Hey all, it has been a while. I am coming back to my blog here shortly. I am sorry i just upped and left without any notice. Life got busy, but I can’t wait to be back to help fix issues with linux. In the mean time if you love gaming on linux, you should check out my new youtube channel all about gaming on linux. You can find it here. https://www.youtube.com/@OnlyLinuxGaming
-Orkultus-
This post was written by Skully.
I have recently discovered (a bit too late) that Western Digital Green hard drives have a serious issue when used in Linux as a main drive or a NAS drive. The problem can also occur in certain situations in windows too. The problem is due to a feature called intellipark. Which parks the heads on the drive after 8secs of drive inactivity.
Many Linux installations write to the file system a few times a minute in the background (eg. writing logs). As a result, there may be 100 or more load cycles per hour, and the load cycle rating may be exceeded in less than a year. This problem also makes the drives very unresponsive and makes your system feel slow as the heads need to be unparked when you try and load something.
My friend has killed two 1TB Green drives on his XBMC media box in 4years. The 500GB drive in my partners machine is in deep trouble as the load_cycle count is at 1991353 after a power_on_hours of 29549hrs. Compare that to my WD Black 1TB which has a load_cycle count of 721 after 13579hrs.
Now Western Digitals specsheet says that the drives are good for 300,000 Load/unload cycles, so this is a pretty big deal.
If you have a Western Digital Green drive, please check your SMART information before it’s too late. To do this you will need to install the package called smartmontools :
sudo pacman -S smartmontools (Arch / Manjaro)
sudo apt-get install smartmontools (Ubuntu / Mint)
Now check like this changing sda to whatever your Green drive is. (Use lsblk in terminal or gparted or i-nex or something to work out which drive it is.):
sudo smartctl -A /dev/sda | grep “^193”
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 253 253 000 Old_age Always - 199135
If the Load cycle count exceeds a few thousand, you’re affected by the idle3 timer problem.
Here is how the output should look when this isn’t a problem:
sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdb | grep “^193”
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x0032 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 721
Ok so you have the problem and want to fix it. Western digital have made a DOS utility to fix it if you ask them for it. Or can find it. Its called wdidle3.exe
But we arn’t going to use that. Instead we are going to use a Linux unnofficial alternative called idle3-tools. It is already packaged in Manjaro so no need to compile it. but here is the source [2]
Install idle3-tools with pamac or octopi or like this in the terminal:
sudo pacman -S idle3-tools (Arch / Manjaro)
sudo apt-get install idle3-tools (Ubuntu / Mint)
Now check what your drives timer is currently set as. (Replace sda if needed with your own drive.):
sudo idle3ctl -g /dev/sda
It will likely say it’s set to 80 [8sec]
Now really we want to just disable the timer altogether like it is on a black drive, and just let our systems power management handle the drive. If you want to just increase the time, then goto [3] and read the instructions.
To disable the timer (Replace sda if needed with your own drive):
sudo idle3ctl -d /dev/sda
Next step is to shutdown and power off your computer. Rebooting isn’t enough! You need to power off, so the drive will turn on with the new settings.
Now check again:
sudo idle3ctl -g /dev/sda
and it should say disabled.
Remove idle3-tools and smartmontools with octopi or pamac or in a terminal:
sudo pacman -R idle3-tools smartmontools (Arch / Manjaro)
sudo apt-get purge idle3-tools smartmontools (Ubuntu / Mint)
That’s it! All done. You can now enjoy the reliability and speed from the WD Green drive that you expected to have when you bought it.
Thank you to Skully for wanting me to post this important piece of information. I had this issue with a 500GB Western Digital Green drive, that failed on me not to long ago. Wish i had talked to him about it much earlier..haha
You can also find this post @ https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=Western_Digital_Green_-_Drive_Fix_-_Linux
Thanks a ton Skully!
-Orkultus-
Ok, so for anyone who has done this in the past when it worked with no problems, should remember how it was possible to install. The third CD of the physical UT2003 disk had a linux_installer.sh file. All you had to do was copy that file to your computer, “chmod +x linux_installer.sh“, then just run it like so “./linux_installer.sh“.
Well now days the installer will give you a few errors when trying to execute it.
1.) The first of course after copying the file from Disk 3 to your computer, is to make it excutable. so open a terminal and navigate to where you copied the linux_installer.sh file, then do the following.
“chmod +x linux_installer.sh”
Now if you were to just run it like so “./linux_installer.sh“, you will most likely get a error output like i am getting.
Copying to a temporary location…
Verifying archive integrity…tail: cannot open ‘+266’ for reading: No such file or directory
Error in checksums: 3981352260 is different from 3043856338
You need to export posix2 version to something else. So in your terminal do the following.
export _POSIX2_VERSION=199209
Then if you run it again, depending if you are on a 64bit version or a 32bit version, it may either load up or not. I am running Arch Linux 64bit, so i got the following error.
Copying to a temporary location…
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing Unreal Tournament 2003 for GNU/Linux 2107…………………………………………………………….
This installation doesn’t support glibc-2.1 on Linux / x86_64
(tried to run setup)
Fatal error, no tech support email configured in this setup
The setup program seems to have failed on x86_64/glibc-2.1
Fatal error, no tech support email configured in this setup
The program returned an error code (1)
It is complaining about my system being installed on a 64 bit version of linux, and giving me another error about glibc-2.1. So in order to get past this there are two more steps. First enter a new export to take care of the glibc2.1 problem.
export SETUP_LIBC=glibc-2.1
Then to get past the error about being on 64bit, run your installer command like so.
“linux32 ./linux_installer.sh”
This should bring up the installer window for UT2003, and then all you have to do is follow the steps throughout the installation process.
Also note that if you close your terminal, you will have to do your two exports again before running the installer again.
If you have any questions or issues, please let me know!
Thank you!
-Orkultus-
PS. Big thanks to Skully on steam for helping me figure this out as well!
EDIT: Ok i was having problems with the installer being able to read the cd’s when it asked me to swap them out. So what i did was took every file from the cdrom disks and copied them into a folder on my desktop called “ut2003”, and ran the installer from in there.
In order for the installer to read all the disks from within that folder i had to do
“export SETUP_CDROM=/home/chuck/Desktop/ut2003” <— Just replace the SETUP_CDROM= location to where your ut2003 files are in the folder you just created. It should work with no problems after that.
EDIT AGAIN: For a issue about not having sound for 64bit systems…. you must copy /usr/lib32/libopenal.so to the system folder of the installed game, and rename it to openal.so. Or make a simlink
Example of where mine is installed:
ln -s /usr/lib32/libopenal.so.0 /usr/local/games/ut2003/System/openal.so
So my work was cleaning out a ton of old computers. There had to be like at least 10 pentium 4 desktops with like 256mb ram. A few Celeron desktops with like a gig of ram, but the company president came up to me and asked me if i wanted a few of the old servers. I was like “YES!”. So i went in the back, and he had these two HUGE, heavy ass servers. One was a Dell Poweredge 2600 (Doesn’t Work), and a Dell Poweredge 2900 (Currently running Peppermint OS Four under my desk).
The Dell 2600, doesn’t have any hardrives, but it does have some ancient stuff in it. It has a cd-rom / 3 1/4 inch floppy drive combo..which i though was like .. WOAH. But the thing that brings back memories is the Tape Drive, that is right underneath of it. I haven’t seen one of those in years..haha. So i think i will just use the 2600 as parts, or take it apart for something to do. Then toss it.
The Dell Poweredge 2900, works great! Although the damn thing feels like its over 100lbs. IT IS HEAVY. So here are the specs of it.
CPU/S: Two Xenon Dual Core processors @ 2.55Ghz
RAM: 8GB DDR2
DVD Drive: 16X (thing is slow as hell)
Hardrives: (These things are fast)
1.) 150GB 10k RPM scuzzy
2.) 150GB 10k RPM scuzzy
3.) 150GB 10k RPM scuzzy
4.) 300GB 10k RPM scuzzy
Video Card: AMD ES1000 16mb (Pretty much just makes it possible to see the desktop)
Right now, i dont have the hard drives raided, but i am running peppermint on the 300GB, and i plan on enabling the others as standard partitions. I am currently using it for a media server, and hopefully i will start another private minecraft server, and possibly a PoP3 server.
I had heard that i could even put in a old 512mb PCI express 1.0 card (8x), and play games on it. I dont have one of those cards anymore, and i dont think i really want to buy one, just to be able to do that. Although i am sure this server could play some pretty cool games. Right now it will just be a media server to stream to my PS3 in the living room. I was actually shocked that its alot quieter than my desktop computer is..haha.
Here is a picture of it.
The Poweredge 2900 is on the left.
Just thought i would share that with you! If i ever decide to do some testing with it, i will let you know. Mostly hardware related anyway. Linux seemed to install just fine on it.
Well now; a very kind developer from Nemesys Games, has sent me a few steam keys to give away on my blog! These keys are for a copy of Fortix 2. Which works on Linux! So i am here to deliver them all to you! Now this is first come first serve, and i only have this many.
I hope you enjoy this fun little game!
Q3ZFN-K2MVL-0HWFC
QJMK2-76G2Q-T65CL
TV436-IRD7B-RF9FL
6PHQI-5DYF5-L4AN8
KDHC2-BGYC2-8FMMI
8EZK9-66NPI-VVWXK
22VBH-00IXT-60RTP
7QDB6-N3Q5T-KWTCR
HD3R2-Q5GG8-23Y8X
CQ2ZG-E2WNE-G765H
0QFR7-BQLFC-958WA
33HXE-I8268-FKWPR
GEEPJ-JX0MD-455KW
FACTJ-MZPPH-NTBMG
EDV54-Z2HNY-MPW0D
GQLQB-JVPRJ-5X5LJ
JTN78-AH395-MFCA6
5CXEX-56MQY-VLP4Z
EIC2B-AKNN4-R9LXV
QGD7A-WMTNT-XR8CB
ZJDBW-02335-KGZL3
-Orkultus-
Don’t forget to go give them a big thank you!
What is it with these humble bundles that come out one after another that only support windows.. It is starting to piss me off. Why cant they make a slider on the payment page that says “Donate money to developers to make a linux / mac port”. You know how much money they would get?? enough to build a new AAA game im sure. Would be well enough to pay for a port. I def think this should be on their page.
For my situation, and possibly for many others…all my friends get these games, play the hell out of em, and get board by the time i get a linux version. That is if they even eventually get a Linux version of a game seen on Humble Bundle. Of course i could just stop complaining and shackle myself down to a Windoze OS..but that is a sign of weakness. We will win this battle..we just have to keep fighting.
Sorry..i am just venting.
-Orkultus-
So i at random, was greeted by my package manager today with a duplicate source issue. This thing has been driving me crazy.. i keep throwing solutions at it, and it goes right back to it. SO..we are going to figure this out right quick!
here is what i am getting.
<pre><strong>Reading package lists... Error!</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_main_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/upstream amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_upstream_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/import amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_import_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/main i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_main_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/upstream i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_upstream_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://packages.linuxmint.com/ olivia/import i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/packages.linuxmint.com_dists_olivia_import_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_main_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/restricted amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/universe amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_universe_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/multiverse amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_multiverse_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/main i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_main_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/restricted i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_restricted_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/universe i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_universe_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring/multiverse i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_multiverse_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_main_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/restricted amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/universe amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_universe_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/multiverse amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_multiverse_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/main i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_main_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/restricted i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_restricted_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/universe i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_universe_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-updates/multiverse i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-updates_multiverse_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/main amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_main_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/restricted amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_restricted_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/universe amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_universe_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/multiverse amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_multiverse_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/main i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_main_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/restricted i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_restricted_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/universe i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_universe_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ raring-security/multiverse i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_raring-security_multiverse_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ raring/partner amd64 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_partner_binary-amd64_Packages)</strong> <strong>W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ raring/partner i386 Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.canonical.com_ubuntu_dists_raring_partner_binary-i386_Packages)</strong> <strong>E: Encountered a section with no Package: header</strong> <strong>E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/packages.medibuntu.org_dists_raring_free_i18n_Translation-en</strong> <strong>E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
So i am going to figure this out, and let you know..from what i have tried, nothing seems to be fixing it. I will be back with the solution!
So guys, i am still alive and around. I haven’t forgotten about you, or the blog. I have just picked up another job. So i have been currently working Mon-Fri… 6:30 AM – 3:00PM at my first job, and then 4:30PM – 8:30PM (Sometimes to Midnight). I hardly get a chance to get on my computer. I usually just go straight to bed cause i am so exhausted. I just wanted to let you know what has been going on with me. This second job is greatly helping me out. I went from not having any money after bills, to about 300 dollars a week as spending cash. Its been alot of hard work, but its worth it. I will try my best to post some more Linux Fix it’s when i can. For now, hang in there guys, and thank you so much for supporting my blog by linking it to other sites. The more people we can help the better!
-Orkultus-
So i was reading a article about how to enable your nvidia card full time without having to use bumblebee in Linux. So on my Laptop running Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon Edition 64bit, i had started following the steps on this page. Ubuntu Pastebin.
Not everything on this walkthrough was installing, but i did figure out how to get it work.
Here is what i did to make my Nvidia card run full time on my laptop.
1.) Follow the steps through the walkthrough, all the way until you get to “sudo make install” of xrandr 1.4
The creation for the xorg.conf file didn’t work out for me, so i just deleted it. Also, the .xsessionrc didn’t work either. The desktop wouldn’t load, and i just got a black screen.
2.) I then did the section where it says,
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-x/x-staging
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install nvidia-319
Ok so note that it says nvidia-319. It does install it, but it also installs nvidia-325. When you run nvidia-settings, it actually shows version 325.15 running as your graphics driver.
3.) I skipped the part where it has you install xorg-server 1.14, but i did install the libudev0 file.
4.) I skipped down to the virtualgl section and installed that.
5.) I then grabbed nvidia-prime from here https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-prime/0.3~hybrid0.0.1/+build/4862580/+files/nvidia-prime_0.3%7Ehybrid0.0.1_all.deb
Ok so when you install nvidia-prime, it is going to ask you to install lightdm, and a few other things as well. I am not sure if it requires you to use lightdm as your login manager, but i chose to use it anyway. So my login on Mint looks like ubuntu’s login screen..lol.
6.) Reboot your computer.
Now i cant say this will work for everyone. It just worked for me. I was able to start up games / nvidia-settings without “optirun” or “primusrun”! I am very happy.
Just follow these carefully. You can always purge files if you have a error and need to go back to before this attempt.
Good Luck!
PS: you can read more about nvidia-prime enabling in Ubuntu 13.10 as well. Here
http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/using-nvidia-graphics-drivers-with.html
-Orkultus-
So i know there is a patch for this is the arch repositories, but nothing that i could find for Ubuntu. So i will show you what to add to your “steam” startscript in “/usr/bin”. This will allow you to iconify steam when you press the x button on the window to close it, instead of it just minimizing itself to your panel.
so we need to edit “steam” in “/usr/bin”
1.) sudo gedit /usr/bin/steam
2.) when you have it open, the first few lines should look like this.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
#
# This is the Steam script that typically resides in /usr/bin
# It will create the Steam bootstrap if necessary and then launch steam.
# Get the full name of this script
export STEAMSCRIPT=”$(cd “${0%/*}” && echo “$PWD”)/${0##*/}”
3.) in between the top comments and where it goes to “# Get the full name of this script”, i created another line and put it in there.
4.) I put in the following.
#make steam iconify after closing the window
export STEAM_FRAME_FORCE_CLOSE=1
5.) then i saved it.
So now when you start steam from your desktop icon, or menu, or terminal command, steam will open up, and when you press the [x] in the corner of the window, you will notice that it wont be on your panel, but you will still have the steam icon near your clock and other applets.
If you want things to go back to the way they were, simply just delete that line that i added, and save it. You should be back to normal the next time you start steam.
Hope this helps anyone who wondered the same.
-Orkultus-
Linux Fix-it's by Orkultus 