Posts filed under ‘Tips’

I recently tried installing Ubuntu x64 in VMware on my 32-bit Windows machine. I have done this in the past for other 64-bit operating systems, however not on this particular workstation, which is an HP xw4600. The process is typically very straightforward since VMWare has a “Easy Install” process for known operating systems.

This time around I ran into some issues while the Ubuntu image was booting. Each time I tried to start the VM, I received the following error:

This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU. Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

I was almost positive that my processor was 64-bit compatible, but I double-checked Intel’s site to make sure. According to Intel, I was good to go. I decided to give VMWare’s compatibility checker a try, and it stated that I was able to run 64-bit virtual machines as well.

I figured the issue was probably due to 64-bit extensions being disabled in the BIOS, so I took a look there. I dug and dug, but could not find any tabs or sections related to 64-bit extensions or virtualization. After looking around some more, I found my answer in a very unlikely location (at least in my opinion).

Under the main Security menu, there is an entry for System Security. There, you will find three values, two of which are disabled by default. These are Virtualization Technology (VTx) and Virtualization Technology Directed I/O (VTd). After enabling both of these items and saving my BIOS settings, the 64-bit OS installed without a hitch.

I applaud HP for being careful regarding Virtualization Technology, but they could have made the options or documentation regarding these options a little easier to find.

Awhile back, I posted a guide detailing how you can configure CopSSH on your home computer and use it to securely route your Windows Remote Desktop traffic in order to add an extra layer of security to the whole process.

Typically, once Putty was configured and used to create the SSH tunnel to the remote machine, all I would need to do is simply create a loopback RDP connection on port 3390, and I was in business.  In my testing of Windows 7, I found that when attempting to create a loopback connection on port 3390, I would receive an error that a connection was already established.  The exact error reads as follows:

Your computer could not connect to another console session on the remote computer because you already have a console session in progress.

I changed Putty’s configuration to forward on port 3391 instead of 3390, and the problem was solved.  I’m not sure why Windows 7 establishes some sort of connection on 3390, but at least the workaround is pretty painless.

I just wanted to pass along this info for anyone having issues with RDP tunneling.

A friend of mine was recently having issues using Microsoft’s Terminal Services Remote Web Access.  It seems that when he tried to remotely administer any workstations he had upgraded to Windows XP SP3 or servers he had upgraded to SBS 2003 SP1, he would receive an error stating that an “Invalid Server Name” had been specified.

After digging around a bit, I found this Microsoft KB article that remedied the issue.  I won’t go into details here, but if you are experiencing this problem, a quick registry key deletion and an IE plugin tweak will get you back to work in no time.

I had a strange problem with Putty when connecting to a Linux server that I work on from time to time. Randomly, the command I was in the middle of typing would wrap around on itself on the same line, overwriting what I had already typed. Aside from being generally annoying, it caused plenty of headaches when trying to issue longer commands.

The problem would always when entering long commands, but it would also sometimes cause the text to wrap after only 20 or so characters. I figured something had to be wrong, and sure enough after a bit of reading, I found the culprit.

It seems that at some point I read a tutorial about how to customize the command prompt that offered tips on how to dynamically change the Putty window title as well. That’s all fine and dandy, but the author left out a very important point; How to escape non-printing characters. You see, the problem with my command prompt was that several non-printing characters were being entered on the line as part of the prompt, and the shell could not accurately determine where to wrap the line, when to add a new line, etc.

Here was my existing prompt:

PS1="[\W]\$ \e]2;[\d \t]  [\w]\a"

What this does, according to the author, is create a prompt containing the relative path of the directory I am working in (the \W) surrounded by square brackets, and ending with a “$” sign. The path looks like this:
[www]$ if I happen to be working in a directory named www – simple enough.

The second half of the command (the \e]2;[\d \t] [\w]\a) causes the date and time to be displayed in square brackets ([\d \t]) followed by the full path that I am working on ([\w]). The “\e]2;” and the “\a” are just commands that specify the fact that I wanted to change the window title rather than the command prompt.

The problem arises because even though the commands to change the window prompt are considered non-printing characters, the server would “display” them anyways, taking up room on my command line without my knowledge. The simple fix is to surround the second portion of my prompt command with a pair of brackets used for specifying non-printing characters. They are “\[" and "\]“, used to denote the beginning and end of the non-printing characters, respectively.

So, my new command looks like so:

PS1="[\W]\$ \[\e]2;[\d \t]  [\w]\a\]"

Pretty subtle change, but it makes a world of difference.

So, if you are seeing some weird behavior when connected to a Linux box with Putty or any terminal client for that matter, take a closer look at your command prompt. Added tweaks such as the window title changes I made along with any sort of color changes you might have made to your prompt are likely the culprit.

If you are having a hard time getting your Xbox 360 DVD drive to open and close, odds are the drive belt is the problem.  It seems that due to heat and general usage, the drive belt that is responsible for opening and closing the drive will stretch or accumulate enough dirt that it starts slipping.

One way to remedy this is to open your drive and clean the belt, but more often than not the problem will recur relatively quickly.  After scouring the web, I have found what seems to be the consensus as far as which belt you can use to replace your existing drive belt.  Most people opt to purchase a replacement that is smaller than the existing belt in order to ensure that there is sustainable tension for the long run.  The replacement belt of choice has a 19mm internal diameter and is 1.2mm thick.

You can purchase a new belt at any of the locations below:

SBS2.6 Belt @ Studio Sound Electronics

FD36P Belt @ Maplin (UK)

SCX2.6 Belt @ Unicorn Electronics

To do the repair, simply open your DVD drive, undo the belt connecting the two points highlighted below, and then reattach the new belt in its place.  You will likely need to use a small screwdriver or needle-nose pliers to attach the new belt as it will fit quite a bit more snug than the old belt.  You may also want to limit the amount that you touch the inside of the belt surface as to reduce the likelihood of depositing residual finger oils on the rubber which may result in future slippage.

[Picture courtesy of Llama - www.llama.com]

The WP Stats plugin on my blog has not been working for some time, so I have relied on StatPress for my site visit statistics. I really like StatPress, but today it started bugging me that WP Stats was not recording any visits whatsoever. I know that my API key is correct, as it works just fine for Askimet, so I figured something else was wrong.

After minimal digging in the WordPress forums, I found that there was an essential component missing from my theme’s footer.php file. Right before the ending </body> tag in your footer.php file, you will need to enter the following:

<?php wp_footer(); ?>

This triggers WP Stats to pick up the visits and record them properly.

That’s all there is to it. A very quick fix for quite an annoying problem!

Morehpperliter recently had issues with his Blackberry’s track ball no longer registering clicks after he spilled coffee on it.  I have revived a Blackberry or two with a rubbing alcohol bath, which is what I suggested he do.

I suggested that he pull apart the Blackberry and bathe the track ball assembly in alcohol, along with cleaning the track ball contacts on the system board with an alcohol-soaked Q-tip.  After he did this, it was good as new!

This will work on devices having issues registering movements of the track ball as well.  You might even be able to simply drip some alcohol on the track ball of a Blackberry with the battery removed to de-gunk it.  I have not tried that method of cleaning it up, but you could give it a shot if you are shy about disassembling the entire handset.

I recently purchased an Xbox from eBay afflicted with the Red Rings of Death, in hopes of repairing it. While it ends up the console itself was beyond repair, I had hoped to at least salvage the DVD drive, if not other parts from the console.

I figured my hopes were dashed when I hit the eject button on the DVD drive and nothing happened, aside from a short whirring of motors. Upon taking the drive apart, I found that someone had drawn a big “X” on the drive tray with a Sharpie marker – at this point, I was pretty sure this broken Xbox would yield nothing useful other than some spare capacitors.

Eventually, I noticed that a gear and belt was missing from the drive assembly, and I figured that this was the cause of the tray not opening. You can see the two missing parts highlighted in the image below:

[Image from Llama.com]

The belt is connected to the motor at the front of the DVD drive, which is also connected to the gear that I was missing. This gear drives the larger tray gear on the left, allowing the drive to open and close.

I opened up a bricked hitachi I had laying around in hopes of pulling the gear and belt from that drive and transplanting it into this one. Unfortunately, the gear from the Hitachi drive was not only too tall, but a little different in design as well. It was pretty clear that it would not be a suitable replacement.

Looking around some more on Llama’s site, I found the image below as part of a writeup on Xbox 1 DVD drive disassembly.

As you can see, the drives are laid out in similar fashion, which would be expected as they are both manufactured by Samsung.

I dug up a DVD drive from an old original Xbox I had lying around and took apart the drive. I pulled the gear and belt, but much to my chagrin, the gear was too tall for the Xbox 360 drive. So, I decided to go out to the garage and see what a hacksaw could do about that. I ended up cutting about half a centimeter off the bottom of the gear, then I filed it flat to ensure good movement in the drive. I popped the gear into place, put the belt on, and crossed my fingers.

Much to my surprise, the fix worked like a charm! The drive opened and closed smoothly, and I went from a complete loss to a working drive in just minutes.

I don’t know how often this sort of thing happens to people out there, but I figured it might help someone who took their drive apart and either broke something or lost some parts.

I installed VMware on my Vista machine not too long ago, and found that I could no longer reach my machine remotely via the CopSSH daemon [Read my article on CopSSH here], nor via the Remote Desktop Client. At first I thought it might have been a problem with the port forwarding on my router, but I quickly found that I could not reach my main computer within my own LAN.

The problems started immediately after I installed VMware, so I figured that was the culprit. I dug around a bit and found nothing out of the ordinary as far as my installation was concerned, so I dug around on the web. I found the solution to my problem in the VMware user forum.

It is well known that VMware installs several virtual network adapters to use for NAT, among other things. What is not so well known is that when your Vista firewall is enabled, it views these two new adapters as interlopers, and configures the firewall as if you were on a public network without notifying you of the change. This essentially shuts down any service ports you might have had open, custom or otherwise, if you did not specify them in the firewall exemption list at some earlier point.

To remedy the problem, you can do one of two things:

1) Turn of  the Vista firewall. That’s it – you should be good to go after that.

2) Configure your virtual machines to use bridged networking, and disable the two VMware virtual adapters in the Windows Device Manager, leaving your firewall enabled.

I actually disabled both of the adapters and disabled Vista’s firewall, but that’s just me.

Hopefully this helps someone out there with the same issue.

I have utilized several Usenet providers in the past, but the switch to Giganews was the best move I ever made. I have been using their service for over a year now, and as time has passed, the service has gotten better and better. I think that I can say unequivocally, Giganews is the best Usenet provider there is.

Why are they so good? Let me count the ways:

1. Unlimited access and 20 connections for $24.99/mo.

– $25 a month might seem like a lot, but if you want to have Usenet access at all, you will most likely have to pay. If you want GREAT Usenet access, you will have to pay a few dollars more.

2. SSL enabled transfers for $29.99/mo.

– Yes, even more money. If you up the ante by a whopping $5 a month, you can have SSL enabled account, allowing you to securely transfer data between your client and their servers. You might ask, “What nefarious data are you transferring that you don’t want anyone to see?” Nothing, actually. The purpose of the SSL transfer is to ensure that no ISP traffic shaping is done based on packet headers or protocol ports. Let the BitTorrent folks deal with their ISP dropping their packets and throttling downloads – with Giganews, you don’t have to worry.

3. Giganews Accelerator for…Free!

– Finally, something free. Did I mention unlimited data and 20 connections for $24.99 a month? Anyways, you get free use of the Giganews Accelerator application included with your account. The accelerator allows you to download compressed headers, greatly accelerating your header download speed. What this means in the real world is that with a properly configured newsgroup reader, such as Newsbin, you can increase your header download speed by a factor of 10.

This is actually one of the main reasons I wrote this post – I was downloading headers from a ton of groups yesterday and saw Newsbin displaying my header download speed as over 100 MB/s. If I was downloading from a regular Usenet provider, or without the accelerator, it would have been a measly 9 to 10 MB/s. A ten-fold increase is not bad at all!

Oh, and as a side note, header downloads do not count into your monthly quota if you are using a metered account, aka they are free.

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