Analog Stereo Output with LMDE 2 Cinnamon

A new LMDE 2 Cinnamon install on a new motherboard left me with only a Digital Stereo audio profile and no sound to the analog jack.

I installed the pavucontrol utility and was able to configure the Analog Stereo profile.

How to stop Firefox from making automatic connections

Some people are concerned about the connections Firefox makes to the Internet, especially when those connections are made for no apparent reason (see Mozilla's Firefox Browser Privacy Notice for additional information). This article explains various reasons why Firefox may make a connection to the Internet and how you can stop it from doing so, if you wish.

 

Table of Contents

• Automatic updates and Security
  • Auto-update checking
  • Blocklist updating
  • Anti-phishing list updating
  • Anti-malware list updating
  • Secure website certificates
• Prefetching
  • Link prefetching
  • DNS prefetching
  • Speculative pre-connections
  • Add-on list prefetching
• User-invoked content
  • Home page loading
  • Extensions
  • Live Bookmarks updating
  • Downloads restarted
  • Search plugin icon loading
  • Firefox Sync
  • Firefox Hello
• Mozilla content
  • Tiles
  • Snippets
  • Geolocation for default search engine
  • "What's new" page
  • Add-on metadata updating
• Diagnostics
• Media capabilities
  • OpenH264 codec
  • WebRTC
  • Send Video To Device
• Malware
• Loopback connection

32-bit Eagle and 64-bit Debian 8 Jessie

To install the required a 32-bit library environment to run Eagle 6 on 64-bit Jessie:

# dpkg --add-architecture i386
# apt-get update

Then install these:

build-essential
gcc-multilib
rpm
libstdc++6:i386
libgcc1:i386
zlib1g:i386
libncurses5:i386
libxrender1:i386
libXcursor2:i386
libfreetype6:i386
libfontconfig1:i386
libXi6:i386
libssl1.0.06:i38

Managing Eagle Projects with Git

Here are the commands I use to manage my Git repositories for my Eagle projects.

PROJECT_REPO is an environment variable designating my repository URL or path.  

Each project starts as a branch from a root project with a blank board or branches from another project.

Start a new Eagle project

Current directory is an empty project working directory.

git init
git remote add origin $PROJECT_REPO
git pull
git checkout origin/master
git checkout -b BRANCH-NAME

Pull an Eagle project
Current directory is an empty project working directory. 

git init
git remote add origin $PROJECT_REPO
git pull
git checkout BRANCH-NAME

Create and push a new branch
Current directory is the current project working directory.

git checkout -b NEW_BRANCH_NAME 

... make changes and commit ...

git push origin NEW-BRANCH-NAME

LibreOffice vs. the Liberty to Open the Application You Want

Occasionally LibreOffice seems determined to open PDF files with a web browser instead of the pertinent preferred application. Nosing around I learned that Libre/OpenOffice appears to be opening files thru /usr/bin/x-www-browser which links to /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser - a web browser startup script.

I instead linked /usr/bin/x-www-browser to /usr/bin/gnome-open which properly selects the gnome preferred application.

Win98 Guest in True Color High Resolution

I'm finding that the Win98 Vbox guest is running intolerably slow. I found this help.

... 3. Video driver integration.
By default Windows 98 will run only in 640x480 resolution, 16-colors.

Performance Note: VirtualBox is not optimized for 16-colors (4-bit) emulation. It works very slow this way.
Having 32-bit True Color driver makes Win98 VMs run on VirtualBox *much* faster.

If you want True color or high resolution, you need to download special drivers.
3.1. bearwindows driver (unstable)
http://bearwindows.boot-land.net/vbe9x.htm

NOTE: You must install "Universal version", as "VirtualBox" version is known to have problems.
WARNING: This driver is buggy, and many Windows fonts do not render correctly with it. Not recommended.

3.2. SciTech Display Doctor (recommended)
The second option is to get the SciTech Display Doctor version 7 beta driver (12 MB) -
(contributed by Richard_S)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/226caou8x0jf8 ... ctor-7.iso
-or-
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BycgkM ... UhnWGRycVE

The driver is a high quality commercial grade video driver (even includes some software emulated Open GL 3D support), and it does include an exe installer program.

Despite having an installer, the SciTech Display Doctor is a little tricky to get going. After the program launches, you have to find the little round radio button link to click to 'enable' the new driver (otherwise you still have VGA). Even then, you can't select any higher resolution modes until you ditch the 'default monitor' and select one of the 'Super VGA' types.

After fiddling around with the above changes and rebooting several times you should be able to select 800x600 or 1024x768 (or higher) resolutions with 32 bit color depth. (setting 32 bit color mode optimizes the interface with Virtualbox and really speeds things up)

Windows Boot Floppies

Trying to install an old win'98 CD to a Virtual Box machine I found that the CD is not bootable (though newer ones are). I have some old boot floppies but no physical drives set up and ready to run or copy from. Poking around I found boot floppy "images" of every kind but they're all self-extracting '.exe files. Peculiar thing  about windows folks is they seem to want to run every exe they can download to see if anything bad doesn't happen. I was willing to run one in a vbox but Wine won't allow it to write to a floppy, even a virtual one.

I found a helpful boot image  from Bob Cerelli's site, but it's an iso. I virtually booted it and copied all to a virtual floppy which was all I was looking for. Thanks Bob.

Configuring xdg-open

Open/Libre-office spreadsheet hyperlinks would not open PDF files with Acroread even though caja was properly set to do so by default.
 
Xdg-open is the freedesktop.org scheme for opening files and URLs with our preferred applications.

First I verified that PDF files were recognized as such:

> xdg-mime query filetype somepdffile.pdf 
application/pdf

Good, and then that Acroread was the default application:

> xdg-mime query default application/pdf
userapp-acroread-9UNI5W.desktop

Excellent, but does it work?

> xdg-open somepdffile.pdf
Error: no "view" mailcap rules found for type "application/pdf"
Opening "somepdffile.pdf" with Document Viewer  (application/pdf)

In this case "Document Viewer"is Atril, not Acroread.

Poking around the mailcap thing I edited the user section in /etc/mailcap as so:

#  User section follows:  Any entries included in this section will take
#  precedence over those created by "update-mime".  DO NOT CHANGE the
#  "User Section Begins" and "User Section Ends" lines, or anything outside
#  of this section!
#

# ----- User Section Begins ----- #
application/pdf;/usr/local/bin/acroread %s; test=test "$DISPLAY" != ""; description=Portable Document Format; nametemplate=%s.pdf; priority=1
# -----  User Section Ends  ----- #

That did the trick.

PICkit2 User Permissions

Problem: Tried pk2cmd on a new box and got:

No PICkit 2 found.

lsusb indicated that the OS recognises it:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 1bcf:053e Sunplus Innovation Technology Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:b2dc Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04ca:3006 Lite-On Technology Corp.
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 04d8:0033 Microchip Technology, Inc. PICkit2

It works fine if I sudo which indicates that it is a permission problem.

The solution is to set proper udev rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ but I 

wasn't successful working it out. I checked another box and it appears 

that MPLABX has installed this:

/etc/udev/rules.d/z010_mchp_tools.rules:

# 2012.01.23 Changed SYSFS reference(s) to ATTR.
# 2011.12.15 Note: Reboot works on all systems to have rules file recognized.
# 2010.01.26 Add reference to "usb" for Ubuntu.
# 2010.01.22 Attempt to further simplify rules files requirements.
# 2009.08.18 Rules file simplified.
# 2009.07.15 Rules file created.

ENV{hotplugscript}="/etc/.mplab_ide/mchplinusbdevice"

ACTION!="add", GOTO="check_remove"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", GOTO="check_add"
SUBSYSTEM!="usb", GOTO="rules_end"

LABEL="check_add"

ATTR{idVendor}=="04d8", MODE="666", RUN+="%E{hotplugscript} add"
GOTO="rules_end"

LABEL="check_remove"

ACTION=="remove", RUN+="%E{hotplugscript} remove %E{PRODUCT}"

LABEL="rules_end"

Note the executable /etc/.mplab_ide/mchplinusbdevice. Things appear 
to work fine without it but the simple solution is to just install
MPLABX.

Device not managed

Problem: NetworkManager indicates 'device not managed' for eth0.

Edit /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf:

[ifupdown]
managed=true

Restart:

# sudo service network-manager restart

Sticky Firefox User Agent

From the User Agent Switcher Help page:

Why does the user agent reset when the browser closes? 

Due to a bug in Sun's Java plug-in the extension automatically resets the user agent when the browser closes in order to stop the browser crashing on the next start-up.

If you are unable to start the browser find the file 'prefs.js' in your profile and delete the line containing 'general.useragent.override' to fix the issue.

If you understand this issue and want to disable the auto-reset functionality create a new preference 'useragentswitcher.reset.onclose' and set it to false.

No support is provided for this configuration.

Of course, nobody is using a Java plugin these days. Correct?

Bash'rc stuff

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

# development tool paths
xc8ver="v1.12"
xc16ver="v1.11"
xc32ver="v1.20"

xc8path="/opt/microchip/xc8/$xc8ver/bin"
xc16path="/opt/microchip/xc16/$xc16ver/bin/bin:/opt/microchip/xc16/$xc16ver/bin"
xc32path="/opt/microchip/xc32/$xc32ver/bin"

# Note: the xc8 tools duplicate some gnu names, e.g.'cpp'. Expect some problems.
PATH=$PATH:$xc8path:$xc16path:$xc32path

echo "(bash) "`whoami`": "`pwd`
PS1='.'

REPO="file:///home/project/svn/repo"
export REPO

CCRRBASE="$HOME/project/ccrr"
export CCRRBASE

MPASMPATH="$HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Microchip/MPASM Suite"
export MPASMPATH

#XC8_INCLUDE="/opt/microchip/xc8/v1.12/include"
#export XC8_INCLUDE

XC8_LIB="/opt/microchip/xc8/v1.12/lib"
export XC8_LIB

alias ls='ls --color=never'

Firefox Tweeks

Firefox 20

• browser.download.useToolkitUI=true to get the classic download window back.

Not quite full disk encryption with LVM and LUKS

Andreas Haerter has a step-by-step guide on how to install an Ubuntu Linux system with full disk encryption. However it does not encrypt the GRUB2 or /boot partition.

The purpose of using LVM is that multiple encrypted volumes can be opened with one pass-phrase at boot because they all reside on one encrypted disk partition with a LUKS header.

Here is a summary.

In the following examples:

• boot partition is sda2
• encrypted partition is sda5
• opened encrypted partition is sda5-secure
• encrypted VG is SecureVG
• Root LV is secure-root

From the live install disk install LVM2 and cryptsetup.

# apt-get install LVM2
# apt-get install cryptsetup 
# modprobe dm-crypt

Create the LUKS header for the encrypted partition, e.g.

# cryptsetup --cipher aes-xts-plain --key-size 512 --verify-passphrase luksFormat /dev/sda5

Open the encrypted partition, e.g.

# cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda5 sda5-secure

This maps to /dev/mapper/sda5-secure

Create the LVM volumns:

# pvcreate /dev/mapper/sda5-secure
# vgcreate SecureVG /dev/mapper/sda5-secure
# lvcreate ...

Install the system.

Chroot to the new system root mounted at /mnt/secure-root.

# mkdir /mnt/secure-root
# mount /dev/mapper/SecureVG-secure--root--01 /mnt/secure-root
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/secure-root/boot
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/secure-root/dev
# mount -t proc proc /mnt/secure-root/proc
# mount -t sysfs sys /mnt/secure-root/sys
# cp /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/secure-root/etc/resolv.conf
# chroot /mnt/secure-root /bin/bash

Install LVM2 and cryptsetup on the new system. 

# apt-get update
# apt-get install cryptsetup lvm2

Add an entry in /etc/crypttab. Generate the line with:

# echo "secure-sda5 UUID=$(ls -la /dev/disk/by-uuid | grep $(basename /dev/sda5) | cut -d ' ' -f 10) none luks"

E.g. "secure-sda5 UUID=6e61c215-b930-41bf-b33a-cfb52cc5b969 none luks"

Add GRUB2 modules for preload to /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="lvm cryptodisk luks"

Update the GUB2 menu:

# update-grub

Regenerate the initrd:

# update-initramfs -u -k all

Do you feel lucky?

# exit
# reboot

bash: ./seamonkey: No such file or directory

While setting up seamonkey on a new Linux Mint Maya installation, bash says "No such file or directory."

I say "There is so!"

From superuser.com I'm reminded that 32-bit executables need the 32-bit libraries on a 64-bit system.

#sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

Things I Can Live Without

Regarding Ubuntu/Mint Linux:

• whoopsie - sends a crash log to ubuntu.
• zeitgeist - a service which logs the user's activities and events (files opened, websites visited, conversations held with other people, etc.) and makes the relevant information available to other applications. It serves as a comprehensive activity log and also makes it possible to determine relationships between items based on usage patterns. 
• Firefox Testpilot  
• Firefox Health Report -  So what exactly will FHR share with its creator? Mozilla says these four types:
  
  1. Configuration data (such as device hardware, operating system, and Firefox version).
  2. Customizations data (such as add-ons, count, and type).
  3. Performance data (such as timing of browser events, rendering, and session restores).
  4. Wear and Tear data (such as length of session, how old a profile is, and count of crashes).

Installing VirtualBox 4.2 on Linux Mint 13 (Maya)

Maya's Software Manager is stuck on VirtualBox version 3.1.12. To install version 4.2 first create a source repository list file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d:

echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian precise contrib" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list

where 'precise' is the Ubuntu release corresponding to Maya.

Register the authentifier key:

wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Resynchronize the package index files and install:

apt-get update
apt-get install dkms virtualbox-4.2

Secrets

CW600-71YW-66897

Firefox Find Highlight Color

The default highlighting color of Find text  is difficult to catch quickly against a colored   background. To change it edit or add a setting to about:config to your preffered color:  

ui.textSelectBackgroundAttention

PICkit2 bring-up

Finally dusted off the Microchip PICkit2 microcontroller programmer and debugger. Plugged it in, downloaded the latest PICkit 2 software, installed and tried to run with Wine. OK, what was I expecting?

There's a somewhat newer un*x command line interface, pk2cmd, that has this encouraging note from Microchip:

    Microchip Technology Inc. does not provide support for this Linux and Mac OS software, which is provided “as is.” See included Readme files for more information.

I downloaded the executable version. I put the executable in /usr/local/bin and the device data file in /usr/share/pk2 as suggested but balked at adding the latter directory to my PATH. The -B option successfully designates this path from the command line but the PICkit could not be found on the USB port.

I grabbed the source and tried to build after installing the required libusb-1.0-0-dev package. Or so I thought. After a bit of struggle it turns out that libusb++-dev is the required package. Also, this package gets installed in /usr and not /usr/local so the Makefile symbol LIBUSB needs to be changed to /usr.

Suprise. I go to bed early tonight.