Present Perfect

We'd been getting a long for a while, but now I'm just really confused again.

Since a while, my home machine boots up setting its own IP address as the default gateway. I have no idea why.

After poking at it for the nth time, I noticed that choosing 'Auto Ethernet' works (gets IP and gateway from DHCP) and 'System eth0' does not.

Here's the message spew for the working one:

Feb 23 17:39:56 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 8 -> 3
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): deactivating device (reason: 0).
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana NetworkManager: check_one_route(): (eth0) error -34 returned from rtnl_route_del(): Sucess#012
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.12 on eth0.
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.12.
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Interface eth0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Feb 23 17:39:56 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) starting connection 'Auto Ethernet'
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 3 -> 4
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 4 -> 5
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 5 -> 7
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Beginning DHCP transaction.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: dhclient started with pid 5969
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client 4.0.0
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: Copyright 2004-2007 Internet Systems Consortium.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: All rights reserved.
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient:
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana NetworkManager: DHCP: device eth0 state changed normal exit -> preinit
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: Listening on LPF/eth0/00:1d:7d:04:a2:74
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: Sending on LPF/eth0/00:1d:7d:04:a2:74
Feb 23 17:39:57 ana dhclient: Sending on Socket/fallback
Feb 23 17:39:58 ana ntpd[2930]: Deleting interface #12 eth0, 192.168.1.12#123, interface stats: received=0, sent=4, dropped=0, active_time=38 secs
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana dhclient: DHCPDISCOVER on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 8
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana dhclient: DHCPOFFER from 192.168.1.1
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana dhclient: DHCPREQUEST on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana dhclient: DHCPACK from 192.168.1.1
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana dhclient: bound to 192.168.1.12 -- renewal in 9409 seconds.
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: DHCP: device eth0 state changed preinit -> bound
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) started...
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: address 192.168.1.12
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: prefix 24 (255.255.255.0)
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: gateway 192.168.1.254
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: nameserver '192.168.1.1'
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: nameserver '157.193.40.42'
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: domain name 'amantes'
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.12.
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Feb 23 17:40:00 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.12 on eth0.IPv4.
Feb 23 17:40:01 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 7 -> 8
Feb 23 17:40:01 ana NetworkManager: Policy set 'Auto Ethernet' (eth0) as default for routing and DNS.
Feb 23 17:40:01 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) successful, device activated.
Feb 23 17:40:01 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:01 ana ntpd[2930]: Listening on interface #13 eth0, 192.168.1.12#123 Enabled

And the spew for System eth0, the non-working one:

Feb 23 17:40:11 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 8 -> 3
Feb 23 17:40:11 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): deactivating device (reason: 0).
Feb 23 17:40:11 ana NetworkManager: eth0: canceled DHCP transaction, dhcp client pid 5969
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: check_one_route(): (eth0) error -34 returned from rtnl_route_del(): Sucess#012
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Withdrawing address record for 192.168.1.12 on eth0.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) starting connection 'System eth0'
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 3 -> 4
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) started...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 1 of 5 (Device Prepare) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) starting...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 4 -> 5
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) successful.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Leaving mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.12.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) scheduled.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 2 of 5 (Device Configure) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) started...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 5 -> 7
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 3 of 5 (IP Configure Start) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) started...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) scheduled...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 4 of 5 (IP Configure Get) complete.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) started...
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Interface eth0.IPv4 no longer relevant for mDNS.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface eth0.IPv4 with address 192.168.1.12.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: New relevant interface eth0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Feb 23 17:40:13 ana avahi-daemon[3122]: Registering new address record for 192.168.1.12 on eth0.IPv4.
Feb 23 17:40:14 ana NetworkManager: (eth0): device state change: 7 -> 8
Feb 23 17:40:14 ana NetworkManager: Policy set 'System eth0' (eth0) as default for routing and DNS.
Feb 23 17:40:14 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) successful, device activated.
Feb 23 17:40:14 ana NetworkManager: Activation (eth0) Stage 5 of 5 (IP Configure Commit) complete.

I had never actually tried to make sense of what Auto Ethernet and System eth0 mean and why you would want to choose one over the other (major usability fail to allow the user to choose between two seemingly meaningless options). It seems that, when I configure connections, I can actually see System eth0 to be configured with that fixed gateway of 192.168.1.12, but everything's grayed out, and according to NetworkManager I 'never' used the profile, which is of course a lie.

But at least I can now go on and browse some text config files for that gateway.

Anyone know what System eth0 actually is ? According to some posts it looks like a config that NetworkManager automatically generates the first time it runs.

We'd been getting a long for a while, but now I'm just really confused again. Since a while, my home machine boots up setting its own IP address as the...

At FOSDEM I was hacking a little on a script called Quicktile which seems to be a handy tool for window placement. More on that later, but one of the things that makes it useful is that you can have it listen to certain key combos and react on them for window placement.

Except that, both on my T61 Lenovo laptop and my Logitech Wave keyboard, the shortcuts you're supposed to use (Ctrl-Alt-Keypad numbers) don't actually work.

Since I've always been scared about the way keyboards are handled in Linux I never took the time to learn and am now thoroughly confused by all the layers involved. Raw, cooked, kernel, console, X, xcb, keyboard mappings, ...

So, simple question to all you knowledgeable hackers - if my Gnome Keyboard Shortcuts preferences applet behaves like this, in combination with ctrl-alt:

• 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9 are dead
• 5 and 0 act like Escape (abort)
• Enter is correctly recognized as KP Enter
• All others (., /, *, -, +) are dead too

- then what is wrong, what should I reconfigure, or what should I do to get all my keypad keys recognized ?

Interestingly, my Thinkpad behaves much the same, except that it lacks a Keypad Enter, but the main Enter button is recognized as a KP Enter.

UPDATE: Jan pointed me in the right direction apparently this is due to the mousekeys function, which hijacks your numeric keypad to let you move the mouse pointer using the keyboard.

I had no idea this existed, and I honestly still don't know if I should be feeling mentally violated for having my interpretation of NumLock thus subverted, or whether I just discovered a supercool feature that would have helped me out in so many cases in the past where the mouse for some reason didn't work. Ah, the agony of having choice!

I'll try it out on my Thinkpad tomorrow.

At FOSDEM I was hacking a little on a script called Quicktile which seems to be a handy tool for window placement. More on that later, but one of the...

I ordered some shoes on Tuesday from a store in London (I had bought a blue pair on sale in Barcelona, and went looking on the net for other colors). The store they originally came from, S***R-LONDON, had that model in grey, also on sale. around 40 euros shipping included.

I ordered them, got a mail within 5 minutes saying the order was received and the next morning that the shoes had left the building. The mail gave me a tracking link and the link said I would have the shoes today. Yeah, right, I thought.

Five minutes ago the doorbell rang. My shoes are there, delivered by a hasty UPS man. (He actually gave me two packages - the other one was the hard drive from my dad's hard drive recovery process, a drive that had gone to Spain and back even though the company seems Belgian - but that's a different post).

I open the package, inspect, everything's fine. I go back to sit at my computer, and one minute later a mail arrives from the shoe company saying that their records show that the order has been delivered. Should I be checking my building for planted wires ? The mail includes a link to use in case I'm somehow unhappy with the delivery.

I think I'm going to use that link now to say how impressed I am.

I ordered some shoes on Tuesday from a store in London (I had bought a blue pair on sale in Barcelona, and went looking on the net for other colors)....

1) I run into Jan in the bathroom (we used to work together). After a subdued 'Hi, how are you?' we finish our business, and go outside. Jan says 'OK, now we can hug!' Hugging ensues. I ask 'so you couldn't hug me in the bathroom just before ?' 'Nah, that would just have been awkward.'

2) Lennart, after he makes the obligatory inapropriate Belgian/children jokes, tells us the only joke he knows, then messes up the ending. If you meet him, ask him about crocodiles and male appendages. He tried to make up for it by telling his mother's favourite joke but I'm not sure I got it.

3)
Me: "Hey Jan, I have this patch I want you to look at before commiting to gst-plugins-good."
Jan: "Well, that's too bad, we're frozen for release for good."
Me: "Frozen for good ? You bastard, so I'll never get to commit my patch ?"
Maintaining GStreamer has gone to his head, I tell you.

1) I run into Jan in the bathroom (we used to work together). After a subdued 'Hi, how are you?' we finish our business, and go outside. Jan says 'OK,...

It went a little something like this.

I wrote a mail to our internal mailing list saying 'if anyone's coming to FOSDEM, I invite you to my place and I'll make moules frites for you.'

I was expecting, oh, I don't know, maybe four or five people.

After that, Pierre, our development manager started negotiating with our CEO to invite all the developers to FOSDEM. And he succeeded. And then the support team wanted to come too.

The result is now there are 14 people coming over for mussels and fries tonight.

This is what 14 kilos of mussels and 7.5 kilos of potatoes look like before preparing.

By the way, if you like mussels, you like programming (especially Python), and you like Barcelona, we are hiring again. (Actually, we also hire people that don't like mussels). You can also come talk to anyone on our team if you happen to be at FOSDEM so you don't have to take my word for how awesome working at Flumotion is. You should be able to recognize them by their shirts.

It went a little something like this. I wrote a mail to our internal mailing list saying 'if anyone's coming to FOSDEM, I invite you to my place and I'll...