Flash Video over other windows even when firefox is minimised

Fecking annoying bug recently, if i opened a flash video in firefox it would mess up other windows by showing through everything, even if i minimised firefox.

The fix was pretty easy

In a terminal, execute


gstreamer-properties

and in the second tab change the Plugin option in the "Default Output" to "X Window System - Without XV".

Removing Ubuntu One (ubuntuone-syncd)

First track down and kill the process of ubuntuone-syncd

ps -ef|grep ubuntu
kill -9 {pid number}

then remove the folders it uses
rm –rf ~/.local/share/ubuntuone
rm –rf ~/.cache/ubuntuone
rm –rf ~/.config/ubuntuone
rm –rf ~/Ubuntu\ One

then remove the packages
 sudo apt-get purge ubuntuone-client* python-ubuntuone-storage*


you should be sorted!

getting yaptest to run under ubuntu

So here are some (hopefully complete) notes I have made over the last few hours trying to get yaptest running

after downloading yaptest from pentestmonkey.net
untar etc
and get that made and installed

next you need to get postgres up and running
so you need to be root
apt-get install postgresql

dont forget to start it /etc/init.d/postgres start

You also need a bunch of perl modules
apt-get install libdbd-pg-perl
apt-get install libparallel-forkmanager-perl
apt-get install libdigest-md4-perl
apt-get install libxml-simple-perl

change the pg_hba_conf file too for postgres

change the following lines at the bottom of the file
(/etc/postgresql/9.1/main/pg_hba.conf)
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all         all                               trust
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all         all         ::1/128               trust

Remember to restart your postgres server ;)

apt-get install pgadmin3
you will need to use this connect to the 127.0.0.1 database, find the yaptest_user under the login roles and give them create db privilages.

you can now run yaptest-wizard.pl to create the database and run yaptest as normal.

ldapsearch is provided by ldap-utils in ubuntu

Does freezing a laptop battery give it a longer life...(answer no)

So battery on this Dell Mini 9 I got the other day has a terrible battery life, about 2 hours, I decided to do an experiement to see if sticking the battery in the freezer ACTUALLY does something useful

li-ion battery
all testing done with no interaction of the laptop

-- day 1 --
Day one was basically starting from 0% battery to full charge and then letting it run down back to 0% and repeating this several times


Charging from 0% to 100% took 2 hours
Discharging from 100% to 0% was also 2 hours


-- day 2 --
08:30 battery placed in freezer in two bags as per guides on the internet

-- day 3 --
12:00 Battery is removed after 27 hours in the freezer and given two hours to get back to room temperature.

Charging from 0% to 100% takes 2 hours
Discharge from 100% to 0% also takes 2 hours

-- Results --
Freezing the battery has done nothing what so ever to the battery!

-- addendum --
Some people have said that I need to cycle the battery at least 4 times to see an effect, this is currently being done and the results will be posted later on. I dont think it will work...

Dell Mini 9 Linux wifi broadcom drivers (solved) (updated!)

OK so most of this weekend I have spent fucking about trying to find a lightweight linux OS that worked with the broadcom wifi built in.... here are the results

Crunchbang - doesn't install from USB (using unetbootin)
Ubuntu 12.04 beta - didn't work out the box
Ubuntu 10.04 - worked but way way too heavy
Ubuntu 11.10 - too heavy hate gnome3 and unity
Arch - argghhhh just NO
Xubuntu - lightweight but didn't work out the box
Linux mint debian xfce - didn't work out the box
Linux mint 12 - Live CD worked fine - useable but installed didn't work and needed a wired connection

So what have I gone for? Linux Mint 12, set up with a wired connection to install the bcm-kernal-sources which i am hoping to move over to xfce.

** update **

So i have finally found a perfect solution on getting the dell mini 9 to play nice!


first add this to your software repository (using synaptic for example)
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free

then do the rest in a root termin (sudo -s)


apt-get update
apt-get install module-assistant wireless-tools
m-a a-i broadcom-sta
echo blacklist brcm80211 >> /etc/modprobe.d/broadcom-sta-common.conf
update-initramfs -u -k $(uname -r)
modprobe -r b44 b43 b43legacy ssb brcm80211
modprobe wl


should be done :D