Piazza Del Popolo

Gentoo Profile migration from x86 to x86_64

Back at the end of 2003: i had a Mandrake (yes, not yes called Mandriva) Linux distro (if i remember good the version was 8.0 or 8.1)
installed on my desktop pc (a really slow pentium2 400mhz) and i was really unsatisfied of performances.
I installed it because i needed an UNIX environment and i was swithing from WinXP,
with no experience at all.

I tried to use some multimedia applications like MPlayer and all films were not fluid,
audio jittering and so on….cpu usage always at 100%…
During some internet investigation i found some optimization tricks about MPlayer, and after recompiling
it manually from sources with cpu-specific flags i found it sooooo faster,
films were fluid with only 50% cpu usage!

So i thought: why not recompiling the whole system to have more speed?
I started manually but i soon realized it was impossible to manage without a package manager.
However the speed gain was important even if not like in MPlayer’s case.
I can say something between 20 and 30 per cent.
(ok, now someone can start a flame about that. On Pentium2 and after on upgraded Pentium3
the performance gain is really important. Maybe not as on fastest cpus, of course, this is a gcc trouble too,
which is not yet ready to do a perfect optimization, Intel compiler is much better but not opensource)

I started to wrote tons of bash scripts, and in the meanwhile i found Gentoo Linux was my distro!

I installed it in December 2003 and i’m still using it on 2 pcs now (p2 was upgrated to p3 500 and a notebook with celeron 650mhz);
i’m really satisfied of both, even if hardware is so old and slow.

Now i’m going to change my desktop with an Intel Core 2 Duo machine.
Desktop life will be different after that! ehheeh

My main problem is now to migrate my desktop data to the new pc.
I know can you do a low level copy of partition, this is just a 20 mins problem.

The main problem is the arch. I need to migrate from x86 to x86_64 and this is a bit tricky.
I’m now studying some solutions to the problem, but as to Gentoo FAQs, it’s impossibile to
migrate, and they suggest to do a fresh install.

I really don’t believe this. Nothing is impossibile.
For me it’s not enought to migrate my home and my /etc config directory, i want to migrate all
flawlessy.

These are my plans at the moment:

1) boot with a 64bits gentoo minimal livecd (50mb cd)
2) download a portage-snapshot and stage3 pack and install them, having a minimal environment
3) with quickpkg create binary packages of critical dev tools such as gcc, binutils, libtool (any other needed? guess not).
4) low level copy of old desktop harddisk –>> will overwrite 64bits software from stage3
5) reinstall back 64bits packages of point number 3, ignoring some profile stuff, uninstalling old x86 ones
6) compile a 64bit kernel with 64bits native tools
7) reboot with the new kernel and not livecd complete profile migration to x86_64 (maybe may be needed in point 5..)
9) emerge -e system and reboot
10) if all starts properly, emerge -eD world

I think it’s an acceptable procedure.
there are some points which i’m insure, but i suppose lots of unplanned problems may pop out.

I read x86 to x86_64 migration is impossible due to differences in the Gentoo installation process,
but i saw noone…..apart normal x86_64 options in kernel and similar arch specific….

Let’s see in some days, i’ll have new pc at the end of december, but having little time
i need to think about all that before

If works i’ll write a detailed howto, be sure

Full HD, HD Ready….or what?

Saturday i had a chance to see a full HD TV.

It was a Panasonic Aquos, 52 inches diagonal. Really impressive and huge,
elegant, smart….and…expensive of course! More than 4500 euros.

Connecting such monster to a normal analog source is a shame: images will be really a shit,
even worse than the normal crt tvs.
That’s why it was connected with a BluRay player, playing some new films trailers and parts…
using the 1080p resolution, the best possibile with actual technology.

I have to say i was so impressed of image quality, really incredible, even compared to a DVD source
(which was there for a comparison too)…

Sharpness, true real colors, details…never saw before like that.

But, more i was impressed, more i understood it was a so far reality for normal broadcasted tv programs.
It will use so much data bandwidth for every single channel…

And i was thinking about the “…digital tv of the future…” (as described by Italian politicians)
the DTT….it’s as old as wheels..
It’s not a marked complete break with the past, it’s just a stupid transition that will steal
money to ignorant (and not..) persons.
Too little bandwidth, ridicolous resolution, old compression algorithm…DTT has nothing really interesting.

HD is still more than a dream…of course much be refined…but basis are there at least.

Ordinary Story of Italian bad quality (3) – The End

Ordinary Story of Italian bad quality (3) – The End

After facts described here and here, this story ended.

How?
I got a full refund, but not cash…a discount – voucher for next products.

Better then nothing. I bought a Majestic 277USB.
Yes, just another italian product.
I chose that becouse of USB port, so i can plug and usb pen or external hardisk.
Really confortable…..if worked!
I hoped this product had a better quality….but seems i was wrong.

The device had problem with all cd/dvds, only audio was played, no video at all.
Motivation? i don’t know, the cable was right, the audio played fine, the medias
were a normal DIVX 5.0, a classic XVID 1.0 and a standard DVD (MPEG2).
They should be all supported, so i’m sure the problem is there.
The rendering should be done by the same DSP chip for audio decoding, so i suppose the problem was with
the link from the DSP processing to the SCART output, or, maybe easier,
in the connector itself.

I took the dvd player back again and got a second voucher.
I will spend in something else, more stable…more quality.

No need to hurry

Ode to the Iron Maiden

Maybe this is my first post about music…why not dedicate it to one of the hardest-to-die bands?

Yes, after loooots of years, more than twenty, they are still on the wave.

Without selling their souls to the $$ dollar evil (ok, this doesn’t mean they don’t care about money),
resisting to corruption of pop/fake-rock bands’ music, after lots of “all the best” and live albums
they are back with “A Matter of Life and Death”.

What to say…this album is a pure Iron Maiden music, their own style has just been refined and cleaned.
Three guitars produce a wonderful solo in the “Out of the shadow” and a powerful in “The Legacy”.

What else…go and buy, it’s useless to describe with further words….

A short lyrics extract:

“My sins are many, my guilt is too heavy
The question of knowing of how then what I know
I’m able to see things
Things that I don’t want to see
The lies of a thousand souls,
Weigh heavy down on me”

from “The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg”

Up the Irons!

Status symbol (2)

After Ferrari post (link) just another status symbol post.

Yesterday i was in MediaMark (a big shop chain, in Italy we have MediaWorld i suppose it’s the same chain with different name)
and i had the chance to play with lastest iPod Nano.

The first impression is “incredibile”

They “merged” the first iPod mini with previous iPod Nano.
This means the new iPod is as light and thin as the Nano, but as resistant and hard as Mini.
Compared to Mini it seemed me just a bit longer, may next revisions will make it shorter.
Really good.
I have an iPod Mini, 1st generation. I didn’t buy it, IBM gave it to me as “present” for my
partecipation in a Linux project.

I have to say that iPod Nano, at the moment, has no rivals.
But other iPods are not fantastic.

I’m not satisfied of my iPod battery for istance.
You can listen music for less than 5 hrs, while they declare 8 maximum.
And battery is pretty new, less that 40-50 changes, should be at the top now.
Latest are declared 20 hrs, so i guess in reality they will last around 15 hrs.

And if you want to change the battery you have to send your iPod to Apple, they charges you 69 euros.
Considering the actual prices i think i’ll never change the battery, but i’ll buy a new one,
it’s cheaper.

Normal usb pen player have AAA battery you can change in a while.
You may take with you more than one and so enjoy a very long play.
when they die, you can simply trash and replace them.

…But the topic was status symbol.
Yes, because other players are, at my opinion, better and cheaper than iPod.
They have more features, such as mic recording, FM radio, and so on.
So often they have bigger disk and cost less.
Why all this success so?

I do agree with layout, so funny and elegant, but it’s not enough.
People wanna have status symbols, they all wanna be like others…
this is a primitive behaviour, like children do:
“Mum mum, i want that all my friends have it!”

so ome companies become king of the market and play with that how they want.

Slipknot say “ppl = shit”

But this is another topic again

Hip Hop, yo yo

Please someone explain these fucking new self-declared-HipHop-artists
that they’re not rap artists only cause they cry “Yo Yo”,
they do some silly rhymes and they have a big medal pending from the neck.

their videos full of wonderful cars and naked women are simply ridiculous,
just the opposite they should be, like boybands ones.

yo yo.