just want to get this started as I hope it will motivate me to finish it, since I have done a LOT of things on my computer since my last post, and obviously I have posted none of it.

So, I got a little impatient about not having my PC functioning, so I I installed Fedora 12 x64 on the rest of my FreeBSD boot drive and I have about 80% of the things on my list done and working.  I’ll reference them by numbers here, and you can go read what they were by clicking on “my list” above.  I am still hoping to get FreeBSD as my host OS; however everything is working right now with Fedora (except that stupid wireless NIC), although I am still having my “system reached critical temp” error from ACPI, yet the system resource monitor I have running shows a nice pleasant 30C CONSTANT temp.  maybe this summer I’ll pickup a liquid CPU cooler… I already have 5 exhaust fans and 2 intake fans, 2 x 240mm exhaust and a 160mm or 180mm intake, I think I have air flow covered.  (talked to a friend who is more into the details of technical issues, a network engineer, and he says that an inactive CPU, like when the system shutsdown, can drop 40F in about 7-10 seconds so it might be why I cannot catch it reporting a high temp in the BIOS) The BIOS does not report any temps reaching above 45C ever, so I have no idea why this is happening, I do run widgets reporting the internal temp, but have never seen it change!!!) .  most of the time when it shuts there is/has been high CPU/disk IO usage (all 4 cores over 60% sustained, multiple long term large/multiple file movements across drives and/or multiple VMs running).  So it could be valid.

I have come up with a couple of things to try to resolve this issue (going with the cheapest first, even if it is not really going to help a CPU issue, it can’t hurt…)

1. I could just upgrade some hardware and see if a different BIOS/MB manufacturer makes a difference.  I would love a lower watt CPU (or 6 core!), more L2/L3 cache, and USB 3.0 and SATA 6GB/s, since my current system bottleneck is the SATA 3GB/s HDDs.
2. Switch to liquid cooling and installing a new thermal sensor with an external readout.
3. buy cute little 5cfm coolling fans to place on my NorthBridge, SouthBridge, and onboard GPU passive cooling fins (cheapest option, not necessarily attacking the actual issue though)
4. purchase a pretty new Video card and disable the onboard video (the chip is within an inch or two from the CPU, so there maybe some issue with residual heat from the GPU causing my overheating).

in order from cheapest to most expensive would be 3, 2, 4/1 (really close and might be a tie or within a $20-$30)

My List of things to get working, except this one is for Fedora.

1. VirtualBox is installed, working and I have multiple VMs up and running.

2. Install VMWare Workstation, I have downloaded the newest trial version and it is good for another 3 weeks, but have not gotten around to installing it.

3. Mounting my NTFS drives, all mounted, where I want them, even went through and deleted the Windows OS system folders from all but one.

4. SSH connections, I have started this and was working on it when I decided to start this post, should be done tomorrow.

5. I am posting this from Google Chrome on my Fedora 12 installation right now, so I’d say installed and working.  Java shows up in the plugins, although java.com cannot detect it in my browser.

6. Hulu works great in Firefox or Google Chrome, although is a bit spotty when I have VMs running, and the playback is laggy in Chrome…  So I am trying to get the Hulu Desktop app running.  will make a post after I get some work done on it and let you know how it goes.

7. So far everything is working great, going to try a couple of VM’ed games next week after I get the rest of this done.

8. Firefox is up, running, and is playing hulu; however it does not report Java as installed from the about:plugins page, even though it is and I followed all the steps to link the correct files to the correct places.  I believe this is the Firefox 3.6 doesn’t support Java issue though and not an issue on my part.

9. access NTFS drives remotely via ssh and a chrooted account with links to the mounts.  After I get my SSH working tomorrow I should be able to test this.  I was reading something online I no longer have open and may not have bookmarked that said that I can double mount drives (mount a drive to more than one, specifically 2, locations)

10. convert my NTFS drives to a more suitable linux FS, this again is a last thing item, to be done after everything else is working.

11. convert my drives from MBR to GPT, most likely to be done at the same time as the FS change.

12. GUI package manager for KDE, done, comes with Fedora.

13. eliminate all traces of Gnome from my computer… again, have to be last thing, once all is up and working.

14. build my first kernel, normally done immediately after install, I’ll do it last after EVERYTHING else (including the other things I said I would do last)

15. Wine is installed and works.  will try out some things that I have installed in VMs to see about dropping those VMs

16. install older apps, again part of a couple of other items, I will of course be installing older apps on older OS installation I have, and will try them in Wine as stated.

17. X.org port forwarding to Cygwin on a windows machine (laptop) something I might do in a week or two…

18. start regular backups… I’m getting there, I have the drive formated in ext3, I just have not started backing things up.

19. Java, I think it works in Chrome, I was able to see the animated maps on the NOAA website, which most people use to test their Java. not working in Firefox 3.5.9.2

20. Flash, Hulu is working in Firefox and Chrome, so all good here.

21. Yakuake is fully functional and working.

22. Picasa 3.6 (I think) is installed and working great, except I don’t seem to be able to find the facial recognician system.

23. No idea on this one, can not find where I posted what it was, only that it was completed on BSD.

Unfinished items for Fedora: 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 19?

apparently Open Office will not load, for an unknown reason, looking into it at this time.