LAMPdocs: Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP

Yesterday I decided to downgrade my PC to Windows XP. Though Windows 7 is already available, I don’t quite like its interface (have installed beta) and I need a stable system that suits for my needs. I’ve got a list of  “Mush have” software, that is installed on my PC after the OS is installed. I have followed the list and I was really surprised when my PC has become inaccessible on the network. More than that, I couldn’t even check my own shared files – I was told I don’t have privileges for that. All programs and all services were in order and I decided to identify “bad” software by uninstalling it one by one.

Though there is no reason for Acronis to block the network, I have become accessible only after I have de-installed Acronis True Image Home 2010. I have recently upgraded it to a newer version and really liked it on Vista. I was really surprised when I found that this nice software doesn’t let me to use my network.

I am not sure whether there is any solution for this problem yet, I have simply downgraded my True Image version to 11, but I’ve googled some advices. Hope they might help you if you face the same problems.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\LanmanServer\Parameters
4. In the right pane, double-click the IRPStackSize value.

NOTE: If the IRPStackSize value does not already exist, use the following procedure to create it:
a. In the Parameters folder of the registry, right-click the right pane.
b. Point to New, and then click DWord Value.
c. Type IRPStackSize.

IMPORTANT: Type “IRPStackSize” exactly as it is displayed because the value name is case-sensitive.
5. Change the Base to decimal.
6. In the Value Data box, type a value that is larger than the value that is listed.

If you created the IRPStackSize value using the procedure described in step 4, the default value is 15. It is recommended that you increase the value by 3. Therefore, if the previous value was 11, type 14, and then click OK.
7. Close the Registry Editor.
8. Restart the computer.
If the problem persists after you complete the preceding procedure, try to increase the value of IRPStackSize even more. The maximum value for Windows 2000 is 50 (0×32 hex).

i found a value of 25 worked for me
hope this saves somebody time

Hope that the issue will be resolved by Acronis soon

Recently I’ve purchased a netbook that should help me to become more mobile and to develop this site more quickly. It’s ASUS EEE 901, and it was chosen for good time on battery, low weight and all the communications available (including bluetooth). After several experiments, that were performed to increase free space on my C partition, I have deleted some folders that were essential for Windows, so I decided to restore Windows to its initial state.

The first thing I need to tell is that I don’t have an external DVD-ROM and I don’t plan to buy one. So there really was no place to insert DVD to. First thing I’ve tried was to create an ISO image of the DVD and burn it to my USB flash. That was done, but the disk refused to boot telling me I should have a DVD inserted. Then I have investigated the DVD and found two big gho files. Ok, the recovery CD uses Norton Ghost to restore image files.That’s nice.

Further investigation on the Recovery CD leaded to the discovery of winpe.iso file that contained GHOST32.exe. That was even better: it could be possible to restore images with it. The next thing I has to do was to create a bootable Flash drive and to run ghost32.exe.

So in order to restore the images you need to create a bootable flash disk. There is a list of methods that are available here . I think that the most simple is to search for “HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool” in Google. This is Freeware and it will allow you to create a bootable flash drive. The you need to copy image files (they are located under Recovery folder of the DVD and GHOST32.exe to the bootable flash. Then you will need to boot from this flash and to gun ghost32, then restore the images and you’re done!

Here is an alternative method of doing the same: http://wiki.eeeuser.com/windows:restorexp_from_usb. Hope this helps you to revent your Windows to its initial state.

Today I will create a less typical post that will be related to Microsoft Windows and especially to recovery console installation. On one of my PCs running Windows has appeared a message about the error in USER32.DLL file. I will post the solution here as there was a need to restore it from the original CD.

First of all we need to have an original CD with clean Windows installation. Then I have followed the information on Microsoft.com:

To install the Recovery Console, follow these steps:
Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.
Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive. In the case of ‘Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, type d:\amd64\winnt32.exe /cmdcons where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.
A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.
Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console” appears on the startup menu.

Then we’ll see the Recovery console after reboot. You’ll need to select it in order to recover any of the system files.  Then we need to persorm the following steps:

At the command prompt, type the following command:

cd %systemroot%\system32

First, rename the damaged or corrupted file so that it is not deleted when you copy the original file. To do this, type the following command:

ren USER32.DLL USER32.BAK

Next, restore the original User32.dll file from the Windows CD to your computer. To do this, type the following command:

expand [CD drive letter]:\i386\USER32.DL_ %systemroot%\system32 /Y

Note In this command, replace [CD drive letter] with the letter of your CD drive, such as D. If your computer does not recognize  %systemroot%, you’ll have to type in the full path manually (usually C:\Windows)

To exit the Recovery Console and to restart the computer, type exit at the command prompt, and then press ENTER. Your file will be restored after reboot.

The second part of article was created using the information found here. If you know any other methods that could help restoring system files in Windows, I’d suggest you to leave your comments.

I’ve been using Opera for about 5 years and I know that recent changes are not so good as they are expected. The first issue that made me to decide to try Firefox was that Opera doesn’t support any password managers (quite useful thing, I will describe mine some time later). But there are some features I really appreciate in Opera that’s why I’m using 3 browser under MS Windows.  Each of them is good in its way, but Opera has some features that are extremely important.

Today I’ve faced the problem with certificate import in Opera. If usually there were no problems during import, today I’ve got a message about an unknown error or something related to this. As there are no log files like Linux has , I’ve started to search the forums and the solution was found. I would like to share it with you.

If you need to install any certificates in Opera 9.5+, you must uninstall it and then roll back to version 9.27 (that’s the version I’ve checked). Make sure to remove everything related to Opera: check your Documents and Settings folder and remove anything related to Opera before installing version 9.27.

After you install Opera 9.27, you may import your certificates as there are no problems with the import process. Then you may wish to upgrade to the latest version and your certificates will be working as usual. I hope that guys at Opera will fix this, but if you need to fix it now, you’re welcome to do it. Old Opera version may be found on their site.