Jul 30
2022
A quick systemd service definition file for tigervnc on Ubuntu 20.04
[Unit]
Description=tigervnc
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -localhost no -depth 24 -geometry 1920x1080 -noreset
User=steve
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Key components:
Type=forking so systemd correctly identifies the real VNC process, not the perl script that runs and then exits-localhost no so connections from other computers are accepted. This is only needed if you are not using ssh tunneling.User=steve so tigervnc doesn't complain about HOME not defined in the environment and uses my settings for auth and X session. Note that this is a strictly single-user setup.
Nov 24
2021
On an ASUS E203M
Busenlabs Lithium
Installed fine but kernel (4.9?) would immediately shutdown after decrypting the root volume due to incorrect thermal readings. Was not able to disable this via thermal.nocrt=1 boot param
AntiX 21
Live system did not have working mouse. Did not proceed to …
Jun 24
2019
T102HAAS.303 Breaks Suspend
After upgrading my Asus Transformer Mini's BIOS to T102HAAS.303 suspend was completely broken. Closing the "lid" would cause some kind of suspend that cannot be disabled in software and from which Linux 4.15.0 cannot successfully resume from (actually it does resume but the …
Jun 24
2019
Installation
Create a USB drive with a single FAT32 partition then extract the installation ISO into it using 7z:
7z x /path/to/ISO -o/path/to/usb
Note that there is no space between -o and the following path.
Plug in the USB drive then turn on the …
Apr 16
2016
Arduino-Makefile needed coaxing to in order to compile code targeting the SparkFun Pro Micro 3.3V. A major source of headache is the requirement for BOARD_SUB which isn't documented and required diving into the source code, and also the fact the Pro Micro has 2 PIDs for each variant (5V …
Mar 23
2016
I recently started having trouble with Arduino 1.6.x not being able to program Arduino Micro or SparkFun Pro Micro, with avrdude complaining about permission denied when trying to open /dev/ACM0.
The usual solutions to this is to add oneself to the dialup group, or mess around in …
Mar 23
2016
Some issues I ran into when trying to move a Linux install from a 500 GB drive to a smaller 120 G SSD:
- When duplicating the filesystem, make sure that /proc exists, otherwise when you boot the new drive the kernel will complaint that /proc is missing and it can't …
Mar 23
2016
I recently acquired a used Lenovo X220 for use as a linux laptop, and needed the following in my openbox configuration XML to make the hardware speaker and mic mute buttons work:
<!-- Modified for X220 -->
<keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
<action name="Execute">
<command>pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle</command>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind …
Sep 14
2012
Calibre is a great tool, especially for converting between ebook formats. Here are some notes for getting it to run on a headless server.
- The binary installer off the website works fine — ignore warnings about completion and desktop integration failing.
- The installer will always pollute /usr/bin regardless of the …
Jun 15
2010
Recently unboxed my Ben NanoNote, and I am impressed. The packaging was top-notch and classy as hell. I would not hesitate to put my name to it.
The NanoNote itself is tiny, and feels fairly solid despite the shiny-appearance which I have come to associate with cheapo devices. It's a …
Sep 09
2009
rkhunter often warns on file property changes after upgrade and such, and sometimes you just aren't sure whether it is due to recent upgrades, or because you really were compromised. The following script was written to compare the checksum of all files rkhunter warns about against the originals in a …
Aug 05
2009
Annoyingly git-daemon-run requires runit on debian, but runit will fail to install properly in a debian vserver because it doesn't have init.
One solution is to reconfigure vserver to use plain init style.
However I didn't want to this because I don't want to take down my vserver just yet …
Sep 21
2008
Ever since I got my 2nd monitor, I been using VNC to work on my laptop. Leopard's inbuilt VNC server isn't really VNC compliant, and has many issues when used with a normal VNC client. I have found Vine server to be an excellent replacement. The client side is a …
Jul 31
2008
If iwconfig wlan0 essid blah is seemingly not working when connecting to a open wireless network, then try
-
iwconfig wlan0 essid blah
-
iwconfig wlan0 key open
-
iwconfig wlan0 enc off
The above seems to work for me by turning off encryption. It would appear with encryption enabled, iwconfig won't work …
Jul 24
2008
Running grub-install with a XFS partition will likely fail - there is a reason lilo is used when XFS is root! The issue is grub-install creates the stage files in /boot/grub, which grub then expects to find when it accesses the disk directly using its own file system drivers. For …
Jul 16
2008
I have set up an unofficial git respository for libfg patches and new swig generated python interface, as Gavin Baker (the author) appears to be busy with other things. This is a maintance only repository as far as libfg goes - I don't plan on adding any more features (since all …
Mar 28
2008
Likes:
-
nice and small
-
all the hardware works, including sleep/suspend
-
runs debian based OS by default
-
can run an external monitor at decent resolution
Dislikes:
- uses fastinit which only boots into single user mode, so user "user" is always logged in. Endless frustration playing with X11 startup in vain …
Mar 02
2008
Finally got around to using piklab-prog to program my surplus 16F84As. The command line options are a little confusing, so here is what I used:
piklab-prog -d 16F84A -t /dev/ttyS0 -p direct -h 'JDM classic' -c program led_test.hex
For some reason there is a hardware option which doesn't …
Feb 15
2008
Locate the AuthOrder line in your proftpd.conf and change it to:
AuthOrder mod_auth_file.c
Cheers,
Steve
Jan 06
2008
I have been looking for software to work with my PIC-PG2 programmer under Linux for a while now. Previously I have been using windows and PICPROG which while nice, still involved messing with windows and stuff. The situation back then (around 2006) was bleak - there were no up to-date and …
