Tag Archives: sysadmin

Why an IBM ThinkPad X20 BIOS update took me five days

Because

  • my docking station DVD is dead
  • see that floppy and non-floppy BIOS updates  are available
  • BOTH are .EXEs
  • download BIOS updates
  • one is bigger than 1.4M so it won't fit on a floppy !
  • build W2K VM
  • download floppy .EXE
  • discover it's an OS-2 .EXE !!!
  • built a W98 HD on a IBM ThinkPad T20
  • swapped HDs (using screwdriver)
  • W98 didn't recognise network card and asked to insert W98 CD
  • swapped HDs
  • added W98 directory from CD
  • swapped HDs
  • W98 still didn't reconise network card
  • plugged in external USB DVD
  • asked to insert driver CD
  • [i don't have a working CD which is why I am using USB DVD] 
  • swapped HDs
  • build W2K HD (including copies of W2K CD and USB DVD CD)
  • onboard network still not dected !
  • insert 3COM PCMCIA network card
  • install 3COM driveres
  • download non-floppy BIOS updates onto HD
  • swapped HDs

  • swapped HDs

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Apache and the XHTML MIME type

Centralize user accounts with OpenLDAP

Sun BigAdmin for SysAdmins

Sun have created a BigAdmin site and community for SysAdmins containing the Solaris HCL and links to articles such as

  • The Best File System in the World?
  • Solaris 10 Installation on VMware ESX Server 2.5.x
  • Getting Started with OpenSolaris Using VMware
  • A Tutorial on Using Rsync

as well as a section on shell commands.

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Opensource FreeDOS floppy and ISO images

FreeDOS is open source software; you can view and edit our source code. Their website contains floppy, fdbasecd and fdfullcd (a live-cd) images that you can download and boot your PC from.

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OpenSUSE Software Installs & Updates (via a proxy server)

If you ever need to use a proxy server with OpenSUSE zen-installer or zen-updater have a look at
http://www.osde.info/HttpProxy

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VMware Server Management User Interface

VMware Server MUI screenshot

vmwaremui.png
vmwaremui.png

VMware Server MUI is a web based system monitor runs on port 8222 or 8333 and lets you start, stop and see CPU utilisation of your VMs. It is a completely optional component and you can just use VMware Server Console if you prefer.

Even though VMware is free-of-charge it is not an opensource virtualiser like XenSource

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