Archive for April, 2013

Fixing Active Desktop Recovery Windows XP problem

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Windows XP active desktop recovery screenshot picture

I had to repair Windows XP PC which got the annoying Active Desktop Recovery screen. I remember seeing this screen back in the days when I was still using Microsoft Windows 98. It was quite shocking for me to find out this stupid pointless Windows bug appears on NT based Windows as well…

As you can see on the screenshot there is a button Restore My Active Desktop but pressing this button doesn't change anything

People around the net recommend two ways to fix that one is through:

Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced (Reset)

Windows XP Control Panel Internet Options Advanced Reset tab screenshot

After this I tried the usual Computer Restart but unfortunately this not solved the problem.

Second suggested method was through a change in Windows registry from

C:\> regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Desktop\\SafeMode\\Components

Change the key value – DeskHtmlVersion REG_DWORD 0x00000110(272) to decimal zero.

Windows XP fix Active Desktop Recovery - change the key value - DeskHtmlVersion REG_DWORD 0x00000110(272) to decimal zero

The Color of Pomegranates (1968) фильм “Цвет граната”/Նռան գույնը (1969г.)

Thursday, April 11th, 2013

Those who enjoy post-modern art and odd movies should definitely check out The Color of Pomegranates. This movie is one among top Greatest Soviet Movies. There is a saying in Bulgaria "Is the movie Good or Russian?". In terms of surrealism in movie genre most of Soviet produced movies hit 10. In terms of normal viewer they're almost impossible to understand and very unimportant. The good thing about the movie is it shows some traditional things from some of ex USSR countries. Anyways I don't like the paganism in movie. Few of the Christian old paintings and things are worthy to see.


 

The Color of Pomegranates (1968) фильм "Цвет граната"/Նռան գույնը (1969г.)

Sermon on how the Christian can live without Fear – Repent ! Pope Shenouda II Coptic Patriarch

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

I'm a Christian and even though I'm trying to live as a Christian it is not always working. I'm a human and as all of us I have my fears. Thus by God's grace today by looking on Youtube on what the Coptic Christian say on Fear. I've ended in Sermon from his Holiness Pope Shenoda II. He explains very well the connection of Fear and the lack of Christian repentance. Below is the video I hope some Christian out there can earn by watching this video.
 

HH pope Shenouda Sermon Old ''A Life Without Fear''

The Needle / Игла one of top 20 USSR, 1988 movies with english/russian subtitles

Monday, April 8th, 2013

Игла / The Needle (СССР, 1988) with english/russian subtitles


 

I just watched a movie famous in the ex-USSR. Just like most USSR movies, the movie is a bit boring slowly going and not much is happening. However it is clear how strong the dissolution processes in the USSR are accelerated. This is visible by the fall of moral of society. The movie shows people taking drugs, something almost taboo in the ex-Communist countries. The main actor is an anti-social who also happens to be one of the famous rock musicians in Russia at that time Viktor Tsoi. Just like many other Russian movies of the Soviet Era, the actors in movie are only few thus making the movie somehow miss dynamics. There is a high dose of surrealism like in other movies I've seen from the Soviet Era. The unexpected turn out of movie is also something I've noticed in most Russian movies. The movie gives out signals how the Soviet dream has fallen especially around minute 35:00 in movie

The movie is hardly to understand for a regular normal person, as the cause-result moment is missing. Maybe the main reason why the movie gained big popularity in USSR was the striking scenes not shown earlier in the restricted regime ruling in USSR.

Read Holy Bible on Linux with KDE GUI environment

Friday, April 5th, 2013

Whether you're Christian and you're into the habit to read daily a Chapter from Holy Bible and you use Linux with KDE environment on your Desktop, you definitely have to check BibleTime. BibleTime is one of Crosswire Sword Projects. The aim of project is to bring Holy Scriptures to people who spend long time in front of PC. Though Xiphos Bible reading app does the same Xiphos is build on top of GTK2 and targets GNOME users thus, if you're a KDE user and you prefer to use applications build on top of KDE's QT library it is preferable to use BibleTime.

Below is description of Debian package;

debian:~# apt-cache show bibletime|grep -i description -A 5

Description: A bible study tool for Qt
 BibleTime is a free and easy to use bible study tool.
 It uses the Qt and SWORD software libraries.
 BibleTime provides easy handling of digitized texts (Bibles, commentaries
 and lexicons) and powerful features to work with these texts (search in
 texts, write own notes, save, print etc.) in the SWORD module format.
 

debian:~# apt-get install bibletime
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  bibletime-data
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bibletime bibletime-data
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 77 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,812 kB of archives.
After this operation, 16.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
....

Once installed to launch it invoke bibletime cmd:

debian:~$ bibletime

Libletime Holy Bible read in KDE Linux reading tool launch screen

Just like with Xiphos, BibleTime KDE app supports installing extra Holy Bible texts in your mother language. To install additional Bible translations from:

Settings -> BookShelf Manager -> Languages

BibleTime read holy bible on Linux BookShelf Manager adding Holy Bible in additional languages

Then to choose default language in which default Holy Bible translation will appear use menus:

BibleTime Holy Bible Linux KDE reading program adding Holy Scripture additional language translations

 

One major disadvantage in BibleTime whether compared with Xiphos is it doesn't support Tabs. So there is no way to read in Parallel two different language translation of Holy Bible. Thus those wanting to stick to compare different versions of Holy Bible translations Install Xiphos

How to Read Holy Bible on GNU / Linux with Xiphos

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

If you're a Christian and you need application to read the Holy Scriptures in Linux. You definitely have to take a look at Xiphos Open Source Bible Study tool.

Here is Xiphos deb package desciprtion;

linux:~# apt-cache show xiphos|grep -i description -A 4

 

Description: environment for Bible reading, study, and research
 Xiphos is a Bible study program for the GNOME desktop environment, based on The
 SWORD Project by the CrossWire Bible Society, a framework for developing Bible
 study tools and of associated texts such as commentaries and dictionaries.

 .

To install Xiphos on Debian, Ubuntu and other Deb derivatives run in terminal:

linux:~# apt-get --yes install xiphos
....

To run it further type in terminal:

hipo@linux:~$ xiphos

Xiphos American King james Holy_Bible on Debian Ubuntu GNU Linux screenshot

Default Holy Bible provided by Xiphos is American version of King James Holy Bible.

However a Holy Bible translation is available on almost any popular Language on earth and is easily installable via Xiphos Module Manager. Xiphos Module Manager uses text obtained from Crosswire  Bible Society – Sword Project.


Linux Xiphos Holy Bible reading GNOME tool Module Manager screenshot

To install your Homeland language Holy Scriptures translation choose whatever language via menus:

Edit -> Module Manager -> Install/Update -> Biblical Texts

Linux Holy Bible reading tool Xiphos choose bible texts in all country homeland language

For English Speaking people, there are some extra Books, Heretical texts well known in Christiandom as well as Concordance (Interpretation of Holy Bible writtings with some general marks on Bible verses).

Xiphos Linux bible reader program Extra General Books screenshot

Orthodoxy as you see in the screenshot doesn't have unfortunately nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity. Take few minutes and click on each of the books install them and check out what's inside. The books are interesting for anyone like me who holds deep interest in Christianity. Something else worthy to check out from Module Manager is Commentaries on Holy Bible unfortunately available only in German, English, Dutch and Finnish.

Xiphos module manager Linux commentaries

The Sword Project has  also few interesting sub-projects, worthy to check out whether you use Linux with KDE or for those who want read Holy Bible on Mac OS and IPhone.

BibleTime – A Free and Easy to Use Bible Reading Tool intended for Linux KDE environment users.

PocketSword – An Iphone Bible Study Open Source App

MacSword – is a free & open-source application for research and study of God and His Word. It is developed specifically for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X.

Alkitab Bible Study – An open source and free desktop Bible study software. It supports parallel view, commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, daily devotions, with powerful search capability.

Xiphos Parallel View funtionality and Tabs are very handy as they offer the user a very easy way to open a number of Bible Translations in various languages and make comparison between different Holy Bible translations.
Reading in Parallel the Holy BIble in two or more different languages is a great way to learn quickly a new language. On below screenshot you see opened, American King James Holy Bible in Tab 1 and Bulgarian Language (the well known Tsarigrad Edition) in Tab 2

Linux Xiphos Bulgarian with two tabs American King James Translation and New Testament from 1914 known as Tsarigrad Edition

Well that's all, Happy Blessed Bible reading on your Linux Desktop 🙂

How to list and delete mail queue on Qmail / Sendmail / Postfix and Exim SMTP server

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013

How to list and manage delete Qmail Postfix Sendmail Exim mail SMTP queue View-and delete manage Linux and FreeBSD mail server queue

I have to administrate different kind of mail servers. Different clients has different requirements so in daily job I had to take care for all major mail server platforms our there. Often I have to fix problems with mail servers one very useful thing is to check the mail server queue to see what is there holding to be delivered. Often problems with busy mail servers are rooted in overfilled queues with undelivered mails so checking the queue on Postfix / Exim / Sendmail and Qmail is among the first thing to do to diagnose a problem with improperly working SMTP. In this little article I will show how one can check what is in the queue even if he didn't have the technical background on how each of those mail delivery agents works.

1. How to check and manage queue of Qmail Mail Server

Essential info on how many messages are in the queue and to list this messages in Qmail are done with qmail-qstat and qmail-qread.

a) Checking how many messages are in Qmail queue undelivered to remote SMTPs

root@mail:~# qmail-qstat
messages in queue: 1
messages in queue but not yet preprocessed: 0

b) Listing undelivered e-mails held in Qmail queue

root@mail:~# qmail-qread
26 Mar 2013 01:33:07 GMT  #9609259  748  <info@pomoriemonastery.com>
    remote    bpfejd@gprizm.com
root@mail:~#

One other useful command in dealing with Qmail queue is qmail-qread type it and see for yourself what it does.
c) Flushing qmail queue

Use a tiny shell script ( flush_qmail_queue.sh ), deleting all files in /var/qmail/queue/mess – directory where qmail stores undelivered messages in queue.

# ./flush_qmail_queue.sh

Though above script should be working in some cases, where there are permission problems with Queue or some other mess it is better to use more sophisticated Qmail Queue cleaining tool Qmail MailRemove. To use its necessary to have a working version of Python programming language. Once downloaded Qmail MailRemove, mkdir  /var/qmail/queue/filter (a directory needed for MailRemove to work). Then run script

# ./mailRemove.py email_to_remove

Other variant to clean messed qmail queue is to use qmailHandle.

2. How to check and delete mails from queue in Postfix SMTP

On postfix queue is checked using both postqueue command which is postfix's specific tool for viewing the queue or the standard sendmail mailq. mailq is actually – Postfix to sendmail compitability interface, i.e. this command is not the native way to view queue in Postfix but is just a wrapper binary which invokes postqueue with an option to visualize what is in queue for SMTP admins accustomed to work with sendmail.

a) Checking list of undelivered e-mails

Below is an examples:

mail:~# mailq

-Queue ID- –Size– —-Arrival Time—- -Sender/Recipient——-
4A22BBE1A3*     657 Mon Apr  1 18:46:01  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
                                         csacpabb@nasvalke.com

25824BE18B*     660 Thu Mar 28 18:15:03  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
                                         Aliermarl@fmailxc.com.com

D2AA7BE1BF      652 Sun Mar 31 04:30:21  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
(host mail.drugsellr.com[37.1.218.81] refused to talk to me: 421 Too many concurrent SMTP connections; please try again later.)
                                         Erudge@drugsellr.com

mail:~# postfix -p
-Queue ID- –Size– —-Arrival Time—- -Sender/Recipient——-
36911BE18D*     662 Mon Mar 25 11:08:01  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
                                         lutuaslenty@fmailxc.com.com

C2439BE207*     662 Fri Mar 22 14:59:45  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
                                         Gavepolla@fmailxc.com.com

4A22BBE1A3*     657 Mon Apr  1 18:46:01  www-data@debian.uk2net.com
                                         csacpabb@nasvalke.com

b) Checking the  number of undelivered mails living in Postfix queue

postfix:~#  postqueue -p|wc -l
433

c) Viewing content of specific mail held in Postfix queue

Whether you need to check content of specific undelivered mail kept in queue you should do it by its ID, to view last mail from earlier postfix -p example:

postfix:~# postcat -q 4A22BBE1A3

*** ENVELOPE RECORDS deferred/A/4A22BBE1A3 ***
message_size:             656             187               1               0             656
message_arrival_time: Tue Apr  2 14:25:34 2013
create_time: Tue Apr  2 14:25:35 2013
named_attribute: rewrite_context=local
sender_fullname: www-data
sender: www-data@debian.uk2net.com
*** MESSAGE CONTENTS deferred/A/4A22BBE1A3 ***
Received: by postfix (Postfix, from userid 33)
        id AA379BE07A; Tue,  2 Apr 2013 14:25:34 +0100 (BST)
To: hawtiene@drugsellr.com
Subject: =?UTF8?B?QWNjb3VudCBpbmZvcm1hdGlvbiBmb3IgU09DQ0VSRkFNRQ==?=
X-PHP-Originating-Script: 1000:register_login_functions.php
From: SOCCERFAME <no-reply@mail.host.com>
Content-type:text/plain; charset=UTF8
Message-Id: <20130402132535.AA379BE07A@mail.host.com>
Date: Tue,  2 Apr 2013 14:25:34 +0100 (BST)

Please keep that email. It contains your username and password for postfix.
—————————-
nick : hawtiene
pass : 1v7Upjw3nT
—————————-

*** HEADER EXTRACTED deferred/A/4A22BBE1A3 ***
original_recipient: hawtiene@drugsellr.com
recipient: hawtiene@drugsellr.com
*** MESSAGE FILE END deferred/A/4A22BBE1A3 ***

d) Deleting mails in Postfix queue

To delete all mails in Postfix queue run:

postfix:~# postsuper -d ALL

If Postfix cannot deliver a message to a recipient it is placed in the deferred queue.  The queue manager will scan the deferred queue to see it if can place mail back into the active queue.  How often this scan occurs is determined by the queue_run_delay.
The queue_run_delay is by default 300s or 300 seconds. If you have a very busy mail server you may see a large deferred queue.
To delete all mails in deferred queue.

postfix:~# postsuper -d ALL deferred

3. How to check mail queue of Exim mail server

Viewing number of messages and list of undelivered messages in Exim queue is done using exim command by specifying arguments.

a) Checking the list of undelivered mails kept undelivered in Exim SMTP Queue

 

root@iqtestfb:/etc/exim4# exim -bp

4d 416 1UI1fS-00021I-1s <root@ETC_MAILNAME> *** frozen *** hipo@www.pc-freak.net 4d 746 1UI1gc-00023T-0S <root@ETC_MAILNAME> *** frozen *** root@ETC_MAILNAME 4d 752 1UI1lR-0003H0-89 <root@ETC_MAILNAME> *** frozen *** root@ETC_MAILNAME 4d 894 1UI1lR-0003H5-I6 <www-data@ETC_MAILNAME> *** frozen *** www-data@ETC_MAILNAME

b) Counting number of Exim undelivered messages kept in Mail Queue
exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -bpc 2063 c) Getting a summary of all messages in Exim Queue (Count, Volume, Oldest, Newest, Destination Domain)
exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -bp| exiqsumm

Count Volume Oldest Newest Domain —– —— —— —— —— 1 862 22h 22h 126.com 2 1751 12h 5h 163.com 21 3111KB 4d 3h abv.bg 2 766KB 42h 7h alice.it 1 383KB 7h 7h aol.com 1 383KB 4d 4d att.net 1 383KB 3d 3d beotel.net 2 766KB 20h 19h bih.net.ba 1685 3291KB 4d 1m etc_mailname 1 383KB 70h 70h facebook.com 1 383KB 66h 66h gaaa 81 22MB 4d 15m gmail.com 1 564 3d 3d gmaill.com 1 383KB 3d 3d googlemail.com 1 383KB 64h 64h hotmai.rs 33 10MB 4d 2h hotmail.com 25 9193KB 4d 79m hotmail.it 1 383KB 4d 4d hotmailcom 2 1128 24h 20h icloud.com 2 766KB 67h 67h inwind.it 11 3831KB 3d 7h libero.it 1 383KB 20h 20h live.co.uk 3 767KB 37h 3h live.com 6 1916KB 67h 45h live.it 1 552 28h 28h live.no 1 383KB 67h 67h llle.it 1 383KB 67h 67h lllle.it 1 383KB 33m 33m luigimori.it 2 389KB 56h 4h mail.bg 1 383KB 66h 66h mailmetrash.com 1 383KB 39h 39h malltron.it 1 562 7h 7h me.com 1 383KB 4d 4d msn.com 2 1116 49h 47h net.hr 1 383KB 28h 28h orion.rs 1 383KB 3d 3d paskaa.com 75 31KB 4d 3d www.pc-freak.net 1 572 3d 3d prismamedia.ro 1 383KB 71h 71h rediffmail.com 1 383KB 28h 28h seznam.cz 1 383KB 14m 14m siol.net 36 11KB 4d 3d sms.mtel.net 1 557 53h 53h t-com.hr 1 383KB 23h 23h tecnobagno.191.it 1 383KB 4d 4d teol.net 2 766KB 67h 44h virgilio.it 1 383KB 42h 42h windwslive.com 1 549 3d 3d yahoo 43 9213KB 4d 74m yahoo.com 2 766KB 70h 46h yahoo.it 1 383KB 71h 71h ymail.com ————————————————————— 2068 76MB 4d 1m TOTAL

 

c)  List Exim queued messages sorted by recipient address and sender address

  To list e-mails in queue sorted by recipient address

exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -bpr|grep -Eo "^\s*[^ ]*@[^ ]*$" |sort | uniq -c

To List queued messages grouped by address of sender
exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -bpr | grep -Eo "<[^ ]*@[^ ]*>" | sort | uniq -c  

d) Forcing Exim  to attempt re-send e-mails kept inside
queue

As Exim is relatively new SMTP its authors thought deeply before writting it and included options to do queue e-mail sent whether server is not under extremely high loads as well as send, regardless of load. Make Exim start sending queue e-mails if server is not overloaded (no extra-high server load)
exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -q -v

  To make Exim force a queue run regardless of system load exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -qf -v  

To make Exim deliver only e-mails sent from server to server (usually e-mails from local server monitoring software and log reports)
exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -ql -v

e) Deleting e-mails from Exim mail queue

To Remove a message from queue identify by ID

exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -Mrm <message-id>     Force Exim delivery of a message regardless of Frozen status

exim-smtp:/etc/exim4# exim -M<message-id >  

f) Removing Exim mails older than certain seconds or hours To remove all mails older than 12hrs (43000 seconds) exim-smtp:~# exiqgrep -o 43000 -i | xargs exim -Mrm

Deleting all frozen mails from queue is done with:

exim-smtp:~# exiqgrep -z -i | xargs exim -Mrm  

Removing all e-mails belonging to particular sender

exim-smtp:~# exiqgrep -i -f user@domain.com | xargs exim -Mrm

  Removing all mails from a sender that are older than 12hrs

exim-smtp:~# exiqgrep -o 43000 -i -f user@domain.com | xargs exim -Mrm
 

g) Flushing Exim mail queue
Use

exim-smtp:~# runq
  or

exim-smtp:~# exim -q

4. How to view and manage sendmail SMTP queue

a) Listing all e-mails stored in Sendmail queue

To list the mail queue in sendmail

sendmail:~# sendmail -bp
/var/spool/mqueue is empty
        Total requests: 0

or

sendmail:~# mailq
 

/var/spool/mqueue (3 requests) —–Q-ID—– –Size– —–Q-Time—– ————Sender/Recipient———– m9TMLQHG012749 1103 Thu Oct 30 11:21 <apache@localhost.localdomain> (host map: lookup (electrictoolbox.com): deferred) <test@electrictoolbox.com> m9TMLRB9012751 37113 Thu Oct 30 11:21 <apache@localhost.localdomain> (host map: lookup (electrictoolbox.com): deferred) <test@electrictoolbox.com> m9TMLPcg012747 240451 Thu Oct 30 11:21 <apache@localhost.localdomain> (host map: lookup (electrictoolbox.com): deferred) <test@electrictoolbox.com> Total requests: 3

b) Checking queue for specific mail sender or recipient

sendmail:~# mailq | grep -i email@domain-name.com -A 2 -B 2
....

c) Removing all e-mails from Sendmail queue

To delete everything stored in Sendmail queue delete files from directory where sendmail stores still undelivered mails. In sendmail this is /var/spool/mqueue and /var/mqueue

sendmail:~# rm /var/spool/mqueue/*.*
sendmail:~# rm /var/mqueue/*.*

Deleting all pending mails from queue

To remove / delete e-mails originating from certain domain / user or recipient

sendmail:~# sendmail -qS -v domain-name.com

To delete e-mail from certain user or recipieint

sendmail:~# sendmail -qR -v yahoo.co.uk