rlbeaver.com

Windows 7 - Relocating /Users

2012-05-08T09:44:00.000-04:00

Building a Win 7 laptop with a solid state drive (C:) and and a non-solid state drive (E:). There were a number of ways to relocate this folder, but the easiest seemed to be:

Boot off media, select repair, and drop to command prompt
Run "ROBOCOPY /MIR /XJ /COPYALL C:\Users E:\Users"
Run "C:"
Run "CD /"
Run "RENAME Users OldUsers"
Run "MKLINK /J C:\Users E:\Users"
Reboot, if all works well, delete OldUsers folder

All recommendations from Microsoft indicate that it would be unwise to do the same with Program Files. I just do customize installs and select the secondary drive for the vast majority of my apps. I left some on C: just for performance's sake.

Sun Hardware

2012-04-30T09:31:00.003-04:00

I was looking to retire an old Sun R420 running Solaris 5.8 today, and looked at the uptime:

9:36am up 1103 day(s), 1:35, 1 user, load average: 7.48, 12.36, 13.44

It seems kind of sad to shut it down with an uptime like that.

Current List of Phone Numbers Spamming Me

2012-04-23T12:58:00.004-04:00

Despite being on the do not call registry, I am continuously getting phone spam. I keep a running list of phone numbers on my phone that indicate "Spammmmmer!" when they call...

(513) 417-0498
(971) 295-9768
(716) 217-0667
(720) 539-6698
(425) 658-8952
(402) 982-0688
(402) 982-0718
(402) 206-7411
(313) 204-1037
(760) 680-6895
(612) 222-7091

All from Rachel at Credit Card Services, Heather from Credit Card Services, Diane from...oh the list goes on an on...and they keep calling. I had to pay AT&T $5/month to block the calls as it was getting to be too much (every 20 minutes for four hours/day). Granted, I started this list a couple of years ago and just keep adding to it as they change their number.

PHP, Perl, MySQL, and OpenLDAP

2012-04-19T10:18:00.000-04:00

I set up the new OpenLDAP server at work and have other linux boxes authenticating off of if successfully (encrypted no less!) I'm almost prepared to start migrating away from NIS.

I considered using Active Directory, however, I wanted something open source and I have a special requirement for UNIX group manipulation for some courses being taught, I was more comfortable programming against OpenLDAP.

In the steps to create my new environment, I have to replace the account provisioning system that's been organically developed and thus, not something I want to port. PHP, MySQL, and PERL are still my friends here, so I built a web application. It had to solve three things:

Request a new account
Reset Password
See the status of their account

I didn't want to collect needless information, and I wanted to reduce form validation. Thus, I used a central kerberos web authentication mechanism to get their university ID. This was a quick and easy way to ensure that they had an active status with the university. I used ldap connections to the central LDAP server to get their name, affiliation, and department. Pretty much all I needed to create an account in our system, so, all they had to do was press "Request Account" which was a hidden form that put this information into a MySQL database.

I envisioned an approval process, so I had fields in the database to allow for this.   I wrote some perl scripts to create accounts in the OpenLDAP server based off that field.   I also added dates for account expiration (I could use features of OpenLDAP to drive this, but I really wanted it driven by scripts outside of LDAP for various departmental reasons.)

Subsequent connections to the website would present them with the current status of their account request.   If their account was created, it would present them with the LDAP information: what systems they could log into, what groups they were a member of, and who was a member of their group (more on this later.)   It would also allow them to reset their password (something they would have to do before they could use their account as I used random strings of 30 characters to set their initial password and didn't save it.

Resetting the password just created an encrypted key in the database of a string of random characters which was displayed on the web page for them to note. This way, it wasn't set in email, and again, I'm not having to scrub and validate form input.   There's a slight security risk if they have other eyes on their display or they write it on paper or otherwise save it insecurely.   They are warned about this on the screen.

I have a PERL script checks records for a status field and resets the users passwords to the encrypted password.   Luckily, it just inserts the encrypted key into OpenLDAP, so there is no storing of unencrypted passwords, decryption, etc.   This is done every five minutes.

I also have a web page to allow "approvers" to approve or reject all accounts before they are processed changing their processing flag from new request to approved pending.   I have another PERL script running that will process all pending accounts.   Rejected accounts will be deleted from the database (the user will be notified via email.

I'm going back and tightening the code now...but overall, I'm quite pleased with myself.

My new Linux Desktop

2012-04-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

The Dell Precision 390 I found is an older system, an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB), 4GB RAM, and 750GB Hard drive, and Nvidia Quadro FX550.

I started out with Fedora 16, however, the graphics card on this old beast wasn't able to handle the spiffy new desktop. I thought perhaps installing drivers from Nvidia might help, but it didn't. I moved onto Ubuntu 11.04 not expecting much of a difference, and was not wrong in those expectation.

I decided to go back to basics and installed Debian 6.04. The graphics problems were not nearly so bad, and after I updated to the nvidia drivers from unstable, it's humming right along.

Spent the next day setting up the environment for use (VMWare for a Windows environment), ironing out some bugs, encrypting home folders, fixing a couple of little annoyances with the sound, updating iceweasel to version 11, etc.

Despite not getting any real work done (thanks to purchasing), I feeling much more productive on the Linux system...

Laptop Madness continued...

2012-04-12T15:33:00.000-04:00

Turns out the last person that fixed the laptop broke it and just put it togehter. Dell had to order more parts...I ordered a new computer from the campus store, the new efficient processes they put in place means there's a 4 day delay to get it (used to take about 20 minutes to get a computer from the campus store.)

After two days, I gave up and found an old Dell Precision 390...going back to Linux, Linux, Linux...

Laptop Madness

2012-04-10T15:53:00.001-04:00

I installed Windows 8 preview on my laptop at work, it's a Dell Precision M4500. It turned out to be a "so what's the big deal" experience...outside of the metro interface, which was just "meh" for a desktop computer, it was Windows 7.

However, I noticed that accessing the hard drive often resulted in a long pause that was just irritating enough that I decided to go back to Linux. I pulled out my trusty USB Fedora 16 installation media...queue immediate motherboard failure. Second one in the past year on this laptop...sigh.

OS X Lion Network Home Folders

2012-04-05T11:08:00.000-04:00

We have a few OS X Lion servers at work and I've been setting up one to be the OpenDirectory servera as well as storage for home folders for the "network" users. The problem was, more than one person was going to be logging into the other servers and it appears that AFP will not allow more than one person to do that with both having a home folder coming from the same network share.

I switched to using NFS and automount for home folders which solved all my issues.

I first set up the server as an Open Directory server with a folder called "Users" shared off the raid volume per the standard instructions. Ensure you had made Users available for home folders.

I then create a user in Open Directory per the standard instructions, including changing to the Users volume rather than "Local Only".

Then, on the server, I:

Modified /etc/exports on server to export the home folder (a 7TB RAID storage system attached to the server.)
/Volumes/DataVol/Users --alldirs -network 10.0.0.0 -mask 255.255.255.0
Substitute appropriate network information or specific system.
Verify the exportfs file (sudo nfsd checkexports)
Restart the NFS daemons (sudo nfsd restart)

On the client, I:

Modify auto_master on the clients, changing /home line to be:
/home auto_home --nobrowse
Modify auto_home on the clients,

Comment out the od_user_homes line by putting a "#" at the beginning of the line
Add the following line:
* servername:/Volumes/DataVol/Users/&

Update automount (sudo automount -vc)

Back on the server, in Open Directory, right click on the user and select "Advanced..." and change the home folder from "/Network.../username" to "/home/username".

The modification to the auto_master is to ensure the Finder can see the NFS mounted home folders, thus allowing GUI logins as well as SSH logins.

Techno Babble

2012-03-21T09:16:00.001-04:00

Finished setting up the OpenLDAP server and have CentOS, RedHat, and Ubuntu clients authenticating off of it with automatic home folder creation and host based authentication restrictions in place. Preliminary testing shows that the various normal commands (passwd, chgrp, etc.) are working with the LDAP entries. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results as a replacement for NIS.

I've moved on and creates a web based account request/password reset PHP application. This allows users with university accounts to request an account on these systems and reset their password if they already have an account. I'm using MySQL as a back end to store basic information pulled from the campus directory as well as work flow on the account creation.

I'm using PERL to interact with the database to process the password resets, create the accounts, and give me a status of the workflow. I need to write a few more perl scripts to lock and delete accounts, as well as another PHP app to approve account requests, etc. The new central storage system should be here Friday and I'll be able to test against that within the next two weeks. Will do some testing with Kerberos and NFSv4, although it's not as necessary for this environment.

I'm way ahead of schedule for a summer migration from the old storage and NIS system!

Latest TW Cable Modem Test

2012-03-02T11:53:00.002-05:00

Why I like Linux...

2012-01-23T10:13:00.000-05:00

I prefer to use Linux as my OS with a Windows VM for those things that I can't live without (i.e. MS Office, if I didn't have to share files with others, I'd make due with Google Docs or Open Office.). Lately, I've been using a Mac, not because I'm an Apple fan boy or hipster, but because it offered the best of both worlds, a UNIX command prompt and a local MS Office application.

Recently, I identified found a virus on a Windows laptop and set about the removal process. Normally, that's just format and re-install just to be sure (Nuke it from space, it's the only way to be sure...) That didn't work this time, which meant the virus had infected the MBR. I removed the drive and destroyed the partition map, created a new map, created the file system, destroyed and recreated the partition map and left the drive un-formatted from a Mac.

The virus reappeared immediately after the fresh installation, off the the network. Since the battery and power were removed from the laptop, it wasn't because it was resident in memory, thus, I'm thinking it's a BIOS virus, or some other non-volatile memory on the laptop. I'll flash the bios next...

The kicker it infected a fully patched Windows 7 64bit system with fully updated SEP 11 A/V installed. I suspect it was IE (the user used IE, but not anymore) with an unpatched flash, but I'm not sure. The virus identified was Simfraud-C.generic by Malwarebytes and Spybot S&D (and missed by SEP 11), however, all information I gleamed didn't indicate it would have behave the way this one did. I suspect some other nefarious bug...

...8 hours and $800 later (wife needed to work and a new laptop was in order), I realize that I sure do love Linux and when I can't get that, Mac OS X.

Setting up OpenLDAP on Ubuntu

2012-01-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

I spent some time setting up a new server at work to be the computation server for opensource alternatives to the normal applications we have. I thought it was the perfect time to migrate from NIS to LDAP.

I thought of using Microsoft Active Directory, however, that creates difficulties meeting end user needs due to politics. This is supposed to be an opensource server, thus OpenLDAP seems the option to go with here.

I set up an Ubuntu server and pretty much followed the instructions s in the Server Guide, however, there were hurdles getting it to actually function normally. I wanted it to use TLS for security reasons only. I changed the line in /etc/default/slapd to be:

SLAPD_SERVICES="ldap://127.0.0.1/ ldaps:/// ldapi:///

This allowed the server to listen on the network for TLS connections and allow non-encrypted connections if coming from the server itself. That was my biggest stumbling block as many references indicated that I needed to put the IP address or name of the server for the ldaps:/// entry. However, doing this, Ubuntu wouldn't listen on that port.

Also, following the instructions blindly results in a lot of extra stuff that you may not need, for instance, I really didn't want all the address book fields. I just wanted a replacement for NIS.

Now again, the online documentation for Ubuntu server was accurate enough to add the client successfully, but there were still a number of issues. Namely, I couldn't change the password, and newgrp didn't function as needed. installing libcap2-bin and using setcap to change newgrp itself soon fixed this problem.

The other issue was sudo, which seemed to know about ldap but still gave an non-helpful error. Installing nscd appeared to fix this issue.

Outside of a few minor tweaks, the only other thing I did was best practice security set up on the server and client. I have a functional LDAP server, and a client connected to it. Now, I can move on to the work group sharing options the users need as well as account provisioning...

Video Game Holidays

2011-12-30T21:02:00.000-05:00

Spent a number of days over the holiday playing video games, not something I've done much of over the past few years (mostly since switching to a Mac.) I'm using my Xbox 360 and am starting to appreciate the purchase I made oh so long ago when it came out. Granted, I had to replace it with a new one recently (started having issues.)

I've mostly been playing Dragon Age: Origins, which I have to say has become my all time favorite game. I just completed it and I was a little sad to see it end even though I spent to 3am a couple of days ago trying to complete it.

I'm downloading Dragon Age: Awakenings as I type this, and I am hoping Dragon Age II is just as good...when I get to it.

Interesting Anecdote

2011-12-02T09:50:00.001-05:00

It was rather timely that I read this InfoWorld Article recently. There are a lot of changes happening at work, and as a lot of new people start working, I think they would benefit from the anecdote.

Why the move?

2011-10-24T10:45:00.001-04:00

I got tired of updating Wordpress, and really, for the majority of what I use my site for, Blogger is sufficient...at least for now.

We'll see how it goes...

Apple Mail and Gmail

2011-10-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

I generally use the webmail interface to my Gmail account, but there are times when it's convenient to use Apple Mail. Google's recommended settings assume you want to use the delete function of the mail client to delete a label rather than delete the message. What this means is that when you delete a message, the label is removed and the message remains within All Mail and other labels.

I would rather that the message be deleted in the traditional sense. Gmail accomplishes this by removing all the labels (messages without labels are "trash"). Thus, in Preferences/Accounts, on the Gmail icon, and the Mailbox Behaviors button, I checked "Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox" and "Store deleted messages on the server" and set "Permanently erase deleted messages when:" to never. Save the settings by exiting preferences.

But we're not quite done, you need to display your mailboxes in Apple Mail if you're not doing so already. In the Gmail folder list you should see a [Gmail] folder, expand it and you will see the default gmail folders (All Mail, Drafts, Important, Sent Mail, Spam, Trash, and Starred). Select the Trash folder and in under Apple Mail's Mailbox menu, select "Use this Mailbox For", and then select Trash.

Now, when you delete a message in Apple Mail, it is moved to Gmail's trash folder.

Of course, the downside, you have no way to "archive" your email now in the traditional sense of Gmail...

Cable Connection Test

2011-08-22T17:23:00.000-04:00

Just doing this test periodically to keep a heartbeat on my service...

Savage Insider Issue #1

2011-06-24T10:19:00.000-04:00

Now, to be fair, my wife is involved in the production of this e-zine; If you do decide to discount my words, I would recommend you check it out for yourself rather than dismiss it because you don't feel my opinion is unbiased.

Savage Insider is a free e-zine devoted to Savage Worlds, a table top roleplaying game published in Pinnacle Entertainment Group. It is has a quarterly release schedule with a promised theme for each issue, and it's licensed. The first issue, just released, is 48 pages and full color and has a fantasy theme.

I will try to review by section:

Cover: The cover was eye catching and reflected the universal nature of Savage Worlds and is laid-out much like you would expect many print magazines. That said, I look forward to seeing if their future covers will be more art heavy.

Advertisements: The advertisements are numerous, but that is to be expected in a free e-zine supported by them. That does not stop the ads from being relevant, well spaced, and quite eye catching. I certainly have found a few settings I didn't know about as a result of them.

Content: The first issue had a piece of fiction, a Hellfrost adventure, a character presentation, a short depicting some equipment, a comic, an interview with Savage Worlds industry insiders, a convention calendar, and a designer's note from a Savage Worlds licensed publisher. There's a little bit for everyone here and really, I think each section can be quite useful in a number of ways. I think the first issue having a focus on interviewing a number of prominent publishers was a great move, providing insight into the industry, and revealing some interesting facts from some popular personalities in the Savage World industry. The character and equipment shorts will be good quick ideas, or just something to help with prep. The inclusion of the adventure can be helpful for the GM short on time and needing something quickly. The fiction and comic can be mined for ideas or just enjoyed as entertainment.

Artwork: I think the artwork matched the theme and the respective articles, and the advertisements were really well done adding a level of art to the e-zine on their own.

Overall, I would say it is a very professional looking production and a great first issue. It has a great price tag at the cost of having a few more advertisements in it, and advertisements that serve as eye candy as well as product/business communication. It's too bad it's only quarterly, however, given that it's free and looks as good as it does, that's understandable. While it's early to tell, if they keep up the good work, I can see even paying for issues in the future if it would make for a quicker release schedule. In the mean time, I'm content with having a dedicated Savage Worlds e-zine.

I can't really offer any cons at this point. I do think it was a great first issue and really, the overall quality and usefulness will be decided in the next couple of issues. They've set the bar high with this release though. I look forward to the next issue, and if the current one is a sign of what is to come, I'm sure they are going to have a hit on their hands.

Trying out Debian

2011-06-02T04:18:00.000-04:00

Installation of Ubuntu 11.04 resulted in use of the new desktop, Unity. It's pretty, but overall I'm not a fan. There were some performance issues and odd behavior, so I switched it to Fedora Core 15 beta and it's new Gnome 3 desktop. Overall, I thought it just worked better from a usability perspective, and it didn't have the performance problems or the odd behavior.

In the end, I like options and ability to change things. I understand what Ubuntu is striving for, so I don't criticize them for their changes. Ubuntu always was the new to Linux OS in my eyes anyway. I thought I'd try a different route and install Debian. I have to say, I'm impressed that it seemed to work so well "out of the box" compared to the last time I tried it.

I use it at work in place of MS Windows now...

Automating Updates with YUM

2011-05-02T11:01:00.000-04:00

Keeping a system up to date automatically has been a problem in our environment due to a number of different issues. However, we have a requirement that all patches are applied with in 7 days of release unless said patches would interfere with operation/purpose of said system. For our systems where applying updates generally doesn't matter, I don't want to waste time checking them, etc. I want them to check daily and update automatically, letting me know...to that end, I wrote the following script:


#!/bin/sh

#
# Environment variables for script
#
AUTOREBOOT="FALSE"                       #If kernel update, auto reboot
DO_NOTIFY="TRUE"                        #Notify the $NOTIFY_USER
NOTIFY_USER="email@emaildomain.com"
UPDATE_LOG="/tmp/update_log"

#
# Remove log file if it still exists
#
if [ -f "$UPDATE_LOG" ] ; then
        /bin/rm "$UPDATE_LOG"
fi

#
# Report Auto Update Settings
#
/bin/echo "Auto Update of `hostname`:" > $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "*******************************" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "AUTOREBOOT=$AUTOREBOOT" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "DO_NOTIFY=$DO_NOTIFY" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "NOTIFY_USER=$NOTIFY_USER" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "UPDATE_LOG=$UPDATE_LOG" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo -e "*******************************nnn" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1


#
# Check if there are updates
#
/usr/bin/yum -q -y check-update
errorstatus="$?"

#
# Check results of update check.
#
if [ "$errorstatus" == '100' ] ; then   # There are updates available

        #
        # Update system, email notifier update output
        #
        /usr/bin/yum -y update  >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1

elif [ "$errorstatus" == '0' ] ; then # No Updates

        /bin/echo "No updates for `hostname`" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1

elif [ "$errorstatus" == '1' ] ; then   # Update check resulted in error

        /bin/echo "`hostname` update check returned an error." >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1

fi

#
# Check latest installed kernel version with running kernel version.
# This is a "dumb" check, and really would be better to extract the version numbers 
# of all kernels and pick the largest.
# On systems with default kernels, it probably is good enough for the short term.   
# Am working on a rewrite...of this section.
#
running_kernel=`/bin/uname -r`
latest_kernel=`/bin/ls -t /boot/vmlinuz* | /usr/bin/head -1 | /bin/cut -c15-`   
/bin/echo "*******************************" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "Latest Kernel Installed: $latest_kernel" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1
/bin/echo "Running Kernel: $running_kernel" >> $UPDATE_LOG 2>&1


#
# Mail log file to $NOTIFY_USER if DO_NOTIFY is TRUE
#
if [ "$DO_NOTIFY" == "TRUE" ] ; then    # Send update info to $NOTIFY_USER
        /bin/mail -s "`hostname` Auto Update Informaiton" $NOTIFY_USER < $UPDATE_LOG
        /bin/rm $UPDATE_LOG
fi

#
# Reboot system if kernels differ and AUTOREBOOT is true
#
if [ "$latest_kernel" != "$running_kernel" ] && [ "$AUTOREBOOT" == "TRUE" ] ; then
        /sbin/shutdown -r +5 "Rebooting for new kernel..."
fi

I have cron execute this script nightly and I get a report. The only issue is that it indiscriminately applies updates, which on some systems could be problematic, so use at your own caution. If setting autoreboot to true will ensure you're always running the latest kernel if it's been installed. Again, not necessarily good for all systems...If you've customized your kernel, you especially don't want to rely on updating your kernel with this script unless you do some rewriting of the code to account for file naming conventions.

VMWare Tools Install and Error 1327

2010-11-30T07:34:00.000-05:00

I have a Windows client in my VM and have the desktop and documents folder mapped to a network drive, in my case z:. When trying to install/update VMWare tools, I received an error 1327 and the installation/update failed.

The work around was to go to the start Menu, type command in the search box, right click on "Command Prompt" icon and select run as administrator.

In the Command Prompt window, I just typed net use z: \severnamefolder...then the installation worked.

Site Cleanup

2010-09-21T08:56:00.000-04:00

I removed my development section, it had long been neglected, didn't match the theme/style of the rest of the site. In the process of doing that, I found an old wiki I had installed and a few other things to clean up.

Still debating about switching away from WordPress due to it's php Memory requirements. My ISP can't increase to the recommended 64M, they'll only go so far as 12M from the default of 8M. It's way to much trouble to switch hosting providers, so I have to consider alternatives including static pages...

But one step at a time...delete, delete, delete

I voted in the 2010 Ennies!

2010-07-21T05:02:00.000-04:00

Why yes, yes I did. :)

Gentoo Linux

2010-05-11T04:27:00.000-04:00

Fixing inability to shutdown/reboot from gnome menu

One of the updates seemed to disable my ability to shutdown or reboot my Gentoo box from the System menu. The fix was to modify the file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ConsoleKit.conf.

I had to add the line:


<allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager"
          send_member="GetSessions"/>

I added it just before the following line because organizationally it made sense to me, but it really shouldn't matter as long as it's within the <policy context="default"> section.


<allow send_interface="org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Manager" 
       send_member="GetSessionForCookie"/>

Had to reboot via a root login, and afterwards, everything seems to work as expected.

Clean up

2010-03-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

Cleaning up my site a bit, preparing for spring maybe.

removing some old blog posts

removing twitter feed posts (I'm not feeling that public)

picked a new theme to change things up

reorganized categories and tags.

I'm considering shutting down my development page due to lack of interest and time on my part as well as some other changes.