UPX recursive compress/uncompress batch

compress

for /r %%e in (*.exe,*.dll,*.sys,*.com,*.so,*.irc,*.pyd) do "PATH_TO_UPX" "%%e" --best --brute --compress-icons=0 --nrv2e --crp-ms=999999

uncompress
for /r %%e in (*.exe,*.dll,*.sys,*.com,*.so,*.irc,*.pyd) do "PATH_TO_UPX" "%%e" -d

SoftRAID for Windows XP and Ubuntu (10.04)

In order to use a RAID (0,1) array to install both Windows XP and Ubuntu, a SoftRAID must be used.

First step
Size the hard drive to have the same number of visible sector, using hdparm.
This can be accomplish from a linux host (I use System Rescue CD for this kind of activities).

Es.
hdparm -N /dev/sda
output: visible sectors / total sectors

hdparm -N /dev/sdb
output: visible sectors / total sectors

Then set the size of the biggest to the minimum size between the 2 using the command:

hdparm -NpMINIMUM /dev/sdX

For example:
hdparm -N /dev/sda
output: 488397168/488397168

hdparm -N /dev/sdb
output: 625140335/625142448

hdparm -Np488397168 /dev/sdb

Then reboot!!!

Second step
Partition the array to prepare the space for the operating systems.
For this I use GParted in System Rescue CD, but I noticed that the array may not have been detected automatically, so I start GParted from the command line, passing as argument the array device

Es.
gparted /dev/md0


Third step
Install Windows

Fourth step
Install Ubuntu. You may need to modfy the kernel parameter passed in at boot to disable HPA. Otherwise it will result in a RAID not recognized and you will have to power off the PC in order to recover it.
In Ubuntu 10.04 I have added the parameter libata.ignore_hpa=0 to the APPEND section of PXELinux for the installer.

Convert from QEMU raw and VirtualBox VDI (...and viceversa)

From RAW to VDI:
qemu-img convert qemu.img qemu.bin
VBoxManage convertdd qemu.bin qemu.vdi
VBoxManage modifyvdi qemu.vdi compact

From VDI to RAW:
VBoxManage clonehd "qemu.vdi" "qemu.img" --format RAW

Manage MERCURIAL from command line

hg clone URL .
hg add *
#hg add hidden directoy & files
hg commit -m "First Commit" -u USERNAME
hg push

Password has to be inserted manually

In case proxy settings must be configured, edit mercurial.ini in section [http_proxy]
host=PROXY_URL:PROXY_PORT
user=PROXY_USERNAME
passwd=PROXY_PASSWORD

Manage SVN from command line

svn checkout URL . --username USERNAME
svn add *
svn commit -m "First Commit" --username USERNAME --password PASSWORD

In case proxy settings must be configured, edit in
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\.subversion\servers
or
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Subversion\servers

in section [global], the properties
http-proxy-host= PROXY_URL
http-proxy-port= PROXY_PORT
http-proxy-username= PROXY_USERNAME
http-proxy-password= PROXY_PASSWORD

or try to add the same properties in the registry with:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Tigris.org\Subversion\Servers\global]
"http-proxy-host"="PROXY_URL"
"http-proxy-port"="PROXY_PORT"
"http-proxy-username"="PROXY_USERNAME"
"http-proxy-password"="PROXY_PASSWORD"
"http-proxy-timeout"="0"

Compress / Decompress initrd files (CPIO)

To uncompress and

gunzip <>

and then to recompress I'd use:

find . | cpio -o -H newc | gzip -9 > newinitrd.gz

VirtualBox Port Forwarding

This is how to create a port forwarding between an host system and a guest system.
This is ideal in order to have a SSH tunnel to the guest machine, in order to tunnel vnc etc...

In this example, the host OS is windows....

cd %VIRTUAL_BOX_INSTALL_DIR%
VBoxManage.exe setextradata "%VM_NAME%" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/HostPort" 2222
VBoxManage.exe setextradata "%VM_NAME%" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/GuestPort" 22
VBoxManage.exe setextradata "%VM_NAME%" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/ssh/Protocol" TCP

Command Line Tricks for CDRecord

Some commands to use with CDRecord.
At the beginnig these commands where supposed to create a mixed cd (audio + video).
Currently, I do not remember if they works....

#Blank CD
cdrecord -dev=0,0,0 -blank=fast

#Burn Audio Tracks
cdrecord -multi -dao -dev=0,0,0 -audio track01.wav track02.wav .... trackNN.wav -pad

#The output of this command (XXX) will be used in the next command, should be two numbers with ','
cdrecord -msinfo -dev=0,0,0

#-l allows to have 31 character filename
mkisofs -J -C XXX -o isofilename -V volumeid -l

#Burn to CD
cdrecord -data isofilename -dev=0,0,0

Copying LInux MBR to boot from WIndows BootLoader

To save the current Linux MBR type
dd if=/dev/hdaX of=/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

where hdaX is the device in which you installed the MBR and /bootsect.lnx is the file in which you whant to dump it.

Then, to use it from Windows Boot Manager, edit c:\boot.ini adding
c:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"

Batch Scan and Crop using Irfanview

Windows Batch Script.
Given a folder it will acquire the image with the scanner and crop it in four different parts

@echo off
rem irfanview folder
set ir_view_path=C:\Programmi\IrfanView
rem filename to modify
set filename=%1%
rem irfanview program file
set ir_view=%ir_view_path%\i_view32.exe
rem half of the width
set width=850
rem half of the height
set height=1170
cd %filename%
"%ir_view%" /scanhidden /convert=image.jpg
"%ir_view%" image.jpg /crop=(0,0,%width%,%height%) /convert=1.jpg
"%ir_view%" image.jpg /crop=(%width%,0,%width%,%height%) /convert=2.jpg
"%ir_view%" image.jpg /crop=(0,%height%,%width%,%height%) /convert=3.jpg
"%ir_view%" image.jpg /crop=(%width%,%height%,%width%,%height%) /convert=4.jpg

Windows Backup made easy with SystemRescueCD

Quick solution to add an 'open source' automatic recovery option from the windows boot manager.
Steps:

1- Download SystemRescueCD iso from http://www.sysresccd.org/Download
2 - Extract sysrcd.dat, rescuecd, initram.igz and place them on C:
3 - Download Grub4Dos from https://gna.org/projects/grub4dos/ (tested with version grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-08-27.zip) extract the file grldr to C:\
4 - Modify C:\boot.ini adding in the section [operating systems] the statement:

C:\grldr="SystemRescueCd"

5 - Add the following file to C:\

#======================menu.lst=======================
default 2
timeout 30

# This is a sample menu.lst file for SystemRescueCd
title    Create Backup
root     (hd0,0)
kernel   /rescuecd ar_nowait autoruns=0 setkmap=it docache
initrd   /initram.igz

# This is a sample menu.lst file for SystemRescueCd
title    Restore Backup
root     (hd0,0)
kernel   /rescuecd ar_nowait autoruns=1 setkmap=it docache
initrd   /initram.igz

# This is a sample menu.lst file for SystemRescueCd
title    SystemRescueCd from the NTFS disk
root     (hd0,0)
kernel   /rescuecd ar_disable setkmap=it docache
initrd   /initram.igz
#================================================

#===========================autorun0=============
#!/bin/sh
#Create Backup Script
ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows
partimage --compress=2 --overwrite --nodesc --batch save /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows/win_backup.bz2
umount /mnt/windows
reboot
#================================================

#===========================autorun1=============
#!/bin/sh
#Restore Backup Script
ntfs-3g /dev/sda2 /mnt/windows
partimage --batch restore /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows/win_backup.bz2
umount /mnt/windows
reboot
#================================================

6 - Resize you C partition and create another one which will contain the backup.

Automatic login in Windows XP

Taken from:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231

Quick command:

Start->Execute-> control userpasswords2

Compress / Decompress initrd files

To Decompress:

zcat initrd.gz > initrd
mount -t ext2 -o loop,rw initrd /tmp/

After the modification of the folder structure, to compress again:
gzip -c initrd > initrd.gz

Hex Edit using VI

Here are some few commands to edit an hexadecimal file using vi:

vi file.hex
#now editing in vi
[esc] :%!xxd
#now editing file.hex in hex
#find some innocuous string or rcsid
#change the values on the hex side
[esc] :%!xxd -r
[esc] :wq!
#Now have a look on the file just created
hexdump file.hex