Category: Windows Stuff

Ubuntu 10.10 on my PC

On October 10th at 10:10:10 AM, I took a screenshot of the date/time of my PC running Ubuntu 10.04 using Shutter before installing Ubuntu 10.10. I used Vuze to download the BT files for x32 and x64 versions within 15 minutes. Since I’ve had problems in the past with running Update to install the new OS over the old, I chose to backup my home directory with the rsync command to my external USB HDD. I’ve read, some people had problems installing Ubuntu 10.10 over 10.04. So I was glad I backed up and installed from scratch.

My installation went smooth. I liked the check box to install third party apps (multimedia codeces except for the DVD player). Because of this one feature, I can no longer tell people to install Linux Mint to get all the multimedia stuff running right after install. Please don’t misunderstand, I like Linux Mint a lot. I installed Linux Mint 10 RC1 as a VM on my Ubuntu system. But that’s a post for another time.

I like the purple color theme better than the orange/brown theme of the past, but I still customized my desktop. Using Crebs (Create Background Slideshow) I created a nice 15+ Star Trek rotating wallpaper theme. I also created a Halloween theme too. Plus with Ubuntu Tweak I changed the GDM wallpaper to a nice artist rendition nebula and changed the Ubuntu logo to a Star Fleet one. I didn’t bother to change the window colors, icons and sound effects yet, I’m still looking for something that will work well and easy to install or customize. I also found one thing that has helped me out over the years for reinstalling Ubuntu and Windows, keep a text document of favorite apps and other commands that make installation easy. For me this includes anything that I need to run at the CLI. After all was said and done, I had everything installed, configured and data files restored within 4 hours. No need to go back and install an application or look for a special command that enabled the Ubuntu Menu when pressing the Super key. Its all right there. Plus I add to this text file if i make a change or find a new application that is a must have for me.

Is this a perfect 10 for Ubuntu 10.10? No, but it feel like 9.95. My only grip is the mouse pad stays enabled no matter if I use a USB wired or wireless mouse. I search several posts about this issue. And although some people had some terrific answers, none worked for me. I can’t disable the touchpad in the BIOS either. With Windows 7, the touchpad can be disabled using Logitech’s application. Kind of wish Logitech would develop their software apps for Linux. But I can’t fault Ubuntu for this.

If you haven’t tried Ubuntu 10.10, download a Live CD and try it on your PC. I think you will be surprised with this OS. Now if only Battlefield Heroes would work on Ubuntu.

Tags Home PC, Linux Mint, Sager, Ubuntu, Windows 7

Geek Stuff LinuxMint Windows Stuff Work

Used Linux Mint Bootable USB to Fix Windows Server 2003

Post author By George
Post date July 28, 2010
No Comments on Used Linux Mint Bootable USB to Fix Windows Server 2003

Image via Wikipedia

Today I was asked by one of our server administrators who was off site, if I knew how to reset the local administrator account on a Windows 2003 Server that was not communicating with the domain. I said yes, “let me get my Linux Mint USB stick and I can reset the password.”

The server was an old HP ML370 with a RAID configuration and 4GB of RAM. Once I was in Linux Mint 9, I mounted the local hard drive and navigated to the %systemroot%\System32\config folder. I right click that folder and selected Open Terminal here. Here is the reference document I use:

Open Nautilus and mount Windows HDD.
Right click Windows folder and select Open in Terminal.
Type cd System32/config and press Enter.
If account is Administrator enter sudo chntpw SAM.
If any other account enter sudo chntpw -u <account> SAM.
From menu select function.
Write hive files.

After rebooting the server I was able to log in as the local administrator and complete the repairs. Another justification for every IT Technician (server administrator or on-site workstation support) should have multiple tools to repair any computer on-site.

Tags Geek Stuff, Linux Mint, Windows Stuff, Work

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

FaceBook Geek Stuff Home PC LinuxMint Sager Thunderbird Ubuntu Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP Work

Busy IT Month

Well it’s been a busy month for me at home and work. I migrated my Sager NP8690 to Ubuntu 10.04 and created three virtual machines; Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. To my surprise Windows Vista SP2 is extremely stable as a VM. I disabled UAC because I don’t like being asked “are you sure you want to do this” from my PC. Both Windows 7 and Windows XP SP3 ran well also. Over all I was pleased with the performance from each VM. Of course that changed when I tried to run two VMs at the same time, I was running out of RAM. I think if I had 8GB installed, running two VMs would have worked fine.

However, I was never able to get get Blu-Ray running in any VMs or in Ubuntu. This bummed me out since I wanted I watch Star Trek. Maybe I’ll ask Santa to bring a Blu-Ray player for Christmas. Then I was informed by my wife that she needed Windows in order to work from home. Plus she was not too thrilled that I didn’t create a account in Ubuntu for her. Oops!

So I backed up everything (again) and reinstalled the image I took before wiping out my hard drive. Since I am dual booting between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04, I deiced to leave Windows with a larger partition and keep all my videos there. I can access then easily enough from Ubuntu without much hassle. I still need to install a few application in Ubuntu (Thunderbird, Filezilla) but for the most part I am finished.

Instead of trying to use Gwibber a buddy of mine said I should look into TweetDeck. TweetDeck requires Adobe Air to install and run. Being Adobe has issues with x64, there were no .deb files for my OS. I downloaded the .bin file and from a Terminal window I typed ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin. Now I can install TweetDeck and have access to my LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz accounts.

At work, I was asked to test a kickstart install script for RHEL 5.3 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) client install on a test PC. I used a Dell Precision 370 which has a Intel P4 3.4 GHz single core, 2GB of RAM, 80GB Sata drive, Nvidia Quadro FX 1400 card, and a DVD drive. Installation took about 30 minutes. I test several applications, accessing network shares, and printing to several network printers. I still prefer Ubuntu or Linux Mint over RHEL, but it was fun to be part of a Linux project.

I also help with installing a new Dell server this week. The job required us to install a keyboard/mouse tray, move an existing server and tape library up, install a new IP console KVM, and install the new ESX server. Due to space limitations, we placed a LCD monitor on the side of the rack. Because I hurt my back several day earlier I was asked not to lift anything. So for me it was more of a learning experience. Hopefully I will be asked to assist with other data room projects.

Right now I’m downloading openSuse 11.3 x64 on DVD. Maybe this weekend I’ll try it out on a VM to see some of the new improvements I’ve read about.

Tags FaceBook, Geek Stuff, Home PC, Linux Mint, Sager, Thunderbird, Ubuntu, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Work

Geek Stuff Humor Video Windows Stuff

Developers, developers, developers, developers

Post author By George
Post date July 16, 2010
No Comments on Developers, developers, developers, developers

Posted because I saw it today while having lunch at my desk.

Tags Geek Stuff, Humor, Video, Windows

LinuxMint Open Office Sager Ubuntu Virtual Machine VirtualBox Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP

Issues with VirtualBox between Ubuntu and Windows 7

Post author By George
Post date June 15, 2010
2 Comments on Issues with VirtualBox between Ubuntu and Windows 7

My Sager NP8690 is one awesome notebook (except for the battery life). Right now I have it configured for dual boot between Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows 7. The only time I really use Windows 7 is to watch Blu-Ray movies and the occasional office document that down for display correctly in Open-office. But rebooting the PC to go back and forth between the two OS’s is an inconvenience.

To resolve this issue I installed Oracle Virtualbox 3.2.4. Currently I have one VM with Linux Mint 9 x64 which works well. So I attempted to install Windows 7 x32 just like I did at work on an old HP D530 tower. When the install reaches the point of Installing Updates the OS fails stating it’s unable to find the hard drive.

I searched for an answer but nothing really fixed my problem. Then I noticed the HDD controller for my Windows 7 VM was set for AHCI with a blank check box. Selecting the check box allows the VM to access the HDD controller directly. Installation of Windows 7 is complete.

Everything in Windows 7 seems stable and running well minus the Aero effects. I checked for updates and out of 21, only 3 installed. That’s no good, time to reboot the VM and tried again. None of the available updates would install. I found this solution for Windows Vista and it worked on Windows 7.

And since I am setting up VMs, I decided to install my copy on Windows XP and Microsoft Vista. Why Vista? Because I got it for free and gives me an opportunity to learn something new. Plus I have friends and family that run Vista and they call for help on occasion.

Unfortunately I made a small error when I installed Ubuntu 10.04. Since I chose to dual boot, I kept the Windows partition at 2/3 total drive space. Since I created four VMs I am down to about 7GB free on my Home partition. If I can get my Windows 7 VM to play Blu-Ray I will copy off all VMs, backup all data files from both OSs, and then rebuild with Ubuntu 10.04 and import all data. Looks like I’m in for a long weekend.

UPDATE:

After spending 2 hours reading posts about playing Blu-Ray in a VM, it looks like this is not possible. I plan on moving forward with the migration since I’m out of drive space. I read a solution in Ubuntu Forums that might work.

Tags Linux Mint, Open Office, Sager, Ubuntu, Virtual Machine, VirtualBox, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Ubuntu Windows Vista Work

Bootable Ubuntu 10.04 USB Stick

Post author By George
Post date June 7, 2010
No Comments on Bootable Ubuntu 10.04 USB Stick

Over the last two weeks, the client I work for had multiple power outages. The one outage broken several LCD monitors and a few PCs. One of the PCs had Windows Vista installed. The problem was a corrupt OS and would not boot into Vista. Booting from Last Known Good Configuration or Safe Mode would not allow me to fix the problem. I explained to my customer that would repair Vista using the enterprise DVD. Although he liked that option, he was concerned about losing his data.

No problem. I brought up my bootable USB Ubuntu 10.04 flash drive I made a little while ago. While it was booting my customer explained that his PC has 2 hard drives. The primary drive contained Vista on a 40GB partition, the rest was his “D:\” drive. The second hard drive was used to additional data storage. My Ubuntu flash drive found all the hardware on his HP XW4600 Workstation and using GParted I verified his hard drive configuration statement.

On the second hard drive I created 2 folders, zzz-d_drive and zzz-c_drive. All data files my customer was concerned about were copied to the perspective folders. After a shutdown, I disconnected the second hard drive to ensure all data files are safe. Unfortunately the repair for Vista failed as did restoring from the last 2 restore points. My only option was to reinstall the OS. After installation I copied all the data files back to the “C:\” drive, the “D:\” was intact since I didn’t format that partition.

If you don’t have a bootable Ubuntu flash drive you should take the time to create one. For me it is a valuable tool which enables me to meet my SLAs.

Tags Ubuntu, Windows Vista, Work

Firefox Google Chrome Thunderbird Ubuntu Windows 7

Google Chrome 5 on my Ubuntu PC

Post author By George
Post date May 28, 2010
No Comments on Google Chrome 5 on my Ubuntu PC

A while ago I wrote about Google Chrome on my Windows 7 on my work and home PCs. This week I installed Google Chrome 5 on all my PCs. What made me install Chrome? A full supported version for Linux. Just download and install the .deb file. The even have a x64 version too.

I decided to make Google Chrome my default browser on my Ubuntu 10.04 x64 notebook. I had to modify Thunderbird 3.04 to run Google Chrome. I will admit it’s fast. Faster than Firefox on my computer. Still there is the issue with unlimited cache files on my computer. I guess i can remember to clean it out once in a while. Maybe I can find a script to clean out the files every 30 days.

Tags Firefox, Google Chrome, Thunderbird, Ubuntu, Windows 7