Bootstrapping

LaCie 500 network disk..mounting under linux

2008-09-20T15:00:00.003+02:00

Another nice piece of hardware is a network disk. You can find quite a lot of them out there and this manipulation will work for any brand, disks.

What we want is that this network disk to be mounted each time that we boot ubuntu under a comfy folder in the home of our user without anything invading our workflow (ie having to configure instead of working).

Under the shortcuts menu enter into "personal folder" and then create a folder "network_disk" (for example)
Open a terminal (applications/accessories/terminal
type : su
then enter your root password
type : gedit /etc/fstab

At the end of the file type that :
//ip_of_your_networkdisk/sharename /home/yourcurentusername/folderyoucreated in point1 cifs iocharset=utf8,rw,username=xxxx,password=xxx,umask=0002,uid=yourcurrentusername, group=users 0 0

6. exit gedit you should come back into the terminal
7. type "mount -a" it should mount into the folder (and now everytime you boot):
some explanations :

sharename : the name of the sare you created in the network disk administrative interface (in Lacie you have to do that)
username=xxx
password= xxx : those are the uname/password in the LaCie disk
iocharset=utf8 : for the nasty foreigners in case your accents are not recognized
rw : read and write (yeeah !)
umask= 0002 00 : means that this is good of all files even the ones under the root folder !
uid : means that your current username will have access to that mount point (otherwise only root can write !)
group : users (it's the current user groups)

easy !

More details on the available options on Wickipedia entry on fstab

Installing an HP C4472 under Ubuntu 8.04

2008-09-20T14:44:00.003+02:00

I am a nice user of this printer since yesterday (Dell printers are a paperweight under linux...) and I can assure you that this printer (the HP 4400 serie) is fully functionnal. By fully I mean :

I can scan
I can print (mind you)
The multi-card reader works flawlessly -and way faster than the Dell one..

When you buy it, there is still the thrill..(ok you're not here for that) so by default under Ubuntu 8.04 it will print and read the memory cards from his slot.

The only thing that won't work out of the box is the scan function (xsane or Kooka won't find anything).

So what we do is simply download and install the missing components; those aren't listed in the "add remove...". The whole manipulation is very easy. Remember the root password trick ? ok we gonna need that.

Open a terminal (application/accessories/terminal)
type "su" then enter the root password
type : apt-get install hplip
Then follow directions
type : apt-get install hpijs
Then follow directions

There are quite a lot of HP functions for linux (hpoj,hpoj-xojpanel,hplip,hpijs,hplip-gui) but you should need only hplip and hpijs for the scanner to work

Enabling root password in Ubuntu

2008-09-20T14:38:00.003+02:00

what a nice system indeed...the only annoying thing is that by default the root user don't have any password (ikes...but btw the root got logon deny..)

Ok so we need the root password to do a variety of things (ie configuring things).

1. boot as usual under ubuntu
2. open a shell terminal (applications/accessories) should be the last entry
3. type the following thing :
sudo passwd root
4. it will asks for your password then it will asks you to setup a root password

Voilà now everything is setted and you can, without any problem do a "su" command (it will asks for a pwd..the one you setted in point 4)

Allowing Bittorent behind an Isa 2006 server

2008-08-05T16:20:00.010+02:00

Let's face it sometimes you just need to use the bittorent protocol to get your latest Linux ISO's images for example. However when you use it in your 'typical corporate world' you just can't as many rules out there in the firewall appliances just disallow this protocol. The reasons are quite simple as some people could be tempted to use it to do 'bad things' (we, just want our latest Debian netinstall).

On the dark side of the internet you need a sail...

The usual proposed setup would tell you "to disable firewalls -oye- and do some port forwarding (NAT). This solution works fine if you are in your home but clearly impractical at work.

This is bad for many reasons, the first one would be that you don't have access to the firewall appliance or just don't want to start doing those nice little holes everywhere, or that you don't have the right to do that.

Doing that the simplest way with ISA 2006 would be

Enable the SOCKS proxy
1. Open the Isa 2006 server mmc
2. Go to "configuration" then "add-ins"
3. Here there is the "SOCKS V4 filter"
socks v4 works without authentification, V5 supports authentification (separate install to do)
4. Activate it & configure the source listenning network

Create a firewall rule to allow SOCKS traffic (duh!)
1. In the Isa 2006 mmc
2. Postion yourself under firewall Strategy
3. Create a new rule (name it like you want)
4. The rule should be something like

source : internal network / your computer (if you want to be strict)
destination : all
protocol : SOCKS (available in the drop down list)
and rule...allow
The other settings (activation time, users, and so on aren't that important here - considering that SOCKS V4 works without authentification.

Under your Favorite Bittorent application (utorrent for example)
1. Open your settings
2. Go to network settings
3. Set the firewall as "SOCKS V4" then the IP address of your Proxy
4. The typical port is 1080 (you can change it under the Isa 2006 mmc however); Remember you don't have to check the authentifications !
6. Check as well "use proxy server for peer to peer connections"

Now everything should work finely and Bittorent should initialize by himself.

This method doesn't work if you plan to host a BT server however for casual downloads it is the most simple and efficient way to do things. This should work evenly if you don't have access to the ISA firewall/proxy server but the SOCKS protocol has been configured (worth a try...).

The activation of the torrent will take a little bit more.

Outlook 2003 not updating their Offline Address Book (OAB)

2008-08-04T10:53:00.001+02:00

This annoying thing can happen quite often when you are using Microsoft Outlook 2003 clients in conjunction with Exchange 2007 servers. If you happen to google out there you’ll have a lot of “heavy” manipulations (going up to the reinstallation of Exchange, deleting the OWA part….). The solution to that problem is much simpler !

The behaviors is as following :

- Outlook 2007 adress book is up to date

- Outlook 2003 is out of date with partial/bogus/old entries

What happens here is some kind of ‘magic’ made in Microsoft. Once a day Microsoft Exchange will update the default adress book (or your adress book) now when something goes wrong it ~~tells you~~ doesn’t tells you. So you happen to go on unsuspectful of what happenned until some user calls you with a strange problem of “adress book not showing everything”.

If the user or group main email (the reply to) is different from the email adress defined in the Active Directory directory the contact won’t be updated and skipped during the next OAB generation. I’m not entirely sure but this problem seemed to have been fixed with the service pack 1 and the two smallers updates but it seems not.

step1 :

You have to parse the entire directory to check that the user/group main email is the same as the one defined in the Exchange system. (ok there are way to speed up that with a few witty scripts). However you can speed up checking only the differences inbetween the “old list” and the actual list.

step2:

Force the update of the OAB with the following cmdlet; don’t use the Exchange 2007 GUI it is pointless in that case

Update-OfflineAddressBook -Identity offlineAdressbookname

What will happens…is nothing. You have to check in the event log if anything went wrong.

However after having done those steps you’ll see that the lists are up to date so far.