niels / Software / #linux,#ubuntu

Removing LUKS full-disk encryption

My homelab server is a NUC running Ubuntu that I previously used as a desktop. To ensure it automatically boots up after a power-failure I wanted to disable the LUKS full disk encryption that I use on all my desktops and laptops. GRUB method For some reason most how-to’s out there use this method: Generate […]

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niels / Software / #linux,#ubuntu

Preferring IPv4 over IPv6

As explained in my previous post, I get my IPv6 subnet through a tunnelbroker. This is a great way to use IPv6 when your Internet provider does not yet support it. There’s a downside though: the tunnel adds overhead in terms of both latency and a lower MTU. It also introduces an additional point where […]

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niels / Software / #linux,#snap,#wayland,#zsh

Snap apps with Wayland and Zsh

There’s are two longstanding issues using snap apps in Ubuntu. Two issues that still exist in Ubuntu 20.04 beta. Snap apps don’t show up in Gnome’s Activities view when using Wayland instead of Xorg. Snap apps cannot be started from the command-line when using zsh instead of bash. Looking into this, I ran into numerous […]

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niels / Software / #vpn

Linux L2TP/IPSec with iPhone and Mac OS/X clients

After moving to China I ran into a few issues that got me to install a VPN. Namely: Latency. I frequently use SSH to access remote servers in US and EU and for some reason the latency here is terrible. Running SSH over a VPN seems to resolve this. A nice bonus is that idle […]

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niels / Software /

RMVB files on (64-bit) Linux

The Chinese like to share their movies in RMVB (RealMedia) format as opposed to Xvid or DivX. Not sure why it got to be so popular (I would prefer the more open Xvid), but the file sizes and quality it produces are quite good. A problem I ran into is that mplayer/vlc don’t seem to […]

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niels / Software /

AliPay on GNU/Linux

AliPay is the Paypal of China and hard to ignore if you want to use websites like TaoBao (the Chinese eBay.) Unlike Paypal however, it requires ActiveX components or Firefox plugins to function. Getting this to work on Linux can be a pain if you don’t read Chinese. So here’s in English: Download http://blog.alipay.com/wp-content/2008/10/aliedit.tar.gz Extract […]

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niels / Software /

Google Gears 64-bit

Links to outdated and potentially dangerous binaries have been removed. While eagerly installing Offline Gmail on my computers I ran into the fact the Google Gears is actually not available for 64-bit Linux. I managed to find a number of builds out there, but none that would actually work for me with Offline Gmail or […]

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