April 2020

Dell Wireless 1703 on Windows Server 2019

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Recently at work I had to install this OS (with the Desktop Experience feature set) on a Dell XPS 8700. Windows was able to recognize everything properly and all components but the network adapter would show up in Device Manager. Tried the usual things to fix this:

  • Installing the driver from Dell; it would install but Windows would fail to make use of it.
  • Updating the driver using “Search automatically for updated driver software”. This would fail with Windows complaining about an issue with the INF.
  • Manually pick a driver from the filesystem. It would also fail with an error about the INF.

Looked at the INF file but there wasn’t anything in it that would make Windows Server just up and refuse to install the thing, and given there isn’t that much difference between Windows 10 and Windows Server the issue had to lie elsewhere.

There is one thing that Windows 10 does, however, and that’s automatically start WLAN services, since usually you’d see Windows Server be installed on enterprise hardware or have it connected to the network via Ethernet. Turns out Windows Server does not even install this feature on its own.

To install it:

  1. Click Start button.
  2. Type “Turn features on or off”.
  3. Click Next 4 times (Before you Begin, Installation Type, Server Selection (which defaults to the local server), and Features.
  4. On the Features selection list, scroll down to Wireless LAN Service and select it.
  5. Click Install and wait for the OS to do its thing.
  6. Reboot system. This is required for it all to work.

After the system comes back up the network adapter should be installed and enabled in Device Manager.

Ah, right… in addition to this it turns out the “Dell Update Application” totally does not work under this OS so you have to manually download and install all device drivers; this took me a couple of hours, so mind your clock.

Dell Wireless 1703 on Windows Server 2019 Read More »

This is most annoying

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Riot tells Ars kernel-level system could be removed if vulnerability is detected.

Source: Ring 0 of fire: Does Riot Games’ new anti-cheat measure go too far? | Ars Technica

Given Riot’s labor and cultural practices I’m not holding much hope for them being able to fix issues quickly when (not if) someone breaks their driver and turns it into a rootkit like Sony’s.

Another issue the article does not go into is the fact every major game publisher will develop their own kernel-mode driver or use a 3rd party service (like BattlEye) to do so, leading to issues within the kernel that will be:

  • A pain in the ass to diagnose
  • Hidden from the player
  • Likely will not provide any kind of error message since the developers will be afraid they could be used to break the driver.
  • The risk of collisions between drivers will be increased, with likely both publishers being the cause.

Microsoft can help but there’s only so much they can do before breaking compatibility with previous versions of Windows; Gamers don’t care as much but Microsoft does have to worry about their main customer base (enterprise) who will definitely not like having weird code fuck around with workstation kernels(like this, and what Swift is complaining about is mere user-level applications.

People with time and money will probably want to look at PCI Passthrough to be able to run games in a Windows VM and not have to worry about any of this fuckery. Something goes wrong? Just restore to a previous snapshot of the VM and carry on as usual.

This is most annoying Read More »

*shrug*

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Life hasn’t changed much since the current pandemic started.

I’m still working nights, so I don’t really get to see that many people. I still order pretty much everything for delivery.

The gf is staying with me during almost-quarantine since she was able to get a job in a restaurant (!!!).

Life goes on but I can see how it is changing for everyone around me.

*shrug* Read More »