Welcome to The Linux Page

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This site is a collection of my own work with Linux. Certain things are easy, others take time to decipher and if I ever need to repeat the work (which usually happens!), then I need to remember everything by memory or... have a site with all the steps taken and to take again.

The following are my most recent posts:

Epson 1260 (and others) and Linux

Scanner Epson 1260 — a flat bed that has worked for over 10 years

Weird Colors

As I started using my Epson 1260 Photo scanner on my Linux box, I got some problems...

The first scan works perfectly, and then on the second and following weird colors start appearing. Usually it is red or green, some sort of a gradient. At times half the page is like that, at times more, at times it's like a gradient...

Driver Problems?

Searching, some people said that the iscan driver was bad. Not true. The driver works perfectly.

Not too sure where the problem really is, looks like the buffer used to read the data is not correctly cleared before we read the ...

How to run a virtual macintosh under Linux...

I just got my copy of Catalina and Majove. It comes really cheap these days. You can get a copy ready to install on a USB thunk drive.

The drive I've got is a 16Gb which is enough to fit the newer version (as of Dec 2019), Catalina which requires about 8Gb and the previous version, Majove, which is about 6.5Gb.

I can't just boot the USB, though, since I want to install the OS on a VM. Well... from the interface, it is clearly marked that it is possible to give a VM direct access to a USB port. I tried that and majored (again) in getting my X-Windows locked up. I had to reboot by ...

Just like a good old typewrite, you may want your computer keyboard not to repeat keys.

Keyboard Auto-Repeat

When I use virtualbox over the network (from a headless computer) and I connect using SSH, that virtualbox is going to be slow.

Somehow, I did not have that problem with older versions (Ubuntu 14.04 and older) but newer versions have required me to turn off keyboard repetition otherwise I get keys repeated (mainly the Enter key when something takes processing time at the time I hit the enter key) as in:

Heeeeeelllllooooo

The solution is to run the folloing command:

setterm -repeat off

It works in most terminals, for sure, the regular Linux console you get ...

A Bug in Chrome Ubuntu—how a feature becomes a bug

The Ubuntu version of Chrome has a way to auto-restart itself which does not hide the window or loses your existing browsing. However, it clearly quits the current instance and starts a new one (well, technically, it probably starts the new instance first, grab hold of the windows, then quit the old instance).

First bug, when that happens, the Gnome icon will now open a new instance and not know anything about the old instance. In other words, if you use the icons to navigate between your applications, Chrome fails whenever it gets updated that way.

If it were just that, I would say, ...

Virtualbox to create a Computer inside another Computer

Autostart Virtualbox VMs

So... certainly things evolve quickly and others lack behind. We've got systemd since 15.10 or so and it was the prominent change in 16.04. We actually made the switch for Snap! Websites and that help tremendously as it is very reliable since then (older versions were really bad in comparison.)

At first, I found a Stackoverflow answer describing the old way and it did not work which is why I decided to switch to systemd. I found this page about it and it's already pretty good! Just a couple of things I had to tweak on my system to make it all work ...

Setting up the gparted live CD in your controller in a virtualbox installation

Problem: Small Partition in your Virtualbox Drive

By defauilt Virtuabox often tells you to setup your partition size to 20Gb. This is actually really small if you are to do some serious work with your virtualbox especially since the OS is likely to use about half of it on install.

But if you don't pay attention, chances are you end up with a tiny partition which you may wish you could exstend later...

Note that in many cases, this operation is not possible. For example, VirtualBox does not give us the ability to change the size of a fixed disk. Unfortunate because non-fixed do not ...

Low Level Formatting an HDD or SSD

Dog that shread a bed to pieces by gomagoti.
By Gomagoti
(License CC: Some rights reserved)

WARNING

Do not apply the Secure Erase on a USB Drive or a drive connected through an SAS or RAID system as it may render your drive unusable. (See Brick (electronics) for an idea of what you could end up with in this case.)

SSD Plus SanDisk — 1Tb or 2Tb at a very decent price! — click to check it out on Amazon (where I'm an affiliate)

I have three of these SSD
drives and they work nicely!
I recommend them, especially
if you have a low budget.
(I'm an Amazon.com affiliate)

Secure Erase

Modern hard drive controllers and drivers on Linux can make use of the special feature called SECURE ERASE.

To see whether ...

Many old parchements have much of their text hidden or lost...

As anyone else, I use Ctrl-C all the time.

I start writing something in my terminal and it's not what I needed, I hit Ctrl-C to Cancel that line.

This is the same as the Ctrl-C to Cancel a program. In that case it sends a SIGINT to the running process (this assumes that you are running a process that did not detach itself from your console.)

Although on the command line I often do that because I want to keep what I just typed right there on the screen because I will use it, just not right now. And when a ^C is printed in there, that's just really not practical!?

It looks like ...

Here is a picture of my old LaserJet 2550L which I use as a black & white printer.

My old LaserJet 2550L printer which I use with Linux Ubuntu.

Upgrade

I now upgraded my printer. The old one just gave up completely and only printed white pages.

My new printer is a multifunction from HP the HP Color LaserJet Pro Multifunction M479fdn Laser Printer. I don't print that much so that's a good model for my needs.

The one main issue I run into once in a while, a document just doesn't get through. The printer sits there with a message saying it's working on it, but nothing happens. Since it normally prints within seconds, that's not a normal state. The ...

Installing an Ubuntu Server & more

A beautiful table ready to be server with plates, glasses, napkins, all very elegantly set.

Getting the OS

First go to https://ubuntu.com/ and get the latest version you're interesting in. They offer server version that they support for 5 years or so. I suggest one of those if you want to run a server. This is an ISO, in generate around 600Mb so be ready to wait a few hours... Even with a really fast connection, because the transfer will be limited by the mirror in most cases.

WARNING

Unless you know better, I strongly suggest you get the Ubuntu Server version. Maybe a bit more annoying to use BUT it works on ALL computers. And ...

Unfreeze your Mouse when it Froze

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Main Menu

Weird Colors

Driver Problems?

Keyboard Auto-Repeat

Autostart Virtualbox VMs

Problem: Small Partition in your Virtualbox Drive

Secure Erase

Upgrade

Getting the OS