Blog of Robert Borst

No more username request with mintupdate and synaptic by changing the sudoers file

Robert Borst — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 09:44:00 GMT

I became annoyed by the passwords request when clicking on the mintupdate shield.
This behaviour can be suppressed by changing the sudoers file in /etc
change  the 'robert' below with your own name to make this work.
=-=-=-=-=
# /etc/sudoers
#
# This file MUST be edited with the 'visudo' command as root.
#
# See the man page for details on how to write a sudoers file.
#

Defaults	env_reset

# Host alias specification
# User alias specification

# Cmnd alias specification

# User privilege specification
root	ALL=(ALL) ALL

# Allow members of group sudo to execute any command after they have
# provided their password
# (Note that later entries override this, so you might need to move
# it further down)
%sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL
#
#includedir /etc/sudoers.d

# Members of the admin group may gain root privileges
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
robert ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/mintupdate
robert ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/synaptic
robert ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintUpdate/mintUpdate.py

Setting the thunderbirds trash folder

Robert Borst — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:10:00 GMT

Whe connecting thunderbird for the first time to Zarafa, there are a few differences between the two.
The most annoying is the 'Deleted Items' versus 'Trash'.
When they are not correctly mapped you end up with 2 trash folders, depending on the interface you use.
This is quite inconvenient.

1. Completely exit Thunderbird if it is running.

2. Make a temporary backup copy of your profile folder (or at least "prefs.js").

3. Open your "prefs.js" file with a text editor such as Notepad to find the server# used to represent your IMAP account. It could be "server2", "server5", "server7", or some other number depending on your own individual account setup. Look for a line similar to this, corresponding to your own IMAP acccount:

user_pref("mail.server.server2.hostname", "mail.YourImapProvider.com");

4. Insert a line like the following into "prefs.js", with the correct server# and correct name for the Trash folder:

 user_pref("mail.server.server#.trash_folder_name", "");

For example:

 user_pref("mail.server.server2.trash_folder_name", "Deleted Items");

sorting pictures from a Theme party by date and time.

Robert Borst — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:49:00 GMT

One of the websites i maintain is for a yearly party in a small village

A lot of people go there and the fun is not only in the party itself, but also in the pictures that are taken.

This means that I get a DVD with pictures on there that are nicely numbered and too big to place on a website (2 to 3 Mb per picture, about 700 of them). The size can be adapted by installing the nautilus resize option, select all and enter the new size.

To make it easier for the people to see the pictures, they are split into day an hour. to do this, is adapted a script so i got the following

#!/bin/sh

# Goes through all jpeg files in current directory, grabs date from each
# and add the date and time in front
# 
for fil in *.JPG  # Also try *jpg
do
    datepath="$(identify -verbose "$fil" | grep DateTimeOri | awk '{print $2, $3}' )"
  

  mv  "$fil" ./"$datepath $fil"
done

Network manager propsal

Robert Borst — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:34:00 GMT

Working with my laptop both at work and at home i walk into proxy settings every time

this is now solved by setting the proxy after i login and using a 'apply sysyemwide' and typing the password twice.
As you can image this is annoying.

The most care-free solution for me would be for the system to see which ip adres was assigned and set the proxy settings to match
For this i made a request, see:

proxy-settings-in-network-manager

Right click 'extract here' in konqueror

Robert Borst — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 21:54:00 GMT

I really like Konqueror for updating my websites, it gives the ability to update files 'directly' on the website without the hassle of an filezilla type of 'download, change, upload' action.

Working with linux Mint, konqueror is not standard installed.
Installing it via sudo apt-get install konqueror is enough.

But. I really missed the 'extract here' right click menu.

Of course this can also be installed with apt-get. The line

sudo apt-get install ark ncompress zoo p7zip-full p7zip-rar
does the trick.

Virtualbox 3.2 and Vmware images

Robert Borst — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:41:00 GMT

I had some windows 2000 and windows XP images i used in VMware.

I am now running virtualbox and booting them resulted in a Black screen with no response at all.

After a lot of rebooting, checking the agp440 solutions i found, i found the following website:
http://www.digizenstudio.com/blog/2008/05/20/vmware-to-virtualbox-migration-issues/

It pointed me to the extended features located in settings - system - motherboard.
Enabling the 'Enable IO APIC' setting is enough to get the VM's to start up in virtualbox.

After installing the guest additions of virtualbox, everything is running FINE !

Stable screen with my nc8430 (ATI X1600) with Linux Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.04 !

Robert Borst — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:27:00 GMT

The 9th of june, I tried to stabilize the shaking on my display of my laptop (NC8430 with an ATI X1600)

The memory option wasn't working.

So i searched some more an found the following:

1) open a terminal ( Alt-F2, xterm )
2) sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
3) add "radeon.new_pll=0" after "quiet splash"

you will now get:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.new_pll=0"

4) sudo update-grub

you can check it the update grub did its work by looking in /boot/grub/grub.cfg and seeing the line with
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-17-generic root=UUID=accec70e-54ff-436b-a1f9-6f0a69411799 ro quiet splash radeon.new_pll=0

After a restart, the shaking is gone !

Source: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/543265

Threadvis for Thunderbird 3.05

Robert Borst — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 02:34:00 GMT

Threadvis is an application that gives a visual indication about the thread the message belongs to.
It is a very fast way to look at the conversation an email is part of.

This add-on seems to work on Thunderbird 3.0.5 on Linux Mint 8.
The only thing was that it didn't register as installed.
The add-ons menu was keeping the 'restart to install threadvis' notification.

Looking at the profile i noticed that the directory in the profile of thunderbird was owned by root.
So i opened up an Xterm (via Alt-F2 and entering xterm)
did:
cd ~/.thunderbird
cd .default
cd extensions
When i did a:
sudo chown -R \{A23E4120-431F-4753-AE53-5D028C42CFDC\}
And started Thunderbird again, it started up and worked.
Hope this is a pointer for you if your threadvis isn't installing.

nc8430 and linux mint 9

Robert Borst — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:45:00 GMT

My work laptop is an nc8430 (about 4 years old)

For i while i dual booted my work windows with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is nice, but it didn't give me enough to completely switch over.

Then i came into contact with Linux mint (Thank you Linux Format !)
My experience was great, everything worked out of the box !
No codecs and other tools needed to be installed afterwards. Just simply GREAT !

It didn't take long for me to take the decision. Linux mint 8 was installed next to my windows and Ubuntu.

We were already using Openoffice and Thunderbird so the switchover was not that big a deal.
My files are on an ancrypted disk-volume that can easily be mounted with almost every OS so my files and folders were also not a problem.

With the ntlmaps i am able to connect to the AD and use our proxy server without a lot of logging in. (Thanks Tim Lloyd !)
After running this setup for a few months now i found that i got used to the responsiveness of the system.
I had to start up my windows to start up a windows only program.
This was a *very* frustrating experience. My own box which responded very quickly with mint turned into a very,very slow system on windows, sigh.

Now Linux mint 9 is released and i was checking it out.
Running mint 9 from an usb key gave me an display with interference that was not good.
Every once and a while the dancing stopped but this was just too frustrating to work with.

Looking for a solution I ran a query and found a article that mentioned the vmem=256 option for the kernel

So i started up, pressed 'e' in the grub and added the vmem=256 and..... PRESTO the display was stable !

I have to put this into the grub standard options so i do not have to edit this every time i start up, but that shouldn't be a problem.

edit: After a while the vibrations on the screen are back, only stopping every now and then. very annoying. Needs more attention.

iMacro for Firefox

Robert Borst — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:24:00 GMT

The feedback of this site was completely filled with spam. Deleting this was quite a task. Luckily there is such a thing as imacros add-on for Firefox. With this, you can easily record a macro to delete a spam message. With the play function you can delete a spam message. But with 42 pages of spam, this is no fun. Luckily there is a play (loop) function you can use to run the macro multiple times. :-) The cleanup was done rather quickly.

Automatically Close the Nag Screen of antivir

Robert Borst — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 21:16:00 GMT

When antivir gets its update it will present the computer user with a nag screen.
This script will close this window automatically 

use autoit version 3

Put this in a file, compile it (if you want)
And let it run (or put in your startup folder

------------------------
$j=0
while $j=0
	sleep(5000)
	if winexists("Notifier of AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic Windows") Then
			; Sluiten extra window
			winActivate("Notifier of AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic Windows") 
			WinWaitactive("Notifier of AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic Windows") 
			send("!{f4}")
		EndIf
Wend
--------------------------

It is all about choices

Robert Borst — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:55:00 GMT

Subject: Fw: IT'S ALL ABOUT CHOICES!!!!!!!!!!!



He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Bob was there
telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I
don't get it!
You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two
choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can
choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood."

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I
can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept
their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the
positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away
all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react
to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line:
It's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry
to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about
him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious
accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was
released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better,
I'd be twins...Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone
through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my
soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I
remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I
could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
He continued, "..the paramedics were great.
They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they
wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and
nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'.

    I knew I needed to take action."

    "What did you do?" I asked.


    "Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,"
    said Bob. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.'
    The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I
    took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."

    Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live.
    Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

    He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because
    of his amazing attitude... 

     

    I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.


    Attitude, after all, is everything.

    Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. 

     

    Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34.

    After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

    You have two choices now:

    01. Ignore thiss.

     02. Make it readable to the people you care about.

    You know the choice I made.

Stelling van Bas Henzing

Robert Borst — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 20:29:00 GMT

'Ervaren alpinisten laten vaak het leven omdat zij er onterecht van uit gaan dat de berg weet dat zij ervaring hebben'

Stelling bij het proefschrift 'Aerosol Modelling Spatial Distribution and Effects on Radiation' van Bas Henzing

Optimized SED

Robert Borst — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 01:12:00 GMT

For the site of the badminton club i use a menu file with the following structure
=-=
..|Jubileum commissie|jubcommissie.php||||1
..|Geschiedenis|geschiedenis.php|Geschiedenis|||0
.|Jubileum|jubileum.php|Jubileum|||1
..|Doedag 1 April 2006|doedag.php|Gezellige doe dag 1 april 2006|||1
..|Clinic NK Badminton 5 februari 2006|jubclinic.php|Clinic bij de NK Badminton 5 februari 2006|||1
...|Verslag Berend|jubclinberend.php||||1
...|Verslag Marlieke|jubclinmarlieke.php||||1
...|Verslag Nick|jubclinnick.php||||1
=-=-=
All the files are generated from a single source.
This file, in turn retrieves the specific part to display.
In this way my navigation in the site is always correct.

The problem was to extract the file names 
First i did this with the following sed command sequence:
"s/^[.a-z A-Z0-9]*|//;s/^[a-z A-Z]*|//;s/|[!-~ ]*$//"  
This went wrong with the big descriptions.
And, most of all, it was not really an elegant solution.
After some pondering (and some light reading in a perl manual) the following string gave me an elegant solution:
"s/[^|]*|//;s/[^|]*|//;s/|[!-~ ]*$//" 
The separators are | so if they are not found, than loop until they are found.

The following file is used to generate all the basic files:
=-=
@echo off
Echo starten
echo Aanmaken filelist
sed "s/[^|]*|//;s/[^|]*|//;s/|[!-~ ]*$//" bcb-menu.txt >1.txt
Echo aanmaken files
echo on
for /f  "skip=1" %%a in (1.txt) do copy index.php %%a
=-=-=

So i am able to adapt my menu-structure rather fast.

Upgrade ADSL Modem and Voip

Robert Borst — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 00:38:00 GMT

After some days waiting i got confirmation of the helpdesk that i was able to upgrade my ADSL modem. (The royal dutch telephone company wrote that an update could only be done with the previous bios instead of the older one i have..... they were wrong.) Took about 30 mins (the most was the making of screendumps to get a backup of the settings..) Seems to be working ok. The voip only worked if you go to the XS4all support site and run a modem-voip-setup script. But now it works ok. I now have 2 voip numbers and working nicely