For E-Biz Jan 2008 CPU, refer metalink note 467742.1

Jan 2008 CPU was announced on Jan, 15, 2008.  The advisory for Jan2008 CPU is on OTN this time instead of being present in a metalink note.  People interested in applying the CPU to their Apps environment can go through metalink note 467742.1.  Apart from the DB CPU patch, only 4 E-biz patches need to be applied if you are already on Oct 2007 CPU.

Read Linux filesystems from Windows

I have a linux ext2 formatted external disk from which I wanted to transfer some files to my Windows PC. I came across Ext2 IFS for Windows on http://www.fs-driver.org/ which does this. This program is freeware. However, this program was unable to read the file system. So I googled some more and came across explore2fs. I tried the 1.07 version which is stable and voila, I could read the external disk. I exported all the files from that disk to Windows PC. The makers of explore2fs have also come out with Virtual Volumes. This is still in beta. A copy paste of the current features and future planned features of virtual volumes:

Current Features of Virtual Volumes:

• Supported by all versions of Windows (Vista is still Work In Progress)
• Read and Write LVM2 (linear stripes only)
• Read and Write EXT2/EXT3 (e2fsprogs/libext2fs)
• Read ReiserFS (rfstools)
• Read and Write Win32 filesystems (Win32 API)
• Read FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 without using Win32
• Read and Write software RAID0, RAID1 and RAID5
• Read and Write via SFTP
• Read and Write VMWare disks
• VFS allows mounting on subdirectories
• VFS abstraction allows multiple filesystems to be supported
• VFS abstraction allows network filesystems like ftp, http and scp to be supported
• Command line interface
• Drag & Drop GUI
• Auto detect available filesystems for GUI quickstart

Planned Features of Virtual Volumes:

• More filesystems (HFS, ISO9660, NTFS, ...)
• More file based filesystems (.zip, .tgz etc)
• Accessable in native namespace to give filesystem drivers access to LVM2 and RAID
• NT Kernel driver to enable IFS to read LVM2
• Apache module to make Virtual Volumes available via WEB-DAV. This will allow Windows to assign a drive letter to Virtual Volumes.

XP setup hangs on Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration screen

A few months back I had installed Fedora 7 on a laptop to see if everything I do on Windows can be done on Fedora too. I have not figured out a way to make Nortel VPN work on Fedora yet. Open Office is good but not 100% compatible. So I decided to remove Fedora and install Windows XP on this laptop. Strangely the setup did not proceed beyond the message "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration" screen. I googled for this and found this link. It suggested that if we remove the existing partitions on the disk, the XP setup would proceed smoothly. I had assumed that XP setup would recognize the Linux partition and I could remove it during the installation. But XP setup failed to do so. The link had suggested booting through a linux CD to remove the partitions, but I decided to do it through good old DOS. So off I searched for a DOS bootable CD image which I found here. I burnt the CD and booted the laptop through the CD. I removed the existing partitions through FDISK command. Windows XP setup continued without issues when I tried to install it after removing the partitions.

Unreleased ATG RUP7 patch number is 6241631

Patch number for unreleased ATG_PF.H RUP7 is 6241631. This is revealed in metalink note 434613.1. RUP7 will have fixes for some bugs identified post RUP5 whose fixes did not make it to RUP6 and post RUP6 bugs. Some of these bugs are mentioned in metalink note 459353.1

Please insert a disk into drive

Currently, I am on vacation, that's why the blog is not being updated regularly. When I tried to use a CD-ROM in my laptop, it gave the message:

Please insert a disk into drive E

I thought it was strange because the drive was working fine back home. I used some rectified spirit to clean up the lens, as I thought it may be due to dust on the lens. However the drive refused to read the disc. Googling, I found that some people had received this error on desktops when the wire connections of the CD-ROM drive were loose. So I ejected my CD/DVD drive from the laptop and inserted it again. Voila, now the CD-ROM disc I was trying to use worked.

A very simple solution to a problem which may have led to purchase of a new CD/DVD drive.