Arch Linux - Failed to start Verify integrity of password and group files

The shadow.service unit reported that it had failed and threw the following error message: “user ‘colord’: directory ‘/var/lib/colord’ does not exist”. I had no recollection of housing such a user, but by issuing the command below there was hard proof (image to the right) that colord was indeed a homeless user on my system, and her home was supposed to have been /var/lib/colord.

Categories: GNU/Linux

How to reverse a shortened URL with a single command on GNU/Linux

Remember that old saying: if you don’t know the source, don’t click it? With all these new URL shortening services, that advice seems to have been thrown out the window. As a result, evildoers are embracing the technology to disguise their malware sites behind shortened URLs. This is obviously effective as an URL like hxxps://goo.gl/3BSi65 would have a much easier time getting past your spamfilter than say something like hxxp://h4x0r.tld/inject.aspx
Categories: GNU/Linux

Slackware ARM on the Raspberry Pi 2- 38 days later

Excited by the prospect of hosting my blog on the new Raspberry Pi 2, I decided lately to wave goodbye to the local datacenter and unleash a Slackware Linux box into the wild (full story here). Everything went (mostly) without a hitch until I wanted to get back in sync with the Slackware-current tree. After applying the available updates and issuing a reboot, the system seemed operational and nothing from the logs gave any indication of imminent failure.
Categories: GNU/Linux, Slackware Linux

WordPress on Raspberry Pi 2 running Slackware ARM

Two weeks ago, I decided to move this blog from its old hosting and deploy it on a Raspberry Pi 2. The geek in me could no longer resist the urge to discover if a $35 worth computer could replace the need for commercial hosting. Besides, what a great opportunity to finally get my hands on Slackware’s official ARM port. RPi2 setup: Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Raspberry Pi 2 Micro USB Power Cable 1.
Categories: GNU/Linux, Slackware Linux

VMware Player - Taking ownership of this virtual machine failed

After Windows 8.1 had performed an unscheduled reboot, I was greeted with the following error message when trying to start up a virtual machine in VMware Player: This virtual machine appears to be in use. If this virtual machine is not in use, press the “Take Ownership” button to obtain ownership of it. Otherwise, press the “Cancel” button to avoid damaging it. VMware Player- Taking ownership failed. Trying to take ownership of the virtual machine fails with a message stating that the machine is already in use.
Categories: Microsoft, Windows

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - xlive.dll is missing from your computer

Trying to start the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men from the Steam client on a default Windows 8.1 installation will not work. Furthermore, you’ll get no error message other than the obvious lack of the gameplay. Games for Windows Live- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men running on Steam. As usual with these kinds of errors, a good starting point is to locate the actual game folder. From Steam’s Game library, right click on “Kane and Lynch: Dead Men” and select properties, then select the tab called “Local files” and finally click the button labeled “Browse local files”.
Categories: Microsoft

The OTRS Group axes the Windows installer

With the release of OTRS Help Desk 4, it seems that running OTRS on a native Windows environment for all intents and purposes is no longer viable. By killing off the Windows installer and recommending migration into the OTRS appliance, the OTRS Group seems to be subtly hinting that OTRS on Windows is dead in the water. The now unmaintaned OTRS Windows installer. Switching to the OTRS appliance might be a good solution for some Windows installations, but in my case OTRS is configured with MS Active Directory as a customer and agent backend, and we’re relaying on IIS for single sign on.
Categories: Microsoft, Windows

How to configure KMail with GPG on Slackware Linux 14.1

No additional software is required on a full Slackware 14.1 install. Slackware 14.1 ships with KDE 4.10.5. Prerequisites If you don’t already have a key pair (secret and public key), then your first order of business is to create one. The preferrable option is to use the CLI with the command: gpg --gen-key KDE provides two graphical tools for working with GPG, namely KGpg and Kleopatra. KGpg will walk you through the initial setup using an interactive wizard and subsequently create the needed key pair and config files (do not use Kleopatra for your initial setup).
Categories: GNU/Linux, Slackware Linux

Outlook.com is silently discarding email messages

A while back I did some consulting work for a small ISP who had received complaints from a few customers that believed they could not use the ISP’s SMTP server to send email to outlook.com or hotmail.com accounts. These customers claimed they never got any bounce message (Non-Delivery Report)  in return, so they firmly believed the problem resided with the ISP.

Categories: Microsoft