VNC to a headless ubuntu server

So I have a Ubuntu server that I have set up as a multipurpose server. For instance it is set up as a RAID 5 file server and a platform for a Windows server 2008 Virtual Machine which is running as a WAMP server to host my personal website. I have been using Virtual Box and to my dismay, the configuration file for my web server got corrupted. As a result my virtual machine would not respond when I tried to start it via the command line.

So rather than try to troubleshoot via the command line I wanted to fire up the GUI and troubleshoot that way. The problem was my server is running headless, meaning without a mouse, monitor or keyboard. Normally to administrate it I would simply log in with SSH but this problem required the GUI (but that is another article all together).

VNC to the Rescue!

Now according to the Steve Harman's blog Ubuntu supports VNC by default but you have to have an active-x windows session already started. So short of setting up a monitor and keyboard on my server, I had no way to start this... except with the power of TightVNC Server. Note that this guide assumes that you have already installed the gnome desktop.

1. So I started off by initiating an SSH session into my server and downloading tight VNC server.

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver

2. Next I set up gnome to start when vnc server starts up.

sudo nano ~/.vnc/xstartup

#!/bin/sh

xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
/etc/X11/Xsession
export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
gnome-session &

**Note that the line "export XKL_XMODMAP...." must be added or the VNC client's keyboard map will be messed up**

3. Start the Tight VNC server.

vncserver –geometry widthxheight –depth 24

Now I have read that it may ask for a password here but I didn't have to enter one when I set mine up.

4. Download and install the TightVNC Client
Tight VNC can be downloaded from here for all platforms. It is pretty simple to install so I wont go into too much detail here.

5. Launch the VNC client and log into your server.
One thing to note that I ran into was that when I put the servers ip address in I also had to specify a port (port 1). If I did not specify this port then I could not connect. So for example in the "server" field I had to put in:

192.168.1.3:1

Then it will ask you for your password. The one that I entered here was the password for the account I used to install the VNC server.

You should now be able to see your servers desktop :p

It's been awhile....

It has been far too long since I posted anything on here. So here is an update with my life.

Sadly, my internship at Intel just ended. I learned quite a bit about the intricacies of hardware. I now understand how much testing that a single component goes through before it is released to the public. In addition to the hardware testing that I did, I also learned a little bit about electrical engineering and I was able to get some soldering experience as well. Now I am by no means competent in EE but I am at least able to follow along with what some of the engineers are saying :) I was able to apply my networking and systems analysis expertise there as well. Some of the hardware testing we did had to do with machines on a domain. Before I left, I got the opportunity to set up a virtual domain on a server cluster that was managed by another group. I'm not at liberty to discuss the intricacies of this system but what I can say is that it made setting up a domain extremely quick and easy. The last thing I did before I left was set up an exchange 2007 server, which was quite....fun. I have 6 months to wait before I can get another internship there. Fingers crossed! I suppose without breaking my NDA, this is all I can say about Intel.

As far as school goes, I just graduated Portland Community College with two Associates of Applied Science degrees, one in Computer Information Systems and the other in Networking. While I am excited that I am done with my degrees there, I am a bit discouraged with the fact that I still have 36 more classes to take before I get my Bachelors. However, I am looking forward to the challenge. I know that if I am persistent I can do it with little trouble. Speaking of which, I just got accepted to OIT where I plan on taking classes to get a Bachelors in Systems Analysis.

As I said, my internship just ended which means I don't have a job currently. To tell you the truth I am going crazy with all this free time I have. I made a list of all the things that I want to do while I am unemployed but I'm not sure how well I am going to stick to it. Anyway my plan is to claim unemployment for six months until I can get hired back at Intel. I know that I can probably get my old position back no problem but I am having difficulty deciding whether or not to hold out for a networking internship. I suppose we will see in a few months. Anyway while I am unemployed I suppose I will get some certifications. I am currently studying for the network+ certification and I plan on trying for the CCNA afterwords. Ill post updates on how well those are going. Other than that I am just going to get some classes out of the way for OIT and start there in the fall.

Anyway I am off to watch some Star Trek with Tia. I plan on writing here more but with cool tech stuff that I do over the summer. Anyway, see you later!

Performing an upgrade installation of windows vista

How to Upgrade from Windows Vista Home Basic To Windows Vista Business

Here are the steps that you need to take to perform an upgrade installation of windows vista home basic to windows vista business. This tutorial assumes that you have a legitimate copy of windows vista business and that you are wanting to upgrade a 32 bit version of Vista home basic to Vista business.

1. Back up all your data! If your installation fails its always a good idea to have a back up plan. You can make an image of your hard drive or just back up the data manually using DVDs, External Hard drives or USB Flash drives.

2. Verify that you have a connection to the Internet.

3. You can perform an upgrade installation from vista home basic to vista business. Vista home basic has a direct upgrade path to vista business. Start by booting into windows home basic.

4. Insert the Windows Vista Business DVD into the DVD-ROM drive.

5. An installation window will pop up that will ask if you want to install windows vista Business.

6. Click install now

7. When a screen appears asking you which type of installation you would like to perform click 'Upgrade'.

8. Then follow the remaining prompts to install windows Vista Business.

9. Vista Business should now be installed.

Doing an upgrade installation will preserve all of your files and settings and in most cases your programs as well. Some programs may need to be reinstalled in order to function properly.

*Unfortunately, you are not able to perform a windows anytime upgrade when upgrading from vista home basic to vista ultimate edition

Hitman Pro 3- Review

Now as most of you may know I am a Freelance computer technician. One thing really gripes me about doing virus/adware/ spyware removal and that's the fact that for particularly infected systems I have to run multiple programs to ensure that infected files are healed and removed. My favorites include: AVG, Spybot Search and Destroy, Adaware and CCleaner. Well someone finally got smart and combined almost all of my favorite cleaning programs all into one program. With Hitman Pro 3 you get the scanning power of CWShredder, Adawaare, Spybod, webroot SpySweeper and more. Now I haven't had the chance to test this program extensively but so far it looks great. If you have the time download the public beta from here and use it for your next virus scan. It seems to actually scan faster than if I had scanned with the 4 a fore mentioned virus scanners above.

On a side note I just learned that "modem" is actually an acronym for Modulate and Demodulate.

"Internet Explorer has stopped working."

I had a customer come in with an HP pavilion dv6000 running Windows Vista Home Premium. The problem the customer had was when closing Internet Explorer 7(Go figure an error with IE) he had an error message that popped up that said "Internet explorer has stopped working" which was followed by a message saying "Internet explorer is restarting". Then it restarts. This happens in a never ending loop.

It turns out this is a common problem with windows vista and internet explorer. Now I don't know if this issue was fixed with service pack 1 but I have uncovered several fixes to take care of this.

Here is a list of all the fixes I tried:

-Apparently there is an conflict with some canon driver software that conflicts with internet explorer, Particularly the Omnipage pro package that comes with it.

If this is your case you have 2 options. The first is disable it from starting up via MSCOFNIG
(Start -> Run -> type 'MSCONFIG' and press enter -> Click on the 'start up' tab -> uncheck Omnipage) The second option is completely removing it via the control panel. (Start -> Control Panel-> add and remove programs -> click on Omnipage pro and then click remove.)

-The next thing I tried was disabling an option within internet explorer.

Start internet explorer-> Click Tools -> Click internet options -> Click Advanced -> Scroll down to the option 'enable memory protection to help mitigate online attacks' and disable it by unchecking it.

You can also try:
- control panel-> internet options -> security -> Disable the "Enable protected mode" (this is what worked for me)

-Disabling windows UAC (sorry dont remember how to do this off the top of my head, i use xp or ubuntu :P)

- You can also try to uninstall toolbars such as the yahoo tool bar and google tool bar

- The last thing i can suggest is reverting back to the default settings. This can be done by clicking tools-> internet options -> click the far right tab -> then at the bottom there is a an option to revert to default settings -> click that and IE7 will restart.

I find it odd that Microsoft decided to incorperate IE7 into vista as much as they did. You cannot remove it like normal programs. It works ok when it works but when it crashes like that its just annoying. I mainly use firefox so its all good! :P

Anyway let me know if these fixes work for you!

Ahh dell how I hate you

Ok so I am working on a dell inspiron 1720 doing a standard system restore for a guy who bought a display model and wanted all the store stuff off of it. I thnk to myself that this is going to be a piece of cake becuase the computer has the restore software. However I forgot that this computer was a dell and no matter what it is there is always a problem. I get all the way through the vista home premium installation and then it hangs with a black screen and just the mouse pointer showing. No keyboard shortcuts work at all but I can move the mouse about as I please.

The sollution:
-Hours and hours of looking around on the internet.
-Go into the bios
-Go to Flash cache modules -> Disable
-Sata operation -> Change to ATA

Boom, It now boots into vista. And thats my quick fix for the day.

Internet Explorer

So its been awhile since I posted anything and I thought that this would be a good time to start updating my tech blog. I am looking for a new job now, Staples finally made me the "Easy Tech Technician" but the pay sucks. *Sigh* Oh well.

So I guess I'll comment on the new internet explorer. From what I've heard there is going to be a so called "Porn mode". Basically when you put it into this mode it doesn't save anything. (IE history, cookies, passwords) So when you close it everything you just did was not saved. I can see how this might be beneficial to some....

What I mean is for the user who doesn't want their information saved. A good example of this would be a company that might do a lot of online work, like a tech support company. However I think its a useless feature. I think microsoft should focus their time on better, customizable features much like the firefox browser, but i guess that they can due to the lack of it being open source.

more on this later :P
I gotta go to the bank