I've been rebuilding this old home-entertainment web-server that I built almost 10 years ago. I originally did it on a windows machine, and I just recently started trying to resurrect it under linux. I had the whole thing backed up on an external USB 1TB drive. Pulled the HDD out of the enclosure, and put it in the new server.

Problem #1: USB drive is NTFS. Linux can handle NTFS, but permissions get screwy and there's some overhead that slows down disk access. So I figure I should back it up, reformat it ext4, restore it, etc. And so long as I'm doing all that, may as well do it proper. Create an LVG, move /var, /opt, /home, and /usr each into their own LVs.

Problem #2: (arguably a bigger problem) I wrote the old server. No, seriously, re-read that, because I really do mean that one of the biggest problems with it is that it was written by me. I didn't write the server daemon itself, of course, but I designed the MySQL database, I wrote the PHP to do the queries and dynamically generate the pages, etc, etc... This can be subdivided into multiple problems. For one, it was PHP4. PHP4 has long since been fed to the dogs, and for many reasons besides just the dogs were hungry. For another, I didn't speak PHP... I was just teaching myself as I was writing it. With PHP4. So yeah. Sloppy coding from a total novice using a problematic language.

Guess how I tackled the task of trying to bring it all back to life?

Screw it, I put WinXP in a VM, loaded the old server, took screenshots of the interface so I had pictures to remind me of the look I wanted, and then...

I started writing the whole thing over from the ground up. Completely new database design (the original one was... Uuuumm... [insert-every-disapproving-adjective-simon-cowell-ever-used-on-american-idol] to keep the tables more manageable and speed up queries. Caching. This server will never have any need for caching, but damnit, I'm going to write those routines anyway.)

The frontend is about 85% complete. Backend probably around 65%. Depends on how you chew it, I factor... Backend is fully functional, which would put it at 99 or 100, but what with taking my re-design ideas into account, I have to honestly step that back. Backend is great "as-is", but "as-is" just isn't.
Still tossing ideas around in my head on how to structure the SQL database.

So let's talk about solving problem #1......

The last part, where I thunk (yes, I still insist 'thunk' is valid as a past-tense of 'think'. I know the word 'thought' exists, but sometimes, in retrospect, your rear-view gets clearer, and some 'thunks' don't legitimately qualify as 'thoughts'. After much discussion, I actually got my English professor to agree that our language needs a distinct word like 'thunk'. It can just be a homonym of the other onomatopoeia 'thunk')

OK... I'm not a COMPLETE idiot [fake edit: yes I am], I realize that I can't make the kinds of modifications to a live system with active disks. But that's cool, because I've got this thumbdrive that I made bootable with a basic command-line-only-runlevel-1.

I boot from the bare-bones thumb-drive, delete the NTFS partition, and start trying to create the logical volumes.

Guess what again?

Ubuntu by default doesn't have support for LVM.

No sweat, sudo apt-get install lvm2

Then:
$ sudo pvcreate /dev/sdb1
$ sudo vgcreate foxvg /dev/sdb1
$ sudo lvcreate -L 256G -n lvvar foxvg
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/foxvg-lvvar

etc, etc, etc.....

Remember how I said I booted from a LiveUSB? I did that for a reason.....

The drive normally used isn't active. It's probably mostly safe to copy var from an active drive if you drop to runlevel 1, but me? No. I'm just a little too cautious maybe. I don't want that drive in use at all.

I copy /var/. to the lvvar LV:

# mkdir -p /media/lvs/myvardir
# mount /dev/foxvg/lvvar /media/lvs/myvardir
# cd /media/lvs/myvardir
# cp -aRP /var/. .

I rename the old /var directory:

mv /var /var.wtf

I edit the /etc/fstab to add:

/dev/foxvg/lvvar /var/ default 0 1

I reboot, and....

....

......

Totally dead system.

Anyone care to hazard why how or wtf?

[edit:]
Remember again how I said I booted from a LiveUSB?
And remember how I mentioned that ubuntu doesn't support LVMs by default?

And I had to install lvm2?

Yeah... That worked out great.... But only for that liveboot session. Active load still didn't have support.

sudo apt-get install lvm2

sudo shutdown -r now

Everything is shiny.

[edit:]
I have no idea how my plymouth splash fixed itself while I was doing this, but I'm not going to argue with it.

What was that?

[A spaceship has just landed on earth. An extraterrestrial robot steps out of the spaceship...]
"I come in peace", it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, "Take me to your Lizard."

Ford Prefect, of course, had an explanation for this, as he sat with Arthur and watched the nonstop frenetic news reports on television, none of which had anything to say other than to record that the thing had done this amount of damage which was valued at that amount of billions of pounds and had killed this totally other number of people, and then say it again, because the robot was doing nothing more than standing there, swaying very slightly, and emitting short incomprehensible error messages.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "Nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "Why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "Of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "Why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "The wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?"

"What?"

"I said," said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, "Have you got any gin?"

"I'll look. Tell me about the lizards."

Ford shrugged again.

"Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them," he said. "They're completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, But someone's got to say it."

The two-party system, as described by Lewis Carroll

---

"I weep for you" the Walrus said, "I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out those of the largest size.

---

"I like the walrus best." said Alice.

"Because I think he felt at least a little bit sorry for the poor oysters, unlike that greedy carpenter."

"But the walrus ate more of the oysters than the carpenter did." said Tweedledee. "He held his handkerchief in front of his mouth to hide how many he was eating, so the carpenter couldn't count them."

"That was rather unfair of him!", she exclaimed. "Not to mention rude, and despicably mean to the oysters. In that case, I like the carpenter best since he didn't eat as many as the walrus."

"But he ate as many of them as he could." noted Tweedledum. "Every single oyster the walrus left, he took."

"Well!" said Alice, clearly puzzled and disturbed by the whole story. "They were both very unpleasant characters and I don't like either of them."

Magnolia Cemetery.

I might get around to updating this post with more description and backstory later, or I might not. Either way, here are some pictures.

-=[ Note: ]=-

Yes, I realize I tagged this post with the label 'Graveyard' when it's actually a cemetery.
And yes, I do know the difference.

I maintain that the existence of a church is debatable, and I didn't see any compelling reason to create a separate label.

Get over it.

I stopped on my way home from work to take some photos in the nearby Magnolia Cemetery

Magnolia Cemetery

Link goes to sciway.net website.

(page will open in new tab/window)

.

It wasn't really the best time of day for most of the photos, Shadows have a habit of falling wherever the sun puts them. And even if I were using a more professional-grade camera than this Kodak, you still have to contend with the lack of talent on the part of the photographer. Even the best equipment and conditions can't overcome that limitation.

Heck, I don't even remember how to use half the settings on the consumer-grade Kodak most of the time, so I can't really fault the time-of-day.

And the quality of the camera probably works in my favor -- Higher-end cameras tend to be less forgiving, and would likely make my ineptitude easier to spot (or at least, harder to ignore). Besides, I like this little Kodak.

But here be the pictures, in any case.

The Bethany and St. Lawrence Cemeteries adjoin Magnolia, and I couldn't help wandering into those also so the photos are really from all three.

Magnolia Cemetery was founded in 1849 on the Western bank of the

Cooper River

Cooper River

View from the Eastern bank
at the Mepkin Abbey garden

, a short distance Northward from what is now called the 'historic district' of Charleston SC.

It is still an active cemetery containing ~35,000 graves, tombs, and mausoleums, covering ~130 acres with ~50 acres set aside for new graves.

Fourteen of the signatories to the original Ordinance of Secession are interred here, among other notable historic figures such as former governors, senators, cabinet members, etc.

It is (unsurprisingly, given the location) the final resting spot of over 2,000 soldiers from the War for Southern Independence, including at least five Confederate

Generals

James Conner, Micah Jenkins, Arthur Manigault, Roswell Ripley, and C.H. Stevens

.

Horace L. Hunley, the engineer who designed the earliest submarines used in wartime, was buried here on Nov 8, 1863, with full military honors.

Fittingly, Lieutenant George E. Dixon, the Commander of the submarine CSS H.L. Hunley, was buried here in 2004 with the seven other

crewmembers

Arnold Becker, Cpl C. F. Carlsen, Frank Collins, C. Lumpkin, Augustus Miller, Joseph F. Ridgaway, and James A. Wicks.

who died after sinking the Union sloop USS Housatonic, joining Horace L. Hunley himself and all the members of the boat's earlier crews.

Graves of the famous and the infamous infamous can be found here. Statesmen, soldiers, authors, poets, and artists share the grounds with pirates, bootleggers, gangsters, and other assorted scoundrels including the occasional whorehouse Madame.

Yes, you read that correctly. I said "whorehouse Madame". The history of the so-called "holy city" of Charleston is not without its share of unholiness. People are still people, regardless of the decade or century. Were it not true, you wouldn't likely be here to read this.

But I'm getting off-track... My train-of thought is de-railing.
There are entire books written about the subject, if that sort of thing interests you.

I intend to go back sometime when neither of my legs are broken, so I can walk around more and get some better photos.

Magnolia Cemetery is listed in the National Register

Magnolia Cemetery

Link goes to the Historical Marker Database website (hmdb.org)

(page will open in new tab/window)

of Historic Places.

The ferryman doesn't choose the destination, he just rows the boat. But we know where he's taking us.

Cartoon Copyright © Erin Bonsteel. Used With Permission.
http://www.antiantiunderground.com

Unemployment is abysmal, no matter how the numbers are twisted to keep a lot of unemployed people from being counted.

The median household income has dropped by $4,250 since Obama took Office. Thats about an average month's pay.

2.6 million more people are living below the poverty line than in 2008.

In 2008, 28.2 million people were on food stamps at a taxpayer cost of 37.6 Billion dollars. In 2012, working Americans were charged over twice that amount, 78.4 million dollars to provide foos stamps for 46.6 million people.

Slow down. Rest awhile. Talk. Listen. Connect

We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone.