Friday, October 06, 2006

compiling a custom kernel instructions for FC4..and Linux in general!

These are very well written instructions for compiling a custom kernel for any Linux system:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-kernel-fc4.html

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Irix Magic Desktop for Linux

Boy, I was looking for a clean window environment and did I ever find it..back in the past! Eric Masson crafted the 5Dwm window manager based on Irix Magic Desktop:


After the binary installation, three configs are necessary:
- $HOME/.Xdefaults
- $HOME/.xinitrc
- $HOME/.mwmrc

Sweet!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

nfs

My exports file looks like this:
[root@server ~]# cat /etc/exports
/mnt/videos *(rw,no_root_squash)


Good thing I don't have this one open to the public!

exportfs -v
shows you the current state of exported files

server:/mnt/videos /mnt/videos nfs rw 1 2
This entry in /etc/fstab will mount the nfs share automatically on boot or mount -a interactively at the command line

showmount -e
shows the NFS server's export list
[root@server ~]# showmount -e
Export list for server:
/mnt/videos *

From a Linux client, I can then mount the nfs share:
sudo mount -t nfs server:/mnt/videos /client/techanswerguy/videos/

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

replacing an old dual-boot system drive to new SATA drive

The saga of hard fought battles continues. Last night into early this morning, I was able to replace my old 80GB, 2MB cache system drive with a brand, spanking new 250GB SATA drive with 16MB cache! I encountered a number of hassles along the way.

Here was the plan:
1) connect new drive and partition Win file systems in XP
2) backup/restore original NTFS file system
3) install FC4 in free space
4) create an inter-OS shareable FAT32 partition
5) backup/restore original FC4 filesystems (root/boot)
6) enjoy the fruits of my labor

Here's how it turned out:
1) unplug Storage drive
2) connect new SATA drive
3) boot to XP and remove extraneous files on system drive
4) partition 50GB NTFS partition and leave rest of free space for Linux and a FAT
5) boot to Ghost and make a backup of NTFS
* Initially, I was going to create the image on my USB drive. However, the Ghost disk support for USB drives must be USB1.1 as the clock said the image was going to finish in 3 hours!! Forget it: I rebooted and created the image on my internal Storage drive. Took 12 minutes.
6) restored backup to new 50GB NTFS partition. Success here.
7) install FC4 on unused space on SATA drive. I yanked power on my RAID set and Storage drive as to not have any chance of overwriting those drives. Filesystems:
/boot: 128MB, /root: 120GB, swap: 6GB, 60GB unallocated space
8) boot into XP to partition the free space as FAT32.
* XP won't allow you to partition unallocated space if the unallocated space appears after a partition it cannot read. Need another solution pronto!
9) booted into FC4 to see if fdisk can create a FAT32 partition. We are in luck! It can!
10) how to format? I researched and found that "mkdosfs" will format FAT32 systems in FC4. If you take the defaults, the command goes something like this:
mkdosfs -v -n VOLUME /dev/sda6
Success!
11) boot into sysresccd to backup FC4 system with partimage. No go!
* Sysrescue cd hangs on my SATA drive using pre 0.2.19 version of sysrescue. Downloaded latest upgrade to sysrescue cd, burned .iso to CD and booted with it in order to resolve issue.
12) ok! so sysrescue cd works. started partimage and backed up FC4 /boot and /root to the new FAT32 partition on the SATA drive. Had to mount the drive in the system first, though.
13) restored only the root partition to /dev/sda3.
14) mounted the restored partition. Turned off my RAID partition and redirected the swap to /dev/sda5 in /etc/fstab and started in runlevel 3.
15) rebooted. System came up with two errors regarding the swap and RAID partitions. Fixed the swap error with SWAP=/dev/sda6. Reenabled /dev/md0 in fstab.
16) rebooted again. Came up clean! HOO-AH!!
17) changed inittab to runlevel 5 and rebooted. Default NVidia splash screen came up. Logged in and verified all is well!

2am and I'm going to bed!
-

Sunday, September 17, 2006

ExploreFS

Found this great little utility to read ext2/ext3 partitions from windows called ExploreFS. Find it here:
http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs-install

Note that to transfer files from your ext2/ext3 partitions, you will have to right-click on the file as it appears in ExploreFS and select Export.

Friday, September 15, 2006

IRSSI chat client

Oooh. Chat the way I like it..old and cryptic!

/network (shows networks)
/connect irc.freenode.net (connects to a server)
/server (shows server)
/server add -auto -network IRCnet irc.freenode.net (autoconnect)
/join #cinelerra (joins a channel)
/leave (leaves a channel)
Alt-n (windows n (0-9))
/alias
/quit (quits the software)
username typeahead feature using tab

/nick

http://www.irssi.org/documentation/startup
http://www.irssi.org/help
A Guide To Efficiently Using irssi

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

fglrx works, but doesn't support all OpenGL hooks..WORTHLESS

And after all that work, too:
http://crazedmuleproductions.blogspot.com/2006/09/ati-opengl-20-implementation.html

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

getting fglrx to work on Fedora Core 4

I had a screaming nightmare on Sunday and Monday, trying to get ATI hardware acceleration working for my Fedora Core 4, dual monitor setup. I use two cards:
1) ATI 9800 Pro All in Wonder (AGP)
2) ATI 9200SE (PCI)

Previously, I was running both cards without hardware acceleration. The situation was fine, as both cards gave a crisp display to my dual Dell flat panels. But I wanted to get ATI's hardware acceleration working with Cinelerra, my video editing software. The developers of Cinelerra, www.heroinewarrior.com, just released an OpenGL version with some significant performance enhancements. So I had my work cut out for me.

First, I tried to get both cards working together with the latest and greatest ATI driver, the 8.28.8. No go. Looking at the glxinfo output, I would always receive:
direct rendering: No

or in /var/log/Xorg.0.log:
direct rendering disabled

So, I simplified the setup and used only the 9800 AGP card. I went through a number of interations with the Livna ATI RPMs. These seem to be the more stable. However, what is not made clear in the instructions is that you need to match three items:
1) both the ATI configurator (ati-fglrx) and fglrx kernel module have to be stamped with the same ATI driver version
2) you need to install the fglrx kernel module that matches your kernel

I upgraded my kernel to 2.6.17-2142_FC4smp to get the ATI fglrx drivers working. You'll know they are working when direct rendering is on (or direct rendering=yes). Here is the outline of what you need to do:

1) Install, 2) Configure, 3) Validate, 4) Test

Here's the detailed listing of how I got the Livna fglrx drivers version 8.26.18-1 to work:

Install
yum install ati-fglrx-8.26.18-1.lvn4
yum install kernel-module-fglrx-2.6.17-1.2142_FC4smp-8.26.18-1.lvn4.i686.rpm


Verify Installed Files
[root@computer X11]# rpm -qa grep fglrx
ati-fglrx-8.26.18-1.lvn4
kernel-module-fglrx-2.6.17-1.2142_FC4smp-8.26.18-1.lvn4


Configure
ati-fglrx-config-display enable

Validate
dmesg grep fglrx
fglrxinfo
glxinfo more
grep irect /var/log/Xorg.0.log


Test
glxgears

You should see much better performance than when direct rendering is turned off. Make sure the configs stay working through a warm boot and cold boot.

Here is some useful ouput:
[root@computer X11]# dmesg grep fglrx
fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1898 MBytes.
[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.26.18 [Jun 22 2006] on minor 0
[fglrx] Internal AGP support requested, but kernel AGP support active.
[fglrx] Have to use kernel AGP support to avoid conflicts.
[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState = 0x1f004a1b (hardware caps of chipset)
[fglrx] AGP enabled, AgpCommand = 0x1f004312 (selected caps)
[fglrx] total GART = 134217728
[fglrx] free GART = 118222848
[fglrx] max single GART = 118222848
[fglrx] total LFB = 126873600
[fglrx] free LFB = 116387840
[fglrx] max single LFB = 116387840
[fglrx] total Inv = 0
[fglrx] free Inv = 0
[fglrx] max single Inv = 0
[fglrx] total TIM = 0


[root@computer X11]# glxinfo

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float,
GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_multisample
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: RADEON 9800 Pro Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5879 (8.26.18)
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
GL_S3_s3tc, GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow, GL_ARB_fragment_shader,
GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_blend, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program,
GL_ARB_vertex_shader, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_ARB_draw_buffers,
GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_element_array, GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap,
GL_ATI_fragment_shader, GL_ATI_map_object_buffer, GL_ATI_separate_stencil,
GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_float,
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATI_vertex_array_object,
GL_ATI_vertex_attrib_array_object, GL_ATI_vertex_streams,
GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATIX_texture_env_route,
GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra,
GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap,
GL_EXT_texgen_reflection, GL_EXT_texture3D,
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
GL_EXT_vertex_shader, GL_HP_occlusion_test, GL_NV_blend_square,
GL_NV_occlusion_query, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_SGI_color_matrix,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x24 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
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0x2e 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x2f 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
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0x31 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
0x32 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
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0x34 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x35 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x36 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x37 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x38 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x39 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x3a 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x3b 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x3c 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x3d 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x3e 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x3f 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x40 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x41 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x42 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x43 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x44 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x45 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x46 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x47 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x48 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x49 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x4a 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x4b 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x4c 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x4d 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x4e 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x4f 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
0x50 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
0x51 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
0x52 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 None
0x53 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x54 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x55 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x56 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x57 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x58 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x59 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x5a 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 None
0x5b 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x5c 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x5d 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x5e 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x5f 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x60 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x61 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 6 1 None
0x62 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 6 1 None

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

ntfs kernel for Fedora Core 4

Ah yes..it IS this simple!
yum install kernel-module-ntfs-$(uname -r)

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

yum through a proxy: ntlmaps

This article is deprecated.  Yum configuration file (usually, /etc/yum.conf) supports the following proxy settings:
proxy=your_proxy_server:
proxy_username=
proxy_password=


More info here:
http://joyslearns.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/proxy-settings-for-yum-install-fedora-17/

Original post below: 
----------------------------------------------
I had a devil of a time trying to get yum on my Fedora Core 4 box working through the proxy at work. The article below was very helpful in fixing the problem:
http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=742

I had tried everything, from environment variables to config file changes, and nothing worked. What finally did the trick was this neat little program a frustrated programmer invented as a result of his company using a Microsoft proxy and all his programs breaking because of the Digest authentication NTLM does. Here is the link:
http://ntlmaps.sourceforge.net/

What NTLMaps does is make the proxy server think it is talking to MS IE 5.5. So, where I was getting errors like this:
[Errno 4] IOError: HTTP Error 400: Bad Request ( The data is invalid. )

I am now able to smoothly flow out the proxy. Awesome!

Just make sure to correctly input your NT domain, username and password in the ntlmaps server.cfg file:
NT_DOMAIN: [your nt domain]
USER: [your username]
PASSWORD: [your password]


eg,
NT_DOMAIN: mydomain
USER: cacasodo
PASSWORD: mypassword

You'll need to restart main.py for this to work.

Of course, having your password in an ascii text file is not very secure, but if you need to use this product, don't forget to delete the password after you've finished using yum. You'll then point yum to the ntlmaps port on your localhost as below.

Here is the proxy line you'll need to add to your yum.conf:
proxy=http://<username>:<password>@localhost:5865

This will end up looking something like this:
proxy=http://gagazote:password@localhost:5865

If you're using ntlmaps, your proxy line will look something like this:
proxy=http://localhost:5865

Cheers!

Thursday, August 31, 2006

installing VMWare Server

I installed VMWare Server on my XP box at work to get Fedora Core running as the guest OS. The software is free on VMWare's site (www.vmware.com) and installation was easy as I had done it before. I used a Bridged connection to create a new virtual NIC which automatically recognized my companies' DHCP server. I allocated about 80GB for the server, as it may do some video editing in off hours.

Don't forget to install VMWare Tools. This optimizes display and mouse functionality and better integrates the guest operating system. This article was helpful in getting the Tools installed:
http://www.vmware.com/support/ws4/doc/new_guest_tools_ws.html

However, the information is kind of old, as the names of the Tools installer have changed from the old tarball to a nice RPM for Fedora. For some reason, rpm couldn't see the rpm file as it existed in /mnt. So I moved it to temp. Note: first unmount your VMWare virtual CD before you execute the install, or you'll get a bunch of inode errors, as if the install is trying to access media that is not there anymore.

Later, I also tried to shrink the size of the virtual disk. Even though Snapshots was disabled, the vmware-toolbox did not allow me to do this. Perhaps this is because the disk was preallocated? I'm not sure, but this article helped:
http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=375598

Monday, August 21, 2006

installing Real Player for Linux

Needless to say, installing Real Player for Fedora Core 4 was much more involved than the instructions lead you to believe. Here are the Real steps:
1) download the RealPlayer10GOLD.bin
2) make it executable (chmod a+x RealPlayer10GOLD.bin)
3) symbolic link older libstdc:
ln -s libstdc++.so.6.0.7 libstdc++.so.5
4) install older compatibility libraries:
yum install compat-libstdc++-33
5) run
ldconfig

6) restart Gnome

Yarg. Done.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

installing VNCserver for the first time

1) install vncserver rpm
2) edit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers for VNCSERVERS and VNCSERVERARGS constants
[root@sfunppdac29 root]
# vi /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
# The VNCSERVERS variable is a list of display:user pairs.
#
# Uncomment the line below to start a VNC server on display :1
# as my 'myusername' (adjust this to your own). You will also
# need to set a VNC password; run 'man vncpasswd' to see how
# to do that.
#
# DO NOT RUN THIS SERVICE if your local area network is
# untrusted! 

# VNCSERVERS="1:myusername"

VNCSERVERS="1:root"
VNCSERVERARGS[1]="-geometry 1024x768"

3) run vncserver for the first time
[root@sfunppdac29 .vnc]# vncserver

You will require a password to access your desktops.
Password: Verify: xauth: creating new authority file /root/.Xauthority
New 'sfunppdac29.test.com:1 (root)' desktop is sfunppdac29.test.com:1


Creating default startup script /root/.vnc/xstartup

Starting applications specified in /root/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /root/.vnc/sfunppdac29.test.com:1.log

4) edit /root/.vnc/xstartup to use GNOME instead of twm
replace "twm &" with "exec gnome-session &"

5) Kill any existing VNC servers with "vncserver -kill :xxx" where xxx is the display number.

6) Start vncserver.
[root@sfunppdac29 root]# service vncserver start

7) check service is running
[root@sfunppdac29 root]# service vncserver status
Xvnc (pid 12035) is running...

8) check that the default ports are up and running
[root@sfunppdac29 .vnc]# netstat -na grep LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5801 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:5901 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:8080 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:6001 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:21 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:22 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:25 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN


Thanks to Greg Breland:
http://faq.gotomyvnc.com/fom-serve/cache/56.html

Reference
https://www.comparitech.com/vpn/what-is-a-vnc-and-how-does-it-differ-from-a-vpn/

Saturday, April 08, 2006

big files don't transfer well over USB2

Watch out for external USB2 drives. If you create a 3GB or larger file, you may not be able to transfer it via USB2. I had a 3.9GB video file and could not transfer it over to my PC. This being an IDE drive, I yanked the drive out of the enclosure, hooked it up via regular IDE, and when XP started, it checked the drive for errors. No errors were found and I could then copy the file from the formerly USB2.0 drive now IDE just fine.

Weird.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

I am done troubleshooting the server

I have utterly and completely exhausted every avenue I have trodden down in an effort to get this machine going. I have swapped out (many, many times):
- memory (266Mhz DDR SDRAM/ECC/registered/CL2.5)
- mobo (Super Micro P4DL6)
- power supply..twice
- CMOS battery

I have removed CPUs. I have run single CPU configs. I have swapped the position of the existing CPUs. I have applied new thermal paste to a CPU. I have bought new memory. (I have returned new memory). I have connected storage types (ide or scsi) individually. I have connected storage types together. I have bought a new power supply. (I have returned a new power supply). I have used a different power outlet. I have removed the board from the case entirely in combination with a second power supply to make sure there was no short with the power or reset connectors from the original case.

I normally start with no storage, with no power connection or IDE/SCSI connection to the board. From there, if I get a clean boot and no freeze ups, I will add my DVD drive w/a Fedora install disc. After booting, the system will either make it past the initial Linux boot process or freeze during the Fedora install process. If the box makes it past the Linux boot process and doesn't hang, I am compelled to add storage. So, I alternately try adding SCSI or IDE storage, whatever suits my displeasure. SCSI freezes up on channel A, so I try channel B. Still freezes. I try the primary IDE controller, then I try the secondary IDE controller. I swap memory positions and brands while I do this, while I grid the combinations on paper, in order that I don't miss one.

So far, it has always frozen, either five minutes after booting or later, like fifteen minutes down the line when I almost get my hopes up that I've found the silver bullet and that it will actually work this time. 99% of the time it has frozen in a different place during the boot process or Fedora install.

The only unchanging constant are the CPUs. I am lead, inexorably, to the fact that these CPUs MUST be the source of the problem..everything else around them has been swapped out.

I must feel some joy at this discovery. However, it simply doesn't make sense that both CPUs would burn out. This doesn't seem logical. I believe that if I go through the effort of purchasing CPUs from Ebay that, in the end, I will be confronted with the same issue, will have wasted $150 or so for new CPUs and be left with final disappointment. But, I feel I have to resolve this chapter of my ridiculous life, so I plod on to my destruction.

I am done with troubleshooting the server.

UPDATE: if anyone has encountered and solved a similar problem, please let me know. Maybe I'll dig this mutha out of the trash bin and try once more! mailto:cacasododom@gmail.com. Thanks!

Thursday, January 12, 2006

SQLAllocHandle on SQL_HANDLE_ENV failed

Ah, the ever wonderful:
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80004005'
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager]Driver's SQLAllocHandle on SQL_HANDLE_ENV failed

The error happens on a brand new Oracle 9i installation on a Win2K IIS server. The specific context is a web-based database query to Oracle via the Microsoft ODBC driver. There are a few steps that have solved the problem for me:
1) reinstall the Oracle client. Specifically:
- Remove all the Oracle components
- Delete the Oracle9i directory
- If you've made a request to the IIS server that includes a call to Oracle, IIS will be hanging on to oci.dll, the Oracle Call Interface driver, so you'll have to reboot in order to delete the locked file. Reboot!
- After rebooting and removing the Oracle9i directory, reinstall Oracle.

2) Make sure to assign IUSR_servername R&X permissions on the Oracle9i directory

3) Edit the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ROOT\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSDTC\MTxOCI
Change the values of the three keys:
a. OracleOciLib - change from ociw32.dll to oci.dll
b. OracleSqlLib - change from SQLLib18.dll to orasql9.dll
c. OracleXaLib - change from xa73.dll to oraclient9.dll

4) Reboot again!
5) Test to make sure you don't get the evil error.

GOOD LUCK!

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

CS0007: Unexpected common language runtime initialization error -- 'Catastrophic failure '

Update: apparently, the reason why this error occurred was that my system had some security lockdown permission changes which conflicted with the list of patches below..hence the need to make those permissions changes in steps 4 and 5 below. Harumph.

Argh. One of the recent set of MS security hotfixes has broken ASP.net with the following error:
CS0007: Unexpected common language runtime initialization error -- 'Catastrophic failure '

I upgraded my Win2K server with the following patches:
KB905915 IE6 SP1
KB902400 2K
KB908523 2K
KB912919 2K
KB891861 2K SP4 Rollup
KB890830 Dec Malware Removal

I've found a workaround here:
http://www.iis-resources.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=4246&forum=4

Here is the text of the workaround:
PROBLEM
========
Running ASP.NET application was giving
Compiler Error Message: CS0007: Unexpected common language runtime initialization error -- 'Catastrophic failure'
RESOLUTION
============
There were some problems with the permission on the aspnet account. Later we found that EVERYONE group was missing READ permission on c:\windows\registration folder. Below given are the steps to check the permissions of aspnet account at various places.
Following are Generic Steps that we can take to fix the various issues related to ASP.NET that you are seeing on different Windows 2000 SP4 boxes which we believe is happening because of the security patches you installed.

Please make sure that the ASPX pages run under SYSTEM account before proceeding further with following steps
Steps 1 and 2 would make sure that you get rid of event id: 1007 and 1084
Follow Step 3 if you are getting if you are getting "Compiler Error Message: BC32400: Class 'CLSID_CorSysWrite_SxS could not be created 'Catastrophic failure'
Steps 4 and 5 are for "Compiler Error Message: CS0007: Unexpected common runtime initialization error -- 'Catastrophic failure'"

1. Running ASPNetRegIIS –ua followed by ASPNetRegIIS –i from the framework folder.

2. Make sure that ASPNET account has got permission as per following matrix
Location Access type Account Comments installroot\ASP.NET Temporary Files Read/write Process or configured impersonation. This is the location for dynamically compiled files. Beneath this location, application code generation takes place in a discrete directory for each application. The root location itself can be configured using the tempDir attribute of the section. systemroot\assembly Read Process or configured impersonation. This is the location of the global assembly cache. systemroot\system32 R Process Contains system DLLs loaded by the .NET Framework. systemroot\temp Read/write/delete Process Used for web services support. userprofile directory Read/write Process Used by the global assembly cache lock files and the common language runtime security configuration caching mechanism. If the user profile directory for the account doesn't exist, ASP.NET will use the default userprofile directory.application directory Read Process or configured impersonation. This is the location for application files. installroot hierarchy Read Process or configured impersonation ASP.NET must be able to access the system assemblies referenced in the Machine.config file in the config subdirectory under installroot. Default Web Site monitoring. Read Process Used for file change notification monitoring
3 Make sure that ASPNET account has got read permission on following keys
HKCR\CLSID\{0AE2DEB0-F901-478B-BB9F-881EE8066788}
HKCR\CLSID\{0A29FF9E-7F9C-4437-8B11-F424491E3931}
HKCR\CLSID\{0C7FF16C-38E3-11d0-97AB-00C04FC2AD98
4. In the %windir%/registration folder, make sure that the Everyone group has READ permissions.
- In the advanced security properties of the .clb files in the %windir%/registration folder, make sure that the Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here option is selected.
- Make sure that the Everyone group has one of the following permissions: Traverse permissions (“List Folder Contents”) on all parent directories (%systemdrive%, %windir%, and %windir%\registration), or The Bypass Traverse Checking permission is selected.
5. Running RegSvr32.EXE mscoree.dll from the C:\winnt\system32
Feel free to drop me a line or ask me a question.