Solaris 10 RAID bug 6901327 - better workaround

Ahoy.
If you've just initialized RAID 1 on 2 disks with a recent Solaris 10, you'll hit a bug - 6901327. Label can't be written to the disks after you initialize a RAID volume.

The workaround in the bugnotes is pretty shit - you have to use an earlier version of Solaris, boot off that in Single user mode and create your label. This sucks so here's a quicker way:

After you create the volume, issue (if c1t0d0 is your new RAID volume):
format -e c1t0d0
label
1
Yes
q
format -e c1t0d0
label
0
[enter]
[enter]
[enter]

You'll create an EFI label, which isn't what you want but it will write. Then you change this to an SMI label - which is what couldn't be written in the first place.

Laters

DHCP interface on startup with Solaris 10

I want interface 3 to bring up DHCP on startup. I asked the Internet and it said:
Create a file called dhcp.e1000g2 in /etc, upon reboot all will be fine. Neins! I get an error on startup, 'Failed to configure IPv4 DHCP' etc....
So instead of spending more time troubleshooting, you can get around this with a script in rc2:

/etc/rc2.d/S30g2IFConf
#!/sbin/sh
# Script to bring up g1000e2 and assign DHCP on startup for management
ifconfig e1000g2 plumb
ifconfig e1000g2 dhcp
exit 0

Putting the script in RC2 makes it run on runlevel2. Read up on Google for more info on that.

Laters

Emulating Sparc Solaris on x86 - NEIN

Howdy. So I'm trying to install a Sparc version of Solaris on an x86 VM because:

- There's no spare Sparc machine around here powerful enough for what I need

- The one I can find is a POS and won't really do anything

- It'd be grand to be able to do it on my laptop

So installed qEmu which uses Bochs as an emulator. It doesn't boot Solaris - getting a system halted error. Apparently something to do with resource redirection.

One must now find a spare Sparc machine with enough power. NEIN!

Amusing IM #32840324

(3:27:27 PM) Matt: mr salesman
(3:27:38 PM) Matt: weird that you're selling a load of bits and bytes init
(3:27:40 PM) Matt: not like a fat chair
(3:27:46 PM) Matt: or a massive load of jam
(3:27:52 PM) Matt: 'would you like any jam'
(3:27:54 PM) Matt: 'no'
(3:27:56 PM) Matt: 'oh'
(3:27:57 PM) Chris: im essentially just selling the rights to use it
(3:28:01 PM) Matt: see that's what your job would entail
(3:28:05 PM) Matt: if you sold jam
(3:28:13 PM) Chris: yeah hard
(3:28:28 PM) Matt: or I guess when you had been there for a while, you'd be able to bust out multiple jams

15 second exposure out the window

15 second exposure out the window
Originally uploaded by matt512

Let it snow

Snow everywhere at the moment. It's well fun, non-fatal ammunition wherever you go and building material for silly shaped men/women made from the snowy stuff in all of the parks and open areas.

Cars seem to have a lot of fun in it too.

Tings that have occured:

1_ Christmas and New Year
Was alright. Got a UX2 guitarport and it's mucho fun. And some Maltesers but these are over now. And some port, and a shirt with some hilarious picture of a man bending over and a petrol pump in him and 'assume the position' written on it. I can thank Gemma for that.

Went to London for a day with Max and company, pretty hilarious time ensued. Crusing around trying to find the crowbar only to find it was shut and accidentally set off it's alarm. Got a Sherlock Holmes shirt too. Ole'

Reading daytime New Years and then to the pub night time. Was a good night.

Also somewhen in between Christmas and New Year there I ended up at the Purple Turtle at 4AM with Steve and got the train at 5:30


2_ I want a projector

3_ I have a plant called Henry, he's a Yucca and has been alive now for at least 3 months I think

That is all

Pingtest.net has MOS scores!

Booze game

(11:28:11 PM) Matt: one called ring of fire which involved a cake
(11:28:23 PM) Matt: and you have 4 whisky shots lined up (doubles) and then at the end a candle and a cake
(11:28:26 PM) Matt: and you can't use your hands
(11:28:35 PM) Matt: and you do 1, 2,3,4 then eat the cake without setting yourself on fire
(11:28:48 PM) Dossett: ha well good

Testing Windows 7 SMB 2.0 BSOD Exploit!

Friend and colleague Cedric told me about an exploit uncovered a week or so back (read about it here) that allows remote users on a network, to blue screen a machine running Vista, Windows 7 or Server 2008.

This is because these OS versions run SMB 2.0, and are suceptible to a malformed packet, causing a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA blue screen of death.

Apparently, this is fixed in Windows 7 7100, at least with the update I'm currently running.

First, Cedric found a working Python install on the lab unix cluster. So the script was edited to include my IP address and run on the machine.

At first it was thought that perhaps SMB was blocked from lab to the user network, but this works fine - as you can see with these packets:

Ping from unix cluster in lab:
757 2009-09-15 10:46:30.618160 UNIX(IP-Removed) Win7(IP-Removed) ICMP Echo (ping) request

Here's a couple of MS DS packets coming in from the python script on the unix cluster:
49 2009-09-15 10:45:56.127200 UNIX(IP-Removed) Win7(IP-Removed) TCP 49065 > microsoft-ds [SYN] Seq=0 Win=49640 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=0
71 2009-09-15 10:45:59.504096 UNIX(IP-Removed) Win7(IP-Removed) TCP 49065 > microsoft-ds [SYN] Seq=0 Win=49640 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=0

And a reset from my machine:
85 2009-09-15 10:46:04.018977 UNIX(IP-Removed) Win7(IP-Removed) TCP 49065 > microsoft-ds [RST] Seq=1 Win=49640 Len=0


So it would appear the exploit is fixed in the evaluation build, 7100, of Windows 7. No BSOD.

Interesting experiment! Would be nice to get this working on a Vista machine. There's a laptop around here running it, I should find it and try.

Diego Garcia...

Haha... Wut? Diego Garcia?!

Was searching for anything tagged as Military Base near Menwith Hill in the UK - and Google Maps suggested I search instead for Diego Garcia.

After further investigation - this isn't in fact a Mexican pop singer. It's actually an island in the Indian Ocean.

From Wikipedia:
Diego Garcia is an island considered the largest atoll, in terms of land area, of the Chagos Archipelago, and is part of the British Indian Ocean Territories.

In the 1960s, the Chagos archipelago was secretly leased to the United Kingdom and detached from Mauritius with the intention of expelling its entire population and establishing a military base.

So there..!

Dour Festival

Dour was hilarious.
Atmosphere there was like a friendly version of Reading and less violent - I didn't get set on fire once, the food and drink is cheaper, the bar helped me stash a box of wine and the beer token stands were always fast to get served at. Bands were easy to go from and to - a good festival design.

http://www.dourfestival.be/en/2009/byday

Chicken, tomato, onion stew with pasta

• 4 Chicken legs on the bone
• 1 Red onion
• 2 Cloves of garlic or some ready crushed shit
• Some chilli flakes (leave the amount up to you - don't overpower it, if you use a lot, put it in early)
• Couple of mushrooms cut into small slices or cubes
• Tablespoon of olive oil
• Cup of water (loads of fluid, we will cook the shit out of it)
• 2 large tomatoes
  

For the tomato sauce, you can either:

• Get a 330ml pot of ready made tomato sauce with basil, or

Make your own:

• 3 tablespoons tomato puree
• 2 more really finely chopped/crushed large tomatoes
• Water - a cup?
• Salt, pepper
• Basil
  

So now you have the ingredients, fry the chicken on a medium heat for 10 minutes or so - so the skin is browned. While you do this, put everything else in a pot, chop the tomatoes quite liberally so they are thick slices - make sure the pot is big enough to allow everything to sit and stew.

You want to give it a good stir and heat this up the same time you fry the chicken. Then when everything is hot, put the chicken in and stir it a bit.

Then leave it for like 20 minutes on medium/low heat and cover it. Then give it a quick stir and put the lid back on. We want the chicken to cook through properly, and this will be much better with the lid on.

So leave for another 10 or 15, until it's bubbled away for some time and the chicken will be done. Check the chicken if you like, it will probably be falling off the bone anyway at this stage.
Then uncover, and leave again - you may need to increase the heat a couple of notches to get it bubbling with no lid -but watch the burning on the pan. Stir more often!

While this is bubbling away, leave until it's a bit more cooked down, then stick the pasta on, if you want it with pasta. Will be good with rice too.

You can crack some pepper on it just before serving.

Great with red wine, or a cold lager if you made it spicy.

Also - leaving this in the fridge for a night, then cooking up again next day with a bit of water and oil is great. The flavours really get into the chicken.

Chicken with mango and spicy pasta

Chicken with Mango salsa with spicy tomato pasta

Mango, Pineapple, Papaya

Put the oven on at about 220*C (fan oven) and put the kettle on with 500ml water.

On a baking tray, put about 30x30cm foil, a bit of oil and some chilli flakes. I put a bit of cracked black pepper too but probably didn't make any difference.

Get a chicken piece and make some large cuts in it, probably half deep in the chicken. Put this on the baking tray.
On the chicken goes some more chilli flakes and some chopped garlic if you can be arsed. Otherwise I put a little finely chopped onion, and then the Mango, Pineapple and Papaya salsa. I guess not quite enough to totally cover the chicken piece. But it's up to you. Remember there will be sauce with the pasta too.

Get a tomato and chop it coarsely, quite thick slices, then half the slices and put them so they're on the chicken but upright at the side if that makes sense. Standing up, one could say. But leaning on the chicken. A bit like a drunk waiter. Anyway, once that's on there, fold up the foil to make a miniature tent above the chicken with a gap above, to trap the steam.

Then best to put it in the oven or it will be shit and raw and noone will eat it.

Then put the pasta on, I cooked that, drained it, added tomato and basil sauce then when that's finished warming through, hopefully (around 15-20 minutes later) you should have the chicken ready as well. Combine cooked chicken + pasta with sauce and you have yourself food hopefully.

Found it nice with red wine. But then I find everything nice with red wine.

Laters





Tomato sauce with Basil

Dog in suit court case with cat party fun time

So I sent Nick the picture of the hilarious amazing dog in suit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt512/3281141827/

And this happened:

(23:51:56) Nick: he's the lawyer in that cat abuse case
(23:52:00) Matt: haha yeh
(23:52:02) Nick: he's working for the defense
(23:52:13) Nick: the whole crux of his argument is , fuck it its just a cart
(23:52:17) Nick: CART
(23:52:19) Matt: ITS A CART
(23:52:23) Matt: then the other lawyer goes
(23:52:26) Matt: its actually a cat
(23:52:28) Matt: and the dog goes
(23:52:29) Matt: OAR
(23:52:32) Matt: and walks out
(23:52:38) Nick: hahaha
(23:52:42) Matt: and its silent
(23:52:45) Matt: then you hear the door go again
(23:52:48) Matt: and he comes back in
(23:52:54) Matt: and goes 'forgot my jacket'
(23:52:56) Matt: and gets it
(23:53:00) Matt: everyone watching him
(23:53:08) Nick: haha
(23:53:10) Matt: and as he gets to the door he opens it and holds it and stops and looks around
(23:53:16) Matt: and says 'well is anyone else coming?'
(23:53:23) Matt: and everoyne just gets up and joins him
(23:53:29) Matt: then it cuts to a fat party with balloons
(23:53:32) Nick: hahahahahaha
(23:53:32) Matt: and those blowy things
(23:53:34) Matt: that goes EHHH
(23:53:38) Matt: and theres fun party music
(23:53:41) Matt: BUT NOT TOO HEAVY
(23:53:46) Matt: and the dog is still in his suit
(23:53:49) Matt: and the judge is drunk
(23:54:24) Nick: hahah BLOG THIS NOW
(23:54:31) Matt: hokai

The end

Hot dog

I made a hot dog:

Half a tortilla wrap
Herta hot dog
Some chilli flakes

In the microwave for 1 minute

Put some tomato ketchup on it

Eat it

Then go to bed

Today the tube on the way in to Central, the driver braked so hard some people like flew around a little bit, when it stopped dead in the tunnel, another train shot past as soon as we stopped.

I think someone missed a red light in the tunnel or something...

I tell you, if everyone outsourced their train operations to Germany, life would be easier. I've not seen a better public transit system than I have there - only in major cities and intercity/international services, but still, best country yet. I guess the worst is either here or Spain, followed by the UK probably, but then I have an almighty grudge against UK public transport (price vs. quality of service doesn't add up for me and all the staff are ... yeh.).

Just found a Belgian rock band from Antwerp, called K's Choice. Listening to a nice song called My Heart on Last FM. I've got 'Alanis Morissette' similar radio on.

Maybe I should sleep.

- Listening to Last.FM more ('Alanis Morissette' keyword is brilliant for evening listening)

Netbook fun, Shure earphones, New mouse

So after a week or so playing with Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire one, I figured, let's put XP on this.
And I am really happy that I did. Took around an hour to get up and running - drivers downloaded really slowly but other than that, plain sailing really. EAP and 802.11x out of the box, so could connect to Corporate auth in seconds and be up on the network.
Windows GUI does an alright job, but using hidden SSIDs can cause it to not find a network for ages... so put Secure Services Client on it. Now it's working like a charm.

Also, last week took the thing apart to put some more RAM in. I had a spare 512MB stick in my drawer so used that - but it does only take an additional 1GB stick. So I brought the total system RAM to 1GB - there's 512MB soldered to the mainboard.
It's fast! But a lot of effort to put more RAM in. Be warned!

Tips for moar netbook friendly XP:
* Turn off visual themes and effects apart from ClearType
* Change screen DPI to 85%
* Disable login theme (regedit themeenabled to 0 - google it)
* Install Firefox with some nice theme like Foxkeh
* Twitterfox
* Pidgin instead of MSN (way faster)
* Skype is good for video - built in webcam
* Put a big Wall-E sticker on the back of it (also makes it faster)
* Update the BIOS for more reliable sleep and WiFi
* Speedfan doesn't work

All for now on the netbook. It's a great little machine. Next week I will order the massive battery for it, apparently 10 hours or something. Result.


Shure ES110
OK so I feel ripped off by Media Markt for these, after now looking on the net and comparing the inflated price I paid for them, but they are awesome! They go really loud, are immensely clear and with the right earbud combinations (comes with like... 6 or something) they block out all other sound for a truly disorientating, weird, talk-to-yourself style immersive listening experience.


Also, I got a mouse... Logitech something or other - that rules as well. Laser reads loads of surfaces, and the receiver is so small, you can leave it in your laptop. OR, put it away in a little house provided in the base of the mouse. Complete with awesome red eject button.

The scroll wheel is cool... you can scroll normally, like click.click.click, or you can press it like a button and release, and it changes the gearing so it's a free flying wheel. And you can spin it for like 7-8 seconds in one hit, flying through massive documents and stopping by stopping the wheel. Useful.

And it has a green light on it, which is the icing on the cake... Nah really it's got a good weight, and feels nice to use.


Unknown how long it will be until my hearing is damaged from these earphones, but they're slightly too awesome to stop using for now.

Chorizo on toast

Nice Italian inspired snack

- Roll with olive pieces in
- Chorizo with nuts in
- Feta cheese
- Shredded sun dried tomato
- Chillis
- Green pesto
- Extra virgin olive oil

So you get a nice roll with olive bits in, spread over the pesto, then some feta cheese cubes, shredded tomato pieces, put the slices of chorizo around the cheese, sprinkle on the chilli seeds from inside the chillis, and then drizzle over a little extra virgin olive oil.

Put it under a grill for 5-10 minutes - the cheese will burn if left too near the top of the grill.

Then eat it massively. Recommended with cold Orangina from a tin.

Picked up the Acer Aspire One 120GBNetBook a couple of hours ago.

First impressions of the machine are good - but the OS it comes with is really quite limiting if you like to piss around more than the average Internet browser user. Otherwise it's simple and straightforward to use.

Not sure if it's making full use the Atom power management - fan seems to ramp up to max when idle and battery life says 2 hours, with screen on full and WiFi in close proximity to the base station.

Sound is expectedly tinny but it goes reasonably loud and you can comfortably watch YouTube on the thing without trying too hard to hear some guy shout 'GET OUT OF MY CLOSET' at a cat.

It's not silent - but can't control the fan speed with the built-in apps so I will see how loud each component is later on when I get some other OS on this thing. Thinking about Ubuntu 8 and disabling Compiz and making all the text really small to maximize use of the small screen.

One thing my laptop (IBM T60) has that this small one doesn't - a built in light for the keyboard, which I actually use quite a bit. So we will see if this is a problem, especially when getting used to the new really small keys on this thing.

Wireless range is good, antenna must be in a decent position inside the case. No bluetooth is a little bit gay but the built in camera is a nice touch. Not bad quality, but the framerate is around 5fps. We will see what new OS and software will do to this too. Also I wonder if I can put more RAM in too.

Well *I haven't dropped the bastard yet, so we will see how long she lasts.
Tschuss!

Some things I want to do

Here are some tasks that I wish to complete by Christmas.

Obtain the following DVDs:

• Grave of the Fireflies
• Spirited Away 2 disc set

Watch the following:

• Wall-E 1080p on a fat projector
• Bleach anime that Karl gave me
• Louis Theroux Philadelphia documentary

Go to media markt and finally decide on which netbook I will get

Visit the Atomium restaurant

Practise guitar for an hour a day

Go to Aachen

That is all for now