Linux Fedora 28 locks up after upgrade

May02
by catz on May 2, 2018 at 11:50 and modified on May 2, 2018. at 12:42
Posted In: tech


Executive Summary: Fedora 27 to 28 upgrade leaves desktop locked up.

Linux Fedora 28 was released yesterday and I missed the note!

So first thing this morning I sit down at my testbed machine: a dell optiplex 755 (circa 2008) – intel core2 quad Q6600 @2.4GHz, 4GBDDR2, Seagate 250GB sata drive.

I was running Linux Fedora 27 desktop and it had an icon for software updates. All of those were installed and then rebooted. The only remaining item was the fedora 28 upgrade. It was downloaded and then the install started. It did not take long.. less than 1 hour and it rebooted again.

And that is where the problem is. It appeared to be locked up and unresponsive to mouse or keyboard.
A manual power cycle and some fiddling with the grub2 options (removing rhgb and quiet), gave the old command line startup display.
It got to

started gnome display manager
started virtualization demon
started user manager for UID42

then locked up, no key responds no mouse. cannot ssh connect. totally dead to keyboard.
try replugging keyboard, mouse, no change.

Wow. Not even a kernel crash!
Tried manually cycling power several times, same results.
Next tried using the lat fedora27 kernel… SAME results!
Tried the grub rescue option.. SAME results… Arrgg!

After an hour of research on the internets, I found something that works… adding the parameter nomodeset into the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg kernel line (the one with the rhgb and quiet parms).
recompile with the command grub2-mkconfig and reboot!

nomodeset turns off video mode drivers from within the kernel until the graphical desktop has loaded.

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spring arrives and things run amuck

May01
by catz on May 1, 2018 at 14:53 and modified on May 1, 2018. at 15:11
Posted In: gardening

VegBed#11 4’x16’=64ft^2

One of the “first” real days of spring yesterday (Mon April 30th 2018)… warm temperatures, no rain, wow.
The greenhouse: outside the eavestrough was siliconed to help it stop leaking; the tin flashing was screwed down on both sides where the wind was flapping it; the tin flashing on top was un-buckled and an overlaying support was moved to prevent a future buckling. One of the vent windows was stuck and will require repositioning it up a little bit.

Inside the plastic vapour barrier that replaced the remi cloth along the top panels, was shortened a bit and rearranged to allow any leaks that do get in are channeled off to the side.

200lbs of play sand was moved from storage to out around back, along with its sandbox turtle… in preparation to be put together… somewhere.

We went through the earth from the two cold frames that were decommissioned and sifted/deweeded it and started to fill the newly built raised Veg Bed #11. We are awaiting delivery of 8yds of earth… any day now!

Veg Bed #11 was inspired by fellow HSGeo member Bob’s. Most of our other 10 beds were built with garden ties, obstensibly 3.5″x5″ x8′ mini ties… only over the years, they keep getting smaller… and in addition, when we relocated VegBed #1 last year, we discovered most of it had rotted away. So no more garden ties! We priced out a new raised bed with garden ties vs 2″x6″. Our recent realization that we needed more depth led us to use three coarses of 2×6, giving us 16.5″ of raised bed. The older garden tie models were generally 10-12″. The price comparison for 4’x16′ of bed? gardenties @7*5*5= $175 and 2″x6″ $7*5*3=105. We hope that they last as long (15 years) but only time will tell. In addition, we added a coarse of weedcloth to the vertical insides in the hope that the earth will not be in actual contact with the wood and that the wood might last longer.

Raking of flower beds continues. The plastic cart/bin holds a lot of cubic and works the best. Now as well, we have the wheelbarrel back with its new inner tube. The utility wagon also has a new inner tube.. along with a new tire as well. Now we just need to get the tractor tire fixed and we may be able to tow things!

Mosquitos are out, a little. So we put up a screen tent on the deck itself, as the hanging netting we tried last year did not do so well. The deck was rearranged, redecorated and is functional.

Water lines were hooked up to a point. Some of the manifolds did not survive the winter and need replacing. Deer fencing was put up to protect some of the flower beds. They keep coming by to eat things, so I guess we have good testing gardens.

All in all, far more things to do then the time available to do them. Constant reprioritization does seem to work. Projects are moving ahead.

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Observatory Renos

Apr27
by catz on April 27, 2018 at 13:53 and modified on April 27, 2018. at 14:02
Posted In: astronomy


This is the main work surface in the observatory, located on the north side. In the roof rebuild, the work surface was relocated to the south side, so as to give us more room with the telescopes on the north side with a better southern view.

This is a pretty simple work surface, slightly inclined, with outer support legs that go back to the wall, so as to stay out of the way. It was built in 2015 May and is surviving well.

The roof is mostly completed, with expected “first light” on Sunday.

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SCGO roof 2

Apr14
by catz on April 14, 2018 at 14:03 and modified on April 14, 2018. at 14:08
Posted In: astronomy

720x480p 7MB video clip made with ffmpeg (converting still image .jpg to .mpg video, handbrake (conversion to mkv to allow movie maker to open it), movie maker for windows to add sound track, and then handbrake again to reduce from 1080p to 480p (and 37MB to 4MB).

Big ice storm coming our way on the next day so the roofing absolutely had to get done.
This is using Ondura panels from Lowes =. The panels are 48″x79″ and made of some asphalt composite material.
The gable ends were 3/8 plywood cut to fit, the panels went on, the roof cap went on and things were tidied up.
Lots more to do before it becomes operational again.

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roofing

Apr12
by catz on April 12, 2018 at 08:52 and modified on April 12, 2018. at 09:26
Posted In: astronomy

720x480p 4MB video clip made with ffmpeg (converting still image .jpg to .mpg video, handbrake (conversion to mkv to allow movie maker to open it), movie maker for windows to add sound track, and then handbrake again to reduce from 1080p to 480p (and 37MB to 4MB).

Custom made 2×4 trusses 24″ OC with 1×4 purlins 24″ OC with a roof bottom plate of 2×4 and a wall top plate of 2×4. Overall dimensions smaller than 8’x10′. Rise of 8″ in a run of 12″ – much higher end result than intended… it looks much smaller on the ground! Next time would go with a 6″ rise over 12′ run. Although, bet there will be no snow on it next winter! Canon DSLR EOS 30D taking an image every 30 seconds.

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High winds, roof flies, RIP SCGO

Apr05
by catz on April 5, 2018 at 08:18 and modified on April 5, 2018. at 08:40
Posted In: astronomy, weather


Yesterday, Wednesday 2018 April 4th, Eastern Ontario had a wind storm. It’s not the first we have had. Back in 2003? we had the remnants of a hurricane roll over us, then a few days later a thunderstorm with high winds.
That first time, during the thunderstorm in the middle of the night, the SCG Observatory doors blew in and the wind lifted the roof off the building and threw it into a corner of the yard.
We managed to bring everything inside in the middle of the night, and in the next week or so repair the roof and remount it.

Yesterday the wind storm took the roof again, threw it against the fence and trees and raised garden beds. This time there is no repair.
The doors remained closed, the rolling stop block was intact. The prevailing wind gusts (clocked at 66kph) were from the SSW, and yet it looked like the roof went straight up, broke the holddowns and blew NNW.

There was a blizzard after the roof came off and the entire inside was coated in a layer of snow. We took everything indoors and there it sits, waiting for us to get over the trauma, and start cleaning, testing, checking and inventorying.
It does not appear that anything was really broken. All of the equipment covers blew off after the roof went. They were intended to only protect from drips or wind blowing precip inside, not for a storage area with no roof.

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Conjunction moon venus mercury

Apr01
by catz on April 1, 2018 at 11:57 and modified on April 1, 2018. at 12:14
Posted In: astronomy, life the universe and everything

It was a rare event on Sunday 2018 March 18th, a conjunction of the Moon, Venus and Mercury in the western horizon after sunset.

30sec 75mm 800iso

15sec 75mm 800iso

5 sec 55mm 800ISO

3 sec 75mm 800ISO


Taken with our old Canon DSLR on a tripod, first two south of Newburg Ontario and last two northwest of Yarker Ontario.

The dark side of the moon was lit up by Earthshine and was very impressive. The moon was 1 day 10 hours old, or 34 hours as calculated by http://cycletourist.com/moon/

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Gardening Season has started at SCG

Mar17
by catz on March 17, 2018 at 13:06 and modified on March 17, 2018. at 13:26
Posted In: life the universe and everything

At the end of February we planted our onion seeds. Alisa Craig,

South Port Red Globe and Red Wethersfield (2014) seed. So far only the Alisa Craig and South Port Red Globe have grown.

March 3rd we planted the Evergreen White Long Bunching onion seeds from Bumble Rock Farm. These two are up!
We will also direct seed some of these seeds to extend the growing and eating season for this onion.

Not leaving the Flowers behind, several different flower seeds were planted in March for the plant out in May. So far the Tall Orange and Tall Yellow from Robert & Carol are up
. The Zinnia’s from Bob B. are also up.

The rest are taking their time……

Soon will the be the Peppers and the Tomatoes! So exciting.

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Observatory updates

Mar13
by catz on March 13, 2018 at 08:51 and modified on March 13, 2018. at 09:50
Posted In: astronomy

Sunday 2018 March 11

video signal noise on the old cable

More work continued on the Tardis Observatory this weekend.

The eastern door hinge mounts were replaced with better, stronger and thicker wood, as the door was sagging just enough not to want to close too much.

Thanks to those with comments about the video cable for the mallincam finder.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B008UGUL4G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

arrived on Friday and is a BlueRigger Dual Shielded Subwoofer Audio RCA Cable with Gold plated connectors – 15 Feet for $14 replacing the mallincam provided 25′ video/power cable combo.

It was *much much* better and all of the video noise disappeared. Next is to try and move the power supply closer to the camera and get rid of the 25′ combo cable entirely! (image to follow)

We attempted to align the scope, videofinder and telrad Sunday afternoon, but met with failure as the sbig st402me camera, even at 0.04 sec exposures, was overwhelmed and overexposed to the max. We then covered the gap in the OTA side panel. still too bright. Added a 4″ subaperture cover, still too bright. Replaced that with a 2″ aperture mask. still too bright. Stopped down the videofinder lens all of the way.. still too bright.

Tried it again after sunset. We were able to locate on the cell tower (the only thing this cell tower has going for it so far)secondary light, focussed, centered, then adjusted the video finder mount to centre as well, and then the telrad.

*all* other moving parts have been inspected and push/pulled around and everything looks tight.

Slewed from the NE to sirius… and the telescope optics and the video finder were not aligned anymore.

arrggg! More repeat tests the next time out to try and discern some pattern to this problem.

The building is still rolling well.. too well… once rolling, it does not slow down nearly as much due to friction… and it stopped so suddenly at the end of the closing run the video display fell to the floor! Oh well… can’t complain about an easy moving building!

On the other observatory

As mentioned earlier, we discovered a big issue on one of the SCGO rolloff roof rails… it had a huge rotted section maybe 2″x16″ near one end.

You could see daylight through the board and poke your fingers through it!

It is approx 15 years old and the 2″x6″x8′ was sandwiched in between a 2″x4″ “fence” on the outside, keeping the wheels on track, and it had another 2″x4″ on the inside, to expand the width of the track for the wheels.

We suspect the inbetween area got wet and stayed that way and rotted out because of it.

This one was replaced on Sunday with a new pressure treated 2″x6″ and the “first roll” was completed later that same day. Not too bad. A few tiny fixes here and there… will probably add an inside 2″x4″ again to expand the track, as the wheels do tend to come a little too close to the edge at times.

Another tweak or two and then we will probably replace the other rail as well next weekend… just to simplify everything. It took only an hour or two for the first one.

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Kingston’s prison farms to reopen

Feb28
by catz on February 28, 2018 at 09:15 and modified on February 28, 2018. at 09:22
Posted In: life the universe and everything

Finally! What took them soooooo long???

Prison farms in Kingston had the best stats on prison programs reform. The Previous conservative government under harper aid they were not relevant… funny how training in farming is not relevant to todays society… hard working. work ethics.. reliability… food production, inventory management, food preparation, heavy machinery training in operation and maintenance…
I could go on for a lot of more but will stop for now.

From: http://www.thewhig.com/2018/02/27/kingstons-prison-farms-to-reopen

The Liberal government committed $4.3 million over five years to reopen the prison farms at Joyceville and Collins Bay institutions.
The farms are to be run by a Correctional Service Canada rehabilitation agency. The farms were closed by the Conservative government in 2010.
Dowling said the campaign to restore the prison farms was successful because of broad support across the community.
Collins Bay and Joyceville were among about a half-dozen prison farms across the country closed by the previous government. Dowling said about 30 dairy cows descended from the original Collins Bay herd are still available to be purchased by the government to start to rebuild the prison herd.

and from https://globalnews.ca/news/4051863/kingston-prison-farms-to-reopen/
Supporters pushed to have the prison farm reopened as a way to rehabilitate inmates, and to promote local sustainability. They’ve protested outside the prison virtually every week for the past 8 years, vowing to remain there until “the cows come home.”

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Got Frost?

Feb20
by catz on February 20, 2018 at 15:08 and modified on February 20, 2018. at 15:12
Posted In: gardening, weather

We’ve been running data logging weather stations since 2002 and once in a while get the urge to analyze some of that data.
One of the results is attached below… a summary of growing days in our neighbourhood, limited by days of light frost (-1C) and heavy frost (-3C and colder).

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System upgrade

Feb15
by catz on February 15, 2018 at 13:19 and modified on February 15, 2018. at 13:35
Posted In: tech


This site just had a nice upgrade from a 320GB spinning hard drive hosting the operating system, web server and web content, to a smaller 240GB SSD hard drive.
Performance is way up, startup times from power to prompt went from 66 sec to 26 sec. All other performance is also noticeably faster, and the system is running cooler as well, 31C down from 34C.

There is limited space for more content but we can start moving some of the archival Allsky imagery off the SSD and onto spinning storage.

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