The Magnet Blog

magnet April 20th, 2009

Hi Dear,

This document will discribe the info regarding ink level for HP-Printer  in  Ubuntu.

Please follow the following steps :-

1. Connect your HP printer to your computer using USB or Parallel cable.
2. Make sure your printer is powered ON.
3. Open the HP Device Manager by entering the following command in a console/terminal.

                                  # hp-toolbox

4.  Click your HP printer in the left panel and then click on the                      ”Supplies” tab.

5.  Here it will show information about Ink Level of your HP-Printer                cartridge.

Trouble shotting for above steps :-

While running the hp-toolbox command if you get the following error

error: PyQt not installed. GUI not available. Exiting

so just go to synaptic by running synaptic command on terminal & install the python-qt3 package.

Then run apt-get update command on terminal , then run again the hp-toolbox command. It will shurely work.

Thanking You

Systems Team

Magnet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

www.magnettechnologies.com

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magnet February 10th, 2009

Hi Magneters,

Do you know the fact that Roughly 130 billion spam emails are sent, worldwide, per day, accounting for roughly 70% of global emailing activity.

To combat this many  projects were launched of which SPAMHAUS became a famous one .  What the Spamhaus Team do is that they finds the source IP of spams ,from which SPAM has originated. Be it be a dynamic IP , or a static IP at user end  , or a servers  IP that sends or relays spam and ,adds it to the  their realtime Database of IPs who are source of spams  , known as The Spamhaus Block List (SBL) .

Most of the mail servers around the world  check   the IP details in the  mails that are coming to them from outside with this IP list from SBL to ensure that they are not receiving any spams .   Bingo here comes the problem!!!! . Due to the fact the most of us these days use dynamic IPs for connecting to internet . chances are more that this IP might have been already in any blacklist . and then what happens if you send a mail to a server that  uses the SBL list to filter spam mails , you are caught …the  server  just rejects all mails from this IP  .

Another interesting inference made was the fact that if you are using a Windows based Operating System without a Strong Anti virus and updated virus definitions you can be a source of SPAMs without even you knowing it. There are many known viruses that sends spam over an internet session  . And the dynamic IP that you use on this internet session  gets listed in SBL or other Blackisting projects lists. So the next person who will be using this IP will be the prey  .

Please check this link , this was a post made by some one in 2007

http://www.manishsingh.com/archives/2007/08/mtnl_isp_blackl.html

So guess what might be the scenario now in 2009 . I doubt the ISPS here are still unaware of this . Recently when We made a call to Tata Indicom over this issue it was shocking when they told they don’t know What a blacklist is .

THE TEMPORARY CURE

But for an immediate resolution from the server end following actions can be performed. Ask the user having  problem sending mails to provide  us for his public IP, it can be obtained from http://ipchicken.com . and add it to

1 . vi /etc/rblwhitelist

2  /etc/skipsmtpcheckhosts

This was what we used to do but  the previous week we had an issue a client was accessing mails directly from webmail . we did both these steps but the person was not able to login , instead she was getting a prompt your IP has been blacklisted . We  checked further  and found the interesting file , Thanks to Vishal Sir  for helping us at this point , We found another important file on the server

etc/spamhaus.http.whitelist

Added her IP to this list and she could immediately login . Later we made a request to SPAMHAUS Team to whitelist the IP and they whitelisted it .

While you are sending mails from outlook e.t.c the issue can be over ridden in

another manner , turn on SMTP Authentication  .

Now How Does This Helps and how done  ?

SMTP Authentication is required when sending email out via most major ISP mail servers and most corporate mail servers. It is simply a username/password system which permits authenticated e-mail senders, just like most other computer accounts require authentication.

If you do not have SMTP Authentication turned on in your email software (Outlook, Entourage, Eudora, Apple Mail, etc.) you run the risk that the mail server will not recognize that you are a legitimate customer.

If the mail server is using spam filters (such as Spamhaus’ PBL or XBL) it may refuse to take your email, because it thinks you are a stranger and your dynamic IP address is probably on Spamhaus’ PBL list of dynamic IP addresses which mail servers should not accept mail from unless the sender is authorized to use that mail server.

To fix this, you need to turn on “SMTP Authentication”, here’s how:

In Microsoft Outlook & Outlook Express:

Start Outlook 2000 or Outlook Express. From the menu, select Tools, then Accounts. Click once on the appropriate account from the Mail tab. Select Properties. From the account properties dialog box, choose the Servers tab. Put a check in the box for “My server requires authentication”. Click on the “Settings” button. In the ‘Outgoing Mail Server’ dialog box, make sure “Use same settings as my incoming mail server” is selected. Press “OK”. Back at the “Properties”, click “Apply”, then “OK”. Click “OK” to close out of all dialog boxes.

In Eudora:

Open Eudora, pull down the Tools menu and select “Options…” to display the Options window. Select the “Getting Started” category on the left-hand side. Select the “Allow authentication” check box and click “OK”.

In Apple Mail:

Open Apple Mail. Click on the “Mail” menu in the top menu bar. Click on Preferences, Click on Accounts. Click on the account that you want to modify. Click on Account Information. Click on the “Server Settings…” button. In the pulldown list next to “Authentication:”, select “Password”. Enter your user name and email password (the same ones you use to retrieve your POP or IMAP email). Click on OK. Close the Preferences window by clicking on the X in the upper left hand corner of the window.

In Agent:

Tools >> Servers and Accounts >> Outbound Email Server
Connection: TLS if available
Login Method: Username and password
Advanced Settings: Port: 587

Thanks,

Alan

Systems Team

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magnet January 17th, 2009

Problem

After allowing remote login access from gdmsetup or from System Menu –> Administration –> login window  and then logout the gdm is stopped working.
It shows “Animated  circle mouse with dark background” no login screen.
No error  in gdm log.

Solution

The problem is because of value inside the daemon section in gdm.conf-custom configuration file.
Steps to remove value from gdm configuration file.

–> Open Terminal

–> Type    vi /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom

–> The value  inside the [daemon] section is

” GtkModulesList=gail:atk-bridge:/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libkeymouselistener:/usr/lib/gtk-2.0/modules/libdwellmouselistener
AddGtkModules=true ”

–> Remove the value from [daemon] section

–> Save and Quit

–> Then  Stop and Start the gdm service.

Enjoy.

Thank You,
Nishit Shah

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magnet December 31st, 2008

Hackfest @ Magnet

Venue - Kandivali

Week - Dec: 3rd week

Time - 12 pm - 1 pm

We received Hackfest event invitation on Monday 22nd Dec 08, the event was new to most Magneteers. Nirav & Kartik initiated all preparations. Nirav and Vishal gave the background and details about the event. It was going to be an interesting event as it was not just technical crowd puller but even non technical participants were involved.

Participants were given freedom of choice in terms of the task they would take up, The best part was task could be anything that would interest you, something that was on your wishlist or something that was not part of your daily task, they could also do it in pair or individually. Everyday one could take up new task or it could be a single task for 2-3 days together as well.

What we did different this time was that we interacted with all teams & took their feedback as to what would they like to do in the Hackfest. Based on that, we created tasks for different teams & in total, we had a pool of around 200 tasks, technical & non-technical both. That’s what was liked most by people. They simply picked up tasks & used to start working.

1hour everyday, fixed time for all, everyone consciously would work on their tasks or hobbies like painting, programming, hacking, research and development and many more.

One more interesting thing was there were awards for the best work.

Those 5 days was full of fun, learning, feeling of achievement. It was indeed a heartfelt “HackFEAST”.

At the end, the feedback was that people want this hackfest to continue. Some said they wouldn’t mind participating in a 2-day hackfest as well.

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magnet December 22nd, 2008

Hello, i have come up with this little post, the thing is many a times when we would require and Hardware info of any PC in our oprganisation, like the amount of RAM, no of HDDs connected, the Processor, the motherboard, the motherboard serial no. and etc, whenever such info was required, the Hardware Guy would go to the User’s place and shut down the PC, open up the cabinet and write down all the hardware info on  a piece of paper.

This sounds foolish, when you have a linux PC why you need to do all this. Yes, But this happens in most of the organisations in mumbai who are running linux on their Desktops or Servers.

So Here’s a small post on the Tools, utilities and commands to find the Hardware info without the need to shutdown the PC and open up the cabinet.

Some info that are required by the Desktop admins or the Hardware admins to keep an inventory of the system or for any other purpose :-

The Processor model, type, its frequency, max speed, cache, etc.
RAM
HDD
Motherboard model, chipset, serial no., etc
Soundcard
NetworkCard

Tools :-

1) dmidecode - standardized description of a PC hardware including characteristics such as BIOS serial number and hardware connectors
2) hardinfo - displays information about your hardware and operating system
3) hwinfo - information about the hardware installed on a system
4) sysinfo - displays computer and system information
5) sysutils :- procinfo
6) lspci
7) lshw

Tool 1:-

dmidecode :- you can find many detailed info about the hardware.
# dmidecode -t smbios (will give you all the valid keywords to find the system information)

# dmidecode -t smbios
Invalid type keyword: smbios
Valid type keywords are:
bios
system
baseboard
chassis
processor
memory
cache
connector
slot

# dmidecode -t bios (will give the complete bios information including vendor, release date, and what all things are supported by the Bios

# dmidecode -t processor (will give the info about the CPU vendor, model, capacity, speed, voltage, clock, cache)

# dmidecode -t slot (will give the info of the no. of PCI slots)

Tool 2 :-

hardinfo :- One of the Best GUI utlities to find the complete hardware information. You get each and eery detail about your PC, your CPU, RAM, HDD, OS and others. it only lacks a little in giving the exact info about the CPU.

Tool 3 :-

hwinfo :- A small utility, but may not be that useful for any linux admin as it gives very detailed info with some hexadecial info.

# hwinfo –short

will give the hardware info in very short and linux admins may find this info of some use.

Tool 4 :-

sysinfo :- Again a small GUI utility, But you may find it very useful as it gives out lot of info about your HW that will be required to the sysadmins

It can display Linux distribution release, GNOME version, Kernel version, Gcc version, Xorg version, hostname, CPU: Vendor identification, model name, frequency, level2 cache, bogomips, model numbers, flags, Memory: Total system memory RAM, free memory, swap space total & free, cached, active, inactive memory, Storage: IDE interface, all IDE devices(disks, cd/dvd roms), SCSI devices, Hardware: motherboard, graphic card, sound card, network devices.

Thats still a lot of info for a sys admin

Tool 5 :-

procinfo - provides info that it has gathered from the /proc directory, what i found useful in it was the Bootup info, it shows the Time and Date when the system was booted, rest there were many other info such as irq, swap, user, nice.

# procinfo

Tool 6 :-

lspci - utility for displaying information about all PCI buses in the system and all devices connected to them

I found the following below commands useful.

# lspci -v

# lspci -nn

Tool 7 :-

lshw :- Another small but a very useful utility, as is found, when i ran the following command :

# lshw

It gave a lot of hardware info, i liked the below command :

# lshw -short

it showed me my motherboard model no., processor, amount of RAM and it also dispalyed that i am using 2 x 1 GB RAM’s, the no. of PCI slots, the USB ports, no. of ethernet cards and ports and its vendors, The amount of HDD and the partitions i have created.



These are some of the tools that i have found and tried, would like to hear from you guys reading this stuff, if you have found some tools, commands or utilities which helped you out.
Feel free to post comments or write to us at:

sos[AT]magnet-i[DOT]com.

Thank You
Systems Team

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