rockstarmode

Microsoft and OpenSSL

I recently had to re-figure out how to coax windows and linux with GoDaddy to obtain compatible code signing certificates. This is *much* harder when using a mixed environment than it should be.

GoDaddy issues spc files and needs csr files which are generated in conjunction with pvk files but Ant/Java want p12 files and most Microsoft signtools want pfx files but you can't generate any of these without pem files. Here are the steps:

1. Log into your build server
2. Generate private key, don't forget the password:

   openssl genrsa -des3 -out code-sign.pvk 2048

3. Generate the csr:

   openssl req -new -key code-sign.pvk -out code-sign.csr

4. Take csr to GoDaddy
5. Download spc file
6. Convert spc to pem:

   openssl pkcs7 -inform DER -in code-sign.spc -print_certs -out code-sign.pem

7. Add the private key to the pem, this was the trickiest part. Apparently openssl outputs files in pem format unless otherwise instructed and the pkcs12 export doesn't like to be given more than one file during import:

   cat code-sign.pvk >> code-sign.pem

8. Generate p12 (which is also a pfx), use the passwords from above again to simplify things:

   openssl pkcs12 -export -in code-sign.pem -out code-sign.p12

The P12 file is basically the same thing as a Microsoft PFX, awhile ago Microsoft switched to PKCS12 P12 but insists on calling their
files PFX source

Stupid gift giving games

My family has recently switched from a "Secret Santa" style gift giving to a "Gift Stealing" game.  Basically everyone buys one cheap gift and puts it in a pile.  Everyone draws a number out of a hat.  The person with the lowest number picks a gift from the pile, the person with the next number can pick a new gift or steal one of the previously picked (and unwrapped) gifts. 

Reason #2486 why I hate the Christmas season:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Holiday get together ???

Chris and I will be attending.

I like a gift exchange but prefer a secret santa drawing with spending limit to the gift stealing game from past years.

We're game for whatever though.

Rockstarmode

#### Reply ####

Yes the gift stealing is the fun part... but we need to keep an eye on some of you.... ha ha ha
It's been reported (may be a rumor) that during the stealing session, a particular cousin (D**w) was squirrelling a special gift under his seat as not to be stolen ;-]

[Family Member]

##################

After reading this reply I was pretty pissed, so I figured I'd post my argument here instead of hitting "Reply All" to the family.

###

Was I not clear? Is this a joke that I don't get? Did [Family Member] really not understand that I *don't* like the gift stealing but will go along with the program? Or am I just being ignored?

I know that I'm usually guilty of being different just because I like to switch things up, but buying non-specific gifts just doesn't seem to go along with the point of the holiday season. In fact it seems to reinforce the part of Christmas I hate the most: blind, blatant consumerism.

By only buying one gift and making them inexpensive we rule out money issues. The gift stealing game provides a little fun during the exchange but in my opinion removes any thought that would have gone into personalizing the gift itself. I know everyone is really busy so maybe making gift buying easier is the point of the stealing game but doesn't that go against the idea of Christmas? Using our familial bonds and a little thought to generate ideas for one personal gift?

Isn't Christmas supposed to be a holiday where you think about the people you actually give a crap about? Where you consider giving them something they may actually like because of some personal bond the two of you share? Isn't a gift supposed to reflect this bond and whatever amount of thought that went into deciding what to give?

You know what I did with the DVDs I got at one of the last Christmases? The unopened cases are sitting under my laptop to keep it from over heating on my desk. I never even took the shrink wrap off of them. It wasn't on purpose, I wasn't trying to make a point, I even like one of the movies (The Bourne Supremacy). They just didn't mean anything to me, I probably would have enjoyed them more if they fell off of a truck and I found them on the street.

I don't want to come across as angry or overreacting. This post isn't meant to criticize any particular family member or start any shit talking. I didn't send this to my family because I don't want to alienate other people that may feel differently. But if Christmas were my holiday (Rockstarmas?) I'd be incensed.

Dethklok Live

Last night the boys and I went to Hollywood to see Dethklok and Mastodon play at the Palladium. It was an absolutely rocking show to say the least.

Believe it or not but Los Angeles has a working public transit system!  I know, you're all calling bullshit on this one but it's for real, the system was even complete enough to get us from my house to within a block of the Palladium with only one transfer.  Given that no one was driving we met at my house to preparty a bit then hopped the Silver Streak to Union station, from there we took the red line to Hollywood and Vine.

The subway was fun, we met at least three transvestites and were left with the golden advice of a bum "Don't get arrested".  From there we hit Dillon's Irish pub and then walked the block and a half to the venue.

The Palladium itself is an excellent place to see a metal show.  The acoustics are good enough to keep the music from getting muddy and their sound guy knows how to keep the volume cranked without being ear splitting.  It was general admission only with no seating but the balconies were open for people that prefer not to pile in the pit. There were at least six full bars in the place so beer lines were nonexistent. 

We arrived just in time to see the beginning of Mastodon's set.  They sounded excellent but had little stage presence and their complicated polyrhythmic beats made it hard to headbang.  It kind of reminded me of when we saw Dream Theater.

Dethklok sounded just like their albums, Brendon Small has done an excellent job of putting together a road band.  Unlike I saw in some of the YouTube videos they didn't play much of the Adult Swim characters between sets.  Chris got beat up pretty good in the pit and ended up getting jacked for his phone and wallet.  I managed to clobber my way to the front row about four people from center by the third song as seen in the photo.

For only $35 and combined with the convenience of public transit seeing Dethklok live was a ridiculously good time.

Fedora 12 preupgrade issues

If you are having issues with upgrading Fedora from 11 to 12 with error messages saying that your /boot partition is full *and* this walkthrough doesn't help I may have a solution for you:

1. Boot into your Fedora 11 kernel
2. remount /boot as read write (mount -o remount rw /boot)
3. move the file /boot/upgrade/install.img to unencrypted storage, I used a USB key
4. Reboot into the Fedora 12 upgrade kernel, when it errors out with a message claiming it can't find the installation image point it at the place you moved the install.img file to. 
5. Have a beer, the upgrade takes awhlie

The walkthrough on Fedora Project was for people preparing to upgrade, I however was stuck halfway though an upgrade so their solutions didn't help me.

a2dp on Fedora 11 and Pulseaudio

*** UPDATE *** Fedora 12 has this same issue, this isn't surprising as this is likely going to be solved by the PulseAudio people

Earlier today I kind of got bluetooth audio (a2dp) working with Pulseaudio on Fedora 11, the solution can be found here. As that solution involved using a .asoundrc file with an ALSA device I was less than enthused.

A little research and a helpful push in the right direction and I figured out how to use the new-ish pulseaudio 'module-bluetooth-device'. To get this working in Fedora 11 without using ALSA:

1. Make sure you have the pulseaudio bluetooth package installed (yum install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth)
2. Download the attached perl script and mark it executable.
3. Pair your bluetooth device with your computer. Have it remember the PIN, etc.. 
4. Open a terminal and run the perl script 
5. When the script prompts you to connect the device use the bluetooth applet, command line, whatever you use to get hcitool to connect. Hit <enter>. 
6. The script will attempt to unload modules that interfere with getting a2dp working. 
7. Try to play something with sound. If you see the bluetooth device in pavucontrol under "Output Devices" but still don't have sound try setting your "Internal Audio" profile to "Off"

The details:

I was attempting to use the Dell BH200 headset that comes with some of the laptops in their XPS line. The headset paired and connected without any issues but refused to show up under "Output Devices" in pavucontrol. I learned that pulseaudio bluetooth support wasn't installed by default on all Fedora 11 machines so I went yummed the correct package. After uncommenting the 'module-bluetooth-discover' module in
/etc/pulse/default.pa stuff was still broken, just differently.

It turns out that the pulse people prefer to default devices to the HSP/HFP profile which is used for monaural telephone conversations. For some reason when pulse sees that my headphones are A2DP capable it tries to change profiles and ends up just disconnecting them instead. When I connected the bluetooth device it would show up under "Output Devices" but disappear after a few seconds, no sound would work in the interim. Catching it and changing the profile before it had a chance to error out didn't help.

I guess the bluetooth-device module works just fine if you tell it exactly what you want (A2DP), and that the 'discover' module was the culprit. My script just unloads the discover module long enough for the user to connect the device and then sets the correct profile before exiting.

I'm not sure why the pulse people have things set up this way and I'm not sure why Fedora hasn't made this automagic. Hopefully this script will be helpful to someone else.

Click here to download:

bh200-a2dp.pl (2 KB)

Long time no post..

It's been almost 2 years since we last saw a post on RSM. It's been a crazy ride; new jobs, new people, new stories. Hopefully hosting with Posterous will make things a bit easier, I've added a few contributors so we can get more content.

For the few of you that remember the old blog I'm working on porting the posts, I had a feeling that Mephisto Blog was doomed from the start and now it's refusing to give up my old data.