Sunday, August 16. 2015
Linux Disk Utilities: SmartMonTools
Grub Hints
Convert mdm raid 1 to independent disk
convert /dev/md0 to /dev/sda1 - raid 1:
here's metadata at the start of the partition:
mdadm -E /dev/sda1
File system starts at (Data Offset). Use 'fdisk -u /dev/sda', and check partition table with 'p'. Note the start/end, delete it, and recreate it with the first sector being the old number plus the (Data Offset).
Restart KDE/Plasma With Systemd
When trying to get nvidia display drivers installed and configured, the screen would sometimes lock, or go black, or become non-functional.
How to restart X session (KDE) under systemd helped with the background material.
Method One, via the gui: Applications -> Settings -> System Settings -> Input Devices -> Keyboard -> Advanced -> Key Sequence To Kill X Server: ctrl + alt + backspace
Method Two, via the command line:
~$ sudo systemctl list-units | grep -i manager ModemManager.service loaded active running Modem Manager NetworkManager.service loaded active running Network Manager sddm.service loaded active running Simple Desktop Display Manager systemd-udevd.service loaded active running udev Kernel Device Manager udisks2.service loaded active running Disk Manager ~$ sudo systemctl restart sddm.service
Debian Stretch, PulseAudio, and X-Fi 5.1 Sound Card
With a new installation of Debian Stretch with KDE, playing audio was difficult. The only thing that worked was VLC because it talked directly to the hardware.
EagleDM had a few things to say with his article: HowTo] Pulse Audio + X-Fi + K.Koala = Multichannel .
Change /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to reflect the following:"X-Fi works but not in Multichannel due to problems with PulseAudio and the way the X-Fi driver is made."
"X-Fi contrary to the rest of the most common linux drivers is made in a basis of addin "sub-devices" inside the master device, so, basically, PulseAudio has no way to detect that devices (the common Plug51 and Surround51 does NOT work) so, one has to MANUALLY add each sub-device of X-Fi to obtain perfect mapping of all channels."
The changes ... "should put a STOP to PulseAudio trying to detect devices on his own which is the main cause of the lack of 5.1."
"With this setup you are MANUALLY setting up each sub-device with each channel mapping to obtain perfect 5.1 through PulseAudio, the reason I mapped Side channels instead of Surround is because X-Fi uses the typical "surround" channels in a 5.1 configuration as "Side channels", if you need 7.1 instead of 5.1 you can ADD the line "channels=2 channel_map=rear-left,rear-right to the hw=0,1 and change the default channels to 8 in daemon.conf but DO NOT do this for 5.1 since Side channels behave as rear or surround in a 5.1 configuration. (the surround channels MUST be connected to Side Speakers in the X-Fi back)."
Change /etc/pulse/default.pa to reflect the following:default-sample-format = s16le default-sample-rate = 48000 default-sample-channels = 6 default-fragments = 8 default-fragment-size-msec = 10
### Load audio drivers statically (it's probably better to not load ### these drivers manually, but instead use module-hal-detect -- ### see below -- for doing this automatically) load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0 channels=2 channel_map=front-left,front-right #load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,1 (this is for surround or Back channels in 7.1, no need to put this line in 5.1 setup) load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,2 channels=2 channel_map=center,lfe load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,3 channels=2 channel_map=side-left,side-right
I reboot, and now the browser plays music. The Media panel still doesn't see stuff though, nor can I do speaker tests through it.
Afterwords, I
This provided access to paprefs, pavucontrol, pavumeter, and padevchooser for more direct access to PulseAudio stuff than through Phonon, the KDE multimedia thing, which is said to be still under development.sudo apt-get install padevchooser
Reddit Comments indicate that ALSA is broken and behaves bad with low power devices. And PulseAudio works better from a conversion and buffering approach.
So, next time around, something newer than the X-Fi cards.
- Debian PulseAudio Wiki
- Debian Sound Wiki: which has a link to some interesting Sound and Midi Software for Linux
- Ubuntu Multiple Sound Solution (ALSA w Pulseaudio)
Nvidia Installation on Debian Stretch with Dual GPU, Dual Monitor
For installing Nvidia on a new workstation, I can do better than last time: NVidia on Debian Jessie. The secret this time is to include the kernel related modules up front.
The drivers are closed source binaries, so non-free packages are required:
Then install the packages:$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main non-free contrib deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main non-free contrib
sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig \ nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-kernel-`uname -r`
During installation, the notice about a nouveau nvidia driver conflict can be ignored.
Run nvidia-xconfig to generate a fresh /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. The system will require a reboot to load the new driver and configuration.
Upon reboot, run 'sudo nvidia-settings &' in order to view NVidia's Configuration utility. Click on 'X Server Display Configuration' for monitor setup.
I found that the xinerama doesn't work properly. I can log in to the system from the graphical screen, but then the screen manager crashes, and the screens go black. I found that ctrl-alt-f1 got me a console to recover what i was doing.
Instead, I went into the advanced options, and chose 'Enable Base Mosaic'. That allows me to use multiple monitors. The utllity has to be run as sudo in order to allow the 'Save to X Configuration File' button to work properly.
Some additional instruction was helpful from NVIDIA GeForce Driver Installation on Debian Jessie Linux 8 64bit
Installing RoboForm and GoodSync on Linux and Firefox
A friend, many moons ago, suggested RoboForm as a password manager he uses for password management. Looks good to me. Is multi-platform, and has a number of modes of operation. Passwords can be uploaded to an account on RoboForm's servers, or they can be stored locally. I have chosen the 'local' mechanism, but use their GoodSync tool for syncing among various machines. It may be possible to create a server based GoodSync mechanism for my own environment as well. Continue reading "Installing RoboForm and GoodSync on Linux and..." »