Another Geek Boy

Annoying policy prevents wifi scan

2026-06-10T21:39:29.040+07:00

Just in case you're having problem with this error message everytime you connect to your Ubuntu via xrdp:

Dia browser comment this:

"This is a PolicyKit (polkit) authentication prompt on Ubuntu asking for permission to perform Wi-Fi scans. It’s a common annoyance on Ubuntu desktop, especially when connecting via remote desktop (like RDP from a Windows app on macOS to your Ubuntu machine)."

NetworkManager always tries to scan the Wi-Fi when I'm logging in remotely. Remote sessions are treated non-local, so polkit asks for your password every time.

The fix is straightforward. Create a polkit rule to allow the scan without authentication.

1. Create this file: /etc/polkit-1/localauthority/50-local.d/allow-wifi-scan.pkla

2. This the content for the file:

[Allow Wi-Fi Scan]

Identity=unix-user:*

Action=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.wifi.scan

ResultAny=yes

ResultInactive=yes

ResultActive=yes

3. That's it. Now restart polkit:

sudo systemctl restart polkit

Annoying lay out, font too large. Why, Emerald?

2021-02-21T22:42:00.003+07:00

It is annoying how large the fonts and how little the information visible with all the spaces laying around in this Emerald Insight site. I don't understand the reason for such larger font.

Thought about it and decided to change this site's theme.

Game mode on Sony Bravia 4k UR3 reduce lag with Asus Pro P1440

2021-02-13T14:09:00.004+07:00

I have lag using the TV as my laptop external monitor via hdmi. The laptop is Asus Pro P1440. Previous experience using an i7 gen 7 Spectre showed not noticeable lag, so naturally I blamed the laptop.

I stumbled upon a menu in the TV picture mode: game mode and tried it with the laptop, Currently the lag is gone and I'm having a great time using the TV as a 3rd monitor. I'm also hooking an Dell P2419H monitor as a second monitor. It is bliss. I fire up Word and Mendeley to continue writing my dissertation.

And then I blanked again :D There's just no excuse for procrastinators.

Error: sudo update couldn't get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock -open on Elementary OS

2021-02-11T23:42:00.002+07:00

Noticed that I couldn't update with sudo with error message in the title. Some googling yielded this solution:

sudo apt-get clean

Got the solution from here (https://qastack.id/ubuntu/131601/gpg-error-release-the-following-signatures-were-invalid-badsig)

Either there is no default mail client or the current mail client office 365

2020-04-18T23:31:00.001+07:00

I hated this error sign recently, couldn't find a way to solve it. Just now I managed to find a solution. Open Regedit to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Components\F129....(something something).

Now right click on that folder and choose Permission. Add Everyone, Allow a permission to Read.
That's it. You don't even need to restart the PC.

If you're crazy about Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show

2020-04-01T09:44:00.000+07:00

There's a Youtube channel for the archive, bless his/her soul.
Link's here. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyGzp9qxI4tJqXT62h54CTg/community. Help you with staying at home.

Android Tab can't save to sd card

2020-03-25T09:52:00.001+07:00

A link here confirms that Adobe Acrobat is just complying to some Android tab manufacturers that set sd card to be read only. What you can do is more the file to the tablet storage, do your editing there. Link here.

Cloning System from HD to SSD using Macrium Reflect

2020-03-12T18:57:00.000+07:00

After 24 hours, I remembered that using Macrium Reflect (https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree) is enough to transfer your system to SSD through cloning.
Just follow the instruction for using it, you're supposed to boot from the software's OS.
I did this twice and I forgot how to do it. This post is also me remembering it so I don't have to waste another 24 hours in the future relearning it.

Enabling running 64 bit OS in Virtualbox

2019-01-01T12:50:00.001+07:00

This thread shows how to enable running 64 bit OS in Virtualbox,

Before doing that, I googled: "using virtualbox to install linux" and Google spit out this

The option was available after a reboot.

Manual Mouse Sensitivity setting on Linux (Ubuntu): Xinput

2018-12-09T09:33:00.002+07:00

It drives me crazy the way my mouse pointer jumps out of focus accidentally. I couldn't find the setting to reduce the sensitivity in Ubuntu.
Fun fact: I just published this post mid editing. Annoying.
Looking around at the community site, I found this.

So basically you use xinput to poke around your input devices
xinput list to show you your input device list and input device id. My touchpad is 17.

xinput --watch-props 17 shows my touchpad setting. What you want to watch for is synaptics finger for making it less sensitive to move the touchpad around.

There are also other features available depending on your hardware.
Go nuts. I still haven't found my sweet spot and I'm hating this touchpad more and more.

Picture in Picture

2018-12-06T06:32:00.000+07:00

If you’re used to Netflix floating window in iPad and are wondering where it is now, don’t worry. It’s in there, you just have to call it out now.

Now it’s working, even though I can’t screenshoot it.

Annoying PlayMemories installation workaround

2018-12-02T13:27:00.000+07:00

Just bought an ILCE-6000 and an FDR-X3000. So far am enjoying them.
Was about to install the PlayMemories Home, the software for laptop, when I stumbled an error. I traced a forum back to 2016 with a solution, it's rather annoying that Sony is doing nothing up to now to fix the software bug for INSTALLATION. Tweeted Sony Alpha, will wait for their response.
For the solution, the user got it wrong. You DON'T erase the information on the 64-bit environment, you delete the 32 one.

Here's the information in the ini file. I highlighted the one that you're to delete. I'm assuming all of you are running Windows 64 bit. Forgive my ignorance.

[General]
InstallerID=9267
InstallerIDEnum=9267,9268,9269,9270,9271,9272
[PMB]
ModulesVersion=10.5.01
MajorUpgradeVersion=10.5.00
InstallFileSize=524288000
InsatllSystemSize=10485760
InstallerSize=125829120
[PMB_ModeEditor_PMH]
ModulesVersion=10.3.00
InstallFileSize=0
InsatllSystemSize=1048576
InstallerSize=1048576
[PMB_ModeEditor_ACMC]
ModulesVersion=10.3.00
InstallFileSize=0
InsatllSystemSize=1048576
InstallerSize=1572864
[MergeModule_x86]
ModulesVersion=10.5.00
InstallFileSize=0
InsatllSystemSize=12582912
InstallerSize=20971520
[MergeModule_x64]
ModulesVersion=9.3.00
InstallFileSize=0
InsatllSystemSize=3145728
InstallerSize=1048576
[PMB_ServiceUploader]
ModulesVersion=10.5.01
MajorUpgradeVersion=10.5.00
InstallFileSize=5242880
InsatllSystemSize=0
InstallerSize=2097152
[DirectX]
ModulesVersion=9.3.00
InstallFileSize=0
InsatllSystemSize=10485760
InstallerSize=2097152
[EULA]
ModulesVersion=10.2.00
InstallFileSize=52428800
InsatllSystemSize=0
InstallerSize=11534336

New Chrome

2018-09-08T08:49:00.003+07:00

Chrome 69 was neat and roundish. How To Geek mention it in an article.

Google explained it more here

What to do when iPhone screen goes black?

2018-08-16T08:01:00.001+07:00

I panicked when my iPhone 7 screen went blank. The home button responded, but there were nothing else that I could do.

This article in Payette Forward gave a good sense of what you can do. For iPhone 7, just press volume down and power button for 10 seconds.

Windows 1607 won't update (with update)

2018-06-23T13:09:00.000+07:00

A thread in MS Community here is mentioning this topic.
There is a Windows Update Assistant available, explained more in MS Comm site here for you to download.
If you don't succeed, try this script to enable upgrade in 1607.
I'm still in progress trying.

=====

Dec 17: Couldn't update still. Update keeps reverting to 1607. Resorting to downloading the installation media here. To get my Windows product key, avoiding third-party software out of sheer paranoia, found our here that I can just paste this script into my powershell:

(Get-WmiObject -query 'select * from SoftwareLicensingService').OA3xOriginalProductKey

This updating business IS annoying.

=====

Dec 18: An article here at BynaryCodes show some options on the error in updating the 1607 version. Honestly the simplest way is a clean install, but no, that's not an option when your son's Minecraft save folders is in jeopardy. HowToGeek have a tip on creating a link to your cloud storage to keep the newest version of your saves on any computer.

Why Do Mac Apps Stay Open When I Hit The Red X Button?

2018-05-04T09:07:00.003+07:00

It annoyed me for the longest time on this. It is apparent when you understand that they treat applications differently then Windows. If you go by precendence, Mac has been around longer. I don't know how that excuse the behavior ^O^
Anyway, a good article in How To Geek made it apparent to me.

Too many zeroes in Outlook

2017-10-13T07:34:00.002+07:00

This nifty article helps me find the culprit of these zeroes are iCloud Outlook add-ins.

Get rid of it and you'll get your life back.

Open Addins in Outlook's Options and choose Go on the bottom

Uncheck the culprit. You have to restart Outlook.

Renaming Long File Name

2017-07-06T09:00:00.000+07:00

Windows won't even rename the file, there's no option for renaming if you right click.
Simple solution: use an archiver. I tried 7z.
It was pretty frustrating before the solution :\

Ms Flow Problem with Twitter

2017-07-04T20:10:00.002+07:00

Some of my Flows spitted out error.

I found some answers in several sites.

Basically you can't just let it run so many times. If the keyword is popular, you might want to put an interval on it to let it run without error.

I haven't found the solution to run it without interval yet.

Other links are here.

What to do when Outlook crashing

2017-07-03T10:00:00.000+07:00

I hope you can still run your Outlook a few seconds before it crashes. It that case:
Open File, Option, then Add-ins. Uncheck ALL. Restart Outlook.

Hope it helps.

Thanks, Google

iReader, cheap micro SD reader for iPhone

2017-06-26T14:33:00.000+07:00

This contraption beats the more expensive iFlash to a third of its price. It's basically an iOS approved card reader. Bought a 16GB micro SD and they all cost around 27USD. That's compared to 70ish USD. I can change the micro SD to another 16 GB for 8 USD. iLike.
Here's the Youtube link.

Latest feature in Powerpoint: Narrate a Recording

2017-06-19T09:00:00.000+07:00

Saw this when running Powerpoint just now. This should be interesting.

What is the difference between m.2 and PCIe for SSD?

2017-06-18T15:00:00.000+07:00

I'm made aware that there's none. A bit dissapointing.

It's discussed in Tom's Hardware. Link here.

Installing Ubuntu on Carbon X1 Gen 5

2017-06-18T13:48:00.000+07:00

To install Ubuntu on Carbon X1 Gen 5, you have to disable the secure boot in bios. Then you can proceed on installing Ubuntu.

Also, I'm made aware that you have to install 14.10 first, then update your way to the latest.

More information from this link.

Macbook Died

2017-06-03T15:03:00.000+07:00

Don't panic if you're in the middle of using your mac and it died. Sometimes all you need is a SMC reset.

There's also a video for that from Save Apple Dollars here