Posts Tagged ‘working’
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 
After configuring a new Qmail+POP3+IMAP with vpopmail install based on Thibs QmailRocks I faced some issues with configuring mail accounts in Mozilla Thunderbird. The problem is also present in Microsoft Outlook Express as some colleagues working on Windows reported they can't configure there email accounts in Outlook either.
The issue was like this, the mail server is running fine, and I can send without issues directly from the server shell with mail command, however in Thunderbird I could only fetch the messages via POP3 or IMAP, whever I give a try to send one I got the error:
Sending of Message Failed
The message could not be sent using SMTP server for an
unknown reason. Please verify that SMTP server settings are correct and try
again, or contact your network administrator
Here is a screenshot preseting the issue, taken from my Thunderbird:
The reason for this error is an automatic setting that is being configured in Thunderbird in New Account Creation time:
Thunderbird queries the mail server and asks for the type of encryptions available for both POP3 and SMTP MX primary host.
Seeing that it supports STARTTLS data transfer encryption mail protocol for both POP3 / IMAP, Thunderbirds auto configuration does place STARTTLS to be used with SMTP and POP3
The incorrect setting which is being automatically filled in can be checked in following these Thunderbird menus:
Edit -> Account Settings -> Outgoing Server (SMTP)
If the configured mail account MX server is let's say mail.exampledomain.com one needs to Edit the settings for this SMTP auto configured domains and he will see some example settings like the one shown in the below screenshot:
You can see from above's screenshot that the auto configured Connection Security setting is improperly set to: STARTTLS. Usually STARTTLS should be working on SMTP port 25, however it seems the problem consists in the fact that the MAIL FROM and RCPT TO is sent in incorrec time (ain't sure if its before or after the encryption).
Therefore the consequence of this failure to use STARTTLS being detected as the correct encryption type for SMTP lead that the new configured mail server clients were unable tot properly connect and send emails via the SMTP listening server on port 25.
I give a try and changing the Connection Security:STARTTLS to Connection SecuritySSL/TLS immediately resolved the SMTP sending issues. Therefore as I found out the SMTP server is working just fine configured to use my QMAIL on port 465 with Connection Security: SSL/TLS and hence to work around the SMTP sending issues, decided to completely disable the STARTTLS encryption to be reported as a supported encryption by qmail-smtpd
On Thibs QmailRocks and some other Qmail installstions based more or less on qmail.jms1.net service damemontools scripts, this can be done by simply changing a line:
DENY_TLS=0
to
DENY_TLS=1
The qmail start up scripts which these change has to be done if one has configured a mail server based on QmailRocks Thibs updated tutorial are:
1. /service/qmail-smtpd
2. /service/qmail-smtpdssl
A quick way to do the DENY_TLS=0 to DENY_TLS=1 changes via sed is like this:
qmail# sed -e 's#DENY_TLS=0#DENY_TLS=1#g' /service/qmail-smtpd/run >> /tmp/qmail-smtpd-run;qmail# sed -e 's#DENY_TLS=0#DENY_TLS=1#g' /service/qmail-smtpdssl/run >> /tmp/qmail-smtpdssl-run;qmail# mv /tmp/qmail-smtpd-run /service/qmail-smtpd/run
qmail# mv /tmp/qmail-smtpdssl-run /service/qmail-smtpdssl/run
After the correct modifications, of course as usual a qmail restart is required, e.g.:
qmail# qmailctl restart
...
Making this changes, irradicated the sending issues. It's best practice that the account which had issues with sending before is deleted and recreated from scratch.
Hope this helps somebody out there who encounters the same issue. Cheers 😉
Tags: account creation, account settings, administratorHere, anunknown, auto configuration, com, configure, configured, connection security, creation time, email accounts, encryption, Express, host, How to, inco, issue, mail account, mail accounts, mail command, mail protocol, mail server, Microsoft, microsoft outlook express, Mozilla, mozilla thunderbird, mx server, network administrator, Outgoing, outgoing server, outlook, outlook mail, place, pop, Qmail, QmailRocks, reason, screenshot, Sending, server settings, server smtp, Shell, smtp, smtp port 25, starttls, thunderbirds, time, TLS, tmp, type, working
Posted in FreeBSD, Linux, Qmail, System Administration, Various, Web and CMS | 5 Comments »
Monday, July 16th, 2012 
Some time ago on one of the Database MySQL servers, I've configured replication as it was required to test somethings. Eventually it turned out replication will be not used (for some reason) it was too slow and not fitting our company needs hence we needed to disable it.
It seemed logical to me that, simply removing any replication related directives from my.cnf and a restart of the SQL server will be enough to turn replication off on the Debian Linux host. Therefore I proceeded removed all replication configs from /etc/my/my.cnf and issued MySQL restart i. e.:
sql-server:~# /etc/init.d/mysql restart
....
This however didn't turned off replication,as I thought and in phpmyadminweb frontend interface, replication was still appearing to be active in the replication tab.
Something was still making the SQL server still act as an Replication Slave Host, so after a bit of pondering and trying to remember, the exact steps I took to make the replication work on the host I remembered that actually I issued:
mysql> START SLAVE;
Onwards I run:
mysql> SHOW SLAVE STATUS;
....
and found in the database the server was still running in Slave Replication mode
Hence to turn off the db host run as a Slave, I had to issue in mysql cli:
mysql> STOP SLAVE;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec)
mysql> RESET SLAVE;
Query OK, 0 rows affected, 1 warning (0.01 sec)
Then after a reload of SQL server in memory, the host finally stopped working as a Slave Replication host, e.g.
sql-server:~# /etc/init.d/mysql restart
....
After the restart, to re-assure myself the SQL server is no more set to run as MySQL replication Slave host:
mysql> SHOW SLAVE STATUS;
Empty set (0.00 sec)
Cheers 😉
Tags: Cheers, cli, cnf, Database, debian gnu, debian linux, exact steps, frontend, host, How to, init, interface, Linux, memory, Mysql, Onwards, phpmyadminweb, Query, reason, replication, reset, run, running, servers, Slave, Slave Replication, slave status, something, SQL, sql server, status, Stop, tab, time, turn, work, working
Posted in MySQL, System Administration | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 31st, 2010 
Since I’m keen on old school arcade games I checked online if I can install and play MAME (Multimedia Arcade Machine Emulator) games (roms) to my Nokia 9300i mobile.
The information on the topic on the Net is pretty much muddled so it took me a while until I found that in order to install a MAME port for Nokia 9300i I will have to use EEMame – MAME for Symbian Mobile Phones .
The first thing I came across before I finally found EEMame was EMame 9210 .
Emame is a port of Mame that is compatible with Nokia 9300i since the 9300i mobile has backward compatibility with the older 9210 phone.
To save memory since the Nokia 9210 has low memory capacity the Mame 9210 application is actually separated in 4 applications each of which containing a set of drivers for a number of mame rom game files.:
The whole application Emame9210All.sis is separated into the following parts:
EMame9210Set1.sis
EMame9210Set2.sisEMame9210Set3.sis
EMame9210Set4.sis
For convenience the developers has provided also a .sis file containing all the up-mentioned 4 parts in one .sis archive
For some convenience I have created a mirror from which you can download EMame9210All.SIS
Though the Emame9210 would install on the Nokia 9300i and you’ll be able to run each of the 4 exe files from the Nokia file manager I couldn’t make the application work with any of the listed roms that are marked as a tested on the Emame9210.
Honestly I didn’t really spend much time trying, so it could be my fault that I couldn’t bring the Emame9210 on my 9300i mobile. Be aware that trying to run some rom files downloaded from romnation.net and listed as compatible with the 9210 arcade emulator led the Emame9210 programs to crash.
So assume the Emame9210 is not really compatible with the Nokia 9300 phone. Anyways this first time though mournful was just a plunge-board to the “real dealâ€, e.g. the real joy experienced when I found out that the EEMame port is available for Nokia 9300i
To install the EEMame on my Nokia 9300i I downloaded and installed the eemame-series80-1.1.SIS . The file is also available through EEmame’s official website download section along with few other EEmame for a few other Motorolla and Nokia powered devices.
Another thing I really liked about EEMame is that it’s released under the GNU General Public License
So far so good ’till now I was having a complete working version of MAME to my Nokia 9300i mobile but I was lacking any games and I was absolutely lazy to scrape through the internet to find some working rom files for the EEMame, not to mention that only a exact set of rom files is compatible to the device and you have to check and download the compatible games one by one … this is pretty much insane especially if you’re a busy man as I am.
I assumed somebody has already done the hard task of downloading and creating a pack with rom files that run on the EEMame so I spend approximately some half an hour to look for a preliminary prepared pack of rom files that would run on the EEMame mobile (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).
The original announce for the availability for download of eemame 218 rom games which are compatible with EEMame could be red here
You can download MAME_S60v3_and_working_ROMSET_by_herbalb.rar here
Herein I will include herbalb original message found along with his 218 rom games pack for EEMAME :
Some time ago I made a romset that includes 1320 of 1321 Roms known to work with EEMAME (also included). Hope some of you will like it and have fun playing these original arcade games (i.e. Wonderboy, Ghost N Goblins, Joust, Arkanoid, 1943, Burger Time, Contra ...).
By the way, when starting a game and you read 'press OK to continue' just push left and then right on the directional pad on your phone and the game will start.
I tested them (many of them) on my N95.
You can also try this version of EEMame to use with the Set above (I have not tested this version as i am using the one includet in the set)Happy new year and peace to everyone.
herbalb
NOTE: I am happy if you share it with others but please do not say it would be your own work. It took me hours to do find all necessary games for this set, so please be social, thanks.
As you can see in herbalb’s message the ROM games for EEMame are not tested with other mobile phones except the N95.
I downloaded and tested his EEMAME rom pack set and I have to confirm almost all the game are loading with EEMame perfectly fine.
However there is two minor down-sides of the EEMame on Nokia 9300i. First you will probably have to play the rom games without a sound, because when sound is enabled almost all the games will work slow as hell, and second most of the MAME emulated games will occupy just a small portion of your screen and you won’t be able to enjoy the joy of playing the game on a full wide screen on your cellphone.
Anyways life is not perfectly anywhere, being able to play all this wonderful oldschool arcade directly on your Nokia 9300i mobile turns your mobile into a sophisticated game station and guarantees you a lot of fun.
I have prepared a list of all the rom files included with MAME_S60v3_and_working_ROMSET_by_herbalb.rar, you can check the whole list of roms available for EEMame on Nokia 9300i here
I have also made some few modifications in the readme of the herbalb’s archive and have included the necessery sis file to install and run EEMAME on Nokia 9300i the new archive can be downloaded here.
Just in case if you need to download some specific rom files from the whole collection please select your preferred EEMame ROM file here
Well, That’s all folks! All left now is to truly enjoy your classic nitendo & arcade games playable directly on your Nokia 9300i mobile! 🙂
Tags: arcade games, Burger Time, cellphone, download, EEMAME, Installing EEMame to play MAME games on Nokia 9300i / Turn your Nokia mobile to arcade game statition, rom files, roms, run, version, working
Posted in Entertainment, Mobile Phone Apps & Games | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, January 14th, 2015 
Getting a snapshot of all active plugins and keeping it for future in case if you install some broken plugin and you have to renable all enabled plugins from scratch is precious thing in WordPress.
… It is really annoying when you decide to try to enable few new plugins and out of a sudden your WordPress site / blog starts hanging (when accessed in browser)…
To fix it you have to Disable All Plugins and Re-enable all that used to work. However if you don't keep a copy of the plugins which were previously working and you're like me and have 109 plugins installed of which only 50 are in (Active) state / used. It could take you a day or two until you come up with a similar list to the ones you previously used … Thanksfully there is some prevention you can take by dumping a list of all plugins that are currently active and in later time only enable those in the list.
# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
mysql> USE blog_db;
Here is the output I get in the moment:
mysql> DESCRIBE wp_options;
+————–+———————+——+—–+———+—————-+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+————–+———————+——+—–+———+—————-+
| option_id | bigint(20) unsigned | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| option_name | varchar(64) | NO | UNI | | |
| option_value | longtext | NO | | NULL | |
| autoload | varchar(20) | NO | | yes | |
+————–+———————+——+—–+———+—————-+
mysql> SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';
| 38 | active_plugins | a:50:{i:0;s:45:"add-to-any-subscribe/add-to-any-subscribe.php";i:1;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:2;s:43:"all-in-one-seo-pack/all_in_one_seo_pack.php";i:3;s:66:"ambrosite-nextprevious-post-link-plus/ambrosite-post-link-plus.php";i:4;s:49:"automatic-tag-selector/automatic-tag-selector.php";i:5;s:27:"autoptimize/autoptimize.php";i:6;s:35:"bm-custom-login/bm-custom-login.php";i:7;s:45:"ckeditor-for-wordpress/ckeditor_wordpress.php";i:8;s:47:"comment-info-detector/comment-info-detector.php";i:9;s:27:"comments-statistics/dcs.php";i:10;s:31:"cyr2lat-slugs/cyr2lat-slugs.php";i:11;s:49:"delete-duplicate-posts/delete-duplicate-posts.php";i:12;s:45:"ewww-image-optimizer/ewww-image-optimizer.php";i:13;s:34:"feedburner-plugin/fdfeedburner.php";i:14;s:39:"feedburner-widget/widget-feedburner.php";i:15;s:63:"feedburner_feedsmith_plugin_2.3/FeedBurner_FeedSmith_Plugin.php";i:16;s:21:"feedlist/feedlist.php";i:17;s:39:"force-publish-schedule/forcepublish.php";i:18;s:50:"google-analytics-for-wordpress/googleanalytics.php";i:19;s:81:"google-sitemap-generator-ultimate-tag-warrior-tags-addon/UTWgoogleSitemaps2_1.php";i:20;s:36:"google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.php";i:21;s:24:"headspace2/headspace.php";i:22;s:29:"my-link-order/mylinkorder.php";i:23;s:27:"php-code-widget/execphp.php";i:24;s:43:"post-plugin-library/post-plugin-library.php";i:25;s:35:"post-to-twitter/post-to-twitter.php";i:26;s:28:"profile-pics/profile-pic.php";i:27;s:27:"redirection/redirection.php";i:28;s:42:"scripts-to-footerphp/scripts-to-footer.php";i:29;s:29:"sem-dofollow/sem-dofollow.php";i:30;s:33:"seo-automatic-links/seo-links.php";i:31;s:23:"seo-slugs/seo-slugs.php";i:32;s:41:"seo-super-comments/seo-super-comments.php";i:33;s:31:"similar-posts/similar-posts.php";i:34;s:21:"sociable/sociable.php";i:35;s:44:"strictly-autotags/strictlyautotags.class.php";i:36;s:16:"text-control.php";i:37;s:19:"tidy-up/tidy_up.php";i:38;s:37:"tinymce-advanced/tinymce-advanced.php";i:39;s:33:"tweet-old-post/tweet-old-post.php";i:40;s:33:"w3-total-cache/w3-total-cache.php";i:41;s:44:"widget-settings-importexport/widget-data.php";i:42;s:54:"wordpress-23-related-posts-plugin/wp_related_posts.php";i:43;s:23:"wp-minify/wp-minify.php";i:44;s:27:"wp-optimize/wp-optimize.php";i:45;s:33:"wp-post-to-pdf/wp-post-to-pdf.php";i:46;s:29:"wp-postviews/wp-postviews.php";i:47;s:55:"wp-simple-paypal-donation/wp-simple-paypal-donation.php";i:48;s:46:"wp-social-seo-booster/wpsocial-seo-booster.php";i:49;s:31:"wptouch-pro-3/wptouch-pro-3.php";} | yes |
Copy and paste this CVS format data to a text file or a Word document for later reference ..
To restore back to normal only active WordPress plugins, first launch following SQL query to disable all enabled wordpress plugins:
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'a:0:{}' WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';
To restore above "backupped" list of active WP plugins you have to copy paste the saved content and paste it into above UPDATE query substituting option_value=' ' with the backupped string.
P.S. – This query should work on WordPress 3.x on older wordpress ver 2.x use instead:
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = ' ' WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';
Because pasting the backupped Active plugins list CSV is a messy and unreadable from command line it is recommended for clarity to use PHPMyAdmin frontend (whenever it is available) on server. This little hint is a real time-saver and saves a lot of headaches. Before proceeding to any Db UPDATE SQL queries always backup your Blog database, with time structure of WordPress data changes!, so in future releases this method might not be working, however if it helped you and works on your version please drop a comment with WordPress version on which this helped you.
Enjoy! 🙂
Tags: Backup Save Enabled Plugins Restore Enabled Active, copy, copy paste, day, Enabled, How to, list, php, time, update, version, wordpress plugins, working
Posted in MySQL, System Administration, Various, Web and CMS, Wordpress | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 1st, 2014 
I'm working on a decomissioning project (for those who hear decomissioning for a first time – in corporate world this means removal of service/s or assigned resources of a server or a physical server hardware that is not to be used in future or is obsolete). The decomissioning includes removal of Apache Tomcat (Software Configuration Item CI – in HP terms) from Microsoft Windows 2007 – Service Pack 2.
Part of decomissioning is of course to create backup of Tomcat Application server and for that I needed to create compressed archive of Tomcat instances. Usually I do archives on Windows using Winrar or Winzip but this time as the server productive server has the minimum installed there was no any external vendor produced archiving software available.
My memories from past were that there is a native compressing program embedded into Windows as I've unzipped compressed archives on Win hosts with no need for external WinZip. However until so far I never did .ZIP archive with no available external uncompress software.
Using Winzip or Winrar so far to make archive from a number of files I used to select files to enter Archive press right mouse button and select Create Archive (Add To Archive) so I expected this will work whenever no Winrar, however there was no obvious button like this, so I googled a bit to find out how is that possible ending up on Article from Microsoft titled "Compress and uncompress files (zip files)", there is a dumb proof video teaching Compressing files with Microsoft default ZIP program is done by the the weird "Send To" menu 🙂
Selecting files to enter Archive;
–> (Click Right Mouse Button) -> (Send To Compressed Zipped Folder)
Honestly If I didn't checked the net probably I will never think of looking it there.
Tags: algorithm, archive, Create Archive, hp, make, memories, Microsoft, microsoft windows, mouse button, need, past, physical server, program, proof, server, server hardware, software, time, Tomcat Application, Win, Windows, WinZip, working, zip
Posted in Everyday Life, System Administration, Various, Windows | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014 A classic sysadmin scenario is to configure new Apache webserver with requirement to have an SSL ceriticate installed and working on port 443 and all requests coming on port 80 to be redirected to https://.
On Apache this is done with simple mod_rewrite rule:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}
Before applying the rule don't forget to have Apache mod_rewrite enabled usually it is not enabled on default most Linux distributions by default.
On shared hostings if you don't have access to directly modify Apache configuration but have .htaccess enabled you can add above rules also to .htaccess
Add this to respective VirtualHost configuration and restart Apache and that's it. If after configuring it for some reason it is not working debug mod_rewrite issues by enabling mod_rewrite's rewrite.log
Other useful Apache mod_rewrite redirect rule is redirect a single landing page from HTTP to HTTP
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^apache-redirect-http-to-https.html$ https://www.site-url.com/apache-redirect-http-to-https.html [R=301,L]
!Note! that in case where performance is a key requirement for a website it might be better to use the standard way to redirect HTTP to HTTPS protocol in Apache through:
ServerName www.site-url.com Redirect / https://www.site-url.com/
To learn more on mod_rewrite redirecting check out this official documentation on Apache's official site.
Tags: case, default, HTTP, HTTPS, key, official documentation, performance, port, redirect, requirement, RewriteRule, SSL, standard, sysadmin, website, working, www
Posted in System Administration, Various, Web and CMS | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 30th, 2014 
I'm just coming from my ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Foundations Exam. ITIL Certification is mandatory for all HP employees and everybody in my team already passed it. Thanks God I passed the ITIL as well with 87.5%.
To prepare for the exam I used Dump files (files with questions and answers given to people on previous exams) and software that simulates testing Avanset Visual CertExam Manager on PC as well as VCE Exam Simulator for Mobile.
VCE Exam Simulator is a test engine designed specifically for certification exam preparation. It allows you to create, edit, and take practice tests in an environment very similar to an actual exam.
ITIL exam was held here in Sofia in Technologica EAD Study Center. ITIL exam is kindly paid by HP and costs $250. ITIL Foundation is first level of certification next one is ITIL intermediate.
In order to prepare for ITIL it took me about half a day reading the ITIL Dump files (you can download them here) and 2 days of actively simulating the exams mainly with VCE EXam Simulator on my Android based mobile.
For those who want to become ITIL professionals and are going to certify further in ITIL Intermediate I recommend check all the ITIL Books covering the ITIL v.3 exam (here).
If you have the time and you want to have in depth understanding on ITIL also download and watch this ITIL Exam preparation Videos.
Here are also ITIL Foundation v.3 Dumps for Visual Cert exam manager. By the way ITIL exam is nowadays is required for almost anyone employeed in middle or large sized IT companies so if you still don't know anything about it and you're working or you will be working in the IT field take a look at. Lastly when I was looking for job offers I've noticed there are already plenty of companies who either require the candidate to have an ITIL passed or count ITIL certified candidates advantageous.
Tags: check, download, environment, exam, half a day, How to, hp, IT, ITIL, look, Mobile, Mobile Android, Pc, preparation, team, working
Posted in Everyday Life, Trainings and Exams, Various | 3 Comments »
Thursday, May 15th, 2014 
If you're working in a middle or big sized IT company or corporation like IBM or HP, you're already sucked into the Outlook "mail whirlwind of corporate world" and daily flooded with tons of corporate spam emails with fuzzy business random terms like taken from Corporate Bullshit Generator
Many corporations, because probably of historic reasons still provide employees with small sized mailboxes half a gigabyte, a gigabyte or even in those with bigger user Mailboxes like in Hewlett Packard, this is usually no more than 2 Gigabytes.
This creates a lot of issues in the long term because usually mail communication in Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts Conversation History, Junk Email and Outbox grows up quickly and for a year or a year and a half, available Mail space fills up and you stop receiving email communication from customers. This is usually not too big problem if your Mailbox gets filled when you're in the Office (in office hours). However it is quite unpleasent and makes very bad impression to customers when you're in a few weeks Summar Holiday with no access to your mailbox and your Mailbox free space depletes, then you don't get any mail from the customer and all the time the customer starts receiving emails disrupting your personal or company image with bouncing messages saying the "INBOX" is full.
To prevent this worst case scenario it is always a good idea to archive old mail communication (Items) to free up space in Outlook 2010 mailbox.
Old Outlook Archived mail is (Saved) exported in .PST outlook data file format. Later exported Mail Content and Contacts could be easily (attached) from those .pst file to Outlook Express, leaving you possibility to still have access to your old archived mail keeping the content on your hard drive instead on the Outlook Exchange Mailserver (freeing up space from your Inbox).
Here is how to archive your Outlook mail Calendar and contacts:
1. Click on the "File" tab on the top horizontal bar.Select "Cleanup Tools" from the options.
2. Click "Cleanup Tools" from the options.
3. Click on the "Archive this folder and all subfolders" option.
4. Select what to archive (e.g. Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, Calendar whatever …)
5. Choose archive items older than (this is quite self-explanatory)
6. Select the location of your archive file (make sure you palce the .PST file into directory you will not forget later)
That's all now you have old mails freed up from Outlook Exchange server. Now make sure you create regular backups ot old-archived-mail.pst file you just created, it is a very good idea to upload this folder to encrypted file system on USB stick or use something like TrueCrypt to encrypt the file and store it to external hard drive, if you already don't have a complete backup corporate solution backuping up all your Laptop content.
Later Attaching or detaching exported .PST file in Outlook is done from:
File -> Open -> Open Outlook Data File
Once .PST file is opened and attached in Left Inbox pane you will have the Archived old mail folder appear.
You can change Archived name (like I did to some meaningful name) like I've change it to Archives-2013 by right clicking on it (Data File properties -> Advanced)
Tags: archive, Archive Outlook, Click Cleanup Tools, data, Drafts Conversation History, drive, external hard drive, file, file format, free space, good, hard drive, hp, ibm, idea, IT, location, mail, mailboxes, middle, possibility, PST, Select Cleanup Tools, Sent Items, system, USB, working, year
Posted in Everyday Life, Outlook, Various, Windows | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 26th, 2014 
Out of a sudden today after running Malware Bytes – Free Anti-Malware & Internet Security Software, and after it found some Malware (Pup.Optional.Opencandy) and removed it it WI-FI internet on my work computer HP Elitebook 8470p mysteriously stopped working.
That's quite nasty because today I'm working from Home – well known among Hewlett Packard employees under WFH abbreviation. I couldn't connect normally to my home Access Point and tried pinging Google from command line just to get an error:
Transmit Failed: General Failure
and first I thought it is a wi-fi router related problem and restarted my WIFI Router – D-Link DI524. As I could normally connect to the WIFI and I see there is an internet IP assigned running:
ipconfig /all
...
Wireless LAN adapter Wireless Network Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 3C-A9-F4-4C-E7-98
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::5d2f:97b8:9e1a:2b13%63(Preferred)
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.159(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : May 23, 2014 14:19:01 PM
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : May 30, 2014 14:32:49 PM
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 1094494708
DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-19-CB-1A-5D-A4-5D-36-5A-EB-84
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 8.8.8.8
192.168.2.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
As you see in above output I have notebook IP, default gateway and DNS IP assigned – i.e. all seems fine, so as I got General Failure from pinging the Internet in order to make sure my Linux router is not the bottleneck I tried pinging Default GW
C:UsersGeorgi> ping 192.168.2.1 Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
PING: transmit failed. General failure.
PING: transmit failed. General failure.
PING: transmit failed. General failure.
PING: transmit failed. General failure.
Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss)
Just to realize I'm continually getting General Failure error …
I tried trying to renew IPs, to make sure there is no some kind of IP assignment conflict with my other WIFI connected devices,reflushing DNS and resetting WinSock stack, hoping this could help:
> ipconfig /renew
> ipconfig /flushdns
> netsh winsock reset
Then I tried restarting the PC a couple of times, but unfortunately none of those helped the shitty error:
PING: Transmit failed. General Failure
continued …
I was totally out of idea .. and red some people managed to fix the issue after booting Windows into Safe mode with Networking. I tried booting in Safe mode, but as Hard Drive data is encrypted with Bitlocker encryption I was asked about some kinf of Serial Key – which I don't have at hand – hence I couldn't boot into Safe mode …
Here is moment to say even loopback device was returning "General Failure"!
I tried even connecting the laptop directly into my homelan with UTP cable, but though everything got connected, there was no local network and internet. I tried even connecting via Vivacom's mobile network 3G modem and even there I got the "General Failure" error …
Running out of options, I decided it might be that Malware Bytes broke something during Malware removal hence I put out back Quarantined Malware files – but this didn't solve it either.
Finally I found this post and this thread talking that reason for "General Failure" might be firewall related. After checking my firewall settings in Windows Firewall and Advanced Security, surprisingly I realized everything related to firewall – e.g. Default Profile, Inbound, Outbound connections are Turned off!!!
I switched everything back and my Internet and local connection came back! THANKS GOD! Pfuu, now I can continue working. It seems HP work computers are patched with software / configured to not allow Internet connection in case if Firewall is Off. If you happen to be an HP Employee and you get the PING: Transmit failed. General Failure, be sure the first place to check is whether Windows Firewall is enabled? – if not enable it and this will solve your connectivity issues. Cheers ! 🙂
Tags: data, default gateway, General Failure, help, hp, Internet, ipconfig flushdns, Lease Obtained, Malware, Networking, Physical Address, ping, problem, Safe, solution, Windows, Wireless Network Connection, working
Posted in System Administration, Windows | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, May 28th, 2014 
If you need to use Virtual Machine to run some testing on heterogenous Operating Systems and you have chosen VMWare as a Virtual Machine. You will soon notice some of Virtual Machines functionality like copy between host operating system and Virtual Machine, true fullscreen mode and most importantly Copy paste between your host operating system and VMWare is not working. I'm not too much into Virtualization these days so for me it was truely shocking that a proprietary software like VMWare, claimed to be the best and most efficient Virtual Machine nowadays is not supporting copy / paste, fullscreen and copy between host and guest OS. For those arguing why I'm using VMWare at all as it is proprietary and there is already free software Virtual Machines like QEMU and Oracle's VirtualBox its simply because now I have the chance to install and use VMWare 9 Enterprise on my work place at HP with a free Corporate license – in other words I'm using VMWare just for the sake of educating myself and would always recommend VirtualBox for those looking for good substitute free alternative to VMWare.
Before trying out VMWare, I tried Virtualbox to emulate Linux on my HP work PC running Windows with VirtualBox I was having issues with keyboard not working (because of lack of support of USB, no full screen support and lack of copy / paste between OS-es), I've just recently understood this is not because Virtualbox is bad Virtualization solution but because I forgot to install VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack which allows support for USB, enables copy paste and full screen support. The equivalent to Virtualbox Oracle VM VirtualBox in VMWare world is called VMWare-Tools and once the guest operating system is installed inside VMWare VM, its necessary to install vmware-tools to enable better screen resolution and copy paste.
In Windows Virtual Machine installation of vmware-tools is pretty straight forward you go through VMWare's menus
VM -> Install Vmware-tools
follow the instructions and you're done, however as always installing VMWare-tools on Linux is little bit more complicated you need to run few commands from Linux installed inside the Virtual Machine to install vmware-tools. Here is how vmware-tools is installed on Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint and rest of Debian based operating systems:
1. Install Build essentials and gcc You need to have this installed some developer tools as well as GCC compiler in order for the vmware-tools to compile a special Linux kernel module which enables extra support (integration) between the VMWare VM and the installed inside VM Linux distro
apt-get install --yes build-essential gcc
...
2. Install appropriate Linux headers corresponding to current Linux OS installed kernel
apt-get install --yes linux-headers-$(uname -r)
....
3. Mount CD (Virtual) Content to obtain the vmware-tools version for your Linux
Be sure to have first checked from VMWare menus on menus VM -> Intall Vmware Tools
This step is a little bit strange but just do it without too much questioning …
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/
umount /media/cdrom0/
mount /media/cdrom
mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom/
mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/
Note that /dev/sr0, might already be mounted and sometimes it might be necessary to unmount it first (don't remember exactly if I unmounted it or not)
4. Copy and Untar VMwareTools-9.2.0-799703.tar.gz
cp -rpf /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-9.2.0-799703.tar.gz /tmp/
cd /tmp/
tar -zxvvf VMwareTools-9.2.0-799703.tar.gz
...
5. Run vmware-tools installer
cd vmware-tools-distrib/
./vmware-install.pl
You will be asked multiple questions you can safely press enter to answer with default settings to all settings, hopefully if all runs okay this will make VMWare Tools installed
Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format.
Installing VMware Tools.
In which directory do you want to install the binary files?
[/usr/bin]
What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?
[/etc]
What is the directory that contains the init scripts?
[/etc/init.d]
In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?
[/usr/sbin]
In which directory do you want to install the library files?
[/usr/lib/vmware-tools]
The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is
going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?
[yes]
In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?
[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]
The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program
is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you
want? [yes]
The installation of VMware Tools 9.2.0 build-799703 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".
Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by
invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want
this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]
Initializing…
Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.
Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
Guest operating system daemon: done
Unmounting HGFS shares: done
Guest filesystem driver: done
[EXPERIMENTAL] The VMware FileSystem Sync Driver (vmsync) is a new feature that creates backups of virtual machines. Please refer to the VMware Knowledge Base for more details on this capability. Do you wish to enable this feature?
[no]
Before you can compile modules, you need to have the following installed…
make
gcc
kernel headers of the running kernel
Searching for GCC…
Detected GCC binary at "/usr/bin/gcc-4.6".
The path "/usr/bin/gcc-4.6" appears to be a valid path to the gcc binary.
Would you like to change it? [no]
Searching for a valid kernel header path…
Detected the kernel headers at "/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/build/include".
The path "/lib/modules/3.2.0-4-amd64/build/include" appears to be a valid path
to the 3.2.0-4-amd64 kernel headers.
Would you like to change it? [no]
The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a
Fusion or Workstation virtual environment. Do you wish to enable this feature?
[no] yes
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmblock-only'
No X install found.
Creating a new initrd boot image for the kernel.
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-amd64
Checking acpi hot plug done
Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
Switching to guest configuration: done
VM communication interface: done
VM communication interface socket family: done
File system sync driver: done
Guest operating system daemon: done
The configuration of VMware Tools 8.6.10 build-913593 for Linux for this
running kernel completed successfully.
You must restart your X session before any mouse or graphics changes take
effect.
You can now run VMware Tools by invoking "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd" from the
command line or by invoking "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox" from the command line
during an X server session.
To enable advanced X features (e.g., guest resolution fit, drag and drop, and
file and text copy/paste), you will need to do one (or more) of the following:
1. Manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user
2. Log out and log back into your desktop session; and,
3. Restart your X session.
Enjoy,
–the VMware team
Found VMware Tools CDROM mounted at /mnt. Ejecting device /dev/sr0 …
.To make sure vmware-tools compiled modules are loaded into Linux kernel inside VM, restart the Virtual Machine. Once Linux boots again and you login to gnome-terminal to check what is vmware-tools status (e.g. if properly loaded) run:
service vmware-tools status
vmtoolsd is running
This method of installing works on Debian 7 (Wheezy) but same steps should work on any Ubuntu and rest of Debian derivatives. For Redhat (RPM) based Linux distributions to install vmware-tools after mounting cdrom drive following above instructions you will have an rpm package instead of .tar.gz archive so all you have to do is install the rpm, e.g. launch smth. like:
rpm -Uhv /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-9.2.0-799703.i386.rpm
Cheers 😉
Tags: checking, copy paste, Debian, Debian Ubuntu Linux Mint, directory, fullscreen, host, kernel, mount dev, need, operating systems, proprietary software, running, testing, usr bin, virtual machines, working
Posted in Everyday Life, Various, Windows | No Comments »
