A particular USB harddrive won't show up in the device list under Ubuntu 18.04 when connected to a USB 3.0 port of the HP proliant microsever gen8 though it will show up when connected to a USB 2.0 port. The symptoms are that the drive won't list with fdisk -l nor how up under /dev/sdX. … Continue reading USB harddrive not showing on USB 3.0 port
Tag: hardware
Ubuntu on the Acer Nitro 5
[updated April 2021] The Acer Nitro 5 is an interesting breed; decent computing power, a mid-range SSD, a large screen with high contrast, a decent and solid keyboard with good haptics at an ok price - but will it run Ubuntu? The Nitro comes with Windows 10 home pre-installed and UEFI secure boot enabled - … Continue reading Ubuntu on the Acer Nitro 5
Ubuntu on the ASUS VivoBook 17
Following the proud tradition [1],[2],[3] of documenting Linux installations on all the hardware I break, I'm happy to report that Ubuntu 18.04 works fine on the ASUS VivoBook 17 (model number X705U). Things I tested and that work: OS boots from USB and from harddisk Secure boot WLAN USB On board and external (USB) camera … Continue reading Ubuntu on the ASUS VivoBook 17
Unlocking a password-protected hard disk
TL;DR: Recovering data from a password-protected SATA hard disk that was locked by a Thinkpad I wish this post would be as generally valid as the title suggests; at this hour I'm just unspeakably glad to have unlocked a hard disk I didn't even know I had locked and can finally go to bed. What … Continue reading Unlocking a password-protected hard disk
Controlling the TP-LINK HS100 Wi-Fi smart plug
[update 7 June 2020] Available now on Docker: https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/georgovassilis/hs100 [update 27 January 2017] TP-LINK HS100 project on github: https://github.com/ggeorgovassilis/linuxscripts [update December 2020] TL;DR; This is about a shell script which controls the TP-LINK HS100, HS103s, HS110, HS200 and KP105 Wi-Fi smart power plugs. Other models in that product line may also work (the tplink-smarthome-api project uses … Continue reading Controlling the TP-LINK HS100 Wi-Fi smart plug
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on the Acer Aspire E15
I have been moderately content [1] with Ubuntu 14.04 on the Acer Aspire E15 for about a year. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, another long term support release, has recently been published and of course I had to try it out! Installing the live image on a USB stick: bring some patience The first obstacle is that … Continue reading Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on the Acer Aspire E15
Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire E15 (E5-571G-51TH)
Having failed the 3rd repair attempt at the Thinkpad E540 [1] I gave up and bought the next best laptop from the nearby store that somehow is usable for programming. Behold: the Acter Inspire E15. 8GB RAM, i5, matte screen (1920x1080). It worked out of the box with the SSD transplant from the old Lenovo, … Continue reading Ubuntu on the Acer Aspire E15 (E5-571G-51TH)
Formatting USB flash drives for write speed
Flash drives enjoy a reputation for being fast and that certainly goes for high-end models with their elaborate memory controllers and multi-bank layouts. A fundamental "problem" with current flash memory technology is that writing even a single bit of information requires that an entire block of flash memory is reset first [1], which greatly reduces … Continue reading Formatting USB flash drives for write speed
Ubuntu: physical power button not working
At some point the physical power button on my file server (ubuntu 12.04) stopped working and I had to do a software shutdown everytime. The solution is to (re) install acpi: sudo apt-get install acpi sudo apt-get install --reinstall acpi-support
Reducing power consumption on the HP Probook 4720s and Ubuntu 12.04
As said earlier, Ubuntu 12.04 does a good job with power management on the 4720s. With some manual settings power consumption can be further decreases, albeit not much this time. I wrote this script which takes a parameter: on: enable power management settings off: disable power management settings extra: on + enable extensive power management … Continue reading Reducing power consumption on the HP Probook 4720s and Ubuntu 12.04
