My iPod's Back! w00t!
So it does seem that it was the file system and partitioning that was causing all that hell. After I deleted the partitions, and formatted the drive as Fat32, the iPod Updater worked just fine.
I was a little worried; as the formatting was nearing the end, I got a message, "Windows was unable to format the drive." I was dreading that I would attempt to use the iPod Updater only to find that it would get another "Could not mount iPod" error. I was so glad when I saw that blue progress bar slowly inching its way across my screen.
12/26/05
12/25/05
Ever feel like today just isn't your day for technology?
I think today is one of those days for me...
Since that last post, I've had TWO technical issues... One was small, and I just averted the issue, the second was major, and I spent an hour researching and troubleshooting.
My first problem, the easy one, was the fact that my HTML code in my previous post was funkie... Blogger sent me an error message: "Cannot post: tag < center > has no closing tag." Now, there was only one center tag and one following center-closing tag. There's no reason that I can see that my tag was open, but I just added another center-closing tag, and it posted right away. Problem averted.
My second problem was a problem that has persisted me between different operating systems and have (now) even had different solutions. Sticking to the most recent incident, I when I earlier decided to reboot Suzi-LNX into XP, I forgot to shutdown Thunderbird before actually shutting down. I usually don't have a problem when I do this, but this time I did. When I opened Thunderbird, I was prompted "Please select a profile." The only profile listed was "default," and selecting default and selecting "Start Thunderbird" would cause Thunderbird to respond with
Upon searching mozillaZine, I found a lot of talk about making sure that there isn't any remnants of Thunderbird running in memory (mostly a Windows error, that I have had before, and is a simple to fix with an "end task" command) or delete the file "parent.lock." I looked though everything, but there was no parent.lock or even a parent. file... I was getting quite frustrated. After reading 8 pages of mozillaZine, I finally found a link that was quite useful: mozillaZine: Profile in Use.
To summarize, there is one key point that was neglected from the majority of the forums:
iPod
Currently, it is still formatting. Damn USB 1.1. It's getting closer to the end of formatting, but it still has a ways to go. And the sad thing is, I don't have a clue if this will work or not.
I think today is one of those days for me...
Since that last post, I've had TWO technical issues... One was small, and I just averted the issue, the second was major, and I spent an hour researching and troubleshooting.
My first problem, the easy one, was the fact that my HTML code in my previous post was funkie... Blogger sent me an error message: "Cannot post: tag < center > has no closing tag." Now, there was only one center tag and one following center-closing tag. There's no reason that I can see that my tag was open, but I just added another center-closing tag, and it posted right away. Problem averted.
My second problem was a problem that has persisted me between different operating systems and have (now) even had different solutions. Sticking to the most recent incident, I when I earlier decided to reboot Suzi-LNX into XP, I forgot to shutdown Thunderbird before actually shutting down. I usually don't have a problem when I do this, but this time I did. When I opened Thunderbird, I was prompted "Please select a profile." The only profile listed was "default," and selecting default and selecting "Start Thunderbird" would cause Thunderbird to respond with
Cannot use the profile ''Default'' because it is already in use. Please choose another profile or create a new one. Upon searching mozillaZine, I found a lot of talk about making sure that there isn't any remnants of Thunderbird running in memory (mostly a Windows error, that I have had before, and is a simple to fix with an "end task" command) or delete the file "parent.lock." I looked though everything, but there was no parent.lock or even a parent. file... I was getting quite frustrated. After reading 8 pages of mozillaZine, I finally found a link that was quite useful: mozillaZine: Profile in Use.
To summarize, there is one key point that was neglected from the majority of the forums:
The application may have shut down abnormally, leaving the lock in place. To fix this, delete the file named "parent.lock" (Windows), "lock" (Linux), or ".parentlock" (Mac OS X) in your profile folder.Grrr, that seems like something they would have mentioned... Although, I only found one Linux guy having the same problem as I (out of the posts that I read).
iPod
Currently, it is still formatting. Damn USB 1.1. It's getting closer to the end of formatting, but it still has a ways to go. And the sad thing is, I don't have a clue if this will work or not.
Sound The Alarms!
I'm having technical difficulties... With my iPod.
Alright, so maybe it wasn't the best idea to try to install iPod Linux to it when I was pretty sure that it wouldn't work, but I was adventurous, and now, for the past two hours, I've been trying to undo what I did.
My iPod, Saji, a 5G iPod with video 30 GB, was quite the christmas gift from my parents. I totally loved the thing, although in the infinite wisdom of Apple, it's difficult to play video on this iPod with video. As a matter of fact, of the 6 or so file formats that I tried to transfer to the iPod, none worked. I was quite annoyed by this fact, so I looked for a solution on the internet... And what did I come across you might ask? One thing: iPod Linux.
I decided to follow the iPod Linux Installer from a Linux Computer instructions, which was a lot of work, and when I rebooted the iPod, I found that the iPod didn't detect Linux nor Apple's iPod OS. At this point, I hooked the iPod up to my old Windows 2000 box (via a USB 1.1 port... oohhh, so slow) and used iPod Updater to reinstall the iPod OS.
It was at that time when I decided to follow a different set of instructions: iPod Linux Installer from a Windows Computer - but once again, at reboot, the iPod showed an error message saying that it cannot find the OS and I should go to http://www.apple.com/support/ipod: the iPod serious error message. I, having seen this error before (with the previous installation attempt), didn't think much of it, accept that the iPod didn't have a working edition of Linux installed to it.
I tried to rerun the installer to check a few things, but this time, it said that it couldn't access the iPod. And this is where my problems started to take form. I tried to run the iPod Updater to revert to the original iPod OS, but it said that it couldn't mount the iPod. This is bad. I returned the iPod to linux, only to find that linux couldn't mount it either. I decided that it may be in my best interest to install the iPod Updater to my Windows XP machine (which has never been connected to the iPod, nor did it have any Apple software installed to it). When I hooked the iPod up to the XP box, I was able to get the iPod to mount *w00t!* or so I thought.... I told the Updater to revert to the default OS, but as the iPod Updater worked on installing the iPod OS, it once again got the "Could not mount iPod" error.
I again returned the iPod to Linux, this time, realizing something, the reason that I couldn't access
At this point, I was actually starting to ponder if I could return the iPod to the store to get another one or not. I was thinking, this may be beyond what I can repair... And to me, that is quite odd! A software error is always fixable... Rewrite code, use new code, reinstall the program, etc... There's always a way to fix broken programs, as long as you have the program or the source code, it's possible. But this was just baffling me... And I knew what it was too, something happened when I used the iPod Linux Installer from a Windows Computer... I wasn't sure what it was, but something happened with that installer that freaked the iPod out. I wasn't getting an error that made me think, "Awww hell, the hardware has failed" or anything like that, it just seemed like the iPod was having some serious OS trouble, and I just needed to restore to the original OS to at least get the MP3 abilities back... I didn't even care about the videos anymore... I just didn't want a $300 paper-weight.
I was desperate... But I thought that I really needed access to both a Linux computer and a Windows machine, so I returned to SUSE, and began working with the iPod. A thought occurred to me as I was working with the iPod... What if those Linux partitions are still bothering it? I took a look at my sick little Saji under
Haha! I thought to myself, that first partition, that's really small, is thwarting the iPod OS reinstall! I figured there are two possibilities... 1) The iPod Updater was trying to install to a partition that was too small or 2) the iPod wasn't reformatting the partition, and wasn't able to mount a partition that was of some "odd Linux format." So, I did what I thought would be the quick-and-dirty way to get my Saji back up and running: trash all the partitions (in Linux) and attempt to run the iPod Updater again.
When it once again received the "Cannot mount iPod" error, I was confused and peeved! The damn thing was still not working. But I quickly came up with another possible solution: what if the iPod needed a file system? The iPod Updater doesn't seem to actually be formatting anything, so I decided to try out installing Fat32 to the iPod in Linux, and then returning the iPod to Windows to see how it worked out.
This time, I got an odd message from Windows: "Drive I: is not formatted, format it now? [YES][NO]" I logged in as admin and told it to format it... Fat32... All one partition. Full format.
It's currently somewhere around 25% and it's been going for about an hour now. There's still a lot of work to be done on this iPod, and I'm still worried about it, but at least it's doing something. More about the iPod coming soon, hopefully good news.
Pleeds with the IT, Apple, and iPod gods
I'm having technical difficulties... With my iPod.
Alright, so maybe it wasn't the best idea to try to install iPod Linux to it when I was pretty sure that it wouldn't work, but I was adventurous, and now, for the past two hours, I've been trying to undo what I did.
My iPod, Saji, a 5G iPod with video 30 GB, was quite the christmas gift from my parents. I totally loved the thing, although in the infinite wisdom of Apple, it's difficult to play video on this iPod with video. As a matter of fact, of the 6 or so file formats that I tried to transfer to the iPod, none worked. I was quite annoyed by this fact, so I looked for a solution on the internet... And what did I come across you might ask? One thing: iPod Linux.
I decided to follow the iPod Linux Installer from a Linux Computer instructions, which was a lot of work, and when I rebooted the iPod, I found that the iPod didn't detect Linux nor Apple's iPod OS. At this point, I hooked the iPod up to my old Windows 2000 box (via a USB 1.1 port... oohhh, so slow) and used iPod Updater to reinstall the iPod OS.
It was at that time when I decided to follow a different set of instructions: iPod Linux Installer from a Windows Computer - but once again, at reboot, the iPod showed an error message saying that it cannot find the OS and I should go to http://www.apple.com/support/ipod: the iPod serious error message. I, having seen this error before (with the previous installation attempt), didn't think much of it, accept that the iPod didn't have a working edition of Linux installed to it.
I tried to rerun the installer to check a few things, but this time, it said that it couldn't access the iPod. And this is where my problems started to take form. I tried to run the iPod Updater to revert to the original iPod OS, but it said that it couldn't mount the iPod. This is bad. I returned the iPod to linux, only to find that linux couldn't mount it either. I decided that it may be in my best interest to install the iPod Updater to my Windows XP machine (which has never been connected to the iPod, nor did it have any Apple software installed to it). When I hooked the iPod up to the XP box, I was able to get the iPod to mount *w00t!* or so I thought.... I told the Updater to revert to the default OS, but as the iPod Updater worked on installing the iPod OS, it once again got the "Could not mount iPod" error.
I again returned the iPod to Linux, this time, realizing something, the reason that I couldn't access
/dev/sdb, the iPod device, is because the iPod wasn't on /dev/sdb... It had changed... This connection, it had become /dev/sdd -- it seems that each reinstall of the OS prompted the device to mount under a different device... With this, I decided that I would delete all the partitions and hook up the iPod to my best machine: Suzi-XP. Yes, Suzi-XP (not Suzi-LNX). Suzi-XP is the same computer as Suzi-LNX, just booted into XP instead of SUSE. But even in Suzi-XP, I was getting the same thing as my older XP box, it would allow me to revert, but as it tried to install the original OS, it once again got the "Couldn not mount iPod" error. This is getting annoying.At this point, I was actually starting to ponder if I could return the iPod to the store to get another one or not. I was thinking, this may be beyond what I can repair... And to me, that is quite odd! A software error is always fixable... Rewrite code, use new code, reinstall the program, etc... There's always a way to fix broken programs, as long as you have the program or the source code, it's possible. But this was just baffling me... And I knew what it was too, something happened when I used the iPod Linux Installer from a Windows Computer... I wasn't sure what it was, but something happened with that installer that freaked the iPod out. I wasn't getting an error that made me think, "Awww hell, the hardware has failed" or anything like that, it just seemed like the iPod was having some serious OS trouble, and I just needed to restore to the original OS to at least get the MP3 abilities back... I didn't even care about the videos anymore... I just didn't want a $300 paper-weight.
I was desperate... But I thought that I really needed access to both a Linux computer and a Windows machine, so I returned to SUSE, and began working with the iPod. A thought occurred to me as I was working with the iPod... What if those Linux partitions are still bothering it? I took a look at my sick little Saji under
fdisk, and found three partitions... One marked as none, one marked as Fat32, and the other marked as Linux. Haha! I thought to myself, that first partition, that's really small, is thwarting the iPod OS reinstall! I figured there are two possibilities... 1) The iPod Updater was trying to install to a partition that was too small or 2) the iPod wasn't reformatting the partition, and wasn't able to mount a partition that was of some "odd Linux format." So, I did what I thought would be the quick-and-dirty way to get my Saji back up and running: trash all the partitions (in Linux) and attempt to run the iPod Updater again.
When it once again received the "Cannot mount iPod" error, I was confused and peeved! The damn thing was still not working. But I quickly came up with another possible solution: what if the iPod needed a file system? The iPod Updater doesn't seem to actually be formatting anything, so I decided to try out installing Fat32 to the iPod in Linux, and then returning the iPod to Windows to see how it worked out.
This time, I got an odd message from Windows: "Drive I: is not formatted, format it now? [YES][NO]" I logged in as admin and told it to format it... Fat32... All one partition. Full format.
It's currently somewhere around 25% and it's been going for about an hour now. There's still a lot of work to be done on this iPod, and I'm still worried about it, but at least it's doing something. More about the iPod coming soon, hopefully good news.
12/21/05
24 Hours Later...
Is Love
Welcome to KDE! w00t. It's still 3.4, but that's okay, although annoying... 3.5 was released two weeks ago, and should have been in portage by now! But, 3.4 works.
I only had one minor problem with KDE, I was having some odd issues modifying my
After KDE finished emerging, I emerged amarok and fluxbox. Quick and simple installs. From there, I decided to go ahead with Gnome, and that's what the system is currently working on. It should be another day or so before that's done. And even then, I think I didn't have the right
But, I have actually started KDE, and it works just fine. I found out that it's got some audio issues (which I'll have to figure out) but it seems to be stable, although it also seems to be fairly empty right now... There's not much software installed on it. I should get that up and running here soon though, but it may be a bit before I can do that (gotta wait for Gnome to finish!).
Updated:
Specifics for Today!
Multipart sections have completed projects marked in italics and the INPROGRESS tag.
Is Love
Welcome to KDE! w00t. It's still 3.4, but that's okay, although annoying... 3.5 was released two weeks ago, and should have been in portage by now! But, 3.4 works.
I only had one minor problem with KDE, I was having some odd issues modifying my
.xinitrcd file (it should be noted that this problem had nothing to do with KDE itself)... I'm not sure why I was having trouble, but the file just never created... It's like I was trying to save to a write protected directory or something. I eventually got it, and things moved on well from there.After KDE finished emerging, I emerged amarok and fluxbox. Quick and simple installs. From there, I decided to go ahead with Gnome, and that's what the system is currently working on. It should be another day or so before that's done. And even then, I think I didn't have the right
USE flags in for Gnome, so I may have to go and fix that --which would cause me to have to recompile Gnome (best case) or have to recompile the entire system (worst case). Either way, it'll be awhile before I am able to do much with the system. But, I have actually started KDE, and it works just fine. I found out that it's got some audio issues (which I'll have to figure out) but it seems to be stable, although it also seems to be fairly empty right now... There's not much software installed on it. I should get that up and running here soon though, but it may be a bit before I can do that (gotta wait for Gnome to finish!).
Updated:
- [DONE] Get Xorg up and running, specifically the damn mouse.
- [INPROGRESS] Get a desktop manager installed, and then the other two (total: KDE, Fluxbox, Gnome)
- [ ] Update portage (first, find the instructions on how to do that)
- [INPROGRESS] Get specific software installed (alsa, amarok, gtkpod, OOo 2)
- [ ] Configure the system for appearance
Multipart sections have completed projects marked in italics and the INPROGRESS tag.
12/20/05
Chug-a-lug, chug-a-lug...
Well, I got Xorg configured on Raku - w00t. I also found out what was wrong with my display manager... (that was what my angry post was this morning) the new
Still, I feel that using the
On a side note, I have no clue if closing the
Updated Specifics for Today
Well, I got Xorg configured on Raku - w00t. I also found out what was wrong with my display manager... (that was what my angry post was this morning) the new
nvidia driver doesn't support (among other versions) the Riva TNT2 cards anymore. When I told Gentoo to use the nvidia driver instead of the nv (bare-bones nvidia driver) the driver threw an exception -- right out the window. There may be a way to fix this, perhaps by using an older version of the nvidia driver, or something. I'll have to do a lot more research on that before I get a decent answer though.Still, I feel that using the
nv driver is more of a "workaround" than a solution... I really want that nv driver up and running.On a side note, I have no clue if closing the
SSH session will cause gentoo to stop compiling KDE... It's been going for around four hours now, and it seems a little pointless to leave SSH open. But, I remember having some odd issues with KSSH and VNC connections... Once the session for KSSH or VNC were closed, they would lose all the data that I was working on; quite annoying, and I definitely don't want to risk that on an compilation of KDE (btw: I did an emerge kde command, so it should be getting all/most of KDE at the same time... This could go on for a day or two).Updated Specifics for Today
- [DONE] Get Xorg up and running, specifically the damn mouse.
- [IN PROGRESS] Get a desktop manager installed, and then the other two (total: KDE, Fluxbox, Gnome)
- [ ] Update portage (first, find the instructions on how to do that)
- [ ] Get specific software installed (alsa, amarok, gtkpod, OOo 2)
- [ ] Configure the system for appearance
Generation Next, Generation Next... Generation!
Okay, so that was dorky. But it gets worse...
Yesterday, I got bored. So I decided to do something... Mwahahahaha. GENTOO LINUX! I realized that I had a spare system just sitting around that I kept saying, "Ya know, one day, I'll install my MS Windows Server 2003 Enterprise to it and play with it." But, once I got VMWear running on Suzi-LNX, there was little point in doing that. But there was one thing that I didn't want to do in VMWare, and that was the installation of Gentoo.
Now, there has always been this love/hate relationship between Gentoo and I... Gentoo is a pain in the ass to install. It's not just "text based" - oh no, text based installers I can do, Gentoo is "install from source" and "customization centric" which basically means that it's not only a pain in the ass to install, but it also takes forever to install.
Yesterday, I spent the entire day getting my base system installed. Thankfully, I was able to use SSH for most of it, and just sit at Suzi-LNX watching anime and building the system at the same time. Today should be even easier, since I'll be compiling a lot of stuff, which means "no user input" for a while... As long as I didn't screw up the base system, things should be fine. But if I did, I might not notice the problems until well into the compilation process.
Specifics for Today
Not all of these tasks may get done today, probably not even half, since I'll have to compile all that crap, but I should be able to get some of it done.
Okay, so that was dorky. But it gets worse...
Yesterday, I got bored. So I decided to do something... Mwahahahaha. GENTOO LINUX! I realized that I had a spare system just sitting around that I kept saying, "Ya know, one day, I'll install my MS Windows Server 2003 Enterprise to it and play with it." But, once I got VMWear running on Suzi-LNX, there was little point in doing that. But there was one thing that I didn't want to do in VMWare, and that was the installation of Gentoo.
Now, there has always been this love/hate relationship between Gentoo and I... Gentoo is a pain in the ass to install. It's not just "text based" - oh no, text based installers I can do, Gentoo is "install from source" and "customization centric" which basically means that it's not only a pain in the ass to install, but it also takes forever to install.
Yesterday, I spent the entire day getting my base system installed. Thankfully, I was able to use SSH for most of it, and just sit at Suzi-LNX watching anime and building the system at the same time. Today should be even easier, since I'll be compiling a lot of stuff, which means "no user input" for a while... As long as I didn't screw up the base system, things should be fine. But if I did, I might not notice the problems until well into the compilation process.
Specifics for Today
- [DONE] Get Xorg up and running, specifically the damn mouse.
- [ ] Get a desktop manager installed, and then the other two (total: KDE, Fluxbox, Gnome)
- [ ] Update portage (first, find the instructions on how to do that)
- [ ] Get specific software installed (alsa, amarok, gtkpod, OOo 2)
- [ ] Configure the system for appearance
Not all of these tasks may get done today, probably not even half, since I'll have to compile all that crap, but I should be able to get some of it done.
12/15/05
Miki-ni, where are you!?!
Alright, even though it is a bit of a mystery as to how this all happened, but when I rebooted Miki-ni from the
I couldn't even find evidence of any problem with the system in the Event Viewer… Nothing at all! There were probably half a dozen errors listed in there from the times I attempted to boot the system and got a BSoD, but each of those errors were all "
Linux?! Why have you forsaken me?!?
Just a day or so ago, I posted about how "Linux shall inherit the Earth" because the OS has been treating me so well for the past while. Well, today I go in there, unlock the machine, and guess what? Nothing was working! KDE still looked normal, but actually using the OS was nearly impossible. At first, I was fooled, I didn't really think much of the trouble, I had started OOo Writer and was typing up an entry for LJ when I found that Amarok wouldn't start. Upon troubleshooting the problem, I found that it was a problem that couldn't be resolved easily:
Hmmm, another mystery of the computing world.
On a side note, I still haven't got Sims2 Nightlife to work in Linux… I'm not sure why… I can't seem to get the thing to allow me to install The Sims 2 (it can't find CD 2 once I insert it) and for some reason, the game just stalls if I just execute Cedega for my copy of The Sims 2 Nightlife that I copied over from my Windows directory. So, for now, it seems that I'm out of luck with playing Sims 2 in linux. Maybe I'll eventually figure it out (probably by spending a day or two looking though forums and what-not).
Alright, even though it is a bit of a mystery as to how this all happened, but when I rebooted Miki-ni from the
chkdsk and Avast boot-time scan, the system restarted just fine, as if there was never any problem at all.I couldn't even find evidence of any problem with the system in the Event Viewer… Nothing at all! There were probably half a dozen errors listed in there from the times I attempted to boot the system and got a BSoD, but each of those errors were all "
such-and-such a service failed to start" errors, that basically mean that something happened to the system that the computer didn't notice, but is causing other stuff to fail. Grrr, I suppose that I may never really know the cause of the failure, but one of my friends on LiveJournal said that it might be a harddrive failure, although I don't see any of the other typical symptoms of an HDD failure, such as having chkdsk errors, or CRC errors or corrupted files, or something along those lines.Linux?! Why have you forsaken me?!?
Just a day or so ago, I posted about how "Linux shall inherit the Earth" because the OS has been treating me so well for the past while. Well, today I go in there, unlock the machine, and guess what? Nothing was working! KDE still looked normal, but actually using the OS was nearly impossible. At first, I was fooled, I didn't really think much of the trouble, I had started OOo Writer and was typing up an entry for LJ when I found that Amarok wouldn't start. Upon troubleshooting the problem, I found that it was a problem that couldn't be resolved easily:
- amaroK repeatedly wouldn't start
- amaroK was in memory about six times over, using KsysGuard I ended all the tasks, but amaroK still wouldn't start
- Attempted to save my LJ entry (that was being edited in OOo Writer) but wasn't able to bring up the save dialog box
- Attempted to access the KDE calendar, it appeared, but wouldn't close
- Attempted to close Thunderbird, but wasn't able to get it to close
- Logged off the system, which took longer than it should have but was a success
- Attempted to logon to the system, but the logon failed. I let it run for about 5 minutes before giving up on it and using TTY2 under root to execute
shutdown -h now - After the shutdown, I left the system off for about two minutes before powering it back on. The file system wasn't clean and had to replay a few items, but other than that, it seemed to be okay. Logon to KDE was successful and amaroK played the my playlist just fine.
Hmmm, another mystery of the computing world.
On a side note, I still haven't got Sims2 Nightlife to work in Linux… I'm not sure why… I can't seem to get the thing to allow me to install The Sims 2 (it can't find CD 2 once I insert it) and for some reason, the game just stalls if I just execute Cedega for my copy of The Sims 2 Nightlife that I copied over from my Windows directory. So, for now, it seems that I'm out of luck with playing Sims 2 in linux. Maybe I'll eventually figure it out (probably by spending a day or two looking though forums and what-not).
12/14/05
And Linux shall inherit the Earth…
Well, a while ago a friend of mine was telling me about the benefits of using Cedega TransGaming in Linux. The whole conversation came about from talking about uptime, and how my uptime is lower than what it could be in SUSE just because I have to reboot to play video games (which I rarely do play, but I do play them enough that I have had to reboot my machine for it once or twice a month). So, I got talked into getting Cedega.
I'm working on getting the Sims2 to work in Linux, but I like to use mounted ISO images to play my games, and I just happen to only have NRG images of Sims2. Grrr. After a few hours of working with Nero, and attempting to create a new image, this time an ISO, I gave up. All I could make was NRG images. I was about to give up and use the disc, but I though: "Hey, haven't I seen and NRG to ISO converter in Linux?" and yes, I did. It was in KPackage (apt-get GUI), and I installed that right away. I'm going to experiment with that here pretty soon.
But, before I did all of that, I tried to run Sims2 by just using cedega, and it seemed to have worked. It didn't start all the way, but it did bring up the "Sims2" logo to start the game. I think it is working correctly, I just need to get a CD going for it, and maybe a few other minor elements configured before I can really test out my games.
And what the heck is up with Miki-ni?
Well, I'm still working with Miki-ni… Miki is still down for repairs, and is currently running a boot-time anti-virus scan (avast!). I also ran a
It will still be a while before I can tell what is wrong with the system, but I'll keep working on it. I talked to Andrew earlier today, and he said that there was a problem with a recent update that he did to ZoneAlarm… That his mom had told him that when she got on the computer that morning the PC had said that "Windows has recovered from a serious error" - and when he sent the data into Microsoft, he got a response saying that the problem was a recent update from ZoneAlarm. Oddly enough, I also have just recently upgraded ZoneAlarm on that machine, and each time the computer has crashed (accept for the first time) the computer has crashed as it was being logged on.
Possible solution? Perhaps. But, we'll have to wait an see about that. More on the ongoing story of Miki-Ni's KMODE_EXECPTION_NOT_HANDLED blue screen fiasco to come!
Well, a while ago a friend of mine was telling me about the benefits of using Cedega TransGaming in Linux. The whole conversation came about from talking about uptime, and how my uptime is lower than what it could be in SUSE just because I have to reboot to play video games (which I rarely do play, but I do play them enough that I have had to reboot my machine for it once or twice a month). So, I got talked into getting Cedega.
I'm working on getting the Sims2 to work in Linux, but I like to use mounted ISO images to play my games, and I just happen to only have NRG images of Sims2. Grrr. After a few hours of working with Nero, and attempting to create a new image, this time an ISO, I gave up. All I could make was NRG images. I was about to give up and use the disc, but I though: "Hey, haven't I seen and NRG to ISO converter in Linux?" and yes, I did. It was in KPackage (apt-get GUI), and I installed that right away. I'm going to experiment with that here pretty soon.
But, before I did all of that, I tried to run Sims2 by just using cedega, and it seemed to have worked. It didn't start all the way, but it did bring up the "Sims2" logo to start the game. I think it is working correctly, I just need to get a CD going for it, and maybe a few other minor elements configured before I can really test out my games.
And what the heck is up with Miki-ni?
Well, I'm still working with Miki-ni… Miki is still down for repairs, and is currently running a boot-time anti-virus scan (avast!). I also ran a
chkdsk on C: which returned a clean file system, accept for a single 4k cluster that was bad, and I believe that it was repaired.It will still be a while before I can tell what is wrong with the system, but I'll keep working on it. I talked to Andrew earlier today, and he said that there was a problem with a recent update that he did to ZoneAlarm… That his mom had told him that when she got on the computer that morning the PC had said that "Windows has recovered from a serious error" - and when he sent the data into Microsoft, he got a response saying that the problem was a recent update from ZoneAlarm. Oddly enough, I also have just recently upgraded ZoneAlarm on that machine, and each time the computer has crashed (accept for the first time) the computer has crashed as it was being logged on.
Possible solution? Perhaps. But, we'll have to wait an see about that. More on the ongoing story of Miki-Ni's KMODE_EXECPTION_NOT_HANDLED blue screen fiasco to come!
12/13/05
Wow, it's been over a moth since I last updated. Well, I guess it's a bit understandable, since in the past month, there hasn't been much going on in my IT world... Until today that is.
To bring everyone up to speed, during the last two weeks, I've been prepping for classroom exams (not Microsoft exams) - which I seem to have passed my classes, but I'm not quite sure what grade I'm getting yet. that'll probably be sometime next week.
I have also started to review some material for the 70-270 exam that I want to take sometime here. But, I've only been watching some 270 prep videos, and even that is pretty sparingly.
But, all of this has been going on for a while now... So why would I be posting now? Well... I was working in SUSE and I saw that my HDD activity light on my Windows 2000 machine (Miki-ni) was solid. Figuring that it was just a virus or spyware scan, I let it be. But, after about an hour or two with no change, I decided to VNC into the machine and see what's up. However, I couldn't VNC. I got a "Unable to connect" error. I decided to just KVM over there, but all I got was a black screen (power save wouldn't disengage) after trying and trying to get a signal --and only getting that little blinking green light, I decided to do hard reboot of the machine. Windows was starting normally, I even started to log into the machine, and that's when it happened:
I did a little research (using SUSE) about "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED" errors, and the first link that came up was a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about a virus that was cause KMODE blue screen errors. There were other articles, almost all MS-KB articles, but since almost all of them had to do with a driver update failure or virus, I'm pretty worried, especially since I haven't touched my drivers sine the installation of "Ni" almost a year ago.
I'm also a little worried because when I booted into safe mode, and started working, I kept getting "
*cries* (more updates coming soon on this topic)
Update [ Dec. 13 @ 7:45 AM]
After I booted into safe mode - command prompt only, I was able to work just fine. And since I was running an antivirus scan on my HDD, without error, I think that the "Unknown Hard Error" may not have had anything to do with the hardware on the system at all.
Moving right along though... I ran a full Avast! scan of the system, and used
Avast! did report something odd... A few of my compressed files are marked as decompression bombs. I had herd of this term in passing before, but I've never encountered one on my system -heck, I didn't even know the details of a decompression bomb until I did a google on the term.
To keep this short, it seems that a decompression bomb is a sort of primitive "pandora's box" - what happens when you open pandora's box... A hell of a lot of bad crap pours out, and that's exactly what happens with a decompression bomb... An archive that's only a megabyte or two decompresses into gigabytes and gigabytes of data. How is this possible?
Now, it's easy to see how something like that would work out.... I've got 5,500,000,000 characters, all Xs... My file, which is just a few KB in size can quickly decompress into a file size that is impossible for the operating system or antivirus to handle.
The only problem with me having these decompression bombs, is the fact that they are OLDER FILES... One is the kenshin movie that I downloaded years ago, another is one of my MCSE training videos that I downloaded a few months ago... All of the files are video files, but at different dates. I may just be noticing this now (when the OS BSoDs, it's easy to notice the little things that I've ignored many times before) or it could be that a virus did infect my system and modified those files (this would be unlikely).
So, for now, I'm running
Well, I can be fairly certain of one thing... it really doesn't seem to be a hardware problem, and that is good. But there's still a lot of software issues that I have to check before I can even begin to fix the machine.
chants:
O, Almighty Lords of Computers,
please fix my computer at the next reboot!
[ End of Update ]
To bring everyone up to speed, during the last two weeks, I've been prepping for classroom exams (not Microsoft exams) - which I seem to have passed my classes, but I'm not quite sure what grade I'm getting yet. that'll probably be sometime next week.
I have also started to review some material for the 70-270 exam that I want to take sometime here. But, I've only been watching some 270 prep videos, and even that is pretty sparingly.
But, all of this has been going on for a while now... So why would I be posting now? Well... I was working in SUSE and I saw that my HDD activity light on my Windows 2000 machine (Miki-ni) was solid. Figuring that it was just a virus or spyware scan, I let it be. But, after about an hour or two with no change, I decided to VNC into the machine and see what's up. However, I couldn't VNC. I got a "Unable to connect" error. I decided to just KVM over there, but all I got was a black screen (power save wouldn't disengage) after trying and trying to get a signal --and only getting that little blinking green light, I decided to do hard reboot of the machine. Windows was starting normally, I even started to log into the machine, and that's when it happened:
STOPl 0X0000001E (0xC0000006, 0x77FAA4C2, 0x00000000, 0x77FEABA0)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
If this is the first time you've seen this....I did a little research (using SUSE) about "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED" errors, and the first link that came up was a Microsoft Knowledge Base article about a virus that was cause KMODE blue screen errors. There were other articles, almost all MS-KB articles, but since almost all of them had to do with a driver update failure or virus, I'm pretty worried, especially since I haven't touched my drivers sine the installation of "Ni" almost a year ago.
I'm also a little worried because when I booted into safe mode, and started working, I kept getting "
Unknown Hard Error" and haven't been able to launch any applications. I think I'm going to have to boot into safe-mode command-prompt to see if I can get this one fixed.*cries* (more updates coming soon on this topic)
Update [ Dec. 13 @ 7:45 AM]
After I booted into safe mode - command prompt only, I was able to work just fine. And since I was running an antivirus scan on my HDD, without error, I think that the "Unknown Hard Error" may not have had anything to do with the hardware on the system at all.
Moving right along though... I ran a full Avast! scan of the system, and used
compmgmt.msc to run some basic checks on the system, like defragmentation (just an analysis, I didn't actually defrag the drive). Avast! did report something odd... A few of my compressed files are marked as decompression bombs. I had herd of this term in passing before, but I've never encountered one on my system -heck, I didn't even know the details of a decompression bomb until I did a google on the term.
To keep this short, it seems that a decompression bomb is a sort of primitive "pandora's box" - what happens when you open pandora's box... A hell of a lot of bad crap pours out, and that's exactly what happens with a decompression bomb... An archive that's only a megabyte or two decompresses into gigabytes and gigabytes of data. How is this possible?
5.5*10^8 = 5,500,000,000Now, it's easy to see how something like that would work out.... I've got 5,500,000,000 characters, all Xs... My file, which is just a few KB in size can quickly decompress into a file size that is impossible for the operating system or antivirus to handle.
The only problem with me having these decompression bombs, is the fact that they are OLDER FILES... One is the kenshin movie that I downloaded years ago, another is one of my MCSE training videos that I downloaded a few months ago... All of the files are video files, but at different dates. I may just be noticing this now (when the OS BSoDs, it's easy to notice the little things that I've ignored many times before) or it could be that a virus did infect my system and modified those files (this would be unlikely).
So, for now, I'm running
chkdsk /x /r on the three harddrives (C 40gb, D 100gb, E 250gb) and once I reboot, I'll be running a boot-time antivirus scan (BTW: the scan on C will take place at boot, instead of with the scans of D and E).Well, I can be fairly certain of one thing... it really doesn't seem to be a hardware problem, and that is good. But there's still a lot of software issues that I have to check before I can even begin to fix the machine.
chants:
please fix my computer at the next reboot!
[ End of Update ]
11/12/05
The Close Call...
Have you ever had one of those errors that were just baffling but also so severe that you decided to reinstall your operating system?
I just had one of those. You see, I decided to reboot my system - I was going to back up one of my DVDs in Windows XP (since I don't yet trust K3b to do that... yet). Everything went as normal over there, and I rebooted back into SUSE 9.3 - that's when the problems started.
First, I got errors along the lines of "unable to access I/O device" when I tried to use OpenOffice to open my "A Different World" paper and "unable to open file - out of disk space" when I tried to open my USB flash drive --which I thought was really odd, since what does disk space have to do with my USB flash drive?!? Also, I haven't done anything that would take up much disk space on my flash drive. So, I transferred my flash drive over to my Windows 2000 machine, and deleted some files, and moved it back over to SUSE. Once again, I got "unable to open file - out of disk space." I decided that I had no time left to troubleshoot, so I decided that I'd just lock the machine and proceed to my other planned task.
When I returned, I was with new resolve... I would reboot and I knew that HAD to fix the error... I could only think of something failing to start with the OS had to be the problem... Although, SUSE should have reported that to me.
To my disdain, I now had even more error messages. Several regarding an inability to load configuration files, and even firefox messaging me about how it's "not the default browser" anymore. I was using my very limited knowledge of Linux to attempt to figure out what would be causing all these errors. That's when I noticed that one of the errors said something along the lines of "could not write to file
Unfortunately no. I attempted to use tty2 to run my
Upon loading, everything looked normal, but I know that I could do a "Ctrl + Alt + F2" to get to tty2 at the login prompt normally, but it wasn't working now for some reason. I decided to log into the system, and just use
I wondered if I could use the SUSE installation CD to do a "rescue system" that would allow me to reconfigure all of the config files... It was a shot in the dark, but at least it was something. Unfortunately, I know so little about the SUSE system, that I wasn't able to figure out exactly what to do... It looked a lot like the rescue that MCSE people are familiar with, and as any MCSE person can tell you, there's not a whole lot you can do in there without knowing what you really need todo. So, after trying to figure out exactly what I should do, I surrendered and decided to reboot. I was going to reinstall SUSE 9.3, there was just nothing else I could think of to do. But I was going to try getting into SUSE one last time... Who knows, maybe just loading into the Rescue console caused it to reset something that would allow the system to start working normally again.
I was surprised that I was able to log in, but I was extremely happy about it. There were signs of sunshine on the horizon. But I still got a lot of "unable to load file
Usage was really useful, it's a horizontal bargraph that is green when things are in the acceptable range, light green as they get worse, and eventually red when there's nearly no space left on the partition.
Well, here's what it looked like:
/ (root) was at 100% capacity?! Good G*d Man! That's why the system wasn't working correctly. I knew that I had to get some things off there, but that was the cause of all of my troubles. But how did the system fill up so quickly? I kept wondering if SUSEWatcher automatically downloaded something that maxed out the partition, or maybe it was something that I did when installing an application... But the system usually has integrated space management utilities in each of those areas to inform me how well each partition is doing... In fact, that's why I never started KwikDisk, the system just monitors itself so well, that I just didn't really need it.
Either way, I was in a difficult position... I needed to get something uninstalled, and what would be on root that shouldn't be anyway? I decided to uninstall some of the stupid games that I put on there ages ago, and never use. It wouldn't be much, but at least it'd get me some space back. In the process of using ncurses YaST, I suddenly thought, "
I quickly accessed the directory and was browsing it... That's when I saw it. You see, before I started dong all of my DVD copying stuff in Windows, I was trying to work with an application in Linux to do it. Unfortunately, the Linux application isn't the greatest, and would always end up in failure. So I just abandoned the projects in Linux and proceeded to complete those same tasks using my DVD-ROM in Windows 2000 - and then transferring those files over to Windows XP and burning them using Nero.
But what I didn't think about, was that when the Linux application fails, it had already put some stuff in
I simply deleted all the DVD files that were in
To think, I nearly lost my OS over this one... It makes me sad.
On a side note though, it has taken me twice as long to type this blog entry as it did for me to actually troubleshoot through all of that... And I have started KwikDisk.
Have you ever had one of those errors that were just baffling but also so severe that you decided to reinstall your operating system?
I just had one of those. You see, I decided to reboot my system - I was going to back up one of my DVDs in Windows XP (since I don't yet trust K3b to do that... yet). Everything went as normal over there, and I rebooted back into SUSE 9.3 - that's when the problems started.
First, I got errors along the lines of "unable to access I/O device" when I tried to use OpenOffice to open my "A Different World" paper and "unable to open file - out of disk space" when I tried to open my USB flash drive --which I thought was really odd, since what does disk space have to do with my USB flash drive?!? Also, I haven't done anything that would take up much disk space on my flash drive. So, I transferred my flash drive over to my Windows 2000 machine, and deleted some files, and moved it back over to SUSE. Once again, I got "unable to open file - out of disk space." I decided that I had no time left to troubleshoot, so I decided that I'd just lock the machine and proceed to my other planned task.
When I returned, I was with new resolve... I would reboot and I knew that HAD to fix the error... I could only think of something failing to start with the OS had to be the problem... Although, SUSE should have reported that to me.
To my disdain, I now had even more error messages. Several regarding an inability to load configuration files, and even firefox messaging me about how it's "not the default browser" anymore. I was using my very limited knowledge of Linux to attempt to figure out what would be causing all these errors. That's when I noticed that one of the errors said something along the lines of "could not write to file
/tmp/...." Couldn't write... I'VE HAD AN ERROR LIKE THAT BEFORE!! I was overjoyed... Back in Mandrake 9, one of my directories in my /home folder somehow ended up becoming the owner of root... Meaning that I couldn't write to it in the necessary ways required for Linux to modify my configuration files (that it has to do at each boot)... The fix was easy, just change the owner back to "indigo" and restart the machine. But in SUSE, would it be the same for the /tmp directory?Unfortunately no. I attempted to use tty2 to run my
chmod commands... That way, I would be sure that I knew was *exactly* happening. But I found that I couldn't do a "Ctrl + Alt + F2" (or any other F# key). There was no way to switch to a tty... Half of the system was locked into a state of idle, and I couldn't seem to find a way out of it. I, in my infinite wisdom (italics to add sarcasm) decided to once again reboot the system.Upon loading, everything looked normal, but I know that I could do a "Ctrl + Alt + F2" to get to tty2 at the login prompt normally, but it wasn't working now for some reason. I decided to log into the system, and just use
Konsole to do my chmod commands. I got so many error messages when I logged in, that KDE just sort of "attempted to turn over" (think old car in the middle of winter) but just failed right back to the log in prompt. As did Gnome. Nothing was working... My errors were getting worse, and I just kept thinking that it had something to do with this /tmp directory.I wondered if I could use the SUSE installation CD to do a "rescue system" that would allow me to reconfigure all of the config files... It was a shot in the dark, but at least it was something. Unfortunately, I know so little about the SUSE system, that I wasn't able to figure out exactly what to do... It looked a lot like the rescue that MCSE people are familiar with, and as any MCSE person can tell you, there's not a whole lot you can do in there without knowing what you really need todo. So, after trying to figure out exactly what I should do, I surrendered and decided to reboot. I was going to reinstall SUSE 9.3, there was just nothing else I could think of to do. But I was going to try getting into SUSE one last time... Who knows, maybe just loading into the Rescue console caused it to reset something that would allow the system to start working normally again.
I was surprised that I was able to log in, but I was extremely happy about it. There were signs of sunshine on the horizon. But I still got a lot of "unable to load file
/tmp/..." and "unable to open file - out of disk space" -- this time, I decided to check my partitions. I did it earlier, but it was in a utility that was difficult to read... This time, I was going to use KDiskFree, a utility that had easy to read columns:Device, Type, [Partition] Size, Mount Point, Free (space remaining), Full %, UsageUsage was really useful, it's a horizontal bargraph that is green when things are in the acceptable range, light green as they get worse, and eventually red when there's nearly no space left on the partition.
Well, here's what it looked like:
/dev/sda6 reiserfs 20.0 GB / 0 B 100% [||||||||||||||||||||]/ (root) was at 100% capacity?! Good G*d Man! That's why the system wasn't working correctly. I knew that I had to get some things off there, but that was the cause of all of my troubles. But how did the system fill up so quickly? I kept wondering if SUSEWatcher automatically downloaded something that maxed out the partition, or maybe it was something that I did when installing an application... But the system usually has integrated space management utilities in each of those areas to inform me how well each partition is doing... In fact, that's why I never started KwikDisk, the system just monitors itself so well, that I just didn't really need it.
Either way, I was in a difficult position... I needed to get something uninstalled, and what would be on root that shouldn't be anyway? I decided to uninstall some of the stupid games that I put on there ages ago, and never use. It wouldn't be much, but at least it'd get me some space back. In the process of using ncurses YaST, I suddenly thought, "
/tmp!!" That had to be it... There must be something in there!I quickly accessed the directory and was browsing it... That's when I saw it. You see, before I started dong all of my DVD copying stuff in Windows, I was trying to work with an application in Linux to do it. Unfortunately, the Linux application isn't the greatest, and would always end up in failure. So I just abandoned the projects in Linux and proceeded to complete those same tasks using my DVD-ROM in Windows 2000 - and then transferring those files over to Windows XP and burning them using Nero.
But what I didn't think about, was that when the Linux application fails, it had already put some stuff in
/tmp, where it would sit, waiting for me to return to attempt to restart the project. After attempting to copy three DVDs in Linux, I was using up nearly 14 GB of space in /tmp alone! My root had been maxed out, but everything was working normally, until my system files (which are stored in root) needed to be saved and later reloaded from root... Which was already at capacity. I simply deleted all the DVD files that were in
/tmp and restarted the system, and everything was normal again.To think, I nearly lost my OS over this one... It makes me sad.
On a side note though, it has taken me twice as long to type this blog entry as it did for me to actually troubleshoot through all of that... And I have started KwikDisk.
11/9/05
indigo@Suzi-lnx:~> sudo modprobe dazuko
We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:
#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.
Password:Isn't that just the greatest message to have displayed? I mean, having a little warning like that really does get you to think, I'm really going to be using
root privileges here for just a minute, and I could really screw this computer up if I'm not careful. The reason I was running modprobe dazuko, was because I've been trying to get KlamAV's (part of Clam AntiVirus) to work... Ever since I heard about a new linux worm going around, I thought that I'd make sure that my firewall (SUSE Firewall2) and AntiVirus (Klam) was up to date and running to perfection... Well, Klam wasn't autoscanning files, because dazuko wasn't loaded into the kernel... And for some reason, I just can't get it to load in there! Grrr.
Side Note: Sorry about not posting for the past week... Classes have been going from midterm to midterm and now I'm rushing into a project that I have to have done by next Thursday (that gives me 8 days to write 15 pages) so I'm likely to be absent again ._. Sorry!
10/27/05
Interesting Tid Bit from Microsoft... (paraphrased)
This is so very true. It's not everything though. Five years ago, I had my own web site running on a little Dimension L933r machine under Windows 2000 Pro and IIS 5 (I believe it was) -- all via a cable modem and IP address for the URL. It hosted a simple website and that was it. I didn't keep it running for very long, since when I moved up to college, hosting a web site was not permitted.
So, I disabled IIS, but left it installed. That way, when I went home for break, I could just start up my website again. Within a month of living on campus, I was hit with some virus (Code Red or Nimda... It's hard to remember anymore, but it as some big name virus/worm at the time). The "virus" got on to my system, which was regularly updated with a virus scanner at the time. The school itself was protected by a firewall or two, but the computers had registered IP addresses (in the 158.x.y.z range).
The virus I got was contained by my antivirus (Norton, I believe it was at the time) - but it got into the system because of some aspect of IIS -- since it was still installed, just not running. So, I uninstalled it, keeping my IIS folders, including the "wwwroot" folder - so I could install IIS later, and just resume my website activities.
Over two years later, several HDDs, and transportation to a different computer - I was hit with another virus! This one infected some of my IIS scripts that were saved when I uninstalled IIS -- and got past my new antivirus software and my firewall. After getting rid of the virus, I went and deleted all non-website related files that I didn't really need installed. So far, so good. But even with antivirus software installed, a running client side firewall, a corporate firewall, and all the Windows Updates - it was still quite easy to get infected.
Now - I run Linux. Less updates, less viruses. Gotta love the good life.
Now, I just need to figure out what to talk about for my security class "midterm presentation" that I have to do.
Antivirus software is required for all client computers, no matter what. Even when you don't have a budget for it, find an antivirus solution.Tony Northrup, "70-298 Designing Security for a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Network" © 2005, Microsoft Press.
This is so very true. It's not everything though. Five years ago, I had my own web site running on a little Dimension L933r machine under Windows 2000 Pro and IIS 5 (I believe it was) -- all via a cable modem and IP address for the URL. It hosted a simple website and that was it. I didn't keep it running for very long, since when I moved up to college, hosting a web site was not permitted.
So, I disabled IIS, but left it installed. That way, when I went home for break, I could just start up my website again. Within a month of living on campus, I was hit with some virus (Code Red or Nimda... It's hard to remember anymore, but it as some big name virus/worm at the time). The "virus" got on to my system, which was regularly updated with a virus scanner at the time. The school itself was protected by a firewall or two, but the computers had registered IP addresses (in the 158.x.y.z range).
The virus I got was contained by my antivirus (Norton, I believe it was at the time) - but it got into the system because of some aspect of IIS -- since it was still installed, just not running. So, I uninstalled it, keeping my IIS folders, including the "wwwroot" folder - so I could install IIS later, and just resume my website activities.
Over two years later, several HDDs, and transportation to a different computer - I was hit with another virus! This one infected some of my IIS scripts that were saved when I uninstalled IIS -- and got past my new antivirus software and my firewall. After getting rid of the virus, I went and deleted all non-website related files that I didn't really need installed. So far, so good. But even with antivirus software installed, a running client side firewall, a corporate firewall, and all the Windows Updates - it was still quite easy to get infected.
Now - I run Linux. Less updates, less viruses. Gotta love the good life.
Now, I just need to figure out what to talk about for my security class "midterm presentation" that I have to do.
10/26/05
This is Confusing...
My last post was regarding groups in the forest...
A
D
-----U----forest line
GL
P
But my book says:
A
G
-----U----forest line
DL
P
I'm a little confused about this now... I'm hoping that I just wrote it down wrong, but it may be that my instructor did, and then his entire explanation may have been skewed because of that! And that would suck having to re-go through all of that again.
BTW: My MCSE instructor canceled Thursday's (tomorrow) class already - yesterday evening he told us that he had to go to Florida to fix an AD network that was destroyed in the recent hurricane... And this happens so close to exam week too.
My last post was regarding groups in the forest...
A
D
-----U----forest line
GL
P
But my book says:
A
G
-----U----forest line
DL
P
I'm a little confused about this now... I'm hoping that I just wrote it down wrong, but it may be that my instructor did, and then his entire explanation may have been skewed because of that! And that would suck having to re-go through all of that again.
BTW: My MCSE instructor canceled Thursday's (tomorrow) class already - yesterday evening he told us that he had to go to Florida to fix an AD network that was destroyed in the recent hurricane... And this happens so close to exam week too.
10/24/05
Start of the Week Catch-Up
Alright, since the start of the weekend with filled with OS troubles, I forgot to post an Acronym Update...
A
D
----U----forest boundry----
GL
P
Accounts
Domain Local
Universal Groups
Global Groups
Permissions
The Universal group has a copy in each forest (on each side of the line)
Now, I could get into the arrows that Tim put on the board, but then this would look like some sort of football game plan (yes, it was that bad).... Besides, arrows would mean an image file, and I don't want to go there today. For now, it's just the acronym.
Alright, since the start of the weekend with filled with OS troubles, I forgot to post an Acronym Update...
A
D
----U----forest boundry----
GL
P
Accounts
Domain Local
Universal Groups
Global Groups
Permissions
The Universal group has a copy in each forest (on each side of the line)
Now, I could get into the arrows that Tim put on the board, but then this would look like some sort of football game plan (yes, it was that bad).... Besides, arrows would mean an image file, and I don't want to go there today. For now, it's just the acronym.
10/22/05
Miracles Do Happen
Snipbit from My LiveJournal Entry: "Oops, ya broke it"
Well, that was quite the mess. And now the conclusion...
I went to bed early that morning, leaving SUSE 9.3 running
So, after really deliberating on the topic, I decided that it was time to try to reinstall the operating system: for the third time in less than 24 hours. The debate was, should I go with 9.3 - which was currently causing me some problems, making it impossible to use, or should I go with 10, and try to fix the audio issues. I decided that I had loved my 9.3 installation, so I decided to give it another chance (especially since I believe that it was user error that cause the installation to fail last time). This time, the install went on perfectly. Like my previous installation of 9.3, I used YOU to get the critical updates and installed
Sometimes, it just doesn't feel like I "formatted" the partition
In Windows, doing a format of the partition and then installing Windows will load up a "vanilla" version of the OS - and the user has to configure every-little-thing... Well, in Linux (SUSE 9.3 specifically) I mounted my /home on a separate partition from / - which was a good idea. With each install of a different version of SUSE, it would always remember the oddest things... Where my K-bar was located at, if I had amaroK running (and what was in my playlist), it even remember my icon positions!
The only issue was that some of the applications that the system was pointing to were long gone. Sunbird and Thunderbird (both from Mozilla Foundation) weren't installed, but their application links that I had were still there. It only took me an hour or so to update all the software to get the system back to running like it did before all my troubles occurred.
And the soure of my insanity: "'
--Well, that's one way to get the job done... I just didn't think that I'd end up right back with SUSE 9.3
Snipbit from My LiveJournal Entry: "Oops, ya broke it"
I attempted to install VMWare - but, during the configuration, it asked where my kernel source files were located at, since it couldn't find them in the usual directory. Well, I didn't install them when I installed SUSE 9.3 a few months ago, so I decided to install it now.
This is where I found out what a mess my system really was. YaST was running like it usually does, and asked me for the CD that had the installation file on it that it needed. When I inserted the CD, the program didn't recognize it as being inserted. The operating system saw the disc, but YaST didn't.
That's when I checked "Installation Source" in YaST - which said "cd:///;devices=/dev/sr0" sr0!?! sr0 was changed ages ago to hda! It doesn't even see the CD drive because it's looking at a different mount point. But no matter how many times I tried to edit it, or add a second source location, it wouldn't let me. So I decided to try something stupid... Delete the entry and create a new one. Each time, the same error would pop up:unable to access protocol 'cd:///'- so, now I've got a SUSE 9.3 system with no installation media able to attach to it, many different applications and services broken because of the change from/dev/sr0to/dev/hda, and a stack of recently downloaded SUSE 10.0 cds just laying around.
What do you think I did? YUP, installed SUSE 10.0 OSS (Open Source Software only) on my main system without ever testing it. Now, I had used SUSE 10.0 RC1 before, which sucked, but I needed to get my system up and running correctly again, and doing a fresh install was going to be the best way to do that.
Unfortunately, there was some problems with the installer. First, my attempt at upgrading the system yielded some broken packages during the installer, so I had to abort. I decided to try again - this time doing a clean install (formatting the necessary partitions and installing SUSE 10 with no previous operating system installed) - which seems to have worked.
I've had a few problems though - which are causing me to think that SUSE 10 may have been a bad idea. My most notable is the fact that I have no audio on the system anymore. I'm getting the same driver issue that I had in SUSE 10.0 RC1 - when I go into YaST, it will say that the IO or IRQ Address is not set correctly- it just started happening after I did the YOU critical updates. But, I can't tell which one screwed over the sound drivers. This may be of some relevance: I didn't have sound before - it's just now that it is accompanied by an error message.
To make this already horrendously long story a little shorter, I believe that I shall install 9.3 again... Maybe one of these days Novell will release a version of SUSE (above 9.3) that will work with my sound card. I'll probably still work with 10 on Experiment 8 here eventually.
Well, that was quite the mess. And now the conclusion...
I went to bed early that morning, leaving SUSE 9.3 running
install-apt4suse and some YaST updates. When I got up, I checked the system, and everything seemed fine, but when I logged into KDE, the GUI was totally distorted: this is a screen shot I tried to take of my desktop... It was actually a look at Konqueror displaying a directory with a severely distorted background making GUI navigation impossible. Unfortunately, the display errors also seemed to have caused issues with KSnapShot. After working with the system for a few hours, and using YaST, YOU, and apt-get (using apt, since I forgot to install KPackage - which I couldn't find on the installation CD or in apt-get itself) I noticed that I had forgot to install some software when I did the initial install of the operating system, and some of these not-installed items may be causing some of the system's problems. So, after really deliberating on the topic, I decided that it was time to try to reinstall the operating system: for the third time in less than 24 hours. The debate was, should I go with 9.3 - which was currently causing me some problems, making it impossible to use, or should I go with 10, and try to fix the audio issues. I decided that I had loved my 9.3 installation, so I decided to give it another chance (especially since I believe that it was user error that cause the installation to fail last time). This time, the install went on perfectly. Like my previous installation of 9.3, I used YOU to get the critical updates and installed
install-apt4suse without logging in. By the time everything was done, and I decided to log in, it was now just a matter of getting everything back to the way it was before I broke everything... Which was actually a simple process...Sometimes, it just doesn't feel like I "formatted" the partition
In Windows, doing a format of the partition and then installing Windows will load up a "vanilla" version of the OS - and the user has to configure every-little-thing... Well, in Linux (SUSE 9.3 specifically) I mounted my /home on a separate partition from / - which was a good idea. With each install of a different version of SUSE, it would always remember the oddest things... Where my K-bar was located at, if I had amaroK running (and what was in my playlist), it even remember my icon positions!
The only issue was that some of the applications that the system was pointing to were long gone. Sunbird and Thunderbird (both from Mozilla Foundation) weren't installed, but their application links that I had were still there. It only took me an hour or so to update all the software to get the system back to running like it did before all my troubles occurred.
And the soure of my insanity: "'
cd:///;devices=/dev/sr0' sr0!?! sr0 was changed ages ago to hda! It doesn't even see the CD drive because it's looking at a different mount point! I should just install the newest SUSE to fix this!"--Well, that's one way to get the job done... I just didn't think that I'd end up right back with SUSE 9.3
10/18/05
A Bit Belated...
but I found out today that SUSE released 10.0 official on October 6. I'm downloading it now and I plan on testing it out on Experiment8 here soon. I decided to download it in my Linux box, and working with
but I found out today that SUSE released 10.0 official on October 6. I'm downloading it now and I plan on testing it out on Experiment8 here soon. I decided to download it in my Linux box, and working with
wget is a bit different... I spent a good deal of time reading up the man page for it, but I finally got the command set the way I wanted it... First, the URLs that I needed for download: I put them into a text file, each one on a separate line. This was more of an assumption than knowledge obtained from the man file. Second, I chose the following command:wget -i /home/jake/SUSE_10_OSS/iso_urls -w 300 -P /home/jake/SUSE_10_OSS/iso (all on one line)- the "-i" is to load up a file that contails the URLs (one on each line) that I want to download.
- the "-w" is the wait period, in seconds. 300 = 5 minutes
- -P is the path to download the files to.
10/17/05
The Miracle of BIOS
Alright, I don't remember if I mentioned this in my previous post, but at one point, I decided to check some settings in BIOS - I believe it was just the power cycle statistics (specifically, my total uptime and the number of hard power-downs the system has done)... Well, while I was in there, I decided to test out an idea I had...
My motherboard has four SATA150 ports and 1 IDE port (which supports 2 devices). By default (and the recommended configuration in BIOS is to leave the system set to auto-detect which systems to enable:
So, even though I only have one IDE and one SATA device, I decided to configure the system to be statically set to IDE + 4 SATA (Enhanced mode) - which simulates 6 IDE devices:
Once I did this change, Linux changed a bit... First, I said that it had detected a new IDE controller and a new SATA controller - I configured each to load at boot in initrd. Doing that may have been a bad idea. Now, my HDD activity light won't turn off... It's glowing yellow as soon as linux loads. The second thing I noticed was that my DVD RW drive changed from /dev/sr0 to /dev/hda - notice that there is no number for the DVD RW this time around.
In Windows XP - the change was very transparent... When I booted, the system said that it had detected a new IDE controller and a new SATA controller and that was about it. Nothing else change in Windows. I guess that was a nice little thing that XP did for me... Even though I usually have severe problems in that operating system.
Side Note
Yesterday, while battling with Windows to install and then run the Sims 2 (with the University and Night Life expansion) was a chore - I prefer to run my games from images, but the damn thing wasn't letting me! But, I digress... While working between Windows XP (Suzi-XP) and Windows 2000 (Miki-ni) all of a sudden I lost my mouse. I was really quite annoyed with the operating system, but when switching to Miki-ni didn't fix the problem and a reboot didn't fix the problem - I decided to unhook my mouse and hook up my old Microsoft mouse - that worked instantly. Grrr, another mouse bites the dust. It's actually surprising, considering that I'm not all that hard on my mice/mouses.
However, the mouse I was using was just something that some roommate had left with my stuff ages ago and had just sat in my collection waiting for someone to claim it. The mouse was also cheap and off-brand - a KINO optical mouse. I've always prefered the more traditional mouse, but I must say that having an optical was kind of nice... I'm kind of going to miss that mouse... But, for now it's in my "To be tested" pile of mice - I'll eventually hook it into another computer directly to test it.
Alright, I don't remember if I mentioned this in my previous post, but at one point, I decided to check some settings in BIOS - I believe it was just the power cycle statistics (specifically, my total uptime and the number of hard power-downs the system has done)... Well, while I was in there, I decided to test out an idea I had...
My motherboard has four SATA150 ports and 1 IDE port (which supports 2 devices). By default (and the recommended configuration in BIOS is to leave the system set to auto-detect which systems to enable:
- Just IDE
- Just SATA
- IDE + 2 SATA
- IDE + 4 SATA
- Auto
So, even though I only have one IDE and one SATA device, I decided to configure the system to be statically set to IDE + 4 SATA (Enhanced mode) - which simulates 6 IDE devices:
0 - Primary + Slave
1 - Primary + Slave ...Once I did this change, Linux changed a bit... First, I said that it had detected a new IDE controller and a new SATA controller - I configured each to load at boot in initrd. Doing that may have been a bad idea. Now, my HDD activity light won't turn off... It's glowing yellow as soon as linux loads. The second thing I noticed was that my DVD RW drive changed from /dev/sr0 to /dev/hda - notice that there is no number for the DVD RW this time around.
In Windows XP - the change was very transparent... When I booted, the system said that it had detected a new IDE controller and a new SATA controller and that was about it. Nothing else change in Windows. I guess that was a nice little thing that XP did for me... Even though I usually have severe problems in that operating system.
Side Note
Yesterday, while battling with Windows to install and then run the Sims 2 (with the University and Night Life expansion) was a chore - I prefer to run my games from images, but the damn thing wasn't letting me! But, I digress... While working between Windows XP (Suzi-XP) and Windows 2000 (Miki-ni) all of a sudden I lost my mouse. I was really quite annoyed with the operating system, but when switching to Miki-ni didn't fix the problem and a reboot didn't fix the problem - I decided to unhook my mouse and hook up my old Microsoft mouse - that worked instantly. Grrr, another mouse bites the dust. It's actually surprising, considering that I'm not all that hard on my mice/mouses.
However, the mouse I was using was just something that some roommate had left with my stuff ages ago and had just sat in my collection waiting for someone to claim it. The mouse was also cheap and off-brand - a KINO optical mouse. I've always prefered the more traditional mouse, but I must say that having an optical was kind of nice... I'm kind of going to miss that mouse... But, for now it's in my "To be tested" pile of mice - I'll eventually hook it into another computer directly to test it.
10/15/05
After Nearly A Month, "Loading... Windows XP"
It started with playing around a little with Wine in SUSE, but I've been unable to get it working. I was just tinkering with it, so when I need to use some Windows program, at least I can try to install it in Linux. I had a lot of trouble using
I'm wondering if Wine is working at all really... When I start going through the basic setup, it'll say "
So, I can't use Windows apps in Linux, at least not yet. Well, last night, while most of my roommates were at the campus LAN party, I decided that I wanted to play "The Sims 2" - after all, one of my reasons for buying this computer was the fact that I couldn't play most games anymore because the CPU just couldn't keep up with it.
Well, finally I got the urge to play it again. So, I decided to boot into Windows to play it....
modified from my livejournal post regarding the subject...
First, I had to boot into Windows XP - I wanted to install "The Sims 2" and play that… That was one of the reasons that I got a P4 3.0 Ghz HT processor with a gig of RAM. It would be able to play most of the games that I'm interested in without a problem. So, I boot into XP. I put the first CD (of four) into the drive and install the Sims 2. It took a while to install, since it's such a large game, but I finally finished CD 4. Once it was done, I tried playing it, but it crashed itself. The second time out, it crashed the video card - first showing a black screen with my Windows mouse pointer in the middle, refusing to allow me to
So, I decided that I would try mounting the ISO I keep of the game… Maybe it was just having trouble loading the CD. This is where it gets complex. I couldn't find my copy of Alcohol 120 - I figured that I had it saved to è¿·å®® (Meikyuu - my 250 GB ATA150 harddrive)… And I wasn't about to shutdown Miki (my Windows 2000 machine) and hook up that other harddrive just to get a single installation file. Besides, I knew that DaemonTools was available out there for free. So, I downloaded that.
OOOhhh, but wait! My ISO file is on è¿·å®®!! Damn… What to do… What to do… Oh, Nero! I'll just make another ISO… Or so I thought. Nero wasn't installed. Another thing that I forgot to put on my "to-do ASAP after installing XP" list… So, I got out my Nero CD and installed that. w00t… I can almost see the finish line now, or so I thought.
I had one heck of a time with Nero… It wanted to do anything accept make an ISO. I tried setting the burner to burn from the NEC DVD-RW to the Nero Image Drive… But it just didn't work. It kept saying that the medium was blank and each time the burn failed, it would eject the CDROM and when I reinserted it, it would autoload Sims 2, which would take quite some time, so I would have to either wait a good 2/3 minutes or use task manager to kill Sims2.exe. I did the latter.
Eventually, I got so frustrated with Nero that I just gave up on it. I ended up switching over to Miki and shutting it down; so I could hookup è¿·å®®. Once è¿·å®® was up, I was able to grab the ISO file for Sims 2 and Alcohol 120 - just in case DaemonTools was part of the problem.
Oh, and now for the joys of networking. I just couldn't get Windows XP to allow me to log on to it over the network… I just wanted to grab the files (from Miki) and send them across the network to Suzi-XP. But no… Something was stopping me, probably the Windows Firewall or something in the Local Security Policy. So, I did a quick fix… I switched over to Suzi-XP and connected to Miki to pull the files off it. That worked, easy as pie.
Then, I installed Alcohol 120 --it's similar to DaemonTools, but I've used Al120 more than DT, so I thought this might help clear things up… but, it didn't. Out of frustration, I uninstalled Sims 2 and reinstalled it, this time using Al120 to mount CD1 and then going on with the rest of the installer through the CDROM. It installed just fine, but when I would start the game, it would do the same damn thing over again. Grrr. The worst part about it, was all that rebooting I had to do! That part took forever, especially if I missed choosing "Windows XP" in the Grub (the bootloader)… If I missed it, Grub would start up SUSE Linux… And I'd have to wait for that to load before I could choose to restart into Windows XP.
By the tenth reboot (for one reason or another) I was really frustrated… I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do at that point… The Windows XP would crash or have some other problem each time I tried to use the game… I was to the point where I thought that the only thing left for me to do was to uninstall the game and give up on it. That's when I started thinking, "What if it's not the game that's crashing?" BINGO!!
I decided to check the nVidia site for possible updates to the nVidia software… I wasn't able to tell if what I had installed was the latest or if what they had on their website was more recent, but going with the logic that if there was an update in the past two or three months, I wouldn't have it yet - so I should just download the driver and try installing it.
After installing it, I had to do another reboot. Go figure. Once I was back up and running, I decided to check a few of the settings out… I noticed that my refresh rate (not that it really matters on an LCD, but it still may have some affect on the video card) was set to 75 hz… I decided to down it a little to 72. I also noticed that my colors were set to 32-bit, so I downed that one level to 16-bit. Leaving the resolution of the screen at 1280x1024.
Then I tried booting the game. And it work on the first try!! I'm not sure if the updated nVidia driver fixed it or if it was something to do with the settings that I adjusted. The game did work in Windows 2000, using a much older version of the nVidia software (and a much older machine), so I'd say that it's likely that it was something with the settings… I just wish that the game had said something about that earlier.
end livejournal modified quote
It started with playing around a little with Wine in SUSE, but I've been unable to get it working. I was just tinkering with it, so when I need to use some Windows program, at least I can try to install it in Linux. I had a lot of trouble using
winetools which seems to have issues installing DCOM98.exe - a critical component that I really have to have installed before anything else.I'm wondering if Wine is working at all really... When I start going through the basic setup, it'll say "
creating virtual windows drive in ~/.wine" which ~/.wine doesn't exist. I even tried running it as root, with the same trouble. A directory called "winetools" exists, but it only has the files that WineTools downloaded. ~sigh. It's going to be a while before I get Wine to work. I've heard somethings about WineX, but I haven't looked into that yet - but I believe that it is not free.So, I can't use Windows apps in Linux, at least not yet. Well, last night, while most of my roommates were at the campus LAN party, I decided that I wanted to play "The Sims 2" - after all, one of my reasons for buying this computer was the fact that I couldn't play most games anymore because the CPU just couldn't keep up with it.
Well, finally I got the urge to play it again. So, I decided to boot into Windows to play it....
modified from my livejournal post regarding the subject...
First, I had to boot into Windows XP - I wanted to install "The Sims 2" and play that… That was one of the reasons that I got a P4 3.0 Ghz HT processor with a gig of RAM. It would be able to play most of the games that I'm interested in without a problem. So, I boot into XP. I put the first CD (of four) into the drive and install the Sims 2. It took a while to install, since it's such a large game, but I finally finished CD 4. Once it was done, I tried playing it, but it crashed itself. The second time out, it crashed the video card - first showing a black screen with my Windows mouse pointer in the middle, refusing to allow me to
ctrl + alt + del and eventually the LCD just powered off. The third time out, as it was loading, the screen powered off again; however, this time all of a sudden my POST screen for my ABIT board displays. So, I decided that I would try mounting the ISO I keep of the game… Maybe it was just having trouble loading the CD. This is where it gets complex. I couldn't find my copy of Alcohol 120 - I figured that I had it saved to è¿·å®® (Meikyuu - my 250 GB ATA150 harddrive)… And I wasn't about to shutdown Miki (my Windows 2000 machine) and hook up that other harddrive just to get a single installation file. Besides, I knew that DaemonTools was available out there for free. So, I downloaded that.
OOOhhh, but wait! My ISO file is on è¿·å®®!! Damn… What to do… What to do… Oh, Nero! I'll just make another ISO… Or so I thought. Nero wasn't installed. Another thing that I forgot to put on my "to-do ASAP after installing XP" list… So, I got out my Nero CD and installed that. w00t… I can almost see the finish line now, or so I thought.
I had one heck of a time with Nero… It wanted to do anything accept make an ISO. I tried setting the burner to burn from the NEC DVD-RW to the Nero Image Drive… But it just didn't work. It kept saying that the medium was blank and each time the burn failed, it would eject the CDROM and when I reinserted it, it would autoload Sims 2, which would take quite some time, so I would have to either wait a good 2/3 minutes or use task manager to kill Sims2.exe. I did the latter.
Eventually, I got so frustrated with Nero that I just gave up on it. I ended up switching over to Miki and shutting it down; so I could hookup è¿·å®®. Once è¿·å®® was up, I was able to grab the ISO file for Sims 2 and Alcohol 120 - just in case DaemonTools was part of the problem.
Oh, and now for the joys of networking. I just couldn't get Windows XP to allow me to log on to it over the network… I just wanted to grab the files (from Miki) and send them across the network to Suzi-XP. But no… Something was stopping me, probably the Windows Firewall or something in the Local Security Policy. So, I did a quick fix… I switched over to Suzi-XP and connected to Miki to pull the files off it. That worked, easy as pie.
Then, I installed Alcohol 120 --it's similar to DaemonTools, but I've used Al120 more than DT, so I thought this might help clear things up… but, it didn't. Out of frustration, I uninstalled Sims 2 and reinstalled it, this time using Al120 to mount CD1 and then going on with the rest of the installer through the CDROM. It installed just fine, but when I would start the game, it would do the same damn thing over again. Grrr. The worst part about it, was all that rebooting I had to do! That part took forever, especially if I missed choosing "Windows XP" in the Grub (the bootloader)… If I missed it, Grub would start up SUSE Linux… And I'd have to wait for that to load before I could choose to restart into Windows XP.
By the tenth reboot (for one reason or another) I was really frustrated… I wasn't sure what exactly I was going to do at that point… The Windows XP would crash or have some other problem each time I tried to use the game… I was to the point where I thought that the only thing left for me to do was to uninstall the game and give up on it. That's when I started thinking, "What if it's not the game that's crashing?" BINGO!!
I decided to check the nVidia site for possible updates to the nVidia software… I wasn't able to tell if what I had installed was the latest or if what they had on their website was more recent, but going with the logic that if there was an update in the past two or three months, I wouldn't have it yet - so I should just download the driver and try installing it.
After installing it, I had to do another reboot. Go figure. Once I was back up and running, I decided to check a few of the settings out… I noticed that my refresh rate (not that it really matters on an LCD, but it still may have some affect on the video card) was set to 75 hz… I decided to down it a little to 72. I also noticed that my colors were set to 32-bit, so I downed that one level to 16-bit. Leaving the resolution of the screen at 1280x1024.
Then I tried booting the game. And it work on the first try!! I'm not sure if the updated nVidia driver fixed it or if it was something to do with the settings that I adjusted. The game did work in Windows 2000, using a much older version of the nVidia software (and a much older machine), so I'd say that it's likely that it was something with the settings… I just wish that the game had said something about that earlier.
end livejournal modified quote
10/12/05
Recovering in 30 Minutes
is good time if you're recovering from a systems failure, but what about recovering from a browser failure?
THEN, it would be horrible time! And that's what it was.
Trouble with the Fox: Ending the Application
I noticed (on Suzi-LNX: KDE 3.4 under SUSE 9.3) that Firefox was taking a honking amount of RAM... Right around 600 MB - yup, .6 GB of RAM... My Dual DDRii 533 sweet like cotton candy ram. My disk cache was down to 13% and SWAP was being used at right around 25%... Bad Mojo.
So, I decided that the thing to do would be to restart Firefox. Simply close it down and restart it. Simple, right? Well, moving right along...
So, while closing 'Fox, KDE reported that it wasn't able to get a response from one of the Firefox windows, and asked to terminate it or wait. Well, I was impatient, so I clicked terminate. That may have been a mistake, but it shouldn't have been. Firefox did close right then and there, but the next thing that happened was when I tired to start Firefox again...
Please Wait While We Load Your *cough*broken*cough* Browser
I was prompted with a screen to choose a profile or create a new one. I've seen this before in Windows 2000 - it would happen when Firefox was closed and started to leave memory, but didn't completely exit... Leaving a small portion of Firefox in memory. When I would restart 'fox, it would ask which profile to use. If I chose the only one there, "Default" it would say that the profile is already in use. I would have to exit the Firefox profile screen use task manager to close the other firefox that was in memory (it would be the one in there that was only taking up less than 5 megabytes of RAM). Then I could restart Firefox without any trouble.
In Linux, however, when I got the profiles screen, I would exit the screen and use KSysGuard, but when I did that, I wouldn't see Firefox mentioned anywhere. I tried logging off and back on, with no change... I even restarted the machine, but the problem persisted.
I was so annoyed by all of this, that I decided to uninstall and reinstall Firefox (I didn't want to deal with having multiple profiles for Firefox). That did fix that problem, but it cost me all of my bookmarks (which I had most of them backed up).
Wrapping it up... After half an hour
I'm not sure why this problem occurred in Linux... I figure that there was some small potion of Firefox that would start up with KDE that I just wasn't realizing. That may have been fixed by doing some creative solution that would load KDE without loading all the "remembered applications" but I didn't end up researching it.
I am a little concerned about problems like this... I've seen it a few times in Windows, but that was with a version of Firefox (in the 1.0.x range) that was shitty and another update was released just days later. Well, I guess alls well that ends well. However, it did take a good chunk out of my day.
is good time if you're recovering from a systems failure, but what about recovering from a browser failure?
THEN, it would be horrible time! And that's what it was.
Trouble with the Fox: Ending the Application
I noticed (on Suzi-LNX: KDE 3.4 under SUSE 9.3) that Firefox was taking a honking amount of RAM... Right around 600 MB - yup, .6 GB of RAM... My Dual DDRii 533 sweet like cotton candy ram. My disk cache was down to 13% and SWAP was being used at right around 25%... Bad Mojo.
So, I decided that the thing to do would be to restart Firefox. Simply close it down and restart it. Simple, right? Well, moving right along...
So, while closing 'Fox, KDE reported that it wasn't able to get a response from one of the Firefox windows, and asked to terminate it or wait. Well, I was impatient, so I clicked terminate. That may have been a mistake, but it shouldn't have been. Firefox did close right then and there, but the next thing that happened was when I tired to start Firefox again...
Please Wait While We Load Your *cough*broken*cough* Browser
I was prompted with a screen to choose a profile or create a new one. I've seen this before in Windows 2000 - it would happen when Firefox was closed and started to leave memory, but didn't completely exit... Leaving a small portion of Firefox in memory. When I would restart 'fox, it would ask which profile to use. If I chose the only one there, "Default" it would say that the profile is already in use. I would have to exit the Firefox profile screen use task manager to close the other firefox that was in memory (it would be the one in there that was only taking up less than 5 megabytes of RAM). Then I could restart Firefox without any trouble.
In Linux, however, when I got the profiles screen, I would exit the screen and use KSysGuard, but when I did that, I wouldn't see Firefox mentioned anywhere. I tried logging off and back on, with no change... I even restarted the machine, but the problem persisted.
I was so annoyed by all of this, that I decided to uninstall and reinstall Firefox (I didn't want to deal with having multiple profiles for Firefox). That did fix that problem, but it cost me all of my bookmarks (which I had most of them backed up).
Wrapping it up... After half an hour
I'm not sure why this problem occurred in Linux... I figure that there was some small potion of Firefox that would start up with KDE that I just wasn't realizing. That may have been fixed by doing some creative solution that would load KDE without loading all the "remembered applications" but I didn't end up researching it.
I am a little concerned about problems like this... I've seen it a few times in Windows, but that was with a version of Firefox (in the 1.0.x range) that was shitty and another update was released just days later. Well, I guess alls well that ends well. However, it did take a good chunk out of my day.
10/11/05
---> Dying Here! <---
says the power supply...
I've got two computers that are suffering from power supply issues in my dorm room... Experiment8 can't start up without a little bit of a charge.
Status of Experiment8's PS:
I'm probably going to have to replace it to get it going again.
Miki is also showing PS troubles... That's why I bought Suzi (with the 400 W supply) anyway. Miki suddenly made a horrible grinding sound that I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I shut it down for the rest of the day and started researching components for a new computer, that would later be named Suzi.
Status of Miki's PS:
Update @ 21:45
I just got off NewEgg, where I ordered a new PS for Experiment8... A 300 watt APEX AL-A300 (for $20 + $6.99 shipping). It's got 4 molex, 1 SATA, 1 +12 (20 or 24 pin capacity) and 1 4-pin connectors. It should be compatible with Ex8 (my AMD machine).
If this supply is good enough, I'll also be adding the same thing into my P4 box... I'll just order the same thing from NewEgg again. If (however) the supply for some reason doesn't work in Ex8 (ie: Ex8 is going bad itself, or the PSU isn't compatible with the motherboard) I'll attempt to use the APEX in Miki.
/Update
says the power supply...
I've got two computers that are suffering from power supply issues in my dorm room... Experiment8 can't start up without a little bit of a charge.
Status of Experiment8's PS:
200-220 W
Unknown age.
First sign of trouble: Three Months Ago: wouldn't power on for an hour.I'm probably going to have to replace it to get it going again.
Miki is also showing PS troubles... That's why I bought Suzi (with the 400 W supply) anyway. Miki suddenly made a horrible grinding sound that I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, so I shut it down for the rest of the day and started researching components for a new computer, that would later be named Suzi.
Status of Miki's PS:
250 W
Came with Case back in late 2001.
First sign of trouble: Two Months Ago - grinding sound coming from PSUpdate @ 21:45
I just got off NewEgg, where I ordered a new PS for Experiment8... A 300 watt APEX AL-A300 (for $20 + $6.99 shipping). It's got 4 molex, 1 SATA, 1 +12 (20 or 24 pin capacity) and 1 4-pin connectors. It should be compatible with Ex8 (my AMD machine).
If this supply is good enough, I'll also be adding the same thing into my P4 box... I'll just order the same thing from NewEgg again. If (however) the supply for some reason doesn't work in Ex8 (ie: Ex8 is going bad itself, or the PSU isn't compatible with the motherboard) I'll attempt to use the APEX in Miki.
/Update
10/10/05
WINS - my god.
For about the 1 millionth time, my MCSE text book is covering WINS. I'm so very tired about hearing about WINS... Not to mention that it isn't all that common in the real world.
Granted, I may run into it in the job force, but more than likely, I'll just be using DNS stuff... And learing about two types of name servers is annoying. I already have to contend with AD integrated DNS and non-AD integrated DNS... Now, I also have to remember everything there is to know about WINS. ~sigh.
I wonder how common place WINS is in the market... I mean, it was "phased" out with Windows 2000 --which used DNS mostly, but was compatible with WINS if necessary... But if you use Active Directory, you will be using DNS. No buts about it. So why o' why do we have Windows Server 2003 64 Bit Datacenter Edition is capable of running a WINS server? Can't we just get rid of it yet?!
I guess there is a place for it in modern businesses, but dang.
Also, my text book was talking about using DNS: for optimum performance, install DNS on a multi-processor machine, with high speed hard drives, with a maximum-speed network card, on a Windows Server 2003 cluster. Then, DNS will be sweet.
WTF? DNS on a CLUSTER?
I think I'm gonna run away now.
For about the 1 millionth time, my MCSE text book is covering WINS. I'm so very tired about hearing about WINS... Not to mention that it isn't all that common in the real world.
Granted, I may run into it in the job force, but more than likely, I'll just be using DNS stuff... And learing about two types of name servers is annoying. I already have to contend with AD integrated DNS and non-AD integrated DNS... Now, I also have to remember everything there is to know about WINS. ~sigh.
I wonder how common place WINS is in the market... I mean, it was "phased" out with Windows 2000 --which used DNS mostly, but was compatible with WINS if necessary... But if you use Active Directory, you will be using DNS. No buts about it. So why o' why do we have Windows Server 2003 64 Bit Datacenter Edition is capable of running a WINS server? Can't we just get rid of it yet?!
I guess there is a place for it in modern businesses, but dang.
Also, my text book was talking about using DNS: for optimum performance, install DNS on a multi-processor machine, with high speed hard drives, with a maximum-speed network card, on a Windows Server 2003 cluster. Then, DNS will be sweet.
WTF? DNS on a CLUSTER?
I think I'm gonna run away now.
10/8/05
She's Suffering from Minor DLL Failure...
My Windows 2000 machine (Miki) has recently been having DLL troubles... Usually, I'll see an "crashed" application with this error message:
Other directories are listed where "..." is, I just can't remember them all.
I haven't done any research on the topic yet, but it has happened three or four times, requiring a restart each time. The DLL is of such importance, that I have nearly no access to any of my drives and very few applications will launch. A really annoying part is that saving is difficult, if not impossible... So any unsaved data most likely will be lost.
Even though I use SUSE-Linux more than Windows, and I use SUSE more intensely than Windows, it has had fewer restarts in the past two weeks than Windows has in the same time frame.
The odd thing is that Miki started acting up just a week or so after I started using SUSE... Which is just odd that it would start breaking down so soon after I purchased a replacement machine.
I'm thinking about doing what Andrew suggested... Installing Windows XP onto that machine instead of 2000 next time... Out of all the Windows versions, 2000 is the one I prefer, but I really need to get familiar with XP. And I guess if I have to reinstall Windows on Miki, then XP shall be the version of choice ~sigh.
Update (2005.10.08 @ 23:50)
Did some research on
I (unfortunately) didn't find any references to the problem of having the DLL crash, I'll look into that more, but since it's a critical system function, it's probably covered by the System File Checker, which I can run anytime... Now that I know of the problem. The only issue with running
At least it's a starting point though.
/Update
My Windows 2000 machine (Miki) has recently been having DLL troubles... Usually, I'll see an "crashed" application with this error message:
NTDSAPI.dll cannot be found in one of the following directories:
*directory where specific application is located*, C:\WINNT\System32, C:\WINNT\System, ...Other directories are listed where "..." is, I just can't remember them all.
I haven't done any research on the topic yet, but it has happened three or four times, requiring a restart each time. The DLL is of such importance, that I have nearly no access to any of my drives and very few applications will launch. A really annoying part is that saving is difficult, if not impossible... So any unsaved data most likely will be lost.
Even though I use SUSE-Linux more than Windows, and I use SUSE more intensely than Windows, it has had fewer restarts in the past two weeks than Windows has in the same time frame.
The odd thing is that Miki started acting up just a week or so after I started using SUSE... Which is just odd that it would start breaking down so soon after I purchased a replacement machine.
I'm thinking about doing what Andrew suggested... Installing Windows XP onto that machine instead of 2000 next time... Out of all the Windows versions, 2000 is the one I prefer, but I really need to get familiar with XP. And I guess if I have to reinstall Windows on Miki, then XP shall be the version of choice ~sigh.
Update (2005.10.08 @ 23:50)
Did some research on
ntdsapi.dll - it's a process for finding resources on the network, but it is also a critical component of the "day to day" running of Windows (on a network or off). I guess that's why when it dies, then it's either working with an operating system that's half there or cut my losses and restart.I (unfortunately) didn't find any references to the problem of having the DLL crash, I'll look into that more, but since it's a critical system function, it's probably covered by the System File Checker, which I can run anytime... Now that I know of the problem. The only issue with running
sfc is that it doesn't really know about service packs... Which can sometimes cause it to attempt to down grade files that were updated -- which then leads to instability or the dreaded BSoD @ boot or something along those lines.At least it's a starting point though.
/Update
10/6/05
Dramatization!
Today, Tim (my MCSE instructor) was doing a lecture on the first chapter of our MCSE297 book... Security. He was talking about the risk of Disgruntled Employees, while most of the class was getting that glassy eyed look...
That was until he leaned over his lectern and pulled the power plug on one of the student servers...
*POWEROFF*
It was just so sudden and unexpected that it really drove home his point that administrators need to protect their servers from all different types of people, including employees that we would never suspect of doing something like that.
By the way, the student who's computer was killed didn't turn it back on... By the time he was done with lecture, it was the end of class. It's not likely, but we'll have to wait until next week to find out if there was any damage to the server.
Today, Tim (my MCSE instructor) was doing a lecture on the first chapter of our MCSE297 book... Security. He was talking about the risk of Disgruntled Employees, while most of the class was getting that glassy eyed look...
That was until he leaned over his lectern and pulled the power plug on one of the student servers...
*POWEROFF*
It was just so sudden and unexpected that it really drove home his point that administrators need to protect their servers from all different types of people, including employees that we would never suspect of doing something like that.
By the way, the student who's computer was killed didn't turn it back on... By the time he was done with lecture, it was the end of class. It's not likely, but we'll have to wait until next week to find out if there was any damage to the server.
10/3/05
No Nameservers Madness
Here at college, me and my roommate segregated ourselves from the rest of ResNET - this causes our friends to he annoyed by us (we don't share files though Windows networking - but neither do we download from them) but it's also had an interesting side effect...
We are configured to use the name servers of the college, which seems to have caused trouble with my Samba server in SUSE. I can't access any of my shares on SUSE without using my
My roommate and I are discussion possible solutions to this problem, but for now, we've resorted to using the hosts file (paths - in Linux, then in Windows)
I made one entry into my Linux host file, but I'm not sure that it was necessary -- SUSE was already seeing the Windows machine by name. It's Windows that can't see SUSE by it's name (Suzi)... And no matter how much I play with it, I just can't seem to get it to work out like I want it to... I'm now able to do
and get the results I want, but doing a
at a run dialog, I get a "cannot be found" error... Grrr.
Update: Nameservers Madness: Oct. 3 @ 3:37 PM
After letting Windows sit idle all night long, it seems that my hosts (or lmhosts - I modified both) is now working for
Now, if I can only get Suzi to show up in the Zenshougun workgroup... Suzi still isn't listed as being in any of the workgroups in the "Microsoft Networks" section of Network Neighborhood... Or anywhere else in Network Neighborhood for that matter. However, the
Here at college, me and my roommate segregated ourselves from the rest of ResNET - this causes our friends to he annoyed by us (we don't share files though Windows networking - but neither do we download from them) but it's also had an interesting side effect...
We are configured to use the name servers of the college, which seems to have caused trouble with my Samba server in SUSE. I can't access any of my shares on SUSE without using my
\\192.168.1.11 address. However, SUSE can see my Windows 2000 server just fine using its name smb:\Miki-ni\My roommate and I are discussion possible solutions to this problem, but for now, we've resorted to using the hosts file (paths - in Linux, then in Windows)
\etc\hosts
C:\WINNT\System32\drivers\etc\hostsI made one entry into my Linux host file, but I'm not sure that it was necessary -- SUSE was already seeing the Windows machine by name. It's Windows that can't see SUSE by it's name (Suzi)... And no matter how much I play with it, I just can't seem to get it to work out like I want it to... I'm now able to do
ping suziand get the results I want, but doing a
\\suziat a run dialog, I get a "cannot be found" error... Grrr.
Update: Nameservers Madness: Oct. 3 @ 3:37 PM
After letting Windows sit idle all night long, it seems that my hosts (or lmhosts - I modified both) is now working for
\\suzi in the run dialog. Happy Dance!Now, if I can only get Suzi to show up in the Zenshougun workgroup... Suzi still isn't listed as being in any of the workgroups in the "Microsoft Networks" section of Network Neighborhood... Or anywhere else in Network Neighborhood for that matter. However, the
\\suzi still works... At least that's something.
10/2/05
Windows Server 2003 Acronyms That I Have Forgotten... (Must Not Forget!!!)
Group Policy Object (GPO) Application:
--Order of precedence for GPOs to be applied... OU overrides all previous.
Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) Roles:
D and S "the outside ones" are one per forest
RIP, "the inside ones" are one per domain
S can take hold of all other roles - so it should be on a server by itself. S cannot be taken by any other FSMO role, so that server should at least have its system state backed up frequently.
--there'll probably be a lot more acronyms that I should remember but don't... I'll likely add those in (or into future entires) as I remember them or run across them).
Group Policy Object (GPO) Application:
L : Local
S : Site
D : Domain
Ou : Organizational Unit --Order of precedence for GPOs to be applied... OU overrides all previous.
Flexible Single Master Operations (FSMO) Roles:
D : Domain Master
R : RID Master
I : Infrastructure Master
P : PDC Emulator
S : Schema MasterD and S "the outside ones" are one per forest
RIP, "the inside ones" are one per domain
S can take hold of all other roles - so it should be on a server by itself. S cannot be taken by any other FSMO role, so that server should at least have its system state backed up frequently.
--there'll probably be a lot more acronyms that I should remember but don't... I'll likely add those in (or into future entires) as I remember them or run across them).
EXT2 in Windows...
I was reading in an LiveJournal group about EXT2 file system access in Windows... The guy on there was posting about EXT2 IFS driver which just sounds odd to me...
I can't tell you how long I've heard "be careful mounting NTFS partitions in Linux with write access - you never know when you'll screw up your MFT!!" - so I've always just use write access... Even though, I hear success stories all the time. Now, you can do EXT2 in Windows?!? That just doesn't seem right.
I can't try this thing out anyway - all my file systems (that are "data" partitions at least) are reiser fs... So, I'm not going to even bother messing around with it. Not to mention I can't remember the last time I booted into Windows on Suzi... Before I returned to college I think - which would have been over a week ago.
Side Note - Audio
I've been having some odd audio issues in Linux. I'm an avid anime fan, and I've never had a problem watching anime while leaving amaroK (or another video) paused in the background. Now, I seem to be having some odd issues, which my anime seems to be exempt from...
First, I wanted to watch a flash file that I've had for quite some time... The only way to get it to play the audio was to close amaroK, KPlayer, and Sunbird - all of which are applications that had recently played music (or recently used/tried to use audio in one fashion or another).
Then, it progressed further - a video file that my roommate sent me (an XviD file - common codec among anime fansubbing groups) wouldn't play with amaroK running in the background. It got even worse when I was watching some MCSE-related CBT videos on my PC... Which I would have to exit all sorts of applications that had recently used/tried to use/could use audio.
Now, it's not uncomon for me to have to exit amaroK, Sunbird, KPlayer, and Kopete before I'm able to play a certain video or otherwise have sound fro a specific application.
I've also noticed that the audio in Chromium and a few of my other Linux games don't work at times. Quite disappointing.
For now, I'm betting that it's something that I've misconfigured or there may be an application that's monopolizing the audio system... Which (if it is) I will promptly prune from my system.
I was reading in an LiveJournal group about EXT2 file system access in Windows... The guy on there was posting about EXT2 IFS driver which just sounds odd to me...
I can't tell you how long I've heard "be careful mounting NTFS partitions in Linux with write access - you never know when you'll screw up your MFT!!" - so I've always just use write access... Even though, I hear success stories all the time. Now, you can do EXT2 in Windows?!? That just doesn't seem right.
I can't try this thing out anyway - all my file systems (that are "data" partitions at least) are reiser fs... So, I'm not going to even bother messing around with it. Not to mention I can't remember the last time I booted into Windows on Suzi... Before I returned to college I think - which would have been over a week ago.
Side Note - Audio
I've been having some odd audio issues in Linux. I'm an avid anime fan, and I've never had a problem watching anime while leaving amaroK (or another video) paused in the background. Now, I seem to be having some odd issues, which my anime seems to be exempt from...
First, I wanted to watch a flash file that I've had for quite some time... The only way to get it to play the audio was to close amaroK, KPlayer, and Sunbird - all of which are applications that had recently played music (or recently used/tried to use audio in one fashion or another).
Then, it progressed further - a video file that my roommate sent me (an XviD file - common codec among anime fansubbing groups) wouldn't play with amaroK running in the background. It got even worse when I was watching some MCSE-related CBT videos on my PC... Which I would have to exit all sorts of applications that had recently used/tried to use/could use audio.
Now, it's not uncomon for me to have to exit amaroK, Sunbird, KPlayer, and Kopete before I'm able to play a certain video or otherwise have sound fro a specific application.
I've also noticed that the audio in Chromium and a few of my other Linux games don't work at times. Quite disappointing.
For now, I'm betting that it's something that I've misconfigured or there may be an application that's monopolizing the audio system... Which (if it is) I will promptly prune from my system.
9/29/05
Linux Mount Points!
One of my biggest issues in SUSE 9.3 (on Suzi) has been the mounts... my "media:/" doesn't autodetect my DVDRW drive, so I have to work around it and mount discs using the mount command.
I don't have a problem with that, but I do find it trouble some with ejecting
--Eject button status: unable to eject
--Eject button status: CD can now eject
Also, I spent a while searching through Apt-Get for the equivalent of "daemon tools" or "alcohol 120%" ISO mounting tools... After finding nothing in apt-get, I found this command when I was googling for "
-- oh, I so love this command.
One of my biggest issues in SUSE 9.3 (on Suzi) has been the mounts... my "media:/" doesn't autodetect my DVDRW drive, so I have to work around it and mount discs using the mount command.
Suzi-LNX:/ # mount /dev/sr0 /media/cd/
mount: block device /dev/sr0 is write-protected, mounting read-onlyI don't have a problem with that, but I do find it trouble some with ejecting
--Eject button status: unable to eject
Suzi-LNX:/ # umount /media/cd--Eject button status: CD can now eject
Suzi-LNX:/media # eject
eject: unable to eject, last error: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Suzi-LNX:/media # umount /media/cd/
Suzi-LNX:/media # eject
eject: unable to eject, last error: Inappropriate ioctl for deviceAlso, I spent a while searching through Apt-Get for the equivalent of "daemon tools" or "alcohol 120%" ISO mounting tools... After finding nothing in apt-get, I found this command when I was googling for "
"mount cd image" +SUSE":mount -o loop -t iso9660 [path_of_iso_image] [mount_point]-- oh, I so love this command.
9/28/05
This blog has a bit of a goal - to record my escapade through my various operating systems and exploration of the MCSE certification and other information technology observations. I plan to use this blog as a future professional of the I.T. industry, and as a way to share information and concepts with my peers around the world.
The blog will not be used as a "diary" of my daily activities nor of my personal experiences that do not relate to IT.
With that being said, I'd like to start off with an outlook on my current setup:
The Computers
"Suzi"
Primary Use
OS: SUSE 9.3 (openSUSE), Alternative (dual boot): Windows XP Professional
Hardware
Processor: Pentium 4 HT 3.0 Ghz, 32 Bit, 800 Mhz FSB, Socket T (LGA 775), 530J, 1 MB L2 Cache, Prescott
Motherboard: ABIT AA8 DuraMAX (533/800 Mhz FSB), HT enabled, DDR2 533 (4x 240-pin slots, 4 GB max), 4 SATA, 1 PATA, On-board RAID controller (0, 1, Matrix), Onboard Audio (Realtek), On-board LAN (1,000 Mbps), USB 2.0, Firewire (aka: 1394a).
Video Card: Rosewill R62TC-64PX Geforce 6200 with TurboCache, 64 MB (Supporting 256MB with TurboCache), DDR PCIx16, DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5, DSUB, DVI, SVideo Out, Max Res: 2048x1536 (85Hz).
Memory: GeIL DDR 2, 1 GB (2 x 512MB) 240 pin, Unbuffered DDR2 533 (PC2 4300), with Aluminum Heat Spreader
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200S0, 200 GB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA150
Software
Partitons
C: - 15 GB - NTFS - Operating System (Windows XP)
D: - 1.5 GB - NTFS - Virtual Memory Storage
E: - 32.5 GB - FAT 32 - Shared Partition between Linux and Windows
/ - 20 GB - Reiser - SUSE 9.3 (openSUSE)
/home - 120 GB - Reiser - Storage
Operating Systems - Windows
Base install - secured with software firewall (built-in), Microsoft Anti-Spyware, and Avast! Anti-Virus.
Operating Systems - SUSE
Full install - secured with SUSE Firewall (built-in), CLAM Anti-Virus.
Over View of Alternative Machines (name, purpose, stats)
Miki
File Server
Windows 2000 Professional
P4 1.9 Ghz, 32 bit
HDDs: 20 GB (C), 100 GB (D), 250 GB (E)
RAM: 576 MB PC133
Experiment 8
Demonstration Machine
Various Operating Systems - Windows XP, Windows Server, Linux
AMD 1.0 Ghz, 32 bit
HDDs: 2x 20 GB
RAM: 576 PC133
Miki-chan (Laptop)
Dell Inspiron 2600
Windows 2000 Professional
P4 1.4 Ghz, 32 bit
HDD: 20 GB (C)
RAM: 256 MB PC133 SODIMM
Laptop
Dell Inspiron
Windows 2000 Professional
P3 600 Mhz, 32 bit
HDD: 12 GB ©
RAM: 96 MB PC133 SODIMM
The Network
Local: Inside the Dorm Room
A 100BaseT Netgear switch connects Suzi and Miki to the college dorm network (ResNET). My roommate and I have voted to block off of the "windows file sharing" portions of the network for added security. The network slows to 10BaseT at the wall.
Outside: Throughout the Dorm Hall and into the Internet
The network configuration is a bit of a secrete here, but it is common knowledge that the campus is connected to the internet over several mediums: Cable Internet though a local provider, a T1 line, and a T3 line. The exact configuration and exactly whom gets access to what is not known to me.
The blog will not be used as a "diary" of my daily activities nor of my personal experiences that do not relate to IT.
With that being said, I'd like to start off with an outlook on my current setup:
The Computers
"Suzi"
Primary Use
OS: SUSE 9.3 (openSUSE), Alternative (dual boot): Windows XP Professional
Hardware
Processor: Pentium 4 HT 3.0 Ghz, 32 Bit, 800 Mhz FSB, Socket T (LGA 775), 530J, 1 MB L2 Cache, Prescott
Motherboard: ABIT AA8 DuraMAX (533/800 Mhz FSB), HT enabled, DDR2 533 (4x 240-pin slots, 4 GB max), 4 SATA, 1 PATA, On-board RAID controller (0, 1, Matrix), Onboard Audio (Realtek), On-board LAN (1,000 Mbps), USB 2.0, Firewire (aka: 1394a).
Video Card: Rosewill R62TC-64PX Geforce 6200 with TurboCache, 64 MB (Supporting 256MB with TurboCache), DDR PCIx16, DirectX 9, OpenGL 1.5, DSUB, DVI, SVideo Out, Max Res: 2048x1536 (85Hz).
Memory: GeIL DDR 2, 1 GB (2 x 512MB) 240 pin, Unbuffered DDR2 533 (PC2 4300), with Aluminum Heat Spreader
HDD: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200S0, 200 GB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache, SATA150
Software
Partitons
C: - 15 GB - NTFS - Operating System (Windows XP)
D: - 1.5 GB - NTFS - Virtual Memory Storage
E: - 32.5 GB - FAT 32 - Shared Partition between Linux and Windows
/ - 20 GB - Reiser - SUSE 9.3 (openSUSE)
/home - 120 GB - Reiser - Storage
Operating Systems - Windows
Base install - secured with software firewall (built-in), Microsoft Anti-Spyware, and Avast! Anti-Virus.
Operating Systems - SUSE
Full install - secured with SUSE Firewall (built-in), CLAM Anti-Virus.
Over View of Alternative Machines (name, purpose, stats)
Miki
File Server
Windows 2000 Professional
P4 1.9 Ghz, 32 bit
HDDs: 20 GB (C), 100 GB (D), 250 GB (E)
RAM: 576 MB PC133
Experiment 8
Demonstration Machine
Various Operating Systems - Windows XP, Windows Server, Linux
AMD 1.0 Ghz, 32 bit
HDDs: 2x 20 GB
RAM: 576 PC133
Miki-chan (Laptop)
Dell Inspiron 2600
Windows 2000 Professional
P4 1.4 Ghz, 32 bit
HDD: 20 GB (C)
RAM: 256 MB PC133 SODIMM
Laptop
Dell Inspiron
Windows 2000 Professional
P3 600 Mhz, 32 bit
HDD: 12 GB ©
RAM: 96 MB PC133 SODIMM
The Network
Local: Inside the Dorm Room
A 100BaseT Netgear switch connects Suzi and Miki to the college dorm network (ResNET). My roommate and I have voted to block off of the "windows file sharing" portions of the network for added security. The network slows to 10BaseT at the wall.
Outside: Throughout the Dorm Hall and into the Internet
The network configuration is a bit of a secrete here, but it is common knowledge that the campus is connected to the internet over several mediums: Cable Internet though a local provider, a T1 line, and a T3 line. The exact configuration and exactly whom gets access to what is not known to me.
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