'Tis a weekend for fixing broken stuff.
Mostly accomplished: fixing the living-room computer, as drives the home-theater projector. It's a 2005-vintage small-form-factor thing, with a 1.8 GHz Semprini Sempron, and nice features like many-channel audio and an optical audio output.
Back in '09, the hard drive started going flakey. By that time, compatible drives (original SATA, <640 GB or some such) had largely disappeared, but the drive started working again while I was fiddling with it, and continued working until a few weeks ago, when it started giving great flurries of read errors.
Well, in the meantime I'd replaced my old server, freeing up a 160 GB classic-SATA drive. This left only the small matter of a suitable Linux install.
The original, 2005 setup had a rather brittle configuration of Slackware, which was carefully nailed down with support for a TV tuner card and one of those ATI/X-10 RF remotes. The brittleness had become a bit of an issue, what with lack of support for some of the newer codecs. But! That 2005-vintage analog TV tuner is obsolete anyway, so no need to support it.
Try installing generic Debian-stable (Squeeze). It installs, but: KDE doesn't work (croaks partway through startup), and the sound system seems to be broken (as in, Xine and other players will sometimes manage to get sound to the speakers, but usually not, and it comes and goes during a playback session). Presumably something to do with the specific hardware, given that Squeeze works fine (KDE and all, not sure about sound) on my lab machine and on a VM on my workstation.
Next up: XBMC/Ubuntu. Installs fine. Comes up with the big shiny UI... and brings the CPU to its knees, or maybe even its elbows. Doesn't have enough cycles to handle mouse movement. Totally unusable on this machine.
Okay, so: try the latest Kubuntu, which turns out to be 12.04.1. Installs fine. KDE runs fine. Sound works, and it doesn't take me too long to find the KDE settings thingy for choosing a sound profile with digital output. Xine works. There's a script provided for installing, um, a certain illicit library that could be handy on a multimedia machine. Also, there's an easy setup for lirc, which (after a couple of tries) gets it working with my ATI remote and doing reasonable things for Xine - haven't brought in my old irexec configuration yet. (The pause button doesn't work, but that's because the physical button is apparently worn out.)
Button it all up and stuff it back in the stereo cabinet: there's one job done.
Next up, the laundry tub. My second cheap plastic laundry tub having come down with a severe case of the crumblies, and now having cracks below the waterline even for careful use, I'd rounded up a sturdier-model replacement.
Get it put together, disconnect the old one, go to install the new one: oops. Cut the tailpipe 3/4" short instead of 3/4" long. Lacking a way to saw an inch and a half back onto it, back to the store for a suitable start-over tailpipe.
Oops II: the feed lines provided are for 1/4" NPT inlet, or something along those lines. I have 1/2" NPT connections (on a rusty kludge installed by the last guy, and it's rusty on account of being iron pipes connected to a copper system, so I really ought to replace it, so...). Back to the store in search of adaptation. Don't find what I'd been visualizing, and brass fittings have gotten expensive, but: come home with a pair of 1/2" NPT feed lines.
Proceed to install and connect the sink.
Oops III: when I open the cold-water valve, the iron kludge springs a leak. Upstream of the valve. Grrr: at minimum, need to unscrew the kludge and put some fresh tape on it.
Oops IV: the shutoff valve outside my front door no longer shuts off the water to any meaningful extent, which makes DIY leak-fixing problematic.
So, I call the $$$unday plumber to come deal with the shutoff valve. Apparently this is a busy Sunday, but somebody should be able to come out between 3 and 7.
Now awaiting a call back from the plumbing company.
Oh, it all makes work for the Working Man to do....
Update: the plumber came (5:30ish), he saw, he didn't have the parts to fix the valve; apparently the dispatcher hadn't believed me when I said the shutoff valve wasn't closing. However: he managed to get the water turned off at the curb for a few minutes (I've never managed to turn one of those ferschlugginer valves, but keep thinking I should acquire or fabricate a suitable wrench) and we got a temporary fix in place for the lundry tub, which is now usable. He's supposed to return tomorrow (giving me a half-hour warning on my cellphone, in case I'm at a client site) to deal with the shutoff valve... after which, I'll be able to address the garage plumbing situation properly at my leisure (though sometime fairly soon, 'cause some of that iron pipe is rusted nearly through, and maybe the leak was actually a hole in the nipple). Oh, and the new faucet's aerator promptly clogged solid with rust and needed cleaning.
Update 2: plumber's colleague showed up Monday morning and replaced the old shutoff valve with a shiny new ball valve. Maybe this coming weekend will be time to remove the last of the iron and put in nothing but proper brass fittings. Mmmm... mayhap I should check real industrial suppliers for a better selection of fittings, too?
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