OMG OMG OMG… I have lost my grub!1!1…

Hi folks…

I have heard this sort of whining on many occasions… The most often cases of grub borkage that I have heard about are “I had a problem with Windows and I had to reinstall it and I can only boot to Windows now and not to my PCLinuxOS…”. Second one is “I have installed a second distro on my HDD and it comes with Grub 2 and now it shows both OSes as choice but it only boots to one…”.

Today I will try to show You how to fix the first case.

1. Boot to PCLinuxOS LiveCD.
2. Check what partitions are listed on Your HDD

A) Open terminal
B) Type in su
C) Type in root’s password: root
D) Type in fdisk -l (fdisk space dash lowercase L)

The output will look somewhat like this:

[root@icsserver andrzejl]# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x24502450

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 97691264 48845601 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 52420095 312576704 130078305 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 63 52420094 26210016 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 52420158 56613059 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 56613123 77577884 10482381 83 Linux

This tells us that the HDD is a 160 GB one. And that it has Windows (red one) and Linux (green and blue) partitions on it. Partition sda1 is NTFS formatted. Partitions sda5 and sda7 are formatted with some Linux file system (ext4 more then likely) and sda5 is formatted as swap. If it only shows Windows partitions – I am afraid I have bad news… If it shows both Windows and Linux partitions – You’re good to go.

Now we need to install the Grub in the MBR (Master Boot Record).

In the same terminal type in:

A) grub and press ENTER
B) This will open (after a while) the grub command line editor with a prompt:

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub>

C) Now type in find /boot/grub/menu.lst and press ENTER

D) This will return some value (different for everyone) in my case:

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
(hd0,0)

This means that the menu.lst file is located on the first (hd0) hard drive and on the partition number 1 (grub sees the partitions in a “weird” way – always -1 so if it shows 0 – it means first partition). So hd0 – disk 1, 0 – partition 1. Now this also tells us one more thing hd0,0 is (more then likely) our / (root) partition.

Soooo knowing all this You need to type in two commands (modified to reflect the output of the find command):

root (hd0,0)

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

setup (hd0)

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage1” exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/stage2” exists… yes
Checking if “/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5” exists… yes
Running “embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)”… 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running “install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.lst”… succeeded
Done.

and then type in quit to go back to normal terminal prompt.

That’s it – You have just reinstalled Your grub. Now type in reboot press ENTER and keep Your fingers and toes crossed :).

Hope this helps.

Regards.

Andrzej

Incompatible Firefox Nightly / Aurora add-on? Stop cussing. Don't panic. Put that knife / gun down… There is a simple fix.

Hi all.

To enable incompatible add-on on Nightly / Aurora disable extension compatibility check. To disable extension compatibility checking on trunk builds:

A) type in about:config in the address bar.
B) Click “I will be careful I promise”
C) Right-click in page and choose New
D) Choose Boolean
E) Type in or paste extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly
F) Set the value to False.

For Aurora use extensions.checkCompatibility.aurora.

There. Problem solved.

Regards.

Andy

NO. Thunderbird project is NOT dead / inactive / abandoned…

Hi.

I have heard something today that made my heart stop for a moment… “Thunderbird is no longer developed…”

That’s not true… I went to the #thunderbird channel on the irc.mozilla.org server and asked… As a reply I got a very interesting link.

Thunderbird’s future from the inside.

So I asked just to clarify:

14:37 pfeeeeew… so basically Thunderbird wont be adding new things unless they are really needed and will just be “developped” in the meaning of security patches and bug fixes rather then adding new shiny stuff?

14:37 AndrzejL: something like that

So… No guys – Thunderbird is not going to die anytime soon. It’s gonna be developed in a slightly different way.

Thanks for reading.

Andy

Edit 01: Another good link: About the future of Thunderbird.
Edit 02: And another one: No, that’s not “it” for Thunderbird…

Update Your LastPass to version 2.0!

Hi folks!

LastPass has just released LastPass 2.0… With new and exciting features! As they stated on their blog:

We’re super excited to announce the release of LastPass 2.0! We’re expanding the core functionality of our password manager while adding significant improvements, both on the front-end and behind-the-scenes.

LastPass 2.0 features:

– Attachment support for documents and images,
– Free credit monitoring alerts for users in the United States,

Want to read the entire blog post? Click here.

I really _do_ recommend LastPass addon for storing, managing and generating Your passwords:

For those that want to find out more about LastPass:

Our Latest Video Introduces LastPass Basics
Just getting started with LastPass? Want to recommend our product to family, friends, or colleagues? Our new introductory video gives you an overview of our essential features, including:

Logging in to your account,
Saving and autofilling a site,
Managing your sites in your Vault,
Generating a new password with LastPass,
Creating a form fill profile for online shopping,
Syncing to new computers, and
Upgrading to Premium for mobile access.

Getting Started with LastPass. [YouTube VIDEO]

I use it in my Firefox Nightly browser. Has yet to disappoint me… So far it’s been a pure pleasure.

I recommended it to many people and one of my Friends recently told me that I was right… Once You get used to LastPass it’s just irreplaceable… He hated it at first. I remember it pretty well as I was getting the “hate updates” via IM :D.

Some people in the past reacted in a weird way when I told them about LastPass… Their comments were usually orbiting around something like “Why on earth would I give my passwords to a third party…?”. The answer is – You are not giving them to anyone. The passwords ARE being stored on a LastPass servers – yes BUT they are not being sent / stored in a plain text. This would be stupid / reckless / dangerous and trust me paranoid person like myself would never ever do stupid thing like that and neither would I recommend doing so to any of You. The passwords are encrypted using state of the art crypto with the key that only You have access to and they are being sent to the LastPass server as a blob of meaningless data that no one can decrypt but You. For more technical info I invite You to watch, read or listen to Steve and Leo in episode 256 of the Security Now! podcast where Steve explains in details security features behind the LastPass project. I am sure You will be satisfied with the amount of info and technical details provided.

LastPass… _Very_ security aware, very safe, very user friendly, very very very handy.

I hope You will at least try it.

Regards.

Andy

Manually upgrading Bind / Named to version 9.9.1-P1 [Security patches].

Hi folks.

Latest Bind / Named version was released several days ago to patch this vulnerability.

The thread was started on PCLinuxOS Forum in the appropriate section to request it being upgraded but from what I can see members / devs are not really in the rush to get this version into the repository as almost no one votes for it or reports it as being looked at… Who would give a hairy rat’s behind about some stupid security patch huh? Right… Well I do.

So I have decided to just compile this thing myself. I have left the repository Bind installed and I have done this:

su

root's password

export PREFIX=`echo /usr/`

export PATH=$PREFIX/bin:$PATH

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig:$PREFIX/share/pkgconfig

cd /opt/

mkdir Bind

cd Bind

wget -c ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/bind9/9.9.1-P1/bind-9.9.1-P1.tar.gz

tar xvzf ./bind-9.9.1-P1.tar.gz

cd bind-9.9.1-P1

./configure --prefix=$PREFIX --sysconfdir=/etc/

You can expect missing dependencies here. I had no problems whatsoever as I have a good few “devel” packages installed – try figuring out what You’re missing if You do run into a snag, then install it from Synaptic (without closing this window) and re-run the above configure step till there are no errors.

make

make install

ls --full /var/lib/named/var/

one of the listed items should look like this:

drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 2012-06-15 23:51:43.468278052 +0100 named/

ls --full /var/lib/named/var/named

chown named:named /var/lib/named/var/named/

drwxr-xr-x 7 named named 4096 2012-06-15 23:51:43.468278052 +0100 named/

Now in this terminal window type in

tail -f /var/log/syslog

and leave it be.

Open another terminal window and run those commands:

su

root's password

named -v

the reply should look like this:

BIND 9.9.1-P1

service named restart

and the reply should look something like this:

Stopping named:                        [ OK ]
Starting named:                          [ OK ]

and in the same time in the first terminal window You should see output similar to this:

Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: starting BIND 9.9.1-P1 -u named -t /var/lib/named
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: built with ‘–prefix=/usr/’ ‘–sysconfdir=/etc/’
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: —————————————————-
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: BIND 9 is maintained by Internet Systems Consortium,
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: Inc. (ISC), a non-profit 501(c)(3) public-benefit
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: corporation. Support and training for BIND 9 are
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: available at https://www.isc.org/support
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: —————————————————-
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: using 1 UDP listener per interface
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: using up to 4096 sockets
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: loading configuration from ‘/etc/named.conf’
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: reading built-in trusted keys from file ‘/etc/named.iscdlv.key’
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: statistics channel listening on 127.0.0.1#5380
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: using default UDP/IPv4 port range: [1024, 65535]
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: using default UDP/IPv6 port range: [1024, 65535]
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: listening on IPv4 interface lo, 127.0.0.1#53
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: listening on IPv4 interface eth1, 192.168.0.1#53
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: listening on IPv4 interface ppp0, 31.200.150.65#53
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: generating session key for dynamic DNS
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: sizing zone task pool based on 19 zones
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: using built-in DLV key for view _default
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: set up managed keys zone for view _default, file ‘/var/named/dynamic/managed-keys.bind’
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 10.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 16.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 17.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 18.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 19.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 20.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 21.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 22.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 23.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 24.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 25.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 26.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 27.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 28.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 29.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 30.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 31.172.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 127.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 254.169.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 2.0.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 100.51.198.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 113.0.203.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 255.255.255.255.IN-ADDR.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: D.F.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 8.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 9.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: A.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: B.E.F.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: automatic empty zone: 8.B.D.0.1.0.0.2.IP6.ARPA
Jun 16 00:19:13 icsserver named[791]: command channel listening on 127.0.0.1#953

This should be it… You have compiled and are running latest patched version of Bind…

Regards.

Andy

The FOSS Convergance – Hootiegibbon opens 'alternative / open' os online service for friends…

Well done Hootie!

Here is the blog addy and few words from the founder:

Welcome to The FOSS Convergance, the place where like minds with different operatings systems can meet, chat, swap and exchange ideas freely and without confines beyond that listed here.

Keep threads on topic (ie the subject line context)

Be nice – we welcome all here – even Windows users who are curious

You can be a critic , but do not BASH, we do not like bashing here.

Keep it FAMILY friendly, teh Minimum age on this forum is 13 bare that in mind.

Obey the Law (US/UK and your locality) , no copyright or DRM infringements please.

No real world politics, or other “flame-bate”.

Use GOOD subject lines think about your subject

When posting for help in a section add !HELP! to the beginning of the subject and mark it !SOLVED! at the end of subject when it is solved

These simple terms may expand as time and necessity moves on

I am already registered on the forum… Are You?

Service also has IRC channel 🙂 and a Twitter account.

Link for Twitter rss feeder:

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=fossconvergence

Cheers.

Andy

Forgot to do aptupgrade? Don't panic… You can still try to upgrade Your system.

Hi folks.

Sometime (several months) ago there was a “demand” from PCLinuxOS devs to install and run aptupgrade package. This was a crucial package. Everywhere on the forum (and WoTW) there were reminders about doing this. Why was it so important? Because it was upgrading apt, rpm and their libraries. Also synaptic package manager was upgraded.

Whoever did not upgraded it in time (few months window) should reinstall with fresh copy of the latest iso after creating a list of all the installed apps and backing up their ~ folder… Why? Because the packages created using the latest rpm would not be compatible with the systems that were not upgraded.

That was the suggested solution. Reinstall. BUT what if You do not want to (cannot) install from scratch due to many personal tweaks and / or for any other valid (even if just for You) reasons?

If You are desperate / brave / crazy enough and You are willing to take some risks like myself – please continue reading… I don’t have to tell You that I don’t take any responsibility for borked system right? Right…

Last night I have visited a friend who is dual-booting XP and PCLinuxOS. I tried to install gparted and noticed he did not upgraded his lappy for 10 months or so… I tried to upgrade it but all I got was librpm dependency problems – no matter what I did… SO… I said right – aptupgrade was not done…

So here is (more / less) what I did to fix it ;)… (I am skipping all the investigation steps).

Open terminal and run:

su

followed by

root's password

and then…

cd /root/

wget -c http://andrzejl.cyryl.net/WoTW/WoTW_files/aptupgrade/aptupgrade-1.0-7pclos2011.src.rpm

rpm -ivh /root/aptupgrade-1.0-7pclos2011.src.rpm

unxz /root/rpmbuild/SOURCES/aptupgrade-1.0.tar.xz

cd /root/rpmbuild/SOURCES

tar xvf ./aptupgrade-1.0.tar

cd ./aptupgrade-1.0

rpm -ivh --nodeps --force --ignorearch --ignoresize --ignoreos ./*.rpm

rm -f /root/aptupgrade-1.0-7pclos2011.src.rpm

rm -Rf /root/rpmbuild/

BE CAREFUL WHILE USING THE RM COMMANDS!

NOW… Leave this terminal window open and follow this very important step.

Open synaptic. When it reloads you will get (3 or 4) errors (in one error window) about multiple versions of packages (like apt, libapt and synaptic) being installed. Write down the names of these packages and OK the message. Now search for those packages in synaptic. You will find that indeed there are multiple versions installed. Compare their version numbers and “Mark for complete removal” the older versions. Apply the changes. Wait for the packages being removed and synaptic to reload. Close and reopen synaptic. There maybe another message about duplicate packages. Write down their names, find them, mark the older versions for complete removal, apply, wait till finished, close and reopen synaptic. Repeat till there are no duplicate packages error messages when starting synaptic. I guess this could be done by using dupeclean package but I did it by hand just to make sure nothing really important won’t get removed when dealing with duplicates. When this is done close synaptic.

Now go back to that terminal window that You had open and type in:

apt-get update

and when done

apt-get dist-upgrade

wait for the question about installing / upgrading / removing etc etc etc… read, understand and if all ok – confirm by pressing y and punching enter.

Wait till it finishes and reboot. Why not use synaptic to do the upgrade? Because I was afraid that replacing / upgrading so many crucial system libraries after such a long time of not upgrading the system at all could crash synaptic in the middle of the upgrade and it could cause system-wide corruptions and multiple problems.

On a side note…

Last night at my friends house I got 937 packages to be upgraded, 36 new to be installed and 33 to be removed. Over 1080 MB of upgrades… After upgrading and rebooting system worked perfect without a tiniest issue. Even funnier… I forgot that I had testing section enabled and upgraded fully from it… I said I will bite the bullet and will upgrade his kernel to the testing version as well… Kernel 3.2.16-bfs was installed without a tiniest hiccup…

So did You fully rebooted? Check for updates using Synaptic as You normally would. In the future don’t forget to upgrade at least every 2 week and sporadically check forum for any important announcements for Your distro.

Regards.

Andrzej

3 great irssi scripts: autorejoin.pl keepnick.pl splitlong.pl

Hi all.

This is another post about Irssi – awesome irc client… Please make sure that You have read the previous posts before complaining that something is not working. Sometimes solution to Your problem is being posted during the installation process in previous posts.

Today we are gonna install more irssi scripts ;)…

First of them is autorejoin.pl. As the name suggests it automatically reconnects You to a channel after You were kicked or dropped. Second is keepnick.pl. If You haven’t registered with irc network keeping Your default nick can be problematic. Sometimes someone else will be using it. Keepnick will get You that nick whenever the person that uses it leaves the server. Third one is handy too. It’s called splitlong.pl and it splits Your long messages to a shorter ones 🙂 so they don’t get pruned by the server maximal message length setting :).

cd ~/.irssi/scripts/ && wget -c http://scripts.irssi.org/scripts/autorejoin.pl && wget -c http://scripts.irssi.org/scripts/keepnick.pl && wget -c http://scripts.irssi.org/scripts/splitlong.pl && cd ~/.irssi/scripts/autorun/ && ln -s ../autorejoin.pl && ln -s ../keepnick.pl && ln -s ../splitlong.pl

You may want to edit the ~/.irssi/scripts/autorejoin.pl file (line 25) and change the my $delay value from 5 to lets say 15 or 20… Some channel operators hate this script and you may get banned for using it there but normally it’s ok…

In irssi window run the following commands:

/load keepnick.pl

/load autorejoin.pl

/load splitlong.pl

/keepnick YourNick

Don’t forget to change YourNick to Your actual nickname ;).

/set splitlong_max_length 300

Voila… Installed and configured.

Now whenever you get kicked / dropped from the channel You will rejoin in (by default) 5 seconds, Your Irssi will try keeping Your nickname for You and if You type something longer then 300 characters Your irssi will split the text for You so it does not get pruned ;)…

Regards.

Andy