Move PostgreSQL database

December 5th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

Moving PostgreSQL database to different name is pretty hard compared to MySQL. But here’s how you do it:

$ pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner -U <username> -h <host> -Fc <database> > <dump filename>
$ pg_restore -1 -c -U <username> -d <database> -h <host> --no-owner <dump filename>
$ pg_dump --no-acl --no-owner -U old -h 127.0.0.1 -Fc olddb > old.dump
$ pg_restore -1 -c -U newuser -d newdb -h postgresql.lan --no-owner old.dump

Adding Windows 7 drivers directly to DVD

October 31st, 2009 by raspi No comments »

If you’re familiar with Windows XP Service Pack slipstreaming, this is pretty similar.

I’m using Windows XP Professional for this.

Make ISO image from your Windows 7 DVD with your favorite software. I used CDBurnerXP.

Save install.wim somewhere on your hard drive from that ISO image or straight from DVD.

Download Windows Automated Installation Kit for your OS.

Start AIK Deployment Tools Command Prompt

cd <path where you saved that wim file>

Mount the WIM image with write permissions:
imagex will tell which number is which Windows edition if it’s not found. I tried it first with just number 0.
Number 4 is in this case Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64 bit.

imagex /mountrw install.wim 4 c:\wim

add as many drivers as you like by using DISM
if dism says that files are essential for booting but drivers are unsigned, then add /forceunsigned parameter.

Here’s example for nvidia nforce drivers (Installer EXE extracted with 7-zip):
SATA/SATARAID/IDE/Ethernet/etc drivers:

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\ide\win764\
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\smbus
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse /forceunsigned

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\smu
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

cd c:\dl\15.51_nforce_win7_64bit_whql\ethernet
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

..and so on for all needed drivers..

You will need to expand unexpanded driver files in some cases. Drivers are not expanded if filenames in driver directory are foo.dl_ and not foo.dll etc.

Here’s NVidia GeForce driver sample for you (Installer EXE extracted with 7-zip)

cd c:\dl\191.07_desktop_win7_winvista_64bit_international_whql
mkdir c:\displaydriver
expand *.* c:\displaydriver

and then

cd c:\displaydriver
dism /image:c:\wim /add-driver /driver:. /recurse

Save the WIM image with new drivers:

unmount and commit (commit = save)

imagex /unmount /commit c:\wim

Add the install.wim back to the ISO image with your favorite ISO handling software. I used UltraISO.
Make sure that the DVD is bootable. Burn ISO as new DVD yet again with favorite burning software (CDBurnerXP).
Boot and enjoy your new Windows 7 with correct and working drivers.

zfComicEngine now at Launchpad

October 24th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

I’ve added zfComicEngine to launchpad. It should be easy now to add new translations. Here’s the link: https://launchpad.net/zfcomicengine.

Building OpenVPN for gaming

October 13th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

This is OpenVPN setup for gaming where VPN’s own internal network is not connected to physical LAN. It’s star shaped and OpenVPN server is running on high bandwidth connection on virtual machine or dedicated server in some ISP’s server room so that the latency is minimal to all connected gamers (ie. guy which has most upload bandwidth should do this). Every player and game server hoster connects to this server and OpenVPN handles rest of networking stuff. It’s also layer 2 (TAP) so that everyone sees mac addresses and UDP broadcasts work ok etc.

Install OpenVPN

aptitude install openvpn

Setting up OpenVPN server

/etc/openvpn/server.conf:

mode server
tls-server
port 1194
proto udp
dev tap
client-to-client
ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/servername.crt
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/servername.key
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys/dh384.pem
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
server-bridge 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0 10.10.10.128 10.10.10.250
push .route 10.10.10.1 255.255.255.0
keepalive 5 60
comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun
status /var/log/openvpn-status.log
log-append /var/log/openvpn.log
verb 3
user nobody
group nogroup
#this allows more than one connection at a time from same key
#good if you just want to give one "gaming" certificate to everybody
#duplicate-cn
mkdir /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn/examples/easy-rsa/2.0/* /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa

Modify “vars” file with your favorite editor

Change export KEY_SIZE=1024 to export KEY_SIZE=384. We don’t need much encryption for gaming.

Modify export KEY_COUNTRY, KEY_PROVINCE, KEY_CITY, KEY_ORG and KEY_EMAIL to your liking.

Save the file.

source ./vars
./clean-all
./build-ca
./build-key-server servername
./build-dh

Use

/etc/init.d/openvpn restart
/etc/init.d/openvpn start
/etc/init.d/openvpn stop

To start/stop/restart the OpenVPN server.

Adding clients

Replace clientX with actual username wanted.

cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
source ./vars
./build-key-pkcs12 clientX

copy clientX.p12 file from “keys” directory to some directory

create following clientX.ovpn file:

client
dev tap
proto udp
#replace this with your OpenVPN server hostname/IP
remote 192.168.0.123 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
ns-cert-type server
comp-lzo
verb 3
pull
# Replace this with your own .p12 certificate file
pkcs12 clientX.p12

Send the certificate (.p12) and .ovpn file to your buddy.

Windows client configurations / troubleshooting

We used OpenVPN GUI as Windows client. Download the .ovpn and .p12 file to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config directory. Click connect on OpenVPN GUI’s taskbar icon and you should be connected.

To minimize problems set the OpenVPN TAP Adapter as first interface from network configuration. This required reboot for me so that Windows XP acknowledged it. Remove unnecessary stuff from TAP interface (like QoS).

WireShark is your friend. Use it to find out if games are shouting their packets to wrong network and not to VPN IP network. 99.9% of LAN games use UDP broadcast to tell about themselves so use “udp” as filter.

Ping and arp -a is also good for basic connectivity testing. Some firewalls block ping (ICMP) so be aware of that too. Other good tool is netstat and TCPView for looking in which port the game is running.

If you’re running some old games through virtual machine then set the virtual machine’s network adapter to OpenVPN’s TAP Adapter. IPX packets should go through too because TAP is layer 2 (but I didn’t test).

I also found this ForceBindIP application which will force specified application to certain network card or network card IP. Might come in handy if game is constantly picking up wrong NIC or IP network.

Sources

Minimal feedback form with ZF

October 4th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

Here’s minimal feedback form example using Zend Framework 1.9.2 without MVC.

<?php
ignore_user_abort(true);
header("Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8")

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors', '1');

ini_set('magic_quotes_gpc', false);
ini_set('magic_quotes_runtime', false);

ini_set('default_charset', 'UTF-8');

ini_set('iconv.input_encoding', 'UTF-8');
ini_set('iconv.output_encoding', 'UTF-8');
ini_set('iconv.internal_encoding', 'UTF-8');

function stripinputslashes(&$input)
{
  if (is_array($input))
  {
    foreach ($input as $key => $value)
    {
      switch (gettype($value))
      {
        default: break;
        case 'string':
          $input[$key] = stripinputslashes($value);
        break;
      } // /switch
    } // /foreach
  } // /if
  else
  {
    switch (gettype($input))
    {
      default: break;
      case 'string':
        $input = stripslashes($input);
      break;
    } // /switch
  } // /else

  return true;
} // /function

if (version_compare(phpversion(), 6) === -1)
{
  if (function_exists("get_magic_quotes_gpc") && get_magic_quotes_gpc() === 1)
  {
    array_walk_recursive($_GET, 'stripinputslashes');
    array_walk_recursive($_REQUEST, 'stripinputslashes');

    if (isset($_POST))
    {
      array_walk_recursive($_POST, 'stripinputslashes');
    } // /if

  } // /if
} // /if

// Add library path
set_include_path(implode(PATH_SEPARATOR, array(
  realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../library'),
  get_include_path(),
)));

// Enable autoloader
require_once 'Zend/Loader/Autoloader.php';
Zend_Loader_Autoloader::getInstance();

$view = new Zend_View();

$form = new Zend_Form();
$form->setView($view);
$form->setMethod(Zend_Form::METHOD_POST);
$form->setAction('/');

$submit = new Zend_Form_Element_Submit('submit');
$submit->setLabel('OK');

$email = new Zend_Form_Element_Text('email');
$email->setRequired(true);
$email->setLabel('E-mail');
$email->addFilter('StringTrim');
$email->addFilter('StringToLower');
$email->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(7));
$email->addValidator(new Zend_Validate_EmailAddress(Zend_Validate_Hostname::ALLOW_DNS, true));

$txt = new Zend_Form_Element_Textarea('text');
$txt->setRequired(true);
$txt->addFilter('StringTrim');
$txt->addValidator('StringLength', false, array(3));

// Add fields to form
$form->addElement($email);
$form->addElement($txt);
$form->addElement($submit);

if (isset($_POST) && !empty($_POST))
{
  if ($form->isValid($_POST))
  {
    $values = $form->getValues();

    $m = new Zend_Mail('UTF-8');
    $m->setBodyText($values['text']);
    $m->setFrom($values['email']);
    $m->addTo('feedback@example.com');
    $m->setSubject('Feedback');
    $m->send();

    header("Location: /ok.php");
  }

}

// Output form to page
echo $form;

Page contains e-mail and free text field. E-mail address is checked against DNS. Form contents are send to feedback@example.com and given e-mail address is the sender. stripinputslashes kills all stupid slashes from _POST data.

Directory structure:

/home/foo/public_html/index.php (feedback form)
/home/foo/public_html/ok.php
/home/foo/library/Zend/ (ZF files)

ok.php contains something like “Thank you for giving feedback.”

Gozerbot and What is this file?

October 2nd, 2009 by raspi No comments »

It’s been many years since I played with IRC bots. I’ve used eggdrop for something like 10+ years. Now I tried Gozerbot and coded plugin (source) to it which gets URLs from chat and then gives some information about them. It utilizes my other project – “what is this file?” which runs on top of Google App Engine. Everything is using Python.

First site using zfComicEngine!

September 26th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

Finnish Pikselinviilaajat IT comic is now using zfComicEngine. It was previously running on my non-opensource and age old code. I coded simple converter which corrected all the old links in HTML etc with PHP’s DOM and XML Starlet.

ZFCE has many similarities to old Pikselinviilaajat comic publishing engine but of course it’s all been rewritten.

If you want to try out zfCE, please use my demo site. I’m also looking for some people with some graphical eye so that zfCE could have more default CSS files for new users.

I’m also planning for Flash support so that you could publish animations easily too.

New translations are also welcome. Currently supported languages are Finnish and English.

http://code.google.com/p/zfcomicengine/issues/detail?id=9

Few Trac plugins

September 24th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

Here’sfew plugins for Trac:

Timing and Estimation Plugin

Project manager, CEO and customer are usually not interested in count of tickets. This plugin adds new fields to tickets where you can add hour estimations and actual worked hours. It also adds checkbox for billable/not billable ticket.

Homepage

Batch modification of tickets

I found this useful when you have for example milestone Preview1 and all tickets are there. Then you release the Preview1 version. Next you create Preview2 milestone and move all open tickets from Preview1 to Preview2. No need to modify every ticket, only make a custom query and select all open tickets.

Homepage

Virtualizing retro BBS software

September 22nd, 2009 by raspi No comments »

So what would you need to run BBS today? No, I don’t mean those crappy forums  that float in every corner of internet.

Generating ISO image for VMWare

I aqcuired old DOS boot floppy image from the internets. It was in IMG format so my VMWare wouldn’t like it. What to do? Who has floppy drives or disks any more? You guessed it: Use virtual floppy drive of course!

Ok, let’s create that ISO 9660 image. Open up CDBurnerXP and go to Disc -> Boot options and load up the IMG file. Now Burning software will scrape it for necessary boot stuff. Browse to that virtual floppy drive and throw all files to disc. Next thing is to “burn” it as ISO image. Easy.

Installing operating system

I’m using VMWare Server for this. Create new virtual machine and select Windows 98. I used 64 MB of memory, 1 GB of disk space and no networking. Use the generarated ISO image as virtual CD/DVD drive. Don’t add virtual COM ports just yet, let’s test this thing first.

Aargh! MS-DOS is horrible! Where’s scrollable screen or auto completion for commands? But show must go on. Run FDISK to create partition C:. After you’ve created the partition, reboot (CTRL-ALT-Insert). Go to BIOS (F2) and set CD-ROM drive as first bootable device. Next thing is to format C:. Run FORMAT C: /Q. Next thing is to copy OS to C:. Run COPY *.* C:. Go to C: drive and write the Master Boot Record with command FDISK /MBR. Go back to A: drive and run SYS C: which restores system. Next go to virtual RAM drive and copy some necessary software like EDIT with COPY *.* C:. It was in my case drive D:. Reboot. Change first bootable device to hard drive from BIOS. Now you’re running DOS from C:. Easy isn’t it?

Install PCBoard

First, you need to download PCBoard. Unzip the file. Open up the generated ISO image and add all unpacked files to some subdirectory (I used PCBOR11). Also, if you don’t have XCOPY.EXE anywhere in your ISO image, get it. Save the ISO file again. Reboot from CD.

Go to CD drive. In my case it was E:. Run XCOPY /S pcbor11 c:. Go to C: drive. go to install directory and run install.

*insert hours after hours of frustration here*

Installing Windows 98

This should be pretty basic stuff.

Installing virtual modem

Install virtual modem to your actual OS. I found and used Virtual Modem Pro. I created Virtual COM1 port with it and then used the “Use physical serial port” from VMWare configuration for my guest OS.

Installing BBBS

Fetch BBBS from it’s site.

Configure BBBS by running bcfg4

Start node 1 by running BBBS 1

BBBS should be now in “Waiting for calls” state. Or if not, install “Standard 56k modem” to W98 and try again.

But that’s not enough

You can’t run that virtual modem over VoIP. VoIP is designed for human voice. Modem’s noise is garbled and connection cannot be made. There’s hope though, ITU V.150.1 AKA V.MoIP (Modem over IP) is coming. Some hardware boxes seems to support it already. So let’s try someday again when MoIP support is available.

Setup in the end

Windows XP is running virtual modem and VMWare. VMWare is running Windows 98 and it’s running BBBS which is connected to virtual COM1 port via VMWare’s “physical” COM1 which is connected to that virtual modem.

MyDefrag

September 17th, 2009 by raspi No comments »

My computer was getting slow and I found the culprit: fragmented harddrive. So as a Super User™ I searched for better defragmentation software than Windozes own and found software called MyDefrag.

So why it’s so much better alternative than OS’s own built-in software? You can script it! It also runs as a screensaver. So I’m now getting average of 8 hours of defragmentation per day. That should keep harddrive fragmentation in order.