Change XP Serial Number

So, there are a lot of posts out there on various ways to do this, but I have found this method to be the easiest and most successful.

1. Click Start > Run
2. In the Open box, type regedit and hit enter.
3. Go to the following registry key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cur rent Version\WPAEvents
4. In the right pane, double click OOBETimer, and change the value of any one of the digits (you can change it to whatever you like). You have now just deactivated Windows.
5. Go to Start > Run.
6. In the dialogue box type:
   %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a
7. Select "Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to activate Windows" and then click next.
8. Click "Change Product key".
9. Type in the new product key and then click "Update".
10. If you return to the previous window, click "Remind me later", then restart the computer.
    

Installing VMWare Server 2 in Ubuntu

Ok, so here is a quick reference to installing VMWare Server 2 in Ubuntu. I used 8.04 at the time, but upgraded to 8.10 and the same methods still apply. If you already have VMWare Server installed, follow the instructions at the end first, then proceed with the install.

1. Download the VMWare Server TAR file to the desktop. Make sure you copy the serial from the website as well.
   
2. Once the download has finished, open up konsole, and enter the following commands.

• uname -r (Copy the output of this command and paste it where it says *paste* in the next line)
  
• sudo apt-get install linux-headers-*paste* build-essential xinetd
• cd Desktop
• tar xvzf VMware-server-*.tar.gz
• cd vmware-server-distrib
• sudo vmware-install.pl

Keep all the defaults, pressing enter at the prompts. It will continue to install then ask you if you would like to run vmware-config.pl. Press Enter, then once again, leave all the defaults.

*NOTE: It did ask me if I wanted to use a C Compiler, I selected yes (default) and then it found that GCC was a newer version than that which my kernel was compiled with. Here it asks if I want to continue and it is defaulted to 'no'. Just type in 'yes' and be on your way. It might ask this a few times.

Keep chugging along, but pay attention to what you are pressing enter to at this point. You may want to change some directories or options. Once it comes to the part where you enter your serial, make sure you enter the letters in CAPS.

That's pretty much it. Navigate to https://localhost:8333 and log in with the specified user. You may need to add a security exception in Firefox.

*UPDATE* When I upgraded from 8.04 to 8.10, I could not access the web gui. I restarted the vmware service via "/etc/init.d/vmware restart" and it told me I needed to run vmware-config.pl again. I ran vmware-config.pl and went through all prompts and it's back up and running just fine.

TO UNINSTALL and REINSTALL, this is what I did:
Either run sudo vmware-uninstall.pl
or
Log in as root...

• su
• rm -R /etc/vmware
• rm -R /usr/lib/vmware
• exit

Then continue with the install.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you find something different. A more detailed guide can be found here.

Installing VMWare tools in Backtrack 3 (BT3) *UPDATED*

Finally! I just finished an install of VMware tools on my BT3 VM. This includes seamless mouse and keyboard integration without having to manually capture and release input. I am still unable to drag and drop files from my OS and VM (I still plan on finding a solution). But here is what I did to get it working. If you encounter any errors, just post the errors as a comment and I’ll look into it.

1. Download the BT3 VM from remote-exploit and unzip.
2. Power on the VM and verify everything is working correctly. If it asks you if you moved it or copied it, select "copied it".
3. Open up terminal and make a directory under /mnt called cdrom

• mkdir /mnt/cdrom

4. Now go to the tool bar VM > Install VMware Tools.
5. Click Install and a window should appear saying that media has been detected. Select Open in New Window. If it doesn't auto open, then you will have to issue these commands:

• mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
• cp /mnt/cdrom/VM* /root/Desktop/
• Skip to step 7.
  

6. Drag and drop the VMwareTools-1.0.6-91891.i386.tar.gz file to your desktop or desired folder.
7. CD into the proper folder (in my case its Desktop).
8. Then untar the file.

• tar xvzf VMwareTools-1.0.6-91891.i386.tar.gz

9. CD into the newly created vmware-tools-distrib folder.
10. Execute vmware-install.pl
11. Leave all the defaults, pressing enter at every prompt.
12. When completed, configure vmtools by executing vmware-config-tools.pl. Leave all the defaults. Then add the following start up script to the ~/.kde/Autostart directory (it will be hidden).

• echo "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox --minimize"> ~/.kde/Autostart/vmware-toolbox.sh

13. Press enter then make it executable

• chmod +x ~/.kde/Autostart/vmware-toolbox.sh

14. Now restart your VM and the next time you boot you should be able to drag your mouse seamlessly within the BT VM and your native OS.

*NOTE: This process will not allow you to drag and drop files between the two OS's. I am currently working on a solution for that.

An accompanying video showing the steps is coming soon!

If you run into any errors, just post them as a comment and I will investigate the problem. Hope this helps.

Technorati Tags: Backtrack, VM, Virtual Machine, VMware Tools, Backtrack VMware

Find System Specs in Terminal

I was presented with the job of "specing" out our ESX servers and documenting my findings. I figured the easiest way to do that would be to SSH into the box and get the specs that way. I stumbled up a site that gave a lot of useful commands. Here are the commands I used:

Graphics Card
lspci | grep VGA - dislpays graphic card model

Ethernet
lspci | grep Ethernet - displays the ethernet card model / controllers
ifconfig [interface] - displays IP address, MAC, and various other information

Kernel and System Info
cat /etc/issue - current distrobution and kernel version
uname -a - kernel information

Processor
cat /proc/cpuinfo - displays processors, speed, flags, and various other information
top (then press C) - realtime processes information by CPU usage

Memory
cat /proc/meminfo - displays RAM, swap, and amount being used
free -m - displays RAM and swap information in an easier to read format
top (then press M) - displays realtime processes by RAM usage

Hard Drive
df -h - displays total space, mount points, free space, percentages, and various other information
fdisk -l - displays all attached drives and their ID's along with block information

Various
uptime - displays the system uptime
w - displays current logged in users and activity

Linux Alternatives to Popular Windows Applications / Package Finders

Recently I have been trying to edit a video in Linux and haven't quite found a good editor comparable to some editors I use in Windows. I found a few sites that were very useful to me and may be helpful to you.

The Linux Alternative Project
http://www.linuxalt.com/
Compares Windows software with Linux equivalents.

Linux App Finder
http://linuxappfinder.com
Search a large database of Linux Applications.

Open Source as Alternative
http://www.osalt.com/
Open source software alternatives to well-known commercial software.

OpenSuse Software Search
http://packages.opensuse-community.org/
Search for openSuse software that can be downloaded and installed with a click of a button.

Ubuntu Package Finder
http://packages.ubuntu.com
Search for Ubuntu packages based on distribution.

Take Ownership of Locked Files in Ubuntu

I recently installed a program through dpkg and then removed it with the dpkg -r command. However, I encountered some issues with folder permissions. The program I installed also created a security group which my username was not a part of. To take ownership of the files and remove them, I issued these commands:

• Navigate to the directory above the locked directories.
• chown -hR username /foldername

This changed the ownership of the folder and subfolders to my username, thus allowing me to remove the files.
*Note: If you are not logged in as root, then you will use the sudo prefix.

SSH into Linux Web Server and find what version of Apache it is running...

So I was sitting at my desk and was approached with a favor. They needed to know what type of web service was running on a specific server. All that was given to me was the name of the server. Ok, so first we need the IP of the server:

Ping servernames

That should give an output similar to this

• PING servername (10.100.1.15) 56(84) bytes of data.

Now secure shell into the server by typing

ssh -l username ipaddress

Enter your password then once you have successfully connected, type uname -a to see the system details. This includes Kernel version, time stamp, computer name/hostname, and some other goodies.
Now to find the type of web service running, type:

httpd -v

This will give you the version of Apache that is running.

To find out what flavor of Linux the server is running, search /etc for a file that should have the distro-release. If that is all too tedious, then type rpm -qa. This will display all the packages installed, and you should see either some redhat, fedora, debian, or whatever version. That is usually a good indicator of which flavor is installed.