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What's running at midnight?
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 02 Mar '21

02 Mar '21

Hi folks, My *buntu server runs a mail server. At 00:00 on some days, it complains that it can't reach the spam analyser or the virus analyser, despite the fact that they're still running and always have been, as far as I can tell. Other than stopping up to see what's running at midnight, is there a way of monitoring what's running at a particular time. I know you can see what's slowing things down at boot time using "system-analyze blame", or using pybootchartgui. Is there a way to do something like this around midnight? Also, of the top of your collective heads, can you think of any services update or hog processor at 00:00. How are scheduled tasks started, so I can have a root around and see what's happening? I can think of various ways. 1) A program (daemon) can constantly run, and may update at a specific time. 2) crontab 3) "at" perhaps. Any others? Any comments or advice appreciated. Steve

4 9

DNS issues
by Mark Rogers 22 Feb '21

22 Feb '21

I have an Ubuntu 18.04 server running VirtualMin. I logged in today to do routine updates to discover it has lost its ability to resolve DNS queries. The server otherwise seems fine but I can't update it. /etc/resolv.conf tells me that it's using 127.0.0.53 for DNS, which is systemd-resolvd. systemd-resolve --status lists no nameservers, which will be where my problem is, but I work out where that information should come from. I temporarily set Google DNS in resolv.conf and did the updates, but a reboot restored the 127.0.0.53 DNS configuration (as expected) and the problem is back. I *think* VirtualMin is a red herring (it's not used for much and I've been planning to decommission it for years but not today!), and in any case it's just a glorified configuration tool with a GUI so any relevant settings should still be hiding under /etc somewhere, but where I have no idea. Suggestions? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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sequential numbering app?
by Phil Thane 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

Hello, Anyone know if this exists or would anyone like to create it? (Not seq command, won't do what I want, I don't think). Read on... I'm the membership sec of GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Assoc). We've just launched a new website using WP and sundry plugins. Central to things is Paid Memberships Pro which allows new members to join or existing ones to renew online. PMP allows users to specify their own username and password. BUT, under the previous regime and going back to the dark ages (pre internet) GOBA assigned each member a membership number, and just to make life more difficult didn't just use a straightforward sequence. Each 'number' is actually alphanumeric based on initial letter of the member's surname, then the next number available in that sequence. Thus I'm T596 and there is one person after me T597 but in the S list there are over 1200 (too many Smiths). Two things make this a nuisance. First, we imported data from the previous system into PMP and had to choose a field to be the key ID. PMP would prefer this to be an email address but many members joined long before they had email and have never updated their details to include it. The one field they all did have was a membership number, so for all previous members Username = Membership number. Secondly GOBA is full of people who don't like change, they want us to convert new members with their personalised username into the 'traditional' system. That's do-able via the WP dashboard but a bit of a pain. Finding the last number issued on a particular sequence involves inspired guesswork and wildcard searching. I believe a previous membership sec had an app on an ancient version of Windows that kept a log of the last issued numbers so he just input an initial letter and got back the number. Obviously I'd have to find 26 last issued numbers manually to get started but subsequently it'd be a lot easier. So, anyone know of a Linux app that would help? Or is anyone able to script something? It doesn't have to be pretty, just idiot-proof. Or is there anyone with infinite patience who'd like to teach an old dog a new trick? My experience of scripting and programming is very limited and has rarely ended well but I'll give it a go with some advice. -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

11 28

Testing reliability of Internet connection
by Mark Rogers 09 Feb '21

09 Feb '21

What is the best way to test the reliability of an Internet connection? I am getting lots of dropouts on things like Zoom meetings or Netflix, but a speed test is always healthy (typically close to 200Mbps on my Virgin connection). But speed isn't everything - a stop-start connection with lots of gaps can still get a high average speed. Problem is I don't even know what to search for! Ideally a simple "here's a rating" tool but happy to get my hands dirty if needed, eg if there are things I could monitor with Wireshark or whatever. I have an important meeting tomorrow and at the moment I'm going to struggle to take part! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

4 7

PulseEffects Audio
by Phil Thane 27 Jan '21

27 Jan '21

hi, Long ago on a previous distro I used to use PulseEffects to enhance the audio output on my desktop. Until recently I wasn't able to get it working on Mint (Cinnamon) but now with a new repository it does, sort of. The GUI opens OK and the various options seem to switch on/off OK (previously everything was greyed-out and not working at all) but if I switch off 'Global Bypass' I get horrible distortion unless all the settings are at default. With Global Bypass on of course everything is bypassed so fiddling with the sliders has no effect. All I want is a bit of bass boost. Any suggestions? -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

4 4

cat docx files?
by Steve Mynott 22 Jan '21

22 Jan '21

For years I've used "catdoc" to cat old msword docs. Is there an equivalent command for docx? (I don't want to have to open libreoffice or whatever) -- Steve Mynott <steve.mynott(a)gmail.com> cv25519/ECF8B611205B447E091246AF959E3D6197190DD5

4 7

Repairing/Copying Windows disk using Linux Tools - A bit OT
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 17 Jan '21

17 Jan '21

Greetings clever cloggses! Sprog's Windows laptop is occasionally saying "I have to reboot - disk error" "Check Disk" isn't really finding anything wrong. I used to be up to date with windows tools for fixing things, but now I'm out of date with Windows tools, though I'm up-to-date with Linux stuff. I'm wondering if likely that booting from Ultimate Boot CD and/or System Rescue CD and running fsck and proprietary disk check utilities (e.g. seagate's disk utility if the disk turns out to be a seagate) is a good idea. Is it possible to use DD to clone a windows hard disk, assuming the destination disk is bigger than the source. Once cloned, would the clone work as a bootable disk so I could swap out the damaged one and swap in the new one? Any advice appreciated. Anyone know a reputable computer fixer in the city? Thanks in advance. Steve

6 17

Are VPNs really this complex to install and use?
by Chris Green 14 Jan '21

14 Jan '21

I'm looking at ways of connecting a small Linux system (a Beaglebone Black, but a Raspberry Pi is near enough) on my boat in France which is headless and behind a NAT WiFi (or 3G/4G) server to my home desktop or laptop so I can 'talk' to it. Currently I have ssh reverse tunnels set up by outward connections from the remote Linux system that allow me to ssh into the system. This works OK except that the marina WiFi it uses is a 'captive portal' system where you have to open a web browser and it pops up a login screen where you enter name and password before it connects you to the internet. The connection, once made, stays up for several weeks but when it disconnects for any reason there's no easy way to reconnect automatically, has to be a human being to do it. So, I'm considering getting a 3G/4G USB dongle to connect via the mobile network so I don't have to jump through the marina's WiFi hoops. I can continue to do my reverse ssh tunnel connection but everyone I talk to about this says a VPN is the answer. However I'm having a hard time seeing how to get this installed and working without a huge amount of effort. For example wireguard is supposed to be a simpler, easier alternative to OpenVPN but take a look at:- https://www.wireguard.com/quickstart/ It's horrible! It's do-able, I can understand all the stages but it's just not nice. Similarly VPN tutorials are full of misinformation, take a look at this one:- https://thishosting.rocks/how-to-set-up-openvpn-on-ubuntu/ It's rubbish! ... and all the others I've looked at are either similarly wrong or more complex than the wireguard one. Is VPN *really* this difficult? If so I'll stay with my ssh approach. -- Chris Green

5 6

Unattended remote access - what ways are there to provide it?
by Chris Green 02 Jan '21

02 Jan '21

I have a Beaglebone Black (SBC like a Pi) on my boat in France that I want to be able to connect to using ssh, how can/should I do it? I have a number of possible solutions in mind but I won't give them here as that might prevent open and lateral thinking being applied. Speed is not an issue, a 2400 baud dial up connection would be sufficient. Security is not a big issue, there is no sensitive data on the Beaglebone Black. I guess it needs to be reasonably secure against misuse but thats all. It's inside the boat in a fairly secure marina so the hardware is safe enough. Cost is important, this isn't something I want to spend lots of money on. A solution costing £7/month seemed a bit expensive to me, I'm aiming at significantly less, one or two pounds a month is fine. The boat is moored in an urban environment, power is (fairly) freely available. When I visit the boat I have lots of time to do fairly complicated set-up if needed but once I've left it's totally inaccessible, it has to work totally unattended, there's no one to phone up and ask to 'press the reset' or similar. So, let your imaginations run wild and come up with some ideas! :-) -- Chris Green

3 6

Backuping up gnome desktop settings
by Steve Mynott 31 Dec '20

31 Dec '20

I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 but with a customised desktop setup which is using gnome-session, the ubuntu dock and "move clock" extension (intended to fix the excesses of both Canonical and Gnome). I was quite happily running this on two systems but had to force power off on one because my screen wasn't responsive (screen res mode issues after running an emulator under wine). To my horror this broke many of my customisations, and I was unable to fix them via the Gnome Settings and Tweak Tool. I had to "rm ~/.config/dconf/user" in order to use Tweak Tool successfully which leads me to suspect that this (binary) file became corrupted. First Question: is it usual for this file to become corrupted? I can turn it into a human-readable form by "dconf dump /" it seems. Second Question: How can I regenerate the binary file "~/.config/dconf/user" from a copy of this dump? I don't want to manually do all the config if this happens again, and I'm unimpressed that gnome seems to lose its settings. -- Steve Mynott <steve.mynott(a)gmail.com> cv25519/ECF8B611205B447E091246AF959E3D6197190DD5

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