# Grouch OCC prep ## Hardware Grouch[1] with the following additional hardware: IDE * 8Gb CF card with IDE to CF adapter (found to be faulty so added PCI SCSI controller and SCSI HDD) PCI * Matrox Millenium G450 GFX (replaced with Nvidia GeForce FX 5200) * Realtek 8139C generic 10/100NIC (replaced with Netgear 10/100) * Belkin USB 2.0 card (USB header on motherboard doesn't work) * SCSI controller (added after CF card found to be faulty) ISA * Soundblaster AWE 64 ISA sound card (removed as caused hang in X) ## Software * vim * ratpoison * urxvt (missing terminfo on NetBSD) * gopher (crashes in X on OpenBSD) * lynx (SSL error: unable to get local issuer cert .. NetBSD) * mpg123 (never used this befoe but moc looks ugly out of the box) * git * mutt (compiled without sidebar on NetBSD) * xnotify ## Software configuration and optimisations ### Fixed size fonts This may sound bizarre but it was actually the biggest single usability improvement I made. When I installed X it seemed usable but after I copied my .Xresources file over from my other system, which included xft:dejavu sans mono with antialias things really did start to chug and I didn't realize the issue straight away so persevered with it. That was until I was chatting on IRC and the annoyance of watching each line shuffling up the screen like a caterpillar became too much to bear! .Xresources URxvt.termName: rxvt URxvt.cursorUnderline: false URxvt.cursorBlink: true URxvt.font: x:9x15,xft:FontAwesome:style=Regular URxvt.boltFont: x:9x15B,xft:FontAwesome:style=Bold URxvt.scrollBar: false ! map ctrl+shift+c/ctrl+shift+v to copy/paste URxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-V: eval:paste_clipboard URxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-C: eval:selection_to_clipboard URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,matcher URxvt.matcher.button: 2 URxvt.matcher.launcher: pj $0 URxvt.matcher.pattern.1: \\b(gophers?\\:\\/\\/\\S+)\\b URxvt.matcher.launcher.1: pj $1 URxvt.keysym.Mod1-Shift-M: perl:matcher:list ### urxvt in daemon mode (urxvtd + urxvtc) This improves the speed of launching new terminal instances maybe at the expense of stability, not that I have noticed any issues. To facilitate this I started the daemon in .xinitrc and then exited it again with a hook in .ratpoisonrc. As long as you :quit ratpoison properly then it will kill urxvtd. .xsession: xrdb ~/.Xresources setxkbmap -option caps:escape urxvtd & ratpoison I was a bit annoyed that I had to specify the keymap again after setting it up during the NetBSD install. On OpenBSD it works correctly for both terminal and x. Also terminfo was not configured for urxvt and I had weird colour issues that I didn't have on OpenBSD , even after following the recommendation to 'export TERM=rxvt'. .ratpoisonrc: bind c exec /usr/pkg/bin/urxvtc addhook quit exec pkill urxvtd set fgcolor orange set bgcolor black set barinpadding 1 set padding 0 20 0 0 set msgwait 0 set startupmessage 0 set winliststyle row ## Conclusion There are annoyances with both NetBSD and OpenBSD. OpenBSD: 1) Really slow bootup due to relinking (fixed by modifying /var/db/kernel.SHA456 - make last hash char a comment) 2) X doesn't launch properly and I have to switch between VT 1 and VT 5 each time I launch it to be able to see the DM. (fixed by changing GFX card) 3) Sometimes the DM shows corrupted fonts and the cursor as a big square fuzzy block (HW conflict?). (fixed by changing GFX card) 4) Annoyingly displays console log on DM and then again when you start the WM. (fixed by editing /etc/X11/xenodm/Xsetup_0) NetBSD: 1) set hostname but on reboot back to localhost 2) Similar corruption of fonts sometimes when launching X 3) missing certs in lynx 4) mutt compiled without sidebar 5) No proper termcap for urxvt 6) After specifying dvorak keymap on install, I had to add it to .xinitrc as for some reason it went back to qwerty Currently I'm not sure whether to go back to OpenBSD. I was expecting performance of NetBSD to be a lot better but it's actually not... Just the lengthy post boot relinking annoyance and the having to switch back and forth between VT's to get X to display are the main concerns to switching back. ## Update 8/7/2023 I reverted back to OpenBSD and have managed to resolve the previously mentioned issues. Fixes have been listed above next to the issue. Unfortunately I discovered another issue which was that the ISA sound card would hard hang the system if I tried to use it while in X. For some reason it was fine using it from the terminal but once X was started it would cause it to hang. I tried removing all the other cards and also using different GFX cards but to no avail. Unfortunately this meant that I now needed a free PCI card for sound, as I didn't have another ISA card, and I didn't have one due to having to us a PCI SCSI controller because of the faulty CF card... ## Update 9/7/2023 I had to make a call between going the week without sound or buying a replacement CF card so that I could revert to IDE and free up the PCI slot currently occupied by the SCSI controller. CF cards are expensive for the capacity so I was reluctant to buy one but it actually seemed like the only sensible option. I had already made the decision to sell off my SCSI drives and cards. Continuing to use them was just adding to my procrastination over selling them. ## Update 10/7/2023 It was late in the day when the replacement CF card arrived but arrive it did so I set to work. First I wiped the old CF card and a small IDE drive I'd used to check if there was a problem with the IDE controller. I fitted the new CF card and attempted to start up the machine but it was a no-go. The bios seemed to recognize the card as an ATA device but at that point it hung and would proceed no further. I tried reconnecting it and restarting the machine a few times to be sure but it wasn't going to work. I conceded that I would have to do the challenge using the SCSI subsystem so I reconfigured it to boot from that. While in the process I remembered I had an external USB sound card. It certainly wouldn't hurt any to give it a try. I was surprised that OpenBSD recognized the card on boot and on testing I was able to play sound. This meant I wouldn't have to do the challenge without audio; some small relief. [1](gopher://gopher.icu/0/phlog/Computing/Unnamed-4U-computer.md)