Scanning in Ubuntu was a lot easier than in Windows XP, where you have to install drivers and software first. I’m really impressed by the usability of scanning in Ubuntu.

My ISP doesn’t support IPv6 themselves, so I was forced to use a dynamic tunnel at sixxs.net. I’ve set up two dynamic tunnels, so I can access my desktop computer from my laptop, no matter where I am in the world. A short test transferring The Source video podcast using SCP gave the following result:

the_source_episode007.mp4        100%  128 MB 989.5 KB/s   02:12

That’s pretty impressive! These speeds makes Pv6 very usefull at this stage, for anything I would care to use it for. Seems like the broker sixxs.net is not a serious bottleneck.

It’s very easy to setup a dynamic IPv6 tunnel in ubuntu. First request a dynamic tunnel from a broker, e.g. sixxs.net, and then install the aiccu tunnel client:
$ sudo apt-get install aiccu
The installation will ask you for the user name, password and possibly the ID of the tunnel. Test the connection afterwards by going to ipv6.google.com. Welcome to the world of IPv6!

Install it on ubuntu by using:
$ apt-get install gnome-do
Or alternatively go to the official website.

That made it possible to enter a caret key! I wonder why Maplesoft still is shipping such an old version of Java with Maple?

We downloaded version 1541 of buildroot for the Gumstix using a guide on the Gumstix wiki:

$ svn co -r1541 http://svn.gumstix.com/gumstix-buildroot/trunk gumstix-buildroot

We then changed to the gumstix-buildroot directory and ran the following commands:

$ make defconfig

I chose option 11 xscale when asked which target architecture variant i
wanted and pressed enter at the rest of the options. I then ran
menuconfig, which gives you a menu system where you can add and remove
parts of the system:

$ make menuconfig

I selected “Target Options” and set the “Pad Output” to 0xEC0000 (the size of the internal flash). I also removed the option “Use sumtool to write…”. I went down to “Package Selection for the target” and pressed enter. I deselected a lot of packages that didn’t have weren’t going to be needed such as: alsa, aumix, bluez, gpsd, madplay, pcmiautils, pppd, wifistix, wireless tool and more. I then went all the way down to python and pressed space. That gave the option of including pyserial and pexpect, which I added as well. I exited out of the menu and answered yes to saving the configuration. The buildroot system was now ready to compile so I issued:

$ make

After a little while it asked which frame buffer device I wanted. As I wasn’t going to use a display I just hit enter. The compiling went on for a very long time.

After the compiling was done I found out that I couldn’t upload to the Gumstix as it was loaded with u-boot 1.1.4 and not 1.2… It seemed like I would have to update it which I didn’t want to, as this is a very risky operation that can brick the Gumstix. I thought I was out of luck and tried some older versions of buildroot, but those made python seg fault. I googled franticly and stumbled over a page by RoboMontreal by accident. It said to do the following after a make:

$	mkdir -p build_arm_nofpu/root/boot/
$	cp uImage build_arm_nofpu/root/boot/
$	rm  rootfs.arm_nofpu.jffs2
$	make

This copies the kernel to the root image, which solved the problem with u-boot as it wasn’t able to find the kernel. I copied the file rootfs.arm_nofpu.jffs2 to the MMC flash card and put it into the Gumstix. I connected to the Gumstix with a serial null cable set with the following settings:

• 115200 baud
• 8 data bits
• 1 stop bit
• No parity

I turned the Gumstix on and hit enter when u-boot started. This gave me a simple console, which I used to replace the root file system:

GUM> mmcinit
GUM> fatload mmc 1 a2000000 rootfs.arm_nofpu.jffs2
GUM> protect on 1:0-1
GUM> erase all
GUM> cp.b a2000000 40000 ${filesize}
GUM> boot

This system booted and Python seemed to work with pyserial and xmlrpclib which we need for the project. It took me a lot of hours to figure this out but now we finally had something working.

We finally found the Bridge and it was amazing to walk with the NYC skyline in front of you:

Two cool guys

New York is a very noisy and busy place:

Ground zero was not so zero anymore:

And I met Mr. Wallstreet:

The NYSE was quite a view:

We went down to the Staten Island Ferry as it was free:

It was a nice little tour, about 15 min. each way. We even got to meet this famous lady:

We wanted some more action after the quite trip and went to Times Square:

We met our first cowboy on our trip:

We walked to Central Park and sat for a while enjoying the incredible view:

I met an old guy in Central Park I knew from my home town!

We went to Best Buy to find a plug converter for Asbjørn. We discovered that was a special entrance for us in Central Park…

We ended walking almost the whole way around Central Park by accident, so we had quite a long walk that day. Some rest would be nice now

Asbjørn travels with style as you can see on this picture from Copenhagen airport:

We had to fill out a couple of papers before they would let us into the country:

It took a while to get into the country. They had to check a lot of things, take our fingerprints and take our picture(why can’t they just use the information on the passport?!?). We took the skytrain from JFK to Jamaican station and the subway from there. It was really easy to use the public transportation and we actually got to the hostel half an hour before expected(I was afraid we would be late).

The Hostel is Virginia Guest House in 128 East 112 street. The area is a bit shady, outskirts of Harlem, but ok:

We went around the area looking for a cable for our laptops as the first thing and found some:

We crashed after that and slept very well in spite of the trains going by our window.