Contact
| E-Mail: | srittau@jroger.in-berlin.de |
|---|---|
| Phone: | +49-30-8221339 (home) +49-172-3864525 (cell phone) |
| Physical: | Nassauische Str. 50 10717 Berlin D – Germany |
PGP Key
My PGP/GnuPG key is available here or at public key servers.
Blog 
Sunday
Oct 11 2009
VirtualBox on i386 with amd64 Kernel
I have recently started to use an amd64 kernel on my i386 Debian unstable system. Unfortunately, VirtualBox OSE does not work with that setup. When I try to start a virtual machine, it fails with an oblique error message:
RTR3Init failed with rc=-1912 (rc=-1912)
The VirtualBox kernel modules do not fit to this version of VirtualBox. The installation of VirtualBox was apparently not successful. Executing
'/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup'
should fix that problem. Make sure that you don't mix the OSE version and the PUEL version of VirtualBox.
Debian bug #456391 explains the problem. In that report Michael Meskes alludes to running VirtualBox in an amd64 chroot jail, so I tried this myself. It works flawlessly, once I got it setup. Here is what I did (as root):
robinson:~# mkdir /srv/amd64 robinson:~# cdebootstrap --arch amd64 sid /srv/amd64 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ [...] robinson:~# chroot /srv/amd64 robinson:/# apt-get update [...] robinson:/# apt-get upgrade [...] robinson:/# apt-get install virtualbox-ose # add more packages here if needed [...] robinson:/# adduser --uid 1000 --no-create-home --disabled-password --disabled-login srittau [...] robinson:/#
These commands install the base system and create a user account. Now I created a script called
/usr/local/bin/amd64.sh:
#!/bin/sh
CHROOT=/srv/amd64
if test ! -e $CHROOT/dev/.udev; then
mount -t none /dev $CHROOT/dev/ -o bind
fi
if test `ls $CHROOT/proc | wc -l` = "0"; then
mount -t proc none $CHROOT/proc
fi
if test `ls $CHROOT/sys | wc -l` = "0"; then
mount -t sysfs none $CHROOT/sys
fi
if test `ls $CHROOT/home | wc -l` = "0"; then
mount --bind /home $CHROOT/home
fi
chroot $CHROOT sh -c "su - srittau"
Running sudo amd64.sh will now enter the chroot environment as user srittau where I can start
virtualbox normally.
Thursday
Feb 26 2009
Helmar Fanselau dies aged 56
I just learned that one of my former teacher, Helmar Fanselau, died on January 13th, aged 56. He was a strange man. Many students liked him because of his antics and strange sense for humor. Others did not like him for his harsh and unforgiving marks in his subjects, Latin and History. I think he was always fair, though, even if that worked to my disadvantage, because he actually liked me, but I got bad marks nevertheless. I still fondly remember him balancing rulers on his nose and for his ability to speak several different German dialects. His "weather show" featured them all in a stand-up comedy-like routine.
He always was a controversial person, though. I just found an article I wrote back in '96 or '97 about a school mess held by him during which the school parson actually put out the candles in protest.
There were always various rumours about Mr. Fanselau floating around in the school. For example, he was well known for eating from student's lunch boxes. So, the story goes, a student prepared a special sandwich with tooth paste and put it on the teacher's desk. Mr. Fanselau entered, saw the sandwich and ate it. When I questioned him about the story, Mr. Fanselau confirmed it, but was quick to add: "Well, I didn't eat the whole sandwich."
Finally, the way I found out about Mr. Fanselau's death is as bizarre as was his personality: A rogue edit on Wikipedia. Goodbye, Helmar!
Monday
Jan 26 2009
Upper Deck Entertainment vs. Konami
This is my take on the conflict between Konami and Upper Deck Entertainment (UDE) that is currently upsetting the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game community. While I don't play Yu-Gi-Oh! myself, as a Magic: The Gathering judge I have a certain interest in what happens in the industry overall. Oh, and I like soap operas. All information presented is scrounged from various sources around the net, including press releases by the companies, statements from employees, and court documents (or copies thereof provided in forums). Mixed in is my own opinion and assumptions, so don't take anything in this article for granted.
This is what I think happened so far:
Konami is the producer of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game and owner of the rights to it. Upper Deck Entertainment is the distributor of the game in Europe and the US. UDE also handled Organized Play (OP) for the game in these territories. The distribution contract ended at the end of 2007, but there was a mutual agreement (either verbal or in the form of a Letter of Intent) between both companies that the contract was to be renewed for 2008 through 2010. There was no formal contract, though, so the companies just kept on going. (And I thought those were serious businesses ...)
UDE was unhappy with the way Konami handled the game and how they were supported by Konami. So they took more and more liberties with how they ran the game. This reached a climax when in the summer of 2008 UDE manufactured copies (or "counterfeits" as Konami calls them) of special Yu-Gi-Oh! promotional cards and provided them to Vintage Sports Cards, who packaged them with three boosters and sold those packs in Toys-R-Us stores. Konami found out about the counterfeits and sued Vintage Sports Cards. When they found out that UDE had provided the cards, they allegedly asked UDE for clarification. When were giving insufficient information and threatened Konami with a breach of contract suit, Konami amended their suit at the end of 2008 to include UDE as a defendant. But before they could do so, UDE counter-sued on December, 12th 2008.
This led to the well-known exchange of press releases. (December, 11th 2008, Konami: "We're taking over the distribution of Yu-Gi-Oh!"; December, 16th 2008, UDE: "Not true!"; December, 17th 2008, Konami: Yes, true!) At December 22th UDE wins an injunction against Konami in Europe that voids the cancellation of the contract. And a few days later the same happens in the US.
So, this year both companies are flexing their muscles and the background of the story became known. The main lawsuits are still pending, so it will stay interesting. In the long term it's obvious that UDE will lose any distribution rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, so all their bets are now on various World of Warcraft products. I am not sure what that means for Upperdeck's OP department. I know that I will keep a watchful eye on further developments.