April 28, 2017

Replace/Supplant/Overwrite Hamachi with ZeroTier-One

vpn

Wait there just one moment -- you mean to tell me I never posted about replacing Hamachi for something in “orders of magnitude” better?!!? How absurd of me.

Purge that crippled software and reconstitute with ZeroTier-One immediately! ZeroTier is cross-platform and even works on my obsolete Synology 410j. Forget Hamachi FOREVER!

Free Versions of Hamachi ZeroTier-One
Nodes per network 5 100
Bandwidth Low High
Dropped Connection Often Rare †
IP Assignment Auto-assigned Auto-assigned or Static
IPv4 Subnets 25.*.*.* 10.147.17.* 10.147.18.* 10.147.19.* 10.147.20.* 10.144.*.* 10.241.*.* 10.242.*.* 10.243.*.* 10.244.*.* 172.22.*.* 172.23.*.* 172.24.*.* 172.25.*.* 172.26.*.* 172.27.*.* 172.28.*.* 172.29.*.* 172.30.*.* 192.168.191.* 192.168.192.* 192.168.193.* 192.168.194.* 192.168.195.* 192.168.196.*
IPv6 yes RFC4193 (/128) & 6PLANE (/80)
Traffic Filtering Client Firewall Custom traffic and protocol (“Flow”) rules with v1.2.x
SourceCode Closed Source Open Source and freedom loving
Free Support Forums; but often goes unanswered Support button on website, Knowledge-Base, and Forums; Super responsive

† The only time my connection dropped, was when ZeroTier versioned from 1.1.4 to 1.2.x and a couple of my clients had to be re-authorized & re-IP’d via WebUI. Doing so put them back online without touching the clients. Now that’s cool.

I'm syncing files over my ZeroTier VPN now.  You could consider replacing DropBox and BTSync with SyncThing. See my previous post for a quick and dirty install.

Other cross-platform Hamachi alternatives that I have not tried (because ZeroTier-One just works!) :
- SoftEther VPN
- tinc vpn
- FreeLAN
- NeoRouter Free (as opposed to the Mesh and Pro versions)

~~~~~~~~~~~





meanwhile back at the batlab
$ sudo aptitude purge logmein-hamachi
The following packages will be REMOVED:
logmein-hamachi{p}
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 2,867 kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] YYYYYYY
(Reading database ... 105225 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing logmein-hamachi (2.1.0.86-1) ...
Stopping LogMeIn Hamachi VPN tunneling engine logmein-hamachi *
Removing any system startup links for /etc/init.d/logmein-hamachi ...
/etc/rc0.d/K49logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc1.d/K49logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc2.d/S11logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc3.d/S11logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc4.d/S11logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc5.d/S11logmein-hamachi
/etc/rc6.d/K49logmein-hamachi
Purging configuration files for logmein-hamachi (2.1.0.86-1) ...

Current status: 5796 new [-1].
$ echo "joy"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Partially written with StackEdit.

April 26, 2017

ghetto bash-prompt git-status

There are tons of awesome and beautiful bash-prompt and zsh-prompt git-status scripts out there.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bash+prompt+git+status&t=ffab&ia=software

You can find stuff like this for zsh and bash:


But this is NOT that.

I’m not a heavy developer, i just wanted something quick and easy. Enter my “ghetto bash-prompt git-status”



This will NOT change your existing prompt, it simply executes as the last instruction before your prompt is displayed.

If you want something better, look into:
- https://github.com/magicmonty/bash-git-prompt
- https://gist.github.com/clux/864a4168712b9c28515a27de77f7c503
- https://github.com/riobard/bash-powerline
- https://github.com/taketwo/powerline-shell
- https://github.com/brujoand/sbp
- http://volnitsky.com/project/git-prompt/


~~~

VMWare PowerCLI 6.5 now easily installed via PowerShellGet

PowerCLI


EDIT 2023: please see https://williamlam.com/2022/11/how-to-install-powercli-13-0-and-use-new-image-builder-auto-deploy-cmdlets-on-apple-silicon.html and https://www.virten.net/2022/12/how-to-install-powercli-13-with-python-3-7-on-windows-required-for-imagebuilder/ for extra help regarding python 3.7 dependency.

~~~~ OP ~~~~:

VMWare PowerCLI 6.5.x++ now easily installed via PowerShellGet! https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/VMware.PowerCLI/

PS> Install-Module -Name VMware.PowerCLI -Confirm:$false -Scope AllUsers -AllowClobber -Force

That’s it! …However, You may also need to update occasionally:

PS> Find-Module "VMWare.*" | Update-Module -Verbose

Your scripts may begin with Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core



See the vmware blog for more info, including installing under an administrator account for an “AllUsers” install (Very helpful for multi-user workstations): https://blogs.vmware.com/PowerCLI/2017/04/powercli-install-process-powershell-gallery.html i.e. [...] -Scope AllUsers

Separately, you may update all your powershell help files with Update-Help



If you wish to purge PowerCLI, do so with the following from a standard Powershell (not PowerCLI):

PS> (Get-Module VMware.PowerCLI -ListAvailable).RequiredModules | Uninstall-Module -Force
PS> Get-Module VMware.PowerCLI -ListAvailable | Uninstall-Module -Force


~~~
As Always, Good Luck!
  

April 25, 2017

AH00072

apache
Problem:
Previously working, but now
Address already in use: AH00072: make_sock: could not bind to address 0.0.0.0:443

Probable Cause:
Any two or more .conf files have Listen 443 or <VirtualHost _default_:443> in them.

Tentative Solution:
Edit your /etc/httpd/httpd.conf or other /etc/httpd/conf.d/*.conf files making sure you don’t have two files requesting port 443. It seems recent Apache versions are more strict and will fail to run, whereas older versions did not complain. Technically, I just the renamed /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf to /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf.OFF so that my actual /etc/httpd/conf.d/live_ssl.conf file was used.
  

April 20, 2017

a stop job is running for ifup | NetworkManager

refuse

Problem:
a stop job is running for ifup
a stop job is running for NetworkManager

Why:
Debian Jessie and jessie-backports systemd versions 2.15 and 2.30 respectively have a small bug that stalls shutdown.

Tentative Solution: (i.e. unofficial; your mileage may vary)
edit /etc/systemd/system/network-online.target.wants/networking.service, replacing

ExecStop=/sbin/ifdown -a --read-environment

with

ExecStop=/sbin/ifdown -a --read-environment --force --ignore-errors

and also

TimeoutStopSec=5min

with

TimeoutStopSec=5s

~~~

  

April 19, 2017

font icons displaying as squares in conky

conky

Problem:
FontAwesome and other font-based icons showing as squares in conky.

Solution:
conky <= v1.9 : override_utf8_locale yes
conky >=v1.10.x : override_utf8_locale = true,