Author: Leo Gaggl

This author has written 173 articles

Using DNSMadeEasy as Dynamic DNS provider on Synology Diskstations

Since Synology (despite requests) still has not added DNS Made Easy as a listed provider (despite listing some really obscure services - go figure!) here is the steps to add a custom provider. DNS Made Easy Setup Create a new A-Record Set the name Set the IP (initial - any valid IP) Tick the "Dynamic DNS" tickbox Enter your chosen Dynamic DNS Password Save the new record When saving the record you will see a "Dynamic DNS ID" - note down this number. This will become the hostname on the Synology setup. Synology Setup Click "Customize" to add a new DDNS provider Name: DNSMADEEASY Query URL http://cp.dnsmadeeasy.com/servlet/updateip?username=__USERNAME__&password=__PASSWORD__&id=__HOSTNAME__&ip=__MYIP__ Click "Add" to add a new DDNS service Service Provider: *DNSMADEEASY Hostname: Dynamic DNS ID from DNS Made Easy Username/Email: your DNS Made Easy email Password/Key: your chosen DNSMadeEasy DDNS password Once you save the new DDNS provider you should see the status to go "Normal" in a green color. This means the update was successful. You should now be able to PING the DNS record or if you log in to DNS Made Easy the IP address should have changed to the external IP of your DiskStation.

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Getting Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i to work on Ubuntu 16.04LTS

Upgrade or install SANE backends Since the version of SANE in the Ubuntu 16.04LTS repos is not working for this scanner you either need to install from sources (see this blog) or from this PPA. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rolfbensch/sane-git sudo apt update sudo apt install sane-backends tesseract-ocr gscan2pdf Security Add yourself to the 'scanner' group to be able to use the scanner. sudo usermod -a -G scanner USERNAME Checking SANE Check for the libsane version (needs to be at least libsane.so.1.0.26 not libsane.so.1.0.25 which is in the Ubuntu repos) sudo ldconfig -v | grep libsane This should show something like: libsane.so.1 -> libsane.so.1.0.26 Add udev rules for the scanner sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/79-scanner.rules #add the following Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i ATTRS{idVendor}=="04c5", ATTRS{idProduct}=="128d", MODE="0664", GROUP="scanner", ENV{libsane_matched}="yes" Get the firmware for the FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i sudo mkdir /usr/share/sane/epjitsu cd /usr/share/sane/epjitsu sudo wget https://github.com/ckunte/scansnap-firmware/raw/master/1300i_0D12.nal Testing scanimage -L >> device `epjitsu:libusb:002:027' is a FUJITSU ScanSnap S1300i scanner You can now use gscan2pdf to scan, clean and OCR from the ScanSnap S1300i.

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RaspberryPi Version 3 SOE

Since there is now a supported Raspbian version without GUI and other unneeded add-ons available as Raspbian Lite the need to use other installers (with sometimes some downsides) is now not a necessity anymore. Below is a list of steps I like to perform before using them for any purpose as my Standard Operating Environment. Download Raspbian Lite Download link: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ Write to SD Card dd bs=4M if=2016-05-27-raspbian-jessie-lite.img of=/dev/sdb Boot RPi Default login details are UID: pi PWD: rasbperry Regional settings locale-gen en_AU.UTF-8 dpkg-reconfigure locales ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Australia/Adelaide /etc/localtime System update sudo apt update && sudo apt -y upgrade apt install vim Setup SSH keys As a security precausion it's a good idea to disable password authentications ssh-keygen -t rsa vim /root/.ssh/authorized_keys # --> add RSA public key Setup Wireless LAN iwlist wlan0 scan wpa_passphrase SSID WPA_KEY vim /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf Copy the resulting hash from the previous command Example config country=AU ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev update_config=1 network={ ssid="YOURSSID" psk=123456789012345678901234567890 } Rename default user account The default Raspbian images use the default user 'pi' - I prefer to change this user to another account for security purposes and to be in line with other Linux system I use. Reboot and log in to the RPi as root - you need to run the following commands as root. usermod -l NEW_USER_ID pi usermod -m -d /home/NEW_USER_ID NEW_USER_ID groupmod --new-name NEW_USER_ID pi mkdir /home/NEW_USER_ID/.ssh/ vim /home/NEW_USER_ID/.ssh/authorized_keys # --> add RSA public key # change owner and permissions on key files chown -R NEW_USER_ID:NEW_USER_ID /home/NEW_USER_ID/.ssh/ chmod 700…

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Giving Opera another spin – ad-blocking as a core feature

I haven't been using Opera for quite a while as I didn't really have a need for a third browser lately (Firefox & Chrome being the main ones). However I came across this article today mentioning that Opera has integrated ad-blocking as a core feature rather than a plugin to manage. If there were no bloated ads, some top websites would load up to 90% faster. Today, we wanted to share with you a native ad-blocking technology in our Developer channel for Opera for computers. “Native” means unmatched speed vs extensions, since the blocking happens at the web engine level. We are the first major browser vendor to integrate an ad-blocking feature, but this development should be a no surprise to anyone given the rising popularity of ad-blocking software and even Apple allowing it on its platform. Install procedure (Ubuntu 15.10) sudo add-apt-repository 'deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free' wget -qO- https://deb.opera.com/archive.key | sudo apt-key add - sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install opera-stable Original: http://www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/03/native-ad-blocking-feature-opera-for-computers/

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Install Hugo on Ubuntu to generate static websites

Whilst there is a .DEB installer to download from the GoHugo sites I get all matter of warnings that the package is of bad quality and I am not comfortable to run these kinds of installers. I rather install from sources in this case which is very straight forward since the main dependencies (largely GO) are in the Ubuntu main repositories. Install dependencies sudo apt-get install golang git mercurial python-pygments Create environment variables vim ~/.bashrc #add the following 3 lines export GOROOT=/usr/lib/go export GOPATH=$HOME/go export PATH=$PATH:$GOROOT/bin:$GOPATH/bin Update Bash Environment Variables without logging out. source ~/.bashrc Install Hugo go get -u -v github.com/spf13/hugo Start using Hugo #create new site hugo new sitename /path/to/sitename #change directory to site cd /path/to/sitename #create content page hugo new about.md #edit content page vim content/about.md

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Good bye Android ? Hello Ubuntu ! Not yet unfortunately …

As a long-term Ubuntu user I am extremely interested in what Canonical and the Ubuntu community are doing on the mobile front. Their convergence strategy (I am testing Snappy Core on IoT devices as well) seems very well thought through and once the the Meizu MX4 phone was released I got myself an invite and ordered a unit. It took a while to ship and then also had to make it's way down under as Meizu only ship to Europe (and Asia I believe). Having played with Ubuntu on the phone a while ago on an old Nexus 4 as well as a Nexus 7 unit it was a much more pleasant initial experience and I was really hoping to make this my day-to-day phone. After the initial excitement and a few days of use (including with my main SIM card) however it is clear that we're not at this stage yet. I am quite prepared to forego some conveniences I got used to on CyanogenMod (Android) over the years, but at this stage there are just too many things not working consistently. On the surface most of the critical components are there, but there is just too many bugs and inconsistencies in heavy usage left to make this a solid experience unfortunately. The single button hardware also doesn't seem to work with the UI as in a lot of places you are searching for a back button and there ain't one. And to my surprise the browser feels pretty…

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ChromeOS – removing SSH known_hosts from Chromebook

One of the things that is not implemented in the Secure Shell Chrome extension is the ability to remove know_host fingerprints which alert you if the fingerprint for a specific IP address has changed. However there are times when you upgrade a systems and this need to be done. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY! Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)! It is also possible that a host key has just been changed. The fingerprint for the ECDSA key sent by the remote host is d6:be:12:7e:22:23:c3:e1:56:30:d6:cd:65:b7:ab:42. Please contact your system administrator. Add correct host key in /.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message. Offending ECDSA key in /.ssh/known_hosts:7 ECDSA host key for xxxxxxxxxxxxx.yyy.au has changed and you have requested strict checking. Host key verification failed. NaCl plugin exited with status code 255. (R)econnect, (C)hoose another connection, or E(x)it? Here is how to remove a known host fingerprint (from known_hosts) on a Chromebook. You can find the index of the offending host entry reported by ssh if the connection fails (see above: "Offending ECDSA key in /.ssh/known_hosts:7"). Then you can open the JavaScript console (CTRL +Shift +J) and type the following into the console. term_.command.removeKnownHostByIndex(INDEX); Replace INDEX with the number obviously. To clear all the known hosts: term_.command.removeAllKnownHosts();

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OpenVPN – fix issues with DNS server assignment (Synology NAS)

Synology NAS systems are great VPN servers for a home or small office. However if you want to connect to the VPN and route all your traffic through the VPN and be able to browse the internet there are a few things you need to change on the Synology server. Theoretically you should be able to set these options on the client, but I have not managed to get this to work with Synology and judging by the amount of forum threads a lot of other people had the same problem. If somebody has a better way to fix this I would love to know. I don't like to manually change these config files as I assume they will be overwritten when making changes to the web-interface. vi /usr/syno/etc/packages/VPNCenter/openvpn/openvpn.conf add the following lines. push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp" push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.4.4" push "dhcp-option DNS 8.8.8.8" Please note that the DNS option are Google's public DNS servers as an example, you probably want to use your ISP's (the one hosting the Synology server that is) DNS IP's instead. Please note that this was tested with Synology DSM version 5.2 only and Ubuntu & Android as the main client OS. Please leave comment for other combinations.

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Finding Notebook Hardware for Ubuntu – 2015 Edition

Unfortunately it is still much harder than necessary to find notebook hardware to use with Ubuntu (or other Linux variants). This blog is full of past experiences (some of them quite time-consuming) on finding notebook hardware that will work without too much fiddling. This short note is to document my recent research on that front to help others who want to do the same (as there doesn't seem to be a lot of good current info around).    by  TAKA@P.P.R.S  There are some vendors that do ship with Ubuntu, however they are generally all based in the US and their pre-sales communications are pretty horrible (I am talking to you ZaReason - still waiting for reply email as well as tweet). Then there is Purism Librem, but unfortunately they have still not shipped their 15" version and I need a tool now. The jury on this is still out and I don't really have the time to be a guinea-pig. Maybe next time (as I like what they are doing) ... There was one option from one of the top-tier manufacturers (Dell XPS 13 - Developer Edition) which ships with Ubuntu. But as - per usual - NOT in Australia. However there was a lot of conflicting evidence I found that the Windows Version had some issues with current Ubuntu versions (Dell ship 14.04 LTS - which makes sense from their point). I ended up buying the Lenovo X1 (3rd Generation) and after the install of Ubuntu I have to say…

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SShuttle – quick and temporary VPN over SSH

Every once in a while you find a gem. One of these for me is SShuttle - until now I have not known about this one.    by  Stephan Geyer  Sometimes you need to quickly forward all your traffic via a remote server quickly. And while you can do all of this manually using OpenSSH it's not a quick one-step process (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SSH/OpenSSH/PortForwarding). Dynamic SOCKS5 proxies are great if all you need is browser traffic, but there is always software that won't play ball with SOCKS. Use-case: I just been trying to get Ubuntu Make to install Eclipse IDE and the local AARNET download mirror is just refusing to cooperate (https://github.com/ubuntu/ubuntu-make/issues/90). A quick forward to a remote VPS fixed the issue without headaches Install sudo apt-get install sshuttle Run sshuttle -r username@servername.tld 0.0.0.0/0 -vv That's all - it sets up routing & iptable rules transparently and removes them after use. Kudos goes to https://github.com/apenwarr - thank you. A VERY useful utility !!! Source link: https://github.com/apenwarr/sshuttle

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