Creating a Toughbook Wiki

Group,

Okay, so I've been reading for the past several WEEKS on this forum. I STILL have not been able to find out some of my specific questions. I just learned today that there's a hidden PCMCIA port on the CF-28! That opens up more doors!

I'm considering making a wiki for the toughbooks. I have two concerns with this.

1) I'll be wasting my time because no one will look at, and/or edit/moderate it.
2) I'm certainly not a Tough Book god. I can't do it on my own.

I feel that it would be beneficial because as I browse these forums, I find that alot of posts had pictures, but they are no longer visible. Also alot of posts have a continuing and evolving method of doing things, however that's hard to tell what's the current way with the 50 PAGES of posts on one thread.

I also have the ability to setup a place where people can upload images to be used on the wiki/and or the forums here.

I also find it hard to figure out where to buy replacement parts, I may wind up programming a PHP system to show what other members are offering, at what price, how long, etc.

What do you guys think?


Knight.

 

You have found this one right ?
http://www.toughwiki.com/index.php?title=CF-29

 

I could easily make this with the HELP of everyone of the major 50 contributing members that are a part of my forums too... (toughbooktalk.com). I would be willing to host the site and set it up so long as everyone feeds me the info to put on it... Alex and Rick could help moderate if they want (They are both current modderators on my site and this site so hopefully I wouldn't be overloading them...)

I would need the software to do it to put it on my website... it could be a subsidary of toughbooktalk.com (toughbooktalk.com/wiki maybe??).

Let me know

 

Yeah, I've seen that site. It's got some information on it, but not much. I'm wanting/looking for more information on the mods that this group has done, such as bluetooth, gps, wifi, etc. As well as some more exotic stuff that I intend on doing, such as SSD, and Linux.

If I'm going to spend the time on filling out the pages, and adding alot of information, I'd much rather it be on my own personal server, so I know it won't disappear in two months. It'd be different if I knew it wasn't going to disappear.

Knight.

 

I'll give you access to my server... Ask other members here about me and my availability of my sites... Toughbooktalk.com is comming up on one year on March 16th... I own a web hosting company too with dedicated servers/AC units/generators and standby lines... Others will vouch for my abilities in my networking skills and web hosting skills as well... Not only do I have toughbooktalk.com but I also have a repository of about 100GB of other good info and drivers and everything else via toughbooktalk.com/public_downloads... My personal website is robsnetworks.com as well, go on there and see the hundreds of networks that I've set up (including EVERY White Hen/ 7-11 conversion here around Chicago), carputer network etc etc etc. The name of my company is Giganet Hosting Inc and my address is 720 S. Main Street, Lombard, IL 60148. My work number is (630)-627-7623 and my name is Rob. Feel free to call and talk to me any time.

Thanks

P.S, ALL the members that are BLACK in color at my website visit my site EVERY DAY. I have 46,400+ clicks to this site a month with 61,600+ page views.

 

Also, if you want daily or weekly or monthy copies of the ENTIRE wiki section of my server I can provide that too so you can back up ALL your work!

~Rob - willing to take on ALL web hosting requests!~

 

[/QUOTE]

That's kinda my problem. I want to do this, but I don't have enough information yet.

The Wiki software is easy to get a hold of....

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki

Knight.

 

This looks good... runs on PHP and mySQL... perfect!

 

Sounds good man.... Let's do it.

Once you get it setup, I'll help ya put as much information as I can in it.

I THINK the MediaWiki software allows wiki members to upload images to the wiki server. I think that feature is definitely needed.

As I said I want to document alot of the stuff. I've also considered making a GPS unit that'll go where the stock GPS went, (or the carriage caddie for the stock GPS), maybe include a usb port.... I've also got some ideas on getting USB 2.0 in the cf-28.

Knight.

 

I'm still running PHP 4.3... I'd have to upgrade... I wonder how that will play with my forums...

I'll have to test this out. I'll get back to you after I test it out.

The latest verson of the WIKI does NOT support the latest version of apache (5.3.1)... so I'd have to use 5.3.0 which I can't seem to find...

 

Wow... yeah, actually last time I looked into setting up a media wiki, I ran into similar issues. I think my mySQL was lower then what they wanted...

So you've got the newest Apache, but an older PHP.... lol, k.

Maybe I/we can find a different wiki software... one that's not so picky about versions.


Knight.

 

I've been wanting to upgrade the PHP on my server for the last 4 years lol... Just been to lazy and busy to do it... I upgraded from apache 1.3.33 to 2.2.11 when I upgraded to a new server back about 1 year back. I just never got around to upgrading the PHP

 

I can't say too much... I rarely upgrade my php/mysql/apache.

I looked into PHPWiki, and a couple others... I just keep coming back to the standard mediaWiki, it just looks so much better... and... I dunno... Proper.


Knight.

 

Knight! I got PHP 5.2.13 working GREAT as a CGI binary! Here's the issue though... as suspected, toughbooktalk.com forums dont' like it. So I have two choices here.

1) Upgrade the PHP at 3AM to work as a CGI binary(because the site will be down for some time), delete the forums, re-install the forums, restore the backup so no data is lost. - This method is a pain in the ...
2) Run PHP 4.3 as a CGI binary (as I have it set up now) and run PHP 5.2.13 as a module that loads in Apache. (BOTH PHP versions would be running this way...)

For now I'm going to try the 2nd choice as I don't wanna mess with my existing toughbooktalk.com site + it would be good to have BOTH PHP versions running for compatibility reasons with my other customers...

w00t!!

 

So this didn't work as I thought it would... I will be doing method 1 in the night at some point soon. Not tonight as I'm slammed busy and not this weekend as I will be outta town... Maybe some night early next week. Now that I KNOW it works, I am HAPPY!

w00t!

 

No problem, I totally understand.

Oh, and just a word of caution..... yeah... I was trying to upgrade I think MySQL on a live production server... Well, I couldn't get the stupid thing to uninstall.... Finally, and I don't remember how... somehow it was gonna help if I updated glibc... so I tried to upgrade, failed, so I figured, eh, I'll uninstall for a few seconds, and re-install the new glibc... yeah.... bad ... bad bad bad choice. EVERYTHING relies on glibc. I couldn't install glibc because rpm, yum, apt-get, they all rely on glibc! I wound up having to reformat, re-install.

Learned my lesson.... I'll never do it on a live server again.

Knight.

 

Here's a mod using the dual USB pc card inside the hidden slot:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=415307

(Kinda proud of my first TB hack ... )

 

That actually was really close to what I was thinking...at least with where you placed the two side ports...

No, my thoughts were more along the lines of putting a USB 2.0 Mini-PCI card in, then using those to connect to a custom PCB board that I placed in the same spot as the stock GPS. I was thinking of using a bluetooth card in the extra hidden PCMCIA port.

My only concern in using the 3rd PCMCIA for usb is the problem you already ran into... low amperage 5v power. I need to look into the CN(A) connectors again for a switched power lead.... then see if I can find a 5V somewhere that's easy access....

But your hack looks really good, and I def appreciate the pics and info.

Knight.

 

Okay, Phil (Caunukcam) has PM'ed me and has graciously offered to hand over toughwiki.com and all the files as well. Can we work with that domain?

I can also redirect toughbooktalk.com/wiki over to this site as well if need be...

Thanks

 

Here is my latest... So I have a spare server that I was using as a test server. I'm going to dedicate this server to the wiki site. It's more than capable of doing what we need to do. This was I don't have to bring down the primary web server to get this doing what we need to do. Plus with all the traffic going to the primary server it's better to split the load anyways.

I seriously can't wait to make this happen! It's going to be SO MUCH fun!

~Rob - tickled pink right now setting up a dream!~

 

OKAY! I got the new server up and running with Apache 2.2.11, PHP 5.2.13, and mySQL 5.0.67.

I got the files and database from Phil but am having trouble restoring the database... I'll work on it over the next 3 days and see where we're at!

 

That's amazing, and very gracious.

If you need any help on the backend of it, let me know.

Again, my only concern was that it'd go down shortly, this seems to deal with that concern. And as you stated before, I can just download the files myself, even make a cron job do it for me, so if it does go down, I can put it back up on my own personal server, if needed.

Sounds great, I'd love to help make this work.

Knight.

 

Okay, I successfully got the ENTIRE thing up and running on the new server. I got the database restored, the connection info set up correctly and everything else!

I'll keep you all posted!

 

Bump.


Knight.

 

So, I'm still waiting for a response in regards to port translation on my netgear prosafe VPN router... Seems that NO ONE knows how to do this... Everyone is just telling me to get a second static IP from my ISP, which I don't wanna do because I don't wanna pay for it. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks

 

Yeah, I understand not wanting to pay....

That's why I have my own linux machine running as a router. I've ran into similiar issues with off the shelf routers... I just gave up.

Good Luck,
Knight.

 

My thoughts.....

This will work if you are specific
The cf-29 Wiki is an example of one that works well

If you are thinking of this choose a subject and give as much detail as possible

Our faq for each model located in the stickys are usually quite good, the gps thread however is terrible in need of help to clarify different options

I included the cf-29 wiki link in our cf-29 FAQ thread as it was excellent and had info not posted here
If you just try a general one you just end up duplicating or C/P what we all ready have here , well thats no help at all

Rob , for the last two years has provided us with server space for images and files on his servers which has been helpful an most appreciated

Anyone here is welcome to PM me or Toughbook and make up a FAQ thread or add to the info on any of our main threads

Alex

 

So, I called my ISP and they wanna charge me $20/month more for 5 IP's, of which all of them would change... EFF THAT! That would be WAY to much hassle. So what I'm going to do is simply upload the new configs to apache, reboot apache in the night and fix the Toughbooktalk site to work with the new PHP software. Their will be downtime on toughbooktalk.com but only in the night.

I will let everyone know before I do it.

Thanks

 

OKAY! I got it up and running on my old server... THANK GOD I didn't have to fix Toughbooktalk.com... I ended up working out the bugs on the other server and then I transferred it BACK to the main server. So now the main server has the newer php software (5.2.13) running with EVERYTHING.

I put the MIRROR toughwiki.com site here: http://baldygafamily.com/ as a TEMPORARY place holder until me and Phil get the domain transferred to my end.

Please test it and let me know.

Thanks, Rob

 

Okay, Paul is going to make the DNS changes now to point the website to my server.

Thanks

 

Okay, we're up and running from my server!!! At least here on my end I can see we're up... I'll double check to confirm from a DSL line and my house line.

w00t!

 

Works for me!