Author Archives: gmcdavid

Unknown's avatar

About gmcdavid

Retired IT professional with a wide range of interests. Married. Three sons, two with autistic-spectrum disorders and the third being transgender with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. From Chicago but now living in the Twin Cities metro, Minnesota. Episcopalian. Carleton College (BA 1972, physics) and Stanford University (MS 1974, Applied Physics; MS 1976 Statistics).

Rang Gaeilge, 30ú lá Mí na Lúnasa 2021

Leave a reply

Duinnín agus na Bollain (tuilleadh)

  • D’imigh an Duinníneach leis go Buailín Siar. D’fháiltigh a
    chairde roimhe. D’éirigh leis bainis Bhridín a chur as a cheann
    agus codladh maith mór a dhéanamh. Ar maidin, i ndiaidh
    bricfeasta, thug sé bóthar Thrá Lí air féin. Thug sé cuairt ar Ard
    Fhearta, ón uair go raibh sé ag dul thairis, agus shroich sé baile
    Thrá Lí anonn go maith sa lá. Dhírigh sé láithreach ar
    phroinnteach Sally Murphy, gar don stáisiún traenach.

    Dineen left for Bouleenshere. His friends welcomed him. He succeeded in getting Bridín’s wedding out of his head and got a good big sleep. In the morning, after breakfast, he took to the Tralee road himself. He visited Ardfert, since he was passing by, and reached the town of Tralee well into the day. He presently aimed for Sally Murphy’s cafeteria, near the train station.

    anonn Over, to the other side.
    dírigh straighten; direct, aim
    láithreach Present, immediate
    proinnteach Dining-hall, refectory

    • Léigh tuilleadh

A Linux System that booted slowly

1 Reply

Rebuilding a Linux System went well, but afterwards I realized that my new system was taking forever to boot. [SOLVED] Slow Boot w/errors suggested some ways to proceed. A first step was to edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg, replacing GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" by GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="", to show all the messages in the boot process, and also get a quick look at where it might be hung up. Fine with me, I like to see all those messages. Also, the command systemd-analyze blame shows how much time each step was taking. The offender appeared to be on or just after mounting the root (/) partition.

Continue reading →

Rebuilding a Linux System

4 Replies

I meant this to be “Reconfiguring a Linux System,” but that is not how it turned out. I had followed the default Ubuntu installation process when I set up this system. I wanted to change it so that the swap area and /home would be in separate disk partitions, as decribed in these articles in How to Geek and Make Tech Easier. The first step in this process is to create the new partitions using GParted, which I have used before. GParted always gives dire warnings about the need to back up your files before using it. I have always heeded these warnings, but this was the first time the reason for them was brought home to me.

Continue reading

Replacing another hard disk

2 Replies

Following my success in Replacing a hard disk I decided to do the same for a Lenovo ThinkPad X130e, which I had purchased for about $250 (again) from Micro Center. The BIOS on this system dates from 2011, not quite as ancient as the Optiplex I had modified before. This replacement was somewhat more risky, since I had installed Linux on it in addition to the Windows 10 home edition it came with. Would the GRUB dual boot system survive the cloning process? I also used a 512GB SSD to replace the 320GB hard drive, hoping to install an additional Linux distribution or two.

Continue reading →

Rang Gaeilge, 10ú lá Mí na Lúnasa 2021

Leave a reply

Duinnín agus na Bollain

bullan, A round hollow in a stone, a bowl.

tuathal … cursing stones (clocha breaca) at Inishmurray, Sligo, are turned to
the left to effect a curse…

  • Bhí an oíche caite ag an Duinnineach i nDrom Gabhar le
    muintir Magee. Tar éis bricfeasta, rinne páistí an teaghlaigh é a
    chomóradh go Tír Sheanacháin go bhfaigheadh sé radharc ar an
    Sionnainn agus go bhfeicfeadh sé an áit as ar shnámh Daideo
    Magee Béal na Sionna. Bhi an lá bioranta fuar, an ghaoth ag
    saighdeadh as gach aird faoi seach agus nimh inti. Rith an bheirt
    bhuachaillí thart ar an Duinníneach go meidhreach gan aon
    aird acu ar an bhfuacht ach shiúil Hanna taobh leis go modhúil.

    Dineen spent the night in Drumgour with the Magee people. After breakfast the children of the family as an to Tiershanaghan so he would get a view of the Shannon and would see the place where Grandpa Magee swam the mouth of the Shannon. It was a piercingly cold day, the wind blowing from all directions with poisonous sting in it. The two boys ran around Dineen merrily with no regard for the cold but Hanna walked beside him politely.

    comóradh gathering, assembly; celebration m
    radharc sight m
    lá bioranta fuar piercingly cold day
    bioranta sharp
    saighdeadh inciting, provoking m
    aird direction; attention f
    faoi seach in turn; occasionally; respectively; in confusion
    nimh poison f
    meidhreach Mirthful, merry, gay; frisky, sportive
    fuacht cold
    modhúil Well-behaved, mannerly; mild, gentle, modest

    • Léigh tuilleadh

Replacing a hard disk

1 Reply

I have a Dell Optiplex 780, which I bought used from the Box Shop some years ago for about $250. The date of the BIOS is 2008, so it is quite ancient. However it is a 64 bit system, with 4GB RAM, and virtualization support. It must have been considered a fine machine in its day. It still works. I have installed Windows 10 on it, even that OS is not officially supported on it, and before that two varieties of Linux. It is no longer my primary system, but I am not yet ready to part with it. Hence How to Copy Your Windows Installation to an SSD caught my eye, since replacing a hard drive by an SSD is a good way to speed up an old system.

Continue reading →

WSL: Files and Environment Variables

Leave a reply

Continuing from WSL: Directories and Files.

The Ultimate Guide to Windows Subsystem for Linux (Windows WSL) points out that with WSL2 the Linux file system is a virtual disk. In my case

C:\Users\Glenn\AppData\Local\Packages\CanonicalGroupLimited.Ubuntu20.04onWindows_79rhkp1fndgsc\LocalState\ext4.vhdx

I hope there is a way to relocate this file into a directory format that is fit for human consumption.

The Ultimate Guide goes on to consider environment variables. Opening an administrator command prompt as in the example:
“Failure is always an option.”-Adam Savage

Rang Gaeilge, 29ú lá Mí na mí Mheiteamh 2021

Leave a reply

Duinnín agus an Bhadhbh (tuilleadh)

  • Bhí tost sa seomra. Bhain an Duinníneach taitneamh, soicind,
    as éifeacht a scéil ar an gcomhluadar. An soicind ina
    dhiaidh sin, chúb sé roimh an mbéic a lig Woodley as.

    ‘Mo chuid sionnacht [var pl?]! Iad á ngoid ag mo thionóntaithe féin!’

    ‘Ach ni bhíonn tú ag seilg sionnach, a thaisce, agus tá’s agat
    go n-itheann siad na piasúin . . .’arsa a chéile.

    There was silence in the room. Dineen enjoyed, for a second, the effect of his story
    on the company. The second after that he cowered before the shout Woodley let out

    ‘My foxes! My own tenants are stealing them!’

    ‘But you don’t hunt foxes, my dear, and you know they eat the pheasants . . .’ said his wife.

    taitneamh Shine, brightness; Liking, enjoyment
    soicind second [of time] m
    éifeacht Force, significance; efficacy, effect; value, importance f
    comhluadar (Social) company m
    chúb bend, cower, shrink
    béic yell; shout f
    seilg hunt, chase f
    piasún pheasant m gs npl piasúin

    • Léigh tuilleadh