RLSLOG.net is down (temporarily – hopefully!)

As of Jun 29 14:36:45 requests to http://www.rlslog.net are returning:

Hold on!
There are too many RLSLOG readers connected to our server. Wait a minute or two and try again!
http://www.RLSLOG.net

So not down as in wiped off the net but RLSLOG.net is down for any useful purpose..

I guess we’ll have to use the RLSLOG twitter feed. Actually… doesn’t look like it’s been updated since November 2009.

Realtek RTL-8110SC is a pile of shit but here’s some links to drivers

Sourced from here:
http://www.realtek.com/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=13&PFid=4&Level=5&Conn=4&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false&Downloads=true

Realtek Driver – for Gigabit Ethernet chip – RTL8110SC(L)

NOTE: This driver below causes kernel panic on Ubuntu 11.04 with kernel 2.6.38-8-generic and 2.6.38-8-generic-pae when installed on a Jetway mini-itx 7F4K1G5-PB rev:3.1 motherboard. It compiles fine but when loaded into kernel with modprobe cause kernel panic after a few seconds – probably during the auto negiotiation stage.

Realtek RTL-8110SC Gigabit Ethernet Rev 10
Subsystem: Jetway Device: 10ec

I could only get the driver “r8169 Gigabit Ethernet 2.3LK-NAPI” that comes with Ubuntu 11.04 to work with this chip in 10Mb Full Duplex mode. All other modes resulted in 40-60% packet loss or total failure.

I used mii-tool --force=10BaseT-FD eth0 to force 10Mb Full Duplex. The Left light is out on NIC when in 10Mb mode and the right LED flashes on activity.

LINUX driver for kernel 2.6.x and 2.4.X (support x86 and x64) – “support” is obviously a loose word here
Version: 6.014.00
Date: 2010/9/10
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@152.104.238.19/cn/nic/r8169-6.014.00.tar.bz2
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@208.70.202.219/cn/nic/r8169-6.014.00.tar.bz2
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@209.222.7.36/cn/nic/r8169-6.013.00.tar.bz2

My next attempt is to install Windows XP on the box and run Linux in VirtualBox. Hopefully the drivers for Windows are less shit. I don’t expect that these chips support “Large Send Offload” so will be disabling that in Advanced Settings.

WinXP and WinServer 2003 Driver
Version: 5.719
Date: 2011/5/20
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@209.222.7.36/cn/nic/PCI_Driver_XP_5719_05202011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@208.70.202.219/cn/nic/PCI_Driver_XP_5719_05202011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@152.104.238.19/cn/nic/PCI_Driver_XP_5719_05202011.zip

Win7 Driver
Version: 7.043
Date: 2011/5/20
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@209.222.7.36/cn/nic/Driver_Win7_7043_05202011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@208.70.202.219/cn/nic/Driver_Win7_7043_05202011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@152.104.238.19/cn/nic/Driver_Win7_7043_05202011.zip

Vista and WinServer 2008 Driver
Version: 6.247
Date: 2011/3/21
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@209.222.7.36/cn/nic/Driver_Vista_6247_03212011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@208.70.202.219/cn/nic/Driver_Vista_6247_03212011.zip
ftp://WebUser:K4d5wHY@152.104.238.19/cn/nic/Driver_Vista_6247_03212011.zip

Auto-negotiate 1000Mbps

Found this over here in the comments so thought I’d share this tip here:

There is way to “fix” the speed on a gig-ethernet NIC while complying with the standard, based on the last paragraph of the article mentioned above by Shawn (http://standards.ieee.org/reading/ieee/interp/IEEE802.3af-2003interp-6.pdf):

# ethtool -s eth0 speed 1000 duplex full autoneg on

The NIC keeps the auto-negotiation but only advertises 1000mbps. It works fine.

Suspend a machine and shutdown VMware ESX 4.1 in a hurry

Tired of waiting for VMware vSphere Client to connect to your ESX host, perform an inventory just so you can suspend your VM and shutdown your ESX server?

If you haven’t already enabled sshd on your ESX host do so now.

Thomas Maurer has an easy to follow guide with screen shots – Activate SSHd on ESX 4.1.

If you have an older version you’ll need to switch to ALT-F1 and type unsupported then vi /etc/inetd.conf, uncomment sshd, followed by /sbin/services.sh restart (or a reboot).

For more info on how to enable sshd in older versions of ESX check out ESXi (ESX 3i) Enable SSH

ssh into your ESX 4.1 and login as root…

Using the ESX CLI or ESX Command Line Interface or ESX Console to issue the following commands:


# Get a list of all VMS currently on the ESX host
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms

# Suspend Virtual Machine 32 (From output of previous command)
vim-cmd vmsvc/power.suspend 32

# Flush disks
sync
sync

# Power off
poweroff

If you are doing this nightly replace 32 in the second command above with the VM id of your machine and copy and paste this all into the ssh window and walk away.

Console Hack MacOS X 10.6 – Snow Leopard

Command-S on boot to get into single user mode

# All commands in Unix are CASE Sensitive

# Run a disk check to make sure the filesystem is in a good state
fsck -fy

# mount the root filesystem read/write as it’s readonly at this point
mount -uw /

# Start Apple Directory Services – as they don’t use normal Unix password files
launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist

# Reset your password to CoolPassword … or what ever your usual password is (keep it the same as your previous one so your KeyChain continues to work)
dscl . -passwd /Users/Daniel CoolPassword

# Flush disks to make sure changes are written
sync
sync
sync

# reboot
reboot

You can also try Apple’s solution to Mac OS X 10.5: Unable to log in after an upgrade install

AVI: Convert AC3 Audio to MP3

Do you have a DVD player, TV, or device that can’t handle AC3 audio?

If you want to play AC3 audio on your Windows Box follow the How to Play AC3 files guide at AfterDawn.com

Quickly (1 minute prep – 20 minutes cooking time) convert AC3 audio in an AVI to MP3 without recompressing the Video track using this guide:

The conversion took about 4 minutes on my box (Dual Core Dual Xeon) but it might take up to 20 minutes on yours depending on the AVI size and bitrate.

Grab your free opensource copy of AVIdeMUX for Windows.

For other OSes (Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows) check out the Downloads section of the Avidemux website for more info.

and then follow these steps:

Choose Video Copy, Audio MP3 (lame), and Format AVI:

Then Configure the MP3 audio to be Stereo, CBR, 9, 192kbps:

and most importantly the Filters. Set the Mixer to Stereo and optionally increase the volume with the Automatic Gain.

Then from the File Menu choose Save –> Save Video…

And now grab a cup of coffee whilst AVIdeMUX converts AC3 audio to MP3 and creates a watchable AVI.

WARNING Re: 3TB drives have arrived

3TB is too big for most motherboard chipsets. Nvidia chipsets currently can’t handle more than 2.19TB. And yes this includes Macs unless they are very recent and are UEFI-compliant.

Nvidia Forum posts about lack of support for drives above 2.19TB. USB caddies are also pretty hit and miss.

Look for UEFI-compliant Bios and Motherboards.

Also Windows XP can’t count that high without 3rd party $ drivers.

Some Western Digital drives ship with a PCI Express card that enable Vista/Windows 7 OS to see the 3TB drive.

http://www.semetrex.com/pc-component-reviews/in-depth-wd-launches-worlds-first-3tb-sata-hard-drive.html

Scan has WD 3TB drive with PCI Express HBA card (£172 inc VAT – Feb 15, 2011)

64bit Guest on VMware ESX 4.1 running on a HP DL380 G5

I recently saw this error

Virtual Machine Message:
msg.cpuid.noLongmodeQuestionFmt: This Virtual Machine is configured for 64-bit guest operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible.
This host is VT-capable, but VT is disabled.
VT might be disabled if it has been disabled in the BIOS settings or the host has not been power-cycled since changing this setting.
(1) Verify that the BIOS settings enable VT and disable 'trusted execution'
(2) Power-cycle the host if either of these BIOS settings have been changed.
(3) Power-cycle the host if you have not done so since installing VMware ESX.
(4) Update the host's BIOS to the latest version.
For more detailed information, see http://vmware.com/info?id=152.
Continue without 64-bit support?

and this related error from VMware vCenter Converter Standalone:

The destination does not support 64 bit guest operating systems.

These errors were produced when I was trying to move a 64bit machine onto VMware ESX 4.1 server running on a DL380 G5 with two Intel 5160 Xeon’s. I know they are 64bit because Intel confirms this on the Xeon 5160 Spec page. Also I previously installed Windows 2008 Standard R2 64bit on that box. That is after updating every bloody bit of firmware under the sun.

Eventhough the CPUs support 64bit, VMware ESX 4.1 won’t load a 64bit guest unless you’ve enabled Intel’s Visualization Technology in the BIOS.

Here’s the settings I ended up using.

Advanced Options

Processor Options
• HW Prefetcher: Enabled
• Adjacent Sector Prefetch: Enabled
• No-Execute Memory Protection: Enabled
• Intel (R) Virtualization Technology: Enabled
• Expansion Card Caching Optimization: Disabled
• Low Power Halt State (Intel C1E): Enabled
• Intel Core C3 State: Enabled
• Processor Core Disable: All Processor Cores Enabled

For those of you who like screenshots:

Update:

This also applies to:
Dell 2950 – Thanks Scott Bishop

HP iLO Shared Network Port

HP iLO (Integrated Lights Out board for HP servers – remote control et la)

Starting at firmware version 1.60 (after 30 Jul 2008) and on supported hardware:
DL360 G4, ML350 G5, ML370 G4, and DL380 G4 and G5

There’s a feature called “iLO Shared Network Port”

Which means you don’t need to cable up a separate iLO network! You can even set the iLO to use a different VLAN tag. This will come in very handy if your Colo charges for extra Ethernet ports (most do)

But with everything computer related… there are potential issues,

Some things to watch out for:

• Set the iLO NIC to Auto-Negotiate to avoid it falling off the network when the server is powered down. Ref: HP Advisory: Integrated Lights-Out 2 (iLO 2) – Shared Network Port Set at 1000Mb May Not Respond When Server is Powered Off
• VMware ESX server + iLO pass through
  There’s some chat in this forum that ESX server doesn’t support pass through of the iLO. I wouldn’t think the OS even comes into play here. Surely iLO pass through is done at the hardware level and the OS isn’t even aware of it. And beside I’m using a HP DL380 G5 running ESX 4.1 with the iLO set to Shared Network Port and it’s working fine. *knock* *knock* on wood.

  AH! “Pass Through” is a Windows Service called iLO Pass-through Service which allows the iLO console to be connected to a console Terminal Services Session and I gather from the terminology it means that it uses RDP all the way back to the client. Where as iLO Shared Network Port is a hardware based Ethernet port sharing feature.

BTjunkie.org – taken down – but now back up

Update: BTJunkie.org back online after Domain Transfer kungfoo – Nice one.

Sadly it would appear that btjunkie.org has been taken down. 😦

A whois report for the domain btjunkie.org shows no valid name servers and the status is INACTIVE.

Domain Name:BTJUNKIE.ORG
Created On:10-Jun-2005 07:35:14 UTC
Last Updated On:18-Aug-2010 09:10:30 UTC
Expiration Date:10-Jun-2019 07:35:14 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Key-Systems GmbH (R51-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:INACTIVE
[…]
Name Server:
Name Server:
Name Server:

However if you still want to use BTjunkie.org in it’s final few days add these to your hosts file:

93.158.65.207 btjunkie.org
93.158.65.211 btjunkie.org
93.158.65.201 dl.btjunkie.org