Ubuntu

The Great Drive Mystery

Tried to set up Ubuntu. The install worked fine, but mounting the data drive and giving user access to the thing was difficult. After a days work Ubuntu would not mount the drive. So all this waiting for chmod and chown was probably in vain. I'll have to figure out why Ubuntu refused to mount the drive.

Check /etc/fstab

Here is the root of the problem. The data drive was not mentioned. This is very stange. My additions to the file yesterday simply vanished. Why? I'll give it another try. Probably the desktool is buggy. Or ... ??

The Bandit Is NOT Timeshift

This is a mystery. When Timeshift makes a backup, the mounted drive seems to move ... Ubuntu will mount the external disk with a "Home" label. That is the disk label from a previous distro. So do we have our bandit here? I'm not totally convinced.

Probably this was a coincidence. In the end I installed gparted, and mounted the drive. The /etc/fstab was correct, and after several reboots this evening the system seems stable.

Or, that's what I hope.

Gparted - enter the Hero
With gparted I could mount the drive correctly. For some reasom Ubuntu's disks tool could not do the trick. With a correctly formatted /etc/fstab the drive was mounted permanently. So far so good.

GIMP Could Not Edit Files
At first I thought that this was a general permission problem. However I could not find it. After quite a lot of web research someone somewhere mentioned, that you have to give permissions to the programs in snap!

Problem solved.

Zen Koan

You search for an error,
where there is no error.
It's somewhere else. 

SDD Crash

This is my screen here and now.
From #WCEU 2020 a fine talk about CSS.
So my OS is up and running
Sort of ...

The picture is my screen here and now. I'm following the proceedings at #WCEU on my Linux PC. For the time being the OS is OpenMandriva.

Åbyhøj Data
My SDD crashed (Kingston 120 GB ssd now 300) and the system was not able to boot at all. Strangely enough even the BIOS was unavailable. So what was wrong with the system? Åbyhøj Data was a great help here, because it's hard to find out exactly which part of the system died.

They added a new SDD, larger than the old one. So the system improved a bit. Even better: Now the PC is able to boot again. But had to get an OS somehow. The Manjaro distro was fine, however somewhat nerdy. I need a new OS.

I bougt a Linux Magazine with a DVD on the frontpage, and tried at least to boot in Linux. And succeded. First I installed OpenMandriva.

OpenMandriva - not my taste
OpenMandriva looked promising with KDE and what not, but I found literally everything uphill. Like in everything. I don't like it, and will try something a bit more userfriendly. When I looked for documentation, the online wiki was a joke. No content in several articles. Try the empty FAQ ... 

Next Stop Ubuntu
So I guess it's a hobby project or some insider project. But now I know that my system works, and I think I'll go for a Ubuntu distro. OpenMandriva was usefull here. I could burn a USB version of Ubuntu.

At least I could use the distro in order to burn a Ubuntu USB. 

The game's afoot.

[SOLVED] Yousee modem crashed in Bridge Mode

Called the Yousee support. The modem crashed when I tried to set it in Bridge Mode. They tried to reinstall the modem software.

Some hours later I tried again. After a restart, and a modem initialization everything worked.

Online again ...

Gnome Keyring: asks for password again and again and again

This morning, I thought that the solution was found, but no. I killed a google thing in the sessions, but after 7 - 8 hours the fucking problem fucking returned. Fuck!

No solution found, yet.

Now I've tried to solve this issue several years (since 2010 !) ... the Gnome keyring - or whatever it is - sucks big time, unfortunately.

How the Hell can't the Gnome team stop this pestilence? Enough is enough.

The problem has lasted for almost a decade, and no solution has worked so far.

Enough is enough. For me Gnome WAS great, once ... but it ain't no good any more. I hate to say this, but unfortunately Gnome sucks big time.

[SOLVED] Yousee damn weak wifi signal and an ultraslow connection

After a bit of research I found out why Yousee's signal sucks. The wifi signal from the router is ridiculously weak.

I gave up on the lousy Yousee modem and bought a router: Asus RT-AC66U B1. Now that's a different story.

The speed went from max 20mbs to 120mbs after attaching a router to the modem.

Speedtest after Asus router install

I still don't understand why Yousee sell such a lousy router. They get complaints about speed all of the time. Why sell an ok connection with a impotent router?

The next step is to set the YouSee router in bridge mode.

Linux: MS Teams - and Office 365

These Corona-days we often meet on MS Teams at work. So a version on my Linux system could come in handy.

Just for the hell of it, I tried to find a MS Teams client in Arch Linux (Manjaro). To my surprise it was available. To my even greater surprise it worked like a charm. Thanx Microsoft.

At log in I could select my Logitech c920 webcam and the Thronmax usb microphone. I just had to allow the usage.

The only caveat was a screen share that did not work, because my wifi connection is terrible. That was certainly not a Microsoft issue, but rather something I want to discuss with Yousee (it's the never ending story: connection sucks, complain, then it works for at week or two, then the connection is horrible again).

By the way - I got the whole package: mail, calendar etc. etc.

Cool!

MS Teams: Cam and Mic - Logitech 920

Here are my settings in a Chrome browser on a Macbook Air.

MS Teams settings: external cam and mic

Mac Finder: Show hidden files

Do thus:

CMD + SHIFT + .

et voila! Now you see the hidden files.

[SOLVED] MS Teams JavaScript Error on Mac

JavaScript Error Message on Macbook Air

MS Teams Cannot run on my MacBook Air. I get these errors:

Errors MS Teams

Solved - here's the hack

MS Teams up and running on Macbook Air

I got the recipe for the hack here.

Open a terminal, and change to the sudo user. Then:

cd /Users/USERNAME-HERE/Library/Application\ Support/

chown -R per Microsoft

Do this for all users on the system (if there are many a bash-loop could do the trick). 

WordPress: on Manjaro / Arch Linux

Here is the famous 2 minutes install:

1. Download a fresh version of WordPress
2. Install in a directory

On my system the files are in a folder on /home/myName

Now you need to set the permissions. Apache should be allowed to write to the directory, and so should you. Try this:

# chown http:http -R wp/

# sudo usermod -a -G http myName
# sudo chmod 777 -R wp/

Of course you should never ever use the last line on a WordPress on the web. These settings are for local development only.

YouTube Thumbnails

Dimensions: 1920 x 1080 px recommended.

Dearest Amazon

My mailbox suffered from Amazon overflow. Please sweet dear beloved Amazon. Noone need spam from 80+ lists. Please stop this insane spam! I may have signed up for news from Kindle - but this mailbombing madness must stop.

[SOLVED] Mac: Scout-App cannot run

If Scout-App is stopped you have to restart the PC. I suspect that a process is still running, or some Catalina-related security insanity. In the first case it's a bug. In the last one it's the operative system.

• Scout-App has access to the relevant folders in Security.
• You cannot start from Applications via a right click any more.

Linux: OBS and the Logitech c920s Webcam

Here are my settings for the Logitech c920s webcam when I run OBS. I use V4L2 and the v4l2-toolbox. The last one is a handy GUI for v4l2. It is my experience, that you'll get the best result if you begin in the v4l2-toolbox.

Since the autofocus is the source of trouble in low light conditions, just turn the autofocus off.

Here are a few screendumps of my settings (recorded under low light conditions):

v4l2-toolbox

v4l2-toolbox

v4l2-toolbox

Video settings in OBS

Logitech 920c Settings

Here are some suggested settings for the webcam Logitech 920C in order to avoid the problems with unwanted autofocus. On a Linux system you may do something similar in the V4L2 or he V4L2-toolbox:

Manjaro Linux and Scanning with Epson ET-2750

Utsushi - probably a GUI under imagescan v. 3

This was an unexpected hard task. I thought that it would be a matter of just pluggin in the usb and then scan. But no.

In order to use the Epson ET-2750 Eco Tank scanner do this:

• Install imagescan v. 3
  # pacman -S imagescan
• Run this command:
  # utsushi
• Select the correct USB device
• Scan and save with the file ending of whatever file format you want, say .pdf or .jpeg or ...

Xsane, Imagescan and so on cannot find the device. I guess that the utsushi GUI is part of the imagescane package. I is somewhat strange to install a packet, and run it by another name.

And if you think that you can find Utsushi in the progam launcher ... forget it. But you can start the thing from your favorite terminal window.

Utsushi started via a terminal window

Hey, isn't that why we just love Linux. I learned a lot about UX this afternoon.

OBS Lip Syncronization

In OBS the webcam and the sound were out of sync. The solution is to set the difference to 110ms.

Lip sync solution

wget files via loop

Here is a very handy method for downloading files via a loop using wget:

# wget http://domain.org/_{001..656}.jpg

Note the curly brackets, read as from 001 to 656 or whatever number of files you need.

After download you may want to check if all files are there, try something like:

# ls | wc -l

Chrome is Slooooooow

Everything in Chrome was soooo sloooowww. The cure was:

• Settings > Advanced > System
• Unclick the "Hardware Acceleration" [sic!]

I also killed an extension or two.

Catalina and OBS

OBS running after a cold system start

For some reason OBS did not work out of the box. There were security issues. But after a system restart OBS worked. I don't know why Catalina insists on making life a hell for Mac users. Perhaps the system is slightly more secure. But by Bartzabel - using Mac is a nightmare these days. Especially for the creative humans.

But oh joy. OBS works now.

I can see the screen, but the camera?

Of course you can't.

Mac is such a waste of time.

Solution (Hack)

Start the app from the terminal: /Applications/OBS.app/Contents/MacOS/OBS

Give the terminal permssions to use cam, mic etc.

However OBS is made totally crippled by Catalina. I don't want to fight the OS. I want to work creatively. Linux is far more easy to use. Catalina is hopeless.

Backup: Timeshift

Timeshift is a nice GUI for rsync system backups. So I've Ext4 formatted a 4TB USB drive and use it as my external backup.

File Systems USB Drives

A USB disk should be easy to use. In practise that is not the case. I need a disk where you can read and write files between Mac, Linux and Windows. Often the suggested solution from Mac-oriented people is: format as a Mac drive. Yeah, great. Then I cannot use it with Windows.

Anyway my Seagate drive is NTFS-formatted. Probably the solution is the foxy old lady FAT32 or the bleeding edge exFAT format. Or ....

Airtame not working after Mac update

Airtame should be allowed to use the screen

This morning Airtame did not work. So the reception helped me and a guy from the servicedesk arrived. He found out that Airtame worked. After a while I vaguely remembered that my Mac was updated to a new version. I told the servicedesk man - and then he knew what to do.

Above you see the setting. Airtame was blocked, but the OS did not care to tell me.

Improved security is ok, but dear developers from Apple - please let us know what the problem is when you block something.

For security reasons updating is important. But the user experience often is the opposite: updating you system is the recipe for trouble.