3.05.2008

unable to uninstall Lenovo password manager FF extension

If you have already removed the client security stuff on your IBM Lenovo Thinkpad, but are still unable to uninstall the thinkvantage password manager extension / add-on from Firefox because the button is disabled or greyed out here's how to manually remove it:

Delete the registry entry for it in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions "{FCF36B88-1BBA-487f-B64B-D2E8980A9293}"="C:\Program Files\Lenovo\Client Security Solution\PWM Firefox Extension"

2.22.2008

Strip Out the Formatting before pasting

I've been looking for a good, small, unintrusive tool to strip all the rich text formatting when copying from a web page to a office, word, excel or any app that accept rich text or web formatting.
Strip Out the Garbage Code Before You Blog | Shaun Low explains the PureText tool. It sits in the systray and is less than 30k in size, requires no install. http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext

2.11.2008

don't use PHNE_35793 on HPVM

from http://www12.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?patchid=PHNE_35793&sel={hpux:11.23,}&BC=main|search|

       - An HPVM guest that uses a virtual interface that belongs
         to an IGELAN interface configured on the HPVM host can
         experience hangs with network services like ping, NFS,
         rcp, ftp for data transfers which use full-sized
         frames.  This behavior is observed with HPVM 2.0 and
         HPVM 3.0.

oh, and HPVM 1.2 either

2.05.2008

ECC agent fails or hosts don't appear

the hosts don't appear in the EMC Control Center (ECC) master server, or one does but then is replace by another.  Sometimes the agent starts, but then unexpectedly quits/dies.  If you clone your boxes, exclude /var/ECC or else!

Otherwise just: stop the agent;  nuke /var/ECC ; restart agent is the fix for this issue it seems

memory card insert - won't autoplay

After installing vmware server, I couldn't get memory card inserts into Windows XP to autoplay and bring up the "scanners and camera wizard". It's caused by vmware server putting a policy (registry) in place to disable autorun.

To fix:
delete: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutoRun
and HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutoRun

Discovered by:
Is there Autorun after VMWare? | Terry Pearson's Blog

2.01.2008

merging PDF files for free

download ghostscript.  run the following:
gswin32 -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=Merged.pdf -dBATCH 1.pdf 2.pdf 3.pdf

from:
https://www.cs.tcd.ie/Shane.OConchuir/Misc/MergingPDFs.html

1.30.2008

don't vxupgrade /stand and /

Don't be a moron and do what I did: vxupgrade /stand and /

http://www11.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=ucr_na-KMN8606454124_ssb-1

Quoting:
On system using VxFS4.1 on HP-UX 11.23, the disk layout version
for "/" (root) and "/stand" may become unusable.

The commands vxupgrade and vxfsconvert in vxfs 4.1 and later have
the ability to upgrade the disk layout version of / and /stand
to dlv 6+.

The HP-UX bootloader cannot recognize the upgraded disk layout
and is unable to find a kernel to boot.

1.22.2008

create virtual media iso file

the following was derived from http://www.docs.hp.com/en/5991-6250/ch04s01.html

create an ISO file suitable for EFI environment using the Virtual Media option on the HP BL860c blade servers

in linux:
create a boot image big enough to fit the files you want on the CD (5MB example):
dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/boot.img bs=1024 count=5000

make a fat file system on it:
mkfs.msdos /tmp/boot.img

mount it:
mount -o loop -t msdos /tmp/boot.img /tmp/bootcd

copy any files needed into the mount point (/tmp/bootcd)

unmount the device:
umount /tmp/bootcd

create the directory structure to hold the dos file system:
mkdir -p /tmp/isofolder/boot

copy boot.img to the directory created above

create the iso file:
mkisofs -o mynewiso.iso -b boot/boot.img -c boot/boot.cat -no-emul-boot /tmp/isofolder
(optional -J and -R, joliet and rock ridge extensions)

note: from the EFI, only the msdos file system (boot.img) will be usable, the rest of the image will only be fully usable once the OS boots.  (HP-UX only supports virtual media on 11.23 Dec 2007 and Higher)

1.17.2008

Help USB to serial adapter

I'm looking for some advice:  anyone out there that uses a USB to rs232 serial adapter to connect to the local console port on HP9000 boxes successfully on several old and new models?

I bought a USB-serial adapter at best buy, installed the drivers and connected it to a local console port of several rp2450.  I can only receive screen updates from the console, but my keystrokes (transmit) isn't working from the PC to the console port.  However, on a new BL860c blade and an L1500 I can both send and receive via this usb-serial adapter.

Do you have a clue what could be the problem?  If anyone reading this blog knows, please post a comment!  Thanks  >/dev/null

GSP firmware notes

If you aren't locally connected to a GSP and want to upgrade the firmware, you can do it via the lan console. You'll have to either be connect via local console or via the GSP's internal port.

All of the following information was gleaned from:
http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?sortPointsFlag=1&threadId=836831&admit=109447627+1200601321780+28353475

to get the version of the GSP: the 'he' command will show version in the first line of output:
Hardware Revision 8 Firmware Revision A.01.10 May 24 2001,11:05:55


to access the GSP via the "internal port", which might not work on all GSP versions:

create the device file for the gsp internal port, delete device file when done for security reasons:
cd /dev
mknod tty1p0 c 1 0x010000


vi /usr/lib/uucp/Systems and add the following line exactly:
gspiport Any;5 gspiport,f900 - ''''\r\d\r\d\r ogin:-BREAK-ogin: uucp asswrd: uucp-BREAK-ogin: uucp asswrd: uucp


vi /usr/lib/uucp/Devices and add the following exactly:
gspiport tty1p0 - 9600 direct

connect via:
cu -l /dev/tty1p0

do the firmware upgrade via the XU command.

to exit the cu command type the following two characters: ~.

download latest gsp revision A firmware from: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1190612

1.15.2008

change dce account description "gecos field"

How to change dce account description: "gecos field"

login to dce:  dce_login

then open the dce command prompt:   dcecp

at the dcecp> prompt, change the description of the ssl account; replace whatever you want between the quotation marks:

dcecp>  account modify -description "This is, part 2, of the, 4 part gecos field"  this_dce_account

then view the account change:

dcecp> account show this_dce_account

AT&T Labs Text-to-Speech: Demo

cool text to speech via a web site. Has enlish, UK english, French, German, Spanish and Indian-accented English

AT&T Labs Text-to-Speech: Demo

1.13.2008

TV Converter Program Website

Digital TV converter box coupons: converter box needed for digital to analog conversion after february 2009
TV Converter Program Website

1.08.2008

Please, for the love of God

Never, ever have any business dealings with this crack-whore of companies, Network Solutions.
NetworkSolutions Scandal: Hijacking User Domain Searches and here: http://commandline.org.uk/more/squat-for-the-win-2008-01-09-03-36.html
Use Godaddy or 1and1.com or some other up- and up business.

12.10.2007

mailto links to web mail

greasemonkey script that routes all mailto links to web based email such as Yahoo mail and Gmail, and Google Apps mail (your domain)

Mailto 2 Webmail – Userscripts.org

11.08.2007

rename file extensions easily in Unix

In dos you could:
move *.txt *.cvs

but the wildcard characters don't work that way in unix. You must do something like the following, where EXT1 is the original extension and EXT2 is the new one:

for i in *.EXT1
do
mv $i ${i%.EXT1}.EXT2
done

for example: to rename all .txt files to .ascii run the following shell script:
for i in *.txt
do
mv $i ${i%.txt}.ascii
done

5.07.2007

HPUX: lpadmin - can't open member file

problem adding a printer on HPUX (10.20 in my case, but this error occurs on all versions)
lpadmin: can't open member file

one possible cause:
/etc/lp needs to be owned by the 'lp' user id.

# ll -d /etc/lp
drwxr-xr-x   8 root       bin           1024 May  7 15:54 /etc/lp

fix:
chown lp /etc/lp

4.12.2007

Naviagent not responding on unix host

Had two hosts that were not responding to navisphere, "agent is unreachable" or some bable...

on each host there was a /agentID.txt file that the agent reads before re-creating the /etc/log/HostIdFile.txt     The purpose of agentID.txt is to make naviagent bind to a specific IP address on a multi-homed system.  The IP address listed in the file doesn't need to exist on the system, it uses the IP without verification.

I stopped the agent, deleted both HostIdFile.txt and agentID.txt, then started the agent and it now is using the correct IP address in HostIdFile.txt


3.20.2007

rlogin problem - unable to allocate pty

only affected rlogin, not telnet.  Only one concurrent rlogin connection works, others fail with the following:

$ rlogin host
rlogind: Unable to allocate pty on remote host.
Connection closed.

resolution:
$  insf -d pts -s 512

ITRC   DOCID: KBRC00014047   Now I can login multiple times