Me on Stuff

Move blog

2007-01-16T17:02:00.000+13:00

I have moved this blog to http://fubar.geek.nz/blog/. All updates will happen there.

Me on libpkg

2006-10-24T18:38:00.000+13:00

I've been working on a library with the lofty goal of overthrowing all package management tools (and bringing peace to the masses of Open Source/Free Software users). Failing this I will accept making package tool writers jobs easier by providing an API to add/remove/create/modify packages on a system.The library is aptly named libpkg. It is an object based design where each package is a separate

FreeBSD+BSDInstall Beta 2

2005-12-12T10:49:00.000+13:00

Below is the announcement I made for the second beta release of FreeBSD+BSDInstallerI am pleased to announce the second release of FreeBSD install CD's based on the BSD Installer.The new Lua backend is now being used in this release rather than the older, deprecated C version.The CD image is available from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/bsdinstaller/7.0-BSDINSTALLER-BETA-2-i386-

So long, thanks for the check

2005-10-12T13:47:00.000+13:00

I was accepted by the FreeBSD team to receive the US$4000 from Google for the Summer Of Code. This is a note to Google: thanks for the check (still waiting on the tee-shirt).I am still working on getting the BSD Installer integrated with FreeBSD. I now have the Lua backend past the point of the BSDINSTALLER-BETA-1 release I made.I have been building kernels without Preemption as qemu would cause

Finished the Google Summer of Code

2005-09-08T09:42:00.000+12:00

This really happened a week ago but I was too busy/slack.The Google Summer of Code finished back on 1 September. As far as I know I finished everything but the mentors at FreeBSD have the final say on whether I will receive the full $4500 or just $500.I'm hoping if I pass I will get the tee-shirt soon so I can use it to skite to the other Computer Science students around Uni.

Installing packages from BSD Installer CD's

2005-08-02T00:13:00.000+12:00

I'm looking at ways to install packages with the BSD Installer.One way is to move the few executables and libraries needed from /usr to another location on /dev/md0. These include /usr/bin/login, /usr/sbin/bsd_installer_be, /usr/sbin/bsd_installer_ncurses, /usr/lib/libaura.so, /usr/lib/libdfui.so and /usr/lib/libinstaller.so but there may be others. /usr would then be unmounted and the package CD

BSD Installer on FreeBSD release 1

2005-07-29T12:23:00.000+12:00

The first testing release of the BSD Installer powered install CD's is below. I've been working on this for just over a month (it seems longer).Announcing the first test release of a BSDInstaller-ified Install ISOfor FreeBSD.I am pleased to announce the first beta release of BSD Installer poweredFreeBSD Install CD's. It is both for wider testing and feedback on togauge the progress I've been

Rant on using bash for scripts

2005-07-21T18:54:00.000+12:00

I feel like having a rant on using /bin/bash in scripts so here it is:DON'T USE /bin/bash IN SHELL SCRIPTS EVER.If bash must be used for the script use "#!/usr/bin/env bash" otherwise use "#!/bin/sh".The reason is not everyone has bash installed as /bin/bash where if /bin/sh is not there the admin is asking for punishment.The env trick works with bash wherever it is installed. eg. FreeBSD

Writing C with XML and XSLT

2005-06-30T09:39:00.000+12:00

I've been playing with writing C code with XML and XSLT. I have been using this to look at a state machine where each state is a separate C function. eg the BSD Installer C backend.The basic gist is:

Summer of Code

2005-06-27T08:27:00.000+12:00

I received an email from goggle in the weekend saying I was selected for the Google Summer of Code to work with the FreeBSD Project on integrating the BSD Installer to FreeBSD.I have added a page to the FreeBSD test wiki on my project. It is currently the proposal I sent in but will soon include more detail.

OpenSolaris

2005-06-17T11:45:00.000+12:00

I've been looking at the OpenSolaris source code.I found this little gem. It will print a number n in base b to stdout. That's fine but this one works recursively. Also note the use of register long.The thing with the code is they only use it to print an octal, decimal or hexadecimal number. These are easily replaced with printf using %o %u and %x respectively.

Solaris 10

2005-05-16T19:43:00.000+12:00

I managed to install Solaris 10 yesterday to have a look at how DTrace works.Once I figure out it's internals and interface I should be able to get something ported to FreeBSD.

Broadband

2005-05-04T19:21:00.000+12:00

So we got broadband, well as far as I can tell it is fast enough to be classed as broadband as Telecom have brain washed most of New Zealand into thinking 256kb/s is fast enough to be considered.The only problem is there is my Parents only got the plan with a 1GB cap. I used 3GB on dialup last month. We are half the way to using the cap after 4 days. I said I would pay the difference for the 10GB

Back to Uni

2005-04-22T21:55:00.000+12:00

I managed to finish the first week back after the University mid semester Holidays. Only got 3 new assignments meaning I have 4 from 4 Computer Science classes.Isaac showed me darcs and I've been playing with that to manage an interpreter I've been writing.

Frozen Bubble

2005-04-15T11:52:00.000+12:00

I have to say frozen bubble is too addictive. I was up until 2:20 this morning playing it. Next I'll have to try and finish all 100 levels as I only got to somewhere around 55.

More on delta packages

2005-04-10T23:04:00.000+12:00

I've been looking at delta packages for Debian based systems more tonight.Early tests seem to point to generating a delta of the data.tar file contained within the archive[1].I tested the xbase-clients package from Ubuntu 4.10.Each .deb file is around 1.9M each.* A bsdiff of the 2 .deb files generates a 1.7M file [2]* A bsdiff of the 2 data.tar.gz (the actual package) files was about the same*

Random Ubuntu freezings

2005-04-06T11:52:00.000+12:00

Ubuntu is currently deciding it will freeze everything in X except the mouse at random times.This is very rare as it has only happened once before over a month ago. I will have to have a look at it with ssh if it happens again and will let me get in.

Ubuntu update

2005-04-04T14:02:00.000+12:00

I decided to pre-download the updates for Ubuntu 5.04.apt-get makes this an easy task as all I did was: create a new sources.list with only hoary resporitories sudo apt-get -o Dir::Etc::SourceList=./sources.list --just-print upgrade sudo apt-get -o Dir::Etc::SourceList=./sources.list -d update The --just-print may not have been needed but I added it as I wasn't sure and didn't wan't to