Well… not much of a guide really.  Just a very quick how-to on what I did to get Time Machine on my Macbook Pro with OSX Lion 10.7 to save the backup data to my Linux server network share using AFP, rather than SMB (Windows Share), a Time Capsule, or and Apple Server.  I will attach my working config files for your reference as well.  Note that, 1) I am using the source code for Netatalk, compiled and installed, not the Ubuntu or Debian package, and 2) I am assuming you are comfortable with installing software from source.  Last note, I owe a HUGE THANK YOU to post I found on the basic’s of this configuration. (located here: http://www.trollop.org/2011/07/23/os-x-10-7-lion-time-machine-netatalk-2-2/)  I had a hard time getting anything working otherwise, and that post mostly got things working for me.

I really love this setup, because:

A) I am running a tiny ITX case with a 1.5TB ZFS mirror in it for data integrity. (back when drives were cheap, this makes a powerful and inexpensive NAS)  (oh and I am running this using the zfs-native package on Ubuntu Lucid! Love it!)

B) I love having the network-based Time Machine running, because it just runs whenever I am on my home network. I don’t have to think about, “Well, should I plug in my USB drive and backup tonight?”  It just runs all the time.

C) I also have Crashplan running on that ZFS pool, to save all my local machines here as well.

None of that has anything to do with getting an AFP share running, so, moving on.  The instructions below don’t cover the creation of your sparce file for the AFP share, which Time Machine uses.  Once you get to the Sixth step below, you’ll need to create that sparce bundle and copy it to your share. I used the script located on this post to generate my sparce bundle and copy it over to my server share. Anyway, to get your Mac talking to your Linux box, setup Netatalk like below. :)

FIRST:

Go get the latest Netatalk source code from Sourceforge.  http://netatalk.sourceforge.com/

Download and un-tar that code into a directory of your choice. But before we configure and compile this…  we need some supporting software.

SECOND:

Get the supporting software packages for Avahi and other items.  We need Avahi for zeroconf and other libs for authentication purposes.

I ran this apt-get command:

apt-get install avahi-daemon mdns-scan \
 avahi-utils libavahi-common-dev \
 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev \
 libssl-dev libacl1-dev libwrap0-dev libgcrypt11-dev libdb4.8 libdb4.8-dev

Install the above items, then we can move on to the compile and install of afpd/Netatalk.

THIRD:

Now, “cd” to the directory where you un-tar’d the netatalk download code.  For example, mine was in this folder:

cd /mpool/Shares/Shared/netatalk-2.2.1

Assuming all the above packages installed successfully, let’s run ./compile. Here’s my command line:

./configure --enable-debian --with-acls --enable-ddp  --enable-zeroconf

Then, if that ran successfully, you should end up with some summary information as follows:  (may not be exact)

Using libraries:
    LIBS = -lpthread  -L$(top_srcdir)/libatalk
    CFLAGS = -I$(top_srcdir)/include -D_U_="__attribute__((unused))" -g -O2 -I$(top_srcdir)/sys
    SSL:
        LIBS   =  -L/usr/lib64 -lcrypto
        CFLAGS =  -I/usr/include/openssl
    LIBGCRYPT:
        LIBS   = -lgcrypt
        CFLAGS =
    BDB:
        LIBS   =  -L/usr/lib64 -ldb-4.8
        CFLAGS =
Configure summary:
    Install style:
         debian
    AFP:
         Large file support (>2GB) for AFP3: yes
         Extended Attributes: ad | sys
    CNID:
         backends:  dbd last tdb
    UAMS:
         DHX     ( SHADOW)
         DHX2    ( SHADOW)
         RANDNUM ( SHADOW)
         passwd  ( SHADOW)
         guest
    Options:
         DDP (AppleTalk) support: yes
         CUPS support:            no
         Apple 2 boot support:    no
         SLP support:             no
         Zeroconf support:        yes
         tcp wrapper support:     yes
         quota support:           yes
         admin group support:     yes
         valid shell check:       yes
         cracklib support:        no
         dropbox kludge:          no
         force volume uid/gid:    no
         ACL support:             yes
         LDAP support:            no

Notice the section on “UAMS” containing “DHX” and “DHX2″?  You must have those listed, or your Mac OSx Lion system wont work on it.  It needs the encrypted authentication.  If you don’t see those listed, you are missing some libraries on your system.

FOURTH:

Now if all is well…  run make.

make

make install

Run the above command, while still in that source directory.

Netatalk will install binaries for you under: /usr/local/sbin  and config under: /usr/local/etc/netatalk.
It also installs a basic startup script under your /etc/init.d directory called, easy enough, “netatalk.”

FIFTH:

Setup your config.  I’ll attach my configs for your reference, but here’s a couple basics.

1. afpd.conf  - comment out anything else, and add this line:

- -udp -noddp -uamlist uams_randnum.so,uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so -nosavepassword

2. AppleVolumes.default – also comment out others, and add these.
These are just an example, based on my config. You’ll need to adjust the names and paths.
(NOTICE the “tm” at the end of the time machine share below, you must have that for TM to work.)  

/dapool/bu/tm TimeMachine allow:greg cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,upriv,tm
/mpool/Shares/AppleShare AppleShare allow:greg cnidscheme:dbd options:usedots,upriv

3. netatalk.conf – I didn’t have this file on one system, so I just created it and added the config below:

#### machine's AFPserver/AppleTalk name.
ATALK_NAME=`echo ${HOSTNAME}|cut -d. -f1`

#### server (unix) and legacy client (<= Mac OS 9) charsets
ATALK_UNIX_CHARSET='LOCALE'
ATALK_MAC_CHARSET='MAC_ROMAN'

#### Don't Edit. export the charsets, read form ENV by apps
export ATALK_UNIX_CHARSET
export ATALK_MAC_CHARSET

#########################################################################
# AFP specific configuration
#########################################################################

#### Set which daemons to run.
#### If you use AFP file server, run both cnid_metad and afpd.
CNID_METAD_RUN=yes
AFPD_RUN=yes

#### maximum number of clients that can connect:
AFPD_MAX_CLIENTS=20

#### UAMs (User Authentication Modules)
#### available options: uams_dhx.so, uams_dhx2.so, uams_guest.so,
####                    uams_clrtxt.so(legacy), uams_randnum.so(legacy)
AFPD_UAMLIST="-U uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so"

#### Set the id of the guest user when using uams_guest.so
AFPD_GUEST=nobody

#### config for cnid_metad. Default log config:
CNID_CONFIG="-l log_note"

#########################################################################
# AppleTalk specific configuration (legacy)
#########################################################################

#### Set which legacy daemons to run.
#### If you need AppleTalk, run atalkd.
#### papd, timelord and a2boot are dependent upon atalkd.
ATALKD_RUN=no
PAPD_RUN=no
TIMELORD_RUN=no
A2BOOT_RUN=no

#### Control whether the daemons are started in the background.
#### If it is dissatisfied that legacy atalkd starts slowly, set "yes".
ATALK_BGROUND=no

#### Set the AppleTalk Zone name.
#### NOTE: if your zone has spaces in it, you're better off specifying
####       it in afpd.conf
ATALK_ZONE=@AFP

SIXTH:

Start ‘em up!

/etc/init.d/netatalk start

That should start up the services. I did a quick check using “netstat -tapn” and if you see these below, you should be running:

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:548             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      22146/afpd
tcp6       0      0 ::1:4700                :::*                    LISTEN      22144/cnid_metad

Again, may look a bit different on your system, but you should at minimum see the afpd process on port 548 and soemthing listed for “cnid_metad” on its default port of 4700.  I don’t know why mine says tcp6, but it works, so I am not complaining.

I should note, I set this up on two systems.  One worked right away, the other wouldn’t start cnid_metad.  Your startup should respond with:

..Starting Netatalk services (this will take a while):  cnid_metad afpd.

See that “cnid_metad” listed in the services starting?  My problem system wouldn’t show this, it only showed afpd.  As a result, Time Machine and Finder on my Mac would give me an error about CNID DB not working and “using temporary” or something like that.  Time Machine failed everytime.

What I did to fix it, was a cheesy hack.  I just found the lines below in my /etc/init.d/netatalk script:

# prepare startup of file services
if [ "x$CNID_METAD_RUN" = "xyes" -a -x /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad ] ; then
   echo -n " cnid_metad"
   /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad $CNID_CONFIG
fi

I changed the above to look like this:

# prepare startup of file services
if [ -x /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad ] ; then
   echo -n " cnid_metad"
   /usr/local/sbin/cnid_metad $CNID_CONFIG
fi

I don’t care if CNID_METAD is “yes” or not, I just want it to run!  Everytime!  So I just check if that binary is executable and launch it.  This worked!!  And Time Machine connected to my AFP share (which was this: afp://draygon/TimeMachine ) and started backing up!

I won’t go into the Time Machine config on your Mac here. All you really need to do is in the “Select Disk” button, it will list your available disks, just select the one on your server.  I did make sure I could connect to it first.  In Finder, go to “Go” on the menu and select “Connect to Server”.  Type in the server path or browse to it.  ( afp://YOUR_SERVER_NAME/YOUR_SHARE_NAME  )  If that opens, and you can create files in there in Finder, you should be good to go!

It should be obvious, as well, that on your Linux system you need a user account created with a matching password (which Finder on your Mac may ask for).  You should also have file system permissions configured on your Linux system accordingly.  If not, you will have trouble connection and/or creating files.  Therefore, Time Machine won’t work either.  So make sure the “sharing” stuff works.

My Config Files:

Located in /usr/local/etc/netatalk, the links below will open up at pastebin.com.

afpd.conf  - http://pastebin.com/3kvHLLph  

AppleVolumes.default - http://pastebin.com/Z0L7pzGi

netatalk.conf - http://pastebin.com/agVs4RW0

Extra Note:

I wanted to mention this link:  http://lifehacker.com/5691649/an-easier-way-to-set-up-time-machine-to-back-up-to-a-networked-windows-computer 

In order to get Time Machine to use that AFP share, you need to create a Sparse bundle file which saves your data.  The link above has some great instructions on that.  And they link you to this script for your Mac to create the file and copy it, makes it easy!

 EDIT 12/02/11:

On OSX Lion, you apparently DO NOT need to manually create that sparse file.  I had to remove my backup data and recreate it, and when I did, I did not create the sparse file.  I simply opened Time Machine, clicked Select Disk, and there was my network share. I selected that network share and it created a new sparse file and started to backup automatically. Nice!!

Maybe that’s a Lion thing, I don’t know. BUT YOU DO NEED to tweak your Mac to allow backup to an unsupported network share.  The articles listed above mention using the “secrets pref pane” in OSX and a checkbox to allow the unsupported backup location. PrefPane can be downloaded from this site:
http://secrets.blacktree.com/ 

(you can really BREAK your Mac with that program with some of those settings, so use at your own risk!  I only used it to set my Time Machine to use Linux.)

Its a quick-n-easy install.  Open that program once installed, go to the Time Machine section and check the box to allow unsupported backup locations.  There is a manual, command line way to do this as  well.

Qwest / Centurylink DSL Web site timeouts, hangups, or failures while running a firewall or router with static IP addresses.

Recently I setup the Qwest DSL service in my home. It worked great, but after a couple days I started to get hang ups and timeouts or hangups while browsing the web. Speed tests still showed the correct speeds and rebooting all my hardware didn’t solve the issue.

I run PFSense as my internet firewall. (check it out, http://pfsense.org ) I love PFSense, it gives me very fine grained control over just about everything, even simple traffic speed limiters for certain parts of my LAN. (like my kid’s systems, I don’t want them eating my my bandwidth with Youtube!) In the past, I’ve had some issues with my client networks and firewalls while using Qwest DSL and PFSense. I found almost ZERO help on Google searches, which I find surprising, because I can’t be the only one with this setup. But, to get to the point, you need to setup the Qwest modem advanced options to use Dynamic Routing. I use version 2.

If I plug in and connect directly, I do not get the connectivity issues, so I knew something with the PFSense was, to put it mildly, not being cooperative. Setting to Dynamic Routing fixed this issue on 3 client networks AND on my recent install at home.

Note, too, that all these networks have static IP’s or static blocks. I tried setting to use transparent bridging, which didn’t help. But one time I setup PPPoE directly on PFSense, and that did help. In the end, the only way I could reliably run PFSense on Qwest DSL was to disable NAT on the modem, setup Dynamic Routing, and purchase static IP address(s). Keep in mind, you need to use the “Static IP” setup from Qwest and NOT run transparent bridging, like I assumed. Read their docs, there’s a special setup for this in the Quick Setup section of their modem firmware.

Also, I had this issue on most of the later model modems and firmware, but NOT on the oldest Actiontek modems running old firmware. (like the 701′s) But on the newer Qwest firmware (with the blue background and preschool-style-coloring :) I had to enable Dynamic Routing. Also, I have the newer Zyxel Q1000Z modem now, same issue.

I have no understanding of why this happens. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Although, just to throw an idea out there, maybe it has to do with the way the modems manage hops from the external destinations.  From what I read, dynamic routing has something to do with maintaining the hops between routers online.  Maybe, since using the modem with static IP’s basically sets it into bridging mode, it incorrectly maintains that hop information, or at the very least it doesn’t identify itself correctly.  So what may happen is some routers out there get flaky and don’t respond well with your bridged modem by the time they communicate with your firewall.  Some do fine though, which would explain why some sites fail and some don’t.  I don’t believe PFSense is doing any dynamic routing protocol work, at all.  It’s just firewalling my LAN, right?  So all I can assume is, since the Qwest modem is in between me and the rest of the internet, IT has something to do with that communication breakdown using the dynamic routing.  Of course, I really don’t know what I am talking about and making complete assumptions!  But hey, its just an idea. Maybe someone who know’s more than I do can shed some light on it. :)

That’s right, I don’t like SpiderOak enough to switch from Dropbox.  Why? No LAN sync!   SpiderOak is also a backup service. I use CrashPlan along with Dropbox on my computers (Mac, Linux, Windows, even a FreeBSD server) and SpiderOak is not quite good enough to replace CrashPlan either.

Let me just say first that I do like SpiderOak and it works well.  It’s nice looking, easy to use, and does what its supposed to do.  It runs on Linux! It does it securely too! And I really like that! I can’t really complain about its functionality.  So my opinion here is based primarily on how its feature set can fit into my computer use and needs.

Here’s what I don’t like about SpiderOak.

1. It doesn’t have LAN sync. Therefore, I can’t replace DropBox.

2. It doesn’t have a background service, so you have to be logged in for it to backup. (and therefore, I can’t replace CrashPlan)

3. It doesn’t have multiple destinations, and specifically, destinations to my other computers or friends computers as backup.  This is a major reason why I use CrashPlan too. Not having multiple destinations and on local systems is big negative for me. (more on that in a minute, because it DOES have a local backup option)

4. Sync folders must be inside a backup folder. What?  That’s not going to work for me.  You CAN backup multiple and different folders, unlike Dropbox, but those must be inside of a “Backup” folder. You can’t just select one to sync.  That’s partially useful feature, but I don’t want that restriction. And considering that it DOES NOT have LAN sync (#1 above), it really makes it less useful to me. Although its true, I typically want to backup what I an syncing.

If security were a top priority, I’d definitely NOT use Dropbox and use SpiderOak, but that lack of LAN sync makes it tough to want to use it.  Files that start to sync have to be backed up, then redownloaded on another computer.  I watched progress on this and it was moving and the speed of my internet connection, which is 1.5Mbps.  When you want your files to sync up quick, like Dropbox does on my 1Gbps network, you really begin to loose interest in SpiderOak. For me, personally, I will not be using SpiderOak until they at minimum have LAN sync.

Now, if they were to also add multiple destinations, get me the ability to backup to/from Linux, Mac, Windows, and FreeBSD, setup a system service/daemon, and have backup sets on top of LAN sync, I’d seriously consider ditching both Dropbox and Crashplan.  (Ditching Crashplan will be tough though, there’s a lot of nice features and its been extremely reliable for me.)

There’s another option on the Dropbox side of things I am playing with, Windows Live Mesh.  As a replacement to Dropbox, it is working pretty well.  Not perfect, not as fast, and NOT on Linux, but it is on Mac.  It does allow me to sync any folder, over the LAN or Internet, to multiple systems, and its fairly quick once it syncs up. But its kind of a resource hog, and sometimes it seems to hang on some files.  Not a good replacement for Dropbox, except if you are concerned about security, because you can set syncing between your computers only if you want.

I did want to mention that SpiderOak does have a “local copy” type of feature. So your backup folders can be set to keep a local copy on another drive or on the network for fast recovery. That’s a nice feature. But it had one huge flaw, in my opinion, it only backed up to the local storage from that point in time.  What that means is, anything you had backed up before that, wasn’t in your local storage.  This is a huge drawback for me, and compared to how Crashplan works with local backup storage (destinations), I just don’t like it.

SpiderOak is an “O K” backup program that can also sync some folders. Its secure, if you don’t trust Dropbox with your data. For that reason alone, you could use SpiderOak as a Dropbox alternative.  I just don’t keep anything in my Dropbox that would require that security, or I use a Truecrypt drive on it.

I service small businesses in my area with anything from virus cleanup to network setup to backup systems. I cannot recommend SpiderOak to them.  But, SpiderOak people, if you are listening, if you can make your program LAN sync and give me a good multi-destination-running as a service-file-delta-level-backup like Crashplan does, I’ll seriously consider using your product and recommend it to my clients.  On the other hand, if you just add LAN sync, I’ll drop Dropbox and use your product. :)

Below is a very quick example of what I did to configure a system DSN connection to a Mysql and PostgreSQL database using UnixODBC drivers on Ubuntu Lucid server from command line only.

# Do the obvious, install mysql an postgresql first. :)

# install unixodbc
apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev libmyodbc odbc-postgresql

# cd to /etc/ODBCDataSources

# setup mysql driver, make myodbc_template file
[MySQL]
Description = MySQL driver
Driver = /usr/lib/odbc/libmyodbc.so
Setup = /usr/lib/odbc/libodbcmyS.so

Edit 7/7/11:

I think pgsql odbc should not be /usr/lib/odbc/libodbcpsql.so , but rather /usr/lib/odbc/psqlodbca.so.
I have not tested, but I later realized libodbcpsql.so does not exist.  Just an FYI.

OALGen encountered error 80004005 while cleaning the offline address list public folders under /o=OurCompany/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Offline address book.

 

Get-PublicFolder "\non_ipm_subtree\offline address book\/o=OurCompany/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Offline address book" -Recurse |Set-PublicFolder -Replicas "Public Folder Group\public folders"


Get-PublicFolder "\non_ipm_subtree\offline address book\/o=OurCompany/cn=addrlists/cn=oabs/cn=Offline address book" -Recurse | Set-PublicFolder -ReplicationSchedule $alwaysrun


Replace the relevant items with your own database paths and company names. Our system has “Public Folder Group\Public Folders” as the database name, but I think default is “Second Storage Group\Public Folder Database”, so watch for that.

Today I ran into a problem while repairing a computer that had a partially cleaned up virus. I completed the cleanup that my client attempted, ran all my antivirus tools, and thought I had everything working. That is, until I noticed the little red shield for Windows Security Center. It said, “We’re Sorry. The Security Center could not change your Automatic Updates settings.”

I then tried to turn the updates on in the Automatic Updates settings, but they were already turned on and enabled.

Next, I wanted to see if I could just run Windows Update. It, however, fails immediately if you try to run Express, and gives me Error number: 0×80070424. (below)

So… we have this problem. We can’t run or enable updates in Windows XP. They show enabled, but Security Center think otherwise.

Ok, so let’s fix this. First, make sure you’ve cleaned up any viruses. Once you are sure you are working on a clean system, then try the fixes below.

We need to create at least one batch file (below) and re-register all the components.

Step 1:

Let’s try this one first. Create a file called reg-wu1.bat. (call it whatever you want though, it doesn’t matter.) Copy the text below and paste it into the file. NOTE: you may need to enable file extensions in Windows Explorer so you can rename it to a “.bat” file.

regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\vbscript.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\mshtml.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\msjava.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\jscript.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\msxml.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\actxprxy.dll
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\shdocvw.dll

It should look like this:

Save the file and double click to run it. A DOS box will pop up and execute all the commands. You’ll get several “Succeeded” messages that you need to click “OK” on. Shown below, I received 1 or 2 that didn’t succeed:

I ran the above, attempted to run Windows Update again, but still received the error. Maybe it will work for you though. If not, try Step 2.

Step 2:

Then I created another batch file and called it reg-wu2.bat and pasted the text below into it:

regsvr32 /s Softpub.dll 
regsvr32 /s Mssip32.dll 
regsvr32 /s Initpki.dll
regsvr32 softpub.dll
regsvr32 wintrust.dll
regsvr32 initpki.dll
regsvr32 dssenh.dll
regsvr32 rsaenh.dll
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32 sccbase.dll
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll
regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll 
regsvr32 Msjava.dll 
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll 
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll 
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll 
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml2.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 Browseui.dll
regsvr32 shell32.dll
regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll 
regsvr32 Mssip32.dll

Should look like the image below:

Again, as you did in step 1 above, save the file and double click to run it. A DOS box will pop up and execute all the commands. You’ll get several “Succeeded” messages that you need to click “OK” on. I receive 1 or 2 that didn’t succeed:

Here are one of the messages that did not succeed on this system:

Once this operation was complete, I went to Windows Update again and attempted to run the Express setup. EVERYTHING WORKED!!! YAY!! Even the Security Center showed updates were enabled and turned on again!

If you need further help, I found some of these repairs on the Microsoft Knowledge base article link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555989

Good luck!

Somehow my wife got MyWebSearch loaded on my Windows 7 computer, which cleaned off fine, except for Firefox web searching! Every time I used the Awesome Bar to search, MyWebSearch showed the results.

Easy fix…  go to “about:config” in Firefox by typing it in the URL bar.  In the Filter box, type “myweb”.  In my system, it showed 4 items with “mywebsearch” in the name.  All I did was right-click each one and select “Reset” to clear them.  Restart Firefox and BAM!  Solved!  No more MyWebSearch and now I get the normal Google results!

I ran into an issue with Outlook 2010 and Gmail POP3 access today. One of my clients had two computers he wanted his Gmail on, they both use POP3 to get the email. Problem he had was that only one computer would download the email, even with the setting to “leave messages on the server”. Normally, this would work fine, but for some reason, it isn’t with Gmail.

I Googled and found this site, SOLVED!
http://misternifty.com/internet/email-internet/gmail-pop-from-multiple-clients/

Awesome!! That’s all I had to say! And thanks!

The solution was simply to prepend “recent:” to your username in Outlook. So if your Gmail username was this: someuser@gmail.com
You would put this in the account/username box:
recent:someuser@gmail.com

Nice trick! Worked like a charm!

A word of warning though. Once we set this on both computers, Outlook proceeded to re-download ALL the inbox messages again. A little annoying, but the client didn’t care since he could now receive email in two places!

I have CrashPlan running on a couple FreeBSD servers now, and I thought I’d write up a quick startup rc script.
Here’s what we’ll do. This assumes you’ve installed CrashPlan in the default directory, which requires the “/compat/linux/bin/bash” environment.

1. Create a startup script in /etc/rc.d called “crashplan”. Put the contents below in the script.

#!/bin/sh

load_rc_config ${name}
run_rc_command "${1}"


2. Make it executable:

chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/crashplan


3. Edit your /etc/rc.conf file and add:

crashplan_enable="YES"


Test by running :

/etc/rc.d/crashplan start


If all goes well, when you restart the system it should bring up CrashPlan for you.

In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the install how-to for Crashplan on FreeBSD.

http://www.1stbyte.com/2011/01/26/how-to-install-crashplan-on-freebsd/

I was asked about the resources used on the Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 using either Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid, or JoliCloud operating systems.  So… here’s what I found…

I didn’t do anything fancy, just boot each up and look at their system/task managers.  The Linux systems have Chromium/Google Chrome running, and Jolicloud has Apache and Mysql services running, but they both ran at about 200Mb – 250Mb and minimal CPU usage.  On the Linux systems, I immediately launched the system monitors upon boot and took a screenshot. On Windows, however, I didn’t even have a screenshot app, so I had to find one first.  This brought the usage down a little, down to around 650Mb (it boots with about 750Mb), but CPU was still up there and bouncing around a lot, just lower than during bootup.  Keep in mind also, on Windows, the Dell came with McAfee antivirus, which is running and using resources.  But NO WEB BROWSER is running on Windows in the screen shot.

What I found really annoying, was that once Internet Explorer was launched, so I could upload a screenshot, the memory went up and over 800Mb!  I only have 1Gb in this thing, so there’s really no room for apps to run.  I am sure an extra 1Gb of memory would help, but it wouldn’t make it any faster. The thing just runs slow regardless under Windows.  On the Linux side, they run slow too, just *not as slow* feeling as Windows does.  At least there’s room in 1Gb to run some apps.

It was odd though, because Windows sitting idle would run a low cpu percentage, like under 10%, and commonly with 2-5%.  Once you do anything, the cpu spikes up, and with IE running, it runs 100% for a while.  On Ubuntu, you can see it running consistently around 25%, which spikes just like Windows, only not 100%.  Jolicloud runs a little better, with about 10 – 15% resources at idle, with the occasional spikes too.  They all spike up when you do anything, but Windows spikes way up, and a lot of the time its at 100%.  Could be, that’s why it seems slower, and that may be caused by extra swapping to disk because Windows requires much more memory.  (I don’t really know, just a theory)  Just my opinion, concerning the general operational responsiveness, Ubuntu 10.04 seems to run a little better than either, but Jolicloud is very close and not really noticeable. I think its just the UI they’ve got that’s just a tiny bit slower than the Ubuntu GUI.  But its not a big deal.

Anyway, here’s the screenshot of Windows after about 5 minutes from boot.

Larger image here: http://www.1stbyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screenshot-windows7resources-1.jpg

And below is the Jolicloud screenshot.

Larger Image here: http://www.1stbyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screenshot-jolicloudresources.jpg

And last, below is Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Netbook Remix version.

Larger image of Ubuntu here: http://www.1stbyte.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Screenshot-Ubunturesources.jpg

Quick note about using chntpw command to reset Windows passwords. Mostly, I just couldn’t remember what the command line program was or the switches.

Boot to System Rescue CD.
mount the Windows drive RW (mine was RO)
cd to the config dir: cd /mnt/sda1/Windows/System32/config
Backup your sam,security,system,software (just copy them to another directory)

Now run this to list user while in the config directory:
chntpw -l ./sam

And this will run in interactive mode and ask you which user to edit the password.
chntpw -i ./sam

Chntpw can also edit your registry. One time it really saved the day when I was locked out of a computer and something was causing boot to fail. This made it pretty quick to edit the registry in a way that allowed me access to the system again. (then we proceeded to run a bunch of antivirus checks)  By the way, this worked for me on Windows XP and Windows 7.

Great tool!

We have Exchange accounts in Outlook 2010 and the Global Address List would not update. One reason was due to an error on our server (address in another post), but then the default times to update are 24 ours, and that’s too long. On our internal systems, we want Cached Mode exchange accounts, but direct/real-time addess to the Global Address List in Active Directory.

1.

Add this to a new registry file and/or add to your user’s registry (not system, each user on workstation). Create a text file on your desktop, copy/paste the text below, save, then double click to add to your registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Cached Mode]
"DownloadOAB"=dword:00000000

The above is for Outlook 2010, but for 2007 and 2003, replace the 14.0 with 12.0 and 11.0 respectively.

2.

If you have and OAB files, you need to remove them. In this folder:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook
If you see “Offline Address Books”, rename that folder. Close Outlook and reopen.

You should now have direct GAL access and updates are immediate.

Reference more detail here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/841273

Export your Exchange mailbox from Outlook 2010 is easy, you just have to know how to get around the Microsoft logic in their menu’s.   Makes great sense to put “Exporting” functions under the “Open” and “Import” options and menu.  Doesn’t it?  Great thinking Microsoft.

So… to export to a PST, go to File -> Open -> Import.  Then you can select the normal export/import functions you normally find in Outlook, like Export to a File.

If you are like me, you don’t have time to run nmap scans and do other network maintenance. Running nmap is one of those really fun and useful tools that are easy to use, but since I rarely use it, I never remember the options.  Today was one of those situations where I needed to hunt down a host on my client’s network remotely running certain software. It wasn’t responding to any remote services (like RDP) or pings, so I didn’t even know if it was on the correct IP address.  I thought it would easy enough to do a quick network scan with nmap to discover the hosts running.

At a simple level, and on a small, class C network, I just ran this:

sudo nmap -PR 192.168.0.*

This allowed me to quickly see all the hosts that were up on the local subnet, and here’s an example showing the end of the output on the last host found:

Interesting ports on 192.168.0.210:
Not shown: 992 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
21/tcp   open  ftp
80/tcp   open  http
139/tcp  open  netbios-ssn
427/tcp  open  svrloc
443/tcp  open  https
515/tcp  open  printer
631/tcp  open  ipp
9100/tcp open  jetdirect
MAC Address: 00:1B:xx:xx:xx:xx (NEC AccessTechnica)
Nmap done: 256 IP addresses (20 hosts up) scanned in 42.07 seconds

That was super helpful.  The host I needed showed right up, at the correct IP address, with most of the ports I expected. (not the one shown above) Now I just need to remote into the system (if I can) and adjust things.  Nmap made it real easy on our Linux server.

There are some more useful commands, and as I need them, I’ll blog them. For today, this was all I needed.

First, let me say the Kin TWOm is a pretty good messaging phone that’s really a dumbed-down smart phone. Also, since I got these for my wife and kids, I don’t want them to utilize any data services. Call Verizon and have them disable all data services on the phone. This will leave text messaging turned on still, same with the Wifi. They just won’t be able to use the 3G data, which I don’t want them to. (its too expensive)

Also, on the data plan issue. Some people online have suggested that you can enable the “Airplane mode” to disable the data. Yes, well, that’s not exactly a solution, because it DISABLES YOUR PHONE USE as well! That’s not going to work. So… do as I suggested, just call and disable the data services. That is, of course, unless you want to use the 3G data. (but why get this phone with the data and issues, when you could have an Android phone?)

I like the phone, but there’s a couple big things I don’t like.

1. It’s got a terrible speaker phone. I mean, really bad. Its very quiet and sounds terrible.

2. Ringer is quiet and sounds terrible. And none of us liked the ring tones available. (although, that part is easy to remedy)

3. NO CONTACTS RESTORE! Verizon Backup Assistant is not available on this device. I called Verizon, and sure enough, they don’t support contact backup or restore on these phones! My family had to manually re-enter all their contacts on the phone. Not a huge deal for them, but if I had to do it, I have hundreds of contacts, I can’t imagine having to deal with that.

4. It is a capacitive touch screen, which works reasonably. However, if you are used to the touch screen on an iPod or iPhone, there’s no comparison in my opinion. (in my daughter’s as well, who has an iPod Touch and complains a little that this screen isn’t *that* good.) It doesn’t respond well enough to my touches, and sometimes takes several tries. This is the case on all three of the phone I got, so it’s not just “a bad phone.”

5. There’s no apps, except shortcuts to web sites. That’s ok, we didn’t get the Kin TWOm to be a full blown smart phone. But again, my daughter thought it was stupid.

6. It feels cheap and light, but not like it would break.

7. The keyboard is spaced weird. The EnV Touch and EnV 3 are way better QWERTY keyboards. But its not so bad you can’t use it.

I know, lots of complaints. Of few really annoying ones, but overall, if you get the Kin TWOm as a Messaging phone with the data disabled, its not a bad phone and my family likes them overall. We’ve only had them for a few days, and I’ll update if I hear more complaints or praise.