Blog of spblinux

A generic rescue system should boot in bios mode and in (u)efi mode. It should boot from usb and it should use the same boot menu config file for bios and for efi boot mode. Grub2 has a nice boot menu and supports bios and efi boot mode.

Because the installation scripts of grub2 might have side effects and might affect installed systems, only grub images (=files) are created.
(Installation for efi boot, if secure boot is disabled: copy grub core image to EFI/BOOT; bios boot: chainload from syslinux + ldbsd.com.)

Steps to create such an usb stick using linux (e.g. ubuntu or opensuse): bios boot and efi boot with disabled secure boot
(it is possible to use clonezilla stable (=debian version): choose run shell; sudo su; ifconfig eth0 YOURIP netmask YOURMASK; route add default gw YOURGATEWAYIP; use mc to edit /etc/resolv.conf: nameserver 8.8.8.8; apt-get update; apt-get install grub-efi; use wget to fetch other files)

• backup existing data because the usb stick will be repartitioned (erasing existing data)
• run linux and use gdisk to create a gpt partition table with one fat32 partition
  (which will be marked bootable for bios boot). Run gdisk as root user:
  gdisk /dev/sdX (X=your usb stick; ensure that you use the intended usb stick – and not an existing hard disk)
  – p (prints existing partition table)
  – o (creates a new empty partition table)
  – n (create partition: use default start and end sectors, set type to 0700)
  – x (switch to expert menu)
  – a (add flags:  use 2 = “legacy BIOS bootable”)
  – w (writes the new partition table to the usb stick)
•  format the new partition with fat32 (and set partition label name to SPB2; this label will be used by grub2 to identify the partition)
  mkfs.msdos -n SPB2 /dev/sdX1 (X=your usb stick)
• mount the new partition and create some directories:
  – mkdir mnt
  – mount /dev/sdX1 mnt (X=your usb stick)
  – mkdir -p mnt/EFI/BOOT
  – mkdir -p mnt/grub/fonts
  – mkdir syslinux
  – mkdir mnt/grub/i386-pc (optionally for additional grub2 modules, bios mode)
  – mkdir mnt/grub/x86_64-efi (optionally for additional grub2 modules, efi mode)
• install syslinux (has to be version <5.0, binaries here: syslinux.zip) to the new partition /dev/sdX1 and copy the sylinux boot loader gptmbr.bin to /dev/sdX
  – umount /dev/sdX1 (X=your usb stick)
  – syslinux -d syslinux /dev/sdX1 (X=your usb stick)
  –  dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sdX
  or
  dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sdX
  – mount /dev/sdX1 mnt
• contents of configuration file for grub core image in bios boot mode embed.cfg:
  search.fs_label SPB2 root
  set prefix=($root)/grub
  configfile $prefix/grub.cfg
• the  configuration file for grub core image in efi boot mode embed_efi.cfg currently has the same contents as embed.cfg.
• both configuration files, embed.cfg and embed_efi.cfg are stored in mnt/grub/
• install grub2 (needs installed grub2 packets for i386-pc and for x86_64-efi;
  e.g. apt-get install grub-pc and apt-get install grub-efi-amd64; older debian based linux calls grub2 grub and grub-1.x grub-legacy).
  This step creates only grub image files (given by “-o”).
  – cp /usr/share/grub/unicode2.pf2 mnt/grub/fonts/
  or
  cp /usr/share/grub2/unicode.pf2 mnt/grub/fonts
  –  grub-mkimage -O i386-pc -p /grub -c mnt/grub/embed.cfg -o mnt/grub/core.img configfile fat part_gpt part_msdos biosdisk cat echo test search search_label search_fs_uuid boot chain linux reboot halt normal vbe font gfxterm
  or
  grub2-mkimage ….
  –  grub-mkimage -O x86_64-efi -p /grub -c mnt/grub/embed_efi.cfg -o mnt/EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi configfile fat part_gpt part_msdos cat echo test search search_label search_fs_uuid boot chain linux reboot halt normal efi_gop efi_uga font gfxterm
  or
  grub2-mkimage ….
• in bios boot mode syslinux is used to chainload core.img of grub2 (with an intermediate ldbsd.com from grml project which does only work with syslinux versions <5.0)
  – contents of syslinux.cfg (to be copied to mnt/syslinux/syslinux.cfg):
  default grub2
  timeout 1
  totaltimeout 3
  label grub2
  say using bsd4grml/ldbsd.com as loader
  kernel ldbsd.com
  append echo Loading GRUB2…`machine exec grub /grub/core.img
  – unpack ldbsd.com.zip and copy ldbsd.com to mnt/syslinux/ldbsd.com
• finally we need grub.cfg (to be stored in mnt/grub/):
  set menu_color_normal=white/black
  set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
  set default=0
  loadfont ($root)/grub/fonts/unicode.pf2
  if [ x$grub_platform = xefi ]; then
  set gfxmode=auto
  set gfxpayload=keep
  set boottype=efi
  else
  set gfxmode=800x600x16
  set gfxpayload=keep
  set boottype=bios
  fi
  terminal_output gfxterm
  menuentry “linux on sdb1 ($boottype; partition SPB2 on($root); $gfxmode)” {
  linux ($root)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sb1 …
  initrd ($root)/initrd
  }
• the example assumes that linux kernel and ramdisk are copied to mnt/
  (that is, to the root directory of the usb stick)
• both boot modes can be tested with virtualbox (>=4.2.12); system settings allow to switch to efi boot mode.
  Give access to usb device with
  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdX -filename raw_usb_sdX.vmdk

If the same virtual machines should be used on a multi boot system there are at least 3 choices:

• A fat32 partition with virtual disk files. But disk size is limited to 4GB.
• An iSCSI disk connected by network. Speed is limited by network throughput.
• Direct access to hard disk partitions used as virtual disks. With windows a separate hard disk has to be used.

The third choice is described below. Thus a second hard disk only used with virtual machines is required. To allow hard disks with more than 2 TB capacity the disk is partitioned as gpt disk.

Warning: the commands described below can erase the whole data of your hard disks if a mistake is made. Do not continue unless you have a full backup of your system.

========================================

(Yes I am prepared to restore my system in case of a mistake …):

Attach an additional hard disk to your computer which is only used for virtual box images (tested with internal disk; should work with usb disk).
(At least the currently running (host) operating system must not be installed on the same disk).
Add a new partition to the additional hard disk. (If the new virtual disk has 25 GB then the size of the new partion is 25 GB.) In case of a gpt partioned disk up to 128 partitions can be created.

• with a linux host using gdisk the type of the new partition can be set to 0x8301 (linux reserved)
  (internally translated by gdisk to 8DA63339-0007-60C0-C436-083AC8230908)

In case of windows 7 as virtual machine the hardware uuid of the vm must be the same
in the three hosts (linux, osx, windows). (Else the activation of windows 7 cannot be kept.)

•  to display the hardware uuid of the activated vm (with name W7) use:
  VBOxManage showvminfo W7 |grep Hardware
• to set the hardware uuid of a vm (with name W7_1) use the uuid displayed by showvminfo:
  VBoxManage modifyvm W7_1 –hardwareuuid 12345678-1234-abcd-0123-0123456789ab

Using this partition as virtual hard disk with a linux host:

• determine the device name of the new partition, e.g. /dev/sdb7
  (cat /proc/partitions, gdisk -l /dev/sdb …)
• either ad the current user to group disk to allow raw access to all disks
  (has only to be done once; is effective after re-login; but is potentially dangerous).
  Or change the group of /dev/sdb7 to vboxusers
  (to be repeated after reboot)
• run as root user:
  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb7 -filename my_filename.vmdk
  and change the ownership of this file to the current user
• run VirtualBox and add my_filename.vmdk as hard disk to the virtual machine

Using this partition as virtual hard disk with a OS X host:

• determine the device name of the new partition, e.g. /dev/disk1s7
  (ls -l /dev/disk* …)
• ad the current user to group operator to allow raw access to all disks
  (is effective after re-login; is potentially dangerous):
  dseditgroup -o edit -a name_of_current_user -t user operator
• Change permission of group from read access to write access
  sudo chmod g+w /dev/disk1s7
  (to be repeated after reboot)
• run as root user:
  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk1s7 -filename my_filename.vmdk
  and change the ownership of this file to the current user
• run VirtualBox and add my_filename.vmdk as hard disk to the virtual machine
• if OS X auto mounts partitions which should be used by virtualbox: try to deactivate them with disk utility; in case that does not work you can run disk arbitrator which blocks auto mount

Using this partition as virtual hard disk with a Windows 8 64 bit host:

• requires to run VirtualBox with administrative privileges
• determine the device name of the new partition, e.g. diskpart
  list disk
  select disk 1
  list partition
  select partition 7
  detail partition
• windows blocks raw access to the hard disk if the disk is online; use diskpart to switch the disk offline:
  list disk
  select disk 1
  offline disk
• if the disk is mbr partioned open a console window with administrative privileges and run:
  “C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -filename my_filename.vmdk -partitions 7
  if the disk is a gpt disk VBoxManage will crash (with VirtualBox 4.2.12) and you have to run this command using a linux host
  VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb -filename my_filename.vmdk -partitions 7
  (the resulting file my_filename.vmdk hast to be copied to the windows host)
• use wordpad to edit the vmdk file, so that partition 7 is seen as a whole virtual disk:
  (once again a warning: an editing mistake might erase all data of your hard disks)
  change createType to “fullDevice”
  between the lines “# Extent description” and “# The disk Data Base”
  delete all lines except the one refering to partition 7 (e.g. RW 52428800 FLAT “\\.\PhysicalDrive1” 482756608)
  If the vmdk file has been created with linux then the linux device name (e.g. /dev/sdb) has to be replaced
  by the windows device name (e.g. \\.\PhysicalDrive1)
• run VirtualBoxwith administrative privileges and add my_filename.vmdk as hard disk to the virtual machine

Harddisks with form factor 2,5 inch have capacities of 1 or 2 terabyte nowadays. And usb 3.0 connectors supply enough current to run these harddisks. If it is possible to boot from such a harddisk into the imaging program you get a very compact backup and recovery system. Useful for snapshots of installed operating systems (allowing bare metall recovery).

Example of such a system with WD my passport 2,5′ USB 3.0 harddisk and TrueImage home 2013:

– use trueimage media builder to create a bootable usb stick (1GB)
– use diskpart in windows to repartition the my passport harddisk (with mbr partition table): create 2 primary partitions, make the first 1000 MB big, make this partition active and (quick) format it with fat32. The second partition takes the rest of the harddisk.

– open trueimage (inside windows) backup the first partition of the usb stick which has been made bootable by media builder.

– restore this backup to the first partition of the my passport harddisk

– boot into linux (a live cd could be used), format the second partition of the my passport harddisk with ext3 filesystem and create a folder for backups on this partition.

– verify that file /usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin exists. (Else install syslinux). Then check the device name of the my passport harddisk, e.g. sdb and run as root user
dd if=/usr/share/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdb
(Make sure that sdb is the my passport disk!).
In case of a gpt disk use gptmbr.bin and set the type of the second partition to 0700 (else trueimage does not save tib-files on this partition);
(additional remark: use gdisk /dev/sdb to set the legacy BIOS bootable flag on partition 1 (inside gdisk: p   x   a   1   2   <enter>   w);
this makes the gpt disk BIOS bootable, at least syslinux works as bootloader on this partition and syslinux may load trueimage …).

– now you should have a bootable harddisk with space for backups

– tested with mac mini (6.1 = ‘late 2012’). – In case of usb reset errors it might be worth to try another usb cable; the bootable version of trueimage uses linux.

installation snippets

goal: efi-bootable installation of OS X, Windows 8, Linux (opensuse 12.3)

backup harddisk:

• unused 16 GB usb stick
• use os x disk utility to create a guid partition table with two partitions (first with 1 GB size, formatted mac os extended journaled)
• download os x recovery tool from apple here
• run the recovery tool (in os x) and format the usb stick
• use os x disk utility to create a second partition on the usb stick
• use this second partition as time machine backup and let time machine create a full backup (might take some hours with usb 2 sticks);
  – needs about 12 GB to backup the preinstalled os x of mac mini;
  – change energy settings in system settings that this backup does not get interrupted by automatic sleep mode.
• make sure that the usb stick is bootable:
  boot with pressed option/alt-key

reformat hard disk as gpt disk without (protective) mbr

• warning: a backup is required because all data on the disk will be erased
• in order to get as second os windows with efi boot the disk is formated with windows diskpart (following this helpful tutorial)
• boot with some windows 8 install media (windows 7 or vista should work as well)
  – press shift+F10 to get a console window
  (it might be neccessary to enter repair options screen first)
  – run diskpart with
  • list disk
  • select disk 0
  • clean
  • convert gpt
    in case convert gpt fails with error write protected
    and attr dis shows read-only yes, then run
    attr dis clear readonly
    now convert gpt should work
  • create partition efi size=256
  • format fs=fat32 quick label=EFI
  • create partition primary size=51200 [size of your OS X partition in MB; Ex. 50GB = 51200]
  • list partition
  • create partition msr size=128
  • create partition primary size=30720 (desired size of your Windows partition; Ex. 30GB = 30720)
  • format fs=ntfs quick label=Windows
  • exit

  – reboot

restore os x

• boot with pressed option/alt-key, select the usb stick with osx recovery tool
  – restore os x using the time machine backup
• reboot into os x
  – run boot camp to download windows drivers
  (store the drivers in your os x home folder)
  – do not use boot camp to prepare your hard disk!
  – install rEFIt 0.14 boot loader from sourceforge
  -the configuration file of rEFIt allows to set os x as default os
  (/efi/refit/refit.conf on the os x system partition
  default_selection M)

prepare efi-bootable windows 8 install medium

• warning: in bios-mode the installer does not accept the disk and windows partition created with diskpart
  (only windows 8 64 bit properly prepared install media support (u)efi-mode …)
• steps to create a efi-bootable usb stick from only bios-bootable dvd (as described here)
  – unused 4 GB usb stick
  – run diskpart (from windows vista/7/8 or from a windows 7/8 installer)
  – run diskpart with
  • list disk
  • select disk X (make sure X corresponds to the 4 GB usb stick!)
    
  • clean
  • create partition primary
  • select partition 1
  • active
  • format fs=fat32 quick
  • assign
  • exit

  – copy files from existing bios-bootable windows 8 64 bit install medium to the new usb stick

  • xcopy E:\*.* /s/e/f F:\

  – this assumes the existing install medium has drive letter E: and the new medium has drive letter F:
  – reboot into os x and copy the folder with bootcamp drivers to the new usb stick

install windows 8

• boot with the efi bootable windows 8 pro 64 bit install medium
• select the windows partition created before
  (if the installer displays that this partion is not formatted then efi-boot failed; you have to retry to boot into efi-mode)
• after installation of windows 8 install bootcamp drivers (enables networking)
• to get rEFIt boot manager back
  – either boot with pressed option/alt-key into osx and use system settings to select start volume “os x”
  – or use the windows 8 bootcamp system tray applet to select the start volume “os x”

opensuse 12.3 installation

• burn an OpenSuse 12.3 64 bit install dvd (full installer, not only network installer)
• efi-boot with this dvd (using grubx64.efi)
• select user defined install
• add linux partitions to the hard disk
  – an additional fat32 data partition which has rw access by os x, windows and linux might be useful
  – the partioning summary should show that /dev/sda1 is used as boot device
• in boot manager settings select “test for other systems”, use grub2-efi and ignore the error message
• install linux
  – should be successful except network
• to get rEFIt boot manager back boot into windows and use bootcamp system try applet
  (windows should be displayed in the grub2 boot menu; eles use pressed option/alt key during boot)

• the tg3 network module has to be recompiled with additional pci id lines
  (the same issue is in Desinfec’t 2013 published by german c’t magazine: patched ubuntu tg3.ko: tg3_desinfect2013)
• boot into linux and use yast to install from dvd build tools and linux kernel source and linux headers:
  – the rightmost tab in yast software install tool (“Schemata” in german version) allows to select
  – basic development tools
  – c/c++ development
  – linux kernel development
• the file tg3.c has to be patched as decribed here
  (lspci -nn gives [14e4:1686] which corresponds in tg3.h to TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57766
  but the device id TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57766 is missing in tg3.c)
  – copy /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/tg3.c to tg3.c.orig and add the lines marked with +
  (without writing the ‘+’ sign)

  {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_BROADCOM, TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57762)},
  + {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_BROADCOM, TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57766)},
  + {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_BROADCOM, TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57782)},
  + {PCI_DEVICE(PCI_VENDOR_ID_BROADCOM, TG3PCI_DEVICE_TIGON3_57786)},
  - then recompile tg3.ko; run inside a konsole window:
  cd /usr/src/linux
  make clean
  make oldconfig
  cp /usr/src/linux-obj/x86_64/desktop/Module.symvers /usr/src/linux/
  (or cp /boot/symvers-3.xyz.gz /usr/src/linux; cd /usr/src/linux; gunzip symvers-3.xyz.gz;
  ln -s symvers-3.xyz Module.symvers)

  make scripts
  make prepare
  cd drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/
  make -C /usr/src/linux SUBDIRS=$PWD modules
  su
  cp tg3.ko /lib/modules/3.7.10-1.1-desktop/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/broadcom/

• finally re-insert tg3 kernel module:
  - rmmod tg3
  - insmod tg3

• use command dmesg and ifconfig -a to verify that network interface eth0 is now available

• use yast to setup wired network eth0

opensuse 12.3 enable wireless network

•  kernel module b43 needs firmware files which should be downloaded by
  sudo /usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
  (as diplayed by:
  rmmod b43
  modprobe b43
  dmesg
  )
• currently (2013-03) install_bcm43xx_firmware does not install all required files
  (ucode29_mimo.fw is missing)
• download these firmware files (which claim to be part of netgear wndr4500 gpl source package)
• open this archive and extract linux/wl_apsta.o to /lib/firmware/broadcom-wl-firmwares/
• open a konsole window with root rights and run
  cd /lib/firmware/broadcom-wl-firmwares
  b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware/ wl_apsta.o
• now run:
  rmmod b43
  modprobe b43
  dmesg
  This should display Broadcom 4331 WLAN found
• then use yast or network manager to configure wireless network

+++ b/drivers/bluetooth/btusb.c
@@ -84,6 +84,9 @@ static struct usb_device_id btusb_table[] = {
+ /* Apple MacBookPro10,1 */
+ { USB_DEVICE(0x05ac, 0x8286) },
+

Steps to get  dovecot 2.1.17 on qnap ts 119p II NAS (firmware 3.8.1 or 4.x) up and running:

dovecot has to be compiled from source:

• qnap web admin: qpkg center: available / more / Optware IPKG: install and activate it. Or with newer firmware, 4.x, follow these instructions (using HDA_DATA instead of MD0_DATA and replacing cs05q3armel = gcc-3.4.4 by cs08q1armel = gcc-4.2.3).
• enable ssh on qnap and connect as user admin
• cd /opt
• ./Optware.sh start. Or with newer firmware:
  PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:$PATH
• ipkg update
• ipkg install mc
  (my preferred editor and file manager)
• ipkg install libidn
  ipkg install optware-devel
  (pulls in many tools used for compilation of packages)
• mkdir src
  cd src
  wget http://www.dovecot.org/releases/2.1/dovecot-2.1.17.tar.gz
  tar -xzf dovecot-2.1.17.tar.gz
  cd dovecot-2.1.17
  (download dovecot source)
• export PATH=/opt/bin:/opt/sbin:$PATH
  (compilation might fail if tools in /bin or /usr/bin are used instead of the ones in /opt/bin)
  ./configure –prefix=/opt –with-storages=maildir
  make
  make install
  (if configure does not find a required library foo the run ipkg list |grep foo and install libfoo-dev with ipkg install)
• child processes of dovecot use /lib and ignore /opt/lib
  (maybe this can be avoided with CPPFLAGS=”-I/opt/include” LDFLAGS=”-L/opt/lib -ldl” ./configure …)
  qnap firmware 3.8.1 installs libssl 0.97 in /lib but ipkg installs libssl 0.98 in /opt/lib; workaround:
  ln -s /opt/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 /lib/
  ln -s /opt/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 /lib/
  (to be moved into dovecot startup script)
• mkdir /opt/var/log
  addgroup dovenull
  addgroup dovecot
  adduser -D -H -G dovenull dovenull
  adduser -D -H _G dovecot dovecot
• cd /opt/etc
  mkdir dovecot
  mkdir dovecot/conf.d
  (now copy config files from /opt/share/doc/dovecot/example-config to /opt/etc/dovecot, e.g. using mc)
  dovecot.conf: protocols = imap and listen = *
  10-auth.conf: disable_plaintext_auth = no
  10-logging.conf: log_path = /opt/var/log/dovecot.log
  10-mail.conf: mail_location = maildir:/share/dovecot/%n
  10-master.conf: unchanged
  10-ssl.conf: ssl = no and #ssl_cert… and #ssl_key… (disable ssl; might be enabled in a later step)
  20-imap.conf: unchanged
  auth-system.conf.ext: comment out the section driver = pam and uncomment the section driver = shadow
  and add args = blocking=no
  newer firmware 4.x:
  do not use blocking=no because /etc/shadow needs a worker thread which is allowed to access /etc/shadow; so add to auth-system.conf.ext:
  service auth-worker {
  group = administrators
  }
  (mail users will be created with qnap web interface)
• from qnap web interface: access control
  user-groups: create group mail
  shared folders: add folder dovecot (use automatic path and do not share it)
  shared folders: permissions for folder dovecot:
  user: create the mail user yourname with password  and add it to group mail
• start dovecot manually
  dovecot -c /opt/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
  and test it with telnet as described in the dovecot wiki (with mail user yourname)
  finally try to connect with a mail client like thunderbird
• start and stop dovecot automatically: there are optware start/stop scripts in /opt/etc/init.d
  but the qnap firmware (currently 3.8.1) does not execute them.
  – mkdir /tmp/config
  – mount /dev/mtd5 /tmp/config
  firmware 4.x: use /dev/mtdblock5
  – add executable file autorun.sh to /tmp/config:
  #!/bin/sh
  #
  for f in /tmp/config/K*.sh; do
  [ -x $f ] && $f start &
  [ -x $f ] && cp $f /etc/rcK_init.d/
  done
  – enable autorun.sh with
  /sbin/setcfg Misc Autorun TRUE
  /sbin/setcfg Misc Autorun TRUE -f /tmp/config/uLinux.conf
  (reference /etc/rcS.d/S98init_nas)
  – copy K010optstartstop.sh to /tmp/config (with extension ‘.sh’, not with extension.txt; partly found here and here)
  – chmod +x /tmp/config/K010optstartstop.sh
  – umount /tmp/config
  this will execute   start/stop scripts in /opt/etc/init.d.
• /opt/etc/init.d/S59dovecot may contain
  #!/bin/sh
  if [ -f /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid ] ; then
  kill `cat /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid`
  else
  killall dovecot 2>/dev/null
  fi
  rm -f /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid
  ln -s /opt/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 /lib/
  ln -s /opt/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 /lib/
  /opt/sbin/dovecot -c /opt/etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf
• /opt/etc/init.d/K41dovecot may contain
  #!/bin/sh
  if [ -f /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid ] ; then
  kill `cat /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid`
  else
  killall dovecot 2>/dev/null
  fi
  rm -f /opt/var/run/dovecot/master.pid
  or simply
  #!/bin/sh
  /opt/bin/doveadm stop
• both scripts have to be executable
  chmod +x /opt/etc/init.d/S59dovecot
  chmod +x /opt/etc/init.d/K41dovecot

To be continued with py25-getmail to collect mails from pop3 servers
(getmail delivers mails directly into the maildir folders used by dovecot)

• ipkg install py25-getmail
• instructions for getmail configuration (not written for qnap)
• …

If you have a triple boot mac mini with OS X, Windows and Linux it might be useful to run OS X inside VirtualBox when Linux or Windows is running.

VirtualBox officially supports OS X Server as guest vm and runs as well other OS X versions as guest. – If Linux runs on a second (external) hard disk the first harddisk can be assigned to a virtualbox vm as raw device. And OS X should boot as guest (of type OS X server). However booting a vm with EFI instead of BIOS is still work in progress. With virtualbox 3.2.12:

• limited screen resolutions
  (VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode N, N=0,1,2...4)

• only first ide hard disk is bootable
• overrides installed boot manager, e.g. rEFIt; and settings done by OS X start volume utility are completely ignored (missing virtualized hardware)
• sometimes crashes in libata (ide disk access); maybe not related to efi boot

EFI boot can be disabled in system settings of the guest vm. But then you need a BIOS bootloader for the OS X kernel like Chameleon which seems to be a very active project.

• chameleon could be installed to the disk containing OS X – but I prefer an unmodified disk
• so chameleon should boot from cdrom

There are many cdrom iso images with chameleon online, but none met my needs:

• boot leopard and snow leopard
• boot from apple hardware but inside virtualbox
• do not use hackintosh kext patches, except disabling native apple power management with Disabler.kext (else the guest uses 100% cpu)
• screen resolution of guest vm be be selected in boot menu

The chameleon boot loader (2.0 RC4 r684) has lots of usage setups. But many of them are only documented by their source code.

• the stage 2 loader of chameleon, boot, is in multiboot format
• it can be chain loaded by syslinux mboot.c32
• mboot.c in chameleon source reveals 3 command line arguments:
  biosdev=80 (or 81 for second hard disk, …)
  partno=2 (for second partition)
  timeout=5 (autostart after 5 seconds)
• multi boot “kernels” may have “modules” (=initial ramdisk in case of linux kernel); chameleon uses a dmg image whith boot parameters and kext kernel modules
  – dmg format: compressed, with mbr partition, hfs+ filesystem in partition 1
  – /Extra/com.apple.Boot.plist defines boot parameters
  – /Extra/Extensions/ contains kext modules
• isolinux.cfg example:
  kernel /mboot.c32
append biosdev=80 timeout=1 partno=2 /boot --- /p800x600.dmg
• com.apple.Boot.plist entry for Display resolution
  <key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x1024x32</string>
• com.apple.Boot.plist entry for verbose mode
  <key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>-v</string>
• the dmg image can be opened inside OS X

Based on this information osxboot.iso is a bootable cdrom image with

• boot menu (syslinux based) to choose between
  800×600, 1024×768, 1280×1024
  and, if set as custom resoltions in virtualbox guest vm,
  1400×1050, 1440×900, 1920×1050, 1920×1200
  (VBoxManage setextradata "vmname" CustomVideoMode1 1920x1200x32)
• boot menu to select silent or verbose boot
  (chameleon allows to add other flags)
• default boot from second partition of first hard disk
  (which can be edited during boot)
• OS X 10.5, leopard, or OS X 10.6, snow leopard, on apple hardware, running as virtualbox guest:
  – only kext module Disabler.kext (part of chameleon distribution) is loaded (allows cpu sleep mode for vm guest)
  – leopard runs only inside a 64 bit version of virtualbox (tested with linux)
• EFI has to be disabled in the system properties of the virtualbox guest
• Seems to run stable if the hard disk inside the vm is attached to the virtual SATA hard disk controller
  (to access raw devices Use Host I/O Cache must be enabled for the SATA controller!)

The chameleon boot loader has been patched to set display resolution and verbosity as multiboot arguments:

• resx=800 (defines horizontal resolution)
• resy=600 (defines vertical resolution)
• verbosity=0 / verbosity=1 (sets verbosity: -v flag)

Google, howto isolinux, should give answers how a bootable isolinux cdrom image can be created.

Known bug: “About this Mac” system information crashes.

Software used for this article: SPBLinux 2.4 live cd

In case you want to access usb attached storage media from a virtual machine (vm) running inside virtualbox there are 3 choices:

1. Make the usb connection available to the vm.
2. Make a shared folder to access data on the usb storage device.
3. Give the vm direct access to the usb disk.

Using a shared folder has the advantage that configuration is straight forward (menu Device/Shared folder …). But

• the host must handle the filesystem used on the usb storage device
• the guest must have guest additions installed
• performance is a bottleneck

Usb inside guest also has performance drawbacks.

So it is worth to fiddle with the command line to get direct access to disk partitions.

• ls /dev/disk*
• this displays all disk partions seen by OSX
• in case finder displays the partition to be used by the vm (that is, OSX has automatically mounted this partition) you have to deactivate this partition with the OSX disk utility program
• VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename yourpath/newdisk1.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk1
• this creates a vmdk file which can be opened by virtualbox disk manager; this file gives access to disk1
  Use host I/o-Cache has to be enabled for the controller of this disk!

If the vm cannot be started because of disk access error the partitions of disk1 have to be deactivated again with the hard disk utility program.

The system disk /dev/disk0 would need root access rights; other disks can be accessed as user.