What to Do When XP or 2000 Won't Boot

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Windows XP won't load on my computer. What should I do?

Ernest Kaufman, Los Angeles

If Windows XP (or 2000) refuses to start, press F8 right after you turn on your PC but before the Windows log-on appears (it may take a few attempts to get the timing right). At the resulting menu, select Last Known Good Configuration to restore your Registry to an earlier date.

If this doesn't get your PC working, reboot and press F8 again, but this time select Safe Mode, and then choose Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore. Follow the wizard's instructions and pick an appropriate backup.

If that approach doesn't work either, or if you can't even get to this menu, use your emergency boot floppy. If your hard drive's boot sector or Windows' basic boot files have been corrupted, this disk will circumvent the problem and boot you into Windows. If you don't have an emergency boot floppy, you may be able to use one created on another PC running Windows XP or Windows 2000, but there's no guarantee that it will boot your machine.

To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt, type format a:, and press Enter. When asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press Enter. Type the following commands, pressing Enter after each one.

xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h

Now type exit and press Enter to close the window. Remove the floppy disk and label it "Windows XP boot floppy." Put this emergency disk in the floppy drive of your inoperable machine and boot up. Windows should run with no problems. You could simply keep the floppy in the drive all the time, but to truly fix the problem, launch the command prompt as described above, type xcopy a:*.* c:\ /h, and press Enter.

If the emergency boot floppy doesn't work, try the Recovery Console, a Windows utility that provides a DOS-like command line from which you can run some repair programs. It's tricky to use if you're not accustomed to command lines, and you can damage your data, so be careful.

If you have a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM, you can get to the Recovery Console by booting from that CD and pressing any key when you're told to 'Press any key to boot from CD'. At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen, press r for Repair.

If Windows XP or 2000 came with your computer and you don't have a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM, the Recovery Console might be on one of the CDs the vendor bundled with your PC. But it might not. Fortunately, the Recovery Console is hidden in a free, downloadable Microsoft program called Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install. Visit Microsoft's site to download the setup-disk file that works with XP Professional; available too is the XP Home version, which will also work for Windows 2000, Me, and 98.

When you run the download, it puts the XP installation program, including the Recovery Console, onto a set of six floppy disks. To get to the Recovery Console, boot from the first floppy, and then swap disks as prompted until you reach the 'Welcome to Setup' screen. Press r to open the Recovery Console.

Figure 1 below shows a list of the Recovery Console's most useful commands. For detailed information on a particular command, type the command followed by a space and /?, as in chkdsk /?. (Not all the commands will be available if you don't have a Windows CD-ROM.)

Figure 1: Recovery Console Commands

Command	Function
Chkdsk1	Checks disks for errors.
Diskpart	Creates and deletes partitions.
Extract2	Extracts files from compressed.cab archives.
Fixboot	Writes a new boot sector.
Fixmbr	Writes a new master boot record.
Help	Lists the Recovery Console commands.
Footnotes: 1 If you load the Recovery Console from floppy disks, chkdsk may complain that it can't locate autochk.exe. When it asks for that file's location, point it to c:\windows\system32. 2 Extract is not available if you load the Recovery Console from floppy disks.

Teach XP Some Patience

Gerard J. Skibinski of Indianapolis asks if there's a way to make Windows XP's Start, All Programs menu wait for a click before popping up and obscuring the Control Panel and My Documents options. There is. Right-click the Start button and select Properties to bring up the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box. On the Start Menu tab, click Customize. In the Customize Start Menu dialog box, click the AdvancedOpen submenus when I pause on them with my mouse. Click OK twice. tab. Uncheck

How to Monitor the Server And Network in Linux

How to Monitor the Server And Network in Linux

For any System administrator its tough to monitor large Linux networks continuously without a streamlined system. Looking for an efficient network monitoring solution for Linux systems we came across Nagios. It is a free, open source host, service and network monitoring services. It allows you to monitor all your hosts, network equipment and services at one go. Using Nagios you can monitor any Linux set up (database and custom application) efficiently. Fully Automated Nagios (FAN) has been designed to provide a Nagios installation including most tools provided by the Nagios Community. There is a wide variety of monitoring tools included in the distribution that enhances your Nagios experience.

Nagios offers the best monitoring tool to monitor host and network equipments. The application offers the option to setup warning levels - Nagios would proactively alert you before a problem becomes critical.

Nagios plugins allow you to monitor the following items listed below

• Disk space usage of remote Linux and Windows server
• CPU Usage
• Memory usage
• Hardware Temperature
• VPN tunnels
• Router and Switches
• Databases
• Network services (DHCP, DNS, LDAP, SMTP etc.)

For more detailed information on Nangios you can look for this article - How to monitor remote Linux host using Nagios 3.0.

How to see the process Running in Linux System

How to see the process Running in Linux System

As a part of monitoring Linux system you often need to know about the currently running processes in Linux systems. Once you know the process running on the Linux system you can kill the process that are slowing down your system. Again, information about system processes makes it imperative to kill the processes that make the system unstable. Knowing the server and running processes in the system is important. The information would allow you to shut down some of the processes. There are a number of ways  Let's see

Linux supports ps command to display information about all running process. The ps command provides a snapshot of the current process.
Just type the following command in the terminal
# ps aux | less


There are three ways you can use this command.

See all the processes in the system types the following in the terminal
# ps -A

See all the processes except those running  on the root
# ps -U root -u root -N

See the process by the certain user
# ps -u username

For dynamic real time view of running systems. Type the top at terminal
# top

Java Tips: How to open a file with default editor from Java applications

How to open a file with default editor from Java applications

For a long time we couldn't easily use Java applications to open the default (for the operating system) editor application (like notepad in Windows Operating Systems for text files). Starting with JDK 1.6 you can use the java.awt.Desktop class to easily launch the default editor (of your operating system) from Java applications. Read below for more details and the code.

java.net.URI uri = new URI("http://gaeatimes.com");
java.awt.Desktop.getDesktop().edit(new File("Readme"));

The documentation for edit() states: Launches the associated editor application and opens a file for editing.

Note: The EDIT action is not supported in CentOS 5.x systems. Let us know if you have success on your Operating System.

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How to get Facebook, Twitter and Buzz all in Gmail

With a stretch of features - desired and unwanted - Google buzz has become a phenomenon overnight. The web is flooded with talks on pros and cons about Google Buzz privacy. Gmail users now have an added reason to spend more hours on their email service. Hanging out in Gmail and Buzz you might be missing out on your Facebook and Twitter updates.  Clearly, that's what Google launched Buzz for. But, all you Facebook and Twitter aficionados still have a way out of this. You can simply integrate Facebook and Twitter into Gmail. Here's how to do it.

Gmail Labs is always up with some interesting stuff, which most of us hardly care to notice. Have you ever noticed the Gmail Labs feature at the bottom of the list - Add any gadget by URL. Using the feature you can add a third-party gadget that will allow you to transform Gmail into a single place to access Twitter, Facebook as well as Buzz.

Here's the step by step instruction to get Twitter, Facebook and Buzz in Gmail

Step 1: Go to the Gmail Labs and at the bottom of the list you will find Add any gadget by URL. Activate it.

Step 2: Go to the settings > Gadgets. Here you can paste the Gadget URLs

Step 3: You can integrate any iGoogle gadget here. The best one you need to integrate is TwitterGadget. It is fully functional Twitter service for iGoogle and Gmail. It allows you to tweet from sidebar or open up your Twitter with all your tabs. It offers multiple accounts.

To add Twitter gadget, copy and paste this URL into Gmail Gadget settings

https://twittergadget.appspot.com/gadget-gmail.xml

Step 4: In the same way as you add official Facebook gadget to Gmail. However, it doesn't play nice, so it would be better to use the iBruno app Ari Milner users: Facebook Gadget.

To add Facebook Gadget copy paste the following URL into Gmail’s Gadget settings:

http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/104971404861070329537/facebook.xml

Step 5: Now you are done, so you can use Google Buzz, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail all in one place.

If you have something to add or share your experience. Just drop in your comments

CentOS 5.4 : Synergy-Plus Crashing / Hanging on Linux Fixed

 Synergy-Plus Crashing / Hanging on Linux Fixed

After recent updates in CentOS 5.4, I found that Synergy-Plus is crashing whenever I try to type anything in the client desktop / screen. This pretty much makes Synergy-Plus unusable on Cent OS 5.4. The solution is to downgrade Synergy-Plus. Read below for full details on how you can fix Synergy-Plus on Cent OS.


Note: The problem may be present in other versions of Linux but I haven't tested them. However I do know that the problem exists when the client desktop is Windows.

How to fix Synergy on Cent OS?

In short this is what you have to do (while running as root):


wget http://pi.vu/S_e
rpm -e synergy-plus
rpm -Uvh synergy-1.3.1-2.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm

This downgrades synergy-plus to 1.3.1 version which fixes the issue.

Why is Synergy-Plus breaking in Cent OS?

In recent builds of synergy-plus XInitThreads() has been called, to enable threading, which has been found to be responsible for the hang. Most likely Synergy-Plus is performing some thread-unsafe operation which is causing this. Commenting it out in the code and recompiling fixes it. However for most non-hacker types (including me) the above solution is simplest.

The funny thing is that XInitThreads() is required for newer Linux distributions or else it hangs / crashes.

The bug was introduced in revision 46 of synergy-plus. Previous version of synergy-plus do not hang for this reason.
Note: Old synergy package (not plus) does NOT hang.

Note: The defect is reported in details in issue 194 of synergy-plus.

imho: rpmforge which adds this rpm to its repository should have checked synergy before adding it to their repository.

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How to Install SSH on iPhone

How to Install SSH on iPhone

IPhone is getting associated with most high-end technologies. 

This time iPhone has the SSH connectivity tools. 

Well I am sure the power users would be rejoicing about it.  

For those who are still wondering, what's SSH all about? 

Let me tell you that SSH the most secured channel for exchanging data

 between networked devices. SSH once istalled in your iPhone will allow 

you to manage your phone, its files and correct different types of problems.  The key is how to install SSH in your iPhone. Installing SSH is exhausting, 

but I'll let you an easier way.

There are two routes for installing Open SSH, either Cydia or installer. 

It's never easy to launch SSH as you don't get any sort of configuration icon.

 It's better you install SBSettings to configure SSH. 

Here's what you got to do to install Open SSH and SBSettings 

Step 1: Open Cydia. 

Step 2:On the search tab, type in Open SSH. Install Open SSH 

Step 3:Look for the SB Settings. 

Step 4: Install SB Settings, when the prompt appears restart springboard

There will be no icons for SB Settings or Open SSH on your Desktop. 

In order to launch the SBSettings just swipe the top task bar. 

Using the toggles within SBSettings you can toggle SSH on and off.

It can be used to turn off SSH when it is not in use. Once the SSH is installed,

 you need to connect to it. For this you would require an additionalsoftware.

The Windows users need to download two packages, WinSCP and putty. 

The Mac OS X users can work from the terminal.

To connect to the session you go ahead with the steps below

For the MAC OS X users

Step 1: Connect the iPhone via wifi 

Step 2: Open Terminal 

Step 3: Type in ssh root@iphoneipaddress (substitute the iphone’s IP Address

            for iphone ipaddress). You will get the iphone ipaddress from the 

            SBSetting,in the wifi field. 

Step 4: The password is alpine (without the quotes). 

           (For systems before 1.1.1 the password is dottie.

It would take nearly 30 seconds to connect for the first time. 

After it's connected you get the Unix command prompt.

For Windows (using WinSCP)

WinSCP helps you to copy ROMs onto the phone or manage the file system. 

Step 1: Open the WinSCP.exe 

Step  2: Type in the phone’s IP address in Host name box (To get it, open     

the BossPrefs and look at the wifi field) 

Step  3: In User name type in root 

Step 4: For password type in Alpine. Ensure that File Protocol type is SCP 

Step 5: Click Login

First time it'll take around 30-60 seconds to connect. 

Once it's connected you may get some warning about security key.

Accept it and coninue. Finally, you will find the file browse box.

For On Windows (using putty)

Step 1: Open the putty.exe 

Step 2: Type in the phone’s IP address in the Host Name address box. 

           (get the IP address from SBSettings in the wifi field) 

Step 3: Ensure that the connection type is SSH, click Open 

Step 4: It will take more than 30 seconds to connect for the first time. 

           Type the username as root and the password as Alpine 

           (for systems before 1.1.1 the password is dottie)

Once this is done you would receive warning about the security key. 

Accept it and continue. Finally you get the Unix command prompt.

Uninstalling Oracle Manually

Uninstalling Oracle Manually

Windows XP /2000 / 2003 Server
In the past I've had many problems uninstalling all Oracle products from Windows systems. Here's my last resort method:

    * Uninstall all Oracle components using the Oracle Universal Installer (OUI).
    * Run regedit.exe and delete the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE key. This contains registry entires for all Oracle products.
    * Delete any references to Oracle services left behind in the following part of the registry:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/Ora*
      It should be pretty obvious which ones relate to Oracle.
    * Reboot your machine.
    * Delete the "C:\Oracle" directory, or whatever directory is your ORACLE_BASE.
    * Delete the "C:\Program Files\Oracle" directory.
    * Empty the contents of your "c:\temp" directory.
    * Empty your recycle bin.

At this point your machine will be as clean of Oracle components as it can be without a complete OS reinstall.

Remember, manually editing your registry can be very destructive and force an OS reinstall so only do it as a last resort.