Computing (Mac/Unix/Linux/Windows) Tips

All OSs > Test your Internet Connection Speed (ii)

2008-12-08T17:11:00.003-06:00

I just "upgraded" to a different ISP for testing purposes (heck, saving 30% of your internet service in Mexico is good enough).

And good news for me, it actually gives a little more than expected, of a 2MB connection, I am getting almost 2MB of download speed and almost 600KB of upstream.

Niiice!

UNIX > SSH Client displays error in Solaris 9

2007-02-05T12:21:00.000-06:00

Explanation: When executing ssh (Secure SHell) to open a client connection to a server, displays an error similar to this:

ssh [hostname] -l [useraccount]
unable to initialize mechanism library [/usr/lib/gss/gl/mech_krb5.so]  
Password:

How to Fix it?: It must be understood that this is a peculiar bug which only affects Sun Solaris 9 systems as the originating client of any SSH Connection. It can be fixed by installing some Operating System Patches.

Or, it can be worked around by modifying the client configuration file: /etc/ssh/ssh_config via any text editor such as vi and adding the following lines:

GSSAPIAuthentication=no
GSSAPIKeyExchange=no
StrictHostKeyChecking=no

These settings will apply to new connections only. If you cannot get your system administrator to do that for you, please modify (or create) your ~/.ssh/config file the same way.

Windows > Screen and Window Capture

2006-12-13T09:25:00.000-06:00

Explanation: Sometimes there's the need to get a picture of how the screen looks like. Sometimes there's also the need to get a picture of only a window, without everything else.

How to Fix it?: Not like there's a problem here, but here's the tip:

For Screen capture, press the [PrtScrn] key.

For Window capture, press and hold the [Alt] key, then press the [PrtScrn] key.

The [PrtScrn] key is usually found left from [Scroll Lock], here's a sample layout of a standard keyboard with the [PrtScrn] key selected:

You will not see any particular message on screen, but you can paste that information to any application such as: Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft Paint, Microsoft Word and so.

ALL OSs > Want to fly (for free)?

2006-10-15T07:18:00.000-05:00

Microsoft is about to release to the general public its latest version of Flight Simulator. If you are an enthusiast and would like to try a different product -with similar characteristics- for free, here's the tip.

Explanation: MS Flight Simulator usually will sell for no less than US$40. There are different alternatives with similar characteristics available, some of them without charge.

How to Get it?: One of these versions is "Flight Gear Flight Simulator". Is an open source and multi-platform flight simulator, runs not only on Microsoft Windows, but runs on Linux, Apple Mac OS and Solaris, so you will not be stuck with a particular operating system and will be able to download just what you want.

Note: Flight Gear Flight Simulator is not available for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) on Intel, so please be patient.

Windows > P4M800PRO-M motherboard won't start

2006-10-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I went to help a couple of friends, trying to setup a new system for them. They bought a P4M800PRO-M (v1.0) motherboard with an Intel Celeron D processor and 512MB of 400MHz DDR. It is an impressive motherboard having a 1066 FSB.

Once I finished removing the previous hardware and adding the new one, I tried to turn on the system but... it wouldn't boot.

Explanation: Having read the manual thoroughly, I found there was a note concerning the power requirements for this mother board, which says:

Page 10
Connecting the 20/24-pin power cable
(...)However, using 20-pin power cable may cause the system to become unbootable or unstable because of insufficient electricity. A minimum power of 300W is recommended for a fully-configured system.

How to Fix it?: Make sure your power supply does have either a 24-pin cable or a 20-pin cable along with a 4-pin/12v power connector. Place them as explained in the manual on page 10. This should make your system boot.

Mac OS X > office:mac expired, what to do?

2006-10-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

Recently, I opened the Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive and got the following message:

The question is: Is it possible to add my installation key to this product?

Explanation: It is not possible to add the installation key to this product.
The way microsoft designed this so-called "Test Drive", is: try it for 30 days.

How to Fix it?:
Well, whether you like it (or not, there is also the iWork suite for more professional looking documents and presentations), you would have to:

Click the "Uninstall" button, you'll get the software removed from Mac OS X

If you downloaded or got the installation CD for the full Office for Mac delivered to you, run the installation and you'll be able to start working on it in no time

Mac OS X > Unable to read from or write to a DVD

2006-09-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I wanted to watch a movie. Inserted a DVD and got an error from the DVD player. It was a strange situation because I had already seen a couple of movies, as well as written blank DVD disks.

Explanation: After updating the operating system, some permissions are damaged, so the operating system is unable to interact properly with DVDs.

How to Fix it?: Open: Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, then select your hard disk (usually the first drive from the left-hand menu). Once selected, click the "Repair Disk Permissions" button.
You'll be able to see the following output from the "Log" icon at the upper-right hand corner of the window:

**********
Aug 27 11:31:26: Disk Utility started.

Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”
Determining correct file permissions.
Group differs on ./private/etc/authorization,
  should be 80, group is 0
Owner and group corrected on ./private/etc/authorization
Permissions corrected on ./private/etc/authorization

Permissions repair complete

The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume

Try again, everything should be right. Seems to be an update error from the guys at Apple.

Mac OS X > iDVD appears to be not responding/hung

2006-09-26T13:50:00.000-05:00

While creating my first DVD using iDVD, the system got to a point where iDVD was "Encoding Audio" and seemed to be not responding or hung.

I even checked from the system menu (Apple > Force Quit) and the window shows "iDVD (not responding)".

Explanation: It seems the "Encoding Audio" process is a very slow task. It takes a long time to finish this. For DVDs longer than an hour it could take more than 6 hours to process everything.

The Operating system seems to be unaware of the fact that iDVD is doing a lot of painfully slow background processing.

How to Fix it?:

Wait

If you can't wait, then you'll have to make a shorter iDVD project and start the process from scratch...

To find out if iDVD is really active and working, do this:
Open "Applications"
Open "Terminal"
Go to your iDVD project, probably within "Documents" (cd Documents[Enter]), then enter to your project (cd [Project-Name].dvdproj[Enter]).
Enter to your Audio directory:
cd Contents/Resources/Audio[Enter]
Enter the following instruction: ls -l[Enter]
You should see an output similar to:
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 271776048 Sep 22 15:40 tempmovie.mov
Wait a few minutes and repeat the same instruction again, you should see the file increase its size:
-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 281856048 Sep 22 15:48 tempmovie.mov

That's the only indication your iDVD project is not really hung.

All OSs > Test your Internet Connection Speed

2006-09-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

Found a nice way to test your internet connection speed. Should work on all major Operating Systems:

Jan. 03/07:

Sep. 26/06:

Visit that web site: http://www.speedtest.net/

Win 2000/XP > XP Won't boot when 2000 is installed after it.

2006-09-25T00:32:00.000-05:00

On my laptop I had a Win XP installation running without problems. Then I installed Win 2000 on a different partition. Everything went fine until I had to boot to Win XP again... wouldn't run.

Explanation: Windows 2000 had overwritten Windows XP system files located inside the first "Active" partition (Windows XP): ntloader and ntdetect.com.

How to Fix it?: Start the system from a Windows XP installation disk, wait until you get to the point where you are given three options, and choose: "To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R"... of course, press "R".

You will be asked for the Windows installation you want to fix, probably the first one, so select it by number. Then you will be asked for your Administrator account password, enter it.

There you are, this is the "Recovery Console". You will have to navigate through the installation CD-ROM, probably on "E:" drive, depending on your system. So, enter the following instructions:

cd E: (or your cdrom drive letter)
copy i386\ntldr C:\
copy i386\ntdetect.com C:\
exit

If no weird error messages are shown, this should have fixed the problem. Eject the CDROM and wait until you get to the system selection menu.

Welcome

2006-09-23T08:06:00.000-05:00

As Tom Green would say: "This is my favorite blog, because it is my blog". Welcome, enjoy your staying here :-)