Extending LVM volume

An LVM setup on a physical disk helps to increase the logical volume size in case it is almost full. Steps to be able to extend a logical volume, when there is free space on the physical volume:

1. Unmount the volume
2. Check if there is free space on physical volume (if no, need to add physical volume and extend group first)
3. Extend logical volume using $> sudo lvextend -L+10G /dev/gp02/virtual
4. Run fsck on logical volume: $> sudo e2fsck -f /dev/gp02/virtual
5. Extend the file system on the logical volume: $> sudo resize2fs /dev/gp02/virtual
6. Mount the logical volume: $> sudo mount -t auto /dev/gp02/virtual /virtual

Where:
/dev/gp02/virtual - is the logical volume
-L+10G - adds 10 GiB to the logical volume

In case there is no free space left on the physical volume, one needs to add a new physical volume to the group and then extend the logical volume.

References:
LVM HowTo [tldp.org]
Debian LVM [debian.org]
Working with LVM [debian-administration.org]

pfSense 2.3.1 available.....almost

Warning: Upgrade your firewall after having a proper plan and back out option. As a minimum a snapshot before starting work and backup of the firewall configuration is recommended.


Did a Xenserver setup in the last few days with a pfSense 2.3 instance running on it. After finishing another VM and configuring the setup, what appears on pfSense administration page?

All issues marked for the 2.3.1 release had been closed recently, but didn't know that the update will appear out of the blue without any announcement on the pfSense blog!

Update 1

Tried to upgrade pfSense to 2.3.1.....
>>> Updating repositories metadata...
Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pfSense-core repository is up-to-date.
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pfSense repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
>>> Upgrading pkg... failed.
Failed
Need to wait a bit I think...

Update 2

Seems things are not ready yet
>>> Updating repositories metadata...
Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pkg: http://pkg.pfsense.org/pfSense_v2_3_0_amd64-core/meta.txz: Connection reset by peer
repository pfSense-core has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: http://pkg.pfsense.org/pfSense_v2_3_0_amd64-core/packagesite.txz: Connection reset by peer
Unable to update repository pfSense-core
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pkg: http://pkg.pfsense.org/pfSense_v2_3_0_amd64-pfSense_v2_3_0/meta.txz: Connection reset by peer
repository pfSense has no meta file, using default settings
pkg: http://pkg.pfsense.org/pfSense_v2_3_0_amd64-pfSense_v2_3_0/packagesite.txz: Connection reset by peer
Unable to update repository pfSense
Failed

Update 3

Still got the first error above when trying to upgrade via console. Blog has a detailed post about the release now.

Update 4

Went to pfSense forums and noticed others are having similar issues. Need to wait for mirrors to synchronize as one of the packages is not there yet!

root: pfSense-upgrade -d
>>> Updating repositories metadata...
Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pfSense-core repository is up-to-date.
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pfSense repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
>>> Upgrading pkg...
Updating pfSense-core repository catalogue...
pfSense-core repository is up-to-date.
Updating pfSense repository catalogue...
pfSense repository is up-to-date.
All repositories are up-to-date.
New version of pkg detected; it needs to be installed first.
The following 1 package(s) will be affected (of 0 checked):

Installed packages to be UPGRADED:
        pkg: 1.6.2 -> 1.7.2_2 [pfSense]

The process will require 91 KiB more space.
2 MiB to be downloaded.
pkg: http://pkg.pfsense.org/pfSense_v2_3_0_amd64-pfSense_v2_3_0/All/pkg-1.7.2_2.txz: Not Found

Final update

Apparently, pfSense was not looking in the right place and was looking in the 2.3.0 folders. Waited for another half an hour and tried again and it downloaded the correct information and was able to find all packages needed for upgrade. 2.3.1 is up and running. Verifying functionality before deleting snapshot.

pfSense upgrade - "can't find kernel" error

I had pfSense 2.2.4 running as a virtual machine and noticed that version 2.3 was finally released. Broadly, pfSense 2.3 has a complete redo of the webGUI using bootstrap, and the backend system is completed based on FreeBSD. The new web interface is clean, modern and "easier" on the eyes to say the least. Being based on FreeBSD, future upgrades will be much easier as individual packages can be upgraded. For more details about the new release: see the introductory video, or read the links in the release announcement.

In my virtual instance of pfSense, I have just 1 GB of disk space and was using 512MB RAM. On trying to do the upgrade via GUI, it ended up with an error:

Can't find 'kernel'
Error while including /boot/menu.rc. in the line:
Menu-display
\
Can't load 'kernel'

This happened primarily because of my choice of disk space. During the upgrade, the download of the new version was about 200 MB. After the downloaded ended the system was using close to 90% disk space and after reboot there seems to have been some data loss.

So, be careful, do a backup or a snapshot of the VM before attempting the upgrade (good practice for any upgrade). If your disk space is not enough, add some more before upgrading.

Happy firewalling.

Fido! Fix your loop

Log-in in to a Fido account and you will see links to do a private chat if you have questions. On clicking, it takes you to a page with options to contact them depending on your relationship with them (see partial screenshot below):

 When you click on the "Customers" section, you end up on a page with different ways to contact them. What does the option for Live Chat say? It tells you to go back and login to your "My Account" i.e. back from where you started?

If this was going on for my car's gas tank, it would be so much different! But Fido, stop this run around. This is not the way to keep your current customers when there are better options available in the market!

Debian/Apt and disk space

For a few days I was getting the following error when trying to do an apt-get update on my Debian/Stretch machine

~$ sudo apt-get update
Get:1 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch InRelease [200 kB]
Ign http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch InRelease                       
Ign http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch Release.gpg                     
Get:2 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates InRelease [62.8 kB]
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates InRelease
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates Release.gpg
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates Release
Get:3 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages/DiffIndex [1,554 B]
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages/DiffIndex
Get:4 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main Translation-en [14 B]
Get:5 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages [32 B]
Get:6 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages [32 B]
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main Translation-en_CA
Ign http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main Translation-en
Err http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages
  404  Not Found [IP: 128.31.0.63 80]
Hit http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch Release
Get:7 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main i386 Packages/DiffIndex [16.6 kB]
Ign http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main i386 Packages/DiffIndex
Get:8 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main Translation-en [4,902 kB]
Get:9 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main i386 Packages [7,440 kB]
Get:10 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main i386 Packages [7,440 kB]
Err http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main Translation-en_CA
  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]
Err http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main Translation-en
  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]
Err http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca stretch/main i386 Packages
  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]
W: Failed to fetch http://security.debian.org/dists/stretch/updates/main/binary-i386/Packages  404  Not Found [IP: 128.31.0.63 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/debian/dists/stretch/main/i18n/Translation-en_CA  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/debian/dists/stretch/main/i18n/Translation-en  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]

W: Failed to fetch http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/debian/dists/stretch/main/binary-i386/Packages  Bad header line [IP: 129.97.134.71 80]

E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Trying to rule out problems due to network, I verified the the URL giving the error 404 in the browser and it worked fine. Then I checked my disk space as it was usually the culprit before I rebuilt the OS on a 80GB HDD (earlier the OS was in 4GB!). The /var partition was indeed used 100%. Applying the usual trick of apt-get clean did release much space!

On closer investigation, I noticed the kern.log and syslog files in /var/log/ were huge (kern.log 3.6GB, syslog 248 MB). The kern.log and syslog had error/warning splattered repeatedly such as:
Dec  1 07:36:00 imlee kernel: [1155666.501321] nouveau E[  PGRAPH][0000:01:00.0]  NOTIFY nsource: STATE_INVALID nstatus: INVALID_STATE BAD_ARGUMENT

Reducing the size of kern.log/syslog to 0 fixed the apt-get issue!The Debian/Stretch machine is uptodate again.

Facebook & privacy

Facebook & privacy: something that comes up in the new often. Anyone who knows a little about how Facebook "makes" money, would say that these words are a perfect example of antonyms!
BBC reporting on another challenge Facebook is facing in Belgium due to its practices related to how they use cookies for users (even users who are not logged in to Facebook). A quote from the full article:

They conducted a series of tests including one where they did a Google search for the term facebook data policy. It led them to the Facebook data policy page which placed the datr cookie on their browser.

They then visited a Belgian website related to prostate cancer treatment which includes a Facebook like button and found that the datr cookie was sent to Facebook.

There was no formal notice regarding any cookie being stored.

Even without using cookies, a user's browsing habits can be tracked as web browsers can be identified by various ways to render each user's browser (and hence browsing trail) to be unique. To read more about this read Panopticlick.

To keep such sites from harnessing your data, here are some options:

1. Use Tor Browser when possible
2. Use Firefox with plugins*: Adblock Edge, Privacy Badger, HTTPS Everywhere, and NoScript.
3. Use Firefox with above plugins in a Linux VM

* - the list of plugins is not at all exhaustive, you are advised to do your research and choose which ones are required for your case

CloudATclost.com VM 60% off

Ordered a "one-time" billing VM from cloudatcost.com today. It was their Developer 2 setup. Currently the site shows 50% off i.e. $35 instead of $70. I just happened to view their member page and saw a post about 60% off using code CAC606060 valid for only 9 Oct 2015.

I tried it and the Dev 2 setup one-time fee came out to $28. Enjoy the extra 10% off while it works.

Enabling HTTPS for blog

Just noticed that https was available for blogger.com blogs. It has been enabled. Use url: https://ksvichaar.blogspot.com as there is no automatic redirect from http:// (yet).

Note: there might still be mixed content on the blog, it will be updated as time permits.

Firefox 37.0.1 - Is insecure content blocking new?

I got the upgrade notification for Firefox yesterday and as normal, I clicked on "Restart" to upgrade Firefox to 37.0.1. After the upgrade, I noticed a change: some CSS content was not showing on normal sites and hence had a lot of portions of the page (mainly background) as white!

I thought it could be something to do with my browser after upgrade, so I restarted it again. No change. After checking for new features, nothing was to be found. Then I noticed the "shield" icon on the left of the address bar and clicking it explained it all (see image below). The content was being blocked by Firefox as it was not using https:// on that secure page.

Is this is a new feature in Firefox? Ideally it would be more secure if every secure page had just securely linked components but this can be quite annoying to users if there is no clear warning to the user. Even though I'm familiar with a fair bit of Firefox technical details to be able to troubleshoot my issues, regular users will be stumped!

Intel 530 Series SSD trumps Kingston V300

I have two SSDs in my Debian GNU/Linux box. One is an Intel 530 series SSD and second is the Kingston V300 SSD (both are 240GB). The experience with Intel 530 series has been great while Kingston V300 has been flaky at best.

On the Intel, I have been able to update the firmware without any issues as they provide a bootable ISO file for all operating systems [
Intel SSD Solid-State Firmware update tool page]. While Kingston is only provides an .exe file for upgrades. On reading their upgrade instructions, the details include supported operating systems as Windows 8.1, Windows 7/Vista, Windows XP only! Does Kingston think that users only use Windows operating system or are they targeting their SSDs to only Windows users?

Even though my drive came with the 520 firmware version as opposed to 506/521, I will neither buy a Kingston SSD or recommend anyone to purchase it either. It does not matter if they are switching between synchronous and asynchronous NAND, not supporting non-Windows users is just not acceptable in the times of Android/Chrome OS.

PS: I have the Kingston V300 240GB SSD was only because it was purchased for someone else (Windows user) and he didn't want it in the end.

Logitech K830 HTPC keyboard

I recently got a Logitech K830 HTPC keyboard. Have not got a lot of time to play with it but here are some quick observations:

+ just WORKS with Linux (Kodibuntu = Lubuntu 14.04)*
+ Illuminated keyboard **
+ mouse pad on the keyboard
+ mouse pad recognises multi-finger gestures on Linux
+ well made: sturdy, and slim
+ unifying remote
- no indicator for Num/Caps lock
- non-replaceable battery

Has anyone tried to open it up and see what kind of battery it uses? From experience of using other mouse with unifying remotes, I expect it to last a long time between charges.

One thing that I can't understand is the illumination of multi-function buttons. One the product page, Logitech show the red/orange text illumniated (see image below) but mine does not. Is it a software function?

PS: this keyboard is a huge improvement in quality over the k360 graffiti family.

* - official specs on Logitech site do not list Linux as a supported operating system. Custom keys might not work, but the rest functions perfectly.

Updating Flashplayer in Debian GNU/Linux

Check for latest version

user@localhost $> sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --status
Flash Player version installed on this system  : 11.2.202.442
Flash Player version available on upstream site: 11.2.202.451
flash-mozilla.so - auto mode
  link currently points to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so - priority 50
/usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so - priority 10
Current 'best' version is '/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so'.

So a new version is available. To upgrade, use following command:

user@localhost $> sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --install
--2015-03-16 00:21:59--  https://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/11.2.202.451/install_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz
Resolving fpdownload.macromedia.com (fpdownload.macromedia.com)... 23.72.80.8
Connecting to fpdownload.macromedia.com (fpdownload.macromedia.com)|23.72.80.8|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 7244055 (6.9M) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: ‘/tmp/flashplugin-nonfree.tsRdJVFLnj/install_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz’

     0K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  0%  674K 10s
    50K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  1%  561K 11s
   100K .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........  2%  687K 11s
   150K ..........
    ........ ........ snip ....... ........
   7000K .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... 99%  548K 0s
   7050K .......... .......... ....                            100%  917K=12s

2015-03-16 00:22:11 (613 KB/s) - ‘/tmp/flashplugin-nonfree.tsRdJVFLnj/install_flash_player_11_linux.x86_64.tar.gz’ saved [7244055/7244055]

Check version again:

user@localhost $> sudo update-flashplugin-nonfree --status
Flash Player version installed on this system  : 11.2.202.451
Flash Player version available on upstream site: 11.2.202.451
flash-mozilla.so - auto mode
  link currently points to /usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so
/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so - priority 50
/usr/lib/gnash/libgnashplugin.so - priority 10
Current 'best' version is '/usr/lib/flashplugin-nonfree/libflashplayer.so'.

Latest version installed.

In Mozilla Firefox, to check if it is using the latest version, open page about:plugins. If it is not the latest version, close Firefox completely and restart.

Reference & details see: FlashPlayer [wiki.debian.org]

TorBrowser 3.6.3 no browser window behaviour

Since upgrading to TorBrowser 3.6.3, I have noticed that after the first session when I tried to restart TorBrowser, Tor would show that connection was made but no browser window would come up! Both tor.exe and firefox.exe *32 processes show in task manager though.

One option is to go back to 3.6.2 as the Tor version hasn't changed as suggested by some users on the announcement blog post (see comments). However, as 3.6.3 contains several security fixes for Firefox, I wouldn't suggest downgrading.

The second option: delete the lock files in "Tor Browser/Data/Tor" and "Tor Browser/Data/Browser/profile.default/". After this the TorBrowser brings up the browser window as it should.

Justice!

FIFA World Cup, Brazil 26 June 2014 - Uruguay forward Luis Suarez banned for nine matches and banned for 4 months from any football activity. Bravo! FIFA, you can still do some things right.

Details being updated at: http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28023882

Why Windows still lags Mac OS X - Part II (aka Lenovo saga)

The machine took its time to do the Windows updates with the mouse pad showing no sign of working. Finally, after the updates finished, I restarted the machine and it goes back to the Thinpad/Lenovo log and nothing happens.

Did some quick search on the net and Lenovo has suggestions for (not the same model) Thinkpad BIOS upgrade. Even if the model was in their list, I don't see a way to upgrade the BIOS if the machine does not even go into the BIOS!!

Almost at the edge to return the package to Newegg :(

OnePlus One - can't wait to get one

The new OnePlus One phone that I'm hoping to get my hands on soon, although it will probably serve me as a small tablet controlling my Chromecast.

Highlight specs: It has a 5.5" screen (1920x1080), Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, 3GB RAM, 13Mpixel camera which supports 4K recording. You can see detailed Specifications at your leisure.


See more at OnePlus website.

Easy clean browsing

With all the tracking cookies, disturbing advertisements and privacy concerns when one faces these days when browsing the Internet, below are the simple things that can be done to have a better experience.

1. Use Firefox browser - the wide range of addons available for it make it a good candidate
2. In Firefox install the following addons:
• AdBlock Edge
• HTTPS Everywhere
• PrivacyBadger
• Disconnect

More explanation to follow for the addons. These, I think, are the bare essential addons one should use to have a relatively safe and clean browsing experience these days.

Those looking for better privacy and cleaner (read - inconvenient) browsing, they can look towards NoScript based Tor Browser or even Tails.

Why Windows still lags Mac OS X

I received a Thinkpad T530 earlier today and as soon as I got home, I opened it up to configure it. As per the few instructions on the pamphlet which came with it, I connected the battery and the power adapter. I set it to charge for a few minutes in case the battery had no juice in it.

After about 10 minutes, I pushed the power button to turn it ON and the Thinkpad logo appeared... and it didn't go away. No lights except the green halo beside the power button. No HDD activity at all! After waiting for about 3-4 minutes, I shut it down and tried again. 5 minutes and nothing changed. Third time, I powered it on and started looking for customer support information. Took me some time and when I looked towards the screen, it had something.... that was around 10minutes after powering ON!

I have had Mac machines and their power ON and the configuration (which I usually skip) is almost instant. It has been like this since at least 2006 Mac OS X Tiger. If Windows/Lenovo or other laptop makers cannot get their hardware/software to be more responsive, they are going to continue to loose the fight to Mac OS X.

That wasn't all though - during the configuration the mouse pad or the red pointing device DID NOT WORK. Luckily I know how to use a machine without a mouse and was able to get through the configuration without the mouse. After initial configuration, I started Windows updates and I still cannot use the mouse pointer!!

PS: Machine is for someone else, I would have slapped a Debian install by now if it was for me.

FPN registration woes

I recently bought a couple of Sailor fountain pens. As one of them was quite expensive, I was thinking of asking on the FPN forum on tips for first use, if any. As expected, the forum required a registration and I filled up the form (see below). However, after multiple tries the form gives the same error that I didn't write the answer to their spam protection question correctly!

FPN registration form error screen capture

As you can see on the screen shot above, all required fields are filled up and after multiple tries (with different answers to the question), the error still comes up!!

The spam protection feature seems to be preventing legitimate users to signup too. I wonder if FPN really want users to sign up to their forums.

It was hard to find a way to contact them too. Took me about 15minutes to find an email address: fpnadmin@gmail.com. Waiting to get a reply now.

If it matters, I'm using Iceweasel 24.0 browser on a Linux machine.

Why Newegg has turned into Blackegg?

Newegg's packages that I have received have phrases as "May Contain Awesome", and "Go Ahead and Review me" and a tag line "Take it from a Geek" as the website cites itself as the online place where computer hobbyists get their components from at great prices. They stepped into Canadian waters in late 2008 with their site Newegg.ca. A lot of people were happy to be able to get good prices that their friends were getting south of the border e.g. this. Many-a-times the deals were the best anyone could get from other online retailers in Canada. However, over time the deals have become "cold" as many would say. I have noticed that pattern even in their ShellShocker deals. The latest example is the ShellShocker Soul by Ludacris SL49C earphones. They are listed in the deal for $58.31 and free shipping (with original price as $103.31). That looks like almost half the price. But if you go over to the Newegg.com site, the same product is priced $39.99 and free shipping and the original price being $69.99!

Neither the original price are anywhere representative of the CAD/USD conversion nor does the deal price look attractive when considering that the same product goes for even less without Shell Shocker south of the border!

In general, either the ShellShocker discounts are not significant enough or they are on stuff that one doesn't care for much. Where did the original Newegg idea of special prices for great stuff go? We don't want the Blackegg, we need the Newegg back.