Monday, October 28, 2013

Fun with EXCON

I took a bit of time to revisit a fun script I wrote some time back.  I felt it was time to improve on this and build a full parser and encoder using TCL.  Scripting is such a great way of manipulating and playing around with strings.  TCL is my natural choice at the moment.  So the final script I ended up is this.

This will accept a file path and attempt to read the contents.  It will print the output on stdout and can read a long list of EXCON instructions or encode ASCII text into EXCON.  One note on the parser code (which is just the old script).  It will always clear the binary buffer after every line.  The script also does not support the fancy ! instruction call to simply print out the binary value in the buffer by the previous command.

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Open Source Radeon Drivers and Power Management

Just a quick note here.  I switched to the open source drivers for the multiple monitors but along with that, my battery life had been slashed by one half.  I used to get approximately 4 hours of life from the fglrx driver and now I have barely 2 hours.  Sad, but the big desktop is more important to me at the moment.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Error 207 (net::ERR_CERT_INVALID): Unknown error

Last night, I came across a curious issue with secure http connections to Google products on Chrome using my Vista laptop.  I could surf normally, but it would always go crazy when it'd go secure.  Researching online a bit for the issue, I've found that there are various causes for this.

The most common cause of this issue is the system date/time.  People advise to configure your date/time and timezone and sync it to time.windows.com.  I checked mine but it was already correct, so I kept looking.

Some of the other solutions being thrown around were clearing browser cache, playing with the SSL/TLS options on Google Chrome (via Under the Hood).  One serious suggestion was virus infections and a tampered hosts file (e.g. C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts), but I checked and there was nothing wrong with the file.

At the end of it, I found that Google, at one point, posted a note saying they fixed a browser bug, so I decided to update my browser.  Lo and behold, it fixed my issues.  But that doesn't mean it's the be all and all solution.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Done! Goodbye fglrx!

In short, I've given up on AMD's drivers.  I waited as long as I could but there is just no improvement.  The notes here details on how I got rid of the fglrx and switched to open source.

Basically, I followed the instructions from this article for removing.  I did not however perform the steps to reinstall the open source drivers from there.  I ran the software sources application and clicked on the open source drivers, applying the changes and letting it reinstall the packages.  Then, I deleted xorg.conf and rebooted.

Voila!  Multiple monitors are back!

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

I'm ditching fglrx

After months and months of using this piece of sh*t driver.  I've decided that when I do get a bulk of time to sort this out.  I'm going to switch back to the open source drivers.  Having a big desktop is more important than the power saving stupidity I'll suffer from with the open source radeon drivers.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Revisiting fglrx and multi-monitor setup on Ubuntu 13.04

I really hate that multi-monitor is broken for muxless AMD/Intel hybrid laptops on 13.04.  I've gotten all the way to the latest 13.11 beta and the problems remain.  However, I did uncover some interesting things.

The desktop display options have always been conspicuously absent on amdcccle.  It seems to have been caused by the RandR 1.2 extensions being enabled.  According to this link and this link, it seems I have to disable RandR from xorg and amd's own config file.  One day, I will get to try it on my own.
  1. Edit /etc/ati/amdpcsdb and add EnableRandR12=Sfalse on the [AMDPCSROOT/SYSTEM/DDX] section.
  2. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add Option "EnableRandR12" "false" on "Device" section.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Playing Sims 3 on Origin Offline

I'll keep this brief.  I lost my internet connectivity all morning and thought it was a good time to test Origin and Sims 3.  All that I've seen online suggests that Sims 3 will only work online due to Origin's insistence of logging in when running the game.  So when I ran Origin, it gave me a login window and a note that Origin was not available (due to the internet).  I logged in anyway, and then Origin went to my library but also setting the client to Offline mode.  I was able to launch Sims 3 and Mass Effect 2 like this without issues.

A small note on Mass Effect... you will not be able to connect to the Cerberus Network.  You will get an error message but you'll be able to load your save just fine.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

F You EA...

Once upon a time, I chuckled over the news that Electronic Arts was named 'Worst Company' by Consumerist Readers for a second year in a row. Over blown? At the time, I would think so, yes. My first hand experience leads me to believe that there's more truth to this than I originally expected.

This all started with me downloading Mass Effect 2 on Origin Games. The game started without much issues but when I attempted to register the product code to BioWare's social community website, the code was rejected. Not much of a big deal, but I figured I could slip in a ticket to see if EA could lend some assistance while I plow through the game. Looking back, I probably should never have.

EA did come back with a response and after a few back and forth response and some verification questions answered, they supplied me with a new product code that BioWare's site happily accepted. What I did not realize was that they had added another copy of Mass Effect 2 in my Origin account. What's the big deal? Lots.

This new copy was wrecking havoc with the license activation in my laptop. When I launch the game, I am greeted with this "Invalid License Reason Code = Invalid Cipher (0x0006)". Well, isn't that nice?

I scoured the web for solutions. I also reopened my ticket with EA pertaining to this issue and the only thing they did was delete the ticket. Yes. Delete. Gone. Needless to say, I was infuriated by their actions and submitted another ticket. That one did not fare any better as EA just decided to close the ticket with an empty promise of coming back to me with 'expert' assistance.

I've found out that EA holds its license files at C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\*.dlf.  I've tried deleting the dlf file and repairing install but to no avail.  I also went through the trouble of redownloading the game which failed to make any difference.  Finally, I had a eureka moment when I realized I was doing all this hullabaloo with the new and faulty Mass Effect 2 copy.

I shut down Origin.  I deleted the dlf file.  Turned Origin back on and then used the old Mass Effect 2 game and repaired the install.  It threw a couple of errors a couple of times before finally working.  The game downloaded an additional 60 MB of which I have no idea what they are.  Then, the game started.

No thanks, EA.  Your help site is convoluted and crappy.  Your assistance broke more than fixed things.  I... FIXED my problem.