Clusters are Beautiful

I have a computer cluster living in my living room. Ain't she puurrrrdee?

Slow SSH

Is SSH being slow? Are you running Ubuntu (8.04 at the time of this writing)? I've found the following solution fixes slow SSH and Telnet logins. Specifically, the symptom is an annoying ~10 second delay between attempting to log into a remote terminal, and when it prompts you for a password. If this is happening to you, do the following (to the remote machine):

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Then, just add a line with the IP address and host name of the machine you are logging in from. Apparently, the remote machine is trying to do a DNS lookup, or something, and timing out. If it already has your machine in its list of hosts, you can get in instantly. I've found a few other folks discussing this in the forums, but none of their suggestions worked for me.

Happy computing.

Beware the CMOS Battery

The computer saga continues.... after much sleuthing, and rearranging of hardware between my various frankenputers, I am 99% certain that my original problem began with a dying CMOS battery. The CMOS settings changed back to the factory default, which told the motherboard to use the built-in graphics card, instead of my nVidia 7900 GS. Thus, when I turned it on, no picture! (but it did boot, because it played the Ubuntu login sound). So the lesson is: When things go awry, especially with the video card, check your CMOS settings, make sure they stick, and keep some CR2032 coin-cells on hand!

The computer hating continues....

I've tried 3 motherboards, which all work to varying degrees. I'm currently conducting long-term stability testing in one of the motherboards, to ensure there isn't a problem with my new graphics card (nVidia 9800 GTX), or perhaps, the nVidia drivers. If it behaves its self for a few days, then the problem definitely was the original motherboard's PCI Express slot, or supporting electronics. The current motherboard I'm using is low on features (no 1394!!), and seems a bit sluggish. I have one last motherboard installed in another computer that I'm going to try (in a few days), which is identical to the one that failed. If it works well, then I won't need to buy anything. If not, I'll need to shell out $500, which would make me angry.

I've pursued the "frankenputer" strategy for a while, to avoid spending lots of money when a single part fails. I just swap in a new part, and continue along my merry way. It really sucks when a single part failure forces you to buy MANY new parts. Oh well....

I hate computers

I had been hoping to wait to post on this subject until the exciting conclusion to my latest computer-related saga, but the conclusion never came. Here's a brief, day-by-day, intro, to set the stage:

Day 1) Got home from work, pushed power button on computer, no response. SHIT!
Day 2) Debugged, thought it was ($300, 2yr old) graphics card, bought new card.
Day 3) Tried to install card... doesn't fit. SHIT!
Day 4) Calmed down, hack away plastic on interfering SATA connector. Whew, it fit. Installed card. Booted. Worked fine. Crashed. SHIT!
Day 5) Next day, booted, worked fine. No problems.
Day 6) Got home from work, pushed power button on computer, no response. SHIT!

Ok, so in about a week, I've come full circle, having spent $230 on a new card. My next best guess is that the motherboard (PCI express slot) has some sort of problem. I'll be able to test this in another motherboard I have lying around. If that is stable over the course of a few days, I'll need to spend about $500 on a new MB+CPU+RAM, since my spare motherboard is too under-featured, and a little sluggish (hard disk controller? buggy chipset drivers?).

Ugh, I hate computers.

PS Its a damned good thing I have lots of them, though, or I wouldn't have been able to type this post.