Saturday 24 November 2012

chown root:root boinc *

Spot the deliberate mistake!
  • cd /usr/bin
  • sudo chown root:root boinc *
Probably not a good idea to try updating boinc on your Linux Ubuntu 12.04 LTS server when you can't sleep but are so very tired. Good one to know that chown also removes all setuid and setgid bits. :(

I booted a Live CD, and from what I can see, these are the default permissions and owners in /usr/bin:


Please let me know if anything is wrong.

Monday 13 August 2012

VMWare Mouse Stuck in Bottom Right Corner


Had a problem with a mouse stuck in the bottom right corner of the Window of a VMWare virtual machine. This machine was P2V'd many moons ago and we had to access the VMWare console instead of accessing it via RDP as we normally do because we'd started up another instance.

Registery edits to fix it dound at the link below:
http://blog.dhampir.no/content/vmware-mouse-problems-mouse-stuck-in-bottom-right-corner

Using Regedit, remove the msvmmouf value from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Leave the other values alone!

Friday 1 June 2012

Windows 8 error 0x800f0906 while enabling Microsoft net framework 3.5

Had a problem with the Citrix receiver requiring .Net 3.5 but being unable to add it dynamically or through control panel. Downloading from Windows update failed.

James Massardo helped me find the solution:

  1. Mount the Windows CD as an ISO or physical disk
  2. Make a note of the Windows ISO or disk drive letter
  3. Run a command prompt as an administrator
  4. Run 'dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFX3 /Source:d:\sources\sxs' replacing d: with you disk or ISO drive letter

How to configure Ubuntu to use postfix against gmail domain with application password

I followed the proceedure here:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Postfix_configured_with_Gmail_SMTP

Only changes I had to make were:

  1. Make sure to append the Equifax certificate to the /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
  2. Run the postmap commands in the /etc/postfix directory or use the full paths
  3. Create an application specific key for postfix from accounts.google.com

How to configure Ubuntu for automatic updates

Nice article here on how to configure Ubuntu for automatic updates:
https://help.ubuntu.com/10.04/serverguide/automatic-updates.html

I had autoupdate installed already, but it just told me that updates were available. The URL tells you how to get them installed automatically.

Sunday 6 May 2012

SSL Error 61 on Citrix Access Gateway with Linux Client

I got the Linux client installed in the previous post, but got some SSL errors when trying to launch apps.
Our certificates are issued by Comodo, and the Linux Citrix client didn't support the root server for some reason.


  • I used Firefox to view the certificate by clicking on the blue part at the start of the URL.
  • Click 'More Information'
  • Click 'View certificate'
  • Click 'Details'
  • Click the Root Certificate at the top of the heirarchy
  • Click 'Export'
  • Save the certificate as type 'X.509 Certificate DER'
  • Save the certificate as 'RootCAName.crt' (Replace RootCAName with actual name)
  • Copy the certificate to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts.
I have read that you can copy the CACerts from Firefox, but I haven't tried that.

Thanks to http://www.itswapshop.com/tutorial/how-install-citrix-receiver-linux-120-opensuse-121 for the pointers.

Citrix Receiver 12.1 on Ubuntu 12.04 x64


I've been playing with a few other operating systems since I hosed my Windows 7 install on my laptop.
We're a commited XenApp house, so I decided to take another stab at getting the Citrix receiver working on Unbuntu 12.04 LTS.

Here's what I did:

Followed the Ubuntu CitrixICAClientHowTo here:

  • https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CitrixICAClientHowTo

The above didn't quite work, so I modified it slightly:

  • Download the latest libmotif3 from:
    • http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/multiverse/o/openmotif
    • Currently libmotif3_2.2.3-4_i386.deb
  • Install libmotif3 using 'sudo dpkg -i libbmotif*i386.deb'
  • Link it using 'sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libXm.so.3 /usr/lib/libXm.so.4'
  • Download the Citrix Receiver 12.1 client and the USB support package:
    • http://www.citrix.com
    • Downloads
    • Citrix Receiver
    • Linux
    • Download the two x64 packages
  • Install both packages. This will generate errors:
    • The icaclient will complain of an error 2 in post configure
    • The ctxusb package will complain the the icaclient hasn't been configured
  • I found this fix to the error here:
    • http://forums.citrix.com/thread.jspa?threadID=306353
  • You need to edit icaclient.postinst:
  • 'sudo vi /var/lib/dpkg/info/icaclient.postinst'
  • Replace 
    • 'echo $Arch|grep "i[0-9]86 > /dev/null' with
    • 'echo $Arch|grep -iE "x86_64" > /dev/null'
  • Run 'sudo  dpkg --configure icaclient'
  • Run 'sudo dpkg --configure ctxusb'
  • Added a couple of extra packages as suggested:
    • 'sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer'
    • 'sudo apt-get install curl'
  • Running 'sudo ./opt/Citrix/ICAClient/util/hdxcheck.sh' generated errors about missing libs
    • These missing libs all appear to be in /lib/i386-linux-gnu and the client works so...
  • I didn't run 'sudo apt-get install libmotif4:i386' as I have no plans to run wfcmgr.

Running through our CAG - I get some SSL errors - I'll explain how I fixed this in the next post

Please let me know if you have any luck or not with the above!


Saturday 5 May 2012

How-to Seti@Home on Cloud Ubuntu CLI

I needed to test the performance of a bunch of cloud machines this weekend, and what better way to do that then by running up a whole load of Seti@Home instances.

I did this by following these steps:

  1. sudo apt-get update - Some cloud images were out of date and produced errors if this wasn't run before installing any software.
  2. sudo apt-get install boinc-client - Some Clouds had 12.04 which needed about 350MB of downloads, some had 11.10 which only needed about 250MB.
  3. sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart - Not sure this was really required, but it was a nice check to see that it was installed correctly and would stop and start again.
  4. boinccmd --lookup_account http://setiathome.berkeley.edu email@address password - This returns the authentication code which you need for the next step.
  5. boinccmd --project_attach http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ authentication_code - This attaches the client to the project. Use a different URL for a different project. This also assumes you have a project username which you used in the previous step.
  6. boinccmd --set_network_mode always - Allows transfers to happen any time. Not sure if this is persistent.
  7. boinccmd --set_run_mode always - Allows the client to run all the time. Again, not sure if persistent.
  8. boinccmd --get_state | more - Make sure that the project has been registered correctly, and that it is getting work-units and tasks.
  9. sudo apt-get dist-upgrade - Most cloud images seemed to have an out-of-date kernel and needed some other stuff after the large download earlier.
  10. sudo reboot - After all that patching, make sure the machines are clean. All the cloud images I was testing had persistent images, so no problems restarting them.
I now have 35 cloud instances of Seti@Home running in addition to my small local server. It was very apparent how much difference there was in each instances performance, with some virtual machines taking 3 time longer to set-up than others.

I've been using the remainder of the £50 credit I got for Infiniserv, and 3 beta instances on the HP cloud.

Have you guys had and differing experiences?

Thursday 1 March 2012

Lygoworld, poor Turtlebeach repair experience


My son bought a Turtlebeach headset from Amazon with his Christmas money. He pretty much spent all of it on this ~£100 headset only to have the microphone fail a month later.
Lygoworld handle the headset repairs in the UK, and they insisted we send them £25 to cover the damage in addition to the £7 it cost us to send the headset back.
More details once we get the headset back after nearly a month so far.
I'll also be interested to see what Amazon and Turtlebeach themselves say.

Friday 3 February 2012

Evening Star needs a new Google Maps API Key

This popup keeps appearing on my local newspaper's website:

Guess I'd better tell them.

Infinserv - FAIL

I got a voucher at the recent Euro Cloud Expo to try Infiniserv's cloud offering.

Signed up today, only to be met with this:

To be fair, the management side looks fairly straight forward, with clear pricing and licensing details, but why would I use an IAAS company who can't provide any Infrastructure when I need it?

Friday 27 January 2012

How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP


To re-create the Show desktop icon yourself, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type notepad in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Carefully copy and then paste the following text into the Notepad window:
          [Shell]
           Command=2
           IconFile=explorer.exe,3
           [Taskbar]
           Command=ToggleDesktop
3. On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as "Show desktop.scf". TheShow  desktop icon is created on your desktop.
4. Click and then drag the Show desktop icon to your Quick Launch toolbar.


How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP:
'via Blog this'

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Linksys SRW Switch CLI | tepasom.com

Hidden CLI for Linksys SRW switches:
1.) ssh, telnet, or console into the switch as you normally would. Do not use the http/web interface.
2.) Log in with the menu system, using a valid, existing, account.
2.a) Provide the username and password, then "execute".
2.b) The "Operation complete" response is received. Press any key.
3.) At the "Switch Main Menu", Press CTRL+z.
4.) A carrot > command line will appear. Type in "lcli" (Light-weight Command Line Interface?) and press Enter.

Commands available are:
clear Reset functions
clock Manage the system clock
configure Enter configuration mode
copy Copy from one file to another
crypto Cryptographic commands
debug-mode Exit from the EXEC to debug mode
delete Delete a file from the flash file system
disable Disable privileged commands
dot1x 802.1x EXEC commands
exit Exit from the EXEC
help Description of the interactive help system
login Exit from the EXEC and Log in
no Negate command
ping Send echo messages
reload Halt and perform a cold restart
resume Resume telnet session.
set Set System Parameters
show Show running system information
telnet Open telnet session.
terminal Set current session functions
test diagnose
traceroute Discover the routes to destination

Thanks to:
Linksys SRW Switch CLI | tepasom.com: 'via Blog this'

The mcli password 'adminmcli' was found here:
http://lcli.wikidot.com/mcli

Sunday 8 January 2012

All old blog posts now redirected

I spent a bit of time today redirecting all the old blog posts (from my local Community Server install) to their new location (custom domain on Blogger).

I eventually decided to stop the existing Community Server site and run a blank website in it's place.
I then used the free version of Helicon Tech's ISAPI_Rewrite to redirect all the old Community Server paths to the new Blogger location, a simple robots.txt refirect, and then threw in  a wildcard redirect at the end to catch any other links (including comments that I didn't copy across).

It was actually quite easy to do in the end but needed to be done as adsense was still showing 10x more visits to the old blog as opposed to the new one. Also, since the fit of the new 100Mb line, I haven't had the port forwarded to the old server.

I'll run it for a while until all the search engines are updated and I can then finally drop my local server.

The product can be found here:
http://www.isapirewrite.com/

Handbrake Video Transcoder

I found this open source application when trying to find some software to transcode videos to an iPad.
I didn't need it in the end, as the paid for software I have by CucuSoft was quicker.
Still, looks great for free.
http://handbrake.fr/downloads.php

DVD Flick

Nice little open source program to create DVD's.

Used this instead of Windows DVD maker as it allowed me to create a dual layer DVD and automatically adjusted the bit rate of video and audio to allow me to fit a given number of videos on the disk.

Here's the about:

About DVD Flick

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set. You can add additional custom audio tracks, subtitles as well as a menu for easier navigation.

Features


  • Burn near any video file to DVD
  • Support for over 45 file formats
  • Support for over 60 video codecs
  • Support for over 40 audio codecs
  • Easily add a menu
  • Add your own subtitles
  • Easy to use interface
  • Burn your project to disc after encoding
  • Completely free without any adware, spyware or limitations
For a more detailed list of features, see the Features page.

http://www.dvdflick.net/

Thursday 5 January 2012

The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista

I had a problem with the DVD drive on my laptop with Windows 7 and Kaspersky.
I kept getting an error 19 in device manager.
It didn't appear to like the Kaspersky filter or Gears ASPI filter.
I think it was probably the Gears filter as this didn't return and the DVD drive appears to be working again.
The CD drive or the DVD drive does not work as expected on a computer that you upgraded to Windows Vista: 'via Blog this'