Increasing the scrollback buffer in tty console

Tty consoles (that's what you boot into when you start Linux without X) in the 2.6 kernels allow only about 15 screens of scroll back. At 80 lines per screen, that works out to a meager 1200 lines.

Now 1200 lines may not be meager - in the normal course of things, you may not need to scroll back more than 1200 lines. But there are some times when this becomes essential - kernel compile, debugging the boot process, looking at dmesg outputs - to name a few.

If you are using an X manager (Gnome for instance), you can change the scroll back buffer size of the Terminal easily (Edit->Profiles->Scrolling). But what if you are booting without X - or if your system does not have X. Such situations arise when you are working with VM's or in a full system simulator.

I found out that it is possible to re-allocate the memory for the console from the System RAM instead of VGA RAM. This can be set up by setting the VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK kernel config item to Y. Once this is set up, calculate the amount of memory needed (rule of thumb is 64KB for 16 screens of 80 lines each) and set this in VGACON_SOFT_SCROLLBACK_SIZE. recompile the kernel - and you are done.

Another option, which has added advantages, is using GNU screen. I have not checked it out - but I am sure that the scrollback buffer size will be configurable. But if increasing the scroll back buffer size is all you want - then screen may not be needed. Plus it is not as much fun as kernel compile - now is it :)

(I got this from http://www.linuxinsight.com/soft_scrollback_for_the_linux_vga_console.html. That link was pointed out by Ron Johnson Jr from the Debian Mailing List.)

"Virtual" KVM switch

Synergy is a cool piece of software which acts a KM (Keyboard and Mouse) switch between multiple computers each having their own monitors. It creates something similar to an "extended desktop" - the difference being that the different monitors constituting the extended desktop are attached to different computers.

It works on a client-server model - the server running on one of the computers and the clients on all other computers. It uses TCP/IP (port 24800) for communicating mouse/KB events. Works on Windows, Debian, Linux and OSX.

The website is http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

It will probably be convenient to have synergy start automatically when your machine boots up. Detailed instructions for this can be found at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=48196 (the instructions are not specific to ubuntu - rather they use gdm scripts - so it works on any Linux machine running gdm)

Migrating to the "new blogger"

UI have had some problem swith blogger before. I did not do anything about it because - well I am lazy, I did not think eople will read it, and ... I am lazy (oh yeah I mentioned that before).

But now I have migrated my site to the new blogger. After google bought it, I think it is trying to get people to move it to a "associated with google account" format. Now that I have done it, hopefully it become a wee bit more reliable.

The ultimate election campaign promise

Elections are approaching in Tamil Nadu, India. It has been the time honored custom to campaign by making promises of what the candidate would do if elected. These, historically seldom fulfilled, range from free rice to everyone to color television sets and free cable TV.

Not only actors, everyone who contests, seems to get into a theatrical frame of mind - talking about absurd and unfeasible things. But Durai Ramachandran, comedian of little renown and editor of film magazine Roja has decided to stick to his particular brand of theater - comedy. He has promised free cell phones with free connectivity, laptops for computer literates and - get this - ONE LAMB PER HOUSEHOLD.

No - not a lamp, but a LAMB. A lamb, like in a bleating, stinking, eating-anything- not-protected-in-a-concrete-bunker young offspring of a sheep. The plan is that when the lamb grows up and starts reproducing, the litter should be returned to Ramachandran - not for biriyani, but for further distribution to poor people - for biriyani for them I guess.

I have to appreciate the efforts of Mr. Ramachandran - a breath of fresh air in the mundane election race. Read more about this in The Hindu.

49-O

It came to my attention recently that there is a provision for registering the voter’s unwillingness to vote for any of the candidates by the 1961 Amendment to the Conduct of Elections.

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.—If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form 17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

Whether this will be of any use is a question.

My website

So...
I know it has been a long time since I blogged - almost 50 days. I was a bit busy trying to get one of my papers published. I was also writing up another paper - though that’s another story in itself.

Recently I decided to make my webpage. I have wanted to do this for a long time - maybe for the past 4 years. I have never gotten around to doing it because of the ultimate victory of a physical phenomenon called inertia. I realized that I would not make a webpage unless
a) I had a very important reason compelling me to do it
b) I had lots of spare time
c) My feeling of disgust at my sheer lassitude had increased beyond the critical point

All three happened recently and the result is the webpage of Girish Venkatasubramanian. Starting out, I had such lofty ideas about how the webpage would be a masterpiece - the last word in digital art and content rich information portals - a cross between William and Vincent.

If you have been reading my blogs regularly (and if you have not been - remember - you have seven days to read them all - or you will be turned to pillars of salt), you know that this cross of W and V exists only in my head. Came out with a crappy webpage after a couple of hours. Stuck at the top - the universal excuse - "Under Construction".

Have been spending the last couple of days modifying this and trying to make it better. Only recently did it dawn on me - It Does Not Matter. Nobody will look at it - it is purely an exercise in the shiatsu of the Latin "self". You can forward it to every contact in your address book - nobody will give a damn. Once I realized this I have settled back to my usual level of torpor.

The next thing on the list is getting Google to pick it up - so that it passes the "Google Test". Yeah! Yeah! - The website is only for me - I don’t care if Google doesn’t pick it up - this is just like standardized tests doesn’t mean a thing - I have tried all forms of sour grapes. So I have tried asking all my friends to put up links. I also have another webspace - albeit only 25 MB - on which, till now, I had a txt index.html saying "This is the webpage of Girish Venkatasubramanian - under construction". So I also had a JavaScript redirecting from there to the new site. Surprisingly and frustratingly the simple page with the JavaScript is being picked up while the actual webpage is not being listed. AAGGH!

Anyway, I thought I should have some catharsis before I developed an OCD about this.

Double D Tapes

This is about double sided tapes. Useful little things these. Stick one side, peel of the tape of the second side and stick it to the wall. They say when something is good it either is sinful, wasteful, illegal or atleast fattening. Maybe these tapes are one exception.

But like Fulghum writes, these can be dangerous like "...matches in the hands of a five year old...". My department was putting up some reading light in every cubicle - someone came up with the idea of fixing them to the filing cabinet using double sided tapes. I asked the guy who was putting the lights up whether this would hold - he said that he had tugged and pulled and stress tested one experimental anchorage. It looked neat and no mess fixing them up.

The next morning I come back to my cubicle and find the damn light across my keyboard - yeah - the tape had given out. Damn near broke my monitor.

If double sided tape was not used I wouldn't have trusted the setup and moved my monitor to a safe distance. That's why it is doubly dangerous. But you know what would be good - if they find some way to use the Big D - yeah - duct tape. Apparently D tape was used on some US satellite to anchor some air filter - and made it all the way up and down.