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Category Archives: Tips and Hints

Locking And Restoring Desktop Icons In Mint Linux Mate / Caja Desktop

I wanted a way to lock my desktop icons in place in Mint Linux Mate ( Linux Mint 22 Wilma base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble) I also wanted a way to restore them to a set position if they got moved, maybe after a monitor failed or my laptop was off dock. I tried a few […]

SSH / SSHD will not change port

The Problem Running up a new Ubunutu 24.04 LTS server I changed the SSH port in /etc/ssh/sshd_conf  in the normal way: Port 1234 I restarted ssh sudo systemctl restart ssh but the port had not changed. A recheck, restart, reboot and much frustration later I discovered that Ubuntu 22.10 onward now uses ‘socket-based’ activation not […]

Convert MailDir Emails To Eml or Mbox Format

The Problem: I have a client who is trying to find emails that have gone missing. The mail server they have their emails on stores emails in an MailDir Email format, the format commonly used by Amivs / Postfix. My first thought was “How can I full text index MailDir emails”. Other than install new […]

Mount A VBox VDI Disk File With LVM Structure

The problem: A vbox virtual machine had failed to start. It was not recovering itself and was in an environment where the vbox image was being run headless. The data needed recovering so we needed to mount the vdi virtual disk file. Mounting The VDI Disk File The first step was to convert it to […]

Ubuntu 22.04.3 SSH Unable To Disable Password Authentication – Solved

The Problem ( Summary) Disabling ssh password authentication in sshd_config, no longer works. After disabling it you can still log into an Ubuntu server (22.04.3 in my case) using a password. There is a description of my process and a fix below. My Experience I’ve just installed Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS. Set up SSH as I […]

Recover A Chrome Device Or Fix Issues

To enter recovery mode on a Chrome Device ( Chromebook, ChromeTablet, Chromebit) there are several options. Offical Devices: Chromebook: Press and hold Esc + Refresh , then press Power . Let go of Power. On some Chromebook models: Press and hold Esc + Maximize , then press Power. Let go of Power. When a message […]

Using Open Office Calc Macro To Find Last IP Address Parts

I had a simple problem to solve, I wanted to view lists of spammers and the IP addresses they came from in a pivot table. The problem is they often use multiple addresses in the same block. My pivot table in Open Office showed only one or two uses of each IP address yet there […]

IRedMail Server LetsEncrypt Certification Renewal Problem – Certbot

IRedMail Server Certification Renewal Problem I run an iRedmail server with iRedAdmin pro. we use LetsEncrypt certificates. There is a standard cronjob to renew the certificates. Unfortunately this failed and I ended up with an expired LetsEncrypt certificate. I then ran into a problem where I couldn’t automatically renew as the certs were expired. https […]

Have you been black listed by UCEPROTECTL3 – UCEProtect.net

I’m going to get my opinion out of the way right up front – do not use UCEPRotect ( http://www.uceprotect.net ) as part of your blacklist / anti spam protection process. Their business is unethical, their services incompetent and their processes deeply deeply flawed. Wow that’s quite an opinion right there. Why would I think […]

Installing VMWare Tools – The path “” is not valid path to the gcc binary

The issue of the gcc binary not being found has old answers when looked up in Google. The answers also offer a solution that is not suitable. This answer is for when installing VMWare tools on Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Mint Linux etc but the principles will be the same for RedHat, Debian, Suse CentOs etc – […]