Month: July 2011

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Disk drive with UUID = # not yet ready or present. (Hibernation option missing!)

I’ve been greeted with that error message for quite a long time now on my Ubuntu loading screen and it was today that I finally fixed it.

I do not know the entire technical details of what all is going on, but I just want to share what I did so that it may help someone out there.

This error came the day when I installed Debian on a primary partition. My Hard disk right now is as follows:

I installed Debian by partitioning the third primary partition into two ( 7 and 7), thus having a total of four primary partitions. It worked fine. But thereafter whenever I booted into Ubuntu, I got the aforementioned error message. Not only that, but the hibernation option was missing too. Even though I copied the Debian partition back into the extended partition at /dev/sda10 (see figure) using Gparted, the problem still persisted.

I figured out it had something to do with my fstab file. You can get yours at /etc/fstab. In this file, along with the partitions present for /, /home and /var (see the figure) , it showed the same UUID that was in the error message with a comment saying that ‘swap was initially on /dev/sda8 at the time of installation’.

Heck it was still there. So somehow its UUID had got twisted. How that happened, I have no clue.

So here is what I did.

I have 11.04 installed side by side. So I mounted that and accessed its fstab file. There it had the swap partition defined well as follows:

UUID=31b658b3-4a87-454f-b514-6dd5d647a159 none            swap    sw              0       0

I copied that into the fstab file of my ubuntu 10.04 replacing the error UUID. Saved it and there was no more error message the next time I booted. Plus, the hibernation option came back. (NOTE: In order to edit the fstab file, you need to open it as root. So do sudo gedit fstab)

So all you have to do is to replace the UUID. To find out the UUID of a partition you can do:

sudo blkid /dev/sda#

and you will get that partition’s UUID. Gparted can also provide you with this information.

Hope that helps.

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Two is one!

Thoufeeq and Hisham were in one room in their hostel. Of course, it was a four-person room, but we need not concern ourselves with the other two people in their room right now.

Their life is such that these two people never wake up at the same time in the morning. Either Thoufeeq or Hisham wakes up earlier than the other. Whoever wakes up goes, brushes, finishes his morning chores and comes back. Then the other one goes through the same process and both of them together have breakast and leave for college happily.

It so happened that one blessed day, by all that is wonderful in this world, these two people woke up together! Well, it is life and you can’t expect things to be always the same. So that is fine. But what happened next, quite isn’t.

They woke up, sat up in their beds rubbing their eyes wondering where they are. After a while both coming to their senses, got up from their beds, stretched their arms giving a yawn and went to the shelf where they keep their tooth brushes in a cup.

Both reached the shelf, extended their hands, reached the cup and you know what happened? Both held the same brush.

——————————————————————-

Dedicated to all my friends living at my hostel. Life at MH simply rocks and it is something I’ll proudly look back upon. It is sure to bring a grin on my face.

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An Engineering problem.

Having studied the Engineering B. Tech course, I’m bound to say something about it. And I couldn’t find a more apt title than the one above.

People have the problem of inertia too. Not only objects. The tendency to continue the state that he is already in unless some external force acts on him. But unlike objects, man has a quite complicated, yet wonderful, very securely kept collection of cells and tissues, called brain, in his head. That can give all the force that a man would want in order to change his state. But it is very sad that how little of us uses that unlimited potential to come out of the inertia we are so comfortably wound up in and do something different. Really sad.

But we are not completely to blame. A philosophy that I read in a book called “Sophie’s World” comes to mind. In that he says that the world is like a big rabbit. We live deep within the Rabbit’s fur in the quiet comfort without any trouble. Of course, we can live like that. But there are those who climb the fur. A fur that is not that steady. But these people climb it no matter what. Slowly, bit by bit. And finally they reach the tip of the fur, revealing to them the light and wonders that lie around! And that is when we see and know where and who we are. We realize the long paths that are still to be trodden.

Now, coming to the Engineering problem, talking as one of the students, we never are willing to take that risk factor. Let me try to make it more clear.

The Engineering curriculum and the syllabus that we have to go through in order to get our degree is quite vast and challenging. And the so called teachers make it only harder for us with all their rules, assignments, personal egos and stuff. This being the case, a student naturally becomes afraid to try something out of the way. To try something new. To take a risk.

He is afraid because a risk demands a bit. It demands a lot of his time. His brain power. A lot of effort and the results are doubtful too. All this don’t put up much of a fight to make you give up when you think of all the work that you’ve got to do for college the next day. So you just stop thinking about this new idea of yours and get back to the good old life where everything is already laid out. You take the same path that your elders, seniors have taken and you end up as another brick in the wall. (Listen to the song “Another brick in the wall” by “Pink Floyd”)

But unless you take the risk and climb the fur, you’re never going to grow or see the wonders that lie around you.

Unless you keep trying out stuff, you never will be blessed with new ideas. And the new ideas you get this way are those ideas that take off and make you a millionaire! You might think if you’ve got it in you to have ideas like those. But that exactly is the point. There might be something out there that you’re having a hard time doing. And when you find an easy way around it, that is the idea that people like you never could figure out! And that is your ticket out into the world out there waiting for you.

So my friends, don’t go easy on an idea that comes into your mind however stupid that you think it might be. Sit on it. Dream on it. And most importantly, work on it. Even if that idea doesn’t come to realization, you’re going to get something new, a new path, from the one that you showed courage to forge in the first place.

Now let’s get going!

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Motivation.

A word that means so much and yet the word that people don’t even think about.

A gesture or just a word is all that you need to do it. And the beauty is that any of us can do it.

It sometimes may change the life of a person completely. But it seems people either don’t realize that or maybe they just don’t think about it. All the things that we think that are important in our life, all the things that we hold dear to us, we do not include this in any of it.

Of course, to get it, other people will have to put their minds to it. But to give? Do we need an excuse to give it? Not at all. The moment you see one of your friends or those younger than you trying hard to achieve something, is it really hard to go and tell him, “Good work lad!! Keep at it!”, without being sarcastic?

Well, maybe it is a bit hard. But that is not to be taken as an excuse.

A word from a teacher to a student who is trying hard to get a program right. A word to your friend who is trying to accomplish something that most people haven’t. A word to those younger than you when they are trying heads over heels to learn something that you already know. The list goes on and on…

But take my word for it. The difference that you make when you give motivation is not meager. It gives meaning and hope to and rekindles the spirit of the soul who is trying to make a difference. When he gets tired and is about to give up, your words will make the fire in his heart burn with more yearning to strive for what he believes needs to be done.

However, I do believe giving motivation requires some degree of self-respect. What you have done and accomplished in your life will make the tone of, “Good work!”, sound how it should. Otherwise definitely sarcasm will enter your voice. And that will create an adverse effect. Whatever spirit with which your friend was working will be shot dead and he will quit trying for sure.

Chances are limitless. Even if you have not thought about it till today, opportunities will come your way by the truckload tomorrow and the day after.

Just make sure you don’t fail to do your duty.

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When I learn to sit, I will sit to learn.

It just came to me one fine day morning while going to college.

It says a lot. The main problem that we face today, especially this generation, is the problem of distraction. Concentrating on one thing is quite alien to us. Mobile phones being the main villain, music, friends and lack of dedication are the other factors that ruin us bit by bit (or byte by byte, as one of my friends put it).

We don’t know how to sit on something. To ready our mind for understanding the matter at hand. Of course, the first criticism I’m going to get is, “Still we get good marks”. That is totally irrelevant and stupid. I’m not even getting into the matter of scoring marks because you can really know the difference between data stored in a RAM and ROM. Also, you feel the difference when just simply talking with a person who knows what he is talking about. Me and one of my friends lately talked about the three kinds of people that we see around us. They are:

  1. One who knows and knows that he knows. He is wise. Follow him.
  2. One who knows not and knows that he knows not. He is simple. Teach him.
  3. One who knows not and knows not that he knows not. He is a fool. Shun him.

Getting back to the point, instead of us telling others or the elders telling their young ones to “sit and learn”, they must first teach them to “learn to sit”. Because only if we are going to sit dedicatedly can we learn something the way it should be learned.

We do hear stories of great people who read through a book just once and answer any question asked from within. It is because they know how to sit with concentration on what they are doing. People like us, who don’t know how to sit, well, need I elaborate our case?

Meditation, throwing away distractions and telling those who interrupt you to get lost in a nice way are the only ways through which we’re going to learn how to sit. Its not like the life of many hang in balance if you keep your phone switched off for a while. And if it is so, you really need to reconsider your life as a student.

Hoping you and I learn to sit soon do I hope wise people will walk on the face of Earth again.

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Brotherhood of MH.

MH, the letters that sent a shiver through all the first year students studying at my college.

I’ve been a part of it. Yeah right. Got lots of memories.

Let me take you to the scene. MH 1. The right wing. Room 99. That’s where I belong.

When I came here, I was very well equipped. Bucket, cup, brush, paste, pen, pencil, scale, A4s and what not! I had my own soap too!

But the brotherhood of MH was more than any other that I ever saw.

One fine day morning just after shifting to 99, one of my neighbours came and asked me for my bucket and cup so that he could bath. Me being a good sport handed it right over to him. That marked the beginning.

Soon I was clueless so as to what happened. Well, not only clueless but bucketless, cupless, soapless, pasteless, penless, paperless and thank God they didn’t take away my under garments. But I’m not to be trifled with! I joined the game and soon I was making everyone bucketless and cupless! There was no ownership for anything and no asking for permission of anything. If you want it, then you are its owner. Such was the brotherhood of MH.

But all this while I was under a secret hope that they would come back to me. My bucket and cup. They were with me from the very first day of mine at college. And that hope was finally rewarded today!

When I was up at 6 in the morning and going to wash my face, I happened to look at the opposite wing. There she was!! My bucket! In the hands of a senior going to the toilet. My breathe quickened, my walk turned into a run and my adrenaline was pumped. I was like a hero trying to save his loved one from a villain. Running in slow motion, I caught him.

“My bucket!”, said I in a tone of authority. He had no choice but to give it as my name written on it was still visible, barely.

Triumphantly, I went back to my room.

When it was time to bath (at about 8), one of my neighbours (who was my first year room mate) came and told me, “Kaaks, I have a surprise for you.”

(Slow music playing in the background and a holy light shining in through the door)

And there it was! My cup in all its glory!!

I  jumped and grabbed it from him.

As I said, finally my hope has been rewarded. Both now rest safely under my cot. Hope they be there till I shift into single rooms.

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The last night of a hosteler.

When finally the days are over…

When finally you have put behind all the tiring assignments, sessionals and all…

When finally you have become an engineer…

When finally the time has come for you to leave this life at college once and for all…

…

…

You don’t want to leave.

You want those times again. You want to just forget about tomorrow and sleep. Waking up the next day early to eat breakfast and leave for college. The packed up bag and the empty rails along with the silence reminds you that your dream is not going to happen…

You think of getting out of your room to go into your friends’ room. But you find no strength to do it. After all, none of them have come to yours. Some of your friends have already left. They’re probably at their homes by then.

“Why did they leave even without a single word?”, you think.

You think of going to one of your friends and telling him farewell… You understand why no one told you they were leaving…

You understand….

FRIENDS NEVER SAY GOODBYE.

There is nothing special. Just another night in your life that you have to sleep through. You close your eyes.

All of them come flying to you…

All the memories…

All those moments that you have shared together…

The friendships that were made, the love that was felt, the decisions that were made, the celebrations that were done….

Your breathe becomes heavier and you find that words don’t come when you try to raise your voice.

“Its just one night!”, you tell yourself. But its not like any of the nights that you have ever lived through in your whole life.

All the thoughts just become too much for you. And you take the only way out of the situation. You let your emotions out. You cry.

The silent tears flow. You don’t know why. You can’t think why. You think of anything and everything that comes into your mind. The tears just won’t stop…

Your room’s door slowly opens… You try to stop yourself… But you see him standing there.

Nothing in the world could stop you.

You jump and hug him.

You can’t find words to say nor can you think of anything…

The tears just keep flowing and all that you can do is to tighten your hug…

After a while, you leave the hug and don’t look at his face… And neither does he at yours… He walks away and you lock your door.

“Just one more day! Oh please God… Just one more day…”, so you pray wishing for the impossible.

All the times that you’ve pulled through living boldly and strong, nothing helps at the moment… You fall on your bed and burst into tears… The child within comes out… And you”re just a little kid who wants a bit attention…

“Just one more day….”, the last thought that comes to you…

You sleep your last night. You’re leaving never to return again.

God give me strength.

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Good news!

With the slight guilt of having troubled the seniors with their projects by blowing up the UPS, I went to college today. We had to submit the soft copy of our mini project report today (at least we thought so) and JHspice was on it. Rambo Jinu, the chairman, editing and formatting the whole report from top to bottom from morning to evening, got really tired of it by the end.

After finishing it by 3.30 in the evening, we decided to submit it in front of our guide. But it was Anuraj sir!! The man who knew about the power of mordor. A bit hesitating, I finally decided to go and meet him.

There he was standing in front of the lab holding his head. I took a few deep breaths and got ready for receiving whatever was going to come.

Getting closer to him, I was greeted by a warm smile. Something told me that not everything was wrong. Even though Ponnappan had mentioned it, I hadn’t quite digested it.

He said with a smile, “It was not the UPS of your lab that got damaged. It was the other lab’s. You could’ve resumed your work if you had came today morning to the lab.”

The sense of relief and at the same time the sense of guilt for not having had more faith in myself, in what I was doing and in God who sees and knows all, I stood there with him. It was pouring cats and dogs. He was enjoying the rain. Or maybe he was wondering how to get home. His slight headache prevented him from checking our soft copies today and he was standing there, hands folded on the bars of the grill, leaning forward. It was one of those mesmerized moments where you just stare at something and see that you can’t take your eyes away. I accompanied him. After all, neither of us could get out of the building (since the birthday girl, Afaf, had borrowed my Umbrella and I was waiting for her to return it).

We talked.

For the first time in college, I could talk to one of my teachers with an open mind. We joked a while about how a guy riding a bike almost fell down risking a turn in the mud in front of our block. We talked about the rain and how heavy it was. We talked about the department and the sorry state that it was in. I told him about the one thing I wished for the most in college. A few motivating words from the side of a teacher.

He listened to me. He said his part and I said mine. We were entertained by how one of the teachers was trying to get her car out of a messy situation from right under our nose.

It was nice and heart warming.

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The 7th of July.

Besides the day being one of my friend’s birthday (Oh boy, is he going to get it!!!), its a day that’s beginning to drive me crazy.

int count = 0;

Poor student: “Sir, when should we get our records binded?”

Greater teacher: “Submit it by Seventh. That’ll do”

count++;

Great HOD: “Seminars on the double!! Get your topics and submit them along with the abstract and references on 7th!!”

Poor student: “Yes ma’am!”

count++;

Again the great HOD: “Main project topics! Get on it my lads! Provide me with your abstracts when we begin our next semester. When is that? Oh 7th… He he…”

Poor student: “But ma’am… Alright ma’am.”

count++;

Poor student: “Ma’am, shouldn’t we be submitting our project report?”

Great teacher: “Oh don’t rush it. Take your time and do good job while preparing it. Submit it by the 7th of July”

Poor student thinks: “@#$*#”

Poor student says: “Right!”

count++;

But if it was to just reach the seventh of july uneventfully, it would have been fine. But no.

Poor student: “Sir!! Please postpone the exam on June 29th to some other date so we can go home!”

Greater teacher: “Of course my dear lads! Write one on 5th and the other on 6th. Have a nice vacation!”

Poor student: “You are too kind sir”

count++;

count++;

printf(“Number of works pending = %d”, count);

Number of works pending = 6.

He he… Are we going to give a few bumps to the birthday boy!!

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Q: How was the day? A: Oh it was a blast!

I guess I’ve never been so literal in my life.

Mission lab – Day 3 (D – Day)

With much more enthusiasm to finally see the fruits of our labour, we were in full swing today. Although I was bit late in waking up due to the uninterrupted series of sneezes that I had last night, I managed to get to the lab half an hour late. The team was given instruction to start without me and start, they had!

I was a bit thrown back (with each sneeze that I made) and I just couldn’t do hardware today. But when Chellan is there, who needs to do hardware? He was already taking things apart when I entered. “Let’s begin installation!”

I was pretty adamant about installing 10.04 as it was an LTS release. But I knew not my fate on the path I had chosen! We forged a way, a psycho path, hoping to find light at the end but alas! The fate that awaited us was grim indeed. Even by the sword of elendil, light was not shone (But our mobile phones helped a lot. 😛 ).

I could say Ponnappan was the hard disk specialist. He had some spell that made hard disks work. We burnt two new installation disks of Ubuntu 10.04 and started installation. Well, just as Hobbes puts it, “You can take the tiger out of a jungle but you can’t take the jungle out of a tiger.” And like that, I just couldn’t resist the temptation to name the computers that I installed something weird. But why make it weird? Lord Of The Rings shall it be!

Shire, started I, Rohan, Lorien and things were going pretty smooth. Except for a few systems simply not accepting the 10.04 disk. They were more adamant than me and I had to go for Debian distros. On our way we found out that we had reinstall certain Windows XP OSs too. We couldn’t risk them having viruses after our job was done.

Our compiler, Bose, was on the job. He was installing systems just like children playing with their toys. And I was sitting on one too. When I reached the partitioning part, I found out that it was a 160 GB hard disk! 50 GB was already given as NTFS for windows. And I was about to give the rest for Ubuntu when I simply asked Ponnnan for his opinion. “Make 50 GB more as D-drive and then give the rest for Ubuntu.”, said he.

“Why can’t it be the other way around?”, I asked.

“Because you install stuff in windows. You don’t do that in Linux”, he said.

I was completely clueless. But I did do as he asked.

However, we sill were forging a path. Unfortunately, none of us cared to notice the faint smell of burnt ash. We were nearing somewhere dark and dreary.

Ponnappan was installing a system with Debian. He asked me where our journey had reached. Although I said “Isengrad”, we both had a fall out on whether it was “Isengrad” or “Isengard”.

“MORDOR!”, thundered a sound from behind! It was Chellan.

Both of us decided on Mordor and named it thus.

Slowly Mordor started coming to life but Frodo had already made it!

“KABLOOOOIEEE!!!”

We heard a blast and all was dark. Here was where the sword of Elendil was of no use. We shone our mobile phones instead. But the damage was done! Something had gone really wrong.

—————————————-

Thus ended the third day with a blast! Anuraj sir consoled me that it was a natural thing to happen and not to worry. But it seems we will have to wait long to see the fruits of our labour.