Crontab setup for shutdown at midnight

30 23 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h +31 "Shutting down at 0:01"
59 23 * * * echo "Cron shutdown scheduled in 2 minutes" > /usr/bin/wall


Shutdown every day at midnight. With sysinit, it must be "+31", not "31", otherwise it is taken to be an hour. Full path is required to shutdown utility.
sysinit shutdown only issues warnings at 30 and 15 minutes; there will be no further warning. Therefor also do a wall about 2 minutes before shutdown

Tor + Linux

Tor configuration:

ExitNodes {us}

Polipo configuration: (/etc/polipo/config):
disableLocalInterface = true
socksParentProxy = "localhost:9050"
socksProxyType = socks5
censoredHeaders = from, accept-language,x-pad,link
censorReferer = maybe

Opera configuration:

HTTP proxy: 127.0.0.1 port 8123
HTTPS proxy: 127.0.0.1 port 8123

Do NOT click "use this proxy for all protocols", this does not work.

Wine for ebooks on a new machine

1. winetricks vcrun2008
2. winetricks allfonts --- otherwise Kindle will not work
3. Get Kindle installer
4. wine KindleForPC-installer.exe
5. Turn off automatic updating in Kindle. NOTE: kindle app is substantially broken with the latest version of Wine in OpenSuse12.1. Investigating/filing a bug.
6. Get Adobe Digital Editions (has to be manual install), and install
7. Get ActiveState python: download msi (Python 2.7)
run wine msiexec /i ActivePython-2.7.2.5-win32-x86.msi
8. Download pycrypto 2.3 http://www.voidspace.org.uk/python/modules.shtml
run wine msiexec /i pycrypto-2.3.win32-py2.7.msi
9. Get the tools from "continuing dark reverser's work" blog
10. Unzip them into wine drive c:
pushd ~/.wine/drive_c/
mkdir Tools
cd Tools
unzip ~/Downloads/tools_v4.8.zip
11. Test that Kindle tools work:
cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Tools/tools_v4.8/KindleBooks
wine explorer /desktop=name,1024x768 python.exe KindleBooks.pyw
12. Put adeptkey.der into .config/calibre

Running pyw under wine

wine explorer /desktop=name,1024x768 python.exe KindleBooks.pyw

Problem and partial solution 21: unreadable CD

My mom brought over a CD recorded on Windows which my system refused to read. The dmesg output was

ipw2200: Firmware error detected. Restarting.
UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounting volume 'foto', timestamp 2008/02/02 19:45 (1000)
udf: udf_read_inode(ino 547) failed !bh
UDF-fs: Error in udf_iget, block=1, partition=1
UDF-fs INFO UDF 0.9.8.1 (2004/29/09) Mounting volume 'foto', timestamp 2008/02/02 19:45 (1000)
udf: udf_read_inode(ino 547) failed !bh
UDF-fs: Error in udf_iget, block=1, partition=1

Apparently this is a known problem for other kernels as well. I solved it with a suggestion from
this message board

mount /dev/cdrom /media/cdrecorder/ -t iso9660

(this only runs as root). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a permanent fix for this :(

Hotkey-setup still a major problem

My "fix" was actually a fluke -- the system is back to freezing on boot every time when hotkey-setup is loaded. Apparently there is a known major problem with the sony_laptop module in 10.3 - kernel panic, bug 327114. So I had to disable the module again.

Oops -- hotkey-setup not quite fixed yet

Oh, no! Hotkey-setup locked my machine on boot again today :( It re-booted fine, though, which is progress over the previous settings where it locked up every time. Makes me think that the deadlock is with a service of the same priority as hotkey-setup (I have about 10), because there is no guarantee of the order in which they start even with RUN_PARALLEL set to "no". If this happens again, I am going to look into figuring out the dependency.