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To Install VMware Tools under BackTrack 3, here are the steps:

Note: This article is related to installing VMware Server 1.x on Ubuntu, with kernel 2.6.24-x.

Install and Setup VMware Server

After you downloaded the VMware Server package, and run vmware-install.pl, it will ask you to run vmware-config.pl. Run that script and you will most likely encounter some module problem. If you do, then download vmware-any-any-update-116 (or newer version) from Peter Velichkov's Blog. Then run the runme.pl found the in vmware-any-any-update-xxx package. Then reboot your Ubuntu.

I did an auto upgrade on the Gentoo system today, which included upgrading grub. When it finished, it printed out a message:

 * *** IMPORTANT NOTE: you must run grub and install
 * the new version's stage1 to your MBR.  Until you do,
 * stage1 and stage2 will still be the old version, but
 * later stages will be the new version, which could
 * cause problems such as an unbootable system.

This article Reducing memory usage - Firefox is a good reference on how to reduce memory usage by Firefox. Follow through the suggestions in this article will sure make your Firefox much faster.

Major points:

• If you don't need all the extensions and plugins, you can start firefox at safe-mode
• Clear download history
• Configure memory usage limit
• Restart Firefox periodically

To start firefox in safe-mode, just do

$ firefox -safe-mode &

Monitoring Hard Disks with SMART

Linux Journal has an article introducing Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). SMART is avaivalable in many Linux distros, including Slackware, Debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Gentoo, Conectiva ,and RedHat.

To install on Gentoo, do:

root# emerge -pv smartmontools

To install on Ubuntu, do:

This is a Linux server that does not have a floppy disk. It has ext2, ext3, and reiserfx on it. I want to preserve the conntent, while repartitioning the disks.

Move data in non-root partition

If the partitions you want to move or change are not root or boot, then it is easy. Just install "parted" and follow the instruction. Or do the same as in the next section "Move data in root partition" - no need to use dd. Just use tar to archive and unarchive. Use dd when you have to deal with low level stuff, such as data in /root, /dev, etc.

Dell Poweredge 1400SC

This Dell server has had some of its components changed - hard drives changed, and memory upgraded. As a result, when booting up, it asked "Strike F1 to continue".

dell.com website provides download for latest BIOS. It is said that flashing the BIOS will get rid of this "Strike F1 to continue". But I am lazy tonight. I already installed Linux on it, so I can't use dell.com's exe file to update BIOS. Nor do I have a diskette handy to create floppy disk.