How to report Ubuntu crashes Updated +Created
Their crash system does not have an amazing user interface.
Tested on Ubuntu 21.10.
After something crashes, look under /var/crash for a crash file, which helps to determine which package to report under on Launchpad.
E.g. a file /var/crash/_usr_sbin_gdm3.0.crash makes you want to file the bug under gdm at: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+filebug
Then, while reporting the bug, you want to give the developpers access to that .crash file. But you can't publicly upload it because it contains memory dumps and could contain secret information. The way to do it is to look at the ID under:
sudo cat /var/crash/_usr_sbin_gdm3.0.uploaded
Ubuntu's crash report system has already uploaded the .crash for you, so you just have to confirm it and give the ID on the ticket.
You can view a list of all your uploaded errors at:
xdg-open https://errors.ubuntu.com/user/$(sudo cat /var/lib/whoopsie/whoopsie-id)
and each of those contain a link to:
https://errors.ubuntu.com/oops/<.uloaded error id>
which you yourself cannot see.
Running:
sudo apport-unpack /var/crash/_usr_sbin_gdm3.0.crash /tmp/app
splits it up into a few files, but does not make any major improvements.
apport-retrace
sudo apt install apport-retrace
sudo chmod 666 /var/crash/_usr_sbin_gdm3.0.crash
apport-retrace -g /var/crash/_usr_sbin_gdm3.0.crash
opens GDB with the core dump. Debug symbols are supplied as separate packages, which is a really cool idea: so you should be able to download them after the crash to see symbols. askubuntu.com/questions/487222/how-to-install-debug-symbols-for-installed-packages mentions how to install them. Official docs at: wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash#Debug_Symbol_Packages
Tried:
echo "deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com $(lsb_release -cs) main restricted universe multiverse" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ddebs.list
echo -e "deb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com $(lsb_release -cs)-updates main restricted universe multiverse\ndeb http://ddebs.ubuntu.com $(lsb_release -cs)-proposed main restricted universe multiverse" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ddebs.list
sudo apt install ubuntu-dbgsym-keyring
but then sudo apt update fails with:
E: The repository 'http://ddebs.ubuntu.com impish-security Release' does not have a Release file.
Riemann hypothesis Updated +Created
visualizing the Riemann hypothesis and analytic continuation by 3Blue1Brown (2016) is a good quick visual non-mathematical introduction is to it.
Video 1.
What is the Riemann hypothesis REALLY about? by HexagonVideos (2022)
Source.
Image generation Updated +Created
.data section Updated +Created
.data is section 1:
00000080  01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
00000090  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000a0  0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000000b0  04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
  • 80 0: sh_name = 01 00 00 00: index 1 in the .shstrtab string table
    Here, 1 says the name of this section starts at the first character of that section, and ends at the first NUL character, making up the string .data.
    .data is one of the section names which has a predefined meaning according to www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.strtab.html:
    These sections hold initialized data that contribute to the program's memory image.
  • 80 4: sh_type = 01 00 00 00: SHT_PROGBITS: the section content is not specified by ELF, only by how the program interprets it. Normal since a .data section.
  • 80 8: sh_flags = 03 7x 00: SHF_WRITE and SHF_ALLOC: www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#sh_flags, as required from a .data section
  • 90 0: sh_addr = 8x 00: TODO: standard says:
    If the section will appear in the memory image of a process, this member gives the address at which the section's first byte should reside. Otherwise, the member contains 0.
    but I don't understand it very well yet.
  • 90 8: sh_offset = 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 = 0x200: number of bytes from the start of the program to the first byte in this section
  • a0 0: sh_size = 0d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
    If we take 0xD bytes starting at sh_offset 200, we see:
    00000200  48 65 6c 6c 6f 20 77 6f  72 6c 64 21 0a 00        |Hello world!..  |
    AHA! So our "Hello world!" string is in the data section like we told it to be on the NASM.
    Once we graduate from hd, we will look this up like:
    readelf -x .data hello_world.o
    which outputs:
    Hex dump of section '.data':
      0x00000000 48656c6c 6f20776f 726c6421 0a       Hello world!.
    NASM sets decent properties for that section because it treats .data magically: www.nasm.us/doc/nasmdoc7.html#section-7.9.2
    Also note that this was a bad section choice: a good C compiler would put the string in .rodata instead, because it is read-only and it would allow for further OS optimizations.
    • a0 8: sh_link and sh_info = 8x 0: do not apply to this section type. www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#special_sections
    • b0 0: sh_addralign = 04 = TODO: why is this alignment necessary? Is it only for sh_addr, or also for symbols inside sh_addr?
    • b0 8: sh_entsize = 00 = the section does not contain a table. If != 0, it means that the section contains a table of fixed size entries. In this file, we see from the readelf output that this is the case for the .symtab and .rela.text sections.
SQLite Updated +Created
The minimalism, serverlessness/lack of temporary caches/lack of permission management, Hipp's religious obsession with efficiency, the use of their own pure Fossil version control[ref]. Wait, scrap that last one. Pure beauty!
Official Git mirror: github.com/sqlite/sqlite
Create a table
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 "
CREATE TABLE 'IntegerNames' (int0 INT, char0 CHAR(16));
INSERT INTO 'IntegerNames' (int0, char0) VALUES (2, 'two'), (3, 'three'), (5, 'five'), (7, 'seven');
"
List tables:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 '.tables'
output:
IntegerNames
Show schema of a table:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 '.schema IntegerNames'
outputs the query that would generate that table:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS 'IntegerNames' (int0 INT, char0 CHAR(16));
Show all data in a table:
sqlite3 db.sqlite3 'SELECT * FROM IntegerNames'
output:
2|two
3|three
5|five
7|seven
torchvision ResNet Updated +Created
pytorch.org/vision/0.13/models.html has a minimal runnable example adapted to python/pytorch/resnet_demo.py.
That example uses a ResNet pre-trained on the COCO dataset to do some inference, tested on Ubuntu 22.10:
cd python/pytorch
wget -O resnet_demo_in.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/Rooster_portrait2.jpg/400px-Rooster_portrait2.jpg
./resnet_demo.py resnet_demo_in.jpg resnet_demo_out.jpg
This first downloads the model, which is currently 167 MB.
We know it is COCO because of the docs: pytorch.org/vision/0.13/models/generated/torchvision.models.detection.fasterrcnn_resnet50_fpn_v2.html which explains that
FasterRCNN_ResNet50_FPN_V2_Weights.DEFAULT
is an alias for:
FasterRCNN_ResNet50_FPN_V2_Weights.COCO_V1
The runtime is relatively slow on P51, about 4.7s.
After it finishes, the program prints the recognized classes:
['bird', 'banana']
so we get the expected bird, but also the more intriguing banana.
By looking at the output image with bounding boxes, we understand where the banana came from!
Figure 1.
python/pytorch/resnet_demo_in.jpg
. Source.
Figure 2.
python/pytorch/resnet_demo_out.jpg
. The beak was of course a banana, not a beak!
Application Updated +Created
Paging makes it easier to compile and run two programs or threads at the same time on a single computer.
For example, when you compile two programs, the compiler does not know if they are going to be running at the same time or not.
So nothing prevents it from using the same RAM address, say, 0x1234, to store a global variable.
And thread stacks, that must be contiguous and keep growing down until they overwrite each other, are an even bigger issue!
But if two programs use the same address and run at the same time, this is obviously going to break them!
Paging solves this problem beautifully by adding one degree of indirection:
(logical) ------------> (physical)
             paging
Where:
  • logical addresses are what userland programs see, e.g. the contents of rsi in mov eax, [rsi].
    They are often called "virtual" addresses as well.
  • physical addresses can be though of the values that go to physical RAM index wires.
    But keep in mind that this is not 100% true because of further indirections such as:
Compilers don't need to worry about other programs: they just use simple logical addresses.
As far as programs are concerned, they think they can use any address between 0 and 4GiB (2^32, FFFFFFFF) on 32-bit systems.
The OS then sets up paging so that identical logical addresses will go into different physical addresses and not overwrite each other.
This makes it much simpler to compile programs and run them at the same time.
Paging achieves that goal, and in addition:
  • the switch between programs is very fast, because it is implemented by hardware
  • the memory of both programs can grow and shrink as needed without too much fragmentation
  • one program can never access the memory of another program, even if it wanted to.
    This is good both for security, and to prevent bugs in one program from crashing other programs.
Or if you like non-funny jokes:
Figure 1.
Comparison between the Linux kernel userland memory virtualization and The Matrix
. Source. Is this RAM real?
Astronomy Updated +Created
Ciro Santilli likes to learn astronomy a bit like he learns geography: go down some lists of "stuff that seems most relevant in some criteria to us!", possibly at different size scales e.g.:
Immigration Updated +Created
Important mathematical group Updated +Created
Implosion-type fission weapon Updated +Created
Implosion-type fission weapons are more complicated than gun-type fission weapon because you have to precisely coordinate the detonation of a bunch of explosives.
ImageNet subset Updated +Created
Subset generators:
Unfortunately, since ImageNet is a closed standard no one can upload such pre-made subsets, forcing everybody to download the full dataset, in ImageNet1k, which is huge!
Section header table Updated +Created
Array of Elf64_Shdr structs.
Each entry contains metadata about a given section.
e_shoff of the ELF header gives the starting position, 0x40 here.
e_shentsize and e_shnum from the ELF header say that we have 7 entries, each 0x40 bytes long.
So the table takes bytes from 0x40 to 0x40 + 7 + 0x40 - 1 = 0x1FF.
Some section names are reserved for certain section types: www.sco.com/developers/gabi/2003-12-17/ch4.sheader.html#special_sections e.g. .text requires a SHT_PROGBITS type and SHF_ALLOC + SHF_EXECINSTR
Running:
readelf -S hello_world.o
outputs:
There are 7 section headers, starting at offset 0x40:

Section Headers:
  [Nr] Name              Type             Address           Offset
       Size              EntSize          Flags  Link  Info  Align
  [ 0]                   NULL             0000000000000000  00000000
       0000000000000000  0000000000000000           0     0     0
  [ 1] .data             PROGBITS         0000000000000000  00000200
       000000000000000d  0000000000000000  WA       0     0     4
  [ 2] .text             PROGBITS         0000000000000000  00000210
       0000000000000027  0000000000000000  AX       0     0     16
  [ 3] .shstrtab         STRTAB           0000000000000000  00000240
       0000000000000032  0000000000000000           0     0     1
  [ 4] .symtab           SYMTAB           0000000000000000  00000280
       00000000000000a8  0000000000000018           5     6     4
  [ 5] .strtab           STRTAB           0000000000000000  00000330
       0000000000000034  0000000000000000           0     0     1
  [ 6] .rela.text        RELA             0000000000000000  00000370
       0000000000000018  0000000000000018           4     2     4
Key to Flags:
  W (write), A (alloc), X (execute), M (merge), S (strings), l (large)
  I (info), L (link order), G (group), T (TLS), E (exclude), x (unknown)
  O (extra OS processing required) o (OS specific), p (processor specific)
The struct represented by each entry is:
typedef struct {
    Elf64_Word  sh_name;
    Elf64_Word  sh_type;
    Elf64_Xword sh_flags;
    Elf64_Addr  sh_addr;
    Elf64_Off   sh_offset;
    Elf64_Xword sh_size;
    Elf64_Word  sh_link;
    Elf64_Word  sh_info;
    Elf64_Xword sh_addralign;
    Elf64_Xword sh_entsize;
} Elf64_Shdr;
Ubuntu 21.10 Updated +Created
GDM crashes sometimes when switching windows right after opening a new window: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gdm/+bug/1956299
Hardware implementation Updated +Created
Paging is implemented by the CPU hardware itself.
Paging could be implemented in software, but that would be too slow, because every single RAM memory access uses it!
Operating systems must setup and control paging by communicating to the CPU hardware. This is done mostly via:
  • the CR3 register, which tells the CPU where the page table is in RAM memory
  • writing the correct paging data structures to the RAM pointed to the CR3 register.
    Using RAM data structures is a common technique when lots of data must be transmitted to the CPU as it would cost too much to have such a large CPU register.
    The format of the configuration data structures is fixed _by the hardware_, but it is up to the OS to set up and manage those data structures on RAM correctly, and to tell the hardware where to find them (via cr3).
    Then some heavy caching is done to ensure that the RAM access will be fast, in particular using the TLB.
    Another notable example of RAM data structure used by the CPU is the IDT which sets up interrupt handlers.
    The OS makes it impossible for programs to change the paging setup directly without going through the OS:
  • CR3 cannot be modified in ring 3. The OS runs in ring 0. See also:
  • the page table structures are made invisible to the process using paging itself!
Processes can however make requests to the OS that cause the page tables to be modified, notably:
The kernel then decides if the request will be granted or not in a controlled manner.
India Updated +Created
Indian classical music Updated +Created
This was Ciro Santilli's main study/work music for several years around 2020. Tabla rules.
Independent agencies of the United States government Updated +Created
Indo-European language Updated +Created
Infinite Napkin Updated +Created
By Evan Chen (陳誼廷)
800+ page PDF with source on GitHub claiming to try and teach the beauty of modern maths for high schoolers. Fantastic project!!!

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