Chris Carey

Author: Chris Carey

  • Gutsy Issue with SATA drives

    Here is how I permanently fixed it:

    1) make a file named “99-hdd-spin-fix.sh”. The important thing is starting with “99”.

    2) make sure the file contains the following 2 lines (fix it if you have PATA HDD):

    #!/bin/sh
    hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

    3) copy this file to 3 locations:
    /etc/acpi/suspend.d/
    /etc/acpi/resume.d/
    /etc/acpi/start.d/

    Voila! After that the HDD never spins down on power (looks like it actually spins down on battery at modest rate). Sorry if the instruction is too detailed, no offense.

  • Disable Search Assistant on XP

    1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).
    2. Navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CabinetState subkey.
    3. From the Edit menu, select New, String Value.
    4. Enter a name of Use Search Asst
    5. Double-click the new value, type no in the “Value data” field to use the old search tool, and click OK.
    6. Close the registry editor.

  • Fix a Actiontec GT701

    Here is the fix for the Actiontec GT701 DSL router

     
    echo 8192 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_max
echo 3600 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established
echo 60 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_tcp_timeout_close_wait

    Link to article at DSL Reports

  • Disable Autorun on XP

    Another solution is go to the following key in the registry
    HKEY_CURRENT_USER-> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows ->CurrentVersion ->
    Policies -> Explorer
    Create a REG_DWORD – NoDriveTypeAutoRun , give it the following value –
    0x10
    Then restart explorer.

  • Setting default editor on Linux

    # update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/vi

  • Using Apache WebDAV on XP

    Using WebDAV from XP is a problem due to bugs in XP implementation of WebDAV support (it calls web folders).

    Here are some solutions I’ve found:

    http://ulihansen.kicks-ass.net/aero/webdav/

    http://www.chasen.name/apachewebdavforwebfolders(webfolders)

  • Mounting an old LVM disk

    DHCP server died at work today. We mounted the old hard disk on KNOPPIX and thought it would be easy to get the files off the bad hard disk. Well wouldn’t you know, the old dying hard disk is running LVM. Here are the commands needed to mount an old LVM disk.

    vgscan
    vgchange -a y
    mount -t ext3 /dev/my_volume_group/foo /mnt/backup

  • Blackberry Pearl 8100 and IOGear GBU321 Bluetooth Adapter

    I finally got the Blackberry Pearl to use my IOGear GBU321 Bluetooth Adapter. I had to remove the IOGear drivers, and trick Windows into thinking this device is certified so it would use Microsoft drivers. After that, a few setup steps and it was working!

    Link 1

    Link2

  • Updating to Debian Etch broke Amavis-Stats

    Updating to Debian Etch broke Amavis-Stats:

    Amavis Detection Statistics
    Daily Graphs
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    Weekly Graphs
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    Monthly Graphs
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    Yearly Graphs
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1
    amavis-stats::error: rrd_graph(): 1

    I searched Google for a solution but every other post on the subject suggested downgrading rrdtool. This is not an appropriate fix. I debugged the actual amavis-stats script and here is my fix. It involves commenting out some lines in /usr/share/amavis-stats/amavis-stats.php:

    Line 650:

    // $opts[] = "COMMENT:amavis-stats v$asVersion ";
    // $opts[] = "COMMENT:$enddate \\r";

    Line 771:

    // $opts[] = "COMMENT:amavis-stats v$asVersion ";
    // $opts[] = "COMMENT:$enddate" . str_replace(":", "\:", $enddate) . " \\r";