Learning a little more about CentOS as I go along.

The config stuff isn’t in the same place as in Ubuntu/Debian, that’s for sure. It’s in /etc/sysconfig

Instead of configuring stuff by hand, there are text-mode configurators. Here’s a list of the ones I found:

[root@centos etc]# system-config-
system-config-httpd              system-config-samba
system-config-network            system-config-securitylevel
system-config-network-cmd        system-config-securitylevel-tui
system-config-network-tui        system-config-services
system-config-nfs

Getting CentOS up on Virtualbox

Struggling a little with CentOS on Virtualbox.

yum install -y gcc
yum install -y kernel-sources kernel-devel

Then you need to create a symbolic link to the kernel source:

ln -s /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-92.1.18.el5-i686 /usr/src/linux

After this it is best to reboot the machine:

shutdown -r now

Once the machine has come back online you can mount the Guest additions ISO and install them via one of two commands depending on your architecture:

sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

VMware Server 2 and vmrun.exe backups

1. Make sure that

PATH=C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;c:\program files\vmware\vmware server;

is added to the path on the host.

2. Commiting a snapshot:

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u username -p password snapshot "[test_store] vmfolder/vmname.vmx" BackupName

3. To release a snapshot, use the same line as #2, but change “snapshot” to “deletesnapshot”.

4. Snapshot files end with *-000001.vmdk* and those can be omitted in robocopy with /XF flag.

robocopy c:\vmpath\vmdir c:\destination\vmdir /E /R:0 /W:0 /XF *00001.vmdk*  /XD *.lck* /XF *.vmem

I have arrived at this script, which seems to work thus far:

REM ******************************
REM * Backup VMware 2.x Machines *
REM ******************************

@Echo off

Echo %time%

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u jhunt -p ******** snapshot "[C] vm_dev2008/vm_dev2008.vmx" Backup

robocopy "C:\virtual machines\vm_dev2008" \\10.0.2.2\vmbackups\vm_dev2008 /E /R:0 /W:0 /XF *00001.vmdk* /XF *.vmsn /XD *.lck* /XF *.vmem

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u jhunt -p ******** deletesnapshot "[C] vm_dev2008/vm_dev2008.vmx" Backup

Echo %time%

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u jhunt -p ******** snapshot "[C] vm_sputnik_2/vm_sputnik_2.vmx" Backup

robocopy "C:\virtual machines\vm_sputnik_2 \\10.0.2.2\vmbackups\vm_sputnik_2 /E /R:0 /W:0 /XF *00001.vmdk* /XF *.vmsn /XD *.lck* /XF *.vmem

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u username-p ******** deletesnapshot "[C] vm_sputnik_2/vm_sputnik_2.vmx" Backup

Echo %time%

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u username -p ******** snapshot "[F] vm_dev/vm_dev.vmx" Backup

robocopy "F:\vm_dev" \\10.0.2.2\vmbackups\vm_dev /E /R:0 /W:0 /XF *00001.vmdk* /XF *.vmsn /XD *.lck* /XF *.vmem

vmrun -T server -h https://localhost:8333/sdk -u username -p ******** deletesnapshot "[F] vm_dev/vm_dev.vmx" Backup

Echo %time%

VMWare Fusion and Snow Leopard

I had some difficulty with Snow Leopard and VMWare Fusion today.  Booting up a VM, I get the error:

ERROR: the network bridge device on /dev/vmnet0 is not running.

I think this is some change to how the daemon gets called up during boot – or fails to now, rather.

There’s a fix to this:

cd /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/

sudo ./boot.sh --restart

This produces some output like this:

VMware Fusion 159196: Shutting down VMware Fusion:
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk - (libkern/kext) not found.
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmmon not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmmon - (libkern/kext) not found.

VMware Fusion 159196: Starting VMware Fusion:
Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0
Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.
All rights reserved.

Please contribute if you find this software useful.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Configured subnet: 172.16.218.0
Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 172.16.218.254
Opened:
Recving on     VNet/vmnet8/172.16.218.0
Sending on     VNet/vmnet8/172.16.218.0
Internet Software Consortium DHCP Server 2.0
Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Internet Software Consortium.
All rights reserved.

Please contribute if you find this software useful.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/dhcp-contrib.html

Configured subnet: 172.16.69.0
Setting vmnet-dhcp IP address: 172.16.69.254
Opened:
Recving on     VNet/vmnet1/172.16.69.0
Sending on     VNet/vmnet1/172.16.69.0

Afterwards, networking is fine. I’ll have to come up with something a little more elegant – or at least not requiring a jaunt to the terminal every time I reboot.

Xbox 360 vs. PS3 side-by-side

I was talking with someone the other day about the 360 consistently showing better graphics and anti-aliasing than the PS3.  I saw this link at Eurogamer and it’s pretty much a side-by-side of every cross platform game on the two consoles.  They’ve really done an admirable job of getting the frame for frame exact footage too.  Bravo.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/xbox-360-vs-ps3-face-off-round-19-article

Note the list of all 18 previous articles in the series further down that page.

Transformers Voice Actors

Ubuntu: Edit Grub Boot Loader Entries

This howto stolen from [Grumpymole]

The reason that you will usually want to change boot parameters is to configure the default kernel to something specific to your hardware. Grub allows you to change a boot parameter temporarily , in which case it won’t survive a system reboot, or permanently, which means that it will. When trying to fix something on your machine using kernel parameters, a reasonably safe way to proceed is to first make the changes temporarily, check that you get what you expect, and then make the change permanent.

If changing kernel boot parameters sound scary, it isn’t. None of the boot parameters that I have come across are destructive in any way. The worst result could be that your machine hangs until you restart it. Even if you make the change permanently, you always still have the opportunity of intercepting the Grub boot and changing the parameter back.
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VMWare IRC Chatting

Chatting with the #vmware gang about my ESX issues.

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Cleaning up Del.icio.us

I went through my 16 pages of bookmarks tonight and blew out the trash.  Also, simplified my tags down to a pretty minimal set.

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Win7 feature walkthrough videos

http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!5208.entry