Windows 98 Sound in VMware

By default, even after installing the VMWare Tools provided by VMWare (Player, Workstation or Server), the VMWare Tools package still does not install an audio driver, even though it installed a mouse driver and a SVGA driver for true colour graphics. However, most of the time we would like some audio in Windows 9x guests, whether to test old Win9x applications or to have a copy of Windows to run Windows-only software that refuses to run under Linux or Wine.

Requirements

1. DirectX 9.0 (important, very important, without it you’ll get the dreaded NTKERN.VXD and MMDEVLDR.VXD errors)
2. Creative Ensoniq AudioPCI drivers (the card emulated by VMware)
3. eapci8m.ecw (if you want to play MIDI files)
4. Windows 9x (98 FE or SE, but should work on all versions of Windows) running in…
5. A VMWare product (any, be it Server, Player or Workstation) with VMWare Tools installed.

Steps

1. Run SBPCI_WebDrvsV5_12_01.exe and install it, but do not reboot.
2. Move eapci8m.ecw to C:\windows\system.
3. Install DirectX 9 (directx_9c_redist.exe).
4. Now restart the system.
5. After logging in, sound should start working. Enjoy!

Troubleshooting The NTKERN.VXD and MMDEVLDR.VXD device loader(s) for this device could not load the device driver. (Code 2)

This error message results because the code used by Creative Technology, Inc uses APIs from DirectX or other supporting libraries that are not incuded by default with Windows 98. Installing the DirectX 9 package did however fix the problem.

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CUPS server showing error

The new setups for printing has been modernized in Ubuntu 9.10 and 9.04 work perfectly most of the time, but sometimes a misbehaving script or update decides to have it’s own mind and messes up all the permissions for CUPS to work properly. Here is a guide to restore the former printing versatility before the mess-up.

To fix the permission errors:

sudo chown root -hR /usr/lib/cups/backend
sudo chmod 755 -hR /usr/lib/cups/backend
sudo aa-complain cupsd
sudo chmod a+x /usr/lib/cups/backend/smb
sudo chmod a+x /usr/lib/cups/backend

That’s all there is. Also make sure your Windows printer is actually accessible in order to prevent further access issues. In addition, to access the CUPS web interface just navigate to http://127.0.0.1:631/. When it asks for your password, use your Linux login.

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This new program can act just like the full DeepFreeze program and can even protect user profiles and lock down the system for certain users. To freeze the hard drive it is a simple matter composing of:

1. Open the SteadyState application.
2. Select the “Protect the Hard Disk” option.
3. Reboot!

However, this new program also has some limitations, such as no Group Policy integration, no ability to choose which drives to freeze and no full protection like those offered by DeepFreeze. However, this program is much more cheaper than DeepFreeze ($0) and is suited for those who don’t need the full protection of DeepFreeze. You can download Windows SteadyState here, but your systems must be able to pass WGA successfully. If you can’t or don’t want to install the WGA component you can directly download it from Microsoft.

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• A makeshift Python beautifier – A simple XML formattor written in Python, this formattor formats XML and actually works. Unfortunately, it formats <element>value</element> into

  <element>
      value
  </element>

  Which can actually decrease readability, especially if you have lots of short elements.

• HTML Tidy – Official HTML/XHTML formattor endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortorium. However the XML it formatted refused to contain indents, even after enabling all indenting and formatting options. It formatted <tag1><tag2><tag3>xyz</tag3></tag2></tag1> into

  <tag1>
  <tag2>
  <tag3>xyz</tag3>
  </tag2>
  </tag1>

  This is not much good since indents are generally required in human readable XML.

• PHP XML beautifier – Small PHP based XML beautifier. The only one that actually worked properly and formatted readable XML. Formatted <tag1><tag2><tag3>xyz</tag3></tag2></tag1> into

  <tag1>
      <tag2>
          <tag3>xyz</tag3>
      </tag2>
  </tag1>

  Which is the expected result. For more consistency, you might want to change (in BeautyXML.class.php)

  var $how_to_ident = "    "; // you can user also \t or more/less spaces

  to

  var $how_to_ident = "\t"; // you can user also \t or more/less spaces

  to use tabs instead of spaces to save file space.

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/*
 *      gettextpd.h
 * 		Main file for GettextPD
 *
 *      © Copyright 2009 Compdigitec. All rights reserved.
 *
 *      Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
 * 		are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
 * 		notice and this notice are preserved.  This file is offered as-is,
 * 		without any warranty.
 */
#ifndef __GETTEXTPD__
#define __GETTEXTPD__

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <cstring>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>

// gettext functions
char* gettext (char *msgid);
std::string gettext (std::string msgid);
char* textdomain (const char *domain_name);
char* bindtextdomain (const char *domain_name, const char *dir_name);
char* setlocale (int category, const char* locale);

// macros
#define _(str) gettext(str)

// globals
std::string gtpd_locale = "";
std::string gtpd_domain = "";
std::string gtpd_location = "";

// function bodies
char* gettext(char* msgid)
{
	std::string x(msgid);
	std::string result;
	result = gettext(x);
	char* nb = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*result.length());
	strcpy(nb,result.c_str());
	return nb;
}

std::string gettext(std::string msgid)
{
	std::string path = gtpd_location + "/" + gtpd_locale + "/LC_MESSAGES/" + gtpd_domain + ".mo";
	std::ifstream stream;
	stream.open(path.c_str());
	std::string resultline;
	while(!stream.eof()) {
		getline(stream,resultline);
		if(strstr(resultline.c_str(),msgid.c_str()) != NULL) {
			break;
		}
		resultline = "";
	}
	if(resultline == "") {
		// not found
		return msgid;
	}
	int splitloc = resultline.find("\t");
	return resultline.substr(splitloc+1);
}

char* textdomain(const char *domain_name)
{
	gtpd_domain = domain_name;
	char* res = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*100);
	strcpy(res,domain_name);
	return res;
}

char* bindtextdomain (const char *domain_name, const char *dir_name)
{
	gtpd_location = dir_name;
	textdomain(domain_name);
	char* res = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*100);
	strcpy(res,dir_name);
	return res;
}

char* setlocale (int category, const char* locale)
{
	gtpd_locale = locale;
	char* res = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*100);
	strcpy(res,locale);
	return res;
}

#endif

Example usage:

// test.cpp
#include "gettextpd.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
  setlocale( LC_ALL, "fr_FR" );
bindtextdomain( "hello", "." );
textdomain( "hello" );
std::cout << gettext("Hello, world!") << "\n";
std::cout << _("THis is A TeST StriNg") << "\n";
exit(0);
}

folder/fr_FR/LC_MESSAGES/hello.mo

Hello, world!	Zu bu zu translated str
THis is A TeST StriNg	test string translated this is#2

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To permanently disable:

Execute in a shell (Applications >> Terminal):

echo -e "\nblacklist pcspkr\c" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

To temporarily disable:

Execute in a shell (Applications >> Terminal):

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr

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Insert the following code before your main() and after your header #includes:

#ifdef WIN32
	#include <windows.h>
#endif

using namespace std;
using namespace Gtk;

int main(int argc, char* argv[]);

#ifdef WIN32

int APIENTRY _tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
	// check windows version
         DWORD dwVersion = GetVersion();

         if (!(dwVersion < 0x80000000))
         {
                 MessageBox(0, _T("This application requires Windows 2000/XP or above!"), _T("Fatal Error"), MB_OK);
                 return -1;
         }

         return main(__argc, __argv);
}

#endif

Here is a sample Gtkmm application without console boxes on Windows:

#include <gtkmm.h>
#include <iostream>
#ifdef WIN32
	#include <windows.h>
#endif

using namespace std;
using namespace Gtk;

int main(int argc, char* argv[]);

#ifdef WIN32

int APIENTRY _tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
	// check windows version
         DWORD dwVersion = GetVersion();

         if (!(dwVersion < 0x80000000))
         {
                 MessageBox(0, _T("This application requires Windows 2000/XP or above!"), _T("Fatal Error"), MB_OK);
                 return -1;
         }

         return main(__argc, __argv);
}

#endif

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
	Gtk::Main kit(argc, argv);
	Gtk::Window window;
	Gtk::Main::run(window);

	return 0;
}

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We can't get information for this web activity...

WordPress has been added to your profile...

Basically, the Bad Behaviour plugin for some reason seems to think that the Windows Live “robot” sends a bad User-Agent string, and blocks Windows Live from accessing your recent posts. To remedy this, add “65.54.233.0/24″, after line 19 in <blogpath>/wp-content/bad-behavior/bad-behavior/whitelist.inc.php. It should look like this after you’re done:

<?php if (!defined('BB2_CORE')) die('I said no cheating!');

function bb2_whitelist($package)
{
 // DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

 // Inappropriate whitelisting WILL expose you to spam, or cause Bad
 // Behavior to stop functioning entirely!  DO NOT WHITELIST unless you
 // are 100% CERTAIN that you should.

 // IP address ranges use the CIDR format.

 // Includes four examples of whitelisting by IP address and netblock.
 $bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges = array(
 "64.191.203.34",    // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
 "208.67.217.130",    // Digg whitelisted as of 2.0.12
 "10.0.0.0/8",
 "172.16.0.0/12",
 "192.168.0.0/16",
 "65.54.233.0/24",
//        "127.0.0.1",
 );

 // DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

 // Inappropriate whitelisting WILL expose you to spam, or cause Bad
 // Behavior to stop functioning entirely!  DO NOT WHITELIST unless you
 // are 100% CERTAIN that you should.

 // You should not whitelist search engines by user agent. Use the IP
 // netblock for the search engine instead. See http://whois.arin.net/
 // to locate the netblocks for an IP.

 // User agents are matched by exact match only.

 // Includes one example of whitelisting by user agent.
 // All are commented out.
 $bb2_whitelist_user_agents = array(
 //    "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1) It's me, let me in",
 );

 // DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

 // Inappropriate whitelisting WILL expose you to spam, or cause Bad
 // Behavior to stop functioning entirely!  DO NOT WHITELIST unless you
 // are 100% CERTAIN that you should.

 // URLs are matched from the first / after the server name up to,
 // but not including, the ? (if any).

 // Includes two examples of whitelisting by URL.
 $bb2_whitelist_urls = array(
 //    "/example.php",
 //    "/openid/server",
 );

 // DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

 // Do not edit below this line

 if (!empty($bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges)) {
 foreach ($bb2_whitelist_ip_ranges as $range) {
 if (match_cidr($package['ip'], $range)) return true;
 }
 }
 if (!empty($bb2_whitelist_user_agents)) {
 foreach ($bb2_whitelist_user_agents as $user_agent) {
 if (!strcmp($package['headers_mixed']['User-Agent'], $user_agent)) return true;
 }
 }
 if (!empty($bb2_whitelist_urls)) {
 $request_uri = substr($settings['request_uri'], 0, strpos($settings['request_uri'], "?"));
 foreach ($bb2_whitelist_urls as $url) {
 if (!strcmp($request_uri, $url)) return true;
 }
 }
 return false;
}

?>

The edit to line 20 is the change required in order to accommodate Windows Live services on your WordPress blog. If you found this article helpful or interesting, please help Compdigitec spread the word. Don’t forget to subscribe to Compdigitec Labs for more interesting articles!

E-mail spam sample

Major hallmarks of the spam include misspellings in the message, poor grammar and in the center a big bold sentence which goes like this:

It’s Easy, Secure and Free!

Followed by a link to a suspicious website that looks something like superb-blocked-check.com or see-alarming-block-check.com.

Things you can do to stay clear of this:

• If people in your contact list are sending you this spam, mark the message as spam in your inbox (to train the spam filter) and then send a message to your contact informing them their account has been hijacked.
• There is no need for a virus panic over this – it is a phishing attack, not a virus attack even though some mix those up.
• Do not click on the link.
• If you have already fallen for the scam (by clicking on the link) or if you are on the “leaked” list, immediately change your e-mail password and any other passwords in which it is identical or similar to the leaked password.

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Virtual Keyboard

Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard

You should be sure you have your sound card proper set before you start this – i.e. make sure you can play a file in Totem or something.

To install Virtual Keyboard:

sudo apt-get install vkeybd

To install Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard (download vmpk.deb to /tmp first):

sudo dpkg --install /tmp/vmpk.deb

After you have chosen one (or both) of the above, install the remaining dependencies:

sudo apt-get install qjackctl zynaddsubfx

After you have installed everything, run the following and restart your computer:

sudo su -c 'echo @audio - rtprio 99 >> /etc/security/limits.conf'
sudo su -c 'echo @audio - memlock 250000 >> /etc/security/limits.conf'
sudo su -c 'echo @audio - nice -10 >> /etc/security/limits.conf'

After restarting, open the JACK control center (Applications >> Sound & Video >> JACK Control), and start the JACK server. Once it is started, click the Connect button at the lower left corner. Start ZynAddSubFx and Virtual Keyboard/Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard and go back to the JACK control center, select Connect, then the ALSA tab. Connect the Virtual Keyboard/VMPK on the left to your sound card and the ZynAddSubFx. Connect your sound card on the left to the right. The result should look something like this:

JACK audio connecitons

After that is complete, go back to Virtual Keyboard/Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard and click on a few piano keys. Enjoy!

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