Archive for July, 2008

Maya 3DS Max Auto install

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

I think I’ve figured out why my autoinstallers for 3DS Max 9 and Maya 2008 didn’t work – they required the directx redistributable package to run, specifically d3dx9_34.dll for Maya and some earlier version for 3DS Max.  In addition to the isscript autoIt install (required because the installshield msi file will break all other versions of isscript.msi if installed via group policy), a directx silent install will be required to ensure the installation can roll out on lab machines.

July 28 – 30, away until 4th

Monday, July 28th, 2008

As I mentioned above, I’m away for most of this week, so it’s likely I won’t get to many things on the list:

  • reorganizing windows scratch space
  • using new network as Active Directory rename testbed
  • downgrading from vista to xp
  • installing test imap server

SP3 install results

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Due to some problems with the upgrade for the 3.0 .Net framework (which many of the lab machines had), XP Service Pack 3 was not able to install.  The workaround was to manually install the 3.5 framework, which included all the updates to the previous versions of .Net framework.  I was having a little trouble install it using psexec, but that was caused by the framework executable displaying an Open File Security Warning when it ran. By right-mouse clicking on the file and selecting “Properties” I was able to click on the “unblock” button and remove the dialog. The remaining machines were then able to apply the framework, and after SP3. The one holdout had a problem with RAM which was causing windows update and other services to crash. Removing the ram looks like it has resolved the problem.

Samba 3.0.30 and Mac OS Clients not following symlinks

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

As the implementation of Samba unix extensions in newer releases of samba interact with clients that also have unix extensions (like Mac OS leopard) in their samba client config, symlinks that used to resolve to directories are now treated as local aliases.  To resolve the problem, I added unix extensions = no to the samba config of the server. 

MediaWiki backup issues – resolved

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

I was able to determine why the user was having problems backing up their wiki.  The original set of tables that had been corrupted were still in the database.  The new set had a prefix which put them after the old ones, so they could be used and accessed but not backed up unless they were specified individually.  I’ve advised the user how to dump the tables and copy them to a new database.

InnoDB excitement

Friday, July 18th, 2008

We’re still having issues with our innodb backups for mediawiki.  It complains that the tables don’t exist, in the same way it did when it was corrupted.  However it is displaying data correctly in the wiki.

July 14 – 25, ongoing work

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Here’s a list of the things I’m working on

  • innodb backup issues in mysql (resolved)
  • reorganizing windows scratch space
  • sp3 deployment at DGP (resolved)
  • testing new laptop/windows/visitor network