Convert NRG images to ISO images (nrg2iso) using dd

If you want to convert Nero "nrg" images to ISO format to mount or burn you can either use nrg2iso, or just use dd to skip the 300k header (will work just fine for DAO images):

dd if=image.nrg of=image.iso bs=4096 skip=75

Solaris SnapUpgrade - LiveUpgrade replacement for ZFS root.

Apparently, LiveUpgrade won't be opensourced, or included in "Indiana", but there is a ZFS aware replacement in the works:

BE Utility for Snap Upgrade

The BE utility is the user interface for managing Boot Environments and is the replacement for the Live Upgrade commands (luupgrade(1M), lucreate(1M)...) This utility is intended to be used by System Administrators who want to manage multiple Solaris Instances on a single system. The BE utility will be implemented with ZFS support only, however a migration path from UFS to ZFS will also be supported but not in the Spring release.

Solaris 10 update 5 Released

Solaris 10 5/08 has been released.

Windows 2008 Server Backup

I must say I'm quite pleased with the new Windows 2008 Server backup. A full backup of the system disk (Windows 2008 Enterprise and a few tools, about 15GB uncompressed with 3GB of SWAP. Windows Backup shows the volume as using 14GB) takes 6 minutes. Overall, a great effort, considering I'm doing this over a Firewire 400 connection.



And the backup is done:



A larger backup:

Hyper-V - Windows 2008 Virtualization

Can't say Hyper-V is much fun. It seems to fail in spectacular ways when it comes to running non-Windows operating systems. FreeBSD 7 (AMD64 and i386) builds fail to boot, OS/2, eComStation and QNX fail to install (QNX 4 installs, but fails to boot after), Solaris 10 doesn't get past the GRUB screen (at least in the 10 minutes I've waited) and other operating systems experience strange issues:

QNX in Hyper-V:


OpenBSD install:


Though OpenBSD did install after all:



So far, it seems that VMware Server (or ESX) is a safer choice. Even though it's probably possible to get some of these systems installed with some tuning, I wasn't all that pleased with graphical performance either. The Debian installer for example was very sluggish.

And it seems to crash quite often:



Still, the version in Windows 2008 RTM is actually Hyper-V RC0, so I'll wait for a release version to come out before bothering with it anymore.

Project Etude - The Solaris 8 Migration Assistant now free

Project Etude - that lets you run Solaris 8 Containers (Zones) is now free.
Announcement here. Solaris 9 containers will also be available.

The project has been renamed into Solaris 8 Migration Assistant.

RE:Trace - DTrace based Vulnerability Auditing Framework

RE:Trace is a set of Ruby scripts that use DTrace for exploit development.

DTrace whitepaper here.

OpenSSH - Secure Shell Server and Client for Windows

SSHWindows is a minimal Cygwin build of OpenSSH for Microsoft Windows systems. It's got both a client and a server, in a small package (~ 2MB).

Get Console 2 + Terminus if you need TABS :-). Works just like KDE Konsole or Gnome-Terminal + OpenSSH in any other UNIX or Linux system.

Disable or Enable NX bit in Vista via commandline

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) and the NX bit (No eXecute) CPU flag on AMD processors and XD eXecute Disable on Intel processors can be of great help in buffer overflow mitigation. Of course, it can also hinder other applications.

You can disable it in Vista by starting an Administrative cmd (right click cmd - Run As Administrator) and typing:

bcdedit /set nx alwaysoff
bcdedit /set {current} nx alwaysoff

BCDEdit can be used to enable or disable DEP, PAE and more.

You can also set DEP by right clicking My Computer - Properties - System Properties - Advanced System Settings - Performance - Data Execution Prevention.

Some applications don't work well unless they are selected as DEP exceptions (like Battle.NET via PVPGN or Hitachi HiTrack's JVM).

International High IQ Society

TA3 is the most difficult standardized IQ test provided by the International High IQ Society. It's geared for accurate higher IQ levels, rather than 90-110 IQ levels. Nice if you're sick of all those online IQ tests where you always score 160...