DominicM | Page 2 of 8 | Linux and stuff...

MusicBrainz VM Server under QEMU on Arch Linux

21 Jun, 2016 No Comments

MusicBrainz Server logo

MusicBrainz database is used by many applications such as Headphones or MusizBrainz Picard. The one major issue with the database is that the official service is slow and often unavailable while mirrors are either paid or unreliable long term. The server can be installed from scratch locally but is quite tedious which is why it is easier to run the server as a virtual machine. It is not as efficient as the entire OS will have to run in the background but it much easier to setup. Virtual Box can be used to run the VM without any changes but there is no need to run multiple Virtual Machine Managers so in this case QEMU is used.

ESP8266: Sming Framework on Arch Linux

19 Jun, 2016 No Comments

Sming is an open source Framework for ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module. It simplifies development my allowing advanced features to be implemented with trivial amount of code compared to low level programming. Sming and Eclipse IDE can also be used to write, compile and flash Sming projects instead of using command line tools.

Install VFIO Kernel on Arch Linux

09 Jun, 2016 No Comments

VFIO kernel is used to easily apply kernel patches to workaround certain hardware limitations relating to virtualization and hardware passthrough suc as when setting up GPU Passthrough with QEMU. Among others VFIO kernel applies i915 VGA arbiter and ACS override patches. The patches al need to be enabled by adding parameters to the boot loader. The custom kernel comes in stable or LTS varieties.

Jackett on Arch Linux

02 May, 2016 No Comments

Jackett is a proxy server that provides a translation service between applications like CouchPotato, Sonarr or Headphones and tracker sites. It supports many private trackers. Instead of configuring the tracker directly in the app, it is now configured in the web interface and added to the app as a generic indexer.

Passwordless SSH logins on Linux

10 Apr, 2016 No Comments

Passwordless SSH logins offer vast security improvements over standard password login. Additionally once setup passwordless logins offer a convenience of not having to enter a password when logging in from the same system.

Securely Wipe Disk with DD on Linux

29 Mar, 2016 No Comments

Formatting a storage device doesn’t prevent the data retrieval with data recovery software. To securely wipe any existing data of the device it needs to be overwritten with new data. This can be achieved very easily with dd on Linux by writing zeros or random values to the device. To avoid wiping the wrong storage device it may be a good idea to first format the disk drive with parted or another command line or GUI utility. Doing this would make it apparent that the wrong device was chosen. Data could still be recovered relativity easily from the formatted storage device compared to a wiped drive.

Install Steam on Arch Linux

15 Mar, 2016 No Comments

Steam is a digital distribution platform primarily dealing with games. It manages games and as of recently other media like music. It has some unique features like In-Home Streaming that allow streaming games over the network. Arch Linux is not officially supported and there are some issues to work around. Prior to installing configure audio and install video drivers.

ScreenFetch at Login on Arch Linux

09 Mar, 2016 4 Comments

screenFetch is a Bash Screenshot Information Tool that prints ASCII art along with basic system information when executed. Many distributions including Arch Linux are supported with unique ASCII art included. It is useful to run it on login automatically to immediately see system information.

StarCraft: BroodWar with Wine on Linux

07 Mar, 2016 2 Comments

StarCraft 1 and BroodWar expansion are officially only available on Windows and Mac. With wine however it works completely smoothly on Linux. Once updated to the latest version it can even run without a CD. Install Wine before proceeding.

ownCloud on Shared Web Hosting

02 Mar, 2016 No Comments

ownCloud is an open-source, self-hosted cloud service that can be installed on a local or remote server. For better performance and reliability it’s best to host it on a commercial hosting service. Both dedicated and shared web hosting packages will work assuming the service is reasonably feature rich. If reliability is not an issue it can be hosted on a local home server without issues as well.

OpenSSH Server on Arch Linux

28 Feb, 2016 1 Comment

OpenSSH allows powerful and convenient way to remotely access remote systems. However it creates a possible security weakness which is one reason it is not installed by default. With proper configuration it can be secured and allows the administration of headless servers servers or other devices.

Replace Storage Drives with Rsync in Arch Linux

19 Feb, 2016 4 Comments

Rsync is a widely used file level synchronisation utility. When upgrading or replacing a failing disk drive it is important to make sure no data or even metadata loss occurs. Rsync can provide near mirror copies of files and directories. Only block-level copying can create a perfect mirror but it is not needed or wanted in all but some cases such as when a hardware defect is present in which case block level duplication can reduce data-loss.

Squid Web Cache Server on Arch Linux

25 Jan, 2016 No Comments

Squid is a web caching proxy that can reduce bandwidth and improve web browsing speed and response times by caching frequently requested resources. It can also be used as an antivirus, content filter and an ad blocker with various plugins.

ESP8266: Send & Receive Data

19 Jan, 2016 7 Comments

ESP8266 Wi-Fi module can be configured as a Station / Client or an Access Point. Once it the ESP8266 module is configured in either mode or both mode simultaneously it can be used to communicate with other Access Points or Clients. ESP8266 module can handle multiple connections if configured and send / receive data.

Install LazyLibrarian on Arch Linux

15 Jan, 2016 No Comments

LazyLibrarian is an automated download manager much like Couchpotato, Sonarr or Headphones but for for eBooks. It is not being actively developed and there are several dead Github repositories. It does work to an extent and there are currently no alternative download manager for eBooks.