The my-how-to-do-it blog

Compact tabs in Firefox

2023-05-20T23:24:00.004+02:00

Type about:config in the address bar and press Enter.
A warning page may appear. Click Accept the Risk and Continue to go to the about:config page.
Find the browser.compactmode.show preference.
Switch the toggle to true and then close the tab.
Click the menu button to open the menu panel.
Click More tools.
Choose Customize toolbar….
At the bottom of the panel, click Density.
Choose Compact (not supported) from the menu options.
Click Done.

From: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/compact-mode-workaround-firefox

OneDrive for Linux

2022-09-09T15:22:00.003+02:00

OneDrive for Linux

Install with github.com/abraunegg/onedrive and github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md

Setting Sharepoint sync up with Linux github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/advanced-usage.md

Dell Precision 5550: Mouse drag lock bug

2022-09-09T10:30:00.003+02:00

Dell Precision 5550: Mouse drag lock bug

Works on generic Ubuntu 20.04.

Open a terminal and type xinput for a list of devices. Then xinput disable <id> the ELANxx device.

$ xinput disable 15

Swipe gently on the screen and then reenable touchscreen

$ xinput enable 15

Repeat if necessary.

[post #47 on https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/rapidsvn/+bug/402892]

Linux: How to list group members

2022-09-09T09:59:00.005+02:00

The follwing group and user operations are usefull in linux

Add users

To add a user to Linux

$ sudo adduser username

List users

To list users in Linux

$ less /etc/passwd

To serch for users/a user

$ more /etc/passwd | grep username

List members in group

To list the members of a group in Linux

$ getent group groupname

Add user to group

To add a user to a group in Linux

$ sudo usermod -aG group usernamename

How to reset Oneplace satellite box

2022-08-21T23:08:00.004+02:00

How to reset Oneplace satellite box

(Allente / Canal Digital)

To reset the Oneplace Android Satelite box do the following:

Pull the power from the Box for 30 seconds.
Plug the power back in while pressing the "left" rapidly (more than 2 times per second), and wait for the boot up process to boot into á "bios"-like state.
Press "2" to reset / reload presets. The screen will display a splash status message indicating work in progress. When done it will read succes near the bottom left of the screen.
Recycle the power and the box should boot normally as new.

Remember to remove the GPS data from your images

2013-04-05T13:24:00.000+02:00

Many smartphones and cameras today also contain a GPS module, which enables the devices to store the GPS position of the site/location where the picture was taken, inside the picture itself, inside the EXIF data.
This information is then public to everyone when you upload the pictures to the evil www....
Therefore remember to remove the GPS data before uploading image file.
A tool for this is here: www.digitalconfidence.com/downloads.html

NSLU2: How to change the hard drive

2012-12-28T00:46:00.000+01:00

To migrate the hard drive of your NSLU2 to a new one perform the two follwing steps:
Step 1: Copy the content of the hard disk to a new hard disk.
Step 2: Expand the partition to fill all the available space on the the new hard disk.

Step 1: Copy the content of the hard disk to a new hard disk.

(in part from http://linuxcommando.blogspot.com/2008/06/show-progress-during-dd-copy.html )

Copy the content of disk 1 (mounted on /dev/sdb) to disk 2 (mounted on /dev/sdc ) (if adjust sdb, sdc, sdd, etc acording to your own configuration, you might use gparted to check the names). Block size below is 1M (1 mb):

$ dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sdc bs=1M

Follow the progress forof the process by executing the following command in an other command window:

$ kill -USR1  8789

Find the process ID by running the command (and replace 8789 acordingly):

$ pgrep -l '^dd$'
8789 dd
$

Step 2: Expand the partition to fill all the available space on the the new hard disk.

Install gparted, launch it. Expand the large partition on the disk to fill to take advantage of all the available space.Move the other partitions acordingly. Do not delete og shrink any othe the other partitions.

Suspend Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on Asus U32U

2012-12-25T15:57:00.002+01:00

Do the following
(all instructions from: http://thecodecentral.com/2011/01/18/fix-ubuntu-10-10-suspendhibernate-not-working-bug):

Step 1

Create a script under /etc/pm/sleep.d/. It can be any name, but to ensure the load order, use the prefix 20_.

gksudo gedit /etc/pm/sleep.d/20_custom-ehci_hcd 

#or the way you would normally do when creating a file as superuser

Step 2

Note that if you use the code from "Step 2 Old" below, please skip this step. This script is contributed by commenter Danne.
Insert the following code into the file you have just created:

#!/bin/sh
#inspired by http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9744970&postcount=19
#...and http://thecodecentral.com/2011/01/18/fix-ubuntu-10-10-suspendhibernate-not-working-bug    
# tidied by tqzzaa :)

VERSION=1.1
DEV_LIST=/tmp/usb-dev-list
DRIVERS_DIR=/sys/bus/pci/drivers
DRIVERS="ehci xhci" # ehci_hcd, xhci_hcd
HEX="[[:xdigit:]]"
MAX_BIND_ATTEMPTS=2
BIND_WAIT=0.1

unbindDev() {
  echo -n > $DEV_LIST 2>/dev/null
  for driver in $DRIVERS; do
    DDIR=$DRIVERS_DIR/${driver}_hcd
    for dev in `ls $DDIR 2>/dev/null | egrep "^$HEX+:$HEX+:$HEX"`; do
      echo -n "$dev" > $DDIR/unbind
      echo "$driver $dev" >> $DEV_LIST
    done
  done
}

bindDev() {
  if [ -s $DEV_LIST ]; then
    while read driver dev; do
      DDIR=$DRIVERS_DIR/${driver}_hcd
      while [ $((MAX_BIND_ATTEMPTS)) -gt 0 ]; do
          echo -n "$dev" > $DDIR/bind
          if [ ! -L "$DDIR/$dev" ]; then
            sleep $BIND_WAIT
          else
            break
          fi
          MAX_BIND_ATTEMPTS=$((MAX_BIND_ATTEMPTS-1))
      done  
    done < $DEV_LIST
  fi
  rm $DEV_LIST 2>/dev/null
}

case "$1" in
  hibernate|suspend) unbindDev;;
  resume|thaw)       bindDev;;
esac

Step 3

Add executable permission:

sudo chmod 755 /etc/pm/sleep.d/20_custom-ehci_hcd

Result

Your suspend should be now working as expected. Suggestions on improving this script are welcome.

Linux on Windows: CYGWIN

2011-04-07T13:31:00.003+02:00

In order to setup a working linux environment on Windows try Cygwin. Cygwin is a implementation of a range of linux functions/functionality for Windows.

Go to www.cygwin.com and download the setup file.
Run the file by double click and choose "install from internet".
When prompted I prefer to install Cygwin to "Program Files", which although warned about does not seem to give problems.
When prompted for choosing packages choose:

Editors

emacs
mc

openssh
rsync

Finish the installation.
Run (double click) the shortcut on the desktop. It will create your home folder in the appropriate location (in this case (english WinXP) "C:\Program Files\cygwin\home\you").
In the Cygwin window run "ssh" which will create the ".ssh" folder in your home folder.

Cygwin: Setting up a trusted ssh-relationship

2011-02-11T09:42:00.000+01:00

If you are frequently connecting via ssh to the same server or if you are using rsync to backup your files as will be described in a later guide, you might want to set up a trusted relationship between your local computer and the remote server.

Start by generating a private/public key set.
Run the following command:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa 

Now go to your local .ssh folder.
Then download the "authorized_keys" file from the server

scp user@server.com:/home/user/.ssh/authorized_keys .

then make a backup copy of the file:

$ cp authorized_keys authorized_keys.backup

now merge public key id_rsa.pub into the authorized_keys file

$ cat authorized_keys id_rsa.pub

and upload the authorized_keys file to the server

$ scp authorized_keys user@server.com:/home/user/.ssh

Now try and connect via ssh:

$ ssh user@server.com

It should now not prompt for password.

NSLU2: When the power supply (PSU) dies ...

2011-02-11T09:25:00.001+01:00

Problem: My NSLU2 has stopped working. Problem pinned down to being the power supply. The following description matches very well my experience, although my power supply worked 24/7 for 3 years (the first two supplying a 2.5' disc.:

"It showed an interesting mode of failure.... after being used for about 1 year 24/7, the LED still illuminated and the unloaded votlage was 5.0V (good) but when a Slug was switched on, the voltage dropped to about 3V and the Slug could not boot. The Slug's Power LED showed faint 'pulsing' in time with USB Memory stick access attempts (difficult to see with your finger over the Power button though). The power supply was binned. "

Diagnose:
"It has been noticed that the supplied Linksys PSU appears to fail after about a year if supplying two USB powered 2.5" laptop drives from the NSLU2.Symptoms include, but not limited to hard drives not being mounted properly at boot time, although the slug will boot with no disks attached for a while until the supply dies completely." - nslu2-linux.org

My solution:
I bought a "AC Power Adapter/Charger for PSP 1000/2000/3000" from dealextreme.com. Then I exchanged the plug that the Power Adapter/Charger came with the plug from the original NSLU2 PSU. When doing this, BE CAREFUL and use a voltmeter/multimeter to make sure + and - are connected correctly. Double double check, because you might end up destroying your NSLU2 if applying a wrong voltage.

I did all this, and my slug is again running like a charm.

Cygwin: Making a ssh connection with tunnels to your server

2011-02-07T22:46:00.005+01:00

To make a ssh connection to a linux server, do the following:
Start by loading Cygwin: Start a cmd prompt and load Cygwin:
C:\folder>loadcygwin (the script is described here).

the run the ssh connect command:

C:\folder>ssh user@server.com

This will prompt for your password before allowing the connecntion. Voilá!

If you want to take advantage of one of the strengths of ssh, namely the tunnels run the command as:

C:\folder>ssh user@server.com -L 123:remotehost:456

which will open port 123 locally (on your computer/localhost) which is tunneled to port 456 on the server remotehost.

You can with benefit put this command into a batch (.cmd) file, such as the following ssh_server_com.cmd.

ssh_server_com.cmd:

@echo off
echo Connecting ...
call loadcygwin.cmd

ssh user@server.com -L1125:localhost:25 
-L22993:imap.gmail.com:993
-L993:imap.gmail.com:993 
-L22995:pop.gmail.com:995 
-L22587:smtp.gmail.com:587
-L8888:localhost:8888 
-L8080:localhost:8080

Cygwin: Setting up the environment and locale

2011-02-07T22:31:00.002+01:00

When using Cygwin to connect to linux servers, and when using Cygwin in a windows environment in general, it is important to get the locale right.

I am using Cywin through cmd-sessions, and I load Cygwin manually for each cmd-prompt session, as I do not want to override the Windows/Dos commands by default.
Thus I run the file loadcygwin.cmd each time I want to switch to/load Cygwin.
The content of loadcygwin.cmd is listed below:

loadcygwin.cmd:

@echo off
call setcygwinenvironment.cmd
:: WinXp
set path=c:\Program Files\CygWin\bin;%path%
::Win7
::set path=C:\Program Files (x86)\cygwin\bin;%path%
echo Cygwin now loaded.

In this file I am calling the script setcygwinenvironment.cmd which sets the locale. (As you can see I am living in Denmark, which my locale settings reflect)

setcygwinenvironment.cmd:

echo Setting up CYGWIN environment...

:: Set cygwin locale to the same as windows locale.
set LANG=da_DK-UTF-8
set LC_CTYPE=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_NUMERIC=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_TIME=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_COLLATE=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_MONETARY=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_MESSAGES=da_DK.UTF-8
set LC_ALL=da_DK
set CYGWIN=acl nodosfilewarning
echo done.

A sister site : www.tvass.eu

2010-11-29T14:18:00.000+01:00

I/we have just launched a sister site to this blog, namely the www.tvass.eu site, which will be featuring the same articles and snippets as this blog, albeit maybe in a more structured form. Please visit the site and support it. And... share with friends.

Mediaportal: How to install mediaportal

2010-11-20T21:04:00.017+01:00

If you (like i did) have an old PC which you do not use and at the same time need a mediacentre, why dont you give mediaportal a shot? It is open source, free and for windows.
Here goes:

Download the latest version here .
Launch the installer file.
Choose your country.
Choose "Start installation now".
If there is ANY chance that you will be using mediaportal to either watch or record TV, answer yes to the question of whether you are going to use mediaportal to watch TV.
Unless you know very well what you are doing (and if you are, you not reading this), choose install all in one click.
If you are installing under Windows Vista or Windows 7, you will be asked which network the TV-server may communicate on. I have chosen only private networks and would recommend this setting.
The setup is now done installing and you will be shown the MediaPortal Manual Documentation .
You are now done installing MediaPortal - Have fun! (I will continue posting articles on how to setup things and features on this blog...)

Mediaportal: Choosing and setting up a remote control

2010-11-20T20:53:00.002+01:00

I found and ordered a nice looking (and very cheap) remote control from the Hong Kong based store dealextreme.com : http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.34435 .

Conclusion: It works just fine! However there are quite a few keys that don't have the function that was intended (some take mediaportal out of full screen mode, some launch other applications, etc.) and some keys do nothing at all.
However the volume, channel, number, arrow, PC off, close program and mouse keys work fine, which is the most important.
In mediaportal you also have to make some customization in setup. Lauch "MediaPortal Configuration", and go to "Remote" and choose "Microsoft MCE" and "Use Microsoft MCE remote or keyboard".

Conclusion: This remote is so cheap that you can not afford to buy if you are missing a remote for your mediaportal PC. It's only approximately $10.

Hint: You probably can remap some of the key strokes from the remote using the program AutoHotkey.

Firefox: Unblock a nonstandard port in Firefox3

2010-11-19T21:07:00.003+01:00

If you try to browse a non-standard (a non-port-80 port) using Firefox 3, you will get he common Firefox can't-do-this-Try-Again error.
This is because Firtefox tries to protect you from evil-men-on-the-net, or yourself by blocking all ports but port 80. You need to unblock using a nonstandard port such as 81, 28 8888, 8971in Firefox3 by following the directions on this page: [ http://bdbits.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/unblock-a-nonstandard-port-in-firefox3/ ]
I've test this and it works just fine!

Debian NSLU2: Installing packages 1

2010-11-19T20:52:00.005+01:00

Initial setup

After the installation of the Debian OS is finished it is time to start installing the packages containing the services/servers/programs/utiliies that you need on the nslu2. It is of course the packages that was the initial reason that we started this installation adventure.

Furthermore some packages need to be removed.

Some have been tested and the removed again.

Installed packages

thttpd
vsftpd
samba
emacs
mc
screen
ddclient
rsync

Removed packages

I have removed the following packages which were installed by defaul. I must confess that the net"-something" is a package that a friend of mine removed and which he neglected to tell me the full name of.

nfs
net"-something"

Installed and removed packages

sg3-utils
atop
gdb

atop is quite usefull for discovering what is going on on the slug regarding network, hdd, memory usage etc.

How to install the packages
How to install the packages? Start by logging in as root:

$ su

and supply the password that you set during the Debian OS install procedure. Then install sudo and emacs:

$ apt-get update; apt-get install sudo emacs

Add yourself to the sudoers group
Now you need to add yourself to the sudoers group. Run

$ visudo

and find the line

root     ALL=(ALL) ALL

and add the line

"username"     ALL=(ALL) ALL

replacing "username" with your own chosen username. Then hit Ctrl+X to exit and answer Yes to the question of whether you want to save the file.

Remaining packages

Now it is time to install the remaining packages

$ sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install ntpdate vsftpd samba mc screen ddclient rsync sudo

How to continue
In the following blog-articles I will show how these packages are configured.

Debian NSLU2: How to install Debian on the NSLU2

2010-10-22T22:56:00.026+02:00

Before we proceed with the installation of debian on the slug there is one point we bring in order:
We need a hard drive to install debian on.

My two slugs are installed in two different configurations:
Slug 1 (my home slug): A "WD Elements Desktop WDBAAU0010HBK 1 TB" (image) [Link 1, Link 2]

Slug 2 (my remote slug): A 4GB USB flash drive holding the operating system and a 300GB Maxtor hard drive to hold the data.

I recommend to install the OS on a single exteramnal harddrive. And make sure you choose one which is silent and energy efficient. I can recommend the above (WD Elements Desktop WDBAAU0010HBK 1 TB), which has served me faithfully 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for a year now, but any other will do just fine.

Second thing which is important to do:

Connect the slug to power and your home switch and turn it on.

Set up the IP of the slug, the subnet mask and default gateway and the DNS server, in the native (the one the NSLU2 comes with) interface such that it is accessible from the local network and such that it has internet access. The reason for this is that the debian installation will inherit the network settings from the native setup and will use these during the setup.
Download and install Putty if you are running from Windows. If running from linux, just the use the built-in ssh which is sufficient.
A screendump of Putty connecting to the default IP address 192.168.1.77 is attached. The username is blanked out for security reasons.

Find and download the Debian install firmware. Doublecheck 3 times that you have the right firmware. You will find the latest Debian firmware here (on the 25th of Oct. 2010). Here I have linked to the unofficial image, which is the one I highly recommend. It is also the one I used for both of my slugs.
There is a great guide on how to install Debian on NSLU2 here on cyrius' page. It is the guide/page that I used myself. It is also the one containing the link to the Debian firmware.
Flash the slug with the downloaded firmware through the native Linksys NSLU2 interface.
Turn off the slug
Connect the harddrive.
Turn on/reboot the slug.
In Windows Connect to the slug through Putty (don't use other ways of connecting such as Cygwin, they will fail during the process). Or in Linux run the command below. In any case the username is "installer" and password is "install".

$ ssh installer@192.168.1.77

Continue as described in Cyrius' guide.
Choose to install to entire hard drive.
Just use the Next, Next, Next approach whenever presented with a choice.
While the installer is downloading and installing the packages it would be a good time for you to think about what name your server should have. In case you want to make it available online and are sitting behind a dynamic public IP address, it would be a good time to check whether this name is available at dynamic DNS services such as dyndns.com. The thing is, that there exists a dns-updater for Debian which I use, recommend and will introduce later. Therefore I recommend dyndns.com.
Therefore: If you want to make the server available online, go to dyndns.com, find a available hostname which suits you (but choose with care as you might get unwanted visitors if you choose a domain name which is too common - Use your common sense!).
Create an account (might as well be with the same username as you intend to use as domain name), "buy" the domain name (for 0.00$), active it etc.
Let the installer finish.
As any guide online will tell you: "it is recommended that you install the ntpdate (or ntp) package to make sure the clock is always up-to-date. "

$ sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install ntpdate

$ sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install ntp

There, we have installed a full Debian server on your slug. You now have a full server consuming 2W+whatever your hard drive consumes. In the next few articles I will describe how to install and configure services you might need/want.

Introducing the Linksys NSLU2

2010-10-21T21:33:00.001+02:00

The first series in this blog will be on my implementation of Debian Linux on the Linksys NSLU2 (Wikipedia link).The Linksys NSLU2 is a quite old piece of hardware, and has gone out of production. However, I was only introduced to it a couple of years ago. Since then I have bought two of them, placed them in different locations and set them both up to run Debian and to sync data to each other.

One of them is located in my own basement, and the other in the basement of my brother. The advantage is obvious, considering that the one in my home is acting as my backup server. If I were to have a break-in or a fire, or a flood or a number of things, the other one will be a backup to my backup.

Furthermore the NSLU2 (aka the Slug) acts as file server, media server, iTunes server, running ftp server, http server and ssh server.

However, you will not get all of this for free... Which is reason I am writing this blog series. The slug comes with a native operating system (based on some Linux distribution). However, the posibilities with this version is highly limited.

A number of different alternative operating systems can be installed, as desribed on the website nslu2-linux.org.

However I chose Debian. The reason? That I then would get a full Linux server with the entire repository available on my NSLU2.

How I did it will follow... stay updated:-)