HOWTO: Use a v3i as a USB GPRS modem on t-mobile UK

Posted on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:09:27 +0000 by admin

First of all, set your USB connection to ‘Data/Fax Connection’ rather than MemoryCard (Settings -> Connection -> USB Settings) and connect to the PC. Wait for Windows to install the drivers. If you don’t have a driver CD, use connect to the internet to find the latest drivers. (This works under XP, other OSes are untested).

Configure the Modem’s INIT string
Start > Settings > Control Panel > Phone and Modem Options > Choose your modem > Click Properties > Choose tab Advanced > At Extra initialization commands, enter code: AT+CGDCONT=2,”IP”,”general.t-mobile.uk” > OK
Connection Installation
Start > Control Panel > Network Connections > New Connection Wizard > Next > Connect to the Internet > Next > Set up my connection manually > Next > Connect using a dial up modem > Next > Choose your modem > Next > Type ‘t-mobile GPRS’ > Next > Type *99***1# > Next > Type in box Username : wapuser > Type in box Password : wap > Type in box Confirm : wap > Next > Finish

These instructions may also work using the modem over Bluetooth, but you won’t have the handy advantage of charging the phone whilst using it as a modem from one cable.

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Reinstalling XP on a Toshiba NB100

Posted on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 17:36:11 +0000 by admin

Sounds like a simple task, but I’ve battled this confounded machine most of this morning, however … I now have a solution!

1) Problems with Stop Errors during XP setup.
These were likely caused by a broken partition table (possibly caused by some nastyness that prompted the reinstall in the first place)
Solution: Boot Ubuntu-on-a-stick and toast the partition table using dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

2) XP Setup not finding any hard drives
Solution – Set SATA mode to compatible in the bios (note, doing this will mean ubuntu-on-a-stick will no longer see the drive!)

3) XP can’t see the CD drive during the GUI mode of the setup
Solution – Turn off Legacy USB support in the BIOS (The CD Drive will likely stop being bootable)

And this is just so far …!

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Andrew’s Laws

Posted on Thu, 30 Sep 2010 11:33:45 +0000 by admin

1. The more user friendly an interface is, the more complex the SQL behind it is.

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And it is done!

Posted on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:44:51 +0000 by admin

Copyright (c) 1992-2010 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Jul 26 09:38:12 BST 2010
root@skynet.avatastic.co.uk:/usr/src/sys/amd64/compile/SKYNET amd64
Timecounter “i8254″ frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz (1601.97-MHz K8-class CPU)
Origin = “GenuineIntel” Id = 0x106c2 Family = 6 Model = 1c Stepping = 2
Features=0xbfe9fbff
Features2=0x40e31d
AMD Features=0×20000800
AMD Features2=0×1
TSC: P-state invariant
real memory = 1073741824 (1024 MB)
avail memory = 1016123392 (969 MB)
ACPI APIC Table:
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs
FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 2 core(s) x 2 HTT threads
cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0
cpu1 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 1
cpu2 (AP): APIC ID: 2
cpu3 (AP/HT): APIC ID: 3
ioapic0: Changing APIC ID to 4
ioapic0 irqs 0-23 on motherboard
kbd1 at kbdmux0
acpi0: on motherboard
acpi0: [ITHREAD]
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
acpi0: reservation of 0, a0000 (3) failed
acpi0: reservation of 100000, 3f700000 (3) failed
Timecounter “ACPI-fast” frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0×808-0x80b on acpi0
cpu0: on acpi0
cpu1: on acpi0
cpu2: on acpi0
cpu3: on acpi0
pcib0: port 0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pci0: on pcib0
vgapci0: port 0xcc00-0xcc07 mem 0xfe980000-0xfe9fffff,0xe0000000-0xefffffff,0xfe940000-0xfe97ffff irq 16 at device 2.0 on pci0
agp0: on vgapci0
agp0: detected 7932k stolen memory
agp0: aperture size is 256M
pci0: at device 27.0 (no driver attached)
pcib1: irq 16 at device 28.0 on pci0
pci2: on pcib1
pcib2: irq 17 at device 28.1 on pci0
pci1: on pcib2
re0: port 0xd800-0xd8ff mem 0xfdeff000-0xfdefffff,0xfdef8000-0xfdefbfff irq 17 at device 0.0 on pci1
re0: Using 1 MSI messages
re0: Chip rev. 0×28000000
re0: MAC rev. 0×00000000
miibus0: on re0
rgephy0: PHY 1 on miibus0
rgephy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, 1000baseT, 1000baseT-FDX, auto
re0: Ethernet address: 00:25:22:34:93:30
re0: [FILTER]
uhci0: port 0xc400-0xc41f irq 23 at device 29.0 on pci0
uhci0: [ITHREAD]
uhci0: LegSup = 0x2f00
usbus0: on uhci0
uhci1: port 0xc480-0xc49f irq 19 at device 29.1 on pci0
uhci1: [ITHREAD]
uhci1: LegSup = 0x2f00
usbus1: on uhci1
uhci2: port 0xc800-0xc81f irq 18 at device 29.2 on pci0
uhci2: [ITHREAD]
uhci2: LegSup = 0x2f00
usbus2: on uhci2
uhci3: port 0xc880-0xc89f irq 16 at device 29.3 on pci0
uhci3: [ITHREAD]
uhci3: LegSup = 0x2f00
usbus3: on uhci3
ehci0: mem 0xfe937c00-0xfe937fff irq 23 at device 29.7 on pci0
ehci0: [ITHREAD]
usbus4: EHCI version 1.0
usbus4: on ehci0
pcib3: at device 30.0 on pci0
pci3: on pcib3
fxp0: port 0xec00-0xec3f mem 0xfebff000-0xfebfffff,0xfebc0000-0xfebdffff irq 21 at device 0.0 on pci3
miibus1: on fxp0
inphy0: PHY 1 on miibus1
inphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
fxp0: Ethernet address: 00:02:b3:eb:24:48
fxp0: [ITHREAD]
isab0: at device 31.0 on pci0
isa0: on isab0
atapci0: port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6,0×170-0×177,0×376,0xffa0-0xffaf at device 31.1 on pci0
ata0: on atapci0
ata0: [ITHREAD]
atapci1: port 0xc080-0xc087,0xc000-0xc003,0xbc00-0xbc07,0xb880-0xb883,0xb800-0xb80f irq 19 at device 31.2 on pci0
atapci1: [ITHREAD]
ata2: on atapci1
ata2: [ITHREAD]
ata3: on atapci1
ata3: [ITHREAD]
pci0: at device 31.3 (no driver attached)
acpi_button0: on acpi0
atrtc0: port 0×70-0×71 irq 8 on acpi0
uart0: <16550 or compatible> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0×10 on acpi0
uart0: [FILTER]
orm0: at iomem 0xcb000-0xcc7ff on isa0
sc0: at flags 0×100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
vga0: at port 0x3c0-0x3df iomem 0xa0000-0xbffff on isa0
atkbdc0: at port 0×60,0×64 on isa0
atkbd0: irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
atkbd0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
atkbd0: [ITHREAD]
p4tcc0: on cpu0
p4tcc1: on cpu1
p4tcc2: on cpu2
p4tcc3: on cpu3
Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec
ipfw2 (+ipv6) initialized, divert enabled, nat enabled, rule-based forwarding disabled, default to accept, logging disabled
load_dn_sched dn_sched QFQ loaded
load_dn_sched dn_sched RR loaded
load_dn_sched dn_sched WF2Q+ loaded
load_dn_sched dn_sched FIFO loaded
load_dn_sched dn_sched PRIO loaded
usbus0: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus1: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus2: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus3: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0
usbus4: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0
ad0: 76319MB at ata0-master UDMA100
ugen0.1: at usbus0
uhub0: on usbus0
ugen1.1: at usbus1
uhub1: on usbus1
ugen2.1: at usbus2
uhub2: on usbus2
ugen3.1: at usbus3
uhub3: on usbus3
ugen4.1: at usbus4
uhub4: on usbus4
ad1: 78533MB at ata0-slave UDMA100
SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #3 Launched!
SMP: AP CPU #2 Launched!
Root mount waiting for: usbus4 usbus3 usbus2 usbus1 usbus0
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhub1: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhub2: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
uhub3: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
Root mount waiting for: usbus4
Root mount waiting for: usbus4
Root mount waiting for: usbus4
uhub4: 8 ports with 8 removable, self powered
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a

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Cygwin/X and ssh forwarding with PuTTY

Posted on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:03:56 +0000 by admin

1. Install Cygwin/X as per the instructions at http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/setup-cygwin-x-installing.html
2. On the remote host, make sure that the xauth package is installed (apt-get install xauth / cd /usr/ports/x11/xauth && make install clean / etc)
3. In PuTTY make sure that ‘Enable X11 Forwarding’ is checked under Connection/SSH/X11
4. Enjoy.

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The future is bright, the future is … green?

Posted on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:25:51 +0000 by admin

After years of hosting everything on Skynet on a series of home built PCs, I’ve migrated most of the hosted services to the good fellows at bytemark and I’m scaling skynet back to a leaner, greener machine.
Starting with a move to an ASRock A330GS. Future changes will include scaling back the PSU and getting a greener hard drive.

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Things todo

Posted on Tue, 13 Jul 2010 13:20:57 +0000 by admin

* NSLU2 into 3g wireless modem
* Aberddu mail forwarder
* Finish nav for VMBU

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Moving from userland natd to kernel mode nat

Posted on Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:23:55 +0000 by admin

For many many years, I’ve been happily running ppp, ipfw and natd on my FreeBSD router, starting in the early days with ppp -nat before needing more refined control and moving to userland natd.

Then I learned about kernel mode nat in ipfw2 so I thought I’d give that a go.

What had to be done:
Adding the following to the kernel config:
options LIBALIAS
options IPFIREWALL_NAT
If you don’t want to use a custom kernel, (and from looking at the rc.d script) you should be able to set firewall_nat_enable=”YES” in /etc/rc.conf and the correct module will be loaded on boot.

Removing:
add 50 divert natd all from any to any via tun0
from /etc/rc.firewall.script
Adding:
nat 1 config if tun0 log unreg_only
add 50 nat 1 ip4 from any to any via tun0
to /etc/rc.firewall.script

If you are using an Open or Client firewall, you can set:
firewall_nat_enable=”YES”
firewall_nat_interface=”tun0″
firewall_nat_flags=”unreg_only”
in /etc/rc.conf
And don’t forget to set:
natd_enable=”NO” in /etc/rc.conf if you’re switching from userland natd.

That’s got it working just as ipfw+natd used to, the stability/speed tests and real world usage remains to be seen …

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Fun with maildrop

Posted on Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:19:16 +0000 by admin

Whilst I’m awaiting the resurrection of my /home drive I’ve had to resort to collecting my mail and storing it under a temporary account.

I decided to make a few changes to skynet based on the fact my spambayes db was stored on /home along with my .procmailrc so SpamAssassin was integrated with sendmail and maildrop was set as the system-wide LDA.

Here is a fun line from my new (and still developing) .mailfilter file.
if ( /^List-Id:.+\<freebsd-(.*)\.freebsd\.org\>$/ )
TARGET="FreeBSD."$MATCH1""
Which automatically puts FreeBSD mailing list items in to their own folder.

To clear up what was in my ever growing Inbox, it was a simple case of running

for file in *; do cat $file | maildrop; done in a copy of ~/Mail/cur

Whilst its not quite as defined as my old .procmailrc I think I may like maildrop …

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New skynet feature.

Posted on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:59:46 +0000 by admin

A new feature has been added to Skynet today, a self-managed service monitor.

The script is provided below and is free for use on a beerware license.

As usual its FreeBSD only.

Enjoyu!

—begin—
#!/bin/sh

PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

. /etc/rc.subr
load_rc_config ‘XXX’

unset local_rc

find_local_scripts_new
servers=$(rcorder -s nostart ${local_rc} 2>/dev/null)

check_pid () {
if [ -z "$6" ]
then
# no 6th paramater, assume not running
return 0
else
pid=${6%%.*}
return $(ps -ax ${pid} | grep ${pid} | wc -l)
fi
}
for server in ${servers}
do
check_pid $(${prefix}${server} status)
if [ ${?} -eq 0 ]
then
${prefix}${server} start > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
done

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