ExtraPuTTY for XMODEM over Serial

Managing HP ProCurve switches is a breeze when you've got an HP ProBook 6570b handy with its (really under-rated) RS232 connector.

Some of the switches don't have a USB port (which itself is a hassle to get working) so I've found the easiest way to pull config files over the wire in Windows is with ExtraPuTTY - this little fork of PuTTY integrates file transfer protocols like XMODEM which have made my life a lot easier.

http://www.extraputty.com/

Just log in via COMx over Serial, then when you initiate the transfer, click on Files Transfer and follow the prompts!

Windows Easy Transfer issues from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1

I attempted a Windows Easy Transfer from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 and it all backed up wonderfully smoothly. The restore, however, landed me in some trouble when it said the settings couldn't be restored, only the files.

I didn't really have any option, so I accepted this and it promptly restored all the files to the new installation. Many objects worked, others didn't, but the worst part was, there were now some legacy files stashed away in my computer that caused fresh installations of these programs to not work.

Not only is this highly irritating but it's also left me with anything else but a fresh install of Windows 8.1.

The next couple of posts will be outlining how I remedied particular programs that were not behaving since my standard uninstall options were not available to me with a fresh Windows.

MAC spoofing in Windows

Spoofing your wireless adapter's MAC address is quite a simple trick to pull off in Windows and if you ever need to do it, this is the easy method:

1. Find your ID information for the adapter
2. Edit the registry entry for your MAC
3. Disable the adapter
4. Enable the adapter

Here are the steps in a little more detail:

1. Find your ID information for the adapter
1. Open a command prompt (Start --> Run --> CMD)
2. ipconfig /all
3. Note the Description and Physical Address information



2. Edit the registry entry for your MAC



1. Start --> Run --> REGEDIT
   
2. Go to...
   Computer\HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSetXXX\Control\Class\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
   
   
3. There will be a bunch of entries, one for each adapter, so go into each field and check "AdapterModel" to see if it matches your Description from step 1.3 and then confirm the MAC address from step 1.3 matches NetworkAddress.
   
   
4. Right-click on the adapter folder that matches your device --> New --> String Value --> "NetworkAddress" (without any "'s).
   
5. Change the Value data field of the new entry and enter a new MAC address. For example, DEADBEEFCAFE.
   
3. Disable the adapter
4. Enable the adapter

Check your MAC address by running IPCONFIG /ALL ...

HINT: A neat trick I've employed is to rename the NetworkAddress entry in the registry to .NetworkAddress when I won't be using it but it's then easier to find with a search later.

Free game/s on Greenmangaming.com!

https://freegame.greenmangaming.com/

Thanks to Oltman for the tip :)

Google Chrome: Extensions vanished and replaced by a drop-down

If you've suddenly noticed that your Google Chrome Extensions have all been replaced by a minimalist >> drop-down menu there's a way to get your Extensions back:

• Hover the mouse over the region between the omnibar and the >>

• Cursor changes to a left-right arrow
• Drag it along
• Voila!

Cut and Paste not working in VNC Viewer between Linux and Windows

A simple solution to a simple problem:

My cut and paste between my Windows 8 box and my RHEL box (running a VNC session) stopped working. After doing some reading (thanks to http://almost-a-technocrat.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-enable-copy-and-paste-between.html for assistance) I realised it's a simple answer:

In a terminal, run 

# vncconfig &

And that's about it ... at least, it solved my copy & paste problems!

Dungeon Keeper FREE on GOG.COM for a limited time!

Go on, grab it while you can!

www.gog.com

VMware ESXi not supporting onboard NIC - how to customise VMware ESXi

Trying to deploy VMware ESXi 5.5 on a Dell Optiplex 7010 threw out this error:



To get around this, I found this post http://bohemiangrove.co.uk/tag/esxi/ which I've repeated here for your benefit:

So here how I did it:

1. Download ESXi-Customizer (by Andreas Peetz) from here: http://v-front.blogspot.co.uk/p/esxi-customizer.html
2. Download the drivers that have been adjusted for ESXi from here:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27246203/E1001E.tgz
3. Start ESXi-Customizer, browse to the ESXi ISO, browse to the above drivers, browse to where you want the new ISO going! Click RUN!
4. Bun the ISO and jam it in your 790!!

Grab Left 4 Dead 2 for free on Steam!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/550/

Just click on INSTALL GAME, and even if you don't have the client, it will be unlocked to your account!

Go go go! Enjoy!

Forbidden 403 when running RHEL Web Services (HTTPd) caused by "setenforce 1"

Been wasting most of my morning trying to figure out why a basic Apache Web Server won't run properly on my RHEL box.

/var/www/html/ default index.html works fine but when I try to access a UserDir (e.g. www.example.com/~user) it throws a 403 Forbidden error.

All permissions are set correctly and httpd.conf is configured right.

chmod 701 /home/*
chmod 705 /home/*/public_html
chmod 604 /home/*/public_html/*.html

Checking the error_log file in /var/log/httpd shows that the client requests are being pushed to /var/www/html/ and won't check the /home/*/public_html location.

After doing some digging, I discovered that this error can be caused either by the server permissions being set incorrectly for each directory (most common), or by "Enforcing" mode blocking standard suexec calls.

Running "setenforce 0" I was then able to browse to the ~user home page.

The following information was derived from http://www.brennan.id.au/13-Apache_Web_Server.html:

Forbidden Errors (SELinux)
You may experience a "forbidden error" when attempting to access a users public web site (http://localhost/~alice), this is generally because the permissions are either set incorrectly, or SELinux is set to "Enforcing" mode which blocks the standard suexec call needed by the Apache server. Common error is the "/home/username" permissions.

To temporarily disable SELinux so you can test the access permissions, type "setenforce 0" at the command prompt. Typing "setenforce 1" sets SELinux back to Enforcing mode.

Use the following commands to permanently adjust the SELinux file security context so Apache can access user's public web sites.

### SELinux ONLY - Enable User Website
[bash]# setsebool -P httpd_enable_homedirs true
[bash]# chcon -v -R -h -u user_u -t httpd_user_content_t /home/*/public_html
### SELinux ONLY - Disable User Website
[bash]# setsebool -P httpd_enable_homedirs false
[bash]# chcon -v -R -h -u user_u -t user_home_t /home/*/public_html

iPad Mini 256GB Fail

Someone I know just bought an iPad Mini 256GB from Hong Kong for $150...

Looks fantastic! Read more for the whole story!

MyMemory.com is now Huggler.com and amazing opening specials!

The (really awesome, IMHO) photobook printing service MyMemory.com has changed ownership (well, I suppose not really ownership since Huggler was a director) and with it, changed name to Huggler.

There is a few opening specials going around but the most significant is this one:

Head over to www.huggler.com and buy one of these GBP30 photobooks for a mere GBP5 - that's around an 80% saving!

Enter HUGGLER5 in the voucher field and voila! Cheap photobook!

You can only buy one at a time but the voucher is reusable and if you purchase a photobook voucher, you have twelve months to complete your masterpiece. Just one thing to note, though, Huggler now charges for delivery so add on another GBP3 for the international delivery cost (but that's still a total of GBP8 and if you opt for a bunch to be delivered at once, you'll save on delivery fees I'm sure).

Pairing LG remote to LG TV

Had a major headache trying to find how to pair an LG remote for a DR165 with an LG CRT TV.

Found out the way to do it was to hold down the numbers 1, 2, or 3 on the remote while simultaneously pressing the power button of the TV section of the remote while aiming at the LG TV you want to pair it to. This then trained the two to talk.

Hope this helps someone out there who's been trying to figure out this little nuance as much as I have!

FREE GAME: Torchlight - valid until Thursday, June 20, at 12:59PM GMT

To celebrate the #NoDRM Summer, GOG.COM is letting you snag Torchlight for PC for free for a limited time!

http://www.gog.com/news/nodrm_summer_get_torchlight_free_for_48_hours

Fedora problems with dual screen in KDE: screens don't stay set on reboot

Tremendous frustration with Fedora and dual screen in KDE. When I use the System Settings option to configure my displays it works fine until reboot, at which point the dual screen reverts to a clone mode. I've tried the UI options pretty exhaustively and it still won't set past a reboot.

As most Linux users do, I eventually resorted to the Terminal to get this fixed. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Configure your settings as you would like them to be permanently using the System Settings UI
   
2. Go to Terminal
3. Get your current display settings: "xrandr"
1. Make note of the graphics interfaces listed as "connected" and their positioning, resolution, refresh rates
   
   Hint: you can extract similar information from ~/.kde/share/config/krandrrc
   
4. Go to /etc/X11
5. Create a new shell script (e.g. "sudo nano fixKDEdisplay.sh")
1. Enter the details as you would like them to be set, based on your current configuration in (3)
2. In our example:
   
   ### For DisplayPort card (ATI Radeon H6450)
   xrandr --output DVI-0 --pos 0x0 --mode 1920x1200 --refresh 60.0
   xrandr --output DisplayPort-0 --pos 1920x0 --mode 1920x1200 --refresh 60.0
   xrandr --output DVI-0 --primary
   
   ---
   Hint: if you used the krandrrc file above, replace the \n with new lines instead
   
3. Save and quit
6. Make the script executable (e.g. "sudo chmod 755 fixKDEdisplay.sh")
7. Now make sure this script runs on every startup by going to System Settings --> Startup and Shutdown
1. Autostart
1. Add Script
2. Run On Pre-KDE startup
   
8. "reboot" to make sure
9. Problem solved!