…refers to a location that is unavailable

When you try to copy a file from an external drive, or a network location, you may get the following error message:

On Windows 10

… is unavailable. If the location is on this PC, make sure the device or drive is connected or the disc is inserted, and then try again. If the location is on a network, make sure you’re connected to the network or Internet, and then try again. If the location still can’t be found, it might have been moved or deleted.

On Windows 7

… refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your network, and try again. If it still cannot be located, the information might have been moved to a different location.

This can happen when you try to copy a file from an external drive or network location to a folder on your computer, and the operating system wants to ask your permission to access the target location.

On Windows 10

On Windows 7

For some reason clicking the Continue button does not satisfy Windows when you copy from a network location.

To be able to copy the file, first copy the file to the desktop, and move it to the destination folder.

Recommended utilities for your workstation

Graphics

Snagit

Snagit is a great utility to capture screens and annotate them for documentation. The program is available for Mac and Windows.

Download the latest version at https://www.techsmith.com/

Get older versions at https://www.techsmith.com/download/oldversions

Terminal emulator

PuTTY

Install PuTTY

On Macintosh

  1. Open a terminal window
  2. Install PuTTY with Homebrew. For the Homebrew installation see the Homebrew section of Install the DevOps development tools on Macintosh 
    brew install putty

On Windows

  1. Download the MSI (‘Windows Installer’) of PuTTY from https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html,
  2. Execute the MSI installer.

 

 

 

 

How to get into the BIOS menu on a Windows 10 computer.

When you select Shut down on a Windows 10 computer, your machine is really not shut down. When you turn the computer on again it executes a fast start, so you cannot open the BIOS menu.

Manufacturer Keyboard button
ASUS mother boards Del
  • Keep the keyboard button pressed and turn on the computer.

How to completely shut down a Windows 10 computer

Windows 10 does not really shut down the computer when you select Shut down. This enables the operating system to start quickly, but if you want to cold start your computer to enter the BIOS menu you need to turn off your computer. To really shut down your Windows 10 computer:

  • Right click the Windows logo in the lower left corner of the screen
  • Click Shut down or sign out
  • Keep the Shift button pressed on your keyboard and click Shut down

 

 

ASUS motherboard does not boot after BIOS update

The motherboard BIOS update can cause problems, it is possible that after the update the computer does not boot anymore.

The ASUS motherboards come with the USB BIOS Flashback feature to load the BIOS even if the computer does not boot anymore.

The process below is for the ASUS P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT motherboard, but all modern ASUS motherboards provide the same functionality.

Before BIOS update make sure you load the optimized BIOS configuration, otherwise after the BIOS update the computer may not boot anymore

Load the optimized BIOS configuration before the BIOS update

  • Restart the computer,
  • During the startup press the Del button to enter the BIOS setup,
  • Press F5 to load the optimized configuration,
  • Press F10 to save the changes and exit.

To reload the BIOS after a failed update

To fix a corrupted BIOS, you need access to a working computer that is connected to the Internet and a USB stick (pen drive) that is formatted with the FAT file system. Older motherboards cannot read the NTFS file system during the BIOS Flashback process.

Download the “Bios Renamer for USB BIOS Flashback” utility

  • On the asus.com web site select Support in the menu,
  • Select Consumer,
  • In the search box enter the model of your motherboard,
  • In the sub-menu of the product page select Support,
  • Click Driver & Tools,
  • In the Please select OS drop down menu select Others,
  • In the BIOS-Utilities section download the Bios Renamer for USB BIOS Flashback.

Download the BIOS for your motherboard

  • In the Please select OS drop down menu select the operating system you use,
  • In the BIOS section download the latest BIOS file.

Rename the downloaded BIOS file

The USB BIOS Flashback searches for a specific file on the USB device that you insert into the BIOS FlashBack USB port (marked with green border). The Bios Renamer for USB BIOS Flashback utility will rename the downloaded BIOS file to the correct name for your mother board

  • Create a folder for the BIOS file,
  • Extract the BIOS file from the downloaded BIOS zip file and place it in the folder,
  • Extract the BRenamerl.exe utility from the zip file and place it in the same folder,
  • Double click the BRenamerl.exe file to execute it. The program will rename the BIOS file, so the Flashback utility can find it.
  • Copy the renamed file to the FAT formatted USB stick.

The BIOS file names

Motherboard model BIOS file name
P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT Z77VPTB.CAP

Flash the BIOS of the unresponsive ASUS motherboard

  • Turn off the computer,
  • Open the computer case to get access to the component side of the motherboard,
  • Insert the USB stick into the green framed USB Flashback port,
  • Plug the computer into the wall outlet,
  • If the power supply has a switch, turn it on, but do not start the computer,
  • Keep the BIOS Flashback button pressed on the motherboard for 3 seconds,
    • If the BIOS Flachback LED keeps blinking, the update starts. When the LED goes dark, the update has completed.
    • If the BIOS Flachback LED blinks a few more times and stays lit, the USB drive is not inserted to the correct port, not readable, the BIOS file name is not correct, or the file is corrupted. Turn on the computer for a few seconds to clear the BIOS Flashback LED light.
  • If the BIOS Flashback light goes out in a few minutes, the BIOS flashback has succeeded.

Load the optimized BIOS configuration as described at the top of this post.

Delay updates in Windows 10

On more occasions Microsoft released Windows 10 updates that disabled the network connection, the webcam or caused other inconveniences. Windows 10 automatically downloads and installs the updates without asking for permission from the owner of the computer. In Windows professional you can delay the installation of updates, so your work is not interrupted with frequent recommended updates, and Microsoft can fix the update before your computer installs it. The important security updates are still installed when those are released.

To defer Windows 10 updates

Click the Windows icon in the lower left corner and select the gear (Settings)

Inline image 2

On the main Settings page select Update & security

Inline image 3

Under Update settings select Advanced options

Inline image 4

On the Advanced options page select Defer feature updates

Inline image 1

Keep multiple versions of applications on Macintosh

Most of the DevOps tools are still in beta versions, many times the new version is not compatible with your existing scripts or have an error that stops your scripts working. To be able to keep multiple versions of the applications and easily switch between them, create symbolic links and point to the version you want to execute.

Create version-specific locations

Create a folder for your optional applications.

mkdir /opt

Set you as the owner of the “opt” directory and its children.

YOUR_GROUP should be on:

  • MacOS: wheel
  • Ubuntu: your username 
sudo chown -R YOUR_USER_NAME:YOUR_GROUP /opt

Set the security of the folder.

sudo chmod 755 /opt

We will create a directory structure to place each version of the application into its own folder. This example uses Packer.

Create a symbolic link to point to the application in the appropriate version folder. These are the examples for Packer, Terraform, and Vagrant. Notice, that the Vagrant application is in the “bin” directory, so the symbolic link has to point there.

If there is an existing symbolic link that points to the latest version of the application, rename it to be able to quickly return to the prior version of the application. This can come handy when we need to destroy instances created with the prior version of Terraform.

cd /opt/terraform
mv terraform terraform_v_0.9.11
cd /opt/packer
mv packer packer_v_1.0.4

Create a new symbolic link that points to the latest version of the application.

# For Packer
cd /opt/packer
ln -s /opt/packer/packer_1.2.0/packer packer

# For Terraform
cd /opt/terraform
ln -s /opt/terraform/terraform_0.10.0/terraform terraform

# For Vagrant
cd /opt/vagrant
ln -s /opt/vagrant/vagrant_1.9.5/bin/vagrant vagrant #The vagrant application is in the bin folder

Add the main application folder to the path in the config file of your terminal

  • for iTerm2 with zterminal: ~/.zshrc
  • for other terminals: ~/.bash_profile
PATH=/opt/packer:$PATH
PATH=/opt/terraform:$PATH
PATH=/opt/vagrant:$PATH

Vagrant

For Vagrant installation see Vagrant

To change the version you want to execute

  • Delete the symbolic link, 
    cd /opt/packer
rm packer
  • Create a new symbolic link pointing to the other version of the application as above.

Variable ‘…’: duplicate found. Variable names must be unique.

Starting with Terraform version 0.7.3 you can only define a variable once within a directory or a module. Before that release you could copy variable definition files from other modules and did not throw an error if you had the same variable defined in multiple files within the module.

In the new version of Terraform if you define the same variable name multiple times within the module you will get the following error message,

Variable '...': duplicate found. Variable names must be unique.

Make sure a variable is only defined once in the module or directory.

Disable the Caps Lock key on the Macintosh

I am not sure who uses the Caps Lock button anymore. It was important in the age of typewriters to be able to type all uppercase titles without holding the shift key, but these days I don’t remember the last time I needed it. In fact I frequently press it accidentally and prevents me to log into my computer.

 

To disable the Caps Lock key on Sierra

  • In Settings open Keyboard,
  • Click the Modifier Keys… button,
  • Set the Caps Lock key to No Action.

Launch Windows instances locally with Chef Test Kitchen

Most Linux distributions are free, and do not require product keys to launch them.

The steps below are based on the great article at http://kitchen.ci/blog/test-kitchen-windows-test-flight-with-vagrant/

I have summarized the steps below to create a free Virtual Box Windows Server 2012R2 image on your workstation, so Test Kitchen can use Vagrant and Virtual Box to launch Windows instances and test cookbooks locally fast and free.

Install the Vagrant WinRm plugin

vagrant plugin install vagrant-winrm

Get BoxCutter

Create the Windows image with BoxCutter. This process will take 30 minutes or more to fully configure the Windows image. The download step may time out on slower VPN connections. In that case disconnect the VPN connection and try it again without it. In case of any error, just execute the last command again and if it can, the process will continue from the point of error.

cd ~/
mkdir boxcutter
cd boxcutter
git clone https://github.com/boxcutter/windows.git
cd windows

Modify the BoxCutter JSON file

Change the ~/boxcutter/windows/eval-win2012r2-standard.json file to avoid the error message:

virtualbox-iso: Removing floppy drive…
==> virtualbox-iso: Error removing floppy controller: VBoxManage error: VBoxManage: error: The machine ‘eval-win2012r2-standard’ is already locked for a session (or being unlocked)
==> virtualbox-iso: VBoxManage: error: Details: code VBOX_E_INVALID_OBJECT_STATE (0x80bb0007), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine, callee nsISupports
==> virtualbox-iso: VBoxManage: error: Context: “LockMachine(a->session, LockType_Write)” at line 1038 of file VBoxManageStorageController.cpp

  • Change “headless”: “false”, to “headless”: “true”,
  • Add under “headless”: “true”,
"shutdown_timeout": "60m",
"post_shutdown_delay": "120s",

 

  • Add under every occurrence of “headless”: “{{ user `headless` }}”,
"shutdown_timeout": "{{ user `shutdown_timeout` }}",
"post_shutdown_delay": "{{ user `post_shutdown_delay` }}",

Create the virtual machine

make virtualbox/eval-win2012r2-standard

Add the image to Vagrant

vagrant box add windows-2012r2 ./box/virtualbox/eval-win2012r2-standard-nocm-1.0.4.box

Test the virtual machine

Your .kitchen.yml file should look like this

---
driver:
  name: vagrant

provisioner:
  name: chef_zero

platforms:
  - name: windows-2012r2

suites:
  - name: MY_SUITE_NAME
  run_list:
  - recipe[MY_COOKBOOK::MY_RECIPE]

 

You may need to execute the kitchen converge commands as sudo to be able to launch the Windows instance.