How to reset mac osx password without the installer disk

Good Morning all this is my first post of the new year and im on a quest for knowledge i have a thirst for hunger so be on the look out for more blogging from me well lets get to the matter at hand and good friend of mine needed to recover his admin password for his macbook so i decided to write This quick tutorial on how to reset your Mac OS X password without having to use an installer disc. This procedure works on leopard and snow leopard im not sure about the other releases but give it a try and see what happens. let get to it using the following steps:

1. Power on or restart your Mac.

2. At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.

3.This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete before going to the next step.

4. Type mount -uw / and press Enter.

5. Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and press Enter.

6. Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.

7. Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.


8. Type reboot and press Enter.

last day of 2010

Well its the last day of 2010 and i'm just reflecting on life i am thankful for getting to live to see another day and a another year come to a close. So many projects coming up in 2011 i cannot wait im so excited. spending more time with unix/linux learning some new stuff and really perfecting my craft. i'm even thinking about getting into some cisco as well. well really thats all i have to say right now. im off to get some wine for the new year.

Solaris still rocks

I'm going to be truthful i was kinda worried about the future of Solaris when Oracle bought the company. now after reading through the results of the fiscal year 2011. Think that solaris still has a fighting chance. I love it IBM and HP can kick rocks lol :). After reading the following url:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/17/oracle_q2_f2011_numbers/

Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) today announced both fiscal 2011 Q2 GAAP and non-GAAP total revenues were up 47% to $8.6 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues were up 21% to $2.0 billion. GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 12% to $3.6 billion, while non-GAAP software license updates and product support revenues were up 12% to $3.7 billion. Both GAAP and non-GAAP hardware systems products revenues were $1.1 billion. GAAP operating income was up 27% to $2.8 billion, and GAAP operating margin was 32%. Non- GAAP operating income was up 33% to $3.8 billion, and non-GAAP operating margin was 44%. GAAP net income was up 28% to $1.9 billion, while non-GAAP net income was up 34% to $2.6 billion. GAAP earnings per share were $0.37, up 27% compared to last year while non-GAAP earnings per share were up 33% to $0.51. GAAP operating cash flow on a trailing twelve-month basis was $9.1 billion.

How to Fix No hostname when using DHCP in Solaris

Good Morning all, sorry for the late blog you guys just been busy with life and other projects but since things are slowing down for me i just want to write a quick tutorial on how to make sure that your solaris box uses the hostname that you pick when running solaris as a dhcp client.

#######################
#Disclaimer #
#######################

This configuration was what i used to make dhcp client hostname work for me im not saying that this will definitly work for you b/c i dont know you setup so use this tutorial at your own risk :)


Ok with that out of the way lets begin.


If you are using DHCP to receive IP Address for your Sun Solaris system, you may end up with no hostname assigned to the system. This can be confirmed when there is no hostname at the prompt or if the output for the command “hostname” is as follows:

# hostname
unknown

or the /etc/hosts file has an entry as follows:

# cat /etc/hosts
#
# Internet host table
#
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.3 unknown # Added by DHCP


This happens when the DHCP server doesn’t provide a hostname for your server. Most of the DHCP Servers or routers acting as a DHCP Server doesn’t provide a hostname and Solaris DHCP agent relies on the DHCP server for its hostname.To fix this problem, edit the dhcpagent config and set it not to request a Hostname from the DHCP server and then add a hostname to the /etc/hosts & /etc/nodename file.



Edit DHCPAGENT config

[For Solaris 10, this is not required as setting the hostname in /etc/nodename overrides the hostname provided by the DHCP Server. Move onto the next step]

Edit the dhcpagent config file /etc/default/dhcpagent with your favorite editor

# vi /etc/default/dhcpagent

and look for

PARAM_REQUEST_LIST=1,3,6,12,15,28,43

and remove the Parameter “12″ from the above to look as follows:

PARAM_REQUEST_LIST=1,3,6,15,28,43

and save the file.

Now, add the hostname to the /etc/nodename & /etc/hosts as follows

# vi /etc/nodename

and add the hostname you want it to have (solarisserver for me)

# cat /etc/nodename
solarisserver

and edit the /etc/hosts file

# vi /etc/hosts

and add the line similar to the following

192.168.0.3 solarisserver loghost

Now,reboot the server and you should be all fine with hostname set for the system.

# init 6

Configuring Openvpn on Openbsd4.8

I'm in the process of setting up my virtual test network starting with my openbsd firewall running openvpn. This is a quick tutorial on how to setup and configure openvpn on openbsd 4.8 (or any other version of openbsd). Im not going to get into the details of how to install and configure openbsd. The openbsd crew has great documentation on how to install and configure the OS at http://openbsd.org/. Ok now that is out of the way lets get started on installing and configuring openvpn shall we.

############
#Disclaimer
############

This tutorial is the way that i got openvpn to work on openbsd i am not saying that this method will definitly work for you so keep that in mind when going through this tutorial.

First lets install openvpn from the ports tree in openbsd which is pretty simple by doing the following:

1. cd /usr/ports/net/openvpn

2. make && make install

3. cd /usr/local/share/examples/openvpn/easy-rsa/1.0

(Don’t bother with the 2.0 directory, I spent a good 3days hacking around with the scripts and config files there only to find they just don’t work. A big thank you goes to BasketCase on #openvpn of Freenode for pointing in the right direction at this point.

4. vi vars and set the last 6 exports to your liking

KEY_SIZE
KEY_COUNTRY
KEY_PROVINCE
KEY_CITY
KEY_ORG
KEY_EMAIL

The default KEY_SIZE is okay, but if you’re paranoid you can set it to 2048.

5. source the vars file

. ./vars

6. ./clean-all

7. Build Certificate Authority cert if your self-signing (aka not using Thawte, VeriSign etc.)

./build-ca

8. Build your Diffie/Hellman PEM file

./build-dh

9. Build your Server key. Pay attention here, this is your server/endpoint key pair.

./build-key-server

10. mkdir -p /etc/openvpn/private

11. cd /etc/openvpn/private

12. cp /usr/local/share/examples/openvpn/easy-rsa/1.0/keys/* .

13. mv *.crt ../

14. openvpn –genkey –secret ta.key

15. cd ../ && chmod -R 700 *

16. cp /usr/local/share/examples/openvpn/sample-config-files/server.conf .

17. vi server.conf to your liking.

change dev tun to dev tun0

provide explicit paths for ca, cert, key and dh

change server to an approprate subnet and mask for your vpn clients

Enable tls-auth

uncomment user and group. Dropping privileges should be done without a second thought.

18. Test it all out.

openvpn –config server.conf


19. Add the following to /etc/rc.local

if [ -x /usr/local/sbin/openvpn ]; then

echo -n ‘ openvpn ‘

/usr/local/sbin/openvpn –config /etc/openvpn/server.conf > /dev/null 2>&1

fi

That gets the server up and running.


I hope you find this tutorial helpful. and if you run into trouble after reading this guide remember google first :)

Oracle cashes in with 1.3 billion

I Thought that this would be something of interest for all oracle lovers out there :). SAP AG must pay $1.3 billion to rival Oracle Corp. for copyright infringement, a federal jury ruled Tuesday, following a high-profile court battle between the business-software makers. All i can say is Merry Xmas early for Oracle :) Larry is smiling from ear to ear hell i would be too with all that money.

Red Hat Exam Changes

Earlier this month Red Hat released RHEL6. This release has a significant number of changes, updates, and fixes. The scalability for RHEL6, particularly in the data center, has been improved as well. One thing however that many people were not aware was coming is a complete change to the Red Hat certifications.

First up the RHCT has been immediately retired :(. It has been replaced with a new certification called the Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA). For those that already hold an RHCT certification will receive this new one in its place. Red Hat claims that being certified with a title of "System Admin" vs "Technician" makes a large difference when searching for a job (as well as peoples egos). While this may be true, the new exam also includes a completely revamped set of requirements. Also as a complete surprise the RHCSA is now a pre-req to anyone going for the more advanced RHCE exam (you can take the RHCE without an RHCSA, but you won't receive the actual certificate until you have your RHCSA). The cost for this new exam is $400. You can find the new exam objectives here:

https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhcsa/objectives/

Second, the RHCE exam has changed as well. While a great deal of material stayed the same (I'd say about 60%) for the RHCE, the services that you are required to know also became more detailed in the amount of topics you need to know. Due to this exam now having a pre-req the cost for the RHCE has dropped to $400 (down from $800), making it easier to obtain each exam for the price of $800. The downfall here is that you are required to know more for each exam. You can find the new exam objectives here:

https://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/objectives/

For anyone that already has version 5 of either Red Hat exam already schedule I would recommend checking with your testing provider as there are conflicting reports of which version of the exam you will actually be allowed to sit for. According to Red Hat's website about 90% of testing centers will no longer allow you to book the old exam. While I welcome a revamp to the Red Hat certification program I think there could have been a warning to those in the process of studying. You can't change an entire program over night and expect that everyone will be alright with it, not to mention that the new exams are harder and cover more material. I think that the biggest downfall here is that there is currently no books or study material on the market for these new exams and while Red Hat has also re-done all of their training courses they are each about $3000 (there are three training courses covering all the material from RCHSA to RHCE for a total of about $6000). It is still too early to tell what kind of impact these exam changes will have, but I can tell that changing the exams and certification process without warning has left a bad taste in many peoples mouth.

New Pricing for RedHat 6

Well i know it has been a while since ive last been on here and posted anything. just been working on real life right now. :) how every ive stumbled across the new pricing for red hat 6 which i think is still in its beta stages right now im not sure. but however the pricing for red hat 6 will be as follows:

* Number of pairs of sockets
* Support level - Standard or Premium
* Number of virtual guests - 1, 4 or unlimited

Two procs premium subscription with unlimited guests costs you $3.249. Four socket premium/unlimited guests costs you $6498. I didn't found a price for a one-socket system, so it looks like you have to purchase support in chunks of two. BTW: As expected and announced by RHEL there is no Itanium support.

Just for the protocol: 2 sockets premium Solaris support on third party hardware costs you $2000, 4 sockets premium Solaris will cut $4000 from your budget. For Oracle hardware it's even cheaper, as you have the 8% net system price rule. And those both kinds of licenses are always "unlimited guests" and the ones on Sun ... errr, sorry ...Oracle Hardware even includes Oracle Linux and Oracle VM.

All pricing information get be found at the following url https://www.redhat.com/apps/store/server/

Upgrading to python 2.7 on Snowleopard

Well im finally back after a string a events going on in my life. This is a quick tutorial on how to upgrade python on OS X 10 in this case snow leopard but will work with other versions of OS X 10 so enough talking lets get to it.


Step1. Install the version of python that you are going to use for example im going to be using python 2.7 so i did the following:

sudo port install python27


Step2. Once your version of python is installed its not to point to that version by doing the following steps:

1. cd /usr/bin
2. sudo rm python
3. sudo ln -s /opt/local/bin/python2.7 python
4. python -V (Tells you the version of python you are using which in this case im using python 2.7 )


Step3. Enjoy your new version of python :) happy hacking :D

Nic Card Bonding in Opensuse

This is a quick tutorial on how to do nic card bonding in opensuse linux
using the following commands.


Step 1. cd /etc/sysconfig/network

Step 2. make sure you remove the IPADDR line from ifcfg-eth1 ifcfg-eth0 etc etc ...

Step 3. touch ifcfg-bond0

Step 4. vi ifcfg-bond0

Step 5. enter the following information:
BONDING_MASTER=yes
BONDING_SLAVE_1='eth0'
BONDING_SLAVE_2='eth1'

IPADDR=192.168.44.1/24
STARTMODE=onboot
BOOTPROTO=static

Configuring raid from the command line in Centos

Well just coming back from a wonderful vacation and now im back in thinking mode. I'm a junkie when it comes to the command line in unix/linux so today im going to configure software raid on centos using the mdadm command. Now this is just a short tutorial on how to do that if you need any more information just do a man mdadm :). Here are the following steps that i took to setup software raid in centos linux:

Step 1. Check for all the hd drives on your box, using the following command dmesg | grep -i ^scsi (In this case its scsi since i love scsi)


dmesg | grep -i ^scsi
SCSI subsystem initialized
scsi0 : ioc0: LSI53C1030 B0, FwRev=01032920h, Ports=1, MaxQ=128, IRQ=67
SCSI device sda: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sda: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdb: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdb: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdc: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdc: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdd: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)
SCSI device sdd: 167772160 512-byte hdwr sectors (85899 MB)


Step 2. Setup the raid using the following command: mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level 1 --raid-devices 2 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc

Step 3. Check the status of the raid sync with cat /proc/mdstat and you should see the following output: cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sdc[1] sdb[0]
83886016 blocks [2/2] [UU]
[===============>.....] resync = 75.4% (63301376/83886016) finish=1.7min speed=200001K/sec

keep checking this file until resync is at 100%.


Well This is all for now like i said earlier if you need more information do a man mdadm and you will find out all you need to know.