Introduction

I have recently implemented etckeeper and metastore to keep my Gentoo server:/etc directory under version control. Object of interest today is how to make a good git commit message regarding Gentoo’s /etc/make.conf and the long long USE flags (possibly multi-)line in there. Usually these USE flag changes happen in the process of reconfiguring some packages. I often don’t commit make.conf changes immediately and then after a few days can’t remember anymore what USE flags have changed and why to make a meaningful commit message.

app-portage/ufed

I’m using app-portage/ufed as my USE flag helper tool. ufed automatically tidies things up:

USE=”3dnow 7zip X aci acpi admin alsa amr apache2 apm autoipd avahi
bash-completion berkdb bluetooth cdda cddax cddb cdio cgi cleartype
consolekit cpudetection crypt css ctype ctypes-python curl dga dri dvb ee
(…)
xrandr xvid xvmc -arts -eds -fortran -gnome -ipv6 -kde -mikmod -oss
-pdflib -qt3 -sdl -spell -svga -tcpd”

wdiff ftw

Obviously line based diffs don’t do us much good here, since these lines can shift around arbitrarily due to a single use flag change. Enter wdiff which lets us compare USE flags one by one. Eduardo has written a nice piece how to make git wdiff alias.

Result from a recent media-video/vlc related USE flag change:

server:/etc # git wdiff make.conf
diff –git a/make.conf b/make.conf
index 79cda6c..b2b4d15 100644
— a/make.conf
+++ b/make.conf
@@ -2,28 +2,28 @@
# Contains local system settings for Portage system
# Please review ‘man make.conf’ for more information.

USE=”3dnow 7zip X aci acpi admin alsa amr apache2 apm autoipd avahi
bash-completion berkdb bluetooth cdda cddax cddb cdio cgi cleartype
consolekit cpudetection crypt css ctype ctypes-python curl dga dri dvb ee
esd eu_epg faac faad fastcgi fbcon fbcondecor fbsplash ffmpeg flac gd
gnome-keyring gnutls gtk gtk2 hash httpd id3tag ieee1394 java java5 jikes
joystick json laptop lcms ldap libass libv4l2 lirc live lm_sensors lzo
matroska md5sum mdnsresponder-compat mmx mmxext mozilla msn mysql network
networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin opencore-amr opengl pcmcia
pcsc-lite pdo php policykit postgres qt-static ruby samba sasl sensord
shout simplexml skins smp soap sound speex sqlite sse sse2 sse3
startup-notification stream subversion test-programs tetex theora
truetype-fonts tv_check tv_combiner tv_pick_cgi type1-fonts udev unicode
upnp usb utf8 v4l v4l2 vhosts webdav-serf x264 xattr xcb xcomposite
xrandr xvid xvmc -arts -eds -fortran -gnome -ipv6 -kde -mikmod -oss
-pdflib -qt3 -sdl -spell -svga -tcpd”

Käsurida, mis mul praegu toimib:

vlc -vvv -I dummy http://mmm.elion.ee/tedx.asx –sout ‘#standard{access=http,mux=asf,dst=:18080}’

Kasutajaliidesest saab sama asja:

• File -> Streaming/Transcoding Wizard
• Stream to network
• Select a stream: http://mmm.elion.ee/tedx.asx
• Streaming method: HTTP, Destination: :18080
• ignoreeri Transcoding
• Encapsulation: asf
• ignoreeri Additional streaming options

Teised kohapealsed vaatajad avavad VLC-s või mis iganes media playeris:

http://sinu-masina-nimi-või-ip:18080

Port 18080 on suvaliselt valitud, peaks olema suht kindlasti teiste tarkvarade poolt kasutamata.

Introduction

This post describes a couple of discoveries regarding my Acer Aspire 751 11.6″ netbook and playing high definition video content on it.

Acer Aspire One 751 11.6" netbook

I’m running Windows 7 (RC) on this netbook. This has an effect regarding Media Foundation framework, which is supposed to be successor of DirectShow and is not supported on anything less than Vista. Let it be noted that currently (Nov 2009) pretty much everything related to Windows media is still DirectShow-based (players, codecs), which brings up a few issues to be described later. DXVA2 is also only Vista-and-up technology.

Video Drivers

First it’s probably a good idea to get some up to date video drivers. Acer seems to have just recently (end of Oct 2009) put out a whole bunch of Windows 7 drivers for the Aspire One 751, here’s the 8.14.10.2003 video driver download, actual installed driver files are from 18.06.2009:

http://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles%5CDriver/VGA/VGA_Intel_8.14.10.2003_W7×86_A.zip?acerid=633903111488906782&Step1=Netbook&Step2=Aspire%20One&Step3=AO751h&OS=702&LC=en&BC=Acer&SC=EMEA_27

To get the other W7 drivers, just go ahead and navigate through that Javascript gayness on Acer Support site. Ever heard of permalinks, Acer guys?

Codecs and Players

Key here is to get all the help we can from our Poulsbo graphics chip in the form of DirectX Video Acceleration or DXVA support. This is what lets your slow ass Atom CPU sit back, enjoy the movie and let the graphics chip handle heavy duty stuff. Some monkeying around trying to figure out how to get this working on the Poulsbo netbook led me to this helpful thread: Complete Guide to Play HD 1080p H.264, VC1 and Divx HD files via WMP on SC3. Originally written for Kohjinsha SC3 UMPC, but obviously applies to any netbook sharing the same hardware configuration.

So first get the following codecs:

• Media Player Classic – Home Cinema Standalone Filters (currently 1.3.1249.0)
• Intel HW Accelerated Media Codecs

Install them as instructed in the Complete Guide mentioned earlier. I also installed PowerDVD trial, but haven’t had a HD media clip yet where PowerDVD codecs could do something the existing codecs couldn’t, so perhaps hold off on it, until you’re sure nothing else does the job.

Then we need all sorts of players and helper software:

• Media Player Classic – Home Cinema player (currently 1.3.1249.0) – this player has quite good capabilities to switch codecs on and off so you can really fine tune your approach. If you read Complete Guide, I think you can skip RadLight Filter Manager for now, because MPC also lets you adjust filter merits etc, though I think RadLight does it system wide.
• DXVA Checker (currently 2.1.0.0) – this is a key piece of software. Clicking on ‘Check DirectShow/MediaFoundation Decoder…‘ button lets you choose a media file and DXVA Checker figures out the following:
  • what acceleration modes does your hardware and software combination support
  • what codecs specifically will be able to play this file
  • which of these codecs support hardware acceleration for that silky smoothness you want
  • video test playback and benchmark capability
• MediaInfo (currently 0.7.25) – cross-platform tool, GUI + CLI, that displays complete and formatted information about your video files. This is helpful for sharing any problem solving information.

HD video and tweaks

When you test your video playback in DXVA Checker with a DXVA accelerated codec, the playback should be flawless and CPU load should stay very low, as in 20%ish. Yet there was a situation where the Microsoft WMVDECOD.DLL codec was listed as compatible, was marked DXVA, yet performed very below-par, clearly not taking advantage of anything Poulsbo had to offer. I’m guessing there is another layer of hardware-software compatibility that needs to exist, which is why we installed those Intel Media Codecs mentioned before. Hardware from Intel + software from Intel = good performance in this case.

Above I briefly mentioned that the Media Foundation vs DirectShow battle would be bringing a few issues and this is where I ran into them. Intel’s hw-accelerated VC-1 codec is Media Foundation-based and therefore can only be used in a Media Foundation compatible player. Windows Media Player 12 and DXVA Checker are the only ones that I know of, if you know any others please leave a comment. MPC-HC cannot help us with Media Foundation for now. WMP’s out of the box configurability isn’t anything to write home about. I could not find any way to set the Intel codec at a higher merit, like you can do with DirectShow filters. Googling this gives conflicting results, namely that Media Foundation doesn’t have a merit system altogether and then a later dated SDK document saying that MF has a merit system again starting with Windows 7. Either way, WMP was dead set on using C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WMVDECOD.DLL so I just brute forced it: renamed the DLL to something like WMVDECOD.DLL.disabled and restarted. This leaves Intel’s hardware-accelerated IMC_VC1_DEC_MF.DLL as the only suitable decoder for WMP to use, which is exactly what we want.

Media Files and Benchmarks

Keep in in mind that the benchmark plays through the video as fast as possible, that’s why CPU load is higher. DXVA Checker table I put together myself, media file information comes from running MediaInfo on the file.

Robotica_1080.wmv

DXVA Checker
Codec: [MF] Intel Media Codecs VC-1 Decoder
Mode : NV12 (ModeVC1_VLD) DXVA2
Frame Rate : Avg 67fps / Min 59 / Max 71
CPU Usage : Avg 48% / Min 40 / Max 55

General
Complete name : Robotica_1080.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 19.3 MiB
Duration : 20s 778ms
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 7 812 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 8 447 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2003-12-20 02:30:08.491

Video
ID : 2
Format : VC-1
Format profile : MP@HL
Codec ID : WMV3
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Video 9
Codec ID/Hint : WMV3
Description of the codec : Windows Media Video 9 – Professional
Duration : 20s 792ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 8 000 Kbps
Width : 1 440 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate : 24.000 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.214
Stream size : 19.8 MiB
Language : English (US)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : WMA
Format profile : Pro
Codec ID : 162
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9 Professional – 384 kbps, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel 24 bit (A/V) 2-pass CBR
Duration : 20s 778ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 24 bits
Stream size : 974 KiB (5%)
Language : English (US)

I Am Legend – Trailer.mp4

DXVA Checker
Codec: [MF] Microsoft H264 Video Decoder MFT
Mode : NV12 (ModeH264_VLD_NoFGT) DXVA2
Frame Rate : Avg 77fps / Min 64 / Max 92
CPU Usage : Avg 76% / Min 32 / Max 100

General
Complete name : I Am Legend – Trailer.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 121 MiB
Duration : 2mn 3s
Overall bit rate : 8 237 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2008-12-01 05:16:01
Tagged date : UTC 2008-12-01 05:16:01

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 8 000 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 22.4 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 816 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.213
Stream size : 117 MiB (97%)
Writing library : x264 core 65 r1040M 1591275
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:-1:-1 / analyse=0×3:0×113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8×8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=8000 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.50 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=40000 / ip_ratio=1.10 / pb_ratio=1.10 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2008-12-01 04:50:08
Tagged date : UTC 2008-12-01 05:16:04

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 2mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 258 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 365 Kbps
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel positions : Front: L C R, Rear: L R, LFE
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 3.80 MiB (3%)
Encoded date : UTC 2008-12-01 05:16:04
Tagged date : UTC 2008-12-01 05:16:04

C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv

DXVA Checker
Codec: [MF] Intel Media Codecs VC-1 Decoder
Mode : NV12 (ModeVC1_VLD) DXVA2
Frame Rate : Avg 77fps / Min 64 / Max 92
CPU Usage : Avg 76% / Min 32 / Max 100

General
Complete name : C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos\Wildlife.wmv
Format : Windows Media
File size : 25.0 MiB
Duration : 30s 93ms
Overall bit rate mode : Constant
Overall bit rate : 6 977 Kbps
Maximum Overall bit rate : 6 183 Kbps
Movie name : Wildlife in HD
Encoded date : UTC 2008-08-25 21:11:16.400
Copyright : © 2008 Microsoft Corporation
Comment : Footage: Small World Productions, Inc; Tourism New Zealand | Producer: Gary F. Spradling | Music: Steve Ball
SfOriginalFPS : 299700

Video
ID : 2
Format : VC-1
Format profile : AP@L3
Codec ID : WVC1
Codec ID/Hint : Microsoft
Description of the codec : Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile
Duration : 30s 67ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 5 942 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.215
Stream size : 21.3 MiB (85%)
Language : English (US)

Audio
ID : 1
Format : WMA
Format version : Version 2
Codec ID : 161
Codec ID/Info : Windows Media Audio
Description of the codec : Windows Media Audio 9.2 – 192 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo (A/V) 1-pass CBR
Duration : 30s 92ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 705 KiB (3%)
Language : English (US)

Parandus: oli ilgelt mugav, nii kaua kuni see loetelu ühele ekraanilehele ära mahtus. Minu lemmikute loetelu on praegu 3,5 lk. ~1050px vertikaalresolutsiooni jagu pikk ja jube tülikaks läks ärifoorumite teemade uute postituste jaoks pidev reload+scroll+reload+scroll+reload+scroll+[...]. Arvan, et foorumi veteranid teavad millest ma räägin (insert bussipeatuse flashback).

Lahendus: Firefox + Greasemonkey. Esimene peaks kõigile tuttav olema, teine laseb brauseris nähtaval oleva materjaliga kasutajal endal suva magicut teha.

Kütsin täna õhtul vajaliku userscripti kokku:

git repo sortsuga – parandused ja edasiarendused igati teretulnud:

http://github.com/lkraav/HV-NewFavFilter

userscripti otselink:

http://github.com/lkraav/HV-NewFavFilter/raw/master/hv-newfavfilter.user.js

Mmm... mõnusalt vähe kerimist

Kui sa tahad kogu oma lemmikute listi näha siis lisa suva parameeter hinnavaatluse lemmikute URL-ile otsa, näiteks:

http://foorum.hinnavaatlus.ee/favorites.php?nofilter

Greasemonkey script matchib ainult standardaadressit ja jätab muud rahule. Loomulikult võid scriptis muudatuse teha vastupidiseks – standardaadress laeb kõik teemad ja mingi ?filter parameeter käivitab Greasemonkey.

Norm värk see Greasemonkey. Tänaseks kõik.

Here is a guide for setting up gitosis.

Q: how to provide gitweb access only to those repositories to which the apache user has been granted access in gitosis.conf?

A: use $export_auth_hook in /etc/gitweb.conf.

This is modified source of gitweb_auth.

Make sure you match up your Apache names, ssh public keyfile names and gitosis ‘writable’ names.

Note: you may want to check out gitolite, an enhanced gitosis.

less /var/log/messages

for reviewing what happened, then CTRL+C and:

tail -f /var/log/messages

to monitor what happens when you changed something.

Well how about just staying in less and pressing F. Discovered from less’ very own help page.

F Forward forever; like "tail -f"

CPU overheats during high usage “throttling not supported”

tldr:

• they’re cheap for a reason
• check thermal paste situation, it could be in terrible shape
• switch the 62W TDP Mobile Sempron out for a 25W TDP Mobile Turion

Tue Mar 10 12:59:47 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0×00192FD4): “pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: ” “cpu 1 failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0×536500 cpus_to_signal=2″@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.5.20/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4570
Backtrace, Format – Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0×5c4ff258 : 0×12b0fa (0×4592a4 0×5c4ff28c 0×133243 0×0)
0×5c4ff2a8 : 0×192fd4 (0×45f414 0×1 0×536500 0×2)
0×5c4ff318 : 0×194126 (0×536500 0×4fa0c000 0×0 0×162a55)
0×5c4ff3b8 : 0×17406e (0xbb33b 0×0 0×7000 0×0)
0×5c4ff458 : 0×169e3a (0xc971578 0×0 0×0 0×8000)
0×5c4ff578 : 0×16a437 (0×4fa14000 0×0 0×0 0×0)
0×5c4ff5b8 : 0×18249d (0×1c3cd20 0×4fa0c000 0×0 0×4fa14000)
0×5c4ff618 : 0×42d290 (0×1c3cd20 0×4fa0c000 0×0 0×8000)
0×5c4ff678 : 0×42d2f4 (0×8ee8780 0×1c3cf78 0×131dad40 0×0)
0×5c4ff698 : 0×42d3e5 (0×131dad40 0×0 0×79fad400 0×0)
0×5c4ff6b8 : 0×42d3bc (0×131dad40 0×0 0×2 0×0)
0×5c4ff6d8 : 0×3eb869 (0×131dad40 0×0 0×5c4ff758 0×5c4ffb50)
0×5c4ff6f8 : 0xfcad52 (0×131dad40 0×7663c00 0×4ff708 0×3a3)
0×5c4ff758 : 0xfcb247 (0×46d1a000 0×7663c00 0×50e8d080 0×2952f080)
0×5c4ff7b8 : 0xfcb681 (0×46d1a000 0×7663c00 0×5c4ffb54 0×5c4ffb58)
0×5c4ff818 : 0xf9f726 (0×46d1a000 0×5c4ffacc 0×5c4ffa7c 0×5c4ffb54)
Backtrace continues…
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.GeForce(5.2.8)@0xf5d000->0xfebfff
dependency: com.apple.NVDAResman(5.2.8)@0xb22000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.5.2)@0xb14000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.4.1)@0×5c1000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily(1.5.2)@0xaf8000

BSD process name corresponding to current thread: WindowServer

Mac OS version:
9E17

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.4.0: Mon Jun 9 19:30:53 PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.5.20~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBookPro3,1 (Mac-F42388C8)

There was no persistent pattern to Firefox crashes, except it would be during loading a web page after an action. Sometimes I would click on a link, sometimes submit a form and the crashes would occur on different sites. At first I obviously suspected Firefox addons, but disabling these back and forth would seem to make no difference. First clue was given to me when I decided to enable OS X crash reporter as well, besides the built in Mozilla one.

defaults write org.mozilla.firefox OSCrashReporter 1

Later I found out that uploading the crash data with Mozilla’s tool and then doing:

about:crashes

would give me access to the same information on Mozilla bugs website. Either way, the crash log showed me:

Thread 0:
0 libobjc.A.dylib 0×919366e8 objc_msgSend + 24
1 …ple.ApplicationServices.ATS 0×90fc2395 LLCStyleInfoCreateActiveStyleInfo + 713
2 com.apple.QD 0×908101eb TATSUStyle::ConstructActiveStyleInfo() + 43
3 com.apple.QD 0×90826165 TATSUStyle::GetStyleInfo(LLCStyleInfo const**) + 27
4 com.apple.QD 0×90825f39 TTextLineLayout::ConstructGlyphRecordArrayWithVirtualGlyphs(TATSUGlyphRecordArray*, unsigned long*) + 205
5 com.apple.QD 0×9082568f TTextLineLayout::ConstructGlyphRecordArray(TATSUGlyphRecordArray*, TLayoutControls*) + 689
6 com.apple.QD 0×908372c3 TTextLineLayout::EnsureLayoutIsUpToDate(unsigned long, unsigned char, unsigned long, TATSUGlyphRecordArray**) + 713
7 com.apple.QD 0×90841ecd TTextLineLayout::GetGlyphBounds(unsigned long, unsigned long, long, long, unsigned short, unsigned long, ATSTrapezoid*, unsigned long*) + 185
8 com.apple.QD 0×90841dfe ATSUGetGlyphBounds + 136
9 XUL 0×0150308d gfxPlatformMac::gfxPlatformMac() + 351
10 XUL 0×01504af8 gfxAtsuiFontGroup::GuessMaximumStringLength() + 4516
11 XUL 0×01504e38 gfxAtsuiFontGroup::GuessMaximumStringLength() + 5348
12 XUL 0×0150506d gfxAtsuiFontGroup::GuessMaximumStringLength() + 5913
13 XUL 0×01505c80 gfxAtsuiFontGroup::FindATSUFont(nsAString_internal const&, nsACString_internal const&, void*) + 112
14 XUL 0×014f520b gfxFontGroup::FontResolverProc(nsAString_internal const&, void*) + 31
15 XUL 0×01502867 gfxPlatformMac::ResolveFontName(nsAString_internal const&, int (*)(nsAString_internal const&, void*), void*, int&) + 155
16 XUL 0×014f990a gfxFontGroup::ForEachFontInternal(nsAString_internal const&, nsACString_internal const&, int, int, int (*)(nsAString_internal const&, nsACString_internal const&, void*), void*) + 2064
17 XUL 0×014f9a55 gfxFontGroup::ForEachFont(int (*)(nsAString_internal const&, nsACString_internal const&, void*), void*) + 57
18 XUL 0×015074d2 gfxAtsuiFontGroup::gfxAtsuiFontGroup(nsAString_internal const&, gfxFontStyle const*) + 86
19 XUL 0×01502433 gfxPlatformMac::CreateFontGroup(nsAString_internal const&, gfxFontStyle const*) + 43

Launching Firefox from Terminal to catch any error messages gave me:

lkraav@mobilitymac ~ $ /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox
lkraav@mobilitymac ~ $ Debugger() was called!
mobilitymac.local firefox-bin[92129] : GCGetStrikeMetrics failed: error 4.

Googling it led me here. It was interesting, because just recently Wine HQ website appeared completely text free in Firefox 3, to which I had no explanation. At the same time, it displayed fine in Safari. Initially, bells did not start to ring about this, though.

Well, doesn’t look like this crash has much to do with Firefox at all, but more like some wack problem with our friend ATSServer — Mac OS X system font manager or something related to the font system. Googling around for LLCStyleInfoCreateActiveStyleInfo fortunately showed me that this is a known crash type, but definitely not a widespread one. However, just looking for the above keyword, it appears Google hides the key search result item, while searching for LLCStyleInfoCreateActiveStyleInfo firefox brings it up:

Apple – Support – Discussions – Safari crashing on just one user account, ~Bee suggests:

Jake -
This is fun, eh?

You might want to check your font manager for duplicate or corrupt fonts.

Also, you might want to clear the font cache.
I clear mine with a little app called YASU (free/shareware).
And Font Finagler is excellent, as well.

to which OP respons

Well, I did it. YASU’d my computer, and it seems to have worked! Very nice work, indeed, Bee.

By YASU, ~Bee means Yet Another System Utility for OS X.

After doing the following, Firefox has stopped crashing. Wine HQ website mentioned above also displays correctly.

Using YASU to clean corrupt font caches

Introduction

I’ve recently done a rescue operation of a Creative Zen Vision M 30G device that refuses to power up. I’m writing it up so people who have the same problem could find help.

Three primary failure points are:

• battery
• hard drive
• motherboard

Helpful links I discovered:

• various Zen problem discussions and instructions on how to open the thing up: Zen Vision:M Hacks, Mods, & Repairs forum at anythingbutipod.com
• battery might be dead too: Replacement battery LPCS285385
• seeing if the hard drive is alive and extracting the music: ZenRecover – A filesystem recovery tool for the Creative NJB3/Zen™ players
• ZIF to IDE conversion for the 1.8″ hard drive
• 0xED – pretty nice hex editor for OS X

Opening the device

Was relatively easy. Unscrew small screws and try not to break the plastic. anythingbutipod forum has videos and pictures on how to do this.

Hard drive

…is a ZIF connector 1.8″ Hitachi HTC426030G5CE00 30G. To do any meaningful recovery operations on it, you probably need to use a ZIF to 2.5″ IDE converter. That’s what I did anyway. That converter then connects to a run of the mill IDE to USB converter.

Fortunately, the disk seems to be alive and well, I could read everything through /dev/disk2.

Filesystem, extracting data

Zen uses custom filesystems to store whatever it needs to store, MiniFS for operating system stuff and CFS for user stuff. Tobia Conforto has just recently done some fabulous work with his ZenRecover python script and information web page. This information helped me along alot. His device was a Nomad Jukebox 3. There are some differences to the newer Vision M device, which we were fortunately able to figure out together over a few hours of debugging sessions over Skype.

Below are the differences I had to make to the original ZenRecover.py script:

• cluster size has changed from 0×2000 bytes (8K) to 0×8000 bytes (32K), so CFS starts at offset 0×3200000
• Vision M doesn’t need to do byteswapping on the data
• but uint32 is stored in a different order
• so are the metadata tag bytes

After making needed modifications to the script, I run:

python 8kzenrecover.py -o 52428800 /dev/disk2 songs /Volumes/ZenRescueDir

It worked! Thanks a lot to Tobia for his help figuring the newer device quirks out. I’m sending him the updated script and let him maintain the versions, URL is listed above. Write a comment on this post if you have any questions.

Source code

EDIT #2: I’ve gisted the source code: http://gist.github.com/237256, version control ftw.

EDIT: Tobia is a bit busy and hasn’t managed to upload the Vision:M compatible script on his web page, so I’m making it available for download here in the meanwhile.

Currently a news items feed and a comments feed is available for subscription.

Links to feeds, you may click on them to subscribe with your favorite software. I highly recommend Google Reader.

• RSS 2.0 News feed (Recommended)
  
• RSS 2.0 Comments feed (Recommended)
   
• RSS 0.92 News feed
• Atom News feed

Direct link to the team results page: Helsinki ToPo Men’s Team

I will be graduating Cum Laude and receiving my second Bachelor’s degree diploma, Bachelor of Science in Informatics from Tallinn University of Technology.

This is the News page. You can find Basketball information, My Resume and Contact information on the top right.

Comments are welcome!