Tri-Boot Project Phase 3

Tri-Boot Project Phase 3
Installing Windows 7.

This is the installation is Windows 7 beta build 6801
As I mentioned before, Windows 7 works a lot like Vista in many way. Its almost like Vista 1.0 (where the initial release is Vista 0.5, and Vista SP1 is Vista 0.7) Because of this, one could assume Vista and her twin sister Win 7 would boot in the same manner. I mentioned the whole boot loader issue between XP and vista. But I will explain further how I got the XP and 7 to play nicely together.

Although you can edit the MBR with the command prompt, this is very difficult to do. So to simplify this, I used a program called EasyBCD. This really did make the process easy. One little issue I did run into though, 7 would not recognize the hard drive that had XP on it. After a bit of playing around, I got the system to recognize, although in the process I deleted the MBR (oops). This was easily fixed by throwing the disk back in there and running the system restore.

One thing I thought was pretty awesome was the fact that Windows 7 quickly found all of my drivers with the exception of the Sound Card (Diamond 7.1). This is including the Buffalo wireless card, which on installation, wanted me to set this up to my router, pretty sweet.

Tomorrow I am going to get Ubuntu installed and get this onto the boot loader system.

Tri-boot Project Phase 2

Phase 2
(Phase 1 was the backing up my hard drives part btw)

I decided to start out by getting XP installed. I found a really good tutorial series that walked me through virtually every Linux/XP/Vista duel-booting sequence a person could thing of (except the tri-boot thing) Since Vista and Windows 7 are really close like Identical Twins, I used the Vista tutorial as a guide. (The guide can be found here)

Vista uses a completely different way to boot. XP uses the Boot.ini sequence. Vista uses a system called a Master Boot Record (MBR) Indecently, This is much harder to edit then Boot.ini. (which isn't easy to edit to begin with) Fortunately there is a nice freeware program called EasyBCD (which can be found here) that simplifies the process.

As I was getting XP installed (and doing the dishes, researching and taking care of a sick friend) I got the drivers installed. Most were not hard to find as my machine is an OTC Mass produced E-machine W-3400 with some additions to it, like a WiFi card and a sound card. (there is also a $100 laughing fine that will be charged for anyone making fun of my crappy machine. All proceeds will go to getting me a sweet-assed custom built top of the line gaming PC.)

I did run into one bit of a problem with getting my WiFi drivers installed. It turns out the Manufature of my Wireless card, Buffalo Technologies, is in the middle of a lawsuit with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) for copyright infringement. Because of this, They are not allowed to support there devices. (Details can be found here) The good news is that OpenDrivers.org did have the drivers backed up on there site. So all well and good.

Tomorrow I head into uncharted territory as I install Windows 7 and attempt to duel boot the system.

Tri-boot Project

So my desktop has been acting quite screwy lately. Mostly because all of my hard drives were full. I was unable to load up a Windows Update. I held off of it mostly because I didn't want to loose any of my files. (Music, Movies, Porn, etc) It didn't help that I only have an 80GB, 40GB and a 20GB hard drives in my computer. The other reason was because I wanted to try Ubuntu on my Desktop. I also wanted to try Windows 7 on my desktop. But I also wanted something that would be a stable backup in case these didn't work. That's when I got the idea to tri-boot my computer. Now I'm going to be frank. (no I'm going to be Magical, but my words will be frank) There is NO DOCUMENTATION ON THE WIRED that will tell you how to do this. (I mean really, If you into Windows 7, you don't want Linux, and if you into Linux, you really like Microsoft.)

The goal of this project is as follows
1) Install XP on the Main (80GB) Hard Drive
2) Install Windows 7 on the 40GB Hard Drive
3) Install Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex on the 20GB Hard Drive
4) Get all the systems to recognize all devices
5) Get all systems to play nicely with each other.

This last one is going to prove the trickiest as nether XP, Windows 7, or Ubuntu really like each other. I will note. This is not going to be a definitive guide until i finish the project. I am going to publish some of my mistakes and goofups as well. That way if you get into trouble like I have will on occasion, You can see remotely how to fix it.

Red Debug info below status bar in Mozilla Thunderbird/Firefox

A client called saying he got some "strange programming" below is status bar in Mozilla Thunderbird and he could not get rid of it. Having no idea what he was talking about, i got on a remote session with him to see what I could do. Sure enough, below his status bar was another gray bar with Red Debug info. Nobody in the office could tell what had happened. So i went on a google search. I found 2 sites that helped out tremendously.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Gray_bar_below_status_bar

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Gray+bar+below+the+status+bar

Evidently the problem is typically a programming issues. This could be caused from Mozilla not being updated, to spyware, to Addons. His problem was resolved by simply updating Thunderbird. But the links provided above lists a few more troubleshooting options

Laptop Crash of 2008 Phase 4

So after about 3 days or so, Countless different drivers, scripts, and forum posts, I finally got the wireless to work...sort of.

I got the computer to recognise the driver that I had, which was an Atheros, But now I can get the system to read WEP. It is an insecure system but at least its better then nothing. The default program that handles the Wireless on Ubuntu is the Gnome Netowork Manager. From the forums (and my experence) is that this sucks. Fortunatly I found a new one that is supposedly better. This program called WICD is designed to save your settings as well as make it easer to connect. Sadly it has issues with WEP system. There are Templates that you can use to help it along, Its just hard as hell to figure it out.

Ill post more info on how I got the Wireless to work on here soon. But for now Ill leave it as it is.

Laptop Crash of 2008 Phase 3

I am guessing that Ubuntu changed the way they run things on there installs. I was only able to load Ubuntu off of a windows installer rather then the Live CD. This installation of Ubuntu was the Hardy Hereon version. I opened the program on XP and the installation files on its own. I then rebooted the system and found that Ubuntu had configured the Windows Startup and Recovery system to load itself up. (at least I don't need to load up GRUB for this one.)
The Ubuntu initial install desktop showed up. I click on the "install" executable and followed the setup wizard, I allocated 30GB to Ubuntu.

The next phase is typically where I give in. I have always had problems installing internet connections to any Linux system. However I have found some pretty promising tutorials on getting Wireless to work. Here's hoping!

Laptop Crash of 2008 Phase 2

XP Installed with no issues. (although I did make the mistake of downloading the Genuine Advantage when the OS was anything but genuine) I did have a bunch of Driver issues (as expected.) Fortunately, finding these drivers were far easier then I had previously anticipated.
After I got all of the drivers loaded and the essentials installed (ie Firefox) I started to run a Diskcheck and defrag. Tomarrow I will start installing Ubuntu.

Laptop Crash of 2008 Phase 1

So the first thing I did was look for any information on duel-booting XP with Ubuntu. I found (as expected) plenty of information. Since Microsoft Windows dose not like to play nicely with any thing that is not Microsoft, I decided the best way to do this is by loading XP first and then letting
Ubuntu do its magic.

This will come in several Phases.
Phase 1, Install XP
Phase 2, Configure XP and Load Drivers
Phase 3, Install Ubuntu
Phase 4, Get Ubuntu on Wireless
Phase 5, Get Ubuntu Configured with other issues
Phase 6, Install Wine
Phase 7, Get World of Warcraft installed on Ubuntu via Wine

This is origionaly a Vista machine, As rumors had it, finding XP drivers for a Vista machine would be quite dificult. But I supose the first thing is first and install XP.

Laptop Crash of 2008

So my laptop crashed tonight.
I was sitting at the Helpdesk working the graveyard shift, bored out of my mind. I brought my Laptop with me just in case. I decided to load up Civ4 that I had found on my laptop. I had it on before with no problems but I have long-since uninstalled it. Well this was unfortunate because this caused my laptop to crash. No Blue Screen of Death, just go black.

My first reaction was just to reboot. But I would get to a point and my screen would go black and hang at this point. In safe mode you could see that there was one driver that it would hang up on. Since I couldn't get safe mode to work, and since everything I needed off of my computer was ether already backed up on my desktop or could be easily obtained again, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to load up Ubuntu on my laptop agian. However, I decided to install XP in addition, sort of as a fail-safe. I will most likely start tonight or tomarrow night.

THIS IS MY THIRD AND FINAL MAIL TO YOU!!!

From: "BARRISTER BARRY DEAN ESQ." Subject: THIS IS MY THIRD AND FINAL MAIL TO YOU!!! Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:24:28 -0600

Barristers' Chambers:
BARRY DEAN & ASSOCIATES
Tel:+44 703 591 4800
E-mail: barr.barrydean@live.com

Address:33 Bedford Row
London WC1R 4JH, England


We want to acknowledge the receipt of your email in this chamber and also
want you to know that you have absolute right to reject this WILL as much as
you have the right to accept it as well. If you wish to turn it down then let
me know so I can send you a WILL rejection form to fill and revert back to
this office. I am not going to impose it on you but just doing my job here.I
can imagine that the late Engr. Jürgen Krügger must have known that you will
put the money to good use for the less privileged of which he was aware that
you can achieve, that is why he selected you. Also, understand that I don't
know you neither have I met you before, but my contacting you is based on the
recommendation of late Engr. Jürgen Krügger.Be further informed that these
funds will not be released to you without some proper identification. I have
never met you before like I said and to be able to carry out our duties
effectively as sole executors of the WILL of late Engr. Jürgen Krügger, We
must be convinced that you are who the testament says you are.

And please re-confirm to us through the above stated via email or telephone;
your full contact details to include your full name and address telephone and
fax number(if any) and if you have moved to a new address then indicate both
the new and old one for my verification with what I have in my file. Any
difference or discrepancies in the information provided by you will mean that
I am contacting the wrong person and I will stop all communication with you
out rightly.


Your information would be taken to the probate division of the International
Court of Justice for verification. After the confirmation, the probate
division would now release your letter of administration for claims to this
bequest/funds. This document as well as the Certificate of Deposit issued by
the Deposit Bank to Engr. Jürgen Krügger when the funds were deposited by him
will then be released to you, this will give you the legal backing to
receiving these funds.

We sincerely hope that the above requirement be sent to us sooner that later
for us to proceed with the documentation. And note that we cannot send any
document to you until we are fully convinced that we have the true
beneficiary. And note that we have a period of (7) working days to conclude
this so I can move on to the next beneficiary on the WILL of my late client.

Note: We are not demanding any money of form of payment from you for service,
we have been fully paid by my late client and all we need is to comply with
our directives to make sure your funds is fully transferred.


I await your prompt response.


Yours in Service,


BARRISTER BARRY DEAN ESQ.
PRINCIPAL PARTNERS: Barrister Aidan Walsh.Esq Markus Wolfgang, Mr. John
Marvey Esq, Mr. Jerry Smith

-------------------------------------------
I got this e-mail yesterday. Apparently everyone at my University is related to this guy. As a few interesting notes, There is no www.barryassociate.org, no barrister berry dean esq. no Engr. Jürgen Krügger, and I don't think any engineer makes as much money as this guy is saying he dose. Also this guy died on Dec 14, 2004, a member of the Helicopters Society, and has his will through several agencies, Including the Will Kard and associates, Teddy Williams and assoc. and is offering between 100k and 7M US dollars. With all of the lawyer fees, I'll bet this guy will end up paying more for legal fees then he has to offer. Too bad my my dear rich uncle, the late Thomas Shüford Esq is not rich, died in California, and dose not have an umlaut and an Esquire in his name.

ialmrnt5 display driver error

So I have this new case in today. Apparently there is a serious issue with the ialmrnt5.dll driver
not wanting to work. (something about a infinite loop.) The case notes had a couple links. One from Intel's forums and the other from Dell's forums. It appears that nether one are very helpful as are the company's themselves. (dell dosn't even know the problem exists apparently.) So i did my own search. I found a shit-ton of people who are having the same problem with different games and programs. The only similarity is that its an Intel card and most of them are in Dell PCs (some are in HPs of course) the solutions are not that easy, ranging from alternate drivers, rolling back drivers (to 04 apparently) and getting a new video card all together. I'm going down there to do a diags on the system. I'm also armed with about 5 drivers and a new video card. Ill let ya know what happens.
----------------------------------------------------
UPDATE:
We went out there to see what the issue was. The client was not there and the people who were there had no idea what was going on. I downloaded the drivers I found on the desktop and then tried to recreate the error. We found a stress test for the video card. The program lagged the computer out like crazy but didn't give me the error. And without the error, I had no way to troubleshoot. I was told the client would be in around noon that day.

So we go out around 3:30 but the same people who were there told us that he just left. They also said that he usualy is there between 1:00 and 2:00 (wish my schedule was that easy.) So we won't be able to do anything until tomarrow.

Otherwise, I had 2 printer issues, one of which was replacing an old clanker, (it literally went clank clank clank. Quite humorous) and the other at the police station where we replaced the toner cartridge for the Precinct Captain (it still had a piece of packing plastic in it.) And we had to deliver of a cable, (easy enough except trying to get out of the Alumni Center.)

Update: They went out and tried some of the third party drivers. They worked great.

WinWord.exe issue in Vista

Issue: Office 2007
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

So I had a very strange case today. This afternoon, working the Helpdesk, a client called wanting to get on a remote session to show me the problem. What he showed me would take me the next 2 hours to find the solution.

He explained that whenever he opens Microsoft Office 2007 file on his desktop, It would open Office 2007 but not his file. He would then have to manually go to open file, and open the file that way. Then he would not be able to move the cursor by mouse, only by using the arrows on his keyboard. His toolbar was all grayed out so we would not be able to select bold, italic, underline, or any other editing stuff. He said he tried to reinstall office, repair office, Change or remove objects from office. Nothing seemed to work.

He said this happened after last night. He said his computer loaded a software update for Vista. Perhaps this may have something to do with the problem?

Well i thought "maybe if we roll the computer back to before the update this would be a resolution. The best way i could do this was from "last good known configuration" in the startup menu. When he went to shut down i found he had some updates needing him to restart. So we had these updates install and tried again. Nothing. Lets try the last known good configuration. Still no good.

I also found that he needed MS Office 2k7 SP1 updated. Ok, lets try that. Still no good.

So now I'm at a complete loss. He then says, "hey here is that strange error message I got before. Let me put u back on remote session so u can look at it." Excellent. Now i can see what the issue might me. I did a search for it online and found a fourm saying 2 things might fix the issue.

1) Delete all the .tmp and .dot in the c://Documents and Settings/(username)/application data/microsoft/office/

or

2) go to the Regestry editor, (regedit)
H_KEY_LOCALMACHINE->Software->Microsoft->Office->Word->addin (or addon) if this folder exists, delete it.

The later worked like a charm.^^

Out for the day
Aaron