Backup FireFox Bookmarks and Favorite Extensions

Yes this seems to be an obvious option to find, but for years I have been using an extension called FEBE with FireFox which now no longer exists. So I finally used DuckGo to find the solution and here it is :-) So now when I change my hardware everything can easily be moved to the new machine. It's a shame I cannot export FireFox passwords but I guess that is a good thing, I also use Keepass2 which works just as good.

These extensions I cannot live without, especially the NoScript which is my all time favorite.

Installing Arduino IDE on Linux Mint 18.3

I have always had a problem installing this piece of software, you can download the archived file from here https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software


Once unarchived you need to run the ./install.sh in a terminal to create the desktop icon. Up to this point everything worked fine, until I plugged the USB cable from the computer to the Arduino board.

Loading up the example blink sketch, then sending it to the UNO resulted in an error message which unfortunately I cannot display because I have resolved the problem.

The problem was the UNO was not recognized on any port, so searching DuckGo I needed to find a BASH command that tells me what is connected to the usb ports. lsusb

which was actually pointless, all it told me was the UNO device
Bus 003 Device 006: ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics HL-340 USB-Serial adapter. I have no idea what to do with that information. So I played around with the Tools/Ports option in the IDE, choosing between /dev0/ttys4 try uploading, /dev/ttys0 try uploading again, same error. These were the only 2 options, until 5mins later, I looked again lo and behold a third option appeared,
/dev/ttyUSB. This has to be it, so tried uploading sketch again and bugger me a new error appeared LoL.

this time access denied. In fact this is something I remember from previous installations so back to DuckGo and find those BASH commands that allows me access.

sudo usermod -a -G dialout <your login name>

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/ttyUSB0

Not sure about the second line (didn't use it)  but all works perfectly now, so expect some Arduino Projects coming up very soon.

Twitch Experience: I Gots Me A Webcam

After 2 weeks on Twitch it was time to hook up a Webcam. I'm not sure how I would feel about this so the obvious thing to do was to quickly get my hands on a cheap webcam. $1.00 from Trademe, even though it was only 480p, perfect for what I want to do for now and in 3 days was on my doorstep.

You would think a simple device like this would work perfectly the moment you inserted the USB plug. Well yes, kind of. I got no indication/alert telling me a new hardware device has become available. So now what. Linux Software Manager opened to find a webcam program which resulted in a program called Cheese. Installed, ran it, it didn't acknowledge the presence of the webcam. For the next hour I was singing a different version of "Oh happy days" until I decided to do a reboot. It works, hallelujah! I see me on screen and go, geez who's this ugly bugga.

So I closed down Cheese, set up my Twitching environment, added a source using the webcam option, and it did not find the webcam. Here we go, another chorus of "Oh happy days" starts. So once again, started up Cheese and yes, once again Cheese didn't acknowledge the webcam. Well the obvious conclusion was, if you wish to use the webcam that day, do not close webcam window because if you do, you have to reboot the computer!

Using Cheese was fine, but I wanted to use the webcam without this program, it has issues and every time it crashes it was reboot time, so it was BASH time:-

ls -ltr /dev/video*

Use this to find what port Linux recognises the webcam

mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480:device=/dev/video0 -fps 60

This will bring up a window showing, well your face :-)
It is this window I use as the source for OBS

Yes the quality is awful, and I intend on getting a real webcam like a Logitech 920 after watching and talking to Jade from Twitch.

Linux Mint 18.3 Dual Monitor Problem

Should really add a third monitor, two doesn't cut it anymore.

This has bugged me for a few months now, not being able to use a second monitor that I have been accustomed to for many years is unacceptable. Recently I came across a work-around solution from the Linux Mint forums.

"dpm" support, must be selected at boot (via radeon.dpm=1) and is only supported on R6xx and newer asics.

Which then suggested the following modifications

To test this when the grub menu appears press e (for edit) then replace the nomodeset (if there) with radeon=dpm=1. Press f10 to boot this session with the change.
Of course to make the change stick you must edit, as root, /etc/default/grub and change the
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= line to include radeon.dpm=1
eg GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="radeon.dpm=1 quiet splash"
Then run sudo update-grub.

Upon doing these changes followed by a reboot it didn't work. The funny thing was I remember a few years ago someone else had this exact same problem, who suggested after the reboot, save the session, log out, then log in.

It worked, both monitors fired up with Linux Mint logo shown on each. Going through the monitor settings each monitor was identified correctly.

Here's the problem:
It's not a permanent solution, if the computer reboots/shutsdown for any reason, you lose the dual monitor display once again, unless you log out, log in again. A minor inconvenience but knowing it's a temporary solution just doesn't sit right with me.


Now from that Forum post it referred to the Radeon website where he found the solution. This suggests to me that this particular Linux Mint distribution didn't compensate for this particular problem on its release for this grapics card. I really don't have a problem with this because with each release there is bound to be bugs/errors. Creating a Linux distribution is huge and involves a lot of time and people, it's just that waiting for the next upgrade can take months.

References:-

Post from the Linux Mint Forums

Mentioned Radeon Link

In the mean time, I'm looking at trying a different distribution called MX Linux, there has been some good reviews on YouTube about this. Check out their homepage: https://mxlinux.org/.

Partitioning Hard Drives GPT or MBR

Apple Hards Drives : JK Hard Drives & 1 Apple.

So it is time to do a clean out from all the PC gear I've accumulated over many years. I have doubts any of these are reliable and even if some do read/write I probably would still throw them out. Hence when it comes to precious data you are going to feel a lot more secure buying new, and even with new you cannot guarantee they don't fail in a short period of time.

Routinely Back Up Everything Everywhere!

So now that I have a more recent Linux Mint OS, the moment I install a new HD and wish to get it ready, I always create new partition tables.

In keeping up with using the newest technology trends, from now on all partition tables are going to be created using the GTP format.

Here is an excellent website that explains the differences between the new GTP against the traditional MBR tables, check then out - How-To-Geek .