Chromium - Cast: "No Devices Found"

Starting chromium from the console you get "Component extension with id pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm not in whitelist and is not being loaded as a result."

- pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm is the Chrome Media Router, without it, you can go to chrome://flags and Enable the #load-media-router-component-extension as much as you want, no chromecast device will ever be detected.

My solution: 

1: copy pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm folder from a google-chrome profile ( ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm) to the chromium profile ~/.config/chromium/Default/Extensions/pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm

( If you copy from a windows installation, make sure the files are chmod 600, the folders are 700 and you are the right owner)

2: in Chromium, go to chrome://extensions/, enable "Developer Mode", then "Load Unpacked" and point to ~/.config/chromium/Default/Extensions/pkedcjkdefgpdelpbcmbmeomcjbeemfm

3: Now Chrome Media Router is loaded and the chromecast devices will be detected:

drakboot "INTERNAL ERROR: unknown device"

1: obviously, run strace drakboot > /tmp/trace 2>&1

2: less /tmp/trace, look for the missing device (in my case it was sdd):

 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/boot/grub2/install.sh", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE|O_CLOEXEC) = 12

ioctl(12, TCGETS, 0xbfb7147c)           = -1 ENOTTY (Inappropriate ioctl for device)

_llseek(12, 0, [0], SEEK_CUR)           = 0

fstat64(12, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0755, st_size=22, ...}) = 0

read(12, "grub2-install /dev/sdd", 8192) = 22

read(12, "", 8192)                      = 0

3: edit /boot/grub2/install.sh and replace the wrong disk reference.

Push-button ON/OFF

In order to start the Peltier-based car freezer and to make sure that it turn off and stays OFF after the car stopped (a big Peltier is a huge battery drain!), I've made this 4-relay based circuit. No or "as little as possible" electronics in the car is the best approach - only the aerospace is harder for electronics than automotive - the best solution might involve some relays and, maybe, a couple of diodes, but stay away from amateurish electronics in the car! This is the diagram I draw on the back of a napkin (as usual) :)

13

All good!

RDP Disconnected! Error Code: 2308 Error Description: Socket closed

After a windows update, a couple of Windows 2016 Servers on AWS started rejecting the RDP connections.
mRemote was giving the error "RDP Disconnected! Error Code: 2308 Error Description: Socket closed". MS RDP is giving "This computer can't connect to the remote computer. Try connecting again. If the problem continues, contact the owner of the remote computer or your network administrator."

After a bit of tinkering, I found that the problem seems to be the RDP TLS and encryption level.

To solve it:

- remote connect Registry Editor to the affected server and change the DWORD 
HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\SecurityLayer from "2" to "0" 


- remote connect Services.msc to the affected server and restart TermService

Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer restart the installation

SHIFT-F10 to bring up command prompt.
cd c:\windows\system32\oobe
msoobe.exe
Make a generic account and password. 
Hit finish (if it requests a product key and you have one, enter it now.  if OEM/No key required, just finish). 
Set time/date. 
Finish.

Extend LVM with a new disk

partprobe 
cat /proc/partitions - note the un-partitioned drive (ex: there is a /dev/xvdX but not /dev/xvdX1) 
cfdisk /dev/xvdX - create new partition, type 8e (LVM) 
pvcreate /dev/xvdX1 
vgdisplay  - note the VG name (in my case is "vg_bkp_vol_1")
vgextend vg_bkp_vol_1 /dev/xvdX1 
pvscan 
lvdisplay  - note the LV path (here "/dev/vg_bkp_vol_1/lv_bkp_vol_1")
lvextend /dev/vg_bkp_vol_1/lv_bkp_vol_1 /dev/xvdX1 
lvdisplay 
vgdisplay 
resize2fs /dev/vg_bkp_vol_1/lv_bkp_vol_1 
df 

12

Right on time!

Deploy .pfx cert embedded in script (a sort of 'cat << EOF' for windows)

@echo off
::
::  
:: In order to prepare the certificate please run
:: 'certutil -encode the_pfx_cert base_64_cert`
:: then paste the base_64_cert in the section below
:: Please note that the certificate password has to be given as start paramater to this script!
:: (eq: "cert-inst.bat S3cr3tPassw0rd")

:: If the cert was already installed, exit
REG QUERY HKCU\SOFTWARE\neXt /v CertInstalled
If %errorlevel%==0 goto :eof

:: define the temp name of the extracted cert
set extractedfile=%temp%\extract-%random%.txt

:: set the password needed to decode the cert
set certpasswd=%~1

:: separate the cert from this script
call:extractembedded embeddedfile %extractedfile%

:: process the extracted file
certutil -decode %extractedfile% %extractedfile%.pfx

certutil -f -user -p %certpasswd% -importpfx %extractedfile%.pfx

:: clean-up
::del %extractedfile% %extractedfile%.pfx

:: leave a trace in the registry, so the cert will not be installed again and again
REG ADD HKCU\SOFTWARE\neXt /v CertInstalled /t REG_DWORD /d 1

:: clean exit
exit /b

:: begin of the embed cert & extraction procedure
:: After the next line, please paste the "base_64_cert" created by certutil -encode
goto:embeddedfile
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
MIIMngIBAzCCDGQGCSqG
[...]
k05EzAQIFXJaGHOuxZcCAggA
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
:embeddedfile
:: before the previous line you can find the end of the "base_64_cert"

:: cert extraction procedure
:extractembedded
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set embedbegin=goto:%~1
set embedend=:%~1
set embedcert=%~2
if exist %embedcert% del %embedcert%
set tmprndfile=%temp%\%random%.%random%
findstr /n ^^ "%~f0" > %tmprndfile%
call :seekembed < %tmprndfile%
del %tmprndfile%
exit /B
:seekembed
set oneline=:eof
set /P oneline=
if !oneline! == :eof goto nostart
set oneline=!oneline:*:=!
if not !oneline! == %embedbegin% goto seekembed
:getline
set oneline=:eof
set /P oneline=
if !oneline! == :eof goto nostop
set oneline=!oneline:*:=!
if !oneline! == %embedend% goto :eof
echo/!oneline!>> %embedcert%
goto getline
:nostart
echo Error finding start delimiter %embedbegin%
goto :eof
:nostop
echo Error finding stop delimiter %embedend%
goto :eof

Boot from grub2 rescue prompt

grub rescue> set prefix=(hd0,1)/boot/grub2
grub rescue> set root=(hd0,1)
grub rescue> insmod normal
grub rescue> normal
grub rescue> insmod linux
grub rescue> linux /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1
grub rescue> initrd /boot/initrd.img
grub rescue> boot