Installing Bonus Tools for Maya 2011 [win64] on Windows 7

In my humble opinion, Autodesk should change the way to automate the building of packages for Windows. I've never seen so many errors and requirements to install a very small piece of software like Bonus Tools for Maya.

"Bonus Tools is a free collection of useful Maya scripts and plug-ins. After installing Bonus Tools, users will have a pull-down menu for easy access to the tools that cover all aspects of everyday use: general UI, modeling, animation, texturing, rendering and cloth." 

Cool! Unfortunately installing this piece of software on a fresh install of Windows 7 x64 is very hard, at least for me.

Double click on the msi file and the first problem appears:

"The InstallScript  engine is missing from this machine. If available, please run ISScript.msi, or contact your support personnel for  further assistance."

What's Installscript? It's a system to create Windows setup files:according to InstallShield,, it should keep "customers happy". Actually I'm not happy and Installscript acts like a virus: you can install it, you can't remove it, you have to live with it. No way to uninstall it via Add/Remove Programs or using Windows Installer Clean up.

InstallShield explains here how to determine the version number of the ISScript engine we need, download it, and install it.

Unfortunately  I could not use the procedure explained to determine the version number I needed, so I tried it out myself.

Version 8 works for me.

It seems that installing multiple ISScript versions doesn't affect pc performances.

Ok, another problem:

"Registry Error: Module path is empty. Unable to set up Registry details to configure Bonus Tools." 

Unable to set up Registry: it seems a problem due to system privileges. I ran a dos command prompt as Admin. I navigated to the location of the msi file and typed:

msiexec /i MayaBonusTools2011_win64.msi

This procedure avoids the registry error. Finally Bonus tools have been installed.
Now I have to figure out how to install them on Vista x86. Other kind of problems on Vista.

Remote Desktop via Openssh and Putty

I often need to remote control my Ubuntu server with a Windows client. Even if I do very simple operations via Remote Desktop, I prefer to forward my traffic through SSH Secure Shell. The steps to tunneling an insecure connection are very simple.

 SERVER SIDE

Install Openssh Server and ssh. Run a terminal and type:

stefano@SERVER:~$ sudo apt-get install ssh openssh-server

Generate a pair of public and private keys executing the following commands:

stefano@SERVER:~$ mkdir ~/.ssh  stefano@SERVER:~$ chmod 700 ~/.ssh  stefano@SERVER:~$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048  Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):  Enter same passphrase again:  stefano@SERVER:~$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys  stefano@SERVER:~$ chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Edit your sshd_config:

stefano@SERVER:~$ sudo gedit /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Usually I use these settings:

Port 22  PermitRootLogin no  RSAAuthentication yes  AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorized_keys  PasswordAuthentication no  AllowUsers names_of_allowed_users

Copy ~/.ssh/id_rsa to your Windows client.
Enable Remote Desktop clicking on System --> Preferences --> Remote Desktop:

Now let's configure the router. We need to setup port forwarding on your router. To do that, your pc has to have a static IP. For example, you could use 192.168.1.2. Now redirect your browser here, choose your router, then select SSH and follow all steps. At the end you should have something like this:

WINDOWS CLIENT

Download PuTTy and PuTTYgen
PuTTYgen can import the private key generated on the server and save it in a format PuTTy-readable. Run PuTTYgen, then click Conversions --> Import Key:

Now click "Save private key"

Run PuTTy and follow next steps:

HINT: You have to enter 192.168.1.1 if you're in your home/office lan. If you wanna control a remote pc outside your lan, you have to enter an internet IP address. If your remote computer has a dynamic IP, you can evaluate the possibility to create a hostname that points to your IP address.

Now go back to "Session" and save this setup, then click "Open". Log in with your username and enter the password you have chosen for your private key.

Last thing to do: you need to download a VNC viewer to controll your remote desktop. I really like TightVNC.  Download Viewer executable only and run it:

Insert 127.0.0.1 as VNC Server and click "Connect"

 Enter the password you have choosen for your Remote Desktop

 

Voilà! You can control your remote computer. You can save the connection info not to repeat the last steps.

Click Yes, choose a path to store the informations and create a link on your desktop.

That's all!