Linux things

AppImage

Some application come in the form of AppImages. There is the AppImageLauncher application, but it has not been updated since 2020.

In order to manage them myself I created a special folder Applications in my home directory where I copy the AppImage to. The AppImage has to be executable to start it.

Now you can create a Desktop Entry in ~/.local/share/applications/nextcloud.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Nextcloud
Exec=/home/stan/Applications/Nextcloud-3.13.0-x86_64.AppImage
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/home/stan/.local/share/applications/nextcloud-icon.png

The icon I found through DuckDuckGo image search.

DNS

On my Thinkpad t480s running Ubuntu Mate 22.04.03, DNS lookup seemed to be very slow. Everytime I opened a webpage to a domain that I did not visit before or recently, I could not find it, only after a few reloads.

I edited my /etc/systemd/resolved.conf file to include this:

DNS=1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1
FallbackDNS=8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

And restarted systemd-resolved: sudo systemctl restart resolved.

Secure SSH Daemon

When running an SSH server like openssh-server on your machine, make sure to secure it. On this page are some usefull tips: https://www.howtogeek.com/443156/the-best-ways-to-secure-your-ssh-server/

Settings are here: /etc/ssh/sshd_config Change port:

Port 123

PermitRootLogin prohibit-password
MaxAuthTries 3

PasswordAuthentication no
PermitEmptyPasswords no

X11Forwarding no

Backup Google Drive locally

Setup Rclone to connect with Google Drive using Rclone documentation: https://rclone.org/

Add rclone sync as daily process using cron.daily. Add sync-gdrive to /etc/cron.daily folder:

$ cd /etc/cron.daily
$ ls -al | grep sync-gdrive
-rwxr-xr-x   1 root root    75 apr 11 19:43 sync-gdrive
$ cat sync-gdrive
#!/bin/bash
rclone sync --verbose --log-file /home/stan/.local/log/rclone.log gdrive: /home/stan/GoogleDrive

Test cron.daily:

$ run-parts /etc/cron.daily

Add logrotate to handle log files:

$ cd /etc/logrotate.d
$ cat sync-gdrive
/home/stan/.local/log/rclone.log {
       daily
       rotate 7
       notifempty
       missingok
}

Show weekday and seconds in topbar & show week numbers (Gnome)

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-weekday true
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-seconds true
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.calendar show-weekdate true

Also possible with GNOME Tweaks app.

Enable Wayland mode in Firefox

After installing Ubuntu 22.04, which by default uses Wayland, mouse hovering on firefox would break.

It was recommended to enable Wayland mode for Firefox:

# nano /etc/environment

Add line:

MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1

Using "Use recommended performance settings"/"Use hardware acceleration when available" probebly also works. Since the personal profile on Firefox had this enabled, which had no hovering issues.

Run commands in background

Source: https://linuxize.com/post/how-to-run-linux-commands-in-background/

To run a command in the background, add the ampersand symbol (&) at the end of the command:

command &

The shell job ID (surrounded with brackets) and process ID will be printed on the terminal:

[1] 25177

You can have multiple processes running in the background at the same time.

The background process will continue to write messages to the terminal from which you invoked the command. To suppress the stdout and stderr messages use the following syntax:

command > /dev/null 2>&1 &

/dev/null 2>&1 means redirect stdout to /dev/null and stderr to stdout .

Use the jobs utility to display the status of all stopped and background jobs in the current shell session:

jobs -l

The output includes the job number, process ID, job state, and the command that started the job:

[1]+ 25177 Running                 ping google.com &

To bring a background process to the foreground, use the fg command:

fg

If you have multiple background jobs, include % and the job ID after the command:

fg %1

To terminate the background process, use the kill command followed by the process ID:

kill -9 25177

Sony WH-1000XM3

Install:

sudo apt install pipewire bluez

Interact with bluetooth, not via Gnome:

bluetoothctl
default-agent
power on
scan on
pair [ADDRESS]
connect [ADDRESS]

Restore factory settings:

Turn off the headset while the USB Type-C cable is disconnected and then press and hold the button and the NC/AMBIENT button simultaneously for 7 seconds or more.

The blue indicator flashes four times (🔵🔵🔵🔵), and the headset is initialized. This operation resets volume settings, etc., and deletes all pairing information. In this case, delete the pairing information for the headset from the device and then pair them again.

Filepath

Useful commands to get paths:

$ realpath file4.txt 
/tmp/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/file4.txt
$ basename /tmp/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/file4.txt
file4.txt
$ dirname /tmp/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4/file4.txt
/tmp/dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4

PDF

Compress PDF file

ps2pdf

ps2pdf input.pdf output.pdf

Manipulating PDF Documents

pdftk

apt install pdftk

Memory

The Dell XPS 3590 from West would freeze when reaching near 100% memory usage. Experimenting with changing the swappiness. Temporary swappiness change, effective immediatly, resets after reboot:

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=30

Persistend change, effective after reboot:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Add:

vm.swappiness=30

Sources:

https://www.howtogeek.com/449691/what-is-swapiness-on-linux-and-how-to-change-it/

Networking

Incoming ports

Ports of own machine

sudo netstat -lnp

To list all listening port numbers with the process responsible on each one. Terminate or kill the process to close port. (kill, pkill ...)

https://askubuntu.com/questions/410218/how-to-close-an-open-port-in-ubuntu

Ports of other machines

sudo apt install nmap
nmap -Pn google.com | 83.24.772.218

https://linuxhint.com/port_scan_linux/

Outgoing ports

Check if you can connect to the outside on specific port, outgoing ports check.

telnet foo.bar.com 25

DNS lookup utility

Checking of specific DNS resolves hostname

host nos.nl 8.8.4.4

Digging

apt install dnsutils
dig google.com

DNS settings

systemd-resolved
- /etc/resolv.conf
- resolvectl

Video driver info

# lshw -c video
$ modinfo i915 | nvidia | nouveau

About integrated GPU in XPS 15 9570 (Intel UHD Graphics 630)

https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/8z09am/xps_15_9570_intel_graphics_optimize/

Screen tearing

Ubuntu MATE on ThinkPad T480s

Neofetch:

           `:+shmNNMMNNmhs+:`              stan@stan-t480s 
        .odMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMdo.           --------------- 
      /dMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmMMMMMMMMd/         OS: Ubuntu MATE 22.04.3 LTS x86_64 
    :mMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNM/`/yNMMMMMMm:       Host: 20L8S4PR1M ThinkPad T480S 
  `yMMMMMMMMMms:..-::oM:    -omMMMMMy`     Kernel: 6.2.0-39-generic 
 `dMMMMMMMMy-.odNMMMMMM:    -odMMMMMMd`    Uptime: 4 mins 
 hMMMMMMMm-.hMMy/....+M:`/yNm+mMMMMMMMh    Packages: 2689 (dpkg), 15 (snap) 
/MMMMNmMN-:NMy`-yNMMMMMmNyyMN:`dMMMMMMM/   Shell: zsh 5.8.1 
hMMMMm -odMMh`sMMMMMMMMMMs sMN..MMMMMMMh   Resolution: 1920x1080 
NMMMMm    `/yNMMMMMMMMMMMM: MM+ mMMMMMMN   DE: MATE 1.26.0 
NMMMMm    `/yNMMMMMMMMMMMM: MM+ mMMMMMMN   WM: Metacity (Marco) 
hMMMMm -odMMh sMMMMMMMMMMs oMN..MMMMMMMh   Theme: Yaru-red-dark [GTK2/3] 
/MMMMNNMN-:NMy`-yNMMMMMNNsyMN:`dMMMMMMM/   Icons: Yaru-red-dark [GTK2/3] 
 hMMMMMMMm-.hMMy/....+M:.+hNd+mMMMMMMMh    Terminal: terminator 
 `dMMMMMMMMy-.odNMMMMMM:    :smMMMMMMd`    CPU: Intel i7-8650U (8) @ 4.200GHz 
   yMMMMMMMMMms/..-::oM:    .+dMMMMMy      GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 
    :mMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNM: :smMMMMMMm:       Memory: 6126MiB / 23903MiB 
      /dMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMdNMMMMMMMd/
        .odMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMdo.                                   
           `:+shmNNMMNNmhs+:`

No tearing with these settings as of 21-12-2023:

X11 config:

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf
Section "Device"
   Identifier "Intel Graphics"
   Driver "intel"
   Option "TearFree" "true"
   Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection

MATE settings:

MATE Tweak application
Windows
Window manager: Marco (built-in: Xpresent)

Nvidia driver

# nano /etc/modprobe.d/zz-nvidia-modeset.conf
(old) options nvidia_375_drm modeset=1
(new) options nvidia_drm modeset=1

sudo update-initramfs -u

Intel i915 graphics

# nano /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Intel Graphics"
    Driver "intel"
    Option "TearFree" "true"
EndSection

Original source: https://www.pcsuggest.com/fix-linux-screen-tearing/

UPDATE 26-04-2020:

Changed location from /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d based on: https://manpages.debian.org/buster/xserver-xorg-core/xorg.conf.5.en.html
Experiencing glitching/artifacts with TearFree on true, so currently disabled my wallpaper, this helps a bit.
Glichting/artifacts and screen tearing fixed by switching to Wayland (instead of X11). This is done in by selecting Ubuntu on Wayland in the login screen.

More: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/screen-tearing-and-lagging-using-intel-open-source-drive-i915/95065

Diagonal tearing in Firefox

Following works well when running X11/Xorg not when running Wayland.

Visit about:config

Set gfx.xrender.enabled to true

Source: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=1202538#p1202538

Screen sharing under Wayland

When sharing screen in MS Teams while under Wayland, MS Teams crashed.

Sources to fix this:

Prime select

Since the PRIME profiles selector is not showing in my Nvidia X Server Settings any more, using this tool you can do the same. Reboot after change is needed.

$ prime-select --help
$ prime-select query
$ prime-select intel | nvidia | on-demand

Not yet tested: https://github.com/matthieugras/Prime-Ubuntu-18.04

Turn off GPU completely

To be tested: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/78is1r/complete_disable_of_discrete_gpu/

Force hibernate on laptop close

# nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem_sleep_default=deep"

# update-grub

Turn on 'Synchronization’ NVIDIA X Server Settings

# crontab -e

@reboot nvidia-settings --assign CurrentMetaMode="nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }"

Reboot

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1185277/screen-tearing-in-linux-with-nvidia-graphics

Keyboard LED control

X11

(on) $ xset led 3
(off) $ xset -led 3

Or use script:

#!/bin/bash
MASK=`xset q | grep LED | cut -d' ' -f 21 | cut -b 8`
if [ $(($MASK & 4)) = 4 ]; then
    xset -led 3
else
    xset led 3
fi

Wayland

inputX can differ!

(on) $ sudo sh -c 'echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/input15::scrolllock/brightness'
(off) $ sudo sh -c 'echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/input15::scrolllock/brightness'

Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/967373/wayland-equivalent-to-xset-led

Or use script:

#!/bin/bash

BOOL=`cat /sys/class/leds/input15::scrolllock/brightness`

if [ $BOOL = 1 ]; then
    export NEW_BOOL=0
else
    export NEW_BOOL=1
fi

sudo -E sh -c 'echo $NEW_BOOL > /sys/class/leds/input15::scrolllock/brightness'

Fan control

Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1094485/dell-xps-15-9570-how-to-control-the-fans More info: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/controlling-dell-fan-speeds-temperature-on-ubuntu-debian-linux/

$ sensors
dell_smm-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
fan1:           2531 RPM
fan2:           2532 RPM

# apt install i8kutils
# echo "i8k" > /etc/modules
# echo "options i8k force=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/i8k.conf

Reboot

http://keenformatics.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-solve-dell-laptops-fan-issues-in.html

$ git clone https://github.com/TomFreudenberg/dell-bios-fan-control.git
$ cd dell-bios-fan-control
$ make
# dell-bios-fan-control 0

https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/dell-bios-fan-control.service?h=dell-bios-fan-control-git

Simply run i8kmon to control your fans or try ik8fan to manually control your fans.

# i8kfan 2 2

Powertop

powertop --calibrate
powertop --auto-tune

cat /etc/systemd/system/powertop.service

[Unit]
Description=Powertop tunings

[Service]
Type=exec
ExecStart=/usr/bin/powertop --auto-tune
RemainAfterExit=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

https://github.com/fenrus75/powertop
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Powertop

Setting mirror Arch Linux

nano /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

https://linuxhint.com/pacman_mirrors_arch_linux/

Convert .msg file

sudo apt-get install libemail-outlook-message-perl
msgconvert filename*.msg

https://rohitmurame.blogspot.com/2018/10/how-to-open-msg-file-in-linux.html

SSH Config

$ touch ~/.ssh/config
$ chmod 644 ~/.ssh/config
$ nano ~/.ssh/config

Host server-1
    HostName 671.288.17.927
    User stan

Host server-1-tunnel
    HostName 671.288.17.927
    User stan
    LocalForward 5432 127.0.0.1:5432

$ ssh server-1
$ ssh -N server-1-tunnel

https://shapeshed.com/manage-ssh-connections-with-a-ssh-config-file/

Nano tabsize

$ nano ~/.nanorc
set tabsize 4
set tabstospaces

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11173769/how-to-make-the-tab-character-4-spaces-instead-of-8-spaces-in-nano

Citrix certificates

Certs from Mozilla

Add needed certificate to Citrix certificate folder /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/

$ locate Nederland
...
/opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts/Staat_der_Nederlanden_Root_CA_-_G3.crt
...

sudo ln -s /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/* /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/cacerts

https://forum.ubuntu-nl.org/index.php?topic=101708.0

Certs from Ubuntu

cd /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/keystore/ 
sudo mv cacerts cacerts_old 
sudo ln -s /etc/ssl/certs cacerts

https://discussions.citrix.com/topic/392126-receiver-138-no-cgp-service/

pgAdmin4

How to install pgadmin4 in desktop mode in Ubuntu 20.04 with python 3.8.2 (April 25th, 2020)

Following main lines of this guide: https://www.pgadmin.org/download/pgadmin-4-python-wheel/

Install requirements:

# apt install build-essential python3-dev python3-venv

Setup venv:

$ cd ~
$ python3 -m venv pgadmin4
$ source pgadmin4/bin/activate

Install pgadmin4, make sure to change version to most recent when using the link, e.g. 4.17 > 4.20:

(pgadmin4) $ pip install https://ftp.postgresql.org/pub/pgadmin/pgadmin4/v4.20/pip/pgadmin4-4.20-py2.py3-none-any.whl

Before error occurs create these folder yourself:

# mkdir /var/lib/pgadmin4
# mkdir /var/log/pgadmin4

And own them:

# chown -R $USER:$USER /var/lib/pgadmin4
# chown -R $USER:$USER /var/log/pgadmin4

Set desktop mode by creating new config file:

$ nano ~/pgadmin4/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/config_local.py

LOG_FILE = '/var/log/pgadmin4/pgadmin4.log'
SQLITE_PATH = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/pgadmin4.db'
SESSION_DB_PATH = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/sessions'
STORAGE_DIR = '/var/lib/pgadmin4/storage'
SERVER_MODE = False

Change in both files the same line:

$ nano ~/pgadmin4/lib/python3.8/site-packages/flask_wtf/recaptcha/validators.py
$ nano ~/pgadmin4/lib/python3.8/site-packages/flask_wtf/recaptcha/widgets.py

replace: from werkzeug import url_encode
with: from werkzeug.urls import url_encode

(Source: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60896993/importerror-cannot-import-name-url-encode-from-werkzeug)

Run setup:

(pgadmin4) $ python ~/pgadmin4/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pgadmin4/setup.py

I already had a pgadmin4.db with settings from my previous install, so I linked it:

$ cd /var/lib/pgadmin4
# ln -s ~/.pgadmin/pgadmin4.db pgadmin4.db

Try running it:

(pgadmin4) $ python ~/pgadmin4/lib/python3.7/site-packages/pgadmin4/pgAdmin4.py

Dummy display

When remotely connecting to a (desktop) Ubuntu machine with no default connected physical display a dummy screen can be added. This way e.g. TeamViewer can always connect to a display even when none in connected to the machine.

Install package: sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-dummy

Config files location: /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Dummy display config:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Configured Video Device"
    Driver      "dummy"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "Configured Monitor"
    HorizSync 31.5-48.5
    VertRefresh 50-70
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Default Screen"
    Monitor     "Configured Monitor"
    Device      "Configured Video Device"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
    Depth 24
    Modes "1920x1080"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Wifi keeps disconnecting

Attempt 1 DIDN'T FIX MY ISSUE

I had the same problem with this wifi card on Debian. Updating settings on router wasn't an option. What helped was to update binary firmware from here: https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/tree/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/4.4.1

Just download last version and replace file firmware-6.bin located at /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0/.

Then reload affected kernel modules:

modprobe -r ath10k_pci ath10k_core
modprobe ath10k_pci
modprobe ath10k_core

https://askubuntu.com/questions/870412/wifi-dell-xps-13-9360-keeps-disconnecting-with-qca6174-802-11ac-wireless-network

Attempt 2 DIDNT WORK

I finally solved this after browsing and trying a couple of threads on various blogs.

The problem: My router is old and didn't supported 802.11n protocol, that caused the internet to slow down only in Ubuntu because by default it was being used.

The Solution: To force disable the 802.11 protocol permanently:

Step 1: Open iwlwifi.conf using nano or any other text editor.

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf

Step 2: Add a line to force disable 802.11n protocol

options iwlwifi 11n_disable=1

Step 3: Save and reboot your PC.

NOTE: The changes won't take effect until you reboot your PC.

If you want to reverse the changes the please remove the line you've added and reboot.

This solved my problem and If your PC has the same issue, I'm sure it will solve yours too.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1243381/wifi-is-slow-and-unstable-on-ubuntu-20-04-dual-boot-dell-xps-l502x

Attempt 3

Edit /etc/NeworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf

In that file you will see a line that looks like this;

wifi.powersave = 3

Change the 3 to a 2 (which means disabled) and reboot. The problem should be resolved.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceLinux/comments/g8dqbr/ubuntu_2004_wifi_problem/ https://gist.github.com/jcberthon/ea8cfe278998968ba7c5a95344bc8b55

WiFi got really slow after update in Ubuntu 20.04.1

Fix:

sudo apt install backport-iwlwifi-dkms

Info:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1046589/backport-for-iwlwifi

Remove orphaned packages

https://sites.google.com/site/easytipsforlinux/using-deborphan

$ sudo apt-get install deborphan

Keychron keyboard

cat /etc/modprobe.d/hid_apple.conf
# For Keychron keyboard -- https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Apple_Keyboard
# - lsusb shows Keychron as Apple Inc keyboard, also in Win/Android mode
# - According to the documentation mentioned above swap_opt_cmd should 1 for Windows mode
# - Hardware = Windows mode, Linux = Apple mode, this config is therefor switched
options hid_apple fnmode=2 swap_opt_cmd=0

modprobe -r hid_apple
insmod
rmmod

Firefox

Add seperate launcher for profile

$ cd ~/.local/share/applications
$ nano firefox-personal.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Firefox Personal
Exec=firefox -P Personal -no-remote --class FxTest
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Icon=firefox
StartupWMClass=FxTest

Gnome

Crashing/unresponsive

Sometimes Gnome crashes and becomes unrespunsive, this is printed in journalctl:

aug 08 12:16:56 stan-west-3590 gnome-shell[2400]: ../clutter/clutter/clutter-actor.c:10558: The clutter_actor_set_allocation() function can only be called from within the implementation of the ClutterActor::allocate() virtual function.
aug 08 12:17:16 stan-west-3590 gnome-shell[2400]: clutter_input_device_ungrab: assertion 'CLUTTER_IS_INPUT_DEVICE (device)' failed

To restart gnome-shell:

killall -3 gnome-shell

Thunderbird

Add-ons

ExQuilla for Exchange
TbSync
Thunderbird Conversations
Provider for Google Calender
Provider for Exchange ActiveSync
Lightning

Apps

Psensor
Gparted
Grub Customizer
Menulibre
DBeaver
Joplin

Work

Slack
Citrix Workspace
Signal
Insomnia
pgAdmin4
PyCharm CE
Skype
Microsoft Teams

Other

Terminal

zsh, then run chsh -s $(which zsh)
oh my zsh
- current theme: awesomepanda
curl
git
mlocate, then run updatedb
docker
net-tools, for ifconfig
micro, nano alternative
- move to /usr/local/bin
vim config, from youtube

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