scp -P 22 -r /home/username/local-directory ip-or-hostname-of-remote-server:/home/username/remote-directory.

scp = Secure Copy.

-r = Tecursive (copy the contents of the directory and the contents of any directories inside that directory).

-P = (specifying the port number).

22 = The port number SSH is running on, on the remote server. (That’s right, some of us who are little security conscious, don’t leave SSH running on port 22).

/home/username/local-directory = The local directory on the ’source’ server, containing the files you want to copy to the remote servers

/home/username/remote-directory = The directory on the ‘destination’ server, where you want to copy the files to.

ip-or-hostname-of-remote-server = The example says it all. Replace this section with the remote IP Address or Hostname of the destination server.

Easy enough? If not, or you would like further examples or assistance, please feel free to ask you questions in the comments.

• IRCBot (ircbot)
• ngIRCd (ngircd)
• Services for IRC (ircservces)
• Shoutcast (sc_serv)
• StreamTranscoder (transcoderv3)
• Openfire

Initially, I searched and searched the internet and found all sorts of solutions dating back to the 1990’s all the way through to 2010. I even managed to cobble something together, but it was pretty terrible and failed sometimes (more often than not actually).

Some readers may have noticed that one of my examples above, already contains an almost perfectly good solution!

Services for IRC (developed primarily by Andrew Church), contains an additional script (once compiled and installed) under the file name of ircservces-chk (located here: /usr/local/sbin/ircservices-chk on most linux distributions). The contents of this file looks like this:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to check whether IRC Services is running, and restart it if not.
# Usage: ircservices-chk [-q] [ircservices-options]
# -q: don't write any output
# ircservices-options: options to pass to ircservices executable
# If you change PIDFile in ircservices.conf, also change PIDFILE below.
#
# IRC Services is copyright (c) 1996-2009 Andrew Church.
# E-mail:
# Parts written by Andrew Kempe and others.
# This program is free but copyrighted software; see the file GPL.txt for
# details.

PIDFILE=ircservices.pid

if [ "X$1" = "X-q" ] ; then
exec 1>/dev/null
exec 2>/dev/null
shift
fi

ok=
if [ -f "/usr/local/lib/ircservices/$PIDFILE" ] ; then
pid=`cat "/usr/local/lib/ircservices/$PIDFILE"`
if echo "0$pid" | grep -q '[^0-9]' ; then
rm -f "/usr/local/lib/ircservices/$PIDFILE"
elif kill -0 $pid ; then
ok=1
fi
fi

if [ ! "$ok" ] ; then
"/usr/local/sbin/ircservices" "$@"
fi

This script is almost perfect for my use (it does an exactly perfect job for ircservices), but not quite. This script uses the process id (PID) of ircservices to check if it is running or not. That’s ok, but not all programs output their current process ID to a file based location on the system or in any way that’s useful to the end user. I added a line to the beginning of the script, using the pgrep command to output the PID of my selected process to a file.

pgrep process-name > /home/username/a-directory-of-your-choosing/a-file-name-of-your-choosing.pid


Obviously you would replace process-name with the name of the process you want to monitor and username with your actual username.

You can use the command ps aux to list all the processes currently running on your system and locate the process you want to monitor.

The ‘.pid’ file extension isn’t really necessary, however it might be handy for identifying what the file is, should you come across it later on down the track. Here’s my example for checking that ircbot is running:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to check whether IRC Services is running, and restart it if not.
# Usage: ircservices-chk [-q] [ircservices-options]
# -q: don't write any output
# ircservices-options: options to pass to ircservices executable
# If you change PIDFile in ircservices.conf, also change PIDFILE below.
#
# IRC Services is copyright (c) 1996-2009 Andrew Church.
# E-mail:
# Parts written by Andrew Kempe and others.
# This program is free but copyrighted software; see the file GPL.txt for
# details.
pgrep ircbot > /home/username/ircbot/ircbot.pid
PIDFILE=ircbot.pid

if [ "X$1" = "X-q" ] ; then
exec 1>/dev/null
exec 2>/dev/null
shift
fi

ok=
if [ -f "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE" ] ; then
pid=`cat "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE"`
if echo "0$pid" | grep -q '[^0-9]' ; then
rm -f "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE"
elif kill -0 $pid ; then
ok=1
fi
fi

if [ ! "$ok" ] ; then

"/home/username/ircbot/ircbot" "$@"
fi


Here’s my final version.

#!/bin/sh
#
# Script to check whether a process is running, and restart it if not.
# Usage: running [-q]
# -q: don't write any output
# Props to Andrew Church (http://www.ircservices.za.net) for creating
# the original script ircservices-chk of which this script you are using
# now is a slight modification by Quin Rose of Mokona Modoki
# http://www.mokonamodoki.com/

pgrep ircbot > /home/username/ircbot/ircbot.pid

PIDFILE=ircbot.pid

if [ "X$1" = "X-q" ] ; then
exec 1>/dev/null
exec 2>/dev/null
shift
fi

ok=
if [ -f "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE" ] ; then
pid=`cat "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE"`
if echo "0$pid" | grep -q '[^0-9]' ; then
rm -f "/home/username/ircbot/$PIDFILE"
elif kill -0 $pid ; then
ok=1
fi
fi

if [ ! "$ok" ] ; then
"/home/username/ircbot/ircbot" "$@"
fi

To use this script, just copy and past the code above into your favourite editor and be sure to save the script, and make it executable with:  chmod +x filename

Last but not least, you don’t want to have to run this script all the time, and manually by yourself do you? Wondering if you can just get put it in a cron job and let it rip? Well, Yes! You can! Add the following line to cron for automatic (once a minute) process checking goodness:

* * * * * /home/andrew/ircbot/ircbot-chk -q

There are plenty of resources on the web relating to cron, so if you would rather have cron execute the script less often, you’ll need to do a little googling.

Adding the -q sends all output from the script to /dev/null (a black hole of sorts) thus not showing any output on the screen. You can test it with or without the -q.

If you have any questions or would like for information or examples, please do let me know in the comments, and I will be only too happy to be of assistance! This certainly helped me, so I thought I would share, so that it could help you too!

For most users, the installation is a breeze and Comodo Time Machine does it’s job. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all of us.

I’ve been installing Comodo Time Machine on systems for a little while now, and more than once, after the initial installation, I get the following error message upon boot up:

Testing Memory <Hexadecimal Value>...

Something went wrong. I don’t know exactly what, and perhaps a helpful reader can fill us in, however at this point, it would seem all is lost. Now, I’ve only tested this so far on PCs with Windows Vista and Windows 7. So if you have Windows XP, you made need to use a little additional effort.

If you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista, possibly like me, your first thought was ‘No worries, I’ll use the System Repair Utility on the my installation media’. This won’t work. ‘Startup Repair’ won’t be able to solve the issue, and neither will rolling back to a ‘System Restore’ point. It simply won’t work, yet.

Even though this is a problem for you, as far as your computer and operating system are concerned, there is no issue. Which is correct. Yes, Comodo Time Machine has failed to install correctly (of which there are many reasons why this may occur, one being lack of space on drive ‘C:’), however that has not really done any harm to your PC. You just simply can’t get into Windows!

If you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista, yes Startup Repair can help you, but first you have to give it something to repair. I was pretty desperate when this first happened to me, and I actually ended up re-installing the entire system. Not the second time around though. No way was I re-installing, especially since I didn’t have a backup of my clients system, and I was working on site without additional PCs to help my efforts.

In come Hirens Boot CD. Admittedly, you could use any number of rescue boot CDs out there on the internet, I happened to have Hirens Boot CD 10.0 which had exactly the tools I needed. In CD/ISO form, Hirens boot CD does contain some software that others would call ‘commercial’ thus I can’t provide you with a download link to the ISO. However, this page, and this page, should get you on the right track.

Once you have the CD prepared (or USB Key), place it in your computer, and boot from it. Most recent computers are capable of booting from a USB device or CD-ROM. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a computer that couldn’t boot from CD-ROM, and I’ve worked on some old PCs!

Don’t try booting the ‘MiniXP’ It’s a little over kill for what we are going to do, although it is a very VERY responsive Windows XP based environment with most of the tools available. MiniXP runs entirely from memory, meaning you can remove the CD or USB Key once it has finished booting! Neat huh?!

Choose to ‘StartBootCD’. At the ‘Hirens All in 1 BootCD 10.1 Menu’ menu, you’ll need to use your keyboard to select option 9, then select option 1, then select option 2. You should now have MBRtool loaded.

This program requires just a little understanding about the configuration of your HDDs in your computer. For simplicity sake however, if your computer only has one HDD with only one partition on it, the following instructions will work just fine. If your computer has multiple HDDs, and you don’t boot from the otherwise known as the ‘first HDD’ then you need to pay attention to the screen and modify the instructions below accordingly. Feel free to ask for help in the comments below.

Enter 4 and press [Enter]

Enter 6 and press [Enter]

Enter 0 and press [Enter] (Zero)

Enter o and press [Enter] (O, as in the circled shaped letter for Orange) <– This final step will wipe your MBR straight away, no questions asked. If you are feeling concerned, nervous or worried at this point, I suggest you reboot again and use another program on the CD called ‘ghost’ to clone your HDD in its current state to a safe location.

Remember, I said we need to give Windows 7 / Windows Vista Startup Repair tool, something to fix? Well, now it has something to fix!

Press the [ESC] key three times to return you to the DOS prompt. Remove the CD/USB, put your Windows 7 or Windows Vista installation media in the drive and type: reboot (followed by a press of the enter key). Be sure to boot from your newly inserted installation media again.

After selecting your language, Time and currency format and Keyboard or input method, click Next. Click the text link ‘Repair your computer’. The ‘System Recovery Options’ window will appear. Don’t be alarmed at the fact that it doesn’t detect your installed operating system (Windows 7 or Windows Vista), this is what we want!

Click the next button, and from the main menu choose ‘Startup Repair’. This process should only take a few seconds. If you want some assurance it worked, click the ‘Click here for diagnostic and repair details’ link and scroll to the bottom. You should see something like this:


Root cause found:
----------------------------
MBR is corrupt
Repair action: Disk metadata repair
Result: Completed succesfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = ####ms
----------------------------
----------------------------


Click the Close button and click the Finish button. Your system should automatically reboot. If not, click the Restart button.

Hopefully you are now staring at your Windows 7 / Windows Vista logon screen or desktop!

For Windows XP Users

 Thankfully Windows XP has something  a little less evolved, but no less powerful called ‘The Recovery Console’. To access it, you’ll need an original Windows XP (SP1/2/3) installation media disc. Boot from the media and when prompted, press the R key.

When you are asked for the Administrator password, enter it. If you are on Windows XP Home, and you’ve never configured an Administrator password, chances are it’s blank, so just press enter. This may apply to some Windows XP Professional users as well.

At the prompt, assuming you have Windows XP installed to C:\> type:

fixmbr

Ignore the warnings, unless you understand what they are (your situation couldn’t get any worse at this point anyway), and press the [Y] key followed by pressing the [Enter] key.

Type:

exit

to leave the recovery console and reboot. Hopefully you are now staring at your Windows XP Logon screen or desktop!

Why Does This Work?

When you install Comodo Time Machine, it makes a modification to your HDD MBR (Master Boot Record) telling your computer to first boot Comodo Time Machine (instead of your Windows OS), which in turn is configured to boot your Windows OS. When we use MBRtool to erase your MBR, we then use one of the options above to rebuild or repair your MBR. Regardless of Windows XP, Vista or 7, your MBR will be repaired/rebuilt to only boot your Windows OS again! By passing Comodo Time Machine altogether.

What About Comodo Time Machine?

It’s up to you. If you try again and it fails, you know now you have a way to get things working again. Having said that, I’ve had an almost 100% success rate when installing Comodo Time Machine again the second time around. I don’t why sometimes it fails the first time around like it does, it just does.

Any comments, improvements or criticism is welcome.

Kudos to qmchenry at Tech-Recipes for the Windows XP Recovery Console instructions, where you can find additional comments and instructions about it’s use.

On your Windows 7 Machines:

1. Access the ‘Run’ command (otherwise known as the run box). If you can’t see it in your Start Menu, try enabling it in the ‘Superbar’ (the Task Bar) properties or on your keyboard press the ‘Windows’ (WIN) key and the ‘R’ key at the same time.
2. Type: gpedit.msc (press enter or click OK)
3. Make your way down through Computer Configuration
   1. Windows Settings
      1. Security Settings
         1. Local Policies
            1. Security Options
            2. And double click on ‘Network security: LAN Manager authentication level’
               1. Click the drop down box and select the option ‘Send LM & NTLM Responses’
               2. Click OK
4. Close the Local Group Policy Editor.
5. Done! Try accessing file and printer shares on your Windows 2000 and Windows XP machines from your Windows 7 machines.

More information (as technical as it is) can be found here.

Install CentOS 5.3 32/64 Bit

If you haven’t installed CentOS 5.3 already, you should do so. Kinda hard to use VMware Server 1.0.9 without an operating system. Most people want the host OS to have as little additional crap as possible. In regards to that, during the installation, make a point of not installing any additional packages, or package groups except the ‘Base’ group (oh and leave the base group in it’s default state, don’t go ticking on any extras, you’ll make the installation install more dependancies thus more crap). So in other words, only the ‘Base’ group should be ticked, untick the rest!

Nope, you won’t have any GUI, and even if you did, you still have to do the rest of the configuration at the command line anyway. VMware Server 1.0.9 host with GUI = bad idea, unless of course your host is also your desktop.

Once installed, configure your host as you like it from the ‘firstboot’ screen and than login as root. Here’s a few tips.

• Disable any services you aren’t using.
• Disable SE Linux
• Unless you’re going to configure and use it with VMware Server 1.0.9 machines, disable ip6tables
• Don’t go configuring special firewall rules just yet, leave that until later.

Even though it’s the host, its’ software should still be up to date. Issue the following command and download any updates.

yum update

Updates finished? Awesome! Lets reboot the server and start the next step afresh.

shutdown -r now

Install VMware Server 1.0.9 Required Components.

Plenty of you will argue about what you do and don’t need to complete the install. Well, I’ve completed this configuration of server with VMware Server more times than I care to remember now, and sometimes I needed all of these packages and sometimes I didn’t. No, I didn’t bother to find out why. Do you know why? Great! Put it in the comments!

Login in as root and issue the following commands one after the other. Yes, you can issue them all at once if you’re clever, I like to take my time, in case the worlds explodes.

yum install kernel-devel
yum install kernel-headers
yum install libXtst*
yum install xinetd
yum install gcc*

On a couple of occasions, I needed the following package – It could have been when I was using CentOS 5.3 64Bit

yum install libXdmcp-devel
yum install libXrender*

What does the ‘*’ mean? It means grab any packages that start with ‘anytextbeforethe*’

Installed all the packages? Fantastic! Lets reboot the server and start the next step afresh.

shutdown -r now

Install VMware Server 1.0.9

How you get the installation package of VMware Server 1.0.9 onto your server is up to you. Here are a few tips.

• Download VMware Server 1.0.9 Here or Here
• Make sure you register for a VMware Server serial number or numbers. It’s free.
• You can use WinSCP to transfer VMware Server 1.0.9. to your server (it uses SSH). Get it Here or Here.
• You could use the wget command with the direct link above, directly on your server, like this:
  • wget -c http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.9-156507.i386.rpm
• Burn it to a CD
• Burn it to a DVD
• Transfer it to a USB Drive

Once you have the VMware Server 1.0.9 installation file on your server, installing is pretty straight forward. If you’ve never installed a RPM file before, pay attention, people go to university for this stuff. Make sure you are logged in as root, and issue the following:

rpm -ivh VMware-server-1.0.9-156507.i386.rpm

Easy, no?

Depending on the power of your server, it may take a few minutes to install. Once installed, we have one last final step. No need to reboot this time!

Configuring VMware Server 1.0.9

Issue the following command. If some or none of the required packages are not installed, this will tell you straight away.

vmware-config.pl

or if you are so inclined:

/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl

Both do the exact same thing. Don’t run both (either by concatenating them both together or one after the other), that would just be silly and make you leave a comment about how you ran both and got an error message.

NB: If you are told that some packages or components are missing, I suggest going back and re-issuing the ‘yum’ commands above in the section ‘Install VMware Server 1.0.9 Required Components‘. Before you issue any commands, press ctrl-c to quit the setup program and return to the command prompt.

If you see something like the following, you are good to go:

Making sure services for VMware Server are stopped.

Stopping VMware services:
   Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]

You must read and accept the End User License Agreement to continue.
Press enter to display it.

The configuration settings of VMware Server 1.0.9 is now up to you. Here are a few tips:

• Accept the agreement, type Y or Yes and press the enter key.
• The defaults are all fine.
• In most cases, Bridged networking is what you are after, so say ‘No’ to host only and NAT (unless you know what they are and you are going to use them)
• Sometimes the installation would tell me that port 902 is unavailable. This is not true. Override by typing in 902, otherwise you’ll need to remember 904 (or whatever other number you select) and type it in every time when you use the VMware Server 1.0.9 client. Not cool.
• At the very least, choose your own location for the storage of VMware Server 1.0.9 servers. I always put mine in /home/vmware (because I have /home on a separate partition)
• Put your Serial Key in now, rather than later.

Installation and Configuration is now complete! If you need any further help / assistance, please, feel free to leave a comment

My Predicament.
A server (a Dell SC440), with two physical network interfaces. Our office has two ISP connections (DSL broadband). We have the one internal network range (192.168.1.0/24) with two gateways (1.254 and 1.221).

I have installed Promox on the server. I wanted to be able to choose which gateway the guest containers used, instead of them being locked into using the same gateway as the host server. Some of the guest OS containers will host services via the first ISP, and the others will host services via the second ISP. (obviously with firewall rules etc configured in our gateways). So the container gateway entries need to point to their respective ISP/Gateway.

Note: While the security advantage of venet over veth is certainly worthwhile in a hosting environment (and others as well), in my case, we have two hardware firewalls that haven’t let us down yet, and there is little to no concern for the possibility of an internal hacker (there are only three of us!)

Solution 1. Requires the most effort, but gives the most flexibility.

I decided to configure the host with a vmbr0 device that contains a bond0 device, that contains devices eth0 and eth1 (you can look at the video tutorials on pve.proxmox.com for anyone unsure of how to create a bond0) – I configured the bond0 with an IP address that matches our office network (this address doesn’t matter in regards to the containers, just makes the host easy to access if it’s on the same network).

Creating the network bond is meaningless (except for redundancy reasons), so long as you end up with an accessible vmbrX device, that contains either ethX or bondX, you’re good to go. Bonding network devices in linux is close to using the ‘join to network bridge’ feature available in Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 when you have two similiar Ethernet network devices.

When creating a new container in the web interface, instead of choosing Virtual Network (venet) choose Bridged Ethernet (veth) instead.

It has been pointed out to me, that veth is not as secure as venet (which is true), however veth does give your guest container OS direct access to the network, in a smiliar fashion to the way VMware server can give a guest OS direct access to a physical network using Bridged Ethernet.

Once your guest OS container is up and running, you’ll need to use the “Open VNC Console” link on the container’s General page, in the proxmox web interface, to get console access to the container, so that you can manually configure your network interfaces. Instead of configuring venet0:0 or similiar devices, you’ll be back to configuring eth0 or similiar devices. In CentOS, these turn out to be ifcfg-eth0 and ifcfg-lo. If you are unsure of how to do this manually, I suggest googling for some answers, or in CentOS, you can use a tool (if it’s available in your guest OS template) called system-config-network-tui. It’s available via Yum if you don’t have it.

Easy way to get it
1. Create a container with CentOS
2. Assigned it an IP Address using Virtual Network (venet)
3. Login via the VNC console or SSH and issue: yum install system-config-network-tui
4. Logout
5. Use the Proxmox web interface to shutdown the container
6. Remove the Virtual Network Adapter (venet) by deleting the IP Address and clicking Save.
7. The page will refresh and you can now select vmbr0 from the Bridged Ethernet Devices section. Click Save.
8. Start your container
9. Login via VNC Console and issue: system-config-network-tui
10. You’re on your own from here. Remember, you need to configure eth0 not venet0 and venet0:0 – you may want to remove these. Don’t forget to set your gateway and edit your DNS
11. Restart your network with /etc/init.d/network restart

Solution 2. Requires less effort, doesn’t necassarily give as much flexibility, but increases security.

You can edit your /etc/network/interfaces file on the host (the server with Proxmox installed). It’s actually kinda easy. This option also lets you avoid having to edit the network settings inside your guest container OS. So you can create plenty of containers, without have to edit each one! Neat!

Remember: I have two Gateways. 1.254 and 1.221 and my server has two network interfaces.

I could configure each of the network interfaces with two different networks. For example: NIC1: 192.168.1.0/24 with a gateway of 192.168.1.254 and NIC2: 192.168.4.0/24 with a gateway of 192.168.4.254.

There is no point in configuring both interfaces with the same network, for example: NIC1: 192.168.1.200 with a gateway of 192.168.1.254 and NIC2: 192.168.1.205 with a gateway of 192.168.1.221. The host (and consequently any guest container OS) will always use the gateway configured in eth0). If there is a way around this, I wasn’t able to figure it out.

By configuring each NIC with a separate network (192.168.1.0/24 and 192.168.4.0/24), I can make a guest container OS use the gateway of the 192.168.4.0/24 network, by giving it an IP Address like: 192.168.4.54, or make a guest container OS use the gateway of the 192.168.1.0/24 network, by giving it an IP Address like: 192.168.1.54.

However, we’re not done yet. Here’s how you do it. In the Web Interface, I again configured my network as follows. This could be done in a variety of ways, so long as you end up with a vmbr0.

I created a bond0, that contained eth0 and eth1. I then created a vmbr0 that contained bond0. I set the IP address of vmbr0 to 192.168.1.230 – so I could access it again after reboot. I didn’t configure IP Addresses anywhere else.

After rebooting, I edited my /etc/network/interfaces file

On the host I issused: nano /etc/network/interfaces (I love nano, I know it’s for noobs but I can’t get my head around vi, I’ve used nano for too long!)

At the bottom of my /etc/network/interfaces file I added

auto vmbr0:0
iface vmbr0:0 inet static
address 192.168.4.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.4.254

auto vmbr0:1
iface vmbr0:0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254

DNS can be configured individually for each container using the proxmox web interface, or in my case of using CentOS, by editing the resov.conf file inside my guest container OS. Do what is easiest for you. You can also use system-config-network-tui.

Once I had modified by /etc/network/interfaces file, I saved and than restarted the network service by issuing: /etc/init.d/networking restart

I next created guest OS containers, with IP addresses that matched the network of the gateway that I wanted to use. In this situation, the guest container OS’s can also commuinicate with each other, even though they may be using different networks, thanks to the host. Handy, no?

In the end for me, I am using Solution 1. Mainly because we are not running a hosting company, rather just running services on our network and migrating away from VMware, so configuring network settings manually in this case, isn’t a big issue. In the proxmox web interface, I added the IP Address of each container, into the comments section for future reference.

If I was to use Solution 2, in our case we would have to change the IP Address of not only the gateway, but also many other devices also currently using the 192.168.1.0/24 network. We would inevitibly have to implement a routing solution to allow nodes on each network (1.0 and 4.0), to communicate with devices on either network, as is the case with most devices communicating with each other now.

As I said above, this is not necassarily the best or only solution, it is however what I was able to come up with. Comments, suggestions and improvements are welcome.

If someone can help me get the security of using venet instead of veth (and manually configuring the containers) and be able to get each of my containers to use one gateway or the other, all on the one network, without having to edit the container network settings, well then that would be awesome!

Recently, we came across a conundrum concerning the computer game Sacred 2 running under Windows 7. Long story short, it just wouldn’t work. It should be noted that the reason for this not working, has nothing to do with Nvidia / ATI Graphics cards, but it is related to Physx/Ageia. Make sure you have the latest version of Physx installed. Sacred 2 does come with the last version of Physx known as Ageia Physx (before nvidia bought it and rebranded it to just Physx). You can also obtain the latest stand alone Physx package from the nvidia website. Even if you have an ATI graphics card, you still need to have this installed to play Sacred 2 and any other games that require Physx. So long as your CPU supports it and it is powerful enough, you’ll get CPU powered physics, instead of physics powered by your graphics card. Some people call this “Software Physics” or “Software” mode. I’ve noticed no performance difference between a computer playing Sacred 2 with an Nvidia graphics card and a computer with an ATI graphics card.

This fix should work for owners of Sacred 2 under Windows 7, regardless of the version  you have (Steam, Impulse, Stand alone or whatever).

1. Create a shortcut to the Sacred 2 executable. You’ll find it in the game directory, in another directory called ’system’. For me, it is: D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Sacred 2\System\Sacred2.exe
2. Put the shortcut on your desktop, or somewhere handy.
3. Right click the shortcut and select properties
4. Click the Shortcut tab
5. In the Target field, you need to add the following: -skipopenal -nocpubinding. The contents of my Target field look like this: "D:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\sacred 2\system\sacred2.exe" -skipopenal -nocpubinding
6. Click Apply and Click OK.
7. Double click the shortcut and play Sacred 2!

Still can’t get it to work? Leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do to help you out. Further comments and suggestions are welcome. These are just simply the steps that worked for us. In case you are wondering, we are using the RTM (Release To Manfacture) version of Windows 7 (we are Microsoft Technet Partners). This is the same version that is available to consumers and end users as of mid October 2009.

Task 2 completed, Task 3 almost completed. At this rate you’ll have everything done by week 18 easily! Keep up the great work, you’ve kept on track all year, well done!

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Hi everyone. A little sad to see this class getting to such low numbers too! Those of you that did attend, made a start on the tutorial notes for Microsoft Publisher 2007. If you missed the lesson or were unable to attend for any reason, you can certainly grab a copy  of the tutorial notes below.

CAFC – S2 Week 16 – Lesson Notes

See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Good to see everyone continuing to attend the lessons! Makes me feel like my time is well spent in Coonabarabran! Good to see everyone continuing with the discussion style learning in the class room, although I noticing a distinct pattern of the same people doing the discussing. I do wonder if some of you actually want to do a TEST!!

If you missed the lesson or would like an additional copy of the notes, you can grab them below.

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 16 – Lesson Notes 1

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 16 – Lesson Notes 2

See you all next lesson!

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Well this is sad. Only one poor student showed up this lesson. Lucky for them, I decided to hang around so they could get the extra time in. I’m a little worried there will be no one at all in week 18!

Only two more weeks to go!

See you all next lesson!

There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Excellent Work! Keep up the Good Work. This Current Module is almost completed.

Only two weeks left!

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Another via Email

(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me

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This week we spent the session working through a tutorial on Microsoft PowerPoint 2007. If you missed this weeks lesson, you can grab a copy of the notes below.

CAFC – S2 Week 15 – Lesson Notes 1

CAFC – S2 Week 15 – Lesson Notes 2

See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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We only have three more weeks of this semester remaining! Try not to miss a lesson, and remember to participate in the discussion each week.

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 15 – Lesson Notes

See you all next lesson!

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Remember: We have only three weeks remaining

See you all next lesson!

There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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CAFC – S2 Week 14 – Lesson Notes

See you all next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Certificate 1 – S2 Week 14 – Lesson Notes

See you all next lesson!

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Remember: You only have 4 weeks remaining to get this project finished. If you haven’t finished editing at least half to all of your photos, and / or you have not begun to plan and start a Power Point presentation, than you need to do some catch up!

See you next lesson!

There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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We began working in Microsoft Excel this week. Some of you probably felt that Excel is easier to use than Microsoft Word even. We will continue with the tutorial next lesson If you missed this weeks lesson and would like to grab a copy of the tutorial notes now, you can grab a copy below.

CAFC – S2 Week 13 – Lesson Notes

See you all next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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See you all next lesson!

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 13 – Lesson Notes

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

Remember: You’ve only got 5 more weeks left to get your project completed. If you don’t have at least half your photos edited, and a PowerPoint presentation at least planned, then you need to do some catching up!

See you next lesson!

There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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If you missed this weeks lesson, or still don’t have a copy of the notes, feel free to grab them from the link below.

CAFC – S2 Week 12 – Lesson Notes

See you all next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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See you all next lesson!

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 12 – Lesson Notes

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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(Please open the article to see the flash file or player.)

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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CAFC – S2 Week 11 – Lesson Notes

 See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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So, in mathematical terms: classroom pariticpation and discussion == no quiz at the end of the term!

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 11 Lesson Notes 1

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 11 Lesson Notes 2

There will not be a follow up video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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There were no additional notes or follow up video tutorials for this lesson.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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CAFC – S2 Week 10 – Lesson Notes

Remember: Our next lesson is on the 16th October 2008. This will be a short 8 week term, so try not to miss any lessons.

See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Certificate 1 – S2 Week 10 – Outlook 2007 Notes 1

Certificate 1 – S2 Week 10 – Outlook 2007 Notes 2

Remember: Our next lesson is on the 16th of October 2008. This will be a short 8 week term, so try not to miss any lessons.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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I will be more then happy to assist each of you with your project. I will also do small tutorial lessons to achieve certain affects with your photos.

Remember: our next lesson is on the 15th of October 2008. This will only be a short 8 week term, so try not to miss any lessons.

Digital Media – S2 Week 10 – Photoshop Tutorial

Digital Media – Project

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Remember: Our next lesson is on the 15th October 2008.

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Yes, I thought it was clever too!

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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Hi everyone. This week we took a step back from the internet and new technologies to start learning how to use a new program called Microsoft Office Word 2007 (commonly known as Word 2007). I handed out a fairly heavy tutorial, that we will be working through in next few sessions. If you missed this weeks lesson, you can download the lesson notes below. 

CAFC – S2 Week 9 – Lesson Notes

If you don’t have Office 2007 or Word 2007, you can purchase the entire Microsoft Office 2007 suite, as a TAFE student, through Microsofts Educational system called “It’s Not Cheating”. At $75 for a life time licence (compared to $1200+ from a retail outlet), it’s a pretty good deal some might say!

It’s Not Cheating

For those of you not interested in purchasing Microsoft Office 2007, or Word 2007, you may be interested in the following website link. It is a tutorial guide, similiar to the lesson notes, but for Word XP/2002/2003.

Word XP / 2002 / 2003 Tutorial

See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Missed the quiz? Download a copy of it here, and email it to me as soon as possible. Resubmissions from students who completed the quiz in class will not be accepted.

There will not be a follow video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Digital Media – S2  Week 9 – Tutorial Notes

There will not be a follow video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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John O’Reilly hoisted his beer and said, ‘Here’s to spending the rest of me life!, between the legs of me wife!’

The man chuckled leeringly and said, ‘John won the prize the other night at the pub with a toast about you, Mary.’ She said, ‘Aye, he told me, and I was a bit surprised myself. You know, he’s only been there twice in the last four years. Once he fell asleep, and the other time I had to pull him by the ears to make him come.’

Ok, so it’s a little cruder than my usual round up, but I thought it was quite funny all the same!

Remember: If you have something funny that you would like to see featured in The Weekly Funny, submit it to me or tell me about it via one of the many communication channels you have with me.

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Hi everyone. This week, I think I scared and possibly even horrified some of you, when I informed you all about the many dangers and troubles of the internet. We had quite a discussion about hackers, spyware and viruses. After some searching, rather then provide you with links below, I’ll provide you with a Google Search Result List, of which you can do you own reading from, in regards to the dangers of the internet.

Dangers of the Internet Search

What Are Hackers Search

What Are Viruses Search

I also provided you with some links for some useful software that you can download and install onto your own PC’s, to protect you from the dangers that lurk out there on the internet. Some of you may already have these programs.

Comodo Antivirus

Comodo Pro Firewall

Windows Defender

Spybot Search and Destroy

Lavasoft Ad-Aware

Just click any of the links above to be taken to their respective websites.

There were no handouts for this lesson.

See you next lesson!

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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Hi everyone. This week had a revision session, covering the areas and subjects we have covered this term (Microsoft Excel and Application Integration), in preparation for the quiz next week. Everything we covered today will be in the quiz, plus a little extra! There were no additional notes or resources handed out this session. Remember, you can bring all your notes and print outs to the quiz next week if you wish.

If you have missed any of the previous notes and resources, or would like another copy for whatever reason, you can find the links to them in previous articles. Here is a good place to start.

There will not be a follow video tutorial for this session.

Remember; I put these links and resources here for your use. So if they are of no use to you, too hard to understand or you feel they are off topic, then please let me know, via any of the communication channels you have with me. I am more then happy to make changes, source better content or even create fresh content from scratch, just for you! You need only ask … nicely!

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