Crontab changes in Linux 26.04 vs previous versions

I use a small Linux server to control the turning on and shutting off our client stations with crontab.  The system I typically use is Ubuntu Server running on Hyper-V, I setup the server, enable WOL to turn them on and NET RPC to shut them down. I have been doing this since ubuntu 12.04.  and this is the first time where I've had to reconfigure my scripts to make it work.

Here is a sample of the crontab on versions of Ubuntu Linux (before 26.04)

00 21 * * 1-4 $USER    $PATH/$Script.sh

My crontab is setup so at 9:00 pm on Monday though Thursday the script "$Script.sh" is run as $User that is located located at $PATH 

However in Ubuntu 26 it throws an error when running the script as the $USER, so once I removed the user from the crontab now looks like this.

00 21 * * 1-4 $PATH/$SCRIPT.sh

Terminal of Cron throwing an error

Created a log file to catch the error.  Add >> /$PATH/$LOGFILE.log to crontab

After looking at the log it is erroring out on the user?

Once the error is resolved

After troubleshooting and finding out that the user in the crontab was causing the error; I removed the user and crontab started running the scripts.  I was able to acknowledge that the script was running as the log filled up with the commands.  I was going though documentation for Ubuntu 26.04 and I either missed or I can't find the changes made in crontab.  It is interesting the little changes that though such a big monkey wrench into a system that really hasn't changed for years.  At any rate the issue has been resolved and the system is running the scripts as expected.

Fixing error 401 Unauthorized IP: $IPADRESS when running apt-get on Linux

 I have a very dated VM that works as a mail forwarder for my organization, it is a Ubuntu Server VM running 20.04 LTS which connects to google workspaces and sends email for our on prem devices such as copiers, software, scripts, etc.  I went to run some security updates using apt-get and I got an interesting error saying that there is a 401 Error Unauthorized IP.

The fix is to disable the sources in the sources.list directory, which I have two files.

• ubuntu-esm-infra.list
• ubuntu-esm-infra.list.distUpgrade

In VI I commented out the source lines.

reinstalled apt

After I was able to update the system; and upgrade the outdated packages.  Now I can go headed and upgrade the system to the newer release.

StorageSpaces replace a drive using the serial number

Backup Your Data (Crucial!): Before anything else, ensure you have a current backup of your data, as drive failures can be unpredictable

Identify the Failing Disk: Use the Storage Spaces Management tool (or PowerShell) to identify the specific physical disk that is unhealthy.  This will also show up in the Physical Disks Section in storage on windows server.

If you can't or are unable to identify the disk in software, you may have to if possible shut the system down and find the drive.  Mark and label the drives that need to be replaced; you can do that by finding the serial number of the drive that failed as down below.

Use the following command to get the status of your storage spaces; note any drives that are failing by serial number.

Get-StoragePool -FriendlyName "Data" | Get-PhysicalDisk

We can get the serial numbers of the disks we want to replace we can't use the FriendlyName due to both disks having the same friendly name.  The disks we want to replace are

Disk 1 - W381A7X4

Disk 2 - W391A8Z8

Get-PhysicalDisk -SerialNumber $SERIALNUMBER 

So we need to set the disk as retired; to do that we are going to use the following powershell command.

$DiskToRemove = Get-PhysicalDisk | Where-Object { $_.SerialNumber -like '*OldSerialNumber*' } | Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage Retired

As shown below 

$DiskToRemove = Get-PhysicalDisk | Where-Object { $_.SerialNumber -like '*W391A8Z8*' } | Set-PhysicalDisk -Usage Retired

Storage spaces will automatically move data off the drive. Use the command

Get-StorageJob

to get the progress of the job.  This shouldn't take very long, once finished remove the bad/retired drive and replace with the new one.

In windows add a new disk

It will find the disk you put in while the disk you removed will still show in your lists of disks until we remove it in software.

After the new disk has been added; select the old disk and remove it.

Once the disk is removed windows will begin repairing the storage spaces array

If you use the Get-PhyscialDisk command in powershell it will show the newly added drives

When Storage Spaces has completed it's rebuild there will be no job running, to check that you can use the command Get-StorageJob to get the status.

When completed everything will show up fine and as repaired.

Error Accessing Active Directory Tools in a Domain

I came across a strange error when trying to connect to active directory users and computers where I could not access the domain tool.

The error it's self was pretty generic, as shown below.

It turned out that there was an issue with a sysvol registration, we had just setup a new AD Controller and demoted and removed an old one.  To fix the issue modify the SysVolReady from 0 to 1 as shown below.

 Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netlogon\Parameters

Then you will be able to access your active directory tools again; and you can verify using run net share.  You should see a result like below if it is working properly.

Changing Apache Tomcat Catalina from using a jks keystore to a pfx keystore

I have an Apache Tomcat server that was using a jks keystore; but when I got a new certificate it was having an issue with the trust chain when I updated the certificate.  Since this is a tomcat server running on windows; I decided to move to a PFX certificate.  You can read my post on How to create a PFX Certificate if you need more information on how to do that.

For pathing the .pfx certificate is in the tomcat directory where the original jks keychain is. To change the certificate we have to update the server.xml file.  Specifically where we have the SSL Connector connecting.  When updating the connector be sure to stop the apache tomcat service and restart it after the update.

<!-- Define a SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port ****

         This connector uses the JSSE configuration, when using APR, the

         connector should be using the OpenSSL style configuration

         described in the APR documentation -->

    <Connector port="****"

               protocol="HTTP/1.1"

               SSLEnabled="true"

               maxThreads="150"

               connectionTimeout="20000"

               URIEncoding="UTF-8"

               compression="on"

               compressionMinSize="1000"

               noCompressionUserAgents="gozilla, traviata"

               compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/css,text/javascript"

               xpoweredBy="false"

               scheme="https"

               secure="true"

               keystoreFile="$KeystoreFile"

               keystorePass="$KeystoreFilePassword"

               clientAuth="false"

               sslProtocol="TLS"

               server="$SERVER.DOMAIN.CA"

               />

What we need to update is add the keystoreType to the serverXML file

    <!-- Define a SSL HTTP/1.1 Connector on port 8443

         This connector uses the JSSE configuration, when using APR, the

         connector should be using the OpenSSL style configuration

         described in the APR documentation -->

    <Connector port="8443"

               protocol="HTTP/1.1"

               SSLEnabled="true"

               maxThreads="150"

               connectionTimeout="20000"

               URIEncoding="UTF-8"

               compression="on"

               compressionMinSize="1000"

               noCompressionUserAgents="gozilla, traviata"

               compressableMimeType="text/html,text/xml,text/css,text/javascript"

               xpoweredBy="false"

               scheme="https"

               secure="true"

               keystoreFile="$Cert.pfx"

               keystorePass="$KEYSTOREPASSWORD"

       keystoreType="PKCS12"

               clientAuth="false"

               sslProtocol="TLS"

               server="$SERVER.DOMAIN.CA"

               />

Once the update is complete and Apache Tomcat has been restarted; you can check your certificate chain using SSL Shopper

How to create a PFX certificate file using OpenSSL on Windows

Here is how to create a .pfx certificate for use with a webserver be it IIS, Apache tomcat, what ever you happen to be using that can support a .pfx certificate.

I'm working in windows, so if you don't have it installed; install it from https://slproweb.com/products/Win32OpenSSL.html

I installed Open SSL to my C:\Program Files and set my working directory to the \bin directory.

You will need three files for generating the .pfx.

• Your key file, 
• the provided domain certificate 
• intermediate certificate file

Using cmd prompt or powershell go to your working directory in my case

cd "C:\Program Files\OpenSSL-Win64\bin"

The command is pretty simple; below is the command replace the blue text with what you want to generate your PFX File.

• $Certificate.pfx = what you want your cert name to be
• $domain_private_key.key = Your domain key for registering SSL Certficates
• $certficiate.crt = Your certificate file from your register for your domain
• $intermediate.crt = Your intermediate certificate provided by your registar such as godaddy

openssl pkcs12 -export -out $certificate.pfx -inkey $domain_private_key.key -in $certificate.crt -certfile $intermediate.crt

The certificate will be generate in the \bin directory so don't forget to clean up after yourself and remove your files.  My source files I put into a folder called source and the certs I put into a folder called certs

Upgrading Windows 11 From 23H2 to 25H2 causes error 0x800f0991

 I had a heck of a time upgrading my Windows 11 Pro System from 23H2 to 25H2 and I really did not want to do a clean install.  I really shouldn't have had a problem but it was; the issue had to do with Hyper-V and Windows Subsystem for Linux.

My system is an AMD Ryzen 9 with all the bells and whistles, and it was constantly failing windows update where the error was 0x800f0991.

Running DISM & SFC did not help at all with the results displaying everything was fine with the system.  Booting from USB and trying an offline scan also proved to be useless.

I do a lot of work with Hyper-V and upgrading from 21h2 to 23H2 was painless which is why I was so puzzled why I couldn't go from 23H2 to 25H2.  I figured it had to be something with windows virtualization; it was the only thing it could be.  I have a number of 3rd party software installed a game or two but with the changes in Hyper-V, the network virtualization stack, it made the most sense that was going to be the best place to start.

So I backed up my VM's exporting them before removing Hyper-V.  I had to remove Data Center Bridging, Hyper-V, Virtual Machine Platform, Windows Hypervisor, and Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Before removing the virtualization components in windows it failed the 6 times when I tried to upgrade though a booted USB and PC Health Check.

Once that was done I was able to upgrade using PC Health Check.

Now that I'm updated to Windows 11 25H2; unfortunately Hyper-V will not work and causes a continuous boot loop.  However the upgrade to 25H2 from 23H2 worked very well so long as Hyper-V was removed.

Autodesk 2026 Crashes Trying to open an AutoDesk 2023 file

I did a system upgrade of a Autodesk Revit Machine where the upgrade was a significant one  The system was 10 years old an Intel i7 2600K to an AMD Ryzen 5 9600X.  The CPU boost alone is significant but everything was just better.  Going from 32GB DDR3 to 64GB DDR4 and upgrading from an ATI FirePro 4800 to a Nvida RTX 5060.  The Storage also got a huge boost moving from a 1TB SATA SSD to a Gen4 M.2 2tb WD Black.

CPU Comparision

The system came together great, it loaded autocad, revit extremely quickly and rending files that would normally take hours took just a few minutes.  Then the SNAG happened.

A particular file that they were working with did not work on the new system.  It opened fine on the old system but it took a while to make changes and they wanted to migrate the job file to the new system and the new version of REVIT.  Given the generational changes in processing not to mention it being completely different CPU architectures, upgraded software, windows 11 pretty much anything could be causing the issue.  There was no other file that had an issue like this file.

With no other files seemingly being affected, and the old system did not have the problem with opening or rendering the file so I started looking into differences in the software and the system.  We even got autodesk involved, and they didn't have any trouble opening the file; however no one tried to render it.

We did as they asked and tried the following:

Please try this
1. Install all the updates for windows, and video card driver, restart computer
2. Close all Autodesk programs.
3. Run "Autodesk Access", sign in as your email
4. Install all the updates listed from bottom towards up
5. Restart computer.

If still not working, try the following 3 things:

1. https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Clear-a-corrupt-damaged-C4R-model-from-the-system.html

2. https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-Disable-Add-Ins-for-Revit-Products.html

3. https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-reset-Revit-to-the-installation-defaults.html

Hope this helps, let me know.

When none of that worked; did some more research but came up empty.  Below are some of the things I tried to get the system to open the file.  Really the file opened but no changes could be made and the file would not render it was quite the issue.

Troubleshooting:

For Revit 2026, you can disable add-ins by using the built-in Add-Ins Manager, its standalone application, or by manually moving the add-in files from their installation directory. These methods allow you to manage add-ins individually, as a group, or disable them entirely. 

How to use the Add-Ins Manager

• Inside Revit: Click on the Manage tab, then find the Extensions panel and click Add-Ins Manager. From here, you can enable or disable individual add-ins, all add-ins, or macros. The changes will take effect after restarting Revit.
• Standalone Application: Search for "Revit Add-Ins Manager" in the Windows Start menu or navigate to the installation folder at <Revit installation folder>AddInsManager\RevitAddInsManager.exe. This is useful if a faulty add-in prevents Revit from launching.
• Cloud Models: If you are working with cloud models, you may need to deselect all items in the Add-Ins Manager and then recheck only the Autodesk Collaborate add-in before restarting Revit. 

How to disable all add-ins at once

For users who need to disable all third-party add-ins at once, you can modify the Revit.ini file. 

• Add a section called [API].
• Add the line DisableUserAddinsAndMacros=1.
• To re-enable the add-ins, change the value to 0.
• Restart Revit for the changes to take effect.

3. General System and Software Troubleshooting

• Disable Add-ins: Temporarily disable all third-party add-ins in Revit 2026 to see if a conflict is causing the crash.
• Update Graphics Drivers: Ensure your graphics card drivers are updated to the latest certified version from the manufacturer's website.
• Check System Resources: Verify your system meets the Revit 2026 System Requirements (16 GB RAM minimum, 100 GB free disk space for temp files recommended).
• Clean Reinstallation: If all else fails, a clean uninstall and reinstall of Revit 2026 may be necessary to resolve a corrupted installation.
• Check Windows Event Viewer: This can provide clues about the crash details. 

If the problem persists, gather your Revit journal files and submit a support ticket to Autodesk with the crash report number for further investigation. 

The default location for Revit journal files is: C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\<Autodesk Revit version>\Journals. This folder can be accessed by typing %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\<Autodesk Revit version>\Journals into the File Explorer address bar. If you cannot find the folder, it may be hidden, so you will need to enable "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" in Windows' folder options.  

• Default location: 

  C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Autodesk\Revit\<Autodesk Revit version>\Journals. 
• To find it quickly: 

  Type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\<Autodesk Revit version>\Journals into the File Explorer address bar. 
Replace the placeholder: 
Replace <Autodesk Revit version> with your specific version, such as Autodesk Revit 2024 or Autodesk Revit 2023. 

Crashes when opening of a Revit model

• Cloud Model: If the model being opened is stored on a BIM 360 or Autodesk Docs cloud project, see the following article: Crash with or without CER occurs when trying to open any model in Revit.

• Install Revit Updates: See the following article: How to keep Revit updated.

• Install clean Revit: How to Complete a Clean Uninstall of Revit products 

• Disable Add-ons: See the following article: Check if add-ons are causing unexpected behavior in Revit.

• Try opening the file with Audit.

• Open with worksets closed

  1. Open the model with the worksets containing linked models closed: Open Worksets.

  2. If the model opens, reload each link individually until the problematic link is identified.

• Crash on Windows 11 environment:

  • Crash when using steel connections: SQLDUMPER.EXE window opening and closing when launching or working in Revit or Advance Steel

  • Crash with update Windows 11 24H2: Crashes in Revit after updating to Windows 11 24H2

• Crash in Revit 2024 at conflicting/ corruption schemas when using mixed Revit updates: Schema Conflicts in Revit 2024

Note: See the following for Revit and AutoCAD links: 

• • "Data in file (file name).rvt is corrupt and needs to be manually recovered" when opening a file or syncing a file to central in Revit.

  • How to repair corrupt AutoCAD files.

More Troubleshooting

See the following link for more troubleshooting: Crash AND open.

For Revit 2019 and older

1. Rename or Delete the Flexnet files:

Close all Autodesk software, then rename or delete the following three files from this location: C:\ProgramData\FLEXnet

• • adskflex_<number>_tsf.data

  • adskflex_<number>_event.log

  • adskflex_<number>_tsf.data_backup.00

Note: Check if the files are not hidden using these steps: How to turn on hidden files and folders on Windows.

2. Locate and rename the ADUT folder:

   1. Go to C:\User\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ADUT.

   2. Rename the folder (for example, to "ADUT2").

3. Delete the contents of the folder: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\CLM\LGS.

The Fix

The fix ended up being an issue with SteelConnections.  I paid careful attention to what the system was doing when it was trying to render and noticed it was crashing bringing up steelconnections.  So what I had to do was manually remove steelconnections from the addins folder.

Close Revit.

Browse to the folder C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\[Version].
eg  %PROGRAMDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2026

Move the add-in files to another location to temporarily disable them. Renaming the files will not work. (eg moving steelconnections2026.addin to the desktop)

Restart Revit to confirm the add-ins are no longer available. 

That fixed the issue with the file.  The file rendered very fast taking only a few minutes on settings that use to take the older system hours.

*Note to re-enable the addin move it back to the addins directory

A powershell script to update rustdesk in action 1

For maintaining remote access for our IT systems we use a mix of action1 and rustdesk.  Though action1 has a very good remote web interface it can be slow at times.  I've setup a rustdesk server for additional security.  Below is a powershell script that I created.  

The script creates a folder for downloading rustdesk from github; and if it isn't there create it, download and install.  There is a else where if it is installed, uninstall rustdesk then create the install directory and install the latest version.

$Folder = 'c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER'

"Test to see if folder [$Folder]  exists"

if (Test-Path -Path $Folder) {

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER\*.*

Remove-Item 'c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER'

Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_product | Where-Object Name -Match "RustDesk" | 

    ForEach-Object -Process { 

        Invoke-CimMethod -InputObject $_ -Name Uninstall 

                            }

New-Item -Path "c:\" -Name "#NAMEOFFOLDER" -ItemType "directory"

Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/releases/download/1.4.6/rustdesk-1.4.6-x86_64.msi -OutFile c:\saplit\rustdesk-1.4.0-x86_64.msi

$pkg = "c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER\rustdesk-1.4.0-x86_64.msi";

Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /norestart /qn" -Wait;

##Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /qn" -Wait;

##Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /norestart /qn" -Wait;

Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER\*.*

Remove-Item 'c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER'

} else {

#uninstall rustdesk

Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_product | Where-Object Name -Match "RustDesk" | 

    ForEach-Object -Process { 

        Invoke-CimMethod -InputObject $_ -Name Uninstall 

                            }

New-Item -Path "c:\" -Name "#NAMEOFFOLDER" -ItemType "directory"

Invoke-WebRequest https://github.com/rustdesk/rustdesk/releases/download/1.4.6/rustdesk-1.4.6-x86_64.msi -OutFile c:\saplit\rustdesk-1.4.0-x86_64.msi

$pkg = "c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER\rustdesk-1.4.0-x86_64.msi";

Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /norestart /qn" -Wait;

##Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /qn" -Wait;

##Start-Process msiexec "/i $pkg /norestart /qn" -Wait;

Start-Sleep -Seconds 30

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER\*.*

Remove-Item 'c:\#NAMEOFFOLDER'

}