FAQ: C Compiler Cannot Create Executables

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

FAQ: A friend came to me to ask for help trying to troubleshoot a configure error that he had trying to build a package for Solaris. The error was:

configure: error: installation or configuration problem: C compiler cannot create executables.

Luckily for him, I have experienced this problem before and the solution is below..

Make sure you have the following packages installed on your system:

[1] for tools (sccs, lex, yacc, make, nm, truss, ld, as):
SUNWbtool, SUNWsprot, SUNWtoo, SUNWcpp

[2] for libraries & headers:
SUNWhea, SUNWarc, SUNWlibm, SUNWlibms
SUNWdfbh, SUNWcg6h, SUNWxwinc, SUNWolinc,
SUNWxglh, SUNWlibC, SUNWzlib, SUNWscpu

[3] for 64 bit development (in Solaris 10 these have all been merged into their non-"x" versions):
SUNWarcx, SUNWbtoox, SUNWdplx, SUNWscpux, SUNWsprox,
SUNWtoox, SUNWlmsx, SUNWlmx, SUNWlibCx, SUNWzlibx

[4] for ucb compat:
SUNWsra, SUNWsrh

To know if the package is installed, you may run this command:

root@host# pkginfo

Installing the above packages will alleviate the problem.

If you have encountered this problem before and have a different solution, pls let us know.

Read More

FAQ: Download Embedded Flash SWF Files (via Firefox)

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

FAQ: Most likely the webpages you view contain embedded flash media. And chances are you are/were fascinated with the way it was presented and you would like to keep a copy for yourself for keepsakes or offline viewing. But how do you extract and save those files?

Believe it or not, the ease in doing this task is primarily dependent on your choice of browsers. If you and I share the same taste (and chose firefox), getting this trick done is just as easy said and done.

Follow along as the simple steps will get you your flash media in a bit:

[1] Browse over to your favorite site containing the embedded media. For this example, I'm browsing over to my "hang-out" tech website tipidpc.com.

[2] Wait for the page to finish loading.. Then, on the tool bars of firefox, click Tools --> Page Info.

[3] Change over to the Media tab and from the menu select the embedded media you wish to save.

[4] Highlight the media (click on it) and click on Save As.... And save it to a directory of your bidding.

That is how simple it is to save embedded flash media or any other embedded media. And like I previously stated, your choice of browsers dictate how easy it is to download and save them.

Read More

FAQ: PERL CPAN Error "Undefined subroutine &Compress::Zlib.."

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

FAQ: While trying to build and upgrade PERL modules for a new box a friend came across this error and it completely stalled his work. In order to get to a solution, I replicated the build procedures with his help and found myself in the same predicament.

To illustrate, we were going to build perl modules. Getting into the PERL shell.

root@host# perl -MCPAN -e shell

cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.9205)
ReadLine support enabled

cpan[1]> install Bundle::CPAN
...
...

In order to cut the story short we encountered the error below:

Undefined subroutine &Compress::Zlib::gzopen called at /usr/lib/perl/5.8.8/CPAN.pm line XXXX.

About to give up hope in this automated and supposedly seamless installation, I decided to give it a manual push. Quitting the cpan shell, I changed directory to where the source files of Compress::Zlib were located.

root@host# cd /root/.cpan/build/Compress-Zlib-2.015
root@host# perl Makefile.PL -xs
Writing Makefile for Compress::Zlib
root@host# make test
PERL_DL_NONLAZY=1 /usr/bin/perl "-MExtUtils::Command::MM" "-e" "test_harness(0, 'blib/lib', 'blib/arch')" t/*.t
t/000prereq.....ok
t/01version.....ok
t/03zlib-v1.....ok
t/05examples....ok
t/06gzsetp......ok
t/08encoding....ok
t/14gzopen......ok
t/99pod.........ok
All tests successful.
Files=8, Tests=766, 3 wallclock secs ( 0.02 usr 0.21 sys + 1.76 cusr 0.67 csys = 2.66 CPU)
Result: PASS

root@host#

After seeing the result of "make test" above, I had breathed a sigh of relief -- Result: PASS. Manually kicking the installation of Compress::Zlib did solve the problem. After execution of "make install", we went back to the automated install of the Bundle::CPAN module and everything went well.

I hope the above solution works for you as well.

Read More

FAQ: ACPI Multiprocessor HAL Upgrade Script

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

It came as as surprise to me that in the past few days, I have received several mails requesting for the multiprocessor HAL upgrade script which was part of the article of the same heading. Apparently the script is no longer available for download.. and there is a growing fan base of those using the script.

Rather than replying to separate mails with the script attached, I have decided to post the code of the script here instead.

Kindly refer to below for the HAL upgrade script:

@echo off
@title "Upgrading to ACPI Multi-Processor HAL.."
cls

echo ====================================================
echo Upgrading to ACPI Multi-Processor HAL..
echo ====================================================
echo.
echo please wait..

devcon sethwid @ROOT\PCI_HAL\0000 := !E_ISA_UP !ACPIPIC_UP !ACPIAPIC_UP !ACPIAPIC_MP !MPS_UP !MPS_MP !SGI_MPS_MP !SYSPRO_MP !SGI_MPS_MP > nul
devcon sethwid @ROOT\ACPI_HAL\0000 := !E_ISA_UP !ACPIPIC_UP !ACPIAPIC_UP !ACPIAPIC_MP !MPS_UP !MPS_MP !SGI_MPS_MP !SYSPRO_MP !SGI_MPS_MP > nul
devcon sethwid @ROOT\PCI_HAL\0000 := +ACPIAPIC_MP > nul
devcon sethwid @ROOT\ACPI_HAL\0000 := +ACPIAPIC_MP > nul
devcon update %windir%\inf\hal.inf ACPIAPIC_MP > nul

echo.
echo ====================================================
echo Script Completed: press any key to reboot..
echo ====================================================

pause > nul

devcon reboot

Copy and paste the above code into your favorite text editor and save as halupgrade.cmd. Please note that lines starting in "devcon" (the five consecutive lines of code) should end in "nul".

I hope the above helps. Share with me your success story in using the script.

Read More

FAQ: Disable Port 135 (Disable DCOM)

"There’s No Such Thing As A Silly Question" -- does the cliche sound familiar? In this part of pimp-my-rig reloaded, technical questions are answered. Mail them to me and I will post the answers here. If you have a better answer, by all means share it with us.

FAQ: One of the questions thrown at me was about closing down port 135. This of course entails disabling the corresponding application using the port, which, in this case is DCOM. Thus this procedure is also for disabling DCOM.

NOTE: Remember, before making any changes backup the registry or export the branch for safekeeping. Simply merge the backup in case things don't go as smoothly.

[1] Start by launching the registry editor.

Start » Run » regedit.

[2] Navigate over to key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ OLE

At the right column, locate the value "EnableDCOM" and modify the value to "N".

[3] Navigate to this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ RPC

Right click on & Modify the value named "DCOM Protocols" Under the key "Value Data", you will see values like below (or something similar). These values keep port 135 open. Highlight everything listed and delete all existing data. Doing so gives "DCOM Protocols" blank data which will in turn close down port 135.

[4] It is now safe to disable the services related or tied to DCOM. Open Control Panel » Administrative Tools » Services. Disable the following services since DCOM has been disabled:

- COM+ Event System
- COM+ System Application
- System Event Notification

[5] Restart the computer after changes have been made. To verify, when your computer has restarted open a command terminal.

Type "netstat -an" and for certain you will no longer see port 135 -- meaning it has been closed. Hope this has helped you in finally closing down port 135, thereby eliminating a possible vulnerability.

In my experience, this has no impact on office applications or internet connectivity. If running other applications, consult with the vendor for requirements relating to port 135 (or DCOM) before closing it down.

Check with us again soon as we will outline how to close down port 137 (netbios-ns), port 138 (netbios-dgm) and port 139 (netbios-ssn).

Read More