9W2TPT

CUPS + HL-2140 (USB printer) + WZR-HP-G300NH + OpenWRT

2012-01-25T22:37:00.002+08:00

Why running CUPS on the router?

I've had a small home server running Ubuntu to server the whole house, but it seems I'm the only one using it fully. I had my Brother HL-2140 connected to the server but since I've some spare room left in the router, why not run the print server on the router?

But why CUPS?

The other option I've is running non-spooling server, p910nd, but I believe I should make full use of the free space/memory on the router. If the router overloaded, I'll consider using p910nd later on.

What needs to be done to get CUPS running?

You need a capable router, WZR-HP-G300NH is one. It has 32MB flash ROM and 64MB RAM. I'm currently running OpenWrt Backfire 10.03.1-RC6 on it.

To install CUPS, just use LUCI to install the cups package.

How about getting the HL-2140 USB printer to work along?

There is nothing special, just install the kmod-usb-printer package from LUCI, this will also install all the required packages such as kmod-usb-core, kmod-usb-ohci and kmod-usb2. If everything working, you'll see the following messages from dmesg or system log:

usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 9 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04F9 pid 0x0033

usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp

There should be new device available: /dev/lp0

That is it?

Not so fast young man, there are few more things need to be done especially spooling. Since we've pretty much limited space, adding external USB storage is recommended. I've few USB sticks that I don't really use. So, I got myself a 4-port hub. Stick the 4GB USB stick, format it with ext4 and mount it. To get the USB storage working, I've installed kmod-usb-storage (I believe this will install few other packages too), kmod-fs-ext4 and e2fsprogs (to prepare the USB stick). Format the stick and mount it to /mnt/share and using LUCI, configure to make this mounted during bootup time.

The standard configuration file for CUPS has the USB pointing to /dev/usb/lp0 but OpenWRT has instead created /dev/lp0. So, edit /etc/cups/printers.conf and change that. Otherwise CUPS won't find the USB printer.

Here is my /etc/cups/cupsd.conf configuration file:

AccessLog syslog

ErrorLog syslog

LogLevel info

PageLog syslog

TempDir /mnt/share/cups

RequestRoot /mnt/share/cups

SystemGroup lpadmin

# Allow remote access

Port 631

Listen /var/run/cups/cups.sock

# Share local printers on the local network.

Browsing On

BrowseOrder allow,deny

BrowseRemoteProtocols

BrowseAddress @LOCAL

BrowseLocalProtocols CUPS

DefaultAuthType Basic

DefaultEncryption IfRequested

WebInterface Yes



# Allow shared printing and remote administration...

Order allow,deny

Allow all





# Allow remote administration...

Order allow,deny

Allow all





AuthType Default

Require user @SYSTEM

# Allow remote access to the configuration files...

Order allow,deny

Allow all

NOTE: I realised that we're missing the < location > etc .. due to the code that I'm using the quote the above block, it is gone .. so, you know where to put those missing Location blocks.

Yes, I'm allowing everyone to get access to CUPS configuration interface. You're free to edit it for sure.

Make sure cupsd running, so, fire it up in LUCI under System -> Startup, enable it and click start.

What else need to be done?

I had a problem when trying to print from my Mac, I'm getting an authentication error. Checking the syslog, there is this error: "Returning IPP client-error-not-authorized for Print-Job" and from my Mac, I'm getting "Authentication Required to Print" error. I didn't realised that I did not click on the "Share" option for the printer. So, if you're getting this error.. check if the printer has "Share This Printer" option ticked.

That is all .. have fun to get your printer + CUPS running on your router.

Getting astrill vpn to work with OpenWRT (the hard way)!

2011-07-10T16:10:00.003+08:00

I've just subscribed to Astrill vpn service with a thought that they've openwrt scripting works as per the old twitter post that saying they're working on it. But to my dismay, they still doesn't have one that work. I created a support ticket as suggested by a twitter reply from Astrill support but it came back saying that they only support DD-WRT, so, no openwrt, fonera or tomato support at the moment.

The reason why I'm sticking with OpenWRT on my WZR-HP-G300NH router is, I've got the VLAN port & tagging to work on this router with the latest OpenWRT trunk. And reading many DD-WRT related notes, they still couldn't get the VLAN port/tagging to work on the router, hence, I'm stuck.

So, what did I do today? Searching for more information on the net on how to get the openvpn client to work on OpenWRT. If you know the way, surely, it is not hard.. but it took me few hours to figure out what I need to get this thing working.

So, what you need to get astrillvpn working on your openwrt router (in my case the WZR-HP-G300NH)?

Get the latest trunk release of OpenWRT (or probably this will work with the official release firmware too).
Install OpenVPN support, there is LUCI interface for OpenVPN configuration (at least on trunk release it has it).
Download the Astrill's openvpn certificates from the member page. It should be under Servers -> OpenVPN Certificate generator.
Unzip the certificates file, there will be load of them. If you're interested to use the Los Angeles server, there are five of them, choose one. There are 4 sections that will be of our interest from this configuration file. The OpenVPN and the 3 certificates.
Copy and paste the certificates and copied them into /etc/openvpn directory of your router. I created three standard files as per the example I found in the /etc/config/openvpn, they are:

/etc/openvpn/ca.crt (copy the content from Astrill openvpn file, anything between the ca and /ca.
/etc/openvpn/client.crt (anything between the cert and /cert)
/etc/openvpn/client.key (anything between the key and /key)

Done with the certificate, now, we need to configure the openvpn. Easiest is to edit it manually, here is the example I've:

config 'openvpn' 'astrill_west_cost' option 'client' '1' option 'dev' 'tun' option 'proto' 'udp' option 'resolv_retry' 'infinite' option 'nobind' '1' option 'persist_key' '1' option 'persist_tun' '1' option 'comp_lzo' '1' option 'verb' '3' option 'enable' '1' option 'ca' '/etc/openvpn/ca.crt' option 'cert' '/etc/openvpn/client.crt' option 'key' '/etc/openvpn/client.key' option 'remote' 'XX.XX.XX.XX 8292'
Replace the remote with the correct vpn server IP address and save the file.
I've no idea if this is required, but during my first hour of testing, I could use ping to ping out outside IP/sitename but I couldn't use my browser to browse anything. So, I've added the following into my /etc/firewall.user. To tell you the truth, I've copied this from somewhere. I know nut about firewall & iptable etc. I'm not good at all these, at all.
iptables -I FORWARD -o tun+ -j ACCEPT iptables -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o tun+ -j MASQUERADE
Go to your LUCI interface. You'll find your configuration shown as the following:
Click on the Start to start your vpn connection, and Stop to stop it.

I believe that should be all about it on how to get Astrill's openvpn to work with OpenWRT. Good luck!

TM/Unifi - Replacing DIR-615 for good

2011-05-19T20:46:00.001+08:00

Finally, managed to remove MicroTik Routeboard RB250G from my setup. The old WZR-HP-G300NH router finally get the much needed firmware upgrade to the latest OpenWRT Attitude Adjustment (r26915) bleeding edge release few days ago. Someone has managed to get his DIR-825 working here and found that DIR-825 uses the same switch as WZR-HP-G300NH. I managed to add the VLAN tagging and VLAN port assignment manually using the same configuration, this was with the older RC release of OpenWRT that I've flashed many moons back.

I've no idea if this will work for other non-Atheros chip, but if you've a wireless router with the Atheros chip, feel free to get into the bleeding edge. Installation was surely not a straight forward, the trunk/bleeding edge releases are usually without Luci (GUI) preinstalled. You've two choices, one is to download the system upgradable release (sysupgrade) and flash your router from the web interface. All you configuration files will be intact if you go by this route, this includes the WAN and LAN interfaces. What you need to do is just to install Luci from opkg. But for those who're 'stupid' enough to go the hard way (as I've chosen to do), you need to download the packages upfront into your local server and point the opkg configuration to retrive the packages from your local server instead.

How to get Unifi working? Well, in the new Luci interface (yes, the Luci interface is much nicer too compared to the stable release), there is a Switch tab under the Network configuration page. This is where you configure the VLAN tagging and VLAN to port assignment.

Here is the sample of the page (yup, this is not mine.. someone has done this before, why reinvent the wheel :)..

From the above screenshot, your IPTV should be connected to the first port while the rest of the ports are free to be used as normal. Have fun flashing and configuring your router and good luck.

Note: I'm not taking any credit on this .. all thanks to the guy who posted this in lowyat forum as per the link above.

SAP/ABAP - external debugging/breakpoint gone haywire

2011-02-14T21:19:00.000+08:00

Have you come across an external debugging gone haywire? You tried so many times trying to put in a external breakpoints but your BSP code never stop at your breakpoints? Somehow, I've experienced this too many times while debugging my BSP codes and found that the external debugging table gone haywire .. searching OSS note found a note with a way to remove these haywire breakpoints .. run RSBREAKPOINTS and remove whatever you've there. This should solve your problem..

Micro Four Thirds Camera - Lumix DMC-GF1

2011-02-11T21:35:00.001+08:00

Nothing much happening in my ham world, so a bit bored and trying to find something interesting to play with. That is why I ventured out looking for something new. I've been looking for a replacement P&S camera since my Sony DSC-P200 was 'nicked' by my daughter :) I was interested on m43 camera but I didn't decide on what to get until last week. For some reason, I didn't consider OLY-PL1 at all but I was eyeing for Sony NEX-5 instead. Not until last few days when I narrowed down my selection to either Lumix DMC-GF1 or GF2. This time, I wasn't interested on the dual lenses package but narrowed it down to only the 20mm pancake lens. I will get a zoom lens if needed but not for now, there are quite number of options if I want to go for zoom lens, more and more lens manufacturers are coming out with m43 lenses.. so .. until then, I believe the 20mm pancake lens is good enough for me. Well, only GF1 comes with a 20mm lens, so, I went ahead and got myself a GF1. I've read quite a lot of reviews on both GF1 and GF2, both have pros and cons and GF2 is just available for few hundreds MYR more than the GF1, actually MYR200 more for a new GF2 with 14mm pancake lens package.

The first thing when I got it, I couldn't believe that it is huge.. compared to my previous DSC-P200 and Nikon CoolPix 885 that I had before the Sony. And it is quite heavy too but it is well built. I don't think I regret of going for GF1 at all.

This is my first time using a fixed focal length lens on P&S and I need to get used to it first.. did my first photo shoot this morning and my son became the model .. :) Not satisfy with the outcome but I guess need to learn more stuff and get to know all the features that the GF1 could give. Some nice features there .. and some photo techniques I need to learn this time. No more P&S this time .. hope I can really make use of it and my daughter won't nick it this time.. she was drooling on it when she saw it last year .. :)

Working in APRS packet mode with ISS

2011-01-17T20:23:00.000+08:00

I'm just into this, working in APRS packet mode with ISS. Many of my friends who actively involved with APRS have worked with ISS before but for some reason, I've left behind. Not until few days ago when finally, my beacon is heard, repeated and s-gated from ISS to satellite APRS gateway and finally showed up in ariss.net. My setup won't allow me to communicate with ISS BBS system nor messaging since I'm 'misusing' aprx (meant to be as internet gateway for APRS) to send the beacons. I'm still looking for a terminal based software which can run on Linux to experiment further with the BBS and what nots.

Anyway, thanks to many of my friends, now I know that I could track the ISS using SatScape (Java) that could be run from any operating system (I'm running Mac OSX Leopard). And now I learnt that using WIDE1-1, WIDE2-1 while working with ISS is not advisable. Bob has suggested that we should use ARISS, APRSAT or WIDE as per his FAQ found here.

Here is the first time my callsign appeared in ariss.net:

Happy new year..

2011-01-09T21:12:00.000+08:00

Probably a belated one, 2011 is already on the 9th day today. Nothing much interesting happening I guess since last October since I didn't post anything. Anyway, listed are the latest things (happening or in my hands :).

I've bought a Kenwood TM-D710A, replacing my TM-V71A/OT2/Nuvi350 setup in my pickup.
TM-V71A is now my main 2m/70cm radio in my shack, I wasn't able to monitor or transmit on 2m/70cm bands for quite a while. I had the FT60R connected to the only base antenna that I've installed and it was connected to a TT4/APRS and acted as fill-in digipeater and TNC interface to my igate. The shack setup is now has TM-V71A, band B as data and band A is free for me to monitor any local conversation on the repeaters or simplex channels while not missing any data coming into the other band.
FT-60R is now temporarily retired until I can find a new task for it. Few of us were talking about satellites communication, probably now the right time to go forward with it. Found lot of hams are using FT-60R for it. Now, the raw materials are readily available.. need to find the 'urge' to start working on it :)
In the CarPC world, I've 'upgraded' my CarPC setup, it is running on solid state drive (SSD) now, after I had a harddrive failure, I believe upgrading to SSD is necessary. I'm trying to migrate the frontend from Centrafuse to RideRunner since RR has nicer support for my HDR (HD Radio).
Work-wise, I'm still stuck doing SAP development. But then again, I'm not going to venture out doing something else. I will eat, sleep, walk & program .. ABAP :) Office is busy doing an upgrade exercise, they're going to upgrade both the CRM & R/3 to the latest packages and I believe I'll be the last in the chain as usual :) Nothing unusual though ..

CarPC - updates

2010-10-03T22:29:00.002+08:00

It has been a while since I've wrote about my CarPC setup, up to now, it still not functioning 100% as what I wanted. Anyway, updates on what I've done so far:

1. Failed HD, for some reason, my HD failed on me, its pretty new HD, manufactured in March 2010. So, I've replaced the WD 250GB HD with Hitachi 320GB HD. The Hitachi should be faster since it is running on 7200rpm compared to WD's 3600rpm. I've sent the WD to Singapore and hopefully I'll get a replacement.

2. Added Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 to the setup. I don't have the photo right now, but it is epoxyed to the rearview mirror. Quality wise, not as good as expected, probably because I'm using xvid/mp4 format to save some space. Example of video captured during one of my drive around:

3. Not really a CarPC related but I've modified the EBY701 TFT monitor to do auto-switching for my rearview camera. The mod works as expected but the camera is a bit grainy .. probably because it uses CMOS technology but what do you expect from the camera bought from China in EBay :)

4. My DAB+ module just arrived, along with the DAB/FM antenna. I haven't fix this inside the car but during my test on my desktop PC, I found 15 channels are available but only five that have active broadcast. The FM part seems to be useless when tested on bench but I don't know will it be different when installed in the car. I need to fix the GTI like antenna on the roof first, bought the wrong one, a passive DAB but active FM antenna .. grr.. what to do.. will update with photos when installed.

5. My CarPC setup interferes with my ham rig especially on APRS frequency. I need to move my ham rig to the back of my pickup truck (behind rear passenger's bench/seat). This will hopefully helps reduce the interference and I could have APRS POI back on my Nuvi 350. I still couldn't get PC based APRS to work with the Malaysian map. Will try to make this thing working..

That's all for now.

TM HSBB/UNIFI & TM's D-Link DIR-615

2010-10-03T19:02:00.005+08:00

NOTE: If you're looking for a total replacement for the DIR-615, klseet might be able to help you out.. head out to his website found here.

I met 9W2DAD today at MARES monthly radio flea market and first thing he asked, how to get the router that comes with UNIFI to work with his setup. Frankly speaking, I've half-ly ditch the router the day I got my UNIFI and as of last week, I've ditch it totally from my setup. TM doesn't know much about the router that it supplies to UNIFI subscribers and D-Link doesn't want to know either because it contains a non-standard firmware in there. Up to now, I've only come across few routers that are capable of VLAN tagging and remote access but D-Link isn't in the list that is available publicly. Most probably TM has contracted a company to come up with VLAN capable firmware for the D-Link hardware.

Anyway, what can we do if we still want to use our own router with D-Link as supplied by TM? Easiest is, to make it as a network bridge between the UNIFI supplied BTU and your router. This has been detailed in rizvanrp/rizzy's website found here. The way to configure the D-Link as network/VLAN bridge can be found here. Just follow exactly as what written there and you'll be good.

But how about if you don't want the D-Link to be in the equation there, you've two choices:

1. Get yourself with a WIFI router which is supported by DD-WRT and follow rizvanrp's guide on how to directly connect your WIFI router with the BTU which can be found here. This will make your iptv useless because you won't be able to direct iptv traffic to the setup box. You can check if your router is DD-WRT ready by checking this website.

2. Get yourself a switch which supports VLAN tagging and VLAN port assignment, the cheapest way is to get a Microtik RB250GS. Thanks to klseet from Lowyat Forum who managed the first and last bulk buy for this unit from Singapore. The local Microtik dealer won't entertain us with the RB250GS but you can always buy it direct from the Singapore supplier, check the post in Lowyat forum on how to order yours directly here. Oh, sure, you need help in configuring the RB250GS? Well, rizvanrp to the rescue once more and the guide can be found here.

Now with the last option, you can find where you throw your D-Link box, put everything back there, and store it somewhere. Just in case you need to return in back to TM/UNIFI.

Anyway, as an update, up to now, I've one big problem once just before Eid when suddenly all my download were corrupted (big download of over 10MB size). I switched off everything and when I tried to switch them back on, my BTU just couldn't sync with the back end server. Since I wasn't around during the Eid, my UNIFI was down for the whole week but back again after the TM techie came and reset everything. I was told that somehow my BTU was configured wrongly, now, my suspect is that it was compromised either intentionally by the techie staff from the backend after I reported slower speed or probably some punks who wanted to have some fun after knowing that all BTU are left open with default user/password on UNIFI network. Well, I don't know and I don't want to accuse anyone.. I'm happy as long as my UNIFI works.

Here is my latest setup:

Sorry, a bit grainy, taken from my iPhone .. yes, I'm back to my trusty Linksys WRT-54GS (been running this router for 5 years already), it is now running latest DD-WRT firmware. The white box to right is the MicroTik RB250GS and underneath it is the Huawei's BTU.

Update: Some of you might be looking for the default user/password for your TM's D-Link DIR-615, there are two user levels set by TM:

1. Username: admin / Password: either left blank (no password) or "telekom" (w/o quotes) or your UNIFI userid spelled backward.

2. Username: operator / Password: "telekom" (w/o quotes) or your UNIFI userid spelled backward.

Please do check rizzy's website on securing your DIR-615 which can be found here.

UNIFI

2010-07-17T10:36:00.002+08:00

Sungai Buloh is one of the first few lucky areas which get the UNIFI after the trial run ended in June. And I believe I was among the first few who are 'lucky' to get it installed when it is made available from July 2010. The TM contractors had been working on the underground cables for quite sometime and I was excited the first time I saw..

Anyway, mine was finally installed on the 8th July, I've asked for earlier installation but they need to wait for the underground contractor to lay the final run from the nearest point to my house. Full installation took around 6 hours but I was told, some other places that don't require underground cabling, the installation team took much less .. 3 hours or less. Since I was on 4Mbps Screamyx Combo before, I guess I should go for the VIP5 which gives me 5Mbps down/up speed.

What works and what doesn't? Well, the speed is surely much better than the 4Mbps that I had before, the upload speed will sometime reach the max too .. at almost 5Mbps. But the router that comes with the package is a bit PITA. After a day, I suddenly felt that the speed just gone really really slow .. did a speedtest and surely, it was less than 1Mbps and stuttering .. switching off and back on the router seem to solve this problem. Searching the net and I guess I'm not the only one having problem with this D-Link DIR-615 router. I was told that probably the connection limit on the router is set too low but there is no way that we can increase this. After few searches, found the following guide on the net which allows me to replace the DIR-615 with my old WZR-HP-G300NH (running OpenWRT).

http://unifi.athena.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&Itemid=61

This however doesn't let me to get rid of the DIR-615 once and for all.. the IPTV requires VLAN tagging to work and my WZR-HP-G300NH doesn't support (or I don't know how to configure the port based VLAN tagging) the VLAN tagging feature. But for now, my connection to the net works just like before, no slow down .. doesn't need to reset the router every day..! I was told that TM will start charging for certain channels on IPTV starting this August .. probably I'll just go and box the DIR-615 along with the IPTV box .. they channels that they have there a bit pathetic, CBeebies, some news channels that nobody gonna watch and Fashion TVs .. who on earth are going to watch those Fashion channels.. duh.. surely, I'm not going to pay for those channels.. and I've Astro anyway..

For now .. I still satisfy with the speed, but hey, UNIFI still doesn't have many subscribers yet, probably when they subscriber base increases, I will surely sure beach ball spinning when browsing the net. And hopefully TM will put the cap on the download so those pirates sucking the movies from torrent will not be able to hog the bandwith all day long.

SAP - Debugging middleware - OSS Note 847964

2010-06-22T15:02:00.001+08:00

Just for my note and quick reference :)

Symptom

You want to debug the data exchange between CRM and R3 for service documents.

Reason and Prerequisites

Data is sent to the R3 system via the CRM Middleware. The data is sent asynchronously

Solution

Before you save the service document, enter /h and set a breakpoint in
the function module CRM_UPLOAD_BTMBDOC_START_FLOW
Go into the first method, CALL METHOD cl_smw_mflow=>process_outbound (line 33), and set ls_header-dbg_mode to X (line 37). With F8, you'll return to the service order.
Now click on the Doc_flow. You'll see an outbund BDOC with the date BUS_TRANS_MSG and D01.
(If you can't see the BDOC, set the user parameter CRM_USER_LEVEL to 9 in your user parameters).
Double click the BDOC.

Enter /h and set a breakpoint at one of the following function modules:
CRM_R3_ACCOUNTING_UPLOAD passes Controlling information for service contracts and service orders
CRM_R3_SERVICECONF_UPLOAD passes Controlling information for service confirmations
CRM_R3_SRV_RESERVATION_UPLOAD is called for material reservations
CRM_R3_SALESDOCUMENT_UPLOAD is called for sales relevant information (for example, if you have sales items in a service document)
CRM_R3_SERVICE_BILLING_UPLOAD for billing of service orders in R3 (only available with the SIE add-on).
Reprocess the BDOC.
Set a breakpoint at the line IF lv_synchronous_call IS INITIAL or IF gv_synchronous_call IS INITIAL. F8 brings you to this breakpoint.
Set lv_synchronous_call/gv_synchronous_call to X and with F5 you'll enter R3 debugging. Make sure that the RFC user used for communicating between the systems is defined as a dialog user.

SAP/SD - Sending order/delivery/invoice via email with body text

2010-06-17T10:59:00.005+08:00

This is surely not new, most of us ABAP developers will somehow come across this requirement in some of our project/implementation/support. For those who're on the latest SAP platform, probably you guys are lucky to have the IMPLICIT/EXPLICIT enhancement which you could do to enhance standard SAP function module. But for some of us who're still stuck with 620 or below, we're not so lucky.

Anyway, to share some of the thing that I've done to get the body text work:

You can't use body text in NACE, it just doesn't work that way. Tried it so many times and given up. SAP has a note which says that no matter what you do, it will not work for you :) SAP Note 753622.
Next best thing to do is, to go ahead and change the way the standard SAP send out email in the print program, create an OTF, and just after CLOSE_FORM, use SO_NEW_DOCUMENT_ATT_SEND_API1 or BCS to send the email out. For me, this is too much too.
Probably the best option, do this in FORM_OPEN subroutine in the print program. This is what I've done and it works. Copy the standard RVADOPF0 into customer namespace and replace this in FROM_OPEN subroutine. Add the following code just after the check for retcode eq 0. Create a standard text using SO10 .. text name will be your (output type)_BODY_TEXT.

Here is the code that I've:

DATA: lines_tab LIKE tline OCCURS 0 WITH HEADER LINE,

obj_name LIKE thead-tdname,

email_body_text TYPE TABLE OF soli,

email_line TYPE soli.

CONCATENATE nast-kschl '_BODY_TEXT' INTO obj_name.

CALL FUNCTION 'READ_TEXT'

EXPORTING

id = 'ST'

language = nast-spras

name = obj_name

object = 'TEXT'

TABLES

lines = lines_tab

EXCEPTIONS

id = 1

language = 2

name = 3

not_found = 4

object = 5

reference_check = 6

wrong_access_to_archive = 7

OTHERS = 8.

LOOP AT lines_tab.

email_line = lines_tab-tdline.

APPEND email_line TO email_body_text.

ENDLOOP.

IF email_body_text[] IS NOT INITIAL.

swc_object_from_persistent lvs_recipient recipient.

swc_clear_container container.

swc_set_element container 'NoteText' email_body_text.

swc_call_method recipient 'AddNote' container.

swc_object_to_persistent recipient lvs_recipient.

ENDIF.

CarPC for my Triton

2010-05-21T16:36:00.002+08:00

When I took a delivery of my Triton 2.5DID, one thing that cross my mind was to have a CarPC installed. It was back in 2007 but too many things happening and I didn't do anything until few weeks back when I've got nothing to play around with.

Took me months to decide what I wanted for my CarPC. I just don't want to have it half done .. so, a week ago, I decided to get a complete unit from one vendor. One thing, this CarPC stuff are mainly done in US and Europe, there are few here in Malaysia and many of them either ordered their unit from US or using mini ITX casing with inverter. One that I worried when deciding either to go for Dell Zino or Acer Revo is the power unit. There is only one solution for that which is getting a carnetix power supply, this has the auto powerup/shutdown and whole lot more. But I decided to go for a purpose-built CarPC from mo-co-so.com, from ebay of all places!!

The mo-co-so unit that I bought has Zotac Ionitx-F-E (though in the website and ebay listing, they said it comes with Ionitx-D-E). It has 2GB RAM, 250GB notebook HD, bluetooth and that about the extras coming with the unit (other than the stock Zotac motherboard that it). Here are the pics:

I decided to go for the Liliput EBY701 based on the input from another guy who've his carpc up and running in his triton too.. his link can be found here.

On the audio, my current Kenwood KDC-MP4033S has CD-changer interface which with some specialised cable, it could also turn the AUX-Input. Searching the net led me to CAC1X and for those who doesn't want to spend money and can source an 13-pin DIN male, then, there is easy way .. what you need to do is to have a 10k resistor between pin 3 & 9, pin 6 is common ground and pin 8 & 12 go to left and right into a stereo plug.

Anyway, what is running on this carpc at the moment are: Centrafuse 3.1 running on Win XP SP3, Garmin Mobile PC with malfreemaps. I've a leftover bluetooth/USB GPS (iBlue 747) from my abandoned tracking project and this works well with GPSGate. I need to get AGWTracker working so I could connect the gps input to my radio and out to the APRS world. This is not a priority at the moment. I'm also waiting for my OBDII interface ordered from ebay to arrive.

Video I made:

And here some of the pics during the installation:

WZR-HP-G300NH, OpenWRT & Huawei E160E

2010-05-04T08:29:00.001+08:00

Finally, the latest release of OpenWRT 10.03 (codenamed BackFire) is out and it supports the WZR-HP-G300NH. Didn't take long until your truly take a plunge and flash his router with this latest firmware. Actually, the firmware supported the router since it's development release but since I'm not really into testing beta stuff, I've been patiently waiting for it to be available.. officially that it.

What the first thing I tried to do .. ? You guess it right, if you've followed my blog before .. trying to get APRS4R running on it but excitement overcomes the most basic thing I should do .. yes, RTFM .. APRS4R doesn't have support for other than mipsel and x86. So, what should I do with this mega router (64MB RAM with over 65% left after all the basic stuff loaded and over 32MB flash with over 90% empty)? One thing for sure, from my last week experience, where screamyx was so damn slow due to some international link was brought down for maintenance .. yes, a backup 3G broadband and I want this to be available without tinkering with my network setup everytime this thing happens. So, after thinking for few days .. and saw somebody wanted to let go his 3G USB dongle (Huawei E160E) for RM120, didn't think that long and my wallet had flattened a bit..

What do I need to get this E160E running? Tried it many times, loading kmod-usb-ohci and kmod-usb-uhci alongside the requirement to get USB working on Linux but no go.. just to realise that this router has USB2 .. so .. added kmod-usb2 got it going.. the E160E was recognised only after I added the following line into /etc/modules.d/60-usb-serial:

usbserial vendor=0x12d1 product=0x1003 maxSize=4096

What else needed, as per the documentation, comgt is required too, this has script to do the call-out for the 3G.

And for anyone wanted to do the same thing, the following guide is really helpful (at least for me and many others) in getting things going:

http://josefsson.org/openwrt/dongle.html

9W2FTW ..

2010-03-30T13:53:00.001+08:00

Finally, eventhough Asma is still waiting for her official 'AA', unofficially, she has taken the 9W2FTW (FOR THE WIN!) callsign as per SKMM's database. She has been checking almost daily for the letter from SKMM. I guess we probably need to pay the Shah Alam office a visit somehow to get the 'AA'..

Congratulations, Asma!

Crank up - tilt-over antenna mast

2010-03-03T18:23:00.003+08:00

After waiting for few months, finally, the guy who I paid to fabricate my antenna mast made a call few days ago saying that they're ready now. What a relief, after paying quite a sum for a deposit in November last year, at least now I can see how it going to look like.

For now, they've done the foundation/base for the mast. Need to wait for a day or two for the concrete to fully dry up before they could put up the mast's base. Some photos as of today:

As of 08/03/10:

BTW, the design was taken from John Tait's website which could be found here:

Crank-up Tilt-over Tower

Update as of 05/04/2010:

WL-500G as an APRS igate

2010-02-03T09:41:00.012+08:00

Last week, 9W2DIE passed his Asus WL-500G to me with the hope that I could convert it as an APRS igate. This router has a single USB port which could take most USB devices connected to it, surely, with the correct firmware and kernel modules loaded. After few days, at last, I managed get it to work.. so what do we need to give this old router a new life?

1. X-WRT/OpenWRT 8.09 or later firmware, 2.4 kernel is good enough (openwrt-brcm-2.4-squashfs.trx)
2. PL2303 USB-Serial converter (Belkin or FTDI should work fine too.. but not CH314 which we need kernel 2.6 for it)
3. Load of patience

Loading the x-wrt/openwrt firmware is a straight forward by following this guide. We need to use tftp though, I've no idea if we could upgrade the stock firmware with the x-wrt one using the web interface, but no harm trying.

After we've successfully uploaded the new firmware, we need to add few extra stuffs to make the USB works. Go to web interface, under System->Packages, add usb-ohci, usb-serial and the correct kernel module for the USB-Serial converter .. since I was using PL2303, so the usb-serial-pl2303 is the right module to be installed. Attaching the USB-Serial converter should load the pl2303 kernel module automatically.

The rest of the setup should be the same as the one found here.

No hardware modification needed for this router, not like the Linksys WRT54G series. Any TNC which supports KISS mode should work just fine. I've tested the Byonic's TinyTrak4 and probably will try Argent Data's OT1+ this weekend (if we've another TT).

As of now, we've successfully converted Linksys WRT54GL and WL-500G for iGate usage. The good thing about using the router is, it can still be your normal wireless router + it can acts as your igate too. Killing two birds with one stone .. and it saves your electricity bill too ..

NOTE: Migrate to aprx and your headache with aprs4r + ruby = not enough memory will be a history. As per Eric comment below, you could run aprx on most routers that can run openwrt and have USB port. Head up to the following website where you could download the compiled firmwares with aprx 2.01 included:

http://www.kissoz.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=57

Nothing much to write but something to share..

2010-01-29T11:54:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, someone named Fred in tracker2 mailing list sent this link to the list .. it is an interview done by revision3/hak5 online with N4PAT on APRS.

How to build APRS on the cheap - Video

Enjoy!!

New gadgets .. before the year end comes ..

2009-12-30T09:42:00.003+08:00

Bought two new gadgets, an iPhone to replace my aging HTC Touch and WZR-HP-300NH draft-N router ... and guess what, both are below my expectation. Before buying the iPhone, I was contemplating on going for HTC Android based phones but after looking at the pros & cons and the packages given by the two telcos (HTC Hero on Celcom & iPhone on Maxis), I went for the iPhone. I guess it will take sometime for me to get used to the iPhone.. been using stylus all these time and now .. I need to use my fingers to enter texts etc. I wonder those who're using the iPhone to browse the net, how on earth could they select a link which close together w/o using stylus. One other thing .. unlucky me, I got the later version of iPhone which come with iBoot 359.3.2 and I couldn't use Pwnage since Apple has fixed the firmware. Grrr.. I could however blackra1n it .. but I'll let it stays virgin for the time being.

The other gadget which is below my expectation is the WZR-HP-300NH router. I was expecting that the HP which stands for High Power could solve my problem getting the signal up to the 3rd floor of the house .. but it just failed. I couldn't see it from my son's PC which could see the WHRG125 it replaces. I should've done my research for buying this .. no 3rd party firmware is available at the moment and none in the working either. Oh well...

First few contacts on 6 Meter ..

2009-12-20T15:56:00.005+08:00

Couldn't hold my excitement .. I've tried few times working on 6 meter, most of the time by listening to 50.110 but most of the time, it returned with just load of noise .. nothing much excitement coming from 6 meter band .. so I thought until I call on CQ this afternoon .. did my call at 3:30PM MYT and thanks to the following VK6 stations for the contact:

VK6KXW (Peter) - 55 to 57

VK6ADI (Barrie) - 53 QSB

VK6JJ (John) - 42 and lost you on your last transmission

VK6IA (Andrew) - 53

VK6IQ (Glen) - 55

Thanks all for the contact, you guys really made my day today. Sorry if I missed to wish all of you Merry Christmas & Happy New Year ..

Using Ubuntu Karmic Koala for remote logging

2009-12-15T09:09:00.008+08:00

I've few routers running DD-WRT and OpenWRT in my house, one acting as the main router, another one as AP only and the last one running APRS4R package to gate traffics from APRS/RF to APRS-IS and vice-versa. These routers are running on limited memory and I do need to sometime check the log when some of them suddenly stop working, so logging into the router itself is kind of useless (it will be gone when I restart the router) and added to the problem.

Since I've Ubuntu Karmic Koala running on my LHS, this is the best time to use it fully. One thing that I'm not so sure is, how to enable remote logging. I had Debian Lenny running on my Buffalo LinkStation II before and I didn't need to do anything fancy.. it works out of the box.. but it doesn't seem to be with my current LHS. I searched around the net with even more confusion .. but finally, I found a discussion about the logging system on Karmic .. it is no longer using syslogd but rsyslogd now. Yes, that is it .. so, I went to look for a guide on how to enable remote logging via rsyslogd and found this document:

www.ubuntu.com/system/files/CentralLogging-v4-20090901-03.pdf

Remove the comments for UDP/TCP syslog receptions from /etc/rsyslog.conf and rerun the rsyslog and this seems to solve this problem.

New mailing list for APRS users in Malaysia

2009-12-13T14:19:00.004+08:00

It seems that the number of APRS users in Malaysia has been increasing steadily of late and as such, having a mailing list to discuss issues and suggestions to make APRS even better assimilated within the amateur radio operators is the best way. Currently, APRS is mainly concentrated in KL, Penang, JB and Kota Kinabalu with some others are coming up with the infra and slowly adapting.

From my past few weeks experience going around Peninsular Malaysia, it seems that the setup in Penang is more toward having one way igate, with JB following suite but I believe there is at least one working digipeater somewhere in Tampoi. Hopefully with this new mailing list, we could share our knowledge locally and discuss what the best to improve the adaptation of APRS among Malaysian radio amateur operators.

For those who're interested, our mailing list is: myaprs @ yahoogroups.com.

What things running on my LHS?

2009-11-20T07:53:00.005+08:00

It has been more than three weeks since I built my own headless Linux Home Server out of Intel Atom processor & motherboard running Ubuntu 9.10 server edition. I've been adding new things as I go along, getting more servers running to max out and justify me running it as it is .. a server. So, what've been running now?

1. samba - network storage for all PCs in the house (5 PCs running WinXP & 1 MBP on Snow Leopard)
2. aprs4r - APRS igate/digipeater to pass packets to and from aprs-is (amateur radio)
3. torrentflux b4rt - filesharing stuff
4. cups - sharing a single HL2140 laser printer for the whole house
5. firefly - streaming media files to iTunes media player
6. mediatomb - streaming media files to PS3

I think the LHS is still "under utilised" and thinking of adding more as time goes. For now, it is worth it to replace my old Buffalo LS2 to a full-fledge Linux Home Server.

C200 windscreen wiper problem

2009-11-18T20:38:00.009+08:00

My wife came back today with one thing, her C200's windscreen wiper got stuck to the windscreen's trim, passenger side. Searching on the net and found a similar problem here:

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=42678

Will try the following DIY, else .. Mill.Merz I should go! :)

http://202tech.mkosonen.com/howto/wiper.html

Update 1: Opened up the bonet, disassembled the wiper assembly, cleaned up everything inside .. no juice .. WD40 couldn't help either.

Update 2: Went to Hakitrade/Puchong and got myself the wiper assembly minus the motor.

Update 3: DIY aborted, I couldn't fit the motor to the arm assembly that I bought second from Hakitrade. I need to go back and get the one that is compatible.. it seems that though both having the same part number, mine is the newer one and has six holes instead of three..

Update 4: OK, got a replacement .. but I will not go to Hakitrade/Puchong anymore. They overcharged me, went to Kemuning one and his younger brother charged RM120 less than the one at Puchong. Put back everything together in less than 30 minutes. Hopefully won't break again..

Update 5: When I was at Hakitrade/Kemuning, the assistant mishandle the wiper assembly and it didn't work as what it should.. totally the opposite .. but the boss fixed it in no time, he disassembled the body.. reposition the inside gears and all went well.. so, probably if you've the same problem .. open it up and try reposition the gears inside the body before you getting a replacement.

CRM: Copying attachments from service ticket to follow up document

2009-11-17T17:57:00.005+08:00

I've got another request which I hope will be easy to implement. Copying all attachments from a service ticket to a follow up document. Hint: CL_CRM_DOCUMENTS.

To get all attachments:

CL_CRM_DOCUMENTS=>GET_INFO
Supply BUSINESS_OBJECT (instid = order's GUID, typeid = order's object_type, catid = 'BO'

To copy to another business object:

CL_CRM_DOCUMENTS=>COPY
Supply BUSINESS_OBJECT & NEW_BUSINESS_OBJECT

It seems that we don't need to use GET_INFO to be able to use the COPY function to copy all documents from the original service ticket to the follow up document. This has yet to be proven by me.. I'll implement it tomorrow and update this blog again.

Update 1: The COPY method is spot on! No further processing needs to be done.