MaisTECH

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS Adding Samba Users and Groups

2011-12-15T13:01:00.002-05:00

I will be adding users to both my Ubuntu Server, then create their samba user counterpart.

First we need to add a group for our users to join.

sudo groupadd smbusers

Then we need to use the useradd command to add new users to the group we just created (or any existing group); and add the user to the system. The syntax is "useradd -G {group-name} username"

sudo useradd -G smbusers joe
sudo passwd joe (optional)
sudo smbpasswd -a joe

If you already have a user that is created and want to add them to a group, you can do this.

sudo usermod -a -G smbusers joe

*NOTE* When I use "smbusers" that is the group name. And "joe" is the username.

References:
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/adding-a-user-to-a-samba-smb-share/
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-linux-add-user-to-group/

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS NIC Bonding

2011-12-15T12:21:00.001-05:00

First let's install ifenslave, this is required to bond the nic's.

sudo apt-get install ifenslave

Then we need to edit /etc/network/interfaces

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#auto eth0
#iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto bond0
iface bond0 inet static
address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
gateway xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
netmask xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
bond-slaves eth0 eth1
# LACP confuration
bond_mode 802.3ad
bond_miimon 100
bond_lacp_rate 1

*NOTE* If you only have 2 NIC's and want them bonded comment out your eth0 lines

Restart network services

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

*NOTE* Here is info about different bonding modes:
mode=0 (balance-rr) Round-robin policy: Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

mode=1 (active-backup) Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond’s MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.

mode=2 (balance-xor) XOR policy: Transmit based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This selects the same slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.

mode=3 (broadcast) Broadcast policy: transmits everything on all slave interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.

mode=4 (802.3ad) IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.

* Pre-requisites:
* Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed and duplex of each slave.
* A switch that supports IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Most switches will require some type of configuration to enable 802.3ad mode.

mode=5 (balance-tlb) Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support. The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails, another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.

* Prerequisite: Ethtool support in the base drivers for retrieving the speed of each slave.

mode=6 (balance-alb) Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server.

References:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBonding
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-setup-bond-or-team-network-cards-in-ubuntu-10-1010-04.html

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS RocketRaid 26xx DKMS Driver

2011-12-15T10:53:00.004-05:00

First, install the build tools:

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Download the driver source from Highpoint:

lwp-download http://www.highpoint-tech.cn/BIOS_Driver/rr26xx/2640X1-2640X4-2642/Linux/rr264x-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single-101203-0910.tar.gz

Extract the tar:

tar -zxvf rr264x-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single-101203-0910.tar.gz
mv rr2640-linux-src-v1.3-legacy_single rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3
cd rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3

Make sure DKMS is installed:

sudo aptitude install dkms

Create the DKMS configuration file:

cat >dkms.conf

Cut and Paste the following text:

MAKE="make"
BUILT_MODULE_NAME=rr26xx
DEST_MODULE_LOCATION=/kernel/drivers/scsi
PACKAGE_NAME=rr26xx
PACKAGE_VERSION=1.3
AUTOINSTALL=yes
POST_BUILD="do_Module.symvers rr26xx save $dkms_tree/$module/$module_version/build/Module.symvers"
REMAKE_INITRD=yes

Hit "Control-D" (as in Dog) to close the file.

Copy the Makefile and Config files up to the top directory:

cp product/rr2640/linuxls/* .
mv Makefile Makefile_orig

Modify the HPT_ROOT in the Makefile:

sed 's/HPT_ROOT := ..\/..\/../HPT_ROOT := \/var\/lib\/dkms\/rr26xx\/1.3\/build/' Makefile_orig >Makefile

Move the source into /usr/src for DKMS:

cd ..
sudo mv rr26xx-linux-src-v1.3 /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3

Trick dkms into looking in the /usr/src directory for the precompiled RocketRaid object code:

mv /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/lib /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/real_lib
ln -s /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/real_lib /usr/src/rr26xx-1.3/lib

*NOTE* For some reason dkms will not copy object files (.o) when doing builds, so we need to fool it.
*NOTE* Above symbolic link must be complete (absolute) path!

Add the source to DKMS:

sudo dkms add -m rr26xx -v 1.3

Build the module:

sudo dkms build -k `uname -r` -m rr26xx -v 1.3

*NOTE* This should hopefully compile correctly. If not, you can view the log output from the file "/var/lib/dkms/rr26xx/1.3/build/make.log"

Next install the module:

sudo dkms install -k `uname -r` -m rr26xx -v 1.3

Finally, create the boot image:

sudo mkinitramfs -o /boot/initrd.img-`uname -r` `uname -r`

*UPDATE* I just verified that this will make it through a kernel update. I just updated my server to 2.6.32-37-server and rebooted, my card was detected, and the raid array was intact.

References:
This is adapted from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RocketRaid#RocketRaid_26xx_Driver
with support from this forum http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1633597

Mythbuntu: Antec Fusion v1 VFD & MCE Remote (Updated for 10.10)

2011-09-26T14:43:00.002-04:00

This is an updated how-to of my notes from an earlier post. Things have changed since Ubuntu 9.04, I am now on 10.10 due to the inclusion of Trim support. The mceusb remote should just work out of the box. Here are some notes on it. So basically this is to get your Antec Fusion v1 VFD working.

My install notes:

Install lcdproc and lirc (lirc should already be installed, but just incase)

sudo apt-get install lcdproc lirc

Create a file /etc/modprobe.d/imon-vfd.conf; add the following line.
(This is to pass kernel options at bootup. This is for my VFD, the later version VFD's are diferent. References at end of article)

options lirc_imon display_type=1

Edit /etc/LCDd.conf

Driver=imon
Goodbye=""
ServerScreen=blank

Edit /etc/lirc/lircd.conf add line at end

include "/usr/share/lirc/remotes/imon/lircd.conf.imon-knob"

Restart lirc

sudo service lirc restart

NOTE: If you are using XBMC, edit your ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml so that < haslcd> is set to true

nano +1892 ~/.xbmc/userdata/guisettings.xml

Mythbuntu: MythTV/XBMC Switching

2011-09-26T01:34:00.001-04:00

This script allows switching between mythtv frontend and xbmc. After you have lirc and irexec installed and running.

http://code.google.com/p/yatvgrabber/wiki/XbmcMythtvRemote

To stop Mythfrontend from automatically starting on reboot, this is how I removed it.

cd .config/autostart
rm mythtv.desktop

Ubuntu Server 10.04 LTS Allowing Symlinks with Samba

2011-09-25T19:26:00.000-04:00

Apparently in 10.04 you need to add a few lines to allow symlinks in your samba share. I kept getting access denied in Windows.

Under Global, add the following 3 lines:

[global]
follow symlinks = yes
wide links = yes
unix extensions = no

Now restart Samba

sudo /etc/init.d/smbd restart

You should be good to go!

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS bootable software RAID-1

2011-09-25T03:02:00.003-04:00

Start from your home directory

Install mdadm

sudo apt-get install mdadm

You need 2 modules loaded, md and raid1 Ubuntu 10.10 should automatically have md loaded. You can verify this by running "fgrep CONFIG_MD /boot/config-$(uname -r)"

We need to load the raid1 module so when you reboot it will load.

sudo echo raid1 >> /etc/modules

Now we will load it manually so we don't have to reboot

sudo modprobe raid1

Verify its loaded

lsmod | grep raid1

Next we are going to copy the partition info from sda to sdb.

sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda > sda.out
sudo sfdisk -f /dev/sdb < sda.out

*NOTE* If you get "I don’t like these partitions – nothing changed." Verify it by comparing the output of sfdisk -l /dev/sda and sfdisk -l /dev/sdb.

Change the partition type of the /dev/sdb Linux partition(s) to “Linux raid autodetect”

sudo sfdisk --change-id /dev/sdb 1 fd

Now we’re ready to create the array. We specify a RAID 1 array with 2 devices. The first drive is missing (we add it later) and the second is /dev/sdb1:

sudo mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 missing /dev/sdb1

Now, we need to create and update the mdadm.conf.

sudo cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf /etc/mdadm/mdadm.bak | sudo cp /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf mdadm.conf | mdadm --detail --scan >> mdadm.conf | sudo cp mdadm.conf /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

*NOTE* It will put in a parameter metadata=00.90 that will cause warnings later. Apparently, this is a bug and it is safe to remove it.

Now, we format the raid volume

mkfs -t ext4 /dev/md0

Find out the UUID of the array

sudo blkid

Make a copy of /etc/fstab in your home directory and change root to mount to the UUID of the array. Don’t change the real /etc/fstab quite yet.

sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak | sudo cp /etc/fstab fstab | nano fstab

Really quick, check what kernel you are running you will need this for the next section.

uname -r

Next is adding a custom GRUB2 setup

sudo cp /etc/grub.d/40_custom 09_swraid1_setup | nano 09_swraid1_setup

Replace "2.6.32-36-server" with your kernel version you got from running "uname -r"

menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-36-server' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
        recordfail
        insmod raid
        insmod mdraid
        insmod ext2
        set root='(md0)'
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-36-server root=/dev/md0 ro   quiet
        initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-36-server
}

Now copy both files we just created to their respective locations

sudo cp fstab /etc/ | sudo cp 09_swraid1_setup /etc/grub.d/

Let's update Grub

sudo update-grub | sudo update-initramfs -u

And make sure Grub is installed on both drives

sudo grub-install /dev/sda | sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

Create a directory called "tmpraid"

sudo mkdir /tmpraid

Mount the array on /tmparray

mount /dev/md0 /tmpraid
rsync -aqxP / /tmpraid

Reboot, and hope.

References:
http://www.jfamiglietti.com/john/?p=152
http://linuxconfig.org/Linux_Software_Raid_1_Setup

Disable/Enable Windows IPv6 Tunnels

2011-09-24T11:13:00.000-04:00

I just found this link, and wanted to preserve it. Very nice for disabling IPv6 tunnels on Windows machines. I am running dual-stack, and the tunnels felt like they were in the way.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929852

Windows Disable IPv6 RA solicitations

2011-09-24T11:10:00.002-04:00

This works for both Windows 7 and Server 2008, I use this if I have set a static IPv6 address and want to stop the Windows box from having more than one IPv6 address.

First we want to find the index value of your nic.

c:\netsh int ipv6 sh int
Idx     Met         MTU          State                Name
---  ----------  ----------  ------------  ---------------------------
  1          50  4294967295  connected     Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
 11          10        1500  connected     Local Area Connection

Now apply the value to disable the RA solicitation

c:\netsh int ipv6 set int 11 routerdiscovery=disabled

Now after a reboot you should only have one IPv6 IP address.

Terminal Server 2003 msiexec high cpu usage, hp upd

2010-01-20T22:21:00.002-05:00

Ok, so this has been killing me for a while. I have a terminal server that was unable to add/remove applications in a timely manor. When I meant timely, i mean TIMELY. It could take days to install Office, or HOURS to install a security patch.

I still haven't fully isolated what causes the problem to start (possibly bad printer driver). But this solution worked for me this time.

I removed these Registry Keys; which were full of HP garbage.

[HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\RefHive\Hewlett-Packard]
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Hewlett-Packard]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Hewlett-Packard]

I then made sure that there were no Universal Print monitors.

[HLKM\SYSTEM\CONTROLSET001\CONTROL\Print\Monitors]
[HLKM\SYSTEM\CURRENTONTROLSET\CONTROL\Print\Monitors]

References:
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1247687
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1264044137399+28353475&threadId=968215

Managing Printers: Kernel Mode Drivers (version 2) are blocked on the target machine

2009-12-08T09:09:00.001-05:00

When trying to restore printers using Printer Migrator on a windows 2003 server, you may receive this message: “WARNING: Kernel Mode Drivers (version 2) are blocked on the target machine. Disable Kernel Mode driver blocking and re-run Printer Migrator…”

1. Run Local Group Policy. Open Run and type gpedit.msc
2. Explorer Computer Configuration,
3. Select Administrative Templates,
4. click Printer.
5. On the Right pane, right-click on "Disallow installation of printers using kernel mode drivers"
6. Select Properties and check Disabled.
7. Click OK to close the Local Group Policy.

Terminal Server Licensing

2009-11-30T14:40:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty basic one today, but I thought it would be worth noting. In a domain if you want to use Terminal Server licensing on a local server instead of the auto-detected server follow this guide: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561

To tighten security on that server so other Terminal Servers can not use your licenses
gpedit.msc
goto "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\TS Licensing"
Enable "License server security group"
Add your Terminal Server on the Licensing server to the "Terminal Server Computers" group.

References:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/279561
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725704(WS.10).aspx

Mythbuntu: Firewire Channel and Recording

2009-11-29T15:39:00.008-05:00

I got this working, and it was helluva lot simpler than I had been going after. There were a few key settings that made everything just fall into place and "just work".
First and foremost find out what works best for YOUR STB. From everything I've read Motorola's like Broadcast @ 400mbps. Most articles I've read tell you use Point to Point (P2P), this failed every single time for me. So Broadcast and 400mbps (this is in back end settings for your device).
That is really all I needed to do to get it working, but here are my notes on if it does fail how you can prime the STB.

Notes:
First we need to grab some files to build "firewire_tester"

sudo apt-get install libiec61883-dev build-essential libraw1394-dev libiec61883-dev libavc1394-dev wget

Next we want to change to /usr/local/bin then grab firewire_tester.c

cd /usr/local/bin
sudo wget "http://cvs.mythtv.org/trac/browser/trunk/mythtv/contrib/development/firewire_tester/firewire_tester.c?format=txt" -O firewire_tester.c

Let's compile firewire_tester.c

gcc -Wall -o firewire_tester firewire_tester.c -liec61883 -lraw1394

Now we have to make firewire_primer.pl executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib/user_jobs/firewire_primer.pl

Create a link to firewire_primer.pl (should still be in /usr/local/bin)

sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/mythtv-backend/contrib/user_jobs/firewire_primer.pl firewire_primer.pl

Test your connection (should not have TV on while doing this)

sudo ./firewire_primer.pl

References:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Firewire_Priming#One_Tuner_Priming_Script

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/User:Yeffetn
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/majoridiot

Mythbuntu: Antec Fusion v1 VFD & MCE Remote

2009-11-29T14:15:00.013-05:00

I like simple. But in trying to get my VFD and MCE remote working seemed anything but. So this is how I got my VFD and MCE remote working. This is pretty strait forward, I tried all sorts of articles but all in all, if you are running 0.22 this is what I came up with.

My install notes:

Install lcdproc and lirc (lirc should already be installed, but just incase)

sudo apt-get install lcdproc lirc

Create a file /etc/modprobe.d/imon-vfd.conf; add the following line.
(This is to pass kernel options at bootup. This is for my VFD, the later version VFD's are diferent. References at end of article)

options lirc_imon display_type=1

~~0.22 default you need to run a mysql query due to bug (link bug)~~
~~at the end where it says "null", you can also put your hostname there, i've tried both, either works.~~

mysql -u mythtv -p [enter password]
use mythconverg;
insert into settings (value,data,hostname) values ('LCDServerHost','127.0.0.1', null);

Edit /etc/LCDproc.conf

Driver=imon
Goodbye=""
ServerScreen=blank

Edit /etc/lirc/lircd.conf add line at end

include "/usr/share/lirc/remotes/imon/lircd.conf.imon-mceusb"

~~Not really sure if this is needed, but it works so...~~
~~Create lirc.custom file in init.d~~

sudo /usr/sbin/lircd --driver=default --device=/dev/lirc0 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc0.pid --listen=8765
sudo /usr/sbin/lircd --driver=default --device=/dev/lirc1 --pidfile=/var/run/lirc1.pid --output=/dev/lircd --connect=localhost:8765

~~Save file~~

sudo chmod +x lirc.custom

~~Test and see if MCE remote is working; if it is, cd /etc/init.d~~

sudo update-rc lirc.custom defaults

Edit /etc/lirc/hardware.conf change

REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc0"

REMOTE_DEVICE="/dev/lirc1"

References:
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/402902

Mythbuntu: Mounting Media

2009-11-28T12:33:00.035-05:00

I was going to write up a long nice detailed thing here, but then I found this, https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MountWindowsSharesPermanently and now I don't need to as it explains it way better.

My quick notes:

sudo apt-get install smbfs

Find my UID

id

Create my /etc/samba/cifspw file

username=MyUsername
password=MyPassword

My fstab lines

//syndrome/movies /home/mediacenter/Movies cifs uid=1000,gid=1000,credentials=/etc/samba/cifspwd,domain=incredibles 0 0
//syndrome/music /home/mediacenter/Music cifs uid=1000,gid=1000,credentials=/etc/samba/cifspwd,domain=incredibles 0 0
//syndrome/pictures/iPhoto\040Library/data /home/mediacenter/Pictures cifs uid=1000,gid=1000,credentials=/etc/samba/cifspwd,domain=incredibles 0 0

Create mount directory

mkdir /home/mediacenter/Movies

Test mount

cd /home/mediacenter/
sudo mount -a Movies

Set permissions on folder

sudo chown mediacenter:mediacenter Movies
sudo chmod 755 Movies/

Ubuntu 9.10 Remix Frustration

2009-11-18T18:09:00.004-05:00

Ok, so I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 Remix; burned it; installed it. All flawlessly on my Dell 700m. This laptop is old, Pentium M 1.8; 2GB Ram, 60 GB Hard Drive. Yes, I know this is a old laptop, but honestly it does everything that a "Netbook" does 12.1" 1280x800 screen, DVD Burner.. OK battery life.

So, I installed Remix, and everything went as expected except that I can't use it. It seems that the Intel 852/855 Video chipset doesn't properly work due to the "fancy" video rendering Remix uses.

I doubt anyone is reading this, but if you have a possible solution I would be glad to hear it. From what I can tell I think Remix is perfect for this laptop so ...

Change the default location of the user profiles in Windows 2003 Server

2009-09-22T14:37:00.004-04:00

Goal is to define an alternate location for user profiles; move them from the C: drive to a different drive due to space allocation. I want to store the terminal server profiles on a different drive.

In the registry find:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

ProfilesDirectory:C:\Documents and Settings

Change to:

ProfilesDirectory:X:\Documents and Settings

**Note** Existing Profiles will remain under C:\Documents And Settings; you'll need to move these profiles manually.

New users will have there profile created in the location you specified.

There is also an administrative template which enables you to set the default place teminal server profiles. You can find this template at following location in the group policy editor:

Computer Configuration\Administraive Templates\Windows Components\Terminal Services\Set Path for TS Roaming Prifiles.

Next is to move the existing profiles to the new path X:\Documents and Settings\

To rename (or move) the User Profile folder, you may use the following method. This method has been adopted from KB314843, but this page explains in detail how to rename an User account home directory.

**NOTE** Though you can move or rename the user profile folder, there may be some side effects after using this method. This is because of the reason that there may be some absolute path references (to the old user profile folder) in the registry added by third-party software. Therefore, there may be a loss of functionality in the respective applications.

Rename the User Profile folder using Windows Explorer

Logon to an admin account that is not the account being renamed.

Open the Documents and Settings folder, by typing this in Start, Run dialog:

%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings

The list of folders will be displayed. Select the corresponding folder of the user account that you want to rename.

Example:

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername

becomes

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername

Next step is to notify the system that the user profile path has changed.

Changing the ProfileImagePath value in the registry

ProfileImagePath registry value

The ProfileList registry key contains some sub-keys, which are nothing but the list of User Account Security Identifiers (SID). Each of the SID represents an Account. The key is located here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList

Identify the SID for your User account, and change the Profile path

To know the SID for your user account, you may use the script sidlist.vbs

Download the script and run it. (The User Account names and SIDs will be listed in a log file, and opened automatically.)

Note down the SID for your account.

Then, in the Registry Editor, select the correct SID that belongs to your user account.

In the right-pane, double-click the ProfileImagePath value and change the profile path. ( The ProfileImagePath stores the full path of the User account home folder. )

Example:

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\OldUsername

becomes the following:

%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\NewUsername

Close Registry Editor, and restart Windows. See if you're able to logon to that user profile successfully. Additionally, to verify if the path has been changed successfully, type SET in the Command Prompt. In case you find any abnormal behavior when running an application, you may undo the above procedure.

Take Ownership in Registry

2009-09-13T13:47:00.002-04:00

This is a neat little trick, if you have a registry key you can't take ownership of or delete.

Downoload 'PsTools'

(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896649.aspx)

Unpack file *psexec.exe* and place it in *C:\Windows\System32*

next run *cmd.exe* with administrative previlliges (right click on it

as admin if you use UAC) and in *cmd.exe* type:

PSEXEC -S -I -D REGEDIT.EXE

-this command allow you run *regedit.exe* from a SYSTEM account (not

from your account) so remember if you want remove any key the owner of

this key should be SYSTEM now and full control for him for this key

also.

(see PsTools describe)

Cisco & Radius Authentication

2009-08-27T21:26:00.006-04:00

Yay... If you have multiple devices from multiple vendors, Radius is a nice way to get them to talk together. This is how I got Radius working with my Cisco router.

1. Install IAS from add/remove programs
2. Launch IAS, create a new "Radius Client".
Friendly name can be whatever you want, I chose the name of my router.
IP is the device you want to connect to IP address.

Set the shared secret (something good, no less than 6 characters, 16 would be best, no spaces, dashes are ok)
3. Create a "Remote Access Policy".

I use the wizard one, seemed simple enough. For the policy name i just chose what i was connecting to. Ethernet; Group, added a new group in AD called "Network Admins". Chose MD5 (will change later); Finish.

4. Edit your new policy (properties), remove NAS-Port-Type and put in "NAS-IP-Address"; then put in the ip of your device.

5. Edit Profile; Authentication Tab, select PAP. Under EAP methods, remove MD5.

6. Advanced Tab; add Cisco-AV-Pair; Add "shell:priv-lvl=15" under Attribute value.

Now for the Cisco Part; what got me interested was tightening security on my router, so parts are from (Here)

aaa new-model

aaa authentication login default group radius local-case

aaa authentication enable default group radius enable

aaa authorization commands 15 default group radius local

aaa accounting exec default stop-only group radius

aaa accounting commands 15 default stop-only group radius

aaa accounting network default stop-only group radius

radius-server host 0.0.0.0 <--change this to your Radius Server IP

radius-server key password <-- change this to the shared secret you set up on the Radius Server

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS and Dell 700M

2009-07-16T14:03:00.005-04:00

So "netbook's" seem all the rage these days, so i thought i would dust off my old Dell 700m, it's not quite as small as a current netbook, but it is nice and tiny.

My plans include putting in a nice little 32GB SSD drive, and upgrading the processor to a 2.10Ghz when they are ~20 (no rush, not a big difference in speed over the current 1.8Ghz Pentium M)

Anyway.. i installed Ubuntu on it, and it's been nice for surfing and basic tasks... but ran into a problem of it not shuting down properly. More like X was crashing...

There are a number of tricks out there to try and fix it, this one seems to make it happen less than any others.

First i shut off the splash screen's (edit /boot/grub/menu.lst)

then, in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, change:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
EndSection
to
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "ForceEnablePipeA" "true"
EndSection

it seems to make it better... we'll see!

EDIT: I'm including this link, as it has other options that might help on other hardware.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/208479

Win 7 Media Center + WMA 10 Pro + SPDIF

2009-06-23T15:23:00.005-04:00

OK, so I've been working on a couple issues with my Media Center PC for about a week now. I have to say, MC7 is by far better than any other media center I've used. But I've run into a few issues I'm not too happy with.

I encode all my movies in WMVHD format so the kids can watch movies either the xbox 360 or on the HTPC. This gets me away from having them fight about who gets to watch what and when, they each get what they want.

So with MC7 it plays absolutely everything I've tried; WMVHD, DiVX, DVD...

DTS and Dolby Digital movies both output via SPDIF to my Yamaha receiver, play perfectly.

Now the problem; I encode my WMVHD's in WMA Pro 10 5.1 surround... my receiver does not nativly decode this, so i've always in the past used either FFDshow or AC3filter to "recode" the WMA Pro 10 to DD 5.1.

Well, this no longer works in MC7. I have applied numerous hacks from hack7mc.com (superb site BTW) and can get AC3Filter to load perfectly for everything except... WMVHD files. It works for mp3's, DVD's, DiVX, and Live TV.

If I load GraphEdit and have it render a WMVHD file, the flow looks correct, File --> DMO WMA Decoder --> AC3Filter --> Default Sound Device.

I've posted on numerous sites, but not come up with anything that actually works...

Latest thing I've tried is renaming the WMADMOD.DLL, but then nothing plays... even with FFDshow and AC3filter loaded... I also know that Windows 7 (along with Vista) actually have moved to a new "filter set" that is no longer DirectShow, it's now called WMF or Windows Media Foundation. I have yet to find any filters that have moved to this new format.

Choppy 1080 Streaming to a Xbox 360

2009-06-15T21:07:00.004-04:00

Copied from: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/308476.aspx

I made these changes, and my stuttering dissapeared instantly.

Network issues with NIC

Enable flow control(I know you did this already)
Disable autotuning (netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled)

Turn off the following settings for NIC
Ipv6
Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Take a look at this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929707/en-us

One of the most frequent complains about Windows Vista is the Multimedia Class Scheduler. The is an enabled-by-default component that prioritises multimedia applications and tasks such as video and music playback.However, when multimedia tasks are active, MCS will throttle down the global network bandwidth to around 10,000 packets per second. On high speed links like 100Mbps full duplex and 1000Mbps LAN connections that doesn’t use Jumbo Packets, the throttling may be significant drop network throughput. In Vista SP1, Microsoft added the ability to change the packet per second limit of the MCS, or completely disable it. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows key and R simultaneously.

2. Enter “regedit” (without the quotation marks) and press enter.

3. Using the tree on your left, navigate to the following branch:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Multimedia\SystemProfile

4. Double click on “NetworkThrottlingIndex“.

5. To disable completely, enter FFFFFF with base hexadecimal.

6. To let say, 100,000 packets through per second, enter 100000 with base decimal.

7. Click Ok and restart your computer.

Note: This works only on Windows Vista operating systems with SP1 installed or later (I made this change on Windows 7)

Etherchannel or "trunking" on a Cisco 3560

2009-05-16T22:34:00.007-04:00

Pretty simple actually, select the ports you would like to trunk.

conf t

int range g0/1 - 2

channel-group 1 mode on

not sure if this is needed, if someone can tell me:

switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switchport mode trunk

Make sure that the channel-group mode is set to on and not desired which is the default

You can check if the ports are trunked by running...

sh int po1

sh eth 1 sum or det

Printers on Server 2003

2009-05-14T12:28:00.003-04:00

OK, so I've been using Server 2003 for quite some time now, and kinda surprised I've never seen this before.

When in the printers and faxes window, you can right click in the empty space to change ports, remove old drivers, change Forms and change Advanced printer settings.

This is useful when you need to add a printer to a Terminal Server for users. Also, it seems that Xerox printers do not install drivers by default in Terminal Services, so installing/adding the universal printer drivers ahead of time seems to help.

Macbook Pro with a External Monitor

2009-05-02T22:08:00.005-04:00

New trick for the day for Macbook Pro's (might work on regular Macbook's as well). Plug in the external display, set for mirroring. Close the lid, use your USB keyboard or mouse to wake up the Mac. That's it; it should show up on your external display working...