Root Access

Psycogeek

17:01

@Boris_yo looks like 8G ram modules are "normal" priced now at about 2X a 4Gig . for a while they wanted $300 for the things.

somequixotic

@Psycogeek o_O I bought 4 x 32GB modules last year for about $180 (total)

Psycogeek

@somequixotic That oughta do it . For some time i was thinking of getting a "server" board, which would allow massive sticks of ram, to avoid the 8Gig price. but 32 should be enough for a desktop :-)

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820239638 looks like 16Gig chunks are making the scene , i guess for "servers" ?

Bob

16

Q: In reality, a developer also administers DBMS and system?

I really don't know where else to ask. So here it goes. I'm working at a very tiny company that makes ERP software and websites. 1 developer with + 10 years experience. 2 developers with + 3years experience. 3 developers with + 1 year experience. That's it. No team, no DBA, no system admin. T...

somequixotic

17:16

@Bob that's a super nice question, but I fail to see how 99% of programmers.SE isn't opinion-based and open-ended and therefore off-topic for the SE network

Bob

lol

@somequixotic it's the one place for opinion-based questions on SE

somequixotic

@Bob that seems like hypocrisy to me... people shoot down the IT Shopping proposal on area51 for the exact same traits that a non-beta site espouses

but I bet it's fine because a SE employee thought of programmers.SE

Bob

tbh many questions and answers there, opinion or not, tend to be well written and well argued

somequixotic

they're very NIH -- if it's a luser's idea, they'll can it, but if it's their idea, it must be good

just like Canonical, Red Hat, and many other companies I like. :S

Bob

lol

Psycogeek

17:19

@somequixotic Do you do the game thing? Having massive memory enough to fit the whole game in cache, are "loading" times reduced to almost nothing, or is it still the time it takes to jam it into the video card memroy (or whatever)?

somequixotic

@Psycogeek I don't use a ram disk, but usually I have enough free memory that, after the first load of a game, the time to start it again is dramatically reduced due to most of the assets being in page cache... that said, many (most?) games these days do a lot of waiting around for things like logging in over the network (HTTPS = slow), and loading up the GPU with the graphics data

even if the graphics data goes RAM => CPU => GPU directly with no HDD in the middle, it's still fairly slow to get a large game rigged up and ready to go... the loading times are not tremendously improved in general compared to a cold start

it depends on the game though

some games that will grind the disk heavily but not do much with the GPU / network, will benefit a lot from being cached in RAM

other games will be slow no matter what your system resources are

Bob

oookay

2

Q: How can I have two files with the same name in a directory?

I have a C++ application test that creates 10,000 files in a directory, but my test recently failed once due to one file appearing twice with the same name in that directory with all the other 10,000 files. This is on Linux Centos v4. How is it even possible to have two files with the same name...

filesystems centos duplicate-files

Psycogeek

@somequixotic I play the older games mostly so far. I have always wondered why they did a "reset the whole level from scratch" when all i did was Die (again)?

Bob

That's an... interesting problem.

somequixotic

@Bob sounds like a fsck is in order

when i see insanity like that, i immediately reach for fsck

Bob

17:24

@somequixotic he said it's mounted over NFS

somequixotic

still, the NFS server should fsck

Bob

eh.

somequixotic

might be a local NFS client bug though indeed

Bob

@ultrasawblade has already suggested all that

personally, I'm rather wary of fsck (and chkdsk)

those have caused me a lot of pain

somequixotic

creating two files with the same name but a different inode is the type of thing that the buggy Linux NFS kernel client would do... in other words, about as surprising as Windows 95 BSODing

also, CentOS 4

Bob

17:25

lol

somequixotic

4. as in, not 5, not 6, but 4

Bob

o.o

somequixotic

TRWTF is why hasn't he upgraded

Bob

@somequixotic it's still newer than XP

:P

somequixotic

@Bob the scary thing is, that's going to be an increasingly valid argument as time goes on and people continue using XP

Bob

17:26

@somequixotic maybe an esoteric architecture?

looks like newer versions of centos are x86 only

DEFCON 1

hi guys let me ask a question ?

Bob

!!tell 11061339 welcome

John Cavil

@DEFCON1 Welcome to Root Access chat for Super Users! Please don't ask if you can ask or if anyone's around; just ask your question, and if anyone's free and interested they'll help.

somequixotic

!!learn meta Please don't ask to ask; just ask!

John Cavil

@somequixotic Could not process input. Error: Unexpected end of input: Expected ' on column 40

somequixotic

17:27

!!help learn

John Cavil

@somequixotic learn: Teaches me a command. /learn cmdName outputPattern [inputRegex [description]]

somequixotic

!!learn meta "Please don't ask to ask; just ask!"

John Cavil

@somequixotic Command meta learned

somequixotic

!!meta

John Cavil

@somequixotic Please don't ask to ask; just ask!

somequixotic

17:28

gah lol

Bob

!!tell DEFCON meta

somequixotic

need to have redirection like IRC bots

John Cavil

@DEFCON Please don't ask to ask; just ask!

somequixotic

ah, thank you

i still like the IRC version: !meta | Bob

or if you want them to get IMed with it (since IRC supports private messaging) you could do !meta > Bob

Bob

eh. syntax changes are painful

DEFCON 1

17:30

one of my freind says that i can figure out if my smps is crappy by shorting two wires in smps pin.i wonder if itstrue ?

Bob

waitwaitwhat

somequixotic

I was totally thinking that this weekend I would sit down and implement a proper Android client for chat, using Selenium (yes, on Android itself) and a native Android frontend

Bob

@DEFCON1 SMPS? as in, your desktop computer's PSU?

Shorting which two wires?

somequixotic

but then hateplus took over my life

Bob

"crappy" in what way?

somequixotic

17:31

okay, shorting wires is not something I'm qualified to provide advice on; either try the electronics chatroom, or consult an electrician... I don't want to be responsible for your untimely demise

DEFCON 1

lol

@Bob yup as if in psu

@bob he said the black and green

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 it probably is true, but nobody would direct short wires to discover anything about the electronics, they would use a "load" which would properly Short Out the wires :-)

Bob

@somequixotic well, if it's an AT PSU, then shorting two wires could start it :P

@DEFCON1 which black and which green and on which connector?

An AT PSU has many connectors, some of which have multiple wires of the same colour (differentiated by the pin/socket they're connected to)

DEFCON 1

can u guys hold a little

let me phone my freind :-)

somequixotic

they probably aren't exactly the same color; they expect you to use mass spectroscopy to tell the subtle difference between black and, well, slightly less black

Psycogeek

17:35

@DEFCON1 (Black and green) turning it on? would show what?

Bob

@DEFCON1 ...wait. he just said "short the green and black" to tell if it's a "crappy" PSU?

don't bother.

somequixotic

@DEFCON1 this isn't "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire". you're already out of lifelines.

Bob

just ignore it. and probably don't take any further advice concerning electronics from this person.

Psycogeek

@somequixotic lol

DEFCON 1

@somequixotic i guess u are jim parson from the big bang theory about that mass spectroscopy

:-)

Bob

17:38

hey, would you look at that. seems the power on line is green (and ground is black)

you could short pins 15 and 16 to power it on

not that that would do you much good

DEFCON 1

means ?

Psycogeek

@Bob I had a psu long ago that it was purple :-)

Bob

well, all that would do is turn on the PSU

that's it

nothing more

somequixotic

I generally don't trust mere "freinds" anyway; I find that friends are much more trustworthy

Bob

@somequixotic at least you don't trust fiends

DEFCON 1

17:39

got it :-D

somequixotic

@Bob I do sometimes, by mistake

Psycogeek

@Bob what is your take on fronds?

somequixotic

I trust easily. :S

Bob

@Psycogeek They're good for shade.

somequixotic

well, I used to. these days not so much

been burned a few times

DEFCON 1

17:41

@somequixotic so i rephrase "my buddy told me"

Bob

@somequixotic he edited to say other machines on centos5 mounting the same share have the same prob

@DEFCON1 yea, well, unless you're leaving out a good chunk of what they told you, based on the instructions you have repeated to us at best you would have turned the PSU on

at worst? blown it up, electrocuted yourself, etc..

Psycogeek

@Bob I concur with bob, it would turn on both a very crappy PSU and it would Turn on a Very good PSU, it would not turn on a Dead PSU.

somequixotic

@Bob in that case I'd definitely fsck the host filesystem on the server

at least in non-destructive mode to tell if it detects anything fishy

fsck in read-only mode, at least, is super-safe, and a way of telling you a binary answer of whether or not the state of the filesystem is consistent

Bob

hm. could you prompt him to follow that other answer? :P

@somequixotic And you call me a pedant! :P

somequixotic

I wonder... he might also be able to try a FUSE or userspace NFS without upgrading his dist -- oh, wait, this is CentOS 4; he won't even have the required library versions -_-

DEFCON 1

17:45

so shall i proceed shorting out /loadig pin 15 and pin 16 ?

somequixotic

@DEFCON1 NO

DEFCON 1

why ?

Bob

@DEFCON1 the question is why

somequixotic

we are morally prohibited from telling you "yes", because to tell you to do something dangerous would make us liable

Bob

why would you want to?

somequixotic

17:45

if you're going to do it, just do it, but we didn't tell you to

so the only correct answer we can give you is either "no", or "at your own risk"

not "yes, go ahead, it's safe"

DEFCON 1

well i'm gonna do it @ myown risk

Bob

@somequixotic (it's actually safeish, if he's got the right pins)

somequixotic

@Bob and if he doesn't, and he shorts them with his tongue...

Bob

but there's always the risk

DEFCON 1

helpppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

Bob

17:48

o.O

somequixotic

someone call 911 on DEFCON 1! ... wait, that seems backwards

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 your just bringing that line to a logic low (to ground), and it is still proper to do it with a resister (load) even though it will work with a paperclip.

Bob

@Psycogeek the connections would provide enough resistance

it's not an ideal conductor

in any case, specs pretty much say to short it to ground

Psycogeek

@Bob the point is with a resister, there will be enough "low" and if errors are made , there are no "actual" shorts to occur.

There are websites which demonstrate the "resister" method.

Bob

@Psycogeek though if you have a high enough resistor value to prevent a short, then it likely won't power on at all

Psycogeek

17:51

@Bob right

Bob

if your resistor value is low enough to pull it down and start it, it's low enough to short others

DEFCON 1

u guys are crazy. i m supposed to be electrocuted here and nobody seems to mind

Bob

if it's high enough to prevent shorting, it'll probably be too high to pull PS_ON# down and start it

hm? did someone say something?

William Hilsum

Anyone here browse this chat on a Mac?

Bob

can anyone else access this? http://www.formfactors.org/developer\specs\atx2_2.pdf

yes, I'm aware there's backslashes

Psycogeek

17:54

@Bob one location on the web says you can do it with a 470ohm (not Kohm), assuming that worked as stated, that should be sufficient to keep really bad things from happening on error.

DEFCON 1

Error - http://www.formfactors.org/developerspecsatx2_2.pdf

The page 'http://www.formfactors.org/developerspecsatx2_2.pdf' couldn't be loaded.

Cannot connect to destination

Bob

:\

Psycogeek

Oh wait there is more, and mabey this is where the rumor comes from. There are some people who say that some power supplys will not stay on, when there is no load on like the 5v also.

DEFCON 1

@Griffin Please don't ask to ask; just ask! by the way its not shorting with electronics but its loading.

lol i get to say the meta

Griffin

@DEFCON1 What are talking about

somequixotic

17:58

o_O

DEFCON 1

nothing its a conversation starter

Griffin

I just got on and I haven't said anything in forevers

Ummm

Sleep I need it now.

First day of school....

Bob

> PS_ON# is an active low signal that turns on all of the main power rails including 3.3VDC, 5VDC, -5VDC, 12VDC, and -12VDC power rails. When this signal is held high by the PC board or left open circuited, outputs of the power rails should not deliver current and should be held at a zero potential with
respect to ground. Power should be delivered to the rails only if the PS_ON# signal is held at ground potential. This signal should be held at +5VDC by a pullup resistor internal to the power supply.

@Griffin Don't worry, you're not hallucinating. I think.

Griffin

@Bob I want sleep.

Bob

According to the specification, you should be able to just short it ("held at zero potential with respect to ground")

DEFCON 1

18:00

go get your REM sleep "fiend"

@lol bob

i messed it up

buzinga

somequixotic

rofl you called Griffin a "fiend"? he doesn't know about our inside joke :P

don't be mean!

DEFCON 1

is that supposed to be sarcasm @Bob

Bob

??

I was talking to @Psycogeek

DEFCON 1

well look what somequi told

Psycogeek

@Bob yup, ground it out. the websites that show the resister method, are trying to show a more safe method, because all your doing is talking to some chip, and communications via that method are often done with resistances added to keep bad stuff from happening, it wouldnt hurt to use such a method. Heck i got the resisters already, so it would be nothing "added" here.

somequixotic

18:06

@Psycogeek you seem to know your electronics pretty well

Psycogeek

All accomplishes the same thing, some places show a raw bent paperclip, some take the time to insulate it , so it doesnt mix it up while playing, and the deep electronics geeks insist that the resister method is the way.

DEFCON 1

still talking about smps

Psycogeek

@somequixotic Sure i have been electrocuted a few times :-) honest it doesnt kill you . . . everytime .

@DEFCON1 Which is a switching power supply right?

DEFCON 1

i dont get it

@Psycogeek

Bob

@somequixotic also somewhat worrying to hear your opinion on NFS stability

apparently they use NFS to mount our user directories on the uni machines and ssh servers

Psycogeek

18:10

@DEFCON1 dont get what?

DEFCON 1

what he asked

Psycogeek

Switched-mode power supply

A switched-mode power supply (switching-mode power supply, SMPS, or switcher) is an electronic power supply that incorporates a switching regulator to convert electrical power efficiently. Like other power supplies, an SMPS transfers power from a source, like mains power, to a load, such as a personal computer, while converting voltage and current characteristics. Unlike a linear power supply, the pass transistor of a switching-mode supply continually switches between low-dissipation, full-on and full-off states, and spends very little time in the high dissipation transitions, which min...

DEFCON 1

i know i study

"Which is a switching power supply right?"

Psycogeek

And from there is gets somewhat all mixed up. because at one time or another a PSU was almost 100% linear type, a really crappy one can be mostly switching, and a better one can lean more towards linear still , and it has become beyond me.

somequixotic

@Bob NFS has a long history of having many flaws and edge cases. there are still today major changes going into NFS in the Linux kernel (both the server and the client), including lots of scary-sounding bug fixes, like "fixed a race condition that has existed since 2003" and similar

DEFCON 1

18:17

seen this question ? its funny superuser.com/questions/640479/…

well.. it turs out i posted it

Psycogeek

If anything would require a load beyond the usual green to ground wire method, it would probably be a switching supply.

DEFCON 1

@Griffin you should be sleeping now

do somebody get blocked from chatrooms for talking nonsence

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 ""the fans turn on and pc makes all the sounds as if they are booting up"" . . . . "that we can check smps by shorting two wires and see if the fans are turning on."" uhh they are according to the other paragraph?

DEFCON 1

well i stated that i was little informed about computers

lol

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 Well you provided some interesting clues. Why does the Keyboard "stop working" is it a USB keyboard?

DEFCON 1

18:24

no

its ps2

but all 3 fans are working

processor ,smps,

and one to get air into case

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 The power is still going to the keyboard because the lights are on? but the keyboard no longer responds like a "crash"?

DEFCON 1

no it just flashes

when i switch on the pc by pressing power button

but right after it

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 flashes? oh crap, so not only does it no respond to the lock keys but the light itself quits.

DEFCON 1

when i press locks they dont work

numlock

caps lock

i hope its natural

@Psycogeek

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 How do you know they dont work ?

assumes facts not in evidence , I object your honor.

DEFCON 1

18:28

because when i press the locks they dont light up

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 so the question becomes is it a "crash" or hard lock or whatever you want to call it, or is there no power to the keyboard at all?

DEFCON 1

power tokeyboard butcrash then

John Cavil

@JohanLarsson Welcome to Root Access chat for Super Users! Please don't ask if you can ask or if anyone's around; just ask your question, and if anyone's free and interested they'll help.

Johan Larsson

hi bot?

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 because the lights flash, but the lights flash when the computer reaches some Init level, we cannot fact out yet from your clues that the power is not there at the keyboard. We can Assume power is there though, because the 12V is still working ok, which is another clue.

John Cavil

18:32

@GeloVolro Welcome to Root Access chat for Super Users! Please don't ask if you can ask or if anyone's around; just ask your question, and if anyone's free and interested they'll help.

Gelo Volro

guys! please help me with a piece of advice

Johan Larsson

[x] nice bot

Gelo Volro

my problem is described here

0

Q: Offline install wi-fi drivers on old PC using Linux Mint 15

I want to use wi-fi connection on my old notebook on which the Linux Mint 15 is installed, but I can't because it doesn't see any available installed drivers on it. I have searched many website and read different variations of setup, but no success. I have installed offline the b43-fwcutter per...

linux-mint software-installation drivers wireless wifi

thank you

DEFCON 1

so is itany problem with motherboard or smps @Psycogeek

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 Either one. i need to know much more about the system. you say VGA so i assume mabey an onboard video capacity? and when i have to start assuming . . .

DEFCON 1

18:35

yes

but i dont see any burnouts

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 are there no cards shoved in any PCI slots so you can test with them gone for a while?

DEFCON 1

and my "feind" says its hard to get a vga port burnout

no

for the record motherboard is p5kpl-cm

(asus)

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 weird, I think i had one of those once, in the other computer.

DEFCON 1

oh

and it turns out ???

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 worked untill i changed it.

DEFCON 1

18:39

well iam also trying to figure it out

eventhough its midnight 12:30

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 So your assembling all this "new" (to you), and got stuck when it would not "post" , and from your clues we might assume that it is crashing during the init procedure.

DEFCON 1

u mean post as in power on self test

Psycogeek

Meaning you got no BIOS, and although you can hear a hard drive spin up, you cannot determine if it is reading anything, you just got power running around, and the keyboard is indicating a hard lock.

So far I am at, could be ram , could be CPU, could be motherboard, could be PSU, and hell you got nothing else in there. I am so frilling helpfull :-)

DEFCON 1

its not ram

Psycogeek

First thing, i would check is the CPU , the cpu pins/connections, the seating, the mount, the heatsync seating.

DEFCON 1

18:46

i got a buzzer

Psycogeek

I would have one ram stick in One slot, preferably the first slot.

DEFCON 1

i put two ddr2 ram in two banks

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 Ohh, well thanks for telling, is this a episode of CSI :-)

what does the buzzer do?

DEFCON 1

lol

nothing

i aint hered a sound it make

Psycogeek

Ties Devcon to chair and shines light in eyes

@DEFCON1 no beeps, Another Clue, you are keeping a list to put these in the question right?

DEFCON 1

18:49

no

i figured eventually

u know i no expert at this im learning in process

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 you are putting it together, so your the expert now.

DEFCON 1

no

i am not assembling it.

it was assembled by some expert nce

but now its not working

so somebdody gave it toe

to check if i can do anything

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 thats right you said that, it was assembled.

DEFCON 1

yup

Psycogeek

but we still need to know if it was "working assembled before" and then broke, or if it never got working.

DEFCON 1

18:55

well it was working fine

but it broke

lateley

Psycogeek

@DEFCON1 and did they have a seperate gpu card back then?

DEFCON 1

no

Psycogeek

Did it just quit, or did it get moved around or dropped, or did the dog pee on it?

Was anyone trying to upgrade or update it? like different cpu , heat sync, psu , or changing the ram? or even flashing the bios?

DEFCON 1

no

nothing like that

they gave me it

said

fix it if u can

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