Tech Blog 357

How To Configure OpenBSD 4.2 On VMWare ESX Server 3.5 With Intel PRO/1000MT NICs

2008-01-31T19:10:00.000-08:00

Download your Virtual Machine .vmx file with your Datastore Broswer.
Edit your .vmx with WordPad.

Add

Ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
Ethernet1.virtualDev = "e1000"

above

ethernet0.generatedAddress =
ethernet1.generatedAddress =

Save your .vmx and upload back into the datastore.
Start up your OpenBSD Virtual Machine.

Congrats! You now have Intel PRO/1000MT virtual nics on OpenBSD.

-----------------------------------
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ESX Server 3.5 - A general system error occurred: The file is too big for the filesystem

2008-01-31T12:47:00.000-08:00

So there I was, trying to create an uber sized partition on my RAID 10 array within my vmfs3 partition.

The problem? A general system error occurred: The file is too big for the filesystem
This was the error I received when attempting to create a 600GB Virtual Disk on VMWare ESX Server 3.5.

This was a problem. I learned the reason why though. Since I partitioned the storage volumes during installation the installer used block size 1 which only allows Virtual Disks of 256GB.

The solution? Reformat the volume with larger block sizes.

Block size Max Virtual Disk size
1 256 GB
2 512 GB
4 1024 GB
8 2048 GB

Now I had to figure out how to do this without destroying my data.

My server has a 73GB Mirrored boot drive and 900GB of RAID 10. Fortunatly I had enough free space on the boot drive to transfer the data from the RAID 10 temporarily.

Logging into the console of the host I:
cd /vmfs/volumes/vh-01:storage1
Having previously taken note of the volume label and the device name of the volume I wished to modify, in my case vh-01:storage1 and vmhba1:1:0:1, I move the existing data out of Storage1 and into Storage2.
Use the Storage Browser to move your VMs
Next I ran the command to reformat Storage2
vmkfstools --createfs vmfs3 --blocksize 4M -S vh-01:storage1 vmhba1:1:0:1

I chose a 4MB blocksize because this volume will never exceed 1024MB.

Then I just moved the data back to Storage1.

How to install an OpenBSD 4.2 Bridging Firewall on VMWare ESX Server 3.5

2008-01-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, I ran into some confusion on how to actually make my Virtual Transparent Bridging Firewall work on OpenBSD 4.2, but I finally got it to work.

For this example I will only show how to enable full inbound and outbound access through the bridge with PF, but I won't be inculding any other firewall rules.

I will assume that VMWare ESX 3.5 is already installed and the VMWare Infrastructure Client is also connected to the host.

There are some requirement to meet before we get started.

We will be using three Virtual Switches and two physical NICs.

Virtual Switch: vSwitch0 is bound to vmnic0 and only bound to the Service Console Port.
Virtual Switch: vSwitch1 is bound to vmnic1 and has a Virtual Machine Port Group named External Network assigned to it.
Virtual Switch: vSwitch2 has no NIC bound to it and has a Virtual Machine Port Group named Internal Network assigned to it.

The next step is very important.

On each of your Internal Network and External Network vSwitches click on Properties.
Click vSwitch and click Edit. Click the Security tab.
Set the Promiscuous Mode: field to Accept.
If this step hasn't been done then data will not pass between virtual switches.

Once the above has been done we can proceed with the installation of OpenBSD.

Create a new Virtual Machine with a 1GB disk.
Mount the OpenBSD 4.2 .iso any way you please and boot to it.
Reference the OpenBSD FAQ for more detailed install instruction.

Install to disk sd0.
Use all of disk for install.
Under the Disk Label:
Type: d a to delete any existing partition.
Type: a a to create a partition of 65M with the 4.2BSD FS Type and the mount point of /
Type: a b to create a partition of 1M with swap as the FS Type
Type: a d to create a partition of 256M with the 4.2BSD FS Type and the mount point of /var
Type: a e to create a partition of remaining size with the 4.2BSD FS Type and the mount point of /usr
Ok, Done with partitioning.

Set your hostname and domain name.
Create your password.
I added the bsd.mp package and removed the game42.tgz package from my installation.
To remove the game42.tgz package use the command: -game42.tgz during installation.

Since this is going to be an IPless firewall we will not start SSHD.

Set any other option you want and finish installing and reboot.

Login as root.

vi /etc/rc.conf
change sendmail_flags=NO
change inetd=NO
change pf=YES
Save /etc/rc.conf and exit

vi /etc/sysctl.conf
Enable kern.emul.freebsd=1
Save /etc/sysctl.conf and exit

Mount your VMWare FreeBSD Tools .iso
Make sure each of these commands are each on a single line.


mount /dev/cd0c /mnt

tar -xzf /mnt/vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz -C /tmp

mkdir -p /emul/freebsd/sbin

install -m 555 -o root -g wheel /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/lib/sbin32/vmware-guestd /emul/freebsd/sbin

cp -r /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib/etc /etc/vmware-tools

vi /etc/rc.local
Add the following script.


if [ -x /emul/freebsd/sbin/vmware-guestd ]; then

 echo -n ' vmware-tools'

 /emul/freebsd/sbin/vmware-guestd --background /var/run/vmware-guestd.pid --halt-command "/sbin/shutdown -p -h now" --reboot-command "/sbin/shutdown -r now"

fi

vi /var/cron/tabs/root
Add ROOTBACKUP=0 underneath HOME/var/log
Comment out the sendmail line

Type the following command to create the bridge.


echo up > /etc/hostname.pcn0
echo up > /etc/hostname.pcn1

echo add pcn0 > /etc/bridgename.bridge0
echo add pcn1 >> /etc/bridgename.bridge0
echo blocknonip pcn0 >> /etc/bridgename.bridge0
echo blocknonip pcn1 >> /etc/bridgename.bridge0
echo up >> /etc/bridgename.bridge0

echo pass in all > /etc/pf.conf
echo pass out all >> /etc/pf.conf

Reboot!

You should now have a fully functioning bridge with VMWare tools installed. All that is left is to choose how you want to configure your firewall rules.

Note: I had some confusion as to whether or not to enable "net.inet.ip.forwarding" or not. I have finally discoved that it does not need to be enabled.

WOW Mount and Dismount Macro

2007-12-31T23:48:00.000-08:00

MACRO 16777220 "Dismount" Ability_Mount_RidingHorse
/equipslot 13 Blad
/equipslot 8 Boots
/equipslot 3 Der
/equipslot 7 Mag
/equipslot 14 Rune of
/cast Aspect of the Viper
END

MACRO 16777226 "Mount" Ability_Mount_RidingHorse
/stopmacro [mounted]
/cast Aspect of the Monkey
/equipslot 13 Car
/equipslot 14 Fros
/equipslot 8 El
/equipslot 3 Dem
/equipslot 7 Stor
/use Swift Purple Hawkstrider
END

Installing Star-OS on a Virtual Machine (VMWare or MS Virtual Server)

2007-12-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

So I thought it would be cool to install Star-OS on a Virtual Machine. I have done this on both VMWare Server and Microsoft Virtual Server R2. The process is similar. I am sure that VMWare Virtual Infrastructure 3 ESX Server will be a close match, but my license hasn't arrived yet.

This is how I did it.

1. Aquire Linux System Rescue CD, Live CD. I used systemrescuecd-x86-0.3.8.iso
2. Aquire Star-OS Compact Flash image. I used vncOs-1.3.7.v.fcc-2677.X86-PC.cf
3. Boot it all up and pat yourself on the back...Oh, you said we missed a step...ok, here we go.

Assuming you have bound your virtual NIC to your physical interface...
Mount your System Rescue cd and boot up your VM.
Since ifconfig shows no configured IP addresses yet run the command

dhcpcd eth0

Assign an IP manually if you don't use dhcp on your network.
Since my Star-OS image is on a network share, mount it up.

mount -t smbfs -o username=user,password=pass //nas-01/Volume_1 /mnt/custom

cd /mnt/custom

My virtual disk is IDE so I will use /dev/hda. Use /dev/sda if your virtual disk is SCSI.
Transfer the Star-OS image.

dd if=vncOs-1.3.7.v.fcc-2677.X86-PC.cf of=/dev/hda bs=512

Unmount your .iso from the Virtual Machine and reboot.
Log in to Star-OS. Default username/password is admin/1234

World of Warcraft Hunter Aspect Macro

2007-11-17T23:18:00.000-08:00

I bound the following macro to the SHIFT-W keystroke.
Cast Aspect of the Cheetah with shift-w.
Cast Aspect of the Hawk with shift-alt-w.
Cast Aspect of the Monkey with shift-ctrl-w


/cast [nomodifier] Aspect of the Cheetah
/cast [modifier:alt] Aspect of the Hawk
/cast [modifier:ctrl] Aspect of the Monkey

World of Warcraft Hunter Mounting Macro

2007-11-17T23:12:00.000-08:00

Check it out. Cast Aspect of the Monkey, Equip Carrot on a Stick, Equip my riding boots with spurs attached, mount my ugly chicken.

When I dismount it equips my combat trinket and boots and casts Aspect of the Hawk.

I shortened the names of the items I am equiping to stay within the 255 character limit. It should not be a problem as long as there is not more than one item with the same short name.


/cast [nomounted] Aspect of the Monkey
/equipslot [nomounted] 13 Ca
/equipslot [nomounted] 8 El
/use [nomounted]  Blue Hawkstrider
/equipslot [mounted] 13  Bla
/equipslot [mounted]  8 Su
/cast [mounted] Aspect of the Hawk

Uber World of Warcraft Pet Macro

2007-11-17T23:08:00.000-08:00

Here it is. My Uber one button Hunter pet macro.
With one button I can Feed Pet out of combat, Mend Pet in combat, Call Pet if it is missing, Revive Pet if it is dead, Mend Pet anytime while ctrl-clicking, Dismiss Pet while alt-clicking.


/cast [pet, nocombat, nomodifier] Feed Pet; [combat] Mend Pet; [modifier:ctrl] Mend Pet; [modifier:alt] Dismiss Pet
/use [pet, nocombat, nomodifier]  Roasted Quail
/cast [target=pet, dead, nomodifier] Revive Pet; [nopet,nomodifier] Call Pet

Configuring the Sprint Mobile Broadband minicard on my Dell Vostro 1500 with Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

2007-09-11T17:42:00.000-07:00

I am assuming you have already activated your Sprint Mobile Broadband card in Windows. If you haven't, do it before you go any further. If you are unable to use your card in Windows, you will be unsuccessful in linux.

First we need to figure out what our idVendor and idProduct is for our Sprint card.
Type:


lsusb -v | grep Dell -C 2

On my system it is:


  idVendor           0x413c Dell Computer Corp.
  idProduct          0x8134

Next we need to edit our kernel modules.
Type:


sudo gedit /etc/modules

We need to add the following line at the end of the /etc/modules file.


usbserial vendor=0x413c product=0x8134

Save the file and exit gedit.
At the point you could either reboot or type.


sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x413c product=0x8134

Now we need to setup wvdial.
Type:


wvdialconf wvdial.conf
sudo mv wvdial.conf /etc/

Next we make our sprint file.
Type:


sudo gedit /etc/ppp/peers/sprint

Add the following code to the sprint file.


#the USB serial device of the EVDO minicard.
ttyUSB0
user YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER@sprintpcs.com
460800 # speed
#debug
defaultroute # use the cellular network for the default route
usepeerdns # use the DNS servers from the remote network
-detach # keep pppd in the foreground
crtscts # hardware flow control
#lock # lock the serial port
noauth # don't expect the modem to authenticate itself
connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect"
disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect"

Change the YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER part to match your phone number.
Next we need to create the /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect file.
Type:


sudo gedit /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-connect

Add the following code.


SAY 'Starting Sprint\n'
TIMEOUT 120
ABORT 'BUSY'
ABORT 'NO ANSWER'
ABORT 'NO CARRIER'
'' 'ATZ'
'OK' 'AT&F0'
'OK' 'ATE0v1'
'' 'AT+CSQ'
'OK' 'ATDT#777'
'CONNECT'

Now we need to create the /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect file.
Type:


sudo gedit /etc/ppp/peers/sprint-disconnect

Add the following code.


"" "\K"
"" "+++ATH0"
SAY "Disconnected from Sprint."

Configuration is done. Time to initialize the modem.
Type:


wvdial
sudo pppd call sprint

Surf!!!

---------------------
http://www.wildmpg.com

Configuring the NVIDIA 8600M GT on my Dell Vostro 1500

2007-09-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Wow,

After some fiddling around, I couldn't believe how easy it was to configure my graphics card and set the native resolution to 1680x1050.

First I downloaded "Envy" http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html.
Ran the installation package.
Launched Envy from "Applications/System Tools" and allowed it to edit my xorg.conf file.
Reboot

After reboot the NVIDIA logo appears and I can login with 1024x768 resolution.
Time to edit my settings.
Open the NVIDIA applet from ""Applications/System Tools" and set your resolution to 1680x1050, apply.

For some reason the NVIDIA applet wouldn't allow me to save the new xorg.conf file, so I previewed it, copied the contents, edited /etc/X11/xorg.conf with "sudo vi " (cause I like vi) and saved the file. Hit ctrl-alt-backspace to restart X and bingo, settings saved.

----------------------
Proto Paintball Gear

Installing Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn on a Dell Vostro 1500

2007-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

So I got this brand new Dell Vostro 1500 laptop a couple days ago and I thought it would be fun to Dual-Boot it with linux.

This thing is sweet.

:Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz, 800Mhz FSB, 4M L2 Cache
:15.4" Widescreen SXGA+ with TrueLife display
:3GB RAM
:256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT video card
:160GB hard drive
:8x DVD+/-RW with Dual Layer
:Dell Wireless-N 1505 mini card
:Sprint Mobile Broadband Card (I don't know how I ever lived without this gadget)
:85 WHr 9-cell battery (I can use this thing all day)

Enough of the specs, I want to install linux. Being a FreeBSD guy, this should be fun.

First thing I did was to repartion the hard drive.
I made a 13GB Ext3 partition, a 6GB Swap partition and a 1GB FAT partition (to transfer data to/from windows)

It took me awhile to figure out how to boot the Ubuntu 7.04 LiveCD. I was finally able to do it with both the 32bit and the 64bit disks.

Here is how I booted it:
First I booted to the 64bit CD. From the menu I had to select the safe graphics mode (but don't hit enter yet)
Then I had to press F6 to edit the options.
I added the command "break=top "(without quotes) to the very begining of the line and hit enter.
Next at the command prompt (you won't see a command prompt if you set the resolution to anything other than VGA, but this will still work) I typed:

modprobe piix
exit

This allowed X to start.

Now I proceeded with the installation. I had to guess how many times to press the {TAB} key before pressing {ENTER} because the resolution was 800x600 and I couldn't see the installation buttons to click on next. I figured it out after a couple trys.

Make note of what partition you installed linux to. Mine was /dev/sda4.

After installation, DO NOT REBOOT. Continue using the LiveCD and launch a terminal.
Type:

mkdir target
sudo mount /dev/sda4 target
sudo chroot target
echo piix >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
update-initramfs -u
exit

reboot

Now you should be able to choose to boot windows or linux. Next I will talk about installing video drivers.

------------------------
Have you got a Paintball Mine yet?

Mounting External USB Drive on DNS-323 with Readonly NTFS

2007-08-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

I was successfully able to mount my 100GB USB drive formatted with NTFS in read only mode recently.

I began by creating a mount point.


mkdir /mnt/ext

Next, using the funplug-0.3 system previously installed I loaded the modules.


insmod /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/bin/modules/2.6.12.6-arm1/usb-storage.ko
insmod /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/bin/modules/2.6.12.6-arm1/ntfs.ko

Then I plugged in my usb drive and typed


dmesg

I looked throught the list to locate the device name. Mine is "sdc". Then I mounted the partition.


mount -t ntfs /dev/sdc1 /mnt/ext

After I was done with the drive I unmounted it.


umount /mnt/ext

Modding Cron on the D-Link DNS-323 using funplug-0.3

2007-08-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well, I have successfully adjusted the timezone script on my DNS-323. I want to modify my crontabs without writing to flash memory so I edited my fun_plug file to inlude this code:


#Replace Cron Jobs
crontab -r
echo '*/10 * * * * /usr/sbin/getdhcp&' > /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
echo '*/30 * * * * /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/start/timezone.sh start' >> /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root
crontab /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root

Repaired my First Generation Dell XPS laptop

2007-08-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I am excited, can't you tell? :) I have this 3 year old Dell XPS laptop that started giving me trouble some time ago. First it got really slow. The CPU would be at 100% all the time and it complained about over heating during POST. Then the LCD went out. So I put it on the shelf. Lately I have been in need of a laptop, but haven't wanted to pony up the money for a new one. I grabbed my old dell and tore it apart and I mean all the way down. I completely cleaned all the dust from the inside, I tell you what, dust was caked on all over the place. After I put it all back the system ran great with the exception of the LCD.

I priced a new LCD from Dell...$687...Ouch! That just wasn't going to do. So I disassembled my LCD, discovered my LCD Inverter and ordered a replacement inverter from ebay. It just arrived and I installed it. 20 minutes, a couple mods and some black tape later...I fired it up and.....Voila! LCD works again. Woohoo!!! Except for the one missing screw cover that I dropped and haven't found yet, you would never know I did any repairs.

Now if I just fix this dead battery ::grin::

DNS-323 Time Sync with funplug-0.3 timezone.sh

2007-08-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

I desired to configure the NTP functions of the DNS-323 so I dug right into the funplug-0.3 system again. I hade to rework the script a little bit to fix the errors, but this is what I came up with. Your time zone and server may vary. This is based on Pacific Daylight Savings Time. The next thing I will do is figure out how to add it to a cron job.


#!/bin/sh

# USA, Pacific Time. Daylight saving starts
# second Sunday of March and ends first
# Sunday of November.
timezone="PST8PDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0"
timeserv=time-nw.nist.gov

timezone_start() {
    echo "${timezone}" >/etc/TZ
    /usr/sbin/sntp -r ${timeserv}
    sleep 1
    /usr/sbin/rtc -w
}

timezone_stop() {
    echo "Stopping Timezone..."
}

timezone_status() {
    cat /etc/TZ
}

case "$1" in
    stop)
        timezone_stop
        ;;
    restart)
        timezone_stop
        sleep 1
        timezone_start
        ;;
    status)
        timezone_status
        ;;
    start)
        timezone_start
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 start|stop|restart|status"
        ;;
esac

Make it executable.


chmod a+x timezone.sh

---------------------------------
www.CrazyOutdoorSports.com

Enable SSH on the D-Link DNS-323 using funplug-0.3

2007-08-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Once you have your funplug-0.3 installed you can connect to it using telnet, but telnet isn't very secure so we want to use ssh. I recommend getting a copy of PuTTY to use as your telnet and SSH client. This proceedure is fairly safe. The only time it writes to the firmware is when you run the store-passwd script. If you take your time and test each step before you commit the config to flash ram you will be ok. Use at your own risk.

Telnet to your DNS-323. You will be presented with a # prompt (meaning you are logged in as root).


Telnet 192.168.0.32


cd /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/start
sh dropbear.sh start
chmod a+x dropbear.sh

What we did here is to change directory to the fun_plug startup directory, ran the dropbear ssh script and set ssh to auto-start on reboot.

Next set your root password by executing these commands:


echo "root::0:0:99999:7:::" >>/etc/shadow
passwd root

Finally, write the configuration to flash memory so it will be remembered on reboot. Be careful with this command. You can't fix a passwd mistake with a reboot after you run this command. If you are not 100% sure that your config is perfect, log in as root with your new password using ssh to test the config.


/mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/bin/store-passwd.sh

Last but not least, lets turn off that unsecure telnet interface.


cd /mnt/HD_a2/fun_plug.d/start
chmod a-x telnetd.sh

and


reboot

---------------------------------
www.CrazyOutdoorSports.com

Installing funplug-0.3 on the D-Link DNS-323

2007-08-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

It took me a while to figure out how to get telnet access on the DNS-323. I'm a FreeBSD user, not a linux user. Even though the problem seems silly to me now, I will still blame it on the fact that this device runs linux instead of FreeBSD. Ok, enough rambling, here is how I installed funplug-0.3 on the DNS-323.

Download funplug-0.3.tar.gz from hxxp://www.inreto.de/dns323/fun-plug/0.3/

Extract the two files "fun_plug" and "fun_plug.tar" using WinZip onto Volume_1 of the NAS.

I then modified the "fun_plug" file using SCiTE4AutoIt3 by adding an extra space character on line 2. Changed the file format to UNIX (LF) type and saved the file.
I then removed the extra space character from line 2 and re-saved the "fun_plug" file.

Reboot.

What happens next is the fun_plug script extracts the fun_plug.tar file into its necessary folder and then launches the telnet daemon.

---------------------------------
www.CrazyOutdoorSports.com

Installing a Proof of Concept fun_plug on the D-Link DNS-323

2007-08-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

So you want to dive into the inner workings of your new D-Link DNS-323 by installing the fun_plug. Well ok, here's how. Be careful though because if you screw up here, you might not have a bootable NAS anymore.

Make sure you have a current version of the firmware installed (currently 1.03).

Download a copy of either UltraEdit or SciTE4AutoIt3. You have to be sure that you save your file in UNIX (LF) file format.

Open a new file and paste this code.


#!/bin/sh
#
# Proof of Concept fun_plug
#
dmesg > /mnt/HD_a2/dmesg.out

Save this code as "fun_plug" (without quotes and no extention) in c:\ in UNIX (LF) format.

Enable FTP server on the NAS. You may need to create a FTP user account with read/write permission on Volume_1.

Open a Windows cmd window.

Type: ftp 192.168.0.32 or the ip address of your NAS.
login with your FTP username and password.

Make sure you are in the root directory.
Type: cd /

Change directories on the local system too
Type: lcd c:\

Uploads the fun_plug
Type: put fun_plug

Set permissions on fun_plug to 777
Type: chmod 777 fun_plug
or
Type: quote site chmod 777 fun_plug
if the first one didn't work.

Next instruct the NAS to reboot.
After the system has rebooted, browse to the Volume_1 share with Windows Explorer.
You will see a file named "dmesg.out".
Congratulations, you have just modified your NAS to be able to perform all kinds of linux tasks.

---------------------------------
www.CrazyOutdoorSports.com

D-Link DNS-323

2007-08-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

I just got a new D-Link DNS-323 Network Attached Storage device. This thing is cool. I slapped a couple 500GB samsung SATA 3.0gb drives in it and setup a mirror. Internal temperature has been running at 118F. With samba built in for windows access, FTP server, iTunes server, DHCP server, etc, I am so far happy with this product.

---------------------------------
www.CrazyOutdoorSports.com

FreeBSD tar ftp script

2007-08-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

Simple script I used to backup files on a FreeBSD server to an ftp site.


#!/usr/local/bin/bash

rm -r /usr/backup/*

tar zcvf /usr/backup/apache_conf.tar.gz /usr/local/apache2/conf/*
tar zcvf /usr/backup/apache_logs.tar.gz /usr/local/apache2/logs/*
tar zcvf /usr/backup/www.tar.gz /usr/local/www/*

ftp -n -v 1.2.3.4 << EoF
user username password
lcd /usr/backup
bin
prompt
mput *

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www.wildmpg.com