earth tech

I needed something to tell me what VNC server (vncserver()) instances were running, and on which DISPLAY ports, and with what resolution(s) (geometry), so I wrote one. Here is the HTMLized Perl source code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
######################################################################
## FILE:  findvncport.pl 

## DESC:  display information about VNC server instances
## VERS:  01
## DATE:  2009-05-13
## AUTH:  pdw@thesoftwaremaster.com
##############################################################################
##  USAGE NOTES:
##
##    This is a script to find out the connection port number and screen
##    geometry of any VNC server instances currently running on a host.  

##
##    This functionality is most useful to a user who needs to know what VNC
##    server instance(s) is(are) running, and on what port(s) - E.G.  at logon
##    (to a shell) time when a vncserver has been left running.
##
##    For convenience, the geometry of the X interface, the PID of Xvnc (the
##    actual X server invoked by vncserver), and such other info as we can
##    glean from the process listing on the host.
##

##    Note that this script only returns information about VNC instances
##    running under the UID of the user who runs the script.  The value of
##    the environment variable $USER is used to filter the process listing.
##    The user's $UID value is displayed, but is not used.
##
##    This program is designed to be run on a remote, ssh-accessible host
##    computer during the login and user account initialization process.
##
##  EXAMPLE:

##
##    I place this script in the .bash_login shell script that runs at user
##    login.
##
##
##  _TODO_: there is no buglist, yet, but there are some things need done to
##          this script right to begin with (i.e. the functionality is
##          marginal, and will almost certainly "break" the first time someone
##          tries to use it on some other platform or environment.  First on

##          the list of things to do must be: Fix the regular expression
##          parsing which finds the data in the process listing.  As the code
##          is now, these regex statements will break e.g. if the Xvnc command
##          line doesn't look like it expects. 2nd on the list has to be the
##          addtion of command line parameters to modify the output of the
##          script. :_TODO_
##
#############################################################################
##  REVISION HISTORY:

##
##     01: 2009-05-13 pdw
##         Initial version
##
#############################################################################
##
## Load up some environmental info...
$curruid = `echo \$UID`;

$curruser = `echo \$USER`;
@processes = `ps x -u \$USER`;
chomp($curruid);

chomp($curruser);

## @displays gets the data about whatever VNC displays are running
@displays = ();

while ($_ = shift(@processes)) {

 my $d = {};
 my $found = 0;
 chomp;

 next unless ($_);
  
 next unless (/^\s*(\d+).+Xvnc\s*(\:\d+)/)

  && ( $display = $2, $vncpid = $1 );

 # get desktop 

 m/-desktop(.+)-httpd/ 
  && ($desktop = $1);

 m/-geometry\s+(\d+x\d+)/
  && ( $geometry = $1 );

 m/-depth\s+(\d+)/
  && ( $depth = $1 );

 $d = {
  'Display'  => $display,
  'VNC PID'  => $vncpid,

  'Desktop'  => $desktop,
  'Geometry' => $geometry,

  'Depth'    => $depth,
 };
 push(@displays, $d);

}

## Display what we found out 
print "VNC server info for USER \'$curruser\':\n";
if (scalar(@displays)) {

 foreach my $disp (@displays) {
  foreach my $k (keys(%$disp))

  {
   print"  $k: \t".$disp->{$k}."\n";

  }
 }
} else {
 print "
  VNC server not found in process listing.

";
}

Labels: bash, linux, perl, shebang, shell, source, tightvnc, vnc, x, xorg.conf

posted by pd wilson   #   16:47

The NVIDIA X server module is still not loading - or is not loading correctly - on the hp pavilion zd7000.

Additional Information

• NVIDIA GPU Selected for Revolutionary HP Notebook — a press release from nvidia.com that talks about the NVIDIA chipset used in the zd7000
• Linux on zd7000 — a detailed summary of what worked and didn't / tips & tricks for getting Linux working on the zd7000 [the page sez "Last update: 08/24/2004" – didn't realize this machine was that old 8-|
• opensuse – NVIDIA The_hard_way
• http://xorg.freedesktop.org/releases/ — current release(s) of the xorg X-server.
• Re: openSuse 11.1 Beta NVIDIA driver available — A post about the NVIDIA driver / x-server download site
• nv Vs. nvidia in xorg.conf at LinuxQuestions.org

Labels: hp, linux, nvidia, pavilion, x, zd7000

posted by pd wilson   #   04:10

#
#  X-server configuration file.
#
#  Place this file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf and restart the X server 
#  in order to start using the provided configuration.
#
#  This is the xorg.conf file that fixes the X-server config 
#  problems on the hp pavilion zd7000 laptop running OpenSuSE 11.0
#
#  The source of this file is/was: 
#    http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jpatota/linux/knoppix/xorg.conf
#
#
Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier     "XFree86 Configured"
 Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
 InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
# PS/2 Mouse not detected
# Serial Mouse not detected
        InputDevice    "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
 Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "true"
 
EndSection

Section "Files"
 RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
 ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi:unscaled"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Speedo"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/PEX"
# Additional fonts: Locale, Gimp, TTF...
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
# FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/latin2/75dpi"
# FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/latin2/100dpi"
# True type and type1 fonts are also handled via xftlib, see /etc/X11/XftConfig!
 FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/truetype"
 FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/latex-ttf-fonts"
EndSection

Section "Module"
# Comments: see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=346408
 Load  "dbe" # Double Buffering Extension, very important.
 Load  "dri" # This shouldn't be available choice if user has selected driver vga, vesa or nv.
 Load  "glx" # GLX Extension.
 Load  "freetype" # Freetype fonts.
 Load  "type1"  # Type 1 fonts
 Load  "record" # Developer extension, usually not needed
# Load  "extmod" # This is okay, but if you look into "man xorg.conf" you'll find option NOT to include DGA extension with extmod, and for a good reason.. DGA causes instability as it access videoram without consulting X about it.
 SubSection      "extmod"
  Option          "omit xfree86-dga"
 EndSubSection
# Load  "speedo" # Speedo fonts, this module doesn't exist in Xorg 7.0.17
# The following are deprecated/unstable/unneeded in Xorg 7.0
#       Load  "ddc"  # ddc probing of monitor, this should be never present, as it gets automatically loaded.
# Load  "GLcore" # This should be never present, as it gets automatically loaded.
#       Load  "bitmap" # Should be never present, as it gets automatically loaded. This is a font module, and loading it in xorg.conf makes X try to load it twice.
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "Keyboard0"
 Driver      "kbd"
        Option      "CoreKeyboard"
 Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
 Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
 Option "XkbLayout" "us"

EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "Serial Mouse"
 Driver      "mouse"
 Option      "Protocol" "Microsoft"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
 Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
 Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
 Option     "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
 Identifier  "PS/2 Mouse"
 Driver      "mouse"
 Option      "Protocol" "auto"
Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
 Option      "Device" "/dev/psaux"
 Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
 Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "70"
 Option     "SendCoreEvents"  "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier      "USB Mouse"
        Driver          "mouse"
        Option          "Device"                "/dev/input/mice"
 Option  "SendCoreEvents" "true"
        Option          "Protocol"              "IMPS/2"
        Option          "ZAxisMapping"          "4 5"
        Option          "Buttons"               "5"
EndSection

# Auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Monitor0"
 Option "DPMS" "true"
 HorizSync    30 - 64
 VertRefresh  50 - 100
 Modeline "1440x900" 97.54 1440 1472 1840 1872 900 919 927 946
EndSection

Section "Device"
 ### Available Driver options are:-
# sw_cursor is needed for some ati and radeon cards
        #Option     "sw_cursor"
        #Option     "hw_cursor"
        #Option     "NoAccel"
        #Option     "ShowCache"
        #Option     "ShadowFB"
        #Option     "UseFBDev"
        #Option     "Rotate"
 Identifier  "Card0"
# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
 Driver      "nv"
 VendorName  "All"
 BoardName   "All"
# BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
 Option "MetaModes" "1440x900"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Screen0"
 Device     "Card0"
 Monitor    "Monitor0"
 DefaultColorDepth 16
  SubSection "Display"
  Viewport 0 0
  Depth 24
  Modes "1440x900"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
 Mode 0666
EndSection

Labels: config, file, hp, linux, pavilion, x, xorg.conf, zd7000

posted by pd wilson   #   02:46

A week or so ago I managed to munge the X-server configuration on the hp pavilion zd7000 linux laptop I've been using for about a month now. The X-server quit working after some set of package installs and/or system updates wherein I was trying to get the correct NVIDIA™ display drivers installed such that I could use the various "transparency" and "translucency" settings on the shiny new KDE 4.x desktop.

The fix given on the page Configuring and Running Knoppix on the HP Pavilion zd7000 works, even though the OS distribution listed as the application environment for the fix is given as KNOPPIX. and the distro I have on the hp is OpenSuSE 11.0.

For the record, the fix is/was:

Download the xorg.conf from http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jpatota/linux/knoppix/xorg.conf and install it as /etc/X11/xorg.conf –

I have posted a copy of the xorg.conf file recommended above at http://blogs.earthside.org/earth_tech/2009/03/xorgconf-file-for-hp-pavilion-zd7000.html.

Or, "just–in–case" the enclosure doesn't enclose, I will paste a copy of the file into a subsequent posting on this blog.

Labels: config, hp, knoppix, laptop, linux, nvdia, opensuse, x, zd7000

posted by pd wilson   #   02:05

It seems clear to me at this point that the desktop is going to have to be KDE, and (in this case, now) KDE4, in particular.

The bottom line is simply this: the KDE widget set has the widgets I want, and it works more consistently than e.g. GNOME.

This blog has been down for days because the gnome-panel has decided to - each time it is launched - go into an infinite loop which hogs something around 100% of the processor cycles, and will not stop until it is killed with a 'pkill -9 gnome-panel'.

Now, I know this problem with GNOME has something to do with the stored configuration, but I have been unable to determine just exactly which aspect of the GNOME configuration is causing the problem.

Furthermore, once I realized that GNOME was not healing itself, and was in fact doing everything in its power to prevent me from using the computer at all, I tried to switch back to KDE. That effort took down the whole X server config, starting with the session login manager - neither kdm nor gdm would work, and gdm wouldn't even start.

After a brief flirtation with wdm, I took the fallback to xdm - which sort of worked, but wouldn't start an X session until I re-installed both GDM and KDM.

Having been through all that, I was so relieved to see the KDE desktop again I haven't changed it since.

Now, in between all this, I have also found that FVWM as installed by OpenSuSE does not come configured - the "out of the box" configuration is simply a black screen (arguably an improvement over the miore-effect tiling that is the X default) with the default, built-in root menu available using the right mouse button on the black desktop. After screwing around with the FVWM config - and since I did not have my archived FVWM configuration immediately available, I tried to switch to a different - I.E. non-FVWM session - which is when I discovered that the session configurations were hosed. Specifically, when I logged in to the FVWM session, something in the session manager config got changed, and there was no non-trivial way to change it back.

The really unfortunate part of all this is that I do not have a "fix" to present here. This is all just a problem description, and fails to even adequately define the problem in reproducible terms.

I will, in the course of getting this desktop environment to a usable state, try to generate some more coherent bug reports and/or workarounds to the problems that keep coming up.

Meanwhile, KDE4 is going to be "it" - I expect it

a) to be simpler to configure for user-friendly day-to-day use

b) to be more robust once configured

c) to provide a widget set tailored for my needs

FVWM is more configurable, and arguably more powerful for detailed, perhaps non-standard, configuration items, but tends to be less intuitive in its default modes, and more tedious to bring into compliance with the Windows-like look and feel which GNOME and KDE have shown to be so popular.

In short, I will provide KDE as a baseline desktop, with customizations purpose-built using FVWM (these will typically be for dedicated accounts).

Finally: I think I like KDE3 better than KDE4. All my transparent widgets from KDE3 have gone opaque in KDE4, and the glassy, glossy radioactive eye-candy from KDE3 is toned way down - at least in the default versions. I have some screenshots of each which I will link here (once I find the URLs) that should highlight some of the differences.

Labels: display manager, GNOME, kde, KDE4, linux, x

posted by pd wilson   #   23:27

The X log file on the HP Pavilion a220n running KNOPPIX:

This file is found at /var/log/Xorg.0.log on the system while the system is running.

Labels: config, hp, knoppix, linux, pavilion, x

posted by pd wilson   #   09:47