Category: Computer Stuff
While discussing my iBook linux project, an associate went on an unprovoked rant about apple. While I don’t completely agree with his point of view, it was a good rant…
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I finally took a crack at getting everything to work with the iBook on ubuntu. Well sort of. I have problems with sound, and with CD-AutoMount. The CD-Automount is related to a known bug in 9.10. Hopefully 10.4 will have this fixed. I can still mount from command line, and that is good enough for me. I don’t use this iBook for sound or media, so sound isn’t important to me either. Below is my list of requirements
My requirements
1 Functional Linux OS with GUI
2 Ethernet, and wifi with WPA
3 Power management including screen dimming and quick and reliable suspend and hibernation.
4 Ability to easily install applications with apt-get for computer network related tasks. This includes wire sniffers and network analyzers as well as functional web browsers (with flash and java) to help with researching problems.
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Are you in the market for a new computer? Or for a few hundred computers? Are you looking for a productive system with great performance?
This bug is very Windows’ish in its annoyance. If for some reason the computer crashes or is improperly shutdown then the computer will hang at its grub menu selection
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Our goal was a Moodle server with SSL logins and using Active Directory authentication. We want students to not get hassled on their logins with the profile settings and we don’t want moodle to require (or use) email. We intend for staff to regulate their classrooms enrolment using a classroom key. This streamlined login will present the least headache for our staff and students. Besides, who wants to sit at a server terminal and type things manually?
What is moodle? Well, if you don’t know what moodle is, then this information isn’t going to be very handy.
quick command line wpa with wpa_supplicant. Some older devices (like my iBook) are not real supported using gui WPA connection methods. But I can usually get the command line going.
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Being a linux guy, I’d suggest you install linux. Ubuntu is a very nice OS with a pretty window manager and with office suite and most other needed tools by default. You can surf the internet, check email, type papers and even play some games. You never have to worry about viruses, most malware, or ever need to defrag. If you are a die hard Windows user, or, more likely, just too scared to give linux a try then here are some things to make windows bearable.
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I rescued this 800mhz iBook G3 from the recycle bin. It didn’t even have OSX installed, the battery was nearly shot, and the case was scarred, but it was functional. The 12 inch screen is pleasant to look at and the keyboard is condensed, but it is a full size. This iBook is somewhere between a netbook and a notebook. But with old MacOS is mostly worthless, and even MacOSX isn’t very functional for my needs as a Computer and Network Technician.
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If you are stuck using ntbackup as your only backup software. There is still hope. As much as ntbackup sucks, with the proper commands ntbackup can actually behave well. With some work you can create a decent backup script and schedule it with schtasks or at. And with added programs like blat, you can even have the script email you like the expensive stuff.
Note: you should allways verify your backups and don’t trust any backup automation 100%. With ntbackup I’ve noticed that if it hits a bad hard drive sector or other file system or permission problem then the program will just crash outright. It would be nice if ntbackup would report the bad sector or file and then skip the bad file and try the next one.
Note: I have seen situations where the domain admin can’t run backups scheduled as a task. I usually create a backupadmin account and verify it is a member of the backup operators.
Here is a sample full backup script.
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
@ECHO OFF
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** SETUP Variables ****
REM **** and prepare for email ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************ECHO Start %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time1=%date%, %time%
set BKTARGET=\\UNC\d$\PATH\TO\YOUR\DATA
set BKUPNAME=BK.Full_YourBackupFilename.bkf
set Sender=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Receiver=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Host=youremailserver
set ScriptName=%~nx0
set Subject=%computername% %ScriptName%
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word data
set folder=%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\dataREM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Doing the backup ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
net start vss
ntbackup backup %BKTARGET% /j “%BKUPNAME%” /f Y:\%BKUPNAME% /V:yes
ntbackup backup systemstate /j “SystemState_%BKUPNAME%” /f “Y:\SystemState_%BKUPNAME%”REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Email the Log files ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Stop %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time2=%date%, %time%
NT\NTBackup\data
ECHO Exec-time %time1% to %time2% > “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
ECHO . >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM NOTE: E: (below) represents your backup drive if connected locally
vol e: >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
DIR Y:\%BKUPNAME% | FINDSTR %BKUPNAME% >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word %subject%”
blat.exe -bodyF “%temp%\email.txt” -to %Receiver% -f %Sender% -server %Host% -subject “%Subject%”
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
DEL /Q “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
Here is a sample differential backup script.
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
@ECHO OFF
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** SETUP Variables ****
REM **** and prepare for email ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Start %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time1=%date%, %time%
set BKTARGET=\\UNC\d$\PATH\TO\YOUR\DATA
set BKUPNAME=BK.Diff_YourBackupFilename.bkf
set Sender=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Receiver=yourmail@yourserver.com
set Host=youremailserver
set ScriptName=%~nx0
set Subject=%computername% %ScriptName%
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word data
set folder=%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows NT\NTBackup\dataREM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section **************
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM **** ****
REM **** Doing the backup ****
REM **** ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
cd D:\NTBACKUPScripts
net start vss
REM Warning, beware of word wrapping on the next 3 lines
ntbackup backup %BKTARGET% /j “%BKUPNAME%” /f Y:\%BKUPNAME% /M differential /V:yes
ntbackup backup systemstate /j “SystemState_%BKUPNAME%” /f “Y:\SystemState_%BKUPNAME%”
REM the following line is for exchange servers
ntbackup backup IS \%computername% DS \%computername% /v:yes /j “Exchange_%BKUPNAME%” /D “Exchange_%BKUPNAME%” /f %Destination%\Exchange_%BKUPNAME%REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ****
REM **** Email notifications
REM ****
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
ECHO Stop %~nx0, %DATE%, %time% >> BK.Log.csv
set time2=%date%, %time%REM ### EMAIL BODY
ECHO Exec-time %time1% to %time2% > “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
ECHO ————– >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM NOTE: E: (below) represents your backup drive if connected locally
vol e: >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
DIR Y:\%BKUPNAME% | FINDSTR %BKUPNAME% >> “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”
REM ### END EMAIL BODY
REM Warning, this next line may word wrap. It needs to end with the word %subject%”
blat.exe -bodyF “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt” -to %Receiver% -f %Sender% -server %Host% -subject “%Subject%”
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
REM ********* END of Section
REM ********************************************
REM ********************************************
DEL /Q “%temp%\%BKUPNAME%.email.txt”