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Microsoftism's on my MacBook

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Seems Mac OS/X has not escaped the unnecessary annoyances of Windows. Below are details to unstall a product on my MacBook, following it crashing my machine a few times with the “blue screen on death” below.

Eye TV Lite is the software that comes with the Pinnacle TV line of products for the Apple Mac.

 

To completely uninstall the EyeTV Lite software and it associated files, please follow the steps below.

 

1.      Drag the EyeTV Lite application from the Application folder to the trash.

a.       Open Finder

b.      Select Applications

c.       Select EyeTV Lite and drab it to the trash

 

2.      Using Finder, move the following files to the trash.

 

Below is a list of the files that need to be removed and their function.  Below that is the location of the files. 

 

com.elgato.eyetv.plist – stores the preferences and there are 2 copies on the hard drive

EyeTV Helper – assits with USB/FireWire issues

com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist – preference file related to the available devices

com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist – preference file related to the channel lists

Wakein – assists EyeTV Lite with waking/booting to record

EyeTVEPG.db – EPG data is stored in this file

EyeTV Archive – contains all of your recordings and scheduled programs

EyeTVClassicDontSeize.kext – All of the kernel extension files .kext are to prevent the Mac OS X from attempting to talk to TV devices that can appear as generic USB audio class or HID class devices before the actual firmware has been uploaded to them.

EyeTVAfaTechHidBlock.kext – same as above

            EyeTVEmpiaAudioBlock.kext – same as above

 

Drag these files from the location listed to the trash using Finder

 

/Users/(username)/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.plist

 

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.plist

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.devices.plist

/Library/Preferences/com.elgato.eyetv.world.plist

 

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/EyeTV Helper

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/Wakein

/Library/Application Support/EyeTV/EyeTVEPG.db

 

/Users/(username)/Library/EyeTV Archive/

 

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVClassicDontSeize.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVAfaTechHidBlock.kext

/System/Library/Extensions/EyeTVEmpiaAudioBlock.kext

 

NOTE 1:  If you erase the EyeTV preference files, then any activation key you may have will need to be re-entered.

 

NOTE 2:  The files with the extention .kext can only be erased with root/superuser access. Also, to erase EyeTV Helper, you first have to quit it by using the Process Viewer or Activity Monitor.

Reference

T60 Configuration

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This is a long story, of the absolute nightmare I have had with this lemon. I wish I could send it back!

I got my new Lenovo T60 from MySQL.

My goal of course is to put Linux on this and I’ve chosen the latest Ubuntu 6.10 switching from Fedora Core 5 on my present personal laptop.

Some initial investigation from the supplied media provided some surprises. Of a 80GB Drive only 69GB available. There is second partition of 5+GB which I later find out to be the IBM Recovery Area as they don’t provided and CD’s of sofware. So the specs say an 80GB drive, but it’s actually only 74.53GB via gpartd. In addition the installation of Windows XP Pro has so much other crap it takes a few mins to fully boot up.

So here is what I did to make this mahine usable.

Backup

As I haven’t installed anything, the only think to backup is the Recovery Media so I can restore to defaults if necessary. You can do this with:

  • Start | Programs | ThinkVantage | Create Recovery Media
  • Select Recovery Discs
  • You will need 1 CD + 1 DVD

NOTE: Don’t loose these, you can’t select these options again to make another copy. This should be done regardless as soon as you get the machine, because if your hard drive crashes you loose it all.

My next step was to install Ubuntu. I plan to reinstall Windows.
Resize via Ubuntu to 20GB

Reconfigure SATA Drive

When I ran the XP Pro Installation CD I received the following error.

Setup did not find any hard drives installed in your computer.
Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct.
This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

In order to reinstall XP via CD you need to reconfigure the Bios to detect your hard drive appropiately. These can be achieved by:

  • Power on
  • ThinkVantage Button
  • F1 for Bios setup
  • Select Config
  • Select Serial ATA (SATA)
  • Change value (F5) to Compatibility
  • F10 – Save and Exit
  • Yes – Save Configuration and Exit

Windows Installation

The following software then had to be installed.

  • Windows XP Pro
  • Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2
  • Office 2003
  • Office 2003 Service Pack 2

Following default Windows XP Installation most devices were not found. The Lenovo website lists 100s of software updates for the T60 so I decided the simpliest solution was to use the provided ThinkAdvantage System Update, but that also took a number of steps.

This will then enable wired Internet Access (for some reason, the download of the Wireless didn’t help as there was no Other Device that match the wireless device.

ThinkVantage System Update. Follow instructions, I had to install Microsoft .NET Framework as stated. In true and typical form, I had to restart my machine two times (when will Windoze actually get this right).

Disk Crash

Install that hung

two times, I booted both the keyboard and mouse would not work.

Called Lenovo Technical Support
“The protocols are not the same. I need to call Microsoft Support”.

How's your desktop

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People that know me, know that I can’t just do one thing at once. People that have seen me work also know just how I can’t just work on a single thing, but work with multiple monitors, desktops and programs everywhere. (Power to my Dell 24″ Widescreen LCD with 1920×1200 resolution). However I must bow when I see another professional of equal skill, however this does boarder on lunacy.

I had to printscreen friend and fellow MySQLer Frank’s desktop, it just defied a sense of normality, yet he worked away quite happily. In some ways I’m also amazed that Windoze actually functioned.

Take a close look at the number of open Firefox windows and putty sessions.

Zune or zzz?

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An interesting article in the local New Jersey paper this week. “Will Microsoft iPod-rival Zune be a ‘zoom’ or more of a ‘zzz’. This is Microsoft’s attempt to finally case in the 1.5 billion songs that have been sold online bt the Apple iTunes store. A comment from the article.

The Zune’s wireless function also taxes battery life. And Zun users – Zunies? – are in for some surprises when the actually try zapping songs to each other.
Those songs will deactivate in three days,or after three plays – whichever comes first.

I had a friend also tell me that the new Zune is not compatible with the upcoming Windows Vista. Now if that’s actually true, that’s amazing.

The Windoze CLI, or lack there of.

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There are many reasons why I hate Windoze, here is just another example.

I need via the command line, change to a given directory, so I can manually run a command. Not only can I not do a cd to the directory, as shown in the printscreen here, I can’t use a wildcard to try and identify the directory better (perhaps its the addition of uppercase characters or a fullstop at the end of the directory that’s making this OS confused?). Of course I can’t do tab completion either.

Ok, well, just cut and paste what the dir gives you. No, it’s not highlight, right mouse click, Hmmm you have to go, Menu | Edit | Mark, then highlight the text, then Menu | Edit | Copy, then Menu |Edit |Paste just to get a copy of the text, and that still doesn’t work.

Of course Windoze was never designed for programmers, especially those that can achieve far more with a command line interface (CLI for all those Windoze users that have never heard of it), and much more quickly then with having to move a mouse around, drawing one hand away from the keyboard where you do all the other typing. So much for making the world more efficient.

So how to you actually do it, well the only way I know is you have to install more software from XP Power Toys called Open Command Window Here. This allows you to use the GUI Windows Explorer (again a mouse thing) to navigate to the directory, then right click to open a command window at this directory.

So what was the outcome of the actually directory using this comment, see below. The same name I was trying to type in. Go Figure!!!!!!!!!!

Microfox ?

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I’ve added Digg to my general lunch time reading web sites. I came across this yesterday. Microsoft invites Firefox development team to Redmond.

Well, isn’t that nice, the big boy opening his pond (including all the sharks) to the little fish. (if you don’t get it, it’s a line from Die Hard 2 about pissing in somebody else’s pond) What’s funny about the article is not the article but some of the comments, here are but a few.

  • Cool. Very cool.
  • they’re going to brainwash them into working for microsoft and their going to cast off the IE team to replace the firefox team
  • Just replace IE 7 with FF 2.0. Save every web developer 100s of hours.
  • “Come into my parlour,” said the spider to the fly
  • DON’T DO IT! My god, has noone seen Braveheart? The Untouchables? The Godfather? Scarface?
  • hey’re going to kidnap the Mozilla developers with a cunning trail of pizza and cola, and force them to work on IE8.
  • ITS A TRAP! http://itsatrap.ytmnd.com/

I like the last one, maybe just because of the cool picture on referenced site.

I see today an official response Firefox welcomes Microsoft’s offer of help

Troubleshooting Wireless Connections (under Windoze)

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Router Configuration

In order to enable wireless you will most probably have a Wireless Router that is managing your Internet Connection (via cable or DSL), Each router is different, however they generally all have a web interface to access them, the Netgear and DLink routers seems to have generally moved to http://192.168.0.1 as the default address (which is also configurable) Refer to the router documentation for the correct address. You will be prompted for a username and password, this is generally admin and then a default password. Refer to appropiate router documentation for the default password.

Router Wireless Settings

Your router will allow you to configure a number of wireless settings. Where this menu option differs with every router, but normally a Wireless Settings option is easily visible. The common wireless settings are:

  • SSID. This is an identifier for your Wireless Network. This helps when you have access to multiple networks
  • Channel. This is a number generally between 1 and 13, and is just used as an offset from the Wireless frequency. Wireless 802.11 networks work at 2.4GHz can be interfered by other devices such as cordless phones and microwaves. It’s generally considered that a larger number is better, however I don’t know the reason why.
  • Mode: The present IEEE standard for wireless is 802.11 This is generally suffixed by either a ‘b’ or a ‘g’ (known as the mode), indicating the capacity of your wireless connection. Most present wireless network components are 802.11g with supports speeds to 54Mbps, will the older 802.11b had a maximum speed of 11Mbps. While some providers actually state today 110Mbps, they are actually cheating but using two 54Mbps channels in parallel where then split up your information, send in parallel and then reconstitute.
  • Security Encryption. By default, encryption is disabled, but it should always be enabled, and generally set to an Authentication Type of Automatic
  • WEP Encryption level. This can be:
    • Disabled – no data encryption
    • 64-bit (sometimes called 40-bit) encryption – ten hexadecimal digits (any combination of 0-9, A-F)
    • 128-bit encryption – twenty-six hexadecimal digits (any combination of 0-9, A-F)

The gets the terminology out of the way.

Available Network Connections

Start by looking at your present Windows Network Configuration on the machine in question.

  • Start | Control Panel
  • Now if you are in Classic View, you can just select Network Connections
  • If you are in Category View, you need to select Network and Internet Connections then Network Connections

At this point you should see a list of Network Connections. It’s not uncommon as per the screen to see 2 connections, a Wireless Network Connection from your wireless network card, and a Local Area Network if you used a fixed network cable.

Configuring your Wireless Connection

The first thing you need to check is if your Wireless Network connection has a Red Cross thru it. This is a good indicator that it’s not working. The following points run thru the options against a Wireless connection.

Disable/Enable

The Status column for the connection should first say Enabled. If it says Disabled, you should enable this single click on Wireless Network Connection, then Right Click, then select Enable.

Available Wireless Networks

A right Click and View Available Wireless Networks should provide a list of available Networks that have been found inrange and that broadcasting their SSID (it’s possible to not broadcast, but by default this is enabled). You should see the SSID you define for your Router, and you may well see other wireless networks. But Selecting an Available Network, you will be prompted to enter the WEP Encryption key if the network is using encryption. Do so, and click [Connect].

Status

Right Click, Status gives you information on your connection, It should have a Status of Connected, the other details if for informational purposes. Clicking on the Support tab is helpful to confirm your setttings. It’s important that the information is like:

  • Address Type: Assigned by DHCP
  • IP Address: 192.168.0.100
  • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
  • Default Gateway: 192.168.0.1

These details define your connection, it’s important that the Default Gateway is the same as your router address, and that the IP Address is similar (with just the last part different)

Properties

Right Click, Properties gives you a lot to review. The three things you should review are:

  • Click on the General Tab, then click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), then click Properties
  • Within this page, on the General Tab, you should ensure that Obtain an IP Address automatically is selected, as well as Obtain DNS server address automatically is selected. Click OK to return.
  • Click on Wireless Networks Tab, and ensure Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings is ticked.
  • Click on Authentication Tab, and ensure the Enable Network Access box is ticked.

If you have made any changes, it’s benefical to Disable and re Enable your connection.

Troubleshooting

  • Try Disable your Wireless Connection the Re-enable.
  • Start | Run then type in command and press Enter.
    • ipconfig – This should list your current connection details, including the IP address for your wireless connection, this should be like 192.168.0.100 (based on your DHCP settings, and the first 3 parts of the IP address should match your IP address of your Router.
    • ipconfig /release – This will manually disconnect your connection
    • ipconfig /renew – This will manually reconnect your connection. You should then do a ipconfig to reconfirm your details
  • If everything points to the connection working, you can test your network connection with the following commands.Start | Run then type in command and press Enter.
    • ping 192.168.0.1 – This should provide a few lines of response, do a network test between your computer and the router
    • ping 64.132.34.72 – This should again provide a few lines, and confirms a connection to the outside world (in this case www.news.com.au)
    • ping www.news.com.au – This finally ensures you are connected to the outside world, and that DNS (Domain Name Server) Resolution is working. This is the translation between human names, like websites, and computer identifications which is a 4 part IP address.
  • Should this all fail, it may be benefical to remove the Wireless driver settings completely and re-install, which is an entirely new exercise requiring documenting.

Protecting Your Network

Wireless in default operations is unsecure, and is very easy for example somebody else to use your bandwidth. It’s also easy for a hacker to intercept your communications and then analyse your information. There are two things you should always do:

  • Use an encrypted network using WEP
  • Change your router default password to something different

In addition for greater protection you can run with an Access List, that is specifically defining at your Router the specific Network Addresses of each Network Card that can access your network, but this requires more configuration.

References

Wikipedia IEEE 802.11

A better VNC

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I’ve been using VNCViewer from RealVNC under Linux to remote connect to an older machine running windows. Two reasons, I don’t need yet another screen on my desk, and I need windows to adequately test and use the MySQL GUI products, in particular MySQL Workbench.

I never realised there was a better way, particularly over a local network, a command called rdesktop which is capable of natively speaking Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

$ su -
$ yum install rdesktop

This did only give me version 1.3.1. The current version 1.4.1 available from the rdesktop Website does provide greater commands including the syntax I use.

su -
cd /src
wget http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/rdesktop/rdesktop-1.4.1.tar.gz
tar xvfz rdesktop-1.4.1.tar.gz
cd rdesktop-1.4.1
./configure
make
make install

Example Usage

$ rdesktop -u <username> -p <password> -K -N -z -a 16 -x b -P

Some additional common options include -d <domain> and -f for fullscreen.

Comand Syntax

$ rdesktop
rdesktop: A Remote Desktop Protocol client.
Version 1.4.1. Copyright (C) 1999-2005 Matt Chapman.
See http://www.rdesktop.org/ for more information.

Usage: rdesktop [options] server[:port]
   -u: user name
   -d: domain
   -s: shell
   -c: working directory
   -p: password (- to prompt)
   -n: client hostname
   -k: keyboard layout on server (en-us, de, sv, etc.)
   -g: desktop geometry (WxH)
   -f: full-screen mode
   -b: force bitmap updates
   -L: local codepage
   -B: use BackingStore of X-server (if available)
   -e: disable encryption (French TS)
   -E: disable encryption from client to server
   -m: do not send motion events
   -C: use private colour map
   -D: hide window manager decorations
   -K: keep window manager key bindings
   -S: caption button size (single application mode)
   -T: window title
   -N: enable numlock syncronization
   -X: embed into another window with a given id.
   -a: connection colour depth
   -z: enable rdp compression
   -x: RDP5 experience (m[odem 28.8], b[roadband], l[an] or hex nr.)
   -P: use persistent bitmap caching
   -r: enable specified device redirection (this flag can be repeated)
         '-r comport:COM1=/dev/ttyS0': enable serial redirection of /dev/ttyS0 to COM1
             or      COM1=/dev/ttyS0,COM2=/dev/ttyS1
         '-r disk:floppy=/mnt/floppy': enable redirection of /mnt/floppy to 'floppy' share
             or   'floppy=/mnt/floppy,cdrom=/mnt/cdrom'
         '-r clientname=': Set the client name displayed
             for redirected disks
         '-r lptport:LPT1=/dev/lp0': enable parallel redirection of /dev/lp0 to LPT1
             or      LPT1=/dev/lp0,LPT2=/dev/lp1
         '-r printer:mydeskjet': enable printer redirection
             or      mydeskjet="HP LaserJet IIIP" to enter server driver as well
         '-r sound:[local|off|remote]': enable sound redirection
                     remote would leave sound on server
   -0: attach to console
   -4: use RDP version 4
   -5: use RDP version 5 (default)

I haven’t reviewed the security implications but considering I’m only running in my own internal network, it’s not a major priority.

References

MySQL GUI Products

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I’ve started now to actively use more of the MySQL Workbench, MySQL Administrator and MySQL Query Browser and MySQL Migration Toolkit. I am traditionally a very command line person, and it’s important that these skills are never put on the back burner. For all those budding Developers and DBA’s you need these skills, expecially for any MySQL Certification.

To indicate my indent, I’ve even created a new blog category specifically for MySQL GUI Products.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Mike Zinner from MySQL AB really impressed me with where the products were going in development. I’m still rather disappointed about the stability and compatibility when attempting to run under Linux (which is my desktop), but I’ve put that aside and configured a suitable environment to best use and test these products under Windoze! I’ll also be able to trial products under both environments and provide valuable feedback to Workbench Bugs.

To overcome this, as I use Windows reluctantly in a VMware environment, I’ve decided to install all MySQL GUI Products on an older laptop (a Dell Inspiron 5000, PIII 600MHz), which I use for media playing (DivX .avi’s) on my TV. Yes, I hate to resort back to windows, but I had difficulties getting the TV Out working properly under Linux, and I only have so much free time. I would have liked to nut it out, but I find Windows superior in only 2 things, driver compatibility and running Photoshop, so I’ll leave it at that.

So being about to VNC to this machine gives me a spread of processing usage which is acceptable for now, and I’m working from a single desktop. (Time to dream some more about that Dell 24″ UltarSharp Widescreen LCD Flat Panel I’d like).

Well again, with just starting MySQL Workbench, and for the first ever time launching MySQL Administrator I came across Windows functionality I’d not seen before. Within MySQL Administrator under the Windows menu option I was able to switch to MySQL Workbench, a completely different running Windows Program. Now, I’d not seen this before in any multiple running products in Windows. Obviously the power of the GRE enables this, what a nice feature. Well back to now looking at this product some more.

Using Parrallels as a VM for Windows

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$ su –
$ Parallels-config
Configuring Parallels Workstation 2.0 build 1514
Configuring Parallels Workstation 2.0 drivers…
Compiling Parallels Workstation 2.0 drivers…
Drivers have been compiled successfully.
Installing drivers…
Starting drivers…
Load Parallels Workstation 2.0 hypervisor …
Load Parallels Workstation 2.0 vm-main …
Load Parallels Workstation 2.0 vm-bridge …
Load Parallels Workstation 2.0 vmvirtualnic …
Configuration completed successfully
Now you can run Parallels Workstation 2.0
Issue “Parallels” command.
$Parallels

You have an interface now to configure your Virtual Machine settings, including memory and disk very easily.

Some observations.
The install process is more true Windows XP, format drive, reboot, all options etc. With Win4LinPro a lot of this was shielded (which was impressive in itself).

The Parallels VM runs in it’s on window, but you get locked in when you mouse click to focus. Using Ctrl-Alt, your focus is returned to your host environment.

Parallels is clearly a more rounded product, providing many more host environments. The interface provides a lot more virtual feel. You have Disk/CD/Network/Sound icons embedded in the window

In this install sound also worked by default, it did not in Win4LinPro. The playing of audio was actually a good indicator during the Windows activation process (which wasn’t in Win4LinPro) as you could here the delays in extensive CPU processing.

Parallels required you to run as root, while Win4LinPro disallowed root invocation. You were also given the opporunity to configure Windows users, while in Win4LinPro it just masked an administrator behind the scenes.

In defense of Win4Lin Pro, it clearly took away a lot of steps in the normal windows installation which made it clearly easier to install.

For Win4Lin Pro, it would not accepted my laptop Windows XP Pro CD (as it was not SP1 or SP2).
The specs for Parallels stated it would work, however I used anothe Windows XP Pro CD with SP1.
Surprisingly in the activation process, I could not use the Serial Number for my Laptop Windows XP, I had to use the serial Number for my SP1 CD. Not to bother, I own both, and use neither, it was just interesting to see Microsoft reject a valid serial number.

Testing/Trialing new MySQL Releases

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By now, I’m sure you have all heard about Free VMware Player allowing easy and quick access to see, view and use other OS’s easily. For those Windows users out there, now is your chance to trial MySQL under Linux with no impact to your system, why wait.

See the MySQL Virtual Machine details on the VMware site. On closer inspection this effectively pushes you to the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) page within the MySQL website.

The MySQL guys needs to update their site to reflect new reference to the free player, rather then a trial version of Workstation. Even VMware Server is free (could be mentioned). You can read more about the offerings etc at a previous blog Using VMware Server (free).

Also MySQL is only offering MySQL 4.1.12 (that was released in May last year). Surely this would be a great way to push the newer releases, I’d like to see MySQL offer this for at least the current production GA version 5.0, and it would be a great way to promote new releases, like an alpha release of 5.1. How easy would it be then for people to trial and test the new features without any hint of messing up or changing any existing environments. Perhaps the MySQL marketing department could consider this?

Is is more work? Yes. Will it take resources? Yes. But look at the benefits. Instead of the diehards that are prepared to download bleeding edge releases, you can now reach a newer market of users with an easier, cleaner and throw away installation of newer releases. You would not consider doing it for every dot release, more the current GA 5.0, and alpha and RC’s for newer versions I think.

Using VMware Server (free)

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VMware recently released the Free VMware player which allows you to test other OS’s easily in parallel with your current OS. They also provide the Virtual Machine Center so you can even trial easily a number of different pre-packaged solutions.

Of course, my only real need for this is to run Windows apps for limited reasons, and they don’t provide a Windows Virtual Machine, so in order to create one you need another product. VMware provide VMware Workstation which as a 90 day trial, I’ve downloaded a few times, but never actually tried.

Just released is VMware Server which is a free server virtualization for Windows and Linux. Now I haven’t read the differences between these products, but free verses free trial for what appears to be the same thing for what I want, well no brainer.

So in summary, I’ve downloaded the VMware server free edition, installed a Windows XP, and also installed the Browser Appliance from the Virtual Machine Center, and they both work. I’m happy for now.

Release Notes

rpm -ivh VMware-server-e.x.p-20925.i386.rpm

/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

Making sure services for VMware Server are stopped.

Stopping VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]

You must read and accept the End User License Agreement to continue.
....
VMware is a trademark of VMware, Inc.

Do you accept? (yes/no) yes

Thank you.

Configuring fallback GTK+ 2.4 libraries.

In which directory do you want to install the mime type icons?
[/usr/share/icons]

What directory contains your desktop menu entry files? These files have a
.desktop file extension. [/usr/share/applications]

In which directory do you want to install the application's icon?
[/usr/share/pixmaps]

Trying to find a suitable vmmon module for your running kernel.

The module bld-2.6.9-5.EL-i686smp-RHEL4 loads perfectly in the running kernel.

Do you want networking for your virtual machines? (yes/no/help) [yes]

Configuring a bridged network for vmnet0.

Your computer has multiple ethernet network interfaces available: eth0, eth0:0,
wlan0. Which one do you want to bridge to vmnet0? [eth0]

The following bridged networks have been defined:

. vmnet0 is bridged to eth0

Do you wish to configure another bridged network? (yes/no) [no] no

Do you want to be able to use NAT networking in your virtual machines? (yes/no)
[yes]

Configuring a NAT network for vmnet8.

Do you want this program to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help)
[yes]

Probing for an unused private subnet (this can take some time)...
The subnet 172.16.71.0/255.255.255.0 appears to be unused.

The following NAT networks have been defined:

. vmnet8 is a NAT network on private subnet 172.16.71.0.

Do you wish to configure another NAT network? (yes/no) [no]

Do you want to be able to use host-only networking in your virtual machines?
[yes]

Configuring a host-only network for vmnet1.

Do you want this program to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help)
[yes]

Probing for an unused private subnet (this can take some time)...
The subnet 172.16.60.0/255.255.255.0 appears to be unused.

The following host-only networks have been defined:

. vmnet1 is a host-only network on private subnet 172.16.60.0.

Do you wish to configure another host-only network? (yes/no) [no]

Trying to find a suitable vmnet module for your running kernel.

The module bld-2.6.9-5.EL-i686smp-RHEL4 loads perfectly in the running kernel.

Please specify a port for remote console connections to use [902]

Stopping xinetd:                                           [  OK  ]
Starting xinetd:                                           [  OK  ]
Configuring the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

Building the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

Using compiler "/usr/bin/gcc". Use environment variable CC to override.

Installing the VMware VmPerl Scripting API.

The installation of the VMware VmPerl Scripting API succeeded.

Generating SSL Server Certificate

In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]
Please enter your 20-character serial number.

Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:

You cannot power on any virtual machines until you enter a valid serial number.
To enter the serial number, run this configuration program again, or choose
'Help > Enter Serial Number' in the virtual machine console.

Starting VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
   Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
   Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)        [  OK  ]
   Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)        [  OK  ]
   NAT service on /dev/vmnet8                              [  OK  ]

The configuration of VMware Server e.x.p build-20925 for Linux for this running
kernel completed successfully.

$ vmware

When started you can enter the supplied license key that was emailed to you.

Running Internet Exploder (ie) under Linux

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It’s really so simple, I’m surprised it doesn’t come bundled in distros. (Well I take that back, I’m as anti-microsoft as you can get, but unfortunately, we have to lower ourselves and our good work to the power of Bill who has it over those uninformed majority being brainwashed with a non-standard and flawed browser, that you have to break your code to get to work for it somethings).

Anyway, enough ranting, it’s all at www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/. If you can’t have this all done in 15 mins, well you need a faster internet connection! (it takes 14 mins for the downloads, and 1 min of work)

Pre-Requisites

You need Wine and cabextract as pre-requisites.

$ cd /src/rpm
$ wget http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/wine/wine-0.9.2-1fc1winehq.i386.rpm
$ wget http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/wine/wine-0.9.2-1fc1winehq.src.rpm
$ wget http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/downloads/cabextract-1.1-1.i386.rpm
$ wget http://www.kyz.uklinux.net/downloads/cabextract-1.1-1.src.rpm
$ rpm -ivh wine-0.9.2-1fc1winehq.i386.rpm cabextract-1.1-1.i386.rpm

ies4linux

$ cd /opt
$ wget http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/downloads/ies4linux-1.3.4.tar.gz
$ tar xvfz ies4linux-1.3.4.tar.gz
$ cd ies4linux-1.3.4
# It pays to just check some config options as documented first
# see http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/en/instructions/configuration/
$ ./ies4linux
=================  IEs 4 Linux =================
Install IE6, IE5.5 and IE5 on Linux via Wine.
Credits: Sergio Lopes slopes at gmail dot com
Project page: http://tatanka.com.br/ies4linux
See README file for more info

Installation options:
[1] Install IE6, IE5.5 and IE5
[2] Install only IE6
[3] Install only IE5.5
[4] Install only IE5.0
Please choose an option: 1

...  [churning downloads from that site including  DCOM98.EXE,  mfc40.cab,249973USA8.exe, ie60.exe, ie55sp2.exe, ie501sp2.exe
, swflash.cab ] ...
[ OK ]

Creating basic Windows installation ...
 Creating Wine Prefix
 Installing RICHED20
 Installing DCOM98
 Installing ActiveX MFC40
 Finalizing
[ OK ]

Installing IE 6 ...
 Extracting downloaded exe file
 Extracting CAB files
 Installing TTF Fonts
 Configuring ie6
[ OK ]

Installing IE 5.5 ...
 Extracting downloaded exe file
 Extracting CAB files
 Installing TTF Fonts
 Configuring ie55
[ OK ]

Installing IE 5 ...
 Extracting downloaded exe file
 Extracting CAB files
 Installing TTF Fonts
 Configuring ie5
[ OK ]

Installing Flash Player 8 ...
 Preparing installation
 Installing flash on ie6
 Installing flash on ie55
 Installing flash on ie5
[ OK ]

IEs4Linux installations finished! ...

Operation

If you want it, you run ie5, ie55, ie60. If I could see just one improvement, a command that you pass a url, and it just opens 3 windows so you can see them all side by side on one screen (bigger screen needed). Of course if you could script input on one, and have it reflected on all that would be even cooler. I’d suspect you could probably achieve this, have a Firefox driver that records stuff, like TestGen4Web, and then replays across the other 3 exploder windows. Food for thought.

Thanks goes to Tate for telling me about this. Yet again, it’s the referral of a physical person that put you on the path.

PAE Support (Part 2)

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I’ve solved the PAE Support problem with my current kernel of 2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp. Referring to my earlier post PAE Support with the inability to get Parallels VM Software working under CentOS 4.2.

The help was thanks to a prompt response of a support request from the company (so that’s a good sign). Ultimately the trick was to boot the 2.6.9-22.0.1.EL (i.e. not SMP) kernel. Of course the kernel I’m running is the default on my laptop. So really having no idea of the actual impact (obviously something to do with the HT technology I assume).

So, problem solved, will it have an impact on system performance with this kernel? Not sure. I’ve also been told that Parallels 2.1 will have PAE support, just waiting for the response to know if buying 2.0 gives me a free upgrade to 2.1.

Win4LinPro Trial

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In my continuing effort of finding a suitable complete Windows environment under Linux for those small occasions when you just can’t ditch it, I’ve tried Win4Lin. You can download 2 week evaluation copy from the website.


$ su -
$ wget http://www.win4lin.com/administrator/downloads/Win4LinPro-6.2.5-01.i386.rpm
#wget http://www.win4lin.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=76&func=download&filecatid=3
$ rpm -ivh Win4LinPro-6.2.5-01.i386.rpm


Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
1:Win4LinPro ########################################### [100%]
14 day(s) left in evaluation period.
Creating images... done.
ERROR: Module kqemu does not exist in /proc/modules
Host architecture: i686
KQEMU package: /opt/win4linpro/etc/kqemu.tar.gz
NOTE: KQEMU is Copyright 2005 by Fabrice Bellard.
Win4Lin, Inc. is an authorized distributor of this code.
Building KQEMU module in /tmp/.build_kqemu-24886
Please see the file /tmp/build-kqemu.log in case of error
Installing KQEMU module in /lib/modules/2.6.9-22.0.1.ELsmp/misc
Loading KQEMU module
Starting Win4Lin Pro: [ OK ]

Need to load a Windows XP CD. Note: It must have SP1 or SP2. An older XP CD did not work.


$ loadwinproCD
13 day(s) left in evaluation period.
You may use Win4Lin Pro without entering a license code
until the evaluation period ends. If you already have
a full license code, you may enter it now.
If you do not have a license code, you may enter it at
any time in the future by running (as root):
/opt/win4linpro/bin/ask_license.sh
Would you like to enter your license code now? (y/n) n
Checking CDROM...
Media found: Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 1)
Loading installation files... please wait...
.................................................
Loading CDROM... please wait...
..................................................
Windows CDROM load complete.
$ exit
# must not be be root to continue


$ installwinpro
Selected winxppro to install by default
installwinpro: installation details:
Target directory: /home/rbradfor/winpro
Windows version: winxppro
Guest image size: 4G
mergepro-gowimg: created /home/rbradfor/winpro/GUEST.IMG, size=4G
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
(mergepro-core)
Partitioning guest image...
Guest image partitioning complete.
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
(mergepro-core)
Formatting guest image...
QuickFormatting (only flushing metadata)
Format complete.
4,293,563,392 bytes total disk space
4,293,563,392 bytes available on disk
4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
1,048,233 allocation units available on disk.
Volume Serial Number is 0D28-140E
Guest image format complete.
installwinpro: launching guest installation...
Enabled KQEMU acceleration
mergepro-gfx: LANG not found, defaulting to: en-us

This then provided the normal windows installation in a window, the only requirement was a serial number, so they have definitely streamlined the Windows installation. Then to run windows.


$ winpro

I did have an installation problem, where I got a CD error of not being able to access a file. Now given that Win4Lin precopied the entire CD, I’m not sure what to make of it, I had to skip the file, and it did not appear to affect the installation. I’ve got a screenshot to upload sometime.

So far, all I’ve really done is run it, I found that it was very slow. What was great, that on the very clean desktop the only icon was a mapping the Linux user home directory. I tried to install Photoshop CS, about the only thing I really want under Windows until I become better with Gimp. Problem was it promptly told me I needed 7GB of space, which I didn’t have. Not sure if I can easily add additional diskspace. Guess I’ll have to RTFM.

Windoze and Microspew at it again.

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In reading the Google News Sci/Tech headlines today, near the top was the following article.

Windows Security Flaw Is ‘Severe’ Washington Post – 36 minutes ago
A previously unknown flaw in Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system is leaving computer users vulnerable to spyware, viruses and other programs that could overtake their machines and has …

So I’m going to ask two stupid questions.

  1. When is a Windows Security flaw not serious and will not leave computers vulnerable, blah blah blah?
  2. When are these articles going to end the monopoly of the desktop and start actively promoting viable open source linux alternatives every time these articles are written.

Makes you wonder about the media?

December Java Users Group talk on AJAX

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I attended the December meeting of the Brisbane Java Users Group last night. The presenters Alex and Brad from Working Mouse a Brisbane Based J2EE Solutions Provider gave a talk on AJAX.

What is AJAX? It stands for “Asynchronous Javascript and XML”. While the name has stuck, it both does not require Asynchronous communication, nor need to use XML, at least the Javascript part stays. AJAX is also not a new language or technology, merely a collection of technologies grouped together to provide a given function, which is to provide rich feature in page functionality within a web browser. The presentation centered around DWR – Direct Web Remoting implementation. There are in fact a number around in various server languages.

Let me explain some more, providing dynamic content on a website is straight forward, when you request a page, however to provide dynamic content within a page without refreshing the page (and in turn keeping all page state) is not a feature of the HTTP protocol. The most obvious case always presented is when selecting a Country Select Box value, a Select Box of States is populated based on the selection without the user seeing both the entire page reloading and waiting for this. There are of course a number of examples of use.

AJAX isn’t new, infact the underlying requirements within AJAX, the DHTML, DOM manipulation and XMLHttpRequest were available in 1997 (as mentioned in the presentation by Brad). In fact, I implemented functionality to perform what AJAX does back in the late 90’s, probably starting 1999, using solely Javascript, and some of that is still in use today on at least one of my sites. Of course Google made this functionality popular with it’s use in Google Suggest a few years ago.

While the presentation was a good introduction to those that had not seen this in operation, the subsequent discussions over dinner prompted some strong reactions, which is good in our line of work.

This technology implementation is inherently flawed, primarily due to the reliance on a Web Browser, and being both a multitude of available browsers across platforms and more specifically a lack of standards adoption causes this technology simply not to be available for all users. Of course Microsoft Internet Explorer is a significant pain in the butt here, as it’s simply not standards compliant, and you are forced to write bad code to work in IE simply due to it’s market penetration. There are of course a lot more of concern, proxies at multiple levels of interaction can drive you mad, and the increases in bandwidth and server performance.

That aside, the issue of needing to provide this level of rich content within a browser is another very good case. This is driven by end user need, and ultimately it is rather ridiculous it’s complicated code, it’s yet another language within the application to support, and the support is difficult, it’s even more complicated to provide some type of automated testing. But I guess the strongest comments came from Max, who recognised me after 15 years. Max was a lecturer in my undergraduate studies from 87-89, a long time ago. I would place Max (not his real name by the way, it’s a long story which took some research at the time), as one of the top three lecturers in my studies that influenced my path to where I am today.

His points were totally valid, why oh why are we doing this, it’s just ridiculous this level of complexity, to do what a browser was not simply designed to do. I would tend to agree, we are forced again by the influence of Microsoft technologies on end users to provide a level of experience they have been brainwashed into. It so reminds me of the The Matrix movie, where everybody is living under the power of the machines (Microsoft), and there a small few fighting a rebel cause to show them what the picture really looks like.

Mount Window Share under Linux with Samba

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First check what shares are available for your Windoze Box (in this case it is at 192:168.100.36 with a login of <username> and a password of <password>)

$ smbclient -L 192.168.100.36 -U <username>
$ mkdir /mnt/<sharedir>
$ mount -t smbfs -o username=<username>,password=<password> //192.168.100.36/<share> /mnt/<sharedir>
$ ls /mnt/<sharedir>

Photoshop CS .PSD Thumbnails in Windows Explorer

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Adobe Photoshop CS (v8.x) no longer supports displaying PSD files as thumbnails in Windows Explorer’s thumbnail view, all you get is a standard Photoshop icon.

If you have upgraded from a previous version of Photoshop to Photoshop CS you will be OK but a fresh install of CS will NOT included thumbnail previews of PSDs. However I have discovered how to fix this, all we need is a missing DLL to be placed in the right folder.

  1. Download psicon.dll from DLL Dump
  2. Place the DLL in C:Program FilesCommon FilesAdobeShell
  3. Thumbnail previews of PSD files are now back

Change user file permissions when moving windows disk to new machine

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Set, view, change, or remove special permissions for files and folders

Important: If you are not joined to a domain and you want to view the Security tab:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
3. Click the View tab, and then click to clear the Use simple file sharing [Recommended] check box in the Advanced settings box.

To set, view, change, or remove special permissions for files and folders:

1. Click Start, click My Computer, and then locate the file or folder where you want to set special permissions.
2. Right-click the file or folder, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.
3. Click Advanced, and then use one of the following steps:
• To set special permissions for an additional group or user, click Add, and then in Name box, type the name of the user or group, and then click OK.
• To view or change special permissions for an existing group or user, click the name of the group or user, and then click Edit.
• To remove an existing group or user and the special permissions, click the name of the group or user, and then click Remove. If the Remove button is unavailable, click to clear the Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here check box, click Remove, and then skip steps 4 and 5.
4. In the Permissions box, click to select or click to clear the appropriate Allow or Deny check box.
5. In the Apply onto box, click the folders or subfolders where you want these permissions applied.
6. To configure security so that the subfolders and files do not inherit these permissions, click to clear the Apply these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container only check box.
7. Click OK two times, and then click OK in the Advanced Security Settings for FolderName box, where FolderName is the folder name.

CAUTION: You can click to select the Replace
permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that
apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined
here check box. Therefore,all subfolders and files have all
their permission entries reset to the same permissions as the parent
object.If you do this, after you click Apply or OK, you cannot undo this operation if you click to clear the check boxes.

Changing IE spinning logo and title

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This tweak will change the animated bitmap image that displays when IE (or Outlook Express) is busy. This tweak also removes or changes the branding string added to the window title ( Figure 2 ). To restore the defaults, delete the five values listed below. To use custom animated images (for instance, a spinning globe), first create 20- by 20-pixel and 38- by 38-pixel static bitmap images. Then create a bitmap image 20 pixels wide and a multiple of 20 pixels high, with each successive frame of animation positioned below the previous. Then create a 38-pixel-wide animated bitmapped image in the same way.

Ripping CD's to MP3 (on Windows)

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For use on Windows platforms I use Free MP3 Rip from mgshareware.com.

My Settings are:
In CD | Options menu option

* on the General Tab, select Default Encoding Format MP3.

* on the Output Path Tab, I choose for Path Extension and File Name Extension (3 – Both)

* on the Encoding Tab, I choose a 192 Min bitrate.

Then simply load a CD, Select All songs (with the green tick), and then Rip to Default Format (the CD icon).