andrewallen/blog

andrewallen/blog http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk URL: http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/ FEED: http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/andrewallen/blog posterous.com Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with NewsAlloySubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with Attensa for OutlookSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with FlurrySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily Rotation Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:44:18 -0700 "This Movie Format Is Not Supported" http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/TtYnmv1iz78/this-movie-format-is-not-supported http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/this-movie-format-is-not-supported <p> <div>Here's a fix to a random annoying message I was getting on my iPhone, in the Photos application...</div><p /><div><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Image" height="160" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/blog-andrewallen/KQ9eJZBZkMKZ3XtPCrxiBSOqMsFk1OapOrtcUi4aYWC5c4Y0tYlWjwbsFlP6/image.png.scaled700.png" width="240" /> </div> <br /></div><p /> <div>When entering the application, or scrolling between videos and photos, I would get a pop-up message stating "This movie format is not supported"... even when viewing photos. After some not-so-furious Googling, it was solved by scrolling through until I found a video that would not play - it had the video icon and play button, but was all black. Deleting this corrupt video file fixed the issue...</div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/this-movie-format-is-not-supported">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/this-movie-format-is-not-supported#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/TtYnmv1iz78" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/this-movie-format-is-not-supported Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:35:00 -0700 OnLive - First Impressions http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/phdHo44YwUU/onlive-first-impressions http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/onlive-first-impressions <p> <p>Over here in the UK, <a href="http://www.onlive.co.uk/" target="_blank">OnLive</a> has just launched in partnership with <a href="http://www.bt.com/" target="_blank">BT</a>. It's concept is to stream games directly to your PC, Mac, mobile device or TV etc, without the requirement for high end hardware - think of it like an SBC (Server Based Computing) product similar to <a href="http://www.citrix.com/" target="_blank">Citrix</a> Presentation Server or XenApp, but optimised for gaming. The expensive kit sits in the OnLive datacenters somewhere, while your own computer, with the installed OnLive software, becomes a thin-client - only your keyboard / mouse movements are sent over the wire, along with an audio / video stream of the game itself.</p> <p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Fr2DSxmrH4Y?wmode=transparent" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="417" width="500"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr2DSxmrH4Y" target="_blank"></a>Because BT are the UK partner, if you are a BT Broadband customer, then you're entitled to a 3 month free trial of the service - specifically the <a href="http://www.onlive.co.uk/games/playpack" target="_blank">OnLive PlayPack Bundle</a>, a collection of over 100 games. Fortunately for me:</p> <ol> <li>I have <a href="http://www.bt.com/infinity" target="_blank">BT Infinity</a>, and;</li> <li>the two 19" LCDs I <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2" target="_blank">ordered off eBay earlier in the week</a> have arrived.</li> </ol> <p>Having already loaded a clean copy of Windows 7 onto my Dell OptiPlex 745 (while still waiting for the 2 x 755's to arrive), I signed up to OnLive and installed the client software - no issues, and all straight forward. It should be a good test for it's advertised promise, as the 745 has far from a decent graphics card for any kind of gaming (being an onboard <a href="http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf" target="_blank">Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000</a>). The key requirement for such as service is, however, a low <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latency_(engineering)" target="_blank">latency</a> connection - it will be interesting to see if this is possible over UK broadband networks, particularly during peak times, and especially on BT's own network.</p> <p>Loading up the software and logging in was straight forward - I did receive a notification that my latency was not great.... hmm, this is BT's network, the selected UK OnLive partner, on BT's fastest broadband service, BT Infinity! I quit and relaunched the app, which didn't re-prompt the latency issue, so just carried on as normal.</p> <p>Once logged in and using the service, it's clear that it's all full screen streamed video content as you can see the compression being dynamically adjusted depending on the quality of the connection, but it is impressive none the less. If you end up trying the service yourself, I would recommend jumping straight into the 'Arena', which displays a scrollable grid of live in game users, allowing you to spectate in real-time any current game session in progress - it's one of those things to show someone to get a quick "wow!", but functionality wise it's also a good way to see what games are available, how they play out, and the performance of the service.</p> <p>Playing games does show some lag between your keyboard / mouse movements and the game reacting back, and although initially annoying, for most it's not too much of a distraction and you gradually adjust to compensate. While playing, again I could see the video compression adjusting, and worse, the audio would jump from mono to stereo then back, with also lots of audio artefacts very noticeable.</p> <p>After playing around a while with it, and trying out various games, I then installed it onto my MacBook - what was interesting, even after the 'don't use wireless' connections message on startup (as my MacBook connects via 802.11n to an <a href="http://www.apple.com/uk/airportextreme/" target="_blank">AirPort Extreme</a>), I actually got better performance than on the 745, and no audio drop outs... I put this down to the crappy graphics card in the OptiPlex, that probably couldn't cope with the full screen video very well.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Image" height="416" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/blog-andrewallen/plSZGMgrDAWroHOv3Uxp03QGXpjGdLGXz6zhb8nu7Nu2QHsRTyKokV90iUb1/image.png.scaled700.png" width="416" /> </div> </p> <p>What was even more interesting, I later tried the service again on my MacBook but via my <a href="http://www.three.co.uk/Mobile_Broadband/MiFi" target="_blank">Three MiFi</a> device - and it also worked, though the graphics compression remained pretty heavy.</p> <p>My experience was not totally without issues and error messages however - the following night, after work, I was faced with 'service full' messages, which is not that surprising considering everyone is probably jumping straight onto the service having just been launched, but I hope it's not something I see too often.</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="0image" height="416" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/blog-andrewallen/NePDwnob2S19nQybqjfneoFIcEcd8YW6RiIX7hoEQ54JfnZPhOpGgR1EMCFb/0image.png.scaled700.png" width="416" /> </div> </p> <p>Also when running up another random game, I was presented with a pretty random generic error, booting me straight off...</p> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="1image" height="325" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/blog-andrewallen/X3uVVthag0ZaRKXLyN4Od70wNSjNuKJz78JvugxlZuqW74HWk5boi2LNdiBX/1image.png.scaled700.png" width="502" /> </div> </p> <p>Final verdict? Not bad, but it will be interesting to see how the available game catalog expands out. There are already some big name games available, but also some pretty cruddy 'never heard of that' titles in there to, which I suspect is to push the 'look how many games are available' marketing message. I did have a lot of fun with Wheelman, wasting a few hours racing / smashing up cars etc, but even so I don't think, at the moment, I'll find myself subscribing after the 3 months free trial period... </p> <p>I do, however, recommend you at least check it out, as even if you are not a BT subscriber you can still play most titles in a 30-minute time limited mode, without charge. There is also a promo on at the moment, that the first full title you buy only costs £1.00.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/onlive-first-impressions">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/onlive-first-impressions#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/phdHo44YwUU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/onlive-first-impressions Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:43:00 -0700 Kids, Computers and XenClient - Part 2 http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/0urNnYoU9Kc/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2 http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2 <p> <p>Following up from <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient">my post yesterday</a>, I managed to get a few really good bargains on <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/">eBay</a> today:</p> <ul> <li>2 x <a href="http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&sku=320-5293">Dell UltraSharp 1908FP</a> 19" LCD Displays @ £40.00 each</li> <li>2 x <a href="http://search.dell.co.uk/1/2/2010-soundbar-speaker-dell-ax510-ultrasharp-speaker-and-other-monitors-with-a-power-pass-through-connector.html">Dell AX510 Soundbar</a> Speaker Attachment @ £12.00 each</li> <li>2 x Dell OptiPlex 755 SFF, 2GB RAM, Intel Core2Duo E8400 CPU @ £140.00 each</li> </ul> <ul> </ul> <p>It looks like I'll be able to transfer over the RAM from my existing OptiPlex 740 / 745 systems into the new ones, which should avoid any further memory purchases - I've also got plenty of spare hard drives, so it will be just a case of making sure the fastest ones are installed. Overall, they'll be two identical pretty well spec'd machines, especially with the E8400 processors - the key will be if I can get <a href="http://www.citrix.com/xenclient">XenClient</a> installed and working successfully. If any further 'juice' is required in the future, I can drop a couple of decent PCI Express graphic cards into the PCIE-16 slots, though for the moment I'll have dual-port NIC cards installed in that spot for my own use in the lab.</p> <p>After also investigating kid friendly software, I've now built up a list of good / must-have software and web sites (and all free!):<a href="http://kidoz.net/"></a></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://kidoz.net/">KIDO'Z</a> - an Adobe AIR-based Web Operating System for children between the ages of 3-7 yrs.</li> <li><a href="http://www.kidzui.com/">KidZui</a> - a web browser designed for children developed by KidZui, Inc.</li> <li><a href="http://www.kidrex.org/">KidRex</a> - Google search, but it's content limited to 'kid friendly' content</li> <li><a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">Edubuntu</a> - linux based distribution with education software components</li> <li><a href="https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs">Norton Online Family</a> - access control and monitoring solution</li> <li><a href="http://www.opendns.com/">OpenDNS</a> - additional site categorisation based access control using DNS</li> </ul> <p>Within Windows 7 itself, the parental controls are not that far reaching - you're able to limit when user accounts can be used (i.e. what days / hours), and what applications can be run, though it seems a number of built in Windows applications can't be limited, including Internet Explorer. Instead, something like <a href="https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs">Norton Online Family</a> helps, as it layers on top extra controls and limitations, to prevent certain internet content from being viewed or accessed. In addition, using <a href="http://www.opendns.com/">OpenDNS</a> layers more control over site categorisation, and plays it's part of '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defence_in_depth">defence in depth</a>'.</p> <p>Access to internet sites through Internet Explorer should not really be a problem with my two at the moment, as I focus their activities through the <a href="http://www.kidzui.com/">KidZui</a> and <a href="http://kidoz.net/">KIDO'Z</a> children oriented web browsers, with access only to pre-filtered, human categorised content. The <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">Edubuntu</a> distribution also has a lot of good educational focused software, which I am currently running inside <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a>, until I get the new base units and test / run XenClient.</p> <p>One other site I randomly came across was <a href="http://www.kidrex.org/">KidRex</a> - a portal to the <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/">Google</a> search engine, but uses <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/cse/">Google Custom Search</a>, and <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/familysafety/">Google SafeSearch</a> to limit access to unsuitable search results... I've set this as the default home page on Internet Explorer, but I also need to add it as the default search site when using the search box or address bar.</p> <p>If you're not familiar with XenClient by the way, there are some very good introduction videos on the Citrix site:</p> <ul> <li>How XenClient Works - <a href="http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2300345">http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=2300345</a></li> </ul> <p>Over on <a href="http://www.xenappblog.com/">XenAppBlog</a>, Eric ended up switching from XenClient to Hyper-V, but I'll see how far I get with my setup for home use, rather than for my consulting day job.</p> <div> <ul> </ul> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/0urNnYoU9Kc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2 Sat, 17 Sep 2011 14:28:00 -0700 Kids, Computers and XenClient http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/c4Op7Ve5uQ8/kids-computers-and-xenclient http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient <p> <p>Up until now, my kids have been using our MacBooks (with our oversight), which is great because they are simple to use, easy to learn, and their applications (such as <a href="http://kidoz.net/">Kidoz</a> and <a href="http://www.kidzui.com/">KidZui</a>) are quick to open from the LaunchBar.</p> <p>However, as Amy is now learning ICT at school, I am planning to re-jig the setup at home to make the transition back and forth between school and home more consistent - this means primarily a desktop machine with Windows.</p> <p>A couple of thoughts here - firstly, we've two kids, so what you do with one, you do with the other - therefore two machines are required. Secondly, it would be nice to keep costs down (i.e. ebay), and thirdly, make the setup as useful as possible, both to them... and to me :)</p> <p>After a few different thoughts, I've decided to experiment with implementing a <a href="http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=2300325">XenClient</a> solution, a type-1 bare-metal hypervisor - it's free on standalone systems, and allows multiple virtual operating systems to be used at the same time, but without loosing out on performance like you might see with type-2 solution such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox installed on top of the operating system. On each of the kids PCs, they'll have their own locked down Windows VM, plus possibly another with <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">Edubuntu</a>, while I'll have my own VMs to connect into other parts of my lab.</p> <p>So, I've already checked what I can reuse of the kit I already have - of my spare desktops, a Dell OptiPlex 740, and a Dell OptiPlex 745 seem likely candidates (8GB of RAM each, as I've been using them as Hyper-V hosts). Any Dell system ending in a '5' will be Intel based, while '0' are generally AMD systems.</p> <p>With the latest release of XenClient 2.0, it's now possible to run on non-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro">vPro</a> systems - this means as long as you have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization">VT-x</a>, you should now be able to use XenClient, though with just 2D support on those systems, as long as Intel integrated graphics are present. On vPro systems (i.e. those that also support VT-d), you'll get the full 3D support, and therefore, for example, all the Window Aero, OpenGL and DirectX support on Windows 7.</p> <p>Looking over my own two OptiPlex machines, the Intel based 745 does not have vPro technology, but does support VT-x. I ran through a quick XenClient install, but while being reminded that the system did not support VT-d, it did allow me to proceed. However, I quickly hit a road-block a couple of screens further on, when it could not detect any hard disks, kindly advising to enable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface">AHCI</a> in the BIOS... not possible, as the option does not exist.</p> <p>On the 740, being AMD, I didn't expect much success, which proved to be true - it didn't even reach the installation screen, with my monitor complaining of being unable to display the video mode.</p> <p>So after some further researching, the <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/optiplex-755/pd">Dell OptiPlex 755</a> seems like the next best option, fully supporting vPro, and so fully capable of supporting XenClient 2.0 - this was further confirmed on the <a href="http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/VTdHowTo">Xen Wiki</a>. The 755 also has the bios option to enable / disable AHCI support.</p> <p>I am now planning on picking up two 755 systems, along with a couple of refurbished Dell 19" LCD monitors - when you've two kids of similar age, everything has to be the same... trust me :) In the mean time, I am going to install Windows 7 on the 740 / 745, and remind myself of the Windows 7 parental control options, possibly also revisit the latest version of <a href="https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/loginStart.fs">Norton Online Family</a>.</p> <p>Update: <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient-part-2">Kids, Computers and XenClient - Part 2</a></p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/c4Op7Ve5uQ8" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/kids-computers-and-xenclient Thu, 25 Nov 2010 07:34:52 -0800 The Netware Four-Finger Salute http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/z_2XlVrhwYU/the-netware-four-finger-salute http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-netware-four-finger-salute <p> <p>Here is a useful way to bring an unresponsive Netware server down quickly – one step safer than pulling out the power cord...</p><p></p><p>At the console, press and hold right-alt, right-shift, left-shift then press ESC. The hidden debug screen will then be displayed. Type ‘q’ to quit, then ‘y’ to confirm.</p><p></p><p>One instantly dead Netware server <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-netware-four-finger-salute">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-netware-four-finger-salute#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/z_2XlVrhwYU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-netware-four-finger-salute Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:56:58 -0800 Remotely Disconnect The Console User http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/u27YuswKG3Q/remotely-disconnect-the-console-user http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/remotely-disconnect-the-console-user <p> <p>Just a quickie that comes up quite often – how to disconnect the console user on a remote server, in particular, a Windows 2000 server where you can’t use RDP to connect directly to the console itself; i.e. you can’t mstsc /console or /admin (depending on the version of the RDP client).</p> <p></p> <p>If you’ve not already got a copy of the <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb842062.aspx">Sysinternals Suite</a> on you system, grab a copy from Microsoft’s site as the tool you’ll need is <a href="http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897541.aspx">PsShutdown</a>. At a command prompt, type the following:</p> <p></p> <p style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">PSSHUTDOWN <a>\\remoteserver</a> -O -F -T 0</span></p> <p></p> <p>You can then verify the session has been logged out with the following:</p> <p></p> <p style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Courier New;">QWINSTA /server:remoteserver</span></p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/remotely-disconnect-the-console-user">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/remotely-disconnect-the-console-user#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/u27YuswKG3Q" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/remotely-disconnect-the-console-user Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:02:07 -0700 Maltego 3.0 Community Edition - A Quick First Look http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/DBdEIZ0BKN0/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo <p> Just announced on the Maltego blog (<a href="http://maltego.blogspot.com/2010/07/ce-is-live.html">http://maltego.blogspot.com/2010/07/ce-is-live.html</a>), the community edition of version 3.0 is now available. I downloaded and did a quick test of the new product this morning, which already seems quicker than the previous versions, and is themed with a Microsoft ribbon style interface.<p /> You now need to register to use the software (you're prompted during installation), and some of the tasks that needed manual intervention are now automated (such as updating the transforms, which is now done as part of the installation process). Also, where previously you needed to go through and accept the disclaimers on certain transforms before you used them, now on first use you are presented with a dialog box which helps with not breaking up your work flow.<p /> Limits are also reduced - one which I reached regularly on 2.0 was the 75 transforms per day - I don't remember seeing where these new limits are documented, but maybe there is something over on the Maltego blog I missed.<br /> <p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="2010-07-09_0858" height="122" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/a0N2WqklSIKaGXoDsx2sZrWV9uABXkfdSvQ3rBtZqwaXaLsCdYmK4ETMun5e/2010-07-09_0858.png.scaled700.png" width="118" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0859" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/0FCJeizYVsRr8pciryIY6412N2tAeV2sWoXhlYcXPQYl5hlTOGx7VDPZqhJU/2010-07-09_0859.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0900" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/jDuXk8qGQ1oOXR9y3kotPFI9q221T5bwmXimDe7rQZK6O2KnvhS1QgmvxQ1u/2010-07-09_0900.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0900_001" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/wTcscjhvlLA4oY4YV7QITu5zjbiSQrS9KNLC4XqFc0BLwZ9WuzkxBk3q7QzA/2010-07-09_0900_001.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0901" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/O1OYpys66pf0aBd2LMuoR74rGLtSpXsvK4GuXtnZd1nqtYR3Km97HvEwjVrM/2010-07-09_0901.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0901_001" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/o2GySADalTBOT83m5CdOcbfgYcTLBDMZ6MGuzNGZgddwsS53C1TEuhtl1MLQ/2010-07-09_0901_001.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0903" height="386" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/ghW6DolhKg3iQCMSZEfQw0oFNVuJUzTqipf7LEOArJwpafn29qKDicOHHT5S/2010-07-09_0903.png.scaled700.png" width="503" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0916" height="127" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/koRHCPgHWIc1seJQ4qjY6gV7mcIYavHJputRbUe1ZOIiNEPQhO1hNheRycPZ/2010-07-09_0916.png.scaled700.png" width="134" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0918" height="319" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/23ItRMyLtVYNXFmEeSHufuCjGbLDY50cwXtYCBRUZOKSYM73ggBybeodVcd2/2010-07-09_0918.png.scaled700.png" width="379" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0918_001" height="441" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/899UFEi8VmATXXu5uL8Gn6c0r9XKvSUmd4dgBfDBbhqWREnptJWShbxPeybs/2010-07-09_0918_001.png.scaled700.png" width="634" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0919" height="458" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/O43QIyDUBu3409l7rD4IgwGidmhv6gmu4FNsJraZBj6b0eqoEkbjA1o7fXkf/2010-07-09_0919.png.scaled700.png" width="634" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0930" height="458" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/kUsseGhJh9DYs4H4rerJozkZJAicf3fox2buO2EPYxWA8aldfRIxlRXV0hbm/2010-07-09_0930.png.scaled700.png" width="634" /> <img alt="2010-07-09_0934" height="458" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/KN20xVVBx14sQ71bcrGSNCwwyc75oKHneVDygOaUQnFLtLED9pfcyZU2AT2x/2010-07-09_0934.png.scaled700.png" width="637" /> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/MfUakEEiU5kxfG6fjyaexFrPqMgmEqFaQByiHaTxtA5v37LzvLlUnKKWN4hP/2010-07-09_0936.png.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="2010-07-09_0936" height="409" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/EHCk5PposKV9px0E7caU1pncmHTZUmAJAW1RA6yElFGibZ6RdCvhm4SUri82/2010-07-09_0936.png.scaled700.png" width="700" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/L0rjiQuWQJni1ftsm61iSPpmZEPXNhfLCx3RSalsADtuNeMgknOOWYfURf83/2010-07-09_0938.png"><img alt="2010-07-09_0938" height="454" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/L0rjiQuWQJni1ftsm61iSPpmZEPXNhfLCx3RSalsADtuNeMgknOOWYfURf83/2010-07-09_0938.png.scaled700.png" width="700" /></a> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/P7qZtDCUgedkZMMiH8hjU7NA1Vy3Yk7vP4MteoFPhnrNV19dJAt16rlbfdRq/2010-07-09_0938_001.png"><img alt="2010-07-09_0938_001" height="437" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/P7qZtDCUgedkZMMiH8hjU7NA1Vy3Yk7vP4MteoFPhnrNV19dJAt16rlbfdRq/2010-07-09_0938_001.png.scaled700.png" width="700" /></a> <img alt="2010-07-09_0947" height="340" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/bow7qUxd5Hy7Qvjxo87ARjCY6qXtlfFs4owYIY0vEXUyXQsnYmmngwdw8xsl/2010-07-09_0947.png.scaled700.png" width="450" /> <div class='p_see_full_gallery'><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo">See the full gallery on Posterous</a></div> </div> </p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/DBdEIZ0BKN0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/maltego-30-community-edition-a-quick-first-lo Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:31:33 -0700 Silently Install the Java Runtime on Windows http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/FqBXcvGApBg/silently-install-the-java-runtime-on-windows-0 http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/silently-install-the-java-runtime-on-windows-0 <p> Java is one of those components that most users have installed, but can be infrequently updated and forgotten about. Updates are published on a regular basis, the most recent of which having been set free in April of this year, and although supplied with a self-updating mechanism, it's just not suitable within controlled corporate environments with good acceptable use polices in place.<p> Following the trend of other popular software, the Java Runtime is also bloating out with other 'useful-less' components, so on a default install you can find yourself with extra memory resident processes, browser plug-ins and helper objects which are just not required to provide applications access to the Java Runtime.<p> Because of this, I now update my own lab environment with a scripted silent install of Java - it does not include the extra plug-ins and browser helper objects during installation, or the memory resident updater tool. Are there any other suggestions to keep the Java Runtime installation down to a minimum? I believe in only installing what is absolutely required.<p> <div class="data type-batchfile"> <table class="lines" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td> <pre class="line_numbers"><span rel="#L1" id="L1">1</span> <span rel="#L2" id="L2">2</span> <span rel="#L3" id="L3">3</span> <span rel="#L4" id="L4">4</span> <span rel="#L5" id="L5">5</span> <span rel="#L6" id="L6">6</span> <span rel="#L7" id="L7">7</span> <span rel="#L8" id="L8">8</span> <span rel="#L9" id="L9">9</span> <span rel="#L10" id="L10">10</span> <span rel="#L11" id="L11">11</span> <span rel="#L12" id="L12">12</span> <span rel="#L13" id="L13">13</span> <span rel="#L14" id="L14">14</span> <span rel="#L15" id="L15">15</span> <span rel="#L16" id="L16">16</span> <span rel="#L17" id="L17">17</span> <span rel="#L18" id="L18">18</span> <span rel="#L19" id="L19">19</span> <span rel="#L20" id="L20">20</span> <span rel="#L21" id="L21">21</span> <span rel="#L22" id="L22">22</span> <span rel="#L23" id="L23">23</span> <span rel="#L24" id="L24">24</span> <span rel="#L25" id="L25">25</span> <span rel="#L26" id="L26">26</span> <span rel="#L27" id="L27">27</span> <span rel="#L28" id="L28">28</span> <span rel="#L29" id="L29">29</span> <span rel="#L30" id="L30">30</span> <span rel="#L31" id="L31">31</span> <span rel="#L32" id="L32">32</span> <span rel="#L33" id="L33">33</span> <span rel="#L34" id="L34">34</span> <span rel="#L35" id="L35">35</span> <span rel="#L36" id="L36">36</span> </pre> </td> <td width="100%"> <div class="highlight"><pre /><div class="line" id="LC1"><span class="p">@</span><span class="k">ECHO</span> <span class="k">OFF</span> & @<span class="k">SETLOCAL</span> ENABLEEXTENSIONS & <span class="k">CLS</span></div><div class="line" id="LC2"><span class="k">ECHO</span>.SilentJavaInstall.cmd <span class="m">1</span>.<span class="m">0</span>.<span class="m">3</span> (<span class="m">1</span>st March <span class="m">2011</span>)</div><div class="line" id="LC3"><span class="k">ECHO</span>.Andrew G. Allen<span class="p">,</span> http:<span class="n">//www.andrewallen.co.uk/</span> & <span class="k">ECHO</span>.</div><div class="line" id="LC4"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC5"><span class="c">:: This work is licenced under a Creative Commons GNU General Public License.</span></div><div class="line" id="LC6"><span class="c">:: See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/ for more information.</span></div><div class="line" id="LC7"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC8"><span class="c">:: History:</span></div><div class="line" id="LC9"><span class="c">:: - 1.0 - 3rd June 2010 - Initial release.</span></div><div class="line" id="LC10"><span class="c">:: - 1.0.1 - 9th July 2010 - Java SE Runtime Environment 6u21 available (jre-6u21-windows-i586.exe).</span></div><div class="line" id="LC11"><span class="c">:: - 1.0.2 - 25th January 2011 - Java SE Runtime Environment 6u23 available jre-6u23-windows-i586.exe).</span></div><div class="line" id="LC12"><span class="c">:: - 1.0.3 - 1st March 2011 - Java SE Runtime Environment 6u24 available jre-6u24-windows-i586-s.exe).</span></div><div class="line" id="LC13"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC14"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC15"><span class="nl">:CODE</span></div><div class="line" id="LC16"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC17"><span class="c">:: java 6 update 24</span></div><div class="line" id="LC18">start <span class="n">/WAIT</span> <span class="s2">""</span> <span class="s2">"%~d0%~p0jre-6u24-windows-i586-s.exe"</span> <span class="n">/s</span> <span class="n">/v</span> <span class="s2">"/qn SYSTRAY=0 EULA=1 REBOOT=ReallySupress JAVAUPDATE=0 AUTOUPDATECHECK=0 IEXPLORER=0 MOZILLA=0 JU=0"</span></div><div class="line" id="LC19"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC20"><span class="c">:: post install...</span></div><div class="line" id="LC21"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC22"><span class="c">:: -- remove startup entry</span></div><div class="line" id="LC23">reg delete <span class="s2">"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run"</span> <span class="n">/v</span> <span class="s2">"SunJavaUpdateSched"</span> <span class="n">/f</span></div><div class="line" id="LC24"> </div><div class="line" id="LC25"><span class="c">:: -- disable auto update features</span></div><div class="line" id="LC26">reg add <span class="s2">"HKLM\SOFTWARE\JavaSoft\Java Update\Policy"</span> <span class="n">/v</span> <span class="s2">"EnableJavaUpdate"</span> <span class="n">/t</span> <span class="s2">"REG_DWORD"</span> <span class="n">/d</span> <span class="s2">"0"</span> <span class="n">/f</span></div><div class="line" id="LC27"> </div><div class="line" id="LC28"><span class="c">:: -- remove unneeded browser helper objects</span></div><div class="line" id="LC29">reg delete <span class="s2">"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{DBC80044-A445-435B-BC74-9C25C1C588A9}"</span> <span class="n">/f</span></div><div class="line" id="LC30">reg delete <span class="s2">"HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Browser Helper Objects\{E7E6F031-17CE-4C07-BC86-EABFE594F69C}"</span> <span class="n">/f</span></div><div class="line" id="LC31"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC32"><span class="nl">:END_CODE</span></div><div class="line" id="LC33"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC34"><br /></div><div class="line" id="LC35"><span class="p">@</span><span class="k">ENDLOCAL</span></div><div class="line" id="LC36"><span class="nl">:EOF</span></div></pre></div> </td> </tr> </table> </div><br /></p></p></p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/silently-install-the-java-runtime-on-windows-0">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/silently-install-the-java-runtime-on-windows-0#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/FqBXcvGApBg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/silently-install-the-java-runtime-on-windows-0 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:56:00 -0800 Security Podcasts on my Podroll http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/YLSjQ64HVKM/security-podcasts-on-my-podroll http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/security-podcasts-on-my-podroll <p> <p>There are now quite a number of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast" target="_blank">podcasts</a> available, covering all areas of Information Security - I find it a great way to stay up to date with the industry news, particularly when commuting. A fairly comprehensive list can be found at <a href="http://getmon.com/" target="_blank">http://getmon.com/</a>, while my current regular favorites are below:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://pauldotcom.com/" target="_blank">Paul Dot Com Security Weekly</a> (<a href="http://pauldotcom.com/podcast/psw.xml" target="_blank">feed</a>) - one of the longest established US based security podcasts, normally around 2 hours long, with interviews, technical segments and industry news. </li> <li> <a href="http://risky.biz/netcasts/risky-business" target="_blank">Risky Business</a> (<a href="http://risky.biz/feeds/risky-business" target="_blank">feed</a>) - an Australian based ~30 minute show, neatly split into news, interview and sponsor interview</li> <li> <a href="http://www.2600.com/offthehook/" target="_blank">2600 | Off The Hook</a> (<a href="http://www.2600.com/oth-broadband.xml" target="_blank">feed</a>) - airs every Wednesday night at 7:00 PM EST in New York City on listener supported WBAI 99.5 FM. </li> </ul> <p>I've created an aggregated feed of my Podroll, which makes subscribing quick and simple - on my phone, it means adding just one feed, instead of lots of different feeds for different podcasts (very useful when rebuilding your phone after flashing the latest ROM)... I did try <a href="http://RSSmix.com" target="_blank">RSSmix.com</a>, which <a href="http://www.irongeek.com/security-podcasts.php" target="_blank">IronGeek</a> also uses, but I found updates through the site don't seem to be that regular (and the site itself can run pretty slow as well), which means missing out on the latest content. Instead, I use <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/" target="_blank">Yahoo Pipes</a> to merge and manipulate the various feeds together, and then publish through <a href="http://feedburner.google.com/" target="_blank">Feedburner</a> to get some extra control / statistics.<p /> You can subscribe to my Podroll feed <a href="http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/andrewallen/podroll" target="_blank">here</a> (<a href="http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/andrewallen/podroll" target="_blank">http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/andrewallen/podroll</a>), or you can view the <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=15b6944e85f1ad306a6556d23d418502" target="_blank">Yahoo Pipes</a> source <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=15b6944e85f1ad306a6556d23d418502" target="_blank">here</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p><strong>Update - Dec 14</strong></p> <p>I've updated the <a href="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=15b6944e85f1ad306a6556d23d418502" target="_blank">pipe</a> to include the following feeds, and also strip posts with no enclosures:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://risky.biz/netcasts/rb2" target="_blank">RB2</a> (<a href="http://risky.biz/feeds/rb2" target="_blank">feed</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://netsecpodcast.com/" target="_blank">Network Security Podcast</a> (<a href="http://mckeay.libsyn.com/rss" target="_blank">feed</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://securityjustice.com/" target="_blank">Security Justice</a> (<a href="http://securityjustice.com/?feed=podcast" target="_blank">feed</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.securabit.com/" target="_blank">Securabit</a> (<a href="http://www.securabit.com/feed/" target="_blank">feed</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://blog.tenablesecurity.com/podcast/" target="_blank">Tenable Network Security Podcast</a> (<a href="http://blog.tenablesecurity.com/rss.xml" target="_blank">feed</a>)</li> </ul> </blockquote> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/security-podcasts-on-my-podroll">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/security-podcasts-on-my-podroll#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/YLSjQ64HVKM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/security-podcasts-on-my-podroll Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:51:00 -0800 PostgreSQL not starting on BackTrack 4 Pre-Final http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/yVtazcHuu-0/postgresql-not-starting-on-backtrack-4-pre-fi http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/postgresql-not-starting-on-backtrack-4-pre-fi <p> <p>If you are following the latest releases in regards to BackTrack, following a recent update you may have experienced error when PostgreSQL attempts to start:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">Starting PostgreSQL 8.3 database server: main* The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:</p> <p>Then further down:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">could not load server certificate file &ldquo;server.crt&rdquo;: No such file or directory</p> <p>Here is a quick fix - at the console, type:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">cd /etc/ssl/certs<br />ls -ld /etc/ssl/private<br />sudo ls -l /etc/ssl/private/<br />make-ssl-cert generate-default-snakeoil -force-overwrite<br />cd /etc/ssl/certs</p> <p>Re-run the update commands, and you should be good to go:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">apt-get update<br />apt-get upgrade<br />apt-get dist-upgrade</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/postgresql-not-starting-on-backtrack-4-pre-fi">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/postgresql-not-starting-on-backtrack-4-pre-fi#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/yVtazcHuu-0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/postgresql-not-starting-on-backtrack-4-pre-fi Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:45:00 -0800 Connecting USB Devices to VirtualBox Guests http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/gJaA2JZy6Kg/connecting-usb-devices-to-virtualbox-guests http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/connecting-usb-devices-to-virtualbox-guests <p> <div>About 6 months ago I switched to using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox">VirtualBox</a> on my Mac, in place of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Fusion">VMware Fusion</a> - It provided decent performance, works well across multiple spaces and of course is free. I have always felt that VMware have dumbed down the Fusion client when compared to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Workstation">Workstation</a> on Windows, as various options seem hidden away from view (although configurable when you get down and dirty in the VMX files).<p /> The only remaining issue I had experienced until recently, was that some USB devices would not map through correctly to the guest - in my case Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. When trying to connect the device on the first attempt, nothing would appear to happen, then when you tried to map it through again you'd get various error messages.<p /> After a brief Googling session, I found the fix was to add a 'USB Device Filter' for the affected device, under the 'USB Settings' of the guest, but making sure to clear all fields except the 'Name'. Once the guest was powered up, I no longer had any issues mapping through the USB device.<p /> </div> <div><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Screen_shot_2009-11-02_at_21" height="490" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/sppn997MCBL3e70NT0kfsfuFWPL2GuhfZkT2xAH59YkMx3mVN1L6v4NnYTU7/Screen_shot_2009-11-02_at_21.2.png.scaled700.png" width="580" /> </div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/connecting-usb-devices-to-virtualbox-guests">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/connecting-usb-devices-to-virtualbox-guests#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/gJaA2JZy6Kg" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/connecting-usb-devices-to-virtualbox-guests Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:32:00 -0700 Update the Search Behaviour of the Firefox Address Bar http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/v94uvhLqnE0/update-the-search-behaviour-of-the-firefox-ad http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/update-the-search-behaviour-of-the-firefox-ad <p> <p>After having used Chrome for so long on my Mac (in the <a href="http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel">dev channel</a> via the very useful <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/16/our-mac-chromium-updater-stay-up-to-date-on-the-best-versions-of-chrome-for-mac/">Chromium Updater</a>), switching back to Firefox reveals an interesting habit - searching via the address bar. In Chrome, you can type your search directly in the address bar and you'll get redirected to Google for your search results, however in Firefox it reacts slightly differently - it will carry out a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search which will direct you to the first result Google returns.<p /> You can customise this behavior in the 'about:config' page within Firefox. Type 'about:config' into the address bar, and then update the 'keyword.URL' field to your chosen search engine. For example, if you wanted to use <a href="http://scroogle.org/">Scroogle</a> instead, you would type:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=">http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi?Gw=</a></li> </ul> <p>By the way, If you are not already using <a href="http://scroogle.org/">Scroogle</a>, it's a simple way to anonymise your search requests.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/update-the-search-behaviour-of-the-firefox-ad">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/update-the-search-behaviour-of-the-firefox-ad#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/v94uvhLqnE0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/update-the-search-behaviour-of-the-firefox-ad Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:18:00 -0700 Installing and Uninstalling Software in Windows Safe Mode http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/vzTdFzJef7k/installing-and-uninstalling-software-in-windo http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/installing-and-uninstalling-software-in-windo <p> <p>It's quite common that you need to remove some software when running in Safe Mode, particularly when you find your system is unusable when running normally. However, by default, the key service required to manage installed software is not running, and cannot be started (the Windows Installer Service, aka MSIServer).</p> <p>Here is a quick way around this issue - by adding the registry entry below, you'll then be able to start the service and remove / install the software you require.</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"<br />sc start msiserver`</p> <p>Once this change is made, it will remain permanent, and you won't need to re-apply it in the future, although you'll still need to start the msiserver service when required.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/installing-and-uninstalling-software-in-windo">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/installing-and-uninstalling-software-in-windo#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/vzTdFzJef7k" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/installing-and-uninstalling-software-in-windo Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:59:00 -0700 Transferring Files from a Decommissioned Netware Server http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/gjIhLFA5CiU/transferring-files-from-a-decommissioned-netw http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/transferring-files-from-a-decommissioned-netw <p> <div>Here's the situation - you've remotely migrated all the data and printing services from a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netware">Netware</a> server onto it's replacement, and you have just completed uninstalling <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell_eDirectory">eDirectory</a> / NDS... the servers are locked away in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center">data center</a>.</div> <p /> <div>Just before you power it off, you find that one of the migrated volumes are not complete - data is missing! <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'oh!" target="_blank">D'oh!</a> </div> <p /> <div>The old server is still powered up, but you can no longer authenticate to it across the network (no longer in the tree) - tools such as <a href="http://www.adremsoft.com/freecon/">Adrem Free Console</a> are no good, since you need to be able to authenticate. You still access to the server console, via the iLO (Integrated Lights-Out) / DRAC (Dell Remote Access Controller) - whew!</div> <p /> <div>Getting the data off via ftp is the most straight forward, but is not a native app - thankfully it can be accessed via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash" target="_blank">Bash</a>. At the console prompt, type 'bash' then <enter> to drop into the shell. By default you'll find yourself on the SYS volume, with no obvious way of getting onto any of the other volumes. The data you need to rescue is on the DATA volume.</div> <div><ol> <li>At the Bash prompt, type 'mkdir /data', then press <enter></li> <li>Type 'vi /etc/PATHTAB', then <enter>.</li> <li>Hit 'i' to enter insert mode and type '/data data:\'.</li> <li>Press 'Escape', then ':wq' and <enter>.</li> <li>Type 'exit' <enter> to unload the Bash shell, then type 'BASH' <enter> at the console prompt to load the shell again.</li> <li>Type 'cd /data' <enter> then 'ls' <enter> to display the root of the DATA volume - voila.</li> </ol></div> <div>Now you have access to the data, the final step is to manually transfer over the missing portions of the data - using ftp, navigate to your selected folder, type 'ftp' <enter>, then 'open <new server>'. Once you've entered your username and password, you can now 'put <file>' to transfer across your missing data - you get the idea anyway.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/transferring-files-from-a-decommissioned-netw">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/transferring-files-from-a-decommissioned-netw#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/gjIhLFA5CiU" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/transferring-files-from-a-decommissioned-netw Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:23:00 -0700 Customising the Command Prompt http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/VBouFYT2DTM/customising-the-command-prompt http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/customising-the-command-prompt <p> <div>If you don't currently follow the <a href="http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/" target="_blank">Command line Kung Fu</a> blog, I highly suggest you do! Originally started back in February this year by Paul Asadoorian (of <a href="http://www.pauldotcom.com/" target="_blank">PaulDotCom</a>), <a href="http://www.inguardians.com/info/#Skoudis" target="_blank">Ed Skoudis</a> and <a href="http://www.deer-run.com/~hal/" target="_blank">Hal Pomeranz</a>, each week they publish solutions to challenges posed to each other, using only the command line utilities included on a default installation of Windows, Linux and Mac OS - many of the published solutions contain really useful snippets of code to include in your own scripts.</div> <p /> <div>Something that was covered in Episodes <a href="http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/2009/04/episode-28-environment-list.html" target="_blank">#28</a>, <a href="http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/2009/06/episode-49-theres-no-place-like.html" target="_blank">#49</a> and <a href="http://blog.commandlinekungfu.com/2009/07/episode-52-prompts-pushing-it.html" target="_blank">#52</a> was customising the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_Prompt_(Windows)">command prompt</a> in various ways. On my own Windows systems I now include the following command prompt customisation by default:</div> <p /> <blockquote> <div>30/09/2009 13:30:34.98 C:\></div> </blockquote> <p /> <div>Why? The biggest benefit is knowing when commands were started, and when they completed. Many tools don't provide feedback with time and dates, and so by the nature of the date and time being printed on screen each time a prompt is provided, you get a quick and dirty way to see how long a command took to execute.</div> <p /> <div>Setting the prompt temporarily can be done with the 'prompt' command (or 'set prompt'), while making the change permanently can be done by adding an entry to the registry - both can be seen below.</div> <p /> <div><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Command_prompt_2" height="331" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/OXQBe73985RTFYBKKhZtXrKvoRb6QwtziR3QNH0IrH1duCwrXz6xoSr6gPSy/command_prompt_2.png.scaled700.png" width="668" /> </div> </div> <p /> <div>In addition, my prompt also displays how many paths are on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushd_and_popd">pushd and popd</a> stack, as also seen above.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/customising-the-command-prompt">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/customising-the-command-prompt#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/VBouFYT2DTM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/customising-the-command-prompt Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:14:00 -0700 Indisposable Tools - Notepad++, a Notepad Replacement for Windows http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/2IzqVw8lczs/indisposable-tools-notepad-a-notepad-replacem http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/indisposable-tools-notepad-a-notepad-replacem <p> <div>Microsoft Notepad is probably (and unintentionally) one of my most used utilities, for example, when when stripping text formatting from content cut/copied from Word or Internet Explorer, or editing batch, vb, or <insert language here> scripts.</div> <p /> <div>It's very quick to bring up Notepad (Windows + R, notepad <return>) as quick dumping ground for the clipboard, and uses very little resources, however it does have it's limitations - Unix carriage returns, no regular expression support to name but a few.</div> <p /> <div>A highly recommended tool open-source replacement, which has now become one of my <a href="/tag/indisposable">indisposable</a> tools, is <a href="http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm" target="_blank">Notepad++</a>.</div> <p /> <div><em>"Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License."</em></div> <p /> <div><em>"Based on a powerful editing component Scintilla, Notepad++ is written in C++ and uses pure Win32 API and STL which ensures a higher execution speed and smaller program size. By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment."</em></div> <p /> <div>Some of the key benefits, for me anyway, include:</div> <div> <ul> <li>Syntax Highlighting and Syntax Folding for various languages (including XML, HTML, Perl, Python, VB/VBS, Batch etc)</li> <li>Multi-Document and Multi-View allowing you to view multiple documents and have multiple views between them, or in the same document</li> <li>Regular expression Search/Replace is fully supported</li> <li>File status Auto-detection, which is particularly useful when working on live files, such as logs etc</li> </ul> </div> <div><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/nUGyFQpYVnaMkgMxsPkimkLuCMFNDCcYz5INqJlsvhgD7YDro9KSh9IJOAeK/scrsh_multiView.gif.scaled.1000.jpg"><img alt="Scrsh_multiview" height="493" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/Kvl4XlUPgDvlIfqOHyxLs09ZvYaFfI8GDhUipnbLjSFeTGZ7qTzNE7JA5qgZ/scrsh_multiView.gif.scaled700.gif" width="700" /></a> </div> </div> <p /> <div>There are also a large number of <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/index.php?title=Plugin_Central">plugins</a>, which extend Notepad++ even further.</div> <p /> <div>Installation is straight forward - just download the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/files/">latest installer</a> (or the .zip file), and accept all the defaults. I can also highly recommend installing the <a href="http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/commun/misc/NppLauncher.bin.zip">Notepad++ launcher</a>, which will allow you to replace Notepad completely:</div> <div> <div><ol> <li>Backup your original Notepad.exe</li> <li>Copy notepad.exe which comes with this package into 4 directories (in given order) :<br />- c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386<br />- c:\windows\system32\dllcache<br />- c:\windows\system32<br /> - c:\windows</li> <li>When you replace notepad.exe in c:\windows\system32 and c:\windows, a "Windows File Protection" message box appears, click Cancel. Then another message box appears, click OK.</li> <li>Modify you registry (if you use installer to install your Notepad++, you don't need to do this step): Create key \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Notepad++, then add your Notepad++ full path as the default value of this key. In my case, it's C:\Program Files\Notepad++.</li> </ol></div> </div> <div>If you need any further information, check out the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/notepad-plus/index.php?title=Main_Page">NpWiki++</a>.</div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/indisposable-tools-notepad-a-notepad-replacem">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/indisposable-tools-notepad-a-notepad-replacem#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/2IzqVw8lczs" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/indisposable-tools-notepad-a-notepad-replacem Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:15:00 -0700 The Five Minute Guide to MacPorts http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/k0mSoxkkiCc/the-five-minute-guide-to-macports http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-five-minute-guide-to-macports <p> <div>Underneath Mac OS X is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_(operating_system)" target="_blank">Darwin</a>, <span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">the Unix-derived core that provides the underlying foundation for Mac OS X, and although born of BSD, by default many tools you may be used to on a *nix system are not present.</span> </div> <p /> <div><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="Architecture" height="150" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/andrewallen/YM8yzD6eu15heOdXnpLByXajs30aLpxtKjLx4Tc1grSUfN66OfGzkCoN9svs/architecture.jpg.scaled700.jpg" width="250" /> </div> <br /> </span></span></div> <p /> <div><span style="font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">And so in steps <a href="http://www.macports.org/" target="_blank">The MacPorts Project</a> as an easy way to install open-source software onto your machine.</span></span></div> <p /> <div><em>"The MacPorts Project is an open-source community initiative to design an easy-to-use system for compiling, installing, and upgrading either command-line, X11 or Aqua based open-source software on the Mac OS X operating system. To that end we provide the command-line driven MacPorts software package under a BSD License, and through it easy access to thousands of ports that greatly simplify the task of compiling and installing open-source software on your Mac."</em></div> <p /> <div>For example, I recently rebuilt my Mac with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_Snow_Leopard" target="_blank">Snow Leopard</a>, and needed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wget" target="_blank">wget</a> back on the system. Here is a quick how-to on getting MacPorts + wget installed:</div> <div> <ol> <li>Download and install the appropriate MacPorts dmg file from <a href="http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/" target="_blank">http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/</a> - you can accept all the default installation choices. In my case, I downloaded <a href="http://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-1.8.0-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg" target="_blank">MacPorts-1.8.0-10.6-SnowLeopard.dmg</a> </li> <li>Once installed, open up a Terminal, and type 'sudo port selfupdate' and enter your password when prompted - this will make sure your local ports tree and base files are all up to date.</li> <li>Finally, installing a package is as simple as typing 'sudo port install <package name>', so in my case I installed wget with 'sudo port install wget'. All required dependencies are also automatically installed.</li> </ol> <div>MacPorts currently has over <a href="http://www.macports.org/ports.php" target="_blank">6200 ports</a> distributed among 92 different categories, and more are being added on a regular basis. If you need further information, check out the <a href="http://guide.macports.org/" target="_blank">official docs</a>.</div> <div> <p> </p> </div> </div> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-five-minute-guide-to-macports">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-five-minute-guide-to-macports#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/k0mSoxkkiCc" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/the-five-minute-guide-to-macports Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:53:00 -0700 Adding a tape drive to Netware http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/zwceWjzYHG0/adding-a-tape-drive-to-netware http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/adding-a-tape-drive-to-netware <p> <p>It's been a while since I've had involvement with Netware configuration, but I've recently had to add a tape drive to a Novell Netware 6.5 SP6 server - the key point is to update STARTUP.NCF on the DOS partition to include the required drivers for the SCSI card. For example, I added the lines:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">LOAD NWTAPE.CDM<br />LOAD LSIMPTNW.HAM SLOT=2</p> <p>The PCI card is loaded into PCI Slot 2 (hence the line above) - you can check which slot your device has been installed to by checking Novell Remote Manager (<a href="http://yourserver:8008/">http://yourserver:8008/</a> or <a href="https://yourserver:8009/)">https://yourserver:8009/)</a>, under 'Manage Hardware' -> 'PCI Devices'. Once the driver has loaded (you can load the above drivers manually, without having to reboot the server), check the device is visible using 'LIST DEVICES' on the console.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/adding-a-tape-drive-to-netware">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/adding-a-tape-drive-to-netware#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/zwceWjzYHG0" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/adding-a-tape-drive-to-netware Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:34:00 -0700 Citrix Web Interface and the Fatal Execution Engine Error http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/CEa0T-03jOo/citrix-web-interface-and-the-fatal-execution http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/citrix-web-interface-and-the-fatal-execution <p> <p>Having recently been focused on a Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 migration, I took some time out to build a development 64-bit environment just to become familiar with any 'gotchas'... This was a single, stand-alone Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard SP2 64-bit operating system, with the 64-bit Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 Enterprise Edition installed, running inside <a href="http://ca.downloads.xensource.com/XenServer-4.1.0RC7/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">XenServer 4.1 RC7</span></a> <a href="http://www.citrixxenserver.com/products/Pages/XenExpress.aspx" target="_blank">XenServer 4.1</a> - I chose to install <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=333325FD-AE52-4E35-B531-508D977D32A6&displaylang=en" target="_blank">.NET Framework 3.5</a> (which includes the required .NET Framework 2.0) and <a href="http://java.sun.com/products/archive/" target="_blank">JRE 1.5.0_09</a>.</p> <p>Additionally, I installed the following components onto the same box:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.citrix.co.uk/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?dID=20719&downloadID=39109&pID=39095" target="_blank">Citrix License Server 11.3</a> (inc. <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=F72C74B3-ED0E-4AF8-AE63-2F0E42501BE1&displaylang=en" target="_blank">Microsoft Visual J# 2.0</a> )</li> <li> <a href="https://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/downloads.asp?dID=36407" target="_blank">Citrix Web Interface 4.6</a> (plus required <a href="https://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?dID=36407&downloadID=680154&pID=182" target="_blank">Access Management Console Extension</a>)</li> </ul> <p>The following <a href="http://support.citrix.com/product/ps/v4.5/hotfix/w2k3x64/" target="_blank">hotfixes</a> were then applied to CPS:</p> <ul> <li>Citrix Hotfix Rollup Pack PSE450W2K3X64R01.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64003.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64004.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64005.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64012.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64014.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64016.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64019.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64020.msp</li> <li>Citrix Hotfix PSE450R01W2K3X64023.msp</li> </ul> <p>As a side note, I had installation errors on the rollup, and hotfix 005, but all seems to be working ok... anyway, at some point post-installation the Web Interface decided to stop working. The following error was recorded in the application event log:</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p>Event Type: Error<br /> Event Source: .NET Runtime<br /> Event Category: None<br /> Event ID: 1023<br /> Date: 13/03/2008<br /> Time: 13:05:20<br /> User: N/A<br /> Computer: VM4<br /> Description:<br /> .NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.1433 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (79FFEE24) (80131506)</p> <p>For more information, see Help and Support Center at <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p">http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p</a>> </p></blockquote> <p>Server reboots / iisresets had no effect, and after lots of Googling, it looked like there might be a specific .NET hotfix to address the issue (<a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913384" target="_blank">KB913384</a>), however it was only applicable to an older version of the .NET Framework 2.0 - it is supposed to be included / resolved in SP1 (build 1433). Another google <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dougste/archive/2007/09/06/version-history-of-the-clr-2-0.aspx" target="_blank">confirmed this</a>. After much frustration from a lack of solutions on the Citrix forums / knowledge base, I ended up uninstalling .NET Framework completely (you have to uninstall 3.5, then 3.0 SP1, then 2.0 SP1 in that specific order), then reinstalling the .NET Framework 2.0 RTM (build 42).</p> <p>Once I then re-installed Web Interface 4.6 (enabling 32-bit mode in the process, as prompted) and then deleted and re-added the existing site within the Access Management Console, it all sprang back into life. I've not yet re-patched .NET to see if it remains functional...</p> <p class="important">Update 1</p> <p>The error has occured again:</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p>Event Type: Error<br /> Event Source: .NET Runtime<br /> Event Category: None<br /> Event ID: 1023<br /> Date: 14/03/2008<br /> Time: 08:18:27<br /> User: N/A<br /> Computer: VM4<br /> Description:<br /> .NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.42 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A05E2B3) (80131506)</p> <p>For more information, see Help and Support Center at <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p">http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p</a>> </p></blockquote> <p>This time, the only change I've made is to install the latest Citrix XenCenter console 4.1 RC7, which itself is .NET application. I ended up having to install the <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913384" target="_blank">KB913384</a> fix, which this time was appliable to the version of .NET I had installed. I am going to do a bit more testing to see what is causing it to re-fail.</p> <p class="important">Update 2</p> <p>And again...</p> <blockquote class="posterous_medium_quote"> <p>Event Type: Error<br /> Event Source: .NET Runtime<br /> Event Category: None<br /> Event ID: 1023<br /> Date: 17/03/2008<br /> Time: 10:55:32<br /> User: N/A<br /> Computer: VM4<br /> Description:<br /> .NET Runtime version 2.0.50727.63 - Fatal Execution Engine Error (7A05F093) (80131506)</p> <p>For more information, see Help and Support Center at <a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p">http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.</p</a>> </p></blockquote> <p>This time I had installed and uninstalled Office 2007.</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/citrix-web-interface-and-the-fatal-execution">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/citrix-web-interface-and-the-fatal-execution#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/CEa0T-03jOo" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/citrix-web-interface-and-the-fatal-execution Wed, 09 Jan 2008 08:43:00 -0800 Acronis True Image Echo Server on CentOS http://feeds.andrewallen.co.uk/~r/andrewallen/blog/~3/iPGb5wiQdJM/acronis-true-image-echo-server-on-centos http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/acronis-true-image-echo-server-on-centos <p> <p>I've used <a href="http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/choose-trueimage/" target="_blank">Acronis True Image</a> on quite a large number of Windows systems over the years, as it is a very good product which has gradually expanded it's (already impressive) feature set throughout that time. Just recently, I had the requirement to image a Linux system and so decided to trial the new <a href="http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATISLin/" target="_blank">Acronis True Image Echo Server on Linux</a> - from what I found, there is no 'workstation' product for Linux like the <a href="http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/" target="_blank">True Image Home product for Windows</a>, and so had to go for the server version instead. Specifically, I needed to backup a 64-bit <a href="http://www.centos.org/" target="_blank">CentOS</a> 5.1 virtual machine running inside <a href="http://www.citrixxenserver.com/products/Pages/XenExpress.aspx" target="_blank">Citrx XenServer Express</a>.</p> <p>After registering for the <a href="http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/download/ATISLin/" target="_blank">trial version on Acronis.com</a>, downloading the appropriate installation file and moving it into the VM, a quick 'chmod +x TrueImageServerEcho_d_en.i686' made the file ready for installation. The binary is suitable for 32-bit and 64-bit systems - no need for seperate installation files.</p> <p>After kicking off the installation ('./TrueImageServerEcho_d_en.i686'), it was pretty much a next-next-finish affair, except I soon found I needed to have the kernel source files and gcc installed, for the installation program to correctly configure the SNAPAPI Module. A quick 'yum install -y kernel-xen-devel gcc' fixed the dependancy issue, and after re-run of the True Image installation file, all required software was now installed.</p> <p>By the way, there was no documentation supplied with the downloaded installation file; I found out some of the information on the <a href="http://download.acronis.com/pdf/trueimageserverEcho_linux_ug.en.pdf" target="_blank">Acronis website</a>, and also by browing the setup log file (/var/log/trueimage-setup.log).</p> <p>Since I don't generally use an X-Windows interface on *nix systems (much prefer the command line via SSH), I've now got to see how far I get with the console tools ('trueimagecmd' and 'trueimagemnt')...</p> </p> <p><a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/acronis-true-image-echo-server-on-centos">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/acronis-true-image-echo-server-on-centos#comment">Leave a comment  »</a> </p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/andrewallen/blog/~4/iPGb5wiQdJM" height="1" width="1"/> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1445914/photo.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4aAVoA3Lpbln Andrew G. Allen andrewallen Andrew G. Allen http://blog.andrewallen.co.uk/acronis-true-image-echo-server-on-centos