Thursday, April 22, 2010

Managing Virtual Operating Systems Using Virtual Box

0 comments
Sun's VirtualBox is a powerful virtualization software that allows you to run a number of operating systems from within your main, host operating system.  You can install them, and pretty much abuse the 'guest OS', break it, tear it up from the inside out, and never hurt your main operating system.  This is a great tool for people who want to learn about Operating Systems like Linux and BSD.  Linux user's can even install it to run Windows inside their Linux environment if needed. VirtualBox is cross platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux).

I was tinkering with my Linux Mint 8 install (running as a guest on my Windows XP box), and I got an error about the partition running low on space.  So I immediately thought of a project.  Could I take the installed operating system, copy it and move it to a larger virtual drive?  I found several sites with instructions on how to do it, and I was unable to get the Linux Mint booting again after the move.  It was hang at a black screen with a cursor in the upper right corner.  So I did things my way.  And I was successful.

Some background info: my Linux Mint install was fresh.  I only allocated a small virtual drive of about 4 GB's for Linux Mint when setting it up in Virtual Box.  Since I primarily tinker with it, I don't need a huge amount of space.  Just enough I can use for installing some apps and playing Compiz.  But keeping my original goal of trying to relocate the system on a bigger 'virtual hard drive' without having to fully reinstall Linux Mint.

First, I downloaded two ISO files: GParted and CloneZilla.  Using Sun's Virtual Box I setup another 'virtual disk drive' of around 8 GB's and set it as 'IDE Secondary Slave' and leaving my original virtual Linux Mint hard drive as 'IDE Primary Master'.  See pictures below:
Above: Steps 1 and 2

Secondly, set the 'Host Drive D:' to boot the CloneZilla ISO file.  This will allow us to clone the installed Linux Mint Operating System to a new virtual hard drive.  When booting CloneZilla I took all of the defaults to boot and took the option to do a 'Device to Device Transfer' in the 'Beginner' menu.  This simply cloned the small 4GB partition to the new 8GB partition.  After about 10 minutes CloneZilla was finished and I tried booting the new partition to see what happened.  And it did boot.  (To do this simply shutdown CloneZilla and click on the use the Storage Manager we used a few moments ago (in the pictures above).  Click the original virtual drive (4GB) and then click the 'Remove Attachment Device' Button below the 'Storage Tree' window.  See picture:

After removing the original virtual drive, we need to set the new virtual drive to be the Primary Drive and remove the CloneZilla ISO from our virtual CD-ROM drive.  You're Storage Tree Window should look like this:

After doing this, I attempted booting my new virtual hard drive.  And behold, it booted!  But I was once again greeted with the warning about running out of space.  Then it hit me, I forgot to resize the partition after it was cloned to the new virtual drive.  So yes, I am using an 8GB virtual drive, but the operating system can only see the original 4GB's of allocated space.  So, I shut down Linux Mint, and loaded the GParted ISO file in my virtual CD-ROM drive (just like we loaded the CloneZilla ISO in the second step.

Once again taking all defaults and booting GParted, I simply deleted the Linux Swap Partition and moved it to end of the unallocated space (remaining 4GB's that was not formatted).  Then I chose 'Resize/Move' to resize the partition from 4GB's to almost 8GB's (I saved some room for the Linux Swap Partition).  Set the remaining unallocated space as Linux Swap and apply all changes.  The I crossed my fingers.  The resulting setup under GParted looked like:

 Next, shutdown GParted, make sure to remove the GParted ISO from our virtual CD-ROM in the Storage Tree in VirtualBox and boot the new virtual drive again.  Once Linux Mint booted again, I wasn't greeted with the error message so I wanted to checkout the partition in a drive/storage manager from within the virtual OS.  So I ran the 'Disk Usage Analyzer' under Linux Mint, and surprise!  The OS now see's the full partition.
Here's a screenshot of the Disk Usage Analyzer:



Now, please note: the install of Linux Mint I'm using takes up the entire partition.  I did not create a seperate Home partition when performing the install.  Mostly because I will not be creating anything worthy of keeping with this install.  Mostly just tinkering, and doing crap like this.

Have I tried this with a real life, living, breathing install on a physical hard drive...No, I have not.  However, I am in the process of piecing together a small computer setup with some older hardware that I would love to try it on.  Maybe the next rainy day, I'll be bored and give it a shot.  Overall, this whole process took up about 30 minutes to 45 minutes.  So far the OS works as normal, and I haven't received any other crazy errors as a result.  But remember, as always: TRY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Have fun!

Windows Fix of The Day: Outlook Distress!

0 comments
I have learned something very valuable of the last several weeks.  I recently bumped into a situation where I needed to support a couple of people's Outlook 2007 email clients.  I have seen a couple pretty crazy problems as of late.  And I will cover a little guidance for those this afternoon. 

The first Outlook oddity: Outlook was extremely slow to open, then the program would stop responding while it was partially open.  This would result in the user seeing the GUI (graphical user interface) for Outlook, but the areas where emails and the email previews were would be blank white boxes.  After attempting to reinstall the program, the problem never changed.  I then found out that by going to 'Start->Run->'and typing 'outlook.exe /safe' the program will launch Outlook's Safe Mode.  There are several 'Safe' switches that you can use when troubleshooting.

  • '/safe'     Simply starts Outlook without any extensions, the reading pane, or toolbar customization.
  • '/safe:1'  Starts Outlook with the Reading pane turned off (Outlook 2003/2007).
  • '/safe:2'  Allows you to start Outlook without checking for mail after startup.
  • '/safe:3'  Disables all extensions.
  • '/safe:4'   Disables customized toolbars (Outcmd.dat and *.fav files)
By using process of elimination I was able to step through these switches (finally stopping on '/safe:3') I was able to find that an extension was halting Outlook from opening properly.  Then by using Outlook's Extension Manager, I was able to narrow down which extension was the problem and disable it.


The second Outlook oddity: on another computer (running Windows Vista), whenever the user would try to run Outlook an error message would pop up reading 'Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window.'  This was a new one on me.  After speaking with the user they mentioned it worked fine last night, then after downloading an Update from Windows Update today (not sure exactly which update it was) Outlook quite working properly.  She tried a fix she found on a Microsoft Support forum which stepped her through a registry edit (which she tried without success).


I did a little research and found several posts about it on several different forums.  The general consensus was that most people had success with a rather simple fix.  I tried it, and it worked for me.  So I thought I would pass it on.


  • Click 'Start'
  • Click 'Run' (or use the search box in Vista).
  • Type: Outlook.exe /resetnavpane    *Note: Make sure there is a space after Outlook.exe
  • Hit 'Enter' or click 'OK'.  Now try to open Outlook again.
Hopefully, these tips will save someone some trouble and research.  If you have any other fixes, drop a comment below!

Software of The Week: TVersity free media streaming!

0 comments
Recently, I was in need of a solution for accessing my media via streaming from my computer. First, I figured out exactly what my needs were.  Simple, I needed away to access media from my desktop computer via my local wireless network.  I would be accessing the files mainly from my iPod Touch and possibly from a laptop or two later down the road.  After a few minutes searching the web, I landed on TVersity.  The download was only 13.5 MB's for the free edition.  TVersity is rather versatile as well; you can easily stream to iPod Touch/iPhones, Nintendo Wii's, PSP, Xbox 360 and PS3 systems.  As well as various other wifi enabled devices.

The setup was pretty easy, pretty much double click the setup icon and roll through the wizard.  Once up, I was able to use my iPod Touch's Safari web browser to navigate to my hosts computer's local IP address and I was able to stream a video clip in just a few minutes.  When the program initially accesses a video is transcodes it on the fly, this eliminates the need for having to convert a video file from it's native format to an iPod/Apple ready format.  It does take a few minutes to do the on-the-fly conversion, but it worked very well when it finished.  Likewise, I was able to access the same video file from my laptop as well.



Think of this little gem as setting up your own Video On Demand service within your local network.  The host interface is very well laid out and makes it easy to stream your media files; as well as, subscribe to web content as well.  During setup, the wizard does ask you to enter your YouTube login if you desire to aggregate your favorite YouTube clips too.  The free version looks like it will handle all of my needs for the time being, but should you need to access premium content on sites like Hulu, Sling, and several others; there is a Pro version which costs $39.99 per license.  However, the free version will serve your local content and access some web stuff.  Overall, this is an excellent solution for streaming media.  There are ways you can stream via the internet, but for local streaming setup was a snap.  Likewise, there are other methods of streaming your content, some of which are available for a price from Apple's App Store.  Personally, I like free.  And with the free TVersity and the web browsers I already use, I can achieve my goal.

This Week In The News: 'My Bad McAfee', iAndroid, and more

0 comments
This week has a few noteworthy news topics. McAfee Attacks! iPhone meet Android, you're new OS. We get a new Doctor...Who that is!

First up this week, McAfee attacks! During an update that McAfee rolled out, widespread complaints started rolling in. Apparently, the update quarantined the 'svchost.exe' file therefore causing affected computers to continuously reboot themselves. The 'svchost.exe' file is a critical system file that Windows uses during boot and runtime to operate. McAfee is noting that only a small percentage of user's were affected. But according to several articles (including this one from PC World http://www.pcworld.com/article/194776/mcafee_error_little_relief_in_sight.html ) mention complaints from hospitals and in some cases, law enforcement.  So tell me, how can a 'security' company rollout such a problematic update?  Surely McAfee has some sort of quality assurance control, that allows them to ensure the integrity of each update and even each software release they produce.  Sure, we are used to companies like Microsoft releasing regular service packs and updates which have been known to fix a few bugs, but create a few more.  But when this happens to your antivirus/web security tools, you're now open to other attacks too. 

Personally, I used to be a McAfee customer (when I bought my first Dell about 6 years ago).  Then I moved to Norton, didn't stay there long.  Now I am happy with AVG.  The reason I moved from the previous two companies: they're software got too big.  They both decide to implement scanners for everything from email to file scanning.  Those systems became bloated and caused things to run slow for me.  So far, I haven't encountered any issues with AVG.  But they day that AVG grows too big for itself, I'll move on to another solution then as well.  I say do security, do it right, and with as little intrusion on the system and it's resources as possible.  As with anything, if you are looking for an antivirus solution, do your homework for what is best for you.  Big names aren't always the best solution.


Next up in the news: the iPhone is hacked again, this time to run Android.  Mr. David Wong; who is well known with certain iPhone hacking/jailbreaking communities, has managed to get a first generation iPhone to run the Android operating system.  Does Android take over the phone?  Nope, it's dual boot.  Using OpeniBoot the device will boot up the Android OS.  According to Wong, the system is still a little buggy, it is possible.  This isn't possible on a stock iPhone or iPod Touch.  The device has to be 'jailbroken' first (which voids the Apple Waranty).  Apple Insider


Also in the news, this last Saturday we were treated to the regeneration of a new Doctor on Doctor Who (in America anyways, the UK are a couple episodes ahead of us).  I'm a relatively new Doctor Who fan, but if you are a sci-fi fan and have never checked out Doctor Who...Do yourself a favor and give ti a chance. 

Finally this week, the Ubuntu 10.04 Release Candidate was released.  This means we are getting pretty close to the official 10.04 release.  The beta releases and release candidates can be downloaded now for those of you who want to check it out.  http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=06022

Happy Surfing!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Video Clips for the Week: Empty Promises and Zombies

0 comments
I saw this clip on another site this week of more leaked 'Duke Nukem Forever' footage.  Quit teasing us with empty promises and hope.  I loved 'Duke Nukem 3-D' back in the day, and if I had the chance (which will never come) I'd play 'Duke Nukem Forever'.  Check it out:



Also this week check out the first trailer for the new 'Resident Evil' film.  Here we finally see Wesker, Zombies from RE5, and more.



Have a good day!

This Week In The News: In A Galaxy...wait My Living Room?

0 comments
This week in the news we have several newsworthy events.  We have a new announcement from George Lucas, the iPad has finally been set free into the wild, HP is going after the iPad, Xbox 360 Update, and my short review of 'The Clash of The Titans-3D'.

First up, this week Mr. George Lucas (yes, of Star Wars fame), has made an official announcement.  There will be a new 'Star Wars' heading our way in the future.  However, don't look for a Sequel of Prequel or the Originals.  Instead, look for a 'Star Wars' based sitcom.  That's right folks, apparently if you can't beat'em, join'em.  For years now, other shows/comedians have been polking fun at the 'Star Wars' Universe.  Remember all of the Family Guy one-liners and even the 'Blue Harvest' cartoon (all of which where awesome).  Even 'Robot Chicken' has had it's fun with the series.  According to the article at the 'Chicago Tribune', Mr. Lucas will be gaining assistance from Seth Green (also from Family Guy and Robot Chicken) to bring this comedy to light.  What will Lucas do next?  Only those strong in the Force can tell...


Secondly, on April 3rd we got the hear Mr. Steve Jobs yell: "Release the...iPAD!".  Yep, it's on the streets now.  I'm sure there are a lot of happy iPad user's out there in love with their iPads.  However, I can forsee that the fun isn't over quit yet.  Now that Apple took the initiative to release the first tablet device (not including the notebook tablets that have been around for several years); it will be interesting to see how the market follows suit.  Remember when the iPhone was released?  There were several manufacturers that attempted to make 'iPhone Killers' or at best worthy competitors.  Will the same happen in the tablet market?  Most certainly.  There are smaller companies that we haven't heard much about until now (i.e.: FreeScale).  FreeScale; for example, is attempting to create a table device that runs: Android, Chromium OS, or Linux Operating Systems.  And they are trying to roll it for a $200 retail pricetag.  Check it out: FreeScale's $200 Tablet.

Also in Tablet News this week; move over Apple, here comes HP.  This week HP released details for their new tablet called the "HP Slate".  The device does look promising.  HP's tablets boasts HDMI-Out, Usb Port, Webcam, 3MP camera, and SD-Card Reader.  Some are saying it's a netbook minus the keyboard.  Check out more details at: HP Slate Details.  Keep in mind that yes, Apple made the first tablet; however, hopefully competition will jump in a follow suit.  This will help drive down some costs for end-consumers like you and me.  Competition is a good thing for us, the consumers.


Third, with the release of the new Xbox Update user's are finally getting support for external USB Storage.  Great, now what's the catch?  The USB Storage device can be no less than 1GB and the maximum is 16GB.  Also if you think this is to actually help gamers out...I'd think again.  Microsoft is currently working with SanDisk to bring a Xbox branded USB Flash Drive to consumers for $40 (8GB Flash Drive) and $70 (16GB Flash Dive).  Microsoft seems to have figured out another way to over charge for a regular item.  Way to go guys!

Lastly I thought I'd post a quick review of 'Clash of The Titans-3D'.  I broke down and finally shelled out the money for my second 3D movie (my first was 'The Christmas Carol').  I had been looking forward to seeing this flick, and since I was one of the few who missed 'Avatar' in 3D in theaters, I didn't want to miss the chance.  In short, I should have missed it.  I thought the film was great.  The story and special effects were pretty freakin' good.  And you have to love 'THE KRAKEN'!  But the use of '3D' in the film was pretty scarce for me.  During the opening of the film there was a scene were water is splashed and it looks as if you actually need to clean your glasses.

My intial thought was: 'Sweet!'.  But after that the '3D' started taking a quick backseat to what was going on in the movie.  And eventually I found myself not being 'Wowed' anymore and then the '3D' seemed to stop altogether.  I'm getting on my soapbox now...Producers and Moviemakers: If you want us to pay the extra to see your '3D' movies...Please make them '3D'.  Common sense to me.  I guess I can still hold out hope for 'Resident Evil: Afterlife' later this year which is supposed to be '3D' too.  We'll see.

But all in all, go see 'Clash of The Titans'.  But save the extra coin and see it in 2D.  You'll be glad you did.

Till next week!  Have a great one!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Buyer Beware: Atari/Digital River Issues

0 comments
I just wanted to through something out there.  This morning I decided to take the plunge and purchase a license for 'Champions Online'.  After playing the unlimited demo and really liking my character and the initial gameplay was pretty fun for me.  And from what I hear the game 'post-starting area' is pretty good too.  I figured if I could pick it up for a decent price with the additional 30-Days free after purchase, if I didn't end up liking the game I could drop it.

So I compared prices between Best Buy, Walmart, Steam, and Direct2Drive.  I found a forum post on the Champions forum mentioning Atari running a special on the game for 50% off the retail ($29.99).  So I went over to Atari's website and proceeded to purchase the game.  All seemed well.

After waiting several hours with no email for further information on my purchase I decided to do some digging around.  I found that others had encountered the same issue.  Turns out, the company that handles Atari's digital downloads is called Digital River.  According to several other forum posts others had experienced a similar issue in which they put the order in a 'Review' status which often takes up to 24 hours to clear the order.  This is not what I expected it to be.

My previous experience with Digital Download services has been great.  It's easy, quick, and convenient.  Why?  Simple, you click 'Purchase' (assuming you have an account already setup), and the game is unlocked for you.  If not instantly, then within a few minutes.  With the Atari/Digital River setup, not so much.

A little agitated, I decided to call the Atari's Online Store Customer Support and just inquire as to why my order was in a 'Review' status for a couple hours.  *Note: I used the correct info for my billing, this was confirmed by me.*  After speaking with a lady from their customer service, she verified the info I found on the forums (probably was reading the forum back to me, that's how close it was to what I read), she said if my info was correct than I should get an email with further details within 24 hours.

I asked her whether or not this service was considered a 'digital download service' and she confirmed that my purchase was in fact considered this type of service (they also sell hard copy games as well).  I ended up requesting her to cancel my account because I can purchase it through their competitors with less hassle, get the product faster, and be playing in a fraction of the time as opposed to using their service.  I am now eagerly awaiting my cancellation email (which she said will arrive shortly).  That was 2 hours ago.  I only assume it will arrive within 24 hours.  :)

I thought I would inform someone who may decide to use this service.  Personally, I feel that they have overlooked a sale.  And if that is how they conduct business, I will not be one of their customers (directly).  I will not let this experience cloud my opinion of the great game that Cryptic has put together.  But if Digital River is associated with an online store, I will not use the services.  Buyer Beware.