[sf-lug] [Made from scratch]

[Ken Shaffer]

Maestro,
What does the vendor of the box/motherboard offer in the way of firmware
updates?  Hopefully not just a Windows executable. If just a DOS
executable, I can bring a DOS boot USB.  The nice ones offer to patch at
boot time.  Firmware patching always involves some risk (I doubt you are
bringing an UPS!), so if there haven't been any significant fixes noted in
the release notes for updates after your current one, I'd skip it.  The
Intel Compute Sticks I've been playing with had a hugh number of problems
initially, all avoided with a firmware update, so in that case, I recommend
doing the update before anything else (easy since there is a function key
at boot for the firmware update).
  Speaking of Intel Compute Sticks, I found Lubutnu and Xubuntu 18.04 both
run fine on them, except for the lack of bluetooth for the rtl8723bs
hardware on the 4.15 kernel.   Bluetooth works on earlier kernels, but 4.15
has long term support, so that's what I want. I'm finding my Android
devices really don't like to join ad-hoc networks, so the demo I was
planning for using a phone/tablet as the display for the ICS isn't as easy
to set up at Cafe Enchante as I'd hoped (A netbook/ICS combo works fine in
ad-hoc, and with x11vnc over ssh I can see the whole ICS desktop in a
window).
See you Sun.
Ken

On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 2:49 AM Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:

> Quoting maestro (maestro415 at gmail.com):
>
> > I have a box I am going to offer for use at the meeting Sunday
> > 2018.*09*.02 to do a distro build from 'scratch' meaning 'naked' hard
> > drive
>
> How much total RAM?
>
> Planning starts there.  Find out, and post the figure here.  (Get
> it from Power On Self-Test = POST and/or BIOS Setup screens.)
>
>
> > and possibly even reflashing BIOS
>
> To solve _what problem_, by the way?
>
> Earlier this month, you wanted a seminar during the then-upcoming BALUG
> meeting to learn how to do diagnosis.  I mused a bit on CABAL's mailing
> list about some (pithily worded) candidate principles of diagnosis.  One
> was:
>
> o  Make sure you are extremely clear on what the problem _is_.
>
> (If one is not clear on what the problem is, and why one is trying to
> address it, then maybe figuring out _that_ is a higher priority.)
>
> The others were:
>
> o  Observe all symptoms, and keep detailed records.
> o  Where possible, establish known-good and known-bad components.
> o  Where possible, use simple tools with reliable, known traits.
> o  Any candidate explanation must account for all the symptoms.
> o  Don't trust any candidate explanation you haven't tested.
> o  Distrust coincidence.
> o  Always remember that causes are only imputed, not an empirical reality.
> o  Be careful not to change more than one thing at a time.
> o  See if you can eliminate groups of possible causes, e.g.,
>    to test whether it's hardware or software.
> o  Lateral thinking often wins.
>
>
>
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>
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