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Batch Scripts and Sixty Four Bits of Architecture

I was recently writing a batch script to auto-install service packs onto windows, detecting the OS version was relatively simple and there’s plenty of scripts on the internets to do this; on the otherhand, detecting between 32 and 64bit architectures is much more complicated.

Microsoft has a KB artictle with batch script code to do this which is great apart from it doesn’t work under a standard user account and might not even work on an admin account (it didn’t work on my domain admin account), so if MS can’t supply code that works is there even a detection method?

Some people suggest that you should be searching for the %programfiles(x86)% variable which is only on 64bit systems, this is great apart from it didn’t work either.

I then stumbled by chance on a great solution which is to check the %PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE% variable. This worked great! I have been told that if the machine has WMI disabled then this wouldn’t work but most systems have WMI enabled.

If "%PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE%"=="AMD64" (
     echo x64
     "X:\Windows 7 x64 SP1.exe" /passive /norestart
 ) ELSE (
     echo x86
     "X:\Windows 7 x86 SP1.exe" /passive /norestart
)

That’s the code that I’m now using to detect the architecture of the systema nd install the correct SP, although it will attempt to install the 32bit Service pack onto 64Itinium machines; an extra check can be included to test for that but I’m unlikely to stumble upon an Itinium based system in my 20 PC office…

Hope this is useful to others.

Migrating MySQL to a Different System the Easy Way

Well this week I’ve replaced my personal home server and reinstalled my work’s development server; both these systems have a MySQL server running which contain databases (duh) that would be either too large to import/export or too complex to rebuild from scratch.

So I decided to find a way of copying the database files directly between systems and it’s actually dead easy and strangely not very well documented! So here’s the steps to do it fairly painlessly.

This guide assumes you have a root account and root database access.

Step 1:

Log into MySQL and lock the databases from being edited by typing the following:

FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK

Step 2:

In your favorite shell copy the databases like so:

cp -R /var/lib/mysql /mnt/mounted

Step 3:

On your new system copy the databases into the correct location:

cp -R /mnt/mounted/mysql /var/lib

Step 4:

Fix the permissions on the databases

chmod -R 700 /var/lib/mysql

chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql

Step 5:

Reboot MySQL server

service mysql restart

or

/etc/init.d/mysql restart

Step 6:

Unlock the databases by typing this into MySQL

UNLOCK TABLES;

All your databases and previous permissions should now be copied accross and working!

Linux WiFi: Deauthenticated Reason Codes

So I’ve been having a fiddle with Linux and WiFi this evening in an attempt to make a wifi bridge (Windows can do it so why can’t Linux?)…

Anyway the long and short of it is that I was getting disconnected and de-authenticated from the access point. Having a quick look at dmesg said I was disconnected for “Reason 2” and “Reason 6”; these on their own are not very helpful and so in a quest to find out what these codes meant, I found that there isn’t a list that’s published anywhere easy to find (a single forum post and in an IEEE pdf). The codes in italics are the most common.

The first few reason codes where helpful while debugging my wifi related issues.

Edit:
I’ve added a few more codes and descriptions; they conflict with a previous list from IEEE but this one is from Cisco and was discovered after an N wifi card refused to connect to an N router at N speeds.

Linux Wifi: Belkin F5D7050 Wireless G USB Adapter

I was testing my Belkin USB WiFi dongle today and Debian wouldn’t use it and I was getting errors/issues to do with a faulty firmware.

Even after following a few guides online and installing different packages etc, I still couldn’t get it to work but I finally managed using the following method:

Add Contrib & Non-Free Repo’s:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://YOUR.CHOSEN.MIRROR squeeze main non-free contrib
deb-src http://YOUR.CHOSEN.MIRROR squeeze main non-free contrib
apt-get update

Install Latest Working Firmware (and tools):

apt-get install firmware-ralink wireless-tools

– OR –
Download manually: Wireless-Tools and ralink-Firmware

dpkg -i package.deb

Plug the WiFi Dongle in and test:

ifconfig wlan0 up

iwlist scan

All your local AP’s should wizz past on screen now.

Some useful WMI Filters

WMI Filters are filters used via Group Policy Managment in Active Directory to control what GPO’s are applied to what machine. They are rather simple to understand as they are structured like SQL all you need to know is the data stored in WMI.

Here’s a couple of filters I have found useful.

Detect OS Version:

Windows 7

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.1%" AND ProductType = "1"

Widows 2008 R2

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.1%" AND ProductType = "2"

Windows Vista

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.0%" AND ProductType = "1"

Windows 2008

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "6.0%" AND ProductType = "2"

Windows XP

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "5.1%"

Windows 2003

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "5.2%"

Windows 2000

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE Version like "5.0%"

Detect Arcitecture:

Windows x64 (64bit)

SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor WHERE AddressWidth="64"

Windows x86 (32bit)

SELECT * FROM Win32_Processor WHERE AddressWidth="32"

Detect Service Pack:

Service Pack 3 or above

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE ServicePackMajorVersion>=3

Pre-Service Pack 3

SELECT * FROM Win32_OperatingSystem WHERE ServicePackMajorVersion<3

The filters can be included together to create more precise detection such as Windows XP SP2 or Windows 7 x64 SP1.

Hope these help others as much as myself.