When using conky to monitor disk I/O, the default scale is dynamic. This makes it unclear how much I/O is actually happening – a high bar will appear even when little activity is occurring due to the scaling. Unfortunately the scale feature is not documented well. Using a non-logarithmic scale of 1000 seems to present … Continue reading Conky diskiograph scale
Configuring Dual Monitors to Match Colours
Do you have two monitors connected, from two different manufacturers, and find the colours don’t match? Below is a guide to help you match the displays so the colour difference is not jarring when comparing windows on the screens. NB: This guide is not for calibrating monitors for professional colour work as required for graphic … Continue reading Configuring Dual Monitors to Match Colours
Is the HP 2720e a Good printer?
No, like all of HP’s current budget range printers this is a printer that will soon sadly be going to landfill. HP currently forces users to connect printers in Windows with their terrible HP Smart app. You will quickly tire of watching the spinning wheel as the app regularly tries to connect the printer and … Continue reading Is the HP 2720e a Good printer?
No network after Windows 10 update 20H2
A customer lost all network connectivity after an automatic Windows 10 update to the 20H2 version. The following symptoms were observed: Event viewer log reported AVG anti-virus was uninstalled due to compatibility problems during the update Loss of connectivity on both wireless and ethernet adapters – unable to get a valid IP address, getting a … Continue reading No network after Windows 10 update 20H2
Windows 10 Backup Notes
Windows 10 built-in backup, File History, only backs up files for the user that sets up the backup – it does not snapshot or back up files for other user profiles on the system. OneDrive is Microsofts’ recommended backup solution for multiple user profiles (because Microsoft wants to track your account and sell you more … Continue reading Windows 10 Backup Notes
Making Weston a Usable Wayland Desktop
Weston is the reference compositor for Wayland, the replacement to X11 desktop. In default layout Weston is not a user friendly desktop for those used to a traditional PC desktop. Follow the steps below to make it feel more familiar: apt install weston apt install xwayland apt install wlogout ~/.config/weston.ini: [core] xwayland=true [shell] background-image=/home/user/Pictures/Wallpapers/Wallpaper.jpg background-color=0xff002244 … Continue reading Making Weston a Usable Wayland Desktop
CloudReady (Chrome OS) VM using Qemu
Neverware offers a product called CloudReady, which is a version of Chrome OS designed for installation on existing hardware, i.e. turn generic PC into a Chromebook. CloudReady is free for Home use, designed to be installed and run from a USB stick. It provides a way to look at a Chromebook interface and perform some … Continue reading CloudReady (Chrome OS) VM using Qemu
Remapping file names with TFTP-HPA for buggy PXE clients
Some PXE clients send extraneous garbage characters in TFTP requests for files, e.g. “RRQ from … filename pxelinux.biny#012;o#036”instead of just “pxelinux.bin”. This is logged in the syslog. To work around this we can use a feature of tftp-hpa to remap file names, based on a rewrite regex: /etc/default/tftp-hpa: TFTP_OPTIONS=”–secure –verbose -v -m /etc/tftpd.map” /etc/tftpd.map: r … Continue reading Remapping file names with TFTP-HPA for buggy PXE clients
Exim HELO hostname on Debian
By default Exim4 presents the system hostname as the HELO greeting during an SMTP session. If you are using the Debian Exim with the “single file config” and want to define a specific hostname to use, create the following file containing the line below: /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.localmacros primary_hostname = my.server.fqdn.net Restart Exim for the change to take … Continue reading Exim HELO hostname on Debian
Qemu 5 on Windows Host With WHPX
Running Linux guests using Qemu 5.0+ on a Windows host, using the WHPX accelerator, may fail to start and freezes on this line: [ … ] Freeing unused kernel image memory: … These guests work fine using Qemu 4 on the same Windows host, configured to use a SkyLake CPU type. The issue can be … Continue reading Qemu 5 on Windows Host With WHPX