Critical Exponent

I’ve been playing around with suspend2 since the Fedora 4 install. I’d gotten it to almost work: I could hibernate from run level 3, which meant I got the benefits of a quick boot but not of having my session preserved. The problem was the graphics card. I didn’t have time to investigate, and at any rate, I figured Fedora Core 5 would come out soon.

I have just gotten suspend2 to work with Fedora 5 and the nVidia drivers! I can now truly hibernate my sessions!

I followed the directions in Matthias Hensler’s page. I set upyum to access his repository, and then installed the modified kernel sources and the eye-candy progress meter: # yum install userui-suspend2-fbsplash userui-suspend2-theme-fedorabubbles # yum install kernel-suspend2

I added kernel parameters to the kernel line in /etc/grub.conf to disable SELinux, set the framebuffer for the progress meter, and disable the kernel’s AGP support:

   kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.16-1.2111_1.rhfc5.cubbi_suspend2 ..... selinux=0 vga=791 agp=0

I also add a duplicate line with the additiional kernel option noresume2 to boot without resuming a hibernated kernel.

In nVidia device section of /etc/Xorg,conf, I enable nVidia’s own AGP: Option “NvAgp” “1″

I modified the /etc/hibernate/hibernate-conf script using this as a reference. Aside from unloading the necessary modules, and such niceties as locking the screen on hibernation and resetting smartdimmer on resume (since the screen brightness does not appear to be persistent) the crucial line appears to be the expected_compression:

 ProcSetting expected_compression 50

That’s it! Typing, as root, pm-hibernate hibernates me nicely. Andrei’s page says he had trouble suspending/resuming on battery power, but I don’t seem to have that problem. The eye candy does not work perfectly: the expected_compression line makes the progress meter appear only fleetingly both on suspend and resume, which is too bad– but at the end of the day, insignificant.

One thing I wonder: many of the references imply there’s a hibernate button in the “Logout” dialog. I don’t see it. I may be missing the corresponding package. I will try installing gnome-power-manager and see how that works. (Either that or a shell script will be necessary to invoke pm-hibernate as non-root.)

Not too long ago, I mused about how pleasant it is to discover that someone had paved a trail where you through you were stumbling alone. I just came across Andrei’s page on configuring Linux on the S580 laptop. Granted, he’s using Gentoo and I’m using Red Hat, and he uses KDE and I use Gnome. Still, for the low-level configuration, his page is a good resource for configuration settings to try.

You know how Big Tobacco is supposedly not longer targeting kids to get them to smoke cigarettes? Well, nobody said anything about little cigars– essentially often-flavored cigarettes in a brown wrapper. Coincidentally, this category of tobacco products is not subject to the same tax and regulations as cigarettes…

Get them while they’re young, Evita, get them while they’re young…

On May 17, 1990, the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders.

May 17 now marks the International Day Against Homophobia. Read about the history of IDAHO.

It’s been pretty cold and rainy in Boston. Perfect time to upgrade Linux to Fedora Core 5.

DESKTOP UPGRADE: I began upgrading my desktop system using ISO images I burned onto CD RWs. On the second CD, installation failed saying the media could not be read. I re-burned disk two and retried it, and it kept failing. At that point I rebooted into the partial FC5 system (the kernel and core packages had been updated, but not the rest of the packages) and follows the unofficial directions on upgrading via yum. From there, it went without a hitch.

I like the new FC5 system, and everything seems to work, albeit with some changes. Evolution 2.6.1 took a while to migrate everything over, but it did, eventually; I like its new “Memos” feature. The automatically mounted USB hard disk is mounted differently than with FC4 (now it does not automatically mount all the partitions, though it thinks it has; this is a small bug). My flash card reader is now mounted as a VFAT system, which means all the names are uppercase; I took this as an opportunity to upgrade my scripts to accept uppercase filenames, though I would still like to find out how to revert back to the FC4 behavior here. Lastly, I noticed that the gramps entry in my application menu disappeared, though the package and binary are still installed.

LAPTOP UPGRADE: I began to update the VAIO VGN S580 laptop using yum, but ran into exactly the same dependency issues mentioned there. I figured I’d switch over to the CD installation, but I had media problems consistently on the third disk. All these media problems make we wonder whether the CD burner is bad or the CD RW media are bad.

At any rate, I figured that since I had the first two CDs installed, I might as well tried switching over to the yum installation again. I ran into a known boot udev problem that caused the system to hang. I followed the directions here to disable udev:

# cd /mnt/sysimage
# mv sbin/pcmcia-socket-startup sbin/pcmcia-socket-startup.bak
# cd ..
# reboot

Rebooting from the hard disk did not start up my network automatically (I am using an ethernet cable rather than the wireless for the upgrade), so I rebooted and ran

# /usr/sbin/system-config-network-cmd

I was then able to update the pcmciautils package

# yum update pcmciautils

and continue with the yum-mediated FC5 upgrade.

Once this one done, the system would not boot up the XOrg server (nor the network, since I had the setwork configured to not start up automatically). This was true even if I tried to install the nVidia driver. I rebooted with the rescue CD, did

# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# yum remove xorg-x11-server-*

to remove the XOrg packages, and

# yum install xorg-x11-server-*

to reinstall them. I then re-installed the nVidia server, and then rebooted. I got the nVidia splash screen, and then the graphical boot scrren but the login manager did not show up– the system seemed to hang. Looking at the nVidia forums, I came across a set of directions. I followed these to the letter and had the same problem. After a few days of tinkering, I tried running startx from runlevel 3 as root: I got the nVidia splash screen. This provided the crucial clue: nVidia was installed correctly, but somehow the gdm package had gotten removed. Grrrr.

All systems go at this point. Now I will make sure that the packages on the desktop and the laptop are in sync.

When I ordered the laptop, Sony was charging an exorbitant amount to get the maximum possible 2GB of memory–something like $1000, I believe. I decided to get the minimum amount of memory that would work with my nVidia video card (512 MB), and later upgrade.

I decided that this weekend would be a good time to order the extra memory. Unfortunately, none of the Sony documentation (not what came on the Windows installation, not what’s available online) detailed the memory specs. I emailed customer support; they told me to call. I called, and the person at the other end could not find the information either. However, he referred me to www.crucial.com, where you can search for and order the memory that is compatible with your system. It turns out that the S580 takes a 200-pin SODIMM. I’m not up on what additional numbers are needed to specify the memory, or what the compatibility issues are, so I wound up ordering from them. They seem to be only slighlty more expensive (assuming I’m comparing the right products) than TigerDirect, where I’ve usually done my online computer shopping.

Installing the extra memory will be an adventure, I’m sure. I’ve never taken apart a laptop.

Sex is fun, but as we all know, it has potential consequences: it can give rise to strong emotions, expose one to STDs, and (for straight folks) carry the possibility of an unintended pregnancy. For this reason, there is general agreement that people are socially and economically better off holding off on sex until adulthood. Even the modern adult, however, is hardly constrained by older notions of “procreative sex only, and only in marriage.” Some choose to hold off on marriage until reaching a more secure and stable point in their lives. Others do not wish to get married, or are not allowed to. Even a married straight couple may choose to limit how many children they have. This does not change the fact that most adults are sexual creatures, and sex can be extremely gratifying.

Which brings us to the Sex Wars. Many conservatives want to establish abstinence-only sex education, reasoning that it will cut down on pre-marital sex and the myriad social problems they claim it brings about: the decay of morals, rampant hedonism, and teenage pregnancy. Many conservatives also want to restrict or criminalize abortion, in part because they see it as breaking the link between sex and procreation. For this reason, too, many conservatives are waging a war on contraception, so that every sexual act (remember, only the straight missionary position is allowed) may lead to pregnancy and the growth of the family.

These solutions put the cart before the horse. Sure, youngsters should wait to have sex, but human nature hasn’t changed in millenia: just as they did in Biblical, medieval, and Victorian times, some fraction of young people will have sex (sometimes covertly, sometimes with a wink from society). Admonitions to abstain have not worked in all that time, and they don’t work now. Given that fact, what is the best we can do? Surely it is to educate people so that the undesirable consequences are reduced as much as possible! This means comprehensive sex education, including information on contraceptives and their risks and benefits. Withholding this information, knowing human nature as we do, is tantamount to cruelly keeping our children ignorant and condemning them to carry the burden of their uninformed, if less than wise, choices.

A similar reasoning applies to abortion. Getting an abortion is no walk in the park, and I doubt many women rely on it as a means of birth control. More to the point, women have abortions even when abortions are criminalized: the rich do it with the discretion that only money can buy, while the poor do it in back alleys. Criminalizing abortion will not stop it, but will drive it underground. The results, at least for the poor, will be a higher rate of health complications and deaths, as well as the additional stigma, vulnerability to extortion, and criminal record that can dash all aspirations of building a better life.

If the conservatives really care about making lives better and not having abortions, they should make it possible for people to be informed about sex, prophylactics, and birth control, so that those who invariably can’t or do not want to live up to conservatives’ moral codes can make informed decisions. In other words, given that some people will choose to have sex in situations that put them at risk of STDs or unwanted pregnancies, our social policy should be to help them and society minimize those risks and associated costs. For this reason, the third front in the sex wars is also important: access to contraceptives must be guaranteed. This way, we can help reduce disease and unwanted pregnancy before they happen, when it’s cheaper and safer.

What seems to drive many of the conservatives in the Sex Wars is the notion that sex and reproduction ought to always remain coupled. That is a moral judgment to which they are entitled, but which should not be forced on the rest of society. I submit for their consideration a different tenet which works for other people: when done in a way that is respectful of all parties and which prevents unwanted consequences, sex is not only harmless, it is a celebration of life.

If you believe in the right to privacy, you may want to sign the ACLU’s petition urging phone companies to stop collaborating with warrantless government spying.

And yes, you have to give your name on a petition for anonymity. Oh, the irony.

The Boston Globe talks about vacationing in Newfoundland. Hah! Been there, done that!

Living life differently than the expectations you’ve slowly settled down into over the years sometimes makes the best sense, but often feels like swimming against the current. If that’s where life takes you and what you are called to do, though, then there’s no helping it: you just hunker down and do it. What a pleasant surprise it is, then, to find that you are not alone, that there are others who are making similar unobtrusive choices and have paved the way before you. Many an obscure bend in the road turns out to be well traveled: coming out, bike commuting, …. or a dual-residence relationship.

Knox and I are currently doing the bi-coastal thing. He’s working mostly in Seattle at the moment, and I am in Boston. We can each advance our careers and enjoy the non-couple parts of our lives, and we get to travel between two fascinating cities (or meet somewhere in between). At the same time, we juggle how best to optimize our time together: holidays, vacations, and the minutiae of everyday life.

It turns out that we are certainly not alone in these choices. The New York Times alone had two articles on the topic this week: one on “living alone together” and one on couples who maintain two regular homes because of work. The local boookstore carries The Long-Distance Relationship Guide. And our friend Pam has a trans-Atlantic marriage that has her summering in Seattle and wintering in Austria.

So far, we’re handling things well and the experience is proving instructive. Knox is getting ready to leave for Seattle in a few days, and I am looking forward to visiting him there in early June. He’s met my friends here and explored the area; now it will be my turn to get to know his friends better and get acquainted with the much-vaunted Pacific Northwest.

Right now, though, we’re enjoying a lazy morning reading the paper at a local cafe before walking, biking, and dining in one of our cities.