# Grouch OCC prep 

## Hardware

Grouch[1] with the following additional hardware:

IDE
* 8Gb CF card with IDE to CF adapter (found to be faulty so added PCI
  SCSI controller and SCSI HDD)

PCI
* Matrox Millenium G450 GFX (replaced with Nvidia GeForce FX 5200)
* Realtek 8139C generic 10/100NIC (replaced with Netgear 10/100)
* Belkin USB 2.0 card (USB header on motherboard doesn't work)
* SCSI controller (added after CF card found to be faulty)

ISA
* Soundblaster AWE 64 ISA sound card (removed as caused hang in X)


## Software

* vim
* ratpoison
* urxvt (missing terminfo on NetBSD)
* gopher (crashes in X on OpenBSD)
* lynx (SSL error: unable to get local issuer cert .. NetBSD)
* mpg123 (never used this befoe but moc looks ugly out of the box)
* git
* mutt (compiled without sidebar on NetBSD)
* xnotify 



## Software configuration and optimisations

### Fixed size fonts 

This may sound bizarre but it was actually the biggest single
usability improvement I made. When I installed X it seemed usable but
after I copied my .Xresources file over from my other system, which
included xft:dejavu sans mono with antialias things really did start
to chug and I didn't realize the issue straight away so persevered
with it. That was until I was chatting on IRC and the annoyance of
watching each line shuffling up the screen like a caterpillar became 
too much to bear!

.Xresources 

    URxvt.termName: rxvt
    URxvt.cursorUnderline:                false
    URxvt.cursorBlink:                    true
    URxvt.font:                  x:9x15,xft:FontAwesome:style=Regular
    URxvt.boltFont:              x:9x15B,xft:FontAwesome:style=Bold
    URxvt.scrollBar:                      false 

    ! map ctrl+shift+c/ctrl+shift+v to copy/paste
    URxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-V:         eval:paste_clipboard
    URxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-C:         eval:selection_to_clipboard

    URxvt.perl-ext-common: default,matcher
    URxvt.matcher.button: 2
    URxvt.matcher.launcher: pj $0
    URxvt.matcher.pattern.1: \\b(gophers?\\:\\/\\/\\S+)\\b
    URxvt.matcher.launcher.1: pj $1
    URxvt.keysym.Mod1-Shift-M: perl:matcher:list


### urxvt in daemon mode (urxvtd + urxvtc)

This improves the speed of launching new terminal instances maybe at
the expense of stability, not that I have noticed any issues.
To facilitate this I started the daemon in .xinitrc and then exited
it again with a hook in .ratpoisonrc. As long as you :quit ratpoison
properly then it will kill urxvtd.


.xsession:

    xrdb ~/.Xresources
    setxkbmap -option caps:escape
    urxvtd &
    ratpoison


I was a bit annoyed that I had to specify the keymap again after
setting it up during the NetBSD install. On OpenBSD it works
correctly for both terminal and x.  Also terminfo was not configured
for urxvt and I had weird colour issues that I didn't have on OpenBSD
, even after following the recommendation to 'export TERM=rxvt'.


.ratpoisonrc:

    bind c exec /usr/pkg/bin/urxvtc
    addhook quit exec pkill urxvtd
    set fgcolor orange
    set bgcolor black
    set barinpadding 1
    set padding 0 20 0 0
    set msgwait 0
    set startupmessage 0
    set winliststyle row


## Conclusion

There are annoyances with both NetBSD and OpenBSD.

OpenBSD:
    1) Really slow bootup due to relinking (fixed by modifying
    /var/db/kernel.SHA456 - make last hash char a comment)
    2) X doesn't launch properly and I have to switch between VT 1
    and VT 5 each time I launch it to be able to see the DM. (fixed
    by changing GFX card)
    3) Sometimes the DM shows corrupted fonts and the cursor as a big
    square fuzzy block (HW conflict?). (fixed by changing GFX card)
    4) Annoyingly displays console log on DM and then again when you
    start the WM. (fixed by editing /etc/X11/xenodm/Xsetup_0)

NetBSD:
    1) set hostname but on reboot back to localhost
    2) Similar corruption of fonts sometimes when launching X
    3) missing certs in lynx
    4) mutt compiled without sidebar
    5) No proper termcap for urxvt
    6) After specifying dvorak keymap on install, I had to add it to
    .xinitrc as for some reason it went back to qwerty 
    

Currently I'm not sure whether to go back to OpenBSD. I was expecting
performance of NetBSD to be a lot better but it's actually not...
Just the lengthy post boot relinking annoyance and the having to
switch back and forth between VT's to get X to display are the main
concerns to switching back.


## Update 8/7/2023

I reverted back to OpenBSD and have managed to resolve the previously
mentioned issues. Fixes have been listed above next to the issue.
Unfortunately I discovered another issue which was that the ISA sound
card would hard hang the system if I tried to use it while in X. For
some reason it was fine using it from the terminal but once X was
started it would cause it to hang. I tried removing all the other
cards and also using different GFX cards but to no avail.

Unfortunately this meant that I now needed a free PCI card for sound,
as I didn't have another ISA card, and I didn't have one due to
having to us a PCI SCSI controller because of the faulty CF card...


## Update 9/7/2023

I had to make a call between going the week without sound or buying a
replacement CF card so that I could revert to IDE and free up the PCI
slot currently occupied by the SCSI controller.
CF cards are expensive for the capacity so I was reluctant to buy one
but it actually seemed like the only sensible option. I had already
made the decision to sell off my SCSI drives and cards. Continuing to
use them was just adding to my procrastination over selling them.


## Update 10/7/2023

It was late in the day when the replacement CF card arrived but
arrive it did so I set to work. First I wiped the old CF card and a
small IDE drive I'd used to check if there was a problem with the IDE
controller. I fitted the new CF card and attempted to start up the
machine but it was a no-go. The bios seemed to recognize the card as
an ATA device but at that point it hung and would proceed no further.
I tried reconnecting it and restarting the machine a few times to be
sure but it wasn't going to work.

I conceded that I would have to do the challenge using the SCSI
subsystem so I reconfigured it to boot from that. While in the
process I remembered I had an external USB sound card. It certainly
wouldn't hurt any to give it a try. I was surprised that OpenBSD
recognized the card on boot and on testing I was able to play sound.
This meant I wouldn't have to do the challenge without audio; some
small relief.


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