hints & tricks in no particular order
30/11
As of DD-WRT v.24 SP1, it is now possible to set up DD-WRT as an OpenVPN server. Which is a pretty good thing, because I needed to setup one of these beasts! I used Windows as a client, but also to generate the various configuration, certificate and key files. Initial setup First, install OpenVPN for Windows. At the […]
27/11
After the upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10 I noticed the Ubuntu theme was sometimes reverted to the default Gnome one, meaning fonts, icons, toolbars are all reset. I tried a clean reinstall but the same bug raised up again. It seems to be a race condition appearing on higher hardware (combination of SSD + core i7). The […]
27/11
27/11
Shred shred OPTIONS filename Common options: -n N Overwrite a file N times. -u Remove the file after you’ve shredded it. -z After shredding a file with random bits (ones and zeros), overwrite the file with only zeros. So, for example, to shred a file “topsecret.txt” with 26 iterations, and delete it afterwards, and […]
24/11
Fix the MBR: bootrec /FixMbr Fix the partition boot record: bootrec /FixBoot Fix the boot menu: bootrec /RebuildBcd To run the Bootrec.exe tool, you must start Windows RE (recovery console). To do this, follow these steps: Put the installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer. Press a key when you […]
22/11
I recently had to setup a simple, straightforward file server. I chose to install the Turnkey File Server Appliance as it had everything I wanted, ready to use. Following a SAMBA tutorial I could set the server so Samba users can have access to shared resources. However, for a public share I wanted to have a completely […]
03/10
I recently got to duplicate / migrate a SQL Server 2008 database. I had trouble with the logins, which were broken after the move. It has to do with mismatching SID for DB users. To fix, one needs to select the database in question then exec sp_change_users_login 'Report' The procedure lists any orphaned users who do […]
25/09
I recently acquired a floppy drive emulator. I can't say I have too much free time to play with such useless things, but I had the strange desire of getting one of these beasts. I did have trouble setting up some virtual images -- as there are not any predefined formats in the tools provided. I ended up with this […]
21/09
I recently got a hand on two "computosaurs". Both are PC compatible, running at respectively 200 and 400 MHz. As I started my digital life with a 4 Mhz processor I'd tend to say 200 MHz PC are not completely obsolete yet... But for a day to day usage it seems they are! Which OS can run on them? Windows is clearly out […]
07/09
I recently installed Pan, a newsreader for Linux that's quite good and stable, but a bit old. As a consequence, it doesn't handle SSL. Fortunately, it is possible to use a third party tool, stunnel, to do the hard work instead. First: sudo apt-get install pan stunnel4 To install both applications. Next: edit […]
05/09
24/07
I'm running Windows 7 and Ubuntu on the same machine. When I boot into Windows, the clock is 2 hours behind the actual time. If I fix the time and then boot into Ubuntu, the clock is 2 hours ahead. This upsets the Windows time, and it goes on like a vicious cycle. Ubuntu gives you the choice to set UTC or not during […]
17/07
I use PS3 Media Server on an almost daily basis and just love it; however it sometimes gives me headaches. I wanted to play a quicktime trailer to impress a friend, but it ended up in the thing refusing to display anything else than "Corrupted Data". After a while, I found out that unchecking "Switch to tsMuxer […]
25/06
Why would an external USB disk drive be ignored by Windows 7, while it is perfectly working on other systems and USB itself is working properly on the target PC? It took me a while to find out. In the disk management console (under administration tools, computer management), I finally found a nice error message that […]
24/06
I just installed a fresh Ubuntu on my old but trusted Toshiba Satellite, offering it a second youth. Everything worked perfectly but Bluetooth was not detected. The Toshiba bluetooth radio is disabled at boot, and it can only be enabled with a particular ACPI call. Sounds like a very proprietary approach... Anyway. To […]
15/06
20/01
Classical repair boot operations Fix the MBR: fixmbr Fix the partition boot record: fixboot Fix the boot menu cd c:\ attrib -hrs boot.ini copy boot.ini boot.ini.bak del boot.ini bootcfg /rebuild Determine Windows XP version From dos prompt or recovery console, assuming c: is the windows installation type […]
22/12
I kept getting the following error when trying to update Easy Peasy 1.5 after an installation from scratch: W: A error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used.GPG error: http://fr.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty Release: Les signatures suivantes ne […]
15/10
13/09
I wanted to print some random document on old but reliable HP PSC-1300 when I discovered my printer was gone -- Ubuntu wouldn't recognize it anymore! I first tried to reinstall two packages: hplip and cups, without any success. I then tried to register the printer manually, using the hp-setup utility. It would go for a […]