Mac OS/X Password Recovery

So there we were, trying to set up a pic synch config for the photos, and - wouldn't you know it? - we couldn't remember the admin password on the mactop.

So we poke around the net for a while, and found this reference.  And it was easy:

1. Boot into single (hold command-S) and kill the /var/db/.applesetupdone .
   
   • fsck -fy
   • mount -uw /
   • rm /var/db/.applesetupdone
   • reboot
2. Create a New User Account upon System Boot, and let it go into the desktop
3. Reset the Lost Password via System Preferences

It's that easy.  It's awesome, and doesn't need the CD.  What a great hack!

And we got the photo thing set up too.  Double-score!

Hot Remove VMDKs in Linux VMs

We glue vHDDs onto VMs like crazy. It's like a sport or something. The awesome part is that I just found an article on Xtravirt showing you how to remove one.

Awesome.  So here's the process:

1. umount the drive.
2. pull the drive from /etc/fstab, if necessary.
3. here's the magic.  Unlink the drive from the HBA:
   echo 1 > /sys/block/sdb/device/delete
   oh yeah. That hits the spot.
4. remove the VMDK from the VM via the VIC.

And that's it.  Holy crap.


I'm not including this to take credit for it.  Personally, I never knew we had the power in Linux, yet, to yank a drive off the bus like that.  It's awesome, and it shows what kind of awesome power we have here.

Go see the article at its source:

vSphere: Hot Add or Remove a VMDK with a Linux VM | Xtravirt

Installing VMware Tools in Linux after ESX 4.1

Tried to install VMware-Tools lately?  Not sure how it goes on Windows, but on Linux it's a bit more challenging than it used to be.  Used to be there was an RPM on the ISO that popped into the Linux machine's vCDROM drive when the option to install VMware Tools was chosen.

No more.  Like ESXi4.0 before it, ESX4.1 seems to ship with an ISO containing, for Linux, a little tarball with the stuff.

Those who've worked for a distro or packaged anything will know that shipping and installing bare tarballs is really not the best way to go.  Sure, it's fine for the cowboys who maintain 1-2 machines at the home or home-office, but for anyone who has to maintain more than one, has to roll back or verify a package level, or who just wants a clean system, a good package is the only way to go.

Note that I said good package.  If you hear anyone mention "dependency hell" or anything like that, they weren't paying attention.  Stop using bad packages!  Stop mixing repositories.  The pathetic blunt object that pass for packages is the topic of many blogwails past and many blogwails to come.

The great news?  VMware seem to have a few packages for us.  In fact, they come in 4 flavours of RedHat and some even for the you-bunt-you crowd.  Seems all you have to do is mark up the apt config ...

cat <<EOF> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/esx.list

repomd  http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel$(VERSION)/$(ARCH)
EOF
apt-get update

... or yum config if you don't build your own packages and know where apt excels ...

cat <<EOF> /etc/yum.repos.d/esx.repo

[esx]
name=VMware-tools for RHEL\$releasever - \$basearch

baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.1/rhel\$releasever/\$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub

EOF

yum update

and after refreshing, just install the package:

apt-get install vmware-tools
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
   vmware-open-vm-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display (10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse (12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
The following packages will be REPLACED:
   xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse (12.4.0-2.1)
   (by (10.13.0-2.1)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse) ()
    (12.4.0-2.1)
   xorg-x11-drv-vmware (10.13.0-2.1)
   (by ()
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display) (12.4.0-2.1)
The following NEW packages will be installed:
   vmware-open-vm-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display (10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse (12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5)
   vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
   vmware-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
0 upgraded, 10 newly installed, 2 replaced, 0 removed and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 44.8kB/13.7MB of archives.
After unpacking 41.1MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod 8.3.2-257589.el5 [524kB]
Get:2 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-common 8.3.2-257589.el5 [5283kB]
Get:3 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-nox 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2631B]
Get:4 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse 12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5 [17.5kB]
Get:5 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display 10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5 [33.4kB]
Get:6 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities 8.3.2-257589.el5 [7828kB]
Get:7 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2811B]
Get:8 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools-common 8.3.2-257589.el5 [39.4kB]
Get:9 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools-nox 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2635B]
Get:10 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2763B]
Fetched 44.8kB in 0s (46.5kB/s)
Committing changes...
Preparing                                ############################## [100%]
Updating / installing
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display- ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse-12 ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-8.3.2-257589 ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-common-8.3.2-2575 ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-nox-8.3.2-257589. ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities-8. ############################## [100%]
  vmware-open-vm-tools-8.3.2-257589.el5. ############################## [100%]
  vmware-tools-common-8.3.2-257589.el5.x ############################## [100%]
  vmware-tools-nox-8.3.2-257589.el5.x86_ ############################## [100%]
  vmware-tools-8.3.2-257589.el5.x86_64   ############################## [100%]
Cleaning up / removing
  xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.4.0-2.1.x86_64 ############################## [100%]
  xorg-x11-drv-vmware-10.13.0-2.1.x86_64 ############################## [100%]
Done.

While I avoid Yum, it should look like this:

[root@0-50-56-bc-0-7 ~]# yum install vmware-tools
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * addons: mirror.raystedman.net
 * base: mirror.skiplink.com
 * extras: mirror.skiplink.com
 * updates: styx.biochem.wfubmc.edu
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
:
[blah blah]
:
Dependencies Resolved

==================================================================================================================================
 Package                                           Arch               Version                               Repository       Size
==================================================================================================================================
Installing:
 vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display             x86_64             10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5                esx              33 k
     replacing  xorg-x11-drv-vmware.x86_64 10.13.0-2.1

 vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse               x86_64             12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5                 esx              17 k
     replacing  xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse.x86_64 12.4.0-2.1

 vmware-tools                                      x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             2.7 k
Installing for dependencies:
 vmware-open-vm-tools                              x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             2.7 k
 vmware-open-vm-tools-common                       x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             5.0 M
 vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod                         x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             512 k
 vmware-open-vm-tools-nox                          x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             2.6 k
 vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities               x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             7.5 M
 vmware-tools-common                               x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx              39 k
 vmware-tools-nox                                  x86_64             8.3.2-257589.el5                      esx             2.6 k

Transaction Summary
==================================================================================================================================
Install      10 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 13 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
:
[ more blah blah ]
:
Running Transaction
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display                                                                     1/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod                                                                                 2/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-common                                                                               3/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-nox                                                                                  4/12
  Installing     : vmware-tools-common                                                                                       5/12
  Installing     : vmware-tools-nox                                                                                          6/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse                                                                       7/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities                                                                       8/12
  Installing     : vmware-open-vm-tools                                                                                      9/12
  Installing     : vmware-tools                                                                                             10/12
  Erasing        : xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse                                                                                     11/12
  Erasing        : xorg-x11-drv-vmware                                                                                      12/12

Installed:
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display.x86_64 0:10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse.x86_64 0:12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5
  vmware-tools.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5

Dependency Installed:
  vmware-open-vm-tools.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5                      vmware-open-vm-tools-common.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
  vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5                 vmware-open-vm-tools-nox.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
  vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5       vmware-tools-common.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
  vmware-tools-nox.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5

Replaced:
  xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse.x86_64 0:12.4.0-2.1                        xorg-x11-drv-vmware.x86_64 0:10.13.0-2.1

Complete!

 The experience will be very similar -- if a bit more verbose.


That, my friends, may be it.  It seems convoluted but, really, once you ship a metapackage out with a proper apt+yum config, and your Linux VMs upgrade themselves overnight (well, maybe the test ones get the new metaRPMs first) then you'll be so much more pleased at the ability to do all that automatically.  Add in Spacewalk and/or cobbler and stir for best results.

Smartest Guy in the Room

So I'm at the sweatshop today, and HB's logged into a box. He's doing some 8-key sequence and I think he's trying to move to a previous command.

"What was that," I ask, perplexed.
"I was trying to repeat a command," he answers.
"But how?  You were doing an odd key combination there."
"That was an Escape-K combination I did.  Once or twice."

And it struck me.  That's the old korn-and-vi way of doing things, and I'd just not noticed it.

"Why didn't you just hit Up-Arrow?" I ask
"Oh, I'm so used to the old way"
"Ahh, you're a vi guy, then?"

It was a bit of a leap, but I think that's how vi people go up a line (because it's just intuitive to hit ESC-K for 'up').  He admitted that he was, but here's the money-byte:

"No matter where I go, the smartest guy in the room uses Emacs.  I need to learn emacs one day because there's got to be something to it."
(over my protests) "No, really:  everywhere I go, there's like 10 people in a hack lab, and the genius people, the smartest guys there, have all been emacs guys.  It's weird, but it's true."

And thus my plan - to approach genius by emulating it and copying their habits - has been revealed.  Like those 1980s guys who said you should act rich if you wanted to be rich,  could I really resemble a smart guy just by doing what smart guys do?

Nah.

I only use emacs because I had a choice between it and vi in the beginning.  I like to think that's all I needed, since I like to hit the up-arrow to, well, go up.  I guess I can't work with something as intuitive as [ESC][K], that marvel of efficiency and intuitive design.