Launching an old Java Web Start JNLP with Local Resources

Older Oracle ILOM KVMS installations are usually based on Java Web Start, as this has been the tech of choice these days. If you happen to be under need to connect to such an outdated ILOM KVMS, first of all, get JVM that fits the era, https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/java-archive-javase5-downloads.html in my case for a 2013 Oracle ZFS 7120 storage. Since there is no real sense in convincing your web-browser to temporarily switch to the old JVM, with an old sandbox environment etc, you’re better off launching the Web Start from a console shell. So fetch the JNLP file from the ILOM Remote Control tab by starting / downloading it.

Then go and launch it.

Another typical problem pertains to obsolete ssl/tls certificates, both in key strength and/or invalid issuer (or whatever). So while the launch actually works, you may get an exception like follows.

The way out now is to download the jar files manually and provide them locally (or around, its still all https). Me, I needed JavaRConsole.jar , RedirLib.jar and win32.jar . I then provided these resources over https using the nifty SimpleHTTPServer out of the python community.

Left now, I needed to adapt the JNLP file to actually use the local stuff. First of all, remove the global codebase setting like so.

Next to it, adapt the references to the jar resources accordingly.

Voila, here we go.

Note this as well: if you start the JNLP the other day again but nothing more that the spash picture comes up, no error message of course 🙂 , do consider to cleanup the Web Start launch cache, as we are on Windows here, using an App.

Have fun!

Adding favorites to the portal.azure.com menu blade

Over and over, I found myself stuck in recalling how to add these favorites (of resource view blades) to the azure portal menu again… It’s not straightforward, no, there’s not just an add favorite to the menu on yet another blade view, like in the header area, for example. Nope. Instead you have to list all Azure services through https://portal.azure.com/#home , find the resource in question, wait for the hover popup and then activate the starred check box in the upper right corner. Ok, here we go.

So, this is what we do talk about, favorites in the menu blade.

This is where I would expect an add favorite to the menu item, just a proposal 🙂

However, instead we need to locate the little starred checkbox for a service already top rated in our home view or locatable under the services view itself.

Once checked, the favorite will immediately appear in the menu blade, being put right at the tail of all items. One may move it by d’n’d to whatever position required. With the hover popup / starred checkbox being available here as well, we may also remove the favorite again.

Have fun

Forward the $term variable to debian the xshell-way

Xshell is yet another putty-like terminal client for windows that features a couple of nice extensions. See the net for a multitude of alike “top-10 terminal clients for windows” posts. Among the features, Xshell does not only provide a raw terminal pane but also runs a so called local shell that actually embeds remote shells. In other words, initially (standard configuration) you get your xshell window, running the Xshell shell and offering a number of internal commands to act in the realm of Xshell by means of simple keystrokes. If you’re addicted to the keyboard, like me, this is a very pleasent way to go. For example, see the help output, a list of available sessions (connect profiles already configured) and an open to eventually connect to the remote host:

Anything keyed and, by the way, the session name even tab-expanded after a few characters. Cool, right?

Ok, that much for the preface, important to understand what followes next, the forwarding of a dedicated environment setting, namely TERM=xterm-256color with this terminal client (see why e.g.: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/256_Color_Terminals#Caveats, see others e.g.: https://codeyarns.github.io/tech/2015-03-18-how-to-set-term-to-xterm-256color.html).

The point is, based on the local shell, Xshell is able to inject/communicate code the the remote shell in an after-login but pre-(final-)prompt fashion. All you need to do is to code a snippet to call some member functions of the current local shell Screen object. Three language binding are possible so far: js, py and vbs. Examples are given in AppData\Local\NetSarang Computer\6\Xshell\Scripts\ScriptSample, documentation resides as https://netsarang.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ENSUP/pages/135136512/Using+Scripts . In order to achive the forward, the following code is sufficient (don’t ask my why a sleep is needed here):

def Main():
	xsh.Screen.Synchronous = True  # True or False
	xsh.Screen.Send("export TERM=xterm-256color\r")
	xsh.Session.Sleep(1000)

The file location can be configured in the sessions connect profile dialog like so. Done!

After all, the tiled and full screen view modes are also worth a try. Like it.

Enjoy

Remove a user id from a pgp key along gpg4win

Gpg4win, we’re speaking Windows here, comes with Kleopatra, a Qt-App from the KDE realm, to manage keys, called certificates, encrypt/decrypt/verify files and mails and so forth. Kleopatra is a nice piece of software and supplies almost any functionality you need in the branch. However, concerning certificate user id’s, mostly names and email-adresses in this context, Kleopatra does yet only provide adding. A delete or update (delete/insert) has not yet been instrumented (*1).
Fortunately, Gpg4win does include a full distrubution of GnuPG located as c:\Program Files (x86)\GnuPG, such that we have the full toolset of the used-to gpg command line at our disposal. According to https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/9403/how-can-i-remove-my-personal-data-from-my-pgp-public-key , we just need a couple of commands to delete user id #1 as follows:

C:\Windows\System32>gpg -k
C:/Users/???/AppData/Roaming/gnupg/pubring.kbx
-----------------------------------------------
pub   ??? ??? [SC]
      ???
uid        [ ultimativ ] ??? <???>
uid        [ ultimativ ] ??? <???>
sub   ??? ??? [E]

C:\Windows\System32>gpg --edit-key ???
Geheimer Schlüssel ist vorhanden.
sec ...
[ ultimativ ] (1). ??? <???>
[ ultimativ ] (2)  ??? <???>

gpg> uid 1
sec ...
[ ultimativ ] (1)* ??? <???>
[ ultimativ ] (2)  ??? <???>

gpg> deluid
Diese User-ID wirklich entfernen? (j/N) j
sec ...
[ ultimativ ] (1)  ??? <???>

gpg> save

Kleopatra will notice ad hoc, cool. Enigmail does only show the primary user id anyway, so it might change in view, depending on the level of the user id deleted.

Have fun

(*1) If you’re with key servers, you should better think of revoking user id’s because in a key server environment, key metadata will always be merged to a set union. That is, nothing will be deleted really.

Ps. If you’re also suprised to find Kleopatra running in german but by principle prefer english for efficient wording, do find the language settings NOT Settings BUT with the Help main menu item 😉

Install the Oracle OE- and SH-schemata for the OrderEntry- and SalesHistory-benchmarks

# - oe takes intermedia, sh takes partitioning and bitmap-indexes, so ee is a must
# - https://oracle-base.com/articles/misc/install-sample-schemas

# [ oracle@my.host.de.de $ ~ ]
mkdir sample-schemas ; cd sample-schemas
wget https://github.com/oracle/db-sample-schemas/archive/v12.2.0.1.zip
unzip v12.2.0.1.zip
cp -R db-sample-schemas-12.2.0.1/* $ORACLE_HOME/demo/schema
cd $ORACLE_HOME/demo/schema
perl -p -i.bak -e 's#__SUB__CWD__#'$(pwd)'#g' *.sql */*.sql */*.dat

# yet install
rlsqlplus system/oracle@my_db_srv
show con_name -- MY_DB_SRV
-- system_password sys_password hr_password oe_password pm_password ix_password sh_password
--   bi_password tablespace_name temp_tablespace_name log_location ez_connect_string
@mksample oracle oracle hr oe pm ix sh bi users temp /u01/app/oracle/product/12.2.0/dbhome_1/demo/schema/log/ my_db_srv
^d

# see the oe/sh log files
less $ORACLE_HOME/demo/schema/log/oe_oc_v3.log
less $ORACLE_HOME/demo/schema/log/sh_v3.log