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

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)