Mike Galbrait's patch on Maverick, how to

You probably already heard of now famous ~200 lines patch for linux kernel by Mike Galbrait. Continuing Con Kolivas saga somewhat more successfully in terms of acceptance into mainline kernel. The patch, albeit only around 200 lines of C code, shows remarkable increase in desktop responsiveness. If you don't know what i'm talking about, check out Phoronix article about the patch. They even have videos showing off the difference.
Today i'll show you how to bring this marvelous patch on to your own Ubuntu desktop. We are not going to compile anything. We are going to use Ubuntu Natty kernel package that has the patch applied by nice folks at Canonical.


1. Download kernel package 
Go to packages.ubuntu.com and search for linux-image. It's a virtual package providing list of actual kernel packages. Choose the latest. At time of this writing it's linux-image-2.6.37-7-generic. At the bottom of the page you'll find download links. Choose you architecture, mirror and download the package. 


2. Installation
Double click on downloaded package and choose Install.
sudo dpkg -i <package name> should work just fine too.


3. Reboot


That's it folks! You should be running the new kernel now.
If you want to be sure. Open up terminal and run uname -r. I got 2.6.37-7-generic which is the kernel i downloaded and installed.
Also, check with the kernel that we indeed running the new feature.


$ sysctl kernel.sched_autogroup_enabled
kernel.sched_autogroup_enabled = 1


Enjoy low latency desktop :)

IBM is back to browser discrimination with its new Integrated Management Module(IMM)

Recently we bought several IBM System x3550 M2 servers. And as we found out, they come a with new and "upgraded" RSA. They call it IMM(Integrated Management Module) now. It seems to be a bit more advanced than previous RSA II.

I have had enough problems with old RSA cards from IBM not supporting anything but Internet Explorer for most useful features like remote console or remote mount. Luckily it was fixed over the years. With new IMM, it seems, we are back to the dark ages again. I can't even login to the IMM from my Ubunut(Firefox/Chrome). The only thing that works is IE or Firefox from Windows.

Everything is up to date. May be that's exactly the "problem", though. I had to downgrade Java runtime once to accommodate IBM's RSA software. But it's not the case with the new software. It's riddled with javascript errors.

We have some pressure from above to move to a cheaper hardware(Dell?). So now it's minus one argument for IBM. And this is a really big disappointment.

Well done, IBM, well done.

Who is Eve or where Yahoo! delivers our mail?

Update: As redbeard has commented "'ok dirdel' is just short of 'OK received for direct delivery' i.e. not delivery by relay.", below is just an exercise in conspiracy theory. Proceed at your own risk.

Recently i was involved in some mail system configuration. Besides all the usual mail this particular server used to send newsletters on a weekly basis. Not a lot, but enough to be blocked by creations like Hotmail and Yahoo.

While watching server logs i noticed that Yahoo always say "250 ok dirdel" when accepting mail for delivery. At first i thought it's some kind of a joke left by Yahoo sysadmin. Subtle reference to "delete directory"? But that didn't make much sense. I don't like missing a joke, especially a technical one.

Quick search got me Yahoo Mail Help. Which states at the very end:

"If you do not see these or similar error messages, you should see an SMTP confirmation code similar to "250 ok dirdel" that indicates your message has been delivered."

Once i finished reading the sentence it hit me. There is a pattern!

d i r
e v e
l e d

delivered

I call it a sandwich :)

It seems to me, that "dirdel" is more then just a general randomness of life.
Hence the question: Who is Eve and where does Yahoo! deliver our mail?