Posts

Ubuntu 22.04

Veeam warning: “Unable to initialize indexing: mlocate was not found” on Ubuntu Server 22.04

After playing with Veeam 11 for a bit, I decided to get my Linux Docker physical host on the backup schedule. The hardware is getting older (Some would call it vintage or just plain ancient as it’s a 2nd gen i7, but it gets the job done) and it won’t last forever. The onboarding of this physical machine was deceptively simple. A few mouse-clicks here, an IP address there and some SSH credentials. This was just too easy, so I decided to manually run the job and keep an eye on it. I didn’t have to wait long.
After a few minutes, the job completed already. With a warning. I knew it had been too good to be true.

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Vintage Hardware

Windows 98 issues on a Dell Latitude D600

Windows 98 Setup Freezes when “Setting up programs on the Start Menu”

When installing Windows 98 SE on a Dell Latitude D600, the installation freezes at the point after it finishes “Setting up programs on the Start menu” but before it installs Help. Rebooting the laptop does not help. It does a Scandisk, continues to setup, again wants the TimeZone settings, Control Panel and freezes again after finishing Setting up programs on the Start menu. The mouse cursor moves, but there’s no hard drive or CD-Rom activity at all.

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Malware

Emotet malware botnet is back

The Emotet malware botnet is back and running one again almost ten months after an international law enforcement operation took its command-and-control servers earlier this year in January.

  • Once described as the “world’s most dangerous malware,” Emotet worked by sending massive waves of email spam to users all over the world in order to infect them with its malware strain.
  • Once infected these systems would allow the Emotet gang to download and install additional payloads4.
  • On Monday (15.11.2021), several researchers spotted indicators that Emotet has returned.

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Browsers

Chrome can now hide the padlock

As of the latest beta today it seems that Google Chrome has the option to no longer display the padlock that shows if a website is is actually SSL encrypted. Even though I like the little indicator, with everything going on, less is more, so less clutter is better in my opinion.

Here is how to hide indicator in the latest beta:

  1. Type “chrome://flags” in the address bar and press the enter key
  2. Search for “security indicators”
  3. Where the “Omnibox Updated connection security indicators” flag is displayed, click the pulldown menu that displays “Default” and select “Enabled”
  4. Restart the browser

Chrome will now notify you when a site is insecure.

Abandonware

LeMenu 3.1 (1988) – Installation on Dosbox

As the name suggests, LeMenu is a menu making package that includes a directory manager. Menus and sub-menus can be created, you can run Batch-files from the menu directly as if these were normal programs and even a basic activity log is kept. The menu itself supports up to 4 different levels and can hold 26 items each, an item for each letter of the alphabet, which gives the possibility of setting up more menu items than the largest collection of software running within Dosbox that I’ve ever seen.

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Hyper-V

Windows NT4 / 2000 Server and Workstation on a 2019 Hyper-V Cluster

Sometimes it’s necessary to install an old Operating System, but you really cannot (or don’t want to) get the old hardware out, even if it would still work.
I was in such a position that I had to install Windows 2000 Server. After locating the installation media, I decided it was a good idea to get it running on the 2019 Hyper-V cluster. This actually can be done, but there are a few hoops to jump through.

Update: This was written with Windows 2000 Adv. Server in mind, but I’ve since discovered the same procedure works for Windows NT4 with SP6a slipstreamed.

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Dosbox

Windows ME on Dosbox ECE, even on Raspberry Pi4b

If you search the web you’ll find a lot statements that the installation of Windows Millennium or Windows ME on Dosbox is just not possible, that it will not work, that it will not even complete setup, no matter what.
I wouldn’t be writing this if I hadn’t found differently. Nowadays it is indeed possible to run Windows ME on Dosbox and, even though it’s not supported, it is fairly stable. At least more stable than I expected and a lot more stable than Windows 98SE on the same environment.

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Synology NAS

Synology Drive App for Windows 10 does not connect

When trying to connect, the app displays a message:

Connection fail. Check your network settings and try again.

The solution to this is that next to port 5000 and 5001, the port 6690 also has to be opened to the Synology NAS. If this port is not opened, the Windows app will fail.

The Android and iOS apps will work with just port 5000 (or 5001 if SSL is selected and the certificate is valid).

Hyper-V

Force Remove Host from SCVMM 2016/2019 & Hyper-V Console

To remove from SCVMM:

Open PowerShell with administrative credentials:

PS C:\> $Credential = Get-Credential
PS C:\> $VMHost = Get-SCVMHost -ComputerName “<Hostname of Server here>”
PS C:\> Remove-SCVMHost -VMHost $VMHost -Credential $Credential

The Get-Credential cmd-let will open a prompt in which you have to supply credentials with the rights to remove the host. In the second line you specify the server. This doesn’t have to be the FQDN, the Netbios name will do.
The last line actually removes the server. This may take a few minutes, depending if the server responds or not. If the server does not respond, PowerShell waits for a time-out.

To remove from a Hyper-V console:

Open PowerShell with administrative credentials:

PS C:\> Get-VM
PS C:\> Remove-VM -name [“VM Name Here”] -force

Use this to remove VMs that are in the state of SavedCritical. The “Get-VM” command will show a list of VMs registered on this Hyper-V server. The Saved-Critical VMs will list there too. Make sure the -force is added or it won’t do the trick. If your machine name has spaces, use the quotes (without the square brackets of course].

This was tested on Server 2016 and Server 2019. It’s also expected to work on later server releases.