Memtest86

The memory testing tool on bootable Linux distributions seems to have disappeared. It used to be when you booted up a CD or USB with a live Linux distribution like Ubuntu that there was an option for a memory test. Now that option seems to be gone. I needed to test the memory on a desktop PC (a new one with UEFI) and couldn't find it on any bootable downloads. Also, the PC was finicky about what would boot (probably because of UEFI, but I'm not sure about that).

I had never previously used the freestanding Memtest86, but it is a small download and creating the bootable USB was very simple (at least, it was on Linux). It booted just fine on a brand new UEFI PC and ran a comprehensive memory test in a few hours. So if you are looking for a memory test, skip the full distribution download and just get the bootable Memtest86.

Syncing an iPod Nano with Windows under VirtualBox in Ubuntu

I bought an iPod Nano (7th generation) for my son, and decided I wanted to use a Windows 7 virtual machine to house the iTunes software necessary to manage the gizmo. Apple items need to be managed with iTunes running on a Windows or Apple computer (there are options for dealing with iProducts from Linux, but since this is my son's gizmo I don't want to have to deal with them). I have been using Linux on my desktop and laptop for some time now, and the only things I use that have to run on Windows (for which I created the VM) are some tax software and the sync software for the Fitbit. And now this.

Since tax season is past and since my Fitbit split apart into a kazillion pieces, I have had little need to run the VM, so the first problem I had to deal with was the excessive number of Windows updates to be sifted through. Once that was done, installing iTunes was easy but connecting to the iPod was unsuccessful. Windows kept telling me that it could not start the device, could not find the device, could not find the appropriate driver, etc. It turns out that the problem was USB 2.0 compatibility--the iPod quietly requires USB2.0 and the current version of VirtualBox doesn't support it directly. Instead of going through the whole troubleshooting story, which would bore you to tears, I will just cut to the chase and tell you the things I did to get it running properly.

Ubuntu without password requests

When I bought a computer for my son a few years ago, it came with XP preloaded. It was a refurbished computer from a local store, and they do a good job of putting together a cheap, basic system. At the time, I contemplated wiping the disk and putting Linux on it instead, but since it was already working and ready to use I decided to leave it as-is. The guys at the store had put Firefox and OpenOffice on it, so why mess with it?

Malware removal

I have had the pleasure of removing malware from a few friends computers lately (Windows XP). In the two most recent cases, they were heavily infected with phony antivirus software and alerts. They probably clicked the "you are infected" popups and it escalated from there.

In both cases, I used MalwareBytes to remove the offensive stuff. The free version can do a full scan in a few hours and seems to a solid job of sniffing stuff out and removing it.

 I have found that you have to run the scans several times, both as the administrator and as the actual user to find everything. I just scanned and rebooted repeatedly until I could see no trace of the stuff left.

I think that XP was more prone to these kinds of things than later versions (or than Linux or Mac) because of the permissions. We'll see if the rollout of Windows 7 reduces my friends infections. (I am running Linux, so all I have to worry about is making my system so complicated I can't use it anymore.)