Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

....or something

Today, for no real good reason....I decided to reboot my Linux server (lhaven). And, make it check its filesystems.

It took longer than I expected, because since I swapped the motherboard...it comes up in PIO mode, which makes things painfully slow, etc. I had set /etc/sysconfig/harddisks to have USE_DMA=1, but I didn't realize that it did the fsck step before it does the hdparm stuff.

I bounced it a few times trying to figure out why it wouldn't use DMA, eventually resulting in the filesytems as uncleanly unmounted...and therefore requiring the fsck now. I ended up hacking the rc.sysinit script to apply DMA before the fsck. Ideally, the machine should run 24x7 to the end of time. Though there might be a UPS swap or two between now and then.

During all this, there was the annoyance where the keyboard stops responding....so I decided it was a good time as any to replace its KVM.

Now I had a 4-port KVM, but I hadn't come across the 4th set of cables during my various expeditions through my boxes....so I had purchased a new 4-port KVM after deciding this was how I would connect the new Core2Quad box that I've been assembling.

When I first realized that I might not have the 4th set of cables, I thought about getting a new monitor....except that if I were in the market for a new monitor, I'd rather upgrade one that I stare at all the time than just get a cheapie for this computer. Which meant DVI. Though the Core2Quad box doesn't have DVI card in it. And, not sure a DVI monitor would have a place on the KVM. So, this would mean buying a DVI card for it....as well as a new monitor....which as far as I was concerned had to have DVI whether it was really necessary or not....so if I didn't get a DVI card for this new computer, I would still want DVI in a new monitor. And, the cheapest ones available that could be shipped to me quickly weren't quite in my budget (especially with all the recent budget creeps). Though the way I've been dragging my heals on getting this machine going...time wasn't really of the essence on a new monitor.

Though if I did go with new monitor, it then raised the question of where was I going to put this new monitor (and the computer bits around it). This meant furniture would need to be acquired....and possibly other stuff. So, more budget creep.

There will be the question of getting a UPS for this computer, though there is a plan to shuffle in a new UPS elsewhere, which would direct a UPS to this. Though it occurs to me that another project is likely going to need a UPS for that (well there's a UPS there that has the VA's to handle more load, though runtime will then be an issue.) Though I do need to find a UPS that'll better fit the stand. A UPS that is currently there has feet on it, that don't line up with wire mesh of the shelf.

Perhaps the spot will require two UPSs to shuffle in to displace the one that is here now. Though hard to say what the timing of everything is.

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