Daily Cup of Tech

DCoT’s favorite free…uh…NAS, FreeNAS, has released a new beta version - 0.684b. Here is what the website has to say about it:

Notes:

Here is the 0.684b.Lot’s of changes: Disk encryptions, iSCSI-target, swap, etc.. (check the change log for all details).

Important notice: The ‘lnc’ network card driver is replaced by ‘le’ driver. If you are using ‘lnc’ as interface LAN, plug a keyboard/monitor on your screen before upgrading FreeNAS.

LDAP doesn’t works: If you known how to configure LDAP client for authenticate all services, your help is welcome

MD5 Checksum:
FreeNAS-0.684b.iso = be63bd55c36201e0e73425ffcc05659d
FreeNAS-generic-pc-0.684b.img = 192475269c0ca6ef84bcfa6a8103e154

Changes:
Majors changes:
- Add disk encryption with geli
- Add iSCSI-Target: Permit to create specials files that simulate iSCSI target disk.
- Add swap feature: Permit to create a file on a mount point for memory swap purpose
- Add powerd/cpufreq system power control utility
- NTFS: Replace ntfs FreeBSD module with ntfs-3g: read/write support for NTFS
- Added growfs tools (usable from the CLI only)
- Add EXT2 filesystem creation support
- Add option for upgrading FreeNAS from CDROM (this can be used as recovery mode too).
- Multilanguage: Update languages files and add Japanese (Thanks to Hiroyuki Seino) and Russian (Thanks Ahmetov Shamil)
- Force only one UFS type: EFI GPT Partition with Softupdates, and permit to select percent of free disk space to kept (between 8 and 1)

Minors changes:
- RSYNC: Permit to configure multiple RSYNC local/client
- RSYNC: Add description attribute to RSYNC tasks
- SSH: Permit to enable SSH TCP forwarding (SSH tunneling)
- NFS: Permit to add more than one networks for NFS
- iSCSI: Upgrade iSCSI initiator to 2.0.1
- FTP: Add ‘Resume’ mode. Fix bug in enabling ‘FXP’ and ‘NAT mode’.
- FTP: Add ‘connected users list’ information page
- Samba: Try to improve samba performance by adding ‘large readwrite = no’ in smb.conf
(see http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba_Troubleshooting)
- Samba: Add dos charset CP866 (Russian)
- Little index page improvement : % used of TOTAL size display. Paul Wheels patch
- Permit to configure the system time: Paul Wheels patch
- Add hardware sensors information page
- Add syslog message for RSYNC local/remote synchronization
- Geom mirror: Change default algorithm to round robin
(http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/11/10/FreeBSD_Basics.html)
- Now it is possible to store the configuration on floppy disk and USB stick when booting FreeNAS from CD.
- Permit to select if a user is in the administrator group (wheel) or not
- Add WebGUI page (System/Advanced/Startup) to add/edit/delete commands executed pre or post system initialization (booting).

Bug fixs:
- Fix UPnP WebGUI bug
- Fix bug in user & groups WebGUI.
- FTP: Fixed: Deletion of files uploaded and owned by user was not able.
- FTP: Fixed PAM error (using MS AD account for example)
- FTP: Disable root login by default. Can be enabled via WebGUI.
- Fix DHCP problem
- Try to prevent “acd0: FAILURE READ_BIG ERROR” during install from CDROM (thanks to fortinde@isers.sourceforge.net)
- Modify FreeNAS make.sh build script for supporting AMD64 FreeBSD now…

Underlying changes:
- Use the FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE (production) for FreeNAS base
- Upgrade twa kernel driver (e.g. 3ware 9650SE Series Raid S-ATA II PCIe)
- Try to improve performance on VM machine: http://ivoras.sharanet.org/freebsd/vmware.html
Replace ethernet ‘lnc’ drivers with ‘le’ driver (WARNING: NEED CONFIGURATION CHANGE AFTER UPGRADE)
Reduce Kernel’s timer frequency to 100HZ
- Samba: Upgrade Samba to 3.0.24
- Remove the tools ‘beep’
- Upgrade PHP to 5.2.1
- Upgrade ushare to 0.9.10 (should now support xbox)

Known bug in the 0.684b:
- Using iSCSI-target can cause problem for stopping/restarting FreeNAS
- French character not correclty displayed
- When pressing Ctrl+halt+del key, the rc.shutdown script generate an error

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/30/freenas-beta-0684b-released/trackback/

I have decided to start a new column called Make It Monday. These posts will highlight some cool tech projects that you can do yourself. Some will be relatively easy while others will be more on the rocket scientist level with soldering and building circuit board required. None the less, they promise to be interesting!

The very first Make It Monday project is a computer controlled remote control vehicle. This is something that I have been wanting to do for some time. The closest I ever got to this was buying some USB to servo devices which are still in their plastic packages.

Be warned that this is not for the faint of heart or those who fear a soldering iron. But, you can purchase a kit from the author of the article if you would like the process to go a bit quicker.

Let me know if any of you attempt this or have in the past and what some of your results have been.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/12/computer-controlled-rc-vehicle/trackback/

I spent some time over the past couple of weeks playing with the new Windows Home Server beta. I thought that I would share some of my preliminary findings with my DCoT readers!

I put together a screenshot tour of this new product along with some of my discoveries and opinions, some which may surprise you (e.g. blank administrator password!?). There are over 50 screen captures of how the system installs, configures, and works.

Windows Home Server Screenshot Tour

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/03/12/windows-home-server-screenshot-tour/trackback/

In my office at work, have have set up two computer systems (soon to be three). Once system is for my day to day work and the other system is for testing and monitoring. Each system has two screens giving me a total of four screens.

Now, the one thing that I didn’t want was two keyboards and mice. So, my first thought was, “Get a KVM. Problem solved.” The problem was that I needed to have all of the screens active at the same time. With a KVM, I would switch screens (although I could always not use the screen portion). The other issue that I saw was that a multiple screen KVM with digital inputs started to get pricy!

After some research, I discovered a wonderful little program called Synergy. It allows you to run a program on each computer and then it transfers control from one computer to another. So now, all I need to do is slide the mouse off the right hand side of screen two on computer one and it magically appears on screen one of computer two.

I have put together a little tutorial on setting up a two computer system with a single keyboard and mouse. I also explain how to set up the system so that it is taking up a minimial amount of desk space with the maximum amount of usability.

If you are planning on running more than one computer, this will give you a really good head start and probably give you some ideas that you have not thought about.

Multiple Computer Setup

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/19/multiple-computers-1-keyboardmouse-no-kvm/trackback/

I grew up spending much of my summer cutting the grass. We had a very large lawn (about 2 acres!) and a push mower. I would typically start cutting Saturday morning and finish sometime Sunday afternoon. I also had a couple of other lawns that I cut for family friends.

But, being the techno geek that I was, I dreamed of ways to make the whole task easier. I even attempted a few such as harnessing our dog to the mower (that ended badly when a gopher ran across the lawn and into the flower bed) and pulling the mower behind our three-wheeled ATV (Do you know how performing tight turns on those things can rip up your grass?).

The remote controlled lawn mower was, in my mind, the Holy Grail. I could sit on the porch with a drink and get my work done. What could be better? Unfortunately, I did not have the means (i.e. no cash) or understanding (i.e. I didn’t even know where to start a project like this!) so this dream was never realized.

Fortunately, Terry Creer was able to overcome these limitations. He has put together a website with all of the plans for his remote controlled lawn mower.

Essentially, Terry took an old electric wheelchair, stripped out the guts, built a frame to support it and the push mower, and then attached a remote control hobby radio to the unit. He figures that the entire project cost him AUD$480 (about US$370).

So, for those of you whose lawns are presently under a blanket of snow, you still have a few months to get this done for the 2007 mowing season!

If you’re interested, here is Terry’s mower in action:

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/02/14/howto-build-remote-control-lawnmover/trackback/