Cannot unregister the machine <Virtual-Machine-Name>  because it has 1 hard disks attached

Before a VM can be unregistered or deleted, all disks that have been “attached” need to first be disassociated from the VM. For this example, I’m using a virtual machine that I have set up and named “VNAS” that was used to test an OpenFiler NAS installation (which, by the way, worked great). Now that testing is complete, I am ready to remove it.

The removal for a standard VM install can be completed in a short list of steps.

Step one: Get the name or UUID and details of your VM

VBoxManage list vms

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

“VNAS” {8a48759d-4e6d-473f-ab0f-8ff59aa727eb}

That command will return the names of all registered VMs and their UUID. Make sure you get the correct name or UUID for the VM you will be modifying.

Step two: Get the disc information for your VM

There are two methods you can use to the get the information for each virtual disk registered to a virtual machine. The first is to list the VM info for a specified VM which includes the Virtual Disks that are in use by it.

VBoxManage showvminfo <Virtual Machine Name or UUID>

VBoxManage showvminfo VNAS
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Name: VNAS
Guest OS: Other/Unknown
UUID: 8a48759d-4e6d-473f-ab0f-8ff59aa727eb
Config file: /secondary/.Virtual/machines/VNAS/VNAS.xml
Memory size: 512MB
VRAM size: 8MB
Number of CPUs: 1
Boot menu mode: message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI: on
IOAPIC: off
PAE: on
…
Primary master: /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/OFInstallDisk (UUID: xxxxxxx)
Primary slave: /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/VNASStore1 (UUID: xxxxxxx)
Secondary slave: /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/VNASStore2 (UUID: xxxxxxx)
…

In this example you can see I have 3 disks registered with the vm.

• Primary Master (hda)
• Primary Slave (hdb)
• Secondary Slave (hdd)

NOTE: You might be asking, Why does the sequence jump from hdb to hdd? What happened to hdc? The answer is, hdc is reserved for CD/DVD mounting, so you can’t add a virtual disk there.

The second, alternative method is to use the the VBoxManage command “list” with the “hdds” option to list all the Virtual Disks in the system. This will display a list of All the disks you have created and registered for ALL VMs. Information for each Virtual Disk and the VM it is registered to is displayed. Here you can see the three disks registered with my VNAS VM indicated by the “Usage” lines.

VBoxManage list hdds

UUID:         eebbb4c7-c539-4da4-b8ab-e5777b32520b
Format:       VDI
Location:     /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/VNASStore1
Accessible:   yes
Usage:        VNAS (UUID: 8a48759d-4e6d-473f-ab0f-8ff59aa727eb)

UUID:         9f238d31-f794-420f-83a7-ccf811d52244
Format:       VDI
Location:     /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/VNASStore2
Accessible:   yes
Usage:        VNAS (UUID: 8a48759d-4e6d-473f-ab0f-8ff59aa727eb)

UUID:         2ce976c9-0a37-49c1-8d34-3962c563a256
Format:       VDI
Location:     /secondary/.Virtual/vdisks/OFInstallDisk
Accessible:   yes
Usage:        VNAS (UUID: 8a48759d-4e6d-473f-ab0f-8ff59aa727eb)

In my opinion, method one the easiest quickest way to see what Virtual disks are assigned to a specific VM.

Step Three: Disassociate the Virtual Disk[s]

VBoxManage modifyvm <Virtual Machine Name or UUID> –hda none

VBoxManage modifyvm VNAS –hda none

If you have more than one disk registered with a vm as I do here, you’ll also need to disassociate those as well.

VBoxManage modifyvm VNAS –hdb none

VBoxManage modifyvm VNAS –hdd none

Step Four: Unregister and delete the VM

VBoxManage unregistervm <Virtual Machine Name or UUID> –delete

VBoxManage unregistervm VNAS –delete

Step Five: Confirm

VBoxManage list vms

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.8
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

[NOTE: there are no VMs listed]

This is the same command that was executed in step one. After running this command again you should no longer see your Virtual Machine listed.

Note: This process will only remove your VM from VirtualBox. It will not remove/delete the actual virtual disk file (.vdi). You can delete that manually, or save it to use with another virtual machine instance.

Photo: Wally Gobetz

Editors Note:

While I was writing this, the solution to my problem struck me unexpectedly. Click here to skip the drama and jump right ot the solution.

Originally, this article started out as a complete rant and cry for help. I started to write about the failure and frustration of the installation and network configuration of a virtual machine in VirtualBox 3.0.4.  It just would not work. The problem, as it turned out, was that I was over thinking the process. BUT, that is not completely my own fault.

See, here’s the problem. Before starting anything new, I read, research, and read some more to get as much of an understanding as I can on the subject. In this case, the official documentation of VirtualBox 3.0.4 in my opinion is incomplete and did not include some of the specific details that would have made this setup much less painful. Combine that with the piles of information regarding networking configuration in previous versions, and it’s easy to get some wires crossed. Networking in version 3.0.4 was largely improved and simplified, meaning a lot of the information available online, in forums, on blogs, etc, is irrelevant to the new version and the current documentation does not do a great job of explaining the changes and how to set up networking, specifically bridging, in the new version.

In my research and troubleshooting I’ve seen many others who describe the same problems I had while trying to set this up under version 3.0.4, so in the spirit of passing on my experience and what I learned from it, I am going to keep my original writing here so you can see what I was doing and why it was wrong. If you want to skip to the solution, please click here.

The Original Post (the wrong way)

Ok, here it is. Frustration has finally gotten the best of me and I have no  idea where to go from here. What am I talking about, you ask? I’m talking about setting up a Virtual Machine (VM) using VirtualBox 3.0.4 on a Windows XP Host.

Let’s take a look at what has brought me to this state of utter frustration.

A while back, I downloaded and installed VirtualBox to set up VMs to test and play around with some different Operating Systems and Software. To be honest, it works Great for that purpose. But now, I want to take my virtualization experience to the next level and have been thinking about installing FreeNAS in a VM to serve as a NAS solution and making it available to all PCs  across a production LAN.

The Parts:

I have a Windows XP sp2 machine sitting at home that is not getting much use that would be perfect for trying this out.

Specs:

• Windows XP sp2
• 4 Gigs of RAM
• 500 Gig HD
• Intel Quad Core Processor
• Single on-board G-bit network adapter.

I know there is a bit to cover and become familiar with when setting out to connect a Local LAN to a VM in the same address space, so I did my research first.

I downloaded and printed the VirtualBox user manual. Reading through it I highlighting the parts that I thought were important or significant. The documentation seems a little incomplete and is NOT all that well written for someone just getting started.  There are no guides or instruction that specifically marks the steps for setting up the different types of network options. So I figure, fine! After reading the manual, I should have some idea of the basic requirements. I can just do a search on the net and piece together the rest of the information.

That sounded like a good idea a first, but in practice..not so much. The web served up a LOT of information related to VirtualBox network bridging and configuration. The problem is that a lot of it was contradictory and there is almost no information specific to version 3.0.4. I read through forums, blogs, papers and anything else that looks like it might help. In the end, nothing was extraordinarily helpful.

Host OS (Windows XP)

Physical Network Adapter: Local Area Connection (2)  NVidia NForce Network Controller (Bridged /Connected)

Virtual Host Adapter: VirtualBox Host-Only Network

Bridged Adapter (Local Area Connection (2) + VirtualBox Host-Only Network):  Network Bridge (Network Bridge)

Note that the Host adapters were set to Compatible Mode as recommended by several forum posts and blogs.

Screen netsh bridge compatmode

Guest OS (FreeNAS/ Linux Based)

Network settings for the guest were set up using

Adapter Type: IntelPRO/1000 MT Desktop. This was selected based on recommendations that appeared repeatedly in forums and blogs.

Attached to: Bridged Adapter

Name: MAC Bridge Miniport – This was the only selection available in the menu.

VM Network Configuration

Installing the Guest

During the installation of  FreeNAS, I used static IP information

• IP Address: 192.168.15.115
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway: 192.168.15.3 (LAN Router private IP)
• DNS Server: ISP DNS IP

Errrrrrttttttt….

(that’s my best screatching to a stop text effect).

It’s amazing how when you step away from a problem and look at it from another angle, how easy the solution comes to you. By writing out my thoughts here and stepping through all the little details, something hit me and it is THE key piece of information that is missing between setting up older versions of VirtualBox and Version 3.0.4.

There were a number of references that said networking and bridging in the new version was completely refigured and the process was very simple. Basically, just create a bridge – But no details were ever provided on what that meant exactly. Based on all the “old” information and lack of new detailed explainations, I figured it meant to create bridged connections on the host and use that as the Guest bridged adapter. What if the solution is even simpler  than that. It’s worth a try…Soooo

I went back to my Host settings (Windows XP Network settings) and tore down the bridge and restored my original adapters and IP information. Now I only have Local Area Connection (2) and VirtualBox Host-Only Network shown. From here I went back to the VirtualMachine Network settings and listed in the “Name” menu instead of  “MAC Bridge Miniport” I now had the two Host adapters listed. (Local Area Connection (2)  and VirtualBox Host-Only Network).

I selected the physical Host Adapter (Local Area Connection (2)), restarted the VM and to my amazement.. It all worked.

(the right way)

In the end, this is how you set up bridged networking between Virtual Machines and the LAN with VirtualBox 3.0.4

Windows XP Hosted VirtualBox – using the GUI:

Host Network Settings:

This part is easy. Do nothing. That’s right, nothing! No changes are necessary for the host’s interfaces or network settings (as long as you already have a working interface).

DO NOT create or bridge any interfaces on the host system. Leave the network interfaces on your host OS (physical) alone.

Guest Network Settings:

Start VirtualBox and highlight the Virtual Machine you want to modify from the list on the left. Once highlighted, select “network” under the “details” tab on the right.

Select VM

You should now see a window displaying the Network settings for your VM.  From here, the Adapter 1 tab and make sure the “Enable Network adapter” checkbox is selected.

Next to “Adapter Type” select “Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop” or “Intel Pro/1000 MT Server” from the menu. These have a higher rate of success when used in this way. I had some trouble with the PCnet II and PCnet III adapter Types.

Select Adapter Type

Next to “Attached to” select “Bridged Adapter” from the menu.

Select Bridged Adapter

Finally, next to “Name” select your Host system’s network interface from the menu. In this case, my host system interface is the on-board “NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller”. Your options will likely be different based on the interface installed of in use.

Select Host System interface to be bridged.

That is all there is to it. Just hit the “OK” button in the main settings window and start your VM. As long as the Guest OS on your VM hs been configured with the correct IP/network information for your LAN, you should now be able to ping and access it from any PC on your network.

Conclusion: So simple, even a Caveman can do it!

Initial frustration aside, in the end, I really have to give props to Sun/VirtualBox for actually making this incredibly simple to set up. On the other hand, they lose points for failing to make this clear in the documentation.

Final Note:

Since posting this, VirtualBox 3.0.6 has been released. Considering how easy this is to set up in 3.0.4, I can only guess that it is just as simple in 3.0.6. After all, it would not make much sense to make any changes that would make the process more difficult.

I hope you find this information helpful or useful and hopefully can use it to avoid the mistakes I made. Have a question, suggestion, better way of doing this or just want to leave some feedback? Please leave a comment.

Updates:

VirtualBox 3.0.6 – Confirmed / Working
VirtualBox 3.1.8 – Confirmed / Working

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Ubuntu Linux. BUT.. one of the annoying things about using Ubuntu is trying to set up a network printer on a desktop or workstation. Regarding nearly all administrative tasks under most Linux systems that would require root permissions, Ubuntu has done a nice job of making it possible to operate a system as a “normal” user without elevated privileges, and then easily gain the elevated (root) privileges temporarily assigned to complete some specific administrative task. Ubuntu detects when a user is trying to do something requiring the elevated (root) privileges and pops up a small window asking for the current user’s password to gain the required permission. All the magic happens behind the scene and the user never has to issue a text command. It wasn’t long ago that users would have had to open a command terminal and issue all the instructions by hand. Well.. we’ve come a long way.. With the exception of installing a network printer. For some reason, when installing a printer in Ubuntu, the user is not prompted with the normal su password pop-up that presents itself for all other administrative tasks. Instead, the CUPS system prompts the user for the root password – and under Ubuntu, there is no root password by default meaning that root can not complete any direct action requiring a password. In fact, root can not log directly into the system at all. Fortunately, the solution is fairly easy.

The Solution

Do not try to install a printer from System > Administration > Printing menu. It won’t work. Sure, it will allow you to go through the wizard and give you the false impression that you’re actually accomplishing something – until you reach the point where a driver needs to be installed and you’re prompted for the root password. Instead, go to the Applications > Accessories menu and select Terminal.

Once the terminal window opens, issue the following command

sudo system-config-printer

The next line in the terminal window will ask for your password. Type in your user password and hit enter. If all is correct, the printer setup and configuration window will open with elevated privileges enabled and you can finish installing and setting up your new printer from comfort of an easy to use GUI.

Sample Setup

Lets take a few minutes and walk through the process. In this example, I will be setting up a Dell 1700 Laser Printer in my Home Office. Before you get started, you will need to know a few things about the printer first.

IP address: What IP address did you assign to your network printer?

RAW Port: Typically, the default RAW Port is 9100. If you assigned something different you’ll need to remember what it is.

Open a Terminal Window: System > Administration > Terminal

Terminal Window

Issue the command “sudo system-config-printer” (no quotes)

sudo command

Provide your password when prompted.

sudo password

The Printer Configuration window should have opened

Printer Configuration

Press the “New” button to add a new printer.

The “New Printer” window will open after a brief search displaying the “select Device” panel

Under the “Devices” list, expand the “Network Printer” selection by clicking the small black arrow.

Next, Select “AppSocket/HP JetDirect”

At the right, new options will be displayed (Host and Port Number)

In the host field, type the IP address of the network printer you’re installing.

In the Port Number field, type the RAW port number for the network printer. If you did not change this directly in the Printer’s Settings, or you are not sure, then leave the default value 9100.

Select Device

Press the “Forward” button: The next panel is the “Choose Driver” panel

Choose the “Select Printer from Database” option

Highlight the “Generic” option under the “Makes” list

Chose Driver Panel 1

Press the “Forward” button: The next panel is the “Choose Driver” panel #2

On this Panel, under the “Model” list, select “PCL 6/PCL XL Driver”

Under the “Drivers” Select the “PCL 6/PCL XL Driver – CUPS + Gutenprint v5.2.3 [en] (recommended)”

Choose Driver Panel 2

Press the “Forward” button: The next panel is “Describe the Printer”

Printer Name: in this field, type a name for your printer as it will appear in you installed printers list. I’ll call mine “Dell1700″ Note that spaces are not permitted here.

Description (optional): In this field, type a short description of your printer to help identfy it in you installed printers list. I described mine as “Dell Printer Home Office”. You can leave this blank if you want.

Location (optional): In this field, put a location descriptor that will help to identify the location of the printer in the installed printers list. For this field, I used “Home Office”. You can leave this blank if you want.

Describe the Printer

When you finish, click the “Apply” button. You’ll be prompted and asked if you want to print a test page, which might be a good idea at this point to make sure you got everything set up correctly.

Test Printing

If everything went well, you will now see a new printer added to your installed printers list under “Printer Configuration“.

New Printer Installed

Note: This walkthrough was completed using a Dell 1700 Laserprinter and does work with these instructions. This printer does not have linux drivers available. If your printer has supported/avalible drivers provided by your manufacturer, your setup process may be different. This information is provided as a general guide.

I hope you find this information helpful. Leave a comment to let me know what you think. Is there a better / easier way to do this? Did I miss anything? Leave a comment.

Change of Plans – As I was writing the above, Something occurred to me.

Some points of interest

• Google uses a custom version of Ubuntu for internal operations.
• Google has generated a lot of Buzz recently about entering the office application market opposite Microsoft.
• Canonical/Ubuntu has made impressive progress bringing an alternative desktop operating system to market and is regarded by some as an acceptable replacement to Microsoft.
• Following the Quote from Mark Shuttleworth himself, it does sound like Canonical and Google have been at least talking about ways to “finalize Jaunty plans”.

  "We will be gathering forces in Mountain View on 8th - 12th December to
  survey the upstream landscape and finalize Jaunty plans, enjoying the
  excellent hospitality of Google and Silicon Valley's abundance of talent
  and innovation." - Mark Shuttleworth

Warning – Pure Speculation Follows:

Is it possible that Canonical’s intention to cater to web apps means teaming up or forming some sort of partnership with Google to use or push Google’s suite of web applications (Google Apps) while providing a competitive operating system to rival Microsoft?

References:
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2008-September/000481.html

I recently set up a WordPress Blog internally for our company to use over our intranet to help improve communication, collaborate, share and develop ideas, and stay informed about company announcements or current events.. etc.

One of the requirements I had was to allow authentication against our Active Directory. Yes, we operate a Windows network primarily, but you can also authenticate against other LDAP directories as well. This was important from an IT position as well as the participants of the blog. I felt people would be more likely to participate if they didn’t have to manage separate user accounts for each service on the intranet. I also set up a Wiki that is Active Directory enabled. I’ll post about that at a later time. The point is, it makes little sense to create different credentials for each user with each new service. It not only becomes a hassle for IT to track and manage the accounts, it’s also a drag for participants to keep track of and manage their username and password pairs for each service. The result would most likely lead to lack of use and that is not what we want.

Integrating the existing Active Directory accounts means that each participant can access these services using the same credentials they use to access or log into their network accounts and desktops. When time comes to change passwords, you need only to update the Active Directory account and your done. Simple! What could be better?

Starting Point

The first thing we needed to do was find out how to include AD Authentication with WordPress 2.5. There are a small number of plugins that claim to allow AD Authentication, but from what I came across, most of them were older and no longer actively maintained. But…there were two in particular that still showed signs of being actively maintained and had promise.

The first was was aptly called “Active Directory Authentication”

The other plugin and the ultimately the one I managed to successfully include is wpDirAuth.

The Trials

Although I was able to get wpDirAuth to work with WordPress 2.5, there was a catch. The current “Official” release of wpDirAuth as of this writing is version 1.2 which is not compatible with WordPress 2.5 so there was some work involved to make this happen. I visited the wpDirAuth plugin page to look at the install directions. They seemed easy enough. It wasn’t until I actually installed and activated the plugin that I realized it wouldn’t work. My next stop was the support channel that the author set up to help troubleshoot install and authentication issues. It was here that I learned there was a patch already available and provided by a generous wpDirAuth user – Adam Yearout. I applied the patch and then tried to login with my network credentials again, and … No luck! By now I was scratching my head. Searching and reading all the information I could find, I finally found myself on the wpDirAuth Developer Support Channel. This was another channel set up specifically for developers. It was here that I uncovered some clues as to what was happening and a small code tweak that was necessary to overcome the problem. Apparently, the author of the plugin assumed that the login name was also the name associated with the Active Directory Account Email, which in most cases is true, but not always. For example username: johndoe would by default have an email johndoe@domain.com. In my case, my email and name and login name were not the same, so the logic that the plugin author used would not work. The good news is that the fix is a fairly simple one if you know where to look and the dev channel contained all the clues needed to find the info.

Setting up wpDirAuth with WordPress 2.5

For this how-to, I am using wordpress 2.5 installed on an Ubuntu 8.04 LTS server With Apache2 and PHP5. There is no GUI and I am not running an ftp server on this server so all settings and changes are completed using putty over SSL.

So lets get to it. Setting up AD Authentication was not as straight forward as I had hoped and required a few extra steps along the way.

The first step is to download the wpDirAuth plugin from the WordPress plugins section.

From a terminal or if logged into the server via Putty, change to your home directory and get the latest version of the wpDirAuth plugin.

Next extract the files by executing:

Now you have a new directory called wpdirauth.1.2 in your home directory.
Move into the new directory and list the contents using

Now you will see the wpdirauth directory. You need to move this entire directory to your WordPress plugins directory.

To move the extracted wpdirauth directory, make sure you are in the wpdirauth.1.2 directory and execute the command:

Now we need to move into the actual WordPress Blog directory where our files are hosted by executing the command:

Now if you execute

you should see the wpdirauth plugin folder. Once again, we will change directories and move into the hosted wpdirauth directory using:

This is where the editing (and the fun) begins.
Remember, we need to make some changes before we activate this plugin in WordPress 2.5 or it will not work.

Patching the wpdirauth plugin

Before making any changes to our files, it’s alway a good idea to make some backups.

From the wpdirauth execute the command:

Next apply the patch that was just downloaded. This patch will make changes to the wpdirauth.php file, and update the Plug-in version for 1.2 to 1.3

Apply the patch by executing the command:

Editing the plugin

Once the patch is installed, your Active Directory authentication should for most people. But we are not done yet.

There is an issue related to Active Directory users names and their email addresses. Active Directory user accounts that are also created with an email address, are by default given an address equal to the login name.
For example an Active Directory user created with a login name of johndoe would have an email address of johndoe@domain.com. The problem arises in the way that wpDirAuth authenticates against Active Directory using the email address. If at some point, the users default email address is changed, the login name does not match the email address and authentication fails. The fix is a simple one if you know where to look.

To prevent authentication failure due to the login name and email mismatch, you need to make a small edit to the wpdirauth.php file. Start by executing the following command:

Next, scroll through the file till you find the wpDirAuth_auth() function at line 246. It should be about 1/4 of the way down the page. Edit this function as follows:

At about line 273 find the line

and delete or comment it out.

Next move down to about line 284 and look for the line that reads:

Add a new line after this and enter the following:

Basicly, we are just moving the line “if ($accountSuffix) $username .= $accountSuffix;” down a few lines and adding it after the line ” $filterQuery = “($filter=$username)”; ”

This is the snippet of the the wpDirAuth_auth() function after I made the changes look like this.

Activating the Plugin

One requirement that may still be missing is php’s LDAP support. If you do not already have support for LDAP enabled in php, you will need to enable it before you can authenticate against the Active Directory.
To enable LDAP in PHP, execute the following command

At this point, and assuming everything went well, it’s time to log into your WordPress Blog as the WordPress Admin and navigate to the “settings” page. From here, you will see a “Directory Auth” link at the top of your settings page. click this link to access the Directory Auth setup page and fill in the required fields as they apply to your Active Directory set up.

Enable Directory Authentication = yes
Require SSL Login = Yes if you use SSL Auth, No if you do not.
Enable SSL Connectivity = yes if you are using SSL or LDAPS connections, No if you are not.
Directory Servers (Domain Controllers) = DNS Name or IP Address of your Active Directory Domain Controller
Account Filter = samAccountName or field to search the username to locate the directory profile. For AD, samAccountName should work.
Account Suffix = @yourdomain.com – This is the suffix for you local domain usen in email addressing in the AD for you local network.
Base DN = DC=domainname,DC=com – Note this will vary depending on you local network and complexity of your AD
Bind DN = Blank if you allow Anonymous Binding to your Directory or a username use to pre-bind if you do not.
Bind Password = Blank if you allow Anonymous Binding to your Directory or the password of the user used to pre-bind if you do not.

The remainder of the fields are self explanatory and are not critical to successful authentication.

Now save the changes and log out of the WordPress Admin account.
Next attempt to login to WordPress using an Active Directory User Account.

You should now have Active Directory Authentication enabled and working with WordPress.

Remember, your mileage may vary depending on your specific needs and existing network and Active Directory structure.

Have any other tips, or want to share your experience with AD authentication in WordPress? Leave a comment.

The site uses the MySql .NET Connector (a native ADO connector for .Net) available from MySQL AB. This worked flawlessly under the .Net 1.1 framework. I set up the 2.0 framework on our dev server and started testing the site localy to make sure all existing features and functions would still work after the switch. I am happy to announce that everything was working as expected (on the dev server). Now it was time to request the upgrade through the host. After receiving the confirmation that the request was completed, I open a browser and hit the company web. Warning Warning Error Error Error. Oh no!! What happened?

With the release of .NET 2.0, Microsoft included a new security model using a greater level of restriction. The host that is hosting our web makes use of these restriction levels and as it turns out, the .Net connector that we were using violated some .Net security and triggered a Security Exception.

Exception Details: System.Security.SecurityException: That assembly does not allow partially trusted callers.

I have to give Props to Microsoft for making the problem easy to identify. Looks like all I need to do is allow partially trusted calls from the MySql connector.

Here is where the Beauty of Open Source Software comes in.

MySql creates open source database software and tools and freely makes their source code available to anyone who wants it. That means I can take the source, make the changes I need and recompile the binaries again.

But wait! How do I access the source written in C# and recompile the binaries. Don’t I need something like Visual Studio from Microsoft. Thats like $1,024.99 (quoted from Amazon).

Sure you could drop a grand for VS Pro, or you could download SharpDevelop. SharpDevelop is the IDE equivelant to Visual Studio for C# development -and- did I mention it is FREE!! Yup that’s right Free Open Source Software (FOSS). I’ve been using SharpDevelop for a while now, and wouldn’t think of giving it up.

I fired up SharpDevelop, made the changes to the MySql .Net connector source necessary to allow it to operate within the restricted security settings of the host’s servers, and recompiled the binaries. As soon as I uploaded my newly compiled MySql Connector to the web server, I opened up my browser of choice and hit the company web site.

SUCCESS!!! All is good in the world again.

So how did using open source provide the advantage here?
1. if the MySql connector were closed, meaning I was not able to alter the code, I would have had to contact the company behind the software and try to get them to work with me towards a solution. The truth is, that is a long process and would probably require that I wait for them to release a new version of their closed proprietary product. With an inoperable web site, that was not an option.

2. Having access to FOSS (Free Open source Software) like SharpDevelop allowed me to do the same thing that other high priced software does, but for a lot less.

In the End, I was able to resolve a high priority issue quickly and at a low cost.

In all fairness, Microsoft does provide a -freely available- (for the beginner) version of Visual Studio IDEs know as Visual Studio Express. However, these are not Open Source and are very limited not only in features, but also in licensing which states what you are allowed to do with the projects you create.

My latest venture into setting up a complete automation system is to integrate my voice network with the built-in Asterisk server installed with PlutoHome. The first step was to set up and configure two GrandStream Budget Tone 200 sip phones. Pluto’s plug and play detection picked up the phones as soon as I connected them to the network and installed the necessary software needed to work within the system. Some quick additional settings within each phone and I was able to make calls over my internal network from one phone to another.

The next step was to set up in and outbound calling from the PSTN.
I installed a X100P FXO card from x100p.com and this is where the trouble started.

After installing the card into an available PCI slot, my PlutoHome system did not seem to detect it even after rebooting. I tried some of the common commands from a terminal window, but had no success.

The solution it turns out was to compile and install the Zaptel drivers available from Digium. For what ever reason, PlutoHome does not include (at least as far as I could see) full zaptel support.

After installing and configuring zaptel, I was able set up inbound and outbound calling over the PSTN from my PlutoHome system.

In a later post, I will describe the process I used to install the zaptel drivers.

To start things off, I downloaded 3 ISO files.

1. Kubuntu install disk
2. LinuxMCE Packages disk
3. LinuxMCE Cache Disk

The LinuxMCE Packages and Cache disk are available as a single torrent file.

After downloading the ISO files, they were burned to CD using Nero.

Installing Kubuntu:
The first step to the actual install is make sure the target system is able to boot from a CD. This can be set by accessing the system BIOS, and setting the CDRom as the first boot device in the boot sequence. Refer to you Motherboard’s BIOS information for instructions on setting this up.

Place the Kubuntu install disk in the CD Tray, and re/start your computer. The computer will boot from the system on the CD and display a list of options. One of the options is to check the disk for errors. I always select this first to make sure the newly created CD is free of errors before starting the system install. Theres nothing worse than getting 2/3rds of the way through the install only to have it fail due to a read error of similar. Of course you could skip that part if you want. If you do run the disk integrity check, you will need to reboot the computer again assuming there were no errors found.

If you skip the integrity check, of you completed is successfully, you can now select the first option”Start of Install Kubuntu”. This will load the Kubuntu OS to memory and display a nice desktop with an install icon in the upper left corner. click the icon to get started.

Next you are asked to answer a few questions related to your location and language preferences. Answer these and continue.

Next you will be asked to partition your disk and given three options.

• Guided
• Guided using the entire disk
• Manual

I prefer to use the manual option and I use the following partition and mount settings for the majority of my Linux installs. This one is based on a single 30 gig drive. Typically you would want a lot more drive space, but I am only setting this up for testing.

Partition Settings

hda

• hda1 = (range) 60-100 MB Mount point – /boot Type – ext3
• hda2 = 1024 MB (1GB) Mount point – swap
• hda3 = (range) 15-20 GB Mount point – / Type – ext3
• hda4 = the rest of available free space Mount point – /home Type ext3

As partition settings were modified/created, I received pop-ups asking if I wanted to mount the drives or do nothing.
I selected the do nothing option. (note: this only happened on my first install attempt)

The partitioner will complete it’s process and present you with a new screen. Here, you will set up your main user account and password, and provide a name for the computer. Fill in all the fields and continue.

Now you are at the ready to install screen that shows all your selections and settings in a list. Double check the info and if everything is correct, press the “install” button. If you need to change anything, use the “back” button to return to the setup screens.

When you hit the “install” button, the installation process begins building and formating the partitions, copies the necessary files to the hard disks and sets up the new OS on the hard disks. This can take some time, so go make a sandwich or fresh cup of coffee (or both).

Once the install is complete, you will receive a message stating that everything is done. Close that message window, right click on the desktop, and select “log out”.
From the next set of options, select “Restart”. After a few seconds (maybe longer) your CD tray should pop open and the screen will display a message instructing you remove the disk, close the tray, and press “Enter” to continue. At this point, remove the disk, close the tray and hit “enter” on your keyboard.

If everything went well, you will now boot up to you brand new Kubuntu desktop…!!!
Log in using the username and password you set up during the install process.

Installing Kubuntu was very easy to complete and quite painless. I’d even go as far as saying it was as easy, if not easier to install as Windows.

Part one is now complete.

Now that I am logged into he Kubuntu KDE desktop, I see that there are 57 software/system updates available for download. Run the Adept Updater to update the available packages and make another sandwich…. This part is Highly Recommended..(the updates, not the sandwich)

Once the updates are complete, insert the LinuxMCE packages CD and open it for viewing. On the CD you will see a folder labled deb-cache and a file labeled mce-installer_2.0.1-1_i386.deb. Right click this installer deb file and from the menu, select “Kubuntu Package Menu” > “Install package”. At this point, you will be asked to provide your password in a pop-window. A few lines will appear ending with the instruction to “Press <enter> to exit…” Now you will notice a new Icon on the desktop labled “Install Linux MCE”. Click this Icon to start the LinuxMCE installer. Another prompt will pop up asking for you password again. Enter your password and continue.

*** The next screen that appears is the linux MCE Installer screen displaying two options. At this stage, you need to specify if you want to run this computer as a dedicated core, or as a hybrid core/media director. For my purposes, I am selecting the first option “Yes, install all the media playback and remote control software and make this computer my first media player. For testing purposes, I find that it is helpful to use a hybrid installation. Next press the “forward” button.

The next screen asks you if you want to use the open source nv driver (still a bit buggy) or the commercial nVidia driver. This is the video driver for the system and is pretty important, especially if you want to use 3D acceleration, so I select the more stable nVidia driver. Note that selecting this requires a system reboot. Make your selection and press the “forward” button….

“Installing nVidia Propetary Drivers…Please Wait” (note: I did not misspell Proprietary.. that is exactly what the message says) ;-p

Still Waiting…
Still Waiting …
Still Waiting …
WOW, This is taking more time than I would expect.. (going on about ten minutes so far). I can see activity on my CDrom and HD according to the led lights so I assume it doing something..for now….
Time to make another sandwich…
… … … … over an hour and still waiting… this can’tbe good!

My HD led is solid, my CDRom led is solid (disk access) so I decided to check the logs. DANGER DANGER!!! My logs are showing hdc I/O errors and media errors. Could it be a bad burn… even after i ran the integrity test.. I decided to try copying the contents of the CD to the desktop and run it from there.

“Please Wait…” revisited
After copying the contents of the CD to the desktop I started the LMCE install again (refer back to the *** marker a couple paragraphs up. this time around, after receiving the “please wait” message box, the computer rebooted after about a minute (maybe a little less) as it should have. Now my screen resolution has been reset to 640 x 480.. Well that won’t do..

From the Kmenu I selected System Settings and then Monitor & Display.. Under the Hardware tab, my Graphics Card is showing up as nv with the nvidia driver, but I cannot increase my resolution beyond 640 x 480 (BTW, I am using an nVidia GForce2 400MX video card)……. Back to the installer to change my video settings. After restarting the installer again, I do not have the option to change the video driver… Things are getting ugly.. I’ll try to reboot again and then start the installer… tick tock …

No go GhostRider… Apparently, I cannot easily revert my display settings back to what they were. Ehh, I figured that wouldn’t work, but it was worth a shot anyway. Seeing that this is being set up for testing, and I have no intention of using this system as a desktop OS, I will continue as is..

The next step in the LMCE installer is to configure/confirm the network interfaces. The installer has correctly detected my two NICs and that ETH1 is connected to the internet. I now have to option to accept the current interface config (IP, subnet, gateway and DNS) or change it manually. For now I will accept the existing settings because I will need to change them manually later to set up PPPoE for internet access thorugh this computer and the second interface as my internal network. Make your selection and hit the “forward” button.

Next, you need to select a Download Mirror close to your location. This allows the installer to grab any additional packages it needs right from the internet. You can select a mirror from the dropdown list, or manually add one in the provided field. I selected one from the list and hit the “forward” button.

The next step is to select how the installer will get the packages it needs to install. The installer asks if you have the “Kubuntu extra packages CD” (in the case of the Beta, I will assume that refers to the Cache CD). If you do not have the cache cd your other options are to use the internet and allow the installer to download the packages, or to use an ISO image from a hard disk. If you dont have install disks for LMCE, you could download the ISO from a LMCE source to your hard drive and use the ISO without having to burn it to a CD. I selected to use the CD that I burned.

Message: “Please Wait… Caching Ubuntu Extra CD” …. I hope this isin’t a replay from earlier.

Still Waiting….
Still Waiting…

After about 30 minutes, I decided to cancel this and use the “I have an ISO image on my harddrive” option. Luckly, I was able to copy the downloaded LinuxMCE-1.1-cache.ISO from one of my network shares to the local system. At least I know networking works. I selected the option, and navigated to my desktop where the ISO was located, selected it and pressed the “forward” button.

Next I am prompted to insert the LinuxMCE CD in the drive again, or select the ISO on the hard drive. Ok, since the local ISO option seemed to work so well, I copied the downloaded Linuxmce-1.1-packages.ISO from my network share to my desktop. I make the selection and hit the “forward” button…. another “please wait” message box…

After about two minutes, a new screen pops up… now we’re making progress..
This next screen starts the set up for the network settings that LMCE will use. It is required that core act as a DHCP Server in order to manage media directors and devices to get all the benefits and features of the system. In this screen, I select “yes” to running it as a DHCP server and give it my internal network (first three octets – ie 192.168.1). You do not provide the last octet for this part. Press “forward”.

The next screen asks what interface you want to use (UI1, UI2 or UI3). Because of the video resolution issues I ran into, I will select UI1. This is the most “basic” of the three options. The screen also provides a Graphical Test Application to help you determine the best selection with a link button to online documentation explaining the Test. At least, I think thats the intention. When I tried the test, I saw a rotating cube covered with the LMCE logo in each side and a plain red background, but there was no documentation explaining what I should be seeing when I used the button link, just an empty page stating “Graphics Test (there is currently no text in this page)”. How unfortunate.. Hopefully, this will be available with the final non-beta release. I’ll play it safe and stick with the UI1 (for testing).

The next screen after pressing the “forward” button was a nice addition over the plutohome installer. This screen informs you that the software to play encrypted commercial DVDs is not installed and that, if it is legal in your area, the installer can fetch it and install it. If you are legally allowed to use this bit of software i your area, and you are using setting up a Hybrid Core, you would want to add this in order to play protected DVDs. For legal reasons, this is not installed by default as part of the installer package, But I like that LMCE gives you the option to install it (if its legal in your area), something PlutoHome installer does not do. …SIGH… unfortunately, it is not legal for me to install that software here so I will need to select the “No, It’s not allowed here, Don’t install it” – “forward” button

The next screen asks you how you plan to use the computer. Generally, your options are as a dedicated LMCE system, or as a primary PC. The difference is:

• A dedicated LMCE system by default starts LMCE at boot. Kubuntu can be started manually.
• A primary PC starts Kubuntu at boot. LMCE can be started manually.

For a whole home solution, it makes more sense to select the dedicated LinuxMCE option because this computer will need to be running 24/7. I selected dedicated LinuxMCE and hit the “forward” button.

The next step displays a “command/terminal” type window with the header: “Installing ubuntu Packages needed by Linux MCE”. You will see a lot of text scrolling by in the command.terminal window, and this can take some time to complete…. I think we’re almost done… and then…. So much for progress..

Because I was locked in at a resolution 640×480, the bottom half of this last installer screen window was cut off at the bottom of the monitor screen. I couldn’t see what messages or progress might be at the bottom of the window, or access any buttons that I assume had to be there, for example, maybe cancel, finish, forward.. I had no idea what the status of the installer was. I could not continue to the next step, assuming there was a next step. I thought I could maybe set the task bar to hide and be able at least see a piece of what it was hiding, but no…. again the window to set the changes for the task bar was to large for the screen and the buttons at the bottom were cur off there as well.!!! … … Talk about frustrating… So what are my options now? Kill the installer, and try to muck with the X11 config. No thanks… I’ve wasted enough time..

Back to square one… reinstall.

Round 2:

this time around, immediately after installing kubuntu, I made a backup of the original xorg.conf file before proceeding with the LMCE install. just like the first attempt, after opting to use the “proprietary” driver, my screen resolution was a mess. This time, however, I renamed the xorg.conf file to xorg.broke (just in case I needed to put it back later) and copied the original xorg.conf file back then restarted X and crossed my fingers. When my screen came back up, my resolution was back to where I wanted it.. Could this be a workaround..?

Keep Dreaming.. as soon as I got past the first step in the installer, It should have skipped the step asking what driver I wanted to use, but no!.. there it was, mocking me again and again.. If I tried to select the Open Source driver option, I had the same issues as before. I’d get a message stating that the driver was changed and the installer would exit. The problem is it never did. It was a dead end. The only way I was able to continue up to now was to chose to install the proprietary nVidia driver. The problem this time is that if I selected it, I got an error and the driver could not be installed. I’m guessing it has something to do with changing the xorg.conf files. So i did the next logical thing. I copied the xorg.conf file (remember I renamed it to xorg.broken) back to the X11 directory and restarted X figuring at the very least, I be stuck with a screen resolution of 640×480 again. This is where things went from bad to worse… now I get a black screen with a white blinking cursor in the top left corner.

Third Times A Charm

After packing up for the night and getting a fresh start the next day, I decided to give one last go around. Starting from the beginning, I set the process in motion….Again… As we know, my biggest issue has been with the screen resolution and video drivers. When I get to the screen asking about what driver I wanted to use, I did the same dance again trying to select the Open Source nv drivers…And again…I got the same result… So I have to select the proprietary nVidia driver at which point the installer reboots my computer and I am left with the (by now) familiar screen resolution of 640 x 480 which we already know is to small to complete the installation (windows get cut off). Note that before starting the install I once again created a backup of the original xorg.conf file just in case as xorg.orig. However, this time around, I tried something different. I opened a terminal sudo’ed the su and copied both the xorg.conf (LMCE version) and the xorg.orig (backup of the original version) to my desktop as xorg.lmce.txt and xorg.orig.txt files. I then opened the two txt files and copied the “Monitor” and “Screen” sections from the xorg.orig.txt and pasted them in place of the “Monitor” and “Screen” sections in the xorg.lmce.txt file. I then went back to my sudo’d terminal, and renamed the xorg.conf file to xorg.lmce.backup. Then I copied the xorg.lmce.txt file from my desktop, back to the X11 directory. I crossed my fingers and restarted X… I watched my screen go black and waited in anticipation as X restarted… tick, tock…tick,tock. Then the moment of truth (or partial truth). My desktop came back up at my preferred resolution… Whew!!! Almost home. Now to see if the settings were going pass the installer… I started the installer again and,,,and,,,and….YES!! After answering the first screen, the installer skipped the screen asking which driver I wanted to install for my video card. From here, I continued through the installer, same process starting here (but without all the issues).

The good news is that in the end I was able to complete the installation at which point the installer instructed me to reboot the computer to complete the process. Reluctantly, I rebooted and waited for the system to come back up.. And it did.. With a nice little launcher window providing options on how I wanted to start LMCE. This was another nugget that PlutoHome does not offer and I thought it was a pretty nice feature. Once LMCE starts up and finishes generating it’s screens, I begins walking you through the user, rooms, devices etc set up.. This is available only if you selected to run the core with a media director installed AKA a hybrid Core. Otherwise, to set up the system details, you would need to log into the Administration site. I personally prefer to set up the user details and rooms from the Administration site.

The next stage for me is to set up my zwave interface and include my zwave devices to be controlled from LMCE, And to set up a MD for audio streaming. I also have an FXO card to interface my PSTN line with internal VoIP phones using the built in Asterisk server.

One thing to keep in mind here is that this IS a beta release and some problems are expected. This was just my experience and others may have better results, depending on their system hardware, Karma, and the alignment of the moon. The other side of the coin is that this process was just getting the software installed… who knows what demons lie within… MMWAAAhahahahah… that may be a topic for another post.