No, I'm not dead yet. Nor do I have a job yet. So I don't really have an excuse for not updating my blog in a while, other than I've not really had anything to say. (Y'know, not that that stops a lot of folk, but…)

And now, for the actual 'content' of this post:

Harlie

Documentation Updates

The README has been gathering dust for a while, and I still need to update that in light of all the changes I've been making. However, I've started adding POD to my code, so hopefully it should be easier to keep the documentation up to date.

Commands Changes

I've moved the admin commands to attempt a more structured commands list. The commands array has been cut down, and commands such as 'quit' are now accessible through 'admin quit'.

The structure of the commands parser is also about to undergo an overhaul, but I'll try not to break too much. During the overhaul, I'm going to get the plugins API to work as it should. (Because randomly exploding and taking out the plugin is just a little annoying, especially when there is no debug output from the explosion.)

Privileges/Authentication

I've just, very recently (In fact, whilst I was writing this part of the blog post.), got the authentication working in a very infant form. It relies on a hard–coded array whilst I'm testing, but The Real Thing™ will use (Or, at least, I'm planning to use.) SQLite with DBI.

And the results of my tinkering with the privileges code? And I wonder why people worry when I mention I'm looking into AI…

SGI Octane

I have tinkered with the Octane a little more, and now I can get it to semi-reliably netboot (Okay, it's hell getting it to do that. Sometimes it boots, sometimes it doesn't. And then, just over half the time, once I get it to boot, the kernel falls over. The solution to the first issue is to bounce the tftp server, the solution to the second… I've not found that yet, I just keep trying until it works.).

My current findings:

1. The Gentoo Linux SGI netboot does not boot (*** PROM write error on cacheline 0x1fcba700 at PC=0xa8000000202729e0 RA=0xa800000020273064)
2. Bad things happen when booting OpenBSD 4.6 See the capture of the serial console for the gruesome details. (I did get a 4.5(?) to install, but the kernel booted from the disc did not see the network interface. (This is annoying, as the 4.5 netboot sees the interface just fine, that's how I did the install. :/)
3. IRIX is a bugger to re-install. (I'm following this: Spinlock Solutions Techpubs - Installing IRIX 6.5 from Linux to do the install. I get all the way to "When inst starts, make sure it opened the distribution by doing from 192.168.7.2:/mnt/6/irix/" and then the trouble starts.

Once I get everything dug back out of the plastic crates they're tucked into (Might be a while.), I'll have another go at it and experiment some more.