[Blog] New Server Build (Daydreaming)

Current Setup:

Dell PowerEdge T110 II (Hiigara)

• Xeon E3-1230v2
• 32GB of DDR3
• 750GB SATA SSD, 1TB HDD
• 10Gbit SFP+
• ESXi 7.0

Why am I upgrading?

TLDR; Wife is tired of having another mini tower in the living room. Wants it in the server rack. Instead of jerry-rigging a mount, better to upgrade to a 2U/3U/4U form factor. 

I currently have this server running in the living room. This is a limitation of the configuration of the house and where the internet comes in. My wife, understanding as she is, has finally had enough of the pile of computers in the living room, and has decreed that this server MUST go into the server rack to help declutter. 

Having done a ton of research, they don't make an easy to use rack-kit for this model of Dell. I could rig something up using a shelf but that seemed annoying and not that cheap ( $80-100). I could also transplant the components into a 3/4U case, but that would cost about as much, and be no gurantee that the motherboard and PSU would fit. 

My esxi server has been running great for the past 10 years. Performance-wise, I haven't been disappointed in it. It certainly hasn't "felt" like I needed an upgrade. I'm guessing this was helped by the fact that every other non-work computer I have access to are slower than this computer, and I haven't got a new computer since this one. 

That all changed when I got into my head to build a gaming computer. It's relatively modest with a circa 2019 Ryzen processor, and 2nd hand graphics card ( featured in another blog post). Because of the research I did for that machine, it showed me just how old and slow this server is compared to modern systems. 

With all that, if I'm putting money into this server, maybe its more worth it to add more budget, and purposely create an esxi machine for the rack. 

Needs and Wants

• Relatively modern performance. Let's say at-or-better than a mid-teir Ryzen processor.
• 6C/12T minimum, 12C/24T preferably. Likely Single Processor, but Dual Processor would be slick
• 64+GB of RAM, maybe up to 128GB
• 3U preferably, 4U if absolutely needed, 2U if possible
• "budget" not looking to break the bank, aiming for $600 range, but could go higher if I find I need to
• transcoding support - Either via Intel Quicksync in the processor, or via cheap-ish GP

[Blog] Upgrading the home network for >1Gbps internet service part 2

 TLDR; I chose the UCG Fiber https://store.ui.com/us/en/category/cloud-gateways-compact/collections/cloud-gateway-fiber/products/ucg-fiber It has the right combination of 2.5GBase-T, 10GBase-T and SFP+ ports that can support 10Gbit Fiber, with a price that's hard to beat. 

Early on in the process it became pretty clear that using the provided XB8 modem/router from Xfinity was not going to cut it. If used as intended, it was serviceable, but once I started adding simple things like port forwarding, or trying to deactivate the Wifi, it basically gave up. This put me on course to get a new, 2+GBit capable router. 

Requirements

1. Capable of routing 2.5+GBit/s. Preferably even higher as I dont want to have to upgrade again if the internet gets faster
2. A few 2.5Gbit ports, this goes hand-in-hand with being able to route 2.5Base-T speeds
3. A few SFP+ ports, for 10Gbit connectivity to the CR326-24G
4. Nice to have: 10GBase-T port, since the NAS has multiple 10GBase-T ports already ( save on a SFP+ NIC)
5. Cheap-ish

Candidates

• DIY Router VM inside my ESXI server
• DIY Router using a mini-PC from China
• Turn-key solution such as Ubiquity or Miktotik

DIY Router VM

• Pros
  
• Cheapest by far. Would simply need to get a 2.5GBit NIC
• Potentially very flexible with powerful PFSense or similar software
• Cons
• Point of failure, ESXI server goes down, no internet
• ESXi server will become critical to basic network operation
• Quite a bit of configuration and time to maintain settings
• Still need a 2.5GBit switch that has SFP+ to connect to rest of network

DIY Router via MiniPC

• Pros
• Isolate network
• Cons
• Can get expensive. A miniPC that has 10GBit, 2.5GBit and SFP+ can get pricey, close to $300
• Support is nonexistant
• Same amount of configuration and time requirements as VM Solution
• Still need a 2.5GBit switch that has SFP+ to connect to rest of network

Turnkey Solution

• Pros:
• Simplest solution
• Ubiquity would integrate well with existing APs
• Cons:
• Can be expensive
• Potentially limited functionality based on who created the software

In the end the Ubiquity Cloud Gateway Fiber fit the best into my needs AND was cheaper than a DIY solution. Especially considering that it had enough ports to act as the router AND switch. With 4 2.5GBit ports, it has enough ports for some "medium speed" devices. The 10GBase-T port could plug directly into the NAS. Finally, the 2x SFP+ 10GBit ports is enough to connect the ESXi server and backbone switch to the router at full 10GBit. All for the low low price of $274. I couldn't beat that when trying to roll-my-own. 

[Blog] Upgrading the home network for >1Gbps internet service part 1

 Recently Xfinity upgraded my service to 2100 Mb/s down, 300 Mb/s up. This is likely in no small part because of competition from ISPs such as Sail/Twist and Sonic starting to encroach on their monopoly. 

300Mbit up is a welcome change. Its still not the promise land of symmetric up/down of old Google Fiber, but its a step in the right direction. 

Moving to >1Gbps internet presents a challenge for wired networks as Gigabit ethernet has been the standard for more than a decade now. I adopted gigabit infrastructure relatively early on, but with a hodge-podge of consumer grade 4/5/8 port unmanaged gigabit switches.

Past Upgrades

Last year I finally upgraded to a CRS326-24G+2S-RM managed switch as my backbone, with a Dell Connect 2816 managed switch in my upstairs office. This allowed me better control of the network ( and to get rid of a few of my tiny switches, though not all). 

With this recent (admittedly low-cost) investment, I'm hesitant to whole-shot upgrade everything. But upgrades will be necessary as even with the new internet speed, none of my computers can directly utilize the new speed. 

Necessary Upgrade Goals

I had to identify the critical parts that MUST be upgraded to best utilize this new speed. This came down to:

1. Modem
• Potential speed increase is worthless if the modem can't run fast enough
• This was taken care of my Xfinity upgrading me to the XB8 Router+Modem. It can utilitze the speed and contains 3 Gigabit ports, 1 2.5 Gbit port(key), and Wifi 7 support
2. Router:
• I run my own router, sicne I dont like the idea of Xfinity getting access to my internal network.
• Plus the XB8 is good for simple configs, but once you step away from that, it gets cumbersome very quickly
3. Backbone network (CRS) 
• Though this is primarily a gigabit switch, it DOES contain 2 10Gb/s SFP+ ports
4. NAS:
• One of the perks of using a very overbuilt motherboard for my NAS build is that it contiains 2x10GBase-T (RJ-45) ports
5. ESXi server
• My Dell PowerEdge T110 II based esxi server is getting long in the tooth, but still does everything I've asked of it. Unfortunately only has gigabit ports.
• BUT, it does have PCI-e slots that are open and can accept additional NICs, whether it be 2.5Gb or 10Gb SFP+ based.

Not upgrading ( for now )

• Unifi U6 LR
• Unifi AP AC Lite
• Both of these APs are still working well, and I'm hesitant to upgrade them. But they are both limited to a 1Gb WAN port
• Misc laptops/desktops
• Not every machine really NEEDs 2.5 or 10Gb speed. I'd love to have all 10Gb network, but money is a thing.
• IOT devices
• None of these are even saturating 1Gbs, and they're wireless. Upgrading these would be a waste. 

2.5Gbe vs 10Gbe?

That brings up another question. Should I upgrade to 2.5Gb for now or go all the way to 10Gb? 2.5Gb would allow me to utilize the new speed, its cheaper, lower power and if i'm being honest, probably sufficient for my needs.

10Gb is more future proof. For certain machines/connections, the difference can be felt and utilized. The 2 most obvious machines are the ones highlighted, the NAS and esxi servers. Also, certain work machines do have 10Gbase-T ports that can be utilized. 

I eventually decided on a hybrid network. 10Gbit between the router and the backbone switch, NAS and Esxi machine. 2.5Gb between the modem and router, but with a router that's flexible enough to handle 10Gbit service (if that ever happens). 

Next entry will detail my meandering decision making in choosing my router. 

[howto] Get CEC working with Kodi on a Vizio TV ( P55 )

 Original solution from her: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=352993

1. SSH into kodi, usually root and libreelec ( should change this asap)
2. Stop Kodi via the GUI or terminal with "systemctl stop kodi". 
3. Edit the CEC Adapter config file in "/storage/.kodi/userdata/peripheral_data/ via the terminal". This configuration file name varies based on the adapter. For example, for RPI, it seems to be "rpi_2708_1001.xml", and for a Pulse Eight CEC-Adapter, it seems to be "usb_2548_1002_CEC_Adapter.xml". 
4. Change line "device_type = 1" to "device_type = 4". This will force the adapter to register as a Playback device rather than a Recording device.
5. Restart Kodi by restarting the machine or running "systemctl start kodi" in the terminal.
6. May need to restart TV or go into CEC settings and Discover 

Edit: The most important part got left out. 

[Recipe] Josh's Sweet Potatoes

Washed, dried, well oiled. Fairly liberal kosher salt, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom. 

Baked at 400F for 80 minutes

[Recipe] Josh's Mac & Cheese

 Mac’n’Cheese

Ingredients:

◦2 pieces sandwich bread

◦3/4 lb corn/rice elbow pasta

◦4 tbsp brown rice flour

◦3/4 whole yellow onion

◦16 oz sharp cheddar cheese

◦4 cups whole milk

◦7 tbsp butter

◦1 egg

◦Salt, black pepper, hot paprika, bay leaves, dry mustard

Execution:

◦Lightly toast 2 pieces of sandwich bread. Deconstruct with food processor. Bake crumbs at 300F for 10 minutes in flat baking sheet. Set aside to cool.

◦Cook 3/4 lb of elbow pasta corn/rice pasta al dente, salted normally while boiling. Wash to cool and prevent further cooking.

◦Dice 3/4 of whole onion.

◦Set oven to 350F.

◦Melt 4 tbsp butter in bottom of large pot, allow bubbles to subside. Add diced onion and 1 tsp salt. Sweat until translucent.

◦Add 4 tbsp brown rice flour to butter/onion mix, stir for 10 minutes on low to medium heat to form a blonde roux. 

◦Add 1.5 tbsp dry mustard, 1.5 bay leaves, 1 tsp hot paprika, heat on low for 1 minute, stirring constantly to combine.

◦Wisk in 4 cups whole milk, simmer for 10 minutes, stirring regularly to prevent caking on bottom of pot.

◦Remove bay leaves.

◦Beat 1 egg separately. Temper with hot milk mixture, then fully combine with milk mixture.

◦Pour 12 oz of sharp cheddar cheese in milk mixture, stirring to combine.

◦Pour pre-cooked pasta noodles in milk mixture, stirring to combine.

◦Season with 2 tsp black pepper

◦Place all in baking dish. Sprinkle remaining 4 oz of sharp cheddar cheese evenly across top.

◦Melt 3 oz butter in pan, allowing bubbles to subside. Add all breadcrumbs and stir to fully coat with butter and remove clumps.

◦Spread breadcrumbs evenly across top of mac’n’cheese.

◦Bake uncovered in 350F oven for 30 minutes.

[howTo] List directories that contain a file, according to a pattern

BASH text manipulation can do it, but this is more elegant if you're already using find in linux...

find (pattern here) -printf '%h\n' | sort | uniq

Example:
find . -type -f -name '*txt' -printf '%h\n' | sort | uniq

[Info] Another 2-drive failure on RAID5

Currently trying to fix another 2-drive failure on my mdadm raid5. The regular solution of --assemble --force is not working. But first some context.

The rig is a 7-drive mdadm RAID5 consisting of mis-matched branded 2TB drives. 5 of those drives are attached to SATA ports on the motherboard, while another 2 are in a 5-disk Rosewill SATA enclosure. This enclosure is attached via a Sil 3132 PCIe eSata card that supports port-multiplication.

03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3132 Serial ATA Raid II Controller (rev 01)

This and the enclosure came as part of Rosewil's RSV-5 system.

I had previous been usin gthe RSV-4 system, which worked fairly well. That system eventually gave me errors withing dmesg, that I originally attributed to a bad eSATA cable. Eventually that enclosure died because of an errant power surge.

Replacing it with the RSV-5 yielded hte same dmesg errors. No amount of replacement would alleviate the errors. Eventually I figured out, that the errors when away after I upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04. It has performed well since.

Recently I ran into similar ( but not exact) errors as before.

I have now tried my usual trick ( --assemble --force, and the drives in the correct order). But now the error comes back as:

sudo mdadm --verbose --assemble --force /dev/md127 /dev/sdf1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sdg1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdh1
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdf1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 0.
mdadm: /dev/sdc1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 1.
mdadm: /dev/sdb1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 2.
mdadm: /dev/sdd1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 3.
mdadm: /dev/sdg1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 4.
mdadm: /dev/sde1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 5.
mdadm: /dev/sdh1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 6.
mdadm: added /dev/sdc1 to /dev/md127 as 1
mdadm: added /dev/sdb1 to /dev/md127 as 2
mdadm: added /dev/sdd1 to /dev/md127 as 3
mdadm: added /dev/sdg1 to /dev/md127 as 4 (possibly out of date)
mdadm: added /dev/sde1 to /dev/md127 as 5
mdadm: added /dev/sdh1 to /dev/md127 as 6 (possibly out of date)
mdadm: added /dev/sdf1 to /dev/md127 as 0
mdadm: /dev/md127 assembled from 5 drives - not enough to start the array.

I thought it was because the Event counter was too far off:

         Events : 120796
         Events : 120796
         Events : 120796
         Events : 120796
         Events : 120796
         Events : 120788
         Events : 120788

For posterity here is a good example of a drive:

/dev/sdb1:
          Magic : a92b4efc
        Version : 0.90.00
           UUID : f21f5306:c8a07e60:fad3a920:52a40d5b
  Creation Time : Tue Dec 21 20:21:48 2010
     Raid Level : raid5
  Used Dev Size : 1953511936 (1863.01 GiB 2000.40 GB)
     Array Size : 11721071616 (11178.09 GiB 12002.38 GB)
   Raid Devices : 7
  Total Devices : 5
Preferred Minor : 127
    Update Time : Thu Aug  9 23:39:20 2018
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 5
Working Devices : 5
 Failed Devices : 2
  Spare Devices : 0
       Checksum : ce567320 - correct
         Events : 120796
         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 64K
      Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
this     2       8       17        2      active sync   /dev/sdb1
   0     0       8       81        0      active sync   /dev/sdf1
   1     1       8       33        1      active sync   /dev/sdc1
   2     2       8       17        2      active sync   /dev/sdb1
   3     3       8       49        3      active sync   /dev/sdd1
   4     4       0        0        4      faulty removed
   5     5       8       65        5      active sync   /dev/sde1
   6     6       0        0        6      faulty removed

A drive that was kicked:

/dev/sdh1:
          Magic : a92b4efc
        Version : 0.90.00
           UUID : f21f5306:c8a07e60:fad3a920:52a40d5b
  Creation Time : Tue Dec 21 20:21:48 2010
     Raid Level : raid5
  Used Dev Size : 1953511936 (1863.01 GiB 2000.40 GB)
     Array Size : 11721071616 (11178.09 GiB 12002.38 GB)
   Raid Devices : 7
  Total Devices : 7
Preferred Minor : 127
    Update Time : Thu Aug  9 23:31:29 2018
          State : clean
 Active Devices : 7
Working Devices : 7
 Failed Devices : 0
  Spare Devices : 0
       Checksum : ce567281 - correct
         Events : 120788
         Layout : left-symmetric
     Chunk Size : 64K
      Number   Major   Minor   RaidDevice State
this     6       8      113        6      active sync   /dev/sdh1
   0     0       8       81        0      active sync   /dev/sdf1
   1     1       8       33        1      active sync   /dev/sdc1
   2     2       8       17        2      active sync   /dev/sdb1
   3     3       8       49        3      active sync   /dev/sdd1
   4     4       8       97        4      active sync   /dev/sdg1
   5     5       8       65        5      active sync   /dev/sde1
   6     6       8      113        6      active sync   /dev/sdh1

I opened up this thread on ubuntu forums:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2399971&p=13796868#post13796868

They suggested I try --run.

This yielded:

sudo mdadm --verbose --assemble --force --run /dev/md127 /dev/sdf1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sdg1 /dev/sde1 /dev/sdh1
mdadm: looking for devices for /dev/md127
mdadm: /dev/sdf1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 0.
mdadm: /dev/sdc1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 1.
mdadm: /dev/sdb1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 2.
mdadm: /dev/sdd1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 3.
mdadm: /dev/sdg1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 4.
mdadm: /dev/sde1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 5.
mdadm: /dev/sdh1 is identified as a member of /dev/md127, slot 6.
mdadm: added /dev/sdc1 to /dev/md127 as 1
mdadm: added /dev/sdb1 to /dev/md127 as 2
mdadm: added /dev/sdd1 to /dev/md127 as 3
mdadm: added /dev/sdg1 to /dev/md127 as 4 (possibly out of date)
mdadm: added /dev/sde1 to /dev/md127 as 5
mdadm: added /dev/sdh1 to /dev/md127 as 6 (possibly out of date)
mdadm: added /dev/sdf1 to /dev/md127 as 0
mdadm: failed to RUN_ARRAY /dev/md127: Input/output error
mdadm: Not enough devices to start the array.

It was suggested that maybe the Input/Output error was because of one of the drives instead of the md127 not being able to be created.

Googling has not resulted in any conclusive direction.


I did find this possible sokution:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2276699&page=2&highlight=mdadm+event+counter

sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md2
sudo mdadm --zero-superblock /dev/sd[abcdhijk]
sudo mdadm --create --assume-clean /dev/md2 /dev/sd[abcdhijk]

Though it is cautioned as the "nuclear option" and thus I'm saiving it for when all other alternatives have been exhausted .

 I will keep this page updated as I try more things.

[howTo] Improve piaware results

I noticed I've got drastically better results with piaware ( Raspberry Pi + Flight Aware ADS-B ) by enabling SSH, and upgrading the underlying raspbian packages.

Enable ssh on raspbian:

• Mount the micro-sd on another computer. 
• Create an empty file called "ssh" 
• Boot the Pi
• sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade

Alternatively you can go through flightware and issue an "Upgrade all installed Debian Packages" command. 

My results went from: 18k reports to 50k reports (Fri vs Fri comparison). With no change to antenna placement or hardware. 

Dramatic difference. Pretty obvious when the change was made. 

[howTo] Fix DNS on OpenVPN headless install + (Private Internet Access)

Ran into an issue when getting a headless OpenVPN client working with Private Internet Access. After the connection was up, system could not resolve DNS.

Quick and dirty solution is to add a public nameserver to /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

cat /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/head

nameserver 8.8.8.8

There's probably a better way to have OpenVPN get a DNS from PIA, but I'll have work that out later.

 

[howto] Install DokuWiki in Ubuntu 14.04 and nginx on DigitalOcean VPS

This is the base link I used:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-dokuwiki-with-nginx-on-an-ubuntu-12-04-vps

Its slightly old, meant for Ubuntu 12.04. But if you're somewhat familiar with linux and how nginx works, you should have no trouble getting it working.

Comments on the bottom also have changes needed to get it working in 16.04, the next LTS.

[howto] Fix certbot-auto renew failure (404)

Here's how to fix this type of error:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processing /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/my-domain-example.com.conf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Renewing an existing certificate

Performing the following challenges:

http-01 challenge for my-domain-example.com

http-01 challenge for www.my-domain-example.com

Waiting for verification...

Cleaning up challenges

Attempting to renew cert from /etc/letsencrypt/renewal/my-domain-example.com.conf produced an unexpected error: Failed authorization procedure. my-domain-example.com (http-01): urn:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Invalid response from http://my-domain-example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/0s8Ci_55qtap46cwbXbL8uhGRRnf_M7_tkcH1DjObjU: "

404 Not Found

---

", www.my-domain-example.com (http-01): urn:acme:error:unauthorized :: The client lacks sufficient authorization :: Invalid response from http://www.my-domain-example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/3ZwAH4Q5mgHx3hCKty7OYsDHgh9ZiwlgrI-JnSMA6XQ: "

404 Not Found

---

". Skipping.

All renewal attempts failed. The following certs could not be renewed:

  /etc/letsencrypt/live/my-domain-example.com/fullchain.pem (failure)

1 renew failure(s), 0 parse failure(s)

IMPORTANT NOTES:

 - The following errors were reported by the server:

   Domain: my-domain-example.com

   Type:   unauthorized

   Detail: Invalid response from

   http://my-domain-example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/:

   "

   

   

   

404 Not Found

   

---

"

   Domain: www.my-domain-example.com

   Type:   unauthorized

   Detail: Invalid response from

   http://www.my-domain-example.com/.well-known/acme-challenge/:

   "

   

   

   

404 Not Found

   

---

"

   To fix these errors, please make sure that your domain name was

   entered correctly and the DNS A record(s) for that domain

   contain(s) the right IP address.

The error is showing that the client is getting a 404 error webpage as a response to its challenge. The reason this seemed to be happening was that I had HSTS on, which prevented the challenge from going through properly.

For me the the answer was to disable SSL for that website. Then run the certbot-auto renew. This allowed the script to renew the certs. Afterwards simply re-enable SSL.

The simplest way for me to disable SSL was to remove the relevant entries in my config file.

/etc/nginx/sites-available/ 

[howto][svn] Quickly revert a commit

There are more flexible ways, but here is a quick way to simply revert one commit.

svn merge -c -[R]

R = Revision.

So reverting commit 5400 would be:

svn merge -c -5400

Don't forget that dash before the revision.

Taken from:

 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13330011/how-do-i-revert-an-svn-commit

[VirtualBox][howto] Map COM port higher than COM9

According to https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6421

Trying to map a COM port higher than COM9 in virtual box will result in this error:

(VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND).
Details:
Fehlercode: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Komponente: Console
Interface: IConsole {6375231a-c17c-464b-92cb-ae9e128d71c3}

The solution is to give the full path:

COM12 would be \\.\COM12.

[Kodi] [howto] Enable Chinese Subtitles

Enabling chinese ( or really any non-western character based) subtitles in Kodi should be simple, but requires a few steps that, when not performed perfectly, leads to a frustrating set of garbage characters.


1.) Replace Kodi's default arial.ttf ( or add ) a font that has full unicode support. Most tutorials online use DejaVuSans+DriodSansFallback.ttf. Unfortunately the post I found had a faulty link, but a bit of quick googling showed it was available here:

DejaVu Sans Font Free by DejaVu Fonts | Font Squirrel


2.) Place the .ttf file in Kodi's "Fonts" folder. Depending on your platform this can be in different places. Here are the common ones I've found:

Linux: /usr/share/kodi/media/Fonts/.
OSX: /Users//Library/Application Support/Kodi/kodi/media/Fonts

(For OSX, the Fonts folder wasn't there, so I had to create it).

3.) Choose the font in: Settings>Video>Subtitles>Font for use for Subtitles.

4.) Choose the right character set: Settings>Video>Subtitles>Character Set (for Chinese I used "Chinese Simplified (GBK)". Without this step, you will get garbage output, regardless of the font.

5.) Optional: Add the language you'd like to Download for, if you use the subtitle downloaders, which are quite helpful.

If any options don't appear, make sure you're in the "Expert" mode for the settings.

Troubleshooting:

If you're seeing BOXES for the text, then your font doesn't support the right character set, change your font.

If you're seeing GARBAGE for the test, then you haven't chosen the correct character in the settings. Choose the correct one.

[howto] [Linux] proxychains + SOCKS5 best practices

Recently was messing around with proxychains in order to allow some commands and programs that don't natively support proxies to be used more securely.

I followed this excellent tutorial:

How to use Proxychains forwarding ports

This worked great, but it requires an SSH tunnel. This is great if you have access to a VPS. But what if you're using some kind of commercial VPN service ( such as PIA ). You need to set up proxychains to use SOCKS5. 

This isn't very difficult. You simply need to add the following line to the [ProxyList] section of your proxychains.conf file:

socks5 IP Port Username Password

I set it up for PIA, so this was my config:

 socks5 109.201.154.239 1080   username ( the one starting with x) password (yes hardcoded, but later on we have a work-around for this glaring security hole).

Unfortunately proxychains seems to not handle DNS names, so I used an IP for PIA's socks proxy ( proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com ).

The instructions are available at:

PIA Instructions Page

nslookup proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com yielded quite a few IPs:

Name:    proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com
Address: 109.201.138.234
Name:    proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com
Address: 109.201.154.245
Name:    proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com
Address: 109.201.154.165
Name:    proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com
Address: 46.166.186.204
Name:    proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com
Address: 109.201.138.229
.
.
.
.






You can pick any one to use. Though, I imagine they are used in round-robbin to share the load of the users. So if your proxy stops working all of a sudden, try changing to another IP.

Also the default setting:

# socks4  127.0.0.1 9050

Should be disabled, if you are using strict_chain, since it will error at not being able to contact the DNS through the (non-existant) TOR tunnel.

Test the connection:

proxychains wget www.google.com

Last of all, is the security concern about having to hard-code your password in a .conf file. My workaround has been to use a local, user-only file. Instead of using the above in /etc/proxychains.conf, create the same file in:

~/.proxychains/proxychains.conf

Create the directory if its not already there. Then ensure that only your user may read the file:


chmod go-rwx ~/.proxychains/proxychains.conf

A hash or shadow file would be better, but I haven't quite figured out how to have proxychains use something like that unfortunately.

Hope this is helpful!
 

initramfs + cron

If you find that your cron jobs aren't running until you first "edit" the cron job ( even though it was set in the initial initramfs). Check that you have the proper cron.update file, and that both files are owned by root. If one is owned by another user, say the user that you used to create the file, cron will read the config but not run the job. Silently.

Future Story Ideas

Incorporate Demon Hunter introduction.

Maybe play on DK vs DH. Hotplate vs Demon Hunter.

Could be a conflict with Bob? Or, have Bob welcome DH, like he did with Hotplate. Eventual romance between Hotplate and DH? Might be a bit cheesy, but kind of fits, both "forever" changed.

Think on it a bit.

[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.

[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