After some quick reading online, and the lovely tab-completion available in bash, I found the pvmove command, and decided to put it to use. After not receiving any output for several hours, I decided that the process had hung and killed it. When running pvmove --abort, I got a few instances of the following error.

reload ioctl failed: Invalid argument

So I hit the books internet again, and happened upon a similar bug report on Debian’s bug tracker where it was suggested that perhaps the version of the kernel drivers for lvm2 and the versions of the userspace utilities/libraries were out of sync. Since I’m running almost the latest kernel (2.6.17; 2.6.18 was just released), I decided to upgrade to the latest released lvm2 utilities and libraries. Once this was done, everything worked like a charm!

Oddly enough, the old configuration reflects the latest available packages as keyworded stable for amd64. The new configuration reflects the latest packages as keyworded testing for amd64, excepting the kernel. I’ll probably go about upgrading my kernel very soon, but since LVM with pvmove works just fine, I have no strong pressure to do so. Besides, my box is still busy moving data hither and thither.

Since I’m using Gentoo at work, I thought I’d be able to just emerge perforce-cli and be done with it. Apparently not so much. Apparently the Perforce packages were moved out of the Portage trunk and into Stuart’s overlay. So I figured then it’d be as easy as some layman magic. Again, apparently not so — Stuart’s overlay only had some old 2004 versions of the Perforce software. So I went ahead and created some updated ebuilds to reflect the latest releases of the Perforce client software.

The end results? I have Perforce (both CLI and GUI) clients working wonderfully on my work laptop, and am considering maintaining the packages for the Portage trunk. If there’s any interest in this, I’ll throw then back into the Portage trunk right away, so cast your vote via a comment to this post! Otherwise, I’ll just maintain them via Stuart’s overlay, and everyone can access my updated ebuilds via layman.

Short story shorter: phyml is coming to a portage tree near you shortly.

Looks like Apple’s new dev tools are a bit more complacent.

More to come shortly. Once I get done with my mid-terms, I should be good to get some Gentoo work done (read: try to get MPlayer keyworded).

I’m slowly making headway on it all, and should be caught up after next weekend. Needless to say, I have something to do besides falling asleep in my less intense classes.

To those who are expecting replies from me but have not yet gotten them: I will get around to you, I assure you.

The CPU

I’ve overclocked the 2000Mhz processor just the tiniest bit — to 2050Mhz — in order to push the total bogomips to just over 4000 (real nerds like round numbers). I don’t want to push the machine too much, as I’d instead prefer for the processor to last a lifetime (okay, I’ll settle for five years).

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 47
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2050.033
cache size : 512 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni lahf_lm
bogomips : 4063.23
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc

So that’s where it stands. I’m a bit upset about not being able to purchase the 1MB L2 cache model, but it was just too far outside my price range. Despite having the same L2 cache as Lina’s Pentium 4 (currently the processor in PowerBox) and just a 250Mhz clock speed increase, it seems to be approximately twice as fast. If I care enough (or am bored enough), I may do some proper benchmarking at some point.

The Memory

The Corsair ValueSelect RAM I bought performs well but not amazingly. It’s rated at 2.5 CAS and some users commented on review sites that they were able to run it just fine at 2. I had no such luck, though I didn’t look into it too deeply. Right now there’s two sticks at 512MB apiece (1GB total) running at 410Mhz (205Mhz DDR) in dual channel mode. Let’s just say I’m satisfied.

$ cat /proc/meminfo | head -n 1
MemTotal: 1027300 kB

The Motherboard

The motherboard is nothing short of excellent. The only thing I’d ask for above and beyond what the MSI K8N Neo4-F provides is IEEE1394 (FireWire). I can always buy a PCI card for that, though (or even PCI-Express if I really need excellent latency/bandwidth.

All of the onboard features appear to work out of the box with the Gentoo 2005.1 minimal amd64 LiveCD. I’m no kernel expert, but I was able to get the kernel working perfectly with everything I need in one shot. I have yet to play with ACPI and CPU frequency scaling (I really have no clue about this Cool 'n Quiet stuff), but I hope to get around to that eventually.

The Results

As for right now, things are working great, and I’m overjoyed with the products and service I got from both of the vendors I went with. I have posted excellent reviews for both of them in the appropriate places.

Finally, I have a stable server that actually works.

Access has been tested using Apple’s Address Book application both locally and remotely. To access the directory, use the following connection settings.

Server: ldap.charlies-server.no-ip.com
Search Base: ou=gentoo,ou=addressbook,dc=charlies-server,dc=no-ip,dc=com
Port: 389

Also, note that all of the information in the directory already is and has been 100% public, regardless of my LDAP server. All I’m doing is making this information more accessible; I’m not exposing any new information to the public. By this nature, there should be no privacy concerns that didn’t already exist. If anyone specifically wishes to be excluded from the directory, notify me personally and I will ensure your removal.

Currently, only the following data is available on each Gentoo developer via the directory:

• Given Names
• Surname
• Gentoo E-Mail Address

Please note the following important details:

• This service is by no means an official Gentoo service.
• This service is not endorsed by the Gentoo Infrastructure team, or any other members of the Gentoo community, for that matter.
• The directory data is not automatically updated, yet.
• This service is incomplete and unfinished. It is experimental, and is expected to break from time to time.
• This service can be expected to be at best as reliable as the server it’s on, which isn’t the most reliable in the world.

Before anyone asks, I do plan on increasing the amount of available data on the directory. It’s just a matter of actually parsing the available data out there and getting it into LDIF format. If anyone particularly wants to help, drop me a line.

Lastly, if anyone has any ideas for improvement, feel free to leave me a comment. The service works perfectly for me as is, but I’m generally willing to accommodate requests given that I have or can get the time and expertise required.

On the lighter side, there’s no longer a need to add to package.unmask when masking packages for 10.3 only. This has been tedious and annoying for developers in the past.

If there are any problems or concerns, please let me know.

Seems like everything is in working order now. I just thought I might get my ’solution’ up on the web for anyone else that’s having the same issue.

Although our recruitment process is slow and limited, we are indeed still recruiting. Lina and I know all too well that the Gentoo for Mac OS X project is in dire need of more (wo)manpower. There’s a large tree to tackle and only a few active developers.

Hopefully in the future we can do more than just limp along.