The biggest problem was the lack of a Windows 2000 CD and Jim working a 24 hour shift today.

Jim can reach the drive with the Knoppix CD he has, so he can get the data off to another drive or PC if need be. If was just Windows that was totally buggered. So for now we thought it best to leave things as they were, not do anything with it that could make things worse.

If you know how to set up Knoppix from the CD so it can temporarily work with Perl so the pages can come back up and you can upload your work, then leave the how to here. According to my girlfriend Linux can work with Perl, but she doesn't know how to set it up. So that's where you guys come in. :)

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According to my girlfriend Linux can work with Perl, but she doesn't know how to set it up. So that's where you guys come in. :)

Not sure what you mean by 'work with Perl' The system needs access to the Perl executable and libraries. They should already be included on the latest Knoppix CD.

If a script starts with the appropriate 'sha-Bang' line, then it can be run directly. A 'sha-Bang' line starts with #! and then the path to the executable(Perl). Otherwise, the script name can be passed as an argument to the Perl executable.

Apache needs to be configured for Perl. The standard install has a mod_perl-startup script, but this should not be any different from the current windows setup.

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...don

Sorry for the late update but work has kept me busy so far. I still have approx 15 hours plus drive time before I get home and can start work on the project again.

Jord is correct, the data on the HDD is safe. I was able to read the disk from Knoppix. I know Linux will run PERL, Apache, and MySQL. The problem is, I don't know how to get it to start and run under Knoppix on a temp status.

I sent an email to a friend of mine to see if he still has a copy of W2KPro (the OS that is currently on that machine.) If he does then it should be easy to get the site up and running again. If he doesn't have it then I will have no choice but to install Linux. Not a real problem there, but it will take some extra time to re-setup the site.

The following is an excerpt from an email that I got from Rytis this morning.

I have prepared updates to the scheduler system while I was away, it
should now have less load over MySQL, we saw that the computer was hanging trying to process some queries, taking over a minute to complete simple queries under that load.

[dream mode]
So... If anyone can buy the winning Lotto ticket and send it to me to claim, or just send the money to me, I will be more than happy to upgrade the server and if the money is enough I will even update the internet access to the site.
[/dream mode]

I hope everyone is having a good day. Have you noticed that it seems like the bulk of the Boinc projects are having problems right now? I think it must be some high energy cosmic rays that have bombarded the earth and targeted the Boinc Project servers. LOL

Jim

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I sent an email to a friend of mine to see if he still has a copy of W2KPro (the OS that is currently on that machine.) If he does then it should be easy to get the site up and running again. If he doesn't have it then I will have no choice but to install Linux. Not a real problem there, but it will take some extra time to re-setup the site.

Jim,

How fast would you be able to get your hands on the Win2K disk? If you have an appropriate serial key, and access to broadband, then might be it usefull if you could download an ISO of the disk, would that be faster than mail or travelling to get it?
Anyway the point being that I (as could many others on here) plonk it on a server that no-one else is using over the weekend, so bandwidth wouldn't be a huge issue, I've looked you up elsewhere, and if that email address is current I could mail you an ftp link to get at the ISO.

Just a probably silly thought:-)

73 de 2e0mpt

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Ken Phillips

BOINC question? Look here



"The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato

Is what I adviced Jim last night as well, even if it meant I had to make the ISO. ;)

Not completely by the book, but heck.

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the serial key would be the difficult thing... unless I could find it on that machine tomorrow.

other than that, I can download and burn the ISO if I have the link.

The guy said he would check tomorrow (Saturday) to see if he still has it.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to move things over to a differnt machine. I am not sure if we could move it to a back up machine any faster than we could fix this problem. Rytis could answer that question better.

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Jim, I sent you an email with some help on installing Windows without the need for a serial key. So you don't have to look for a serial key generator. :)

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Jim, I don't know how big the Hard-drives are that you are using but I know a few of us brought down the Pirates@Home Site before they closed by making to many calls to the Server.

Speaking of Pirates@Home, this redirect just showed up today. It's an archive of the old site. Where is the scrolling banner...8)

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Jim,

Hopefully you've got an e-mail from me, re. Win2k.

This might be redundant, as Jord was thinking along similar lines.

I don't know if you're able to check, or still working, travelling, or what?

Best wishes,

[edit] Well that didn't work, email bounced. Jord, can you assist? [/edit?]

Ken P.

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Ken Phillips

BOINC question? Look here



"The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato

you can email me at:

james _atsign_ joink _dot_ com

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you can email me at:

james _atsign_ joink _dot_ com

Cheers Jim,

Hopefully done.

TTFN
Ken P.

As a test, I downloaded the latest Knoppix (DVD 4.0.1) and used it to bring up one of my test sites. My feeling is that WITH SOME PREPARATION this can be quite useful, but that this is not the route to go to get an unprepared system up quickly.

Roughly:

BOOT Knoppix lang=us wheelmouse

ctl-alt-f2 for shell ( need root )

use rsync to copy config files into the ramdisk:

rsync -azP /mnt/hda3/etc/apache2 /etc/apache2 (in my case)
...

change to /etc/apache2/ (or whatever) and set permissions so that we can edit the files from the noprivileged gui
chmod ??

add links to any special modules referenced in config files:
ln -s /mnt/hda3/usr/local/apache2/modules /usr/local/apache2/modules (for me)

add links to the data:
ln -s /mnt/hda3/www /www (again, in my case)
...

add any users needed by your scripts or apache:
adduser ??
...

alt-f5 to return to gui (or stay with the command line if you are a vi fan)

edit the apache config files on the ramdisk (i.e. /etc/apache2/httpd.conf) paying special attention to paths. If the underlying system was Windows this could be extensive. Also there are bound to be version differences between what you were running and what's on Knoppix. I had to hit about a dozen files. You will be changing the copies, not your originals. I had to bail on one php site that was running a threaded version - the Knoppix apache is non-threaded. This could be resolved by running all my own apache modules, but would take a bit more time to sus out.

ctl-alt-f2 for shell

bring up apache pointing to the modified configs:
apache2 -f /etc/apache2/httpd.conf

fix any errors, repeat.

There will likely be a number of privilege problems that will have to be resolved.

My system uses DHCP as does Knoppix, so the system name and address were ok. Otherwise you would have to fix them.

If you reboot, it all has to be done again; sooo, if this is not just a test, copy off the changed files to a floppy, and put the other stuff in a script.

...don

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...don

Thank you Don for that information. You really did your homework on this. I still consider myself a Linux Newbie, but I keep learning all the time. :)

that is quite a bit of work to do. Wow...

actually, the more I think about it, the more I am very seriously considering ditching Win2K Pro in favor of Linux. But to do that, will require either a new HDD or a reformat....

actually... now that I think about it... I just may go pick up a new HDD, install Linux and keep my current drive as a second drive.

Ok... now I'm thinking... is it possible... or advisable... to take a single HDD and make it a RAID using different partitions? If I do that will it negate the things I was trying to accomplish with the Raid to begin with...

OR... get the new HDD, make sure that all the needed data is removed from my current HDD then put them together to make a RAID array?

What kinds of problems can I expect and can the be overcome? Are any of these solutions plausible?

Any other ideas that I've not thought of?

Again... I'm still learning, so be easy with me. ;)

Jim

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Ok... now I'm thinking... is it possible... or advisable... to take a single HDD and make it a RAID using different partitions? If I do that will it negate the things I was trying to accomplish with the Raid to begin with...

OR... get the new HDD, make sure that all the needed data is removed from my current HDD then put them together to make a RAID array?

Some software-based RAIDs allow you to mirror on two partitions on the same drive, but it really accomplishes nothing, or at least very little. If the drive fails, you lose it all. If a file gets munged, both copies probably get munged. If you choose to stripe instead of mirror... well, you run at half-speed instead of double-speed, and you double the chance for failure.

If you use two drives and stripe them for speed, you better be VERY sure that both drives are "perfect", because if you lose one, you lose both. If you use two drives and mirror for reliability (this is what I would do, above any other choices...) then you have little or no speed hit, and reduce your chance of losing data tremendously. (It's not impossible... so keep backups!)

RAID 5 is my favorite method, combining the speed of striping with the reliability of mirroring, but that requires more than two drives. :-)

Bill

ok... I had booted to Knoppix and was in the process of moving files over to the project window to burn a CD. Before I burned it, though I left for about 3 hours to go buy another HDD and eat some lunch. When I came back the computer was locked up tight. Ctrl - Alt - Del wouldn't touch it... the mouse wouldn't move...

I am currently running memtest86+. So far I have no errors. I'm strting to think that this problem may be a bad CPU or mobo.

The hard drive crash was secondary to this problem.

any ideas?

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Ok... now I'm thinking... is it possible... or advisable... to take a single HDD and make it a RAID using different partitions? If I do that will it negate the things I was trying to accomplish with the Raid to begin with...

Bill pretty much covered it. Would never use software raid. Raid 5 is good for reliability and speed, but I would never use it with less than 4 drives. Mirroring is great for reliability, but I would only use it with identical drives.

Yes, the crash was probably secondary. Since you were running from the CD, that seems to eliminate a virus, drivers, and my APC suggestion. Knoppix is a heavy memory user and since you did just add some ... . I did recently have similar problems when a fan failed and fried a CPU. Solved it with e-bay.

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...don

Ok... now I'm thinking... is it possible... or advisable... to take a single HDD and make it a RAID using different partitions? If I do that will it negate the things I was trying to accomplish with the Raid to begin with...

Bill pretty much covered it. Would never use software raid. Raid 5 is good for reliability and speed, but I would never use it with less than 4 drives. Mirroring is great for reliability, but I would only use it with identical drives.

Yes, the crash was probably secondary. Since you were running from the CD, that seems to eliminate a virus, drivers, and my APC suggestion. Knoppix is a heavy memory user and since you did just add some ... . I did recently have similar problems when a fan failed and fried a CPU. Solved it with e-bay.

The CPU fan is still running. The PSU fan is still running. The computer is running with the side off the case, with a clearance of about 1 to 2 inches from the desk wall. Nothing obstructing air movement anywhere around the unit. A couple of weeks ago I cleaned off the dust from the CPU cooling fins. I also watched the CPU temp while running BOINC. It ranged from 55 to 59 C.

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Jim,

I've just got back home and replied to your email, judging from the posts below, it looks like you're still deep in battle with the beast!

They're great when they work, hell on earth when they don't.

Ken P.

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Ken Phillips

BOINC question? Look here



"The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato

Ok... here's the update for tonight.

I was trying to use Knoppix and burn all the project data to CD. This failed because Knoppix was running from the CD and was not using the HDD at all, therefore any thing I wanted to do was done in memory and on RAMDisks.

After a few hours of futzing around with that I finally got totally fed up with it. I took the plunge and opened the 200Gig HDD that I purchased earlier today. I am currently installing Linux on it. The old HDD is installed in the machine as a slave. I'll be able to access the data and just copy it over to the new HDD.

Ultimately, what I am planning is to install all the project data files onto the original HDD and have nothing else installed there.

Yes, this is going to be a learning curve, but I've been wanting to learn Linux anyway. I have an older machine that has Linux running on it, but it's so old and slow that I wasn't really getting any use out of it.

Any questions or comments?

I appreciate the encouragement I've gotten from everyone. I really do want this project back online soon.

Jim

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The computer is running with the side off the case,

In some cases [bad pun] the HD's can overheat if you run w/o the computer-case closed. This is because you get almost no air movement over passive cooled part such as HD, RAM and sometimes NB etc. The case is designed so that the case-fan and PSU-fan draws air over passive cooled parts when the case is closed.

This is not a problem if you have en external fan blowing into the case, or have dedicated fans on the HD.

Unfortunately this doesn't help with your problem right now, but could save your new HD from the same fate.

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