Taking screenshots in Mac OS X

Mac, Technical

Since I don’t use it often, I keep forgetting the shortcut keys on taking screenshots in Mac OS X. Here is the list:

  • Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
  • Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
  • Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
  • Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
  • Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
  • Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard

References:
http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X

Extending PPPoE access network with network bridge

Linux, Networking, PPPoE, Technical

In a situation, I had to extend my PPPoE network over a wireless bridge. I do not want to have nor maintain 2 PPPoE servers. I didn’t bother failed to understand how PPPoE works and made a wireless bridge without WDS. When one user log in from the bridged side of the network, it works flawlessly. When more users are trying to log in, the user which logged in earlier gets disconnected. Apparently this is caused by MAC address problem[1]. From the PPPoE server’s side, users logging in from the bridged side of the network have the same MAC address which is the bridge device’s MAC address. From the users’ side, they are able to see correct MAC address of every device on the other side of the network. The PPPoE server gets confused when it sends PPPoE packets because multiple users have the same MAC address and there is no way for the server to direct reply to individual user.

[1]Wireless AP is connected to the side of the network where the PPPoE server is connected to, and wireless client is connected to the other side of the network. Every device connected to the same side of the wireless AP gets the wireless client’s MAC address for every device connected over the wireless bridge, however every device over the bridge gets to see the real MAC address of every device connected to the same side of the wireless AP. I believe that if I interchange the wireless AP and client (so now PPPoE server is connected to the wireless client instead), it may work properly since the PPPoE server will get the correct MAC address of all devices over the bridge. Devices connected to the wireless AP obviously will get the same MAC address for the PPPoE server and PPPoE users connected to the same side of the wireless client, but the most important thing is that the PPPoE users over the bridge can communicate properly with the PPPoE server. Since this is a one-to-many and many-to-one situation, this should work, but not for many-to-many situation. This explanation sounds quite confusing due to my limited English. If you could rewrite this part, please let me know.

Historical CPU statistics utility

Linux, Technical

Previously I wrote a post which discusses real-time CPU statistics utility. Now if you need historical data of CPU utilization statistics, use sysstat’s sar. For Fedora and CentOS, there is an official RPM package for sysstat.

Once you have installed sysstat, leave it for a few minutes until you get some records. The data collector runs from /etc/cron.d every 10 minutes (by default) and records all CPU usage. If you have SMP systems, then it will record each CPU’s utilization statistics. The default behaviour of sar is to print ALL CPU statistics combined, use -p to select individual CPU. Have fun watching your CPU utilization stats! 🙂

krb5-telnet != telnet-server

Linux, Networking, Technical

I had a task to allow root login via telnet on RHEL 4.3 servers. I tried my luck on Google and found this. Once I have done exactly as mentioned, I still couldn’t login as root via telnet.

After researching a little bit more on Google, I finally found the answer! Apparently krb5-workstation‘s /etc/xinetd.d/krb5-telnet is not the telnet-server package that I have been looking for. telnet-server‘s telnetd is actually another package which is mentioned in the document I found earlier. I disabled krb5-telnet and enabled telnet in /etc/xinetd.d/.

Voila! Now it allows root login via telnet. Red Hat should have written a note about this in the document.

PS: Please enable telnet-server ONLY if you need it and you know what you’re doing. I do NOT recommend the use of telnet-server.

References:
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_45_453.shtm
http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?admit=109447626+1210184407758+28353475&threadId=1035531

Telco terminologies

Technical, Telco

GERAN – GPRS EDGE Radio Access Network
UTRAN – UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
UMTS – Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
SIGTRAN – SS7 Signaling over IP
GPRS – General Packet Radio Service (2.5G)
EDGE – Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (2.75G)

PLMN – Public Land Mobile Network
PSTN – Public Switched Telephone Network

NSS – Network & Switching Subsystem
BSS – Base Station System
MSC – Mobile Switching Center
MSC-S/MSS – Mobile Switching Center Server (3G)
GMSC – Gateway MSC
IMS – IP Multimedia Subsystem
BSC – Base Station Controller
BTS – Base Transceiver Station
SGSN – Serving GPRS Supporting Node
GGSN – Gateway GPRS Supporting Node
VLR – Visitor Location Register
HLR – Home Location Register
AuC – Authentication Center
EIR – Equipment Identity Register
IN – Intelligent Network

Gb – Link between BSS and SGSN
Gn – Link between SGSN and other SGSNs and internal GGSN
Gp – Link between SGSN and external GGSN
Gr – Link between SGSN and HLR
Gi – Link between GGSN and PDN (Public Data Network)
Gd – Link between SGSN and SMS Gateway

A-Interface – Link between MSC and BSC
A-bis – Link between BSC and BTS
RNC – Radio Network Controller (BSC in UMTS world)
Node B – BTS in UMTS world
IuCS – Link between RNC and MSC (voice)
IuPS – Link between RNC and SGSN (data)
IuR – Link between RNC and RNC
IuB – Link between RNC and Node B

DDF – Digital Distribution Frame
ODF – Optical fiber Distribution Frame

More to come.. picture soon!

Update initrd with mkinitrd to install new (different) hardware on Linux

Linux, Technical

I’m not sure if this important topic is discussed thoroughly in manuals because I couldn’t find any easily on Google without the exact keywords. I could be wrong though, but I’m documenting it here for my own note.

Many people do not dare to adopt Linux due to its complexity. I have to agree that Linux is far from being user friendly despite a lot of people’s effort to make it one. Simple task such as changing/replacing hardware is very common, especially now with the rapid development of technological advances. Few weeks ago I had to change one of my servers’ motherboard with a new one to accommodate a new multi-core CPU and I had to keep everything (OS and data) on the hard drive intact. Once the new motherboard was in place, it wouldn’t boot because it couldn’t read from my hard drive. Typical error where it says root partition cannot be found. Initially, I didn’t know an incorrect initrd could cause this problem because the error messages (which leads to kernel panic) didn’t mention anything specific other than not being able to read the partition table and find /. I almost put my blame instantly on LVM. Fortunately with some dedications searching through Google, I was able to find the right solution.

Linux uses initrd to keep a handful of modules it requires for booting to take place properly. If you compile every driver you need into the kernel, then initrd is not required but including everything in the kernel is inefficient and defeats the purpose of modular design. Important modules such as ext3, PATA/SATA controller, LVM, need to be placed inside the initrd. How can a boot loader (in most cases GRUB or LILO) be able to load LVM partitions if the modules required to read LVM partitions are inside the LVM partition?

To “repair” my new system, I had to boot using a rescue CD, modify /etc/modprobe.conf to include the new motherboard’s SATA controller. This new motherboard’s PATA controller is different from the old motherboard and therefore requires a different driver. I replaced “alias scsi_hostadapter2 pata_amd” to “alias scsi_hostadapter2 libata” in modprobe.conf. Basically these are the steps:

chroot /mnt/sysimage
vi /etc/modprobe.conf
(make needed changes as required)
depmod -ae -F /boot/System.map-2.6.9-1.667 2.6.9-1.667
mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.9-1.667.img 2.6.9-1.667

Once everything ran as expected, remove the rescue CD, and reboot. The system should boot properly now. If it doesn’t, most likely the module name specified in modprobe.conf is incorrect.

Here is a tip to find out which PATA/SATA module you should include in modprobe.conf:
When booting the rescue CD, right after the blue screen appears it will pop up a dialog. Find the module name that is required in that dialog. Be sure to keep an eye on it because it will disappear quickly.

BTW, this article is also useful when moving an installed Linux hard drive to a different computer with different hardware.

Good luck! Let me know if this article helps you by posting a comment. Thanks!

References:
http://www.keffective.com/mvsata/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initrd