Author Archive for: stefan
Entries by Stefan Helander
Avoiding a SSH client connection to timeout
If you’re behind a firewall you sometimes run into a problem where the SSH client connection times out after a period of time (typically when going out for lunch leaving your SSH sessions logged in). The easiest way to solve this is by changing the configuration of the SSH client (it can also be fixed […]
How to make a floppy file image and mounting it in Linux
To make a file image of a floppy disk in Linux (like Ubuntu), you need (of course) a computer with a floppy drive (/dev/fd0). Insert the floppy you want to copy to an image file and issue the command: $ sudo dd bs=512 count=2880 if=/dev/fd0 of=floppy.img Block size (bs) and count above is for a 1,44 […]
HP Compaq 6910p builtin 3G modem driver for Ubuntu
From Ubuntu 11.04 and onward there is no need for a driver to use the builtin 3G (WWAN) modem in the HP Compaq 6910p laptop computer. But by default the modem is soft blocked even though the radio lamp is on. The rfkill utility can be used to enable it: $ rfkill list 0: hci0: […]
Improving Firefox performance on ASUS EeePC 900
I’ve noticed that a bottleneck in Firefox performance on the ASUS EeePC 900 is writing and reading to the disk cache. It is often I wait for something on a page and I notice that the hard disk light is on indicating read/write. One way of drastically improving the performance is to move the cache […]
ASUS EeePC 900 2 GB memory upgrade
The ASUS EeePC 900 is a dear friend of mine and has served me truly for a number of years. It is not my primary work horse, but on trips it is excellent with it’s small size and low weight (even on a 14 day trip I always travel with hand luggage only). It is […]
Mobile internet broadband in Latvia
When I travel abroad I need to stay connected to the Internet, not just for fun but I have to be connected for my work. Relying only on Wifi is not a solution as I recently discovered the hard way on a trip to France. The Hotel advertised "WiFi internet" but this however, turned out to be a connection […]
Copy large amounts of data between servers
There are several methods of moving data between servers in a UNIX/Linux/BSD environment, for example scp, ftp, SMB-shares, NFS-shares or rsync. My experience is that using netcat is one of the faster methods if you have large amount of data to copy. On the receiving server: cd / (or the base directory under which you […]
Ubuntu boot hangs with black screen and blinking cursor
If this happens, check your BIOS setup device boot order. It is possible that some device has been listed before your real boot device. In my case, my boot SSD drives had been moved below ALL PCI SCSI and there are other drives in the machine which are not bootable causing this problem for me. […]
Ubuntu boot hangs with black screen after GRUB
It might actually not be hanged, but instead but you might have been kicked into an initramfs shell but it is not displaying on the screen. Try to boot in recovery mode or boot on a install CD or USB stick in rescue mode. Edit /etc/default/grub: vi /etc/default/grub Set the following: GRUB_TERMINAL=console GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text If the […]