BlindWolf8
February 21st, 2009, 09:42 PM
Hello folks,
For the past month or so, I've been furiously updating a guide to fix a logon/logoff loop that's been occurring. I've gotten calls and emails from all over the world: South Africa, Ireland, Canada, and many states right here in the US.
Here's the guide:
http://thinkinginpixels.com/quick-fixes/fix-windows-xp-log-onlog-off-loop
Now if you'll notice, I have people downloading Ubuntu to copy a few key files from my site onto the partition where Windows is installed. One person actually emailed me today and said that they basically "gave up" on Windows, and just stuck to Ubuntu after they couldn't get the logon/logoff loop fixed. They did admit to possibly screwing up on a few key steps, or their system could have been heavily infected. It's a tough call, as I wasn't there to give my two cents on the matter. (obviously) Regardless, him switching to Ubutnu wasn't the intended effect, as I only chose Ubuntu for the guide because:
1.) I knew it would play nice with mounting/reading/writing to/from NTFS partitions.
2.) Pretty good hardware support.
3.) Drop dead simple download process. (no huge lists of links with a crapload of versions, nor any BitTorrent requirements)
Anyway I have two basic questions for you all.
First:
What the hell is causing so many people to contact me recently about this issue? It has *exploded* over the past month. Is there a specific strand of worm, spyware, or virus that people are getting? I know one person said he had the original .zip files that infected him, and he was going to send them to me so I could analyze them.
Second:
Some people are confused. When they boot the Ubuntu CD they burnt, it seems to drop them into BusyBox which (to my knowledge) means something is b0rked. The issue is that I cannot find a simpler distribution for people to download and burn. (that text-based Ubuntu Alternate CD will be too scary for them) Most other distros have huge lists of links or require you to use BitTorrent. I also do not want to host a specific version of Ubuntu on my site, as I would like the distro to be up to date with hardware support, etc.
So, for this, I propose one of two solutions: (yeah, I said it would be a question, I know)
1.) Find a solution to the BusyBox issue that a few people are having issues with.
-or-
2.) Find another distro that is very easy to find, download, use, and has a wide range of hardware support. (auto mounting of NTFS volumes would help) You might be thinking "Mandriva!" right now, but their download links might be confusing to users and their servers always seem busy.
Any and all suggestions and support would be helpful so people can stop asking me questions and calling me at midnight! :p
Thank you very much.
PS: Feel free to suggest ways to improve the guide as well.
PPS: I realize that people could use the Vista Recovery CD instead of a Linux CD as part of my guide to copy the files over, but it's not as friendly and I am not sure how the recovery CD will assign drive letters. I would rather go with the safe bet. I also realize that maybe this wasn't the smartest place to post this. If anyone wants to move it, feel free.
For the past month or so, I've been furiously updating a guide to fix a logon/logoff loop that's been occurring. I've gotten calls and emails from all over the world: South Africa, Ireland, Canada, and many states right here in the US.
Here's the guide:
http://thinkinginpixels.com/quick-fixes/fix-windows-xp-log-onlog-off-loop
Now if you'll notice, I have people downloading Ubuntu to copy a few key files from my site onto the partition where Windows is installed. One person actually emailed me today and said that they basically "gave up" on Windows, and just stuck to Ubuntu after they couldn't get the logon/logoff loop fixed. They did admit to possibly screwing up on a few key steps, or their system could have been heavily infected. It's a tough call, as I wasn't there to give my two cents on the matter. (obviously) Regardless, him switching to Ubutnu wasn't the intended effect, as I only chose Ubuntu for the guide because:
1.) I knew it would play nice with mounting/reading/writing to/from NTFS partitions.
2.) Pretty good hardware support.
3.) Drop dead simple download process. (no huge lists of links with a crapload of versions, nor any BitTorrent requirements)
Anyway I have two basic questions for you all.
First:
What the hell is causing so many people to contact me recently about this issue? It has *exploded* over the past month. Is there a specific strand of worm, spyware, or virus that people are getting? I know one person said he had the original .zip files that infected him, and he was going to send them to me so I could analyze them.
Second:
Some people are confused. When they boot the Ubuntu CD they burnt, it seems to drop them into BusyBox which (to my knowledge) means something is b0rked. The issue is that I cannot find a simpler distribution for people to download and burn. (that text-based Ubuntu Alternate CD will be too scary for them) Most other distros have huge lists of links or require you to use BitTorrent. I also do not want to host a specific version of Ubuntu on my site, as I would like the distro to be up to date with hardware support, etc.
So, for this, I propose one of two solutions: (yeah, I said it would be a question, I know)
1.) Find a solution to the BusyBox issue that a few people are having issues with.
-or-
2.) Find another distro that is very easy to find, download, use, and has a wide range of hardware support. (auto mounting of NTFS volumes would help) You might be thinking "Mandriva!" right now, but their download links might be confusing to users and their servers always seem busy.
Any and all suggestions and support would be helpful so people can stop asking me questions and calling me at midnight! :p
Thank you very much.
PS: Feel free to suggest ways to improve the guide as well.
PPS: I realize that people could use the Vista Recovery CD instead of a Linux CD as part of my guide to copy the files over, but it's not as friendly and I am not sure how the recovery CD will assign drive letters. I would rather go with the safe bet. I also realize that maybe this wasn't the smartest place to post this. If anyone wants to move it, feel free.