Linux top command errors with Segmentation Fault

Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

A user reported he could not execute the top command.

I accessed his system and found top worked. However, if I used to the su command to become the user, top would fail with a segmentation fault. To add to the oddness was a strange message: Cannot get binary type. Odd messages such as this can fill a person with dread as it could mean somebody messed up their profile.  A debugging task that is rarely fun or rewarding.

I checked the PATH and found it was in order.

For fun; I reloaded procps.

I even checked security settings.

Still the segmentation faults continued.

At this point; I asked a few people and checked the Net and didn’t get any obvious answers.

I tried another system with the users account and though it pulled an error at login, it did run top.

What could be wrong?  Do I need to reload the system?

I checked the users profile and didn’t see anything obvious.  I happened to run ls -la and one thing did catch my attention. There was a file called .toprc. I renamed it and top worked!

It turns out you can have an RC file for top.  I didn’t know that as my need for top is usually the load on the system…..

 

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Sound only works with earphones.

Saturday, March 15th, 2014

A recent upgrade of windows 8 to 8.1 for whatever reason prevented sound through the speakers. However, it would work through my ear buds. I have a Dell E6520 and of course Dell did not have an audio driver for 8.1.  I tried the 8.0 driver but no change.

I played around with the diagnostics and troubleshooting tools but they did not find anything.

One interesting possibility came from trying to play the test tones with the audio device.

I received this nice little message:  

Failed to play test tone.

A quick check on the Net showed someone else ran into this situation.

The steps to correct this error (at least for my situation):

  1. Right click the taskbar’s speaker icon and select playback devices(if you don’t have it on the taskbar, use the Sound control panel).
  2. Select the Speakers /Headphones and click the properties button.
  3. Click the Advanced tab.
  4. Click the Restore Defaults.
  5. Click the Test button and you should have sound

A rather strange problem and I am surprised….well?…not really that an update would do this.

 

Posted in 8, Dell | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Removing the Jenkins slave service

Sunday, February 16th, 2014

I had a simple task to uninstall the Jenkins slave service from a series of machines.

There was the small problem of it not being in the programs control panel nor was there an obvious uninstaller.

A quick review of the online documentation showed all you needed to do was enter the following command:

jenkins-slave.exe uninstall

To be through I rebooted the system and later deleted the folder where it was installed.

 

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The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc000001d

Friday, February 14th, 2014

I have a couple servers which crash reboot from time to time.

Looking over the event log, the bug check reported:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000007e (0xffffffffc000001d

Researching the Net, really didn’t point to an obvious reason.  Suggestions offered:

  • Run:  sfc /scannow

 Didn’t find any errors.

  • Run a disk check.

 Didn’t find any errors.

I decided to update the BIOS and the controller firmware.

So far the systems haven’t crashed.

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pthreadVC2.dll is missing

Friday, January 31st, 2014

I was installing a program for testing and received the following error:

The program can't start because pthreadVC2.dll is missing from your computer.  Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.

Strange error as the dll was in the install directory.

After attempting a few things; the problem was the UNC for the install/work directory was missing from the system path.  Made a change and the error went away.

Such is the fun involved with alpha testing.

 

Posted in Windows | Leave a comment

Powershell editor

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

I sometimes get asked for suggestions for a Powershell editor.   Probably the biggest and best  is Sapiens Primalscript.  But with all the abilities and power; this means a bigger price tag. There is also an expectation of upgrades.  I let mine go too long and was told I had to purchase new.  😦

I also find many people are looking for a free editor.  Microsoft has a page of suggested editors on Technet.

As mentioned I have used Primalscript and recommend it if you have the money to invest.

I have used the one that comes with Powershell and it’s ok if you are starting out.

I have used the GUI version and found it’s ok for most things.

I am now starting to “play around” with Admin Script Editor.  The page shows it’s a purchased package but this is no longer the case.  The company closed shop but they made the last version free to people who use the itninja site.

 

 

 

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Admin Script Editor is no more

Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

I was looking at upgrading my editor for powershell.

Normally, I use Sapien but I had not upgraded it for several years and they said I basically had to purchase it new.   I thought maybe with the New Years Eve deal but it appears they stopped doing that.  😦

I had a look at the old ASE and found the company had closed its doors last September but they made the last version free to people who join the itninja site.

It’s the enterprise version and so far it runs on 8.1.

Time will tell.

 

 

Posted in 8, PowerShell, Windows | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

c:\hpssbem.exe is not a valid win32 application

Sunday, October 20th, 2013

Today was a new message.  I was supposed to convert two Linux servers to Windows 2008 Server.  The two servers are HP DL360 G5s.  Old but still usable as they were going to be workgroup servers.

The install procedure was to use the HP Smartstart CD.

One server converted without issue but the other after going through these two steps:

X:\windows\system32 > wpeinit
X:\windows\system32\ C:\hpssbem.exe

Gave the interesting error message of:

C:\hpssbem.exe
C:\hpssbem.exe is not a valid Win32 Application

Wait?……..This is a 64bit install?…….Why would it want a Win32 application?……..

I tried a restart.  I tried to rerun the install and even formatted the disks but the same error occurred.

Finally, after clicking OK and using the console window; I had a look at the hpssbem.exe and found it’s size was “0.”   Rather odd as why would there be a copy problem if it worked on the previous server?

I inserted the Smartstart CD again an located the application at:

<cdrom>:\compaq\install\w2k8x64

I copied hpssbem.exe to C:\ and re-ran wpeinit which started the installation of the OS.

Posted in 2008 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Powershell: Direct output to a variable.

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

I was asked if there was a way to capture output of a specific program to a variable.

Basically, the person wanted to get a version number from the program.

Played around and had a way to accomplish this  but I found a simpler approach.

$scriptOutput = & "c:\path\program.exe" -V 2&1

Obviously, the -V works with the program in question.

I am liking powershell

Posted in 2008, PowerShell | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The account used is a computer account. Use your global….

Thursday, July 25th, 2013

While scripting a report; I noticed a bogus error about a file version being wrong.

I examined the server in question and found the server service was not running.

I tried to start it but it stopped right away with the following message in the system event log.

The Server service terminated with the following error:
The account used is a computer account. Use your global user account or local user account to access this server.

Another server with the same problem would give this message:

Windows could not start the Server service on Local Computer Error: 1808: The account used is a computer account. Use your Global user account or local user account to access this server.

The service was configured correctly.

An odd problem and it’s cause was the fact a couple users placed URLs in the system Path variable (ie \\server\mount\dir).

Removing the entries and a reboot of the server corrected the issue.

Posted in 2008, PowerShell | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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