Time Tomblog

My dad's computer was being a dick and didn't let him connect to new wireless networks without administrators password. Since I'm not always around, that is not acceptable.

I added user rights for him to admin Network Manager. I was surprised when it turned out that didn't work. Every time he tried connecting to a new network, it would ask admin password and for a moment I was stumped.
As it turned out, this was because by default all new connections are added with "Allow all users" switch. Which is something that only admins can add to new networks.

Heres what I did:

In terminal:
sudo gedit /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.policy

Look for this:
<action id="org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.settings.modify.system">
<description>Modify network connections for all users</description>
...
<message>System policy prevents modification of network settings for all users</message> <message xml:lang="en">...</message>
...
<defaults>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active> <- this is what I changed
</defaults>
</action>

Change indicated line to <allow_active>yes</allow_active> and all desktop users with limited users rights can add and use wifi networks.

I've had this same problem with USB devices for a while now and since I seem to forget the solution, I'm writing it up.

Currently I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) 64-bit (Linux kernel 3.2.0-39) on a HP 620 laptop.
This particular installation of Ubuntu was introduced as 9.10, then quickly upgraded to 10.04 LTS and later 12.04 LTS.

I've been getting errors with different mice (one old Logitech M-RN67 cordless and one M185, one general travel sized Microsoft mouse) and flash drives, such as the following:
"usb 6-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71"
Which results in an unrecognized UBS device. The only way I've found I can remedy this situation so far is *drumroll* POWER OFF! Not just powering down via shutting the OS off, but actually removing the battery and power cord all together.

So if you have problems with USB devices not showing with "lsusb" in terminal, unplug you power and battery and wait for 10 seconds before powering back up.

Also.

Wireless grievances:
Due to this particular model's (fuck you HP) way of handling Bluetooth and Wifi on hardware level, wifi has not worked for most of the time I've had this machine. The hardware button for "wireless switching", which should cycle through BT and Wifi functionality, ie. one on/one off/both on/both off or so, does not work under Ubuntu at all (HP, again, FUCK YOU very much). Any tips on this regard would be gladly tried and tested.

Had a bit of an problem with Thunderbird, when I tried sending mail via my Gmail account (or rather Google's SMTP server).

Now, I usually use Gmail either via Android devices or the web interface, Thunderbird is mostly reserved for work use and the several mailboxes I need there. Thus I usually don't need to send personal mail using Thunderbird and this was the first time since I've turned Google's 2-step verification on several months ago.

Here is how you get it to work:

1. Make sure you have the SMTP-setting correct (see here, in Finnish).'
   
2. Send a mail and receive "Login failure" error
   
3. Go to IssuedAuthSubTokens -page at Google Accounts and create a new application-specific password for something like "Thunderbird SMTP at home Desktop"
   
4. Copy the password you've just created, hit the "Retype password" button in the Thunderbird error dialog and paste, make sure you don't choose the "Use passwordmanager to remember" tick, because this is a one time password
   
5. Hit Retry and you should be okay

If you get the same dialog again later, you should be okay with just entering your normal Google password. If not, repeat.

I'm sure this principle also works with other email clients, not just Thunderbird.

I wanted to get Chrome OS running on my EeePC 901, but as it happens, it wasn't really the best OS for said hardware. Not without some serious tweaking anyway, but I'm willing to try it again if some tweaks are going to happen.

I love the idea of a system with low power consumption, really fast boot up and no practical HDD space requirements, since all files and such are online (in the cloud). However, booting from USB is definitely not something that I'd want to do in a normal situation.

Booting ChromiumOS Lime with Asus EeePC 901 from a USB stick, required some tweaks and googling, so I made a short how-to guide for anyone interested in trying. Installing from a pre-existing image is currently not something I had time to go into (building from source is quite well documented, if someone feels like doing that).

I would like links and help in the comments, regarding image files and installing Chrome OS to EeePC 901 (with ralink with drivers). If you can help me, please post a comment.

See my Chrome OS running on EeePC 901 how-to guide.

I just got fed up with spam, namely comment spam, so it was either delete this whole blog or look into plugins that would help me.

Since this blog has been in rather sporadic use, at first I thought about purging the damn thing all together, but that would mean spammers win! So no, I chose the annoying path and eventually found what I was looking for. Took me about a week of looking, which I only did when I felt like I got a new idea on how to approach this problem.

So now it looks like I have a solution, where I can manage the influx of crap comments and delete them when I have time. During this they're not visible to public, which is the main point. Sheesh.

This is almost stupid (especially since I'm under the influence of beer and red wine), but I just spent way too long looking for this info, so here goes.

The setup: I had a external 1,5TB USB hard drive, which was formatted to NTSC and I needed some space off that in FAT32. Since Partition Magic is no more (fuck you Symantec), I was in a bit of an jam, regarding getting this done under Windows 7.

What I did was this:
1. Plugged the damn disk in to my Win7 machine and typed diskmgmt.msc to the "Search programs and files"
2. With that I shrunk the existing NTSC partition by 102 400 megabytes , thus leaving 100GB worth of unassigned space
3. Clicked previously made unassigned space and quick formatted it to NTSC (not exFAT, yeah right, skip that shit)
4. After numerous attempts at googling the shit out of internet, I found FAT 32 Formatter (or fat32format for command line action), which is awesome! AWESOME I TELL YOU! As it does only one thing. Guess what it does?
5. Downloaded it and launched it (no install required, how's that for a change?!)
6. Trotted over to the recently created NTSC partition (conveniently named PS3), clicked it, as well as Quick Format and hit Go! (or Start)
7. I was done

Now I could back up my way too small PS3 HDD (without losing the stuff I had on the NTSC side of that USB thing) and could switch it for a larger HDD.
Oh Bliss! Now. Back to Dust 514!

Just making a note for myself.

To get webstuff that requires "the correct java" running, such as Sampo verkkopankki, do following:
"sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin"
Then close Chrome and fire it up again. It should pick up on the plugin.

If that's not enough, fire up Synaptic, search "sun-java" and install the JRE. Again, close and restart Chrome and it should work.

EDIT 20.9.2012: Yeah, not so much anymore. In Ubuntu 12.04 you need to do as your told.

I've had to deal with occasional blog comment spam all of my "blogging career" and it is getting really stupid. I've now had to band whole ISP's and IP ranges on the top level. And I hate doing it, not just because it takes my time, but because I really would like to let people comment and share information if they so choose.

So far here are the biggest offenders:
112.* and 58.22.* (China / CNCGroup.cn)
122.160.*-122.177.* and 182.* (India / AirtelBroadband.in)
178.168.* and 87.248.* (Moldova / starnet.md)
202.164.47.* (India / ECL TeleCommunication Ltd)
59.56.* - 59.61.* (China / ChinaNet/China Telecom)
91.201.64.* - 91.201.67.* (Russia / DonEkoService Ltd)

Few of them I've contacted over the years and never received any response from. Nowdays, I just don't care and will ban a whole country if I see fit.

Now, would someone know of a good list of known problematic domains, which I could start using for filtering and where I could submit my offenders?

EDIT: I've just found a plugin, which makes use of Project Honey Pot, called Bad Behavior. Nucleus has a plugin for it and so does a lot of other blogging platforms (like MediaWiki, Drupal, ExpressionEngine, Joomla!, phpBB, WordPress, and others). Support Honey Pot as well, I've had several sites up for years.

Also, Project Honey Pot Http:BL Platform Implementations could be interesting if you didn't find what you were looking for in my little list.

Well, had one of them 3D graphics cards mentioned in the title blow up on me.

What rubs me the wrong way about it was that it was just few months over the warranty. The peeps over at Club 3D were nice enough and replied fast, but I was hoping for a comp of somekind.

Ended up buying a slightly better Radeon card, but which is old as well. Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 AGP.

Here is a nice shot of the offending piece of hardware:
Busted!

I've had problems with a bit older batteries on several occasion and couldn't find software which will calibrate it for me.

Well, since you don't need software for it and searching for this brings up a lot of questions and not much asnwers, I'm putting this up for myself and any interested parties.

Now, I mainly use Ubuntu myself, so this is for that particular flavour, but its not hard to replicate, no matter the system.

Recharge you battery to full, 100% if possible.
1. Right-click on the battery icon on tray and choose settings
2. Find the battery settings and set everything to "Never", ie. the system will not shutdown when battery is low
3. Let the machine run until battery is dry and machine switches off by itself. (not to suspend or shutdown, mind you)
4. You might want to take the battery out and then back in, no idea if this helps, but shouldn't hurt either.
5. Plug-in the AC-cable and let the battery recharge to full

This should re-calibrate the battery, sometimes it also works better/longer too.
You can do this several times during, say one week for better results.
Also, running the battery low/critical status once in a while, when they work fine, is also a good idea. Especially if you have it plugged in AC most of the time.

I've previously noticed improved performance on cellphones as well (my old Sony Ericsson P800 and P910 for example).

NOTE: Apparently sometimes just taking your battery off while the machine is running on AC-power and the putting it back on, helps too. But as it sounds a bit harsh to me, I'll be using the above way.

EDIT (2.3.2011): Booting to BIOS (or other pre-boot selection screen) and leaving it on overnight will also do the trick of draining the battery.