Keyboard Boot Virus?...

[John Walliker]

On Wednesday, 27 April 2022 at 20:33:52 UTC+1, Don Y wrote:

On 4/27/2022 4:53 AM, John Walliker wrote:

In contrast, I once needed to use a TMS320C51 DSP at a combination of
power supply voltage and clock frequency that was not allowed in the data
sheet rules, but which looked as if it should work reliably. It was a medical
application. In those days, TI had good technical support in the UK and I was
given some test code which exercised the critical timing paths that were known
to be the most likely to fail under voltage or frequency stress conditions.
This was built into the power-on startup code, so each device was known to be
happy with its operating conditions at that point.
You\'ve more guts than I. I like being able to point to a document and
prove that my design is 100% compliant so any \"problems\" lie in the components
being used. (regardless of temperature, power supply noise, etc.)

This was a research project with less than 100 units being made and they were
all under our control. There was no alternative device at that time that met our
other constraints, so the choice was to make the best of what we had or do nothing.
The fundamental problem was that TI had specified maximum clock frequencies
at a couple of different supply voltages. We needed to operate at an intermediate
voltage and intermediate clock frequency. The code was the same as TI used
for production testing, so I don\'t think it was particularly risky - quite the opposite.
....

Give me something that I can hang my hat on to justify to boss/client/customer
that my approach has addressed due diligence... or, I\'ll look for another,
better documented device -- or approach.

In an ideal world, yes, definitely.

John

 

[Joe Gwinn]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:51:09 -0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
<presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
On 4/28/2022 11:01 AM, legg wrote:
I\'m developing an aversion to attempting an LXLE dual boot system
(with an MS OS). I\'m looking at my HDD morgue and now see 4 dead
HDD associated with such an endeavor.

I\'m having a hard time thinking that they are truly *dead* (as in
\"scrap\"). Have you tried:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/r<drivedevice> bs=1024k count=100
just to ensure there\'s no cruft on it -- esp the boot/MBR area?

Two were in Dell refurbs - now both still running with non-dual
boot clones (WXP)in 2020, The other two are from this attempt
in the PC Chips A13G+ v3.0 home-brew (W2K). This is now officially
junk.

There are only two things in common; LXLE and me.

A Ubuntu single or dual boot (it doesn\'t seem to care -
on separate hard drives) is still in progress.

I used to run a \"quad boot\" tower -- {Net,Open,Free}BSD
(not a fan of Linux, nor its license!) plus Windows -- when
I was writing drivers. Back then, a 4G drive was $1K so
it was easier to put 4 of them in a box than to try to
share a single drive.

Now, I have a clean demarcation between boxes. It\'s a
Windows box or a Sun box or a *BSD box... but never more
than one.

You might consider running your non-windows boxen headless
and installing an X server *under* Windows. Or, a bunch of

No, don\'t run X. X is garbage, always has been, always will be.

VMs. I run an ESXi server for my VMs -- so any workstation
can run any VM, served over the wire. Or, copy the VMDK onto
the host and run it locally if A/V performance is an issue.
(my VMs are on a big SAN)

Lol, this clown has a \"big SAN\", but can\'t quite tackle NTP yet.

Bottom line: figure out how to REDUCE your sysadmin tasks
and the time wasted on them.

Say the guy running a \"sun box\", which is likely some 22 year old piece of
shit with no networking enabled.

I have not been following this thread very closely, but I will add one
details: The source code for NTP is publicly available at NTP.org, is
about 70,000 lines of plain C code, and have become a bit convoluted
over the years. It would take a solid year to become reasonable
familiar with that bit of code.

Joe Gwinn

 

[Don Y]

On 4/29/2022 10:04 AM, John Walliker wrote:

On Wednesday, 27 April 2022 at 20:33:52 UTC+1, Don Y wrote:
On 4/27/2022 4:53 AM, John Walliker wrote:

You\'ve more guts than I. I like being able to point to a document and
prove that my design is 100% compliant so any \"problems\" lie in the components
being used. (regardless of temperature, power supply noise, etc.)

This was a research project with less than 100 units being made and they were
all under our control. There was no alternative device at that time that met our
other constraints, so the choice was to make the best of what we had or do nothing.

Ah. I often have had to make \"proof of concept\" prototypes -- but, the
approach that I took had to be able to move into manufacturing without
significant redesign. So, I had to be able to defend the design as
ready for manufacturing.

Other designs were intended for manufacture so not a good strategy to
\"hope\" for something that isn\'t published (my contracts provide \"free\"
fixes, indefinitely -- but, only for things that I have control over!)

The fundamental problem was that TI had specified maximum clock frequencies
at a couple of different supply voltages. We needed to operate at an intermediate
voltage and intermediate clock frequency. The code was the same as TI used
for production testing, so I don\'t think it was particularly risky - quite the opposite.

OK, so you just wanted another point on an already bounded curve.
You weren\'t trying to look beyond the horizon...

Give me something that I can hang my hat on to justify to boss/client/customer
that my approach has addressed due diligence... or, I\'ll look for another,
better documented device -- or approach.

In an ideal world, yes, definitely.

It needn\'t be an \"ideal\" world -- just one in which I am comfortable dotting
i\'s and crossing t\'s. Warts are fine -- as long as they are visible and
acknowledged.

 

[Cydrome Leader]

Joe Gwinn <joegwinn@comcast.net> wrote:

On Thu, 28 Apr 2022 18:51:09 -0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
presence@MUNGEpanix.com> wrote:

Don Y <blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:
On 4/28/2022 11:01 AM, legg wrote:
I\'m developing an aversion to attempting an LXLE dual boot system
(with an MS OS). I\'m looking at my HDD morgue and now see 4 dead
HDD associated with such an endeavor.

I\'m having a hard time thinking that they are truly *dead* (as in
\"scrap\"). Have you tried:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/r<drivedevice> bs=1024k count=100
just to ensure there\'s no cruft on it -- esp the boot/MBR area?

Two were in Dell refurbs - now both still running with non-dual
boot clones (WXP)in 2020, The other two are from this attempt
in the PC Chips A13G+ v3.0 home-brew (W2K). This is now officially
junk.

There are only two things in common; LXLE and me.

A Ubuntu single or dual boot (it doesn\'t seem to care -
on separate hard drives) is still in progress.

I used to run a \"quad boot\" tower -- {Net,Open,Free}BSD
(not a fan of Linux, nor its license!) plus Windows -- when
I was writing drivers. Back then, a 4G drive was $1K so
it was easier to put 4 of them in a box than to try to
share a single drive.

Now, I have a clean demarcation between boxes. It\'s a
Windows box or a Sun box or a *BSD box... but never more
than one.

You might consider running your non-windows boxen headless
and installing an X server *under* Windows. Or, a bunch of

No, don\'t run X. X is garbage, always has been, always will be.

VMs. I run an ESXi server for my VMs -- so any workstation
can run any VM, served over the wire. Or, copy the VMDK onto
the host and run it locally if A/V performance is an issue.
(my VMs are on a big SAN)

Lol, this clown has a \"big SAN\", but can\'t quite tackle NTP yet.

Bottom line: figure out how to REDUCE your sysadmin tasks
and the time wasted on them.

Say the guy running a \"sun box\", which is likely some 22 year old piece of
shit with no networking enabled.


I have not been following this thread very closely, but I will add one
details: The source code for NTP is publicly available at NTP.org, is
about 70,000 lines of plain C code, and have become a bit convoluted
over the years. It would take a solid year to become reasonable
familiar with that bit of code.

Joe Gwinn

You\'re using forte agent for your post. How many lines of code is it? Are
you able to use the program without reading all the code?