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Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client on 64-Bit Ubuntu 9.10

I've been using vpnc as my VPN client on Ubuntu for quite some time now, but vpnc allows for split tunneling (meaning I'm on the VPN but I can still access my local network), and, well, let's just say some network security folks don't like that. ;-) I looked into disabling split tunneling on vpnc and I didn't find any conclusive answers, so it was time to look for an alternative VPN client for Cisco VPNs.

Cisco AnyConnect is a VPN client that can (in theory) be installed from a web browser on any operating system, provided your VPN server is configured to support it. If you want to check, hit your VPN server in a browser. If you see a login screen, log in with your normal VPN credentials and you should be able to install AnyConnect from there.

All isn't rosy with this picture on Linux, however. The browser-based install doesn't work (or didn't for me at least), and while you can download a Linux version of the installer, the installer runs fine but the client throws some errors when you attempt to connect to your VPN. Specifically in my case it was throwing a "no valid certificates" error or something along those lines. As usual there's a relatively simple solution, but it took some digging.

AnyConnect relies on libraries that are distributed with Firefox, but AnyConnect expects these libraries to be located under /usr/local/firefox. On Ubuntu they're located elsewhere so AnyConnect chokes when it's trying to connect.

Once you have AnyConnect installed, go through the following steps to get things working. Also make sure the daemon is running; check using ps -ef | grep vpn and if it isn't running, do sudo /etc/init.d/vpnagentd_init start to fire that up.

1. Download Firefox from mozilla.com. Yes, I know, you already have it installed, but download a fresh copy anyway. Although you may be able to leverage your existing copy, I went this route just to be sure nothing interfered with the copy I use all day every day. I read some things that seemed to indicate you needed to get the 32-bit version if you're on a 64-bit OS, but that wasn't the case for me. I suppose if you have a 32-bit version of AnyConnect you'd want to get the 32-bit version of Firefox.
2. Untar Firefox into /usr/local/firefox
3. Create symlinks in /opt/cisco/vpn/lib to the following files, all of which are located in /usr/local/firefox:
   libnss3.so
   libplc4.so
   libnspr4.so
   libsmime3.so
   libsoftokn3.so
   libnssdbm3.so
   libfreebl3.so
   libnssutil3.so
   libplds4.so
   libsqlite3.so
   (Thanks to casevh in this thread for the list of libraries)
4. Launch AnyConnect (/opt/cisco/vpn/bin/vpnui). From what I read you should not be launching AnyConnect as root or by using sudo.
5. After the client launches, enter the host to which you want to connect.
6. Accept the certificate provided by the server.
7. Enter your user name and password as you normally do.

That's it--you should be in. Note that if you're used to using a profile file with a different VPN client, AnyConnect (at least based on my 1/2 day of experience) seems to work differently, so a user name and password should be all you need. If you're using a SecurID token of course you'll use that as your password.

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How To Choose Between 32-bit & 64-bit Windows 7 Operating Systems

Windows 7 launches this week and those waiting to upgrade should first decide if they want to install the Windows 7 64-bit (x64) version or stick with 32-bit (x86) Windows. Why? Even if you install 32-bit initially, it should be possible to upgrade to 64-bit later, right? Wrong.

You can’t upgrade from 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit without doing a fresh “clean” install, which requires you to reinstall all applications from scratch. Therefore, you need to decide on either 32-bit or 64-bit before you install Windows 7.

While I recommend you go with 64-bit, read through this article to make an informed decision.

Background: What is 32-bit and 64-bit?

32-bit and 64-bit are computer architectures that specify the length of data types and addresses that are supported. What this means for the average user is how much memory can be used effectively and how powerful the number-crunching capacity of the CPU is.

Since Windows XP was originally only released as a 32-bit operating system, and because older hardware have 32-bit device drivers, application development on the Windows platform has been slow in moving to 64-bit. However, after both Windows XP and Vista were released in 64-bit, Microsoft is now pushing 64-bit strongly, and you can expect application developers to take advantage of 64-bit computing soon.

Should You Buy 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7?

Fortunately, you do not need to worry about all this when purchasing a computer or Windows 7. If you are buying a new PC from a vendor, it will ship with 64-bit Windows pre-installed if the configuration supports 64-bit. If you buy retail boxed versions of Windows 7, they will include both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, except for the Home Basic edition.

Advantages of 64-bit

There are several benefits of going to Windows 7 64-bit:

• With 32-bit Windows, you can use a maximum of 4GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 7 runs very fast with 4GB and you can upgrade your RAM to 8 or 16 GB later, making your system future-proof.
• A 32-bit OS can theoretically use up to 4 GB of RAM, but 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 see a maximum of 3.12 GB. With 64-bit Windows 7, you can use the full 4GB RAM.
• You get better security with 64-bit Windows. All 64-bit device drivers are digitally signed, which means you will not have random crashes. You also get more advanced security features like Kernel Patch Protection with 64-bit Windows 7.
• Since 64-bit systems process more information and support greater RAM, Windows 7 is more responsive when you are running complex applications or many applications simultaneously. If you use graphics applications like Photoshop, video editing, games, CAD, etc., you should go 64-bit.
• Not all applications have 64-bit versions that take advantage of the 64-bit architecture, but you can expect more of them after Windows 7 goes mainstream. Meanwhile, most 32-bit applications work fine under 64-bit Windows. If any of them don’t for some reason, you can reasonably expect the application developers to fix any issues, because a lot of people will be running 64-bit Windows.

Check If Your PC Supports 64-Bit Windows 7

If you have bought or upgraded your computer in the past couple of years, with an Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent/higher processor, your PC is already equipped to run 64-bit Windows 7. If you want to make sure, you can do any of the following:

• If you are running 32-bit Windows Vista, go to Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools. Click View and print details. In the System section, you can see whether your PC is 64-bit capable.
• You can use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to find out if your system can run 64-bit Windows 7.
• Check the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to see if your devices have 64-bit drivers.

When You Should Use 32-bit

There are some situations in which you are better off using 32-bit Windows 7:

• If you use only 2GB of RAM, and do not plan to upgrade anytime soon. To really take advantage of 64-bit Windows 7, you need minimum 4GB RAM.
• You have legacy devices like scanners and printers that do not have 64-bit device drivers. 32-bit drivers are not supported under 64-bit Windows 7, so you should make sure all the devices you need to use are compatible with 64-bit.
• You run old 16-bit applications that were developed for Windows 3.1 or DOS. These won’t run under 64-bit Windows.

Did this post clear your doubts about 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions? Is your system ready for 64-bit Windows 7? Feel free to share and ask any questions in the comments!

Via Makeuseof.com

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Mac OS X: What 64Bit means...

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Running a Left 4 Dead dedicated server on Ubuntu Karmic 64 bit

This is half notes for myself and half helpful information for anyone else who wants a dedicated server on a decent OS. I assume you can use said decent OS and thus don't need me to hold your hand and guide you around the CLI.

Based off http://www.left4deadforums.com/1187-left-4-dead-linux-server-guide.html

1. Make a directory to put it all in.

mkdir hlds && chdir hlds

2. Download the file from valve to start it all off.

wget http://storefront.steampowered.com/download/updatetool.bin

3. Install the necessary 32bit libraries because Valve are still in the dark ages.

sudo apt-get install lib32gcc1

4. Run the file you downloaded.

chmod +x hldsupdatetool.bin && ./hldsupdatetool.bin

5. Accept the license agreement. Yes it scrolled past too fast to read. No you wern't going to read it anyway. Just accept it.

yes

6. Run the new steam executable with the right stuff to install the l4d server. The '-dir .' bit makes it put a l4d folder in the current dir. This is probably what you want.

chmod +x steam && ./steam -command update -game l4d_full -dir .

7. Wait for it to download then the configs will be in l4d/left4dead/cfg/server.cfg

vim l4d/left4dead/cfg/server.cfg

8. Make a config file. Something like the following should do fine.

hostname "My Server's Name"


rconn_password "password"


sv_other_settings "corresponding values"

9. Run the server up.

l4d/srcds_run l4d -autoupdate +ip <your servers ip address here> +hostpost 27203 +exec server.cfg +map l4d_farm01_hilltop &

10. Enjoy. You can control the server through the console in game by using "rcon_password <whatever password you put in the config file>".

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Installing Adobe Flash Player on 64-Bit Ubuntu 9.04

While I'll believe the "Furthering Adobe's commitment to the Linux community" bit when I can share my Linux desktop in Connect (ahem), it's nice that there's a native 64-bit Flash Player for Linux. Since I recently got a 64-bit system76 Serval Professional laptop I figured I'd try it out. The Serval comes with Flash pre-installed but I believe it's the 32-bit plugin running through nswrapper.

Nice that the 64-bit Flash Player is available, but not so nice is the amount of time I spent getting it working, so I hope this helps others.

1. Download Flash Player 10 pre-release from Adobe Labs
2. Unzip the file
3. Copy libflashplayer.so to either /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins or ~/.mozilla/plugins
4. REBOOT YOUR MACHINE

Step 4 is the most important step, since for me anyway simply restarting Firefox didn't do the trick. Every time I'd restart Firefox and hit a URL with Flash content the browser would instantly crash. Rebooting entirely did the trick for me.

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Adventures with 64bit Linux Mint

       

Click here to download:

Adventures_with_64bit_Linux_Mi.zip (9692 KB)

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64-bit on Snow Leopard (MacOS X 10.6.x)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Kernel</key>
    <string>mach_kernel</string>
    <key>Kernel Architecture</key>
    <string>x86_64</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string></string>
</dict>
</plist>

   

Click here to download:

64-bit_on_Snow_Leopard_MacOS_X.zip (36 KB)

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32bit compatibility layer for 64bit Slackware

I'm currently using Slamd64 which has this built in, so I have yet to try it. I hope it's of good quality and Pat decides to include it in official package

32bit compatibility layer for 64bit Slackware

ftp://anorien.warwick.ac.uk/slamd64/slackware64-current/

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Snow Leopard schöner nach K64 booten mit Preference Pane

Um die aktuellste Version von Apples Betriebssystem Snow Leopard auch kernelseitig in den 64-bit-Modus zu booten gab es bisher schon jede Menge Anleitungen.
Zum Beispiel hier:

   http://macperformanceguide.com/SnowLeopard-64bit.html

   oder hier

   http://www.osxbook.com/blog/2009/08/31/is-your-machine-good-enough-for-snow-leopard-k64/

 Aber auch richtige Anwendungen, wie den Startup Mode Selector gibt es:

   http://www.ahatfullofsky.comuv.com/English/Programs/SMS/SMS.html

 Die bisher aus meiner Sicht komfortabelste Variante ist aber die der System Preference Pane, die es hier zum Download gibt.

Ich bin dann mal 64-bit ;-)

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Windows update crashes Vista 64-bit

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