The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

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ENDIAN Firewall – Connected client can access EFW but no other hosts: enable promiscuous mode on VMware ESXi

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/10/12

While solving a problem with Windows 7 machines not being able to ping the machines on the GREEN LAN of an Endian when connecting through OpenVPN, but XP machines could, I did a few upgrades, then went on to solve the problem.

  • Upgraded from ESX 3.5 to ESXi 4.1 (I needed this anyway because of Pass Through USB support)
  • Upgraded the community edition appliance from Endian 2.2 to Endian 2.4 (which has more configuration options, and better ways for reporting and logging)

Then I went on solving the issue, which I suspected was a kind of routing problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Endian, ESXi4, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Firewall, Infrastructure, OpenVPN, Power User, VMware, VMware ESXi | 8 Comments »

VMware ESXi 4.0 / ESXi 4.1: enable SSH login for non-root users (and only them)

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/09/28

VMware ESXi has SSH disabled by default.

In ESX / ESXi 3 and 3.5, it took a while for people to recognize the ‘unsupported’ trick and enable SSH.
In ESXi 4.0, /sbin/services.sh was fixed, so SSH was easier to enable (note: only delete the # in front of the first ssh).
Since ESXi version 4.1, SSH is called “Remote Tech Support (SSH)”, and it very easy to enable from the console.
Thomas Maurer described how easy it is to activate SSH in ESXi 4.1. He provides clear screen shots, whereas the VMware knowledge base article just lists the textual steps.

But contrary to ESX/ESXi 3.5 and lower, and *nix habits, enabling SSH on ESXi 4.x will enable this for the root user.
This has to do with the switch between ESX/ESXi 3.5 and 4.0 from to the dropbear ssh daemon (in the /sbin/dropbearmulti binary).
Dropbear is a very lightweight implementation of the SSH 2 protocol; ideal for ESXi which – as a hypervisor – needs to have a really low footprint.

In addition to the dropbear change, SSH is disabled for non-root users (which has nothing to do with dropbear, see below).

This post is about how to fix not only the SSH (as above) but also how to allow specific users to use SSH. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in ESXi4, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, VMware | 9 Comments »

x64 support in ESXi4.1 requires VT, I know that! but why warn so late?

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/08/16

I know that ESXi 4.1 requires VT (the Intel support for hardware assisted virtualization) to be enabled to run x64 VMs.
This is the warning that you get when starting an x64 VM, and you don’t have VT enabled:

[Window Title]
Virtual Machine Message
[Main Instruction]
Virtual Machine Message
msg.cpuid.noLongmodeQuestionFmt: This virtual machine is configured for 64-bit guest
operating systems. However, 64-bit operation is not possible.
This host is VT-capable, but VT is disabled.
VT might be disabled if it has been disabled in the BIOS settings or the host has not been
power-cycled since changing this setting.
(1) Verify that the BIOS settings enable VT and disable ‘trusted execution.’
(2) Power-cycle the host if either of these BIOS settings have been changed.
(3) Power-cycle the host if you have not done so since installing VMware ESX.
(4) Update the hosts’s BIOS to the latest version.
For more detailed information, see http://vmware.com/info?id=152
Continue without 64-bit support?
[Yes] [No] [OK]

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi4, Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 3 Comments »

Quick Access Extension (Visual Studio equivalent of RAD Studio IDE Insight)

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/08/10

It is good to see the cross breeding effect works:

Last week, the Visual Studio 2010 Productivity Power Tools added Quick Access Extension, which is the Visual Studio equivalent of the Delphi RAD Studio IDE Insight.

It is a keyboard shortcut (Delphi: F6 or Ctrl-.; Visual Studio: Ctrl+3) to search and execute things defined by the environment:

  • menu options
  • configuration options
  • templates
  • …

Delphi has a few options that Visual Studio hasn’t and vice versa, but it comes really close.

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, Delphi, Development, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Software Development, Visual Studio and tools | 2 Comments »

Nick Hodges | The End of the Chow Line

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/07/30

From the comments on Nick’s excellent post (that instantly made me feel hungry <g>):

If you find your developers bringing in their own equipment to work then you know there is a problem.

That reminds me of this story: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in About, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Opinions, Personal, Power User, RSI, ThinkPad, UltraNav keyboards | Leave a Comment »

Solution: Can’t paste on a web-site with Ctrl-V

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/07/16

Quite a few web sites have fields where you cannot paste with Ctrl-V.
I don’t know why: pasting text input is a great way to speed up your work.

A solution for most of them: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Chrome, Firefox, Hardware, IBM SAA CUA, Internet Explorer, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, KVM keyboard/video/mouse, Power User, Web Browsers, Windows | 1 Comment »

7 screens; 3 computers; 1 keyboard/mouse to direct them all: Input Director

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/07/12

At home, I have 7 screens on 3 computers on the same desk.

That sounds like a clutter, but all these keyboards and mice hooked up to them add even more clutter.

Until I found out about [Wayback] Input Director a while ago: a (virtual)  Software KVM to Control Multiple Computers.
It took only a few minutes to setup, and works like a breeze.

I have played around with it for about 2 months now, and it is great: I did not have to change any settings since the initial – and easy – setup.

Now I just use the keyboard/mouse that are most convenient to my situation: all keyboard/mice can control all computers and monitors.

A breeze indeed!

–jeroen

Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Windows 7 shortcuts in Vista or XP

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/07/09

A while ago, I posted about Windows 7: new shortcut keys (windows hotkeys and more).

When you are in Vista or XP, you can feel a bit ‘lost’ missing those new keyboard shortcuts.

I just learned there is a tool that supplies the new Windows 7 keyboard shortcuts in Vista and XP :-)

–jeroen

Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User | Leave a Comment »

HDD testing tools from their manufacturers

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/06/08

Below are some links for (at the moment of writing) current HDD testing tools from various HDD manufacturers. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Hardware, Power User | 2 Comments »

ThinkPads beep during certain key combinations – found the cause

Posted by jpluimers on 2010/05/18

I’ve had an annoying beep on my thinkpad whenever I tried to write CD quickly.

It particularly shows when you press these three keys at the same time:

Shift+CD

Recently, I googled for the symptom to find out the cause.
Below are a few links I found, but this is the actual cause (thanks Kriston!): Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User | Leave a Comment »

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