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Posts: 160 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Mar 2006
#11
Originally Posted by fpp
I don't think these values are very significant or trustworthy. I had never heard of that file before, and when I checked after reading this on my 770 it appeared with a size of 231 MB ! Obviously not possible on a "stock" unit (no swap on MMC etc.). After deleting it and linking it to /dev/null as above I didn't see any change in memory occupation, either.
I believe it is compressed. I found this has been discussed before, see here:

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/maemo/users/6417

This file is stored in the flash memory area of the 770. This area has limited number of writes, so I feel it probably good to not have this file consistently getting updated on the 770. Then again I may be wrong. My unit has not rebooted itself at all after linking wtmp to null. YMMV.
 
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Posts: 2,853 | Thanked: 968 times | Joined on Nov 2005
#12
Thanks for the link. Not much info there, but at least I see I'm not alone :-)
I'll see if it changes anything in my 770's behaviour, but then it wasn't in the habit of rebooting itself routinely, so...
 
Posts: 55 | Thanked: 2 times | Joined on Mar 2006
#13
Stability is the key. If the 770 is logging every action to that file, it may be putting unnecessary loads on the CPU.

There are many reasons for the 770 (or any other device) to hang. Eliminating potential reasons is worthwhile.
 
Posts: 319 | Thanked: 6 times | Joined on Apr 2006
#14
Originally Posted by fpp
I don't think these values are very significant or trustworthy. I had never heard of that file before, and when I checked after reading this on my 770 it appeared with a size of 231 MB ! Obviously not possible on a "stock" unit (no swap on MMC etc.). After deleting it and linking it to /dev/null as above I didn't see any change in memory occupation, either.
Its the file used for the command last. Last tells you who has been logging into the box. It's a nice little command to see what kind of usuage you're box is getting. There is another file, not on the 770 but in linux called /var/log/btmp which is used with lastb to tell you who the last bad login attempts were from.
 
Posts: 160 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Mar 2006
#15
Originally Posted by rattis
Its the file used for the command last. Last tells you who has been logging into the box. It's a nice little command to see what kind of usuage you're box is getting. There is another file, not on the 770 but in linux called /var/log/btmp which is used with lastb to tell you who the last bad login attempts were from.
Interesting

With wtmp linked to /dev/null the "last" command gives

wtmp begins Wed Dec 31 19:00:08 1969

I wonder where it is getting this date in 1969 from.

I agree about "last". I use it all the time on my Linux boxes. I do not see a need for it on the 770 since it is usually in my pocket. The "last" command also told of all reboots, which might provide usefull on the 770.
 
Posts: 319 | Thanked: 6 times | Joined on Apr 2006
#16
Originally Posted by troubleshootr
Interesting

With wtmp linked to /dev/null the "last" command gives

wtmp begins Wed Dec 31 19:00:08 1969

I wonder where it is getting this date in 1969 from.
.
I get the same date, and I'm not linking the file to null.
 
Posts: 78 | Thanked: 9 times | Joined on Dec 2005 @ Devon, UK
#17
The Unix epoch began at 0000 GMT on 1st Jan 1970. Adjust for your timezone and that's what a null date is on a Unix like system.
 
Posts: 160 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Mar 2006
#18
Originally Posted by msaunby
The Unix epoch began at 0000 GMT on 1st Jan 1970. Adjust for your timezone and that's what a null date is on a Unix like system.
Thanks. I tried setting the timezone on the 770, but it does not seem to work.

Nokia770-51:~# tzconfig
/usr/sbin/tzconfig: 45: tempfile: not found
Your current time zone is set to US/Eastern
Do you want to change that? [n]: n
Your time zone will not be changed
Nokia770-51:~# echo $TZ

Nokia770-51:~#
 
Posts: 1 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Apr 2006
#19
tzconfig can be made to do a little more, but it needs extra timezone files in /usr/share/zoneinfo.
I copied UTC and London across from a Ubuntu system.
tzconfig gives "invalid date" errors and won't report the time, but now the Daylight saving zone toggle is active in Control Panel/Date and time.
 
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