VMWare: Unable to load the BIOS due to the VMWare Splash screen not showing

After upgrading my version of VMWare from VMWare 1.6 to VMWare 2.0, and then installing and updating the VMWare Infrastructure Client, I had a new issue; accessing the BIOS from the VMWare splash startup screen. Before the upgrade, VMWare would display the VMWare splash screen as it loaded the NVRAM (I believe), and had a section that said “Press F2 to enter setup”; it went by fast, but it was at least there. After fiddling around with VMWare for a few minutes, I found a way around this temporarily, and is actually a neat little feature. Continue reading VMWare: Unable to load the BIOS due to the VMWare Splash screen not showing

Splunk Free: .htaccess Protection using Apache

You ever hear of Splunk? Splunk enables you to search and navigate all your logs and IT data in real time; logs, configurations, messages, traps and alerts, scripts and metrics. It’s an awesome tool to make it easier to monitor and watch your log files. Unfortunately, Splunk is expensive. How expensive? Try $5000 a year, for the cheapest license. Here’s the main problem; the free version of Splunk does not come with any user authentication, not even Admin authentication. This means that anyone can access your Admin area of Splunk, and can see any log files you have and can even set up new Splunks (log file watches). Let’s fix this!

I would have thought that a standard feature of Splunk would be at least Admin user authentication, but you can only get that with the professional version of Splunk. You have 30 days of the Professional version of Splunk, and then you must purchase the license after that. So, most individuals that just want to manage their log files remotely via the web, cannot afford and should not even purchase a Professional license, so the Free version is perfect. The lack of authentication kind of makes you turn your nose to Splunk, as this posses a security issue. Note one thing, when I say authentication, I mean username and password. You literally can access all admin features, including license information, just by going to the web address (which is usually a domain name on the default port 8000, e.g. http://domain.com:8000). This is totally rediculous. We can get around this by running a proxy within Apache and secure the subdomain (http://splunk.example.com/) with a .htaccess file. Continue reading Splunk Free: .htaccess Protection using Apache

Windows Fix: “Insufficient system resources exist to complete the API”

Ugh. Another Windows error. Another Windows error that really doesn’t tell you what is really wrong; some (most) people aren’t nerds. Don’t worry, I’ve got your fix right here. This has to do with memory on your Windows XP system. Have you tried Hibernating or putting your system into standby after upgrading your RAM? If you have, keep on reading. Continue reading Windows Fix: “Insufficient system resources exist to complete the API”

Curing ‘Symbolic link not allowed’ (Apache 2.0)

Awhile back when trying to add a directory to Apache on my Ubuntu 6.06 LTS server, I ran into some issues. These issues, of course were the infamous 403 “Forbidden” error that your web barfs up when you try to access a server that is not publicly viewable, because of permission issues. I’m going to give you my scenario and explain how you can fix this issue, so that you don’t have to go through an hour of throwing your hands up in disgust. Continue reading Curing ‘Symbolic link not allowed’ (Apache 2.0)

VMWare: “Failed to create named-pipe directory” error

Have you ever received the Failed to create named-pipe directory error message via the vmware-mui error log files, and not able to access the VMWare Management Interface? If so, here’s the fix. Continue reading VMWare: “Failed to create named-pipe directory” error