Rick’s Rants and Raves

I’ve just installed AsteriskNOW using the default settings on Innotek VirtualBox. Here are some things I’ve had to do to get it running.

• I had to set the virtualbox to us a new Host Adapter. I don’t know how to get NAT working to allow incoming connections. I then set that Host Adapter (in the Host OS) to fixed IP address, and a class C subnet mask. When I installed AsteriskNOW, I went through the Advanced setup and configured a compatible IP address.
• When I set my admin password for the first time, I used one of my tried and true passwords. However, I quickly realized that the Web UI doesn’t support semi-colons in the password. No matter how many times I tried, I couldn’t get logged in. Here’s how to change the Web Admin password.
  On the System Console, ALT-F2 to get a login prompt.
  Login as admin, with the password you specified.
  cd /etc/asterisk
  sudo vi manager.conf
  Enter you password again.
  Find your password in the file. It should be on line 59, starting out with “secret”. Change that line, save and exit.
  Now you can log into the web UI.
• I went through the web UI (http://[ipaddress of your virtual server]) and didn’t have too much trouble with the initial config. Since I don’t have any serial hardware, I couldn’t configure any. And I couldn’t see a way to configure a provider. I didn’t sweat it much and continued on accepting most of the defaults. I then created my first user on the system.
• I was interested in configuring a provider. I wanted to see what that was like. However, every time I went to the Providers screen in the Web UI, all I got was “Loading Screen…” I fiddled with network settings, figuring that it was a problem with a lack of internet access. I messed with all kinds of stuff. Then I tried to load it using Firefox, and HOLY CRAP! IT WORKED. That’s probably the first time I’ve seen a web page work in Firefox, but not IE. (Yes, I’m sure they exist, but that’s the first I’ve ever seen).

Now I need to setup FWD…

I’ve long wondered what was wrong with me–I can’t seem to stay engaged in a new project or activity for longer than a month. My life is (with few exceptions) a long line of short lived interests. This has bugged me because I perceive that most people seem to have long term interests: my neighbor and model trains, my dad and ham radio, my wife and D&D, etc. I’ve always had an interest in technology, especially computer technology, but lately that interest has waned because I get so crushed at work.

I think I’ve finally figured out what my “problem” is: I love the thrill of a steep learning curve. However, once the steep learning curve turns into a long slow slope, I get bored. I think that’s one reason I tend to enjoy technology in a broad general sense: there is no end of new product or OS or application. That’s also why I dearly love the library. I can check out an endless variety of books, movies and music in whatever topic I’m exploring this month.

Enter VirtualBox.

For many years, I’ve dabbled with Linux. I’ve never used it for long enough to consider a full switch from Microsoft. I frequently enjoyed trying out a new distribution, but I’ve been burned by dual boot setups a couple of times. With the advent of LiveCD distributions, I could try new distributions with much more frequency, but since you can’t save (much) using a LiveCD, its hard to really learn, play, adapt, etc.

VirtualBox solves this problem for me by allowing me to create virtual PCs, fully protected from the “host” operating system, and preventing any issues that might arise from a dual boot system. I started by playing with the Slax LiveCD. Virtual box makes this easier than ever since I don’t actually have to burn the CD and keep track of it. I just tell VirtualBox where the ISO is, and start it up. Very slick, no rebooting to go from Linux to Windows, and its faster than booting from a CD.

So my first virtual system installed is Kubuntu. I look forward to really enjoying the steep learning curve, and moving into the long slow slope.

So, instead of thinking that I have Enthusiasm ADD, maybe its more like I have a “Learning Addiction”.

We recently wiped and reinstalled Windows XP on Anne’s computer. There were various little annoyances, and it hasn’t been wiped since we bought it two years ago, so it sounded like a good idea.

I used, among other techniques, the File and Settings Transfer Wizard to save off her important files. I told the wizard to save the files in the root directory of an attached USB hard drive. After an hour or so of copying, it finally completed, with only one warning: Outlook was open and it was trying to grab the .pst file. I closed Outlook and told it to retry.

I booted her laptop from the Windows XP cd, put it in recovery mode, formated the hard drive, then re-installed Windows. Overall it was a relatively painless process.

After it came back up, I let Windows update download and install all the updates it could. It went through 4 reboot cycles for the updates. After the updates were finished, and AVG Free Antivirus was installed, I decided it was time to restore her files and settings.

I fired up the wizard, told it to restore from the drive where everything was stored, and it came back with “The location that you specified does not contain stored information”


I checked the drive. Everything appeared to be stored in a directory called USMT2.UNC. It was the appropriate size had the correct time stamps, so I knew it was right.

Since I had most everything backed up in alternate ways, I didn’t panic yet. I figured there had been an update to the Wizard, but it probably wasn’t considered critical. So I went back to Windows update and found this update:
KB896344: You cannot transfer files and settings…
The description talks about updating files from Windows XP to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. This was not the case for me, but I decided to try it anyway.

After installing the update, it recognized my “stored information” and was able to restore the files and settings perfectly.

(Or, “Making the easy stuff hard.”)

Many aspects of my job are frustrating to me. In fact, one of my “catch phrases” is to say with a tone of exasperation “I love this place.”

Recently I asked my boss if we could get 100GB of disk space for our team to use for application log and documentation storage. When the server team told us it would be $30/GB to get space on the enterprise storage array I was a little shocked, but my boss said “Do it. We have the money in our budget.” Okey dokey.

I created the request, using the proper form. I gave them all the information they asked for. I gave them our department number and the approving director’s name. The server team member then gave me the third degree on why I needed 100GB of space. I gave him the same reasons I gave my director, and I asked why he cared if my director agreed to pay for it. He continued to resist, and find reasons to not give us the space. Finally he just said “We don’t have the space.”

A month later, my boss escalates. The server team director says “You want 100GB? Sure, that will be $3000.” When we provide him the information, he comes back with “Oh, sorry we don’t have 100GB to spare. You really should go fill out an ‘assessment’ form to initiate getting that much space.” For 100GB? For real?

I asked my director if we could buy a 320 GB external hard drive for $80. (perhaps two would be in order for redundancy…). He didn’t reply.

Today, my director goes to the Vice President over the server and storage teams. The VP explains that the enterprise storage array that we bought less than a year ago, and has a total of 65 tera bytes, is full. However, we could work with someone else in his organization who might be able to help us. My director asked if we should just buy an external hard drive. “Oh, no, you don’t need to do that.”

So here we are, willing to spend enough to buy 2.5 TB of RAID 0 drive space, and we can’t get a tiny slice of that. In a month, I’ll hit my director with the 320GB drive deal again… and hope…