PostgreSQL not starting on BackTrack 4 Pre-Final

If you are following the latest releases in regards to BackTrack, following a recent update you may have experienced error when PostgreSQL attempts to start:

Starting PostgreSQL 8.3 database server: main* The PostgreSQL server failed to start. Please check the log output:

Then further down:

could not load server certificate file “server.crt”: No such file or directory

Here is a quick fix - at the console, type:

cd /etc/ssl/certs
ls -ld /etc/ssl/private
sudo ls -l /etc/ssl/private/
make-ssl-cert generate-default-snakeoil -force-overwrite
cd /etc/ssl/certs

Re-run the update commands, and you should be good to go:

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

Connecting USB Devices to VirtualBox Guests

About 6 months ago I switched to using VirtualBox on my Mac, in place of VMware Fusion - It provided decent performance, works well across multiple spaces and of course is free. I have always felt that VMware have dumbed down the Fusion client when compared to Workstation on Windows, as various options seem hidden away from view (although configurable when you get down and dirty in the VMX files).

The only remaining issue I had experienced until recently, was that some USB devices would not map through correctly to the guest - in my case Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. When trying to connect the device on the first attempt, nothing would appear to happen, then when you tried to map it through again you'd get various error messages.

After a brief Googling session, I found the fix was to add a 'USB Device Filter' for the affected device, under the 'USB Settings' of the guest, but making sure to clear all fields except the 'Name'. Once the guest was powered up, I no longer had any issues mapping through the USB device.

BLOG.andrewallen

Technology Overloaded

PostgreSQL not starting on BackTrack 4 Pre-Final

Connecting USB Devices to VirtualBox Guests