STATUS updates
=====TODO=====

  * the formular plugin is giving me errors, need to figure this out (email assignment form)
  * use include plugin to include a page containing various prior month status pages
  * can I install writer2latex on wildebeest herd without needing gcj??

=====URLs=====

Some links of interest:

  * http://www.freelists.org/post/dokuwiki/invoke-mediamanager-in-a-plugin,2
  * unrelated: http://infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/run-it-business-why-thats-train-wreck-waiting-happen-477
  * [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggB33d0BLcY&feature=player_embedded#|laddergoat]]
  * [[http://www.llvm.org/|LLVM]]
  * [[http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php?title=Howto_set_the_background|Fluxbox config]]
  * [[http://www.reocities.com/harpin_floh/glglobe_page.html|GLglobe]]
  * [[http://www.heavens-above.com/|Heavens Above]]
=====Other Days=====
=====July 22nd, 2010=====
====bt4final pxe live netboot====
I succeeded in getting a working BackTrack 4 final available via the LAIR netboot menu (added a new "Security" sub-menu).

Pertinent configuration bits follow:

===security.cfg in boot-screens/===

<code>
menu width 64
label bt4final
    menu label ^BackTrack 4 Final (Live)
    menu default
    kernel distros/security/bt4final/vmlinuz
    append initrd=distros/security/bt4final/initrd.gz vga=0x317 boot=casper max_loop=255 init=/etc/init ramdisk_size=6666 netboot=nfs nfsroot=10.80.2.3:/export/tftpboot/distros/security/bt4final nomce quiet apm=power-off nodhcp noprompt noeject root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf;kdm
</code>

There could still be some tweaking... but this worked.

===Add a security stanza to menu.cfg in boot-screens/===

Pretty straightforward (just copy and modify an existing stanza):

<code>
menu begin Security
    menu title Security
    include boot-screens/security.cfg
    label mainmenu
        menu label ^Back..
        menu exit
menu end
</code>

===/etc/exports NFS share for bt4final===
<code>
/export/tftpboot/distros/security/bt4final/ *(ro,no_root_squash,async,no_subtree_check)
</code>

I then refreshed the export list via an: exportfs -rv

Lit right up.

===NFS share for bt4final===
bt4final lives in /export/tftpboot/distros/security/bt4final on nfs.

It contains the following files (which were copied off a loopback mount of the bt4final iso):

<cli>
nfs:/export/tftpboot/distros/security/bt4final$ ls
.   casper               filesystem.manifest-desktop  initrd800.gz  initrd.gz
..  filesystem.manifest  filesystem.squashfs          initrdfr.gz   vmlinuz
nfs:/export/tftpboot/distros/security/bt4final$ 
</cli>

"casper" is a symlink to "." (not sure if it is needed, I added it when I was debugging it when it wasn't working).

The initrd* and vmlinuz came off the boot/ directory on the ISO... the filesystem.* stuff off the casper/ directory.

===conclusion===

Pretty much slap it all in and go... this really wasn't too difficult.

Useful links:

  * http://forums.remote-exploit.org/newbie-area/10784-bt3-live-cd-vs-usb-version.html
  * http://forums.remote-exploit.org/newbie-area/11577-pxe-boot-backtrack-3-beta.html
  * http://www.offensive-security.com/documentation/btjtrmpi.pdf
  * http://forums.remote-exploit.org/newbie-area/7125-jtr-mpi-instant-cluster-modules-mirrors.html

Interestingly, there is a cluster-mode john the ripper add-on for this.. which may or may not already be there... we will be exploring adding this functionality, as it would be interesting to have (especially for demonstration purposes).

Should pretty just as straightforward to add in DVL.

====sokraits rebooted====
During the afternoon, I noticed sokraits was spewing the "nv_interrupt(6)" message in dmesg output, so before I left I shutdown all the VMs, updated any packages, and restarted sokraits... so hopefully it is now taking advantage of some new forcedeth module options I had discovered a while back:

<code>
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
# Parameters can be specified after the module name.

loop max_loop=255
forcedeth max_interrupt_work=20 optimization_mode=1 poll_interval=100
sbp2
nfs
</code>

=====July 1st, 2010=====
====Mac: Revert to iTunes 9.1.1 from 9.2====
I had a need to downgrade iTunes. The process of course wasn't run of the mill, so I have documented the adventure.

First, obtain the older version of iTunes that you didn't just have sitting around (because you never think to hold on to old copies, ever).

I was able (and surprised) to find it on Apple's site, via their support site:

  * http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1036\

har har. Downloaded.

Next, we need to get some existing files out of the way. I backed them up into archives so I could restore 9.2 if there were any lingering issues.

<code bash>
##
## Get 9.2's preferences out of the way
##
cd /User/user/Library/Preferences
tar cvf iTunes.tar com.apple.iTunes*
gzip -9 iTunes.tar
rm -f com.apple.iTunes*
cd /User/user/Music/iTunes

##
## Get the iTunes application out of the way
##
cd /Applications
tar cvf iTunes.tar iTunes.app
gzip -9 iTunes.tar
rm -rf iTunes.app

##
## Restore the 9.1.1 iTunes Library database (otherwise it'll whine and won't start)
##
mv iTunes\ Library iTunes\ Library.old
cp Previous\ iTunes\ Libraries/iTunes\ Library\ 2010-06-21 iTunes\ Library
</code>

You can now commence with installing the older version of iTunes. It'll act like you're running it for the first time (since we got rid of the preferences files), but the library is there. I would imagine that any settings (like MP3 encoding) might not be there if they were changed, but since I have everything backed up, that shouldn't be a huge problem (just revert back to 9.2 "in the futOre").

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