Finally, re-run the list command to see that all the entries have been removed:
conntrack -L -s 172.16.1.45 -d 123.123.123.123
And you're done!
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, November 12 @ 16:01:23 CST (6 reads)
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HOWTO: Forwarding a USB device to a Guest VM in Xen on Fedora
This procedure works with fully virtualized VMs. I would assume it works with paravirtualized VMs as well...
Shut down and power off your VM
Unplug and re-plug your USB device to see what it appears as in dmesg, then run dmesg | grep ^usb
See these lines?: usb 3-2: USB disconnect, address 7 usb 3-2: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 8 usb 3-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
This indicates that it is connected to Bus 003 as Device 008. Now run this: lsusb
Now look a device at Bus 003 Device 008: Bus 003 Device 008: ID 04b9:0300 Rainbow Technologies, Inc.
Note the ID... 04b9:0300
Open the config.sxp file for the domain, usually located at: "/var/lib/xend/domains//config.sxp"
Posted by muchtall on Monday, October 27 @ 09:49:03 CDT (16 reads)
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Why "root" isn't a Domain Admin on Fedora w/smbldap-tools
For about 2 years now at work, our "root" (aka, Administrator) account hasn't been showing up as being part of the "Domain Admins" group within Windows, or when running "id root" or "net rpc user info root". It used to, but for whatever unknown reason, stopped working.
The root account in our LDAP directory was, admittedly, messed up. However, it worked on our local server, who were talking with our PDC directly. It just didn't work on our remote BDC-connected systems.
Back around this time, I'm pretty sure we made a change to our enterprise-wise /etc/ldap.conf config: We added "root" to the nss_initgroups_ignoreusers list. The effect is that the local auth mechanisms only use the local files (passwd and group) for users in this list, skipping LDAP checks. Therefore root will never get the "Domain Admins" group membership in this configuration.
Now, the question is, is this normal, or am I missing something? I really don't care at this point. The workaround for me is to simply create an admin user that gets treated as THE admin account. The alternative is to remove root for the ignore list. However, I would suggest against this as it could create startup and login delays if the LDAP database doesn't start for any reason.
Hope this helped somebody. I struggled with it and searched for a solution long enough that I figure it merits a quick post.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, October 14 @ 16:09:16 CDT (24 reads)
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Extending (Resizing) LVM/XFS Xen images
Documentation on this procedure out on the interwebs seems rather sparse, so I thought I'd post the procedure I use to expand Xen images that use LVM and XFS. The same procedure should work fine if you use EXT3, you probably will just have to substitute the proper e2/3fs command for xfs_growfs.
## FROM THE VM HOST: ### Shutdown VM xm shutdown VMName
## Backup the image ## (Optional, though highly suggested until you get this procedure tested in your deployment cp -rp /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img.bak
## Add 5GB to the image (takes approximately 4 seconds per Gig) dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=5000 >> /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img
## Loop the image kpartx -av /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img
## Run "fdisk /dev/loop2" ## Enter these commands ## (double check to make sure the partition numbers apply in your case) #p-rint #d-elete #2-(partition 2) #n-ew #p-rimary #2-(partition 2) #<enter>-(Defaults to first available cylinder) #<enter>-(Defaults to last available cylinder) #t-ype #2-(partition 2) #8e-(Linux LVM) #p-print #w-rite
# Delete the loop and re-add it (to reload partiton table) kpartx -dv /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img kpartx -av /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img
# Check the Physical Volume size pvdisplay
# --- Physical volume --- # PV Name /dev/dm-3 # VG Name VolGroup00 # PV Size 3.71 GB / not usable 20.42 MB # Allocatable yes # PE Size (KByte) 32768 # Total PE 118 # Free PE 1 # Allocated PE 117 # PV UUID OjLnup-7iYu-ErtB-WMvN-gY0v-FbLw-gW6cEB
## Resize the Physical Volume pvresize /dev/mapper/loop2p2
# Check the PV size again # Take note of the Free PE (physical extents), 158 in this case pvdisplay
# --- Physical volume --- # PV Name /dev/dm-3 # VG Name VolGroup00 # PV Size 8.59 GB / not usable 1.05 MB # Allocatable yes # PE Size (KByte) 32768 # Total PE 275 # Free PE 158 # Allocated PE 117 # PV UUID OjLnup-7iYu-ErtB-WMvN-gY0v-FbLw-gW6cEB
## Delete the loop kpartx -dv /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img
## Boot the VM xm start VMName
### FROM WITHIN THE VM ## Check the LV size of LogVol00 lvdisplay
## Resize the logical volume using the free extents from above (158). lvresize -l +158 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
## Check the LV size again to confirm the increased space lvdisplay
## Resize the filesystem (in this case, XFS) xfs_growfs /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00
# Check for the increased space df -h
## Finally, delete the backup FROM THE VM HOST: /var/lib/xen/images/VMName.img.bak
### You're Done!
I always enjoy knowing that documentation like this helped someone. Post a comment and let me know if this helped you.
Good luck!
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, September 24 @ 09:47:49 CDT (36 reads)
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Rant: Linux vs Windows Expertise Availablility
Recently at work, we've been being "audited" by a firm to help us determine the cost of operations in our department, and how we measure up to other organizations of similar structure and size. One of the comments that came back to us is that we could potentially be saving on cost of ownership if we were running a Windows shop on the server side. The argument put forth is that Windows Server expertise is more prevalent, and therefore less expensive, whereas Linux is exotic, and therefore less expertise is available, and therefore the cost of Linux expertise is higher. The argument assumes of course that the cost of ownership would drop with Windows to the point of making it more affordable as a whole over time.
Personally, I don't buy it. I think this theory is based upon this idea that everyone runs Windows desktops (I admit that I do as well, for desktop support reasons), and Windows Server is just like Windows, therefore it's easier to administer a Windows Server over a Linux server because (and I know I'm exaggerating here) any old Joe can work Windows. Usually, when this assumption is made, it's false. I've seen guys mess around with Windows Server because they "just want to set up a server". Next thing they know, they've got broken pile of crap for a network. Setting up a server properly, whether it's Windows or Linux, requires expertise. Not that I discourage experimenting with either, I'm just saying that a person needs experience with the Server environment and paradigms in order to understand how to properly set up a server, and knowing Windows does not better qualify a person for that.
I would argue that Linux actually offers a lower cost of ownership in addition to the obvious up front cost (free) for one simple reason (though there are many): Scriptability. Take for example the need to create a new VPN tunnel from 100 different servers back to a secondary site (something I'm working on this very moment actually). On Windows Server with the builtin PPTP VPN clients, you would have to either connect to each system individually, create the connection, and set up the proper routing, if applicable, by hand. At best you could create a macro with something like AutoHotKey to help you do this, or even purchase some uber expensive tool for doing these sorts of replications. But even in those cases, I would challenge anyone to do it as quickly as I could with a handful of free command line tools in Linux. With one system that's been granted passwordless SSH to all of our branch servers, I can script pretty much any change to happen with a minimal of fuss, and more importantly, I can proceed to other tasks while this executes. Writing a change on 5 servers takes literally as long as writing a change for 50, or 500, all without a single mouse click.
Now that's scalability. I'd like to see that happen on Windows Server.
I've administered an organization with multiple Windows Servers. I know what a pain it is. It's a mess. Word to the wise: GUI's are for the desktop, not for the server. We're currently looking at switching from CommuniGate to Exchange at work, and I cringe at the thought. Administration will be a headache. I know this because I've admined Exchange. Everything is a kludge, and you can blame Microsoft for that. God forbid they follow an established industry standard once in a while.
</RANT>
Posted by muchtall on Thursday, August 21 @ 16:35:07 CDT (39 reads)
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Overcoming ODBC "Invalid character value" Error in UPS WorldShip
If you ever run into this error when trying to export data from UPS WorldShip:
ODBC ERROR: State = 22005 Error = [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Invalid character value for cast specification
...here's the solution. The "defout.mdb" file that exists on your source installation is corrupt. I'm assuming this, as what proceeds seems to solve the issue. In order to get a clean copy of this file, you need to create a address book on a new installation of UPS WorldShip (possibly on the machine you will be importing to) and export that address book on there. Then take the defout.mdb file from the new system, copy it to the old system, and retry the export on the old system. This time it should complete without failure.
Good luck!
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, August 06 @ 11:16:04 CDT (98 reads)
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Disabling the Shutdown Event Tracker (via Regedit)
Just quick post to help those of you out there who seem to be having problems finding the Shutdown Event Tracker setting in gpedit (as I did). To disable the shutdown event tracker, you need to add/edit these two keys:
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, July 30 @ 10:44:54 CDT (56 reads)
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Squid: The request or reply is too large.
Today at work we had a complaint that one of our remote offices couldn't make a new job posting to Monster.com. Many of our offices have transparent squid implemented, and this is one of them.
Then error that the user would see was:
The following error was encountered: The request or reply is too large.
According to a few places, the problem potentially lied with the reply_body_max_size setting. However, in most recent versions of Squid, this is set to unlimited by default. After some poking around in the Squid docs, I noticed that upping the reply_header_max_size setting from the default of 20 KB to 40 KB seems to resolve the issue. The applicable setting is:
reply_header_max_size 40 KB
If this setting does not work for you, try upping the request_header_max_size as well, which would cause failure for similar reasons. Good luck!
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, July 15 @ 18:09:07 CDT (89 reads)
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And my vote goes to...
I've been thinking about what I'm going to do this coming election. The presidential election is lost for conservatives. Now the question is: What is our best course of action when dealing with two poor choices for President? The way I see it, McCain is just as bad if not worse for this nation in the long run as Obama is. Why is that? One word: Carter.
Jimmy Carter is probably one of the worst Presidents this country has ever seen. His policies dragged this country closer to economic collapse, and his doom-and-gloom speculation regarding the environment and oil have been roundly disproved. According to Carter, we'd be living in the age of Mad Max right about now, and if we'd actually done what he had prescribed, we'd be experiencing mass poverty in our nation, and probably be either speaking Russian or pushing up daisies. Carter was a horrible president, as history has shown, and he persists in trying to destroy our nation even to this day.
But, there was a bright silver lining on that cloud. His name was Ronnie. Ronald Reagan was the result of that terrible presidency. He renewed the conservative movement in such as way that the positive effects of his policies have lasted to this day. He brought down our nation's greatest enemy without firing a shot. He showed us the real meaning of "Peace though superior firepower". The victory of the cold war should be a lesson to all gun control supporters: Freedom has been for some time, and probably will be for the foreseeable future, won and lost at the end of a gun. The question is: Which end would you rather be on?
But back to the point of this rant: The 2008 Presidency.
There's a parallel here, and admittedly it's an unoriginal one at that. However it's still worth repeating. Obama is the Carter of our time. The candidates we have are the result of the steady decline of conservatism since Reagan left office. There have been some revivals, however the momentum has waned to the point of total dissapointment with our chosen nominee. And Obama, much like Carter, is seeing a rock-star like rise in popularity, without any real qualification or experience. Top that off with a repeat of history (attempts at price controls, calls to conserve our way out of an oil shortage, artificial pushes for alternative enery sources, and straight from the words of Carter himself "windfall profits taxes"), and we're headed for the early 80's all over again. It's as if someone dug up Carter's old speeches and handed them to Barack without even changing a single word.
McCain, on the other hand, may actually do a few things right during his presidency: stay the course in Iraq, continue to pursue Al Queda, open up (some) oil drilling, and push for a resurgence of nuclear power. However, beyond these few things, he's either iffy or downright wrong on the issues. Is he pro-life or isn't he. Will he appoint conservative judges, or will he fold just like he has in the past? Will he stop furthering environmentalist rhetoric or well he continue to capitulate? His record isn't very good. The question then becomes: Can we really risk four more years of slipping standards in the conservative movement in the name of the party?
Back to the silver lining. As you can tell by now I'm hoping McCain loses. I'm not saying I'm voting for Obama, that would also be immoral as a Catholic voter. I'd considered it, but after some careful thought about it, and discussion with my wife, I'd decided that it's best I withhold my vote from both Obama, and McCain. However, I'm still going to vote. You see, I think that the goal of this election needs to be re-focused for conservatives like myself. The message needs to be sent out, loud and clear, that the people of the Republican party should not be seen as servants to the party, as the Democrats see their people. We expect and demand that the liberals in the Republican party move on to their rightful home: the Democrat party. They need to take back thier party from the Socialists that control it. We are not your subjects. We will not follow the party blindly. We, unlike you, have principles. Our motive is not to keep our party in office, in power. Our motive is to bring about the return of Freedom. Freedom from the Federal government. Economic freedom. Religious freedom. True freedom. We will not follow you, because our leader is not the Republican party, it is God himself, the one who gives us true freedom.
Thanks to the hubris of the establishment Republicans, we have no candidate to vote for. To make it clear to the Republican party just who is in control here, we need to send a message that their chosen candidate is not acceptable to us, and that we know who embodies the qualities of a great President, not them. We must vote for the man who was the only true conservative in this race. With enough votes, the message will be clear. I don't expect him to win. I only hope that he will do for this party what Goldwater did for us back in the 60's
If you can't tell by now, "I'm With Fred". Or rather, I'm back with Fred. Fred Thompson has always been the only true conservative in this election. I'll be writing his name in on my ballot. I know he doesn't have a chance, but as I stated, that's not really the point. The point is: I want my party back. I want my country back.
Posted by muchtall on Saturday, June 28 @ 02:03:38 CDT (87 reads)
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Windows Desktop Essentials
In my travels between KDE/Linux and Windows, I've found that Windows is lacking in many features that make my move(s) back to Windows relatively painful. That and often times I'll be thinking "Gee. It would be nice if there were a utility to do this or that that would make my life easier.", which often times do exist in Linux, or are easy enough to reproduce with some scripting.
So here's a small list of some of the tools that I've found that help make life on Windows a little bit more bearable.
AutoHotKey By far my #1 pick. Think of it as an easy-to-use scripting language and GUI macro system in one. Have a program that you need to start on login, and THEN go though a complicated process to actually start it up? AutoHotKey can enable you to script mouse clicks and keyboard operations with great flexibility. Not only that, but you can script for certain conditions (such as a failure condition) and code alternate procedures to handle them. I liken it to having the power of Bash on windows, though that's probably an understatement. I find new uses for this program almost weekly. Best of all, it's small and free.
Clipboard Recorder In KDE, you've got klipper. I missed this greatly years ago when I had to start doing desktop support as a one-man IT department. Then, I found Clipboard Recorder. Just think of it as a clipboard history for Windows. It supports any textual format (HTML, etc), so when you copy from Word into another app, the formatting will stick even when you call it up out of the history. When you rely on copy/paste as much as I do (I find it to be a huge timesaver and helps improve accuracy of data-reentry), you find that this is a must-have.
PdaReach This is more windows-centric, but nonetheless very useful. Just think of it as VNC for your PalmOS PDA. It's so much easier to operate your PDA when sitting at a PC when you can use the full-size screen and keyboard in front of you. My only gripe with it is that it seems to interfere with my PocketTunes streaming on the PDA, so I have to close it when I'm done using it if I want the stream to continue seamlessly.
AllSnap Windows snapping for Windows. This works like the windows snapping in KDE or for you windows users, WinAMP. For a neat-freak, this is a godsend. It helps you keep your windows nicely organized on your screen and quickly make full use of your screen real-estate.
John's Background Switcher This is a recent discovery. This allows me to take all of my photos on my PC and randomly use them as backgrounds. Added bonus: it handles dual-screen PCs with versatility. And although I haven't yet checked out this feature, it apparently will tie into popular photo sites such as flickr and facebook so you can use your online photo store as a source of images. Sweet.
So there you have it. I'm sure I'm missing a few items here and there. They'll have to wait for part 2.
UPDATE 8/15/08: One more addition that I think should be placed on the list.
InstallWatch How many times have you thought when changing a setting in a program "I wonder where that setting gets saved." Most of the time programs store setting in the registry, however occasionally they are stored in a file somewhere. With InstallWatch, you can take a snapshot of your system before a change is made, make the change, and then analyze the changes, revealing exactly where your setting resides. I use it all the time to make .reg files that make changing a setting as simple as 2-3 clicks (instead of searching for the setting in the applicable program). This of it as "diff for regedit", only better.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, June 17 @ 09:58:06 CDT (80 reads)
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I'll probably be sticking with my SUV for some time, and in fact, we'll probably buy another after we outgrow this one. Honestly, I can't physically fit in one of those compact economy/hybrid cars. Even if I could fit, the comfort of a SUV makes it's increased sticker price worth it.
The funny thing about it is, these hybrids are only fractionally more efficient than regular cars or SUVs, so it's like being all high-and-mighty and saying "I only pollute the earth 9/10ths as much as you do, so there!". Give me a break. Besides the fact, we'll see how much you're not polluting the earth when those LiIon batteries need replacing.
Posted by muchtall on Monday, June 16 @ 08:56:22 CDT (73 reads)
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John McCain's campaign wants us to blog for him to help spread his message. Here's my attempt:
Vote for John McCain, the spineless global warming movement pacifist. Vote for John McCain, the pseudo-Republican who's all talk and no substance when it comes to conservative ideals. Vote for John McCain, the candidate of the new Liberal Republican movement. Vote for John McCain, he supports the war. Kinda. Except when it's not politically expedient. Vote for John McCain, he's Pro-Life. Wait, what's that? He's not really? Oh. Forget that then. Vote for John McCain, he'll stand for nothing of importance, and destroy the Republican party in the process. Vote for John McCain, if you are one of those mythical post-Hillary swing voters that will supposedly save his campaign. But as for all of you conservative Republicans, screw you. He doesn't want or need your vote. Vote for John McCain, because hey, what other choice do you have.
There you have it John. There's my blog to counter all of your marketing fluff. Good luck to you, because you'll need it without the votes of your base. Personally, I think I may be voting Obama to save the Republican party from the anti-Reagan interests that have control of it. Perhaps they'll finally abandon my party if they realize that no true Republican will vote for Democrat lite.
Posted by muchtall on Thursday, June 12 @ 11:09:11 CDT (62 reads)
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Welcome to the rest of your week...
Where the hell is this global warming I've been hearing so much about.
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, June 11 @ 08:25:55 CDT (62 reads)
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Changing /dev permissions on Fedora
It's infrequent enough that I have to do this that I forget how. So to help me remember, I'm posting it here:
To make your permissions changes to devices in /dev/ survive reboots and become permanent, you need to alter the device permissions in
/etc/security/console.perms.d/50-default.perms
So for example, say I have a created a group that holds all users on the system that are to have RW access to the video capture hardware (such as mythtv and zoneminder), open the perms file and look for this line:
0600 0600 root
This v4l class covers all /dev/video* devices. To make them RW by the group "video", change the line to look like this:
0660 0660 root.video
You can reboot to see the effect.
Posted by muchtall on Monday, May 12 @ 10:41:37 CDT (88 reads)
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I'm Gonna Be A Dad!
Due date: September 6, 2008
Whoo hoo!
Posted by muchtall on Monday, May 05 @ 13:11:10 CDT (106 reads)
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It's Coming: Fedora 9
Posted by muchtall on Monday, May 05 @ 10:58:55 CDT (102 reads)
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Gear Head Quick WebCam Basic (WC330I) Review
While at my local MicroCenter, I noticed this cheap ($15) webcam being sold. It said nothing of Linux support, but I had read that in the past couple years there were alot of cheap Chinese-made webcams that gained support in Linux. I figured I'd give it a shot, and if it worked out, I'd pick up a handfull more for my ZoneMinder system at home.
Now, I should say that I run Windows XP on my work workstation, and I just wanted to get a feel for the quality of the cam before I did anything more with it, so I plugged it in and installed the drivers. I have to say before I go any further: The pictures speak for themselves...
The poor quality of this cam really just defies words. I guess what expect I'd hear after making these statements is "What did you expect for $15?". Something other than absolute crap I suppose.
Just in case you have further interest in this product and it's support in linux, the USB device ID is 093A:2460 and appears to have some sort of support in linux (http://www.qbik.ch/usb/devices/showdev.php?id=3144). If you choose to buy one of these, good luck with it.
I'll be returning mine as soon as possible.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, April 08 @ 14:17:21 CDT (594 reads)
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The basis of the article "The stark reality is that the supply is finite." is false. How long will it take before people come to grips with the fact that petroleum is NOT a "fossil fuel". Oil is produced by the earth by constant biochemical reactions, whether in the oceans or deep below the surface. Oil is not finite, in the sense of a single pie, it's infinite, in the same sense as any other "renewable resource".
"The Truth About Oil" scarcity is not geophysical, but rather geopolitical. It's about modern socialists (ie, Liberals) trying to gain control over our lives by demonizing capitalists and regulating of every facet of your life.
You want to stop $100/bbl oil? Open ANWR. Allow new refineries to be built. Deregulate oil. Stop perpetuating the lies.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, March 25 @ 11:10:17 CDT (138 reads)
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Ben Stein: Expelled
I've been told to shut up a few times myself. That's how these people operate: If you disagree with me, you should be silenced. For more info on this movie and for theatre times and locations, go to http://www.expelledthemovie.com
Posted by muchtall on Friday, March 21 @ 11:39:17 CDT (111 reads)
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Greasemonkey: 2002 Ford Explorer - Electrical Issues
I don't really know if this is worth posting about. The solution seems rather obvious, but just in case someone find this useful, I'll post it anyhow.
This weekend, while in the midst of a 6-hour drive to the in-laws, the truck's ABS light started flashing. "Odd" I thought "I guess we'll have to get that fixed when we get back". Minutes later, the red battery indicator started flickering, and then went on solid. Oh crap. The voltage indicator was practically pinned on "L". Minutes after that, the dash went completely dark. No speed, no RPM, no lights, no nothing. But the truck was still running. Thank God we managed to make it a few more minutes to a parts store at the next exit.
After some conversation with the parts store employees and a physical inspection of the battery, it became pretty clear that the battery needed to be replaced. It was, according to the clerk, the original battery for that model. So the battery is/was about 6 years old. Some bulging had started to occur, possibly due to freezing. However, after some testing with the new battery in the truck, he was uncertain if the problem had been resolved, or if the alternator needed replacing. His suggestion was to drive around for an hour and see if the meter continues to drop. As I had quite a few hours ahead of me, and the next parts store was about an hour away, I figured we should just continue on our way.
Sure enough, about an hour out, it became evident that the battery was losing juice. After running around to a few parts stores, and yet again barely making to the final store (dash went black), I had a replacement alternator. Beleive it or not, an alternator is easy enough to replace. Assuming it's not crammed underneath the engine somewhere, or in an impossibly tight space, it's something that can be replaced in under a half hour with the right tools. You may need a metric wrench for some of the bolts involved. In my case, I needed a 13mm metric wrench for the mounting bolts. The socket for the positive connection nut was easy to find in the standard imperial sizes. Finally, and most importantly, you'll need a serpentine belt wrench. This tool has a square socket post on the end of a 2-3' flat-bar. This inserts into a spring-loaded tensioning arm with a pully on it, usually near the alternator. This arm keeps the belt tight, and the spring is quite strong. It's nearly impossible to move it without the serpentine wrench.
Anyhow, as I said, the repair is pretty straightforward. Once I had the proper tools, I was able to replace it in the parking lot of the parts store in about 30 minutes, and back on our way.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, March 18 @ 09:48:36 CDT (114 reads)
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Yotta, Kilo, Bits, & Bytes
From XKCD:
Now I just need a table explaining the variances of "gigabarts" and the difference between hertz and bytes :-)
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, March 12 @ 13:13:56 CDT (115 reads)
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A Simple Uptime Output Method
If you've ever tried to parse the output of "uptime", you know it can be complicated. There's a simpler solution: Use the raw numbers from /proc/uptime. Here's a simple script that spits out the days and remaining time in digital clock format:
Note that the output can be changed to your needs. See the AWK Tutorial for more info on using modulus (%) in calculations, and string formatting (i.e., %d and %s)
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, March 12 @ 11:21:05 CDT (127 reads)
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Recovering from a dd_rhelp add_chunk error
If you've got a crashed disk, dd_rhelp is a very
useful tool for quickly recovering a large amount of data from just
about any failed disk. I used it earlier this week to help recover a
160GB linux LVM group member drive. Unfortunately, after a while of
running, it hit this error:
dd_rhelp: error: add_chunk : invalid argument '0-(info)' (is not correctly formatted as number:number)
Here's
how you get past that. The problem is that dd_rhelp was not able to
determine the size of your hard disk automatically, so it is scanning
beyond the actual size, which of course fails. We need to tell it our
disk size manually.
First, make a backup of your logfile, for example: cp -rp sdb.log sdb.log.bad-eof That way you can start over if you mess up.
Go to the first line in the original log file that states: dd_rescue: (warning): /dev/sda (282662620.0k): No space left on device! Or something similar. Scroll up to the next line before that that reads: === COMPUTED VERSION OF LOG : Delete all lines including and following this line, then save your file.
Obtain your filesystem size with fdisk: # fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes and so on...
In this case, your filesystem size would be 160000000000 bytes, or 160000000 kbytes.
Next,
change all the lines in the file stating "eof:nothing" to
"eof:160000000". Use your fs size in replacement of 160000000 kbytes.
You can quickly do this using sed: sed 's/eof:nothing/eof:160000000/g' -i sdb.log
Now re-run your dd_rhelp command. It should now continue to recover as normal!
UPDATE:
It seems that after a short time, I ran into the same error again. My
solution was to open the dd_rhelp script, look for the line that says: eof="nothing" and change it to eof="160000000" (of course, substituting your disk size in kb)
Re-do the cleanup above and re-run.
UPDATE 2: So I've found that dd_rhelp is slow, or at least, it's slow on my damaged disk. I suggest trying ddrescue instead (not to be confused with dd_rescue from above). It seems to be much more efficient at sidestepping bad data and gives a more concicse summary of recovery progress. This includes how much data has been recovered so far, lost so far, number of total errors, and transfer rates. For more info on the design differences between ddrescue and dd_rhelp, see the SpinRite wikipedia entry.
Posted by muchtall on Friday, March 07 @ 10:41:04 CST (195 reads)
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How to Use a Neti Pot
Because you should know:
Whisky optional.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, February 26 @ 13:43:26 CST (138 reads)
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Enabling AVCHD MTS/M2T/M2TS Video File Thumbnails in Explorer
Assuming you have a codec installed that allows you to view AVCHD files in Windows Media Player (such as CoreAVC), here's how you can get those videos' thumbnails into the Explorer thumbnail view. I wholly admit I stole this info from some forum somewhere, but most of my searches turned up some lamer's warning about using regedit, and a refusal to post the fix because of it. So I'm going to post it again in a concise article.
Don't freak out. Regedit isn't that damaging. In fact in the 12+ years I've been working with Windows, I don't think I've ever seen a computer explode due to a change in regedit, especially when you follow directions.
Save this as "AVCHD Thumbnails.reg" and run it. Accept the merge. You may or may not need to reboot to apply the change. Hit F5 in your Explorer window to check.
Posted by muchtall on Monday, February 18 @ 14:26:10 CST (1999 reads)
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Enabling Input Audio Monitoring on Dell Latitude D820
I recently re-installed XP on my Dell Latitude
D820 for the third time in 2 years and ran into a familiar problem: My
line-in audio was not being played through the speakers. By default,
the Dell driver, R171789 (SIGMATEL STAC 92XX C-Major HD Audio) does not
come with the input monitor enabled. You can modify the driver INI
file(s) manually to enable this and other related options.
Backup these files (make a copy in the same directory named 92XXM2-2.INI.orig):
C:\DELL\drivers\R171789\WDM\92XXM2-2.INI
C:\Program Files\SigmaTel\C-Major Audio\WDM\92XXM2-2.INI
C:\Program Files\SigmaTel\C-Major Audio\DellXPM_5515v131\WDM\92XXM2-2.INI
Edit each one and change the following settings to reflect what is shown:
EnableInputMonitor = hex: 1
DigitalInputMonitor = hex: 1
Additionally you can/should turn on these options that allow for greater control of the sound card options:
To see all of the config tabs (that I know of):
Config_Tab = dword: 0x000000ff
To see all of the Advanced config options:
Config_Adv = dword: 0x000fffff
To allow sample rate adjustment:
Config_Rates = dword: 0x000000ff
To disable automatic input switching (helps avoid feedback)
RecordPriority = dword: 0xffffffff
Here is a copy of my edited 92XXM2-2.INI
file (enables the Levels tab and Automatic Input selection
en/disabling). Alternately, if you are so-inclined, you could open
regedit and
alter these settings manually. However when you do so, the changes get
wiped out by a re-install of the driver, so altering the INI file is
really your best bet.
You
can now uninstall the device you have in device manager and re-install.
Reboot to ensure you apply the change to the Sigmatel chipset.
After
rebooting, plug in your device. A pop-up should prompt you for the
input type. You may choose to tell it to no longer prompt you for this
change. Then, go into the Volume Control, uncheck mute on Input
Monitor,
got to Options, Properties, select Line-in and you should hear your
input. Also, you may choose to drop the volume on the Internal Mic down
to 0%. This will help you avoid horrible feedback should you switch to
the internal mic.
If
you don't have a D820, it possible that your INI file may be different.
To identify what the proper INI file is, open regedit and search for
this string:
SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
Look for
the key named "DriverDesc". In this folder/tree you should also see
"IniPath". Open this key and look at the name of the INI file in the
path. This should be the correct INI for your model.
UPDATE 2/11:
If you feel inclined to do so you can change, with a decent amount of
granularity, which options you can see in the Advanced tab. This is
done by flipping individual bits on or off in the Config_Adv registry
setting. Here are the applicable decimal values for each option:
1
Power Management
Amplifier Power Mangement
2
Sampling Rate
Sampling Rate adjustment
4
SPDIF
AC3/PCM en/disable and Rate Adjustment
8
SPDIF
Digital Out en/disable and Rate Adjustment
16
SPDIF
Digital Out en/disable
32
Dolby
Dolby Digital Live en/disable
64
Noise Suppression
Noise Suppression en/disable
128
ASIO
Latency/Rate adjustment, ASIO monitor en/disable
256
Pop-ups
Jack reconfiguration pop-up en/disable
512
HDMI
HDMI output en/disable
1024
Bass Management
Bass Routing and boost dB adjustment
2048
Microphone Selection
Automatic Microphone Selection en/disable
4096
Internal Speakers
Internal Speaker Muting options
8192
Headphone Configuration
Redirected headphone en/disable
16384
(Unknown)
32768
Multi-Streaming
Multi-stream retasking en/disable
65536
Speaker Mute Controls
Additional internal speaker muting options
To enable or disable any of these options, just add or subtract it's
decimal value (shown) from the decimal value you see in regedit (when
the decimal radio is selected). For example, to display configuration
options for Pop-ups, Microphone Selection, and Noise Suppression, just
add 256+2048+64. This gives you 2368, which you can paste into regedit
when you select the decimal radio. This will convert to 940 in hex.
Posted by muchtall on Tuesday, February 05 @ 12:40:36 CST (235 reads)
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I Have No Party
It's sad really. Fred Thompson, the only true Conservative in the race for the Republican nomination, dropped out of the race earlier this week. After hearing the news, my thoughts shifted to "Who would I vote for now?". My first priority when wielding my vote is protecting the unborn. Guess what: noneoftheothercandidates are truely pro-life. I'm sick with disgust over the condition of the Republican party. They've abandoned their base to woo Liberals who will never vote for Democrat Lite when they have two fine, full-on Democrats of thier own: Obama and Hillary.
So I've come to a conclusion: I have no party. I belong to the nonexistent, yet to be established, Conservative party. I'm done with the Republican party as a whole. If they have any good non-Presidential candidates running, I'll vote for them, but I'm not voting Republican. Not until they get their act together.
I may not vote for President in the 2008 election. I'm that disgusted. In fact, I'm considering voting for Obama just to let him get in office and complete another Carter-esqe presidency. After he's screwed the country up, hopefuly the American people will wake up, the Republican party will wake up, and we'll finally get another Reagan back in office to fix this whole Federalism problem.
And yes: That means you can just forget about calling me asking for donations too.
Posted by muchtall on Thursday, January 24 @ 11:17:05 CST (125 reads)
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Creating a Hylafax Dropbox (No Email)
The default setup for Hylafax is to drop faxes into an email and send them off to the "FaxMaster". This weekend I needed to stop hylafax from doing that, and instead just drop it into a folder. Best I can tell after a few hours of searching Google and perusing code, hylafax on it's own does not do this. There appears to be no options for it in faxrcvd.
So instead of searching any longer, I decided to write my own, very simple, yet perfectly funtional faxrcvd script. All it does is take the received TIFF image and converts it to PDF (the preference of my users), and drops it into a specified folder. Here's the code, feel free to use it:
# Make a backup of the original fax received script (faxrcvd emails faxes). cp -p /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd.orig
EDIT: I received a message the other day saying that my script didn't work. It's possible some of the code got messed up by Nuke, so I'm just suggesting downloading instead...
# Download the MuchTall faxrcvd code in replacement of the existing code wget -O - http://muchtall.com/content/faxrcvd > /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd
# Edit it with your favorite editor to change the path and permissions vi /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd OR nano -N /var/spool/hylafax/bin/faxrcvd
Change the path and permissions (chmod) to what you want. In my case, I needed to allow all my users R/W access to these faxes.
There you go! Assuming you already have configured hylafax, you should be all set!
Posted by muchtall on Wednesday, October 24 @ 09:22:07 CDT (197 reads)
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Greasemonkey: 2001 Chevy Impala - Hard Start
Seems like I run into enough car problems that I should start logging my experiences with them. Thus, I'll be creating a new section titled "Greasemonkey" with all of my mechanical-repair escapades.
To kick it off, let me tell the story of my wife's 2001 Chevy Impala recent repair. About 2 months ago it started losing power. Initially it would only show up when using a good deal of throttle, such as when passing or accelerating from a stop. It would never die, but it would sound like it was gasping for air, and huffing in effort. Initially, I thought that the the plugs hadn't been changed since the car was purchased, and the car now had just under 100K miles on it. So I went out and got new plugs and wires. No change. Then I figured that it wasn't getting enough fuel, so I replaced the fuel filter. At this point I gave up and brought it into the local auto shop. Diagnosis: Plugged catalytic converter. Fortunately it was covered by something like a 100K mile recall. After replacing that, the car was back in shape.
Fast forward about 2 weeks. The car start having problems starting. It turns, but doesn't fire off until about 5 seconds into it. After it has been started, you can shut it off and start it right back up again with no problem. This past week it started dying while driving down the road. You could start it right back up in neutral. We just started parking the car in a garage and had noticed after the car had been sitting in there for about 10 minutes, the garage was filled with a gasoline odor. However, there were no evident puddles of gas. I initially suspected a failing fuel pump, but the fuel smell was nagging me. So today, after driving it home, I popped the hood. Low and behold the vacuum tube near the fuel regulator has a wet appearance. I pulled the tube coming from the regulator, and gas started dripping out. I hopped online, did a search for "2001 Impala fuel regulator" and didn't find much, but about 2 pages into my search I see this link on a different vehicle: GMC Repair: 1999 GMC Sierra 1500 5.3L. Still, a GM vehicle, and similar year, but a different vehicle. However, the symptoms are identical. So I run down to the local Checker Auto, grab a new fuel regulator and some spring retainer clip pliers. Here's what I did: Remove the rubber tubing connector from the regulator. Be sure to drain the pressure from the fuel line. Place some towels around the Schraeder valve and press the pin. Fuel will spray, so be careful. Next, compress the retaining ring with the pliers, being careful to make sure the ring doesn't spring off and get lost. Finally, pull the top of the regulator off, and remove the screen and rubber gasket if they remain inside. Take the new regulator and push it in place. Replace the clip, tubes, and cap to the valve.
Now, just start it up! In my case it started immediately. However, it's possible you could have some air in the lines, so just let it turn a bit if it does not. Turn the car off and let it rest for about an hour, then try it again. In my case, it worked like a charm.
Good luck and have fun!
Posted by muchtall on Thursday, September 06 @ 22:29:27 CDT (470 reads)
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