Linux on Ayman Bagabas

Dynamic DNS using DDclient

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

DDclient is a service used to update dynamic DNS entries on many services. It is useful if you need a DDNS client that can work with pretty much any DNS service. Most distributions provide DDclient in their official repositories. It is available on Debian-based systems, Fedora, Archlinux, and many more.

In my case, I need DDclient for my NextcloudPi server that runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B hooked up to a storage device. This server gives me access to my files anywhere anytime as long as it has a working internet connection. I’m using a free DNS service from Dynu and in their website, they go in details of how you would set up dynamic DNS using DDclient. It turns out that they use a dyndns2 protocol by www.dyndns.com to provide this service.

Arch Linux on Matebook X Pro

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, I got a new laptop, Huawei Matebook X Pro. It has an i7 8th Gen. Intel CPU, 16Gib of RAM, 512Gib of SSD storage, Nvidia MX150 GPU with 2Gib of DRAM, and a beautiful HiDPI and touchscreen. It also comes with a fingerprint sensor. The first thing I did was installing Arch Linux, because well I am a Linux user! In the end, everything was working properly except:

~~Two out of four speakers.~~ See UPDATE1 down below
The fingerprint sensor.
~~Some keys in the Fn row.~~ See UPDATE2

The installation was very straightforward and like every other Arch Linux installation process. I followed their installation guide{target="_blank" rel=“noopener”}. After the installation is complete, everything was working properly except for some minor issues.

Suspend then hibernate in systemd 239

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In systemd 239, they have added a new service that handles suspending then hibernating after a given amount of time. This is easier than using external scripts since it comes built-in with this version of systemd. You can check systemd version with systemctl --version.

First, you have to define the delay time before the system wakes up and go into hibernation and that should be defined in /etc/systemd/sleep.conf

[Sleep]
HibernateDelaySec=15min

Here, what we care about is the last line HibernateDelaySec where you can define delayed time. As you see, I have it set to 15 minutes after suspending.

Sync Google calendar using Vdirsyncer and Orage

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

For a long time I wanted to have all my calendars and todo lists synchronized with my current desktop setup. Currently, I am using XFCE software, like Thunar, with Openbox to manage everyday stuff. Yes, I know with Gnome DE you can achieve that easily, but Gnome has a HUGE package dependencies. XFCE on the other hand is very light-weight and simple.

The other wonderful piece of software is vdirsyncer. It supports CalDAV protocol which is also supported by Google calendar. With simple configurations we can synchronize Google calendar locally. Then we can use Orage to view/modify our calendar files. Orage is a time-managing application that can manage your calendars, appointments, alarms, and todo lists.

Dropbox client on Ubuntu server 16.04

Sun, 06 Aug 2017 23:19:00 +0000

Dropbox, in my opinion, is the best cloud service available. I wanted to have one shared dropbox folder that is accessible from all my virtual machines running on the server. I am using a ZFS drive as a storage drive, the dropbox folder is located in the ZFS drive. Dropbox service is running as a normal user, not the root, and the server is using systemd to start the service after booting the system.