Transmission This Stats!

Damn!
That's all I can say, damn!
2 Terabytes uploaded.

Google Chrome: Make it Display The Whole URL

That is, do not hide the effing protocol on the URL!!!
That drives me completely nuts, since the whole thing simple appears when you want to copy the damn URL.
The fix is rather simple, post this on the location box:

chrome://flags/#omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-scheme

And set to "Disabled" the option 'Onmibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Scheme'.

Mind You, Buster!

It was time.
Today along the days chores got to replace the old, now unsupported, Linux Mint 17 XFCE installation on the old and trusty Acer TravelMate with a brand new and shiny Debian Buster install.
No problems with the install, did a really bare-bones one, nothing except SSH and Standard System Utilities.
i3 as the WM, VLC, Firefox and Transmission... the poor little lappie can't handle much else than that, and then some...

Debian Sid Installation Tidbits (T60p & T43)

Some notes of the install process on both the T60p and the T43

After making a Debian net install from a Debian 9, choosing only the "SSH Server" and the "Standard System Utilities" options upon the Software Selection.
After the install is over (on an encrypted LVM, of course) installed:

sudo apt-get install sudo zile

Yes, sudo, I'm an old fart and I like to have a root account around, of course, closed to SSH, also I like to use Zile a lot, a minimal Emacs.
Then, with that installed, edited the "/etc/apt/sources.list" file, to look like this:

deb http://debian.unnoba.edu.ar/debian/ sid main
deb-src http://debian.unnoba.edu.ar/debian/ sid main

All the other entries are commented... If you are using proprietary drivers, the "/etc/apt/sources.list" file looks like this:

deb http://debian.unnoba.edu.ar/debian/ sid main

deb-src http://debian.unnoba.edu.ar/debian/ sid main

## Non Free

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian sid main contrib non-free

deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian sid main contrib non-free

Again, all the other entries on the file are commented...
Proprietary drivers or not, after editing the file, issue a:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get autoremove

Then reboot the box:

sudo reboot

Some other programs I've installed to complete the setup:

sudo apt install apt-listbugs apt-listchanges

sudo apt install alsa-utils

(alsamixer to unmute (m) and then speaker-test to check buttons)

sudo apt install xorg

sudo apt install i3

sudo apt install links2

sudo apt install pmount (to mount USB drives as regular user)

Finally Chrome In

Today installed Chrome on my last "Firefox only" box...
Crap and annoyances pushed me to it, about 10 days ago, the web version of Spotify stopped working cold, every time I've tried accessing with Firefox, it belched a message that this version wasn't supported, blah, blah, blah... Like if it were 2003 or something... Complaints and more complaints about required versions not installed... Get the hell out of here!
And today it was with Netflix, so, well... Hello Chrome, baby!
Let's just hope this doesn't happen...

A Flatter xcalc

Thanks to ~/.Xresources:

xcalc*ti.button1.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.button2.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.button3.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.button4.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.button5.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.background: gray90
xcalc*ti.bevel.borderColor: gray65
xcalc*ti.bevel.borderWidth: 1
xcalc*ti.bevel.vertDistance: 4
xcalc*ti.bevel.defaultDistance: 0
xcalc*ti.bevel.background: rgb:b/c/b
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*background: rgb:b/c/b
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen.borderColor: rgb:b/c/b
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen.vertDistance: 10
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen.horizDistance: 10
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*left: chainLeft
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*right: chainRight
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*top: chainTop
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*bottom: chainBottom
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*LCD.foreground: gray10
xcalc*ti.bevel.screen*INV.vertDistance: 0
xcalc*ti.Command.borderColor: gray65
xcalc*ti.Command.background: gray85
xcalc*ti.Command.foreground: gray30
xcalc*ti.button5.background: rgb:e/b/b
xcalc*ti.button20.background: rgb:e/d/c
xcalc*ti.button25.background: rgb:e/d/c
xcalc*ti.button30.background: rgb:e/d/c
xcalc*ti.button35.background: rgb:e/d/c
xcalc*ti.button40.background: rgb:b/b/e
xcalc*ti.button22.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button23.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button24.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button27.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button28.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button29.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button32.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button33.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button34.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button37.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button38.background: gray95
xcalc*ti.button39.background: gray95

Dropbox Vs Encrypted EXT4: Dropbox Wins...

Yes, well, in the end. I've chosen to remain with Dropbox...
What can I say, the practicality of what it offers is pretty much addictive, I have a ton of HDD with them, thanks to recs, so... I have to put that available space to work, right?
So, I'm in the process of switching the encrypted $HOMEs of the lappies to regular ones, since all of them are installed on encrypted LVM to begin with, I guess there is not a big security risk.
The whole thing is not as hard as I thought it would be, but, a bit of a PITA nonetheless.

Engines Without Themes

A little something to install some GTK Engines, but without all the extra themes they come from, which I don't ever, never, use them...

sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install gtk2-engines-murrine
sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends install gtk2-engines

Debian Stretch on the Thinkpad T410

A little screenshot of the fresh Debian setup on the T410, or the XFCE desktop, actually.
Nothing new, the standard comfy & usable ole XFCE.

The install went really smooth, only thing I had to setup// install after the actual installation was the non-free drivers for the WiFi card (iwlwifi).

As usual, an encrypted LVM, with a whole partition for / (to save disk space).

As for packages, also went for the usual.
Of course XFCE, SSH Server & the mandatory "Standard System Utility".
IIRC, it somethig less than 2 GB of HDD space when finished.

The screenshot on the left shows stuff as it is with all the necessary packages installed to call this setup home, that is, on top of the base XFCE install:

• Zile
• Chrome
• Dropbox (at least for now)
• OpenVPN
• Evolution
• Links2

I obviously have to fix that icon volume on the Panel ultra ASAP... It reminds me of the whole Wicd icon thing a couple of weeks ago.

Fuck You, Dropbox!

Dropbox will become unusable for me in November.
There is no way I'll not use encryption on my laptops, so bye & bye and fuck off.
Back to local external HDD and custom made scripts to sync stuff between boxes.
What a fucking piece of shit move, man.

Links:

• Dropbox Is Dropping Support For All Linux File Systems Except Unencrypted Ext4

• Dropbox client warns me that it'll stop syncing in Nov, why?

B&W Terminal VLC

VLC on the console, IMHO, the only way to use this is with the '--nocolor' flag.

Embedded (e)links(2)

Got back to text browsers lately...
So, I've been using links2 (with the graphical mode) these last couple of days.
Chrome seems to be a bit too heavy -with a couple of tabs open- on the poor little Optiplex.
As a side note, when dealing with pure text, for my untrained eye, or at least, on the sites I browse, I see no difference between using elinks and links2.

Chromecast No Audio For You!

As expected, the Chromecast Audio Experiment finished without success...

Was sort of expecting that for Linux, even tho I'm running Chrome, but what a hell... Chrome "syncs" ok with the Chromecast Audio, but nothing happens, sometimes it even crashes the whole Chrome (not only the synced tab).

But, I was more optimistic when it comes to casting from a Chromebook... I thought that the thing being an official Google lappie, running on its own Chrome browser... You know the drill, thing might be smoother...
Anyway, exactly the same problem, it syncs ok, but it doesn't reproduce any music at all (strangely you can hear the volume indicator pip when you scale the volume up or down, but nothing else.)

VirtualBox: The Updated Problem

There was a problem with Monday's updates for Virtualbox on Linux Mint.
Once installed, they blew things up rather violently, depending on your setup, you could either end up with a box that couldn't login (via the graphical login manager) or (my case) with a box that wasn't able to run programs.
Right after installing this update on the MacBook Pro programs (some of them, not every single one) refused to load, and those that didn't they didn't even produce an error message, really annoying, right?

In the end, the fix for the update shenanigans was pretty easy to do, but the really cool thing is that Linux Mint released a fix for this update right the same day.

Un-ugly Xscreensaver (Or At Least Try...)

The lock screen of XFCE, at least on Linux Mint is awful.
This is the first step towards making it a little easier on the eyes.
The contents of my ~/.Xresources file:

xscreensaver.splash: false

!font settings 9x15, the best fixed old school font in the Universe
xscreensaver.Dialog.headingFont:        9x15
xscreensaver.Dialog.bodyFont:           9x15
xscreensaver.Dialog.labelFont:          9x15
xscreensaver.Dialog.unameFont:          9x15
xscreensaver.Dialog.buttonFont:         9x15
xscreensaver.Dialog.dateFont:           9x15
xscreensaver.passwd.passwdFont:         9x15

!general dialog box (affects main hostname, username, password text)
xscreensaver.Dialog.foreground: #ffffff
xscreensaver.Dialog.background: #111111
xscreensaver.Dialog.topShadowColor: #111111
xscreensaver.Dialog.bottomShadowColor: #111111
xscreensaver.Dialog.Button.foreground: #666666
xscreensaver.Dialog.Button.background: #ffffff

!username/password input box and date text colour
xscreensaver.Dialog.text.foreground: #666666
xscreensaver.Dialog.text.background: #ffffff
xscreensaver.Dialog.internalBorderWidth:36
xscreensaver.Dialog.borderWidth: 0
xscreensaver.Dialog.shadowThickness: 2

!timeout bar (background is actually determined by Dialog.text.background)
!xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.foreground: #ff0000
!xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.background: #000000
!xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.width: 8

! Same color as the background so this "thermometer" dissapears...
xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.foreground: #111111
xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.background: #111111
xscreensaver.passwd.thermometer.width: 2

!datestamp format–see the strftime(3) manual page for details
xscreensaver.dateFormat: %I:%M%P %a %b %d, %Y

To test this, I'm currently doing this, after making changes to the file, on a Terminal:

killall xscreensaver

Then start it via Demo:

xscreensaver-demo

Then see the changes by:

xflock4

32 When I Want It

Well this is strange...
I was under the impression that Chrome doesn't run on 32 bits boxes...
On Linux you can't install Chrome on 32 bit, you have to make do running Chromium.

Goodbye Ole Buddy

Today the HDD on the trusty Inspiron 1000 died.
Along the years it torrented nearly 2 TB thru its plates, may it rest in peace.

Making Linux Mint Smaller

Continuing with the LM 18 install on the Dell Inspiron 1000 that I di yesterday, it was time to remove unwanted programs, bear in mind that the lappie will have a very specialized use, therefore I can remove a lot of stuff that I'm positive I won't be needing.

When I started the base install (with all updates installed) it was like this:

/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root   54G  5,8G   46G  12% /

Right now (and I plan to keep removing stuff) it is like this:

/dev/mapper/mint--vg-root   54G  4,3G   47G   9% /

To get back those GBs I removed:

• Libreoffice
• Gimp
• Foreing fonts
• Banshee
• Pix
• Hexchat
• Xfburn
• Thunderbird
• Pidgin

Un-Google Now on The Moto G4 Plus

So finally [!!!!] I was able to fix the Google Now crap on my Moto G4 Plus.
I was getting really, really mad at the mighty cell phone, the new panel, that appeared out of nowhere and that I was unable to remove drove me crazy, as I hate having more than one desktop on my phone.

This is what I did to delete the effing unwanted panel:

1- Go to 'Settings' on your phone > Apps.
2- Select the Google App > tap on the top right corner > Uninstall updates.

Removed updates for the Google App, and voila, the damn panel vanished, also a couple of icons from the cell's desktop, but aside from that, everything A Ok, didn't loose any data nor installed program.
After that, updated that damn Google App once again, rebooted the cell, added the missing icons on the mighty Moto G4 Plus desktop again, and things, at least so far, are kosher and running fine.

Followed (in part) the instructions from this Google Products Forum post:
How do I *TURN OFF* Google Now?

Google Now Launcher Went Nuts

The mighty Moto G4 Plus got a bit crazy today and fucked it up with a damn new panel for Google Now that I can't get rid off...
Damn you technology!