Category: Tips and Tricks

Linux: How to logout a user

A user was logged in via XRDP and the screen locked.  Each attempt to logon also resulted in a locked screen.  Rebooting is not an option.  There needed to be a way to identify the user and forcibly log them off, and there is. Logged on as root and typing the who command lists users and logons.  A great working…

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VMware Expand Hard Drive Size and Extend in CentOS 7 Linux

One approach to adding space to an existing Linux hard drive that is using Linux LVM is to add space to the drive. This can easily be accomplished in VMware. This has been tested using VMware vSphere Client for Windows with CentOS 7.5 (minimal install). To demonstrate a before and after, here are a few commands that can be used…

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Memory Utilization High in Linux VM

Utilities such as htop, top, and the command free -mh all report a high usage of memory.  The thing is nothing was running.  It turns out to be explainable. Using the following commands, it was determined that VMware virtual server has enabled the vmw_balloon. VMware Tools Balloon Defined The VMware Tools balloon driver is among the utilities installed in the…

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Google Chrome Font Rendering Looks Terrible and How To Fix It

I was beginning to think it was my computer. I had Cleartype enabled and went through the process again to ensure that the settings were correct or not corrupt. I then thought it was the monitors or one of them. Then I realized that the fonts look fine in everything but Google Chrome. Here is a snippet from one page,…

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VMware Workstation loses bridged network

VMware Workstation loses bridged network and it does not want to come back following the usual methodologies.  I restarted the VMware Workstation services, used the Network Manager, and reboot the computer all to no avail.  In the end, it was something that wasn’t a problem before. Problem On a Microsoft Windows 10 workstation running VMware Workstation 12 for many months…

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Add comments to ZIP files with zipnote

Never having given it much thought before, I wanted to know of a way to add a comment to my zip files in Linux.  I used to do this sort of thing many years back with pkzip in the DOS days.  There turns out to be nice little utility, called zipnote. To check for comments in a zipfile.  The command…

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Apply an SSL to MySQL

There is a MySQL 5.6.x install that works wonderfully.  However, a cert was purchased and applied to everything else, so why not apply to the MySQL install too. I ran into a pitfall or two while attempting this, so I am going to write this up in the effort to avoid those pitfalls. The Key file Determine the version of…

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Firefox has blocked parts of this page that are not secure

Firefox has blocked parts of this page that are not secure started to appear recently.  I tried cleaning up any insecure links, such as http, and yet this message continues to plague.  Tried several WordPress plugins to no avail.  It turns out to be something less sinister. The Firefox version was version 57.  After an upgrade to version 59.  All…

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Synology Diskstation DS1812+ Suddenly Dies and Resolution

I had a negative experience that turned out to have a positive ending. Sharing this experience may hopefully help someone else. A Synology Diskstation DS1812+ NAS has served well for several years, until one day it was found turned off. I pressed the power button in an attempt to turn it back on as there was no prior indication of…

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Convert an OVA/OVF VirtualBox to ESXi

This guide won’t go into the actual export of a VirtualBox OVA with the intended use for a VMware ESXi 5.5 environment.  It won’t even use the conventional tools that some sites suggest; however, this method worked for me. After repeated failure attempts to import a VirtualBox OVA, I used 7-zip to extract the contents (ignoring any error or warning…

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Cannot Set Password Never Expires on Windows Server 2012

A stand-alone Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with logon as local Administrator keeps presenting itself with a popup message that the password is expired in 1 day and that you must change your password.  There were a couple of solutions that exist. One seemed more elegant and quicker than the other. The first solution to use the local security policy. Go…

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Install Emby Server on NetGear ReadyNAS Pro

While playing with Plex and Emby on different virtual machines, I thought it would be a fun exercise to install Emby on a NetGear ReadyNAS Pro. Emby is a media server designed to organize, play, and stream audio and video to a variety of devices. The problem was the ReadyNAS Pro firmware was 4.x.x and Emby server supports 6.8.0 or greater. …

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ReadyNAS Pro Upgrade Firmware from 4 to 6 (unsupported)

The NetGear ReadyNAS Pro can be a fantastic addition to any environment. Aside from a flaky power supply which wasn’t too difficult to replace, (Another story for another time.), this box has been relatively descent. Well the power supply issue was big and annoying. The other annoying aspect to this NAS is it’s dated firmware which displays this awful web page…

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How to share a folder without password in Windows 10 home network

It seems like it would be very easy to share a folder on your Windows 10 computer to other Windows users in a home network by using your file explorer, right clicking on a folder, under properties, select sharing, then advanced sharing, and share the folder.  It doesn’t work as one would expect.  This is particularly annoying as the home…

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How to Update a Lenovo BIOS with USB

Lenovo provides an ISO for CD/DVD burning and an EXE for running the executable from within Windows.  There is NO support for an ISO booting from a USB.  Many modern laptops are ordered without a CD ROM and maybe an extra hard drive in it’s place.  Most people use USB sticks for the majority of their effort when the need…

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Add Root Certificates to a CentOS Linux Server

Adding a root authority certificate to a server that does not already have the cert may be added to the server manually. CentOS 6 Install the ca-certificates package: yum install ca-certificates Enable the dynamic CA configuration feature: update-ca-trust force-enable Add it as a new file to /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/: cp foo.crt /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors/ Use command: update-ca-trust extract CentOS 7 CentOS 7.0 and later…

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How to Combine Multiple Images Quickly

If you have ever started an eBay auction and wanted to add your large picture collection to it, you will quickly realize that you can only add up to 12 pictures.  While it is true pictures can be added to the body of the auction and linked to an alternate sources, that is extra work. As a work-a-round to the…

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