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Welcome, btw, in case this was not at all obvious.

Linux things

This is a collection of linux related items which I collected or wrote between 1997 and 2009. More recent things are available from source code repositories, conference websites and the like.

• 1 Feb 2009: A new version of batchrec (v1.2.1) has been released. This fixes a number of issues which showed up when using batchrec to record continuously for hours on end. Compilation warnings seen on newer gcc versions have also been tidied up.
• 30 January 2009: I gave two FFADO presentations at linux.conf.au this year. The slides from my FFADO tutorial (given at the Multimedia miniconf) and the main FFADO technical talk are now available.
• 17 Sept 2008: The slides from my talk at the 2008 Linux Plumbers Conference.
• 29 May 2008: Version 1.3.0 of set_rlimits has been released. This integrates a Makefile patch by Lucas C. Villa Real and adds an option to specify non-standard library locations (which must be secured directories) to the called executable.
• 17 November 2006: Jack_play 0.1 is a small command line tool allowing one to play any file supported by libsndfile to arbitary JACK ports. It's based heavily on jack_capture. While there remains much to be done but it's still usable in its current state.
• 7 June 2006: Audiosync 0.4 is a quick and dirty program to resynchronise audio tracks recorded on separate machines which were not locked to wordclock. Full operation is detailed in the enclosed README file, manpage and the source itself. This is the first public release of audiosync. It is released under the GNU GPL.
• 11 January 2006: Set_rlimits 1.2.0 is a new version of what was previously called set_rtlimits. It is a small program written to give unpriviledged users access to realtime scheduling via the new rlimits added to kernel 2.6.12. The new name reflects the fact that the program can control resource limits rather than just those related to realtime priorities. This new version adds a more flexible configuration file format, easier command line use and the ability to control the memlock resource limit. Read the enclosed README file and manpage for full details.
• 7 June 2005: Set_rtlimits 1.1.0 is a small program written to give unpriviledged users access to realtime scheduling via the new rlimits added to kernel 2.6.12. The initial version 1.0.0 is available for completeness. Permission to use elevated realtime resource limits is granted on a user/group basis for each desired program in a central configuration file. Read the enclosed README file and manpage for full details.
• 8 December 2003: Batchrec 1.2.0 is the latest version of a small text-mode sound recording utility I wrote. It features a level meter (in dB), and automatic track splitting based on a user-defined amount of silence (where the level of `silence' is also user-defined). This version adds raw output of audio data to stdout allowing (for example) realtime conversion to formats other than the internally supported WAV format. I often have the need to simply sample something before using ecasound/slab/ardour/etc for further processing, and I find batchrec more suited to this than most other tools out there. The track splitting is especially useful, since it allows automatic unattended sampling of a number of tracks. It's released under the GPL.
  Versions 1.0.0 and 1.1.0 are still available if anyone wants them.
• 6 August 2003: Some time ago I posted a number of requests on the Linux kernel mailing list and the NFS list regarding some oopses I was seeing on a 2.4.18 fileserver at work. The problem was triggered when a client used NLM locking (as Digital Unix 4 and several others do), and eventually I tracked down an answer in the form of a patch from Trond. This patch was not easy to find and since that time others have emailed me asking whether the problem was resolved. The short answer is "yes, it has been resolved", and the magic patch can be found here. The problem was fixed in 2.4.19.
• 5 February 2003: Trackedit 0.1 is another small text-mode audio program I wrote. It is designed to allow very large audio files to be skimmed through and for sections to be selected and saved off into separate files. Full usage details are included in the README file and the online help. The interface is currently textmode only, but the program may grow an (optional) GUI at some stage when/if I have time. Like batchrec, it's released under the GPL.
• 5 February 2003: Batchrec 1.1.0 is the latest version of a small text-mode sound recording utility I wrote. It features a level meter (in dB), and automatic track splitting based on a user-defined amount of silence (where the level of `silence' is also user-defined). I often have the need to simply sample something before using ecasound/slab/ ardour/etc for further processing, and I find batchrec more suited to this than most other tools out there. The track splitting is especially useful, since it allows automatic unattended sampling of a number of tracks. It's released under the GPL.
  Version 1.0.0 is still available if anyone wants it - but 1.1.0 is better. :)
• 8 March 2002: I have produced an updated tclx/tix patch giving tix access to tclx functions. This is a diff patch against tix 8.1.3 and was tested with tcl/tk 8.3.4 and tclx 8.3. This patch also includes a small change to config/acinclude.m4 which ensures compiler variables are correctly set up in `configure' scripts; without it some tests (noteably the `unsigned char' test) are incorrectly failed. (Note that in this patch, only the unix/tkX8.3/configure file has this fix applied.)
• The `ping' program included in many recent distributions (including Slackware 8.0) comes from the netkit-base-0.17 release. This version has a problem which causes a false error message to be displayed if the ping time is more than the sending interval - usually one second. This small patch fixes the problem; to apply, change into the netkit-base-0.17 directory and do `patch -p1 < /netkit-0.17.diff'. (Note: the netkit maintainer is aware of this problem and it has been fixed in the current development tree as of 6 November 2001.)
• NSS1 compatibility module package for Slackware 7.x. This is needed for binaries statically linked against glibc 2.0.x which use NSS services, since the NSS modules are not automatically included in the binary during the static linking process. The package contains the "compat", "db", "dns", "files" and "nis" NSS modules from Slackware 4.0. Note that for many situations symlinking libnss_*_.so.1 to the glibc 2.1.x equivalents will work; however, there appear to be some subtle problems with this which show up only for certain query values, making the "proper" modules necessary.
• ephem 4.29. This version is mainly a code cleanup from v4.28 to increase its stability under modern operating systems such as Linux. It has not, however, been tested on systems other than Linux (2.2.13 kernel, glibc 2.1, egcs 1.1.2) so any feedback would be appreciated.
• A patch against wavplay 1.3 which fixes a number of glitches/bugs and adds a time display.
• Here is another xwave2 patch, this time against the last official release I am aware of. This is a bugfix patch - no new features are added, but with it the program actually compiles. There are still minor problems with the program but it is quite useable now.
• I have written a patch against xwave2 (an audio wave editor) which fixes a number of bugs and adds the loop button functionality originally written for xwave 0.6.
• This file contains extensions to Tix version 4.1.0 which give applications using the Tix extensions to Tcl/Tk 8.0 access to TclX commands (unix only). It is a tar file which should be extracted in the Tix base directory. A directory unix/tkX8.0/ will be created - to build Tix with TclX extensions (tixwishx) go to this directory rather than the tk8.0 directory. Otherwise follow the standard documentation. This was written since I could find nothing on the web indicating how to create tixwishx (even though there were about 4 references to people using it). If there is an "official" way to do this I would love to know.
• I have an XFree86 configuration file for a Gateway Solo 2100 laptop computer here. It is for XFree 3.1.2; However, I suspect that the standard XF86Setup program now works correctly for this laptop and it should be used in preference to this file.
• Installing Linux on a Toshiba Tecra-550CDT laptop computer describes the steps to take when installing Linux on this machine, hardware settings required, and a number of points to watch out for.
• ALS-007 Linux and programming notes are a collection of notes I wrote about soundcards based on the Avance Logic ALS-007 chip while I was writing a kernel driver for them. Links to the patch against OSS/Free 3.8s6 (and 3.8s9) are provided in this document.
• An ALS-007 quick guide which concisely describes how to set up an ALS-007 based soundcard under Linux. This is more or less an HTML-ised version of the Linux/Documentation/Sound/ALS007 file in the kernel source distribution (>=2.1.105) and is provided for those who don't want to plough through the full set of programming notes.

Hardware/electronics things

• It seems that the Prime3b chip is still used on some `current' boards: Tom Perkins informed me of the existance of the `DTC Ultima Pro' and its usermanual. The original site for the manual is here.
• Documentation on another multi-IO card has come my way. This time, Ian Hamilton has provided some information on the AI-1078E Super (Enhanced) IO card. This card is based on a Goldstar Prime 2C chip.
• Thanks to Andrew Su, I now have documentation on a card based on the LGS Prime 3B Mark II chip. As for the Prime 3B chip dealt with below, there appears to be practically no documentation on the internet regarding these cards.
• A miscellaneous collection of minidisc-related information, mainly dealing with servicing and hardware. It's slanted towards the Sony MDS-S30 model since that's what I have, but owners of other similar models may find it useful as well.
• Documentation on a multiIO card made by Kentech Computer (HK) based on the LGS Prime 3B chip. There seems to be little else on the net in the way of documentation of this chip, so hopefully this page will remedy the situation slightly.

Links to interesting places

(As before, the most recently added links are towards the top. Maybe.)

• Observational evidence for a fifth state of administration is the latest "paper" I've co-written with a friend.
• A general theory of relativistic television programming is another "paper" I've co-written with a friend...
• You can finally download The Ultra-Complete Index to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy via the web for your convenience! If you can't cope with the gzipped format, mail me and i'll see what i can do.
• The special theory of administrative relativity is a "paper" i wrote with a friend...

Random ravings by the author

This page was last updated on 5 September 2018.

My name is Jonathan Woithe and you can send me an email if you like. The first part is jwoithe, and the domain is just42.net. Put them together with an "at" symbol and you'll reach me.