Synology DSM root password for ssh

Today I wanted to login to my Synology Diskstation NAS via SSH as root, but it wouldn’t accept my password. To resolve, try stopping and restarting the SSH service (under Terminal in the DSM Control Panel). If that doesn’t work, try the following (verbatim via Primal Cortex’s Weblog):

  1. Enable telnet on the DSM Control Panel
  2. Telnet as root. The password should be the same as admin. If not, change again the admin password.
  3. Execute the following command: synouser -setpwd root password_same_as_admin_or_not
  4. Trying now to ssh as root it should succeed with the password gave in the above command
  5. Disable telnet on the DSM Control Panel
  6. Done.

Via Synology DSM root password for ssh | Primal Cortex’s Weblog.

Posted in Problem Solving, Synology by

VirtualBox – upgrading Windows XP VMs to 2 CPU

As you should know, you are never alone with your technical problems. Every time you stumble upon a problem, there’s someone out there with the answer. The trick is to find that answer.

Today I found the solution to one of my problems, via Alex Klink’s tech blog. His post here, verbatim:

Symptom: If you had Windows XP VM with only 1 CPU created / virtalized earlier you won’t be able to see a second CPU when you add it later.

  1. Make sure you have second CPU added via VM Virtual Box Manager and “Enable IO APIC” checkbox  in System settings on Motherboard tab is checked.
  2. You should see 2 CPUs in Device Manager , but when you run Task Manager, you’ll see only 1 CPU.
  3. MS recommendation for Windows XP is to reinstall Windows (no surprise) as you can see it in this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309283
  4. Do not reinstall Windows, just run run the following from command prompt

    rundll32 syssetup,SetupInfObjectInstallAction ACPIAPIC_MP_HAL 128 %windir%\inf\hal.inf

  5. Reboot when prompted , log on back to Windows XP wait until you see “Windows has finished installing new devices. The software that supports your device requires that you restart your computer. You must restart your computer before the new setting will take effect” and press OK to reboot it again.
  6. Done

Via Alex Klink’s tech blog: VirtualBox – upgrading Windows XP VMs to 2 CPU.

Posted in Problem Solving, Virtual Box, Windows by

Portal 2 crashes on Windows 8.1

Earlier this year I got myself a new gaming laptop, a sweet MSI GT70-0NE which came with Windows 8. Of course I play games via Steam and recently a friend finally got Portal 2 as well, so that we could start playing together and solve the multiplayer puzzles.

However, from the start I occasionally had some problems with Portal 2. Whenever I would join the multiplayer HUB, the Steam process would crash (simply exit without warning or notice) and thus the game would then just hang. Unfortunately I never really figured out what was wrong because the problem was not really prevalent. Sometimes a quick reboot would solve things.

But, running the game in a window (i.e. not full screen), did seem to improve things and the crashes of Steam have not returned since. You can specify this setting under Options -> Video -> Display Mode in the main menu of the game.

So, last week Windows 8.1 came out and I was eager to install it, because of the small improvements that were made. I first made sure (on another system) that my external hardware devices would continue to work and as that seemed to be the case, I plunged in.

It was only a couple of days later, when I fired up Portal 2 again, when I first noticed that the game would not start anymore. That is, the intro animation of the valve logo would show up and after that the main loading screen appeared. But at that point the Portal 2 process would simply crash and shut down. (“Portal2.exe not responding”)

After doing some research, it seemed that revalidating the game cache might solve the new problem (right click on Portal 2 in Steam, select “Properties”, select “Local Files”, select “Verify integrity of game cache”). So I did that and the result was that one file needed to be re-downloaded. After that was done, the game would indeedstartup again. I’ve been able to play the single player game again and I will be finding out if the multiplayer mode also still works. (i.e. Steam not crashing the moment I enter the multiplayer hub)

Atlas and P-Body decided who goes first

Portal 2

Posted in Problem Solving, Steam, Windows 8.1 by