Archive for category Uncategorized

WIGITAL Customer Relationship, Accounting and Point of Sale Article Series using Business Contact Manager and Microsoft Office Accounting

Posted by Mark Raborn in Uncategorized on 2008/07/24

Today we embark on a journey to write a series of articles on integrating Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Accounting and Dynamics Point of Sale.

Our goal in this article series from the very beginning will be to provide a true Enterprise scale (CRM, Accounting and POS) environment to our clients at a fraction of the typical cost (literally). We will refer to the basic installation, articles and walkthroughs available online as much as possible so that basic single installations can also be learned but we are going to target our efforts at deploying multiple CRM/Accounting clients onto a company network.

What this means is adjusting the installation of each of the components to suit a shared database, reviewing (at length) the underlying technical documents behind this software and summing it all up to provide a solution to the Clients we serve here at WIGITAL.

A Brief Explanation: Office Accounting + Business Contact Manager + Point Of Sale have the potential to be installed on numberous client computers on your network (as many units as you want). Each installation points to a single database server (SQL Server 2005) on your network. Your entire company pulls the business data from the source database (just like big companies). Since everyone uses the same database, collaboration on a large scale becomes possible using all the features of each of the products combined and every user is empowered to serve the company “on the same software platform” based on their role (or have a limited experience based on permissions the Business Owner assigns). All this at a lower price than “high-end” CRM/Accounting solutions.

This target audience for this series is primarily Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners (with companies up to 100 employees) who want a great Contact Relationship Management (CRM) platform, full featured Accounting and Point of Sale at minimal costs.

How we got here:

In the corporate enterprise, CRM and Accounting costs $thousands$ per seat. It’s a fact. Look at the pricing of a combined Dynamics GP/Dynamics CRM deployment or other solutions at this level from SalesForce.com,  Sieble and others… If it’s Customer Relationship Management plus Accounting (full featured), then it’s a lot of money.

Some providers are moving to a service model (meaning the software manufacturer provides customers the software as a service over the internet) but it’s just as expensive in the long run and you never own it so you never stop paying. Take # of users times service cost and multiply times an indefinite number of months and you’ll start to gain an understanding of why software as a service is very appealing to the providers.

Enter Microsoft for Small Business

THE GOOD NEWS: Microsoft Office Accounting and Business Contact Manager for Outlook can be integrated at about $400 a seat. This is relatively low priced. These two products combine to offer a feature list worthy of comparing to high end CRMs, and… Outlook offers a familiar interface to run it all through.

  • Outlook with BCM = $150
  • Office Accounting Professional = $200

The way we deploy at WIGITAL, the cost goes down as you add more seats and settles at about $300/seat (including Client installation). This is 1/10 the cost of Enterprise CRM/Accounting (and you own the solution). This straightforward demonstration of value is what motivated us to take the time to provide this series. The whole package, deployed properly, really is of value to our clients.

The combination of Outlook, Businesss Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Accounting and also (potentially) Dynamics Point of Sale can provide everything a Small Business Needs to operate. By assessing Business, Operational and Technical prior to rolling it out, a company can achieve it’s mission, integrate CRM/Accounting/ and POS can even replace “industry specific” line of business applications (applications programed and developed for specific industries) that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

So, let’s take a quick look at each piece of the solution:

Business Contact Manager

Business Contact Manager (BCM) is a Contact Relationship Management software. In plain language, it’s an exceptional product. It’s $150/user. It really shines when integrated. BCM can be installed either locally (meaning on your computer only) OR it can be installed globally ( in one database shared on the network for all users).

WIGITAL specializes in installing Business Contact Manager, Microsoft Office Accounting and Dynamics Point of Sale globally in an integrated and shared collaborative workspace .

This provides all the benefits of the software to lots of users at once. Integration of CRM/Accounting/POS gives your company the following benefits:

Business Contact Manager provides:

  • Shared Business Contacts
  • Shared Marketing Campaigns
  • Shared Project Management
  • Shared Sales Environment
  • seamless integration with Microsoft Office
  • more…

Microsoft Office Accounting provides all of the Accounting

  • General Ledger
  • Sales
  • Online Sales
  • Products and Services
  • Estimating
  • Inventory
  • Payroll
  • seamless integration with Microsoft Office
  • (etc….)

and the Accounting piece can full integrate with the CRM piece, see this article .

Dynamics Point of Sale provides the POS Terminal, Touch Screen ability and bar code scanning

  • Saves Time
  • Eases Inventory and Purchasing Tasks (Bar Coding Tools & Integration)
  • Speeds customer checkout and provides a more professional experience for clients
  • Integrates the Sales Floor with the Back Office
  • Helps you better understand your customers
  • Provides accurate real time Information to Business Decision Makers
  • seamless integration with Microsoft Office
  • (etc…)

So, now comes the heavy lifting. We begin writing the tech stuff about how integrating these pieces is achieved. Our goals are to demonstrate how each component is connected. We will demonstrate “technically” how to share the “Business data” using a single database on a  Remote Database Server (running Microsoft SQL Server 2005). We will do it all using an inexpensive suite of software tools available from Microsoft. We will help answer your questions by replying to comments and you can even buy the solution with us here at WIGITAL when the time is right for your team. Here is our article list at this point:

  1. Phase 1 – article link to go here ( check back in a few days )
  2. Phase 2 – article link to go here ( check back in a few days )
  3. Phase 3 – article link to go here ( check back in a few days )
  4. Phase 4 – article link to go here ( check back in a few days )
  5. Phase 5 – article link to go here ( check back in a few days )

About us: WIGITAL is a Microsoft Partner and Business Technology Company. As a certified Small Business Specialist, we write about and study the serious business of best practices in installation. We also share our knowledge with the community. Whatever choice you make for your team in moving forward, today’s brief should help you better understand your options and the technical details of integration and deployment with Office Accounting, Business Contact Manager and Point of Sale.

Contact WIGITAL for discount rates and corporate deployment

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Mac Entourage 2008 RPC HTTP uses WebDav to Exchange

Posted by Mark Raborn in Mac, Uncategorized on 2008/07/23

Microsoft Exchange Server is available to Client systems via a variety of methods outside of the local network.

  • OWA – Outlook Web Access
  • OMA – Microsoft Mobile Access
  • Outlook using RPC over HTTP

These (among others) are some of the more popular ways that knowledge workers access their mail, calendars, tasks etc… from Exchange Server while outside of the office.

Outlook using RPC (remote procedure call) over HTTP is very popular for those workers who need the full Outlook experience (more than just email). Using Outlook RPC/HTTP gives the Client access to Public and Shared Company Folders in real time that would only available “Offline” as Favorites otherwise.

So what about the Mac? Can the Mac access Microsoft Exchange Server using Outlook RPC over HTTP?

If you are using Entourage (Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac), Exchange Server based email boxes, Public Folders, and more.. can still be accessed via a similar method to RPC over HTTP. Entourage makes use of WebDav (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) to securely access your Exchange mailbox using the Entourage for Mac.

How to do it?

First, launch your web browser and navigate the URL where Exchange can be accessed
Open web browser

Microsoft Exchange Server generally will have a certificate of some kind installed. This encrypts traffic (and your credentials) so they cannot be easily read. If the Certificate is not trusted by your browser and/or application, it will cause an error to be thrown.
untrusted certificate

To make things a little smoother, Trust the Certificate. View the warning window carefully. Select to “Show the Certificate”
Show the Certificate

as you view the Certificate, look for an select the Trust drop down

view Certificate to Trust

drop down to Trust

Select Always Trust Certificate
always Trust the Certificate

Enter your password.
password

You can then view Keychain Access to confirm that you Certificate has been trusted.
Certificate confirmed

Now you should be able to view the Exchange Outlook Web Access page without difficulty or error
Outlook Web Access

Now Setup your Entourage Account access to Exchange. Go to Tools | Accounts
Tools and Accounts in Entourage

For the Account type, select Exchange
Exchange account type

Setup the Exchange Account manually by clicking the “Manually” button
manual Exchange setup

You may now edit the individual account settings to access Exchange:
Edit Account - Exchange

Remember as you enter data here that Entourage communicates with Microsoft Exchange differently than Outlook does on the PC. Entourage uses WebDav. Entourage also uses a slightly different set of conventions in entering credentials.

  • Account name:
  • Personal Information
    • Name: your Full Name
    • E-mail address: your Email Address
  • Authentication
    • Account ID: your Windows username for the Domain your Exchange Server is a member of
    • Domain: the name of the Domain
    • Password: your password
  • Server information
    • Exchange server: enter the URL used to access your Exchange Server online
    • [ ] DAV service: be sure to CHECK THE BOX to secure the connection over WebDav. This uses the certificate you Trusted earlier to encrypt your credentials as you logon to Exchange.


E-mail account settings on Exchange

Go back to Entourage and check your mail. At this point you may begin to see some activity:
Email in Entourage

That’s it. Grab a glass of water at the cooler. Talk about some fun stuff and then… get to work.
Entourage ready for work

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Multiboot Mac OS X – Vista 64 bit – Windows Server 2008 – Linux – OpenSolaris

Posted by Mark Raborn in Mac, Uncategorized on 2008/07/19

!!!~ this article in progress ~!!!

MIS/IT/Developer/Designer types live today in a multi-operating-system/multi-web-browser world. The fancy word we use to refer to this paradigm is “heterogeneity” (which sort of means: lots of systems on one network).

Today, different types of computers are learning to offer more common ground. The people behind these systems do a lot of work to make sharing this common ground easier. At WIGITAL, we too are learning to participate in this effort. Responding to clients and the needs of a diverse computer culture requires us to both “learn” and carry around resources that empower (Linux, Mac, Windows) to work together.

Enter the MacBook Pro.

The Intel based-MacBook offers a platform on which all three Operating Systems can run. MacBooks are costly but they enable one “Tech guy” to carry around one laptop and do “the job”. This weekend, I took my own deep dive into the proverbial swimming pool of multi-booting on the MacBook. Here are my views on the experience, some links, research and walk throughs. If you are thinking of the same, read what’s here (and all over the web) and share your comments.

Resources to get you started (posts I read over the weekend):

Software you need:

Terms to know:

EFI
The EFI specification defines a model for the interface between operating systems and platform firmware. The interface consists of data tables that contain platform-related information, plus boot and runtime service calls that are available to the operating system and its loader. Together, these provide a standard environment for booting an operating system and running pre-boot applications.
http://www.uefi.org/home

HISTORY:

Intel Macs use GPT – GUID Partition Table (which is part of the EFI specification) as the source of information/code relating to partitions and boot information. Modern operating systems are EFI aware “even though” we must go through the BIOS based Multi Boot Record (MBR) method to get our (Linux and WIndows) systems loaded.

Windows Vista, beginning at Service Pack 1, “DOES SUPPORT EFI” – (see Hardware Ecosystem Support in this article). Also, some previous 64bit Windows and Itanium based Windows Operating Systems support EFI.

Older Microsoft Operating systems (XP, Windows 2000 etc…) use MBR – Master Boot Record (which is legacy Windows) as the code to manage partitions and boot. Multibooting on the MacBook requires us to create FAT32 partitions and the MBR table even with EFI aware Vista and Linux. This has proved challenging in multi boot environments that need to implement both the modern EFI GUID Partition Table (Mac as example) and the legacy Master Boot Record. Originally (the old days), pulling this off required a lot of hacking (like this example and this example using this method). The end result, which is still in use today using rEFIt, is a GPT/MBR Hybrid which combines EFI, GPT, MBR, BIOS emulation to get all the partition tables written (and synchronized) for multibooting.

Linux can use both EFI and MBR has been deployed in various ways using rEFIt in both dual and multi boot settings on MacBook. The walkthroughs still rely on initial FAT32 partitions to get things started prior to the installation of Linux and OpenSolaris. These are later converted to Ext3 in Linux and NTFS in Windows.

PARTITIONING:

As has been well outlined in pioneering articles, the primary challenge in multi booting operating systems is the partitioning systems.

Dealing with these partitions, the boot loaders associated with them and ultimately syncing EFI with MBR still remains the primary focus of successfully multibooting Linux, OS X and Windows to a MacBook

NOTES:

My Personal Wish List:

  • to be able to use EFI/GPT on all partitions (now supported on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows Vista SP1 or later)

My “Real World”:

  • create a EFI / GPT Mac OS X partition
  • create a FAT32 partition (converted during Linux install to Ext3)
  • create a FAT32 partition (converted during Windows install to NTFS)

The Partition Basics (disk partitions will include: EFI System Partition and the three Operating Systems):

  • disk0s1 = /dev/sda1 – EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface)
    • Apple reserves the first primary partition for the EFI System Partition
  • disk0s2 = /dev/sda2 – EFI/HFS+ (Mac Hierarchical File System plus)
    • Apple Mac OS X Leopard 1.5.4
  • disk0s3 = /dev/sda3 – FAT32
    • target for Linux/Open Solaris (later converted to Ext3 in Linux and ZFS in Open Solaris)
  • disk0s4 = /dev/sda4 – FAT32
    • target for Windows Vista x64 (later converted to NTFS during install)
    • NOTE: this process expects Windows to be the last partition on the drive

The Partitions Details – (some FYI notes on the partitions)

  • IMPORTANT: the GPT Partition table must show the FAT 32 partitions as Microsoft Basic Data or Mac OS X will not recognize it.
  • Because MBR only supports 4 partitions, we must use a Linux Swap File instead of a Swap Partition (when triple-booting). This must be created at the command line.
  • Mac OS X can recognize and mount both FAT 32 and NTFS, however the partition must begin as FAT 32. NOTE: the FAT 32 partition can later be converted to NTFS for use with Vista and Windows Server

Helpful Utilities:

Boot: use rEFIt or BootCamp as the Graphic Boot Utility

Multiboot Walkthrough Basics

INSTALLATION (a basic outline)

Phase 1 – Install the base Mac OS System and updates

  • Install Mac OS X (base system only)
  • Install all updates to OS X
  • Install available firmware updates to MacBook
  • Install BootCamp
  • Install updates to BootCamp

Phase 2 – install rEFIt

  • Install rEFIt

Phase 3 – create Windows Driver CD or use Mac OS X installation disc 1

  • Run BootCamp Assistant and create Windows Vista SP1 x64 driver CD
    • Right/Ctrl Click on Boot Camp Assistant
    • select Show Package Contents
    • copy the Contents/Resources/diskimage.dmg file to your Desktop
    • launch Disk Utility and burn the diskimage.dmg image to a CD
    • NOTE: you are only using BootCamp for the drivers
    • NOTE: DO NOT partition with BootCamp
  • more…

Phase 4 – list and Create your Partitions

Open a terminal window and type: diskUtil list

the result should look like:

 /dev/disk0
   #:                   type name               size      identifier
   0:  GUID_partition_scheme                    *233.8 GB disk0
   1:                    EFI                    200.0 MB  disk0s1
   2:              Apple_HFS Macintosh HD       233.4 GB  disk0s2

Locate the identifier for your Mac OS X partition (in this example disk0s2).

To create the partitions for your multi boot system type the command using the following syntax:
sudo diskutil resizeVolume [disk identifier] [disk size] [partition type] ["Partition label"] [partition size] [partition type] ["Partition label"] [partition size]

In my scenario, I’m working on a 200GB hard drive, I would therefore type:

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 50G "Linux" "Linux" 100G "MS-DOS FAT32" "Windows" 15G

CREATE PARTITIONS

With the MacBook, partitions can be created either at the command line or using the Graphical DiskUtilities tool.

COMMAND LINE SETUP OF PARTITIONS

  • in Mac OS X, launch Terminal
  • type diskUtil list

**this will display all the current paritions

Last login: Sat Jul 19 14:30:15 on ttys000
mark-raborns-macbook-pro:~ wigital$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *186.3 Gi   disk0
1:                        EFI                         200.0 Mi   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            186.0 Gi   disk0s2
mark-raborns-macbook-pro:~ wigital$

In our scenario, we have a 200GB hard drive
14GB are used by ?

disk0s2 is the HFSplus partition used by the MAC

We now resize this disk and create 2 new partitions for Sun Open Solaris and Windows Vista

In Mac Terminal, type the command

sudo diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 34G “MS-DOS FAT32″ “Linux” 100G “MS-DOS FAT32″ “Windows” 50G

OR

*Insert the Mac OS X installation DVD
*When the DVD autoplays you will view this screen – Picture 3
*click Install Mac OS X and Bundled Software
*When the Install Mac OS X Restart windows appears, click (Restart) – Picture 4
*enter you password – Picture 5

When you get to the Welcome screen, select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu
When Disk Utility starts, select the MacBook’s hard disk, my Disk Description is: “FUJITSU MHY2200BH Media”
select the Partition tab on the right panel
*under Volume Scheme:
**click once on the Macintosh HD to change the Volume Scheme

**click the [ + ] button (a second Volume HD_2 will appear)
**click once on the second Volume
**in the Name: box, name the Disk Description partition: “LINUX”

**click the [ + ] button (a third Volume HD_3 will appear)
**click once on the third Volume
**in the Name: box, name the Disk Description partition: “WINDOWS”

In my scenario
**Volume 1: in the Size: box, set the size of the Macintosh HD partition: “65.00″
**Volume 2: in the Size: box, set the size of the LINUX partition: “25.00″
**Volume 3: in the Size: box, set the size of the WINDOWS partition: “95.00″

click Apply

once the existing Partition has been resized and the new Partitions have been created

*Quit the Disk Utility

If you are creating a fresh installation, then Install Mac OS X

If Max OS X was already installed in your system and you require no changes

*Quit the Mac OS X Installer
*select Restart
*eject the Mac OS X installation disc

WINDOWS

*Eject any discs that may be in the DVD drive
*insert the Windows Vista x64 disc
*restart the MacBook
*listen for the chime, hold down the C key when the chime sounds, this boots from CD/DVD

with rEFIt
*you can also insert the Windows Vista DVD
*start the MacBook and let rEFIt come up
*tab to the Boot from Windows CD option
*press return
*the MacBook will boot to the Windows Vista DVD setup

At Windows Vista setup
*Select
**Language
**Time and currency
**Keyboard or input method
*click Next
*click Install now
*enter your Product Key
*accept the Terms
*select Custom at “Which type of installation do you want?” screen
*you should now see a list of partitions
**BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO DELETE OR OVERWRITE ANY PARTITIONS labeled as “Unallocated Space”
**click on Drive options (advanced)
**highlight the partition you created earlier with the Disk Description “WINDOWS”
**NOTE: this partition should appear as Disk 0 Partition 4 WINDOWS
**click on Format
**you will receive a warning about data, click OK
**once formatted (should be very fast), click Next
*the installer will begin Installing Windows

Copying files
Expanding files (0% etc… this portion may take some time)
Installing features
Installing updates
Completing installation

Once Windows Vista is installed, the system will reboot.
Allow the system to go into the rEFIt boot manager
from the available options, select Boot Windows from Partition 4
the Windows Vista x64 installer will continue at this point

<code>Please wait while Window Sets up your computer</code>

after some time it will return to the Preinstallation Environment GUI showing
Completing installation …

once the Installation is complete, the system will reboot once again

*when rEFIt comes up, boot into Windows Vista, select Boot Windows from Partition 4
*go through the OOBE (Out of Box Experience) screens and select your preferences (Windows Update settings, time and date, etc…)
*once OOBE is complete, click Start
*you will view the “Please wait will Windows launches for the first time” display
*once complete, you will view the Windows Vista welcome screen for the first time

ADD WINDOWS DRIVERS

*insert the Mac OS X installation disk 1
*when the AutoPlay window appears, select Open folder to view files
*navigate to WindowsSupport\Boot Camp\
*double-click Setup
*A program needs your permission to continue , select Continue
*this launches Boot Camp installer, click Next
*select I accept the terms in the license agreement, click Next
*click Install

Installing Apple Softrware Update Apple Built-in iSight
**Bluetooth
Broadcom wireless
Apple Null Divers
Crystal Bach
ATI graphics
NVIDIA graphics
Sigmatel audio
***Removing old RealTek audio driver
RealTek audio
Apple Built_In Bluetooth
Apple REmote
Apple Keybaord Support
Apple Cinema Display
Copying new files
APPle Time Service
Keyboard Servidee
Apple Trackpad
Music HAL
Intel chipset, etc…

When you reach Boot Camp installer completed.
click Finish
click Yes to Restart

Windows Vista reboots, when rEFIt boot loader select Boot Windows from Partition 4

when Vista launches, you may very well experience your fastest Vista experience ever

UBUNTU

  • insert Ubuntu 8.04 LiveCD
  • at rEFIt, select to boot from Linux CD
  • select to Install Ubuntu
  • select Language,Time and Keyboard options (your Country – Macintosh), click Forward
  • at Prepare disk space screen in Install, you will be asked “How do you want to partition the disk?, select Manual, click Forward
  • system will begin Scanning disks
  • highlight /dev/sda3 (which should read fat32 in the Type column), select Edit partition
  • from the Use as: drop down:
    • select Ext3 journamling file system
    • DO NOT check the box labeled Format the partition:
    • in the Mount point: enter “/”
    • click OK
    • click Forward
  • you will receive a WARNING “Do you want to return to the partitioning menu?”. This warning will inform you “You have not selected any partitions for use as swap space.” Click Continue.
  • Enter the Who are you? information, click Forward
  • There is no need to migrate documents, click Forward
  • !!! IMPORTANT !!! – at the last Ready to Install screen, CLICK THE “Advanced” button
    • in Advanced Options, from the drop down in Device for boot loader installation: select /dev/sda3
    • DO NOT Install boot loader to (hd0). This is the hard drive and not the sda3 partition. Installing boot loader to (hd0) will cause the boot loader to fight with rEFIt and also take over the boot loading process for Vista (which means booting to Linux to then boot to Vista. We prefer rEFIt to be our “one and only boot loader”. Installing the boot loader to /dev/sda3 keeps Mac OS X, Vista and Linux all accessible from withing the rEFIt GUI.
  • once this is set… click Install

NOTES:

Once the installation is complete, the FAT32 partition will have been re-formated replaced by the Ext3 partition. The Ext3 partition is not readable from within Mac OS x without third party software.

OPEN SOLARIS

*attach a USB keyboard to the MacBook Pro
**(on my install, OpenSolaris read the MacBook Pro keyboard as USB but would not take input from the number keys on the keyboard)
*attach a USB mouse to the MacBook Pro (ctrl+click not supported by Solaris)
*Insert OpenSolaris 2008.05
*reboot the system
*once rEFIt appears, select Boot Legacy OS from CD

GNU BRUB version 0.95

OpenSolaris 2008.05
OpenSolaris 2008.05text console
Boot from Hard Disk

*Highlight OpenSolaris 2008.05 and press Enter
*Select the keyboard layout (using External USB keyboard), press Enter
*Select the desktop language, press Enter

Configuring devices.
Mounting local partitions/cdroms
Reading ZFS config: done.

opensolaris console login:

…wait while opensolaris prepares it’s Live environment

*Close the OpenSolaris License (external USB mouse can now be used)
*double-click the Install OpenSolaris icon
*at OpenSolaris Installer, click Next
*on the Disk screen, Paritions should read

EFI PMBR (EFI primary)
Unknown (HFSplus – Mac OS X)
Win95 FAT32 (will be used with OpenSolaris)
IFS: NTFS (Windows Vista x64)

*click Win95 FAT32 and select Solaris, click Next
*Select Tim Zone, Date and Time, click Next
*select Locale, click Next
*enter Root Password, Name, username and password and Computer name, click Next
*review your settings, click Install

OPEN SOLARIS BUG: Bug ID        6413235

In my installation the Open Solaris Bug 6413235 would not enable me to install. The Bug relates to an issue with FDisk where FDisk fails to create the Partition Table for Linux.

Read about Bug 6413235 here:

http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6413235

Solve the issue here:

http://www.genunix.org/wiki/index.php/OpenSolaris_Dual_Boot

Here is an overview of the proceedure.

*boot into Mac OS X
*install rEFIt
*insert the GPartEd LiveCD
*reboot into rEFIt
*once rEFIt appears, select Boot Legacy OS from CD
*connect a USB Keyboard and USB mouse (necessary on some MacBook’s as MacBook keyboard/touchpad not recognized)
*answer the Keyboard and Language questions
*complete boot into Debian/GPartEd

GPartEd Terminal

*the GPartEd application and Terminal will be on the Desktop
*double-click the Terminal
*at the Terminal window type: # fdisk /dev/sda
*…. a block of text information will appear
*enter the following commands as each line appears

<code>
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-4): 1
Hex code (type L to list codes): af
Changed system type of partition 1

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
syncing disks.
</code>

GParted application

*if it is not alread open, double-click GParted on the desktop
*my display was something similar to this:

<pre>
Partition     | Filesystem     | Label     | Size     | Used     | Unused     | Flags
/dev/sda1       fat32            EFI
/dev/sda2       hfs+
unallocated     unallocated
/dev/sda3       fat32
/dev/sda4       ntfs
</pre>

/dev/sda is the EFI bootloader partition (changed to FAT 32 by applying the Hex code “AF” in the Terminal steps above
/dev/sda2 is the hfs+ partition for Mac OS X
unallocated should not be changed
/dev/sda3 is the fat32 partition which is our destination for OPEN SOLARIS
/dev/sda4 is the ntfs partion (converted from fat32 during the Vista x64 installation)

*highlight the /dev/sda3 partition (click once with mouse)
*go to Partition | Format to | and select linux-swap
*in the display /dev/sda3 will change from fat32 to linux-swap
*the footer of the application will display: “1 operation pending”
*to Apply the changes, click the Apply button (top of application)
*the changes will be made
*Exit GParted and reboot into rEFIt

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