interview people about their Linux setups. The concept is borrowed, if not outright stolen, from this site. If you’d like to participate, drop me a line.

You can follow My Linux Rig on Google+ here, follow me on Twitter here, and subscribe to the feed here.

Dell Precision M6600 as Mobile OS X Workstation

Yes, you read that correctly. After running OS X on this machine for just over six months, I’m finally doing a write up. (A proper write up, sharing my personal experience, as well as troubleshooting and the wealth of knowledge I’ve come across with this machine. If you’re simply looking for a guide, you can follow my initial development guide over on TonyMac.)

So, a bit of background. I first purchased my main Precision M6600 off eBay back in January of this year for $280 + $25 shipping. It was a bit of a mixed bag as far as laptop purchases go. The machine was essentially barebones - missing both hard drive caddies, no battery or charger, no drives, no RAM. What the machine DID come with, however, was a full 1080p HD display (matte display, of course, none of that Mac glossy crap over here), a discrete MXM Quadro 3000M video card, a quad core Sandy Bridge i7-2620QM @ 2.2GHz, and a rather dent-free chassis, fully functional. Now, this might not sound like that great of a deal to you. I mean, the laptop doesn’t even work out of the box, but when you’ve been collecting spare parts for as long as I have, it’s not that much of a problem. Prior to the laptop being delivered, I had purchased two SSDs, one mSATA and one SATA, plus a 750GB WD Scorpio Black 2.5″ drive for mass storage. As you might have guessed, one SSD is for OS X, the other for Windows. I grabbed 16GB of RAM (and had another 8GB lying around), plus I bought a 240W charger and a 97Whr battery for less than $100. An added bonus - I had a FirePro M8900 (ironically, removed as dead from another M6600 that I would acquire a few months down the line) that I was able to revive with an oven bake.

So let’s break this down. For just under $500 and some spare parts, we now have a 17.3 inch workstation grade laptop with a full 1080p display, discrete video card, quad core i7 CPU, and all the trimmings. This equates (in layman’s terms) to about a 10,000+ Geekbench score, topping out at 32GB of RAM, 30+ FPS in Fallout 4 in 1080p high settings, and more drive capacity than you know what to do with. Sure, it’s big, sure it’s heavy, but this thing is designed to substitute your desktop on the go, so enough of your complaining.

Alright, time for the OS X bit. If you didn’t glance over my installation guide, now might be the time to do so. We’ll get into some technical aspects of what I did to this machine, but not nearly as in depth as the guide goes. Now, be warned, this isn’t for the feint of heart. Laptops are always a bugger to deal with, let alone to run OS X on, especially with an undocumented, unrecommended discrete GPU. So let’s get started.

Graphics!

Now, despite its workstation-class FirePro branding, the M8900 is actually just an AMD Radeon 6970M with FirePro VBIOS flashed into it for better CAD performance. Personally, I’d prefer the gaming performance a bit more, so I took some time to flash the M8900 over to said 6970M using the standard DOS boot and atiflash utility. Also, Apple released a 27 inch iMac in 2011 that used a 6970M, so the framebuffer is already built into the drivers in OS X - we just need to load it. I use Clover as my bootloader for better NVRAM emulation and on-the-fly kext patching. To load into the installer, we can select the “Cattail” framebuffer to allow OS X to utilize the 6970M. The Precision M6600 boasts a full size DisplayPort connector as well as a rear HDMI connection which can all be run off of the 6970M in OS X. See the guide for framebuffer patches to allow for the internal display to be detected as LVDS and to enable the HDMI port on the rear of the laptop.

What’s also worth noting is that since this is a workstation laptop, it’s compatible with Dell’s docking stations. Using my supplied framebuffer patches, a triple monitor setup can be utilized in OS X by using two external DisplayPort monitor and the internal LCD. Simply use your Dell Dock (I own a PR02X) and connect one DisplayPort monitor to the leftmost DP connector on the dock and then the 2nd to the DP connector on the right of the M6600. This can also be used in dual external display mode if you close your laptop lid, a favourite of mine. We also use OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite, as 10.11+ has a sleep issue with Radeon GPUs. Upgrading beyond Yosemite is not recommended at this point. The OpenCL performance on Radeon cards makes something like this ideal for Final Cut rendering and other Apple based applications.

Now, remember that Quadro 3000M that shipped with the laptop? It’s not unusable, but it might as well be. I’m using the MacBook Pro 8,3 SMBIOS on this machine. The Quadro 3000M has graphics acceleration in OS X, but the AppleGraphicsDevicePolicy.kext needs to be patched in order to enable the Q3000M on MBP8,3 SMBIOS. This can be achieved by adding:

To the appropriate Info.plist file in the kext, then re-installing the entire GraphicsControl kext. NOTE: This is still under development. Though the internal LCD works, sleep does not function and external displays are very hit or miss.

ACPI!

Note the ACPI patches as well as the standard Power Management post-install objects in the guide. With the help of RehabMan’s excellent documentation, battery readings are enabled with a simple patch (I’ll probably get around to uploading this into RehabMan’s repo sometime soon, but for now, just do it manually) and the normal DSDT mask fixes we would select in Clover can just be baked into our patched DSDT. PikeRAlpha’s ssdtPRGen script gives us proper power management for our Sandy Bridge i7 (also, thanks RehabMan for adding the MCFG table drop into his default config.plist for Sandy Bridge laptops - it’s helped a lot with my installs.)

We also need to drop ALL OEM SSDTs on this machine. It will boot up and run fine without it, but I’ve found that CPU intensive tasks like streaming cause the machine to crash without the tables being dropped.

Personalization & My Usage

Now, 6 months in, I can almost say this is a perfect machine. My two gripes with it are very small. Firstly, Clover has some issues with the BIOS/UEFI on this machine. UEFI installations of Clover often lose the boot device after minimal changes to config.plists or Windows installations. While UEFI installations are possible and do work (I’ve tried it, they DO work) I prefer to use the legacy option, even though it’s slower. This still gets thrown all out of whack when large changes are made to Clover, but it’s a bit more recoverable. Often, the boot priority simply gets changed around and needs to be corrected once or twice. I keep OS X on the “Minicard SSD” so that I know which device I want at the top of the boot device list. I used to keep it on an “Internal HDD” but since I have two of these, it gets confusing and you have to view the identifier, and it’s a big mess.

Secondly, OS X is buggy with the ExFAT driver. If a system is not shut down properly, (yes, A system, either OS X OR Windows) then OS X loses vision of the ExFAT drive. It can take a few minutes to recover the drive and often needs a good restart afterwards for things to work 100% again. Now, obviously, the solution here is “Don’t use an ExFAT drive.” I use ExFAT as a shared, symlinked Storage drive for my Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Videos, Music, etc. between Windows 10 and OS X. I could use an NTFS driver for OS X or an HFS+ driver for Windows, but this frequently ends in compatibility issues for loading games or saving large files, so we’re just gonna deal with it. Apart from those issues, the machine is great and runs next to flawlessly. If you don’t mind carrying around an enormous laptop, it’s got plenty of power for streaming, video editing and mobile gaming for around the $500 price point. Keep in mind, this is a 5+ year old machine we’re using here, but it keeps up just fine. The MXM GPU is upgradable as well, and from what I’ve seen, MacVidCards has succeeded in installing an MXM GTX 980M into his Xserve and had it up and running in OS X. Now, I don’t have that kind of cash to drop on this laptop (I just spent it all on a GTX 1080 for my X99 tower) but that seems promising if you can deal with being stuck with a Sandy Bridge CPU. Yeah, Ivy Bridge won’t work in this machine. It’s pin compatible, but the instruction set isn’t in the BIOS. I even tried that, too.

#Hackintosh #Dell #Precision #M6600 #Mobile Workstation #Setup #Laptop #OS X #macOS #Apple #Tonymacx86 #insanelymac

ms-dos5

“Lost” Windows 9 beta found

Remember how Windows skipped from version 8.1 to version 10? Lots of people asked, “Where did version 9 go?” After rumors of lazy developers checking the marketing number instead of the kernel number, and lots of ‘7 8 9′ jokes, the truth has emerged.

Windows 9 was skipped because Microsoft found an unfixable bug: Windows 9 required two power supplies in the computer. Most people do not have two power supplies, so Microsoft couldn’t continue with their plan of offering free Windows 9 upgrades to everyone running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Without further ado, here are the screenshots:

Here is the default desktop. Notably absent is the clock in the lower right corner. Microsoft removed it while shuffling things around.

Here is the much-awaited Start Menu. This build had removed the Start Screen entirely while Microsoft was re-working it. This Start Menu also has no support for live tiles.

File Explorer. As you can see, Microsoft had included the icons from the final build of Windows 10 in this early beta. They were left out of most of the Windows 10 betas until someone remembered that they had paid someone to make these, so they pulled them out for the final release.

An early version of the Groove Music app. The release notes stated that one of the developers wanted to make Groove look ‘groovy’ so they gave it this skin, which was quickly scrapped. Note that Groove had a different name at this point: the person in charge of renaming applications was on vacation.

Windows 9 included the ability to choose higher screen resolutions, too, but these screenshots were set at 800x600 in order to keep the sizes smaller. Windows 9 also included a redesigned Control Panel, which differs greatly from the final release of Windows 10.

Windows 9 included an early version of Cortana, where Microsoft had decided to give the AI assistant a face so users could picture her. Internal testing showed that this was a bad idea because it gave people flashbacks to Clippy the Office Assistant, and so Cortana became faceless.

An early version of Microsoft Edge, then code-named ‘Project Spartan’. Microsoft knew people were upset with the changes in Windows 8, so they initially decided to revert their new web browser back to what it was before Windows 8. Unfortunately, this appearance gave people nightmares so they had to come up with something totally new.

The command prompt, which at the time did not include any of the new features introduced in the final version of Windows 10.

And there you have it, that’s what happened to Windows 9. I’d appreciate it if you did not try to claim these screenshots as your own, and if you noted the date at which I post these in case anyone else tries to leak Windows 9 screenshots.

notnlce

Best April Fools Joke of the Year

iheartapple2

Apple Store down ahead of today’s event

nixcraft

I believe in GNU HURD :P Via https://xkcd.com/1508/

micdousmi

Log into most any Linux system by hitting backspace 28 times

Security researchers have discovered a ludicrously simple way to hack into a number of Linux distributions: Just tap the backspace key 28 times in a row. A team from the Cybersecurity Group at Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) in Spain found t…

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machinaesupremacyofficial

When you get an error that “Should never happen”

notnlce

lol

apple-side

dvdmerwe

Adobe is telling people to stop using Flash

Adobe is finally ready to say goodbye to Flash. In an announcement last night, Adobe said that it will now “encourage content creators to build with new web standards,” such as HTML5, rather than Flash. It’s also beginning to deprecate the Flash name by renaming its animation app to Animate CC, away from Flash Professional CC.

Adobe is by no means doing away with Flash — that’s ultimately up to web developers. Instead, this announcement is more an acknowledgement of reality. HTML5 has been taking Flash’s place as the go-to tool for animation and interactivity; it’s an all-around better choice, and it’s an open standard.

By acknowledging that Flash is dying, Adobe is able to better position its animation tools for the future. Flash Professional CC is already capable of creating HTML5 content — in fact, it already represents a third of all content created in the app, according to Adobe. By taking up the name Animate CC, Adobe is able to sell Flash Professional CC as a general animation tool, rather than a tool geared toward Flash. The name change will take effect early next year.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/1/9827778/stop-using-flash

nikaboyce-deactivated20160402

I appreciate when the little things are pretty #DIY #hackintosh #computer

thesutex

I’m the #casemod master ! #hackintosh #powermac #g5 #whattodonow #g4cube ?

thesutex

Im all dremel’d out… #casemod #g5 #powermac #hackintosh

Host

Left in the Dust - An Update Saga

A former teacher of mine contacted me earlier this week about a fix to his Mac. He told me he had a 2008 iMac, and that his wife could not seem to enter any form data into websites, and that he was constantly being pegged to run updates, but when he looked for them, there were none available.

Turns out, the issue was that the iMac was still running the system it shipped with - OS X Leopard, and despite being an Intel Mac, updates to software in Leopard have been long discontinued when Apple killed the PowerPC in 2012 by ceasing updates to the OS. Easy fix. However, I was worried. The stock model of iMac in 2008 shipped with just 1GB of RAM - something fine back in the era of Leopard, but pathetic in the mind of Yosemite.

However, when I arrived, my fears were put to rest. Rather than the stock, 20 inch iMac I was expecting, the machine was a beautiful, 24 inch, top of the line 2008 iMac, whose hard drive had actually been replaced in 2012. With 4GB of RAM, the upgrades were a go.

The client informed me that he depended pretty heavily on a Quicken program, a PowerPC app that held all of his financial data. Of course, PowerPC apps haven been unsupported since Snow Leopard when Rosetta was discontinued, so a workaround had to be instituted. With a new, 500GB hard drive in the machine and ample free space, I decided on a partition. A small, 100GB partition for OS X Leopard so Quicken could be run, and the remaining 400GB dedicated to what would eventually be OS X Yosemite.

So, I opened up Disk Utility and partitioned the drive, then grabbed myself some cloning software. Usually, I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner for all my migration needs, but I struggled to find a version that worked under Leopard, so instead I pulled an older edition of SuperDuper! which works just as well. After about an hour and 30 minutes (reading and writing about 40GB to the same drive can take a while), the partition was done and the upgrades could begin.

When upgrading from Leopard, a few steps have to be taken. First of all, you'll need a copy of Snow Leopard on either a DVD or a USB. Yosemite (or any version of OS X OTHER than Snow Leopard) cannot actually be installed overtop of Leopard without first upgrading to 10.6.7 or higher. The logical course of action, of course, was to run the SL upgrade from my spare DVD, then update to 10.6.8, and run Yosemite off of the USB. To save time, after the install of 10.6.0 was completed, just run the combo update either via Apple's Site or via Software Update. No need to update all those standalone security updates or iTunes, as we'll be installing Yosemite overtop of the system.

Once it's done and you're rebooted into 10.6.8, either download the Yosemite installer from the App Store, or plug in your Yosemite Install USB and run the system update. Give it a while, and once Yosemite is installed, run its respective software updates until you're completely up to date.

Now, theoretically, you're done. However, if you really want to make sure everything works fine, I recommend doing a couple of things next. First, get rid of your old PowerPC apps that don't work anymore. In my case, this was iWork '08, some old FlipVideo garbage, and an instance of Norton 2008 for Mac. This freed up about 24GB of space on the drive (not much to me, but it might be in your case.) Next, run individual updates on programs not governed by Apple Software Update. This would be standalone programs and suits such as Adobe or Microsoft Office. Then you can be assured your Mac has been brought into this decade.

Always reboot the machine and let it index the drive before returning it to the client. Always leave them with a speedy machine.

Thanks for reading, hope this helps someone out.

-N

Dead Drives....

Booted up the Xserve today to find that the 500GB drive I had Yosemite installed on is dead. Some fellows on MacRumors think that I might have incompatible drives in bays 1 and 2, so I've taken out the original 3 80GB hard drives (Apple Branded) that shipped with the Xserve. I'm recreating a Yosemite patched installer so I can check and see if OS X sees the drives in that installer. Ideally, I can have OS X installed on 3x 500GB drives in a RAID 5 array, giving me 1TB of internal storage and a 1 drive fail allowance. This should allow for file storage on the Xserve and also allow the XRAID to be used for file storage, but also allow for different volumes to be mounted depending on which service you need. 3TB for Backup, 500GB for personal storage, 1TB for OS X Server and local file storage.

Altemose on MacRumors has provided me with this pdf that shows how to apply jumpers to Western Digital drives to allow them to work in different ways. He suggested I jump each of the drives to run at SATA 1 speeds, and therefore increase compatibility with the Xserve.

Fibre Issues

Got everything set up and moved into my basement closet (where the Xserve and XRAID will reside). It was quite a move, honestly. The XRAID (without the drives installed) probably weighs about 50-60 lbs, and I don't have a rack mount, so it's sitting on an old desk.

I plugged everything in, and even installed a brand new outlet in the closet just to test - more issues arose. Apparently, a 4Gb Fibre Card will not use a 2Gb Fibre cable to link to the XRAID. It requires a 4Gb cable to even function, and when plugged into the XRAID, it operates at a 2Gb negotiated link speed. Not a huge problem - just ordered 2 new 4Gb Fibre cables off Ebay (and while I was at it, 4 more XRAID drive bays if in case I need future expansion.) Hopefully this will fix my issue.

On the bright side, the LSI card seems to be recognized by OS X without any modifications (flashing, EFI, etc.) and appears in System Profiler and System Preferences as a legit Fibre Channel.

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