System Configuration tips
Annoying configuration settings I'm always having to track down

Debugging Linux

  • Kernel command line to send printk's to serial port: console=ttyS1,9600 earlyprintk=serial,ttyS1,9600 (adjust tty and baud rate as necessary)
  • IOMMU kernel command line settings: intel_iommu=on intremap=off iommu=pt
  • Dump printk's to console: echo 8 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk
  • Flush the buffer cache: echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches

Using 4K displays with Windows 7

  • To make the majority of the text readable:
    -- Set the font size scaling to "custom" and 140
  • To make Xming fonts readable:
    -- Modify the shortcut used to launch xming (right-click -> properties), and add "-dpi 125" to arguments

Dealing with Microsoft Excel

  • Allow opening multiple sheets in separate windows, and double clicking on files to open them:
    -- Modify the registry as follows:
    1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\command:
      -- (default): Change "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /dde to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office14\EXCEL.EXE" /e "%1"
      -- command: Either delete or change /dde to /e "%1" as well
    2. Delete HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.8\shell\Open\ddexec
    3. Repeat above procedure for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Excel.Sheet.12\shell\Open\

X fonts with Mac OSX

Use the Andale Mono font with [x]emacs running via X11
Plan A:
  1. Install the following fink packages: applesystemfonts and msttcorefonts
  2. Run xfontpath enable
Plan B:
  1. cp /Library/Fonts/Andale Mono.ttf /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF
  2. xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/
  3. xset fp rehash
  4. xfontpath enable

Emacs

  • Use this .emacs init file

    • Cscope

  • Grab the cbrowser gui interface here
  • Rules to generate cscope database automatically from a makefile here

    • Tramp syntax for tunnelling emacs sessions over SSH

  • emacs /username@server:path