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Using the SonicWall Connect Tunnel with Firefox on a Chromebook

Yes, you read that correctly. Firefox on a Chromebook! Without tricks. Or at least, not many tricks. Why? When you want to use the SonicWall Connect Tunnel software (from the SMA 1000 Series) on your Chromebook the suggested SonicWall Mobile Connect app does not work properly. I don’t know why, but there is a solution. The solution In one sentence: install the (Java based) SonicWall VPN Connect Tunnel software and… Read More »Using the SonicWall Connect Tunnel with Firefox on a Chromebook

Compact WSL partition and reclaim storage space

Start PowerShell Find where your WSL vhdx file is located. Usually under: C:\Users\yourname\AppData\Local\Package\Linuxdistroflavour\LocalState\ext4.vhdx Start diskpart (from PowerShell or CMD): diskpart.exe Run: select vdisk file=”C:\Users\Jan van den Berg\AppData\Local\Packages\TheDebianProject.DebianGNULinux_76v4gfsz19hv4\LocalState\ext4.vhdx” and next: compact vdisk

I don’t understand terminals, shells and SSH

Confession time: I don’t fully understand how terminals, shells and SSH really work (and my guess is you don’t either). And I don’t mean the cryptography behind SSH. I mean how SSH and the terminal — and the shell for that matter — interact with one another. I recently realized that even though I’ve been daily remotely logging into Linux systems for all of my adult life (and type in… Read More »I don’t understand terminals, shells and SSH

Using Windows OpenSSH Agent with Windows Terminal and Cygwin

  • Tech

I am back to running Windows Terminal + Cygwin, after a stint with MobaXterm. I blogged about it before. Why: In the end MobaXterm just had too many quirks. Specifically when changing screens — docking / undocking which I do a lot during the day. However, one thing I really did like about MobaXterm was the integrated SSH agent (MobAgent). That part worked really well. That was what kept me… Read More »Using Windows OpenSSH Agent with Windows Terminal and Cygwin

Windows Terminal + Cygwin

[UPDATE July 2022: I switched to using MobaXterm which does the job just fine. I don’t like that it is not free/open but I do like that it comes with an integrated SSH agent, which makes life a lot easier] I had been a happy WSL1 user for many years, but after switching laptops I more or less had to upgrade to WSL2. Which is the same thing but not… Read More »Windows Terminal + Cygwin

Bypassing Hetzner mail port block (port 25/465)

I recently switched my VPS from Linode to Hetzner. I got more CPU, RAM and storage for less money. Pretty good right? However it wasn’t after I migrated that I found out Hetzner blocks all outgoing port 25 and 465 traffic. At least; for the first month for new customers. This means my new server cannot talk SMTP with the rest of the world i.e. my server cannot send mail!… Read More »Bypassing Hetzner mail port block (port 25/465)

Migrating a LAMP VPS

I recently switched my LAMP virtual server to a different VPS provider. The LAMP server that is serving you this site. So the migration worked! Here are the steps, for future reference. Mostly for myself, but maybe you — someone who came here from Google — can use this too. This should work on any small to medium sized VPS. Let’s go! Lower your DNS records TTL value When you… Read More »Migrating a LAMP VPS

Use find (1) as a quick and dirty duplicate file finder

Run the following two commands in bash to get a listing of all duplicate files (from a directory or location). This can help you clean out duplicate files that sometimes accumulate over time. The first command uses find to print all files (and specific attributes) from a specific location to a file, prefixing the size of the file in the name. This way all files with the same filename and… Read More »Use find (1) as a quick and dirty duplicate file finder

Save data from your broken Raspberry Pi SD card with GNU ddrescue

This week my Pi stopped working. After hooking up a monitor I saw kernel errors related to VFS. So the file system was obviously broken. Oops. The end conclusion is that the SD card is physically ‘broken’, but I still managed to salvage my data — which is more important than the card. Here’s how. Broken file system: fsck or dd? What didn’t work for me, but you might want… Read More »Save data from your broken Raspberry Pi SD card with GNU ddrescue

Linux server principles

This is a list, in no particular order, of principles to adhere when running a secure Linux server. SSH – Never allow direct SSH root access (set PermitRootLogin No). SSH – Do not use SSH keys without a passphrase. SSH – If possible, do not run SSH on a public IP interface (preferably use a management VLAN). SSH/SSL – Use strong SSH ciphers and MAC algorithms (Check with https://testssl.sh/). Never… Read More »Linux server principles

Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary

This book had been sitting on my to-read list for way too long! But I finally found a second hand copy, so here we go! You could say this is the official autobiography of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. The Operating System that changed the world! You can wake me up in the middle of the night to talk about operating systems. So this book is right up my… Read More »Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary