Nathan Cook

Remotely Shutdown and Restart Computers

2011-09-26T14:37:00.003+13:00

Following is a script I wrote to help me manage to remotely shutdown and restart remote computers, It's nice and simple and also allows you to do the shutdown and restart in batches. It also has an option to start a command on a remote computer, this could be anything from installing an application, to starting an application.

The script takes advantage of the tools provided by Sysinternals. I might add more later but for now this does a few things I need.

ECHO OFF
C:
CD\
CLS

:MENU
CLS

ECHO ============= MENU NAME =============
ECHO -------------------------------------
ECHO 1. Execute Remote Command
ECHO 2. Execute Remote Shutdown
ECHO 3. Execute Remote Restart
ECHO 4. Execute Batch Remote Shutdown
ECHO 5. Execute Batch Remote Restart
ECHO -------------------------------------
ECHO ==========PRESS 'Q' TO QUIT==========
ECHO.
SET INPUT=
SET /P INPUT=Please select a number:
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='1' GOTO Selection1
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='2' GOTO Selection2
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='3' GOTO Selection3
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='4' GOTO Selection4
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='5' GOTO Selection5
IF /I '%INPUT%'=='Q' GOTO Quit
CLS
ECHO ============INVALID INPUT============
ECHO -------------------------------------
ECHO Please select a number from the Main
echo Menu [1-5] or select 'Q' to quit.
ECHO -------------------------------------
ECHO ======PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE======
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Selection1
@echo off
echo "enter username"
set /p username=
echo "enter password"
set /p password=
echo "enter machine"
set /p machine=
echo "enter command to run"
set /p run=
%0\..\psexec.exe -u %username% -p %password% \\%machine% "%run%"
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Selection2
@echo off

echo "enter username"
set /p username=
echo "enter password"
set /p password=
echo "enter machine"
set /p machine=
%0\..\psshutdown.exe -f -u %username% -p %password% \\%machine%
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Selection3
@echo off
echo "enter username"
set /p username=
echo "enter password"
set /p password=
echo "enter machine"
set /p machine=
%0\..\psshutdown.exe -f -r -u %username% -p %password% \\%machine%
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Selection4
@echo off
echo "enter username"
set /p username=
echo "enter password"
set /p password=
echo "enter path to txt file containing computers to shutdown"
set /p file=
%0\..\psshutdown.exe -f -u %username% -p %password% @"%file%"
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Selection5
@echo off
echo "enter username"
set /p username=
echo "enter password"
set /p password=
echo "enter path to txt file containing computers to shutdown"
set /p file=
%0\..\psshutdown.exe -f -r -u %username% -p %password% @"%file%"
PAUSE > NUL
GOTO MENU

:Quit
CLS

ECHO ==============THANKYOU===============
ECHO -------------------------------------
ECHO ======PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE======

PAUSE>NUL
EXIT

Error 1327 Invalid H:\ Drive

2011-01-10T13:18:00.000+13:00

Seen this error a few times on software that gets deployed via tools that leverage the system account. Always seems to be Adobe products that I see.

The fix that works when the install is run as a System Account is as follows.
1. Go here: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders\
Or here: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
2. Delete anything that references an H:\ drive
3. Re-Run your install

If it happens for the logged in user then change the above keys to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and make sure the paths referenced are valid - most users will have H drives etc.

Create Briefcase with a Quick Launch icon

2010-11-12T10:03:00.000+13:00

I decided to look into creating a Windows Briefcase icon for a bunch of users, now the problem was that the users are locked down, no access to the desktop, no write access to just about anywhere. They can however create quick launch icons...

So in comes AutoIt.

Here's the code:

;Create My Briefcase at root of users profile = C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\My Briefcase"
$sPath = @UserProfileDir & "\My Briefcase"
RunWait("rundll32.exe " & @SystemDir & "\syncui.dll,Briefcase_Create 262442 " & $sPath, @SystemDir)

;Create Quick Launch shortcuts in user space only.
$userQuickLaunchPath = @AppDataDir & "\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch"
$shortcutTarget = @UserProfileDir & "\My Briefcase"
FileCreateshortcut($shortcutTarget, $userQuickLaunchPath & "\My Briefcase.lnk")

Job done :)

Found the Google Chrome MSI

2010-11-04T09:22:00.001+13:00

~~Looks like Google has released a standalone MSI for Chrome, nice one!!~~

~~Download from here.~~

Looks like Google have released an MSI for Chrome and the ADM and ADMX files for configuration. Available here.

System recovery tool

2010-10-06T05:40:00.000+13:00

Found this great tool for rescuing a Windows or Linux system.

Here's the link:
http://trinityhome.org

ZENworks Deployment and Discovery tasks pending indefinitely

2010-09-14T08:57:00.001+12:00

I had an issue with a Deployment Task that just sat at pending for over 12 hours.

Restarting the ZENloader service on all primary servers got the deployment tasks running again.

The issue seems to have appeared after a restart of the SQL server for the ZCM implementation as that is the only thing that changed.

Deploying Adobe Products

2010-08-30T13:23:00.001+12:00

Getting Adobe products deployed in a corporate environment can always be a little tricky. Adobe now (for a little while at least) provides a tool for repackaging up their products, available here.

Now all they need to do is work on getting the file size down, 4.7GB for their Design Suite Premium CS5 is just a bit large I think :)

ZCM Imaging for Windows XP

2010-08-28T20:32:00.000+12:00

Here's how I have setup my ZENworks system for imaging new and existing devices.

Every site has at least a satellite server acting as an Imaging Server, these sites may be separated by different subnets. The imaging server can be any ZENworks Managed device, just as long as it's turned on...

In the settings text I have placed the IP address of the imaging server.

All devices receive a base Windows XP image which I sysprep - we use UIU for this as it includes all drivers required and more often than not we don't have to rebuild the image every time a new chipset is released, this base image is followed by add on ZMG image files which include additional software depending upon laptop models or PC models.

The image script is as follows, this is included in the tools.zmg file.

@echo off
REM******************************************
REM * MAINRUN.CMD
REM******************************************
rem * Phase 1: Set Environment, Install Machine Specific Applications
REM * Phase 2: Install ZCM Agent
REM * Phase 3: Add Workstation to Domain
REM * Phase 4: Installing Core Applications
REM * Phase 5: Cleanup
REM******************************************
set build=ZCMBUILD
set source=%SystemRoot%\tools
if exist %source%\5.flg goto _end
if exist %source%\4.flg goto _phase5
if exist %source%\3.flg goto _phase4
if exist %source%\2.flg goto _phase3
if exist %source%\1.flg goto _phase2
REM******************************************
REM * Phase 1: Set Environment & Install Device Drivers, Add Hardware info to registry
REM******************************************
:_phase1
set phase=1
title Phase 1 of 4: Set Environment and Install Machine Specific Applications
echo > %source%\1.flg
REM ---> default environment
echo Setting default environment >> c:\zenlog.txt
start /wait /min %source%\setx.exe TEMP "%SystemRoot%\Temp" -m
start /wait /min %source%\setx.exe TMP "%SystemRoot%\Temp" -m
start /wait /min %SystemRoot%\regedit /s %source%\mainrun.reg
start /wait /min %SystemRoot%\regedit /s %source%\DisableNICPowerSave.reg
start /wait /min %SystemRoot%\regedit /s %source%\rebootprompt.reg
"%windir%\system32\wscript.exe" "%source%\hwrvw.vbs" /b /nologo
start /wait %source%\machine-specific.cmd
echo Zen script for ZCMBUILD started >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo phase 1 started >> c:\zenlog.txt
%source%\sleep 10
echo phase 1 finished >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo. >> c:\zenlog.txt
goto _reboot
goto _end
REM *************************************************
REM * Phase 2: Install ZCM Agent
REM**********************************************
:_phase2
set phase=2
title Phase 2 of 5: Install ZCM Agent
echo > %source%\2.flg
echo Zen script for ZCMBUILD started >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo phase 2 started >> c:\zenlog.txt
REM * Installing ZCM Agent and registering to specified office with automatic restart.
start /wait %source%\PreAgentPkg_AgentComplete.exe -q -k WLG
%source%\sleep 10
echo phase 2 finished >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo. >> c:\zenlog.txt
goto _end
REM ************************************************
REM * Phase 3: Add Workstation to Domain (NETDOM)
REM*********************************************
:_phase3
set phase=3
title Phase 3 of 5: Add Workstation to Domain
echo phase 3 started >> c:\zenlog.txt
time /t >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo Joining the Domain... >> c:\zenlog.txt
start /wait %source%\sleep 10
%source%\netdom.exe add /d:**your domain name goes here** %computername% /ud:**username** /pd:**password**
start /wait %source%\sleep 10
%source%\netdom.exe join /d:wan.net.nz %computername% /ud:**username** /pd:**password**
REM --> Add ZCMBUILD account as local admin for install of apps
net localgroup Administrators "domain\**username**" /add
@echo Setting AutoAdminLogin Domain
start /wait /min %SystemRoot%\regedit /s %source%\logonall.reg
echo > %source%\3.flg
echo phase 3 finished >> c:\zenlog.txt
time /t >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo. >> c:\zenlog.txt
goto _reboot
goto _end
REM ************************************
REM * Phase 4: Install Core Applications
REM ************************************
:_phase4
set phase=4
title Phase 4 of 5: Installing Core Applications
echo phase 4 started >> c:\zenlog.txt
time /t >> c:\zenlog.txt
@echo off
Setting Auto ZCMBuild login
%SystemRoot%\regedit /s %source%\logonall.reg
Echo Installing Core Applications... Please be patient!
Echo deploying applications through ZEN Window. This could take a while... >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo > %source%\4.flg
%source%\sleep 300
goto _end
REM*********************************************
REM * Phase 5: Cleanup
REM ********************************************
:_phase5
set phase=5
title Phase 5 of 5: Cleanup
echo phase 5 finished >> c:\zenlog.txt
@echo off
time /t >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo >> c:\zenlog.txt
echo phase 5 started >> c:\zenlog.txt
@echo off
time /t >> c:\zenlog.txt
@echo off
start /wait %SystemRoot%\regedit.exe /s %source%\logon!.reg
@echo off
copy %source%\cleanup.cmd %systemroot%\cleanup.cmd /Y
echo Cleaning up... >> c:\zenlog.txt
@echo off
start /wait %systemroot%\cleanup.cmd
goto _end
REM *******************************************
REM * Logout
REM********************************************
:_logout
echo Logging out, please wait...
%source%\ncshtdwn /1
goto _end
REM********************************************
REM * Restart
REM********************************************
:_reboot
echo Restarting, please wait...
%source%\ncshtdwn /5
goto _end
REM********************************************
REM * The End
REM ********************************************
:_end
exit

The cleanup.cmd file is as follows:

@echo off
REM*******************************************
REM* CLEANUP.CMD
REM*******************************************
REM* Removes installation files
REM*******************************************
:_main
set source=%SystemRoot%\tools\
net localgroup Administrators "domain\domainuser" /delete
start /wait c:\windows\regedit.exe /s %source%\cleanup!.reg
%source%\sleep 20
rmdir /s /q c:\windows\tools
shutdown -r -t 5
REM *********************************************
REM * The End
REM**********************************************
:_end

The machine-specific command installs all the software for different laptop models.

This folder has all the scripts, regkeys, ZCM agent etc that I install with the batch script.

The command that installs the ZCM agent is different for each regional office so that the device can be registered into the correct folder for office and given some basic asset management information.

ZCM agent: c:\program files\novell\zenworks\cache etc.

The script that runs all the imaging commands is as follows, there are alot more you can do with it but the following will be enough to get you up and running:

# Single image script for all computers
#
#!/bin/bash -x
#
# If this is a new computer ask for a computer name
#
if [ -n "$(zisview ComputerName)" ]; then
   WSNAME=$(zisview ComputerName)
else
   echo "No image safe data found. Assumed to be a new workstation"
   while test ! $WSNAME; do
   echo -n "Please enter the workstation name : "
   read WSNAME
   if [ ${#WSNAME} -gt 15 ] ; then
   WSNAME=""
   echo "Workstation names must be 15 characters or less."
   zisedit -c
   fi
   done
fi
#
# Standard Workstation Image - M55 etc
#
img -pd all
img -pc 1 -t=ntfs
img -pa 1
img -rp base-winxp.zmg -ap=a1:p1
#
#Tools package
#
img -rp WAN-Tools.zmg
img -rp NO-Mainrun.zmg
#
#Standard PC Intel Drivers
#
img -rp PC-Apps.zmg
#
# Lenovo M55
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "880894M"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp M55-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# ZCM Agent directory structure
#
img -rp Agent-File-Structure.zmg
#VMware Virtual Machines
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "VMware Virtual Platform"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp VMWare-Tools.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba M5
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "TECRA M5"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp M5-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba M9
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "TECRA M9"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp M9-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba M10
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "TECRA M10"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp M10-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba R500
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "PORTEGE R500"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp R500-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba R600
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "PORTEGE R600"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp R600-Apps.zmg
fi
#
# Toshiba A600
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "PORTEGE A600"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp A600-Apps.zmg
fi
#
#Toshiba M11
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "TECRA M11"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp M11-Apps.zmg
fi
#
#Toshiba R700 #1
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "PT311A-00J00Q"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp R700-Apps.zmg
fi
#
#Toshiba R700 #2
#
if [ `hwinfo --bios|grep -c -i "PT310A-066011"` != 0 ]
then
img -rp R700-V2-Apps.zmg
fi

# Reset the name to either the chosen or previous

zisedit ComputerName=$WSNAME

reboot -f

To get the hardware information used in the script boot into the zenworks imaging maintenance menu and run the following

hwinfo --bios | grep 'Product'

Adding a new NIC driver to ZENworks Imaging

2010-07-29T17:07:00.001+12:00

Open up your z_auto.cfg and z_maint.cfg files located in the following path:
%zenworks_home%\share\tftp\

Add the following to the end of the last line in each file:

newid="0x8086 0x1049,e1000e"

So it looks like this:

append 5 initrd=boot\initrd mode=5 rootimage=/root install=tftp://$PXESERVER/boot splash=silent vga=0x314 tftptimeout=50 $KERNEL_PARMS newid="0x8086 0x1049,e1000e"

You can get the new id info by running up your boot disk and typing the following at the bash prompt:

hwinfo --netcard | more

DHCP Options to use ZENworks Imaging with a Microsoft DHCP Server

2010-07-15T17:23:00.000+12:00

First add PXEClient 60 as an option for DHCP:

From the command line on your DHCP server

netsh
dhcp server \\server_name
add optiondef 60 PXEClient 60 STRING 0 comment="Option added for PXE Boot Support"
show option value all
set optionvalue 60 string PXEClient

Start up your DHCP MMC Snapin
Add the following to the Scope Options:
066 Boot Server Host Name - This should equal the IP address of the PXE server
067 Bootfile Name - For a ZENworks server enter "nvlnbp.sys"
060 PXEClient - 0 as the string value

Macros in ZCM

2010-07-14T20:06:00.001+12:00

Here's an incomplete list of macros I've found to work in ZENWorks Configuration Management:

${USERNAME}

${ProgramFiles}
${ALLUSERSPROFILE}

${ProgramFiles32} - if you have an app that will work on 64 bit architecture but installs to Program Files (x86)

As pointed out by a anonymous commenter the Novell ZCM Documentation has a few more of these macros :) Thanks for that!

Link here

How to allow users to install printers in a domain

2010-06-06T19:54:00.002+12:00

I had a small issue a little while ago in that after a number of user had been moved into the local computer standard users group they became unable to install printer drivers from the windows print servers.

Here's how to by pass this using group policy:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Printers > Point and Print Restriction - Set to disabled.

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Local Policies > User Righter Assignment > Load and unload device driver - add the relevant account or group that needs to install printers.

Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Device > Prevent users from Installing Printer Drivers - Set to disabled.

Hope that helps anyone else.

Deploying Printers via Group Policy Preferences

2010-06-02T12:36:00.004+12:00

Hi all, here’s how to setup printers so they deploy via Group Policy Preferences.

Create the GP, give it a descriptive name.

Right click the newly created GP and select edit.

Expand Preferences under User Configuration

Expand Control Panel Settings,right click Printers and select New Shared Printer.

If the Printer has been published to AD, which it should be, click browse under shared printer and double click the printer to add, for some reason it doesn’t like server paths longer than 7 characters, so make sure the share path is correct.

Click Common

Choose to Run in the logged-on users security context, if not the policy fails to apply and an error is displayed in the Event Viewer advising access denied.

Tick to Remove this item when it is no longer applied, purely optional but good when the printers get changed, for some reason though this seems to remove the printers and then re-adds them when Group Policy refreshes, which may change the default printer for some users.

If you want to use the Item-level targeting to deploy to only a specific subnet, computer etc.

KDENLIVE and KINO

2009-01-12T20:39:00.004+13:00

Happy New Year all.

I've been working on getting all my video footage off my DV Camera (an old school Panasonic NV-DS50) onto my media PC in the lounge.

So running Kubuntu 8.10 I installed KDENLIVE and selected the Record Mon in the Project Monitor section, selected to connect to my Camera plugged in by firewire and no go.... mm I thought, I'll try KINO, this time I saw an issue:

WARNING: raw1394 kernel module not loaded or failure to read/write /dev/raw1394!

In my search for a solution I found this in the Ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=329994

Run the following from a command

chmod 777 /dev/raw1394

Or browse using Dolphin and right click and set the permissions that way.

Happy editing :)

Ping hostname from Linux

2008-08-10T13:04:00.003+12:00

Some people have issues with pinging other computers on their network

Here's the fix:

Add "wins" to your nsswitch.conf file

To do this open up an terminal and log in as root and type the following:

vi /etc/nsswitch.conf

find the line:

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns

and add wins to the end of it, save the file by typing ":wq"

now ping a computer with the hostname.

Telecom TStick on OpenSuse 11

2008-08-01T06:41:00.007+12:00

The Telecom TStick, also known as the Sierrawireless Compass 597, works under linux rather well, here's a run down on what needs to be done to get it to work.

I followed the instructions here and took some of the details from here to get it to work correctly. I then wrote a small script that can be run from the command line under root to connect to the internet.

Lets get connected to the web:
Download the Sierrawireless files:
For Linux Kernel 2.6.21, 2.6.22 and 2.6.23
Sierra.c Drivers v 1.2.10b
PPPD Scripts

For Linux Kernel 2.6.24
Sierra.c Drivers v 1.2.10b
PPPD Scripts

To find out what the kernel is that your running type the following from a Terminal under root:

# uname -r

My kernel was # 2.6.25.11-0.1-default

Next check to see what Sierra wireless drivers are already installed

# modinfo sierra

If the result is "could not find module sierra" then the drivers are not installed, my result was that I had 1.2.9 version installed, so updating them is a good idea.

For the rest I'll presume you have the kernel build tools installed along with the latest kernel, if not do the following from a terminal.

# zypper dist-upgrade
# zypper install make

Change to root user and "cd" to the directory where you downloaded the files and unzip the kernel files then change to the kernel files directpry.

# su -
# cd /home/downloads
# unzip v1.2.10b_Kernel2.6.25.zip
# cd v1.2.10b_Kernel2.6.25/

Remove any older versions of the sierrawireless drivers.

# rmmod sierra or modprobe –r sierra

Compile and install the new Sierra Wireless drivers

# make
# make install

Now exit root user and change to the download directory.

# exit
# cd /home/downloads

Unzip the pppd scripts.

$ tar –zxf pppd-scripts.tar.gz

Change to root and copy the pppd script files to the pppd/peers directory.
# su -
# cp –r ./ppp /etc/
# cd /etc/ppp
# chmod a+x ip-up.local ip-down.local

Now change to the following directory.

# cd /etc/ppp/peers

Edit the cdma file.

# vi cdma

To edit in vi press "i" and add the following lines to the file under the noauth line, this is the username and password to use for connecting to the Telecom network.
user mobile@jamamobile
password telecom

Place a # infront of the noauth line, this stops the line from being executed.

To save the file and exit it at the same time do the following.

Press escape and type :wq and then press enter

Now you can connect to the Telecom network, put the TStick into the usb port and type the following from the command line under root

# cd /etc/ppp/peers
# pppd call cdma

This will throw back a whole page of text as it goes through the authentication and connects to the network.

Now you can browse the internet!

I then created a small batch file in my home directory which is run under the root account.

Create the file by typing the following and then making it executable.

# su -
# vi T3G

Copy and paste the following into the file.

#!/bin/sh
cd /etc/ppp/peers
pppd call cdma

Type :wq to save and exit. Then make it executable.

# chmod a+x T3G

Now when you want to connect with the TStick type the following.

$ su -
# /home/your username/T3G

iPod and the 1415 error

2008-07-19T15:46:00.003+12:00

My wife just won herself a iPod Nano 8GB. They're quite nice if you can get the past the whole proprietary formats. One of the issues I found was that whenever I tried to update the firmware it would crash with the following error "could not update iPod unspecified error (1415)" other things that were happening as well were iPod disconnecting randomly, not starting up iTunes when the iPod was plugged in and disconnecting even while synching.

This is the fix I found:
Shutdown iTunes and unplug your ipod, paste the below into notepad and save as a cmd file, then run the file, it took about 1-2 minutes to finish though so just be patient.

regsvr32 /s softpub.dll
regsvr32 /s wintrust.dll
regsvr32 /s dssenh.dll
regsvr32 /s rsaenh.dll
regsvr32 /s gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32 /s sccbase.dll
regsvr32 /s slbcsp.dll
regsvr32 /s mssip32.dll
regsvr32 /s cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32 /s initpki.dll

When iTunes was installed it didn't register the dll files correctly, either because Windows was still using them or it just didn't register them. Now she can enjoy the new iPod with no problems :)

Codecs in OpenSuse 11

2008-07-07T21:39:00.004+12:00

Took me a while to find all the codecs for running video files in Novell's new OpenSuse 11, I should have just looked on the Community Build site..idiot :D

How easy could it get!

Go here for all the details.

If you using OpenSuse 11.1 go here.

Adobe Reader 9

2008-07-06T19:21:00.003+12:00

Adobe has just released Adobe Reader 9.

Edit: you can now download the Adobe Customwiz 9 from Adobe, linky makes life much easier!

I've only just created the Application Object in ZENWorks ready for deployment so have not had a chance to test the features at all.

Apparently it has faster startup times along with some security updates and a few additional features, nothing that really says that you should definitely install this though, other than the faster start times I suppose, I'll see how it goes over the next week though before I role it out to about 500 plus users.

For deployment I use Orca and followed the instructions posted on AppDeploy.com, added the parameters into the application object and you're set to go.

Road to Kubuntu 7.10

2007-10-25T22:10:00.000+13:00

Been a while since I blogged, hehe just been too lazy I guess and doing house stuff along with some study :)

While I've been lazy I thought I'd install Kubuntu 7.10 the latest and greatest and all that.

The install went well, I did however forget to check my backup of my home directory from OpenSuse 10.3 and ended up loosing a few important docs, big oopppps there!!

The install went well and over all I feel that it is a good desktop operating system with very few issues except the following:

My wireless card flakes out now and then, I solved this by installing ndiswrapper (download and instructions at http://www.ndiswrapper.org ), now it works great.

Dolphin, this is the replacement for Konqueror, this is similar to Explorer for all those Windows people out there, and it works great for what it does, I like the new options down the right hand side: edit as root, archive etc there a nice touch. I'm a fan of shortcut keys, my favourite is Alt+Left Arrow (just like hitting the back button) but this doesn't work straight off the mark with Dolphin. This is easily changed under Settings and then Shortcuts, the default is Backspace though.

My other issue was that when I closed Dolphin I would get the error: "unable to save bookmarks /home/.kde/share/apps/Dolphin/Bookmarks/... etc"
To solve this do the following:
cd /home
sudo chown -R username:username username - (username is your username)

One major issue I had was that Kubuntu thought that I had a screen resolution of 1280x1024, this had the unfortunate side effect of slowing the boot process considerably, even though once it got to the desktop the resolution was fine (1024x768), I solved this by doing the following from within Konsole:
sudo nano /etc/usplash.conf
Then change the size to the correct one for your screen size.
Then type the following again in Konsole:
sudo update-usplash-theme usplash-theme-kubuntu
Boot time is now well under one minute for me :D

Another problem I've had is that 7.10 wants to update itself to the latest version of Kubuntu 7.10, which is very strange considering it already is the latest. This issue is now fixed the latest updates in the last couple of day.

More to come maybe...

Not much else...

2007-07-31T18:35:00.000+12:00

More painting has been done around the house which is nice and all, my dad's coming up from Christchurch in a few weeks to help which will be a great time to catch up and learn some house renovation tips in the process :D

Sam and I now have curtains in our room as opposed to blinds, makes the room much warmer I feel, or it could be just warmer at night anyway.

Got a new case for the Media Centre PC, check out the pic:, mmm very nice :D
Work's still going well, been working on a project to move from Zenworks 4 to Zenworks 10 in the next few months, Zenworks 10 is currently in Beta still but due for release in about a couple of weeks time. Has lots of new features that willl make my job slightly easier and more enjoyable, plus it supports Vista which will help out over the next few years as we look at Vista. To prepare for the project I've been tasked with gathering info on all the little apps we have throughout the network, with about 500 of the suckers it was no easy task, still have a few other jobs to do as well as for the project, not looking forward to it really ;)