Ubuntu 16.04 Login Screen Issues

Posted on February 15, 2017 by admin

This post is not meant to be a how to, but rather a compilation commands that could be helpful in trying to fix issues with the login screen after an upgrade.

These commands should be executed from a prompt, you can get to one using the ctrl+alt+f1 (you can replace f1 with any of the function keys from 1-7), or you can boot up from recovery, or you could mount the drive and chroot into it.

Reinstall Desktop and Login Manager

sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm ubuntu-desktop

If your using using Gnome Shell

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gdm3 gnome-shell

Reconfigure lightdm, set it as the default login manager

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Replace GDM with LightDM

sudo apt-get remove gdm3 
sudo apt-get install lightdm

Installing GDM (Gnome Login Manager)

sudo apt-get install gdm3

Remove Intel video and Plymouth

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-intel plymouth

Reboot, get to a prompt and reinstall login manager, replace lightdm with whatever one your using

sudo apt-get install --reinstall lightdm

Reinstall Intel video and Plymouth

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel plymouth

Install Ubuntu Gnome Desktop

This seems to solve some of the issues with GDM3 not starting up.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop

Install Slackcat on Raspberry Pi (Raspbian)

Posted on January 14, 2017 by admin

Slackcat allows you to send Slack messages from the Linux command line.

Update pi

sudo apt-get update

Install Ruby and other components

sudo apt-get install ruby1.9.1 ruby ruby-dev rubygems

Install Slackcat

sudo gem install slackcat

Use Slackcat. You will need to generate an API Key from Slacks website.

echo "Hello World" | slackcat -k API-KEY -p --channels=#CHANNEL_NAME

Examples :
Send to Channel

echo "Hello World" | slackcat -k xoxp-94827839414-94819543146-441447827184-h7dt2hg2h8ggs7d24ce638edrw9q8def -p --channels=#General

Send Direct Message

echo "Hello World" | slackcat -k xoxp-94827839414-94819543146-441447827184-h7dt2hg2h8ggs7d24ce638edrw9q8def -p --users=#General

How to view hidden EFI partition on Mac drive

Posted on January 10, 2017 by admin

Open a terminal and run the following command to list your hard drives

diskutil list

It should return something similar to the following

bobs-MacBook:~ bob$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1000.1 GB  disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            999.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Install macOS Sierra    7.0 GB     disk2s2

bobs-MacBook:~ bob$

From above we see that the EFI partition on the main drive is disk0s1.

Make a directory for it to mount to

sudo mkdir /Volumes/TMPEFI

Mount it.

sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/TMPEFI

It should now show up in finder for you to browse.

To unmount it simple eject it in Finder, or use one of the following commands

umount /Volumes/TMPEFI

diskutil unmount /Volumes/TMPEFI

How to Create a Bootable macOS USB drive for Hackintosh with Clover

Posted on January 10, 2017 by admin

Whats needed

Bootable macOS USB drive (Guide here)
Clover (Download here, or on source forge)
Computer running macOS to run clover from

Plug the drive into your Mac, or current Hackintosh and launch the Clover installation package you downloaded from above. Click Continue

And continue again.

Select “Change Install Location”

Select your macOS Sierra Drive. NOT YOUR main OS drive

Hit Continue, it’ll take you back to the screen before, now select Customize on the left and select the following options.

Now Install.

You should now be able to boot the USB on a PC. You will need to change the settings on the PC to boot using EFI, and make sure your hardware is compatible.

Create Bootable macOS Sierra drive

Posted on January 10, 2017 by admin

You’ll need the following

USB drive 8GB+
macOS Sierra

The easy way to create a bootable macOS drive is by executing the following command. This assumes your USB drive is named USBDrive and your macOS Sierra installer is in the Applications folder. Change if needed.

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBDrive --applicationpath /Applications/Desktop/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

It’ll ask you for confirmation and then proceed to wipe the USB drive and put macOS on it. Do note that it will erase the contents of the drive, so make sure you don’t have anything important on it.

Non interactive

You can add the option “–nointeraction” to have it not ask for confirmation.

Example :

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/USBDrive --applicationpath /Applications/Desktop/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --nointeraction

Installing macOS Sierra on Alienware 18 – Notes

Posted on January 6, 2017 by admin

Note : This is not a complete guide to Installing macOS Sierra on an Alienware, mainly just some notes for now. Everything here should apply to the Alienware 14 and 17, and maybe some of the newer ones 15 R1, 17 R2, etc.

You will need to either patch the kernel for the Haswell CPU, or enable it from clover when booting up. If you don’t, the system will reboot on start up (See Troubleshooting section).

You may need to boot with the nv_disable=1 option if you don’t have a supported nvidia card

Creating the Boot Drive

Download macOS Sierra
Download Clover (Download from SourceForge, or here)

Create the boot drive just like you normally would and then run clover. When you install Clover, be sure to CHANGE THE INSTALL LOCATION to the USB drive.

Also select the following options when installing clover.

Install for UEFI booting only
Install Clover in the ESP
Drivers64UEFI
- OsxAptioFixDrv-64

After that is finished, you should be good to go. Setup the Alienware BIOS for UEFI, and boot from the USB drive. Install like you normally would.

POST Install

More coming later…

Troubleshooting

Alienware reboots after selecting the macOS drive in Clover.
Issue is related to the unpatched kernel for Haswell.

Fix :

Once you get to clover, hit “o” this will give you the options menu
Select “Binaries patching->“
Select “Kernel PM Patch“
Go back to the main menu
Select the macOS drive and hit “Space Bar”
1. Select the other options you want i.e.(safe mode, nv_disabled, etc.), and hit “Boot macOS with selected options“

Black screen after selecting the macOS boot drive
Looks like the issue is some sort of incompatible hardware. I had a wifi card that was causing trouble.

Fix:

Disable wireless card in BIOS.

Kernel Panic
Could be any number of things:(

Things to try,

Boot in safe mode

Boot to clover
Select the macOS drive
Hit the “Space Bar”
Select the option that says “Safe mode”
1. Hit “Boot with selected Options”

Set Bash as users default shell

Posted on November 28, 2016 by admin

You can change the default shell for a Linux user with the following command. Change “/bin/bash” to whatever shell you want and replace USERNAME with the Linux user.

chsh /bin/bash USERNAME

Enter in the users password and then log out and back in and the users shell will be whatever shell you specified. In this case bash.

You can also do this by manually editing the /etc/passwd file. Find the user by their username, and then replace the last part of the line with the new shell path.

Some Linux distributions (like Kali Linux) use /bin/sh as the default shell for new users. Changing it to bash makes the shell a little more usable.

Kali Linux Mirrors

Posted on November 15, 2016 by admin

I had issues after installing Kali Linux with apt not working, ended up there were no repositories in the apt sources list, added the following line and did an apt-get update and everything started working.

Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://http.kali.org/kali kali-rolling main non-free contrib

Update

apt-get update

And dist upgrade

apt-get dist-upgrade

You may need to reboot.

reboot

How To Install OS X Mountain Lion on Dell Latitude E6410

Posted on November 10, 2016 by admin

This is basically a summarized version of the guide over on OSXLatitude.

Credits go to patel4prez over at osxlatitude.com for the work, instructions, and files to get this working!

Original Guide : http://forum.osxlatitude.com/index.php?/topic/1695-e6410-with-nvidia-nvs-3100m-graphics-mountain-lion-guide/

These instructions are for the Latitude E6410 with NVIDIA NVS 3100m Graphics.

What is needed

OS X Mountain Lion Installer
USB Drive 8GB or larger, and preferably a fast one
1. E6410ML.zip file which contains some extras and applications

Create Bootable USB Drive

Locate your OS X Mountain Lion Installer file in Finder, right click on it and “Show Package Contents”, then go to “Contents” > “SharedSupport” and copy the “InstallESD.dmg” to your Desktop.

Unzip the E6410ML file and open up the Applications folder and launch myHack

Enter Password and select Create OS X Installer > Create OS X 10.8 Install Disk > Select the Correct USB drive, and then select the InstallESD.dmg when it wants the install file.

Run myHack again once it creates the drive and select Install Extra. Select the correct USB drive, and then select Use My Own, select the Extra folder in the E6410ML folder.

Now run Kext Wizard(Inside the same folder as myHack)

In Kext Wizard go to the Installation Tab and Select kext to Install: Browse, select the S/L/E folder in the E6410ML folder, select all the kext files and hit open. Check the box to Backup kexts, set the Destination to System/Library/Extensions, set the Target Disk to the USB drive and Install. Once finished go back to the Maintenance Tab, select all the check boxes, set Target Disk as the USB Drive and Execute.

Copy over the E6410ML folder to the USB drive. You need it for the last part of the install.

Install

You will need to set the BIOS to use AHCI

Select the USB drive on boot up

Install like you normally would. You will probably need to reformat the hard drive.

Towards the end, you will be asked for an Extra file, select use my own and select the one you copied over to the USB drive.

Hit Yes to the following three prompts that pop up.

Post Install

Run through the whole setup process

Open up System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Click the lock at the bottom left > enter password > Allow applications from Anywhere

Open up the myHack USB install drive > Open up the E6410ML folder > then go to Applications and launch Kext Wizard

Next go to the Maintenance Tab and Select all the check boxes, make sure the Target disk is the hard drive you installed OS X to, and then hit Execute.

Now open up Chimera (It is in the same place as Kext Wizard) and go through the install process.

Reboot! You should have working Hackintosh! You can follow the rest of the steps if you want sound.

Once you log back in, open up the E6410ML folder again and go to VoodooHDA and install the pkg. It will say it failed, but continue anyway.

Open Kext Wizard back up and under the Installation Tab hit Browse and navigate to the VoodooHDA.kext (it is in the same folder as the VoodooHDA pkg) select Destination as System/Library/Extensions and hit Install.

Go back to the Maintenance Tab, select all the check boxes and Execute.

Next open up System Preferences > Users & Groups > Your Username > Login Items > hit the + then hit CMD+SHIFT+G all at once and type /vhda select Go and select the VoodoooHDASettingsLoader.app, hit Add > Check the box to Hide it

Reboot and you should have a mostly working hackintosh with sound.

Run Speedtest on Ubiquiti Devices from Command Line

Posted on November 9, 2016 by admin

This utilizes iperf to test the speed between two Ubiquiti devices.

SSH into first device and start iperf server on one device

iperf -s

SSH into the second device and run the following command to start the speedtest. Change the ip address to the iperf server ip.

iperf -c 192.168.1.20 -P5

The “-P” Option sets the thread count to 5. It makes the test a little bit more realistic.

Example:

XM.v5.6.9# iperf -c 192.168.1.20 -P5
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.1.20, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  5] local 192.168.1.1 port 51493 connected with 192.168.1.20 port 5001
[  9] local 192.168.1.1 port 51497 connected with 192.168.1.20 port 5001
[  6] local 192.168.1.1 port 51494 connected with 192.168.1.20 port 5001
[  8] local 192.168.1.1 port 51496 connected with 192.168.1.20 port 5001
[  7] local 192.168.1.1 port 51495 connected with 192.168.1.20 port 5001

[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  9]  0.0-10.0 sec  4.91 MBytes  4.12 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  6]  0.0-10.0 sec  4.97 MBytes  4.16 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  8]  0.0-10.0 sec  4.86 MBytes  4.08 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  7]  0.0-10.0 sec  4.94 MBytes  4.13 Mbits/sec
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  5]  0.0-10.0 sec  5.00 MBytes  4.19 Mbits/sec
[SUM]  0.0-10.0 sec  24.7 MBytes  20.7 Mbits/sec
XM.v5.6.9#