Yet another blog for JBKempf - Geek & Computer

Dotclear 2.0RC in may!

JBK — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:04:00 +0200

As you might know, this blog runs with dotclear2.

The Dotclear 2 development was more than slow, but they seemed to catch up lately:

Dotclear 2 announce

This is good news.

[FR]Firefox 3 beta4: ameliorations des performances

JBK — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:02:00 +0100

This is a French translation of this article on Firefox 3.

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 se prépare et approche de la release. La béta4 et sortie et fonctionne!

J'ai essayé de faire quelques benchmarks sur la bête, en me focalisant sur les performances JavaScript et la consommation mémoire.

Méthodologie des tests Javascript:

Le javascript a été utilisé et testé avec le test sunspider javascript lancé 5 fois, sur un Firefox tout neuf, tout beau.

Les tests ont été lancés en utilisant Firefox 2, Firefox 3 beta3 et Firefox 3 beta 4.

Les tests ont été lancés sous Windows XP et Linux, en utilisant 3 machines différentes.

Thinkpad T61p Core2 Duo 7500, avec 2GB de RAM
Dell Pentium 4 3,4 Ghz, avec 1GB de RAM
HP Celeron 2Ghz, avec 512 de RAM

Résulats des tests Javascript

Ces résultats sont une moyenne des 5 résultats de chaque test..

Les résultats montre une accélération nette allant de x3 à x5 en passant de Firefox 2 à Firefox 3!

En ne prenant en compte que la migration Firefox 3 beta3 à Firefox 3 beta4, on atteint entre x2 et x3!

Je ne vais détailler que les résultats moyens sur la machine la plus lente et la plus rapide, sous Windows XP afin de ne pas rallonger ce post.

Machine la plus rapide

Firefox 2 : 15688.1ms
Firefox 3 beta3 : 10016.8ms
Firefox 3 beta4 : 5158.4ms

Speedup : 304%

Machine la plus lente

Firefox 2 : 51456.1ms
Firefox 3 beta3 : 27556.2ms
Firefox 3 beta4 : 10923.8ms

Speedup: 471%

Méthodologie des tests mémoire

Sous Windows XP et Linux, j'ai ouvert un Firefox tout neuf et ouvert 4 onglets:

lemonde.fr
www.nytimes.fr
slashdot.org
pcinpact.com

Ensuite j'ai refermé le browser et ouvert beaucoup d'onglets (20).

J'ai surveillé la consommation mémoire une fois qu'elle se soit stabilisée.

Résultats des benchmarks mémoire

Je n'ai pas été impressionné par les résultats, car j'ai trouvé que Firefox 3 beta 4 consomme environ 10% de plus en mémoire que Firefox2 sous Windows et Linux en utilisant le premier test sur la machine la plus rapide. (56Mo vs 50.5Mo).

Dans le deuxième tests, avec tous les onglets, la mémoire est environ identique, mais pas moindre...

Par contre, en utilisant Firefox 3 pendant longtemps, je n'ai pas eu d'explosion de la consommation mémoire à 400Mo ou plus. Je suis en train de bosser à essayer de reproduire ce leak de Firefox 2.

Conclusion

Firefox 3 est beaucoup plus rapide dans sa gestion du Javascript, un peu mieux dans sa gestion de la mémoire (consomme plus avec peu d'onglets mais semble leaker un peu moins) et dans l'ensemble semble plus rapide (peut être juste un feeling).

Selon mes tests, Firefox 3 est plus rapide qu'Opera, que IE7/IE8beta1 dans sa gestion du Javascript.

Moralité: Utilisez Firefox 3, c'est que du bon.

Firefox 3 beta4: Performances improvements.

JBK — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:22:00 +0100

Firefox 3

Firefox 3 is in the works, approaching the release. The beta4 is out and runs.

I tried to benchmark it a bit, especially on JavaScript performance and memory consumption.

Javascript Testing: Methodology

The javascript has been used with the sunspider javascript test that was run 5 times, on freshly installed firefox.

The tests were run using Firefox 2, Firefox 3 beta3 and Firefox 3 beta 4.

The tests were done on Windows XP and Linux, using 3 different machines:

Thinkpad T61p Core2 Duo 7500, with 2GB of RAM
Dell Pentium 4 3,4 Ghz, with 1GB of RAM
HP Celeron 2Ghz, with 512 of RAM

Javascript Testing: Results

Those results are an average of the complete 5 times tests.

The results show a 5x to 3x speedup in Javascript performance from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3!

From Firefox 3 beta 3 to Firefox 3 beta 4, the speedup is between 2x and 3x.

I will detail the results for the fastest and the slowest machine on Windows.

Faster machine

Firefox 2 : 15688.1ms
Firefox 3 beta3 : 10016.8ms
Firefox 3 beta4 : 5158.4ms

Speedup : 304%

Slower machine

Firefox 2 : 51456.1ms
Firefox 3 beta3 : 27556.2ms
Firefox 3 beta4 : 10923.8ms

Speedup: 471%

Memory Benchmark: Methodology

On windows XP and Linux, I opened a fresh browser and opened

lemonde.fr
www.nytimes.fr
slashdot.org
pcinpact.com

Then I reclosed the browser and opened many many tabs.

I monitored the stabilized memory consumption.

Memory Benchmark: Results

I wasn't impressed by the results, because I have found that Firefox 3 beta 4 takes around 10% more memory than Firefox2 on Windows and Linux on the first test on the faster machine (56MB vs 50.5MB).

On the second test, with many more tabs, I have found that the memory is usually around the same, but not really better.

On a long way use, I didn't have any huge memleaks with Firefox using 400MB of RAM quite suddenly, but I am working on it to make it do that too :D

Conclusion

Firefox 3 is way faster in Javascript handling, a bit better in memory consumption, (it takes more memory but seems to not leak like a madman) and overall it seems faster to load pages (just a feeling), compared to Firefox 2.

According to my tests, it is faster than IE7/IE8beta1, Opera 9.5 in Javascript performance.

Then GO and USE it.

MacBook install: triple boot: linux, windows, Mac OS

JBK — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:17:00 +0100

This details the installation of a MacBook white, shipped in the beginning of 2008.

Set up Mac OS X

Updates

First before anything, update to the latest MacOS X.5.2, and all the necessary downloads... Reboot as many times as needed

Software

Then, install VLC, Firefox 3 béta, Adium and Xcode if you need it.

Done.

Quite easy, so far, no ?

Install Windows XP

Be sure to have your Windows XP SP2 CD and a legit license number.

Bootcamp

Go to spotlight, look for Boot Camp assistant or find it from your Applications folder.

Run it.

Prepare a disk space for Windows ( 16GB is ok, I think )

Quit and re-run it.

Install Windows with your CD Rom inside.

Reboot and wait during all the Windows installation that is long and needs a couple of reboots. Mine did fail once, for no obvious reasons.

Windows XP

Once you have your complete Windows XP installation, you will see a Boot Camp icon on your task bar. Keep it.

Put the Apple OS X CD-ROM in, and let it do all the installation of the drivers. It may require some reboots, but at the end, you have a very new and completely functional Windows XP!

Reboot

Do your Windows Update and reboot and again, and reboot, and again... Until nothing appears there.

Launch the Boot Camp assistant and Default Mac OS HD

Mac OS again

Reboot to mac OS. Be pleased.

Linux

This should work with any distribution and was tested with Debian and Ubuntu

Resize

Go to Applications/Utils and launch Disk Tool

Split and resize the main partition in order to have a new partition that you name Linux and format in HFS. (16GB here)

Check everything.

Reboot on linux

Put your linux live CD and reboot

Press `C` to boot on the CD

Launch your live-CD and install linux.

Install

During the install I deleted the new partition and added two in place:

One root partition /

One swap 1GB

Finish everything, reboot

You should be careful to install your grub in your linux partition and NOT in the MBR, to let reFit do it correctly.

rEFIt

On Mac OS X, install rEFIt and configure it quite quickly.

Reboot and use rEFIt to boot on linux using the "option" key.

Configure linux

You have all you want working except the wireless... Which is a Broadcom BCM4328

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper-utils-1.9

Find in your Windows partition your wireless drivers:

sudo su

cp -r /media/Windows/WINDOWS/DRVSTORE/bcmwl5_**/ /root/

mv bcmwl5_*** bcmw

cd bcmw

ndiswrapper -i bcmwl5.inf

ndiswrapper -l

ndiswrapper -m

modprobe ndiswrapper

ifconfig

Updates

Uncomment what is needed in your sources.list.

Reboot.

Problems

If you have any issues, like not having the linux partition shown anymore, reinstall grub on your linux partition with a live-CD.

New laptop: MacBook

JBK — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 16:01:00 +0100

A new laptop

I am not used to having a Mac with me, but this time has changed.

For my work on VLC, someone helped the VideoLAN project and gave us some new laptops to improve the Mac OS version. I just got one of those, when I was at the FOSDEM.

Macbook

I have one of the white Macbook, 13.3" with a 2.2Ghz proc and 2Gb of Ram, running Leopard.

I upgraded to X.5.2 and Xcode 3.0. I installed VLC, Adium, FFX 3b3 and removed some Microsoft Office crap.

Impressions

I have very gladly impressed by the product, the finition and the OS X.

However, the keyboard is not that good and the keymap horrible. \ ~ | are more than difficult to produce, and the Terminal is very bad, especially if ou want to achieve pgUp, pgDown, End, Home in VIM, in the Terminal.

Else, it seems to be as good as a Linux DE, and has nice coverflow stuffs, and many tools like SVN installed by default. The background image is ugly but I like the 3D dock.

VLC

more later :D

Linux 2.6.24, Intel 4965

JBK — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:49:00 +0100

New Kernel : 2.6.24

If you are the happy user of a Intel 4965 AGN, rejoice, the new kernel, 2.6.24 is out and has the iwlwifi drivers inside.

Remember to compile it ( Device Drivers, Networking Device Support, Wireless LAN, IEEE802.11, Intel Wireless Wifi Link Drivers in your make menuconfig ), to have the latest µcode .

If you are the owner of a T61p, remember to use the latest NVIDIA that fixes the hotkeys for brightness :D

Installing Windows XP SP3

JBK — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:25:00 +0100

Intro

After the Vista SP1 failure, I switched to my Windows XP to try to update it to Windows XP SP3.

Download

I just went to Microsoft.com and downloaded the file, which is about 340MB.

Running it on my French Windows XP didn't work because of language conflicts.

Cheating French and english

In order to modify the system installed locale language, run regedit, and then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Nls\Language registry key, and then change the value date for “Default” and “InstallLanguage” registry value to “0409“, which represent US English.

In the Control Panel, under the Regional and Language Options, Regional Options and Advanced tabs, change the language to English (US) as default format and language for non-Unicode programs. Click on “OK” when done, and then reboot the system.

Again

Then I re-run the program and it seems to work perfectly.

Reboot, some blabla during a longer than usual startup and it boots perfectly.

Half of my system is in english now, but I so don't care.

However, on start it did asked to reinstall Windows Live Messenger 9 beta... Don't ask me why.

Conclusion

It works perfectly but it doesn't seem to change anything.

Update from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows Vista Ultimate SP1

JBK — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:55:00 +0100

This blogpost will be linear, following my progress of installation:

I did download the SP1 RC from Microsoft Website. This package is around 440MB. It took the French Version because my Vista Version is in French.

As I don't really use Vista at all, this is almost a clean installation of Vista.

Start

Once launched, the exe warns you that you need at least 7Gb of disk (sigh!) and that it can take up to one hour!

After a problem-less process and 15minutes of slider progression, the system reboots.

1st reboot

The start of the computer is a bit longer than usual. The usual 'Updates configuration' screen is shown. And it reboots another time without letting me log in.

2nd reboot

The system reboots for another long start, and yet another 'Updates configuration' screen instead of the login is shown. But then I can log without any problem.

Failure 0x800F0826

And then Vista tells me it couldn't install my computer because error 0x800F0826.

Googling it didn't really helped...

Let's try again. Re-check that my Vista is up to date. Reboot.

Try again

So I restarted the whole process. Reboot. update. Reboot automatically. Updates. Same error.

Conclusion.

I am not a computer illiterate, I have a legit Vista Ultimate Version, I fully made the updates before and follow the process like documented, but it still fails. I could try to read the logs or anything, but I won't. I'll wait for the official release.

Setup a thinkpad T61p: part 1, dual boot XP/Vista

JBK — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:17:00 +0200

Introduction

I will here and in a few future posts explain how to set your computer up. And how to do it correctly.

First part is about using Vista and XP at the same time.

Rescue Disk

Run the thinkvantage Rescue System:

Start, All programs, Thinkvantage, Create Recovery Media.
Do the rescue disk creation. You will need 1 CD-ROM and 2 DVD-ROM

Reinstall

Use the rescue disks to reinstall it, to avoid some crap and to be sure you will be able to do it again, in case you screw something up.

It'll also able you to resize a bit better your NTFS partitions.

Resize the NTFS partition

When you seem to have done the most of the process,

Use gparted or its liveCD to resize your main NTFS partition. I shrinked it to 25GB, but you can do otherwise. You might have some problems rebooting after that resizing. Using a Vista DVD, repairing the computer will fix this.

Vista Boot

Boot your Vista, update Windows, update the Thinkvantage System Update, reboot, reboot, and reboot again. And once more, if you want. :D

In your Management console, that you can find on "Computer>Right click>Manage>Disk Management", create a new NTFS disk for Windows XP. I have given it 10 GB.

There, insert a CD-ROM, and rename the letters of your CD-ROM to E:, and give the D: to your Windows XP partition.

Reboot twice.

Vista steps

Deactivate the message center in your taskbar, Uninstall Norton crap if it is back again, and maybe Diskeeper. Reboot.

Install XP

Enter the BIOS with the F key at boot time. Go to Configuration -> SATA. Change the option from AHCI to Compatibility.

Save. Reboot.

Do it as you do it normally (but way faster than you used to...).

Install the ethernet drivers that you did download previously on lenovo website. Update windows, reboot. Reboot and reboot. Install Graphic drivers. Reboot.

Install Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, VLC media player, 7-zip. Remove MSN, Outlook express. Reboots...

Boot finish

Install VistaBootPro and set it up correctly. Then profit of your computer

Review of Thinkpad T61p

JBK — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 11:19:00 +0200

Introduction

I have just bought a new computer, a Thinkpad T61p, and I will review it here and a bit more on this blog.

I have dealt with T series for some time now, working in Dassault Systemes in Tokyo in an internship where I repaired Thinkpad that were out-of-warranty; but also, when working in VIA Centrale Réseaux, where I negociated Thinkpad contracts for Centrale Paris Students and dealt with all the selling, and some repairing. Therefore I am not a newbie concerning Thinkpad laptops.

Specifications

Core 2 Duo 7500
2 GB of RAM
15,4" WUXGA non-glossy screen (1920x1200)
Geforce Quadro FX570 256MB (Can use up to 1 GB)
HD, DVD writer, keyboard, etc...
Fingerprint reader
Media Card reader.
Bluetooth, Wifi a/b/g/n. Ethernet 1000
Windows Vista Ultimate ( yeah, I know... :'( )

First hardware impressions.

External

The 16/10 screen make the laptop more wide than usual, but thinner.
The quality of the whole computer is good, even if there is more plastic than before, and it seems still very resistant :D
The link between the screen and the laptop is still in metal, and not in plastic like other computers...

News (for me)

Older thinkpad used to have 2USB, they got a third one !
The Firewire port is very discrete.
The on/off wifi button is quite nice.
The card reader is very discrete too, compared to other laptops and external card readers... However, I am not sure it reads my old SD Cards, yet
Fingerprint is a gadget to me, but might be cool to geek it on Linux :D

Cons

Still no DVI, but a VGA port...

First Start

Woaouw effect

Gosh, the screen is not great, it is awesome, I have hardly seen a higher quality screen. It is the LG/Philips version, and not the Samsung one, for those who wander (Two different screens exists on T61p, the samsung one is supposed to suxx). There are no light leaking, and the precision of 1920x1200 is great. And no, it is NOT too small...

Under Vista, it shows in a very good shape and the graphic card has some good results in games.

Moreover the screen seems to be very well calibrated.

Windows Vista.

Well, windows Vista seems prettier than XP. But slow as hell. I guess I will reinstall it soon.

There is not so much crap on it, except some Norton and Office trial. Some thinkvantage applications might go away, but that is fine.

The computer did not need many restarts to be usable and I had a 4.8 Score in the Vista Performance Center. The graphic card scored a 5.9 under the performance thing. Woauw. Too bad I won't play games. :D

Rescue

There is a lot of rescue and save your data programs in the thinkvantage thing. I'll see what I will remove, because of the hidden partition, when I will install Linux. And I did recreate the rescue Disks.

Next time, I'll install GNU/Linux on it.

Migration time - Ubuntu-debian

JBK — Sun, 13 May 2007 17:43:00 +0200

This is just a post to tell the results of debian and ubuntu machines migrations.

Debian's update are not so perfect, and Ubuntu's update are worse.

Debian and Ubuntu migrations

Spring has begun a few weeks ago and the big migration time started during april.

GNU/Linux Debian etch 4.0 was out early April and Ubuntu (GNU/Linux too, even if they don't admit it :D) too with feisty 7.04 version.

I had to migrate a few machines. I am not what you can call a n00b about linux ( and debian ) administration...

Ubuntu

I had four machines to migrate (mostly my family's computers). Three were running edgy (6.10), and the last one was still running dapper (6.06).

Edgy

Well, I tried to migrate those with the GUI thing. One achieved it. The two other failed to launch. So I migrate those with the terminal ( that was the most natural thing to do for me... ).

Results Well, the one I migrated with the GUI just rebooted did not have any wifi. A bit of /etc/network/interfaces tweaking did the trick.

The other one did not had any X. ATI drivers failure or something... It took a bit longer to make it work... But definitively, my sister wouldn't have been able to do it.

The final one did not want to boot at all... grub tweaking, updates and kernel modules updates but finally it went correctly. Not so difficult after all.

Dapper

Come on! That was a complete failure. I know I shouldn't update from dapper to feisty but still... Complete failure

Debian

Sarge

I had three different machines to migrate.

Nothing important to notice on the servers (mainly except postfix and nut).

The desktop one was a bit trickier, especially, X.org configuration and GNOME setup. Grub was fun, as usual... But well, not so difficult.

Comment retrouver ses données en plus de 30 secondes !!!

JBK — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 13:38:00 +0100

For english readers How I bought a very similar Hard drive and exchange electronic components between the disks to get my data back !

Bon, la dernière fois , j'avais perdu toutes mes données sur un crash de PC.

J'avais donc perdu

Mon disque principal (Mail, Documents, Systèmes, Projets en cours...)
Mon disque de backup
Mon disque de photo avait des erreurs...

Bref, en gros, plus de mail, plus de contacts, plus de documents, et presque plus de photos.

Et mon disque principal ne s'alimentait plus, il était grillé !

Un nouveau disque dur.

Grâce à eBay, j'ai retrouvé, grâce à mon ami Prof, un disque dur dont les caractéristiques techniques étaient identiques, et les numéros de séries, les PCB et le WDM très proches!

Quelques jours plus tard, après un retard de la poste ( sigh ! :D), mon nouveau disque arrive à la maison.

Réparation

L'opération la plus dure, fut de démonter les deux parties électroniques, de les interchanger et de les remonter inversées, de resouder les disques et de rebrancher tout dans le bon ordre .

Et ça a marché, je suis trop content. J'ai tout de suite allumé mon graveur pour refaire des sauvegardes plus récentes que les dernières et j'ai presque tout récupéré!

Comment perdre toutes ses données en moins de 30 secondes.

JBK — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 14:48:00 +0100

Accident

Bon, alors, hier soir, je ne me méfiais pas, je travaillais tranquillement sur mon ordinateur, comme souvent le soir...

L'air de rien, tout allait bien, modération des forums, des mailing-lists et autre début de code pour VLC media player et là...

Explosion de mon alimentation de mon PC, avec un petit flash vert des plus esthétiques, il faut l'avouer, mais pas très agréable.

Dégats

Rédémarrage de la machine, mes disques durs ne sont pas détectés... Plus aucun accès à mes données.

Pas très grave, sauf que mon disque de backup, le deuxième a pris la même décharge et ne redémarre pas non plus... Je me trouve donc sans données, sans ordi pour quelques jours. Sympa, non ?

Et puis il me reste mon disque de 60Go qui marche encore, en plus de mon disque dur externe, alors on va essayer de réparer cela.