windows 10 - Path enviroment variable editor BUG

Windows 10 brought new PATH environment variable editor, but for some reason, it just stopped working for me.

The odd thing is that path editor is "broken" only for system variables.. in case of User variables, the editor is fine.

System editor:

User Path editor:

As you can see, both are editing Path variable, however both use different editor. This is quite infuriating, have you ever encountered such error?

Answer

I was having the exact same issue, and finally figured this out via trial-and-error. The issue is that there is a bug in the Windows 10 Path environment variable parser. In my case, the first entry in my Path environment variable started with an application-defined REG_SZ environment variable (e.g., Path was set to %MyAppPath%\some\subdir;...). From my testing, it appears that the first entry on the Path must not start with a non-built-in environment variable.

For example, if my Path environment variable were set to %SystemRoot%;%MyAppPath%\some\subdir;..., it would be editable in the Path list view editor, since SystemRoot is a built-in environment variable. If you swap the first two paths in that example, I observed the symptom you describe (that editing the Path variable results in opening the standard text editing dialog instead of the Path list editor).

To fix this issue, ensure the first entry in your Path doesn't start with a non-built-in environment variable.

How to determine which drive in a firmware RAID is failing

I have two drives in an Intel ICH10 RAID 1. They are not enterprise-level drives; just regular WD Caviar Black drives.

Recently, reading/writing to the mirrored volume has become extremely slow and the HDD light is on constantly. I suspect that this may be due to one of the disks becoming close to failure and attempting sector remapping. (See also What is the fastest way to force hdd to reallocate bad sectors and discard the data?). If this was an enterprise drive, it would fail quickly and cleanly, but this behavior is typical of consumer drives. Hence, it's not immediately clear which drive is bad.

Neither of the drives shows problematic SMART data (this is from the Intel SSD Toolbox which seems to be one of the few options for reading SMART data off an Intel firmware RAID):

First drive

Second drive

Unfortunately, the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool which is able to run SMART tests is completely confused by the Intel ICH10 RAID:

How can I tell which drive is the problematic one and swap it out?

installation - Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro not taking OS X

I'm out of ideas here.

MacBook Pro 3,1 with a Core 2 Duo and 10.5 isn't booting an OS X Lion DVD. I get a grey circle with a line through it then the Apple logo immediately.

I've zapped the PRAM - no good.

ran fcsk -fy - no good.

Restored the DMG to a FireWire hard drive - no good.

Restored the DMG to USB and tried booting - no good.

Repaired Disk Permissions with Disk Utility.

There's no Boot Camp partition on it. I tried a Snow Leopard DVD - same results - circle with line through it and immediately to the Apple logo.

The Lion DMG is mine from my < 1 year old Core i7 MacBook Pro that I downloaded from the App Store.

Checked for updates to SMC and EFI - it's up to date.

Tried changing the startup disk in Utilities - asks for the admin password and then beeps at me with no reason.

When I go into the DVD / USB from inside OS X the installation program has the same grey circle with line through it over its icon.

The laptop is fine - he's (my father) been using it for weeks in 10.5 - doesn't care if it's completely formatted; just wants to get the latest OS.

php - The secure linux server by dir permissions

I am using php on Linux / Apache server. I have Three type of directories like as

|_ Writeale Directory
|_ PHP Files 

|_ Image Files

Writeable Directory would used only by PHP to writing some txt, images...
PHP Files excuted by server and return HTML codes
Image Files Directories contains only images like as jpeg gif swf ....

Which permisions needed for each directory? What is default permission for directory (created by FTP or PHP)? My server Default value is 755. Is it secure?

Has permissions any effect on server performance?

Answer

A very general overview:

• directories where users (i.e. PHP) can write data should lie outside your httpd documentroot.


• directories that hold content apache should read require world read access, and not much else, i.e. 0755 is more than sufficient.
  Directories require eXecute access; files should NOT have execute permissions.
  No, not PHP files either.


• The default permissions are determined by the umask set for the user apache runs as.


• uploaded files should be examined and verified before being made available for download.

Depending on the country you are in, you can be liable if you allow people to upload viruses and distribute them for download.

domain name system - How long a DNS timeout is cached for?

If none of the servers for the whole zone can be contacted, how long will such fact be cached for?

Answer

According to the 1998-03 rfc2308#section-7.1, if the resolution is not successful, and results in a SERVFAIL (e.g., from a timeout), then it MAY be cached, but if so, it MUST NOT be cached for longer than 5 minutes.

In practice, it appears that it's often not cached at all, or, if cached, is cached for a purely symbolic amount of time, like a single second.

---

• Prior to BIND 9.9.6-S1 (released in 2014), apparently, SERVFAIL was not cached at all.

  
  
  

  It was introduced with commit a878301 (2014-09-04).

  
  
  

  E.g., at the time of this question and in all versions of BIND released prior to 2014, the BIND recursive resolver DID NOT cache SERVFAIL, if the above commit and the documentation about the first introduction in 9.9.6-S1 is to be believed.




• In the latest BIND, the default servfail-ttl setting has been set at 1s since 2015 (as of 2016), and has been hardcoded to a ceiling of 30s (in place of the RFC-mandated ceiling of 300s).

  
  
  
  

  See commit 90174e6 (2015-10-17).

  
  
  

  During 2014/2015, the default was 10s, and the ceiling was 300s, but, as per the quotes below, the higher numbers were found to be unreasonably pessimistic.

---

Noteworthy references (with respective quotes) include:

• https://kb.isc.org/article/AA-01178/ (2014/2016-01-07)

  
  
  

  
  

  The outcome of caching SERVFAIL responses has included some situations where it was seen to be detrimental to the client experience, particularly when the causes of the SERVFAIL being presented to the client were transient and from a scenario where an immediate retry of the query would be a more appropriate action.

  
  

---

• http://cr.yp.to/djbdns/third-party.html (2003-01-11)

  
  
  

  
  

  The second tactic is to claim that widespread DNS clients will do something Particularly Evil when they are unable to reach all DNS servers. The problem with this argument is that the claim is false. Any such client is clearly buggy, and will be unable to survive in the marketplace: consider what happens if the client's routers briefly go down, or if the client's network is temporarily flooded.

  
  

---

In summary, SERVFAIL is unlikely to be cached, but even if cached, it'll be at most a double- or even a single-digit number of seconds.

hard drive - SSD with OS doesn't work because HDD with bootloader is dead

There was a common HDD with an old Windows 7 installation. A new SSD was bought, a new fresh Windows 7 was installed on it as a dual boot with the old HDD system.

Now, I could see that the new SSD OS needs the bootloader on the old HDD, but never thought it would actually not work without the HDD.

The HDD broke, now the OS on the SSD doesn't boot. "BOOTMGR is missing"

I tried loading from a bootable USB flash with command prompt, the SSD is visible, the rebuild of the bootrec /rebuildbcd was successful.

Still the SSD OS doesn't load. It says no OS found.

usb - How do I install Windows XP from an external hard drive?

I'm trying to install Windows XP Media Center edition by copying the install disc image to an external hard drive and making it bootable.

Has anyone had success getting this to work on systems that can't boot from dvds/floppies?

I'm basically working from this guide: http://www.dl4all.com/other/21495-install-windows-xp-from-usb.html

Update - 2/15/10

I used WinToFlash on my laptop to format my usb hard drive from my install dvd (Windows XP Media Center Version 2005 with Update Rollup 2 from Dell) and selected "boot from usb device" at the boot selection menu and the windows installer started up.

However, an error message came up saying that:
"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer."

Originally on my desktop machine, I had 1 150Gb SATA drive, and 2 150 Gb SATA drives striped together using RAID. From the hard drive diagnostics, it appears the windows install on one of the RAIDed disks lost a block and this has been preventing me from booting up.

I replaced the standalone drive with a new 1Tb SATA drive and disconnected the other hard drives. Could the message be indicating a virus is on the unformatted drive? or the usb hard drive?

Update 2 - 2/15/10
The external hard drive didn't find any viruses when scanned.
I tried installing Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1 using WinToFlash and that installed successfully onto the new 1Tb drive.

WinToFlash was really easy to use and helped a lot, thanks!

Answer

This guide is well over a year old ... times have changed :)

Use WinToFlash to prepare the USB Hard Disk Drive.

Note: All data on this drive will be lost.

Recent Windows Update causing Admin issues in Windows 7

After a recent Windows Update in December 2014 or January 2015, I now have to run a lot of programs as Administrator in order to avoid access/security errors. I'm not sure why, as I'm a local administrator on my machine. I am running Windows7 x64.

For instance, if I run a Command Prompt without running-as Administrator, and try using "net start" or "net stop" to modify a service, I will get various errors, such as "System error 5 has occurred" or "Access is denied". However, if I open up my Services window, I am able to start and stop the same services without issue. I had always been able to start/stop services from Command Prompt until after a recent reboot. So, either a Group Policy or a Windows Update is at play here.

Answer

My issues turned out to be caused by a new Group Policy at work. Once the NT Admins pushed a newer policy to correct this, the issue went away for me and other coworkers. However, the fix suggested by @magicandre1981 also worked for others before the updated GP got pushed out, so people should try that if they stumble upon this question.

Upgrade to java 1.7 in eclipse on mac

I'm sort of a beginner with eclipse but I want to update the libraries or build path or whatever to java 1.7 from java 1.6 and I can't figure it out. I'm a computer science student at the university of washington and various TA's and students have tried to figure out this problem but it's stumped them all. I've installed java 1.7 from Oracle a few times already and the java section of system preferences says I have 1.7 but java -version in terminal says:

java version "1.6.0_41" Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build
1.6.0_41-b02-445-11M4107) Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.14-b01-445, mixed mode)

What's going on here? My mac is totally up to date on everything else

multi boot - Can UEFI usb windows install corrupt mbr if dual booting?

So I currently run Windows 7 64 bit on my PC. I believe the windows 7 drive runs MBR because I installed using legacy boot option from a disk using f8. I just made a UEFI USB for Windows 10 installation and I want to dual boot windows 7 and windows 10. Will installing windows 10 on a different harddrive using the UEFI mode corrupt my MBR and/or my windows 7 installation which is on a separate harddrive, seeing as the UEFI mode uses the gpt partition style?

Also is there a program, such as Win32DiskImager that can create a legacy boot windows 10 USB drive so I can avoid any potential problems?

Answer

I have just had 4 days of nightmare getting my media server back up and running after trying to do something VERY similar. Here is what I have learned...

Be VERY careful with your UEFI usb drive - how did you create it? Rufus gives you an option to create a USB that is:
1 - mbr only
2 - GPT for UEFI
3 - mbr and gpt for mbr

Which type you choose to create the Windows install, will dictate what type of Windows system you get, regardless of how you set up the drive. I originally had an mbr system, I created an mbr usb (without thinking about it), switched Bios over to Uefi and AHCI... and installed Windows from the USB.

Nothing would boot. Windows USB would get to a point, write the files to the HDD but then would BSOD as it couldn't boot the drive, and go into an install loop.

If you DO want to switch to UEFI, the c:system drive needs to be converted from mbr to gpt, before you try to install from the Uefi/gpt usb.

There are lots of examples on the net of how to do this to a non system drive, but it is trickier with the system on it if you don't want to wipe the HDD completely and start from scratch (I didn't because I had other partitions on it I wanted to keep).

Minitool v9 wont convert the mbr disk to gpt if it is system bootable. Easus 11 says it can, and I used this in the end. Minitool says from v10 they will also have this option.

Be warned though, I did convert a separate data drive from mbr to gpt, and Minitool site said explicitly it would not destroy data - foolishly (because after many hours trouble shooting the non booting system disk I was exhausted, I took a shortcut, believed the site and didn't backup the data (how many years have I been dong this for!)...

1 click and I had a new unallocated gpt drive and no files... I'm in the middle of a very long data recovery as we speak...

If your windows system is currently MBR - then you can happily use separate drives within your system BOTH mbr and gpt - but not the same hdd. Your mbr windows install system will recognize them. I had this myself, system mbr, and gpt 8Tb Archive drive - no issues at all. Booting from Bios into legacy IDE - not Uefi or AHCI.

Probably the simplest option is to upgrade to Windows 10 as mbr and not have to change anything, like Bios etc It is what I should have done and saved 4 days, but after persevering, my system now flies! So much quicker boot and operation. Legacy bios was throttling everything, I knew that but didnt realise how much.

The other BIG mistake, I know I should have done this first... - check for Bios updates, before you start! I couldhave saved 36 hours!

There was an additional Bios issue with UEFI on my current BIOS version. I didn't bother to check the Intel update logs. There were about 12 more updates after my version and at least 4 of them dealt with the AHCI and UEFI issues I was having. As soon as I updated the firmware, re did all the steps from USB creation, drive creations, windows clean install - and voila! It booted fine!

I ran into some other driver issues and had to tweak legacy USB etc but now I'm finally there, clean install, Plex up and running better than ever, and I now understand AHCI and UEFI better than before. So as long as I've learned something, I'm happy!

Couldn't get the Intel or Marvell RAID to work and didn't want to mess with additional legacy drivers so I skipped that part. Plus I couldn't face any more delays!

I hope some of this makes sense and helps you avoid the mistakes I made.
For reference I was working with:
Intel DX58S0, i7 950, 16gb DDR3, Bios in legacy mode and mbr system drive.

********EDIT******* in response to comment below

i would CERTAINLY do the following - backup everything before you start! Preferably to an External drive. Then unplug them!
Do you NEED the data drives to be GPT, if so maybe better to backup, see if the conversion workled and then if not, wipe, reformat and copy back over again.

The loss on the data drive confused me also, and although minitool did respond at first, the Sunday probably means they can answer me, hopefully they can shed light on Monday and Ill update here.

If they DON't need to be GPT then leave them as MBR for now, if you dont have time to backup and take the risk. They will work fine if they are not system disks.

I am not an expert on how the partition scheme could have had such a huge impact, but I think it is a quantum of all the changes. Bios to Uefi. No legacy setup on the drives, ie not IDE but now AHCI. System boots faster. Accesses files faster and runs progrmas faster. Presumably the scratchdisk also runs faster? I do think that removing all legacy, including USB, means my exterbal USB3 now runs faster as I have speedtested it and am getting 20MBs more..used to tick over at between 20 to 40 and now always hits 60MBs minimum and peaks well above that. All in all, it feels like a new pc - but at a price!

ALSO - new WARNING on this subject:

I took out the old boot HDD which wouldnt boot, and was a bit confused about its status of MBR/GPT/UEFI...anyway wouldnt boot...
and plugged it into another machine, identical mobo, ram etc - and set it NOT to boot, i.e set the correct HDD for this machine to boot - I wanted to look at the disk on this other machine and maybe run recovery from there...

Well... despite setting it not to boot in BIOS and also F10 boot menu, selected the correct drive to boot - it booted to the old confused drive!

Windows setup started running and told me it was making some changes...

Up shot of that, 2nd boot drive is wiped! Although the one i put in to investigate DOES boot now!

Am now going to figure out if I can get the partition back but all the stuff I've tried, mbr fix, etc wont work - it says there is now windows dir on it

I have no idea what went wrong, its never happened before - but I learned another lesson - dont plug a 2nd system HDD onto the mobo!

Perhaps it span up faster than the correct one (it does have more cache - 64mb vs 32mb) and somehow took over.

From now on, im only going to plug in dodgy HDD's to a working system via USB3 adapter, and only after Windows has completed booting!

Another awesome lesson learned at the coal face! - Hope this helps.
;)

Windows 8 - Photo app tile - Can't set picture for tile

Prior to the windows 8.1 update I was able to choose any given photo from my pictures library and set it as the tile to appear on my start screen. However, as soon as I updated my laptop, the photo I had set disappeared and when I tried to change it back the following message came up ...

"Can't change the Photos tile to this photo - the file may be damaged or in an unsupported format."

This happens each time, no matter which photo I select. As far as I am aware, my photos are still the exact file they were before hand, I have tried saving copies in numerous formats such as JPEG and PNG yet it still seems to come up with the same message. My photos have not moved folder and I have not edited them in any way since before I updated to windows 8.1.

Please help me and thank you for your help and time :)

Answer

Go to windows explorer and change the folder options to view thumbnails. View-> options-> view-> uncheck box that says Always show icons, never thumbnails

cooling - Does CPU temperature affect CPU lifespan?

As long as a CPU's temperature stays below the manufacture-specified maximum, does a CPU's average temperature affect its lifespan?

For example, my laptop's maximum CPU temperature as specified by Intel is 100(C). If I run it at 90(C) for a period of time vs. running it at 40(C) for the same period of time, will there be a difference in how much of the processor's life that has been used up?

Is there credible scientific research on this subject?

My reason for asking this is that I am trying to determine whether to increase my default fan speeds in order to lower the temperature that my CPU idles and works under light load such as typing this question.

P.S: even though I've tagged this 'overclocking', this question is not concerned with the effects of overvolting a CPU.

windows 8.1 - How to restore deleted/formatted Bitlocker encrypted partitions/ partition tables

Initially I had 2TB Seagate Expansion Desk HDD, partitioned into 500GB, 13GB, 500GB, all three Bitlocker encrypted and 1 more 500GB unencrypted partition, the rest of the space was unallocated. Yesterday, by mistake, while I was creating Windows Recovery Disk chose the wrong drive letter and ended up whole partitions above deleted. Here's what I have in HDD now: 32GB Windows 8 Recovery partition and 1831GB unallocated space.
After that I haven't made any changes to the drive. I was able to restore the data from the last unencrypted part by using Getdataback SW but with no luck in my Bitlocker encrypted partitions. I would appreciate any advice to restore the bitlockerencrypted partitions as I have the password to decrypt and retrieve my data back. Thank you, s.

Softwares at hand:
Recuva. Handy Recovery. R-Studio. Getdataback. M3 Bitlocker Recovery. Starus Partition Recovery. TestDisk

How to recover BitLocker encrypted partition that is now 'unallocated'/'free space'?

administrator - Program with admin needs to run under basic user domain account - managed service accounts?

I am looking to deploy a piece of vital software within the organization. This is a domain-based setup, with everyone having just basic user accounts. However, the software in question demands to run with administrative rights.

I would normally just use /savecred on a standalone computer, to provide admin access to the program while in a restricted user account, but in a domain I am not sure this will still work reliably.

I can create and use an administrative account for just this program (and hand it out to everyone), but this means I would have to manage and maintain another account with its own password. Plus, then anyone can log onto the domain using this account - not good.

However, there are such things as Managed Service Accounts that can be used - in a domain, can I use these to allow basic domain users to launch programs that demand administrative rights?

Specifically, I want users to be able to launch the program with zero additional input - no usernames, no passwords, no elevated rights. Everything should be transparent so the program just runs, despite running in a basic User account.

How do I edit the printing margins borders of a PDF, in Adobe Acrobat Pro or Soda PDF Pro, in order to print the PDF?

I'm running Windows 7

I have a PDF doc that is a 48 page users manual. I am wanting to print it, but 48 pages would be a waste. So I tried to combine 4 of the PDF pages onto one printed page. I am able to do this, except that the text is small, and there is a lot of unnecessary white space between the PDF pages on the final printed page.

To start, if I open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro, this is an example of what one of the pages looks like:

As you can see it views in AA Pro as a full size page - note the page views in the left hand column also.

However, if I print that single page it will look like this - note the circled box. The printed text consumes a small portion of the page, in fairly small print, with a lot of white space.

I can use the custom scale option on that page to increase the size of the text until it fills the page, but then it's huge and a waste of paper. My goal is to reduce the # of printed pages.

So if I use the option to print 'Multiple' PDF pages, on a single printed page (4 pages per sheet), I can do that, and that is preferable, but it reverts to the default small size. Therefore I'll have four small text PDF pages on a single printed page. It looks like this: (the circled area again)

I can't find a way to increase the size of text per PDF page and also remove the white space between the PDF pages. I tried increasing the font size from the printers scaling setting (printer properties), but all it does is make the whole document larger and push the text onto the next page, cascading the problem down the entire 48 page document - so it unfortunately preserves the space between also.

So at this point I'm not even sure if i should be approaching this as a font size problem? A scaling problem? A margin problem?

Do I need to be looking at the actual PDF document settings? PDF Printer settings? Windows 7 printer properties settings.

Hopefully it's clear what I'm trying to accomplish, but I don't know how to get there. I have both Adobe Acrobat Pro, and Soda PDF pro, if that helps.

Thanks

Remapping windows and alt keys on Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite under Mac OS X Snow Leopard

I am trying to swap the function of the windows (command) and alt (option) keys on my Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite under Snow Leopard. I tried changing the mapping under System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys... I verified that "Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite" was selected in the drop down, and then I swaped the function of the Command and Option keys in the menu, but it doesn't have any affect, even after restarting. How can I get this to work?

linux - Nagios NRPE on Ubuntu 12.04 "Unable to read output"

Right to the point.

NRPE.CFG Modifications:

Added Nagios Host to Allowed:

allowed_hosts=127.0.0.1,192.168.1.10

Removed # in front of command_prefix=/usr/bin/sudo

After that i have reloaded the service.

/etc/init.d/nagios-nrpe-server restart

I have also edited /etc/sudoers

# User privilege specification
root    ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
nagios  ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/lib/nagios/plugins/

Running:

$ ./check_users -w 5 -c 10
USERS OK - 1 users currently logged in |users=1;5;10;0

Works and i get my results

Running:

su nagios -c "./check_users -c 2 -w 2"

Resolves in nothing.

From the Nagios host to the new remote system i can run:

check_nrpe -H 192.168.1.20

And i get NPRE v2.12 as result.

I have checked so to that Nagios is owner to the plugin folder but still no go.

Any tips would be helpful.

(and yes i have googled and read a 10-20 threads but still no go)

disk cloning - Clone Windows 10 onto Windows 7 partition?

I have a hp laptop running Windows 7 and Windows 10 on an external drive. I swap out the drives when I need one or the other. I was wondering if there was a way to dual boot the two on one drive. More specifically, would it be possible to clone my Windows 10 drive onto a partition on my Windows 7 drive? I have all the installation media but it would mean endless updates and restarts as well as driver downloads, etc. Any and all advice much appreciated!

Cloning drive and the length of time it should take

I am using EaseUS Todo Backup Free to clone a 1.81 TB external hard drive with 1.5 TB of data onto a 4TB external hard drive. It has been 47 hours and the estimated remaining time continues to increase and only the destination drive has any activity (100% active time, ~1 MB/Second). I was wondering if this was normal and if is not normal, what I should do.

(Windows 10 laptop.)

Answer

I haven't used EaseUS but the transfer speed seems possibly too low. Assuming it was operating correctly, this would take something like a couple weeks or more to finish. While it could simply be a "difficult" file or folder (or set of them), I would probably consider trying again if it seemed to be continuing indefinitely.

That said, even at a (relatively quick) one gigabyte every few minutes (~5 - 20 MB/second), you are still likely looking at anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for 1.5 TB of data. Also note that external hard drives can be slowed by their connections and hardware, so backups to an external drive may take longer than backups to an internal drive. Likewise, any additional mirroring to a cloud/network storage environment could have a significant impact on speed.

windows - batch script that grants admin rights and goes through all files and folders

I have this, pretty sure its a little harsh but does the job, gives me all the rights to the files and folders on a drive when run on a drive, now I need help getting it to go into sub directories, so I dont need to copy the bat script inside every folder and have to run it.

takeown /f *
icacls * /grant Administrator:F
icacls * /grant Administrators:F
icacls * /grant SYSTEM:F
icacls * /grant "Authenticated Users":F

How would I get it to traverse the drive recursively?

download - Having trouble mirroring a website

Okay, so I'm trying to mirror a website, obviously.

And I'm I having trouble downloading a few files, I was just curious if these files are "important". I have used both File2HD.com and HTTRACK to mirror the site. Let me just go ahead and say this, HTTRACK did a WAY better job at getting the files for me. However, no matter what program I use, I always end up with the same errors saying "unable to download the following files:"

(Missing File 1) /css/owl.carousel.css

(Missing File 2) /fonts/glyphicons-halflings-regular.woff2

(Missing File 3) /fonts/SEGOEUIL.ttf

(Missing File 4) /Popover

The site is still functional and when I put two windows of the real site and my site side by side, I see no difference and it's functional just like the real site. So, my question is, is "/css/owl.carousel.css" and "/Popover" important? Do I need to get those files? If so, How can I get them?!! (Without asking the site owner "Hey, can I have your site files?) LOL :(

Answer

It appears that those files returns a 404 or Page Not Found error, which means they don't exist, which means you don't need them.

domain name system - Confirming the existence of GLUE records

I have two domains, example1.com and example2.com. I run nameservers ns1.example1.com and ns2.example1.com. Example2.com uses these nameservers. Example1.com uses my registrar's nameservers.

Under this scenario, I would expect not to need any GLUE records of my own, and I have not created any. However, using information in this post I have checked for the existence of GLUE records using the dig tool.

When I query h.gtld-servers.net (or any of the others) for example2.com's nameservers, I see ns1.example1.com and ns2.example1.com in the 'authority' section, but also their IP addresses in the 'additional' section.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example2.com.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example2.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns1.example1.com.
example2.com.         172800  IN      NS      ns2.example1.com.


;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.example1.com.         172800  IN      A       192.0.2.1
ns2.example1.com.         172800  IN      A       198.51.100.1

My understanding is that this means that there are GLUE records in existence for those nameservers, but my registrar insists that they do not exist. The only difference from the example given in the linked post is that I have two different domains, but I'm not sure if that's relevant.

Who is correct? My registrar, or the linked post? Do entries in the 'Additional section' always indicate the existence of GLUE records or can there be another reason?

Many thanks in advance.

Storage devices suddenly classified as Unspecified, Category:Other and USB memory sticks have Unspecified icon (Windows 8.1)

After a recent reboot, Windows 8.1 has done something peculiar to my storage devices. In the Devices and Printers window, they have all been moved to the classification of "Unspecified" and are only listed as "Device" with a very generic box icon. That same icon appears for my flash drives (not the regular drives) in the This Computer window, overriding both the normal generic windows icon and icons set by the autorun configuration file. I have rebooted, unplugged and replugged in the USB devices and tried to get Windows Update to update the drivers, which it says they are already the latest, I have reformatted one flash drive and I have deleted and rebuilt my icon cache.

Worth noting that I can access and use all of the devices just fine but this is still unexpected and abnormal behavior that I would like to know the cause of and get fixed.

My drives, with flash drive (X) showing the wrong icon.

The icon the flash drive (X) used to have.

Devices and Printers showing all of my storage devices as unspecified devices (ignore the warning sign on two of the devices, it is an unrelated issue and is just bad timing of my taking the screen shot.)

EDIT: Per comment below, it would appear at least 4 other people are having this problem today or at the very least, very recently.

windows - Can I burn a DVD image to a DVD+RW with a DVD-ROM drive?

I know this is a stupider question, but in the past i've read you can. I read that if you change the codec or something of the disc it can burn. Is this true? I don't have a built in DVD+RW drive and I want to put Windows on a disc (RW, so I can reburn later)

Answer

You're talking about a read-only DVD drive, the name even stands for read-only:

DVD-ROM - Digital Versatile Disk - Read Only Memory
DVD-ROM - Digital Video Disk - Read Only Memory (less common)

I can see where there would be confusion, all the drives have lasers, some lasers write to some disks, why couldn't this drive's laser write to a different type of disk? But even if you could change the disk image, or software, or the drive's firmware itself, the hardware on a read-only drive wouldn't physically be able to write to a disk, here's a brief quote from wikipedia:

The reading laser is usually not stronger than 5 mW, while the writing laser is considerably more powerful. The faster the writing speed is rated, the stronger the laser. DVD burner lasers often peak at about 100-400 mW in continuous wave (some are pulsed).

So the answer is no, you can't write / burn a disk with it. You'll need a dvd writing drive.

---

Alternatively, consider using a USB flash drive to make a bootable USB instead. These Q's look helpful

windows 7 - Recover affected text files from damaged hard disk (bad sectors)

One of my coworkers dropped a laptop about 5 feet onto a hard surface. Miraculously, nothing appears to be damaged except the hard disk, and even that isn't a total loss. It is still recognized by the BIOS, and still capable of getting to the Windows 7 Startup Repair's command prompt.

Most of the data has previously been transferred off, but at the time of the damage data was being acquired and stored in CSV text files. These files are quite large and I believe that only a few of the sectors containing the file content are actually bad. And text files are still quite useful even with chunks missing. Robocopy got some files, but if there's any inaccessible blocks it skips the entire file.

In these questions, I found a recommendation for "Roadkil Unstoppable Copy":

However, this tool won't run inside Startup Repair. The exact error message is "the subsystem needed to support the image type is not present." Any suggestions of a console subsystem tool?

Notepad++: cursor past end of line / virtual spaces?

TL;DR - How can I enable virtual spaces to move the cursor past the end of a line of text?

Long version - In Notepad++, when trying to select (using the mouse) a long line of text that extends past the right edge of the window, causing it to scroll horizontally, my mouse will sometimes go slightly up or down enough to move the cursor to the adjacent (usually much shorter) line, causing the cursor to snap back to the left where that adjacent line ends; which in turn scrolls the window horizontally back to the left, making it difficult to quickly readjust and finish dragging out my selection.

Some (though woefully few) text editors have an option for "virtual spaces", or cursoring past the EOL, to make it much easier to mouse/arrow around without being restricted to existing text/whitespace.

How can I make this happen in Notepad++ (without hacking the source myself)?

Answer

Sort of a hack (sends a window message directly to the Scintilla edit control on startup), but works great:

1. Install NppExec plugin




2. Go to Plugins -> NppExec -> Execute




3. Enter the following code:

   
   

   // ensure console stays hidden
   NPP_CONSOLE 0
   // enable virtual spaces (cursor past end of line) outside column edit mode
   SCI_SENDMSG 2596 3 0
   // SCI_SENDMSG == send message to Scintilla edit control
   // 2596 == the message we're sending is SCI_SETVIRTUALSPACEOPTIONS
   // 3 == send the value (SCVS_RECTANGULARSELECTION | SCVS_USERACCESSIBLE)
   // the default value is 1 (just SCVS_RECTANGULARSELECTION) for
   //   virtual spaces in column select mode only
   // you can find these values by poking around the source code a bit, or
   // see http://www.scintilla.org/ScintillaDoc.html
   




4. Click the Save button at the bottom, and give the script a name




5. Now go to Plugins -> NppExec -> Advanced Options




6. On the right, under "Execute this script when Notepad++ starts", select the script name you just saved




7. Click OK, close/reopen Notepad++, and enjoy ;)

windows 7 - Can't resize my drive, because there are unmovable files at the end

There are two unmovable files at the end of my partition, which prevents "Disk management" to resize the drive properly.

The files are:
Syscache.hve.LOG.1
Syscache.hve

There is no shadow copy running, and the System Restore feature is turned off.
Any ideas how could I move these files? (Let MyDefrag defrag them...)

OS: Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1

Answer

Apparently native Windows Defrag will move those files for you. Give that a bash.

If that fails, use GParted Live Disc. That will do the job.
(Remember. Always backup before such a resize. Oh, and "Pendrive Linux 1 2 3" will help you make a bootable USB drive from the .iso, if that is your wish.)

Source: http://www.mydefrag.com/forum/index.php?topic=5773.0

64 bit - Memory limits in 16, 32 and 64 bit systems

The theoretical memory limits in 16, 32 and 64 bit machines are as follows:

• 16 bit = 65,536 bytes (64 Kilobytes)




• 32 bit = 4,294,967,296 bytes (4 Gigabytes)




• 64 bit = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 (16 Exabytes)

I remember from DOS / Windows 3.11 days, that 16 bit memory could be separated into segments, so that a 16 bit machine could access a greater amount of memory than 64 Kilobytes.

I have a machine with 16GB of memory, and am dual booting a 32bit operating system and a 64bit operating system. I can access all 16GB from 64bit, but only 3.21GB in 32bit.

So, my question is, if 16bit operating systems allowed greater that 64KB memory access due to memory segmenting, why do 32bit machines not follow the same pricipal?

Answer

They do, the system is called Physical Address Extension (PAE). Here is a list of windows OS'es and their max memory, any 32 bit system that allows for more than 4GB of RAM is using PAE to access the memory (For example Windows 2003 R2 Datacenter 32 bit allows for 128GB of ram).

---

In fact Windows 8 requires a PAE capable CPU in it's minimum requirements.

---

To address your "unasked" question on why your 32 bit OS can't access the ram if it exists: Licensing. They choose not to allow RAM to be above 4GB for their 32 bit OSes unless you pay for a data-center edition (that is why they sell a data-center edition, if you need that much ram, you likely can afford to spend more money on a OS).

windows - Can I map CAPSLOCK to AltGr with AutoHotkey?

I am running Windows 7 and would like to use the CAPSLOCK key as Alt Gr, because I don't use it anyway and shortcuts like Alt Gr + 7 ({on the German keyboard) hurt the fingers.

I tried the following AutoHotkey script, because AltGr does not have its own symbol, but it seems like you cannot map a single key to two combined keys:

Capslock::LControl & RAlt

Am I doing it wrong or is this just not possible with AutoHotkey? If not, are there other tools that make it possible?

Answer

The suggestion in the comment may work...

Capslock::Send {LControl}{RAlt}

And you may or may not need to add a second hotkey for release if things get stuck.

Capslock::Send {LControl down}{RAlt down}
Capslock Up::Send {LControl Up}{RAlt up}

I can't test this on my keyboard.

See also this somewhat similar/related post.

storage - What are the options for attaching DAS units greatly exceeding 62TB Virutal Disks max size limit on vSphere 6.0/6.5?

Our new DAS unit is on the horizon and I'm looking for the best way to configure the storage.

We currently use vSphere 6.0 but will have to upgrade to 6.5 when Update 1 is released as all HDDs in the new DAS are 512e (sector size is 4096 emulated as 512) which is only supported in 6.5.

The total capacity of two Dell MD1280 (populated with 10TB HDDs) will greatly exceed 64 TB max size of Datastore, many times. Depends on the number of hard drives we decide to use/buy.

Initially I thought about creating multiple Virtual Disks in iDRAC

RAID5 -> 7 x 10TB = 60TB with 1 drive failure

Then create Datastore and Virtual Disks with vCenter and then span them with LVM on the VM (all VMs are Linux)

This is the same and only option I was given by DELL VMWare tech support.

The problem here is that if I fully populate the both units, I would lose 24 drives (240TB) for parity and still only one of them can fail per each Virtual Disk.
Any other RAID level only adds to the loses.

I used RDM approach (mounting physical(VDs from iDRAC) drives on VMs) in the past while running vSphere on a Free licence to work around max 4TB Virtual Disk size. I wonder if that would work and what would be the possible downsides of this approach, if it works on this scale.

I know I might be forced to do this outside of VMWare and be able to just span all HDDS into a huge array with multiple parity disks but wanted to ask if anybody has some word of wisdom in this subject. Details of this approach should probably be discussed in a separate question, if there isn't one already.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

performance - Why have CPU manufacturers stopped increasing the clock speeds of their processors?

I have read that manufacturers stopped concentrating on higher clock speeds and are now working on other things to improve performance.

With

• an old Desktop machine with Intel® Xeon® Processor E3110 with clock speed of 3.0GHz


• and a new server with AMD Opteron(TM) Processor 6272 with clock speed of 2.1GHz

when performed a simple encryption comparison using (single threaded)

 openssl aes256c

the desktop performed far better than the server.

So even with latest optimization, why does the processor with the better clock speed perform better?

Answer

The reason manufacturers have stopped concentrating on increasing clock speed is because we can no longer cool the processors fast enough for this to be viable. The higher the clock speed, the more heat is generated, and we've now hit a stage where it is no longer efficient to increase processor speed due to the amount of energy that goes into cooling it.

Other answer goes into detail on how higher clock speed doesn't mean better performance in all areas.

sata - RAID card w/1x mini-SAS connector : how do I physically connect 16 disks?

I'm looking at a MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i Sgl card which has a single X4 Mini-SAS SFF8087 connector. As far as I know, such a connector can be expanded to 4 SATA disks. So, I would know how to connect 4 SATA disks. However, the documentation says it supports up to 16 disks in a RAID volume. My question is then; how do I physically connect these 16 disks to the card which only has a single connector?

Is this where backplanes come in (I've tried to find information on that, but can't really figure out how they work together with the RAID controller). ?

Answer

Yes, this is where SAS expanders, enclosure backplanes and breakout cables come in. You can obtain a breakout cable that will provide 4 ports from the SFF-8087 mini-SAS connector. You can also try to use something like the HP SAS Expander to provide more SFF-8087 ports for your use from the single RAID controller. A detailed forum about the HP expander is available here.

I mentioned backplanes only because some have embedded expanders that allow them to accommodate more than 4 or 8 drives. You're probably not working with a system with a SAS backplane, so disregard that part and focus on expansion at the RAID card level.

shutdown - What could possibly cause my computer to power down at random times?

I have recently bought a new Power Supply and a new graphics card. My PC ran smoothly for a few months now but since a couple of days I'm having a strange problem. I am trying to isolate the problem to a specific piece of hardware (because if it's either the Power Supply or the Graphics card they are still under warranty).

The problem started when I was playing a game (diablo 3). My PC suddenly powered down. I was unable to turn it on again by pressing the power button. I unplugged the power cable for a few seconds and plugged it back in. This time the pc powered on but the indication light turned orange instead of white as it normally does. The fans were not spinning and I did not see anything on my screen.

After trying a couple of times I gave up. Two days later I tried again and this time the PC did boot up as usual. Everything looked okay until I tested if the problem was resolved by starting Diablo again. After about two minutes it powered down again as it did the first time.

If I don't run any games my PC does power down after about 3-5 hours.

Another fact that might be relevant:
One time the PC did not shut down immediatly, instead first my graphics "powered down" but the music I was playing kept on playing. After about 20 seconds the pc powered down completely as usual.

What I also noticed is that when I boot instantly after a power down, the chance of another power down occuring is much higher.

Does anyone have an idea what could be causing this kind of behaviour or has a certain tool to diagnose the specific hardware parts?

Thanks

Specs:
Memory: 6GB
Processor: Intel i5
OS: Windows 7 64 bit
The PC is a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with a replaced PSU and Graphics card:
PSU: Corsair CX500 (500 watt)
Graphics card: AMD Radeon 6850

EDIT:

Something "new" happened this morning. The power light blinked orange and my fan was spinning in intervals of like 1 second.

Answer

It turned out to that one of the connectors of the PSU was broken. The connector got replaced and everything is working great again.

windows - dos batch rename folders (another one)

no way to find what i try (so simple):
i have this structure:

+folder1 (contains:)

   -folder2
   -folder3
   -...
   -folderi

I just want to add simple word (WORD) after the folders 2...i
simple ?
I shoul get:

 -folder1WORD
 -folder2WORD
 -...
 -folderiWORD

BUT i dont want to change folder1 name (i have succeed only to change ALL the folders)

BUT some of them have space in their name ( i have succeed to transform "folder with space" in 3 other ones folderWORD and withWORD and spaceWORD.

BUT should be a SPACE as first caracter of WORD (no way to make this)

right now i have try with what i found in the other threads without success !!!

Anyone get a way to do this ?
Thanks for your help.

Answer

If I'm understanding the question, then this will work for an interactive command prompt:

for /d %D IN (c:\temp\folder1\*.*) do ren "%D" "%~nxDWORD"

If you are running this inside a batch file, then you will need to double each of the percent signs:

for /d %%D IN (c:\temp\folder1\*.*) do ren "%%D" "%%~nxDWORD"

The /d option tells for to only look at directories. The ~nxD modifier tells it to only print the filename and extension of D rather than the full path. See FOR /? for more information on the syntax of the modifiers.

Before

c:\temp\folder1>dir c:\temp\folder1
 Directory of c:\temp\folder1
          folder with space
          folder.dotted
          folder2
          folder3
          folderi

Command

c:\temp\folder1>for /d %D IN (c:\temp\folder1\*.*) do ren "%D" "%~nxDWORD"
c:\temp\folder1>ren "c:\temp\folder1\folder with space" "folder with spaceWORD"
c:\temp\folder1>ren "c:\temp\folder1\folder.dotted" "folder.dottedWORD"
c:\temp\folder1>ren "c:\temp\folder1\folder2" "folder2WORD"
c:\temp\folder1>ren "c:\temp\folder1\folder3" "folder3WORD"
c:\temp\folder1>ren "c:\temp\folder1\folderi" "folderiWORD"

Results

c:\temp\folder1>dir
 Directory of c:\temp\folder1
          folder with spaceWORD
          folder.dottedWORD
          folder2WORD
          folder3WORD
          folderiWORD

windows - How to mount a folder as a virtual CD/DVD drive?

As a follow-up on my question VMware Workstation 8: how to fake a bootable USB stick?

How can I mount a Windows folder as a virtual CD/DVD drive?

That way, I could mount the folder as a virtual CD/DVD drive on my host system, then use that CD/DVD drive in my guest VM to boot from.

Note: I know about SUBST, but that mounts the folder as a regular drive, not as a CD/DVD image.

Answer

I don't think you can do so. A folder is a logical entity, not a physical one. You cannot boot from a folder since you cannot mark it as bootable and it has no boot sector.

security - How to password protect and hide contents of folder in windows 10?

I have a friend who has a folder (which I'm about 98% sure is for porn) she wants to make sure her children can't access intentionally and/or accidentally stumble upon the contents of the folder via any assorted convenience features in windows which may save last opened file etc.

I had 4-5 months ago set her up with a 50 gb encrypted drive using a program called TrueCrypt when she asked for this and told her to just mount the drive when she needed it and remember to unmount it after. This seemed to meet her needs, but she just got a new computer with windows 10 and tells me that truecrypt refuses to install on windows 10 with some message about it not being needed any more because windows 10 already supports encrypted folders. she also says the folder in question shows up in her quick access window as a frequently used folder.

Unfortunately for her I'm on a linux box myself, I've not even touched windows 10 and I don't know what options there are for her without using truecrypt. Can anyone recommend a good way of properly hiding the contents of and password protecting her totally-not-porn folder? I doubt she needs the full encryption of truecrypt, just something effective enough that 13 & 15 year old can't figure out how to get around the password/protection.

Answer

TrueCrypt is no longer maintained, but its successor VeraCrypt runs on Windows 10. (Note that while it can access old TrueCrypt volumes, they might need to be converted to the new format.)

Windows 10 does, however, support separate user accounts (including even parental controls). Keep the main account for the owner, and create an additional one (multiple?) for the children to use. No more poking through private data, no more fights over the wallpaper, etc.

linux - Bash: better way to output to both console and output file than tee?

What I need to display is a log refreshing periodically. It's a block of about 10 lines of text. I'm using |tee and it works right now. However, the performance is less satisfying. It waits a while and then outputs several blocks of texts from multiple refreshes (especially when the program just starts, it takes quite a while to start displaying anything on the console and the first time I saw this, I thought the program was hanging). In addition, it breaks randomly in the middle of the last block, so it's quite ugly to present.

Is there a way to improve this? (Maybe output less each time and switch between output file and console more frequently?)

Update: Here is what's in my bash script right now:
tail -f /var/log/syslog | egrep --line-buffered "my search string" > tmp.txt & python script.py | tee result.log

wireless networking - No internet connection on laptop

I'm trying to recover from a rootkit infection, where I am unable to connect to the internet.

When I try to ping the router this is the output:

Pinging 192.168.1.254 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.70: Destination host unreachable.

192.168.1.254 = router
192.168.1.70 = IP assigned to the laptop.

It works when I connect it to the gateway via an ethernet cable, but wireless don't.
And I've already tried reinstalling wireless drivers.

When I try to run the ipconfig /renew command I get this output:

An error occurred while renewing interface Wireless Network Connection : The operation was canceled by the user.
No operations can be performed on Local Area Connection while it has its media disconnected.
An error occurred while releasing interface Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1 : The system cannot find the file specified.

And when I run the command netsh int ip reset, everything is OK except when Resetting Echo Request, which failed with an access denied error message. (and yes I ran in an elevated command prompt)

Also reformatting is an absolute last resort, that I would REALLY like to avoid. Any ideas?

EDIT: Here is the output of an ipconfig /all http://pastebin.com/fwuRxiT2

Answer

It sounds like you may still be infected by the rootkit! Your updated information and the diagnostics made by the other community members in the Comments tell me that "incongruous results = something amiss".

I strongly suspect that you are getting these extremely "strange" results because whatever damage the rootkit dealt is still present -- either it is successfully removed but it left the system broken; or it's NOT removed and you're still suffering the symptoms of it.

Personally I wouldn't trust my system with any kind of sensitive data without nuking it from orbit if I knew I had a rootkit. You may yet find a simple solution within the bowels of Windows Networking, but if not, I highly recommend wiping the disk clean and reinstall from an empty partition. AFAIK no rootkit has yet figured out how to persist across OS installs if you wipe the disk. So that's the good news.

BTW, my argument for suspecting that the rootkit is still present: it may have found a way to hide itself from your virus scanners, etc. while still remaining on the system in a less detectable way. If it's got itself into the Windows kernel, it can lie to the operating system about every single system call, and so it can manipulate network devices, the filesystem, etc. to deceive programs (and virus scanners) into thinking that it's removed, when in fact it's still present.

Rootkits are to computers what the "evil deceiver" was to Rene Descartes. If you aren't familiar with the philosophy exercise, the question posed was, how do we know that our real existence isn't somewhere else, and our brains are just hooked up to a machine/equipment/whatever that is feeding us impulses to make us think we are actually in this world? How can we break out of the skepticism that we're not under the influence of an "evil deceiver"? Well, the rootkit is exactly the same problem, except that you can't use an ontological argument like Descartes because we're talking about the world in a very restricted, digital computing sense. The rootkit is basically the ultimate virus: if done perfectly, they are all but undetectable.

iptables - Linux IPv6 Transparent Proxy (but Linux doesn't support NAT on IPv6!?)

On Linux I can make a transparent proxy simply by adding a iptables -j REDIRECT command.

To my surprise, I am needing to support IPv6. Simple enough right? iptables6 -j REDIRECT command not supported!?

Apparently, Linux threw out NAT (and transparent proxy support with it) on IPv6. I don't care much about NAT on IPv6. So how do people get a squid transparent proxy working on IPv6? With Linux as the host.

Answer

First give it a read on this answer here. You will have to configure your firewall and use other means to provide proxying like automatic configuration. IPV6 doesn't provide any NAT so there's no interception of traffic, ergo no transparent proxying.

Squid wiki has a Tproxy patch but seems like a hack to me, you can try but I never tested.

Other solutions likes WCCP from CISCO were also very connected to ipv4 and will not work on ipv6, but probably will be updated (or something will show up to replace).

windows 7 - Caps lock can only be turned off by shift key, regardless of setting

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium on a Sony VAIO VPC-F23BFX laptop.
The problem is that the caps lock key can only be turned off using the shift key.
In Control Panel's Regional Settings, it does not matter if I set it to turn off with the caps lock key or the shift key, it always expects the shift key.
I checked and the registry value for this option is being saved correctly.
I also tested with this utility and the scan codes being generated are:

OnKeyDown, Key code=20, Control keys=, Key name CAPS LOCK
OnKeyup, Key code=20, Control keys=, Key name CAPS LOCK

when pressing caps lock the first time (it turns on); and:

OnKeyup, Key code=20, Control keys=, Key name CAPS LOCK

when pressing it a second time (it doesn't turn off).
If I then press shift, it generates:

OnKeyDown, Key code=16, Control keys=Shift{Left}, Key name SHIFT
OnKeyDown, Key code=20, Control keys=Shift{Left}, Key name CAPS LOCK
OnKeyup, Key code=20, Control keys=Shift{Left}, Key name CAPS LOCK
OnKeyup, Key code=16, Control keys=, Key name SHIFT

Maybe some program is messing with the keyboard events? (I'm not using AutoHotkey or anything similar).

Answer

After some investigation, I found the culprit: I had been using a custom keyboard layout that disabled dead keys, and apparently it also forced the usage of the Shift key to turn off caps-lock (ShiftLock as some call it).

I had tried switching to the default layout before and it didn't seem to work, now I realize that probably was because I had tested on an existing Notepad window instead of opening a new one.

Solution: I downloaded MSKLC and created a new layout based on that one but without enabling ShiftLock.

windows 10 - Need to create a swap partition after installation but I already got 4 so GParted won't let me

I'm dual-booting Windows 10 and Manjaro 17 and when I installed the latter I forgot to add a swap partition.

Noticed that and tried to create one from GParted but it is returning the following error when I click on 'New':

It is not possible to create more than 4 primary partitions

If you want more partitions you should first create an extended
partition. Such a partition can contain other partitions. Because an
extended partition is also a primary partition it might be necessary
to remove a primary partition first.

/dev/sda1 is the Windows system reserved partition.

/dev/sda2 is the Windows boot partition.

/dev/sda3 is the other NTFS partition I've been using to store stuff.

/dev/sda4 is the Linux partition.

Already shrinked /dev/sda3 by about 8 GB which I want to use as swap.

Not sure how to proceed.

power supply - How can I tell if an AC adapter is compatible with my laptop?

How can I tell if an AC adapter is compatible with my laptop? For example, does the voltage output have to bee the same, or just close? What power measurements matter?

Answer

Any AC adapter is considered compatible with any device if it has all the following traits:

• The voltage of the adapter has to be identical.

  
  It's possible that a voltage can be "close enough" because many devices are built to work within a certain voltage range. But there's no way to know reliably how your device will handle a different voltage.



• The amperage (amps) of the adapter has to be equal or greater than the device.

  
  A device draws amperage from an adapter so there has to be at least as much amperage available as the device needs.



• The polarity of the adapter has to be identical.

  
  The polarity of your adapter (and device) is usually indicated by a diagram with two circles showing a plus (+) and a minus (-) pointing to the outer plug and the inner plug.

Of course, the shape of the plug in your device has to match the shape of your adapter so you can plug it in. If you can match all four criteria, you should be okay.

windows 8.1 - Green flickering dots that move on my laptop screen

I have a Toshiba L50D-B83110 laptop (AMD A8 APU with AMD Radeon R5 M230 graphics) running Windows 8.1.

I have the same issue as the OP of this question: Green flickering pixels that move with black images,
namely,

Occasionally, on my LCD screen, pixels that should be black flicker rapidly and constantly between black and green, about 4 flickers a second.
The crazy part is, unlike dead/stuck pixels, they are relative to content on the screen and move with it. For example, when I'm watching movies or playing games, the green dots move along with the objects/characters in the game/movie.

To check whether the GPU's busted, I plugged in a monitor to discover that the monitor works fine. I hope this means there's probably nothing wrong with my GPU.
Now I'm wondering, Is it just a loose connection or a damaged LCD?

The drivers are up to date.

What could be causing this?

Help would be appreciated.

Battery showing 100% charged with ''Consider changing your battery''

Is it normal to have a laptop have the warning ''Consider changing your battery'' but whilst also showing 100% charged. I've got the red cross on the charge symbol showing with Windows 7 on my Acer Aspire One D270. Any things for me to try? Should i let the battery completely discharge or keep the charger plugged in? Thanks

security - Securing access through specific ports on public IP address

We have public IP address hosted on FreeBSD router. We have also a lot of service running inside our LAN network, some of our services need to be accessible outside our home network trough public IP address.
Until now I did it forwarding specific ports to specific local ip address. Sample (for Terminal Server i Forwarded port 2305 to local ip server on port 3389, and it is working perfectly when someone call remote desktop connection on "MYpublicIPadres:2305" get access to my Terminal Server.

What I want to do is:

Some how to secure access to that service by specific client (machine or network). Is there a way to I allow access to only specific users (by MAC address or something else) to my service.
What I did already is make VPN server-client connection but that method do not offer me a lot.
I also can restrict access by specific ip address but most of my clients do not have static public IP address, they coming from DSL connections with different IP addresses each time.

If this is not possible done by using FreeBSD do I have alternatives like IPCOP or something similar to FreeBSD.

Edit: VPN Issues

As You mentioned already that I should go with VPN solution here is issues that I faced

• I am using sample VPN client build inside Windows OS and that allowing that client can set up VPN from any computer machine (Story Behind: I have department outside our network and I want to be sure that for specific service access only can be madded from department.)


• When Client call VPN connection it lose connection with other world and a lot of clients want to have bout access to my services and to other internet resources.

Answer

If you can't secure the service itself a VPN or SSH tunnel is really your best option here.
Since your clients don't have static public IPs you can't restrict by IP, and if clients are coming in over the internet you won't be able to determine their MAC addresses (lost at the first hop).

You could consider something like port knocking for controlling access to the service (google "port knocking" - the first few links are pretty useful for explanation and examples).

Similar stuff can also be rigged up with a web server script & helper programs where you can "authorize" access from an IP for a certain period of time, potentially with something more complex than port knocking, but these implementations are only as secure as the underlying code)

windows - How do you create a bootable Linux UEFI USB drive

I am trying to install Fedora 25 along side Windows 10 with UEFI booting enabled and SecureBoot disabled. I am using Rufus but I can't seem to get the Linux Live image to boot when I select the USB drive.

Am I missing something?

Answer

It sounds like your boot settings are not correct.
Steps to take:
1. Research the required BIOS settings for your manufacturer. Secure boot should be disabled but occasionally (like with Asus) there are other settings to adjust.

2. Consult this link: http://docs.kali.org/downloading/kali-linux-live-usb-install
   I know that it is for Kali but it should work for you. I have not used Rufus before but a lot of those tools do not work right with UEFI. Use the Win32 Disk Imager mentioned in the article and it should correctly install the OS.

Can I clone my hard drive to an external and boot from the clone?

First thing: I am not asking what software I'm supposed to use. I already know the answer: Ghost (proprietary), Clonezilla, and dd (if I'm careful).

What I really want to know is if it is possible to (essentially) bit-for-bit clone my entire installation (OS, installed software, activation(s), etc.) to an external USB hard-drive, and then boot off of that (if I need to, I know how to edit BIOS settings and use Plop boot manager), and work with it day-to-day as if there was virtually no difference from using my internal HDD now.

Again, I'm not asking how to install Windows to an external (because I know I'd need to do some special workaround), I'm asking if I can clone everything and boot off of it.

In case you're wondering why I'm going to this trouble: I'm using a Lenovo Essentials laptop that has an unmodifiable partition table (due to recovery crap), and has all 4 of its partitions spoken for (3 primary, one extended, cannot change the extended). Anyway, my thought is that if I can clone everything and boot off of it when I need to, and just have a Linux distro on the internal HDD, then that could work.

Answer

If you force windows to recognise the USB hard drive as a non-removable hard drive, then there shouldn't be any issues. How you would do that I'm not too sure as I haven't done this before, but this page may be of help -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff541144%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Theoretically, you would set the registry key, clone the hard drive, and then hopefully the registry key that you set would let windows boot off the now non-removable hard drive (even though it's actually a USB hard drive)

windows 7 - Blue Screen possibly related to on-board audio or audio drivers?

I am experiencing a frequent BSOD (upwards of 6 times a day). I've been doing some testing and I think I may have locked it down. I would appreciate some guidance on the next step to take.

My Specs

• OS: Windows 7 Ultimate


• Motherboard: AMD 990FXA-UD3


• CPU: AMD FX-8350


• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580


• RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333


• Audio Driver: Realtek 64bit

What I've Witnessed
So far I've noticed that it doesn't happen when logged into my wife's user profile. This initially led me to believe it was related to software running on my profile. I've further noticed that anytime I have RaidCall (a VOIP) open on my profile I eventually get the BSOD regardless of who is the active user.

What I've Tried
I've re-installed RaidCall and my audio drivers. I've ran a chkdsk, virus scan, and defrag. I've activated windows driver verifier for all 3rd party drivers. I've rain AIDA64 Extreme Edition (trial) and received a hardware failure alert after stress-testing for 6 minutes.

Resuts
The BSOD that happened after driver verifier was running didn't give any valuable information. I was at work when it happened, but my wife reports that it mentioned a driver failure, but did not give any information about the driver. I had to stop verifier so she could use the computer. The next BSOD I got was also while I was at work, but this time it said "unrecoverable hardware failure".

Conclusion
I'm thinking thinking this is a problem with my motherboard. I've had mobo-related BSOD problems in my last 3 computers so it wouldn't surprise me. Is there anything else I can try before trying to see if the manufacturer will honor their warranty? Thanks! ^_^

Update 1
I got another BSOD. It was another "uncorrectable hardware error" this time. No RaidCall, no audio happening at all. Perhaps those things were just coincidence. In any case, my minidump directory was empty when I checked it which is most unfortunate, but one did appear after this most recent BSOD. Here is the link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44699367/082013-26020-01.zip

Update 2
BSOD again (followed by a freeze w/o BSOD ~4m later. Dump link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44699367/082013-22120-01.zip

Answer

You have no driver issue, you have a L1 Cache issue with your AMD FX CPU:

You get this Bugcheck/BSOD:

Bug Check 0x124: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff557321%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

The WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR bug check has a value of 0x00000124.
This bug check indicates that a fatal hardware error has occurred. This bug check uses the error data that is provided by the Windows
Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA).

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************
WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (124)
A fatal hardware error has occurred. Parameter 1 identifies the type of error
source that reported the error. Parameter 2 holds the address of the
WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure that describes the error conditon.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, Machine Check Exception
Arg2: fffffa8009387028, Address of the WHEA_ERROR_RECORD structure.
Arg3: 00000000bc800010, High order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Arg4: 0000000000100149, Low order 32-bits of the MCi_STATUS value.
Debugging Details:
------------------
BUGCHECK_STR:  0x124_AuthenticAMD
CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN7_DRIVER_FAULT
PROCESS_NAME:  Steam.exe
CURRENT_IRQL:  f
ANALYSIS_VERSION: 6.3.9431.0 (debuggers(dbg).130615-1214) amd64fre
STACK_TEXT:
nt!KeBugCheckEx
hal!HalBugCheckSystem
nt!WheaReportHwError
hal!HalpMcaReportError
hal!HalpMceHandler
hal!HalHandleMcheck
nt!KxMcheckAbort
nt!KiMcheckAbort
0x0
FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  X64_0x124_AuthenticAMD_PROCESSOR_CACHE
FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING:  km:x64_0x124_authenticamd_processor_cache
===============================================================================
Common Platform Error Record
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record Id     : 01ce9e238a2c44a9
Severity      : Fatal (1)
Length        : 928
Creator       : Microsoft
Notify Type   : Machine Check Exception
Timestamp     : 8/21/2013 4:22:25 (UTC)
Flags         : 0x00000000
===============================================================================
Section 0     : Processor Generic
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa80093870a8
Section       @ fffffa8009387180
Offset        : 344
Length        : 192
Flags         : 0x00000001 Primary
Severity      : Fatal
Proc. Type    : x86/x64
Instr. Set    : x64
Error Type    : Cache error
Operation     : Data Write
Flags         : 0x00
Level         : 1
CPU Version   : 0x0000000000600f20
Processor ID  : 0x0000000000000006
===============================================================================
Section 1     : x86/x64 Processor Specific
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa80093870f0
Section       @ fffffa8009387240
Offset        : 536
Length        : 128
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal
Local APIC Id : 0x0000000000000006
CPU Id        : 20 0f 60 00 00 08 08 06 - 0b 32 98 3e ff fb 8b 17
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
                00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 - 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Proc. Info 0  @ fffffa8009387240
===============================================================================
Section 2     : x86/x64 MCA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Descriptor    @ fffffa8009387138
Section       @ fffffa80093872c0
Offset        : 664
Length        : 264
Flags         : 0x00000000
Severity      : Fatal
Error         : GCACHEL1_DWR_ERR (Proc 6 Bank 0)
  Status      : 0xbc80001000100149
BiosVersion = FA
BiosReleaseDate = 10/23/2012
SystemManufacturer = Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
BaseBoardProduct = 990FXA-UD3
[CPU Information]
~MHz = REG_DWORD 4018
Identifier = REG_SZ AMD64 Family 21 Model 2 Stepping 0
ProcessorNameString = REG_SZ AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor
VendorIdentifier = REG_SZ AuthenticAMD

As you can see you have L1 Cache Error when writing data to the L1 Cache. I can see that there is a BIOS update to Version FC, maybe this fixes it. Also run CPU stress test tools to see if the CPU is damaged. Also monitor the CPU temperature. Maybe this is the cause.

windows 10 - Enabling local admin on machine with Bitlocker

My current situation is as such: Machines having network issues not allowing domain logon in Windows. Local admin is disabled, thusly I do not have the ability to login and troubleshoot. I want to get to the point whereby I could unlock/enable the local admin through booting Hiren/WinPE and using NTPWEdit for example. These machines are encrypted using Bitlocker, for which I have the PIN and recovery key. Is there a tool for unlocking Bitlocker encryption for which after I can enable the local admin?

What my process would be:
1) boot Hiren/WinPE
2) use tool to unlock Bitlocker to allow access to the drive
3) use NTPWEdit to enable local admin

Any help would be appreciated!

networking - /etc/hosts file for a multi-homed, multi-domain machine?

I have a server (debian) with two network interfaces that I would like to host multiple services and domains on; it is not entirely clear to me how the hosts file should be set up.
Example:

eth0, bound to WAN interface 1.2.3.4:
   mail.example.com
   www.example.com
eth0:1, bound to WAN interface 1.2.3.5:
   www.other-domain.com

eth1, bound to LAN 192.168.1.123:
   some-clever-hostname

What should my hosts file look like? (including localhost,localhost.localdomain, etc.)
Should I use DNS for some of these entries? Which ones?

Thanks!

EDIT: What if I was unable to utilize a DNS server, for instance in a testing environment?

Answer

Putting localhost in /etc/hostname and

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

in /etc/hosts is fine. The mappings can be set in DNS, and you can set the rest explicitly (apache will have ServerName configured inside virtual hosts, etc).

Can Firefox 3.5 run on Linux Kernel 2.4?

I am trying to run Firefox inside of a Linux chroot. The chroot has a copy of Debian Etch installed via debootstrap. If the chroot is running on a machine w/ a 2.6 kernel, I can run Firefox 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 all fine. My problem occurs when I move the chroot to a machine running a 2.4.37 kernel, then I can run 2.0 alright, but 3.0 and 3.5 both hang silently with no display and no errors output.

With Firefox 3.5 on the Kernel 2.4 machine, strace -f ./firefox outputs: (only the last few lines before the hang shown)

[pid  8220] set_thread_area({entry_number:-1 -> -1, base_addr:0x41bef140, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}) = -1 ENOSYS (Function not implemented)

[pid  8220] modify_ldt(1, {entry_number:0, base_addr:0x41bef140, limit:1048575, seg_32bit:1, contents:0, read_exec_only:0, limit_in_pages:1, seg_not_present:0, useable:1}, 16) = 0
[pid  8220] munmap(0x40019000, 11144)   = 0
[pid  8220] getpid()                    = 8220
[pid  8220] rt_sigaction(SIGRTMIN, {0x400241e0, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x416f58f8}, NULL, 8) =     0
[pid  8220] rt_sigaction(SIGRT_1, {0x40023cc0, [RTMIN], SA_RESTORER, 0x416f58f8}, NULL, 8) = 0
[pid  8220] rt_sigaction(SIGRT_2, {0x40023500, [], SA_RESTORER, 0x416f58f8}, NULL, 8) = 0
[pid  8220] rt_sigprocmask(SIG_BLOCK, [RTMIN], NULL, 8) = 0
[pid  8220] rt_sigprocmask(SIG_UNBLOCK, [RT_1], NULL, 8) = 0
[pid  8220] open("/proc/cpuinfo", O_RDONLY) = 3
[pid  8220] read(3, "processor\t: 0\nvendor_id\t: Genuin"..., 1024) = 422

[pid  8220] read(3, "", 1024)           = 0
[pid  8220] close(3)                    = 0
[pid  8220] readlink("/etc/malloc.conf", 0xbfffe47b, 4096) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or     directory)
[pid  8220] rt_sigprocmask(SIG_SETMASK, NULL, [RTMIN], 8) = 0
[pid  8220] rt_sigsuspend([]

The set_thread_area call failing with "Function Not Implemented" along with the fact that since I'm runninng in a chroot, only the kernel is different between my two running environments, leads me to believe that Firefox does not run on the 2.4 kernel. However, Mozilla lists a long list of requirements for running Firefox, and 2.6 kernel is not one of them. Can anyone suggest a workaround for how I can get this running?

Answer

The first thing I'd try is to actually compile it on the 2.4-kernel machine, so your compiler doesn't try to use the 2.6-kernel ABI. If you can successfully compile under 2.4, it'll probably work fine. If not, there's probably a hidden dependency somewhere.

hardware - HP ProLiant DL360 G6 won't boot

I have an hp proliant DL360 G6 server that was 1 year stopped..
I turned it on last week and it was working just fine. So i left it working during the weekend.
On Monday when i returned i notice that it was on suspension mode. I tried to bring it back to life but no results.
So i turned it off by pressing the button, when i turned it on again it wont boot and no post. I only gives me a long beep continuosly. I have changed the memorys, processor and fans are runing fine. The internal leds on MB are all green but i have a blinking green led next to the memory slots 1. On front the power button led is green but the health led is blinking red.
Note: I have changed the hard disks when i turned it on the first time one year and it was working perfectly fine.

How to recover the Administrator password in Windows XP

I want to login to my Administrator account in Windows XP, but I forgot the password. I really don't want to reinstall the OS. I remember some years ago, I was facing a similar problem and I was able to boot using linux from a USB device, save a "password file" from the Windows directory, and use brute force on it from another machine to find out the password.

Is there a smarter way to reset or recover my Windows XP Administrator password?

Answer

Well, it should be in %systemroot%\system32\config - its a file called SAM. However its a lot easier to use the nt offline password changer, than to use ophcrack or other password cracking tool - in most cases its a lot faster (minutes rather than hours) unless you have an encrypted partition

windows 7 - What steps do I need to take to completely uninstall MySQL?

I have installed and uninstalled MySQL Server for about 100 times. Each time I reinstall the thing, it shows the same configurations, which I think cause problems. I would like to get rid of all traces of MySQL and install it as if it was the first installation.

I'v already deleted the MySQL folder, but I'm still having the same problem.

How can I start over and reinstall MySQL?

EDIT: My OS is Windows 7.

Answer

Found a solution on Server Fault: How can I reset the password for MySQL?

Using Windows 7, here's what I had to do:

• Uninstall MySQL using the uninstaller


• Delete C:\Program Files\MySQL


• Delete C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL


• Delete C:\ProgramData\MySQL


• Delete from any Users' AppData folders. Example: C:\Users\rdoverby\AppData\Roaming\MySQL


• Reinstall MySQL

windows - Copy one list of files to another

I have a list of files extracted from a table in a SQL database. The file can be either a delimited text file or an excel spreadsheet, whichever works best.

The file looks like this

sourcePath1\fileName1, destPath1\fileName1
sourcePath2\fileName2, destPath2\fileName2
sourcePath3\fileName3, destPath3\fileName3

etc

One column contains the original path and filename of the files, the second column contains the desired path and filename of the files. This has been obtained using a standard REPLACE() function in the original SELECT statement.

Now I have the list(s) I actually need to copy the source file to the destination.

Is this achievable using the command line (batch or Powershell?) or via scripting or a GUI?

Answer

Based upon David Ruhmann's answer, the following works. It uses xcopy and passes an F to the prompt that asks if the file is a file or folder.

@echo off
for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%A in (book1.csv) do (
    cmd /c echo F | xcopy "%%~A" "%%~B"
)

EDIT: Added tilde (~) as per @DavidRuhmann suggestion.

macos - Synergy Key Mapping

I'm running a Synergy server on Ubuntu and a Synergy+ client on OSX. The server has a standard windows keyboard with shift, ctrl, windows, and alt keys. My MacBookPro has shift, fn, control, alt/option, and command keys.

When I press ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc., the appropriate copy/paste action doesn't happen on the Mac, but it does in Ubuntu. If I'm controlling the mac, and press alt-c, alt-v, then I get the copy/paste action.

So I played around with key mapping in synergy.conf and found that the following allows me to do copy/paste with ctrl-c/ctrl-v:

section: screens
    godzilla:
    mbp.local:
        ctrl = alt
        alt = ctrl
end

Is this all that I need to do? Or are there other mappings that will help as well? The synergy configuration page refers to the following key mappings. What are the equivalent keys for each of these on the Windows keyboard and Mac keyboard? What is a meta or super key?

shift = {shift|ctrl|alt|meta|super|none}
ctrl = {shift|ctrl|alt|meta|super|none}
alt = {shift|ctrl|alt|meta|super|none}
meta = {shift|ctrl|alt|meta|super|none}
super = {shift|ctrl|alt|meta|super|none}

Thanks!

Answer

I was in a similar situation at one point, and I found a somewhat 'unique' way around it. Plug the keyboard directly into your Mac, and edit the keyboard preferences directly. After that, any non-Apple keyboard you attach will use those mappings.

1. Plug in they keyboard.


2. Open System Preferences (Apple Menu -> System Preferences).


3. Enter "Keyboard" preferences (under Hardware).


4. From the "Keyboard Mapping" (or similarly named) tab, change the key mapping as you see fit.

Synergy+ will use these key mappings, since it identifies as a virtual keyboard.

EDIT:
Equivalent mappings, based on function:

Linux   │ Mac
────────┼─────────
Control │ Command
Alt     │ Control
Meta    │ Alt
Shift   │ Shift
Super   │ Super

Mac has the extra modifier key (kind of like the old EMACS-style keyboards, which had up to 5 modifier keys). Super is generally deprecated, so you shouldn't have to worry about remapping it.