Recent purchase of a Canon 60D meant I needed to be on plugin version 6.4.1 in order to read the CR2 file format. Never previously having to upgrade from 6.1 I jumped straight in.
Downloaded the .dmg, ran, fail ... error : updates not available.
After lots of trial and error I found installing each update sequentially, 1-3 and then finally .4 solved the problem.
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Friday, 17 June 2011
Adding Console to Windows 7 Context Menu
Windows 7 has the menu item 'open command here' when you shift, right click a folder. As a Console user I wanted to open this rather than the generic windows cmd.
In trying to actually find out about something else I stumbled across :
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\command
Change (Default) to :
"\Console.exe" /s /k pushd "%V"
eg
"C:\Program Files\Console2\Console.exe" /s /k pushd "%V"
You can also put a pretty little icon on the menu :
Create string value :
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\Icon and make data the path of the exe, dll with the icon.
In trying to actually find out about something else I stumbled across :
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\command
Change (Default) to :
"
eg
"C:\Program Files\Console2\Console.exe" /s /k pushd "%V"
You can also put a pretty little icon on the menu :
Create string value :
Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\cmd\Icon and make data the path of the exe, dll with the icon.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
JIRA Regex mail handler and Domino
I've been building a JIRA project to consolidate a number of tickets systems that we use. As a previous JIRA hater I started the project with some trepidation. After a month I've actually come right around. I've managed to build something which now has pretty much the same functions as the other bespoke domino systems we use/used and extra. Including some nice workflows for ops work which would impact dev and production.
Something thats bugged us all is the email reply into comments. Our primary mail client, Domino, really wants you to use reply with history, its top of all the menu's, its hard not to pick it. But doing this with JIRA means ALL the email, including history goes into the comment. When a few people get going on email the ticket very quickly becomes un-readable.
Using just 'reply' or 'reply internet style' can be made to work, but both require a conscious decision.
Looking for a way around this the regex mail handler looked promising. My initial attempt :
project=NAME, issuetype=##, createusers=false, splitregex=/From:/gi
Failed, the regex looks OK to me. A ticket with Atlassian came back with the suggestion :
project=NAME, issuetype=##, createusers=false, splitregex=/From:*/
Which works fine .. no more email junk even if the user replies with history.
Something thats bugged us all is the email reply into comments. Our primary mail client, Domino, really wants you to use reply with history, its top of all the menu's, its hard not to pick it. But doing this with JIRA means ALL the email, including history goes into the comment. When a few people get going on email the ticket very quickly becomes un-readable.
Using just 'reply' or 'reply internet style' can be made to work, but both require a conscious decision.
Looking for a way around this the regex mail handler looked promising. My initial attempt :
project=NAME, issuetype=##, createusers=false, splitregex=/From:/gi
Failed, the regex looks OK to me. A ticket with Atlassian came back with the suggestion :
project=NAME, issuetype=##, createusers=false, splitregex=/From:*/
Which works fine .. no more email junk even if the user replies with history.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Facebook privacy debate, face recognition.
I use Facebook, and I of course have obligatory 'friends' who actually aren't really friends at all. Some I have an interest in (see below) and some I just said yes to in the furor of Facebooks release and growth. Most are people I know, or did know, some I work with, some family, and then there are some real friends.
But nearly all the regular Facebook contributors I come across use it for two things:
I guess #1 is really social media feeding the basic human instinct of survival. Look at me I did this, I own this, I went here. Therefor I must be more intelligent than you as I have a better job, earn more money, and so I will survive, and you will not.
Maybe I'm being cynical and people just want to 'share'. Which is fine, but if your going to share or use social media to keep a score then please don't think that ticking that little box makes your data private.
What do you think the motivation is behind these companies ? Its to make money. How ? By having the most data and doing shit with it. Everything you do will be tracked. Pictures, links, status updates, wall posts. ALL will all be analyzed to the nth degree and used in a way to make money.
Face recognition is the latest headline news to hit the Daily Mail spin machine. How long do you think Facebook have been doing this privately ? .. Google already do it with Picasa. You chose to put your pictures on the web. A public place, with two billion users (correct at date of writing, 2 billion and 1, 2 billion and 5, I can't keep up !). And then you want privacy and protection ? - good luck, welcome to the future.
But nearly all the regular Facebook contributors I come across use it for two things:
- How am I doing versus x ?
- A replacement of sending junk email links to everyone in your address book*
* Notice how your inbox is no longer full of emails from 'friends', or in my case my mother, telling you to look at this link, watch out for this virus when you make a coffee and stir the spoon the wrong way which will allow access to all your bank accounts, credit cards and library membership. All stopped. Facebook, thank you !
I guess #1 is really social media feeding the basic human instinct of survival. Look at me I did this, I own this, I went here. Therefor I must be more intelligent than you as I have a better job, earn more money, and so I will survive, and you will not.
Maybe I'm being cynical and people just want to 'share'. Which is fine, but if your going to share or use social media to keep a score then please don't think that ticking that little box makes your data private.
What do you think the motivation is behind these companies ? Its to make money. How ? By having the most data and doing shit with it. Everything you do will be tracked. Pictures, links, status updates, wall posts. ALL will all be analyzed to the nth degree and used in a way to make money.
Face recognition is the latest headline news to hit the Daily Mail spin machine. How long do you think Facebook have been doing this privately ? .. Google already do it with Picasa. You chose to put your pictures on the web. A public place, with two billion users (correct at date of writing, 2 billion and 1, 2 billion and 5, I can't keep up !). And then you want privacy and protection ? - good luck, welcome to the future.
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Monday, 6 June 2011
Sending IBM/Lotus Domino eMails from Excel
Heres your macro :
Public Sub emailme()
Dim noSession As Object, noDatabase As Object, noDocument As Object
Dim vaRecipient As Variant
Dim rnbody As Range
Dim rnbody1 As Range
Dim Data As DataObject
Const stSubject As String = "P.O. Issues" ****
Const stMsg As String = "Do you have an update on the following:"****
Const stPrompt As String = "Please select the range:"****
vaRecipient = VBA.Array("your email address.com")****A MUST****
On Error Resume Next
Set rnbody = Application.InputBox("Please choose the range", Type:=8)
On Error GoTo 0
If rnbody Is Nothing _
Then MsgBox "RNG is nothing" _
Else 'MsgBox rnbody.Address
rnbody.Select
Set rnbody1 = Range(rnbody, rnbody.Offset(0, 3))************
rnbody1.Select
Set noSession = CreateObject("Notes.NotesSession")
Set noDatabase = noSession.GETDATABASE("", "")
If noDatabase.IsOpen = False Then noDatabase.OPENMAIL
Set noDocument = noDatabase.CreateDocument
rnbody1.Copy
Set Data = New DataObject
Data.GetFromClipboard
With noDocument
.Form = "Memo"
.SendTo = vaRecipient
.Subject = stSubject
.body = stMsg & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & Data.GetText
.SaveMessageOnSend = True
End With
With noDocument
.PostedDate = Now()
.Send 0, vaRecipient
Set noDocument = Nothing
Set noDatabase = Nothing
Set noSession = Nothing
'Activate Excel for the user.
AppActivate "Microsoft Excel"
Application.CutCopyMode = False
MsgBox "The e-mail has successfully been created and distributed.", vbInformation
End With
End SubReplace the ***** parts with your particular details.
You may need to change the following line :
Set rnbody1 = Range(rnbody, rnbody.Offset(0, 3))************
This by default will use the first cell plus the 3 cells to the right.
I then applied that to a button, but another way I found was to put the following code in your worksheet {copy code,right click sheet tab name, select view code, & paste}
Any cell with the words 'Send Me' in can then be double clicked to invoke the macro.
Private Sub Worksheet_BeforeDoubleClick(ByVal Target As Excel.Range, Cancel As Boolean)
Select Case Target.Column
Case 1
If ActiveCell.Value = "Send Me" Then
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select
Call emailme
End If
End SubOne gotcha I found was my installation of Excel didn't have the DataObject available.
From the Visual Basic editor, Tools, References.
NB// If References is greyed out then Run, Reset and try again.
- Enable MS Forms 2.0
Saturday, 4 June 2011
MonkeyTunes and Subsonic
Never an iTunes fan, in fact I'm a complete hater, I've always used MediaMonkey for local music management, and iPod/iPhone music sync. Today in my never ending quest for home AV utopia I just took two more steps. I think forward, but actually maybe not.
Wanting to control my music from the garden (yes I know iTunes has this) I found MonkeyTunes & SubSonic.
MonkeyTunes adds a plugin into MM which then uses the iTunes (irony) bonjour service so you can control your music from the regular iPhone iTunes remote.
Subsonic installs a web service which displays, and streams your music via the browser.
I'll probably use them both once. But there you go.
No more Sky ! (the satellite service rather than another end of the world prediction).
My eBay Sky HD box started to go on the blink and as I begrudge paying the £20(ish) service charge for channels I never watch I decided to make the leap into FreeSat.
Amazon, 1 x Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB
The first time I tried to set it up it got stuck on the 'enter postcode' - which really only sets your local regional channel preference. But when it fails its also indicative of a dish alignment problem - oh no, maybe the Sky HD box was OK.
Second try, 24 hours later and everything went through fine. hmmm ..
So far so good, the box works fine. My only gripe is the remote control, you pretty much need to stand in front of the box, especially with the front flap closed. Going to investigate IR extenders.
Think I'll stick with the official firmware for a while aswell ..
Amazon, 1 x Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB
The first time I tried to set it up it got stuck on the 'enter postcode' - which really only sets your local regional channel preference. But when it fails its also indicative of a dish alignment problem - oh no, maybe the Sky HD box was OK.
Second try, 24 hours later and everything went through fine. hmmm ..
So far so good, the box works fine. My only gripe is the remote control, you pretty much need to stand in front of the box, especially with the front flap closed. Going to investigate IR extenders.
Think I'll stick with the official firmware for a while aswell ..
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Sky Box Installer Menu
Because I can never remember it :
To access the Installer setup, do the following:
Old method:
1 Press Services on your Sky remote.
2 Press 4 (System Setup).
3 Press 0
4 Press 1
5 Press Select
New Method: HD Box
1 Press Services on your Sky remote.
2 Press 0
3 Press 0
4 Press 1
5 Press Select
To access the Installer setup, do the following:
Old method:
1 Press Services on your Sky remote.
2 Press 4 (System Setup).
3 Press 0
4 Press 1
5 Press Select
New Method: HD Box
1 Press Services on your Sky remote.
2 Press 0
3 Press 0
4 Press 1
5 Press Select
Sunday, 22 May 2011
London City Airport - Respect your neighbours !
Having lived in close proximity to London City Airport (LCA) for nearly 13 years you kind of get used to big business clashing with, and ignoring local residents. Regardless of the PR stunts they really dont give a flying toss about them.
In recent times theres been the debacle of the increase in flights and London Borough of Newhams (LBN) inability, or unwillingness to doing anything sensible about it. (for more info http://www.fighttheflights.com/).
Noise measurement and the clever manipulation of 'stats' and blissful disregard for decent debate is another long standing problem residents feel aggrieved by.
Now you will probably say, and rightly so, that I chose to live close to an airport so put up and shut up. Which is a fair point. But when you move in its doing so with certain understandings about flight numbers and so called noise regulations.
But onto the latest LCA stunt.
For the geographically challenged LCA is on the south side of Royal Albert dock. One of three docks which together make up the Royal Docks. Steeped in history and at the time, and maybe still, the biggest man made dock in the world.
In the past 10 years a heap of residential and commercial development has gone on both north and south of Royal Victoria dock. Houses, apartments and hotels serving The Excel Exhibition centre. Royal Docks also now one of the regeneration zones recently announced so has a bright future.
10 years ago a pair of swans moved in to the area and recently gathered a flock of friends, some of which have apparently been displaced by work on the Olympic village in Stratford. At times theres probably 40 swans in and around the docks sharing the space with Canadien geese, More-hens, Ducks, unfortunately sea gulls and the obligatory London Rock Doves - Pigeons !
LBN recently 'relocated' (when I say relocated you should read kick them out and not find them another home) the sailing centre and its left the dock rather devoid of human use so the increase in wildlife has become an attractive and welcome addition - why not let the birds use it if no-one else will.
Yesterday a neighbour told me the airport planned to post warnings that people should stop feeding the birds which is encouraging them to stick around, and also a warning about possible prosecution. A cull was even talked about - Swans !? owned by the Queen - someone should let her know ! This has to be a sewing circle chinese whisper.
Well this morning (Sunday, yes Sunday !) the village drums started to beat that someone was capturing swans and a LCA 'security' patrol was in attendance.
Wandering down to investigate, camera and phone in hand I was presented a leaflet from LCA explaining the legality and safety issues the swans cause and they had obtained all the required permits.
When someone asked to see the permit ? - no. A registered swan charity also in attendance would seem to indicate it was above board.
Apparently this amount of birds is starting to make LCA edgy about safety. Which I guess is fair enough, a 10kg swan, goose, duck or in fact any of the birds in the area could do some interesting damage. But interestingly pilots claim its actually the seagulls which are the problem. Regardless, LCA say the swans have to go .. the rest or the birds, well they will probably be culled.
I don't actually have a problem with the safety part of this argument but more the way LCA just roll in and just throw their weight around, its not acceptable. Not a single attempt to engage with the community, explain the reasoning or any background.
I'm not shocked, its just another example of the business rolling the community. Well all I can say is stand by, they've pissed some noisy people off with this little exercise.
No doubt they'll remove the remaining swans but that still leaves a plethora of other birds which without the Queens protection will probably be culled. And in fact it doesn't actually solve the problem, it just temporarily removes a symptom. The birds will be back !
Business, people and nature. Business will win.
No doubt they'll remove the remaining swans but that still leaves a plethora of other birds which without the Queens protection will probably be culled. And in fact it doesn't actually solve the problem, it just temporarily removes a symptom. The birds will be back !
Business, people and nature. Business will win.
Friday, 13 May 2011
IPv6 CIDR
2001:0db8:0123:4567:89ab:cdef:1234:5678
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| ||||
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||128 Single end-points and loopback
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| ||124
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |120
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| 116
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||112
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| ||108
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |104
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| 100
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||96
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| ||92
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |88
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||| 84
|||| |||| |||| |||| |||80
|||| |||| |||| |||| ||76
|||| |||| |||| |||| |72
|||| |||| |||| |||| 68
|||| |||| |||| |||64 Single End-user LAN (default prefix size for SLAAC)
|||| |||| |||| ||60 Some (very limited) 6rd deployments
|||| |||| |||| |56
|||| |||| |||| 52
|||| |||| |||48 end sites assignment(for automatic hierarchies & general purpose end-site deployments)
|||| |||| ||44
|||| |||| |40
|||| |||| 36 possible future Local Internet registry extra-small allocations
|||| |||32 Local Internet registry minimum allocations
|||| ||28 Local Internet registry medium allocations
|||| |24 Local Internet registry large allocations
|||| 20 Local Internet registry extra large allocations
|||16
||12 Regional Internet Registry allocations from IANA[5]
|8
4Sunday, 27 March 2011
PphBB 3.0.8 Upgrade
I was two versions behind production and I also wanted to see if I could install RSS & a mobile template Mod.
Upgraded to 3.0.8 which was the normal seamless experience.
Then entered the word of AutoMod. Which as with most things sent to make life easier totally screwed me. Firstly the app has a few 'update' file options. Live, direct FTP or if they fail (because you have good security) then it will download the modified files and let you update at your leisure.
The download (zip, tar.gz or .tar) worked once. And then all subsequent files appeared to be corrupt. There are some posts on the forum with no obvious fix.
Tried FTP - #FAIL ! - it totally ignored (or maybe I mis-typed) the FTP path which resulted in the files getting splatted all over the structure. Chaos, and a broken site.
Its OK, I have a backup - #FAIL #2. Permissions all wrecked.
Stop, slow down, think .. All the data is in the DB, which is safe, and I have many backups of. Install a clean 3.0.8 and point the install to the old db. Well this did'nt work as I'd expected - it wants to use a new db. A quick google and just replacing the config.php from the screwed install got me working. YAY.
Go to bed
Wake up to Bot hell .. I'd assumed (naively) that the .8 anti-bot would have been better, I'd enabled everything. Not the case so I went back and installed the tried and trusted Anti-Bot question mod.
Again trying (stupidly) with AutoMod - #FAIL *sigh* - going off that very quickly.
Manually made the changes and all is well.
EDIT : New and improved anti-bot registration installed - Peoplesign (which also required me to update to a 3.0.8 style)
EDIT : Peoplesign didnt prevent all spam signups, wow they are persistent. Reverted to the 'ask a question' default phpBB sign up options. So far so good.
Upgraded to 3.0.8 which was the normal seamless experience.
Then entered the word of AutoMod. Which as with most things sent to make life easier totally screwed me. Firstly the app has a few 'update' file options. Live, direct FTP or if they fail (because you have good security) then it will download the modified files and let you update at your leisure.
The download (zip, tar.gz or .tar) worked once. And then all subsequent files appeared to be corrupt. There are some posts on the forum with no obvious fix.
Tried FTP - #FAIL ! - it totally ignored (or maybe I mis-typed) the FTP path which resulted in the files getting splatted all over the structure. Chaos, and a broken site.
Its OK, I have a backup - #FAIL #2. Permissions all wrecked.
Stop, slow down, think .. All the data is in the DB, which is safe, and I have many backups of. Install a clean 3.0.8 and point the install to the old db. Well this did'nt work as I'd expected - it wants to use a new db. A quick google and just replacing the config.php from the screwed install got me working. YAY.
Go to bed
Wake up to Bot hell .. I'd assumed (naively) that the .8 anti-bot would have been better, I'd enabled everything. Not the case so I went back and installed the tried and trusted Anti-Bot question mod.
Again trying (stupidly) with AutoMod - #FAIL *sigh* - going off that very quickly.
Manually made the changes and all is well.
EDIT : New and improved anti-bot registration installed - Peoplesign (which also required me to update to a 3.0.8 style)
EDIT : Peoplesign didnt prevent all spam signups, wow they are persistent. Reverted to the 'ask a question' default phpBB sign up options. So far so good.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Wisestamp signature code
As Wisestamp currently has no cloud or import export option I'll store the html here ..
Which looks like :
<p><span><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva; color: #333333;"><strong><span style="font-size: medium; color: #000000;">Paul Regan<br /><br /></span></strong><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3366ff;">t:</span> +44(0)7867 503631</span><strong><br /></strong><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #3366ff;">e:</span> <a style="text-decoration: none; color: #333333;" href="mailto:me@paulregan.co.uk" target="_blank">me@paulregan.co.uk</a><br /></span><a style="text-decoration: none; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', geneva;"><span style="color: #3366ff;">w:</span> http://</span></a><a style="text-decoration: none; color: #333333;" href="http://www.paulregan.co.uk" target="_blank">www.paulregan.co.uk<br />_</a>__________________________________________________________</span></span></p>Which looks like :
Sunday, 20 March 2011
GMail Signature - Wisestamp
The default one is pretty poor and surprisingly has no HTML support !
Stumbled across Wisestamp.com which installs as a Chrome extension.
Works pretty well. Comes with a heap of default settings you'd normally use, social networking links, IM etc. One downside is theres no cloud (when did everything become cloud ?) sync so you have to install the extension and setup your signature on each Chrome install.
Stumbled across Wisestamp.com which installs as a Chrome extension.
Works pretty well. Comes with a heap of default settings you'd normally use, social networking links, IM etc. One downside is theres no cloud (when did everything become cloud ?) sync so you have to install the extension and setup your signature on each Chrome install.Saturday, 26 February 2011
RS 208-1786 RJ45 to BT
Part, erm, lost count, lets say 8, of operation run cable from lounge to study. Wanted to plug the BT socket and CAT6 into the same face plate/back box but could only find 4 port RJ45 face plates. Enter RS 208-1786 - RJ45 to BT conversion.
Pins 4 and 5 on the RJ45 port are the equivalent BT pins 5 and 2 (the ones you want).
Pins 4 and 5 on the RJ45 port are the equivalent BT pins 5 and 2 (the ones you want).
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Homeplugs are dead, long live .... well, copper wires.
I've finally given up with my Homeplugs, Netgear HD model. The throughput was never great but it worked for 'most' things. But since installing the HTPC I really wanted to stream full 1080p which the HP had no chance, in fact when I started to test bandwidth with iPerf I was truly shocked at how bad they were.
Spent some time looking at new 500Mb plugs but the reality was even with the entire house turned off, I mean everything turned off, fridges, chargers, everything. Even then the homeplugs connected to a simple four block next to the hub and the t/put was still crap.
So the run STP CAT6 plan kicked in.
Step one purchase Snake Scope !
Just an excuse really, but actually turned out to be pretty useful. At least in the early stages it meant I could just drill a small(ish) hole and poke around in the ceiling. Gave me an idea of what I was up against and proved useful working around beams and stuff.
The chosen wall in the front room, in theory dropped down right above the cloak room toilet on the ground floor. Six holes later I realised I was looking in the wrong place. Measure twice cut once as my Dad used to say.
Eventually finding the drop from the front room turned out to be pretty easy. Then it was a case of cutting 'working' holes in the ceiling and making my way through beams - using existing cable holes and towards the study.
Where I came across the problem of getting through the metal supports they'd used to build the gypsum walls. That proved to be a task easy resolved with another purchase. This time a flexible drill shaft and a step 4-22mm step drill bit. Took some time, some swearing and some dangerous balancing on a chair, which in turn balanced an old tower PC. A H&S person would have imploded on the spot.
I bought some faceplates etc to give a nice finish and then patching up required dustless sanding. googling how I stumbled across a youtube link showing how to smooth the filler with just a rough sponge and warm water, which I tried and worked OK.
Spent some time looking at new 500Mb plugs but the reality was even with the entire house turned off, I mean everything turned off, fridges, chargers, everything. Even then the homeplugs connected to a simple four block next to the hub and the t/put was still crap.
So the run STP CAT6 plan kicked in. Step one purchase Snake Scope !
Just an excuse really, but actually turned out to be pretty useful. At least in the early stages it meant I could just drill a small(ish) hole and poke around in the ceiling. Gave me an idea of what I was up against and proved useful working around beams and stuff.
The chosen wall in the front room, in theory dropped down right above the cloak room toilet on the ground floor. Six holes later I realised I was looking in the wrong place. Measure twice cut once as my Dad used to say.
Eventually finding the drop from the front room turned out to be pretty easy. Then it was a case of cutting 'working' holes in the ceiling and making my way through beams - using existing cable holes and towards the study.
Where I came across the problem of getting through the metal supports they'd used to build the gypsum walls. That proved to be a task easy resolved with another purchase. This time a flexible drill shaft and a step 4-22mm step drill bit. Took some time, some swearing and some dangerous balancing on a chair, which in turn balanced an old tower PC. A H&S person would have imploded on the spot.
I bought some faceplates etc to give a nice finish and then patching up required dustless sanding. googling how I stumbled across a youtube link showing how to smooth the filler with just a rough sponge and warm water, which I tried and worked OK.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
MediaTomb library refresh
I'm still searching for the holy grail of distributing all media around the home and still keep coming back to MediaTomb running on my NAS as a music fall back. But something that always goes wrong is its inability to update the db with changes. Every time I go through the same hoops of trying to refresh manually, adding/removing directories. And each time it fails and I check my blog for what I did last time, which I;ve never added ! so here it is
Kill the mediatomb process and delete the .db files, start mediatomb and add the Media directory, wait 4 hours .. Job Done !
Kill the mediatomb process and delete the .db files, start mediatomb and add the Media directory, wait 4 hours .. Job Done !
855GM Series video driver Windows 7 reverts back to Standard VGA
When installing 855GM Series video driver Windows 7 reverts back to Standard VGA adapter after restart. The problem is that 855GM Series video driver is not native for Windows 7 and it will always choose Standard VGA Adapter as native video driver. A lot of older laptops have this video chipset. Including my Vaio.
Solution - Spend hours looking on google. Eventually finding a decent blog entry which I am blatantly reproducing here.
So all this is taken from http://www.groundstate.net/855GMWin7.html
The only driver that worked is: Intel(R) Graphics Controller 6.14.10.3722 . The reason why is that Standard VGA Adapter (Windows 7 native) is the same version (6.14.10.3722) but it has newer release date. Newest Intel driver 14.19.50 did NOT work. So get yourself the working video driver below. After Windows 7 install you will see that Standard VGA Adapter is installed and there is an exclamation mark on the "video controller". In order to install the driver we need to get exclamation mark on "video controller (vga compatible)". This spot is occupied by Standard VGA Adapter. Even when you unistall Standard VGA Adapter and install new driver after the reboot Standard VGA Adapter comes back. We need to disrupt Standard VGA Adapter from being installed. My way of disabling the adapter is to edit the driver file for it "c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys". There might be another way for letting Windows stop installing Standard VGA Adapter but I did not find it.
STEP 1
Make sure you unistall video drivers that do not work. If you see exclamation marks on your previous drivers in Device Manager, unistall them. Your Device Manager should say that you have Standard VGA Driver installed under Display category and exclamation mark on "video controller". Make sure you restart PC when asked.
STEP 2
We will need to edit "c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys" file now, but there is a problem. Windows Vista and Windows 7 will NOT allow you to edit system files even when you are the admin. Changing security attributes of that file did not work either. The file is owned by "TrustedInstaller" service. We will need to own the file and give ourselves the full control to edit it.
Click 'Start' and in 'Search' type 'cmd'. The result will show on top. Right-click on 'cmd' and choose "Run as Administrator". If your account does not have admin rights you might be prompted to enter username and password. I used account that already has administrator priviledges. You should have a command prompt with administrator priviledges.
STEP 3
Lets say my logged in username is peter
First command you do is:
takeown /f c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys
This will give ownship to the current user. You should see a message saying SUCCESS etc..
Second command you do is:
cacls c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys /G peter:F
There will be a confirmation message so type 'y'. This will change the security attributes to give you ONLY all the permissions for the file. If you are paranoid as me and want original permissions restored, I will show you how to restore the permissions to the previous step later on in this tutorial . If 'cacls' command does not work you can try using 'icacls'. If you cannot edit this file try to boot to "Save Mode" and try it again (Thx to Giuseppe Chill).
STEP 4
Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys in any text editor. Just add any character to the begining of the text. Let's say we will add character x . So the text should start with xMZ and the rest of stuff. Save the file. This edit will render that file unusable.
STEP 5
In Device Manager uninstall Standard VGA Adapter. It will prompt you to restart so do it. After install you will see a message saying that certain devices did NOT installed successfuly, which is GOOD . Go to Device Manager and you should see the exclamation point next to "video controller" and "video controller (vga compatible)". Right-click on "video controller (vga compatible)" and do update driver. Choose "Browse for the Driver" (or something like it ). Point to the driver directory that you downloaded and extracted (win2000). Click "OK". Wait for the driver to be installed. It might hang for a little (It will say that window is "not responding"). Do not worry as this is still installing the driver. It will prompt you to restart so do it. (If it does not prompt click anywhere and wait for message). After restart it will finish installing the driver.
Congratulations!!! You should have a working video driver!!!
STEP 6
Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys in any text editor. Remove the first character you put there which was x. Save the file. Your file will be usuable again . You can stop here if you want, but if you want to restore the permissions for the file to original state go to next step.
STEP 7
Right-click on any other file in the c:\windows\system32\drivers. Choose "Properties". Go to "Security" tab. Now compare that security tab with the security tab of c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys. Just make sure the security tabs of those two files look the same (all tabs and advanced options). In order to add "TrustedInstaller" it is not the same as regular usernames because it is a service.
You will need to type "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" (without quotes) when adding it to own the file and to have all permissions. Once you done editing you can delete your account from c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys, because it was not there from the beginning. We took control over and the previous commands added it by default.
Solution - Spend hours looking on google. Eventually finding a decent blog entry which I am blatantly reproducing here.
So all this is taken from http://www.groundstate.net/855GMWin7.html
The only driver that worked is: Intel(R) Graphics Controller 6.14.10.3722 . The reason why is that Standard VGA Adapter (Windows 7 native) is the same version (6.14.10.3722) but it has newer release date. Newest Intel driver 14.19.50 did NOT work. So get yourself the working video driver below. After Windows 7 install you will see that Standard VGA Adapter is installed and there is an exclamation mark on the "video controller". In order to install the driver we need to get exclamation mark on "video controller (vga compatible)". This spot is occupied by Standard VGA Adapter. Even when you unistall Standard VGA Adapter and install new driver after the reboot Standard VGA Adapter comes back. We need to disrupt Standard VGA Adapter from being installed. My way of disabling the adapter is to edit the driver file for it "c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys". There might be another way for letting Windows stop installing Standard VGA Adapter but I did not find it.
STEP 1
Make sure you unistall video drivers that do not work. If you see exclamation marks on your previous drivers in Device Manager, unistall them. Your Device Manager should say that you have Standard VGA Driver installed under Display category and exclamation mark on "video controller". Make sure you restart PC when asked.
STEP 2
We will need to edit "c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys" file now, but there is a problem. Windows Vista and Windows 7 will NOT allow you to edit system files even when you are the admin. Changing security attributes of that file did not work either. The file is owned by "TrustedInstaller" service. We will need to own the file and give ourselves the full control to edit it.
Click 'Start' and in 'Search' type 'cmd'. The result will show on top. Right-click on 'cmd' and choose "Run as Administrator". If your account does not have admin rights you might be prompted to enter username and password. I used account that already has administrator priviledges. You should have a command prompt with administrator priviledges.
STEP 3
Lets say my logged in username is peter
First command you do is:
takeown /f c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys
This will give ownship to the current user. You should see a message saying SUCCESS etc..
Second command you do is:
cacls c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys /G peter:F
There will be a confirmation message so type 'y'. This will change the security attributes to give you ONLY all the permissions for the file. If you are paranoid as me and want original permissions restored, I will show you how to restore the permissions to the previous step later on in this tutorial . If 'cacls' command does not work you can try using 'icacls'. If you cannot edit this file try to boot to "Save Mode" and try it again (Thx to Giuseppe Chill).
STEP 4
Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys in any text editor. Just add any character to the begining of the text. Let's say we will add character x . So the text should start with xMZ and the rest of stuff. Save the file. This edit will render that file unusable.
STEP 5
In Device Manager uninstall Standard VGA Adapter. It will prompt you to restart so do it. After install you will see a message saying that certain devices did NOT installed successfuly, which is GOOD . Go to Device Manager and you should see the exclamation point next to "video controller" and "video controller (vga compatible)". Right-click on "video controller (vga compatible)" and do update driver. Choose "Browse for the Driver" (or something like it ). Point to the driver directory that you downloaded and extracted (win2000). Click "OK". Wait for the driver to be installed. It might hang for a little (It will say that window is "not responding"). Do not worry as this is still installing the driver. It will prompt you to restart so do it. (If it does not prompt click anywhere and wait for message). After restart it will finish installing the driver.
Congratulations!!! You should have a working video driver!!!
STEP 6
Open c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys in any text editor. Remove the first character you put there which was x. Save the file. Your file will be usuable again . You can stop here if you want, but if you want to restore the permissions for the file to original state go to next step.
STEP 7
Right-click on any other file in the c:\windows\system32\drivers. Choose "Properties". Go to "Security" tab. Now compare that security tab with the security tab of c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys. Just make sure the security tabs of those two files look the same (all tabs and advanced options). In order to add "TrustedInstaller" it is not the same as regular usernames because it is a service.
You will need to type "NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller" (without quotes) when adding it to own the file and to have all permissions. Once you done editing you can delete your account from c:\windows\system32\drivers\vgapnp.sys, because it was not there from the beginning. We took control over and the previous commands added it by default.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
UCS Manager launch error
I've been fighting with JAVA on my PC for a few days. Trying to launch the Cisco UCS manager - JAVA based. Would kick up the error :
JARSigningException: Found unsigned entry in resource: http://{HOST}.{DOMAIN}/ucsm/unpacked/OfficeLnFs_2.7.jar
Nothing on google. Removed the vast collection of JRE versions, reinstalled, blaah blaah blaah. Still fails. Threw my toys out, stomped away in a huff complaining about JAVA failing to live up to its expectations due to inept programmers ..
Then I twigged. I'd been debugging one of our bespoke JAVA apps last week and had disabled the 'Keep temporary files on my computer' JRE setting.
Corrected, problem fixed .. huff gone.
JARSigningException: Found unsigned entry in resource: http://{HOST}
Nothing on google. Removed the vast collection of JRE versions, reinstalled, blaah blaah blaah. Still fails. Threw my toys out, stomped away in a huff complaining about JAVA failing to live up to its expectations due to inept programmers ..
Then I twigged. I'd been debugging one of our bespoke JAVA apps last week and had disabled the 'Keep temporary files on my computer' JRE setting.
Corrected, problem fixed .. huff gone.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Building a Home Theatre PC (HTPC)
Whilst the PS3 has done a sterling job of being a front room media centre its not perfect and I'd debated building a true HTPC for while.
A certain error whilst watching something on the PS3 kicked started me into investigating alternative options.
Normal requirements. HDMI, decent sound and enough power to run a full 1080p on my TV. I'd had decent success with ITX in the past so quite fancied that route.
After a day of reading I settled on the Zotac ION ATOM N330 Dual Core D-E with 4GB (overkill) of RAM and a Morex Cubid 3688 Silver case. Ordered and delivered the following day from ITX Warehouse. Who run a fantastic service. I already had HDD and cables, no SSD here.
My first intention was just to make use of VLC, web browser, maybe even look at MS Media centre. But during the day of reading I stumbled across XBMC, something which everyone I spoke to afterwards had heard of and tried. I must have been under my rock that day. But the screen shots looked amazing, open source, ie free, live cd, all major OS' supported. Interesting Mr Bond.
With the hardware assembled, which was the normal breeze I fired up the USB boot key created using instructions from mini-itx.com. FAIL. Maybe the keys, or something else but I couldn't get the PC to boot so ended up creating a XBMC liveboot CD and installed using that. XBMC installed and started to load but bombed out just at the part the GUI launches. So I suspect video drivers. Being LINUX I knew this was a bad road to be walking down, and as this was R&D and I already new wireless mice and keyboards where on the horizon, ie more LINUX driver fun, I opted to fall back on tried and 'trusted' (well, trusted is probably the wrong descriptive) Windows 7. Unconsciously I made a 32bit decision - just habit I think.
Windows installed, drivers updated. Installed XBMC and fired it up. Oh I like this, allot. Pretty intuitive, adding the SMB media paths from my NAS all just worked and then I found the Library view which showed all the pretty covers, plot summaries etc .. Movies, TV Shows, Music .. all worked seamlessly. The 'scrapers' went and matched all the TV shows, music and all but two of the films, which I fixed using NFO files.
The IONITX dealt easily with a local 1080p file. Not so streaming across the LAN - Homeplugs, nor WLAN, which is expected. That actually had me delving deeper into my homeplug speed only to discover its crap, seriously so. I have something in the house which is killing the t/put. I need to investigate that or hope AV2 resolves it.
I'm still experimenting with the look and feel of XBMC but so far its a hit for video 720p and below and music is fine.
I added a plugin for iPlayer - which works, and TVCatchup, which doesn't. Although it did once, odd.
So far so good .. Although I have ordered a new 60mm 'silent' fan. The one with the case is a little noisy.
EDIT : TVCatchup now working again. Nothing done. Also found a great iPhone app which uses the HTML interface to control the server. XBMC Remote.
A certain error whilst watching something on the PS3 kicked started me into investigating alternative options.
Normal requirements. HDMI, decent sound and enough power to run a full 1080p on my TV. I'd had decent success with ITX in the past so quite fancied that route.
After a day of reading I settled on the Zotac ION ATOM N330 Dual Core D-E with 4GB (overkill) of RAM and a Morex Cubid 3688 Silver case. Ordered and delivered the following day from ITX Warehouse. Who run a fantastic service. I already had HDD and cables, no SSD here.
My first intention was just to make use of VLC, web browser, maybe even look at MS Media centre. But during the day of reading I stumbled across XBMC, something which everyone I spoke to afterwards had heard of and tried. I must have been under my rock that day. But the screen shots looked amazing, open source, ie free, live cd, all major OS' supported. Interesting Mr Bond.
With the hardware assembled, which was the normal breeze I fired up the USB boot key created using instructions from mini-itx.com. FAIL. Maybe the keys, or something else but I couldn't get the PC to boot so ended up creating a XBMC liveboot CD and installed using that. XBMC installed and started to load but bombed out just at the part the GUI launches. So I suspect video drivers. Being LINUX I knew this was a bad road to be walking down, and as this was R&D and I already new wireless mice and keyboards where on the horizon, ie more LINUX driver fun, I opted to fall back on tried and 'trusted' (well, trusted is probably the wrong descriptive) Windows 7. Unconsciously I made a 32bit decision - just habit I think.
Windows installed, drivers updated. Installed XBMC and fired it up. Oh I like this, allot. Pretty intuitive, adding the SMB media paths from my NAS all just worked and then I found the Library view which showed all the pretty covers, plot summaries etc .. Movies, TV Shows, Music .. all worked seamlessly. The 'scrapers' went and matched all the TV shows, music and all but two of the films, which I fixed using NFO files.
The IONITX dealt easily with a local 1080p file. Not so streaming across the LAN - Homeplugs, nor WLAN, which is expected. That actually had me delving deeper into my homeplug speed only to discover its crap, seriously so. I have something in the house which is killing the t/put. I need to investigate that or hope AV2 resolves it.
I'm still experimenting with the look and feel of XBMC but so far its a hit for video 720p and below and music is fine.
I added a plugin for iPlayer - which works, and TVCatchup, which doesn't. Although it did once, odd.
So far so good .. Although I have ordered a new 60mm 'silent' fan. The one with the case is a little noisy.
EDIT : TVCatchup now working again. Nothing done. Also found a great iPhone app which uses the HTML interface to control the server. XBMC Remote.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)