manually upgrade x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers

Upgrade kernel to v2.6.27-rc5, x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers have not support so late kernel,

So let's upgrade it manually:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/42782/

Index: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h
===================================================================
--- NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0.orig/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h
+++ NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0/usr/src/nv/nv-linux.h
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@


#if !defined(KERNEL_2_4)
#include <linux/sched.h>            /* suser(), capable() replacement   */
+#include <linux/pid.h>              /* for find_pid  */
#include <linux/moduleparam.h>      /* module_param()                   */
#include <linux/smp_lock.h>         /* kernel_locked                    */
#include <asm/tlbflush.h>           /* flush_tlb(), flush_tlb_all()     */

@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@
#endif

#include <linux/spinlock.h>
-#include <asm/semaphore.h>
+#include <linux/semaphore.h>
#include <linux/completion.h>
#include <linux/highmem.h>


Index: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0/usr/src/nv/os-interface.c
===================================================================
--- NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0.orig/usr/src/nv/os-interface.c
+++ NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0/usr/src/nv/os-interface.c
@@ -704,7 +704,7 @@ RM_STATUS NV_API_CALL os_kill_process(
    U032 sig
)
{
-    return kill_proc(pid, sig, 1) ? RM_ERR_OPERATING_SYSTEM : RM_OK;
+    return kill_pid(find_vpid(pid), sig, 1) ? RM_ERR_OPERATING_SYSTEM : RM_OK;

}

/*******************************************************************************/

this patch also reflects some changes in 2.6.27:
1. asm/semaphore.h => linux/semaphore.h stands a common implementation in all arch;
2. kill_proc => kill_pid

But there's still a problem haven't been resolved, it reports license issues in modpost phase:
1. kill_pid is exported with EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL, can be used only by GPL code;
2. nvidia.ko is licensed with "NVIDIA", not GPL;

# cd /var/tmp/portage/x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-173.14.12/work/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg0/usr/src/nv/

# make -C /usr/src/linux-2.6.27-rc5/ M=$PWD modules

the core functionality of nvidia.ko is hidden in nv-kernel.o, that's completely binary, there's no corespoding nv-kernel.c, results of `strings` told that the license is declared in this binary file;

the last killer approach is hexeditor! use it to hexedit the string to "GPL\0", compiling well, insmod well, all runs OK!

Hexediting is an ugly hack, hope my next machine can run toally under free operating system, no hidden binary anymore!

monitor the system totally with dstat

You must have ever monitored the system with different tools:

1. "vmstat 2" to get a total system "proc,mem,swap,io,sys,cpu" load;
2. "iostat 2" to get all block devices with seperated I/O bandwidth data;
3. "ifstat 2" to get different network interfaces network activity;
4. "top" to get the most CPU-consuming processes;

Now you can do all these things within dstat:

gektop@tux ~ 0 $ dstat -M proc,cpu,mem,sys,page,net,disk,topcpu,topmem,topio,topbio 5
---procs--- ----total-cpu-usage---- ------memory-usage----- ---system-- ---paging-- -net/total- -dsk/total- -most-expensive- -most-expensive- ----most-expensive---- ----most-expensive----
run blk new|usr sys idl wai hiq siq| used  buff  cach  free| int   csw |  in   out | recv  send| read  writ|  cpu process   | memory process |     i/o process      |  block i/o process
0   0   6| 39   9  37  14   0   1| 272M   25M  193M   12M| 760  2178 |   0    21B|   0     0 |5577k 1645k|firefox       10|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs-  10M:8223k|mount.ntfs-2699k: 736k
3   0   8| 93   6   0   0   0   1| 252M   25M  189M   37M| 546   980 |   0     0 |3197B  564B| 109k  675k|firefox       15|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs- 771k:3056B|pdflush       0 :  82k
3   0  71| 77  16   0   7   0   1| 257M   26M  191M   29M| 548  1247 |   0     0 |5445B  689B| 230k  544k|firefox       13|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs- 771k:3056B|pdflush       0 :  94k
2   0  24| 85  14   0   1   0   0| 251M   26M  192M   33M| 550  1046 |   0     0 |1173B  418B|  50k  344k|firefox       12|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs- 771k:3056B|pdflush       0 :  85k
2   0  25| 85  12   0   2   0   0| 275M   26M  194M 8044k| 517  1024 |   0     0 |1206B  448B| 104k  642k|cc1           22|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs- 771k:3056B|pdflush       0 :  47k
2   0   9| 88   9   0   2   0   1| 278M   26M  193M 5568k| 558  1056 |   0     0 |1383B  615B| 110k  451k|cc1           26|firefox     125M|mount.ntfs- 771k:3056B|pdflush       0 :  51k

The meanings of "proc,cpu,mem,sys,page,net,disk,topcpu,topmem,topio,topbio" is obvious, it speaks for itself, the design of dstat is all modular, you can use many other modules than this:

$ (cd /usr/share/dstat/; ls *.py)
dstat_battery.py    dstat_gpfs.py           dstat_mysql5_com.py   dstat_mysql_keys.py  dstat_postfix.py   dstat_thermal.py  dstat_topoom.py  dstat_vzcpu.py
dstat_cpufreq.py    dstat_helloworld.py     dstat_mysql5_conn.py  dstat_nfs3op.py      dstat.py           dstat_topbio.py   dstat_utmp.py    dstat_vzubc.py
dstat_dbus.py       dstat_innodb_buffer.py  dstat_mysql5_io.py    dstat_nfs3.py        dstat_rpcd.py      dstat_topcpu.py   dstat_vmkhba.py  dstat_wifi.py
dstat_freespace.py  dstat_innodb_io.py      dstat_mysql5_keys.py  dstat_nfsd3op.py     dstat_rpc.py       dstat_topio.py    dstat_vmkint.py
dstat_gpfsop.py     dstat_innodb_ops.py     dstat_mysql_io.py     dstat_nfsd3.py       dstat_sendmail.py  dstat_topmem.py   dstat_vmknic.py

So with "dstat -M battery 5", you can get the most battery consuming components when hardware supports ACPI.

Its module is just a simple py file with a simple class derived from dstat, so if there's no one fit for you, you can write your own dstat module.

Note: only CLI-based utils discussed here, I know there are many GUI-based or graph-generating tools can do better graphics, but on ther server side, "

Simple is better than complex.
"

(setq cscope-do-not-update-database t)

if you use the kernel kbuild system `make mrproper cscope` with its cscope databases index files, use this to tell cscope not to update every time:

(setq cscope-do-not-update-database t)

some most useful bash features

edit-and-execute-command (C-xC-e)
Invoke an editor on the current command line, and execute the result as shell com‐
mands. Bash attempts to invoke $FCEDIT, $EDITOR, and emacs as the editor, in that
order.

insert-completions (M-*)
Insert all completions of the text before point that would have been generated by pos‐
sible-completions.

complete-into-braces (M-{)
Perform filename completion and insert the list of possible completions enclosed
within braces so the list is available to the shell (see Brace Expansion above).

insert-comment (M-#)
Without a numeric argument, the value of the readline comment-begin variable is
inserted at the beginning of the current line. If a numeric argument is supplied,
this command acts as a toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not
match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, otherwise the characters in
comment-begin are deleted from the beginning of the line. In either case, the line is
accepted as if a newline had been typed. The default value of comment-begin causes
this command to make the current line a shell comment. If a numeric argument causes
the comment character to be removed, the line will be executed by the shell.

Keyboard Macros
start-kbd-macro (C-x ()
Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro.
end-kbd-macro (C-x ))
Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro and store the defini‐
tion.
call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e)
Re-execute the last keyboard macro defined, by making the characters in the macro
appear as if typed at the keyboard.

display-shell-version (C-x C-v)
Display version information about the current instance of bash.