Steve Glendinning

Vyatta 3.0.3 (and its community equivalent VC4) boots fine on Virtual PC, which is really handy for firing up a “test” router.  Unfortunately, the latest subscription release 3.1.3 (and probably VC5) fails shortly after the bootloader prompt with this error:

Vyatta Virtual PC boot error

The solution is to pass the linux kernel boot argument noreplace-paravirt.  This is done on the live CD by typing “live noreplace-paravirt” and pressing enter (instead of simply pressing enter or waiting for the CD to automatically boot).

When you’ve installed to the virtual hard disk (using the install-system command), you’ll find it displays the same error.  To boot the first time you’ll need to press Escape to access the grub menu, then press “e” to edit the default entry.  Add the word noreplace-paravirt to the end of the line (after “console=tty0″) and press ctrl-x to boot.

When you get the login prompt, you can log in as root and edit the grub config file (nano /boot/grub/grub.cfg) to add the option to the command line permanently.

I’ve had an Orange Samsung i200 (running Windows Mobile 6.1) for just over a week now, and I have to say I like it! It’s noticeably more responsive than the Nokia N73 it replaced (TBH i think that mostly illustrates how sluggish the N73 was), and I’ve *nearly* got used to the different keypad. Honestly, why do all the different manufacturers use a different key for “space”?!

Being a Windows Mobile handset, it came loaded with all the expected Microsoft applications… except one! It seems Orange have decided to remove the MSN Messenger client, presumably because they’re worried it’ll dent their extremely profitable SMS revenue. And Microsoft no longer makes the client available for download (”ask your operator for MSN access”).

After several hours of trawling through forums, I found the nice chaps at xda-developers have many builds of the mobile msn client available for download (although you need to register to get access). Most are for the full PocketPC (PDA) OS, but the file attached to post #202 works on SmartPhones like the i200.

As expected, Pocket Outlook’s Microsoft Exchange synchronisation works seamlessly, so I now have real-time push email, contacts and calendar sync. And it’s actually usable as a phone too!