Linux-natives
type: channel
description: A Linux and open source blog by experts from Finland
date: 2021-02-21T07:29:26Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
generator agent: https://wordpress.org/
items: Save your time on the command-line with fuzzy finder
items: KeePassXC Browser Integration
items: Hosting my own cloud platform with Nextcloud
items: Pain in the neck? Real workplace test of Logitech Ergo devices
items: Casting Android Device To Your PC With Scrcpy
items: 9 Tips to copy-paste like a pro
items: What’s new in MariaDB 10.5 in Debian?
items: Recording with OBS Studio
items: Rock on with Vivaldi
items: 15 Keyboard Shortcuts To Make You a Terminal Ninja
items: Easy Encrypted Cloud Storage & Backups With Rclone
items: Build a small and cheap Linux workstation with Intel NUC
items: Vim – The Ubiquitous Text Editor (… and your new best friend)
items: Pimp your bash with Liquid Prompt
items: Keyboard cleaning 101
items: Improve your security with two-factor authentication
items: Magic wormhole – easiest way to transfer a file across the Internet
items: Align user IDs inside and outside Docker with subuser mapping
items: Partition like a pro with fdisk, sfdisk and cfdisk
items: How to create good SSH keys
items: Ubuntu/Gnome on a tablet
items: Secure and flexible backup server with dm-crypt and btrfs
items: The perfect Btrfs setup for a server
items: World IPv6 Day and how to add IPv6 support to a web server
items: Linux and POWER8 microprocessors
items: The Best of 2015
items: Using RAID with btrfs and recovering from broken disks
items: Android Phone Review: The OnePlus X
items: Fixing black screen after login in Ubuntu 14.04
items: Cyberwar never ceases

Save your time on the command-line with fuzzy finder
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2021-02-21T07:28:55Z
subject: Technology
subject: bash
subject: command-line
subject: shell
subject: tips
subject: tutorial
description: The command-line fuzzy finder by Junegunn Choi is a new interesting time saver and power user utility I find myself using all the time nowadays. Search the command history with fzf A very common thing for command-line power users is to use Ctrl+R to search the command history, and thus avoid typing the same command […]
encoded: The command-line fuzzy finder by Junegunn Choi is a new interesting time saver and power user utility I find myself using all the time nowadays. Search the command history with fzf A very common thing for command-line power users is to use Ctrl+R to search the command history, and thus avoid typing the same command over and over. But what if you remember parts of the command, but not in the correct order? Say I want to run dstat with --top- something, but I don’t remember if I ran dstat --top-cpu or maybe dstat -n --top-cpu. If there were some characters in between, a normal Ctrl+R search on dstat --top- would not find it. This is a use case where fzf excels. With it, I can simply press Ctrl+R and write dstat top and it will list all occurrences that had those words anywhere. I can simply browse the results with the arrow key and press enter to select what I’m looking for, and another enter to run it. Simple and quick! Command-line fuzzy finder demo on Ctrl+R use If you are wondering which prompt is used in the recording above, check out our post on Liquid Prompt! Jump immediately to correct directory with fzf Surely all command-line users have the experience of typing cd and ls all the time. What if you could find the correct directory and jump immediately to it with no effort? Just use the powers of fzf. When you have it installed, you can simply type Alt-C to activate the auto-complete with which you can conduct a search with one or more file names. In the demo below I want to go to the modules directory in the nginx source code. I just type nginx module and fzf presents me with the exact thing I wanted. Effortless! Command-line fuzzy finder demo on double wildcard use Find and manipulate multiple files effortlessly Another very common scenario on the command-line is to view or edit multiple files. Finding the files and writing the paths to each file can be slow. But not with fzf! Simply type the name of your command (in this example bat to view files) and then p…

KeePassXC Browser Integration
type: item
creator: Nuutti Toivola
date: 2021-02-12T15:45:35Z
subject: Technology
description: Happy Free Software Day and thank you KeePassXC for your awesome work! <3 One of the cornerstones on how to keep yourself secure in the modern world is to use strong passwords + 2FA and encrypted communication methods when living your life on the net. To manage all the complex passwords needed for the services […]
encoded: Happy Free Software Day and thank you KeePassXC for your awesome work! <3 One of the cornerstones on how to keep yourself secure in the modern world is to use strong passwords + 2FA and encrypted communication methods when living your life on the net. To manage all the complex passwords needed for the services you use you should let a password manager do all the hard work. At Seravo we prefer to use offline password managers such as the open source KeePassXC, which is the modern fork of the older and still popular KeePass-project. For a long time the online password managers had the advantage of good browser integrations, since they are by definition made for online use, making them the go-to solution for the basic user. <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="271" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image-540x271.png" alt="" class="wp-image-4664" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image-540x271.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image-300x151.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image-150x75.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image-768x386.png 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image.png 1213w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> Fortunately the makers of KeePassXC didn’t just accept this situation but started working on their own official browser integration. The extension is currently available for Chromium based browsers as well as Firefox and Edge. You can also get the package for the plugin via Debian packages if you wish. What is it for? The extension allows the user to easily to log in to an online service via browser, using the username and password from the password manager, without needing to manually input the username and password. This is instead done simply with a few clicks from the UI provided by the extension within your browser, no copy-pasting needed! <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="550…

Hosting my own cloud platform with Nextcloud
type: item
creator: Simo Kemppainen
date: 2021-02-10T09:03:01Z
subject: Technology
subject: Android
subject: filesystem
subject: Linux
subject: Nextcloud
subject: open source
description: Nextcloud is a quality opensource alternative for commercial and “free” file-sharing and cloud platforms. It is originally based on ownCloud (initially released in 2010) and was forked to Nextcloud by the original developer Frank Karlitschek. The software is developed with security in mind, and the basic idea is to keep all the data under the […]
encoded: Nextcloud is a quality opensource alternative for commercial and “free” file-sharing and cloud platforms. It is originally based on ownCloud (initially released in 2010) and was forked to Nextcloud by the original developer Frank Karlitschek. The software is developed with security in mind, and the basic idea is to keep all the data under the users’ own control. Nextcloud is developed and managed by Nextcloud GmbH and the opensource community. The company also offers Software as a Service hosting for commercial customers. My use cases I personally prefer local storages and servers over commercial or “free” systems like Google Photos, Dropbox etc. Previously, I had multiple PHP galleries and simple web directories (with digest password authentication), but they are complex to maintain in the long run, and complex to use if users need to handle a ton of user accounts. Especially when used with smart devices, the user needs to have a specific URL and copy / paste the credentials (or use weak passwords, which are easy to remember and type). I use Nextcloud primarily to share photos and other files with my family and relatives. Features Nextcloud can be built to be a fully collaborative software for enterprises, but basically it offers a number of useful features, including: File server / sharing Web UI features, like: File manager Internal document viewer Internal text editor Photo gallery WebDAV (which integrates with file managers in Linux, Windows and OS X) Calendar with CalDAV (which integrates with e.g. Mozilla Thunderbird) Contacts with CardDAV Small utilities, like: Weather forecast Maps viewer RSS feed reader Hundreds of extensions Built-in security Nextcloud has built-in security features that can be enabled after installation. Two-Factor Authentication Server side file encryption Password policies to enforce use of strong passwords IP whitelists for restricting access only from certain networks or IP addresses My server environment I have a small and low-cost …

Pain in the neck? Real workplace test of Logitech Ergo devices
type: item
creator: Pekka Kortelainen
date: 2021-02-01T12:19:45Z
subject: Technology
subject: ergonomy
subject: Logitech Ergo
subject: office work
subject: repetitive stress injury
subject: test
description: Real workplace test of Logitech Ergo devices, with goals to avoid repetitive stress injury (RSI) and muscle strain in general.
encoded: I work at Seravo’s Customer Success team as a Support Specialist. Our team is responsible for taking care of support requests and phone calls from our customers. The most used channel for communication between the customers and us is email via a ticketing system. Our statistics show that, in roughly six months I sent over 2000 responses to our customers. Some of them are short, some of them are long but either way, that is a lot of typing. I got an assignment to test the Logitech Ergo K860 keyboard and MX Vertical mouse in my everyday work. The main goal was to reduce pressure on my wrists and general muscle strain during all that typing and mouse use, and to avoid repetitive stress injury (RSI) in the long run. <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="663" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages-540x663.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-4574" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages-540x663.jpg 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages-244x300.jpg 244w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages-122x150.jpg 122w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages-768x943.jpg 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/ergo-packages.jpg 1080w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> Packages waiting to be opened. Keyboard To connect the keyboard to my laptop running Ubuntu was super easy. Users can choose between the provided USB dongle or Bluetooth LE. To keep my two USB-A ports available for other devices I connected the keyboard using Bluetooth. After inserting two AAA batteries, the setup required to initiate the connection from Bluetooth devices and after typing the provided six number key from the computer screen a connection was created. Three devices can be connected and switching between them is easy using the designated keys. <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="280" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/upload…

Casting Android Device To Your PC With Scrcpy
type: item
creator: Viljami Pietarila
date: 2021-01-18T11:31:29Z
subject: Technology
subject: Android
subject: mobile devices
subject: open source
description: Scrcpy is a free and open source tool that allows you to simply hook your android device to your computer via usb, allowing you to cast the mobile device’s display to your computer screen. It’s available for Windows, mac & Linux, including as a flatpak, snap or deb. Using Scrcpy Scrcpy requires USB debugging to […]
encoded: Scrcpy is a free and open source tool that allows you to simply hook your android device to your computer via usb, allowing you to cast the mobile device’s display to your computer screen. It’s available for Windows, mac & Linux, including as a flatpak, snap or deb. <img loading="lazy" width="1600" height="953" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives.jpg" alt="Linuxnatives on browser, on scrcpy and on phone side-by-side" class="wp-image-4393" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives.jpg 1600w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-300x179.jpg 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-540x322.jpg 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-150x89.jpg 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-768x457.jpg 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-1536x915.jpg 1536w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/scrcpy-linuxnatives-1320x786.jpg 1320w" sizes="(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /> Linuxnatives on browser, on scrcpy and on phone side-by-side Using Scrcpy Scrcpy requires USB debugging to be enabled. However it leaves nothing installed to your mobile device. The software allows you to control the android device with mouse and keyboard. Additionally, it has drag and drop utilities, allowing you to upload files to your phone. Scrcpy is fast. It takes about one second from launching the tool on your computer for the image of the device to appear on your computer screen. There is some latency when using the mobile device from computer, but it’s low enough to allow you to smoothly operate the device. Scrcpy can also work wirelessly, although that requires a bit more tinkering than just plugging your device via usb. Android development Using an actual phone is invaluable when developing with mobile devices. Whi…

9 Tips to copy-paste like a pro
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2021-01-10T14:02:04Z
subject: Technology
subject: Gnome
subject: howto
subject: keyboard shortcuts
subject: Larry Tesler
subject: Linux
subject: modes
description: Everybody knows these basic keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. But there’s much more to them! With these handy tips, you can copy-paste more efficiently than ever before. The tips are convenient for all Linux and Gnome users in particular, as most of the shortcuts work out-of-the-box. There is no need to […]
encoded: Everybody knows these basic keyboard shortcuts for copying and pasting: Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. But there’s much more to them! With these handy tips, you can copy-paste more efficiently than ever before. The tips are convenient for all Linux and Gnome users in particular, as most of the shortcuts work out-of-the-box. There is no need to install additional software – simply memorize these shortcuts to be more productive! Copy-pasting was invented in the 1970’s Did you know? The modern copy-pasting method of selecting some text and using a single keyboard shortcut to copy and paste it was originally invented by Larry Tesler, way back in the 1970’s. Tesler conceived and implemented many graphical user interface (GUI) features, which are taken for granted today. We find it very interesting to read more about Larry Tesler and his crusade against “modes” in human-computer interfaces. Knowing how to copy-paste efficiently is an essential skill all computer users should learn to be productive. Memorize them today! Watch the full presentation Plain presentation slides are available on Slideshare. Quick summary Action Shortcut Select text lines to copy Drag with mouse Select text columns to copy Press Ctrl while dragging with mouse Copy Ctrl+C or simply click the middle mouse button Copy in terminal Shift+Ctrl+C Copy in terminal with formatting Shift+Ctrl+H Paste Ctrl+V Paste without formatting Shift+Ctrl+V Take a full screen screenshot directly to clipboard Ctrl+PrtScr Take a window screenshot to clipboard Ctrl+Alt+PrtScr Select area to screenshot directly to clipboard Ctrl+Shift+PrtScr Record full screen to video Ctrl+Shift+Alt+R

What’s new in MariaDB 10.5 in Debian?
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2021-01-07T18:38:50Z
subject: Technology
subject: Debian
subject: MariaDB
subject: MySQL
description: MariaDB 10.5 is the latest major stable release of MariaDB, released in the spring of 2020. It was imported into Debian.org in late summer 2020 by the author of this blog post. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions and the “mother” of many other distributions, most notably Ubuntu. Thus when MariaDB 10.5 […]
encoded: MariaDB 10.5 is the latest major stable release of MariaDB, released in the spring of 2020. It was imported into Debian.org in late summer 2020 by the author of this blog post. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions and the “mother” of many other distributions, most notably Ubuntu. Thus when MariaDB 10.5 was introduced in Debian’s official repositories, it automatically became also available in Ubuntu and many other Debian derivatives. Debian and Ubuntu release engineering Initially, any new package in Debian is available only in the unstable package archive, but that is eventually distilled into the testing package archive which then becomes the next stable release. MariaDB 10.5 was already released in Ubuntu 20.10 but that it will only appear in Debian 11 when released later in 2021. This means that, although MariaDB 10.5 has been out already for many months, the stage when all current Debian 10 users upgrade to Debian 11 and thus start using MariaDB 10.5 is still some time in the future. To check what version is available in which distribution version, you can check packages.debian.org or packages.ubuntu.com. There is also the MariaDB 10.5 tracker page for a packaging status overview in Debian/Ubuntu. MariaDB replaced MySQL in Debian since 2015 MariaDB is a database server made by the original authors of MySQL, including, among others, Michael “Monty” Widenius. MariaDB is actually a fork of MySQL and almost a drop-in-replacement for MySQL, and we recommend all MySQL users to migrate to MariaDB. There are many good reasons to do so, and Debian as a distribution opted for MariaDB in Debian 9, released in 2015. Ever since, all Debian users have been running MariaDB in all their MySQL-type use cases (for example when running WordPress). <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="294" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/mariadb-in-debian-timeline-540x294.png" alt="MariaDB and MySQL in Debian timeline" class="wp-image-4595" srcset="http…

Recording with OBS Studio
type: item
creator: Pekka Kortelainen
date: 2020-12-17T11:00:00Z
subject: Technology
subject: obs
subject: streaming
subject: video
subject: youtube
description: Looking to create tutorial videos easily? We are starting a series of guides for OBS Studio. In the first part you'll learn how to record your screen and webcam simultaneously.
encoded: OBS Studio is a popular recording and streaming program. It is available across all major platforms, and is available as a snap and a flatpak. It has a very low learning curve and it’s also open-source, which makes us very happy at linuxnatives.net! This article starts an ongoing series focusing on OBS. Following this guide you’ll learn how to record your desktop and webcam simultaneously with OBS. There’s a lot of functionality out-of-the-box which opens a very wide variety of recording and streaming related possibilities. The program can be extended and customized with plugins, themes and scripts, making OBS Studio even more versatile. This guide was made on Ubuntu 20.04 running OBS Studio 26.0.0 from the main Ubuntu repository. Please be advised that the user interface experience may vary on your operating system and computer setup. Configuring OBS Studio using the setup wizard <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="426" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obs-blog04-540x426.png" alt="" class="wp-image-4342" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obs-blog04-540x426.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obs-blog04-300x236.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obs-blog04-150x118.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/obs-blog04.png 576w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> It is highly recommended for first time users to follow the setup wizard. The wizard will pop up when running OBS for the first time. Once the wizard has been launched, choose to optimize for recording and follow the steps. OBS Studio will test how much your computer can handle. These settings can always be changed later, and the wizard can also be re-run from Tools – Auto-Configuration Wizard. Using OBS Studio to record tutorials & screen capture presentations Ever wondered how all those tutorial videos on YouTube are made? The ones in which someone is showing what they do on …

Rock on with Vivaldi
type: item
creator: Nuutti Toivola
date: 2020-12-14T13:28:09Z
subject: Technology
subject: browser
subject: Internet
subject: privacy
subject: vivaldi
description: In search of a modern browser to optimise your workflows? Search no more, use Vivaldi! Read more to learn why.
encoded: In search of a modern customisable web browser for the advanced user in 2020? Then Vivaldi is your pick. <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="137" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-540x137.png" alt="" class="wp-image-4546" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-540x137.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-300x76.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-150x38.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-768x195.png 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-1536x390.png 1536w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-2048x520.png 2048w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/vivaldi_logo_dark-1320x335.png 1320w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> The initial release for Vivaldi was four years ago in April 6, 2016 so it’s a relatively new player in the field of browsers. The company behind the product, Vivaldi Technologies, was found on 2014 by Jon von Tetzchner and Tatsuki Tomita. Jon von Tetzchner is also a co-founder and the former CEO of Opera Software, a company which built the Opera browser loved by browser enthusiasts. Vivaldi advertises itself as a feature rich tool that you can modify almost as much as you please. However, the browser is also easy to use and easy to learn, so it’s not only for the mysterious “power user”. In the video below you can see how Google Chrome nowadays dominates the browser industry. This is not good and having more competition is a good way to prevent too much power from centralising to one service provider. Web browser is after all the way most of us are in touch with the internet, so it does matter which tools we use and who owns them. What are the main features of Vivaldi browser? Vivaldi is very customisable to the point where you can get lost in se…

15 Keyboard Shortcuts To Make You a Terminal Ninja
type: item
creator: Petri Salminen
date: 2020-12-10T09:30:04Z
subject: Technology
subject: command-line
subject: Linux
subject: open source
subject: terminal
description: Very often, using keyboard shortcuts in terminal is much faster than using the arrow keys on the keyboard. Master these keyboard shortcuts to become a terminal ninja!
encoded: TL;DR For everyone in a hurry. Here are the keyboard shortcuts covered in this article: Action Keyboard Shortcut Move forwards Ctrl+f (letter) / Alt+f (word) Move backwards Ctrl+b (letter) / Alt+b (word) Move to the start of the line Ctrl+a Move to the end of the line Ctrl+e Clear the screen Ctrl+l (Lowercase L) Clear the line towards the beginning Ctrl+u Clear the line towards the end Ctrl+k Modify current command and run it Ctrl+x+e Pause Ctrl+s Resume Ctrl+q Previous command in history Ctrl+p Next command in history Ctrl+n Reverse search Ctrl+r Keyboard shortcuts that can be used to speed up working in the terminal Terminal & command line tricks <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="345" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-540x345.png" alt="Ninja with a laptop" class="wp-image-4301" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-540x345.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-300x192.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-150x96.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-768x490.png 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja-1320x843.png 1320w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/ninja.png 1339w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> With these keyboard shortcuts, everyone can become a terminal ninja Since the dawn of time, mankind has struggled with the unnecessary hand movement during IT tasks. No more! Here are 15 keyboard shortcuts, that make you as fast and agile as a ninja! To avoid using the mouse when working in the terminal is a good skill to have when working with Linux. However, using arrow keys excessively involves lots of unnecessary movement from the alphabetical keys to the arrow keys and can be just as straining as using a mouse. Not all Linux users know that a lot of actions can be done from the keyboard without moving away from the alphabetic keys. In a lot of cases, the ninja…

Easy Encrypted Cloud Storage & Backups With Rclone
type: item
creator: eero
date: 2020-10-16T12:58:02Z
subject: Technology
subject: backup
subject: howto
subject: open source
description: Looking for a simple way to create encrypted backups? Rclone is a command-line tool to encrypt and transfer files to cloud storage platforms or via SFTP.
encoded: Rclone is a command line tool that can be used to manage files on cloud storage. It’s supported by over 40 cloud storage providers including Google, Amazon, Microsoft etc. It’s easy to use and is open source. Rclone is a great tool, because once you are using it you can switch between your cloud storage options, without need of learning new commands or updating all your backup related scripts. Additionally, you don’t need other tools for encrypting your backup. Since your data is encrypted, you don’t need to ponder which cloud storage you can trust. Simply select the best deal that suits your needs! In this article I will show you how to create encrypted backup to a cloud storage, using Rclone. Installation Ubuntu/Debian: apt install rclone Fedora: dnf install rclone Default repositories don’t necessary have the newest version of Rclone, but you can check the other download options from Rclone.org download page. Setting up a remote destination Rclone has a helper tool to create the config file. This can be launched with the “rclone config” command. The “new remote” prompt can vary depending on which storage system is selected. In this article we will use an SFTP backend as an example. For other storage systems, there is further documentation available from Rclone’s website. SFTP in Rclone will work with any host you have SSH access to. If you have SSH key set up correctly, passwords are not required. When you run rclone config. It will give a prompt about missing config file on the first run. It should look like something like this: <img loading="lazy" width="531" height="427" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/rclone_config-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-4489" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/rclone_config-2.png 531w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/rclone_config-2-300x241.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/rclone_config-2-150x121.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 531px) 100vw…

Build a small and cheap Linux workstation with Intel NUC
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2020-10-02T13:49:32Z
subject: Technology
subject: desktop
subject: hardware
subject: howto
subject: Intel NUC
subject: Ubuntu
subject: workstation
description: Are you looking for a workstation that is easy-to-use, virtually maintenance free and incredibly cheap to run? Perhaps your Grandparents require want to connect with the rest of their family? Maybe you require a simple Internet kiosk for a public space? Whatever your needs, a modern Linux distribution, combined with inexpensive hardware, can provide viable […]
encoded: Are you looking for a workstation that is easy-to-use, virtually maintenance free and incredibly cheap to run? Perhaps your Grandparents require want to connect with the rest of their family? Maybe you require a simple Internet kiosk for a public space? Whatever your needs, a modern Linux distribution, combined with inexpensive hardware, can provide viable and effective solutions for a wide range of use cases. Intel NUC & Linux: Performance in a small form factor? Intel NUCs can be the ideal hardware for many use cases where there are performance and hardware costs to consider. Modern Linux distributions enable users to take advantage of this low-cost hardware, while delivering performance to match the user’s requirements. Additionally, Linux systems can often be easily optimized to minimize the upkeep burden in the long run. The Test Station: Intel NUC 6 Series Intel offer an impressive range of high-performance NUCs. For this project, we opted to explore the potential of their budget offering. We chose the older Intel NUC 6 series (model NUC6CAYB), which utilises an Intel Celeron processor. The official datasheet for details the specifications, with this particular model being fitted with 2x4GB RAM as an aftermarket modification (the model does not come with installed memory or a hard drive). Before use, we also installed a laptop SSD from a salvaged machine in order to complete the setup. In order to complete the installation of the Intel NUC 6, we combined the small form-factor device with a screen, and input peripherals (keyboard, mouse). The NUC6CAYB also supports VGA connections as well as HDMI, allowing us to up-cycle an old 24” HD screen from our legacy equipment store. A useful feature, albeit one that is not listed on the technical specification, is that this model of the NUC 6 series can also utilise a VESA mount. This is particularly valuable where desk or storage space is at a premium. Fitting the small form-factor device to the rear of the salvaged mo…

Vim – The Ubiquitous Text Editor (… and your new best friend)
type: item
creator: ville
date: 2020-09-28T06:55:22Z
subject: Technology
description: ubiquitous /juːˈbɪkwɪtəs/: present, appearing, or found everywhere Vim is one of the grand old text editors, and while it’s history begins long before many current computer scientists were born, it still has it’s place in the toolbox of 2020’s technology workers. It’s default settings might however be too simplified, and make the tool hard to use […]
encoded: ubiquitous /juːˈbɪkwɪtəs/: present, appearing, or found everywhere Vim is one of the grand old text editors, and while it’s history begins long before many current computer scientists were born, it still has it’s place in the toolbox of 2020’s technology workers. It’s default settings might however be too simplified, and make the tool hard to use for newcomers. It can be improved also for more experienced users, as there is lots of tasks to be automated, new keybindings to be added etc. Here we take a look on some customizations to improve Vim – maybe it even becomes your new best friend. Short trivia, courtesy of vim.org and Wikipedia: Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to make creating and changing any kind of text very efficient. It is included as “vi” with most UNIX systems and with Apple OS X. (vim.org) first released 1991 (Vi IMproved, based on vi from 1976…) written in C, charityware with GPL-compatible licensing Most popular development environments #5 in Stack Overflow’s 2019 survey (2nd for SRE/DevOps) probably also installed to your router and Smart TV… Other <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="296" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/real_programmers-540x296.png" alt="xkcd#378: Real Programmers" class="wp-image-4269" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/real_programmers-540x296.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/real_programmers-300x165.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/real_programmers-150x82.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/real_programmers.png 740w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> xkcd#378: Real Programmers while not as featureful as Emacs, has lots of features built-in, and provides very extensible platform for custom plugins & mods by default almost everything is disabled extremely lightweight compared to newer node.js based massive text editor frameworks Maybe too lightweight by default? Maybe we…

Pimp your bash with Liquid Prompt
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2020-09-21T05:47:25Z
subject: Technology
subject: comma
subject: command-line
subject: howto
subject: Linux
description: Linux users, software developers and power users alike spend a lot of time in the command-line prompt. The default Bash shell that ships in most Linux distributions have stayed pretty much unchanged for years and years. We wanted to explore how to improve the every day command-line experience, and eventually came very fond of the […]
encoded: Linux users, software developers and power users alike spend a lot of time in the command-line prompt. The default Bash shell that ships in most Linux distributions have stayed pretty much unchanged for years and years. We wanted to explore how to improve the every day command-line experience, and eventually came very fond of the Liquid Prompt, which we recommend all Linux users to check out. Why Liquid Prompt? A lot of developers, in particular Mac users, seem to be using zsh nowadays, and extensions such as oh-my-zsh and powerline. While these look very fancy, the installing zsh with a lot of plugins quickly leads to a messy collection of scripts. At first it can feel cool, but one quickly runs into upgrade and interoperability issues. Also, changing the default shell from bash to zsh has profound effects on how shell scripts behave and the overall experience using SSH and working on multiple hosts can degrade. To cut through the flashy blog posts and marketing fluff we turned to the Debian Developers mailing list asking for thoughtful advice from true command-line professionals. From this advice we learned about the Liquid Prompt, a Bash extension that has been around since 2012 and packaged in since 2016 in Debian (and its derivates, such as Ubuntu). Check out the threads in May, June and July if you want to learn about the other tips shared on the mailing list. Main innovation: progressive disclosure The default prompt in Liquid Prompt is very simple: It shows the username (on this test machine it is ‘vagrant’) and hostname (on this machine it is ‘wordpress’) the path and the prompt sign $. This is basically the same as the default Bash prompt, but with colors, which will be explained later. However, it will automatically expand to tell the user more information when there is something special going on, hence the name ‘liquid’: <img loading="lazy" width="657" height="25" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/liquidprompt-more.png" alt="" clas…

Keyboard cleaning 101
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2020-06-15T06:00:39Z
subject: Technology
subject: cleaning
subject: howto
subject: keyboard
subject: laptop
description: Step-by-step instructions on how to clean your keyboard.
encoded: You wake up and the sun is shining. Everything is great and you sit down at your desk, ready to join the first video call of the day. And then – OOPS! You spill your breakfast smoothie over your keyboard. Does this sound familiar? If you’ve ever encountered a situation such as the one described above and didn’t know how to act, after this post you will. We’ve written here easy to follow, step-by-step instructions on how to clean your keyboard. Steps for salvaging the situation Turn off your device and place it upside down and wait for the liquid to drain. Turn the device around and clean away all visible traces of the liquid. Take a photo of your keyboard for future reference. Find a flat but sturdy tool, that can be inserted under the keycap. A flat-headed screwdriver is an option, but it might scratch the device and its components. Use a plastic tool, if possible. Some keyboards require the keys to be removed from the top, some from the bottom. Insert the tool under the keycap and gently apply upward pressure by pressing the tool. Continue to do so until you hear a snap and the keycap comes off. Remove also the small plastic parts underneath. Notice: If there is unusual resistance when detaching a key, stop! The keys might require a different method for removal.<img loading="lazy" width="3543" height="1994" class="wp-image-4037" style="width: 500px;" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255.jpg" alt="" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255.jpg 3543w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255-150x84.jpg 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255-300x169.jpg 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255-768x432.jpg 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/keyboard-dirty-1-e1591012729255-540x304.jpg 540w, https://linuxn…

Improve your security with two-factor authentication
type: item
creator: eero
date: 2020-05-15T09:54:08Z
subject: Technology
subject: howto
subject: security
description: Two-factor authentication (or simply 2FA) is a way of authentication where a user must provide additional verification after username and password login. The form of verification can be a string of characters delivered via text message or generated with TOTP client. Two-factor authentication improves security because compromised username and password are not enough to get […]
encoded: Two-factor authentication (or simply 2FA) is a way of authentication where a user must provide additional verification after username and password login. The form of verification can be a string of characters delivered via text message or generated with TOTP client. Two-factor authentication improves security because compromised username and password are not enough to get the account breached. This article will explain how to use TOTP clients for two-factor authentication and why TOTP is better than many other two-factor methods. As an example, I will show how to enable and set up TOTP client Google Authenticator in Google’s services. What is TOTP? TOTP is a Time-based One-Time Password algorithm, and it can be used in two-factor authentication instead of SMS or paper list verification codes. TOTP client generates periodically a new code that can be used to verify the login. TOTP is based on cryptographic functions. When enabling TOTP, the service gives a shared secret that is entered to the client, either by scanning a QR code or writing it in text. Cryptographic functions use this shared secret and current time to generate codes to verify the login. The code generation also works without connection to the internet. The TOTP client on a smartphone is safer than many other two-factor authentication methods, like codes sent via SMS or email. Getting hold of someone’s SMS is somewhat troublesome but still possible. An email account can also be compromised – especially if the password is also used in other places. It’s a good idea to backup all the shared secrets that are used to generate TOTP codes. Either in text format or as a screenshot from the QR code. That way, you don’t get locked out from your accounts even if your phone gets lost. Backups of TOTP shared secrets should be stored with the same carefulness as passwords because anyone that receives the shared secrets can generate the same codes. All services don’t provide the shared secret in a text format, which…

Magic wormhole – easiest way to transfer a file across the Internet
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2020-01-12T13:29:39Z
subject: Technology
subject: file transfer
subject: howto
subject: Internet
subject: open source
description: Transferring files between two computers on the Internet is as old of a problem as the Internet itself, and surprisingly hard. Sending an attachment over e-mail involves all kind of hassles and does not work for big files. Having both the sending and receiving part sign up for Dropbox or a similar service, or setting […]
encoded: Transferring files between two computers on the Internet is as old of a problem as the Internet itself, and surprisingly hard. Sending an attachment over e-mail involves all kind of hassles and does not work for big files. Having both the sending and receiving part sign up for Dropbox or a similar service, or setting up your own Nextcloud server requires unreasonably much work if you simply want to transfer just one file from one computer to another. Luckily we live now in 2020, and there is a solution: the Magic Wormhole, an open source software in Python by Brian Warner. All you need to do is install it on both computers (e.g. apt install magic-wormhole) and run it. No user account or any other setup is required. It works across any networks, no need to have public IP addresses or anything. To send a file, simply run wormhole send and the file name. To receive a file, just run wormhole receive, and enter the key phrase that given by the sending party. Screenshot from sending party: $ wormhole send Maperitive-1000.zip Sending 3.7 MB file named 'Maperitive-1000.zip' On the other computer, please run: wormhole receive Wormhole code is: 7-virginia-drumbeat Sending (->relay:tcp:magic-wormhole-transit.debian.net:4001).. 100%|████████████████████| 3.75M/3.75M [00:01<00:00, 2.74MB/s] File sent.. waiting for confirmation Confirmation received. Transfer complete. Screenshot from receiving party: $ wormhole receive Enter receive wormhole code: 7-virginia-drumbeat (note: you can use <Tab> to complete words) Receiving file (3.7 MB) into: Maperitive-1000.zip ok? (y/N): y Receiving (->relay:tcp:magic-wormhole-transit.debian.net:4001).. 100%|████████████████████| 3.75M/3.75M [00:02<00:00, 1.81MB/s] Received file written to Maperitive-1000.zip Simple and brilliant!

Align user IDs inside and outside Docker with subuser mapping
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2019-11-22T16:34:12Z
subject: Technology
subject: Docker
subject: howto
subject: linux containers
description: While Docker is quite handy in many ways, one inconvenient aspect is that if one mounts some host machine directory inside Docker, and the Docker image does something to those files as a non-root user, one will run into problems if the UID of the host machine user and the Docker image user do not […]
encoded: While Docker is quite handy in many ways, one inconvenient aspect is that if one mounts some host machine directory inside Docker, and the Docker image does something to those files as a non-root user, one will run into problems if the UID of the host machine user and the Docker image user do not match. Consider this scenario: I my user ‘otto’ is running on the host machine as UID 1001. Then I spin up a development image with Docker where I do development and store files in a locally mounted directory. Inside there is a temporary Docker user called ‘vagrant’ with the UID 1000. Now whenever any files are updated (say via composer update for example) it will fail to work, as the mounted directory is owned by UID 1001 and the Docker image user with UID 1000 will not be able to write anything. Docker run –user does not help If one has complete control of the Docker image, one could modify the UID of the Docker user and rebuild. Most of the time that is however not an option. Docker run has the option --user but that does not help if the Docker image already has created the user with a particular name and UID/GID settings. Subuser and subgroup mapping to the rescue To use subuser and subgroup mapping, first enable the feature in Docker by editing the /etc/docker/daemon.json config file to include: { "userns-remap": "otto" } Naturally, replace ‘otto’ with your own username. For changes to take effect, restart Docker with sudo systemctl restart docker and check with sudo systemctl status docker that is restarted wihtout failures and is running. To instruct the mapping, edit the files /etc/subuid (for user IDs) and /etc/subgid (for group IDs). In the case above, I mapped users 0-1000 to have the same UID/GID both inside and outside Docker. I want for root to have UID 0 all the time. However the user IDs should start from 1001 and not from 1000. This way the most common UID inside the Docker container 1000 will match my own laptop UID 1001 of my user. otto:0:1000 otto:1001:6…

Partition like a pro with fdisk, sfdisk and cfdisk
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2019-05-17T10:44:49Z
subject: Technology
subject: command-line
subject: Debian
subject: howto
subject: Linux
subject: open source
subject: server
subject: Ubuntu
description: Most Linux distributions ship the hard drive partition tool fdisk by default. Knowing how to use it is a good skill for every Linux system administrator since having to rescue a system that has disk issues is a very common task. If the admin is faced with a prompt in a rescue mode boot, often […]
encoded: Most Linux distributions ship the hard drive partition tool fdisk by default. Knowing how to use it is a good skill for every Linux system administrator since having to rescue a system that has disk issues is a very common task. If the admin is faced with a prompt in a rescue mode boot, often fdisk is the only partitioning tool available and must be used, since if the main root filesystem is broken, one cannot install and use any other partitioning tools. When installing Debian based systems (e.g. Ubuntu) in the text mode server installer, keep in mind that you can at any time during the installation process press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to jump to a text console running a limited shell prompt (Busybox) and manipulate the systems as you wish, among others run fdisk. When done press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to jump back to the installer screen. In fact, fdisk is not a single utility but actually a tool that ships with three commands together: fdisk, sfdisk and cfdisk. fdisk Most Linux sysadmins have at some point used fdisk, the classic partitioning tool. There is also a tool with the same name in Windows, but its not the same tool. Across the Unix ecosystem the fdisk tool is however nowadays the same one, even on MacOS X. To list the current partition layout one can simply run fdisk -l /dev/sda. Below is an example of the output. One can also run fdisk -l /dev/sd* to print the partition info of all sd devices in one go. The fdisk man page lists all the command line parameters available. <img loading="lazy" width="540" height="204" src="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fdisk-list-540x204.png" alt="" class="wp-image-3869" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fdisk-list-540x204.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fdisk-list-150x57.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fdisk-list-300x113.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/fdisk-list-600x226.png 600w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp…

How to create good SSH keys
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2019-03-22T08:11:19Z
subject: Technology
subject: howto
subject: Linux
subject: security
subject: SSH
description: A couple years back we wrote a guide on how to create good OpenPGP/GnuPG keys and now it is time to write a guide on SSH keys for much of the same reasons: SSH key algorithms have evolved in past years and the keys generated by the default OpenSSH settings a few years ago are […]
encoded: A couple years back we wrote a guide on how to create good OpenPGP/GnuPG keys and now it is time to write a guide on SSH keys for much of the same reasons: SSH key algorithms have evolved in past years and the keys generated by the default OpenSSH settings a few years ago are no longer considered state-of-the-art. This guide is intended both for those completely new to SSH and to those who have already been using it for years and who want to make sure they are following the latest best practices. Use OpenSSH 7 or later Related to SSH keys there have been some relevant changes in versions 5.7, 6.5 and 7.0. Latest version is 7.9. You should be running at least 7.0. Current Debian stable (“Stretch”) shipped version 7.4 and for example Ubuntu 16.04 (“Xenial”) shipped 7.2, so nobody should be running on their laptop any later versions than these. Generate Ed25519 keys With a recent version of OpenSSH, simply run ssh-keygen -t ed25519. This will create a private and public key pair files at .ssh/id_ed25519 (and .pub) using the Ed25519 algorithm, which is considered state of the art. Elliptic curve algorithms in general are sleek and efficient and unlike the other well known elliptic curve algorithm ECDSA, this Ed25519 does not depend on any suspicious NIST defined constants. If you encounter a server that is very old and does not support Ed25519 keys, you might need to have a more traditinal RSA keypair. A strong 4k RSA key pair can be generated with ssh-keygen -b 4096. Hopefully you won’t need to ever do that. Running ssh-keygen will prompt for a password. If your laptop is encrypted and well protected you can omit the password and gain some speed and convenience in your SSH commands. Store the private key securely Hopefully your laptop is well protected with full disk encryption etc and you can trust that nobody else than yourself has access to your /home/<username>/.ssh directory. Hopefully you also have securely stored encrypted backups of your laptop so that you can …

Ubuntu/Gnome on a tablet
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2018-12-28T10:48:26Z
subject: Technology
subject: ExoPC
subject: Linux
subject: mobile devices
subject: open source
subject: review
subject: Ubuntu
description: Back in 2012 we blogged about Meego/Mer/Nemo, Android for x86 and other Linux operating systems for touchscreens and tablets. Back in the day we also compared Ubuntu Unity vs. Gnome 3 and which would work better as a touch operated system, and Gnome 3 was clearly the more mature system. Since then Ubuntu has dropped Unity […]
encoded: Back in 2012 we blogged about Meego/Mer/Nemo, Android for x86 and other Linux operating systems for touchscreens and tablets. Back in the day we also compared Ubuntu Unity vs. Gnome 3 and which would work better as a touch operated system, and Gnome 3 was clearly the more mature system. Since then Ubuntu has dropped Unity and migrated to Gnome 3, and many other parts of the software ecosystem have matured as well, so we decided to take Ubuntu on a tablet for another spin. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on the ExoPC (WeTab) – easy to install! The ExoPC is a tablet device from Intel with regular Intel Atom x86 processor, 2 GB RAM, a 64 GB SSD, 2 USB ports, touch screen etc. Not a high-end tablet by today’s specs, but it was pretty nice back in 2013 when it came out. It is still a decent piece of hardware, and not the least because all of the device drivers for it can be found in the mainline Linux kernel and therefore Ubuntu 18.04 installed on it works fully out-of-the-box as expected. Installation is easy. Just boot the tablet with a USB installation drive inserted, and during the boot press the “BBS” icon and start the installation and the rest is familiar to anybody who has installed Ubuntu before. An external keyboard connected via USB is helpful during the process though. All of the hardware is detected as one would expect. WLAN works, camera works, sound, microphone and everything else we tested works. Even the rotation sensor works and the screen turns around as the tablet physically rotates. Since the tablet is very old, the experience is a bit sluggish though. Touch screen functionality The basic Gnome 3 desktop that Ubuntu 18.04 comes with works fairly well on a touch device. Naturally many of the apps don’t work that well as they have been designed for desktop/laptop use, but you can manage it. For example connecting to a wifi is easy – just tap on the system settings in the top right corner, select wireless network, enter the password using the on-screen-keyboard and th…

Secure and flexible backup server with dm-crypt and btrfs
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2017-10-15T17:29:42Z
subject: Technology
subject: backup
subject: btrfs
subject: encryption
subject: howto
subject: open source
subject: pre-installed Linux
subject: security
description: In our previous article we described an idea setup for a modern server with btrfs for flexibility and redundancy. In this article we describe another kind of setup that is ideal only for a backup server. For a backup server redundancy and high availability are not important, but instead maximal disk space capacity and the […]
encoded: In our previous article we described an idea setup for a modern server with btrfs for flexibility and redundancy. In this article we describe another kind of setup that is ideal only for a backup server. For a backup server redundancy and high availability are not important, but instead maximal disk space capacity and the amount of backups it can hold. Additionally it is good if the disks are encrypted to protect agains physical theft. In this article we explain how to encrypt the disks with LUKS/dm-crypt so that all files are encrypted, and how all disks can be automatically opened using one single password entered by the administrator at boot time, as having multiple passwords would just add complexity without any gain, since all passwords are equally strongly protected by the same encryption technology. Use Ubuntu installer to get the basic LUKS/dm-crypt in place The easiest way to get started and get all pieces of software, Grub modules and other in place is to run the Ubuntu installer and install on a single disk a standard system using the option Encrypted disk. This will deploy an unencrypted /boot partition, and an encrypted LUKS/dm-crypt, LVM and a ext4 / (root) partition and an encrypted swap partition on the first disk. Once booted into this freshly installed system you can start tweaking it. Create one big encrypted btrfs filesystem as /data Next we will explain how to encrypt additional disks and how to use btrfs to glue multiple differently sized physical disks together for maximal disk space, and how to use btrfs snapshots to enable as much historical backups as needed with minimal additional disk usage. The following commands dmsetup ls --tree and dmsetup status will list what devices Device Mapper knows about. To view all physical devices and the block devices they map to, the tool lsblk is also excellent. The following command will show information about the encryption: $ cryptsetup -v luksDump /dev/sda5 LUKS header information for /dev/sda5 Versio…

The perfect Btrfs setup for a server
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2016-09-23T08:42:29Z
subject: Technology
subject: btrfs
subject: howto
subject: Linux
subject: open source
subject: security
subject: server
subject: web server
description: Btrfs is probably the most modern filesystem of all widely used filesystems on Linux. In this article we explain how to use Btrfs as the only filesystem on a server machine, and how that enables some sweet capabilities, like very resilient RAID-1, flexible adding or replacing of disk drives, using snapshots for quick backups and […]
encoded: Btrfs is probably the most modern filesystem of all widely used filesystems on Linux. In this article we explain how to use Btrfs as the only filesystem on a server machine, and how that enables some sweet capabilities, like very resilient RAID-1, flexible adding or replacing of disk drives, using snapshots for quick backups and so on. The techniques described in this article were tested using the Ubuntu 16.04 server install, but are applicable on any system with about the same versions of btrfs, grub (2.02), the kernel (4.4) and the likes. The hardware requirements for a btrfs based RAID-1 disk setup are very flexible. The amount of disks can be anything above two. The size of the disks in the RAID array do not need to be identical, thanks to the flexibility of btrfs RAID-1 as it works on the data level, and not just on device level like traditional mdadm does. Btrfs also includes the features traditionally provided by LVM, so Btrfs conveniently replaces both mdadm and LVM in a single easy to use tool. The best practice is to start with a setup that has 2–4 disks, and then later keep adding new disks when more space is needed, and the size of those disks is whatever is the best price/size ratio at that later time. The Btrfs setup When the hardware is ready, the next step is to install the operating system (=Linux). During the partitioning phase, create one big partition that fills all of the disk. There is no need to create a /boot partition nor a swap disk. For Grub compatibility reasons we need to create a real partition (eg. sda1, sdb1..) on every disk and not assign the whole disk to Btrfs, even though Btrfs would support that too. Remember to mark every primary partition (eg. sda1, sdb1..) bootable in the partition table. After the partitioning step, select the first disk partition (e.g. sda1) as the root filesystem and use Btrfs as the filesystem type. Complete the installation and boot. After boot you can expand the root filesystem to use all disks with the …

World IPv6 Day and how to add IPv6 support to a web server
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2016-06-06T11:43:52Z
subject: Technology
subject: Internet
subject: IPv6
subject: Linux
subject: web server
description: Today, 6th of June we celebrate World IPv6 day. Ipv6 is the new standard for IP protocols. IPv6 is important because, as everyone by now should know, the public IPv4 address space is running out. In fact all IPv4 address blocks have already been mostly consumed by registrars and the resource problem is being avoided […]
encoded: Today, 6th of June we celebrate World IPv6 day. Ipv6 is the new standard for IP protocols. IPv6 is important because, as everyone by now should know, the public IPv4 address space is running out. In fact all IPv4 address blocks have already been mostly consumed by registrars and the resource problem is being avoided by recycling old addresses and using NAT-techniques, which cause problems for many VoIP and P2P services. IPv6 also offers better network security (IPsec) built in. <img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3428 aligncenter" src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/World_IPv6_launch_banner_512.png" alt="World_IPv6_launch_banner_512" width="512" height="512" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/World_IPv6_launch_banner_512.png 512w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/World_IPv6_launch_banner_512-150x150.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/World_IPv6_launch_banner_512-300x300.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /> We already wrote about taking IPv6 in use on a workstation earlier. Now we’ll explain how to add it to a web server. Note, we are deliberately not using old school commands (ifconfig, route, netstat) below, but instead the modern versions (ip and ss). It is time to move on with modern utilities too. First you need to add a IPv6 address to your network interface. On a Linux server to add a static address edit the file /etc/network/interfaces like this: auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet static address 83.143.220.158 netmask 255.255.255.224 network 83.143.220.128 broadcast 83.143.220.159 gateway 83.143.220.129 # dns-* options are implemented by the resolvconf package, if installed #dns-nameservers 83.143.216.18 91.90.49.195 8.8.8.8 iface eth0 inet6 static address 2a00:14c0:1:307:aa51::158 netmask 64 gateway 2a00:14c0:1:307::1 The restart the network so that changes take effect: $ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart The interface configuration should sh…

Linux and POWER8 microprocessors
type: item
date: 2016-03-21T08:23:03Z
subject: Technology
description: Why POWER8? With the enormous amount of data being generated every day, POWER8 was designed specifically to keep up with today’s data processing requirements on high end servers. POWER8 is a symmetric multiprocessor based on the power architecture by IBM. It’s designed specifically for server environments to have faster execution times and to really concentrate performing well on […]
encoded: Why POWER8? With the enormous amount of data being generated every day, POWER8 was designed specifically to keep up with today’s data processing requirements on high end servers. POWER8 is a symmetric multiprocessor based on the power architecture by IBM. It’s designed specifically for server environments to have faster execution times and to really concentrate performing well on high server workloads. POWER8 is very scalable architecture and scales from 1 to 100+ CPU core per server. Google was involved when POWER8 was designed and they currently use dual socket POWER8 system boards internally. Systems available with POWER8 cpus started shipping in late 2014. CPU clock ranges between 2.5Ghz all the way up to 5.0Ghz. It has support for DDR3 and DDR4 memory controllers. Memory support is designed to be future proof by being as generic as possible. <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3412" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3412 size-full" src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3.jpg" alt="IBMPowerSystemE870-3" width="800" height="530" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3.jpg 800w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3-150x99.jpg 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3-300x199.jpg 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3-768x509.jpg 768w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3-540x358.jpg 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IBMPowerSystemE870-3-600x398.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /> Photo: Wikimedia Commons Open architecture Design is available for licensing via the OpenPower foundation mainly to support custom made processors for use in cloud computing and applications that need to calculate big amounts of scientific data. POWER8 processor specifications and firmware are available on liberal licensing. Collaborative develo…

The Best of 2015
type: item
date: 2016-01-14T09:31:13Z
subject: Technology
description: Another new year has started, and we think it is time to look a bit back and review what became the most popular content in Seravo Blog in 2015. Alltogether, in 2015, Seravo’s web page gained 233 681 visits and 196 401 users – these are pretty cool numbers for a modest sized company that we […]
encoded: Another new year has started, and we think it is time to look a bit back and review what became the most popular content in Seravo Blog in 2015. Alltogether, in 2015, Seravo’s web page gained 233 681 visits and 196 401 users – these are pretty cool numbers for a modest sized company that we still are. Actually, there were more visits to seravo.fi during the year than there are people living in our hometown Tampere (being the third largest city in Finland with 225 269 inhabitants). For these great statistics we can blame this blog, which has attracted the vast majority of our online visitors. So let’s see what were the most popular blog posts last year – and which ones remain as the all-time favourites still today. The five most popular blog posts in Seravo.fi in 2015 1. 10 reasons to migrate to MariaDB (if still using MySQL) The most popular post last year – and actually the first article written in 2015 – was the one praising MariaDB and providing a list of reasons to start using it as your database. The article also created lively discussion in the comment section! 2. Ubuntu Phone and Unity vs Jolla and SailfishOS In August we compared two Linux-based mobile operating systems that stand as competitors to Android. As a conclusion we claimed that “Jolla and SailfishOS would be the technically and usabilitywise superior alternative, but then again Ubuntu could be able to leverage on it’s position as the most popular Linux distribution in desktops and servers”. All in all, we hoped for new innovations fueling from these (at least for now minor) competitors. 3. Ubuntu Phone review by a non-geek The new Ubuntu Phone was clearly in the center of the open source community’s attention in the summer of 2015. A not-that-technical review on the phone became the year’s third most visited blog post. After that the phone has been tested and tried by Seravo geeks too – and has not gained too admirable evaluations… 4. Continuous integration testing for WordPress plugins on Github …

Using RAID with btrfs and recovering from broken disks
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2015-12-09T13:31:54Z
subject: Technology
subject: btrfs
subject: data
subject: filesystem
subject: howto
subject: open source
subject: pre-installed Linux
subject: security
description: Btrfs (pronounced Better FS) is a relatively new filesystem that operates on the copy-on-write principle (abbreviated COW, which stems a more friendly pronunciation for btrfs: Butter FS). Btrfs includes a lot of interesting functionality and replaces traditional Linux disk and filesystem tools like LVM (volume manager, disk snapshots) and mdadm (software RAID). In RAID usage btrfs is much more flexible […]
encoded: Btrfs (pronounced Better FS) is a relatively new filesystem that operates on the copy-on-write principle (abbreviated COW, which stems a more friendly pronunciation for btrfs: Butter FS). Btrfs includes a lot of interesting functionality and replaces traditional Linux disk and filesystem tools like LVM (volume manager, disk snapshots) and mdadm (software RAID). In RAID usage btrfs is much more flexible and space efficient than traditional mdadm, because in btrfs the disks in the RAID array do not conform to any predefined size or count requirements. You can attach any amount of disk of any size to a btrfs RAID array, and btrfs will automatically balance the data across the devices according to the requirements of the selected RAID level. RAID levels 0 and 1 are currently supported while RAID 5 and 6 are under development and will be available as officially supported configurations soon. Let’s take an example case to see how btrfs RAID works. In traditional mdadm based RAID if you have two 1 TB disks configured to mirror each other in RAID 1 mode, and you want to expand this setup, you basically need to install two more disks, and they need to be of equal size. In btrfs, life is much more flexible. To expand an array, you can add a disk of any size and btrfs will automatically adjust to the sitation. So if you have two 1 TB disks, and you add a 2 TB disk to the array, then all 4 TB would be utilised and you will have 2 TB of usable storage. Btrfs will make sure that as RAID 1 mandates, each file will exist in two copies and those copies are stored on physically different disks. If you would expand the two 1 TB array with one 1 TB disk, then btrfs would give you 1,5 TB of usable disk space in total while still satisfying the RAID 1 replicate requirements. Btrfs RAID is flexible also in the sense that you can either create the RAID array by running something like mkfs.btrfs -d raid1 -m raid1 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 when you create the partitions, or you can at any later ti…

Android Phone Review: The OnePlus X
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2015-11-11T18:05:38Z
subject: Technology
subject: Android
subject: mobile devices
subject: pre-installed Linux
subject: review
description: OnePlus is a mobile phone manufacturer famous for selling the OnePlus One with pre-installed CyanogenMod, instead of a bloated custom Android as most manufacturers do. Their newest model OnePlus X was released on November 5th 2015 and after a few days of use, it seems to live up to its promises. Most Chinese brands suffer from the […]
encoded: OnePlus is a mobile phone manufacturer famous for selling the OnePlus One with pre-installed CyanogenMod, instead of a bloated custom Android as most manufacturers do. Their newest model OnePlus X was released on November 5th 2015 and after a few days of use, it seems to live up to its promises. <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3353" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3353" src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02-540x360.jpg" alt="OnePlus X" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02-540x360.jpg 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02-150x100.jpg 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02-300x200.jpg 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02-600x400.jpg 600w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-02.jpg 1728w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /> OnePlus X Most Chinese brands suffer from the lack of finishing and low quality. OnePlus is something completely different. Everything about OnePlus seems different. It is like a completely new generation. The One Plus website is exiting. Their marketing is based almost entirely on using social media – and in a good way! The device we ordered from China’s Silicon Valley Shenzhen arrived in just a few business days. The packaging had a premium feel to it and what was inside matched the expectations set by the hype on their website. <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3352" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-3352" src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-01-540x382.jpg" alt="Packaging includes a silicon case for added protection" width="700" height="495" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-01-540x382.jpg 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-01-150x106.jpg 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/oneplus-x-01-300x212.jpg 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content…

Fixing black screen after login in Ubuntu 14.04
type: item
date: 2015-11-05T08:42:50Z
subject: Technology
subject: howto
subject: Linux
subject: Ubuntu
description: How to fix black screen after login in Ubuntu 14.04? (Ohje suomeksi lopussa.) A lot of Linux-support customers have contacted us recently asking to fix their Ubuntu laptops and workstations that suddently stopped working. The symptom is that after entering the username and password in the login screen, they are unable to get in. Instead […]
encoded: How to fix black screen after login in Ubuntu 14.04? (Ohje suomeksi lopussa.) A lot of Linux-support customers have contacted us recently asking to fix their Ubuntu laptops and workstations that suddently stopped working. The symptom is that after entering the username and password in the login screen, they are unable to get in. Instead they see a flickering screen that then goes all black for a while, and then returns back to the login screen. This problem is caused by an update that didn’t install cleanly and left the graphical desktop environment in a broken state. The fix is to open a text console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 and then logging in in text mode. Once in, issue these commands to complete the upgrade successfully: sudo dpkg --configure -a sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade -y Finally run sudo reboot, Ubuntu restarts, and then you can log in again normally. <img loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-3342 size-large" src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ubuntu_logo_orange-540x243.png" alt="Ubuntu_logo_orange" width="540" height="243" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ubuntu_logo_orange.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ubuntu_logo_orange-150x68.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ubuntu_logo_orange-300x135.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /> Sisäänkirjautumisen jälkeen näkyvän mustan ruudun korjaaminen Ubuntu 14.04:ssä Useat Linux-tuki.fi:n asiakkaat ovat viime päivinä ottaneet meihin yhteyttä tilatakseen tukea Ubuntu-läppärin tai -työaseman korjaukseen, kun se yllättäen lakkasi toimimasta oikein. Oire on, että sisäänkirjautumisessa, käyttäjätunnuksen ja salasanan syöttämisen jälkeen ruutu vilkkuu ja on hetken musta. Tämän jälkeen näyttö tulee takaisin kirjautumisnäkymään. Ongelma johtuu Ubuntun päivityksestä, joka on epäonnistunut ja jättänyt graafisen työpöytäympäristön toimimattomaan tilaan. Korjauksen voi tehdä itse avaamalla tekstipäätteen painamalla C…

Cyberwar never ceases
type: item
creator: Otto Kekäläinen
date: 2015-09-09T06:18:49Z
subject: Strategy
subject: cyberwar
subject: Internet
subject: performance
subject: security
subject: web server
subject: WordPress
description: A great deal of our work as Linux system administrators is related to security. Each server we maintain is bombarded on daily basis in a never ending cyberwar. Some of our customers (e.g. the website of the former Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, government websites, high profile political organisations and media sites) are obvious targets but […]
encoded: A great deal of our work as Linux system administrators is related to security. Each server we maintain is bombarded on daily basis in a never ending cyberwar. Some of our customers (e.g. the website of the former Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, government websites, high profile political organisations and media sites) are obvious targets but statistics show that really, any device with a public IP address gets targeted by a steady stream of attacks.<img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-3301 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map-300x215.png" alt="Cyber war map" width="300" height="215" srcset="https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map-300x215.png 300w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map-150x107.png 150w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map-540x387.png 540w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map-600x430.png 600w, https://linuxnatives.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/norse-corp-attack-map.png 811w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> Our global political system seems quite toothless on this matter; much due to the technical fact that it is next to impossible to track down the real source of a well executed cyber attack. In a case where the attacker’s IP address seems to originate from China, all we can really conclude is that China is probably the last place the attack came from. Cyber attacks are also very cheap, and you most often can’t tell if your harasser is a government funded organisation or just a 13-year-old boy with a laptop in his parents’ basement. This is asymmetric warfare, because proper defence for cyber attacks is certainly not cheap or easy to establish. Case example: attack on WP-palvelu.fi on September 3rd, 2015 Most of the time, cyber attacks are just a cost of doing business we need to withstand; but unfortunately sometimes effective attacks arise from the…