jc blog - tales of a modern-day nomadic hunter-gatherer

Follow jcomeau_ictx on Twitter This is the weblog of Intrepid Wanderer. You never know what you might find here; graphic descriptions of bodily functions, computer programming secrets, proselytizing for the antichrist, miscellaneous ranting and kvetching, valuable information on living off the land... if you don't share my rather weird interests you may want to try slashdot instead.

You can consider my Del.icio.us links an extension to my blog, as are my LifeTango goals and my other to-do items. My to-buy list is also public, but only for sharing any useful ideas that might be there; I'm not requesting charity, neither do I offer it.

You can find me easily in google searches, as jcomeau, jcomeau_ictx, or jcomeauictx. There are lots of other jcomeaus, but AFAIK I'm the only jcomeau_ictx out there so far.

If you want to comment on anything you see here, try the new Facebook comments, reachable by clicking the "[comment]" link at the end of each post. If for some reason that isn't working, go ahead and email me, jc.unternet.net. You know what to do with the first dot. Make the 'subject' line something reasonably intelligent-looking or it goes plunk! into the spambasket unread.

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2018-02-23-1930Z

in this early morning's dream, I was digging in the sand that had collected in a rock formation. as I dug, sand in the above-ground part of the formation collapsed, and when I scooped that out, I found a sock stuffed with what felt like packs of bills and silver bars, all packaged in plastic. I quickly stuffed the moolah into my pockets and hid the sock. [comment]

2018-02-22-2212Z

just took my first cashout from earn.com, about ten bucks, but had to pay almost a buck in network fees. still, it went through very quickly, showing up in my wallet in less than 5 minutes.

the "tasks" I get usually only involve joining a Telegram group, about a minute or two of clicking. and they pay up front $1 in Bitcoin, plus some promise tokens somewhere down the road, which may or may not materialize. [comment]

2018-02-21-1234Z

just woke up from a flying dream. in this dreamworld there was a recording device, about half the size of a toaster, made of interlocking pieces of machined aluminum, that was used by members of a private organization to administer justice. people convicted of a crime would record their promises to atone and/or to change their behavior. when they failed to do so, I was one of those called to bring them back and face the recorder again. there was a small percentage of society that just kept rotating through the system.

some of the magical powers I had: I could walk floating above the ground, lean back and fly, and change shape in order to scare and trick my quarry. [comment]

2018-02-20-0110Z

I was just gifted 70000 AMC by some guy on bitcointalk.

jcomeau@aspire:~$ americancoind getbalance
96235.21409199
[comment]

2018-02-15-0448Z

not sure what fixed it. I did 2 things: disabled the device again, but this time deleting the drivers; then powered down all the way and left the battery out for a minute or so. booted back up, the touchpad was working in Windows again; rebooted into Linux and it was working there too.

but then ntfs-3g was failing, giving IO errors on access. upgraded my kernel to 3.16 and that's working now too. for some reason the wl driver didn't get built so I'm using brcmsmac and it's working fine.

still some rough edges but the base functionality is back. sooner or later I'll be able to remove the /opt/wheezy64 directory and free up that space for my Bitcoin blocks... but then I still have to rebuild bitcoind and americancoind. nothing escaped the wrath of my purge. [comment]

2018-02-15-0244Z

couldn't get Xwindows working -- the cursor wouldn't move -- so rebooted into Windows. guess what? the mouse isn't working any more in Windows 7 either. uninstalled and reinstalled it, no change. this is bad. it's the built-in Synaptics touchpad. I really don't want to buy an external mouse. hope I can find a fix for it. [comment]

2018-02-14-2146Z

got networking back. all I needed was wpasupplicant, but on my new Debian stable system I installed network-manager, which had wpasupplicant as a dependency, which is how I found out what was the problem, so I guess I'll leave it for a while.

now to get X working again... [comment]

2018-02-14-1613Z

copied wubildr from C:\ to the first partition, the now-ext3 partition on which I installed Debian stable. that got rid of the "No wubildr" message on Ubuntu startup, but it still doesn't boot up all the way, and I left it on for hours just to make sure.

my last batch of yogurt started with some somewhat-soured milk from Soriana. it's odd to have ultrapasteurized milk spoil, but I figured what the hell, the acidophilus will work anyway. and it did. think of how much "bad" milk could be saved by turning it into yogurt instead of pouring it down the sink.

from the Ubuntu root shell, service dbus start followed by service network-manager start, gets a working wifi link going based on the AP specified during installation. and checking lsmod, I could see that the proprietary wl module wasn't being used at all; it's not even installed. brcmsmac is used instead. so I'm trying to get either/both of the Debian installs to use that, and no luck so far.

it's frustrating. I've got 2 Linux partitions now, plus the Ubuntu loop setup, and none of them are fully functional. lucky I still have Windows and coLinux. [comment]

2018-02-13-2020Z

I ended up downloading and installing ubuntu-12.10-desktop-amd64.iso and wubi.exe from http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/12.10/, which helped because, although I can't get it to boot up all the way, I can get a root prompt. and with that I was able to run lilo on both sda1 and sda4, and those are both now bootable.

however, I still can't get wifi to work. for some reason, the DHCP negotiation just isn't working. that's on both distros. pisser. [comment]

2018-02-12-2043Z

OK, so I backed up the system restore partition on my Acer Aspire netbook, and ran sudo debootstrap --arch=i386 stable /mnt/sda1 http://deb.debian.org/debian/ to load the latest Debian stable image on it.

but, again, LILO can't seem to handle the block major device 117 which coLinux uses for its cobd virtual drives, or rather coLinux's module doesn't implement EVMS properly. so I'm trying with extlinux instead. my first few tries at an extlinux.conf files gave an informative message Boot error, so this last time I used the full path to the kernel instead, and used the keyword LINUX instead of KERNEL, and instead of that error message it just sits there with a blinking cursor. progress? maybe.

it's funny that each time I run extlinux --update /boot/extlinux the number loaded into the EAX register in the disassembly of the bootblock increases. in the very first installation, it was mov $0x1244000,%eax, and now it's up to mov $0x127c000,%eax. I haven't yet analyzed the code sufficiently to understand what it's really doing. [comment]

2018-02-11-2012Z

tried something new from the supermarket today: chilorio de puerco. it's pork cooked in a salty mix of chiles, but only very mildly spicy, shredded. at $168 pesos/kilo you might think it's out of my budget, but consider that almost none of it is water weight, and it doesn't need any cooking or any other prep, so I think it's a bargain. of course it's not for every day, but maybe once a week or so. [comment]

2018-02-10-0518Z

before seeing if the drive letter made any difference, I tried booting coLinux with my other configuration, one which matches the Linux drive mapping most closely.

it booted and ran sash, and I was able to actually attempt to run the static LILO program I'd compiled. but I get the error:

> /sbin32/lilo.static
Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not exist, disk scan bypassed
Fatal: geo_query_dev HDIO_GETGEO (dev 0x0804): Inappropriate ioctl for device

still, progress. [comment]

2018-02-10-0504Z

I just ran diskmgmt.msc from the Windows Start search box, and added drive letter S to the System Reserved partition, that little 100MB space between the 13GB recovery partition and the C: drive. hope that doesn't screw anything up too seriously. now hopefully I can make a backup copy of it using dd. but maybe not; I don't really know why its contents weren't readable before. all I know is that I got an EIO error when trying to dd it as root from coLinux. [comment]

2018-02-10-0249Z

well, that was easy enough. just with this edit and make alles (guessing a German wrote the Makefile) I now have a lilo.static executable.

might wait until tomorrow to try it out. it's been a long day and I'm likely to screw something up if I try it now. but what the hell, I might try anyway. [comment]

2018-02-10-0202Z

the new patch to fix the Debian Squeeze libdevmapper-dev package to install a static library. the last one built it OK but it was nowhere to be found in the installed files. [comment]

2018-02-09-1950Z

finally got middle-mouse-key emulation running on Xming using this coLinux configuration. maybe I can start effectively using Linux on Windows... but it just won't be the same. for one thing, Squeeze is an ancient distro. Python2.6 and 3.2?! not much of what I've got coded is going to run, I'm afraid. but at least I can use DigitalOcean droplets if I have to. [comment]

2018-02-09-1810Z

Debian's building tutorial contains some out of date information, but still it's pretty good for a refresher.

my patch yesterday still didn't serve to get the static libs installed. what a pain in the ass. [comment]

2018-02-09-1339Z

thanks, Eli. I got my static libraries. on to building the static 32-bit LILO. [comment]

2018-02-09-0335Z

no wonder generation of a static library was disabled. the code simply doesn't support it. if I'm going to build a static lilo binary, I've got to fix the LVM libraries first. [comment]

2018-02-08-2117Z

got xwindows working with coLinux again. the magic formula, after starting Xming from the Windows Start menu, is to export DISPLAY=10.0.2.2:0.0. then you can run your X applications. this assumes you're using Slirp networking; it'll likely be different with bridging. [comment]

2018-02-08-1700Z

last night as I went to place garbage for pickup outside the post office, I noticed a once-familiar sight: the taco stand of Carnitas Don Abraham, which graced this street for years but disappared about a year ago after the founder's son was murdered. I guess the lovely smell of carnitas will soon grace the neighborhood once again.

dumped the oil I changed out at the marina today. the owner, Mac Shroyer, came over and let me know that it's not for public use, only for clientele of the marina. so now I've got to find another place. but I won't need it for another couple years, most likely.

coLinux allows me to blog again, but I probably won't get full use of my Linux partition again until I can make another bootable USB, since all the binaries are now 64-bit. I still don't really have a clue what went wrong. I placed a 32-bit sash into the /bin directory, and passed init=/bin/sash to the kernel, and still couldn't get a command prompt. [comment]

2018-02-07-1640Z

since Sunday I've been fighting on two separate fronts: an oil change and a crossgrade of my Debian notebook to a full 64-bit system. finally started making progress today.

problems with the oil change: the filter had a different design of fluting, or whatever you call it, on the cap, and my old filter wrench didn't fit. I also noted it was missing a silicone seal ring, but figured it was designed that way for a reason, not noticing the box illustration making a point of how great the silicone ring was...

anyway, as you can probably guess, the damned thing leaked like a sieve, and got oil stains all over the carport floor. I not only had to deliver the bad news, but then I had to figure out a way to correct it. it took a few tries; the first universal filter wrench I bought was a bad design, and broke on the first turn of the ratchet handle. I took it back to AutoZone, and the employee and two managers took about a man-hour between them trying to fix it before offering me a new one. I said no, es una mierda, and finally they gave me my money back. I had stopped at the other AutoZone and bought 2 other universal wrenches, hoping one of them would work, plus I got another filter, one that did have the right fluting for my old filter wrench, and an intact seal ring.

so anyway, just a few minutes ago, I tried removing the bad filter with the two wrenches; the first was too small, and the 2nd, made with webbing, I couldn't get to work. but then I washed the outside of the filter to get the leaked oil off, and with a glove, was able to remove it. I was expecting a lot of oil to come out too, because this time I didn't drain it, but surprisingly there was only a trickle. I guess the filter is higher up in the engine block than I thought.

so anyway, the new filter is in, and tightened, and I'm going to let any drips land on the carboard I've got under the car before I back it out and start cleaning up the rest of the oil mess. after about 4 applications of degreaser, the first few feet of the stains is much improved.

now, about the Debian crossgrade. never attempt it on a multilib system that's got sid packages on it, or probably not even on any multilib system with a bunch of 64-bit packages already installed. everything broke, including apt and dpkg. and my kernel was removed. luckily I already had a working debootstrapped directory, /opt/wheezy64, I could chroot into and fix many of the problems. and I used its apt and dpkg binaries when mine were broken due to being out of sync with libraries. but still I had so many packages out of sync in the i386 and amd64 flavors that apt-get -f install couldn't find a fix for it. I found a lot of matching i386 packages under snapshot.debian.org/package/, but it's a tedious process and when you have so many layers of dependencies to navigate it just gets tedious and frustrating.

finally this morning I hit upon apt-get -f upgrade... why the fuck didn't I think of that before? it's got a lot more smarts, and figured out a solution. I still had to juggle things around, edit prerm and postinst scripts, and generally stay on top of it every step of the way, but after 10 to 20 tries, (I lost count) it finally succeeded. I now have a full 64-bit system. I'm not sure it will survive a reboot, hence this update; I may not be online for a few days if it fails. [comment]

2018-02-05-1619Z

actually, after a reinstall of 64-bit tar, that worked, all I have left is dpkg complaining about apt's 32-bit library conflicting with the 64-bit binary. I do indeed have 64-bit binaries of apt, dpkg, and tar now installed.

and now I really am off to AutoZone (maybe). [comment]

2018-02-05-1607Z

2nd try (yeah I didn't wait):

jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src$ sudo apt-get --download-only install dpkg:amd64 tar:amd64 apt:amd64
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  debian-keyring distro-info-data docutils-common docutils-doc dput
  gir1.2-packagekitglib-1.0 intltool-debian libalgorithm-diff-perl
  libalgorithm-diff-xs-perl libalgorithm-merge-perl libapt-pkg-perl
  libapt-pkg4.16 libarchive-zip-perl libclass-accessor-perl
  libclass-inspector-perl libcommon-sense-perl libconfig-auto-perl
  libconfig-inifiles-perl libconvert-binhex-perl libdistro-info-perl
  libemail-valid-perl libfile-fcntllock-perl libfile-fnmatch-perl
  libfile-homedir-perl libfile-stripnondeterminism-perl libfile-which-perl
  libio-pty-perl libio-sessiondata-perl libio-string-perl libio-stringy-perl
  libipc-run-perl libjson-perl libjson-xs-perl liblist-moreutils-perl
  libmail-sendmail-perl libmime-tools-perl libnet-dns-perl
  libnet-domain-tld-perl libnet-ip-perl libossp-uuid-perl libossp-uuid16
  libpackagekit-glib2-18 libparse-debianchangelog-perl libperlio-gzip-perl
  libsoap-lite-perl libsub-name-perl libsys-hostname-long-perl
  libtask-weaken-perl libtext-levenshtein-perl libtypes-serialiser-perl
  libxml-simple-perl libxmlrpc-lite-perl libyaml-libyaml-perl libyaml-perl
  patchutils php-cli php-common php-xml php7.0-cli php7.0-common php7.0-json
  php7.0-opcache php7.0-readline php7.0-xml po-debconf python-apt-common
  python-debian python-debianbts python-defusedxml python-docutils
  python-roman python-soappy python-wstools python3-dbus python3-debian
  python3-gi python3-magic python3-pycurl t1utils
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libacl1:amd64 libapt-pkg4.12:amd64
Suggested packages:
  aptitude:amd64 | synaptic:amd64 | wajig:amd64 dpkg-dev:amd64 apt-doc:amd64
  python-apt:amd64 ncompress:amd64 tar-scripts:amd64
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apt apt-listchanges apt-transport-https apt-utils build-essential debhelper
  debsums devscripts dh-autoreconf dh-php5 dh-strip-nondeterminism dpkg
  dpkg-cross dpkg-dev emdebian-archive-keyring equivs kernel-wedge
  libapt-inst2.0 libapt-pkg5.0 libdebian-dpkgcross-perl libdpkg-perl lintian
  pkg-php-tools python-apt python-reportbug python3-apt
  python3-software-properties reportbug software-properties-common tar tasksel
  tasksel-data xapt
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apt:amd64 dpkg:amd64 libacl1:amd64 libapt-pkg4.12:amd64 tar:amd64
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 33 to remove and 22 not upgraded.
Need to get 5,599 kB of archives.
After this operation, 20.4 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Get:1 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian jessie/main amd64 dpkg amd64 1.17.27 [2,994 kB]
Get:2 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian jessie/main amd64 libacl1 amd64 2.2.52-2 [27.9 kB]
Get:3 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian jessie/main amd64 tar amd64 1.27.1-2+deb8u1 [676 kB]
Get:4 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian jessie/main amd64 libapt-pkg4.12 amd64 1.0.9.8.4 [792 kB]
Get:5 http://cdn-fastly.deb.debian.org/debian jessie/main amd64 apt amd64 1.0.9.8.4 [1,109 kB]
Fetched 5,599 kB in 14s (391 kB/s)                                             
Download complete and in download only mode
jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src$ dpkg --install /var/cache/apt/archives/*_amd64.deb
dpkg: error: requested operation requires superuser privilege
jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src$ sudo dpkg --install /var/cache/apt/archives/*_amd64.deb 
dpkg: warning: downgrading apt from 1.4.1 to 1.0.9.8.4
(Reading database ... 171245 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../apt_1.0.9.8.4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking apt:amd64 (1.0.9.8.4) over (1.4.1) ...
dpkg: warning: downgrading dpkg from 1.18.18 to 1.17.27
Preparing to unpack .../dpkg_1.17.27_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking dpkg:amd64 (1.17.27) over (1.18.18) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libacl1:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libacl1_2.2.52-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libacl1:amd64 (2.2.52-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libapt-pkg4.12:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libapt-pkg4.12_1.0.9.8.4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libapt-pkg4.12:amd64 (1.0.9.8.4) ...
dpkg: warning: downgrading tar from 1.29b-1.1 to 1.27.1-2+deb8u1
dpkg: regarding .../tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb containing tar:amd64, pre-dependency problem:
 tar pre-depends on libacl1 (>= 2.2.51-8)
  libacl1:amd64 is unpacked, but has never been configured.

dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb (--install): pre-dependency problem - not installing tar:amd64 Setting up dpkg:amd64 (1.17.27) ... Setting up libacl1:amd64 (2.2.52-2) ... Setting up libapt-pkg4.12:amd64 (1.0.9.8.4) ... dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of apt:amd64: libapt-pkg5.0:i386 (1.4.1) breaks apt (<< 1.1~exp14) and is installed. Version of apt:amd64 to be configured is 1.0.9.8.4.

dpkg: error processing package apt:amd64 (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ... Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb apt:amd64

[comment]

2018-02-05-1540Z

saved by Debian snapshots. got the exact packages back. but don't try using the site search, just type in the package name followed by a slash; if you don't use the slash, you'll get a 404 error. like this: http://snapshot.debian.org/package/dpkg/

then click on the version and you get: http://snapshot.debian.org/package/dpkg/1.18.18/, from where you scroll down to the binary package for the architecture you want.

I might try the crossgrade again later. for now I've got to focus on correcting, as best I can, yesterday's fuckup with the oil. [comment]

2018-02-05-1407Z

oh, shit. now I've done it.

jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src$ sudo dpkg --install *_amd64.deb
dpkg: warning: downgrading apt from 1.4.1 to 1.0.9.8.4
(Reading database ... 171245 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack apt_1.0.9.8.4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking apt:amd64 (1.0.9.8.4) over (1.4.1) ...
dpkg: warning: downgrading dpkg from 1.18.18 to 1.17.27
Preparing to unpack dpkg_1.17.27_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking dpkg:amd64 (1.17.27) over (1.18.18) ...
dpkg: warning: downgrading tar from 1.29b-1.1 to 1.27.1-2+deb8u1
dpkg: regarding tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb containing tar:amd64, pre-dependency problem:
 tar pre-depends on libacl1 (>= 2.2.51-8)

dpkg: error processing archive tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb (--install): pre-dependency problem - not installing tar:amd64 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of apt:amd64: apt:amd64 depends on libapt-pkg4.12 (>= 1.0.9.8.4). libapt-pkg5.0:i386 (1.4.1) breaks apt (<< 1.1~exp14) and is installed. Version of apt:amd64 to be configured is 1.0.9.8.4.

dpkg: error processing package apt:amd64 (--install): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured Setting up dpkg:amd64 (1.17.27) ... Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11) ... Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ... Errors were encountered while processing: tar_1.27.1-2+deb8u1_amd64.deb apt:amd64 jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src$ sudo apt-get --download-only install dpkg:amd64 tar:amd64 apt:amd64 apt-get: error while loading shared libraries: libapt-pkg.so.4.12: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[comment]

2018-02-05-0139Z

about the same time I was typing in that last tweet, I heard a crash not far away. went out for a beer and saw an SUV, totaled, at the nearest intersection, right outside 7 Crown Centro. I guess the driver of the other car took off. the people were calmly awaiting the ambulance, which arrived when I got back from the liquor store about 10 minutes later. [comment]

2018-02-05-0114Z

couldn't get the old oil filter off, and just about ruined my flex extension trying. finally went out towards AutoZone on Forjadores for a fixed 6" extension. on the way, I passed Yaqui hardware and stopped just to check. I didn't know the word, so I looked around until I found a cheap 3/8 ratchet that had a spark plug socket and 2" extension. I pointed to the last and said "lo mismo pero mas largo". it was only 62 pesos, just over 3 bucks! the same thing at AutoZone would very likely have been 2 to 4 times the price.

so anyway, got the old filter out and the new one in, but guess what. the wrench didn't fit the new filter, so I only got it in hand-tight. filled with oil, waited until my tiny spill stopped dripping, and drove it into the carport. surprise! a trail of oil all the way in. damn. all morning trying to do the job right and I fuck it up right at the end.

I'm going to AutoZone in the morning to get the right size wrench. I hope it's just the filter that's leaking, and not something more serious, like a cracked engine block. but I've got to get some degreaser and try and clean those tiles. [comment]

2018-02-04-1525Z

here is the GPF I mentioned, and here is a related warning that showed up earlier in the boot process. someday I'll probably have to troubleshoot. [comment]

2018-02-04-1311Z

I tried again with the new kernel after installing dkms. not as "automatic" as it's supposed to be, and anyway I had another kernel crash. this time I looked at the logs after reboot, and it shows a GPF during handle_thermal_trip. guess I'm stuck with the old kernel. [comment]

2018-02-04-1042Z

was going crazy freeing space, and somehow removed my actual kernel and modules from the hard drive. "no problem", I thought, I had kernel 3.16 installed to which I could boot. but no wl.ko, so no wireless (that I know about, anyway). and then I had a kernel panic for no apparent reason.

so, back to Windows 7, from where I again ran coLinux and attempted a repair. I was able to download the old kernel, and install it using dpkg, but I couldn't get LILO to run. booted again into 3.16, was able to run LILO before another kernel panic, and now I'm back up. whew. [comment]

2018-02-01-1937Z

in dreams I sometimes visit Wikipedia and see what alternate universes, or a future of our universe, have to say. last night I was reading an article that said something about humans being a "light-intolerant" species, and in the dream it meant something different to me than photophobia, more along the lines of having evolved to where sunlight was detrimental to health. there was a lot more but that's the only snippet I remember, and that only because I made a note of it when I came downstairs to pee. [comment]

2018-02-01-1810Z

on another note...

I had a chance to see myself running, head-on, yesterday as I approached the big glass doors at Soriana. my feet kick out to the side, like some of the ungainly women you might find along the typical jogging trail, except I'm not as pretty.

I don't know an easy way to correct this. if I could see myself all the time it'd be easy, but to do that, I'd have to hire someone to drive in front of me with a big mirror, or rig something with PVC pipe with a camera and display that I could hoist onto my shoulders.

I shouldn't mind, but I do. I'm vain that way. [comment]

2018-02-01-1729Z

OK, so AmericanCoin uses sha256d for the block hash, and scrypt for the proof-of-work. that's why the "block hashes" rarely have any leading zeroes.

I found the block by grepping the output of blockparse.py, the following is just an after-the-fact demo:

jcomeau@aspire:/usr/src/blockparser$ python
Python 2.7.12+ (default, Sep  1 2016, 20:27:38) 
[GCC 6.2.0 20160822] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> from blockparse import *
>>> import scrypt
>>> logging.getLogger('').setLevel(logging.WARN)
>>> blocks = nextblock(['/tmp/blk0001.dat'], 315149)
>>> myblock = next(blocks)
WARNING:root:NOTE: "height" values shown are relative to start of first file and may include orphaned blocks
>>> show_hash(hashlib.sha256(hashlib.sha256(myblock[1]).digest()).digest())
'12b6268311614e5a81bcb50e310c1aeabf01cd6e28c3e1a403dcd177498fbcb7'
>>> show_hash(scrypt.hash(myblock[1], myblock[1], 1024, 1, 1, 32))
'00000024a678bf4909239e5b92def58447735d0a026fd7bd1056c7814413670e'
[comment]

2018-02-01-1644Z

OK, found those in my debug.log file. for sure they're using a different algorithm for "hash" as they do for "proof-of-work":

jcomeau@ns003:~$ grep -A3 proof-of-work ~/.americancoin/debug.log | tail -n 10
--
proof-of-work found  
  hash: 0000002144ee7b0ef72b22ad6c1fe774349eb66cca1e6e3daea65987f218d8cc  
target: 0000003276870000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
CBlock(hash=a2e9b3132b199b8a556d, PoW=0000002144ee7b0ef72b, ver=1, hashPrevBlock=551286d690f2bf3e2bb6, hashMerkleRoot=ce4a4ee8d7, nTime=1517422928, nBits=1d327687, nNonce=2179039921, vtx=1)
--
proof-of-work found  
  hash: 00000024a678bf4909239e5b92def58447735d0a026fd7bd1056c7814413670e  
target: 0000003276870000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
CBlock(hash=12b6268311614e5a81bc, PoW=00000024a678bf490923, ver=1, hashPrevBlock=a2e9b3132b199b8a556d, hashMerkleRoot=11ee49ce05, nTime=1517443176, nBits=1d327687, nNonce=930444088, vtx=4)
[comment]

2018-02-01-0928Z

here are a couple of my blocks:

jcomeau@nutek:~$ grep -C1 nonce /tmp/pyminer.log 
comparing:
 0000002144ee7b0ef72b22ad6c1fe774349eb66cca1e6e3daea65987f218d8cc nonce 0x81e182b1 to
 0000003276870000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
thread 0 found possible nonce 0x81e182b1 after 28008 reps

and

comparing:
 00000024a678bf4909239e5b92def58447735d0a026fd7bd1056c7814413670e nonce 0x37757338 to
 0000003276870000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
thread 0 found possible nonce 0x37757338 after 34195 reps

now to figure out what the blockfile thinks these hashes are. [comment]

2018-02-01-0908Z

so none of those attempted 51% attacks on AmericanCoin, if indeed that's what those were showing in my blockfile, were successful. almost all the 100000+ extra records on my netbook are simply duplicates.

now to figure out why the blockhashes don't have the leading zeroes that should be expected. they're damned well necessary when I'm mining them. [comment]

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