The problem I'm talking about today is trying to upgrade your Windows 7 installation to SP1 by applying Microsoft's update KB976932, called "Windows 7 Service Pack 1 for x64-based Systems" and getting nothing but a failure every time. The same problem may affect 32-bit systems as well, and I'm not sure what the update number for that would be, but the solution should work for either one.

The update starts just fine, chugs along for 10 minutes or so, then reboots the system and starts performing more operations, when suddenly one of them fails about 10% down the road, reboots, and reverts the whole process. You end up with this message (code 80070490) and a failure for which there are a lot of useless "solutions" on the web that just don't work.

Except for one. I can't take credit for it – all I did was spend a month weeding through the crap, retrying, and getting nowhere, until a genius by the name Ben-IS came up with exactly the right diagnosis and provided exactly the right solution. This solution, in my own interpretation, is below.

Step 1

We are going to use a utility called SFC (System File Checker or Windows Resource Checker), which is part of the Windows installation. It will help diagnose the problem.

Open up a command prompt (cmd) as administrator and run

sfc /scannow

This will run for a while and produce a file called CBS.log which you can find in %WINDIR%\Logs\CBS (usually C:\Windows\Logs\CBS). See this KB929833 for more info on SFC and CBS (Component Based Servicing).

sfc /scannow

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

Even though there are no integrity violations, we should have enough info in the log to diagnose the problem.

Step 2

Unfortunately, Windows overwrote my CBS.log, so I'll go by the one Ben-IS provided.

Open up CBS.log and look for something like Failed uninstalling driver updates or 0×80070490 – ERROR_NOT_FOUND.

If you have this line, which you should if you're reading this post, you should also see lines similar to these a few lines above:

2011-04-14 12:02:33, Info CBS Doqe: q-uninstall: Inf: usbvideo.inf, Ranking: 2, Device-Install: 0, Key: 598, Identity: usbvideo.inf, Culture=neutral, Type=driverUpdate, Version=6.1.7600.16543, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=amd64, versionScope=NonSxS

2011-04-14 12:02:33, Info CBS Doqe: q-uninstall: Inf: sffdisk.inf, Ranking: 2, Device-Install: 0, Key: 599, Identity: sffdisk.inf, Culture=neutral, Type=driverUpdate, Version=6.1.7600.16438, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=amd64, versionScope=NonSxS

2011-04-14 12:02:33, Info CBS Doqe: q-uninstall: Inf: sdbus.inf, Ranking: 2, Device-Install: 0, Key: 600, Identity: sdbus.inf, Culture=neutral, Type=driverUpdate, Version=6.1.7600.16438, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35, ProcessorArchitecture=amd64, versionScope=NonSxS

One of these .inf files is the culprit, and we're going to find out which one in the next step.

Step 3

Now open up a different log file located at %WINDIR%\inf\setupapi.dev.log (normally c:\Windows\inf\setupapi.dev.log).

Look for a line that contains Failed to find driver update or FAILURE(0×00000490).

Note the exact path to the .inf file that failed. In my case, it was:

sto: Failed to find driver update 'C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_usbvideo.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16543_none_8a1a2513d42628c3\usbvideo.inf' in Driver Store. Error = 0×00000490

Step 4

This is the key to the whole operation. Open up the command prompt again (cmd) as administrator and run

pnputil – a INSERT_FILE_NAME_FROM_STEP_3

For example, I ran

pnputil -a C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_usbvideo.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16543_none_8a1a2513d42628c3\usbvideo.inf

You should see the following dialog:

Choose Install this driver software anyway.

The end result should be something like this:

pnputil -a C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_usbvideo.inf_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16543_none_8a1a2513d42628c3\usbvideo.inf
Microsoft PnP Utility

Processing inf :            usbvideo.inf
Driver package added successfully.
Published name :            oem69.inf

Total attempted:              1
Number successfully imported: 1

Repeat this step for any failures found in step 3.

Step 5

Apply the SP1 Windows Update again – it should now install successfully.

And voila – enjoy your SP1!

Microsoft has failed to fix this incredibly cryptic problem, leaving it up to the users to figure out why their SP1 updates are not installing. Thanks to people like Ben-IS, solutions no longer involve head-banging, postal rage, and f7u12.

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If you use a VPN (Virtual Private Network), this tip is for you.

The Problem

• you connect to a VPN to get access to your work/whatever network
• your connection is fast but the VPN connection is balls slow
• you try to stream a bit of online radio, go to a website, watch a video, or do anything, which is automatically routed through the VPN connection but everything TAKES AGES because the VPN connection is the limiting factor
• so not only are you frustrated by hiccupping radio, stuttering video, and a never disappearing progress bar but you're also making your already slow link slower, so now remote desktop and other activity for which you've VPN'ed in the first place is taking even longer

Familiar situation? You bet.

The Solution

This solution is for Windows users only but I'm sure similar settings are available in MacOS, Linux, etc.

Here in particular I am using Windows 7 but this solution applies to Windows XP and Vista as well (the menus look only slightly different for those).

1. Open up the VPN Connection's Properties

These properties can be reached by right clicking on the VPN connection in the list of networks and selecting Properties.

2. Go to the TCP Properties

On Windows XP, you might see only the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)", while on Windows 7 you will see both IPv4 and IPv6. You will most likely need to select IPv4 then.

3. Head to the Advanced settings

4. Uncheck the "Use default gateway on remote network" checkbox

5. Restart the VPN connection

This should do the trick.

The New Behavior

The new behavior from what I can tell is:

• use a local connection, such as your WiFi or wired connection, so your radio, streaming video, websites, etc should now bypass the VPN connection
• if the request above fails, Windows should only then fall back on the VPN connection

When Not To Use This Tweak

Do not use this tweak if you rely on the VPN to always encrypt all your network traffic.

Temporarily disable this tweak if normally you are OK with not encrypting all of your traffic but are currently using an unsecure network. Examples include a WiFi connection that does not prompt for a password or a public network, such as an Internet cafe.

Enjoy your faster VPN experience!

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And then I found it:

Right click here and Save As to download the 1920×1200 version

And that's how you set up your iMac people.

Credit goes to Jonzy from DeviantArt.

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The Problem

I've had MySQL on my Windows 7 laptop for a bit (as part of wampserver), mostly for local offline WordPress development.

However, even though MySQL is relatively stable, I've been observing a vast quantity of intermittent MySQL errors, as reported by WordPress in the PHP error log (C:\wamp\logs\php_error.log). Here are some examples:

[05-Jan-2010 09:47:51] WordPress database error Error on delete of
'C:\Windows\TEMP\#sql17e0_1a2_6.MYD' (Errcode: 13) for query SELECT t.*, tt.*
FROM wp_terms AS t INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy AS tt ON tt.term_id = t.term_id
INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships AS tr ON tr.term_taxonomy_id =
tt.term_taxonomy_id WHERE tt.taxonomy IN ('category') AND tr.object_id IN (3)
ORDER BY t.name ASC made by require, require_once, include, get_footer,
locate_template, load_template, require_once, dynamic_sidebar,
call_user_func_array, widget_rrm_recent_posts, RecentPosts->execute,
ppl_expand_template, otf_categorylinks, get_the_category, wp_get_object_terms
 
[05-Jan-2010 09:50:42] WordPress database error Error on delete of
'C:\Windows\TEMP\#sql17e0_1b0_0.MYD' (Errcode: 13) for query  SELECT
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS  wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts  INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships
ON (wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id) INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy ON
(wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id = wp_term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id)
WHERE 1=1  AND wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'category' AND
wp_term_taxonomy.term_id IN ('3') AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post' AND
(wp_posts.post_status = 'publish' OR wp_posts.post_status = 'private') GROUP BY
wp_posts.ID ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC LIMIT 0, 10 made by require, wp,
WP->main, WP->query_posts, WP_Query->query, WP_Query->get_posts

The important part here is "Errcode: 13", which is a file access error. The MySQL daemon process (mysqld.exe) randomly cannot access temporary tables it itself creates, which causes these errors and failed queries.

Digging Around

After looking around and finding nothing obvious, I tracked down a few forum posts mentioning the same issue.

Here is the gist – the problem is caused by an anti-virus program that is clearly not working properly.

The one mentioned on the forums is McAfee (big surprise, right? McAfee is a piece of junk – probably the worst anti-virus I've ever tried). In my case, however, it was the recently installed freeware security program from Microsoft called Microsoft Security Essentials, highly praised but problematic in this case nonetheless.

After thinking about it, I am confident that these security programs don't actually purposely prohibit access to the files MySQL creates. Instead, they lock these files for the duration of the check, so that the system doesn't get infected before they are approved. If you notice, the problems are related to temporary tables, created by MySQL on the fly. MySQL probably has a very short access timeout for these files, for performance reasons, and because it doesn't get this access fast enough, it considers it a failure (file deletions are failing, as you can see in the log).

The Solution

Now onto fixing the problem. The solution is to have Microsoft Security Essentials, in my case, or whatever your security program may be ignore these files.

You can block the whole Temp directory from being checked. It is not a good idea, as viruses can trickle down to that location and bypass your anti-virus:

Instead, you should just ignore by file extension: *.MYI and *.MYD. MySQL uses files with these extensions for its MyISAM table types. Using this approach is obviously safer as it doesn't single out a directory and instead targets specific files:

After I applied either of these exclusions, all MySQL Error 13 problems went away immediately.

Conclusion

The intermittent Error 13 problem on Windows is caused by 2 otherwise legitimate processes which, when mixed together, end up breaking MySQL.

Is this entirely the fault of the antivirus programs? Inadvertently, perhaps so.

Could MySQL be a bit smarter in this scenario? Perhaps so as well.

What do you, MySQL pros, think?

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SimplifyMedia is an extremely useful program, which allows super easy song and playlist sharing via streaming between multiple computers. It also works as a Winamp plugin, so the shared songs simply show up inside Winamp's own media library – each computer sharing music appears under the special "Shared" tab. And the beauty is – there is no need to muck around with network settings, open ports, or even touch your router.

Here's a screenshot of how it's supposed to work:

The Problem

Since I recently installed Windows 7 64bit on my laptop, I wanted to set up SimplifyMedia on it and listen to some tracks in my favorite music player Winamp. However, after I downloaded and installed it and restarted Winamp, the Shared tab did not show up. The SimplifyMedia installer did tell me that a 64 bit version of Windows isn't explicitly supported but mentioned it should still work fine.

The Solution

After reinstalling, analyzing, and comparing with my other computers, I found that the SimplifyMedia installer didn't copy the needed Winamp plugin files, namely ml_simplify.dll and ml_simplifyexp.dll. After I copied them over into the Winamp/Plugins directory and restarted Winamp, the Shared tab showed up like a charm.

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Screen is awesome. Once you become comfortable navigating around it, you start using it ALL the time. No more dropped sessions, no having 10 Putty windows open at the same time, no more nohup.

However, with default screen settings I've always felt a bit lost and out of place, mostly because there was no "taskbar" with a bird's eye view of all windows. Pressing ctrl-a, " really does get annoying fast (that's the command that brings up the window selector – screenshot below).

So instead I modded my screen to have a "taskbar" which sits at the bottom of screen and adds:

• the name of each window
• a clear marking of window states, such as
  • the currently active window (* and different background)
  • last used window (-)
  • if you're sharing the current window with someone else (&)
• the current incoming/outgoing bandwidth in bytes/sec, updating every 5 seconds
• the current time
• the load on the server, as reported by the uptime or w commands

Of course, all of the above is customizable to your liking, but this is what I picked for myself.

Without further ado, here's a screenshot:

Doesn't that make you feel much more homey?

Now using a shared screen session for pair programming, as suggested in a recent article posted on Hacker News, suddenly sounds even more appealing.

Installation

Here's what you need to get this bar on your screen:

• download my .screenrc (0 B, downloaded 920 times) and put it in your home directory. Make sure the location of wormulon (installed in the next step) is correct. Also, specify the right network interface (eth0 in most cases).
  Here is the file, for reference:

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# Monitor eth0 bandwidth and update every 5 s
# Assign the output of this cmd to '%1`' and use it in the below hardstatus line:
backtick 1 0 0 /usr/local/bin/wormulon -d 5 -i eth0
 
hardstatus alwayslastline "%{bw}[%H] [%?%-Lw%?%{wb}%n*%f %t%{bw}%?%+Lw%?]%=%{bw} [%1`] [%c:%s] [%l]" # modified from http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/screen-users/2007-08/msg00008.html
 
# Set the scrollback length:
defscrollback 10000
 
# Select whether you want to see the copyright notice during startup:
startup_message off

• download and compile wormulon (wormulon-0.1.4.tar.gz 45.3 kB, downloaded 464 times or from a mirror) – a nifty little program that shows incoming and outgoing bandwidth and is perfect for integrating with screen. You can omit this step if you don't want the bandwidth monitor. I know the name is a bit odd but it's a legit little open source utility – feel free to check out the code.

tar xvzf wormulon-0.1.4.tar.gz
cd wormulon-0.1.4/
./configure && make
sudo make install # this installs into /usr/local/bin/;
                  # alternatively, copy the wormulon binary wherever you
                  # want and update the path in .screenrc

Now restart screen and you're good to go.

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