ADSL Splitter is faulty, 3 days without internet.

I was netless fer about 3 days only to discover that my StreaMyx's splitter is faulty. The phone wirin is parallel with both my room and my sister's room shares the line. I thought that my wirin is faulty (not to mention thinkin that TMNet's server is down or somethin..) but after many experiments, it's official that the darn splitter is faulty. Drats, 3 days wasted fer nothin. Gotta get meself a new splitter. Right now, I have to physically remove the RJ11 (telephone line) connection from my sister's phone if I wanna use ADSL. Vice versa. Well, who wanna call anyway? So until I got meself a new splitter, I'll gladly hog the line fer meself. Hah!

=\/=Xirium > MUD-Shell

=\/=Xirium > MUD-Shell is a shell with a RPG (Role Playing Game) feel into it. Take a look at the example and you'll see what I mean. Kinda cool. But I'm pretty much a newbie to learn another command fer another shell.

Kopete, KOffice & Krusader

I tried Kopete in 5.2.1 (the last few days of my 5.2.1's life) and ended up freezin it. Somethin wrong with my configuration I guess. Now, Kopete is workin like a charm! What is Kopete anyway? It's a multi-connection messenger program. So now I can use all my Y!M (Yahoo! Messenger), MSN Messenger and ICQ's account in one convenient program. Hurrah!

The new KOffice (KDE Office programs) is said to have the ability to manipulate MS Office's files. So I heard. Tried open up an MS Excel file but didn't succeed. But anyway, the new KOffice suite is better than the last.

Krusader is a file manager resemblin Midnight Commander and Norton Commander. While MC is ncurse (console) based, Krusader is a KDE's addon which is nice to have.

In 5.2.1, the moment you installed KDE, all the addon listed here is ready fer use but now, those programs has been moved from the base KDE installation to KDE addons. I was confused when I saw my KDE was installed with minimum addons and after readin FreeBSD's website, I found out bout the changes. Still, KDE 3.3 is great!

I still can't find screen program. Hmm. Probably in another ftp site. Because my root will work in console all the time, better let him have some usefull ncurse based programs like that. Later.

Optical USB mouse works!

With 5.3, the problem I encountered with my optical usb mouse is now solved. Now, I can just reboot from XP to FreeBSD and my usb mouse will function. So, it's best that you guys grab 5.3 which is great!. I'm searchin fer screen and currently learnin CVSup. Later

5.3 sound problem solved..

Ah. It's solved. Here what I learned. Puttin snd_pcm_load="YES" won't work because 5.3 now uses device sound. So I open up my custom kernel config file and added:

device sound
device "snd_ich"

Take note that snd_ich is the driver fer my M22ES and may not be the suitable one fer you. After that I recompile the new kernel and wallah! The sound works like a charm! And may I add that the sound is much better than 5.2.1. It's loud! Even KDE's JuK plays my mp3s clearly without any adjustment from mixer whatsoever. Lovely. So now my sound driver is compiled into the kernel and no need to load the modules usin /boot/loader.conf.

I made a mistake on my last post bout splash screen. Use /boot/loader.conf and not /etc/loader.conf. Silly me. Open up /boot/loader.conf and edit:

splash_bmp_load="YES"
bitmap_load="YES"
bitmap_name="/boot/image_name.bmp"

KDE 3.3 is marvelously yummy!

PCM not workin

Ouch. I spoke too soon. I tested the PCM module after I've compiled the new 5.3 kernel and it was ok. Then after I wrote the splash screen configuration in /boot/loader.conf and rebooted, my KDE was left soundless although KDE didn't complaint anythin bout DSP missin or dev error or somethin. Weird. I'm tryin to find out what happened. Later.

5.3 is up and online!

Yes baby! My 5.3 box is up and online. All of the configuration I've listed on my website can be used fer 5.3 without any problem even with the differences of X server/client used (5.3 uses Xorg as default whereas 5.2.1 uses XFree86). Short check list.

1) Custom kernel = OK
2) X Window = OK (Uses Xorg)
3) KDE + Sounds = OK
4) USB Optical Wheel mouse = OK
5) TMNET Streamyx = OK (Well I'm online ain't I?)
6) VESA console (800x600) = OK

So far that's it fer now. Oh take note that I reformatted the current 5.2.1 slice and made a fresh 5.3 install. I'm currently doin some tweakin fer zsh and splash screen to make it like my old 5.2.1 box. Oh did I tell you bout KDE 3.3? I didn't? Well, 1 word fer it. AWESOME! New theme, more stable, nice fonts. Man such eye candies... *drool*.

Todo:
1) Irda (infra red)
2) Nokia 8910i as modem through irda (I registered the GPRS package with Celcom)
3) Learn bout how to keep my 5.3 up-to-date without reformattin (somethin on CVSup etc)
4) Shove XP off fer good...

FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE CD 1

I've grabbed the 5.3's ISO #1 last night (bout 640Mb) and I'll burn the cd later this evenin. If I'm that impatient I'll probably start the installation right after the ISO is burnt.

FreeBSD 5.3 is out!

Check out FreeBSD's official website and DistroWatch. The 5.3 is no longer a New Technology release and it's now stable enough to replace 4.X.

I'll grab the ISO later and start a fresh installation (reformatin and install). I'll probably write the walkthrough. The past testings I've made on 5.2.1 will be discontinued. Later

5.2.1 usin TMNet Streamyx (ADSL)

Yeah, you read it right. My FreeBSD box is now officially online! My 5.2.1 is connected usin TMNet Streamyx basic 512Kbps. The ADSL modem is a cheap ZTE ZXDSL 831 modem (hey, I registered the RM88/month with free modem RM75 waiver promotion so that's why I didn't get the better Aztech dsl modem) connected to my Clevo clone usin Cat5. I'll post the steps I took on makin my 5.2.1 use TMNet Streamyx and there's somethin funny in between I'll share.

Step 1: edit / create /etc/ppp/ppp.conf . Here's my workin version of the file. Take note that I'm still searchin fer the optimum configuration.

# /etc/ppp/ppp.conf start
#################################################################
# PPP Sample Configuration File
# Originally written by Toshiharu OHNO
# Simplified 5/14/1999 by wself@cdrom.com
#
# See /usr/share/examples/ppp/ for some examples
#
# $FreeBSD: src/etc/ppp/ppp.conf,v 1.8 2001/06/21 15:42:26 brian Exp $
#################################################################

default:
set timeout 0 #Change to 0 if no timeout desired

streamyx:
#the device your modem is connected to
set device PPPoE:rl0:

#line quality reporting, allows auto reconnects
enable lqr
enable dns

# sets nutty ISP mtus. These numbers may vary.
set mru 1492
set mtu 1492

set speed sync
set dial
set login
set timeout 0
disable ipv6cp # disable ipv6 requests

#username and password here
set authname YOURIDENT@streamyx
set authkey YOURPASSWORD

#don't worry about this bit here :)
set ifaddr 10.0.0.1/0 10.0.0.2/0 255.255.255.0 0.0.0.0

#adds a default route to the IP ISP give you
add default HISADDR

#allow unlimited amount of redials
set redial 0 0
#################################################################
# /etc/ppp/ppp.conf end

Note that you'll have to change YOURIDENT@streamyx to your streamyx's account id and YOURPASSWORD to your streamyx's password.Do make sure that your have set your correct NIC device in set device PPPoE:: as mine is using rl0. Try usin ifconfig -lu and pick the one except lo0 (loopback device) and tun0 (tunnelin? device).

Step 2: edit /etc/rc.conf . Here's what I found important fer my streamyx to work. You'll have to add the line(s) into the existin /etc/rc.conf file.

hostname="YOURMACHINE.YOURDOMAIN.org"
ifconfig_rl0="inet 192.168.0.9 netmask 255.255.255.0"
network_interfaces="rl0 lo0 tun0"
ppp_enable="YES"
ppp_mode="ddial"
ppp_nat="YES"
ppp_profile="streamyx"
gateway_enable="YES"
router_enable="NO"

Note that you'll have to change YOURMACHINE.YOURDOMAIN to your configuration. Now to test your connection. Let's use interactive ppp. Make sure you're sued to root. Normal user have to join the network group before ppp is allowed.

vampire# ppp
Working in interactive mode
Using interface: tun0
ppp ON vampire> dial streamyx
Ppp ON vampire>
PPp ON vampire>
PPP ON vampire>

Hurrah! Your id & password is correct and you're now officially online! Like me. Now try ping somethin like www.freebsd.org but do keep it brief because we won't want to start ping floodin the server. That's a no no. If the ping is replied then you're good to go. Next, try browsin the net usin links or lynx and if it's workin, enjoy!

Speakin of pingin. I made a silly mistake yesterday. I tried to ping 202.188.0.132 (TMNet 1515 customer should be familiar with this ip) and there was no reply so I thought my connection failed. There was also an error msg:

Warning: Add route failed: 0.0.0.0/0 already exists

and made me believe that my connection didn't work. Until now, when I tried pingin www.yahoo.com and yahoo replied. Drats. The connection was ok all along.

Finally! Streamyx is in!

Hurrah! Finally I got the darn streamyx! I'm currently searchin fer answers on how to setup pppoe (Point-To-Point protocol Over Ethernet) so that my 5.2.1 can finally join the net. Ah, this is great. Lovely, just lovely... I'll probably put some walkthrough on that if I can make my 5.2.1 online. Wish me luck on that!

Later.