Mondo Tech

Recursively compare two directories

2011-11-03T20:54:00.000-07:00

I often need to recursively compare two directory structures to see what's different. I found this great python script that does just that.

http://eggdrop.ch/blog/2008/02/17/compare-directories/

Batch convert PDFs to multipage TIFFs

2011-10-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a powershell script that uses Ghostscript to convert a directory full of PDFs to multipage TIFF files. This will convert all PDFs found in $input_path to a TIFF file that is placed in $output_path. Note, the original file is then deleted. Thanks to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/75500/best-way-to-convert-pdf-files-to-tiff-files/120316#120316

Set $tool to the correct path for Ghostscript and set $input_path and $output_path accordingly.

$tool = 'C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32c.exe'
$input_path = 'C:\input\'
$output_path = 'C:\output\'
$pdfs = get-childitem $input_path -recurse | where {$_.Extension -match "pdf"}

foreach($pdf in $pdfs)
{

    $tiff = $output_path + $pdf.PSChildName.split('.')[0] + '.tiff'
    if(test-path $tiff)
    {
        "tiff file already exists " + $tiff
    }
    else        
    {   
        'Processing ' + $pdf.Name        
        $param = "-sOutputFile=$tiff"
        & $tool -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=tiffg4 $param -r300 $pdf.FullName -c quit
        Remove-Item $pdf.FullName
    }
}

Install Ruby on Rails on RHEL 6 with Apache

2011-10-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

I couldn't find any decent guides on how to install Rails 3 on RHEL 6 so here it is. This also works on Centos 6 of course.We'll be using Apache with Phusion Passenger (mod_rails). This is an apache module that will serve up Rails applications in a similar way to how PHP is handled.

You can skip this on Centos, but for RHEL you need to log into RHN or your Satellite server and enable the optional server repo for your machine (required for ruby-devel and rubygems).

Install the required development packages.

yum install gcc gcc-c++ make curl-devel openssl-devel zlib-devel httpd-devel apr-devel apr-util-devel sqlite-devel

Install ruby, ruby-devel, and rubygems:

yum install ruby ruby-devel rubygems

Next, use gems to install Rails and Passenger. (Note this takes a while.)

gem install rails passenger

Build the Passenger apache module by running:

passenger-install-apache2-module

That will also give you some relevant instructions on how to configure Apache.Now let's create a test application.

cd /var/www/html
rails new railstest
cd railstest

Edit Gemfile and add:

gem 'therubyracer'

Run bundle install to install therubyracer javascript engine (takes a minute or two)

bundle install

Generate our hello world controller:

rails generate controller hello

Edit config/routes.rb and uncomment the next to last line

match ':controller(/:action(/:id(.:format)))'

Edit app/views/hello/index.html.erb add some hello world text.

At this point you can test the application to make sure it works with the default rails server. Run rails server and open http://hostaddress:3000/hello and you should see your hello world text. Kill this and proceed with your apache configuration.

This assumes you have a default httpd install. Change this accordingly if you already have other vhosts configured. (Note the RailsEnv option, you'll need to set this accordingly in the future)
Add the following to /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

LoadModule passenger_module /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-3.0.9/ext/apache2/mod_passenger.so
PassengerRoot /usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/passenger-3.0.9
PassengerRuby /usr/bin/ruby

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/railstest/public
<Directory /var/www/html/railstest/public>
AllowOverride All
Options -MultiViews
RailsEnv development
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Restart apache, browse to http://hostaddress/hello and you should see your hello world text!

tar exclude svn directories

2011-10-08T05:53:00.001-07:00

To exclude svn folders when using tar, do:

tar czf tarball.tgz --exclude=.svn mydirectory

Linux mail attachments

2011-10-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

It's been years since I needed to do this and I didn't immediately find the switch I wanted on a quick google search. Naturally, I should have just looked at the man page in the first place.The proper way to attach a file with the mail command is:

mail -a file-to-attach someone@example.com

chmod only directories recursively

2011-06-30T10:55:00.000-07:00

This will recursively chmod only directories:

find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Kill All MSSQL Database Sessions

2011-06-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

This will disconnect all users from a specific MSSQL database. Replace YOURDBNAME with your database name. Thanks to http://adammatusiak.blogspot.com/2011/02/disconnecting-users-from-mssql-database.html

USE master

GO

DECLARE @userId varchar(10)

DECLARE cur CURSOR READ_ONLY
FOR
SELECT request_session_id
FROM master.sys.dm_tran_locks
WHERE resource_type = 'DATABASE'
AND resource_database_id = db_id('YOURDBNAME')
GROUP BY request_session_id

OPEN cur

FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @userId
WHILE (@@fetch_status <> -1)
BEGIN
IF (@@fetch_status <> -2)
BEGIN
PRINT 'Killing connection ' + @userId
EXEC ('KILL ' + @userId)
END
FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @userId
END

CLOSE cur
DEALLOCATE cur

iOS Hello World - Corona SDK vs Native Obj-C

2011-05-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

Corona SDK:

Objective-C:

Latitude 13 Windows 7 Slow

2011-05-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

I have two Dell Latitude 13 laptops in my possession, both with the same problem. They suddenly started running very very slow. Trying a clean install of Windows 7 was futile, even the installer was running so slow that it took 20 hours on one computer. All of the hardware checked out and Windows XP worked just fine. I sent one to Dell and they sent it back to me claiming there was nothing wrong. I'm not sure what happened to these laptops, but the fix was to go into the BIOS and change the SATA controller from AHCI to ATA. After that Windows 7 installed normally.

UPDATE:

This seems to be the result of the ribbon cable going bad. The first sign is the issue I've described above, but eventually as the cable degrades further, it will stop being able to read any hard drives at all.

From the form post here:

Put the original drive (or another sata drive) back in & see if it works. If not, it's likely a failure of the ribbon cable from the mainboard to the daughterboard that carries the audio & sata ports.

We bought 100 of these units last year & in six months had a 73% failure rate. 87% of the failures (63% overall) were due to that cable failing. It is a known issue that is still recurring. The whole fleet has had the cable replaced twice, some more than that, but several of the replacement cables have failed also.

I would suggest you replace the original drive & have it addressed under warranty. If the machine is out of warranty, lean on them because it is a known issue.

In fairness, I will say that Dell have been very supportive through our troubles, & have worked hard to address the issue for us.

Bash script to verify urls

2011-05-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

This will check a list of urls contained in a file and only output any errors. (Requires curl)

#!/bin/bash
FILE=$1
exec 3<&0
exec 0<$FILE
while read line
do
/usr/bin/curl -silent -S -f $line --connect-timeout 3 > /dev/null || echo -e $line "\n\n"
done
exec 0<&3

Usage: ./checkurls.sh urlfile

Your url file should like something like:

http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/testurl
mondotech.blogspot.com
mondotech.org

Disable selinux on RHEL 6

2011-04-25T10:52:00.001-07:00

Edit /etc/selinux/config
Set SELINUX=disabled

Reboot.

PuTTYcyg - The ultimate cygwin terminal

2011-04-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Cygwin's default terminal sucks. I'm sure I don't need to explain why. You can use rxvt instead, see http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BetterCygwinTerminal

However, there's a much better option. PuTTYcyg is a patched version of PuTTY that lets you connect to your local cygwin installation.

Download it here: http://code.google.com/p/puttycyg/

Install PHP APC on RHEL and CentOS

2011-04-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

Install prerequisites:

yum install php-pear php-devel httpd-devel pcre pcre-devel

Install APC with pear:

pear install pecl/apc

Tell PHP to load the APC module. Edit/create /etc/php.d/apc.ini and add:

extension=apc.so

Restart Apache

Install MongoDB on RHEL or CentOS

2011-04-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Edit /etc/yum.repos.d/10gen-mongodb.repo and add the appropriate repo.

32bit:

[10gen]
name=10gen Repository
baseurl=http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/redhat/os/i686
gpgcheck=0

64bit:

[10gen]
name=10gen Repository
baseurl=http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/redhat/os/x86_64
gpgcheck=0

Install MongoDB client and server

yum install mongo-10gen mongo-10gen-server

Check the settings in /etc/mongod.conf . To bind mongod to a specific ip, add something like:

bind_ip = 127.0.0.1

Ensure correct permissions on /var/lib/mongo

chown -R mongod:mongod /var/lib/mongo/

Start mongodb with the init script:

/etc/init.d/mongod start

Install node.js on Ubuntu

2011-03-24T02:44:00.000-07:00

The following will help you compile and install node.js on Ubuntu.

Install dependancies:

apt-get install g++ curl libssl-dev apache2-utils git-core

git the source:

git clone https://github.com/joyent/node.git

Compile node.js:

./configure
make
make install

How to manually extract an RPM file

2011-02-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

To extract an RPM file, do:

rpm2cpio RPMFILE.rpm | cpio -idmv

Apache: Redirect http urls to https urls

2011-01-24T11:39:00.000-08:00

To redirect http requests to https with Apache, you could do a normal redirect with:

Redirect permanent / https://your-url

However, this will redirect any request to https://your-url/. If someone requested http://your-url/this-uri they would be redirected to https://your-url/ without the uri segment.

To redirect them to https://your-url/requested-uri you would use mod_write instead:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} 80
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://your-url/$1 [R,L]

Use MySQL Workbench to sync schemas between dev and test environments

2010-12-29T06:57:00.000-08:00

With the newer versions of MySQL Workbench they've made it fairly easy to sync schemas. I often use this to sync my development and test schemas so that they match when I push a new release. This is useful to preserve the data in the test or live environment, as opposed to just dumping the dev database and restoring it to the test schema.

First, make sure you backup both databases in case something goes wrong.

On the home screen in the Data Modeling section, click Create EER Model From Existing Database. Connect it to your dev database, or the database that has the schema that needs to be pushed out to another database. Choose your database and use the defaults.

You should end up with a diagram of your database. At the top click Database->Synchronize Model. Now connect it to your test/live database or the database that needs to be updated. You should now be on the Model and Database Differences screen. Expand your database to see the tables that will be altered. Click next to see the code that will be executed. Click execute to the sync the databases.

X-Authentication-Warning: Apache set sender using -f

2010-12-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

This is commonly seen in mail headers from emails sent by PHP applications running on Apache through sendmail. To get rid of it, edit /etc/mail/trusted-users, add apache to the list, and restart sendmail.

Disable Services in the Windows Recovery Console

2010-12-09T06:32:00.001-08:00

Once booted into the recovery console, use listsvc to list all services.

Use disable servicename to disable a service.

Recursively delete .svn directories

2010-12-08T08:07:00.000-08:00

rm -rf `find . -type d -name .svn`

Thanks to: http://www.anyexample.com/linux_bsd/bash/recursively_delete__svn_directories.xml

Dell E6400 Display Corruption

2010-11-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

I usually run Ubuntu on my laptop since it boots so fast, but occasionally I'll need to do a lot of work in Outlook or use my IP phone so I dual boot Windows 7. I hadn't used Windows 7 on this machine in months so I thought something must be physically wrong because this started happening, but it wasn't happening in Ubuntu...

It took me forever to find this, but it turns out there is a bug with this particular Intel chipset and the Windows 7 drivers when you have VT for Direct I/O enabled in the BIOS. I must have turned this on at some point. Disabling it in the BIOS fixed the issue.

Thanks to http://blog.stealthpuppy.com/hardware/display-corruption-with-mobile-intel-gm45-chipset/ for the tip!

Import mysql scripts from a shell

2010-11-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

mysql -u username -p -h localhost data-base-name < script.sql

UFW Block outgoing traffic

2010-11-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

I prefer to block outgoing traffic by default on public facing servers. I see a lot people being flamed for even asking how to do this with UFW.

The main reason you would want to do this is to prevent your machine from making reverse shell connections. A lot of attacks involve targeting a vulnerable web application that has a remote code execution vulnerability. If this attack was successful, the attacker could then download remote content to your machine or make a reverse shell connection, giving them shell access to your machine.

By blocking all outgoing traffic, you can prevent them from gaining remote access to your machine.

To do this with UFW:

ufw default outgoing deny

You can then allow individual outgoing ports if necessary. For example, you'll probably want to allow DNS queries to your name servers.

ufw allow out to 8.8.8.8 port 53

Where 8.8.8.8 is the address of the name server. This allows traffic from any local IP on the machine to your nameserver on port 53.

Remote Desktop connection has encountered a problem and needs to close

2010-08-12T05:36:00.000-07:00

It seems XP SP3 is screwing up a lot of users' RDP client. Hopefully you found this post first, but I doubt you did. If you read the very long Technet threads you won't find much that works. There's a really simple solution. Install this RDP update. The download links are down towards the bottom.

Recursively count lines of code in Linux

2010-07-20T20:27:00.001-07:00

( find ./ -name '*.php' -print0 | xargs -0 cat ) | wc -l

Connect Spotlight on Unix to Ubuntu

2010-07-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

Spotlight on Unix is a graphical monitoring application made by Quest Software. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Ubuntu. To get it to work, you have to reconfigure /bin/sh to spawn a BASH shell. By default, /bin/sh spawns a DASH shell. Do

dpkg-reconfigure dash

Choose no. Spotlight on Unix should now work with your Ubuntu machine. Be aware that this could break any package that specifically relies on DASH.

Also, make sure you install the sysstat package.

Dell latitude: Enable middle click scroll on Ubuntu

2010-06-13T19:43:00.001-07:00

It seems by default most, if not all, laptops with a pointing stick and a middle mouse button default to using paste for the middle mouse click assignment with XORG. You can change this so that it scrolls like it does on Windows.

Edit one of the files in /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/ or just create a new one and add:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Trackpoint Wheel Emulation"
MatchProduct "PS/2 ALPS DualPoint TouchPad"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "false"
Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
Option "YAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Change MatchProduct to your pointing stick device. You can find the name of your device by running

xinput list

Log out and back in for it to take effect.

Turn off Linux monitor via shell without XORG

2010-05-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

I have an older laptop running as a test web server. I wanted to turn off the lcd output to save however much electricity an lcd backlight uses. To do this you can do:

vbetool dpms off

You can even do this from a remote shell. To turn it back on, simply do

vbetool dpms on

Ubuntu: Use update-manager with a proxy

2010-05-04T06:47:00.002-07:00

To configure a proxy for update-manager, add the following line to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/05aptitude

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://[proxy ip]:[proxy port]/";

This will allow you to use a proxy when doing release upgrades.

Google Chrome: Entry Point Not Found The procedure entry point av_get_pix_fmt could not be located in the dynamic link library avutil-50.dll

2010-03-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

I started getting this with Chrome 5.0.342.8 on Windows 7 x64:

Entry Point Not Found The procedure entry point av_get_pix_fmt could not be located in the dynamic link library avutil-50.dll

I deleted the avutil-50.dll from c:\windows and the issue went away.

Outlook 2007: the messaging interface has returned an unknown error

2010-02-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

If you receive "the messaging interface has returned an unknown error" in Outlook, this usually indicates a corrupt OST file. The easiest thing to do is delete the user's OST file and let Outlook rebuild it.

On XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.ost

On Vista/7

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\outlook.ost

Install Pandora Desktop App on Linux

2009-12-21T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Pandora desktop app works great on Linux since it runs on Adobe's cross platform AIR platform. First, install Adobe AIR.

Click Install Desktop App from the Pandora One menu, then click install Adobe AIR. Save the file. Open a shell and go to directory with the AIR download. Do:

chmod +x AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

Next, download the Pandora app and open it, which should start the installation.

Cloud computing explained

2009-11-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

Cloud computing alone won't suffice in today's enterprise business environment. You must leverage core skillsets and world-class team synergy through enterprise-quality J2EE XML-based platform providers to provide clients worldwide with robust, scalable, modern turnkey implementations of flexible, personalized, cutting-edge Internet-enabled e-business application product suite e-solution architectures that accelerate response to customer and real-world market demands and reliably adapt to evolving technology needs, seamlessly and efficiently integrating and synchronizing with their existing legacy infrastructure, enhancing the e-readiness capabilities of their e-commerce production environments across the enterprise while giving them a critical competitive advantage and taking them to the next level.

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Upgrade No Sound

2009-10-30T06:53:00.000-07:00

After upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala my system was without sound. Alsa couldn't find any sound cards.

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

aplay -l
aplay: device_list:223: no soundcards found...

After poking around I discovered that the updater did not update /boot/grub/menu.lst to use the latest installed kernel.

You can fix this automatically by running update-grub. Choose install package maintainer's version if you don't have any custom entries.

Printing to PDF from Excel produces blank PDF

2009-10-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

I've had a couple of incidents where printing a chart from Excel 2007 to a PDF produces a blank PDF. It happens with Acrobat 8 and 9. This leads me to believe it may be an Office issue, but I've also seen the same file work on one machine and not another with the same versions of Office and Acrobat installed. The only workaround I've found is using the Save As PDF feature instead of the PDF printer.

Windows 7 Slow Network access

2009-10-20T11:17:00.001-07:00

I've seen a similar problem on Server 2003 machines a few times, but I've just recently encountered it on a Windows 7 machine. It's always on a machine with a Broadcom 57xx chip, and in this case it was a Dell Precision 690.

The issue is browsing file shares on other machines. File transfers will be very slow, as will just browsing between folders on the share. If you are experiencing network performance issues on Windows 7, try running the following from a cmd prompt with elevated privileges:

netsh interface tcp set global chimney=disabled

Disable Apache and PHP Version on Ubuntu Server

2009-10-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

Edit /etc/apache2/apache2.conf
Add the following lines to the end of apache2.conf

ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off

Edit /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini
Change expose_php = Off

Event ID: 10 (And how to force Kerberos to use TCP instead of UDP)

2009-09-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

I've only ever seen this on computers or servers that are trying to authenticate over slow/high latency VPN tunnels at remote offices. Usually the machine will log event ID 10:

"The kerberos subsystem is having problems fetching tickets from your domain controller using the UDP network protocol. This is typically due to network problems. Please contact your system administrator."

This event will usually be logged along with numerous other problems such as LSA events, problems logging into machines, and issues with Outlook (if connected to an exchange server over a VPN tunnel).

The solution is to force the machine to use TCP instead of UDP for Kerberos. The UDP Kerberos packets are being fragmented, and will be dropped if they arrive out of order, thus usually appearing when a high latency VPN tunnel is involved.

Open the registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ Kerberos\Parameters

If Parameters doesn't exist, create it. Next, add a DWORD called MaxPacketSize and set a decimal value of 1. Restart the machine.

More info about this can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244474

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window

2009-09-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

If you see the error "Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window" upon starting Outlook, you can fix this by running outlook.exe /resetnavpane.

Click start->run, enter outlook.exe /resetnavpane, and press OK.

Windows 7 and Vista Classic Login Screen

2009-09-25T06:54:00.001-07:00

To get the classic XP style login where the user must input their username and password every time, some settings can be changed in the Local Security Policy.

Open the Local Security Policy management console. Open Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Local Security Policy. You can also do Start->Run->secpol.msc

Expand Local Policies->Security Options. Set Interactive Logon: Do not require CTRL-ALT-DEL, and Interactive Logon: Do not display last user name to Enabled.

Reboot.

Outlook 2007 "Could not install the custom actions. The object could not be foud"

2009-09-04T07:06:00.000-07:00

If you're getting the message "Could not install the custom actions. The object could not be found." in Outlook 2007, try deleting frmcache.dat. On Windows 7 and Vista it is found in:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\FORMS\frmcache.dat

On Windows XP it should be located in:

C:\documents and settings\USERNAME\local settings\application data\microsoft\forms\FRMCACHE.DAT

Note: The file is a hidden system file.

Install ncurses on Ubuntu

2009-07-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

apt-get install libncurses5-dev

Dell Wireless 5600 (EVDO-HSPA) Mobile Broadband Mini-Card & Windows 7

2009-07-07T06:14:00.000-07:00

Status: Still not working.

I had a heck of a time getting this "Dell Wireless 5600 (EVDO-HSPA) Mobile Broadband Mini-Card" mini pci cdma card working with Windows 7 and my E6400. The drivers are contained in the Control Point Connection Manager package. Here's the current version at this time.

Install the package. The drivers still won't be installed at this point, though. Open the Computer Management panel, go to the drivers and update the driver for the card. You need to "browse manually" for the driver and point it at

C:\dell\drivers\R218755\Qualcomm\Drivers\Source\Module Retargetable Folder\QCUSB-Dell\DriverPackage\Qualcomm\Win64\AMD64

If you point it at a higher folder and tell it to search sub folders it will try to install the wrong driver.

At this point the drivers are installed but the control point connection manager still does not see the device. I also tried the Verizon VZAccess app with no luck. If anyone knows how to make this work please let me know.

Notepad++ find replace window won't close on Windows 7

2009-06-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

In Windows 7 the Notepad++ Find/Replace window will not close properly. You are left with a transparent window that is always on top. To fix this open the find/replace window and uncheck the transparency check box on the bottom right.

Windows Mobile 6.5 Links

2009-05-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

This post will be updated regularly.

Titanizer Home Screen Editor (Requires Adobe Flash 7 for Windows Mobile)

Titanium Home Screen Plugins

Nice Windows Mobile wallpaper/background pack

Ubuntu: Use apt-get through a proxy

2009-05-26T08:25:00.001-07:00

You can set proxy settings in the Synaptic package manager but these don't seem to affect apt-get. To get apt-get to work through a proxy do:

sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc

At the end of the file add:

export http_proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver:port/
export ftp_proxy=http://username:password@proxyserver:port/

If your proxy server does not require authentication then leave out the username:password@

You'll need to open a new terminal for it to take effect.

The Adobe Acrobat/Reader that is running cannot be used to view PDF files in a web browser

2009-05-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

This is caused by an incorrect registry entry.

From: http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405461.html

Go to Start > Run
Type regedit and click OK.
Browse to the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Software\Adobe\Acrobat\Exe

Make sure that the correct Default data value is set for the path where Adobe Reader or Acrobat are installed.

The default installation values are

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\AcroRd32.exe"

"C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat.exe"

depending on whether Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat is installed.

ATI Radeon 4770 Windows 7 Drivers

2009-05-17T12:09:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: The newest Catalyst drivers work just fine and should from here on out.

There are Catalyst 9.5 beta drivers out that will support the 4770 under Windows 7. You can find them here.

ASUS P5B Windows 7 Audio Drivers

2009-05-17T11:54:00.001-07:00

The latest drivers I could find for the AD 1988 audio chipset work great under Windows 7 (x64). ASUS hasn't updated their website in ages but there are much newer drivers available. 6.10.02.6520 worked the best for me. The stock Windows 7 drivers do work, but there's no bass crossover management if you're doing 6 channel out to a receiver. 6.10.02.6520 corrected the issue.

Download 6.10.02.6520 here

When installing use the following executable, the DTS drivers do not work well.

SoundMAX_Audio_V51016520_V61016520\NON_DTS\Vista\setup.exe

See http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/adi-soundmax-1986-88-a-b-xonar-t71280.html for a full list of available AD 1988 drivers.

ASUS P5B Deluxe Bios Recovery SPI Flash Cable

2009-05-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Here are some excellent tips from Anthony Quatroni in the comments:

OK let me go into a little more detail. It seems that SPIPGM.EXE by itself, writes a page at a time to the SST chip in the Asus P5B boards. You MUST use either the recompiled SPIPGM.EXE or, even better, use the SPIPGM2.EXE. You can build the cable WITHOUT any resistors or caps as long as you use the orange (3V) output from the surrogate PC's ATX power supply. Then you MUST use the /S switch (SPIPGM2.EXE /S xxxxxx.ROM) to write to the chip AFTER you unlock it with /U and erase with /E. This is the only thing that worked for me and I am back up and running perfectly.

Skip down the HOWTO for the good stuff.

In perhaps a moment of great stupidity and laziness, I reflashed the bios on my ASUS P5B Deluxe using the ASUS windows based flash utility. It wiped it clean, loaded the new one, and then it couldn't verify. At this point your only two options are quit or retry. So I retry, now it won't even try to write the bios. Having no other choice I rebooted the machine and hoped for the best. I got the worst.

The machine wouldn't do anything. The motherboard is supposed to have a built in bios recovery mode, but it seems that was wiped out as well by the Windows flash utility. It was time to send it back to ASUS so they could reflash it. The bios isn't removable, so surely there's some kind of device they plug into to reflash it for you I thought.

It turns out I was right. Next to the BIOS chip, to the left of the south bridge, is an undocumented 7 pin connector labeled SPI_J1. After a lot research I stumbled upon a few pages (linked at the bottom) that documented the type of cable necessary and the software to use this port to reflash the bios.

The cable consists of a parallel connector wired to something you can plug into the pins that also has a 2.7V-3.6V input to power the chip while reflashing it. I made a really bad attempt at using a chopped up parallel cable and the ends from a USB header port thing. This didn't work out well so I found at the local electronics store a parallel connector with a ribbon cable on it. I took it apart and re-soldered the ribbon to the correct pins.

To get the ~3V, I took a pass through power connector from an old case fan and added three diodes to the 5V wire, giving me a little over 3V. I then wired this to the ribbon cable and hooked the power connector into another running machine. I then used my laptop to flash to bios.

HOWTO:

Supplies:
A DOS boot cd, usb drive, or floppy
BIOS ROM for the motherboard
SPIPGM (Software that does the flashing)
CWSDPMI (DPMI host process needed by SPIPGM)
Multimeter
Soldering Iron
Male DB25 connector
Header connector of some sort, you'll need 6 pins total.

To make the cable I used a DB25M TO IDC10 SERIAL connector. This really seems like the easiest thing to use. They look like this:

The header is found on the motherboard directly to the left of the south bridge.

Here is how the header pins are numbered:

Here is a table showing which header pins should be connected to what parallel pins. Pin 1 on the header is for +3V.

Header Pin	Parallel Pin
2	18
3	7
4	8
5	10
6	9

Here's what my cable looks like (Note: it looks like the power lead is connected to the DB25 but in fact it is solder to the ribbon, it goes to pin 1 on the header)

If you use a cable similar to mine, open it up and desolder the ribbon from the connector. Take a paper clip and stick it into the holes in the header connector to determine which lead needs to go to what pin on the DB25 using your multimeter. Solder each lead appropriately.

You then need to get a 5V line from another computer (The Red wire on a molex connector). Solder three diodes in series and connect them to the 5V line. Use your multimeter to ensure the voltage drop gives you between 2.7V and 3.6V. Solder this to the appropriate ribbon lead.

Now that you're ready to flash, boot your flashing computer with your DOS boot media. First, you need to run cwsdpmi.exe, then run spipgm. (Note: you have to run cwsdpmi.exe before SPIPGM each time.)
The command sequence should look like this:

cwsdpmi
spipgm /u /e p5b-bios.rom
cwsdpmi
spipgm /p p5b-bios.rom

It will ask for the total size of the flashrom, enter 1024
If SPIPGM reports your chip id as fffffffh then something isn't right. Check all your connections. SPIPGM has several functions, such as erasing the BIOS first. Run SPIPGM without any options to see a list.

Giving credit where credit is due, without these sites I never would have figured this out.
http://richard-burke.dyndns.org/wordpress/tag/p5b/
http://www.fccps.cz/download/adv/frr/spi/msi_spi.html
http://rayer.ic.cz/elektro/spipgm.htm

Google Chrome and Windows 7

2009-05-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

To get Google Chrome to work properly in Windows 7 you need to modify the Chrome shortcut. Right-click the Chrome icon and click properties, then click the Shortcut tab. Where it says target you need to add --in-process-plugins after chrome.exe. The final line should look like this:

C:\Users\mondo\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --in-process-plugins

Also, there's an issue with Chrome crashing when you hit the back button if the page you are currently on has a Flash element on it. Just install the latest Chrome beta. It seems to help a bit but doesn't fix it completely.

Digi PortServer Default Password

2009-05-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

The default login for a Digi PortServer is root/dbps

Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 and GRID

2009-05-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of trouble getting the Logitech RumblePad 2 working correctly with GRID. The steering was way too sensitive and twitchy. GRID only has built in support for the wired version of the RumblePad 2, but by editing one of the XML files you can get the cordless RumblePad 2 to work great.

First, make sure you have the latest GRID patch. Then open the actionMapPreset7.xml file which is located in the install directory under ActionMap. The standard path on a 32bit XP machine is:

C:\Program Files\Codemasters\GRID\ActionMap\actionMapPreset7.xml

On a 64bit XP machine it is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Codemasters\GRID\ActionMap\actionMapPreset7.xml

You need to replace every occurrence of

Logitech RumblePad 2 USB

with

Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 USB

Now when you go into the game controls the default preset should say Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 at the top. You will also now be able to control the game menus from the pad. If you have trouble try creating a new game profile.

How to export your PuTTY sessions in Windows

2009-04-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

Open the registry editor. Navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham

Right click SimonTatham and export it. Open the registry file to import the sessions.

no exec line in the session file: xfce4

2009-04-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

After upgrading an Xubuntu 8.10 system to 9.04 xfce may no longer start properly. If you get the message:

no exec line in the session file: xfce4

In the failsafe terminal, type nano .dmrc
Change Session=xfce4 to Session=xfce

Restart the machine and xfce should start properly. To restart X without restarting the whole system, do sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop. Switch to another terminal by doing alt+F2, login and then do sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start.

Ubuntu equivalent of rc-update

2009-04-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Ubuntu equivalent of Gentoo's rc-update is update-rc.d

Gentoo example:

rc-update add ssh default

Ubuntu example:

update-rc.d ssh defaults

dnsstuff.com alternative

2009-04-03T13:08:00.001-07:00

dnsstuff.com is not what is used to be, you pretty much have to pay to do anything. iptools.com does pretty much what dnsstuff.com used to do for free.

PHP: Getting the username logged in with .htaccess

2009-03-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

If you are using .htaccess Apache Auth and you need to get the name of the logged in user:

echo $_SERVER["REMOTE_USER"];

PHP: Echo all $_POST data

2009-03-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

foreach($_POST as $var => $value)
{
echo $var . ' : ' . $value . "<br>";
}

Zebra label printer is printing off center

2009-03-03T13:01:00.001-08:00

If your Zebra label printer is printing off center, first make sure you use the Universal drivers from zebra.com. Go to the advanced tab in the printer properties, open printing defaults, expand paper/output, click the line with the paper size and a customize button will appear. Set your left margin offset in the box on the bottom right.

IT Assistant will not launch because a dependent component is not installed.

2009-02-27T09:15:00.001-08:00

The Dell I.T. assistant has an issue with the newer java versions. The work around is to open Java from the control panel, go to the advanced tab, java plug-in, uncheck use next-generation java plug-in, restart browser.

cifs_mount failed w/return code = -13

2009-02-27T06:45:00.000-08:00

This error usually indicates that Samba is not installed, although CIFS is compiled into the kernel. On Gentoo, either emerge samba, or emerge mount-cifs (much smaller).

Server 2008 won't respond to pings

2009-02-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

If you are having trouble pinging a Server 2008 machine and you've disabled the firewall, you need to enable ICMP replies. Run the following from a cmd prompt:

netsh firewall set icmpsetting 8

Perl CGI scripts not executing on Apache

2009-02-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

If your Perl CGI scripts are showing the code instead of executing on Apache, add or uncomment the following from your apache conf file, httpd.conf or apache2.conf:

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

Server 2003: Event ID 53258 MS DTC

2009-02-04T06:40:00.000-08:00

You may see this warning in your application event logs on Server 2003 domain controllers:

MS DTC could not correctly process a DC Promotion/Demotion event. MS DTC will continue to function and will use the existing security settings. Error Specifics: %1

The fix for this one is rather odd, as it doesn't require you to actually change anything, just open a dialog and hit OK, although it certainly changes something.

Open up Component Services from Administrative Tools. Expand Component Services, expand computers, right-click My Computer and click properties. Open the MSDTC tab and then hit OK. Strange, I know, but it works. You need to restart the Distributed Transaction Coordinator as well.

Server 2003 "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file."

2009-02-03T10:55:00.001-08:00

I've been getting this on a lot of my servers lately. I think a recent update to the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security configuration has caused it. Basically, any file that ends up on the server via a network share or through internet explorer cannot be run. It just says: "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file.".

I was able to fix it by disabling Internet Explorer Enhanced Security mode. Alternatively, I think adding the local server name to the IE trusted sites should fix it as well.

To disable IE Enhaced Security mode, open Add/Remove Programs, click on Add/Remove Windows Components, uncheck Internet Explorer Enhanced Security and click next.

Reverse VNC Helpdesk

2009-02-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Need to support remote users behind firewalls with no way for you to remotely access their machines? Reverse VNC to the rescue!

UltraVNC SC is a single click VNC server that you would create and send to your end users. All they have to do is run the executable and it will connect their machine to your VNC viewer in listen mode.

However, VNC performs very poorly on remote Vista machines with Aero enabled. Also, on Vista if you do something that causes the UAC prompt to come up you get disconnected.

I have come across this modified version of UltraVNC SC that includes some programs to disable Aero and UAC when it is run. When the connection is closed Aero and UAC are then turned back on. This version of UltraVNC SC also works just fine on other versions of Windows. It checks to see if the machine is running Vista before it trys to disable anything.

You can find modified version of UltraVNC SC here: UltraVNC Forums

Modify helpdesk.txt in the SC_VNC_Files folder. The only thing you have to change is [HOST] section, enter your IP/Hostname information here. For more information on the helpdesk.txt file, see http://www.uvnc.com/pchelpware/sc/helpdesk.html

Once you've modified helpdesk.txt, run the Compile.cmd file and it will create your reverse VNC server executable which you will send to your end user.

You'll need to download the UltraVNC viewer: http://www.uvnc.com/download/index.html

You can download the full install and only install the viewer if you like. Once you have the viewer, you need to run it from the command line with the listen switch.

vncviewer /listen

or

vncviewer /listen portnumber

When your end user connects you will get a pop up on your screen confirming the connection. Once you hit ok you will then be connected to their machine.

Enable Remote Desktop Remotely

2009-02-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

Need to remotely enable RDP? Checkout Intelliadmin's RDP Remote Enabler. This program is seriously cool and works every time.

Download it here

QuickGPS Connection failed. Please try again later.

2009-01-27T14:37:00.001-08:00

All I had to do to fix this on my phone was change the location settings in the phone settings from 911 only to location on. I had performed a hard reset which reverted this to 911 only. After enabling that QuickGPS started working normally.

GC's Touch Pro ROMs & Kitchen 2.1.4 Released!

2009-01-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

Just updating this old post with a link to my new favorite ROM, Engergy ROM. Link: http://mondotech.blogspot.com/2009/11/best-cdma-htc-touch-pro-rom-energy-rom.html

2.1.4 is out! Check it out here.

Changelog:

2.1.4
downgraded to SYS build 5.2.21109.1.6.0 due to stability
tweaked build to increase performance
fixed Comm Manager issues
fixed poweroff button
added animated version of Manila (engine & theme)
fixed Manila HD home tab contacts bug
removed script to autostart Manila HD at boot, must start manually with Start Manila app
fixed remaining IDS_LOADING bugs
removed Generic Manila theme due to instability and numerous bugs
added HTC Random Access as OEM package
fixed HTC Streaming Media package, now selectable in kitchen
fixed HTC Bluetooth Explorer package, now selectable in kitchen
converted IPSECVPN to SYS package, now selectable in kitchen
tweaked some of the carrier packages
tweaked several kitchen files

New Verizon HTC Touch Pro Hacks

2009-01-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: I'm currently running Energy ROM, which IMO is the best Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM out there for the CDMA HTC Touch Pro. Link here: http://mondotech.blogspot.com/2009/11/best-cdma-htc-touch-pro-rom-energy-rom.html

2.1.4 is out, more info here.

Everything and the kitchen sink all in one, GC's Touch Pro Kitchen 2.1.0

First, download the Verizon HSPL unlock package.

Next, get GC's Touch Pro Kitchen 2.1.0 from this thread.

Choose the option to install the VZW GPS driver and the GPS will automatically work.

When it asks about the page pool, change it to 9MB (make sure you click the change to button after selecting 9).

If you try the Manilla HD engine, the right softkey will not work until you edit it with the Advanced Config Tool. (Menu->More Settings->Key Mapping)

This Kitchen will create ROMS that are ridiculously fast compared to the stock VZW ROM. Thanks GC!

Create a default Outlook signature from AD with vbscript

2009-01-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

This site has some great vbscript to create an Outlook signature based on information from Active Directory. It automatically generates a .txt .rtf and .htm signature. To eliminate the extra spacing, add this to the script after
Set objSelection = objWord.Selection

objSelection.Style = "No Spacing"

This is great if you want to force your users to have standardize Outlook signatures and to add a disclaimer / confidentiality notice.

UPDATE:
This works great for Outlook 2007 clients, but in Outlook 2003 I get double spaced signatures. I can't figure out a way around this without using registry entries to switch to .txt or .rtf signatures. Outlook 2003 doesn't know what "No Spacing" is. Looking at the generated html, there's a no spacing class p class=MsoNoSpacing created by the Outlook 2007 clients. The Outlook 2003 clients also don't know about that class. I need to stop it from using html paragraph tags for each line.

UPDATE2:

I finally have a script that works both with Office 2003 and 2007. objSelection.Style = "No Spacing" takes care of 2007, but for 2003 you need to use Chr(11) instead of vbNewline.

Here's my final script:

On Error Resume Next

Set objSysInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")
strUser = objSysInfo.UserName
Set objUser = GetObject("LDAP://" & strUser)

strConfid = "Confidentiality Notice: blah blah blah"
strFname = objUser.FirstName
strLname = objUser.LastName
strInitial = objUser.Initials
strTitle = objUser.Title
strDepartment = objUser.Department
strCompany = objUser.Company 
strPhone = objUser.telephoneNumber
strFax = objUser.faxnumber



Set objWord = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If objWord Is Nothing Then
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
blnWeOpenedWord = True
End If
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Add()
Set objSelection = objWord.Selection
Set objEmailOptions = objWord.EmailOptions
Set objSignatureObjects = objWord.EmailOptions.EmailSignature
Set objSignatureEntries = objSignatureObjects.EmailSignatureEntries
objSelection.Style = "No Spacing"

'Name
objselection.Font.Bold = true
objSelection.TypeText UCase(strFname) & " "
if strInitial then objSelection.TypeText UCase(strInitial) & ". "
objSelection.TypeText UCase(strLname)
if strTitle then objSelection.TypeText ", " & strTitle
objSelection.TypeText Chr(11)
objselection.Font.Bold = false


if strDepartment then objSelection.TypeText strDepartment & Chr(11) 
objSelection.TypeText Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText strCompany & Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText strStreet & Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText strCSZ & Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText "Phone: " & strPhone & Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText "Fax: " & strFax & Chr(11)
objSelection.TypeText strToll & Chr(11) & Chr(11)


objSelection.TypeText strConfid
Set objSelection = objDoc.Range()

objSignatureEntries.Add "AD Signature", objSelection
objSignatureObjects.NewMessageSignature = "AD Signature"
objSignatureObjects.ReplyMessageSignature = "AD Signature"

objDoc.Close 0
If blnWeOpenedWord Then
objWord.Quit
End If

Verizon HTC Touch Pro Hacks

2009-01-09T13:35:00.000-08:00

UPDATE: I'm current running Energy ROM, which IMO is the best Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM out there. Links here: http://mondotech.blogspot.com/2009/11/best-cdma-htc-touch-pro-rom-energy-rom.html

This post is a bit outdated. The GPS, YouTube, and speed/tweak hacks are no longer necessary if you load a custom ROM. For several months now I've exclusively used MightyRom and have been quite happy with his ROMs.

These CAB's are specifically for the Verizon version of the HTC Touch Pro. Do not attempt to use these on a HTCTP from another carrier. USE THESE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I'm using the following hacks on my own phone with good results, but your milage may vary. I take no responsibility for anything related to these files.

Add a custom city to the touch flow 3D weather app:
Download WeatherDatabaseEditor_1_1_Meins.cab
Add your own city for your country. In the Accuweather code box just enter your zip code. You should now see your city listed in the weather app. If you can't find it, check the bottom of the list.

Unlock GPS for Google Maps:
-Download lllboredlll_VZW_GPS_Fix_v2.CAB
-Install the CAB
-Use the file explorer to run \windows\ppst.exe
-After the phone restarts reprogram it with *228 option 1
-In google maps set the gps settings to manual, com4, 4800bps

For more info see: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=49933

Speed Tweaks:
I'm not sure how much this helps, but it does seem to help.
-Install the .NET Compact Framework 3.5
-Install the Advanced Configuration Tool
-Under Performances change the values for File system cache size, File system filter cache, and Glyph cache. The program has its own recommended values, but some people are suggesting you set all but the Glyph cache at the max, with the Glyph Cache being set at 32KB. I'm not sure what the best practice is.

HTC YouTube App
Verizon decided not to include the HTC YouTube App, but you can download it here.

Check back for more updates!

Replacing network cards under Ubuntu: eth0 missing

2008-12-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

If you change network adapters and are running Ubuntu you may notice that eth0 no longer exists but your new adapter shows up as eth1, or eth2, eth3, etc. To fix this, just clear the contents of /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persitent-net.rules and reboot.

Dell E6400 and BartPE - Intel 82567lm drivers

2008-12-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

I could not get bartpe to recognize the Intel 82567lm NIC in the Dell E6400 using the Dell drivers. The latest driver from Intel does work, however.

Intel Driver

Extract the files, copy the contents of the WinXP_2K folder to your BartPE drivers folder (make a folder called intel and then drop the driver files in there).

Dell Latitude E6400 Unknown USB Device VID_413c PID_8149

2008-12-04T07:50:00.000-08:00

If you have a Dell Latitude E6400 series with the Ultra Wide Band USB adapter and you can't find drivers for the Unknown USB device (VID_413 & PID_8149), try these drivers:

Dell Wireless 410 BT+UWB Minicard

Links in Outlook: This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

2008-12-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

If you get the following message when clicking links in Outlook:
"This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator."

This is caused by an incorrect or corrupted registry key:


HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\htmlfile\shell\open\command

The key should read:


"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE\" -nohome

Or in the case of Windows XP x64:


"C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE\" -nohome

Mythtv xv port

2008-11-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

You can work around xorg intel tearing issues by specifying the xv port for mplayer, but the internal player has to be patched to ignore the textured video port. Instead, the latest drivers have an option to disable the textured video port. See my previous post.

Intel video tearing in XORG

2008-11-29T14:53:00.001-08:00

The latest Intel drivers (2:2.4.1-1 at this time) are using the textured video port for playback by default which causes tearing issues. If your driver supports it, try:

Option "TexturedVideo" false

In your xorg.conf file under the device section. This should elimate any tearing issues.

Mythbuntu MythTV MCE remote back button

2008-11-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

Mythbuntu does not have the back button configured on the original MCE remote. To remedy this, edit ~/.lirc/mythtv

Search for button = back and modify the config line so it says "config = Escape". If you don't find the back button in the file, then just add:

begin

remote = mceusb

prog = mythtv

button = Back

config = Escape

repeat = 0

delay = 0

end

Setup lirc with Xe emulator on mythtv and mythbuntu

2008-11-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

If you want to be able to exit Xe using a remote see below. This can also be modified for use with other emulators as well.

Open a shell and go to ~/.lirc/

Create a new file called xe with the following contents:

#xe
begin
remote = mceusb
prog = irexec
button = Back
config = /home/mondo/killxe
mode = irexec
end

Be sure to substitute your remote type, username, and desired button. Next, edit ~/.lircrc and add

include ~/.lirc/xe

Create ~/killxe with the following contents:

killall -9 xe
killall -9 irexec

chmod +x ~/killxe

Edit your emulator startup command inside mythtv. Add

 irexec&;

before your existing command.

Installing Xe Emulator on Ubuntu or Mythbuntu

2008-11-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

1.) Install Dependancies

sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev libasound2-dev libXv-dev libXxf86vm-dev

2.) Extract Xe, run the following commands from the Xe directory


make
mkdir /usr/local/lib/xe
mv xe rc modules manual.html /usr/local/lib/xe
ln -sf /usr/local/lib/xe/xe /usr/local/bin/xe

Ubuntu: cannot find -lXxf86vm

2008-11-24T17:57:00.001-08:00

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lXxf86vm

apt-get install libXxf86vm-dev

Ubuntu: cannot find -lasound

2008-11-24T17:55:00.001-08:00

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lasound

apt-get install libasound-dev

Ubuntu: cannot find -lXv

2008-11-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lXv

apt-get install libxv-dev

Manage Internet Explorer Trusted Sites with Group Policy GPO

2008-09-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

I manage a ton of computers that all need to use the same website, and they need elevated permissions to do so. A good way to handle this is by creating a GPO that will add the site to their IE trusted sites.

Create a new GPO and navigate to User Configuration->Windows Settings->Internet Explorer Maintenance->Security. From the right pane, open Security Zones and Content Ratings. Select Import the current security zones and privacy settings, then click Modify Settings.

You may get a warning that you are importing settings that are compatible with computers that dont have IE enhanced security enabled. Ignore this and continue, unless you need this policy for terminal server users where IE enhanced security is enabled for normal users on the terminal server.

From here you can modify items such as security levels and trusted sites. If the user already has a list of trusted sites, their list will be merged with yours when the policy is applied. You can also create a GPO to manage the popup blocker here as well.

TENEBRIL Software causing XP logon issues

2008-06-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

I had a machine that would immediatly logout after logging in, however, I could logon in safe mode, unlike most people with this issue. There are hundreds of sites detailing a fix for a different issue with similar symptoms. This is the result of some malware called BlazeFind. There is a good writeup here: http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm

My issue was not related to BlazeFind and userinit.exe problems. It turns out there is a company called Tenebril that makes several programs that may cause you to logoff right after logging in. I can confirm that on this particular machine, a program called GhostSurf was at fault. I have also seen reports of a program by the same company called SpyCatcher that also caused the same issue.

Grey Screen with VNC Server (Gnome, KDE, etc.)

2008-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

If you get a grey screen when trying to connect to an X11 vncserver session, check the vncserver log in ~/.vnc/

You will likely see the following:

sh: /home/username/.vnc/xstartup: Permission denied

To fix this, run:

chmod +x ~/.vnc/xstartup

Deceptive Business: registrycleanerxp.com

2007-10-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

My firewall logs are always full of random things mostly from virus infected zombie machines trying to spread the latest and greatest malware. Whenever I see something strange going on, I just forward the port in question to a linux box and then use netcat or ethereal to capture the traffic. I always see a lot of connection attempts to UDP ports 1026-1028, the windows messenger service. Not MSN Messenger, but thet net msg service that can be used to display a dialog box on your computer. This service is disabled by default on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Registrycleanerxp.com
These guys use what I call the mafia protection scheme. The mafia, at least as portrayed in films and television, may send two guys to your store to rough things up. Then they'll send another two guys forcing you to pay up for protection. Registrycleanerxp.com scans the internet looking for unfirewalled machines running the windows messenger service . They cause your machine to open a dialog box that contains the following:

REGISTRY DAMAGED AND CORRUPTED.

To FIX this problem:
Open Internet Explorer and type: www.registrycleanerxp.com
Once you load the web page, close this message window

After you install the cleaner program you will not receive any more reminders or pop-ups like this.

VISIT www.registrycleanerxp.com IMMEDIATELY!

So they cause your computer to display this message box with quite some frequency, and want to sell you their product to get rid of it. Further more, the messages come from random machines, likely to be infected zombies. A visit to their website shows this hilarious customer review on the side.

Mark,
I appreciate you finding a solution to my Messenger Service popup problem, it was coming to a point where I couldn't use the internet. The registry cleaner fixed over 100 problems, and my computer runs so much FASTER!!

Obviously this guy, if the review is genuine (unlikely), took the bait. See for yourself here.

PAT/NAPT Firewalls and Quake III Servers

2007-09-19T19:41:00.000-07:00

Full PAT (Port Address Translation), aka NAPT, is commonly used on higher end firewalls and will reek havoc on any attempt to run a Quake III public server behind one. This also affects the many open source Quake III derivitives, such as Open Arena, and many commercial games based on the Quake III engine. The problem is not with PAT itself, it's the way in which the master server communication works. A Quake III server run in public mode (+set dedicated 2) will be unable to properly list itself on the master server list.

The process for a server listing itself in the master list is a three step process.
First the Quake III server sends a UDP heartbeat packet to the master server letting it know it's there so it can be listed. The master server will then send a query packet to the Quake server telling it to send back it's game information, such as the server name, the current number of players, and the maximum number of players.

Provided the NAT'ing device has the proper forwarding rules in place, the problem starts when the heartbeat packet is sent. Let's say the server is running on port 27960, the master server's IP address is 1.1.1.1 and is listening on port 22000. The heartbeat packet is sent on source port 27960 to the master server (1.1.1.1:22000). The PAT device will then change the source port to a random port, let's say 40000. The master server sees the source port of the heartbeat packet as being port 40000 and thus assumes the server to be listening on that port. When the master server sends its query packet to port 40000, the PAT device knows that traffic from 1.1.1.1:22000 to port 40000 should be sent to port 27960 on the Quake Server. This works just fine, the heartbeat reaches the master, the master's query packet reaches the server, and the query response reaches the master.

The problem then shows itself when the game clients grab the master list. After receiving the list, the clients perform a quick connection to each server in the list to determine their latency with the servers. The clients think the server is running on port 40000, which is in fact not the case. The PAT device drops the packets from the client since it only knows to translate the traffic for the master server's IP. The server never shows up on the in game list, or will be listed as unresponsive.

This poses no issue if the client were to manually connect to the server with the proper port.

A simple fix would be for the heartbeat packet to contain the port that server is running on locally (i.e. Quake III net_port variable), instead of the master server relying on the source port of the heartbeat packet. The additional bandwith and processing overhead introduced by this should be completely irrelevant. The required modification to the Quake III engine is a one line fix, however the master server code, at least in the case of dpmaster, will need more extensive modification.

Compiz-Fusion python errors

2007-09-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Errors compiling, and using compiz-fusion can usually be fixed by running python-updater.

A good example is the error below, which is usually what you will get when the settings manager, or the emerald theme manager won't start from the fusion-icon.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "usr/lib64/python2.5/site-packages/FusionIcon/interface_qt4/main.py", line 66, in
NameError: global name 'run' is not defined

Dualhead monitors, xorg, nvidia twinview, and opengl apps.

2007-09-07T05:27:00.000-07:00

A common problem when using dualhead monitors in a twinview setup, is that when running full screen opengl apps such as OpenArena, the image will display in the center of your monitors. Instead of it running full screen on one monitor, it will be spanned across your monitors with half of the image on each monitor. To resolve this you need to change your metamode line in /etc/X11/xorg.conf. In Section "Screen", change your Option "metamodes" line to something like this.

Option "metamodes" "1280x1024,1280x1024; NULL,1280x1024"

Web Form Spammers

2007-08-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: As always, I don't claim to be a professional anything or actually know what I'm doing. So use the following at your own risk.

I manage one site that gets a ridiculously large amount of submitted form spam. It's a contact us page that gets hit about 30 times a day with spam. The content of course gets emailed to someone who became vocal about all the junk coming from that page. I didn't want to add an annoying human readable only verification box, so I just blocked anything containing links. This wasn't quite enough for me though, as I wanted to see where all this was coming from, and even block the same IP from even accessing the site. The following is a down and dirty method, and really isn't even very secure, but it's a good start. There is a much better method using an Apache module created by the guys at http://www.projecthoneypot.org/, but you don't always have enough control over your webserver to use a custom Apache module. The following code is all PHP and mySQL.

Check for links. If the submitted data contains "href" or "http:" return true, else return false:

function haslinks($data) {
  $data = strtolower($data);
  $status = strpos($data, 'href');
  if ($status) {
     return "1";
  }
  else {
    $status = strpos($data, 'http:');
    if ($status) {
      return "1";
    }
    else {
    return "0";
    }
  }
}

You can then use this to just kill the script before it does anything with the posted data:

if (haslinks($content)) {
     die;
}

That will work fine for just keeping the spam out of the recipient's inbox, but let's do something a bit more devious.

if (haslinks($content)) {
  include denyspam.php
  die;
}

denyspam.php


$ipaddr = $REMOTE_ADDR;

include "databaseconfig.php"

$query = "INSERT INTO deniedspam (ipaddr) VALUES ('$ipaddr')";
mysql_query($query) or die('Error, insert query failed');

$myFile = "htaccess";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w');

$fileout = "AddType application/x-httpd-php .html\n";
$fileout .= "order allow,deny\n";

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM deniedspam");

if(!$result) die("Query Failed.");

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    $addr = $row['ipaddr'];
    $fileout .= $addr . "\n";
}

$fileout .= "allow from all\n";


fwrite($fh, $fileout);
fclose($fh);
mysql_close();

I've created a table called deniedspam with a single varchar item to hold the offender's IP address. When a new one gets added, the file htaccess gets overwritten with all the IP addresses in the table. There is then a cron job that copies htaccess to .htaccess to keep the appropriate permissions on .htaccess.

Now I have a nice database full of known content spamming IP addresses, and can see where it's all coming from. Nine out ten spams come from an address with an open proxy, which appear to mostly be compromised machines. The rest also appear to be your average botnet zombies.

This is of course just an experiment, I don't know what the effects of a very large .htaccess file full of deny entries will have on a webserver with a high load. I'm up to about 500 entries so far and haven't seen a noticeable impact on the server load.

Share Outlook Contacts Sub folders

2007-08-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

In Outlook you can only share your main contacts folder by clicking on share my contacts.

To share sub folders, grant permissions on Mailbox at the root of the tree, grant permissions to your main contacts folder, then grant permissions to the appropriate sub folders.

On the client that needs to open the contacts, go to Tools->Email Accounts->View/Change, Ensure the Exchange account is highlighted and click Change. Click More Settings->Advanced Tab->Add, add the mailbox to be opened.

OK/Close your way out of the menus, click File->Open->Other User's Folder, find/enter the appropriate account, change folder to contacts.

You're all set!