Thinkpad X31 – PAE cpu options with newer Linux Kernels
The Pentium M CPU that comes on IBM Thinkpad X31 laptops (circa 1994…) claims to not support PAE (Physical Address Extension ). Luckily however it DOES support PAE if your kernel forces it, which you...
View ArticleHOWTO: Full Disk encryption on Ubuntu 12.04
How to set up an entirely encrypted disk using Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS): Use the Alternative installer (text based) ISO image so that you have access to the LVM and Encrypted Disk options. Assuming you want...
View ArticleUsing rsync to selectively restore a backup (with/without dotfiles)
If you have backed up your entire home directory, and are restoring it onto a new computer, sometimes you do not want to copy over all of the .dotfiles (hidden files and directories that start with a...
View ArticleMaking Thunderbird send messages in the background (like Outlook)
My work recently changed over to using Office365.com for their email. As long as Office365 supports IMAP and SMTP (it does) I don’t mind so much, as I can continue to use Thunderbird on my desktop to...
View ArticleUbuntu 14.04 Zoneminder PPA not showing images or videos in the web console
When you use the Ubuntu package manager to install Zoneminder on Ubuntu 14.04 using the PPA, one configuration line defaults to the wrong path. This prevents the web console from showing you videos or...
View ArticleUbuntu 14.04 mjpg_streamer install attempt
I tried installing mjpg_streamer on Ubuntu 14.04 to allow me to stream a USB webcam over the internet (or your local network) to web browsers or other IP based systems that read mjpeg streams. The nice...
View ArticleStreaming USB webcam to the web with motion on Ubuntu 14.04
After trying to use mjpg_streamer and failing (my webcam doesn’t have hardware support to output mjpg streams) I used “motion” instead. You can use the “motion” program to stream/export a USB webcam to...
View ArticleInstalling an Encrypted Partition with LVM dual boot on Ubuntu 16.04
The Ubuntu 16.04 installer has the option to install full disk encryption using LVM if you are erasing everything on the hard drive. However, if you want to dual boot (use some of the hard drive for...
View Article30 second delays in internet on AT&T U-verse 5268AC FXN modem
My wife and I were running into inexplicable “delays” in our AT&T internet service over WiFi. The speed of the internet would be fine when it worked (speedtests showed good lag/upload/download,...
View ArticleWifi Printing to HP Envy 4500 printer chops off top of page
If you are printing from Ubuntu Linux to an HP Envy 4500 printer and try to print a document with a very small top border, you may find that the printer chops off the very top quarter inch of the page....
View ArticleHOWTO: Full Disk encryption on Ubuntu 12.04
How to set up an entirely encrypted disk using Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS): Use the Alternative installer (text based) ISO image so that you have access to the LVM and Encrypted Disk options. Assuming you want...
View ArticleUsing rsync to selectively restore a backup (with/without dotfiles)
If you have backed up your entire home directory, and are restoring it onto a new computer, sometimes you do not want to copy over all of the .dotfiles (hidden files and directories that start with a...
View ArticleMaking Thunderbird send messages in the background (like Outlook)
My work recently changed over to using Office365.com for their email. As long as Office365 supports IMAP and SMTP (it does) I don’t mind so much, as I can continue to use Thunderbird on my desktop to...
View ArticleUbuntu 14.04 Zoneminder PPA not showing images or videos in the web console
When you use the Ubuntu package manager to install Zoneminder on Ubuntu 14.04 using the PPA, one configuration line defaults to the wrong path. This prevents the web console from showing you videos or...
View ArticleUbuntu 14.04 mjpg_streamer install attempt
I tried installing mjpg_streamer on Ubuntu 14.04 to allow me to stream a USB webcam over the internet (or your local network) to web browsers or other IP based systems that read mjpeg streams. The nice...
View ArticleStreaming USB webcam to the web with motion on Ubuntu 14.04
After trying to use mjpg_streamer and failing (my webcam doesn’t have hardware support to output mjpg streams) I used “motion” instead. You can use the “motion” program to stream/export a USB webcam to...
View ArticleFirefox scrollbars “Jumping” or “Warping” instead of scrolling when clicked
Recently, the scrollbar behavior of my Firefox web browser changed. The “old” (and expected/desired) behavior is that if you click in the scrollbar area anywhere below the thumb, the thumb moves down...
View ArticleGiving away public Wifi with DD-WRT and VPN
Cliff Notes for setting up a public (unencrypted) wifi hotspot to give free internet to guests with minimal risk to “your” network. Sometimes it’s nice to give people free wifi, especially if you have...
View ArticleMaking bc use scale=8 (or any other configuration) every time you start it.
If you use bc (a command line calculator) frequently, you probably want floating point division by default. You can type “scale=8” every time you open it, or you can set up some environment arguments...
View ArticleEnabling a maximum battery charge amount (charge threshold) on Lenovo X1 in...
Most of the time when using my laptop I am plugged into it’s AC charger. But, I don’t want my lithium-ion battery charged to 100% all of the time, as that is unhealthy for the battery and will lead to...
View Article