Wednesday, November 25, 2015

[Windows 7] Recover window from "off-screen"

Found this tip from: http://www.virtualdub.org/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=228

Basically:

  • Right-click on the window caption on the taskbar, or select it and use Alt+Space.
    • Alt-Space worked for me, but right click did not.
  • If the Restore option is available, select it to pop the window out of minimized or maximized state.
  • Choose the Move option.
  • Hit an arrow key.
  • Move the mouse.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

[ServerFarm] Todo list

Home lab todo list:


  1. Set Up home DNS server                      - Done
  2. Check if Valkyrie2. is operational        - Done, unsuccessful
  3. Re-thermal paste Pegasus
  4. Re-Thermal paste Galactica
  5. Get 1-3TB drive for Hiigara                  - Done. 1TB datastore
  6. Activate Windows on Squirrel, virtual-1, and saarkin-cho
  7. Reformat Pegasus, windows side
  8. Upgrade Mini to T7600
  9. Fix pi's Kodi subtittle handling 
    1. Done. But Chinese Characters still not working
    2. Installed OpenSubtittles using SuperRepo
    3. Done, installed Chinese fonts into Raspbian Pi sub-system
    4. Upgrade to Raspbian Jessie. 
  10. Add license to ESXi on Hiigara

Monday, November 09, 2015

[HOWTO] Install Kodi on Raspbian on a RP2

After my HTPC (valkyrie) died from a tiny fall, I've been using a Fire Stick as my Kodi player in the living room. While a nice bit of kit, its not without its disadvantages. Its most definitely a temporary solution.

I'm trying to fix Valkyrie, but that's proving annoying and time consuming. I needed a more permanent solution, in case I don't get it fixed. My first plan was to use a Mac Mini. In fact I recently bought a used Core Duo Mac Mini circa 2007. Unfortunately again, its not due to arrive for another few days, and I'm a very impatient guy.

I then remembered that the Raspberry Pi 2 makes an excellent Kodi player Better yet, its already running 24/7 monitoring my humidor, a task that doesn't even begin to task its 4 cores. So I decided to install Kodi, on Raspbian.

Why not use Openelec or some other Kodi-centric distribution? Simply because I already had the humidor setup running on raspbian and didn't feel like redoing it. 

First to get my up-to-now-headless Raspberry Pi 2 ready, I had to get its HDMI output running correctly.

  • Fix Flashing Menu Bar:

    • Add your used to the video and audio group 
    sudo usermod -aG audio myUser
    sudo usermod -aG video myUser






  • Fix Resolution on HDMI

      • Find the correct resolution:
        • tvservice -d edid 
        • edidparser edid
      • Set bootargs to boot that resolution
        • sudo emacs /boot/config
        •  hdmi_group=1
        • hdmi_mode=16
    • Install Kodi
      • Follow instructions from: http://michael.gorven.za.net