tom's blog

VMware Server 1.0.7 released

tom — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:22:26 +0000

A few days ago, VMware Server 1.0.7 has been released.
The update mainly cares about security issues:

Security Fix for VMware ISAPI Extension
Setting ActiveX killbit
Security Fix for Local Privilege Escalation on Host System
Update to Freetype 2.3.7

More info can be found in VMware’s Release Notes

When console columns and lines are not enough

tom — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:06:10 +0000

If you want to use a higher resolution on your linux console, you have to add the specific option while loading the kernel.
i.e: kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25 root=/dev/sda3 resume=/dev/sda2 vga=0×0325

Problem: The settings differ depending on your graphics card.
But: There is an easy way: hwinfo

[ sudo ] hwinfo −−framebuffer

Example output:
Mode 0×0307: 1280×1024 (+1280), 8 bits
Mode 0×031a: 1280×1024 (+2560), 16 bits
Mode 0×031b: 1280×1024 (+5120), 24 bits
Mode 0×0305: 1024×768 (+1024), 8 bits
Mode 0×0317: 1024×768 (+2048), 16 bits
Mode 0×0318: 1024×768 (+4096), 24 bits
Mode 0×0312: 640×480 (+2560), 24 bits
Mode 0×0314: 800×600 (+1600), 16 bits
Mode 0×0315: 800×600 (+3200), 24 bits
Mode 0×0301: 640×480 (+640), 8 bits
Mode 0×0303: 800×600 (+832), 8 bits
Mode 0×0311: 640×480 (+1280), 16 bits

Thanks to Gerd [de] for the hint.

Fixing Astaro 7.200 (when upgrade fails)

tom — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:15:10 +0000

If upgrading from ASG 7.200 to newer versions fails, apply the following fix [as root]:
rpm -q ep-asg && cd /tmp && \ wget http://www.testastaro.com/files/rpm/ep-asg-7.2-23.i686.rpm && \ rpm -Uvh /tmp/ep-asg-7.2-23.i686.rpm

More info at Astaro Knowledge Base Article #288713.

improve your typing speed

tom — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:10:21 +0000

nice idea -> while testing your skills, you learn to write the most used words faster.

88 words

Speedtest (english)

Speedtest (german)

Speedtest (german, v2)

SUSE Linux 10.1 discontinued and out of support

tom — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:34:09 +0000

SUSE Linux 10.1 has reached End of Life : /

Quote from the opensuse-security-announce mailing list:

With the release of an mysql security fix on August 13 we have released
the last update for SUSE Linux 10.1. (Actually 10.1 was discontinued on
May 31st, but the queue took a bit longer to flush from all updates.)

See: http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2008-08/msg00004.html

Critical Bug in Joomla 1.5.5 (and older 1.5.x versions)

tom — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:35:52 +0000

The password of the user with the lowest ID (typically an administrator) can be reset by an unauthorized user in Joomla 1.5.x installations prior version 1.5.6 because of a bug in the password remind functionality.

All 1.5.x installations prior to and including 1.5.5 are affected

The Joomla developer team advises to upgrade to 1.5.6 (or patch the /components/com_user/models/reset.php file with the code below).

After global $mainframe; on line 113 of reset.php, add:
if(strlen($token) != 32) { $this->setError(JText::_('INVALID_TOKEN')); return false; }

See: Joomla! Developer - Password Remind Functionality

The IT Crowd

tom — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:08:09 +0000

Should you be bored and have some time to get amused, take a look at “The IT Crowd”.
It’s a great British sitcom about it administrators and their weird lifestyle (yes, it’s very exaggerated : ) ).

More about the show @ wikipedia.org.
“Previews” can be found at youtube.com.

PS: Memory is RAM !! : D

VMware Server [1.06] on SLES 10 x86_64

tom — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:52:41 +0000

OS: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1 (x86_64) [64 bit]

VMware Server [1.06] depends on some 32 bit software:
+ xorg-x11-libs-32bit-6.9.x (should automatically add the other packages, too)
- expat-32bit-2.0.x
- fontconfig-32bit-2.3.x
- freetype2-32bit-2.1.x
- glibc-32bit-2.x
- ncurses-32bit-5.x
- zlib-32bit-1.2.x

Additionally gcc, make, kernel headers, etc. should be installed to run vmware-config-tools.pl properly.

If you forgot installing the 32bit packages, an error like this might appear:
The correct version of one or more libraries needed to run VMware Server may be missing. This is the output of ldd /usr/bin/vmware: linux-gate.so.1 => (0xffffe000) libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0xf7f1f000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0xf7f1b000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0xf7f08000) libX11.so.6 => /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 (0xf7e0a000) libXtst.so.6 => not found libXext.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXext.so.6 (0xf7dfa000) libXt.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXt.so.6 (0xf7da3000) libICE.so.6 => /usr/lib/libICE.so.6 (0xf7d8a000) libSM.so.6 => /usr/lib/libSM.so.6 (0xf7d81000) libXrender.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1 (0xf7d78000) libz.so.1 => /lib/libz.so.1 (0xf7d65000) libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0xf7c38000) /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xf7f5d000) libXau.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXau.so.6 (0xf7c35000) libXdmcp.so.6 => /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6 (0xf7c2f000)

Update June 24rd, 2008:
Disable powersaved or any other cpu throttling software - otherwise you’ll get in trouble with time (running too fast / slow) within the vm guests. VMware Tools should be installed (in the virtual [guest] machine), anyway.

HP Scanjet G2710 w/ Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)

tom — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:58:42 +0000

Today, I bought a new scanner - of course without checking linux compatibility : /
hp - a well known brand. Description says “Works with Max OS X, Win Vista, XP, 2000″.
Linux wasn’t mentioned, but that’s not unusual at all.

The default xsane backend package (<- v.1.0.19 [delivered with Ubuntu Hardy])
didn’t find a device, so I tried installing the beta release of the hp3900 sane backends (drivers).
This version is still beta status, but got my new scanner up and running : )

HowTo:
Get the latest drivers from the sourceforge project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/hp3900-series/

Unpack the files and change into the new directory:
tar xfz hp3900-series_0.12.tar.gz cd hp3900-series_0.12/

Install the drivers:
sudo ./INSTALL.sh
application: 2 - SANE Backend
distro: 3 - Ubuntu

Add your username to the scanner group:
sudo adduser your-user-name scanner

Start XSane : )

PS: Fastest and best results with 200 or 300 dpi

Update June 22th, 2008:
I forgot to mention that it only works with resolutions equal and less than 600dpi

Samba Server not accessible via hostname?

tom — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:51:01 +0000

If you cannot connect to your samba server or share using the name BUT when using the ip address, this might help:

The netbios name has to be set manually.
For this purpose edit the global section in [/etc/samba/] smb.conf

netbios name = SERVERNAME server string = Server Description

This one worked for me on a openSUSE 10.2 sytem with a samba 3.0.x release.