Author: Nayar

Published on by Nayar

Mounting Pendrives at Boot on Raspberry Pi (or Not)

Raspberry Pi with PendriveWell, I got a pendrive that I want to be automounted on my Raspberry Pi. Simple as hell. Do an $ lsblk command. Find the drive name. Mine was /dev/sda1.

I edited the /etc/fstab file to automount it at boot

/dev/sda1       /mnt/externaldrive      auto    defaults     0       0

Problem is that when the pendrive was not on the raspberry pi, the latter would refuse to boot properly. Even the WiFi or ethernet doesn’t work. Had to actually plug in my TV’s HDMI cable to view the boot error messages.

Some googling after, found this page: http://askubuntu.com/questions/14365/mount-an-external-drive-at-boot-time-only-if-it-is-plugged-in

Edited my /etc/fstab like this now. Notice the nofail option.

/dev/sda1 /mnt/externaldrive auto nofail,auto 0 0

Now I can boot with either a pendrive in or not. 😉

Published on by Nayar

Think my 32GB MicroSD died on me

And I didn’t make a backup of it since quite some time. Lost quite some photos 🙁 Been using the card since like 4 years now.

lsblk shows the disk as 30.6mB

root@nayarpersonal-Satellite-L50-A:~# lsblk
NAME           MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
mmcblk0        179:0    0  30.6M  0 disk

Same result with fdisk

root@nayarpersonal-Satellite-L50-A:~# fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 30.6 MiB, 32096256 bytes, 62688 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I tried dd’ing the disk onto an image but the image size turned out to be 31mB which doesn’t help at all into recovery.

 

Searching on the internet, didn’t find someone who managed to fix it except for a guy who put it in oven. Weird.

Advice: always backup your datas!!!

Published on by Nayar

Review: Firemax FM316 Tyres at Tiremaster LTD

Got my VW Polo (Mk3/6n) some new Tyres recently at Tiremaster LTD located at Curepipe. Very nice and professional service I must say.

Volkswagen Polo Mk3

Bought a set of 2 Tires of the size 155/70R13 for Rs 1668, i.e. Rs 834 each, including mounting and balancing. I’m not sure it was Nitrogen filled as per what the ad said. I simply forgot about it.

The advertisement also said “European Quality Tyres” but actually they are from China of the brand ‘Firemax’. I guess it’s only about the ‘standards’.

Firemax FM318 FF101

I love the new Tyres. The steering wheel feels much much lighter. I don’t have to stress that much so as to be able to park or do some quick maneuvers. I guess 155/70R13 tyres have smaller contact width that 155/80R13 ones. I remind you this car doesn’t has power steering. Now it feels like as if it did have PS 😛

I don’t feel any vibrations when going above 100km/h on the motorway. Driving on bumpy roads feels a bit more firm but it is still a very comfortable ride.

Are the tyres durable? Only time can tell. Rumour says typical tyres last about 2 years. We’ll see how they perform with time as they wear out.

Published on by Nayar

n00b Review: Kubuntu 16.04 LTS

Paradigm shifts are very small in KDE as compared to what gnome and other workspaces offer in their upgrades. This might make following KDE upgrade kinda boring or unexciting. KDE’s look the same since maybe decades. This is one of the reasons people prefer KDE 😉

The desktop

After a fresh install. Here’s what you see. Nothing.

Kubuntu 16.04 Desktop

Look at how ugly the KDE Cashew button has become. It used to be so beautiful in previous releases.

Kubuntu 1604 Cashew

No more events and holidays shown in Calendar Widget :(. Maybe the feature might come in the future.

Calendar Widget Kubuntu 16.04

Start menu

Pressing the “start” icon. Nothing. I’d expect at least a browser and file manager there. How would people coming from Microsoft Windows get a hint where to start exploring?

Kubuntu 16.04 Start Menu

What? The icons are still like KDE 4 era?

Kubuntu 16.04 icons

Dolphin

No visible regressions nor visible improvements.

Dolphin in Kubuntu 16.04

System Monitor

Same

System Monitor in Kubuntu 16.04

New Screenshot App: Spectacle

Well. Like the previous app except that now it names the screenies with the time in the filename (‘Screenshot_20160424_141321.png’). Nice

Kubuntu 16.04 screenshot app: Spectacle

Kontact

Never worked 100% with me. In KDE 4, I couldn’t rely on it to bring me my mails and alert me. It would just stop working for no apparent reason and work again later. First time opening Kontact in Kubuntu 16.04. It looks like this:

Kontact in Kubuntu 16.04

Don’t think it is production ready. Will it ever be? I guess no one uses it. I’ll still test it in a few days at work.

Other issues:

I don’t seem to be able to drag and drop images from Dolphin or Spectacle to WordPress. Is it just me?

Conclusion:

It is just like KDE 4. Feels like KDE 4. Just maybe feels better (for now) with a refined “new” old look. Good to know that it is running with Qt5 with QML.

If your production Kubuntu 14.04 LTS works well for you, I don’t really see the need to go through the pain of upgrading knowing that the upgrade process *might* break. If you are installing Kubuntu on a new machine, definitely choose 16.04 LTS. Better stay up-to-date on paper 😉

Published on by Nayar

govmu.org: How do I recover my username on the government portal?

Rs 50 millions were spent on making this “web portal”. At the time of writing, internal links are still pointing to gov.mu domain despite the fact that they have migrated to govmu.org. The irony is that contracted company got paid again for the recent URL change.

NTA Fitness still old
http://nta.govmu.org/English/Procedures/Pages/Vehicle-Examination.aspx (18/04/2016)

Anyways, I want to actually use the system. Let’s try to login:

Login on govmu.org

Do you really have username as the “primary key” in your stupid database? I don’t remember my username! It didn’t allow me to use my favorite username at the time of creation because it’s too short.What do I do now? Oh, there is a “Password Forgotten” link below. Let’s have a look at it:

Recover password on govmu.org

NIC Number: OK. It’s on my ID card
Email: I know.
Username: How the fuck will i recall this? There is no “recover username” option. Was this website designed by people who don’t know normalize tables? Or they copied the template of the login form from League of Legends forum or something?

My government spent my money of making an e-Service platform that I CAN’T FUCKING USE!

Oh oh oh. Some might say I just criticize. Why don’t I move my a$$ to help make the website better since I’m an IT professional. Well, put the whole govmu.org source code on Github so that we can amend it for free! Yes. For free!!!

Maybe free means no commission for you Mr the Ministers.