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.

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!

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!

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

quick note on how to wire a straight through ethernet cable

RJ45
pin1 pin2 pin3 pin4 pin5 pin6 pin7 pin8
OW OR GRW BL BLW GR BRW BR

key
OW - orange/white
OR - orange
GRW - green/white
BL - blue
BLW - blue/white
GR - green
BRW - brown/white
BR - brown

Here's a page with some nice tables and graphics to help understand:
http://www.ertyu.org/~steven_nikkel/ethernetcables.html

MS05-051 causes problems with ASP pages

There is a workaround by applying IWAM permissions to a specific folder. The fix given by Microsoft is to add RX permissions for IWAM on c:\winnt\registration folder - it corrects a dcom error on the server. This fix does NOT work for my ASP.net application. So I have removed the patch until an appropriate fix is made.

partimage works well for imaging ext3 filesystems!

Today I used partimage to save and restore an image of my /boot and /root ext3 filesystems on my Fedora Core 2 server. I used a bootable CD created from an iso found on www.sysresccd.org. This is a very nice little utility disc that has some file system tools in addition to partimage. To make it easier on yourself, I recommend you have a hard drive with a FAT partition to save and restore your filesystems to.

Here is the short list of steps to save a filesystem image:
1) make an iso cd from sysresccd.org
2) boot with the cd
3) create a directory and mount your FAT partition read-writeable to that directory
4) run partimage and save a filesystem image to the FAT filesystem. To test out how well partimage works for you, first save an image of a filesystem that is expendable. That way, if something goes wrong, you won't mind as much.
5) run partimage and do a test verification of the restore (does not write to the destination drive)
6) if the test verification works, go for the full restore
7) after you've restored, verify that all the applications on the filesystem work

Initially hesitant, I made sure the boot filesystem restored properly first. Then I moved on to my very valuable /root partition. Since I keep my filesystems simple (/boot, /root and swap), partimagimg those three filesystems was a relatively easy procedure for me. Especially since I mounted the FAT partition for reading and writing. The restore went without a hitch and was very fast, since I used the highest level of bzip2 compression. Bzip2 saves a lot of space, but does take some time to compress. I'd say it ran about 30 minutes to compress a 4GB filesystem. This is on a P4, 3.2Ghz w/1GB RAM.

Good luck!

"viewstate is invalid for this page and might be corrupted"

I didn't know much about .Net viewstates until yesterday when I needed to configure a .Net application living on multiple servers behind a load balancer. Suffice it to say that you need to generate an encrypted key and configure all servers to use the same key, rather than using machine.config's "AutoGenerate" setting:
machineKey validationKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps" decryptionKey="AutoGenerate,IsolateApps" validation="SHA1"

Here is an interesting article that tells you how to do this:
http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20030514.asp

Viewstate isn't really the same as session state. Viewstate is a hidden field that stores page state between calls. The way that viewstate works is:
1. When asp.net returns an http response to a user, it compiles all the data field data into a big encrypted string.
2. The string is passed as a hidden field. When the user responds to the page, the viewstate is passed back to the server.
4. ASP.NET deserializes and decrypts the string to refill the form fields.
5. If the deserialization breaks, then you get the error "viewstate is invalid for this page and might be corrupted."

Viewstate can break if:
1. The servers aren't all using the same encryption/decryption keys.
2. The viewstate field is being truncated.
3. Other scenarios. Ahem.

This is a famous dog. Perhaps you know her.