Fix wireless soft-switch when running Debian on HP dv6

The HP dv6 laptop has touch switch to turn the wireless on & off.
When running Debian Wheezy on this laptop the wireless will turn off (blue -> orange), but doesn't turn back on.  The status can also be viewed by using rfkill application (install from apt/Synaptic), using the command:

rfkill list

To get the light to change from orange to blue when the wireless is re-enabled we need a couple of scripts.
Firstly create the udev rule that will call a script when rfkill is triggered:
e.g.: sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/75-rfkill.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="rfkill",ATTR{type}=="wlan",ACTION=="change",ATTR{state}=="1", RUN+="/usr/local/bin/fixwifi"

Next create the script that will turn on the wireless interface, and restart wlan0 to fix routes:
e.g.: sudo nano /usr/local/bin/fixwifi

#!/bin/sh
# Turn the light blue
ifconfig wlan0 up
# Restart networking to get correct default gateway
ifdown wlan0; ifup wlan0

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fixwifi

Test it! Remember you must have rfkill installed and you can use "rfkill list" to view switch status.
Tested on Kernel 3.2.04-amd64.

 

Debian Touchpad Tap-to-Click

To enable tap-to-click for Synaptic touchpads (including BCM5974 in MacBook Pro) for Debian Wheezy:

su
mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
cp /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf  /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
 ...
 Driver "Synaptics"
 ...
 option "TapButton1" "1"
 ...

Restart X.

ifscheme issue in Debian Wheezy

ifscheme in Debian Wheezy appears to have startup issues.  The script may not remember the previous scheme following a reboot; the script may not even run at boot.

To work around the issue I had to change the line in /etc/init.d/ifscheme:

Start-Defaults:  1 2 3 4 5

and also add:

ifup wlan0

 within the top if statement.

Don't clear boot messages when booting Wheezy

By default Debian Wheezy clears the boot messages from the console when the login prompt is displayed.  This makes it more difficult to identify and fix system issues.

To prevent the login prompt from clearing the screen add the "--noclear" switch in /etc/inittab:

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --noclear 38400 tty1

*The line also appears in /usr/share/sysvinit/inittab,
but I didn't need to change this on my system.

Picture-In-Picture (PIP) on Samsung Smart TV UA55ES6600

Samsung Smart TV UA55ES6600 lists Picture-in-picture (PIP) as a feature.
On this TV this *only* works with HDMI input on the main picture.
Trying to enable PIP on any other input will produce the error: "This function isn't available".

PIP is available only on:

• HDMI
  

PIP is confirmed to not work on:

• AV
• USB
• Analog tuner
• Digital tuner
• Allshare / Network

VMware ESXi with software bridges

If trying to bridge physical networks using a firewall distro (e.g. Zeroshell, pfSense, etc.) on a VMware ESX host, the "Promiscuous" property on the virtual switch must be set to "Accept".

It appears that when "Promiscuous" mode is not enabled VMware ESX only accepts packets destined to MAC's on the VMware guest NIC's.  When a bridge is created a new MAC is assigned within software, but VMware is not aware of this MAC.

VirtualBox with phpvirtualbox on Debian Wheezy

A rough guide to using phpvirtualbox on Debian Wheezy:

Install VirtualBox:

apt-get install virtualbox

Create user vbox, member of group vboxusers:

adduser vbox vboxusers

If using the VirtualBox GUI change the VirtualBox menu item to run as vbox:
(suggest installing lxmenu)

 VirtualBox vbox

 In VirtualBox GUI change the location for VM's:

File -> Preferences -> General -> Default Machine Folder: /home/vbox

Download the Extension Pack from www.virtualbox.org
- this is required to enable remote desktop console access (VRDP/VRDE).
Install the Extension Pack in VirtualBox GUI:

File -> Preferences -> Extensions -> Add package

(Note: you may get an error if you previously installed the Extension Pack before running VirtualBox as user vbox.

Install Apache2 with PHP5:

apt-get install apache2 php5

Download latest phpvirtualbox from http://code.google.com/p/phpvirtualbox/downloads/list
Unzip the file, move phpvirtualbox directory to /var/www/
(using the default Apache folder here - modify as required)
Copy config.php-example to config.php
Edit /var/www/phpvirtualbox/config.php
 - set the lines for $username & $password to match the account 'vbox' created ealier.

Create an init script to start the vboxwebsrv daemon:

cp /etc/init.d/skeleton /etc/init.d/vboxweb
nano /etc/init.d/vboxweb
...
start) ...

/usr/bin/vboxwebsrv -b

 stop) ...

killall vboxwebsrv

Now start the new script:

/etc/init.d/vboxweb start

You should now be able to log in to phpvirtualbox:

http://hostname/phpvirtualbox
Username = admin
Password = admin

File -> Preferences -> Default Machine Folder: /home/Virtualbox VMs
 /home/vbox
OK

 Create a new Virtual Machine.  This configuration currently fails at the point of creating the virtual disk image - to avoid this issue create the virtual machine without a startup disk, then add the disk afterwards.

To enable the remote console, edit the VM settings:
(Extension Pack must be installed under the vbox user - see above)

Settings -> Display -> Remote Display -> Enable Server; Server Port: 3391

(*Recommend not using 3389, in case xrdp is installed on the host).

Note: to use the Remote Desktop console provided through Oracle Extension Pack, the client must have Flash installed.  Screen corruption in the form of unreadable dots may occur if the resolution you connect at is too low.

Note that /etc/init.d/virtualbox runs as root, hence all files will be owned by root.  This may cause problems if you try to locate files in another users home folder (e.g. /home/vbox). To avoid issues with this (even root has limited write access to another users home folder[?TBC]), it may be better to change the default home machine folder to "shared" folder, e.g. "/home/VirtualBox VMs"

To start machines automatically at boot, add lines to /etc/rc.local:

# Start Virtualbox guests:
/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless -startvm Guest1 &
/usr/bin/VBoxHeadless -startvm Guest2 &

Linux route add

Syntax for adding a route in Linux:

route add -net 192.168.2.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.1.2

List routes:

netstat -rn

Delete route:

route delete net 192.168.2.0

Add static route:

nano /etc/network/interfaces

post-up route add -net 192.168.2.0/24 gw 192.168.1.2 dev eth1

pre-down route delete -net 192.168.2.0/16 gw 192.168.1.2

Add/Change default gateway:

ip route add default via 192.168.1.254

Mount error 1: Operation not permitted

The above error was occurring when trying to mount CIFS share on Debian Squeeze with OpenVZ kernel 2.6.32-5.  Another problem that occurs is AutoFS will show top-level shares, but will not allow the shares to be browsed.

This error still occurs 18 months after being reported.  Container virtualization is focused on LXC in Linux - my solution is to abandon OpenVZ.

Changing the kernel back to the non-openvz image fixes the issues.

SpamAssassin for Exchange 2003

SpamAssassin for Exchange 2003 can be implemented using the following components:

1. SpamAssassin for Windows binaries provided by JAM Software
2. Exchange SpamAssassin Sink, written by Chris Lewis
3. NSSM service installer

Manual configuration is required.
Perl is not required - a Perl DLL file is provided with the other binaries.

• Download SpamAssassin for Windows from JAM Software.  JAM also provide a variety of useful tools for managing SpamAssassin for little cost.  Note: some sites link to SAwin32 for the binaries, however these are an old version (3.2.5) and have a bug relating to "The date is grossly in the future".
• Download Exchange SpamAssassin Sink - the original site no longer works but you should be able to find a copy somewhere for download.
• Download NSSM (http://nssm.cc/download)
  Note: you can also use srvany, provided in the Windows 2003 Resource Kit Tools, but NSSM is a little clearer and easier.
• Install SpamAssassin for Windows
• Extract NSSM to an appropriate location such as C:\Program Files\NSSM
• Use NSSM to create the SpamAssassin service: nssm install SpamAssassin
  Browse to the spamd.exe binary.
  Start the service using Services mmc.
• Install Exchange SpamAssassin Sink - it *MUST* be iinstalled to C:\ESA
  Edit ExchangeSpamAssassin.ini:
• SpamAssassin_Batch_File=C:\ESA\spamcheck.bat
• Run the Install_ESA_Sink.bat file at the end of installation to install the Exchange sink hook.
• Create a new batch file to call spamc:
• C:\ESA\spamcheck.bat
  
  "E:\Program Files\JAM Software\SpamAssassin for Windows\spamc.exe" %*

At this point the filter should be active - send yourself a test message using an external source and look at the email headers to see the SpamAssassin headers.

You also need to train the filter - create the following file to call the sa-learn binary - note you must change to the sa-learn.exe directory to ensure correct paths are used to find the config files:
C:\ESA\sa-learn.bat:

E:
cd "E:\Program Files\JAM Software\SpamAssassin for Windows"
sa-learn.exe %*

You are supposed to save 200 emails in spam & ham folders then run the batch files for learning:
sa-learn-spam
sa-learn-ham

The SpamAssassin default configuration provided by JAM Software does not rewrite the subject.  To do so edit the file:
 ..\etc\spamassassin\local.cf

To force Exchange IMF to move spam into the Junk Mail folder you can use IMF Keyword Manager from Accendo Solutions to create the XML file - note it is necessary to re-apply the XML file and restart SMTP service after any Exchange Filtering updates are applied through Windows Updates.  We suggest searching the SUBJECT for text "**SPAM**".  - this doesn't seem to work, it appears the IMF assigns the SCL before SpamAssassin Sink is processed.  The result is that you need to rely on an Outlook Rule to move "**SPAM**" messages into the Junk E-mail folder.

Note the bug in Exchange IMF settings: "Move messages with an SCL greater than or equal to:" should be "Move messages with an SCL greater than:"


In my experience this setup has proved to offer little extra defence over a plain Exchange server using up-to-date Intelligent Message Filtering and appropriate RBL's; but your mileage may vary.

**UPDATE, 21/8/2012**
 SpamAssassin appears about 50% better than relying on IMF alone, particularly for detecting recent virus's in email; however it still is not as good as commercial products.

Toshiba Tecra R850 Recovery

In general the Toshiba Tecra R850 is a good laptop. Light for it's size (15.6"), with anti-glare screen, the only negative so far is the smooth keys on keyboard have a slippery feel.

Various forums that state you can hold the "0" key down while turning on the laptop to boot to recovery mode - in fact, this does not work for this model.  To enter recovery mode you must press the F8 key to enter the Windows boot menu, the top item is "Repair Your Computer". This will boot to Windows 7 recovery mode, where the Toshiba Recovery Wizard can be accessed.  The procedure is outlined in the Toshiba manual for Tecra R850.

*If you cannot access the Windows boot menu, you can also mark the recovery partition (the last partition on disk) as Active - it will boot to the Windows 7 recovery mode.

*The recovery partition is required to generate the recovery DVD's.

In the recovered state the Toshiba has the following layout:
Partition 1 = ~1.5GB System partition (hidden,active)
Partition 2 = C:\ drive system partition
Partition 3 = Recovery image partition (hidden)

Samba DC and Windows 7

An incident occurred where Windows 7 clients were giving the error:
"There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request"
when trying to connect to a Samba 3.4.4 domain controller (eBox). 
The setup had been working fine for approximately 6 months. 
After 1 reboot and many investigations to samba, ldap, DNS configs, IPv6, etc. it was discovered that the nmbd (BIOS name services - WINS) was not stopping when /etc/init.d/samba stop was executed.

Manually killed the service using:
 killall -SIGTERM nmbd
Then everything started working properly again!

Some packet traces revealed the following when trying to re-join a Windows 7 workstation to the domain:
A DNS query is made first.
Followed by NETBIOS-DN name lookups. (UDP port 137)
Followed by the LDAP query.

The server was initialy responding with "ICMP-No response on port 137".
So it looks like in this setup, Samba relies more on WINS(nmbd) than DNS(proper).

Also, we had to comment out the VFS lines in samba.conf,
as described in this post:
http://forum.zentyal.org/index.php?topic=3298.0

Floorplan shapes for dia

A small selection of very basic shapes to enable you to use dia to create rough floorplan layouts
(e.g. for an office layout)

Download from this link:
www.digitalfoundations.com.au/Floorplan_dia_shapes.zip

Reverse-Proxy SSL with pfSense (inc. OWA)

301 - This page has moved to: http://www.digitalfoundations.com.au/blog/reverse-proxy-ssl-with-pfsense-inc-owa

Vmware resolution in Linux guest

Add a "Virtual WIDTH HEIGHT" line after the appropriate DEPTH line in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

DLNA Servers

Samsung AllShare
www.samsung.com/global/allshare/pcsw/

- Can have difficulties installing, just keep running the installer until it works (3 attempts for me)
- M4V file extensions produce "File not supported" on Samsung TV, rename the file to *.MP4.

Serviio
www.serviio.org
- Not reliably detected on Samsung TV (need to restart the TV to re-detect the Serviio (on Server 2003).
- Clips drop out after a few minutes playing (Server 2003).

Ripping DVD for digital movie library

Here are some tips for ripping DVD's to digital format, so you can display on your DLNA enabled TV.  The digital copy also forms your backup for commercial DVD's, but remember copyright rules mean copies of commercial DVD's may not be distributed.

The recommended software tool is Handbrake.
The recommended preset is "iPhone & iPod Touch" - this produces a reasonable size within reasonable time.  For example, on a dual-core 2GHz machine with 4GB RAM, a typical 2hr movie will take about 40mins to rip a 1.2GB file, with minor pixelation.

Note the following options:

File format:

M4V (MP4) - allows aac+ac3, supported on iPhone & Samsung TV DLNA
MKV - requires 3rd party decoder on Apple OSX

Constant Quality:
 20=good but large file
 24=okay, smaller

Bit Rate:
 1500=ok, minor loss
 2500=hi quality (large file)

Comparison of Handbrake Presets can be viewed here:
 https://trac.handbrake.fr/attachment/wiki/BuiltInPresets/fps-graph.png
Specifics about the presets can be viewed here:
 https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/BuiltInPresets#no1

Virus tip

A virus had created entries in registry:

HKLM\...\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options

that prevented common tools from running (taskmgr, regedit, MBAM, Avast,AVG, etc.).  Trying to run the commands from the command line produced an error:

...file not found ...

To fix the issue download & install MBAM, make a copy of the executable and run the copy, scan & fix.

Exchange 2003 IMF - Notes

The UI contains incorrect SCL rating text for the store threshold

The "Store Junk E-Mail Configuration" section of the UI incorrectly states "Move messages with an SCL rating greater than or equal to." The correct text should be the following (corrected text in bold): "Move messages with an SCL rating greater than."
(Quoted from: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;867633)

IMF Keyword Manager
Is available from Accendo Solutions.

IMFCompanion
Is available from PQR Services
for examining and handling junk mail.

Can't access local resources when VPN connected (Vista & Win7)

Windows Vista introduced a new feature that allows PPTP VPN credentials to access resources on remote servers when the VPN is connected. The side effect is that access to local resources then fails.  The feature can be disabled per VPN as follows:

Locate the .pbk file that contains the entry that you dial:

%AppData%\Microsoft\Network\Connections\Pbk

 

Open the file in Notepad.  Locate and change the setting for each VPN: UseRasCredentials=0

Install Wordpress on Debian Squeeze

Install services:

apt-get install mysql-server

apt-get install wordpress

 (deps: apache2, php5)

Create link if installing in a sub-directory:

ln -s /usr/share/wordpress /var/www/wordpress

Run the Wordpress MySQL setup script:

/usr/share/doc/wordpress/examples/setup-mysql -n wordpress

Create link to access the correct URL if you used localhost above:

ln -s /etc/wordpress/config-localhost.php /etc/wordpress/config-myUri.php

Run the Wordpress install.php:

http:///wordpress/wp-admin/install.php

Samsung UA55ES6600 Review

* Poor colour handling - lights appear white and greys appear dark, depsite contrast, brightness & gamma tuning. Mid-tones are fine.  Suspect this is typical of edge-lit LED.
* Dark frames show very dark around the edges, causing a "tunnel" appearance.
* Remote has very poor feel - many buttons feel the same so it takes a quite bit of getting used to before you can use the remote without looking at what button you are pressing.  Remote is poorly weighted too - hard to get the buttons at bottom of the remote.
* Web browser struggles to load many common pages due to multimedia content - this locks up the TV which is very annoying.
* Update process is poorly managed - updates occur without showing progress and TV cannot be used during the process.
* Guide is inconsistent - sometimes you get the good one (new), sometimes you get the poor one (old).
* Youtube does not play smoothly.  Forces HD versions if available.  Keyboard does not work in the Youtube app.
* Timeshift requires manual activation.
* PIP is limited due to no second tuner, and no PIP button on the remote makes it mostly unusable.

Pros:
* PVR feature works well, the TV "sleeps" while waiting for scheduled recordings.

Overall:
Despite the above points it is a good TV, but the "Smart" side is not quite there.  Windows Media Centre provides quicker & easier access to Guide and timeshifting.  A dual-core model would likely be worth the extra cost.

[Update]
After a week or so of operation some of the niggling issues are turning out to be real annoyances and I cannot recommend this TV.  Occassionally it won't change channel or respond to the remote - obviously doing some background process and takes a few MINUTES to start responding again.
Skipping forward through recorded movies produces an incorrect message ("Mode not supported") and causes the movie to start from the beginning again.  Contacting Samsung support got a reply saying I needed a new firmware, they provided a link to a page that has NO FIRMWARE!

Noontec IPD201 HDMI Dock for iPod/iPhone/iPad Review

* Very clear output on HDMI
* Only basic remote functions (Pause/Play/Stop,Volume)

Overall: Looks Good!

D&S Composite AV Cable for iPod/iPhone/iPad Review

* Picture image is faded
* iPhone output on screen is automatic only when video, Youtube & slideshows are displayed

Windows Vista & 7 Disconnected drives

Windows Vista & Windows 7 with UAC enabled always show mapped drives as disconnected after login. 

The workaround is a registry setting documented here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937624

Routesplit on OSX 10.x

The routesplit tool fails to make routes permanent on Snow Leopard and later versions of OSX.  To work around the issue edit the following file as such:

/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.routes.static.plist



...
<key>ServiceDescription</key>
<string>Install static routes</string>
<key>WatchPaths</key><array>
 <string>/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
</string>
</array>
...

Linux Shell Menu

Linux shell menu, using pdmenu samples and examples available here:
https://gitlab.com/majorbob/sys-menu/blob/master/usr/lib/sys-menu

Start by installing pdmenu (apt-get install pdmenu).
Then download menu and pdmenu.main to /usr/local/bin and make them executable (chmod +x).
Type menu to start the menu.
Download other pdmenu scrpts as required.

Draytek 2700G DNS suffix

On Draytek 2700G ADSL router to add a DNS suffix to the DHCP server use the following command in a telnet session to the router:

>sys domainname mydomain.local

You can also define a hostname for the router, e.g.:

>sys name gw.mydomain.local

 The changes save automatically.

iPhone has wrong name in Windows Explorer (Digital Camera)

Windows remembers a USB devices name and fails to update if the iPhone's name is changed.  Use regedit to search for the name starting at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet.
 Edit the device names & labels as found - multiple may be found.

Valid push dhcp-options for OpenVPN

push "dhcp-option DNS 192.168.1.10"
push "dhcp-option WINS 192.168.1.10"
push "dhcp-option DOMAIN mydomain.local"

In pfSense these options should be set on the OpenVPN "server" settings,
they do not need to be in the client's config file. 

Error installing nfsen on Debian Squeeze

Trying to install nfsen on Debian Squeeze, running:
#./install.pl etc/nfsen.conf

would produce an error:

Can't create channel directory: '/srv/nfsen/profiles-data/live/peer' File exists
No collector started!

This is due to trying to install into a custom directory.
Edit etc/nfsen.conf and change to:
$BASEDIR = "/usr/local/nfsen"
(may need to create the directory first?).

Installation guide:
Pre-installed: apache2, php5, perl, linux-base
apt-get install librrds-perl librrdp-perl librrd-dev
apt-get install libmailtools-perl libsocket6-perl
apt-get install flex byacc
apt-get install nfdump mrtg rrdtool
Download and install nfsen from source.

pdmenu.samba4

Manage Samba4 configuration from Linux console menu:

Download the file: samba4.pdm

pdmenu wol

Linux console menu for Wake-On-Lan:

Download the file: wol.pdm

pdmenu squid

Manage squid in Linux console menu:

Download the file: squid.pdm

pdmenu dns

Manage DNS server (bind) from Linux console menu:

Download the file: dns.pdm

pdmenu apache

Manage Apache 2 web server from Linux console:

Download the file: apache.pdm

PPTP routes on Linux

Using pptp-linux client to establish PPTP connections does not automatically generate a route to make the remote network subnet fully accessible, only the host-to-host link. If you don't wish to set the defaultroute option, then you can use the following script to create a 24-bit subnet route:

/etc/ppp/ip-up.d/pptp-route:
SUBNET=`echo $PPP_LOCAL | awk -F . '{print $1"."$2"."$3".0"}'`
route add -net $SUBNET netmask 255.255.255.0 dev $PPP_IFACE

Note:
The calling script (ip-up) will provide the values for $PPP_LOCAL and $PPP_IFACE.

pdmenu main

Menu driven Ncurses Text User Interface (TUI) to manage common tasks in the Linux console, based on pdmenu:

 Download the file: main.pdm

Proxmox Open VNC Console not working on Lenny host

Testing Proxmox, it is installed on a laptop, with a minimal X11 install.  The "Open VNC Console" does not work, it opens a blank page.  This is due to Debian Lenny not having a IcedTea6 plugin.

To work around the issue, add a debian non-free repository to /etc/apt/sources.list and do:
#apt-get update
#apt-get update
#apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin

Then remove the debian non-free line from sources.list and
#apt-get update

Debian 6 (Squeeze) LXC sshd /dev/mqueue

Trying to use lxc-execute to execute a command on a container made from the sshd template, the following error is produced:

Failed to mount /dev/mqueue - read-only filesystem

To work around the error, make the directory on the host:

host#sudo mkdir /dev/mqueue

pdmenu lxc

Manage Simple tasks for LXC (Linux Containers):

Download the pdmenu file: pdm.lxc

pdmenu pptp

Manage PPTP connections from the Linux console:
(TUI)

Download the file: pptp.pdm

Proxmox Open VNC Console not working

On Debian 6 (Squeeze) this requires the following package installed:

icedtea6-plugin

Copy disk images for Vmware, KVM, etc.

(Ref: Elvis, http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=933797)

Boot both machines with a LiveCD (e.g. PartedMagic).
SSH from source into destination machine, to get the key, then exit.
On the source machine execute the following command:

dd if=/dev/sda bs=4096 conv=noerror,notrunc | bzip2 | ssh root@otherserver "cat | bunzip2 > /dev/sdx"

where:
/dev/sdx is the destination disk.
bzip2 can be removed for fast (local) copies.
"noerror" is added to allow the copy to continue on read errors, e.g. in cases of recovering corrupt systems to virtual machines.
"notrunc" maintains data integrity by not truncating data.

Debian 6 Squeeze reboot MacBook Pro

Debian 6 (Squeeze) running on a MacBook Pro would fail to reboot, displaying the message:
Restarting System.

To fix the issue, add the following parameter to the kernel line in your boot configuration:
reboot=pci