Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Macbook Pro with Nvidia 320M black screen after sleeping

After a recent update some time around March 2016, a Macbook Pro with Nvidia 320M GPU running Ubuntu 15.10 would stop waking from sleep - the keyboard would light up but the screen remained off.

It is running Linux 4.2.0-35-generic with Nvidia 340.96 binary driver installed.  Trying to modprobe the nvidia module produces the error:

modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:816 kmod_module_insert_module() could not find module by name='nvidia_340'
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'nvidia_340': Function not implemented
Trying earlier recent kernel & nvidia versions did not yield any success.

The Workaround

Install gcc-4.9 and adjust links to use 4.9 versions for:
/usr/bin/gcc
/usr/bin/gpp 
Ref:
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/902950/linux/-solved-faulty-340-9x-drivers-with-kernels-4-2-x-and-4-3-x/



Thursday, March 17, 2016

EF Falcon specifications

Engine oil: ESE M2C 153E API CLASS SG/CD,SG/CE Grade: 15W/40 (preferred),  15W/50, 20W/40, 20W/50, 25W/50 (Motorcraft R1 300-5L)
 6cyl: 5.5L
 8cyl: 5L

Manual transmission: 1.9L
 ESR M2C 163A (Dexron II) - ATF (Motorcraft R1-36)

Auto trans fluid: 4.0L
 Castrol TQ-95 (recommended)
  (TQ 95 is also suitable for power steering systems where General Motors or Ford type fluids are recommended)
 Shell ATF XTR
 Valvoline ATF Type 95LE
 Mobil ATF 95LE

Power steering fluid: 0.95L
 ESR M2C 163A (Dexron II) (Motorcraft R1-36)
 or  DEX III or Type F or TQ-95




Friday, November 20, 2015

Sintron 3D Printer Kossel Mini Reprap review

**DO NOT BUY this printer **



  • No assembly instructions are provided with the components
  • The instructions are only provided when you email the seller
  • The instructions provided are for a different kit that has many different components
  • The instructions provided are incomplete
    • Does not show how to mount the printing bed
    • Does not detail the connections correctly
    • Does not detail the process of setting up the firmware
  • The photo shown on the Ebay listing is not a working printer - the top platform is not mounted with the tensioning screws and there are a lot more wires!
  • The design of the "auto-levelling probe" is unworkable - again configuration is not detailed in the instructions, but the main problem is that is simply too flimsy and grabs in the slot provided.
  • Some of the nuts on the extruder holder cannot fit due to misshaped parts.
  • The tie-rod ends bind and cause the extruder to jump.
  • The aluminium arms do not tighten firmly against the plastic unless some of the plastic is filed off.
  • Several of the nuts & bolts bind and are defective. The screws are obviously cheap and don't fit common drivers well.  Not enough washers were supplied.
  • My unit was supplied with a faulty PTC fuse for the heat bed.
I am very dissatisfied with this printer.  Getting to the point of testing the printer has taken weeks, far longer than it should have.  The screws holding the tie-rod ends are not a neat fit and the binding on the tie-rods at the outer reaches of the printer causes the print head to jump and jerk the whole machine. The heating of the heat-bed has caused the stepper motors to get very hot and distort the corner pieces - now the stepper motors are angled which is distorting the drive belt.

The printer parts seem to be assembled in China and the design is of poor quality.
What a piece of crap!

If you have bought this printer....:

Here is how I mounted the top corners so that you can tension the belts - take care to install the corner pieces the right way up (nut hole towards the bottom):
You will need to cut the belts (this isn't explained in the instructions).  I think this uses washers that were supposed to be used for mounting the heat bed... need to find some more for there.  

Try to mount the heat bed away from the stepper motors (i.e. somehow lift it ~10mm).

Measure the heights from the bottom corners to the tops - these should all be the same to indicate the aluminium poles are inserted all the way in the bottom pieces. This is required to ensure a flat base platform which is essential to get the printing started.

Download the latest (1.6) Arduino software from www.arduino.cc - the 1.0.5 version gave me unresolvable G++ errors on my Linux system.  Use the Arduino software to compile & upload the Marlin firmware over USB - you will need to correct a few code errors - adding spaces or commenting out some lines.

Install Printrun, which provides Pronterface which can be used to send G-codes to control the printer. When you have Printrun working execute some commands to put the head near the plate like:
G28 ; find the home position (top)
G1 X0 Y0 Z50 ; go to 50mm above the bed
 - then step down towards zero - you will need to modify MANUAL_Z_HOME_POS in Configuration.h firmware file to calibrate the correct height of your printer.  Carefully send the printer to various positions to check your platform is level.

Install Slic3r which can be used to "slice" a STL file into G-code.

Monday, October 26, 2015

Configure Exim on Debian Wheezy

apt-get install exim4

To support recent IOS devices you need to generate a 2048-bit SSL certificate.

Add TCP port 587 to the listening ports by editing /etc/default/exim4.

To support local account authentication for SMTP over SSL submission port 587 uncomment out the sslauthd section, ref: https://wiki.debian.org/Exim%C2%A0

Exim defaults to IPv6 before IPv4. To ensure you can send mail to Gmail accounts and other systems review Google's identification guidelines: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126?p=ipv6_authentication_error&rd=1#authentication

To disable IPv6:
nano /etc/exim4/exim4.conf.template
   disable_ipv6 = true
update-exim4.conf
/etc/init.d/exim4 restart
Alternatively, you can disable just IPv6 DNS by only using the IPv4 DNS:
    dns_ipv4_lookup = *

If receiving email from the Internet, greylisting is a fairly effective anti-spam technique. Install greylistd and adjust the RetryMin to 60 (to minimise delays) and use greylistd-setup-exim4 to change the netmask to 16 to minimize issues with mail from large organisations such as Google, Yahoo and ISP's who use multiple servers for sending.

To use SpamAssassin with Exim, the easiest way is to install exim4-daemon-heavy and spamassassin.  The daemon-heavy package is required because it provides the exiscan-acl feature which allows the data content to be scanned during receival. Copy the applicable block from here into exim4.conf.template: https://wiki.bitlair.nl/Pages/Projects/Mailserver_with_Debian,_Exim,_spamassassin,_greylistd,_DKIM,_SRS,_SPF,_DMARC,_forwarding,_LDAP,_dovecot,_LMTP,_disk_crypto#Exim_spamd_integration

If setting up a Backup MX, you will probably want to create a file containing a list of email addresses to accept mail for since they are not local users. Be aware there is a bug in the exim4.conf.template if you use CHECK_RCPT_LOCAL_ACL_FILE because update-exim.conf will insist you use a ACL name in the file, but that will cause the acl_check_rcpt to return an implicit deny, stopping all incoming emails since it no longer reaches the accept that is at the end of that ACL. Just add the deny line into the template near that section. E.g:
deny
 message That user is not in my list.
 !recipients = /etc/exim4/recipients_whitelist





Sunday, October 25, 2015

Run your own DynDNS server on Debian Linux

This outline assumes you own your own domain and manage the DNS servers running Debian Wheezy or Jessie with:

  • bind9 for DNS
  • lighttp for webserver
  • php5
apt-get install bind9
 - configure your zone.

apt-get install lighttp php5-cgi

Configure SSL:
 lighty-enable-mod ssl
 openssl ...


Configure authentication:
 lighty-enable-mod auth
 echo username:realm:`md5sum password | cut -b -32` >> /etc/lighttpd/.htpasswd/htdigest.user
Enable PHP:
 lighty-enable-mod fastcgi
 lighty-enable-mod fastcgi-php

Configure Virtual Hosting:
 lighty-enable-mod simple-vhost
 mkdir -p /srv/yourdomain.com/htdocs/update

Copy nsupdate.php from:
 https://github.com/chip-rosenthal/web-nsupdate

Modify the nsupdate.php:
 nsupdate -l

Allow www-data to read the session key to perform updates:
 chgrp www-data /var/run/named/session.key
 chmod g+r /var/run/named/session.key


Friday, August 7, 2015

Installing Horde on Debian Jessie

Starting with base system installed.
Install the Email server (MTA):
We need a working mail system, here we use sendmail with dovecot providing IMAP:
 apt-get install sendmail

Configure domain & SMTP settings:
 nano /etc/mail/local-host-names
   mydomain.com
 nano /etc/sendmail.mc
   MASQUERADE_DOMAIN(mydomain.com)
 make -C /etc/mail
 /etc/init.d/sendmail reload

Install an IMAP provider:
 apt-get install dovecot-imapd
Allow plaintext authentication temporarily (or configure TLS certificate?):
 nano /etc/mail/...
Test a local user authentication:
 telnet 143
 a login
 b select inbox

Install the web server:
 apt-get install apache2

Install the database server:
There are no instructions or guides explaining how to use sqlite, so we will use postgresql since it has fewer dependencies than mysql. We need to create a user and a blank database that will be used by Horde.
 apt-get install postgresql
  su - postgres
  psql
  ALTER USER horde PASSWORD 'new-password';
  CREATE horde
  \q
Test the new postgresql user:
psql -U horde -W 
Install Horde:
 apt-get install php-horde-webmail
 apt-get install php5-postgres
 webmail-install
 cd /etc/horde/imp
 cp backends.php backends.local.php
 nano backends.local.php
  (remove unnecessary lines)
  (change the imap 'secure' setting from 'tls' to 'no security')
 /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Try to log in via web interface, using a local user account:
 http://server/horde/

Create an Administrator:
 ???
*Debian php-horde includes a script at /usr/share/php/data/horde/scripts/sql
that sets an Administrator user, but it's use is not documented.

Try to access the admin site:
 http://server/horde/admin/config

Enable SMTP
Set up the receive domain:
 nano /etc/mail/local-host-names
   mydomain.com

Set up the email address aliases:
 nano /etc/mail/aliases
  aliasname: username

Enable SMTP daemon to listen on all IP addresses:
 nano /etc/mail/sendmail.mc
   DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet,  Name=MTA-v4, Port=smtp, Addr=0.0.0.0')dnl
 /etc/init.d/sendmail restart