Flaker's!

Another BE version

2011-03-01T07:43:20+00:00

This is the last binary package. I think I sorted out the most important issues I was facing (file download not working, settings save not working, etc). At least on the features I use (e.g. only XML storage)

Hereit is the binary package (only tested under Mono 2.10.1 and with no App_Data in it)

Federico

BlogEngine and Mono 2.10 - Part II (working.. mostly)

2011-02-21T13:15:00+00:00

Today, I finally got BE 2.0 to run under Mono 2.10.

To tell the truth, BE needs little work to run under Mono. There are already some defensive checks in the code to avoid known Mono (not yet) implemented issues. But it didn’t work correctly under Mono 2.8.

I also wanted to work with it under MonoDevelop, build it with it so it is an all around Mono experience.

MonoDevelop is not able to work with Web Sites, so I had to convert BE to a Web Application. At this point Visual Studio came handy because it already has some kind of conversion wizard. Then some time was spent getting everything to look like a real Web Application with folders and everything instead of one big chunk of files and default names. I think there is some work missing in order to split the code in a more sensible way.

After that lot of issues appeared because now we have the infamous "designer" files that are auto generated and in some those designer partial classes were not what the rest of the code expected.

I realized after a little bit, that MonoDevelop needed some extra hints (more than Visual Studio) in order to regenerate the designer classes given that there was no explicit TagPrefix registration in several pages or controls and of course it was also missing from the Web.Config (the included one was correct any more because of my changes).

Some extra tweaking was done later like removing one parameter in a constructor as suggested by MoMa and removing a not supported attribute in the Web.Config file (RedirectMode) and it worked.

Not quite so ... every widget got to retrieve just one item from the store. I first noticed that while using the Twitter widget. Turned out that there is some difference between the way Mono implements:

XmlReader.ReadToNextSibling(String)

I will check what in the Mono list; probably someone has already reported it.

Replacing that with XmlReader.ReadToNextFollowing(String) did the trick though probably is not exactly what the developer had in mind.

Using MONO_IOMAP set to the “all” value did not take care of hardcoded images or style sheets files and they failed to appear. Almost always the error was because of the “Admin” path that is later written as “admin”. I renamed to directory but I am not so sure about mod_mono not helping with those paths that involve non Net files.

Anyway, it was working in the end as you can see.

And my new footer in the Admin area

All the code is hosted in GitHub which gave me an opportunity to start to use Git. There is really nothing interesting in my changes, it is almost the stock source but transformed into a Web App.

Code is here.

One important problem that I still have is an error when trying to contact the web services inside the api folder. Somehow the Mono runtime tries to instantiate a non existent type. I am trying to work around that at the moment.

UPDATE: my bad there (I think) one of the web services had an error in its asmx file pointing to that inexistent type. When I hit a different services, all of them got build at the same time and that other failed bringing everything down. Now it is fixed! Something is wrong with the Settings save.

It simply never calls the service to save, that is the last thing I am planning to fix on this. Binaries BlogEngineWA-20110226.tar.gz (1.98 mb)

BlogEngine 2.0 under Mono (under Linux)

2011-01-30T16:53:00+00:00

Hi there,

Today I’ve been trying to make BlogEngine 2.0 on Mono 2.8.2 not only the binaries but I also wanted to get the source built under Mono.

There were some problems with it so I decided to use Monodevelop to work on the source.

Unfortunately, MD does not support Web Site projects so I had to transform the Web Site project into a Web Application. That means that some of the BE features like seeing extensions code is not working right now.

First I used VS2010 to convert to a Web Application. After that I used MD under Windows to start the work under Mono (I have a 2.8.2 runtime there) and then took it to Linux (the VMware virtual machine provided here).

So far the site starts, you can see all the pages, list the extensions and activate them.

But some listings appear empty and I have not tested the database configs, only the regular XML backed store. If you want to give it a try, please share with us what did you do to get a fully working Mono version.

The source: BEMono-src.zip (6.39 mb)

The binaries (compiler included in 2.8.2 Mono bundle): BEMono.zip (2.34 mb)

Of course the IOMAP env setting should be set to “all” …. all the time (even when using XSP).

Federico

IIS 7 broken application after sharing

2010-08-10T16:47:00+00:00

A couple of days ago someone shared a folder where an ASP Net application was running. This under a Win2K8 (R2 I think) and suddenly the whole application was broken with some strange messages like:

“Could not load file or assembly” and some of my assemblies names

My first idea was that the IIS user was somehow removed and was not able to access the application folder. I set the user with the appropriate permissions on the folders and nothing! I removed the offending share and nothing!

After googling and trying different things I tried the following

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727>caspol -u -ag All_Code -url "C:\SomeCompanySite\bin\*" FullTrust

and, that´s it, the application was running again :)

Turns out (and this is fully documented) that a share runs in a more strict context, thus my application was dying on me.

You can also run caspol to trust the share if you want to.

BTW, you might need to run that command from the Framework64 folder.

Federico

Linux and D-Link DWA 125

2010-08-08T23:17:00+00:00

I´ve installed openSuse 11.3 64bits since it seems to have the most complete and up to date distribution of mono. Since installing it, making my usb wireless card (D-Link DWA-125) has been a pain. Finally I had it working with NetworkManager but I noticed that it kept dropping the connection without any reason. Not only that (this may happen) but I could not restart my connection. It simply refused to reconnect.

After running lsmod I noticed the name of the kernel module handling the device: ra2870sta. Then I went to the manofacturer´s site and downloaded their lastest driver for Linux, the file name is 2010_0709_RT2870_Linux_STA_v2.4.0.1.tar.bz2. There is a Date column in the downloads table saying 07/09/2010. I really do not know if that is really the date of their latest update, but the version is 2.4.0.1.

If you run:

modinfo rt2870sta

as su on your terminal, from stock openSuse I got something a version like 2.3. Without looking at the source in detail, it is difficult to say if that 2.3 is directly comparable to the 2.4.01 from ralink´s site but I gave it a try. After unpacking:

tar jxvf 2010_0709_RT2870_Linux_STA_v2.4.0.1.tar.bz2

I got all the source code. In order to build everything you need at least the kernel-desktop-devel package:

zypper in kernel-desktop-devel

In the root folder of the module run:

make

Everything should go smooth. In the os/linux directory you should have a file named rt2870sta.ko file. You may try to run the module right now by doing:

insmod rt2870sta.ko

in the os/linux directory.

Following a regular procedue, I run:

make install

to find out a minute later that I´d broken my wireless connection. I had to reinstall the package with the wireless module and firmware from the openSuse dvd.

So I decided to try again. This time I made a backup copy of my original files. I found them by running:

rpm -qal | grep rt2870

the output is in the image below.

From there, the important files are rt2870.bin and rt2870sta.ko (the .h file is an empty file)

Then proceeded to replace those files with the ones I got from the build stage. Run:

depmod

and that´s it.

I could not remove the current module immediately I needed to stop every hint of wireless/network activity so I unchecked Enabled Networking from NetworkManager and proceeded to run:

modprobe -rf rt2870sta

and after that I run:

modprobe rt2870sta

to get the new module loaded.

Nothing happened, the activity led on the little usb device was dead. So I decided to run lsusb and modinfo again. This time I noticed that the lsusb output said:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 07d1:3c0d D-Link System

But no device with 07d1 (D-Link) 3c0d (device) was present in the alias list of the module. There were only two devices for DLink:

alias: usb:v07D1p3C09d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*

alias: usb:v07D1p3C0Dd*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip*

so, no wonder nothing was happening. I tracked the identifiers to a file named rtusb_dev_id.c in it I added my new line:

{USB_DEVICE(0x07D1,0x3C0D)}, /* D-Link DWA 125 FD */

build again, copied the modules again, run depmod, restarted to be sure that everything was starting from 0.

NetworkManager took a couple of minutes to lift but finally I saw my connection up

So far I hadn´t had any weird drop connection and I hope it stays the same.

One important detail is this module expects a file called RT2870STA.dat in /etc/Wireless. It includes a certain number of parameters to initialize the driver. You can read about its values in the README_STA file.

Federico

BTW: anything like Live Writer for Linux?

Resources for the Spanish speaking reversers community

2010-05-25T19:28:58+00:00

It´s always nice to see reverse engineering resources in our own language and by our people. I´ve been out of this subject for some years and I am happy to see this community. It´s obvious that there is no lack of brain power and there is some excellent material (really good). Wanna see what’s this about? Check:

Ricardo Narvaja´s site.

Yashira.

Cracks Latinos (Google Group)

Nifty community logo is also included (not done by me:

Happy reversing :)

Technorati Tags: Cracks latinos,community,cracking,low level,assembler

Some food for the brain. Are you a loser? a clueless?

2009-11-05T08:05:00+00:00

Technorati Tags: loosers,sociopaths,clueless,the office,organizations

Last week I read an interesting post that used the show “The Office” to analyze general organizations. Some of its ideas sounded too strange for me and after all ”The Office” still lives in fiction and that tends to eliminate or exaggerate tiny but numerous factors present in a work environment. Anyway the definition of the layers in the organizational pyramid and the enunciated principle left me thinking and kind of agreeing at least partially.

The Gervais principle as Venkatesh calls it says:

Sociopaths, in their own best interests, knowingly promote over-performing losers into middle-management, groom under-performing losers into sociopaths, and leave the average bare-minimum-effort losers to fend for themselves.

In order to understand it, you need the definition of the layers population. I think these definitions shocked me the most, from the top of the organization to the bottom as in the picture:

Sociopaths enter and exit organizations at will, at any stage, and do whatever it takes to come out on top. The contribute creativity in early stages of a organization’s life, neurotic leadership in the middle stages, and cold-bloodedness in the later stages, where they drive decisions like mergers, acquisitions and layoffs that others are too scared or too compassionate to drive. They are also the ones capable of equally impersonally exploiting a young idea for growth in the beginning, killing one good idea to concentrate resources on another at maturity, and milking an end-of-life idea through harvest-and-exit market strategies.

The Clueless are the ones who lack the competence to circulate freely through the economy (unlike sociopaths and losers), and build up a perverse sense of loyalty to the firm, even when events make it abundantly clear that the firm is not loyal to them. To sustain themselves, they must be capable of fashioning elaborate delusions based on idealized notions of the firm — the perfectly pathological entities we mentioned. Unless squeezed out by forces they cannot resist, they hang on as long as possible, long after both sociopaths and losers have left …

MacLeod’s “Loser” layer had me puzzled for a long time, because I was interpreting it in cultural terms: the kind of person you call a “loser.” While some may be losers in that sense too, they are primarily losers in the economic sense: those who have, for various reasons, made (or been forced to make) a bad economic bargain: they’ve given up some potential for long-term economic liberty (as capitalists) for short-term economic stability. Traded freedom for a paycheck in short. They actually produce, but are not compensated in proportion to the value they create.

You can read the complete post, it is very interesting. At least for me, the loser – clueless part was very enlightening.

Federico

TFS tools by Telerik

2009-10-01T09:06:00+00:00

Technorati Tags: tfs,telerik,dashboard

Recently the components company Telerik released the beta version of a couple of products directed toward TFS users and managers. Of course both products make heavy use of Telerik’s visual components, in this case the WPF suite.

The first one (in my arbitrary order) is the TFS Dashboard. Basically it shows several little reports and indicators on the project status. It also shows failed builds and the reason why they failed. I am not using Team Build right now so I could not check that. Below is a screenshot of how the dashboard works on my current project.

Too bad I had to add those white boxes to erase particular names. In any case, the dashboard idea is there. The purpose is to have several projects and the appropriate dashboards are displayed a configured amount of time before going to the next project.

Before opening the dashboard, the program receives you with a Welcome screen with some configuration options.

I don’t know how it did it but the pre selected template is the correct one. I do not have “TFS warehouse access” so some of the widgets that compose the dashboard are unavailable to me :(.

There is also a configuration option once you are in the dashboard. The config option is composed of two tabs.

The first configuration tab “General” mainly deals with how you see the dashboard.

The second one, “Projects”, shows the list of your projects and if you click on them a very detailed configuration screen comes up.

As you see, there is a myriad options basically on what to select in order to build the widgets used on the dashboard. One thing I cannot make sense of is the Poll Interval. Is anyone really going to be checking the dashboard like that? Maybe if there is some screen/monitor/tv visible to all the team members?

The tool looks good an a bit strange as all the WPF applications (still). But definitely is something to check.

The second tool, and IMO the most useful of the pair is the Work Item Manager. Basically it allows you to create, see and query your workitems in a more comfortable way than using Team Explorer (that is very subjective). You can see the main screen below.

This is a beta program and as you see there is a good reason for it. After selecting a work item (Sprint Backlog Item if you must know) an exception was thrown. Anyway the interesting stuff is how just selecting the work item, the related info got selected. I see the sprint, the related Backlog Item (on the left). You also can create new work items, as in Team Explorer, nothing so new there.

One of my favorite views is the task dashboard. Take a look.

It looks just like the task board with the little “post it”s and you can even drag and drop the items.

There is a ton of other cool things to see, just download the installer (BTW, is it the simple VS Setup Project installer?). I hope the tools are going to be free after the beta stage.

Federico

nHibernate: learning

2009-08-29T09:16:00+00:00

I always have the desire to learn new stuff. Usually (and thanks God for that) I always learn something new in my projects .... but not always what I want :).

One pending issue has been nHibernate for some time. And if like me you want to learn about it you can check these excellent webcasts by Steve Bohlen. (Techsmith codec required)

The download for the whole "season" is a bit large but they are worthy, specially if you are nHibernate ignorant like me.

I wish there were more Steves to create all the other webcasts I am missing!

Federico

Smalltalk (and time available)

2008-12-08T08:31:00+00:00

Technorati Tags: smalltalk,learning,squeak,visualworks

Today I set myself to start learning Smalltalk. For unknown reasons (availability, laziness, incompetence, who knows?) all of my OO teaching in university was using the venerable and powerful C++.

Years later I see that C++ while powerful on its own was probably not the right language to start with objects, it drags a big weight because of its C familiarity, so OO concepts might be a bit obscured by the language itself.

Being in Houston alone and without a car (Houston is amazingly not "walk friendly") I decided to see for myself what I missed in the past by learning some Smalltalk now. Probably it is not going to be the same experience, years of using other languages and platforms are probably an obstacle while trying to learn something new, previous experience clouds and blurs your ideas (like C++ clouded my vision of objects). Anyway I am willing to give it a try. According to Smalltalk gurus and followers my mind should be blown away and a whole new vision of objects may appear in front of me. I want to believe these people are not under the effects of any psychotropic (this guy's writing doesn't help the cause).

In any case, I am about to try two different environments.

Squeak (free and open source)

VisualWorks (free for non commercial use)

I know there's a Smalltalk implementation over the Net stack, including wrappers over the library to present it as standard Smalltalk library. I will try that later since I do not want to be diverted by other familiar stuff.

Right know I am in the hunting for good learning material ...

If my mind is blown away ... surely I will be writing about that.

Federico