VMware guest time sync under OSX

To sync time without needing VMware tools, you can run a cron job every minute that syncs with the OSX time daemon.

1. Determine the IP address that OSX uses for the VMware network
2. Add a cron job in the guest that runs
   
   ntpdate -s {ip address}

I'm running this in Ubuntu 8.10 under OSX 10.5.7 VMware Fusion 2.0.5.

mount: could not find any free loop device

Just tried to mount a bunch of .iso images I'd made from backup cds so I could hunt for a missing photograph without needing to continually swap cds. I ran out of loop devices, that is I got this error:

mount: could not find any free loop device

Here's how I fixed it thanks to this article.

Creating extra loop device entries

Also make sure you have enough devices available. You can
check how many you have by doing:

ls -d /dev/loop*

An easy way to create more, is by doing:

for i in $(seq 0 255); do
mknod -m0660 /dev/loop$i b 7 $i
chown root.disk /dev/loop$i
done

You can have up to 256 loop devices mounted.

ThinkPad R52 - Firmware Update

Using Ubuntu Gutsy, updating the firmware is:

• Download the DVD firmware - the .iso
  
• Download the HDD firmware - the .iso
  
• Download the BIOS firmware - the non disk version
  
• Download the Embedded Controller firmware - the non disk version
  

The BIOS and the Embedded Controller firmware need to be made into an .iso like this:

• cabextract {filename}
• mkiso -b {filename.IMG} -o isoName.iso {filename.IMG}

This will give you four .iso files - burn them to disks, boot them one at a time - done.

The instructions on the IBM site say, update the BIOS before updating the Embedded Controller.

Useful links:

• http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-58931#bios
• http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/BIOS_Upgrade_Downloads
• http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-62282.html
• http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-63596
• Lenovo Support & downloads - BIOS Update (Non-Diskette) - ThinkPad R52 (1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1958), T43 (1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876)
• Lenovo Support & downloads - Embedded Controller Program (Non-Diskette) - ThinkPad R52 (1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1958), T43 (1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876)