David Connolly

Legacy Direct 3D Frame Rate Limiter

2020-07-23T22:53:00.000+01:00

i've been quietly captured by some nostalgia this past year.

that's OK. Maybe...

but, GPUs even old ones are now really excellent.
Playing Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire on an old NVIDIA
Quadro FX 1000 (itself an under-clocked version of the Geforce FX 5800)
is just impossible, even with VSYNC @60FPS.

even the damn intro audio to missions ends early!

normally, on a modern computer, its easy to set a frame cap
within either the NVIDIA Profile Inspector or
AMD's excellent Catalyst panel.

however, Windows 98 SE drivers have no such features,
to fix this, I decided to amend a through Direct X wrapper library
to support preventing Direct 3D's ::EndScene function
(upto DX7) from returning earlier than 33.3 ms:

https://github.com/slartibardfast/dxfpscap/releases/tag/v1.0-release.20200719

the wrapper on win32 systems hooks though ddraw.dll
in the path of the game to be capped at @30fps, but in
Windows 9x, you'll have to hex edit the game exe to replace
DDRAW.dll references with 30CAP.dll as it loads the
C:\windows\system32\ddraw.dll always!

if anyone knows how to override the linker in Windows 9x
properly please do leave a comment or drop me an email!

anyway, none of this nostalgia matters, we can never return.

VMWare & Windows 8.1's Modern UI with Retina Display

2014-08-02T15:37:00.000+01:00

Windows 8.1 features automatic scaling based on the physical dimensions your display.
However, in a virtual machine it is typical for device not to report any EDID information at all.

This results in the automatic scaling producing tiny ~96dpi results, even when 200% scaling is turned on for traditional Windows content. Indeed, setting the 'Larger' option for metro still suffers from being too small relative to other content.

Luckily, it is still possible to provide Windows with an EDID override in the registry.
The EDID information of any Retina Class display will work just fine.

1. Dump the raw EDID file, from Mac OS X :

ioreg -l | grep IODisplayEDID | awk '{print $9}' | sed 's/[^0-9a-f]//g' | perl -ne 's/([0-9a-f]{2})/print chr hex $1/gie' > ~/edid.dat

2. Install MonInfo to your Windows VM:

http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm

3. Open edid.dat in MonInfo (File -> Open).

This will display summary information about the device.

4. Create an .inf in MonInfo (File -> Create .Inf)

5. Boot Windows 8.1 in 'Disable Driver Signing Enforcement' mode

Win-C to bring up Charms Bar.
Click (Settings -> Change PC Settings)
Click (Update & Recovery -> Recovery -> Advanced Setup -> Restart Now)
Click (Troubleshoot -> Startup Settings -> Restart)
Press 7 (Disable Driver Signing Enforcement)

6. Change from 'non-pnp monitor' to monitor.inf edid override.

Right Click on the 'Start Menu' button
Click on the 'Device Manager'
Click on 'Monitors'
Right Click on 'non-php monitor'
Click 'Update Driver Software...'
Click 'Browse My Computer for Driver Software'
Click 'Let my pick from a list of device drivers on my computer'
Click 'Have disk'
Navigate to the monitor.inf
Click 'OK' and 'Next' and 'Install this driver software anyway'
Reboot

Please enjoy Modern UI scaled correctly for a retina display!

P.S. Hey VMWare why not include EDID info in your virtual display drivers?
Take a stand, fight back against the tedium of the above instructions!

Raspberry Pi Wifi Access Point (L2 Bridge Mode)

2013-06-16T15:33:00.002+01:00

A recent guide to using the Raspberry Pi as a Wifi Access Point focused on providing a routed network from the Pi itself. In most home network settings, this introduces a Double-NAT which is highly undesirable.

However, a WiFi access point is usually a layer 2 bridge. Thankfully, the built-in drivers for the RaLink RT5370 usb dongle supports bridging with the following command:

iw phy phy0 interface add moni0 type managed 4addr on

After running this command, all normal brctl commands work with the wlan0 device, and a Pi can be configured as a real layer 2 bridging access point!

The following is an example configuration suitable for Rasbian. HostAP should be configured as per the eLinux guide. No DHCP or Firewall configuration is required.

Pre-requisites:
apt-get install bridge-utils hostapd

/etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
pre-up ifconfig $IFACE up
post-down ifconfig $IFACE down
auto br0
iface br0 inet dhcp
bridge_ports eth0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
pre-up ifconfig $IFACE up && iw phy phy0 interface add moni0 type managed 4addr on
post-up (sleep 60 && brctl addif br0 wlan0) &

Note, the command highlighted in red is delaying adding wlan0 to the bridge until it is ready.

/etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
interface=wlan0
driver=nl80211
country_code=IE
ieee80211d=1
ssid=PiAP
hw_mode=n
channel=6
wme_enabled=1
ieee80211n=1
ht_capab=[SMPS-STATIC][RX-STBC1]
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
wpa=2
wpa_passphrase=PiAP2013
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=TKIP CCMP
rsn_pairwise=TKIP CCMP

Add to /etc/sysctl.conf
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1

* Updated to enable 802.11n mode.

It's not Christmas until...

2010-12-09T14:59:00.003+00:00

... the Pudding has been made!

Below is a recipe given to me by my Grandmother for truly amazing Christmas Pudding. The units are converted from UK Imperial for authentic 1950s charm. Quantities may be multiplied for additional puddings, and remember it is an art not a science.

I recommend eating generous portions microwaved with Brandy Butter or a 50/50 mix of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie & Cherry Garcia.

Ingredients:
284g Breadcrumbs (10oz)
113g Flour (4oz)
227g Butter (8oz)
907g "Fruit" (a mix of Rasins and Sultana) (2lb)
57g Orange Peel (2oz)
57g Cherrys (2oz)
227g Brown Sugar (8oz)
1 Teaspoon of "Mixed Spice"
1 Teaspoon of grated nutmeg (careful now!)
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon of Treacle
1 Teaspoon of Salt
4 Eggs
1 Bottle of Stout (For my money a bottle of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout @ 7.5% ABV, but it must be old style bottled stout and not draught style cans with widgets!)
1 Teaspoon of Brandy
1 Teaspoon of Whiskey
1 (Flat) Teaspoon of Bread soda
100ml of Milk

Instructions
Grate Bread into a large bowl. Mix in Butter then add Spice, Cinnamon and Sugar.
Then clean the "Fruit" and cut cherries into quarters. Mix "Fruit", Cherries and Orange Peel together into a separate bowl. Add flour to this bowl, then introduce the Stout, Whiskey, Brandy and freshly beaten Eggs. Stir the mixture and when the consistency of fruit is even introduce mix to the large bowl, stirring vigorously.

Leave over night in a cool place.

The next day, add bread soda disolved in milk. Place mix in a greased bowl to 2/3s of its capacity.
Make the bowl watertight with folded grease proof paper, or use a bowl with a sealed lid.

There are two different cooking methods:
Oven
Fill an oven tray, 2/3 with water, and place bowl on it, seal completely with tin foil. The goal is to allow steam to cook the pudding. Cook for 6 to 8 hours at a low heat, checking periodically if the water needs to be topped up as the pudding must never be roasted or baked.

Hob
Fill a deep saucepan to 1/4 with water. Place a small (side) plate upside down on the base of the saucepan's interior. Then place the bowl on top of the plate, carefully ensuring that the bowl clears the waterline. Tightly fit lid as the goal is to allow steam to cook the pudding. Cook for 6 hours on a simmer or light boil.

Is my pudding cooked?
Gently pierce the pudding with a kitchen knife, and withdraw, if the knife is clean the pudding is cooked. Failing that, cook for a further hour and recheck.

Allow it to cool before eating!

Store airtight in a cool dark place, and enjoy for up to a month.

Ho! Ho! Ho! and a Barrel of Rum!

XP 2010 Poster

2010-06-02T02:33:00.007+01:00

Links for my poster at XP 2010

Extended Abstract - See Proceedings! (DOI to follow)

Poster A0 - http://bit.ly/bpHMUX

Video Demo - http://bit.ly/8XDn0c

Survey - http://bit.ly/cxN11g

Samsung NC10 & Windows 7: WDDM 1.0 with 1024x768, 1152x864

2009-11-04T17:54:00.003+00:00

A quick report on Windows 7 with the Samsung NC10, it is now officially supported!

As an unexpected bonus Samsung's Easy Resolution Manager has been updated to work with the onboard intel graphic's Windows Vista/7 WDDM 1.0 driver. This combo supports both Aero effects and stretched 1024x768 or 1152x864 on the devices 1024x600 panel. Prior to this update, a downgrade to the old non-wddm drivers was required, which disabled Aero effects.

So, eh enjoy Civ4 in 15fps jerky mode or the occasional Eclipse session!

On Samsung's support site look for:
Internal_VGA_Intel_8.15.10.1912.zip
Easy_Display_Manager_Win7_3.0.3.5.zip

PunkGraphicStream 0.7

2009-10-30T22:26:00.008+00:00

A significant update to PunkGraphicStream (my Advanced Substation Alpha to blu-ray subtitle encoder) has been released, it can now render large subtitles as multi-part bitmaps. It also features a newer, maintained, renderer from here.

I don't recommend large subtitles with animations or fades and as always any fades/animations should be carefully tested on devices as it is easy to go over their limits.

MacOSX & Windows builds are available from http://code.google.com/p/punkgraphicstream/downloads/list

Enjoy!

Kaku - Kanji stroke order lookup

2009-04-11T19:40:00.000+01:00

I've written a tiny webapp, Kaku, that displays the kanji stroke order using Tim Eyre's KanjiStrokeOrders font.

It is mainly intended for use on devices were you can't (easily) select typefaces or sizes, such as my new Nokia 5800.

PunkGraphicStream

2008-12-27T21:35:00.002+00:00

Finally got around to finishing an Advanced SubStationAlpha to blu-ray/AVCHD .sup file converter.

No graphical user interface or non-mac builds yet but the results are pretty on a Playstation 3 using TsMuxer to mux the blu-ray compatible structure (in darwine).

Project is here, PunkGraphicStream.

Enjoy!

ECBS 08 - "Tag  Oriented  Agile  Requirements  Identiﬁcation"

2008-03-31T20:32:00.010+01:00

I attended the 15th IEEE International Conference on Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS 08) and displayed a poster entitled "Tag  Oriented  Agile  Requirements  Identiﬁcation" that I co-authored with my supervisor Frank Keenan and Brendan Ryder.

The document is available on the IEEE-CS digital library with DOI 10.1109/ECBS.2008.26. Further here is the A0 Sized poster, as displayed on the day.

Thanks very much to all those who provided feedback!

Client HTTPS traffic with OpenVPN and redirect-gateway

2007-07-12T12:24:00.000+01:00

Recently I set up a simple enough vpn with a gentoo/xenplanet hosted openvpn (howto) to secure my wifi traffic from public locations. The problem described here is quite trivial, but its solution wasn't a found in a quick search, hence this post!

Problem: The redirect-gateway configuration option makes all traffic route through the xenplanet box. iptables based masquerading was used to perform SNAT on traffic from openvpn clients however HTTPS was completely broken! The initial TCP connection would go though but as soon as a the SSL connection was initialised by the client the HTTPS server would immediately close the TCP connection.

Extensive Googlin' turned up very little related to openvpn and the resolution of such an issue, although it has been mentioned a number of times in mailing list entries such as here. I changed tack and searched for NAT issues related to tunnels with iptables, striking gold here with a description of a working NAT setup with a CIPE tunnel.

So to get client HTTPS traffic working with an openvpn and redirect-gateway instead of this:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

Use these instead:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -d 192.168.42.0/255.255.255.0 -j RETURN
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.42.0/255.255.255.0 -j SNAT --to-source EXTERNAL_IP_ADDRESS

Where 192.168.42.0 is the internal address range used by openvpn. Also make sure to keep all other NAT rules such as the one for Related and Established connections present in your configuration!

P.S. This is with a non-bridged configuration, using TCP port 443 and TLS on the server.

Stereo Bluetooth Profile (A2DP) on Mac OS X Tiger with Jack Audio

2007-06-21T19:10:00.001+01:00

The tutorial below is outdated and should not be attempted.

If you want A2DP, upgrade to Leopard.

Low latency Stereo Bluetooth Audio is now possible on tiger thanks to Tim Hewett's a2dpcast which uses Jack for recording from the system mixer or indeed any specific coreaudio application.

To use the new system:

Download Jack for Mac OS X from here.
Make sure to read the documentation on how to install properly on Intel Macs, especially making an Aggreagate Device with "Audio Midi Setup". For the exact proceedure watch the screencast at the bottom of this post.
Download a2dpcast from Tim's website, here.
Extract and copy to /usr/local/bin
From a terminal run
a2dpcast ADDR

As it's based on the bluetooth code in the previous instructions, please continue to post compatiblity experiences, here.

N.B. The old instructions posted on this blog are now obsolete!

Update: Improved compatibility with new version from Tim with special thanks to Paul Guyot.

Blogger Template: Digg This button with a custom URL

2007-06-09T12:44:00.000+01:00

As expected in migrating over to blogger all my posts have now got slightly different URLs. The question is what to do with posts which have already been dugg with the old URL?

The first step was to set up forwards from my old URLs with Apache 2.2's mod_rewrite.

Then using the instructions posted on ajaxcold, I integrated the "digg this!" button with automatically generated URLs. In the case of old stories I want to be able to specify a URL.

In your Blogger Template (First tick "Expand Widgets"):
- Below this line (Or anywhere between <head> and </head>):
  <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>
- Add these lines:
  
  <script type="'text/javascript'">
  var digg_url_override = null;
  </script>
In the existing "digg this!" button code from ajaxcold's tutorial:
- Replace the line:
  digg_url = '';
- With these lines:
  if (digg_url_override === null ) {
  digg_url = '';
  } else {
  digg_url = digg_url_override;
  }
  digg_url_override = null;

Then when (re-)posting a story which needs a custom URL, switch to HTML editor, and at the very start on a single line paste:

<script type="'text/javascript'"> digg_url_override = 'CUSTOM_URL';</script>

Where CUSTOM_URL is the custom URL you want people to keep digging.

Done!

List of Working Stereo Headsets

2007-06-06T16:45:00.002+01:00

This list is outdated. If you want A2DP, upgrade to Leopard.

Here is a round-up of stereo headsets reported to work with my earlier instructions, however this should be relevant for these instructions.

Reported Working (Intel)
Motorola HT820
Griffin Bluetrip
Plantronics Pulsar 260
Plantronics Pulsar 590A
Jabra BT 620s (1 report of performance problem, Other reports of success)
iMuffs
Sony CMT-HX5BT

Reported Working (PPC)
Jabra BT320s
Bluespoon Spider Stereo

Reported Not Working (Intel)
Sony Ericsson's HBH-DS970
Omiz Combo BT headphone
Motorola S9
Motorola DC800
Jensen WBT212

Reported Not Working* (PPC)
Motorola HT820 (Static Outputted)
Motorola S9 (Static Outputted)

Information Requested
Sony DR-BT20NX

* It seems very likely that any headset that doesn't work on Intel Macs will not work on PPC Macs.

Migrating to Blogger

2007-06-06T13:06:00.001+01:00

I've finally found time to moving this site over to blogger, which I've wanted to do since it got tags / category labels. Nasty side effect is the loss of comment date and times, oh well...

Stereo Bluetooth Profile (A2DP) on Mac OS X Tiger

2007-02-23T17:09:00.000+00:00

This post is now obsolete, please check out the new instructions which use Jack Audio, here.

Using the following instructions will allow full use of stereo bluetooth headphones on a mac without waiting for Leopard! Unfortunately The audio is delayed by nearly a second because this is such an indirect method.

Install Darwin Ports (Install Guide)

From http://darwinports.com/

Install Soundflower

http://www.cycling74.com/products/soundflower
A restart is required.

Set input and output sound devices to "Soundflower (2ch)"

Install esd

From a terminal window run:

sudo port install pkgconfig audiofile esound

Start esd for the first time (It should autostart afterwards):

esd &

Download bttest02.zip

~~This is a GPL A2DP player by bkc based on a2player, available from www.emucamp.com/boukichi/btplay02.zip.~~

Download Tim Hewett's modified version that works on both PPC and Intel from here.

Extract the files and copy bttest and sbcenc to your local bin folder (e.g. /usr/local/bin).
Create a shell script called in your local bin folder called a2dp.sh, replacing HEADSET with your bluetooth headset's device address.

This address can be obtained in System Preferences -> Bluetooth - Devices, after pairing.

Place these lines in the shell script:
#!/bin/sh

mkfifo /tmp/mixer

ADDR=HEADSET

esdrec | sbcenc -z 44 -s 4 -j - | bttest $ADDR -

rm /tmp/mixer
Run a2dp.sh

The resulting sound quality is at least as good as my Motorola V3x produces. Another thing to note is that if the headset goes out of range it does not reconnect properly.

If you try this with a headset other than the Motorola HT820, please post a comment about your experience. So far there have been some negative reports for Sony Ericsson headsets.

Thanks to bkc for the port! Also this hint was helpful, Create a wireless speaker setup without AirTunes.

Enjoy!

Update: New version of btplay.

Update 2: Added link to install guide.

Update 3: Tweaked instructions to include pkgconfig and starting esd (thanks jon) for the first time.

Update 4: Request for information on experiences with other headsets.

Update 5: Thanks to Tim Hewett this now works on PPC and the shell script has been improved. Confirmed working on Jabra BT320s. As always reports of success or otherwise are greatly appreciated!!

Elgato EyeTV Hybrid in Windows

2006-09-26T14:29:00.000+01:00

I recently purchased an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid, on the basis of it having great Mac OS X software (EyeTV).

In a brief reboot to Windows tonight, I discovered that the Elgato device is recognised as a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-900. They even look identical, except for the paint-job!

Device Details as seen from WinTV32:

Model 65018 Rev. B2C0
Serial #4027230016
Tuner Model/Formats: Xceive XC3028 // (BG/I/DK) / DVB-T
Tuner Audio: Mono
Video Formats: NTSC ( M 443 ) PAL ( B G H I D K M N NCOMBO ) SECAM ( L L' )
Audio Outputs: Internal
External Inputs: 2
S-Video Inputs: 1
Teletext:
Radio: None
Decoder: TVP5150A
IR: Yes

Of course tuner audio "mono" refers to analog reception only, with DTT it just plays the source bitstream so it is more likely to be joint stereo or stereo.

Even though I rarely reboot to Windows, I would have purchased the Elgato with a lot less hesitation had I known in advance. If your intrested check out The Register's excellent review.

Blogging my Final Year Project

2006-09-22T14:56:00.000+01:00

Over the next eight months (two semesters) this catagory is going to be used as a public record of my Final Year Project for my degree course at the Dundalk Insititue of Technology, Ireland.

I intend to implement a "Semantic Web" application, after a semseter of research. I would also like to include a J2ME/JSR 82 Bluetooth application for exploring swapping of FOAF-style data.

I'll be linking class mates blogs in the near future, as they get set
up....

Update: Blogging of my final year project is actually happening over on a blogspot page.

CIFS Module for Nokia 770

2006-05-01T15:04:00.000+01:00

I have released a package containing the linux kernel's CIFS module. The CIFS module allows accessing Windows & Samba file shares.

Performance is good while copying files. However it isn't fast enough to stream .mp3 files without skipping so my in-house icecast won't be retired anytime soon!!

The module has been built with a patch from git:

commit id 0753ca7bc2b876dd136e9db11a20f85cbe4e08b1

[CIFS] Change pragma pack(1) to attribute(packed) to allow cifs on arm to access unaligned structures coming in off the wire

The package is available here. It is best used with mount-cifs available here.

Example Usage (requires root):

mkdir /home/user/MyDocs/.documents/Windows

insmod /var/lib/install/lib/modules/2.6.12.3/cifs.ko

mount.cifs \\\\WINDOWS_PC_IPADDRESS\\SHARE_NAME /home/user/MyDocs/.documents/Windows -o guest

Build instructions:

Follow wiki- HowTo KernelCompilation, upto Compliation Step 5.
Download patch available here
Patch kernel-build folder (e.g. patch -i su-18-kernel-cifs.patch -p1)
Proceed to build kernel as described in wiki.

N.B. You don't have to flash your Nokia 770 with a new kernel for this module.

Switching root from Flash to RS-MMC without Flasher

2006-04-29T15:08:00.000+01:00

On my Nokia 770, I use a 128mb rs-mmc card formatted with ext3 to hold the development rootfs.

The most obvious way to boot off the rs-mmc card is to use the Flasher tool with this command line:

./flasher --set-root-device mmc

And to resume normal operation:

./flasher --set-root-device flash

However flasher needs a PC at hand- cal-tool to the rescue!

For development (on mmc):

sudo gainroot
chroot /mnt/initfs cal-tool -R mmc
init 6

For release (on flash):

sudo gainroot
chroot /mnt/initfs cal-tool -R flash
init 6

N.B. This command requires xterm and root permissions on both your release and development (so you can switch back) images.

Curl Package for Nokia 770

2006-04-25T15:10:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I built the debian curl package for maemo (Nokia 770's platform). Eventually I'm going to use the package to build a mirroring utility.

Only minimal changes where required- such as disabling the generation of postinst and postrm scripts.

curl and libcurl3 both install using the Application Installer and work well. However not all of the build tests wouldn't run under qemu-arm (the HTTP tests were complaining the socket was already bound). I'll try again with CPU Transparency next weekend.

All the binaries and sources are here.

Update: Slight changes to packages (URLs changed above)

Furthermore using CPU Transparency didn't help with the build tests, although I haven't given up yet...

pam_quota_xfs

2006-04-20T15:11:00.000+01:00

A little while ago I took Brian Masney's pam_quota and did a quick hack to get it working with XFS for my college networking society (netsoc-dkit).

Then, I posted it to my public_html directory and prompty forgot about it- Until Now!

So if you need pam_quota for xfs download pam_quota_xfs.c,
build instructions are included in the file.

P.S. Even though it has been in constant production use on a busy Gentoo server without issue, be careful as I haven't tried to break it!