How to re-install a WinXP downgrade from Seven (in 2012)

Harddisk fails, sometimes without any warning they just "die". Yesterday everything was fine and today, when you turn on yor workstation, is simply does not boot.
Fortunately, this time the user was smart and recognize that something was wrong: he report to me that his workstation was pretty slot, taking longer time to boot everyday. This slowness seems to be cause by huge activity on disk. Well.. WinXP (as all windows version) have the strange habit that they become slower when time passes.. this is ok if you're a human a get closes to 60 but a bit weird (IMOH) if you are a 2/3 years old PC.
Having smartmontools on my Sysadmin Swiss Knife USB key, I just run "smartctl -t short sda" (this is a WinXP machine, but smartmontool are available for Win too and the work pretty well there too). The tool reports and error on a sector: usually this means that the drive will fail soon.
Fortunately (again) I just buy a spare SATA disk a few days before: by speaking with the user and his manager, we decide to re-install the whole system on the brand new HDD ASAP.

Reinstalling WinXP should be pretty easy.. or not? Well.. this is a Win7Pro machine, one of the first we buy when WinXP was EOL and OEM does not sell WinXP anymore (does Canonical says that you cannot install Ubuntu 8.04 anymore????? I hate those politics on commercial software..)
We choose to downgrade it as WinXP Pro, due the fact that ALL our machine has WinXP on them, so why do I have to waste my sysadmin time in managing two Win version if I can manage only one? Why do my users have to learn another OS if the can work with a more comfortable one?

Let's go back to the install issue.. I cannot find the original CD provided with the PC, so I take another WinXP SP2 disk and install that.. When installer ask for Product Key I entered the one printed on PC chassis label.. it was wrong? Damn..
Looking a bit closes to the Product Key it says that it's a Win7 product.. Damn (again)
Finding solution for problem on closed source project it's harder that the same on FOSS.
After a bit of googling I just turn to the old fashion "phone call to the one how sell it". The answer was something like this "dont worry, enter a product key of another winxp instance".
mmmhhh..  "this doesn't broke the "another instance" installation activation?"
answer: "well.. it may, but usually it does not." - in my experience this is not true.. but someone of you my try this at home
me: "any other solution?"
answer: "enter the product key of the other instance but do not activate on-line. Choose to activate by phone" - in 2012?!?!?!?!?!!? arggggggggghhhhhhh!!! - " a recorded voice will ask you to enter the code displayed on screen. Do not enter anything, the voice will repeat a few times and later will turn you to an (human) operator. Tell the operator that you have an old instance of Win7 to downgrade to WinXP" - old because you cannot downgrade anymore, sic - "he will ask you the product code of Win7 and should generate a new key to activate WinXP correctly"

Damn.. this will take a lifetime.. I buy the license, I pay for it and now I have to waste a lot of time for activation process.. BTW Oracle does not do anything like that, even on its database license. They just kick your ass if they find you, but let you work without wasting time..
I did the whole process and enter a big (nearly 40, I think) number at the end of activation process.

So, if you have to re-install a Win7 to WinXP downgrade process as follows:

1. install from any WinXP CD and enter any valid Product Key you have
2. when activating the product DONT activate online, but do it on the phone
3. when the recorded voice ask you to enter the number on screen, do NOT enter them. Even if recorded, the voice, sooner or later, will become bored about your inability of press phone digits. And will redirect you to a human operator
4. the human operator is, of course, human, so you can speak with him/her and tell what you're trying to do
5. if he/she says that downgrade is not possible in 2012, tell him/her that you're a sysadmin that's re-installing an old workstation: it HAVE to be a WinXP due policy restriction on your site. This should be enough to go ahead on activation process
6. tell his/her your Win7 Product Key (which is a bit hard on phone.. but possible!)
7. after a bit of working he/she will generate a new product key for WinXP and redirect you to the recorded voice (again!) that this time will just tell you the very-long-number to enter on-screen for activation
8. you're done. Enjoy your eXPerience with licensed products!!!!

I'm a Linux sysadmin, but, of course, I have to work with Win too.

The Win lacks of a default decent command line shell is' already a big problem for me.

The lacks of a default decent REMOTE command line shell is a bigger problem for me.

The lacks of a default packet manager, capable of install/upgrade/update not only the OS but also all the installed software, is another problem for me.

But.. managing license and activation code is even worst. I bought the OS license (you have to do it: there's only a few OEM that give you the options of buy a workstation without OS!!) and now I cannot use them because MS just says that the product is EOL?

Cut the product support (which, BTW, I've never used), cut the bug/security hotfixes (which I do install, but without a good antivirus are meaningless) but, please, allow me to install a software that I already pay for easily!!!

Ubuntu 12.04 on Dell Vostro 3550

Ubuntu 12.04 is out now, perfectly in-time with the arrival of my brand new Dell Vostro 3550. Preatty happy about its Win7 Pro performance I was just waiting for the latest Ubuntu release (which is, fortunately, a LTS too!) to use Linux as first OS and relegate Win into a VM (I'll try to run the original Win7 as DomU with Xen soon!)

Download was really fast (I'm wondering how many mirrors Canonical and the community setup for this release!) and the iso was soon "burned" into a USB dongle with my nettop Ubuntu version Startup Disk Creator (I have no luck with unetbootin under Windows).
Now it's time to see is 12.04 works with my laptop. I've plug the USB dongle into one free slot and turn on the system..
Instead of the standard Ubuntu screen, after the Dell BIOS splash, I got only a black screen with the "Machine Check Error" messages!
Bad.. really bad..
First thing to do is, of course, google for the error. Someone says it's due UEFI, someone says it's due recent BIOS update (however, with other hardware), someone says...
wait..
what? after plugging the USB dongle into Win7 (and thus installing the driver) the problem disappear?? naaaaa... it's impossible! why installing a driver in Win7 should resolve this kind of problem?
Well.. I didn't find a better solution so I try this one.. and it works!!!!

I don't really know why (maybe Win7 "marks" the USB dongle somehow and the BIOS is happy with that..) but what really matter is that it works..
well no, what really matters is that a USB dongle does NOT works out of the box but, I think due BIOS restrictions, requires the intervention of Win7.. bad, bad news

I hope that in the next days I'll find "why" and "how" it works

Telecom Italia e il (dis)servizio DoS al cliente (business)

Da circa un mesetto, c'è un baldo tecnico di mamma Telecom, che si ostina a venire in azienda per portarci via il router Cisco 877 in comodato d'uso per cessazione del comodato stesso (mentre invece la "splendida" ADSL adaptive resta in essere).
La prima volta (pur da amministratore e responsabile IT) cado dal pero: da un giro veloce di informazioni (tra titolare e segretaria) scopro che nessuno ha mai chiesto la cessazione del contratto (e vorrei vedere!), men che meno del solo noleggio.
Il buon tecnico crede in un errore e non ci lascia senza router. Io, immediatamente, mi metto a ripristinare il vecchio Cisco 857 che avevo in un cassetto per sostituire l'877. Un giro di telefonate col 191 (servizio per aziende, no baubaumiciomicio) non risolve niente: non si sà cosa succede nè chi ha chiesto la cessazione.

Ieri il baldo giovine torna a bordo della sua Panda Van rossa e io, avendo il backup già in funzione, gli restituisco il router senza una piega. Tempo di disservizio: zero. Auto-pacca sulla spalla, torno al mio lavoro "vero".

Mentre il server mi compila l'EZSDK, ritorno a prendere il mano il telefono: primo giro al 191 inutile. Ci riprovo (i call center vanno sempre chiamati 2-3 volte, per avere una visione decente del problema) e parlo con un altro tizio.
Mi conferma per l'ennesima volta che non è competenza del suo ufficio ma, apriti cielo!, crea una segnalazione "guasto" per far prendere in carico la cosa all'ufficio corretto: mi ricontatteranno entro le 10 del giorno successivo (seeee...). Mi chiede nome/cognome e un numero di cell (fortunatamente gli do il mio personale e non quello aziendale del titolare) e aggiunge:

"guardi che le arriverà un sms con i dati della segnalazione [...]. Poichè "il computer" non funziona (quindi è una cosa risaputa, ndr) le arriverà qualche sms in più. Sono tutte copie dello stesso quindi li cancelli pure e tenga solo i primi"

mmmmmhhhh.... la vedo male... "vabbè", penso, "mi arriveranno, toh, 10-20 sms? e chissene..."

BipBip.. poco dopo ecco arrivare il primo "grazie per aver contattato [...] la sua segnalazione sul numero 0434.... ha il seguente identificativo ......" (o qualcosa del genere)

bipbip, bipbip, bipbip, bipbip (pausa di 20 secondi) bipbip, bipbip, bipbip, bipbip..
10 nuovi sms, mi dice il mio buon telefono..
meglio spegnere la suoneria và..

Adesso, il buon lettore, dovrebbe fermarsi un attimo e cercare di indovinare QUANTI sms esattamente mi sono arrivati. Non credo ci arriverete vicini..

In breve, nel giro di circa un'oretta, mi sono arrivati la bellezza di 180 (centottanta!!!!) sms, tutti con lo stesso testo. Il mio povero cellulare, oltre a risultare inservibile (ho infatti perso un paio di telefonate, che sono andate direttamente in segreteria) ha anche esaurito quasi tutta la batteria.

Non so voi, ma a me questo sembrava un bel attacco (ops.. servizio, son sempre un cliente business!) DoS!

Why opening a blog?
Well.. to have a place where to write your ideas that maybe someone else is interest in reading.
I was looking for a place to write my technical research and the weird things that happens in my work and private life as an IT expert.
I could write such a things in a social network but I don't think it's really what I want (web search engine will not scan them and it's hard to have a "professional" layout).

Apart from IT there's lot of things that happens in my life.. most of them are private and will continue to be so, but sometimes you feel that you have a nice idea and think: "why not share this with the rest of the world?".

I'm Italian so I need another note for my Italians reader..

Perchè scrivere in inglese? Bè intanto non è detto che scriva tutto in inglese! Poi perchè, nella mia testa, principalmente sto pensando di scrivere di "robbbba" informatica (o che comunque riguardi la tecnologia) e queste cose il più delle volte sono utili (e interessano) a un pubblico internazionale e, cosa non trascurabile, vengono meglio se scritte in inglese (non sò voi, ma io non ricordo l'ultima volta che ho letto l'ultimo documento/libro/datasheet in una lingua che non fosse inglese).

Molto probabilmente sceglierò l'inglese per i post tecnici e l'italiano per tutto il resto: anche perchè sono abituato a leggere in inglese, ma non a scrivere, quindi lo sforzo è mica da ridere (ma il risultato forse si!)