Notes

Information terminal in Wiesbaden: CMOS checksum error

Saw this on an information terminal in a MediaMarkt in Wiesbaden (click to view larger version):

CMOS checksum error on information terminal

The boot sequence is halted because of a CMOS checksum error. The most common reason for this is an empty CMOS battery. This leads to a loss of the BIOS settings (like time settings and boot order) and the need to load the default settings.

Published on 2022-06-15, 14:43 +0000

Mapping COM ports on IGEL thin clients

I like thin clients by IGEL. The hardware is robust and the operating system is very flexible and intuitive.

But what is very confusing is how the COM ports work on different models. We wanted to map them into Citrix sessions, but we had to create different configurations for different models:

  • On the M340C, we simply had to pass COM1 as COM1.
  • On the UD9 BT, we had to pass COM2 as COM1. I don't really understand why.
  • On the M350C, we had to pass USB COM1 as COM1. I guess that's because the COM port isn't really a COM port, it's just a COM to USB adapter, directly attached to the mainboard.

One might ask why we need COM ports, when there is USB: We have a software which supports only serial barcode scanners on Citrix.

Published on 2022-06-11, 10:49 +0000

vCenter installation stuck at 80%

I wanted to upgrade our VMware vCenter from 6.7 to 7.0 and ran into a problem, where the installation got stuck at 80%.

Luckily, I found this post, where the author had the exact same constellation:
https://www.ironcastle.net/vcenter-7-0-installation-stuck-at-80-waiting-for-rpm/

Yes, the ESXi host where the vCenter should be installed, had a free license. I changed to a trial license and the installation of vCenter did continue immediately.

Published on 2022-06-09, 19:14 +0000

Error 0x00000709 when setting default printer

Removing everything related to printers from the registry keys mentioned in my penultimate post also solved error 0x00000709 when setting the default printer.

Published on 2022-06-05, 13:14 +0000

Cisco ASA routing VPN traffic to the internet

We wanted to establish an IPsec site-to-site VPN between a Cisco ASA and a Sophos XG. The Sophos properly routed the traffic into the tunnel, but the Cisco didn't. It seemed like the VPN traffic was routed to the Internet, because a tracert showed a public IP address.

The solution was very simple: We just forgot to tick the NAT Exempt checkbox in the list of the connection profiles.

As far as I understand this, this is because the VPN connection is bound to an interface, where a default NAT rule might apply. Ticking this checkbox creates NAT exemption rules, preventing the default rule to apply.

Published on 2022-06-04, 09:36 +0000