Administrative

Fedora Update Update

So I was updating my machine, per the instructions found here, and things were going along swimmingly for a while, until I got the following stretch of error messages:

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Other Transactions:
Obsoleting: compat-libstdc++.i386 0:8-3.3.4.2 with compat-libstdc++-296.i386 0:2.96-132.fc4
Obsoleting: cryptsetup.i386 0:0.1-4 with cryptsetup-luks.i386 0:1.0.1-0.fc4
Obsoleting: db4.i386 0:4.2.52-6 with compat-db.i386 0:4.2.52-2.FC4
Obsoleting: db4-devel.i386 0:4.2.52-6 with compat-db.i386 0:4.2.52-2.FC4
Obsoleting: db4-utils.i386 0:4.2.52-6 with compat-db.i386 0:4.2.52-2.FC4
Obsoleting: gcc-g77.i386 0:3.4.2-6.fc3 with compat-gcc-32-g77.i386 0:3.2.3-47.fc4
Obsoleting: gcc-g77.i386 0:3.4.3-22.fc3 with compat-gcc-32-g77.i386 0:3.2.3-47.fc4
Obsoleting: httpd-suexec.i386 0:2.0.52-3 with httpd.i386 0:2.0.54-10.3
Obsoleting: httpd-suexec.i386 0:2.0.52-3.1 with httpd.i386 0:2.0.54-10.3
Obsoleting: kernel-utils.i386 1:2.4-13.1.39 with smartmontools.i386 1:5.33-1.5 Obsoleting: libf2c.i386 0:3.4.2-6.fc3 with libgfortran.i386 0:4.0.2-8.fc4
Obsoleting: libf2c.i386 0:3.4.3-22.fc3 with libgfortran.i386 0:4.0.2-8.fc4
Obsoleting: libtool-libs.i386 0:1.5.6-4 with libtool-ltdl.i386 0:1.5.16.multilib2-3
Obsoleting: libtool-libs.i386 0:1.5.6-4.FC3.2 with libtool-ltdl.i386 0:1.5.16.multilib2-3
Obsoleting: memtest86.i386 0:3.2-1.1.fc3.rf with memtest86+.i386 0:1.55.1-1
Obsoleting: nautilus-media.i386 0:0.8.1-3 with nautilus.i386 0:2.10.0-4
Obsoleting: openoffice.org.i386 0:1.1.2-10 with openoffice.org-math.i386 1:2.0.1.1-5.1
Obsoleting: openoffice.org-i18n.i386 0:1.1.2-10 with openoffice.org-langpack-sv.i386 1:2.0.1.1-5.1
Obsoleting: openoffice.org-libs.i386 0:1.1.2-10 with openoffice.org-core.i386 1:2.0.1.1-5.1
Obsoleting: pdksh.i386 0:5.2.14-30 with ksh.i386 0:20050202-1
Obsoleting: tuxracer.i386 0:0.61-28 with ppracer.i386 0:0.3.1-4.fc4.1
Obsoleting: xscreensaver.i386 1:4.18-4 with xscreensaver-base.i386 1:4.21-4

Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
libtool-ltdl-1.5.16.multi 100% |=========================| 25 kB 00:00
openoffice.org-langpack-s 100% |=========================| 13 MB 00:39
smartmontools-5.33-1.5.i3 100% |=========================| 257 kB 00:00
microcode_ctl-1.12-1.24_F 100% |=========================| 238 kB 00:01
openoffice.org-langpack-t 100% |=========================| 12 MB 00:33
openoffice.org-langpack-z 100% |=========================| 13 MB 00:38
openoffice.org-langpack-g 100% |=========================| 755 kB 00:02
openoffice.org-langpack-n 100% |=========================| 12 MB 00:33
httpd-2.0.54-10.3.i386.rp 100% |=========================| 935 kB 00:03
openoffice.org-langpack-a 100% |=========================| 4.1 MB 00:13
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/yum”, line 8, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File “/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py”, line 136, in main
base.doTransaction()
File “/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py”, line 589, in doTransaction
problems = self.downloadPkgs(downloadpkgs)
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/yum/__init__.py”, line 382, in downloadPkgs
mylocal = repo.get(relative=remote, local=local, checkfunc=checkfunc)
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/yum/repos.py”, line 443, in get
checkfunc=checkfunc)
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/mirror.py”, line 414, in urlgrab
return self._mirror_try(func, url, kw)
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/mirror.py”, line 400, in _mirror_try
return func_ref( *(fullurl,), **kwargs )
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py”, line 595, in urlgrab
return self._retry(opts, retryfunc, url, filename)
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py”, line 527, in _retry
return apply(func, (opts,) + args, {})
File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py”, line 583, in retryfunc
fo._do_grab()[root@linux-station home]#

File “/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/urlgrabber/grabber.py”, line 852, in _do_grab
new_fo.write(block)
IOError: [Errno 28] No space left on device

#######################################

At which point it returned to the root prompt.

What now?

[Update at noon]

Oops! /var is full.

######################################

[root@linux-station home]# df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda7 10412484 3489804 6393744 36% /
/dev/hda1 101086 8478 87389 9% /boot
none 257904 0 257904 0% /dev/shm
/dev/hda2 100790036 44456020 51214104 47% /home
/dev/hda3 1004052 20080 932968 3% /tmp
/dev/hda5 1004024 1000672 0 100% /var
#######################################

What do I do about that? Any magic tools that can repartition a live drive?

[Update on Monday evening]

OK, I guess the question is, given that (in theory) I’ve done a partial update from Core 3 to Core 4, but it bombed out part way through, is the machine rebootable? Or do I have to figure out a way to install and run gparted under the current running shell? I don’t want to reboot into a Livedisk for repartioning, only to find out that my OS is FUBAR, even with the bigger partition, on reboot.

Humor

Get A Clue

With the upcoming onset of hurricane season in a few days, Dave Barry has some advice for residents (like him, and me) of the hurricane belt. I call this humor, because like most Dave Barry advice, it is, but it’s also a public service (albeit a futile one) for the irremediably clueless:

As you know, Florida Power & Light had some problems last hurricane season, when it was discovered that, because of an error in the engineering specifications, thousands of the company’s power poles were in fact really tall breadsticks. FPL has been working hard on this problem, and a company spokesperson states that this year, if we are struck by another Wilma-level hurricane, FPL personnel will immediately implement an action plan designed to provide all customers, as quickly and as safely as possible, with realistic-sounding excuses as to why their power will not be restored for an indeterminate period of time.

Space

Breath Of Fresh Air

A NASA center director has started a blog. It’s too bad there aren’t more Pete Wordens to replace existing NASA center directors. And speaking of Ames, it looks like they just lost a promising program, as a result of politics as usual.

Punish success, reward failure. Does this look like an agency that needs an emergency appropriation? If so, it’s only due to Congressional meddling and pork barreling.

This is why NASA will not get us back to the moon, or open up space.

[Both links via NASA Watch]

Political Commentary

From Revolutionaries To Arrogant Elites

Mark Steyn writes about the new aristocracy on Capitol Hill. I’d love to see ballots printed with “None of the above” as an option. If that option wins the election, we start over, with no incumbents, and new primaries. Call it the American form of lack-of-confidence vote.

Sadly, the old libertarian cliche that there are far more similarities than differences between two parties seems all too true once again, particularly when it comes to corruption and lust for the acquisition and maintenance of power. Equally sadly, we continue to suffer from the phenomenon that while everyone dislikes Congress, they all love their own congressman (of a kind with the notion that everyone thinks that the economy is doing poorly, though they’re doing fine). I’d love to see a lot of Congresspeople lose their seats this fall, but this phenomenon, coupled with the entrenched positions resulting from gerrymandering by both parties, still militates against it, I suspect.

Administrative

More Linux Problems

OK, I’m following the directions for Memtest86. I seem to be having floppy problems–memtest fails when trying to write to the boot disk. The instructions say that I can put the boot image in a directory and point to it from LILO. Unfortunately, I’m not running LILO, and it has no instructions for doing this from grub. I’m reading the grub manual, but it’s not clear what commands I need to run to tell it to boot from the image. I tried > kernel /root/memtest/memtest.bin, and I get the message “Error 12: Invalid device requested.

Any suggestions?

[Update about 2 PM EDT]

Thanks for all the help. I found the rpm of memtest86 (they made one for FC-3–who knew?) and installed it (by the way, my problems with downloading files via Firefox seemed to disappear when I logged into X as root). I ran it and it found memory errors immediately. I pulled the stick, and remounted it, and it still has problems. I guess I need new memory before I do anything else with the machine.

[Evening update]

Bought a new stick of DDR 2700, Initial testing shows no problems, so it was definitely bad memory. My next question, per Pete Zaitcev’s advice:

What I would do in your place would be to upgrade with yum. It’s as simple as one-two:

one: point /etc/yum.conf to FC4, update distro

two: FC4 moves to /etc/yum.repos.d, edit its contents to point to FC5, update distro.

How does one “point to” a distro? Here’s my yum.conf now:
###########################
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=redhat-release
tolerant=1
exactarch=1
retries=20
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1

# PUT YOUR REPOS HERE OR IN separate files named file.repo
# in /etc/yum.repos.d
###########################

So what am I supposed to do to upgrade from FC 3 to FC 4 and then to FC 5?

Space

Congratulations

…to Peter Diamandis, who has won the Heinlein Prize. Michael Belfiore notes the appropriateness of the award itself:

Heinlein’s work is characterized by ordinary people cobbling together ordinary resources to do extraordinary things–like go to the moon. In Rocket Ship Galileo, three high school students and a nuclear physicist build a moon ship just because they can. It must have seemed possible in 1947, when that book came out. Then in the 1960s, NASA convinced everyone that only massive government programs could send people into space, and stories about people building spaceships in their back yards went by the wayside.

Now, finally, in the 21st century, science fact has caught up with the science fiction of the 1940s and 1950s. Private citizens are now building space ships for real, in large part because the winning of the Ansari X PRIZE proved it was possible.

The sad thing is that it could have been done much earlier, at least from a technological standpoint. It has been our own attitudes and policies holding us back.

War Commentary

Taking Stock

On Memorial Day weekend, Victor Davis Hanson recounts our many policy mistakes in Iraq. Over the past decades. (Hint: removing Saddam wasn’t one of them, and few of them were committed by the current administration.)

There are few Ernie Pyles in Iraq to record the heroism of our soldiers; no John Fords to film their valor

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!