Phan's blog

My article about FreeNAS is now online

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 06:49:00 +0000

The article is avaiable at PCWorld Vietnam's website [1] since May 2010 and has been voted as almost 10/10. Thank you all readers.

[1] http://www.pcworld.com.vn/articles/cong-nghe/ung-dung/2010/05/1219106/tu-tao-nas-tu-may-tinh-cu/

Some crontab usages

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:21:00 +0000

1. Run a command at boot time
In /etc/crontab add:

@reboot root command

Replace root with username to run as regular user:

@reboot phan vnc4server :1 -geometry 1200x800 &

2. Run GUI programs
To run a GUI program by cron, we have to tell what display should be used by:

DISPLAY=:0 or export DISPLAY=:0

For example, to change fluxbox background automatically twice per hour, at 0 and 30 minute, run crontab -e, then add the following line:

0,30 * * * * DISPLAY=:0 fbsetbg -f -r $HOME/.fluxbox/backgrounds/

Change display number if needed, :0 will be right for most cases.

3. Daily backup to Dropbox at midnight
Run crontab -e, then add:

# run five minutes before midnight, every day
55 23 * * * $HOME/Dropbox/bin/b2d.daily && $HOME/out 2&>1

b2d.daily is a shell script:

$ cat $HOME/Dropbox/bin/b2d.daily

#!/bin/bash
tar czvf $HOME/Dropbox/My-Dir-`date +%F`.tar.gz \
$HOME/My-Dir && DISPLAY=:0 dropbox start

Here we see another way to run GUI programs by cron. Of course, you can use 2 continuous cron jobs, first — run tar, second — dropbox, instead of using b2d.daily script.

P.S. share your cron usages, if there're no top secrets.

2-Cent Tip: Russian Keyboard Layout in Fluxbox

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:50:00 +0000

Russian Keyboard Layout in Fluxbox:

$ cat $HOME/.fluxbox/startup | grep kb
fbxkb &
setxkbmap -layout "us,ru(winkeys)" -option "grp:caps_toggle" -option "grp_led:scroll"

By using winkeys variant we have all keyboard shorcuts (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, etc) work.

Combination of XDrawChem and Inkscape as an open-source molecular editor

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 18:48:00 +0000

There are dozen molecular editor for chemistry and biology [1], but very few of them are open source (or even free for education), and the lasts are feature-limited. Thus, XDrawChem [2] can draw quiet complicated molecules, but draws them not very beautifully. In the other side, this open source program can export images in SVG format, used as default in Inkscape [3], a famous vector editor, which is used to produce very beautiful drawings.

Our action is:
First, draw the molecule (or parts of it) in XDrawChem, then export the image in SVG format:

Draw part of the future molecule (Tinuvin 320) in XDrawChem

Open and edit the SVG file in Inkscape, and don't forget to convert text to path, if you want to edit the file in other system:

Tinuvin 320 (antioxidant)

Finally, save as pdf to use in a LaTeX document, or export to PNG to use in OpenOffice.org.

A workaround for OpenOffice.org Draw selection export to PDF

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:40:00 +0000

In the current version of OpenOffice.org 3.2, there is still a problem with selection export to PDF in Draw program — the result pdfs always have page dimension of the drawing (A4 or letter) as its paper size (fig. 1). For printing, this is fine, but annoying if you want, for example, include the graphic in a LaTeX document.

Fig. 1. Selection export to PDF bug.

To workaround this problem, change the drawing's page paper to the selection's size in menu Format / Page... then export. The selection's size can be found in the status bar (fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Selection's size in status bar (red stroke).

The result is fig. 3.

Fig. 3. PDF file by workaround.

P.S. Just one more tip: to export OpenOffice.org Calc chart to PDF, copy it to Draw, then...

Setup a FreeNAS virtual machine in Linux by VirtualBox

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:32:00 +0000

We will consider two VirtualBox features — raw hard disk access and VBoxHeadless, to create and run a FreeNAS server "in background" (as a Linux service). It takes us 3 steps.

Step 1. Create and setup (install) a FreeNAS virtual machine with a small hard disk in VirtualBox, network interface is "bridged". The easiest way is using VirtualBox graphical interface. We are not going into details. Just be aware to use so-called "embedded" FreeNAS if you have much of RAM (FreeNAS 0.7.1 requires minimum 192MB). Otherwise install "full version" of FreeNAS and use swap, because the host (Linux) system needs RAM, too.

Step 2. Add raw disk to virtual machine [1].

Step 3. Use VBoxHeadless to run FreeNAS virtual machine without GUI:

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm FreeNAS --vrdp=off >> $HOME/VBoxHeadless.out 2>&1

Read more about VBoxHeadless in VirtualBox documentation [2]. In the command above FreeNAS is the name of created virtual machine, we turn vrdp server off, as FreeNAS has a very powerful Web interface at http://192.168.1.250 by default [3].

You may want to run the virtual machine automatically during boot process. Be aware to run it after vboxdrv service. For this purpose the most convenient solution is /etc/init.d/rc.local. This script run last, but run as root, thus sudo command is used:

$ cat /etc/rc.local
#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

sudo -H -u phan VBoxHeadless --startvm FreeNAS --vrdp=off >> $HOME/VBoxHeadless.out 2>&1

exit 0

Change phan to your username. The -H option is important, it tell sudo to set HOME environment variable to the home directory of the target user, where VBoxHeadless will find the virtual machine with "FreeNAS" name.

P.S. don't forget to turn off FreeNAS virtual machine before shutdown Linux.

Note about permissions in VirtualBox physical hard disk usage in Linux host

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 18:27:00 +0000

From VirtualBox manual: "Starting with version 1.4, as an alternative to using virtual disk images, VirtualBox can also present either entire physical hard disks or selected partitions thereof as virtual disks to virtual machines...

...this type of access is called "raw hard disk access"; it allows a guest OS to access its virtual hard disk without going through the host OS file system."

Do read the manual (part 9.7.1 at now) and do it at your own risk! Here we will talk only about permission problem you can get in Linux host. That, you will need read/write access for the entire disk (or selected partitions). For example:

$ VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename $HOME/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/sda2.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 2

set up an image for access /dev/sda2 in Linux host. User needs read/write access to this partition. Otherwise, we will get some messages like this while adding sda2.vmdk to a virtual machine:

NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
HardDisk
Interface:
IHardDisk {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
Callee:
IVirtualBox {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

Check the physical disks properties:

$ ls -l /dev/sda*

brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 2010-08-30 21:53 /dev/sda
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 2010-08-30 12:22 /dev/sda1
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 2010-08-30 21:31 /dev/sda2
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 5 2010-08-30 12:22 /dev/sda5

We can see one solution to grant permissions is adding username to the disk group, for example, by editing /etc/group file. And don't forget to re-login.

Very short about using transmission-daemon

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:08:00 +0000

The transmission-daemon program is a daemon-based Transmission session that can be controlled via IPC commands by transmission-remote(1) [1]. This program is used by default in FreeNAS, and maybe you want to use it on Linux box. It's very likely you distribution come with transmission by default. In that case, you need to install transmission-daemon only:

# apt-get install transmission-daemon

Configuration file is /var/lib/transmission-daemon/info/settings.json (it's quiet safe to add *.*.*.* to rpc-whitelist option). After editing (user, password, paths, etc), we need to reload the daemon itself:

# /etc/init.d/transmission-daemon reload

Using remote client was discussed before [2].

Note: transmission-daemon configuration is very well documented on this web site. You are recommended to read (at least to feel the power of FreeNAS's web interface).

1. man transmission-daemon
2. Cross-platform transmission-remote-gui

Boot from USB Flash Without BIOS Support Using Plop via GRUB2

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:45:00 +0000

As result of an accident the netbook has gone to the heaven in the crisis time, so I've turned FreeNAS box to a normal PC with dual boot (Linux and FreeNAS) for working. Unfortunately, the DVD ROM has gone to the heaven, too. There are not to much options:

Dual boot, each OS on their disk. Needs 2 devices, not my case.
Dual boot on the same disk, still available, but requires skill and time [1].
Boot FreeNAS from USB stick.

The last choice is the most convenient, but BIOS doesn't support booting from USB. Fortunately, there are boot managers, which fill this hole. Plop [2] has many features, many options and well-documented, so I chose it.

The system is running Linux, booted via GRUB2. If you like me don't want to destroy GRUB(2), you can run Plop from GRUB(2). You need to download the program, unzip and copy the boot manager binary program plpbt.bin to /boot, then add the following entry to GRUB2 configuration file (/boot/grub/grub.cfg):

# Boot Plop Boot Manager
menuentry "Plop Boot Manager" {
set root='(hd0,3)' #Change to your boot partition
linux16 /boot/plpbt.bin
}

Hold down Shift key while GRUB2 is booting to get its menu, then you can run Plop, from where FreeNAS on USB Flash can be booted.

See [3] for FreeNAS installation on USB Flash. Get the "embedded" (img) file instead of iso.

P.S. of course this is temporary solution. The better is CF to IDE adapter usage.

1. FreeNAS forum on sf.net
2. Plop boot manager
3. FreeNAS USB installation

Disable unused console (tty) when using Upstart init daemon

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 20:39:00 +0000

There are not /etc/inittab anymore, but /etc/init/ttyN.conf (N from 1 to 6). Just comment out the last line in each file you desire. For example (in /etc/init):

$ cat tty1.conf

# tty1 - getty

#

# This service maintains a getty on tty1 from the point the system is

# started until it is shut down again.

start on stopped rc RUNLEVEL=[2345]

stop on runlevel [!2345]

respawn

exec /sbin/getty -8 38400 tty1

$ cat tty1.conf | wc -l

10

$ sed -i '10 s/^/#/' tty{2,3,4,5,6}.conf

Please tell me other command lines to do the last job.
P.S. in an Ubuntu box Ctrl+Alt+Backspace now is Right Alt (Alt Gr) + Print Screen + k.

Boot System Rescue CD from ISO image on the disk with Grub2

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:51:00 +0000

"SystemRescueCd is a (Gentoo) Linux system rescue disk available as a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick for administrating or repairing your system and data after a crash." The latest version include many administration tool of both CLI and GUI. If you frequently use SystemRescueCd, you may want to boot it directly from Grub2.

From version 2 GRUB can provide the GREAT loopback option, in co-junction with whom some Linux Live CD distributions (grml, SystemRescueCd, etc) provide direct boot (iso9660) ISO via their options — isofrom, findiso, isoloop and some others. Option isoloop is only supported in SystemRescueCd from version 1.4.0.

The ISO is in (hd0,3)/ISOs/. grub.cfg has the following entry:

# Boot system rescue CD from ISO

menuentry "System Rescue CD from ISO" {

loopback loop (hd0,3)/ISOs/res-1.5.8.iso

linux (loop)/isolinux/rescuecd isoloop=/ISOs/res-1.5.8.iso setkmap=us

initrd (loop)/isolinux/initram.igz

}

grub.cfg contains the global option set root='(hd0,3)', so boot script will search the ISO image in /dev/sda3 partition in the path specified after isoloop option.

Read more:
1. Boot the SystemRescueCD ISO image from the disk using Grub2
2. Boot an ISO via Grub2
3. MultiBoot USB with Grub2 (boot directly from iso files)

smartctl -a /dev/ad0

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:42:00 +0000

My 250 GB hard disk has gone...

FreeNAS log:

kernel: ad0: FAILURE - READ_DMA48 status=51  error=40 LBA=445600994

kernel: g_vfs_done():ad0p1[READ(offset=228147691520, length=16384)]error  = 5

SMART output:

$ smartctl -a /dev/da0
smartctl version 5.38 [i386-portbld-freebsd7.2] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 family
Device Model: ST3250824A
Serial Number: 3ND0Y5G1
Firmware Version: 3.AAH
User Capacity: 250,059,350,016 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 7
ATA Standard is: Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is: Wed Mar 3 15:30:28 2010 MSK
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x82) Offline data collection activity
was completed without error.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 430) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 100) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000f 107 095 006 Pre-fail Always - 13692759
3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0003 092 088 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 342
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 036 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 Seek_Error_Rate 0x000f 075 060 030 Pre-fail Always - 38432019
9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 767
10 Spin_Retry_Count 0x0013 100 100 097 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 020 Old_age Always - 364
187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 1812
189 High_Fly_Writes 0x003a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022 060 056 045 Old_age Always - 40 (Lifetime Min/Max 33/40)
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0022 040 044 000 Old_age Always - 40 (0 19 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 059 051 000 Old_age Always - 76090870
197 Current_Pending_Sector 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 2
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0010 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 2
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0000 100 253 000 Old_age Offline - 0
202 TA_Increase_Count 0x0032 100 253 000 Old_age Always - 0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 1817 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
Powered_Up_Time is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.

Error 1817 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 767 hours (31 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 e8 54 8f 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x008f54e8 = 9393384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:10.863 READ DMA EXT
b0 d1 01 01 4f c2 e0 00 03:27:08.976 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:08.944 READ DMA EXT
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 e0 00 03:27:07.057 SMART READ DATA
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:06.984 READ DMA EXT

Error 1816 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 767 hours (31 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 e8 54 8f 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x008f54e8 = 9393384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:04.672 READ DMA EXT
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 e0 00 03:27:08.976 SMART READ DATA
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:08.944 READ DMA EXT
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 e0 00 03:27:07.057 SMART RETURN STATUS
ca 00 0c 22 2f 00 e0 00 03:27:06.984 WRITE DMA

Error 1815 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 767 hours (31 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 e8 54 8f 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x008f54e8 = 9393384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:04.672 READ DMA EXT
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 e0 00 03:27:04.672 SMART RETURN STATUS
ca 00 0c 22 2f 00 e0 00 03:27:04.672 WRITE DMA
ca 00 20 02 2f 00 e0 00 03:27:07.057 WRITE DMA
ca 00 04 a2 00 00 e0 00 03:27:06.984 WRITE DMA

Error 1814 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 767 hours (31 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 e8 54 8f 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x008f54e8 = 9393384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:27:04.672 READ DMA EXT
35 00 20 22 19 34 40 00 03:27:04.672 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 20 02 19 34 40 00 03:27:04.672 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 20 e2 18 34 40 00 03:27:04.671 WRITE DMA EXT
35 00 20 c2 18 34 40 00 03:27:04.671 WRITE DMA EXT

Error 1813 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 767 hours (31 days + 23 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.

After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
-- -- -- -- -- -- --
40 51 00 e8 54 8f 40 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x008f54e8 = 9393384

Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- --------------------
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:26:51.227 READ DMA EXT
25 00 20 e2 bc 40 40 00 03:26:51.227 READ DMA EXT
ec 00 00 00 00 00 e0 00 03:26:51.226 IDENTIFY DEVICE
25 00 20 e2 54 8f 40 00 03:26:51.226 READ DMA EXT
c8 00 20 62 55 1d e5 00 03:26:51.226 READ DMA

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

How to secure your FreeNAS server

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:15:00 +0000

Quote from FreeNAS forum:

Q: How do I make sure my FreeNAS server is secure?
A: You can ensure basic security by following the FreeNAS Security Checklist:

Change the WebGUI admin/root password (the default is: freenas)
Use a very strong password if you intend to access FreeNAS over the Internet.
Please note - admin/root accounts use the same password.
Please note - Users that are members of the wheel group can su to root if they know the root password.
Change WebGUI admin user name (the default is admin), to protect your system against dictionary attacks.
DO NOT give shell access to everybody.
DO NOT use FTP over the Internet, use SSH or SFTP instead.
DO NOT enable Password Authentication with SSH, set-up and use SSH key based authentication.
Always use https protocol to access WebGUI interface.
DO NOT open your WebGUI server to internet, rather open a tunnel via SSH from client to server.

Let's start from the first item:

1. Change the WebGUI admin password under System | General | Password:

2,4. Change WebGUI admin user name and access protocol under System | General:

5,7. SSH setup under Services | SSH:

Of course, you need to create a non-admin user, create SSH key, and upload it to FreeNAS server. Please read SSH manual. If your FreeNAS server is behind a router, you also need to setup the router's NAT:

Here I opened both WebGUI interface and SSH to Internet, but I will use only SSH to connect. To do SSH tunneling from Linux box, type:

$ ssh -v -p 22 -L 8888:localhost:443 username@your.FreeNASorRouter.IP.address

Then open your web browser and type address https://localhost:8888/ and you are there. Windows users can read the instruction in FreeNAS KnowledgeBase.

I don't have a static IP address, so I use (free) DynDNS service.

Last word:

To eliminate Windows users' advantage of using shortcut Linux users can create an alias:

$ cat .bashrc

alias ssh-nas="ssh pvt@192.168.1.250"

alias ssh-dir="ssh pvt@192.168.1.1"

alias tunnel-nas="ssh -v -p 22 -L 8888:localhost:443 tvp@xxx.dyndns.org"
# sudo alias
alias apt-update="sudo apt-get update"
alias apt-install="sudo apt-get install"
alias apt-remove="sudo apt-get remove"
alias mount="sudo mount"
alias umount="sudo umount"
alias suvim="sudo vim"

$ tunnel-nas

Happy using FreeNAS!

Bash script for batch renaming of video files, based on the media information

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:08:00 +0000

We have a (quiet good) Panasonic miniDV camcorder to save our Little Boy's moments. Software comes with the device can auto index the tape by recoreded date attribute and then batch capture (copy) all the movie to hard disk. It's wonderful feature, except the filenames — we got something like this for every tape:

phan@phan-laptop:/mnt/TQA/Videos/Sushi-1Y/08.03.09-31.05.09$ ls
hsicon.stg MOVIE0006.avi MOVIE0012.avi MOVIE0018.avi MOVIE0024.avi MOVIE0030.avi
MOVIE0001.avi MOVIE0007.avi MOVIE0013.avi MOVIE0019.avi MOVIE0025.avi MOVIE0031.avi
MOVIE0002.avi MOVIE0008.avi MOVIE0014.avi MOVIE0020.avi MOVIE0026.avi MOVIE0032.avi
MOVIE0003.avi MOVIE0009.avi MOVIE0015.avi MOVIE0021.avi MOVIE0027.avi TAPE08032009_1902.tap
MOVIE0004.avi MOVIE0010.avi MOVIE0016.avi MOVIE0022.avi MOVIE0028.avi
MOVIE0005.avi MOVIE0011.avi MOVIE0017.avi MOVIE0023.avi MOVIE0029.avi

Naturally, it is wanted to rename the movies to show the recorded date and, maybe, some other userful information. Although I like Métamorphose and other batch renaming tools, they can't extract video data. So I decided to create my own bash script. Here is it:

#!/bin/bash

# Bash script for batch renaming of video files, recored by a miniDV-tape

# camcorder, based on the media information (Recorded Date in my case).

# Created by Phan Vinh Thinh, teppi {-} vnoss.org,

# released 01 Feb 2010 under GPL, so feel free to make changes.

# In the script used some echo commands for diagnostic purpose

###############################################################################

# If there is not any given argument (filename), print the help message

if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then

echo "vrename.sh --- Bash script for batch video files renaming";

echo "Usage: ./vrename.sh [files]";

echo "Examples:";

echo -e "\t./vrename.sh *.avi";

echo -e "\t./vrename.sh MOVIE0001.avi MOVIE0002.avi MOVIE0005.avi";

fi;

#for FILE in MOVIE*.avi; do

# $@ expands to all command-line parameters separated by spaces

for FILE in $@; do

# Get the Recorded Date in YYYYMMDDhhmm format and then

# assign to TIME variable

TIME=`mediainfo $FILE | grep -i "recorded date" | cut -d ':' --field=2-3 | \

tr -cd [:alnum:]`;

#echo $TIME;

# Change date format to which we want
    YEAR=${TIME%????????};
    MIN=${TIME#??????????};
    HOUR=${TIME#????????};
    HOUR=${HOUR%$MIN};
    DAY=${TIME#??????};
    DAY=${DAY%$HOUR$MIN};
    MON=${TIME%??????};
    MON=${MON#$YEAR};
#    echo $DAY-$MON-$YEAR-$HOUR-$MIN;

# Change month to short name format (Jan, Feb, etc)
    if [ "$MON" = "01" ] ; then
        Month=Jan;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "02" ]; then
        Month=Feb;
    elif
    [ "$MON" == "03" ]; then
        Month=Mar;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "04" ] ; then
        Month=Apr;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "05" ] ; then
        Month=May;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "06" ] ; then
        Month=Jun;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "07" ] ; then
        Month=Jul;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "08" ] ; then
        Month=Aug;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "09" ] ; then
        Month=Sep;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "10" ] ; then
        Month=Oct;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "11" ] ; then
        Month=Nov;
    elif
    [ "$MON" = "12" ] ; then
        Month=Dec;
    else
        echo "Try without any argument to see help!"
        exit 1;
    fi;
#    echo $Month;

# Assign NAME variable --- basename for future filename
    NAME=Movie-$DAY$Month$YEAR-$HOUR$MIN;
#    echo $NAME;

# Rename FILE to NAME.avi
# Use -i option to make sure there are not 2 files with same NAME
    mv -i -v $FILE $NAME.avi;
done

(To obtain media information, we need an external program — mediainfo).
You can download the script in gzip format from my Google Docs share.

Running script, we got:

phan@phan-laptop:/mnt/TQA/Videos/Sushi-1Y/08.03.09-31.05.09$ ~/vrename.sh *.avi
`MOVIE0001.avi' -> `Movie-08Mar2009-1902.avi'

`MOVIE0002.avi' -> `Movie-08Mar2009-1904.avi'

`MOVIE0003.avi' -> `Movie-08Mar2009-1905.avi'

`MOVIE0004.avi' -> `Movie-08Mar2009-1906.avi'

`MOVIE0005.avi' -> `Movie-08Mar2009-1907.avi'

`MOVIE0006.avi' -> `Movie-16Mar2009-1244.avi'

`MOVIE0007.avi' -> `Movie-16Mar2009-1252.avi'

`MOVIE0008.avi' -> `Movie-16Mar2009-1339.avi'

...

P.S. It's time to start Perl learning ;).

My first (and maybe last) publication in Russian Academy of Sciences' journal

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Podolina E. A., Rudakov O. B., Phan Vinh Thinh, Rudakova L. V. Low-Temperature Liquid Extraction as Sample Preparation of Phenols for reversed-phase HPLC Analysis // Zhurnal Analiticheskoi Khimii (Russian Journal of Analytical Chemistry), 2010, Vol. 65, No. 2, pp. 121–123.

The article is shared by Google Docs.

Adding more storages to the old-computer-based NAS by PCI SATA controller

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:00:00 +0000

As is said before, I'm using my 7-years-old computer to build a NAS run under FreeNAS. It works fine without the need of monitor. The problem is I have only a 250GB IDE hard disk, which doesn't has enough spaces for, growing with my son, home video collection, and the computer, of course, doesn't have SATA support. At the time of writing (Jan 2010), new IDE hard disks don't have much rooms and cost money, opposite SATA disks now have peak of popularity. There are 1,5TB WD Caviar Green (WD15EADS) for only 4500 rub (~107€), and, you're right, it is wanted.

After reading some forums and wiki the resolve was found — a ST-Lab A-224 PCI SATA150 Controller RTL with 4 SATA II and 2 e-SATA (fig. 1), whose chipset–Silicon Image 3114 is supported by FreeNAS. And fortunately, someone said this controller can work with 1,5TB disks.

Fig. 1. ST-Lab A-224 PCI SATA 150 Controller with 4 SATA II and 2 e-SATA

(click here to see bigger image).

Totally, for the controller, WD15EADS hard disk and Molex-to-SATA power adapter I've paid ~5500 rub (~130€) to obtain a 1,5TB NAS (fig. 2). Beside that, 3 SATA ports are opened for further upgrade...

Fig. 2. A new FreeNAS system with 1,5TB storage.

Note:

1. There is freezing problem of WD15EADS revision 00P8B0 disks (the only model with 3 platters, 500GB each). Everything works good for weeks, month, then the access time will be inconvenient big. Instead of WD15EADS, you can by Samsung Spinpoint F2 EcoGreen (HD154UI). All Samsung HD154UI revisions are 3-platters.

2. Although the controller has manufactured with very high quality, you can't upgrade the firmware, because it uses BIOS instead of flash memory. If you want, you can't change BIOS to flashrom in their service centers.

3. PCI devices (the SATA controller, NIC, etc) share their bus speed (?).

Bàn về chuyện cổ tích Tấm Cám

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:02:00 +0000

Nhân có người bạn cũ học cùng cấp III có đưa ra chuyện người Mỹ dạy bài học cô bé Lọ Lem, tôi có nhớ lại ngày xưa được bà nội kể lại cũng như học trong trường học câu chuyện cổ tích Tấm Cám. Chắc hẳn các bạn cũng nhớ sơ lược nội dung của câu chuyện này, trong trường hợp ngược lại bạn có thể làm quen với nó trên trang bách khoa toàn thư mở tiếng Việt, cũng như tiếng Anh.

Theo những gì mà tôi được cô giáo dạy, mà chắc rằng hiện nay các em học sinh trong trường học cũng được giải thích như tôi trước đây, thì "Tấm Cám là một câu chuyện cổ tích Việt Nam thuộc thể loại truyện cổ tích thần kì, phản ánh những mâu thuẫn trong gia đình, cuộc đấu tranh giữa cái thiện và cái ác, cùng ước mơ cái thiện thắng cái ác của người Việt Nam." Vâng tất nhiên đại diện của cái ác ở trong chuyện này là Cám, cái thiện — Tấm. Chuyện Tấm Cám được so sánh là Lọ Lem Việt Nam.

Thật là kinh khủng khi nghĩ đến việc các em học sinh tiểu học được dạy là giết người là việc thiện. Không chỉ là giết người mà còn rất dã man (làm mắm và đưa cho người khác ăn???!!!). Vâng cứ cho là Cám ác đi, nhưng trong cuộc sống hiện tại có bao nhiêu người như vậy. Không lẽ khi đi làm bạn chưa bị ai ngáng chân? Bạn chưa bao giờ bị những người bạn trong lớp làm hỏng những thứ bạn yêu thích? Và bạn được dạy phải giết họ khi có cơ hội? Còn kinh khủng hơn nữa khi phải nghĩ đến rằng, đó là ước mơ cái thiện thắng cái ác của người Việt Nam.

Có lẽ còn nhiều thứ tôi chưa thể hiểu hết ở tuổi 28, nhưng tôi không thể dạy con trai tôi câu chuyện Tấm Cám này, đơn giản vì tôi không coi đây là chuyện cổ tích, tôi xếp chuyện này vào nhóm kinh dị...

Access to FreeNAS, which is behind a WL500g router from Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:07:00 +0000

All you need is configure Virtual Servers under NAT Setting (something like on the fig. 1). In this case I have FTP, SSH accesses to my FreeNAS machine, which have internal IP address 192.168.1.250. Beside that I can control Bittorrent service by Web interface from anywhere on the Internet.

Fig. 1. Virtual Server setting on WL500g.

If you don't have static IP address, so you should try http://www.dyndns.com/ (free account is enough for the beginning).

The next step should be security realization...

Network printing for host-based printer HP LaserJet 1000/1005/1018/1020 by Oleg's firmware

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:30:00 +0000

What do you need?

A wireless router like D-Link DIR-320, which has at least one USB port, with Oleg's firmware inside.
An USB printer. In my case I have HP LaserJet 1018, change it to your printer model.
An USB hub if you want to connect more device (USB flask stick, scanner, etc) to the router.

Fig. 1. HP LaserJet 1018 connected to wireless router D-Link DIR-320 through an 4-port USB hub

Why is Oleg's firmware?

Because original router firmware doesn't work with host-based printer like HP Laserjet 1018, thus it's needed to load some printer firmware to this kind of printer to make it operates properly. And beside that, you don't have much things to do with the manufactor's firmware. Oleg's firmware gives you more freedom of operations. If you have a D-Link DIR-320, you can see how to reflashing your router in my other post. The owner of other router can check Oleg's firmware website and forum.

1. Server settings

The main idea here is putting printer firmware in some place, where the router can find and load it to printer when the last one is connected. You need to download/create some files as below:

1.1. sihp1018.dl

This is the printer firmware. We need to load this file to printer. After login to the router by ssh, you can get this firmware from Oleg's firmware website as below:

$ wget http://oleg.wl500g.info/hplj/sihp1018.dl -O /tmp/sihp1018.dl

All the files in /tmp will be deleted every time the router rebooted. Remember to download printer firmware again if you don't have external storage media. In case you have an USB hub and an USB flash stick mounted under /opt, you can have second copy of firmware on the USB stick:

$ mount /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /opt

$ cp sihp1018.dl /opt

1.2. /usr/local/sbin/usb_printerid

wget http://oleg.wl500g.info/hplj/usb_printerid -O /usr/local/sbin/usb_printerid

1.3. /usr/local/sbin/hotplug.sh

This file is a hotplug script, which will load printer firmware automatically every on/off cycle.

#!/bin/sh

LOG=/tmp/hotplug.log

PRN_BIN=/usr/local/sbin/usb_printerid

PRN_FRM1=/tmp/sihp1018.dl

PRN_FRM2=/opt/sihp1018.dl

# Logging

echo --------------- >> $LOG

date >> $LOG

echo $* >> $LOG

set >> $LOG

if [ "$ACTION" = "add" ] || [ "$1" = "usb" ] || [ "$DEVFS" = "/proc/bus/usb" ]; then

sleep 5

$PRN_BIN /dev/usb/lp0 | grep -q FWVER || cat $PRN_FRM1 > /dev/usb/lp0;

$PRN_BIN /dev/usb/lp0 | grep -q FWVER || cat $PRN_FRM2 > /dev/usb/lp0

echo "Printer OnLine" >> $LOG

else

echo "Printer OffLine" >> $LOG

fi

killall hotplug.sh

1.4 /usr/local/sbin/post-boot

Commands in this file will be executed after router's booting. Here I use it to mount USB flash stick, load firmware to printer if it is on and connected and the firmware is not presented on printer. At last, the hotplug script about is load to kernel's hotplug.

#!/bin/sh

# Mount USB flash disk

if [ -w /dev/discs/disc0/part1 ]; then

mount /dev/discs/disc0/part1 /usr/local/flashdisk

fi

# Load firmware to printer if the printer is connected and

# firmware is not loaded (grep -q FWVER)

if [ -w /dev/usb/lp0 ]; then

  /usr/local/sbin/usb_printerid /dev/usb/lp0 | grep -q FWVER || cat /tmp/sihp1018.dl > /dev/usb/lp0;

  /usr/local/sbin/usb_printerid /dev/usb/lp0 | grep -q FWVER || cat /opt/sihp1018.dl > /dev/usb/lp0

fi

# Hotplug script

echo "/usr/local/sbin/hotplug.sh" >> /proc/sys/kernel/hotplug

After downloading/creating files, we need to make some of them executable and then save the flashfs:

$ chmod +x /usr/local/sbin/*

$ flashfs save

$ flashfs commit

$ flashfs enable

$ reboot

That's all from server side. Now you can connect printer to router, turn it on and configure the client side, after what — print.

2. Client side

2. 1. Linux client

Ubuntu for example. Install and run cupsd:

$ sudo apt-get install cups

Then add printer through GNOME interface (wizard). Not very hard to do. And don't forget to add users to lp group!

Fig. 2. Network printer properties

2. 2. Windows(R) client

I won't show you. I hate Windows users ;).
Read here instead: http://oleg.wl500g.info/printing/

Note:

1. When try:

$ flashfs save && flashfs commit && flashfs enable && reboot

and get

[admin@(none) local]$ flashfs commit

/tmp/flash.tar.gz: File is to big (73504, max 65536)

mean your flash file is not fit on flash ROM. Maybe you download printer firmware to some where in /usr/local. Need to check it:

$ ls -lR /usr/local

lrwxrwxrwx    1 admin    root           12 Aug 22 11:35 /usr/local -> ../tmp/local

$ ls -lR /tmp/local

2. If you have connected, for example, 4-port USB hub to the router, then you have more posibilities other than network printing:

network storage device,
network camera,
network scanning, etc.

See http://wl500g.info/forumdisplay.php?f=24 for more compatible hardware with Oleg's firmware.

3. Do not use 3-m USB-cable and over, can cause problem with USB 2.0.

Transmission Remote GUI

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:48:00 +0000

If you're using FreeNAS like me, this application will be useful.

Fig. 1. transgui provides more functions than the web interface

From the readme.txt:

"Transmission Remote GUI is feature rich cross platform front-end to remotely control Transmission daemon via its RPC protocol. It is faster and has more functionality than build-in Transmission web interface.

Transmission Remote GUI is developed using Lazarus RAD and Free Pascal compiler.

Features:

Native application for Windows and Linux (GTK2)
uTorrent-like interface
Select files to download
Choose files priority
View details about connected peers
Full information about each torrent
Per torrent options

Project home:
http://code.google.com/p/transmisson-remote-gui/"

About graphical user interfaces (GUI) for file access

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Not counting command line interface (CLI), there are 2 main graphical user interfaces (GUI) for file access:

"Explorer interface": this is the common GUI and widely used in many operating systems, include Linux (fig. 1). User organizes his directory structure himself and has to remember where to find needed information. To take an operation over the desired file, at first user opens a program -- an "explorer", and then move through the directory to file, and at the end do the operation. This looks like CLI, but uses icons instead of commands.

Fig. 1. GNOME File Manager (Nautilus).

More and more popular is getting, could be called, "Content manager interface" (fig. 2). Here files and folders are classified and organized by its content -- documents, sounds, images, or videos, etc. One or more softwares are used to gain access files. Examples of Content manager interface could be music player on many mobile phones. User even don't know where the files are and how they are saved on the medium. By this GUI, he can do many operations over file/files -- copy, move, rename, remove, etc.

Fig. 2. S60 platform gallery application.

Each GUI for file access has its own advantages and shortages. With Explorer interface, user has full control over his files, but not without detriment. Remember that ordinary people's memory is no limit. With the nowaday temp of information growing, I vote for the Content manager interface.

Exploring D-Link DIR-320 networks with Oleg's firmware or what are vlan0, vlan1, eth0, eth1, br0?

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:26:00 +0000

What is the device?

It's a D-Link wireless router (4MB flash, 32MB RAM and processor Broadcom 240 MHz) with almost the same configuration as ASUS WL500g Premium (8MB flash, 32MB RAM and processor Broadcom 266MHz), but costs much lower.

Fig. 1. The front of D-Link DIR-320

Fig. 2. The of D-Link DIR-320

Why do I need this wireless router?

Because I want to build a wireless home network with Internet connection (PPPoE) for laptop, netbook (HP 2133) and a telephone (Nokia E63), which supports Wi-Fi. I need the USB port for printing, and in the future ---scanning, USB harddisks, networked web camera, 3G or WiM modems etc.

What is the Oleg's firmware?

It's Linux-based custom firmware for ASUS WL-500gx/WL-550gE/WL-500gp/WL-500W/WL-320gE/WL-320gP/WL-330gE/WL-500gp V2/WL-520gU. There isn't much thing to do with the manufacture's firmware. Instruction of installation (flashing) of the Oleg's firmware on DIR-320 can be found in my blog (in English) or wl500g.info (in Russia).

What are there inside the router with Oleg's firmware?

After flashing the device with Oleg's firmware, you can configure Internet connection, Wireless, etc by web brower interface. Don't forget to turn on SSH server (dropbear). After that login and explore:

$ ifconfig

br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4C:C0:00:00
inet addr:192.168.1.1 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1122700 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1113191 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:367622803 (350.5 MiB) TX bytes:586264798 (559.1 MiB)

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4C:C0:00:00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:1393411 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1113648 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:935119976 (891.7 MiB) TX bytes:655661617 (625.2 MiB)
Interrupt:4 Base address:0x1000

eth1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4C:C1:00:00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:619887 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:19671
TX packets:683607 errors:122 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:44888939 (42.8 MiB) TX bytes:305171776 (291.0 MiB)
Interrupt:13 Base address:0x5000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:40152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:40152 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:3718052 (3.5 MiB) TX bytes:3718052 (3.5 MiB)

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:93.88.141.40 P-t-P:93.88.128.253 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1492 Metric:1
RX packets:647631 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:661658 errors:0 dropped:44 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:545701887 (520.4 MiB) TX bytes:346044024 (330.0 MiB)

vlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4C:C0:00:00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:504058 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:443975 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:334078103 (318.6 MiB) TX bytes:292107592 (278.5 MiB)

vlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:90:4C:C0:00:00
inet addr:10.13.5.65 Bcast:10.13.5.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:889353 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:669673 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:575960475 (549.2 MiB) TX bytes:363554025 (346.7 MiB)

Physically the wireless router D-Link DIR-320 has a 2-port router and a 6-port switch. One port of the switch is connected to the router, another one is the WAN port. The other 4 ports of the switch are the LAN ports on the back of DIR-320. The remaining port of the router is connected to the WLAN adapter.

Inside the switch exist two Virtual LANs (VLans) --- vlan0 and vlan1. vlan0 contains ports 4 LAN ports (ports 1--4) and one router port (port 6). vlan1 contains WAN port (port 0 or "Internet Port" written on the back) and router port (port 6).

There is a bridge (br0) bridging eth1 (WLAN) and eth0 (switch port 0). This bridge allows WLAN and LAN to share the same IP address. When the router needs to send information to clients, it broadcasts out br0 (to eth1 and vlan0). When we need to send information to Internet (WAN), router send directly to vlan1.

$ brctl showmacs br0
port no   mac addr       is local?   ageing timer
2   00:1b:9e:7f:96:38   no           0.77
2   00:21:00:62:c1:86   no           0.00
2   00:23:b4:ce:cd:4e   no          36.52
1   00:90:4c:c0:00:00   yes           0.00
2   00:90:4c:c1:00:00   yes           0.00
2   02:90:4c:c1:00:00   no          29.23

Reflashing wireless router D-Link DIR-320 with Oleg's firmware

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:24:00 +0000

The procedure of reflashing Oleg's firmware on D-Link DIR-320:

Getting the latest firmware from http://code.google.com/p/wl500g and rename it to firmware.bin.
Save it to c:\bin
In c:\bin create file flashing.cmd with the following content:

@Echo Off

:BEGIN

ping -n 1 -w 1 192.168.0.1

If errorlevel 1 Goto BEGIN

If errorlevel 0 Goto FLASH

Goto END

:FLASH

Echo *** Start Flashing ****

tftp -i 192.168.0.1 put firmware.bin

:END

Connect computer to the router by an Ethernet cable with the following LAN setting: IP address 192.168.0.2, netmask 255.255.255.0, no need to write gateway and DNS. Do not power on the router.

Run cmd, then change directory to c:\bin and run flashing.cmd

Push and hold Reset while power on the router. When the LAN LED is blinking, you can release Reset button.

Wait while the reflashing process is running.

When the status LED is on (after 1--2 minutes), we need to reset router's default settings. Push and hold Reset button untill status LED starts blinking. Release Reset. The router restarts and will be ready with new firmware.

After reflashing you need to change computers' WLAN or/and LAN adapters settings to get IP address and DNS automatically. Open a web browser and type http://192.168.1.1 to login the router with username admin, password admin. You can change username, password and other setting in this web browser interface.

Bash script for Linux users (instead of flashing.cmd):

#!/bin/bash
ping_router() {
result=1
until [[ "$result" = 0 ]]
do
ping -c 1 -W 1 -i 1 192.168.0.1
result=$?
done
}


ping_router

echo "*** Start Flashing **** "
tftp 192.168.0.1 -m binary -c put ./firmware.bin
if [[ "$?" =  0 ]]
    then echo "Firmware successfully loaded!";
fi

The usage of FreeNAS BitTorrent under a router

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:50:00 +0000

To use FreeNAS BitTorrent when NAS connected to Internet by a router, we must do some configurations.

For Downloading: We need DNS settings. Open FreeNAS web interface (http://192.168.1.250). Username is admin and password is freenas by default. Under System | General Setup we write IPv4 of DNS severs. In my case I wrote IP of the router --- 192.168.1.1
For Uploading: Beside DNS we also need port settings. FreeNAS BitTorrent uses default port 51413, which could be closed by router's Firewall. We need open it or in my case use an other opened port (31929). The port setting is under Services | BitTorrent (Peer Port). Don't forget to enable Port forwarding.

Saving FreeNAS configuration on USB flash disks

noreply@blogger.com (Phan Vinh Thinh) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:46:00 +0000

When running FreeNAS from CD, you can save its configuration to an USB flash disk and restore from there when rebooting. To do this, all you need is connecting the USB flash disk before booting.