Category: Software

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2

Post author By George
Post date February 23, 2011
No Comments on Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2

So Microsoft finally released Sp1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. I am going to wait on installing SP1 on my home notebook, and my three Windows 7 x32 and x64 PCs for at least a week or two. Why?? I need to ensure SP1 will be stable before I install it on my PCs. If someone asked me to install it on their PCs, I would recommend they wait. And no matter what, ALWAYS make a full system backup.

Here are a few links which you may have already been to regarding SP1.

Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932)
- WOW!! The x64 SP1 is almost 1GB!!
Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (KB976932)
- Page 19 of the Deployment Guide explains some troubleshooting you may need to do if you run into problems.

I am still amazed about the size of SP1 for x64.

Tags Virtual Machine, VirtualBox, VMware Player, Windows, Windows Stuff

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Ubuntu 10.10 on Work Notebook

Post author By George
Post date February 13, 2011
No Comments on Ubuntu 10.10 on Work Notebook

Last year when a new IT Service company took over the contract from another IT Service company I was working for, they issued a new Dell Latitude E6400 notebook to each of us. This PC is not the beefiest notebook from Dell, but this is not a review of the PC. The notebook specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 @ 2.53GHz
2GB RAM (upgraded to 4GB by employer)
Intel Video
CDR / DVD ROM
14″ Screen
SD Card Reader
Intel network

The PC came with Windows 7 x32, Symantec EndPoint 11, MS Office 2007, and a few other applications. Being a good IT technician, I used Symantec Ghost to create a backup image the day it was delivered. At first I left the PC as is and installed a bunch of software to support the client. After a year of hard use, computer was having problems booting or just being stable. In no way is this a bash of Windows 7. I like Windows 7 but the system needed a rebuild and it was time to try something that’s been on my mind.

After sending an e-mail to my manager asking for access to the ftp server to download MS Office 2007 and Symantec EndPoint 11, I wiped out the HDD and installed Ubuntu 10.10 x64. With a 64 bit OS, I can use the full 4GB of RAM. Just like before, installation took about 20 minutes, and everything worked without having to install additional drivers. Since the client I’m working for has started to roll out Windows 7 x64, I wanted the same for my VM. Running Windows 7 x32 would be all that I need for the VM, but as I found out over the last 5 months, some applications that work in the 32bit environment will not work in a 64bit environment. Sometimes you need the native 64bit software to install or work correctly.

So I chose VMware Player to run Windows 7 x64. The VM is configured for 2.5 GB of RAM, 2 processors, with the NIC configured at bridged for DNS registration. After activating Windows 7 x64, the system was ready for MS Office 2007 and Symantec EndPoint 11. While waiting for may manager, I installed Banshee, Filezilla, Terminal Server Client, Google Chrome, Adobe Air, Tweetdeck, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Gimp, Skype, VLC, Ubuntu Tweak, Shutter, modified my Pictures Screensaver, plus a bunch of minor configurations I use for Ubuntu. After several days of using Outlook Web Access (OWA), I finally received my email with the server information and software keys.

So now I am supporting my client with Ubuntu 10.10 x64 at work. I can honestly say Ubuntu is ready for the IT professional in a real world environment. I have three different Microsoft Windows vms for supporting two non-trusting domains, covering x32 and x64 operating systems. Due to the limited resources on my notebook, I can only run one VM at a time, but that’s OK. There is a second Linux computer constantly running a Windows XP x32 OS which I use to manage one of the domains.

The nice thing about my setup is the dual monitors. The default screen is the notebook display, the second screen I use for my VMs or if I need to focus on a particular task. I usually run Banshee and Empathy IM on the small LCD, Tweetdeck minimized, and Google Chrome for all my personal stuff. Terminal Server Client is used to connect to the three Windows 2003 or 2008 severs I support orto VNC into a Windows XP workstation. Plus the other techs at work were impressed with what I accomplished.

So give Ubuntu or any Linux distro a shot at work for a month. If you plan it a little, you can have your system running Linux with a VM or two to meet your clients needs.

Tags Dell, Geek Stuff, Google Chrome, Linux, Skype, Ubuntu, Virtual Machine, VMware Player, Windows 7, Windows XP

Geek Stuff Home PC Sager Software Ubuntu Virtual Machine VMware Player

Playing a Game from 1988 on VM in 2011

Post author By George
Post date January 21, 2011
No Comments on Playing a Game from 1988 on VM in 2011

Tonight I read a post on Howtogeek.com about the Apple IIe. The Apple IIe was our family’s second computer my dad purchased back in 1984 or 1985. I remember the night my brothers and I drove out to the Apple dealer on the far side of Pittsburgh, PA. If I remember correctly, it was past Green Tree Hill. The post on Howtogeek.com started reminding me of all the great times I had with that Apple IIe. Here are the specs:

CPU: 65C02 @ 1.02MHz
128k RAM
Mouse single button
Duodisk 5 1/4″ floppy disk drive
Apple Color Dot Matrix printer (unknown model)
1200 bps modem (unknown model purchased about 2 years later)
Green mono-color monitor with tilt action

So I went to Google and searched for Ultima V Warriors of Destiny, and found some pictures of the game. And I thought to myself, “Oh, so that’s what it would have looked like in color.” One of my children came over and saw the screen and asked what I was looking at. So I explained to him about the game I used to play back in 1988 and I wished I could play it again. We did find a video of Ultima III Exodus and while the video was playing he said it looked cool and he wanted to try it too. So I sent him off to bed and I started reading on how I was going to play this game again.

I knew that VMware Player was going to be the tool of choice. I just needed a few things like MSDOS 6.22 in a preferred ISO format, a way for VMware Player to see the files, oh and the game itself. Well finding the game, manuals, maps, and scanned copies of the front and back of the box, and MSDOS 6.22 was easy. So I created a VM with 1GB HDD, 16MB RAM and a single processor (all over kill but who cares, it is a VM.) I set the MSDOS 6.22 ISO as the CD-ROM and booted from it. I was able to fdisk and create a C: drive and rebooted. I formatted the C: with the /s parameter copied over all the files from the CD-ROM, and rebooted into the VM BIOS. I changed the boot order to so the HDD would boot first instead of the CD-ROM. So now I have a VM of MSDOS 6.22.

But I could not figure out how to get the seperate files from the game into the VM. Remember this is MSDOS6.22 without any network support, just a base OS. A little more research brought me to a blog on WordPress which explained to me how to create a .IMG file. The part of that post which helped was was Creating the image:. Now I have a .IMG file of Ultima V Warriors of Destiny. That IMG file can be mounted as a floppy drive in VMware Player. From within the VM, just change to drive A: and run ultima.

Here are a few screen shots of the VM with the game when it first starts.

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Tags Apple IIe, Disk image, Virtual Machine, VMware Player

American Holidays Christmas Motorola Droid Sager Skype Ubuntu Video Windows 7

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas everyone! And for those who do not celebrate Christmas, Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!

As I write this,I am watching my son play with his Stealth Flyer II Micro wireless helicopter and my daughter playing with the Leapster Explorer. The kids had a great Christmas. They got up about 6:30 AM, which is not too bad. I remember getting up at 5:00 AM and trying to get my parents out of bed to open gifts Santa Claus brought. One disappointment was the Leapster game we bought, no game cartridge was inside. Not to happy with the LeapFrog company right now. I wonder how my return experience at Best Buy will be?

I also have been using using Skype video to talk with my in-laws. For some reason I had the wrong sound card set for Ubuntu which cause the internal mic not to work. No problems, I rebooted into Windows 7 and ran Skype for our call. After the call, I rebooted back into Ubuntu and researched the problem. That’s when I found out I had the wrong profile. I switched to Analog Stereo Duplex enabled me to select the internal mic. I tested using the Droid with my account and Ubuntu with my wife’s account. Audio and texting worked, now I’m ready for my next call.

Tonight we’ll have spiral cut ham, scalloped potatoes, and green beans for dinner. Maybe we’ll drive around the neighborhood to see all the lights one the houses, watch some movies, and play some more games. Either way I am enjoying my days off with the family.

UPDATE:

On December 26th I waited in line at Best Buy to return the LeapFrog game and explain the situation. After listening to the manager tell me he will do me the favor since I bought the game at another Best Buy store, he exchanged it for me. He made it seem like it was a huge inconvenience. Now my daughter can enjoy the Leapster Explorer.

Tags American Holidays, Christmas, Motorola Droid, Sager, Skype, Ubuntu, Video, Windows 7

Linux Stuff LinuxMint Software Windows 7

Linux Mint 10 Julia

Linux Mint 10 is here! I installed the DVD version onto my 16GB Flash drive using the updates Universal USB installer 1.8.1.2. I had to increase the primary partition to 1024MB (1GB) to accommodate the full DVD install. I also created a new casper-rw partition on the remain space, plus modified the Shutdown Policy from USB. I installed Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.4 and chntpw (both of which can be installed from Software Manager), and I still need to install a few other apps like Google Chrome and Filezilla.

I forgot to copy the DVD ISO to my drive last night so I am downloading while writing this post. I plan on updating my production PC this week so I can run Windows 7 in a VM to provide support to my customers. I don’t expect any problems with installing the new OS. Just remember, always backup your data before installing a new OS.

Tags Linux Mint, Software

Google Chrome Google Voice Skype

Google Voice added to Gmail

Post author By George
Post date August 26, 2010
1 Comment on Google Voice added to Gmail

Image via CrunchBase

About a year ago I signed up for Google Voice. At first I was a little skeptical about how well this would work. Do I really need another number for people to call me on, and what can I do with it. Well, I’ve used my Google Voice number as a primary contact number for people to reach me instead of my cell phone.

The client I currently work for has a shielded building. You can not receive a cell phone signal no matter how close you are to the windows. But what if I daycare needs to call me because of an emergency. Sure I can give them my office number, but I work at two different sites. They aren’t going to know where I am today. That’s where Google Voice comes in. I can give them one number and it will ring multiple phones at different times of the day.

Now Google Voice is connected to my Gmail account. When I access my Gmail account in Google Chrome, I can use my headset and call from my PC to any landline number in the United States and Canada for free. I can use the Google Voice mail system to store the messages, and enable all kinds of features.

One feature that I don’t think works all that well is voice mail transcription. I dumped that feature back in October 2009 after several failures. The transcriptions didn’t come close top what the message was. I might look into it again.

I’ve not tried the Google Voice extension / plug-in with Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera on my Windows 7 PC or my Ubuntu Linux notebook at home. I’ll try it out this weekend to see how well the video chat works compared to Skype. Maybe I’ll switch over to Google Voice for everything and use Skype as a backup.

Tags Google Chrome, Google Voice, Skype

Geek Stuff Sager Software Virtual Machine VirtualBox Windows Vista

Resize Virtual HDD in VirtualBox

Post author By George
Post date July 23, 2010
No Comments on Resize Virtual HDD in VirtualBox

Several weeks ago I created a VM of Windows Vista with SP2. It ran great on my Sager NP8690. Unfortunately when I created the virtual hard drive I made it a 20GB drive. After all the patches were installed, I was down to about 3GB free. So I read a few posts from VirtualBox Forums about how to resize the drive. Here are the steps I used from the post:

Close you virtual machine, leave VirtualBox running.
Create a new virtual hard drive with the new size (I went with a dynamic size with a maximum size of 80GB).
Download Gparted-Live CD ISO file.
Add the Gparted-Live CD ISO file as a new virtual CD in VirtualBox.
Adjust your virtual machine settings to add the second larger hard drive and the Gparted-Live CD.
Start the VM and boot from the Gparted-Live CD file.
Choose all the defaults and wait for Gparted to start.
Select the second hard drive and set the partition to msdos.
Select the first hard drive, right click on the graph and select Copy.
Select the second hard drive, right click on the graph and select Paste.
This will take some time.
Once completed, shutdown the VM.
Adjust the settings for the VM by removing the old hard drive and the Gparted-LiveCD. Add your Vista CD or ISO file.
Boot the VM and press any key to start from the Vista CD.
Select the option to Repair the OS.
Once it repairs, reboot the VM and do not press any keys. Vista should boot and run a check disk of the VM.

Now when I boot into Vista, I have a 80GB hard drive with plenty of free space.

Thanks to gushy and bwh1969 for the original posts.

Tags Geek Stuff, Sager, Software, Virtual Machine, VirtualBox, Windows Vista

LinuxMint Software

Modified Linux Shutdown Policy running from USB

Post author By George
Post date July 19, 2010
1 Comment on Modified Linux Shutdown Policy running from USB

Several weeks ago I installed Linux Mint 9 on my 16GB USB Corsair jump drive. I use it at work when I need to rescue a Windows PC (save a PC running Vista twice this month). What I didn’t like was having to authenticate my account to shutdown the PC. The system always displayed the message System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in. I always had to log off first to shutdown the computer.

I found a fix at Len’s site which solved my problem. I am posting the modified org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy at my box.net as a reference for myself. Here are the step I used to fix the issue:

Open terminal and type gksu nautilis
Navigate to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions
Right click org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy and open with gedit
Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users
At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes
Scroll down to section org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users
At allow_active, replace auth_admin_keeps with yes

Now I am able to shutdown Linux Mint running from my USB jump drive.

Thanks to Marilen Aretius Corciovei for originally posting this fix.

Tags Linux Mint, Software