May 2012
4 posts
6 tags
Weird OSX Lion bug :mini DVI prevents boot/reboot
Today I just could not connect to my MacMini which was displaying a screensaver when I turned the screen off this morning. Usually it works fine when I come back home and turn it back on, but this time it only showed up a black screen, meaning the screen was connected and it was resuming from sleep.
So let’s investigate this
Before trying anything else, back to the basis : it replies to...
N900 widgets vanish bug
I have a strange bug with my N900 : sometimes when I add a desktop-cmd-excec widget, all my widgets vanish. A reboot does not help. Then when the calendar alarms occur, it takes between 30s to 1 minute after clicking on them to make them go away. Restoring the widgets from the gconf values + the ~/ filesystem helps, until I try to add them back- then they disappear again.
So today I took...
2 tags
Yey to IPV6
While playing with an experimental distribution for the Fritzbox 7390 I may soon release, I added some DHCP/IPv6 integration. Just 5 minutes ago I was very pleased to notice that this integration was already working well, even if I had not fully tested it.
On my git repo, root@crosscompile.localdomain is usually the author - because I test stuff on a VM I use for crosscompilation, and...
5 tags
Adding OTP to telnetd
Playing with busybox and openssh, I have had times when I almost got myself locked out of my machine while working remotely. Why? Because telnetd is not listening on port 23. Why? Because I fear for the safety of my machine should I lazily use telnet for a quick reboot (also compromising my password at the same time) and forgot to change this damn password.
But why? Telnet was once very popular....
April 2012
2 posts
3 tags
guylhem.org : php vulnerabilities scan
In my error log I see many people I trying to access my home website - mostly spambots I guess, because the value of 0wning a MIPS box seems quite low to me
What’s quite interesting is the URL they are trying to access - here’s a short list. Most of there are php URL, I guess to try to log is with a default admin password.
My conclusion: if you are running phpmyadmin, mysql or...
5 tags
Fritzbox 7390 kernel modules
Now that kernel 2.6.28.10 is being used on the Fritzbox 7390 with the latest 84.05.21 firmware (ftp://ftp.avm.de/fritz.box/fritzbox.fon_wlan_7390/firmware/english/FRITZ.Box_Fon_WLAN_7390.en-de-es-it-fr.84.05.21.image), your custom modules should be recompiled.
You can either fetch the source from http://gpl.back2roots.org/source/fritzbox/7390_5.20/GPL-release_kernel.tar.gz and run this modified...
February 2012
5 posts
5 tags
Mechanical turk experiment with extreme narcissism
A few weeks ago, I discovered Amazon Mechanical Turk and decided to try to play with it, to see what it could used for.
Digging for stupid ideas, I found my inspiration after reading a post on narcissism: basically, I uploaded a HIT asking workers to write a compliment on my official facebook page in exchange for money. How vain is that?
The HIT description was :
YOU MUST HAVE A...
2 tags
Getting rid of the old ovi.com stuff on the N900
As mentionned in many places, ovi.com services are being removed, little by little.
Only the ovi store is still barely usefull in 2012 on a N900.
So it’s time for a spring cleaning! My suggestion for the CSSU : let’s get rid of ovi.com crap, if only so that it doesn’t disturb people who wonder what it is.
Simply type as root (sudo gainroot)
apt-get remove...
4 tags
Fritzbox incoming caller-id by Growl
I hate having to get up in order to look for the %$# dect phone only to decide from the caller-id that the call is not important and not worth answering
There is a not-so-simple solution on wehavemorefun depending on php+an outdated growl-network protocol, but thanks to gntp-send we can do the same much more easily with a modern (1.3+) Growl supporting gntp.
Simply telnet on your fritzbox and...
1 tag
Facebook page
To keep in touch by facebook, I have prepared “Guylhem” facebook page, which is linked with the twitter account. There is very little content at the moment, however it should come little by little :-)
January 2012
4 posts
2 tags
Happy new year 2012!
My dearest friends,
Year 2012 started well - if only by not resulting in the Mayan predicted end of the world.
Yet I was told as a joke that this “event” was just postponed to december 21, 2012 - to which I replied “Well, that is good news - almost 12 free month gained!”
In jokes, as in life, we sometimes only see the bad points. We tend to forget about the good parts.
Yet...
My new sounds: Creole Night in Fort-de-France,...
Remove ~/Desktop with Gnome
Just 2 steps away:
1) Start gconf-editor and click:
apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktopapps/nautilus/preferences/desktop_is_homedir
apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop
2) Then rmdir ~/Desktop - done!
Item review : SYBA SY-PEX40035 SATA3+IDE Ports...
Recently I purchased such a card on ebay. I don’t think I will ever again! Basically, the PATA connector is put right on top of the SMD resistors near the card end :
This results in a progressively growing empty space being left behind the connector, from the right to the left, also causing an incomplete cable connection.
Longevity problems could also be an issue.
Anyway, with so...
December 2011
4 posts
2 tags
Amazon.es : happy ending before christmas
Finally, this story takes an happy ending before chirstmas!
Everything began to get properly managed when I started placing phonecalls, using the +34 number listed on amazon.es. A sales representative more conscientious than the others finally transferred my call to his manager who made some big promises.
But they were not just promises, because he managed to keep them!
Basically, not only did...
8 tags
MacOSX : Stuck in a grey screen with circling...
Never happened before, so this this warranted further investigations! First I went into single user mode, where I saw notices of mDNSresponder that could not be spawned.
Figured out I tried to change some perms on the user interface, to increase security on my mother computer, and thus created a strange bug. A google search on mDNSresponder pointed me to:...
6 tags
Amazon.es in fraud + lying
These last days I thought Amazon.fr might have changed the product description between the date of my order and the date of my refund claim. It seemed far fetched, but it was the only real explaination I saw for the difference between what I ordered and what I got.
Now I have proof that amazon.es is doing exactly that, and even more by falsificating client orders. IMHO it is called fraud.
See...
4 tags
Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 warning : possible false...
For a very special Xmas present, I placed order #171-9404429-3853925 for item ASIN: B0050GNQAK on Amazon.fr on dec 4 - that is a Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 revision 1.3. With ultra fast shipping, 2 days later, I got a revision 1.0 - just check the label right below Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 where it says Intel Z68 / rev 1.0
That’s not what I paid for!!
Hey, mistakes happen, and I figured out...
October 2011
2 posts
OSX : stuck on a blue screen
At the moment, stuck on the blue screen before the login windows, I am trying various solutions found online.
Maybe it will work for you, in single user mode :
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /Library/Preferences
rm com.apple.loginwindow.plist
rm com.apple.windowserver.plist
cd /Library/Caches
rm -r *
cd /System/Library/SystemConfiguration
rm -r ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
cd /System/Library/Caches
rm...
Good idea for backups on OSX
As posted on http://nicolasgallagher.com/mac-osx-bootable-backup-drive-with-rsync/, rsync is a great idea to do bootable backups.
I can only strongly suggest that one buys as many disks as mentionned on the article - you never know when you will need them!
September 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Ping weirdness during a rdate
$ ping 4.2.2.4
PING 4.2.2.4 (4.2.2.4): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=52.679 ms
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=59.295 ms
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=50.735 ms
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=56.207 ms
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=51.924 ms
64 bytes from 4.2.2.4:...
4 tags
Changing Google Chrome tabs with some Applescript
I have a good old Microsoft trackball with forward/backward thumb and pinkie mouse buttons which I use to move to the next/previous tab in Safari and Terminal.
Living without this functionality on OSX is not possible. The only link I found was not very helpful, so here is the Applescript I wrote:
Next tab:
tell application ”Google...
August 2011
11 posts
5 tags
Making multid leave port 53 with bind6 preload
On the Fritzbox, multid is eager to bind a lot of ports - even if it does not use them for all interfaces and all IP addresses:
IPv6 1015 UDP *:2048
IPv6 1168 UDP *:53
IPv6 1169 UDP *:2049
IPv4 1188 UDP *:67
IPv6 1191 UDP *:547
IPv6 1444 UDP *:5355
IPv6 1445 ...
4 tags
Bring back the standard inetd services!
Some good ol’ services, just because were onced used for DDoS, have been “blacklisted”. I am talking about echo, discard and chargen. Why not - they certainly are not as usefull as they once were, but it seems like the “bowing to terrorism” mindset.
More disturbing : some others services which were also susceptible to such misuse, while still hand, have...
7 tags
stunnel on the Fritzbox 7390 : solution with a new...
Yesterday I wanted to run stunnel on my fritzbox but I was prevented by an uclibc threading bug.
There is always a solution - however, it might be a little bit complicated at the moment. Just get the static binary if you do not care about the explanations.
Get the latest buildroot (2011.08-rc1) and follow my old instructions on : http://en.blog.guylhem.net/tagged/fritzbox/page/2 ; only this...
Opera has only one problem
One problem for Opera, but a big one for me : no socks proxy support.
It would not be a problem if socks proxies where still the easiest to start with ssh “-D” option. Hopefully, some day opera will play nice with ssh :-/
2 tags
stunnel on the fritzbox : attention to pthread
If you want to compile stunnel on the fritzbox, there is a bug in uclibc which will make any connection after the first one fail.
The problem has been mentioned on ip-phone-forum : http://www.ip-phone-forum.de/archive/index.php/t-233891.html
I will try to find a solution to get a working static binary.
2 tags
Fastpath on the Fritzbox 7390
To enable fastpath, i.e. disable interleaving, telnet to the fritzbox and first check the current settings:
ctlmgr_ctl r sar settings/ControlBitfield
Then write this new value
ctlmgr_ctl r sar settings/ControlBitfield 2
If you can’t reconnect to your DSL connection, use the old settings (!)
3 tags
Perl on the Fritzbox 7390
Several weeks ago (cf http://en.blog.guylhem.net/post/4999033393/perl-on-the-fritzbox-7390) I posted a perl tarball made of bits and parts of the beta FHEM firmware, glued with some LD_PRELOAD magic
Now, there is no need to use it anymore, since thanks to the PerlCross site on berlios.de there are scripts to easily cross-compile perl.
To do use them with a Mips cross-compiling toolchain, simply...
1 tag
Safari became unstable
With the latest OSX updates separating a rendering process from a user-interface process, Safari became very instable on high system load.
Opera still works fine, and eats far less memory, so I guess it’s time to move back to greener pastures.
2 tags
One liners for compiling with uclibc
uclibc is not exactly like glibc. Sometimes, you need to change the source so it can compile - for example with GNU screen, I had to add:
#define getwd(x) getcwd(x,255)
#define bcmp(s1,s2,n) memcmp((s1), (s2), (size_t)(n))
#define index(s,c) strchr((s), (c))
#define rindex(s,c) strrchr((s), (c))
#define bcopy(src, dst, len) memcpy(dst, src, len)
4 tags
A wide open IPv6 firewall on the Fritzbox 7390 -...
Now that I am blessed with a full /48 subnet of IPv6 addresses, and that only for my home LAN, I am starting to enjoy the lack of artificial complexities and limitations, such as IPv4 port forwarding. I must say it is a bit wasteful since I am only using ~50 AAAA records at the moment, but I have several machines and virtual machines which can all get a routable address, and this taste of freedom...
6 tags
Mips toolchain for OSX
Crosstools-ng is very handy to easily prepare a cross compilation toolchain on Linux. On OSX, it can be more complicated, because there are some linuxicisms in dependant config files, such as GNU find defaulting to “.”, which breaks on OSX (on BSD find, the path, even if it is “.”, has to be specified)
There are also many other little things which can and do cause...
July 2011
4 posts
How to work with me
Today I found a nice list that I will consider using for myself. Here it is, slightly reformatted:
I prefer to work fast, minimize bullshit, get to the point.
You will sometimes have bad news for me. I want it immediately. I can usually show you how to fix it. And I never blame the messenger.
Bring pen and paper to every meeting with me. Pay attention to what I say; I’ll try to speak with...
1 tag
Quickly adding storage-space to a qemu linux...
From the computer running qemu:
qemu-img create -f raw disk.img 200M
qemu -hda disk.img
Then from your rescue image:
mkfs.ext2 -m 0 /dev/hda
tune2fs -c 0 /dev/hda
4 tags
Sixxs.net : I prefer tunnelbroker.net
Sixxs.net is great, but the process to get a tunnel is complicated, and sometimes the POPs are down.
I know it’s a free service- but tunnelbroker.net is IMHO better, especially for the connectivity offered. Not only can you request up to 5x /48 without any formality, but I could also reduce my latency by half (!!) by moving from sixxs.net to tunnelbroker.net.
Thanks a lot to Sixxs for...
1 tag
Replacing w2servers
w2servers is not officially dead, but should be soon. My mistake for trusting them - I like to support new companies :-)
All this could have been worse: all my data could also have been lost, if I had not been cautious enough to run Dropbox on the VPS, so I have a good backup.
Yet following this w2servers agony, I had to do 2 things :
- ask for a refund to paypal (denied even if I paid...
1 tag
Is there a "plus" in Google Plus because Google...
Adding functions is great and all that, but when you separate them into product, then have a “black top bar” which lists 8 entries PLUS a dropdown list PLUS a “even more” entry in the dropdown - and still you have function thats don’t fit in, maybe it’s time for a trimming focusing on the user experience.
I can already ear the comments - I’m not a google...
June 2011
4 posts
Gadu Gadu has serious problems !!
Gadu Gadu is like ICQ for Poland. I have some friend there, and thus a Gadu Gadu number. Well - I had, because for some reason someday the password stopped working.
It was a low digit “fashionable” account, 431819. But it’s now lost. I had a friend create another one for me back when everything was in polish only - 4055950 with one more digit, using an old domain of mine which...
Movie recommendation
I rarely talk about movies, but when I get a good surprise I try to share it. Today I watched “That’s what I am”, from WWE movies, featuring among others Randy Orton.
And it’s good. I mean, real good - the kind of movies I would pay to see on a big screen if it was showing in more theaters. Now WWE is not just only actions movies with John Cena in the big easy - they are...
Current OSX security recommandations
1) Enable certificate expiration checking in Keychain preferences, Give priority to OCSP
2) Disable opening “safe” content in Safari preferences
May 2011
19 posts
Finding Bootcamp drivers on the Leopard DVD
If you did a “bootcampless” install like I did, you’ll still need the drivers. And if you can’t find them on the DVD or your machine does not have XP, here is a quick tip:
mount will show you the device name of the DVD. Then type
mkdir /tmp/leopard
mount -t cd9660 -o nodev,nosuid /dev/diskN /tmp/leopard
where N is the last number of the device name, and you will...
More details about XP
If you want to explore XP on a macbook, read :
- Myth and Fact about macs : http://refit.sourceforge.net/myths/
- How to install XP on a USB stick that can be booted by any mac : http://tubeshards.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/install-windows-to-a-macintosh-usb-drive/
- How to use a given hal.dll (in case the “any” is just...
Using XFS on a Macbook, with a reflection about...
As blogged before, using XFS on a macbook is problematic - until you realize that Apple is involuntarily giving a hand with the EFI partition.
Basically, it’s 200 Mb of empty space. You can put grub and the kernels and even a small rescue CD in there!
This nicely solves the bootloader problem (grub can’t be on the MBR on a XFS formatted partition because XFS does not follow the...
2 tags
Debian x64 on a Macbook 5.1
If like me you want to install a text-only version of Debian, you may run into problems until you add “nofb” option to grub parameters along with adding “nouveau” video driver to /etc/blacklist.conf or the newest equivalent. #debian on freenode rocks!
GNU parted : no static version online ??
While tweaking the partitions of a macbook, I needed GNU parted. So I went to try the version announced on http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/html_node/Static-binaries.html but it doesn’t work.
But it’s a known fact and reported as bug #21 on alioth http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/ticket/21 which (oh irony!) is down at the moment
I am not able to...
2 tags
w2servers.com : significant improvements
Between yesterday and today, half of my tickets were closed, and I received prompt replies to my questions.
My IPV6 setup is now mostly working (I have some problems which I believe are due to the lack of IPV6 forwarding)
I think I can now recommend their offer - if you use Debian just make sure to add to your /etc/rc.local the following, because they vzquota script is broken and will cause...
4 tags
Free OpenVPN IPv6 tunnels
If you want to test IPv6 and/or openvpn, to get a free tunnel just email ipv6tunnel at guylhem dot net. It will also help me validate my setup :-) If you use the command line tools on Linux or OSX, or Tunnelblick on OSX, I can help you with your client-side set up. I can not help anyone using Windows (only god can help them)
Attention- this is IPv6 only - there is no IPv4 connectivity at all to...
5 tags
Openvpn with IPv4+IPv6 clients - the right way !
Imagine you have a ::/48 from sixxs.net or tunnelbroker.net. Wouldn’t it be sweet to give some of the ::/64 to your openvpn clients so that they too would use IPv6? There’s a partial guide on http://www.tunnelbroker.net/forums/index.php?topic=1542.0 but it is somehow incomplete on the configuration part. You also have some compilation to do. If you want to recompile openvpn yourself,...