If you are getting a "Network Error" message with DynDNS on your SonicWALL, try this:
https://support.software.dell.com/kb/sw11246
Friday, September 19, 2014
"Network Error" with DynDNS on SonicWALL
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Setting up Raspberry Pi with IRLP
It's been a little while since I posted anything here, but I've been working on a new hobby lately. Amateur Radio. One cool thing that I've been working on is using a Raspberry Pi with IRLP. I didn't see a lot of steps of how to set this up online, and made some mistakes along the way.
Here's a link of items you'll need:
http://www.irlp.net/pi/
I already had a Raspberry Pi, and SD Card. I bought another charger and USB sound card through eBay. You'll find better prices for 2amp chargers if you search for phone chargers instead of Raspberry Pi chargers. The only thing I bought from the above link was the IRLP board and the modified parallel cable.
I also purchased an already assembled cable that goes from my Yaesu FT-8800r to the IRLP board from here: http://www.irlpcables.com/
I purchased the USB sound card on eBay.
Shipping speed was reasonable, considering I ordered all of this the week of Christmas from different sites. Once everything came in is where I got a little confused. My install was a little different than the recommended. I had a setup that I liked already on my SD card.
I made backup of what I already had on the SD card with my Ubuntu notebook with the following command (just in case I hosed my card). I followed the instructions here (the date command didn't work, so I renamed the backup to the current date manually): http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=46911
I took a peak at the IRLP Debain installer for the Rapsberry Pi to see if there was anything that would conflict with what I already had installed. It removes a LOT of packages, but nothing that I thought would cause an issue with what I already had installed. Here's how it worked for me and my Yaesu FT-8800r:
1. Follow the steps here to grab the debian installer for IRLP that's been tweaked for the Raspberry Pi: http://www.irlp.net/pi/directions.txt I didn't remove my Pi user, I left it there, but when root was used in the directions, I used root. I didnt upgrade anything either as i had already done so about a month ago.
2. Right when it said that it was going to install IRLP (after it goes through and removes packages), I quit the installer, ran the shutdown command as root, and then removed power from the Raspberry Pi.
3. I then connected the IRLP board to the Raspberry PI. If you take a look at the cable that goes into the GPIO part of the PI, ensure the red part of the ribbon cable is towards the top of the GPIO board (the red cable when inserted onto the GPIO pins should be in the direction of the SD card, and not the yellow video jack).
4. To get the COS working with the Yaesu FT-8800r, move the jumper to high (near the H not the L).
5. Plud power back into the Pi and turn it back on. Once you can get back into the Pi switch the user to root (if you logged in as Pi). Change your directory to "/root". You should see the installer for Debian in there, it'll be called irlp-install-debian. You can run it like this: ./irlp-install-debian That'll take you to where you last left off before you installed the hardware.
6. The next part is going to walk you through essentially activating your IRLP board with the powers that be and will run a very basic test to check to see if things are running OK. You'll need to know the name you used when you purchased the board, your call sign, the date of purchase of the board, and an e-mail address. The IRLP installer will also rename the hostname on the Pi and assign you a node number. Once done, I rebooted again just to make sure things were registering OK since I was using a non-typical install.
7. I logged into the Pi via SSH. Checked to see if I could ping out OK and if my other programs ran OK. The next step was to run some more tests on the board to ensure things ran OK.
Next is to run a sound test. Ensure to plug headphones into the USB sound card to ensure sound works OK. Type in alsaconf. You should hear the old Linux test sound. If that all works OK, plug your radio cable back into the sound card and run the following commands to ensure that communication is running OK between the board, pi, and your radio:
If you're still logged into the pi as root via SSH, switch your user to repeater:
Su repeater
Type in: /home/irlp/bin/readinput
And hit Enter.
Now (this is the part I misunderstood). On the Yaesu FT-8800r you have to make two adjustments. Ensure that you're listening at the rate of 1200 bps. To make this change, go to Menu #26 and ensure it's at 1200 bps (it should be that by default). Then drop into Menu #27 and change to where you want to monitor for IRLP data (Main, Left or Right).
Once you've done that get another radio (I used my HT) and key up the frequency your monitoring on your radio. For me, it was the frequency I was montioring on "Main". When you key up, you should see that on SSH, it will say COS Active, and the COS LED on the IRLP board will also light up. Once you unkey, it will say COS Inactive and the COS LED will unlight. Key up again, and start pressing DTMF keys, and you'll see the DMTF LED light up on the IRLP board, and output on the SSH session saying which DMTF keys were pressed.
After that test, press Control-C to kill the readinput command. You can then type the next commands to see if the IRLP board can key your radio:
/home/irlp/bin/key
Check to ensure your radio is keyed up. If that worked, then unkey:
/home/irlp/bin/unkey
Check to ensure that your radio is now unkeyed.
After that you've successfully installed IRLP and ensured that your radio and IRLP board and Pi are communicating with each other correctly.
The people at IRLP should email you a response soon letting you know officially what your node info is.
I haven't got any further than this. Once I get to play with it more, I'll upload any "gotchas" to my blog.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Mess Kits
Today, I bought 3 mess kits for camping / my family's earthquake it.
Here's my take on them.
1. Wyott Mess Kit
I bought this one used for about $18. It's a genuine U.S. G.I. mess kit. From the stamp, I believe it's Vietnam War era. Made in the U.S. It's the heaviest of the bunch, and feels sturdy. No dents on it, but it has some light scratches on the bottom of the frying pan. I washed it (you know, it's used...I dont't know where it's been). I filled the frying pan portion half ways with water and put it on a stove top to boil to see how it would react. The burner was set to high, it began boiling water in about 5 minutes. No scorching on the bottom that I could see, no scorching on the sides or discoloration inside. I let it get to a rolling boil and then removed the pan from the burner and began to dump the water out. The handle was not hot, it was barely warm. I was careful dumping it out in case the handle gave way....it didn't. The handle isn't made to lock the pan in place, gravity and weight should keep the pan exerting pressure on the handle. Just dont't tip the pan where you dont't want the water to go and you'll be alright. One thing to note, it was a cold night, and when I began to pour the boiling water out, the water would "hiss" when it touched the cooler parts of the pan. After I poured the water out, the pan began to cool down quickly and in about a minute was warm to the touch. The portion where the handle connects to the pan took the longest to cool off, a little less than minutes. After all was said and done, there was no discoloration, scorching, or malfunction.
2. Mil-Spec Mess Kit U.S. Style
This is very similar to the Wyott mess kit in apperance, except shinier. It's made in China, and is 304 Stainless Steel. It was for about $14. It is slightly lighter than the Wyott. While it works the same way, the eating tray isn't a perfect fit on the handle (when holding the entire mess kit with one hand - pan on one side, tray on pan handle), a good fit, but not perfect like the Wyott. Also when locking the kit up, it doesnt lock as snugly, still locks sufficiently just not as snugly. I washed it and then put it to the same test. It boiled half a pan of water in about 5 minutes, didn't scorch during boiling, made the same "hiss", took the same time (~ 10 minutes) to cool off, and had the same hot spot where the handle meets the pan. No malfunctions, no scorching, no cave-ins, no discoloration. It actually locked in place better when I was done with it than when it did prior to boiling. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. You get what you pay for, and this isn't bad. It's not as good as the real deal, but what it lacks, you wouldn't miss if you didnt have the genuine one anyway.
3. StanSport 5-Piece Cook Set
With this you get, from smallest item to largest: a plastic cup, a boiling pot with cover (mini dutch oven), plate, and frying pan with handle. Made in China. The whole kit was for about $12. The frying pan is lighter than the other two mess kit frying pans and thinner. I washed all the pieces in this set, and tested 2 pieces. The frying pan wouldn't balance on the burner when it was empty, it had to go on the burner with the water already in it to keep itself balanced. The frying pan boiled water faster than the other two mess kits, I'd say about 3-4 minutes. The PVC coating on the handle did not melt, and the handle was not hot, just warm. No cave-ins, discoloration, or scorching. Same test on the pot. It boiled water in about 3-4 minutes, did not scorch or cave-in. It DID slightly discolor inside where the water level was when boiling. It's a slight discoloration. The little pot is neat in that the carrying handle somewhat locks in place, though I didn't quite trust it when I was moving the pot filled with rolling boiling water. Both the frying pan and the pot cooled off completely in about 5-6 minutes. The pot handle didn't get too hot either. The kit doesn't fit quite right when you put everything away as a clamshell. The handle just barely locks around everything, the pot and cup bounce around inside, and the plate slides a little. This kit gives you a lot for the money, isn't perfect, but in the end seems to get the job done.
I will be testing these out cooking over an open fire through out this year and will update with any new findings.
Here's my take on them.
1. Wyott Mess Kit
I bought this one used for about $18. It's a genuine U.S. G.I. mess kit. From the stamp, I believe it's Vietnam War era. Made in the U.S. It's the heaviest of the bunch, and feels sturdy. No dents on it, but it has some light scratches on the bottom of the frying pan. I washed it (you know, it's used...I dont't know where it's been). I filled the frying pan portion half ways with water and put it on a stove top to boil to see how it would react. The burner was set to high, it began boiling water in about 5 minutes. No scorching on the bottom that I could see, no scorching on the sides or discoloration inside. I let it get to a rolling boil and then removed the pan from the burner and began to dump the water out. The handle was not hot, it was barely warm. I was careful dumping it out in case the handle gave way....it didn't. The handle isn't made to lock the pan in place, gravity and weight should keep the pan exerting pressure on the handle. Just dont't tip the pan where you dont't want the water to go and you'll be alright. One thing to note, it was a cold night, and when I began to pour the boiling water out, the water would "hiss" when it touched the cooler parts of the pan. After I poured the water out, the pan began to cool down quickly and in about a minute was warm to the touch. The portion where the handle connects to the pan took the longest to cool off, a little less than minutes. After all was said and done, there was no discoloration, scorching, or malfunction.
2. Mil-Spec Mess Kit U.S. Style
This is very similar to the Wyott mess kit in apperance, except shinier. It's made in China, and is 304 Stainless Steel. It was for about $14. It is slightly lighter than the Wyott. While it works the same way, the eating tray isn't a perfect fit on the handle (when holding the entire mess kit with one hand - pan on one side, tray on pan handle), a good fit, but not perfect like the Wyott. Also when locking the kit up, it doesnt lock as snugly, still locks sufficiently just not as snugly. I washed it and then put it to the same test. It boiled half a pan of water in about 5 minutes, didn't scorch during boiling, made the same "hiss", took the same time (~ 10 minutes) to cool off, and had the same hot spot where the handle meets the pan. No malfunctions, no scorching, no cave-ins, no discoloration. It actually locked in place better when I was done with it than when it did prior to boiling. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. You get what you pay for, and this isn't bad. It's not as good as the real deal, but what it lacks, you wouldn't miss if you didnt have the genuine one anyway.
3. StanSport 5-Piece Cook Set
With this you get, from smallest item to largest: a plastic cup, a boiling pot with cover (mini dutch oven), plate, and frying pan with handle. Made in China. The whole kit was for about $12. The frying pan is lighter than the other two mess kit frying pans and thinner. I washed all the pieces in this set, and tested 2 pieces. The frying pan wouldn't balance on the burner when it was empty, it had to go on the burner with the water already in it to keep itself balanced. The frying pan boiled water faster than the other two mess kits, I'd say about 3-4 minutes. The PVC coating on the handle did not melt, and the handle was not hot, just warm. No cave-ins, discoloration, or scorching. Same test on the pot. It boiled water in about 3-4 minutes, did not scorch or cave-in. It DID slightly discolor inside where the water level was when boiling. It's a slight discoloration. The little pot is neat in that the carrying handle somewhat locks in place, though I didn't quite trust it when I was moving the pot filled with rolling boiling water. Both the frying pan and the pot cooled off completely in about 5-6 minutes. The pot handle didn't get too hot either. The kit doesn't fit quite right when you put everything away as a clamshell. The handle just barely locks around everything, the pot and cup bounce around inside, and the plate slides a little. This kit gives you a lot for the money, isn't perfect, but in the end seems to get the job done.
I will be testing these out cooking over an open fire through out this year and will update with any new findings.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Vlingo on OG Droid
Have you heard of Vlingo? It's an application that works with Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia and allows you to transcribe emails, text messages and make phone calls with using your voice. It can also read your e-mails and your text messages to you using SafeReader, a setting within Vlingo.
Some people have been having trouble with getting Vlingo to read text messages or e-mail on Android. Here's how to do it.
1. Download Vlingo from the Android Market Place.
2. Open Vlingo
3. Tap your phone's menu button
4. Tap "Settings"
5. Under "Behavior", tap "SafeReader settings"
6. Ensure "Play texts" is selected.
7. Tap "Play email" to put a check mark on it.
8. Tap "Email accounts" to add an email account.
You can add a GMail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahooo! Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, or "Other" email account. If you click "Other" you have to manually specify your account settings. It supports IMAP, and POP3. IMAP and POP both support SSL and TLS and allow you to change the port. You can add more than one email account.
9. After you've setup your account, go back to the Vlingo main page. At the top left of the screen you'll see a speaker. If it has an "x", that means SafeReader is turned off. Click on the speaker to turn on SafeReader (it should now have sound waves next to it, and you should hear a voice that says, "SafeReader is now turned on").
10. Vlingo should now read back your texts AND emails. It will read both texts and emails to you in regular mode, and InCar mode as well.
It seems that it will not read back to you over Bluetooth. It will respond to you over speakerphone.
If you have a BlueAnt Q2 it reads EVERYTHING back to you over the Bluetooth headset. I just got mine, tested and it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As far as I can tell after a couple of hours of searching, this is the only app in the Android Market Place that "reads" back your emails to you. It seems to read my work emails OK.
As of December 2011, Nuance is moving to acquire Vlingo. I'm optimistic that this is going to improve Vlingo(my hope is that they will be able to get Vlingo to speak through Bluetooth).
Test it out, and let me know what you think, or if you have found a better app on Android.
Some people have been having trouble with getting Vlingo to read text messages or e-mail on Android. Here's how to do it.
1. Download Vlingo from the Android Market Place.
2. Open Vlingo
3. Tap your phone's menu button
4. Tap "Settings"
5. Under "Behavior", tap "SafeReader settings"
6. Ensure "Play texts" is selected.
7. Tap "Play email" to put a check mark on it.
8. Tap "Email accounts" to add an email account.
You can add a GMail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahooo! Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, or "Other" email account. If you click "Other" you have to manually specify your account settings. It supports IMAP, and POP3. IMAP and POP both support SSL and TLS and allow you to change the port. You can add more than one email account.
9. After you've setup your account, go back to the Vlingo main page. At the top left of the screen you'll see a speaker. If it has an "x", that means SafeReader is turned off. Click on the speaker to turn on SafeReader (it should now have sound waves next to it, and you should hear a voice that says, "SafeReader is now turned on").
10. Vlingo should now read back your texts AND emails. It will read both texts and emails to you in regular mode, and InCar mode as well.
If you have a BlueAnt Q2 it reads EVERYTHING back to you over the Bluetooth headset. I just got mine, tested and it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As far as I can tell after a couple of hours of searching, this is the only app in the Android Market Place that "reads" back your emails to you. It seems to read my work emails OK.
As of December 2011, Nuance is moving to acquire Vlingo. I'm optimistic that this is going to improve Vlingo
Test it out, and let me know what you think, or if you have found a better app on Android.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Setting up Motion for Fedora 13
Here's a quick and dirty for getting Motion setup with an old AipTek Pen Cam on Fedora 13.
Don't use the RPM, install from source:
Go here: http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome and download latest version.
Then:
cd /usr/local
tar -xvzf /path/to/motion-3.2.x.tar.gz
cd motion-3.2.x
sed -ie 's/ret = 2/ret = 0/g' video_common.c
./configure
make
make install
cp /usr/local/etc/motion-dist.conf /usr/local/etc/motion.conf
vi motion.conf
Look for webcam_localhost and change it to: off
save motion.conf
motion -n (to run in non daemon mode to test)
Use your web browser locally first and check http://yourip:8081
You should now see live stream of your video.
kill motion (Ctrl-C)
Run it again in daemon mode and test again.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Error 500 After Migrating From IIS6 to IIS7
I was getting an error 500 after migrating from IIS6 to IIS7 using "msdeploy". I couldn't figure out why for a while. Database was OK, proper app pool for ASP was there, and all was referencing each other OK, or so I thought.
The key was to get a better handle on the error. Testing externally I kept getting the generic 500 error. I tried adjusting how the error is shown under ASP for IIS7, but this didn't work.
I read on Experts Exchange to add IUSR to the security of the site and allow it view, read, and write. This didn't work either and I had to revert back.
After further reading, I saw that if I test from the browser locally on the server hosting the site, I should get a better error. BINGO!
Now I get: http error 500.22 0x80070032
This can be due to attributes in web.config being invalid (apparently security and other things were changed in IIS7, so certain attributes will BREAK when carried over from IIS6 to IIS7). Fret not! You don't have to manually go through and change things to get it to work. You can use an application to do that for you. :)
Here's a link that sums up how to do this nicely: http://www.prolificnotion.co.uk/use-appcmd-to-migrate-web-config-from-iis6-to-iis7/
For those who don't want to click, here it is below:
Run this to get the site identifier from your troubled site:
So in this case the site identifier is MyMostAwesomeSite.
The next step is to run the command that fixes the attributes in web.config:
That's it! Test, and hopefully all is back to normal again.
The key was to get a better handle on the error. Testing externally I kept getting the generic 500 error. I tried adjusting how the error is shown under ASP for IIS7, but this didn't work.
I read on Experts Exchange to add IUSR to the security of the site and allow it view, read, and write. This didn't work either and I had to revert back.
After further reading, I saw that if I test from the browser locally on the server hosting the site, I should get a better error. BINGO!
Now I get: http error 500.22 0x80070032
This can be due to attributes in web.config being invalid (apparently security and other things were changed in IIS7, so certain attributes will BREAK when carried over from IIS6 to IIS7). Fret not! You don't have to manually go through and change things to get it to work. You can use an application to do that for you. :)
Here's a link that sums up how to do this nicely: http://www.prolificnotion.co.uk/use-appcmd-to-migrate-web-config-from-iis6-to-iis7/
For those who don't want to click, here it is below:
Run this to get the site identifier from your troubled site:
%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD list sites
This will dump info about your sites, you want to look for whatever is in between quotes (the identifier).
Ex.
SITE "MyMostAwesomeSite" (id:2,bindings:http/*:82,state,Stopped) So in this case the site identifier is MyMostAwesomeSite.
The next step is to run the command that fixes the attributes in web.config:
%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD migrate config "MyMostAwesomeSite/"
If all goes well, you'll get the following response:
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpModules"
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpHandlers"That's it! Test, and hopefully all is back to normal again.
Changing Drive Letter with MSDeploy
I've been doing a lot of migrations from IIS6 to IIS7 recently. This is a handy way of changing the drive letter when using Microsoft Web Deploy to import a site into IIS, say from drive C:\ to D:\
A Full Command Changing the Source Directory of the Archive "msdeploy-site" From "C:\" to "D:\":
Note: That there are no carriage returns, it's one long string.
C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"
The "replace" here looks for "c:" and changes it to "d:", which will now put the archive under d: when it was originally on c: on the source server.
Excerpt of the relevant part of the command:
-replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"
Just change the drive letters of "match" with the original drive from the source server and "replace" with the destination drive on the new server.
Now, let's say you wanted to test this command before you ran it. Well then you do this:
C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:" -verbose -whatif
The "-verbose -whatif" will run the command as a test in verbose mode in the command prompt and let you know if there are any issues it runs into and allow you to confirm that the drive letter destination is correct. You can also output this to a file using " > output.txt"
Let me know how this works out for you.
A Full Command Changing the Source Directory of the Archive "msdeploy-site" From "C:\" to "D:\":
Note: That there are no carriage returns, it's one long string.
C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"
The "replace" here looks for "c:" and changes it to "d:", which will now put the archive under d: when it was originally on c: on the source server.
Excerpt of the relevant part of the command:
-replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"
Just change the drive letters of "match" with the original drive from the source server and "replace" with the destination drive on the new server.
Now, let's say you wanted to test this command before you ran it. Well then you do this:
C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:" -verbose -whatif
The "-verbose -whatif" will run the command as a test in verbose mode in the command prompt and let you know if there are any issues it runs into and allow you to confirm that the drive letter destination is correct. You can also output this to a file using " > output.txt"
Let me know how this works out for you.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Determining the version of a Microsoft SQL database
This was driving me nuts for a little bit. Once I found out how easy it is, I was flabbergasted.
In SQL 2000
SQL Server 2008 (100) - SQL Server 2008
SQL Server 2005 (90) - SQL Server 2005
Database Compatibility Level 80 - SQL Server 2000
Database Compatibility Level 70 - SQL Server 7
Database Compatibility Level 65 - SQL Server 6.5
Database Compatibility Level 60 - SQL Server 6.0
In SQL 2000
- Open up Enterprise Manager
- Right-click on the database
- Click on Properties
- Click on Options
- Look under Compatibility Level
- Open up SQL Management Studio
- Right-click on the database
- Click on Properties
- Click on Options
- Look under Compatibility Level
SQL Server 2008 (100) - SQL Server 2008
SQL Server 2005 (90) - SQL Server 2005
Database Compatibility Level 80 - SQL Server 2000
Database Compatibility Level 70 - SQL Server 7
Database Compatibility Level 65 - SQL Server 6.5
Database Compatibility Level 60 - SQL Server 6.0
Freezing panes in Excel 2008 for Mac
I recently ran into a weird problem in Excel 2008 on a Mac. I couldn't freeze rows.
To freeze rows in Excel 2008 on a Mac:
To freeze rows in Excel 2008 on a Mac:
- Put your cursor where you want to freeze your rows or columns in Excel
- Go to View
- Change it to Normal
- Go to Windows and select Freeze Panes
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
"Cannot rename file: Cannot read from the source file or disk."
Do you work in an environment that uses Macs and Windows? Do you have a Windows Server that's being used for file sharing? Are you running into the issue, "Cannot rename file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." or "Cannot delete file: Cannot read from the source file or disk."?
I recently ran into an issue where a user reported that their files were missing from the server. Upon further inspection of the Windows server, I noticed that the files were there, but along with them were a lot of forked files. More information on forked files can be found here:
http://xahlee.org/mswin/mac_windows_file_conv.html
At any rate, I thought it might be a forked file issue, so I removed all unnessary forked files and had the user log out and log back in again. This didn't help. I then checked out the properties of the folder in Windows and noticed that it was reporting 0kb in size. Whoa, wait, I see that these are RAW files and there are about 30 of them all 15MB in size! How can the folder be reporting only 0kb in size? Out of curiosity I tried renaming the folder and noticed a trailing space. Dang! The folder is corrupt because of a trailing space! I tried renaming it, and that confirmed my suspicions, "Cannot rename file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." I was pretty confident this wasn't a HDD issue because there were no errors in the Event Viewer, or RAID software. Microsoft has an article about spaces at the end of the title of files and folders corrupting them, and to call Microsoft Support to correct it:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814594
You don't need to do that. You can fix it yourself. Here's how:
In Windows
1. Locate the offending folder
2. Create a new folder
3. Delete all unnecessary forked files if you have any.
4. Move the folders contents to the new folder.
5. Delete the offending folder with the following command:
C:\share\offending-folder\>rd /s "\\?\C:\share\offending-folder "
Note the trailing space above. This will work with other illegal characters for NTFS that corrupt the folder.
You'll be prompted with:
\\?\C:\share\offending-folder , Are you sure
Y/N)?
Press Y
The folder will now be deleted, and access to the files moved to the new folder should be restored.
More information can be found here:
http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/06/12/solved-cannot-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/
I've done the following before many years ago, but I would suggest this as a last resort.
1. Get a Live CD, that's running Linux. I think I used STD, or Security Auditor when I last did this.
2. Remove the hard drive from the Windows computer and mount it in Linux with ntfs write capabilities
3. Fix the offending file's name.
4. Put the disk back into Windows computer and boot back into it, and check to ensure the file is renamed correctly and no longer causing issues.
I recently ran into an issue where a user reported that their files were missing from the server. Upon further inspection of the Windows server, I noticed that the files were there, but along with them were a lot of forked files. More information on forked files can be found here:
http://xahlee.org/mswin/mac_windows_file_conv.html
At any rate, I thought it might be a forked file issue, so I removed all unnessary forked files and had the user log out and log back in again. This didn't help. I then checked out the properties of the folder in Windows and noticed that it was reporting 0kb in size. Whoa, wait, I see that these are RAW files and there are about 30 of them all 15MB in size! How can the folder be reporting only 0kb in size? Out of curiosity I tried renaming the folder and noticed a trailing space. Dang! The folder is corrupt because of a trailing space! I tried renaming it, and that confirmed my suspicions, "Cannot rename file: Cannot read from the source file or disk." I was pretty confident this wasn't a HDD issue because there were no errors in the Event Viewer, or RAID software. Microsoft has an article about spaces at the end of the title of files and folders corrupting them, and to call Microsoft Support to correct it:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814594
You don't need to do that. You can fix it yourself. Here's how:
In Windows
1. Locate the offending folder
2. Create a new folder
3. Delete all unnecessary forked files if you have any.
4. Move the folders contents to the new folder.
5. Delete the offending folder with the following command:
C:\share\offending-folder\>rd /s "\\?\C:\share\offending-folder "
Note the trailing space above. This will work with other illegal characters for NTFS that corrupt the folder.
You'll be prompted with:
\\?\C:\share\offending-folder , Are you sure
Y/N)?
Press Y
The folder will now be deleted, and access to the files moved to the new folder should be restored.
More information can be found here:
http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/
I've done the following before many years ago, but I would suggest this as a last resort.
1. Get a Live CD, that's running Linux. I think I used STD, or Security Auditor when I last did this.
2. Remove the hard drive from the Windows computer and mount it in Linux with ntfs write capabilities
3. Fix the offending file's name.
4. Put the disk back into Windows computer and boot back into it, and check to ensure the file is renamed correctly and no longer causing issues.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Shrinking the Information Store in Exchange When ESEUTIL Doesn't Do It
I recently ran into a problem where after running ESEUTIL /d, the Information Store was still over the 75GB limit that you can expand to in Exchange 2003 Standard SP2. As a refresher, the total size of the Information Store is the EDB + STM, this is what Exchange looks at when it calculates the size of the Information Store.
I'll list a general outline that most people do to clear up "whitespace" in Exchange.
Check to see how much whitespace you have in the information store.
Whitespace is the empty space left over in the information store after data has been removed from it. I like to compare it to someone getting really fat, and then all of a sudden losing a lot of weight. Once this happens, there's a lot of loose skin. The loose skin needs to be tightened up again. Well the "space" between the loose skin is "whitespace", and we need to remove it to make the body tight again. Yes, weird analogy, but it's how I remember it. Let's get to how to check whitespace in Exchange 2003. A good article on whitespace can be found here: http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-Databases-Disk-Consumption.html
1. Navigate to where you have eseutil installed (if you haven't adjusted the path so you can type it anywhere in DOS)
2. Go into Exchange System Manager ("ESM"), and dismount the target 4store.
3. Run the following command: eseutil /ms infostore.edb > sizecheck.txt
/m = filedump mode
/s = streaming file
> = send the output to
4. Check out the file sizecheck.txt, and look a line that says "Free", note the number, and the last number at the end of the file, but before the line that says "Operation Completed in 'x' seconds", note this number too.
Free: 24093
234234
The first number is the SLV Space Dump for the STM file.
The second number is the Space Dump for the EDB file.
Take the SLV Space Dump File and multiply by 4096 bytes
Take the Space Dump for EDB and multiply by 4096 bytes
ex.
24093 x 4096 bytes = 98684928 bytes = 94.1132812 megabytes of Whitespace
234234 x 4096 bytes = 959422464 bytes = 914.976562 megabytes of Whitespace
914.976562 mb
+ 94.1132812 mb
---------------------------
1009.0898432 mb = 0.9854393 gigabytes ~ 1GB
As you can see, by running this offline defrag check, we would be able to regain about 1GB of space off of our Information Store if we ran a real offline defrag. It's important to note that the commands above do not defrag the Exchange Information Store, it's read-only and only calculating and dumping statistics. But, what happens if we still need more space? One clue to this is by adding up the EDB and STM files and comparing that to the sum of the size of all the mailboxes. If you're lucky, you'll see that the sum of all the mailbox sizes is LESS than the information store size. Hmmm....what's taking up the rest of the space then? The answer is Recoverable Items.
Recoverable Items
Recoverable Items are really deleted-deleted items. You have an email, you delete it, and it goes to the deleted items folder. You empty you're deleted items. You have just deleted-deleted items. But wait...They aren't deleted. Oh, Snap!
In Exchange 2003 Recoverable Items, aka "Deleted Items Recovery" is enabled by default. It's 7 days for deleted email, and 30 days for deleted accounts. If you do the numbers, this can be a whole lot of email that's added up. So, how do you add it all up? You don't have to, Microsoft will do it for you, in the MMC.
1. Go to Performance Monitor
2. Remove all the items there by clicking on "-"
3. Click on the "+" to add an item
4. Find MS Exchange Mail, then choose Total Size of Recoverable Items
5. Click on the paper with the lines on it to give you numbers. This will tell you the size of recoverable items in the information store in kilobytes.
Another old school way, is to open up ESM. Click on Mailboxes. Go to view, and add the "Deleted" tab. You can now see exactly what user tends to have a lot of deleted items, or add all the mailboxes up manually to get the total sum of recoverable items taking up space on the Information Store.
Removing Recoverable Deleted-Deleted Items
Now you know how to find out how much whitespace you have on the Information Store and how much Recoverable Items space is in the Information Store. How do you regain the space on the Recoverable Items? Well, just doing an offline defrag will NOT clear this up. To get this done really soon across the entire information store:
1. Open up ESM
2. Right click on the Mail Store, and go to Properties
3. Find the Limits tab, and click on it
4. Change "Keep deleted items for" and "Keep deleted mailboxes for" to "0" for both. Click Apply.
5. Find the Database tab.
6. In Maintenance Interval area, select "Custom" and change it to the soonest time you'd like.
Summary / Explanation
What will happen now is that the online maintenance will completely wipe all Recoverable Items off the face of the Earth. The place where the Recoverable Items were in the Information Store, now turns into whitespace. You'll know it's done once the online maintenance reports that it's done in Event Viewer. Once done, run an offline defrag to regain space. Hopefully your Information Store is shrank considerably. Don't forget to readjust the Recoverable Items policy back to something helpful (a balance between recovering data, and recovering space). If this happens again, or you see the Information Store growing again, you've outgrown Exchange 2003 Standard and are ready for Exchange 2003 Enterprise or greater. For kicks, while you're running the offline defrag to regain the whitespace from the Recoverable Items, you can refresh ESM while viewing the mailboxes with a viewing column of deleted, and you'll see them shrink before your eyes as you refresh your view.
BTW, if for whatever reason it's not reasonable to do this across all mailboxes, you can adjust the retention policy for individual mailboxes by going in Active Directory Users and Computers ("ADUC") and adjusting the retention policy on a per user/mailbox basis, and then run the online maintenance, rinse, wash, repeat.
I'll list a general outline that most people do to clear up "whitespace" in Exchange.
- Increase the Information Store limit in Exchange via the registry: http://www.petri.co.il/change_store_size_limits_ex2003_sp2.htm
- Archive and then Delete unneeded mailboxes in Exchange
- Run an offline Defrag: Unmount Information Store and run eseutil /d infostore.edb
Check to see how much whitespace you have in the information store.
Whitespace is the empty space left over in the information store after data has been removed from it. I like to compare it to someone getting really fat, and then all of a sudden losing a lot of weight. Once this happens, there's a lot of loose skin. The loose skin needs to be tightened up again. Well the "space" between the loose skin is "whitespace", and we need to remove it to make the body tight again. Yes, weird analogy, but it's how I remember it. Let's get to how to check whitespace in Exchange 2003. A good article on whitespace can be found here: http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-Databases-Disk-Consumption.html
1. Navigate to where you have eseutil installed (if you haven't adjusted the path so you can type it anywhere in DOS)
2. Go into Exchange System Manager ("ESM"), and dismount the target 4store.
3. Run the following command: eseutil /ms infostore.edb > sizecheck.txt
/m = filedump mode
/s = streaming file
> = send the output to
4. Check out the file sizecheck.txt, and look a line that says "Free", note the number, and the last number at the end of the file, but before the line that says "Operation Completed in 'x' seconds", note this number too.
Free: 24093
234234
The first number is the SLV Space Dump for the STM file.
The second number is the Space Dump for the EDB file.
Take the SLV Space Dump File and multiply by 4096 bytes
Take the Space Dump for EDB and multiply by 4096 bytes
ex.
24093 x 4096 bytes = 98684928 bytes = 94.1132812 megabytes of Whitespace
234234 x 4096 bytes = 959422464 bytes = 914.976562 megabytes of Whitespace
914.976562 mb
+ 94.1132812 mb
---------------------------
1009.0898432 mb = 0.9854393 gigabytes ~ 1GB
As you can see, by running this offline defrag check, we would be able to regain about 1GB of space off of our Information Store if we ran a real offline defrag. It's important to note that the commands above do not defrag the Exchange Information Store, it's read-only and only calculating and dumping statistics. But, what happens if we still need more space? One clue to this is by adding up the EDB and STM files and comparing that to the sum of the size of all the mailboxes. If you're lucky, you'll see that the sum of all the mailbox sizes is LESS than the information store size. Hmmm....what's taking up the rest of the space then? The answer is Recoverable Items.
Recoverable Items
Recoverable Items are really deleted-deleted items. You have an email, you delete it, and it goes to the deleted items folder. You empty you're deleted items. You have just deleted-deleted items. But wait...They aren't deleted. Oh, Snap!
In Exchange 2003 Recoverable Items, aka "Deleted Items Recovery" is enabled by default. It's 7 days for deleted email, and 30 days for deleted accounts. If you do the numbers, this can be a whole lot of email that's added up. So, how do you add it all up? You don't have to, Microsoft will do it for you, in the MMC.
1. Go to Performance Monitor
2. Remove all the items there by clicking on "-"
3. Click on the "+" to add an item
4. Find MS Exchange Mail, then choose Total Size of Recoverable Items
5. Click on the paper with the lines on it to give you numbers. This will tell you the size of recoverable items in the information store in kilobytes.
Another old school way, is to open up ESM. Click on Mailboxes. Go to view, and add the "Deleted" tab. You can now see exactly what user tends to have a lot of deleted items, or add all the mailboxes up manually to get the total sum of recoverable items taking up space on the Information Store.
Removing Recoverable Deleted-Deleted Items
Now you know how to find out how much whitespace you have on the Information Store and how much Recoverable Items space is in the Information Store. How do you regain the space on the Recoverable Items? Well, just doing an offline defrag will NOT clear this up. To get this done really soon across the entire information store:
1. Open up ESM
2. Right click on the Mail Store, and go to Properties
3. Find the Limits tab, and click on it
4. Change "Keep deleted items for" and "Keep deleted mailboxes for" to "0" for both. Click Apply.
5. Find the Database tab.
6. In Maintenance Interval area, select "Custom" and change it to the soonest time you'd like.
Summary / Explanation
What will happen now is that the online maintenance will completely wipe all Recoverable Items off the face of the Earth. The place where the Recoverable Items were in the Information Store, now turns into whitespace. You'll know it's done once the online maintenance reports that it's done in Event Viewer. Once done, run an offline defrag to regain space. Hopefully your Information Store is shrank considerably. Don't forget to readjust the Recoverable Items policy back to something helpful (a balance between recovering data, and recovering space). If this happens again, or you see the Information Store growing again, you've outgrown Exchange 2003 Standard and are ready for Exchange 2003 Enterprise or greater. For kicks, while you're running the offline defrag to regain the whitespace from the Recoverable Items, you can refresh ESM while viewing the mailboxes with a viewing column of deleted, and you'll see them shrink before your eyes as you refresh your view.
BTW, if for whatever reason it's not reasonable to do this across all mailboxes, you can adjust the retention policy for individual mailboxes by going in Active Directory Users and Computers ("ADUC") and adjusting the retention policy on a per user/mailbox basis, and then run the online maintenance, rinse, wash, repeat.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Use Your Acer Aspire One as an eBook Reader
This will probably be a series of posts explaining what you can do to make your Aspire One an ebook reader. This is for the version of the Aspire One that uses Linpus for those of us out there still running it.
Some things to get out of the way:
I want to be upfront about this. You cannot install any of the programs that work for the Nook or Kindle. There are some workarounds though, but to date they still don't work for the DRM that gets setup with ebooks sold for Nook proper or Kindle proper.
In the meantime, here are some tips of what you can do to read ebooks on your Acer Aspire One.
1. Install Wine
To do this, install Wine by running: yum install wine
So far so good. I haven't had any problems with the older version it installs, and it hasn't ruined any of the applications.
2. Install eReader on Wine For pdb Files
eReader is an application that allows you to read the eBooks that are DRM'd from eReader.com. Wine is a an application that allows you to run some Microsoft Windows programs in Linux. eReader.com is a Barnes and Noble book store. The Nook application for Windows is based on eReader, but doesn't run quite well on Wine. As an option, you can buy ebooks from eReader.com and read them on eReader under Wine (the DRM requires you to input your CC# and Name on your Credit Card once to open the eBook).
Download eReader for Windows
1. Open up Terminal and unzip eReader: unzip "eReader Win Pro 3.0.3.zip"
2. Open up Terminal and run the setup for eReader: wine setup.exe
3. Follow the Windows prompts to install it in Linux
4. Once done you can open it up from /home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Palm Digital Media/eReader. You can either "cd" into there, or run the string above with quotes like this: wine "/home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Palm Digital Media/eReader" and it will open. If you download any pdb files copy them to "drive_c" and any directory therein and point eReader to that place, and it will use that directory as your library catalog.
3. Use Adobe Acrobat for PDFs
If you have a PDF of an eBook that's not DRM'd, you can use the built in Adobe Acrobat app to read the pdf'd eBook.
4. Use ePub Catalog in Firefox for reading epub files
Open Firefox and install the EPUBREADER Extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/45281
You can now read ePub files in Firefox and catalog them in Firefox.
5. Rotate Your Screen
Yes, you CAN rotate your screen in Linux for reading eBooks so that your screen is more like a Kindle or Nook.
In Adobe Acrobat:
1. Open your PDF
2. In Acrobat go to: View > Rotate Screen > Counter Clock Wise
3. In Acrobat go to: View > Full Screen Mode
To revert back, click on the escape key on your keyboard ("Esc") and then rotate the screen clock wise.
You can now "turn pages" by clicking the down arrow (it will be pointing left if you hold the netbook with the mouse pad in your left hand). Optionally, the right arrow, which is the down arrow if your holding your netbook as an ebook reader will work too.
In Everything Else:
1. Open Termnal
2. Type in: xrandr -o left
Wine
1. Open Terminal
2. Type in: winecfg
3. Select "Graphics". Then select "Emulate a Virtual Desktop"
4. Change resolution to 600 x 1080
5. Select Apply, then OK.
Open the apps as normal after you've rotated your screen. It can get a little confusing navigating the screen once you've rotated it because you've rotated EVERYTHING on the screen, but the mouse navigation is still the same (if you go up on the mouse, it goes left if you've changed your screen orientation to face left).
To return back to normal: xrandr -o normal
Some things to get out of the way:
I want to be upfront about this. You cannot install any of the programs that work for the Nook or Kindle. There are some workarounds though, but to date they still don't work for the DRM that gets setup with ebooks sold for Nook proper or Kindle proper.
In the meantime, here are some tips of what you can do to read ebooks on your Acer Aspire One.
1. Install Wine
To do this, install Wine by running: yum install wine
So far so good. I haven't had any problems with the older version it installs, and it hasn't ruined any of the applications.
2. Install eReader on Wine For pdb Files
eReader is an application that allows you to read the eBooks that are DRM'd from eReader.com. Wine is a an application that allows you to run some Microsoft Windows programs in Linux. eReader.com is a Barnes and Noble book store. The Nook application for Windows is based on eReader, but doesn't run quite well on Wine. As an option, you can buy ebooks from eReader.com and read them on eReader under Wine (the DRM requires you to input your CC# and Name on your Credit Card once to open the eBook).
Download eReader for Windows
1. Open up Terminal and unzip eReader: unzip "eReader Win Pro 3.0.3.zip"
2. Open up Terminal and run the setup for eReader: wine setup.exe
3. Follow the Windows prompts to install it in Linux
4. Once done you can open it up from /home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Palm Digital Media/eReader. You can either "cd" into there, or run the string above with quotes like this: wine "/home/user/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Palm Digital Media/eReader" and it will open. If you download any pdb files copy them to "drive_c" and any directory therein and point eReader to that place, and it will use that directory as your library catalog.
3. Use Adobe Acrobat for PDFs
If you have a PDF of an eBook that's not DRM'd, you can use the built in Adobe Acrobat app to read the pdf'd eBook.
4. Use ePub Catalog in Firefox for reading epub files
Open Firefox and install the EPUBREADER Extension.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/45281
You can now read ePub files in Firefox and catalog them in Firefox.
5. Rotate Your Screen
Yes, you CAN rotate your screen in Linux for reading eBooks so that your screen is more like a Kindle or Nook.
In Adobe Acrobat:
1. Open your PDF
2. In Acrobat go to: View > Rotate Screen > Counter Clock Wise
3. In Acrobat go to: View > Full Screen Mode
To revert back, click on the escape key on your keyboard ("Esc") and then rotate the screen clock wise.
You can now "turn pages" by clicking the down arrow (it will be pointing left if you hold the netbook with the mouse pad in your left hand). Optionally, the right arrow, which is the down arrow if your holding your netbook as an ebook reader will work too.
In Everything Else:
1. Open Termnal
2. Type in: xrandr -o left
Wine
1. Open Terminal
2. Type in: winecfg
3. Select "Graphics". Then select "Emulate a Virtual Desktop"
4. Change resolution to 600 x 1080
5. Select Apply, then OK.
Open the apps as normal after you've rotated your screen. It can get a little confusing navigating the screen once you've rotated it because you've rotated EVERYTHING on the screen, but the mouse navigation is still the same (if you go up on the mouse, it goes left if you've changed your screen orientation to face left).
To return back to normal: xrandr -o normal
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Twitter Stats
Interesting, I didn't know I was one of the first people to twitter in Southern California (#15). http://twitterholic.com/top100/joined/bylocation/Southern%20Cali/
I also didn't know I am ranked #41 in the update category for Southern California. http://twitterholic.com/top100/updates/bylocation/Southern%20Cali/
Overall stats: http://twitterholic.com/dexterous1/ I'm ranked #2,544,961 :P
Cell Signal Extender
A while back I bought a cell signal extender. It turned out that the one I bought didn't work too well in my area. I had bought a zBoost YX500PCS. This works in the upper frequencies . It escapes me what frequency it was at, but it worked well for 3G internet connections, but not for phone calls (which I cross referenced on forums and it turns out that cell carriers sometimes split data and voice to take up more power on a certain frequency). I'm on Verizon Wireless, and in my area it seems VZW works on the ~800MHz range.
At any rate, I sold it on eBay and got a YX500CEL. I tested using it and saw a bar or two more on my Droid. When i placed a call, it would jump to four bars. My data went from RTTx1 to 3G. I put it away, and spent the next couple weeks thinking how to mount it. Outside would be best, but I live in an apartment on the bottom floor, and the walls outside seem to be made of a concrete of sorts. After further reading of the manual it also seems that I would have to ground the antenna for the extender. Even after all of that, I still would have to drill a whole to bring the coax inside from the antenna to the base, or get a window cable replacement that zBoost sells. Time to hit the manual again and see what my options were.
The manual says that the easiest way to setup is inside near a window. So I tried holding the antenna near a window and did some testing. Success! Good signal, and OK coverage. Had my wife check, and she didn't like seeing the coax hanging off of the curtain rod, so i took it down, but knew what I could do. The next day, I mounted it near the window, ran the coax through conduit I've laid out for my gigabit cabling i did a while back, and voila. All good, AND concealed behind a curtain.
So far, so good. I'm getting good coverage and wrote this blog on my Droid using only Blogaway and a 3G connection. The pics are the antenna mounted (revealed, and concealed) and the base.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Cloning Windows Servers for Free.
So, I was under some crunch time, and needed an imaging solution. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to any paid solutions, so I had to turn to open source. Now, I don't mind open source, but I rarely use it in big production systems. At any rate, I went ahead and chose one and began using it.
Clonezilla seemed to fit the bill. The two servers that needed to be cloned were both HPs. One was an HP Proliant ML350 G5, and the other was a Proliant DL 380 G4 with no optical drive, both using RAID 1. The RAID part wasn't that big of a concern since the image was going to on a single drive eventually, but the first step was to just get an image.
Originally we were looking for a solution that would allow us to image the servers during productions hours, but since no one had the software to do this, and some other obstacles arose, that idea was scrapped. Just for kicks, what I was planning to do if I was pushed to image the server during production hours was do a live image using DD to a USB drive, probably using Cygwin, or a port of DD for Windows. I would have then probably had to have walked the 3rd party tech how to restore from DD on a blank drive, so I'm kinda happy that didn't happen.
So with Clonezilla, I was going to have to image the servers using two techniques. One using the optical drive, the other using a USB drive. Optical was pretty easy. Just burn the latest STABLE ISO to a blank CD, and boot to it. There were two issues I had. The first being that the video was all garbled like a bad antenna signal when TV broadcasts were analog, I just hit Enter twice to see what would happen. I got to the point where it then asked about keyboard config, how I was going to image, etc. Then it started scanning hardware and loading device drivers. During this time it just stopped for about 2 minutes and kind of worried me (no flashing from optical drive, and I couldn't tell if it was hitting RAM or not, then it continued on). To my joy, it was able to see the data just fine.
Using Clonezilla
1. Choose your deployment method: ISO or USB
2. Go through the menus
3. Select the item that says Image
4. Select /dev for partimage
5. THEN plug in your USB device, wait a couple of seconds, and hit ENTER
6. Let it run and you'll have a clone to a image when all is done.
Using Clonezilla on USB
1. Go to here and follow directions: http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/liveusb.php
2. Ensure your server can boot from USB, AND has it chosen to boot from before hitting the disks.
3. Follow steps 2-6 above.
http://clonezilla.org/
Clonezilla seemed to fit the bill. The two servers that needed to be cloned were both HPs. One was an HP Proliant ML350 G5, and the other was a Proliant DL 380 G4 with no optical drive, both using RAID 1. The RAID part wasn't that big of a concern since the image was going to on a single drive eventually, but the first step was to just get an image.
Originally we were looking for a solution that would allow us to image the servers during productions hours, but since no one had the software to do this, and some other obstacles arose, that idea was scrapped. Just for kicks, what I was planning to do if I was pushed to image the server during production hours was do a live image using DD to a USB drive, probably using Cygwin, or a port of DD for Windows. I would have then probably had to have walked the 3rd party tech how to restore from DD on a blank drive, so I'm kinda happy that didn't happen.
So with Clonezilla, I was going to have to image the servers using two techniques. One using the optical drive, the other using a USB drive. Optical was pretty easy. Just burn the latest STABLE ISO to a blank CD, and boot to it. There were two issues I had. The first being that the video was all garbled like a bad antenna signal when TV broadcasts were analog, I just hit Enter twice to see what would happen. I got to the point where it then asked about keyboard config, how I was going to image, etc. Then it started scanning hardware and loading device drivers. During this time it just stopped for about 2 minutes and kind of worried me (no flashing from optical drive, and I couldn't tell if it was hitting RAM or not, then it continued on). To my joy, it was able to see the data just fine.
Using Clonezilla
1. Choose your deployment method: ISO or USB
2. Go through the menus
3. Select the item that says Image
4. Select /dev for partimage
5. THEN plug in your USB device, wait a couple of seconds, and hit ENTER
6. Let it run and you'll have a clone to a image when all is done.
Using Clonezilla on USB
1. Go to here and follow directions: http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live/liveusb.php
2. Ensure your server can boot from USB, AND has it chosen to boot from before hitting the disks.
3. Follow steps 2-6 above.
http://clonezilla.org/
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Using Truecrypt on Acer Aspire One
If you read one of my older posts, then you read that Truecrypt does not support encrypting the entire drive. I set out to see if it was possible just to encrypt the working home drive (I know it can be done, just didn't know how).
Well, a new version of Truecrypt just came out, version 6.1. And guess what? It still doesn't encrypt the whole system drive. Oh well...back to the drawing board.
To upgrade Truecrypt on the Acer Aspire one, follow Macles instructions for the older version, just use the new version of Truecrypt (i.e, replace the names with the newer version).
Great, so you got it going now what, right? Well time to follow these steps.
What you need:
1. A donwload of Truecrypt
2. An external drive or smb/cifs connection (to temporarily move your user directory).
3. Some time on your hands.
Great, now let's get to the good part.
Adjust user login
You want to login as root, this'll make it easier for you to move the user folder. To do this, you'll have to login as root. Here's a nce tip I found that'll allow you to be prompted with a login at boot:
http://snaprails.blogspot.com/2009/01/acer-aspire-one-linpus-password.html
Login as root
After you've made the above adjustements, you should login as root. This'll be self explanatory once you see the prompt.
Move the user folder
This made sense to me because I was already running low on space. Only about 1.7 GB free. My user folder was taking up about 1.4 GB, and I wanted to be able to utilize as much space as possible (keeping in mind to leave a little for the system should I want to modify anything that would take up space on the system.
1. Mount your external drive, or network drive
2. Transfer your user folder to the other drive. (So, copy then delete, or a straight move. I'm superstitious, so I do a copy and then a delete locally)
3. Clean up Trash so that you gain back the free space on your drive.
rm -rf /root/.local/share/Trash/files/*
rm -rf /root/.local/share/Trash/info/*
4. Fire up truecrypt
5. Click on Create Volume, and create a volume and place it where ever you want, as long as "user" has access to it. Choose whatever encryption method you want, and whatever password you want. When it asks for format choose ext2. I had originally chose none, and then was going to format using aufs, but only the /mnt/home directory needs it. The rest of the drive (including /home/user) is actually ext2. I had to then format it after using ext2. Go back to where you created the Truecrypt container (mine is along the lines of /home/encryptedcontainer.tc), and make sure that "user" has access to it:
-rw-rw---- 1 user user 3221225472 2009-06-02 15:05 encryptedcontainer.tc
You can accomplish this with:
chown -R user:user encryptedcontainer.tc
6. Ensure that it's created and that you can mount it.
7. Create a folder called "user" under /home NOTE: Any messages you get just click OK. Ensure that user has access to the folder: chown -R user:user /home/user
7. Once you've mounted your Truecrypt image, go ahead and transfer the data over to it. (Truecrypt will tell you where it's mounted to, usually /media/Truecrypt1)
8. Run the following to put "user" as owner on the contents:
chown -R user:user /media/Truecrypt1 .
NOTE: The "period" after the command. This will ensure that even the .name files will be adjusted (if you put *.* it may include "." and ".." which will effect the directory above it as well).
9. Ensure everything's been trasferred over, and that Truecrypt is good. Now dismount the file in Truecrypt.
Get Truecrypt to Startup and Mount at Boot
1. Now follow the instructions listed here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1014891.html
2. Save it, and reboot
3. You should now be prompted with 2 authentication windows
a. The first is to authenticate to the Truecrypt container. If you don't authenticate to it, the boot will loop, and you can't get into "user".
b. The second authentication screen is the gdm one which will allow you to actually login to your account.
Once you login, everything should be working fine. The only problem I've exprienced so far was with Jungledisk. I had to remove it, download it, and extract it again. I also had to remove the .junglediskinstance file. The encryption is seemless. You will not see jungledisk running in the taskbar, or top. If you run ps aux | grep jungledisk, you'll see it running where it mounted your container to /home/user.
The advantage of this setup is that:
1. The Acer Apsire One needs authentication now to get into it.
2. The "User" home folder is encrypted now.
The disadvantage of this setup is:
1. It takes a little longer to boot
2. If you forget your password, your SOL, and need to go back to your backup (still got that user folder you copied over?)
3. Someone can still login as root and see where your Truecrypt container is and attempt to brute force it. If the container uses the same password as your Linpus login, then a skilled user could crack your passwd file and use that to crack your password for Truecrypt.
Well, a new version of Truecrypt just came out, version 6.1. And guess what? It still doesn't encrypt the whole system drive. Oh well...back to the drawing board.
To upgrade Truecrypt on the Acer Aspire one, follow Macles instructions for the older version, just use the new version of Truecrypt (i.e, replace the names with the newer version).
Great, so you got it going now what, right? Well time to follow these steps.
What you need:
1. A donwload of Truecrypt
2. An external drive or smb/cifs connection (to temporarily move your user directory).
3. Some time on your hands.
Great, now let's get to the good part.
Adjust user login
You want to login as root, this'll make it easier for you to move the user folder. To do this, you'll have to login as root. Here's a nce tip I found that'll allow you to be prompted with a login at boot:
http://snaprails.blogspot.com/2009/01/acer-aspire-one-linpus-password.html
Login as root
After you've made the above adjustements, you should login as root. This'll be self explanatory once you see the prompt.
Move the user folder
This made sense to me because I was already running low on space. Only about 1.7 GB free. My user folder was taking up about 1.4 GB, and I wanted to be able to utilize as much space as possible (keeping in mind to leave a little for the system should I want to modify anything that would take up space on the system.
1. Mount your external drive, or network drive
2. Transfer your user folder to the other drive. (So, copy then delete, or a straight move. I'm superstitious, so I do a copy and then a delete locally)
3. Clean up Trash so that you gain back the free space on your drive.
rm -rf /root/.local/share/Trash/files/*
rm -rf /root/.local/share/Trash/info/*
4. Fire up truecrypt
5. Click on Create Volume, and create a volume and place it where ever you want, as long as "user" has access to it. Choose whatever encryption method you want, and whatever password you want. When it asks for format choose ext2. I had originally chose none, and then was going to format using aufs, but only the /mnt/home directory needs it. The rest of the drive (including /home/user) is actually ext2. I had to then format it after using ext2. Go back to where you created the Truecrypt container (mine is along the lines of /home/encryptedcontainer.tc), and make sure that "user" has access to it:
-rw-rw---- 1 user user 3221225472 2009-06-02 15:05 encryptedcontainer.tc
You can accomplish this with:
chown -R user:user encryptedcontainer.tc
6. Ensure that it's created and that you can mount it.
7. Create a folder called "user" under /home NOTE: Any messages you get just click OK. Ensure that user has access to the folder: chown -R user:user /home/user
7. Once you've mounted your Truecrypt image, go ahead and transfer the data over to it. (Truecrypt will tell you where it's mounted to, usually /media/Truecrypt1)
8. Run the following to put "user" as owner on the contents:
chown -R user:user /media/Truecrypt1 .
NOTE: The "period" after the command. This will ensure that even the .name files will be adjusted (if you put *.* it may include "." and ".." which will effect the directory above it as well).
9. Ensure everything's been trasferred over, and that Truecrypt is good. Now dismount the file in Truecrypt.
Get Truecrypt to Startup and Mount at Boot
1. Now follow the instructions listed here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1014891.html
2. Save it, and reboot
3. You should now be prompted with 2 authentication windows
a. The first is to authenticate to the Truecrypt container. If you don't authenticate to it, the boot will loop, and you can't get into "user".
b. The second authentication screen is the gdm one which will allow you to actually login to your account.
Once you login, everything should be working fine. The only problem I've exprienced so far was with Jungledisk. I had to remove it, download it, and extract it again. I also had to remove the .junglediskinstance file. The encryption is seemless. You will not see jungledisk running in the taskbar, or top. If you run ps aux | grep jungledisk, you'll see it running where it mounted your container to /home/user.
The advantage of this setup is that:
1. The Acer Apsire One needs authentication now to get into it.
2. The "User" home folder is encrypted now.
The disadvantage of this setup is:
1. It takes a little longer to boot
2. If you forget your password, your SOL, and need to go back to your backup (still got that user folder you copied over?)
3. Someone can still login as root and see where your Truecrypt container is and attempt to brute force it. If the container uses the same password as your Linpus login, then a skilled user could crack your passwd file and use that to crack your password for Truecrypt.
jungledisk + Amazon S3 on Acer Aspire One
I was trying to get this working a while ago, and gave up. I managed to get far enough where I was able to get it to work only using root (sudo, or straight up root). Little did I know I was close to getting it working under "user" but gave up to soon. Eh, it happens...
At any rate, here's how to do it. This assumes that you already have an S3 account configured and downloaded Jungledisk.
1. After you've downloaded jungledisk, extract and untar it.
tar -xvzf jungledisk*
2. check the permissions on the contents. Pay attention to jungledisk and junglediskmonitor, and ensure that they look like below.
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 4394430 2009-04-28 11:17 jungledisk
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 9164367 2009-04-28 11:17 junglediskmonitor
3. Check /dev/fuse and make sure that the permissons on it are as follows:
crw-rw---- 1 root fuse 10, 229 2008-03-04 08:44 /dev/fuse
4. Next, add "user" to group "fuse" by issuing the following command:
sudo usermod -a -G fuse user
5. Ensure that you have the correct group memebership by issuing the following command, and making sure you see "fuse" in the list:
[user@localhost jungledisk]$ id user
uid=500(user) gid=500(user) groups=500(user),10(wheel),496(fuse)
6. Reboot, otherwise the changes to group membership will not take effect.
7. Go ahead and run junglediskmonitor, once you get back up and running and enter in the requested information.
This is a great addition to my Acer Aspire One using an 8GB SSD!
At any rate, here's how to do it. This assumes that you already have an S3 account configured and downloaded Jungledisk.
1. After you've downloaded jungledisk, extract and untar it.
tar -xvzf jungledisk*
2. check the permissions on the contents. Pay attention to jungledisk and junglediskmonitor, and ensure that they look like below.
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 4394430 2009-04-28 11:17 jungledisk
-rwxr-xr-x 1 user user 9164367 2009-04-28 11:17 junglediskmonitor
3. Check /dev/fuse and make sure that the permissons on it are as follows:
crw-rw---- 1 root fuse 10, 229 2008-03-04 08:44 /dev/fuse
4. Next, add "user" to group "fuse" by issuing the following command:
sudo usermod -a -G fuse user
5. Ensure that you have the correct group memebership by issuing the following command, and making sure you see "fuse" in the list:
[user@localhost jungledisk]$ id user
uid=500(user) gid=500(user) groups=500(user),10(wheel),496(fuse)
6. Reboot, otherwise the changes to group membership will not take effect.
7. Go ahead and run junglediskmonitor, once you get back up and running and enter in the requested information.
This is a great addition to my Acer Aspire One using an 8GB SSD!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Truecrypt: Encrypt entre OS on Linux
Well, after much searching, and reading of tutorials, and running truecrypt --help, I could not find a way.
This pretty much solidifies the reason why (contrary to other posts on the 'net).
This pretty much solidifies the reason why (contrary to other posts on the 'net).
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=sys-encryption-supported-os
Notice *nix is not supported on the list.
Just so we're clear, with the current verson of Truecrypt (6.1a), you CANNOT encrypt the boot/system partition on Linux or Mac OS X for that matter.
I hope this helps out someone else.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
You have SSH, or FTP and want to save bandwidth?
If you have SSH or FTP open on your server (*nix), and are noticing bandwidth drops (probably in the evening if your State side), then check your logs (firewall, /var/log/messages, /var/log/secure, etc.).
In my case, I noticed a whole lot of brute force attempts. Nothing connecting successful, but lots of lots of connections. Sometimes thousands throughout the night.
Enough, I said. I then hit google to figure out what I could do about it. Denyhosts and Fail2Ban to the rescue! Denyhosts checks items in the secure log, and adds them to hosts.deny on the fly (it's scriptable, can be added to cron, and can be configured to send reports to you as well!). I use Denyhosts for SSH connections, I couldn't get it to work for FTP, though.
Here comes Fail2Ban. After some more searching, I found Fail2Ban. You can have Fail2Ban run a a wrapper to check whatever log you want, and look for certain items to then start the ban from. It works alot like Denyhosts - it will then add the "banned" IP addresses to hosts.deny. It can be added to cron as well, and can also send reports to an admin.
http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net/
http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
My reports on attacks are a LOT shorter now (after an 'x' amount of failed attempts, they are permabanned), and my bandwidth in the evening is more normal now.
In my case, I noticed a whole lot of brute force attempts. Nothing connecting successful, but lots of lots of connections. Sometimes thousands throughout the night.
Enough, I said. I then hit google to figure out what I could do about it. Denyhosts and Fail2Ban to the rescue! Denyhosts checks items in the secure log, and adds them to hosts.deny on the fly (it's scriptable, can be added to cron, and can be configured to send reports to you as well!). I use Denyhosts for SSH connections, I couldn't get it to work for FTP, though.
Here comes Fail2Ban. After some more searching, I found Fail2Ban. You can have Fail2Ban run a a wrapper to check whatever log you want, and look for certain items to then start the ban from. It works alot like Denyhosts - it will then add the "banned" IP addresses to hosts.deny. It can be added to cron as well, and can also send reports to an admin.
http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net/
http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
My reports on attacks are a LOT shorter now (after an 'x' amount of failed attempts, they are permabanned), and my bandwidth in the evening is more normal now.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Essential Applications for Acer Aspire One
Here's a list of essential applications (for me) on the Acer Aspire One (Linpus).
Thunderbird is an e-mail client, and has a lot of capabilities with it. It comes with an address book already, so you can ditch the Evolution like one on the Acer. I tried Evolution, and it was OK, but I updated something that wound up screwing up the OS. Lightning is the Sunbird Calendar, but integrated into Thunderbird. Think of it as the calendar in Outlook. Both combined make a really nice e-mail client.
Firefox 3
Out of the box, the AA1 comes with Firefox 2.x. You can follow macles site to upgrade to Firefox 3.x.
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-firefox-3-on-acer-aspire-one.html
Skype
We all know (or should know) what Skype is. But just in case....it's a client that allows you to video chat, VoIP, or text with other Skype members. You can also VoIP for a small price to landlines. Anyway, get it. It's nice. Just realize that video for Linux with Skype is relatively new, so your video may be a little dark or dropped frames when using wifi.
Gizmo
For those who don't know, Gizmo is a VoIP/IM client. It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and some others. http://gizmo5.com/pc/ It's good to use if you're looking for a free VoIP client with integrated IM capibilities that will work with your VoIP account/PBX.
Truecrypt
I happen to have the 8GB SSD version of the AA1. I love it. Some people think it's not enough space. It's enough space as long as you don't do video editing, or heavy photo editing, or want more music than you can listen to on your netbook...but I digress. Truecrypt is an encryption application that allows you to encrypt files, directories, or the entire hard drive. More info is available here: http://www.truecrypt.org/. How to install it, here: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-truecrypt-on-acer-aspire-one.html
Jungledisk
So, ~6.5GB not enough for ya? Fine. Go get an Amazon S3 account. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. And then get Jungledisk: http://www.jungledisk.com/. As you may have guessed, it allows you to use the "cloud" or Internet as storage. Amazon S3 allows you to store data on their servers. Jungledisk allows you to access your data like a drive from Linux, Windows, and Mac. And yes, it even works from a USB thumb drive. How much space you say? Unlimited (you get as much as you pay for - they charge for pulls/pushes/and storage). I got just shy of 1TB there. You want access via web? You can do an extra payment to Jungledisk and get webaccess to...
VLC
You wanna play all those "moviez" you got from your "friendz", or "songz" you got from your "friendz". Download VLC. It'll have all of the codecs you need. Here's how: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/11/installing-vlc-09-on-aspire-one-linux.html
rdesktop
What was that? You want to remote into a Windows box, but you can't find Remote Desktop for Linux? Get rdesktop. Fn+F2 > terminal > sudo yum install rdesktop
NOTE: If you want sound you gotta do: aoss rdesktop blah, blah
vnc
Huh, what? You want to control Macs now? Picky, picky. K, terminal > sudo yum install vncviewer
ssh
Oh, so you heard you can do things in Linux encrypted like. Maybe you wanna check e-mail on another server with Pine, or getting terminal access to a box somewhere but encrypted. Yes it can be done: terminal > sudo yum install openssh-clients
telnet
Yeah, telnet's not on here. I still use it. If you want to too: sudo yum install telnet
tor
Tor allows for some basic anonymity. Layman's terms? It changes your IP address that everyone sees. So it'll make you seem like you're in Germany when you're really in Tokyo. How? sudo yum install tor
privoxy
You gotta use this and edit the config if you want to use tor while surfing the 'net. sudo yum install privoxy (it'll actually just update it). Please go here for editing config file (check the Privoxy section):http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en
torbutton
So you have tor, and privoxy. But you can't get them to work? Install the torbutton add-on to Firefox and restart Firefox. Then fireup tor: sudo service tor start ...and sudo service privoxy start. Now, go ahead, click on the bottom right of Firefox where it says "Tor Disabled"...watch it turn from red to green. Do it...do it...do it. Now go to www.whatismyip.com...look it's different...now you're masquerading with a different address. Check out Google, you may get a different splash page if your IP is from a non English-speaking country...have fun...
OK, so now you're all set right? Wrong. You forgot backups ::slaps forehead:: Backups, yes, backups....that thing you wish you did when you lose all of your data. In my humble opinion, you have two choices. aa1blinux which seems to be alright. You don't need to compile anything, and you can back up to an external drive (not a network drive). Macles made it: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer-aspire-one-aa1backup.html
Or you can use PING: http://ping.windowsdream.com/ A little more difficult to use for basic users, but it works. I've backed up and restored lots of times successfully. The caveat? You gotta be turned off to back everything up and boot from an image (it's waaay eaiser if you have a USB optical drive). But it backs up everything. Even your BIOS. All into an image. Recovery is pretty easy once you get the hang of it as well. Plus, it works with networked drives (SMB).
Audacity
One day you get the itch to make a podcast. Or maybe you're an aspiring ghost hunter and what to use this little netbook to present to your client. An any rate, it's easy. sudo yum install audacity I don't think it's add's the LAME requirements for *.mp3 though. If not, then you have to compile from source. But that doesn't scare you, right? You have backups now.
Picasa
Wanna share your photos with loved ones? Have a Google account? Try Picasa, it's great. http://picasa.google.com/linux/ Download and follow their directions. It's pretty straight forward. Technical stuff: It's really installing in under Wine for it to work with Linux. It's neat and works.
Dia
If you're like me and like to diagram things: Blueprinting, Visio-ing, etc., then this is for you. It's small. It's like Visio, and it works. sudo yum install dia.
That's it, maybe I'll post how to get the others working that require more steps.
- Thunderbird & Lightning
- Firefox 3
- Skype
- Gizmo
- Truecrypt
- Jungledisk
- VLC
- rdesktop
- vnc
- ssh
- telnet
- tor
- privoxy (old version already there, just need to update it)
- torbutton (tor button one click thingy for Firefox)
- aa1blinux if you have an external drive, if not PING
- Audacity
- Picasa
- Dia
Thunderbird is an e-mail client, and has a lot of capabilities with it. It comes with an address book already, so you can ditch the Evolution like one on the Acer. I tried Evolution, and it was OK, but I updated something that wound up screwing up the OS. Lightning is the Sunbird Calendar, but integrated into Thunderbird. Think of it as the calendar in Outlook. Both combined make a really nice e-mail client.
Firefox 3
Out of the box, the AA1 comes with Firefox 2.x. You can follow macles site to upgrade to Firefox 3.x.
http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-firefox-3-on-acer-aspire-one.html
Skype
We all know (or should know) what Skype is. But just in case....it's a client that allows you to video chat, VoIP, or text with other Skype members. You can also VoIP for a small price to landlines. Anyway, get it. It's nice. Just realize that video for Linux with Skype is relatively new, so your video may be a little dark or dropped frames when using wifi.
Gizmo
For those who don't know, Gizmo is a VoIP/IM client. It supports AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and some others. http://gizmo5.com/pc/ It's good to use if you're looking for a free VoIP client with integrated IM capibilities that will work with your VoIP account/PBX.
Truecrypt
I happen to have the 8GB SSD version of the AA1. I love it. Some people think it's not enough space. It's enough space as long as you don't do video editing, or heavy photo editing, or want more music than you can listen to on your netbook...but I digress. Truecrypt is an encryption application that allows you to encrypt files, directories, or the entire hard drive. More info is available here: http://www.truecrypt.org/. How to install it, here: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/installing-truecrypt-on-acer-aspire-one.html
Jungledisk
So, ~6.5GB not enough for ya? Fine. Go get an Amazon S3 account. http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. And then get Jungledisk: http://www.jungledisk.com/. As you may have guessed, it allows you to use the "cloud" or Internet as storage. Amazon S3 allows you to store data on their servers. Jungledisk allows you to access your data like a drive from Linux, Windows, and Mac. And yes, it even works from a USB thumb drive. How much space you say? Unlimited (you get as much as you pay for - they charge for pulls/pushes/and storage). I got just shy of 1TB there. You want access via web? You can do an extra payment to Jungledisk and get webaccess to...
VLC
You wanna play all those "moviez" you got from your "friendz", or "songz" you got from your "friendz". Download VLC. It'll have all of the codecs you need. Here's how: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/11/installing-vlc-09-on-aspire-one-linux.html
rdesktop
What was that? You want to remote into a Windows box, but you can't find Remote Desktop for Linux? Get rdesktop. Fn+F2 > terminal > sudo yum install rdesktop
NOTE: If you want sound you gotta do: aoss rdesktop blah, blah
vnc
Huh, what? You want to control Macs now? Picky, picky. K, terminal > sudo yum install vncviewer
ssh
Oh, so you heard you can do things in Linux encrypted like. Maybe you wanna check e-mail on another server with Pine, or getting terminal access to a box somewhere but encrypted. Yes it can be done: terminal > sudo yum install openssh-clients
telnet
Yeah, telnet's not on here. I still use it. If you want to too: sudo yum install telnet
tor
Tor allows for some basic anonymity. Layman's terms? It changes your IP address that everyone sees. So it'll make you seem like you're in Germany when you're really in Tokyo. How? sudo yum install tor
privoxy
You gotta use this and edit the config if you want to use tor while surfing the 'net. sudo yum install privoxy (it'll actually just update it). Please go here for editing config file (check the Privoxy section):http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-unix.html.en
torbutton
So you have tor, and privoxy. But you can't get them to work? Install the torbutton add-on to Firefox and restart Firefox. Then fireup tor: sudo service tor start ...and sudo service privoxy start. Now, go ahead, click on the bottom right of Firefox where it says "Tor Disabled"...watch it turn from red to green. Do it...do it...do it. Now go to www.whatismyip.com...look it's different...now you're masquerading with a different address. Check out Google, you may get a different splash page if your IP is from a non English-speaking country...have fun...
OK, so now you're all set right? Wrong. You forgot backups ::slaps forehead:: Backups, yes, backups....that thing you wish you did when you lose all of your data. In my humble opinion, you have two choices. aa1blinux which seems to be alright. You don't need to compile anything, and you can back up to an external drive (not a network drive). Macles made it: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/12/acer-aspire-one-aa1backup.html
Or you can use PING: http://ping.windowsdream.com/ A little more difficult to use for basic users, but it works. I've backed up and restored lots of times successfully. The caveat? You gotta be turned off to back everything up and boot from an image (it's waaay eaiser if you have a USB optical drive). But it backs up everything. Even your BIOS. All into an image. Recovery is pretty easy once you get the hang of it as well. Plus, it works with networked drives (SMB).
Audacity
One day you get the itch to make a podcast. Or maybe you're an aspiring ghost hunter and what to use this little netbook to present to your client. An any rate, it's easy. sudo yum install audacity I don't think it's add's the LAME requirements for *.mp3 though. If not, then you have to compile from source. But that doesn't scare you, right? You have backups now.
Picasa
Wanna share your photos with loved ones? Have a Google account? Try Picasa, it's great. http://picasa.google.com/linux/ Download and follow their directions. It's pretty straight forward. Technical stuff: It's really installing in under Wine for it to work with Linux. It's neat and works.
Dia
If you're like me and like to diagram things: Blueprinting, Visio-ing, etc., then this is for you. It's small. It's like Visio, and it works. sudo yum install dia.
That's it, maybe I'll post how to get the others working that require more steps.
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