Funky Penguin

How to make VMWare vSphere Client work on Windows 7

David — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:28:12 +0000

In struggling to get VMWare vSphere Infrastructure Client to work on my fresh Windows 7 installation, I came across the following instructions, which solved the problem for me:

1. Obtain a copy of %SystemRoot%Microsoft.NETFrameworkv2.0.50727System.dll from a non Windows 7 machine that has .NET 3.5 SP1 installed.

2. Create a folder in the Windows 7 machine where the vSphere client is installed and copy the file from step 1 into this folder. For example, create the folder under the vSphere client launcher installation directory (+%ProgramFiles%VMwareInfrastructureVirtual Infrastructure ClientLauncherLib+).

3. In the vSphere client launcher directory, open the VpxClient.exe.config file in a text editor and add a element and a element as shown below. Save the file.

…

3. Create a batch file (e.g. *VpxClient.cmd*) in a suitable location. In this file add a command to set the DEVPATH environment variable to the folder where you copied the System.dll assembly in step 2 and a second command to launch the vSphere client. Save the file. For example,

SET DEVPATH=%ProgramFiles%VMwareInfrastructureVirtual Infrastructure ClientLauncherLib
“%ProgramFiles%VMwareInfrastructureVirtual Infrastructure ClientLauncherVpxClient.exe”

4. (Optional) Replace the shortcut on the start menu to point to the batch file created in the previous step. Change the shortcut properties to run minimized so that the command window is not shown.

You can now use the VpxClient.cmd (or the shortcut) to launch the vSphere client in Windows 7.

Note that this workaround bypasses the normal .NET Framework loading mechanism so that assembly versions in the DEVPATH folder are no longer checked. Handle with care.

via VMware Communities: vsphere client on Windows 7 rc.

Update #1: I found an even better howto (including screenshots!) here.

How to convert a (CentOS 5) VMWare image to Xen

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Make your security updates easy to use

David — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:14:05 +0000

Phillip Cohen has an insightful post about how making your product easier to update, makes it more secure, because it’s not “painful” to update. He compares two of my favorite open source products, WordPress and Mediawiki.

He also included my favorite cartoon character, Calvin

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WordPress Configuration Tricks

David — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:38:50 +0000

I found this great list of clever things you can do with WordPress’ config file:

Many WordPress users know the wp-config.php file as the key to the WordPress database. It is where you set the database name, username, password, and location. [...] But what many users don’t know is that the wp-config.php file may be used to specify a wide variety of configurational settings, enabling you to improve the functionality, performance, and security of your WordPress-powered site.

via WordPress Configuration Tricks.

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Semantic Mediawiki – quick reference

David — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:22:20 +0000

The Semantic MediaWiki quick reference is a one-page reference, created by Yaron Koren, for the MediaWiki extensions Semantic MediaWiki, Semantic Forms, Semantic Calendar and Semantic Drilldown. It can be downloaded here:

via SMW quick reference.

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WP-PHPList plugin updated to 2.10.10

David — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:06:19 +0000

Version 2.10.10 of PHPList has been released. I’ve updated my WP-PHPList plugin accordingly. Here’s version 2.10.10:

Download:	wp-phplist-2-10-10
Version:	0.3
Updated:	July 2, 2009
Size:	46.7 KB

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Format a large drive in FAT32

David — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:00:03 +0000

This weekend, I had the need to format an 80GB USB drive as FAT32, so that the DivX AVI files on it would play on a standalone HDD recorder. To my dismay, Windows XP wouldn’t format the drive as FAT32, since it was larger than the 32GB “limit”.

I found this article, which provided a very easy solution – an executable tool called “fat32format.exe”, which ignored the 32GB “limit”

CrapControl.com: Article / How to format a large drive in FAT32.

No related posts.

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Serial Port (ttyS0) pass-thru to Xen domU on CentOS 5

David — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:20:21 +0000

Recently we had the need to have a Xen domU interact with a device attached to the serial port of it’s dom0 host. It’s not as easy to setup as as one would think! Here’s a quick howto. We used CentOS 5.3.

Stop Xen from grabbing the serial port on boot for its own console

Add “xencons=off” as a kernel argument to your dom0 kernel

Stop your dom0 from loading the serial port modules

Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist, and add the following lines:

blacklist 8250
blacklist 8250_pnp
blacklist serial_core

Reboot

Restart the dom0

Add IRQ/Interrupt passthru config to your domU config

Add the following lines to your domU VM config:

addirq = [ 4 ]
ioports = [ "3f8-3ff" ]

Shut down and restart the domU

Run “modprobe 8250″ on the domU to insert the module – you should now have access to your dom0′s serial port!

(You might want to add “modprobe 8250″ to /etc/rc.local, so that the module is added on startup)

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WP-PHPList plugin updated to 2.10.9

David — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:50:34 +0000

Version 2.10.9 of PHPList was released yesterday, to address another security vulnerability. I’ve updated my WP-PHPList plugin accordingly. (...)
Read the rest of WP-PHPList plugin updated to 2.10.9 (7 words)

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How to convert (liberate) Audible AAC files to MP3

David — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:42:31 +0000

I was an Audible subscriber for over 2 years, and although I’m no longer active on a plan, I still have 50+ books that I’ve legitimately purchased. Each of them, however, is locked to my Audible username and password. I don’t tolerate DRM where possible, and I’ve done enough system reloads / iPod upgrades to be frustrated at the need to authorize my new devices, and de-authorize my old ones. (and get Audible to reset my devices, since it’s impossible to de-authorize a dead computer!)

Here are the steps required to convert your Audible titles to standard, un-restricted MP3 files, which you can then do what you want with. Note to scurvy pirates: the process still requires your Audible username and password!(...)
Read the rest of How to convert (liberate) Audible AAC files to MP3 (234 words)

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WP-PHPList plugin updated to 2.10.8

David — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:55:31 +0000

Version 2.10.8 of PHPList was recently released, to address a security vulnerability. I’ve updated my WP-PHPList plugin accordingly. (...)
Read the rest of WP-PHPList plugin updated to 2.10.8 (7 words)

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