Murre

Murre is now on Linux Mint. Can I move Win 10 to VirtualBox? Update: I don't care. Mint is working flawlessly and I have no further use for Win 10.

Computer parts ordered on 2017-09-11. It's almost new but supposedly this CPU won't run Windows 11. So, Linux.

Rhymes with blur. This is not a Common Murre, though black and white, this one is flightless and red.

Replacement for Laysan. I just wanted more RAM and ended up replacing everything but the drives!

TO DO 12-25

• Install second NVME?? (There's an empty slot in there, but currently I just don't need any more space on Murre!)
• Pull the 2 2TB spinning drives out, I never use them.

Hardware

• ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 motherboard
• Intel Core i9 (10 core)
• 64 GB RAM
• EVGA Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (8GB)
• C: NVME drive - 500GB Western Digital SN750 Black
• D: pair of 3.5" 2TB drives as RAID 0
• F: SSD drive - 750GB Samsung 840
• blueray disc burner
• GSkill KM360 white Cherry MX Red keyboard
• Cherry mouse
• Contour Shuttle USB controller

murre$ inxi -Fxz
System:
  Kernel: 6.8.0-45-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 13.2.0
  Desktop: Cinnamon v: 6.2.9 Distro: Linux Mint 22 Wilma
    base: Ubuntu 24.04 noble
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: TUF X299 MARK 2 v: Rev 1.xx
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 3403
    date: 03/19/2021
CPU:
  Info: 10-core model: Intel Core i9-7900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake
    rev: 4 cache: L1: 640 KiB L2: 10 MiB L3: 13.8 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1480 high: 4000 min/max: 1200/4300:4500 cores: 1: 1200
    2: 1200 3: 1200 4: 1200 5: 1200 6: 1200 7: 1200 8: 1200 9: 1200 10: 1200
    11: 1200 12: 1200 13: 1200 14: 1200 15: 4000 16: 1200 17: 1200 18: 1200
    19: 1201 20: 4000 bogomips: 131999
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU104 [GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER] vendor: eVga.com.
    driver: nvidia v: 535.183.01 arch: Turing bus-ID: 65:00.0
  Device-2: Logitech HD Webcam C910 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
    bus-ID: 1-10.3:6
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
    loaded: nvidia unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa
    gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch resolution: 1: 5120x2880~60Hz
    2: 2160x3840~60Hz
  API: EGL Message: No EGL data available.
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 vendor: nvidia v: 535.183.01 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER/PCIe/SSE2
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU104 HD Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 65:00.1
  Device-3: Logitech HD Webcam C910 driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo type: USB
    bus-ID: 1-10.3:6
  API: ALSA v: k6.8.0-45-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: kernel
    port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) driver: btusb
    v: 0.8 type: USB bus-ID: 1-13:7
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 16 state: down
    bt-service: enabled,running rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes
    address: <filter>
RAID:
  Device-1: ddrive type: zfs status: ONLINE level: mirror-0 raw:
    size: 2.72 TiB free: 2.67 TiB zfs-fs: size: 2.63 TiB free: 2.59 TiB
  Components: Online: 1: sda 2: sdc
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: raw: 6.6 TiB usable: 3.77 TiB used: 169.66 GiB (4.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS500G3X0C-00SJG0
    size: 465.76 GiB temp: 40.9 C
  ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM008-2DM166 size: 2.73 TiB
  ID-3: /dev/sdb vendor: Samsung model: SSD 840 EVO 750GB size: 698.64 GiB
  ID-4: /dev/sdc vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM008-2DM166 size: 2.73 TiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 456.89 GiB used: 123.57 GiB (27.0%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 14.3 MiB (2.8%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia temp: 55 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 6%
Info:
  Memory: total: 64 GiB note: est. available: 62.49 GiB used: 6.95 GiB (11.1%)
  Processes: 579 Uptime: 18d 18h 52m Init: systemd target: graphical (5)
  Packages: 3125 Compilers: gcc: 13.2.0 Shell: Bash v: 5.2.21 inxi: 3.3.34

History

• 2024-10-14 Installed Balena Etcher from DEB
• 2024-09 updated to "Wilma"
• 2023-12-25 Linux Mint "Victoria"
• 2023-10-05 Studio driver 537.42 installed; I never game so why would I want the Game driver?
• 2023-09-17 had to disable the IPv6 thing that caused it to use the Vilo 6 for DNS!! Same as Pearl. See the Vilo page
• 2022-12-11 Game Ready Nvidia driver update 527.56
• 2021-11-24 WD is installed now and running. Let's see if this lasts. (Update, it works great still, 3 years later)
• 2021-11-13 ordered Western Digital SN750 Black. I can try out the Samsung warranty process
• 2021-11-12 Samsung 840 is now the boot drive, pulled out the 970.
• 2021-11-11 Dead again, this system is busted. I still think it might be the 970. Reinstalled and it crashed again.
• 2021-03-06 Something I did is making the system unstable so I am reinstalling the OS.
• 2020-05-25 Corsair Neutron GTX SS migrated from Dart, for WSL2 usage.
• 2020-04-21 Dell P2415Q 24" 4K monitor installed, it is GREAT so far. Dell site for docs
• 2020-04- HyperX DAC for headphones gives me audio controls including a mic mute button. Works great so far with my Bowers & Wilkins headphones.
• 2020-03-23 EVGA Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 8GB and Samsung 4K Monitor ordered. The monitor was awful, returned it.
• 2019-04-26 Installed Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe
• 2018-01-08 I followed these instructions to set up Murre to power down automatically every night if I forget to do it. https://www.maketecheasier.com/automatically-shutdown-windows-at-night/
• 2017-12-01 Cyberpower UPS CST135XLU added.
• 2017-09-15 Up and running
• 2 x Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0 in RAID 0, mounted at D: (Update, now at /ddrive)

• Nvidia Quadro 2000D video card 2560x2048 resolution (retired)

These parts ordered 9/11/17

• ASUS TUF X299 Mark 2 motherboard (Warranty 5 year)
• Intel Core i9-7900X Skylake-X 10 core CPU (Warranty 3 year)
• Cooler Master "MasterLiquid Lite 120" liquid CPU cooler with one 120mm fan (Warranty 3 year)
• 64 GB RAM G.Skill TridentZ (4x16) DDR4 3200 (leaves 4 slots free) (Lifetime warranty)
• Seasonic SS-750KM3 750W 80plus Gold modular power supply (Warranty 7 year)

RAID Mirror

I used a pair of spinning Seagates as a Windows soft RAID ZERO. I migrated to a ZFS set up on Linux Mint. It was RAID ZERO not a MIRROR.

ZFS sure was easy to set up compared to the old mdadm commands. This quickly creates a filesystem on two drives and mounts it at /ddrive. (It used to be "D:" in Windows)

See https://discourse.practicalzfs.com/t/best-practices-for-zfs-on-nvme-drives/464 for tuning tips.

zpool create ddrive mirror ata-ST3000DM008-2DM166_Z50392VF ata-ST3000DM008-2DM166_Z5039QJ5
zpool set ashift=12 ddrive
zfs set compression=lz4 ddrive
zfs set atime=off ddrive

I can view all properties

zfs get all ddrive

Record size is set to 128k, and that's probably fine.

More about ZFS

People talk about "the benefits of ZFS", which, for me, are what exactly? Copy on write, Snapshots, error handling. NFS is built in. Lots of need stuff.

Basics: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/zfs-101-understanding-zfs-storage-and-performance/

Lilliput

2020-04-04 -- The 7" Lilliput works because Windows supports DisplayLink. I did upgrade the driver from the one at displaylink.com

Backups

• 2023-12-24 -- Backed up everything to external SSD, created recovery DVD
• 2021-11-11 -- I can boot from the "recovery disk" but that's all
• 2021-03-14 -- Recovery disk to 32GB MicroSD card #5
• 2019-04-03 -- I just did a backup of the C: using the Windows 7 backup program, so that I have it saved in case my upgrade with the new SSD NVME goes sideways. It took ALL NIGHT.
• 2019-04-01 -- I installed Backup and Sync from Google and set my Documents folder to copy there.

Synology currently does continuous backup of C:/Users/brian/Documents to /home/Drive/Backup/MURRE

System rescue (failed Samsung 970 NVME)

https://www.system-rescue.org/

I just put this onto an old 4GB microSD card (via Balena Etcher) and booted. It is based on ArchLinux. At the > prompt, 'startx'. Click on the disk icon to launch gparted. Finds all drives,

• /dev/nvme0n1 465GB Samsung 970 btrfs? Interesting, I'd expect to see NTFS there.
• /dev/sda 2.73T Seagate, three partitions, part of a Windows RAID
• /dev/sdb 698G Samsung 840, ntfs on sdb1, blank scratchspace right now
• /dev/sdc 2.73T Seagate, three partitions, part of a Windows RAID
• /dev/sdd the SD card SystemRescue

Why is the NVME (which should be a bootable NTFS filesystem) reporting itself as btrfs here? I have lost faith in it and am thinking it's the problem. This makes me sad, it was moderately expensive 2 years ago. It came with a 5 year warranty. Unless of course it really is the problem and all I have to do is remove it and put Windows 10 onto the SSD?

Do I use this computer enough to justify buying a replacement? First I need it to be bootable again. I'd kind of like it to remain a Windows 10 computer. In case I might want to use ArcGIS Pro?? Soon enough it will be turned into a Linux computer since it cannot support Windows 11. For now, Windows 10 -> Samsung 840 SSD.

Why does the 970 appear as BTRFS? I guess first I have to make the 840 bootable in Windows and go from there. I don't want to wipe the 970 until convinced it's really gone.

Install to 840 SSD

I will lose downloads of surface data (LiDAR) again when I wipe it. That is all that's on the 840 SSD. Oh well.

1. I downloaded Windows ISO to Mac and burned to a 32GB SD card via Boot Camp Assistant.app.
2. I had to use the SystemRescue SD to format with GPT, as Windows no longer installs to MBR disks! There is no option in Windows to change to GPT. No need to create partitions.
3. Boot from SD and select option to activate Win10 later.

Surprise! Upon reboot, the 970 is visible again. I will not set it up again for the OS, not today anyway. Maybe Saturday.

Migration back to 970 but only for a day

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/copy-your-windows-installation-to-an-ssd

I used the Samsung migration tool. When it's done, it shuts off the computer.

I had to physically unplug the 840 to stop Windows from booting from it. It ignored my pleas via F8 / BIOS.

So now I have a full, bootable drive as a backup, disconnected. Let's see how this goes.

It started crashing again, I ordered a WD drive.

Migration from Samsung SSD to WD NVME

This time I installed the free WD version of Acronis True Image and used it to clone the SSD to the NVME and that's where I am at today.

Software

Linux Mint edition

Using the Software Manager and installing Flatpaks when available.

• emacs
• firefox (preinstalled) plus UBlock Origin and Bit Warden
• gimp
• libreoffice (preinstalled)
• miniconda from shell script
• nvidia driver 535
• okular
• qgis
• virtualbox and virtualbox-ext-pack
• Visual Studio Code (from downloaded DEB)
• VLC

Ham radio

• chirp
• direwolf
• qtel - for echolink
• xastir

Installed with apt (not available in Software Manager)

• openssh-server
• nvme-cli
• nfs-common
• autofs

Windows 10 edition

Windows 10 Pro, installed on Samsung 840 SSD. (Was on NVME until 12/25/23)

Stupid Windows 10 annoyances-- I moved the "annoying" content to Windows 10 and Windows 11.

• 7-Zip
• Adobe
  • Acrobat Reader DC
  • Adobe Digital Editions
• AutoHotKey
• Brother HL-L1320D printer - won't install unless it's on USB
• Contour Shuttle
• Emacs
• Esri
  • ArcGIS Coordinate Systems Data
  • ArcGIS Pro
• Garmin
  • Basecamp
  • City Navigator
  • Garmin Express
  • Garmin USB drivers
• GIMP
• Git
• Git for windows - VSCode wants this, even if you have Cygwin
• ICOM CS-F11 -- see spreadsheet for license code
• Inkscape
• LibreOffice 7
• Logitech Webcam Software
• MCP-F6/F7 (Kenwood programming software) (FREE)
• Microsoft
  • Media Creation Tool -- run this to create an installer disc
  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code
• Nvidia drivers
• Samsung
  • Samsung Magician
  • Samsung Data Migration -- https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/
• Slack
• UltraVNC is installed since I can't get X11 to work.
• VLC media player
• Wacom (Bamboo driver)
• X-mouse (set focus follows zoom)
• Zoom

Note on Docker and VirtualBox

2020-05-25 I am migrating from Docker Desktop to Podman.

Using Docker with Hyper-V (part of Windows 10 Pro)

Contour Shuttle

As a media controller, this was a great thing during WFH and is still handy

On buttons

• rewind
• play pause
• fast forward
• mute

On spinner

• volume

1. Shuttle is set to send events as keystrokes
2. AutoHotKey picks up the keystrokes and converts them to windows events

AutoHotKey should be visible in the tray. Open the Shuttle configuration program and set up the keys.

C:/Users/brian/Documents/AutoHotKey.ahk

;Ctrl + Alt + Left: Previous
^!Left::Send {Media_Prev}

;Ctrl + Alt + Right: Next 
^!Right::Send {Media_Next} 

;Ctrl + Alt + Down: Play/Pause 
^!Down::Send {Media_Play_Pause}

;Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Down: Mute 
+^!Down::Send {Volume_Mute}

;Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Left: Volume Down
+^!Left::Send {Volume_Down}

;Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Right: Volume Up 
+^!Right::Send {Volume_Up}


;Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Up: Mic Mute which appears to do nothing at all
+^!Up::SoundSet, +1, Microphone, mute 
if ErrorLevel   
    MsgBox, Hello
Else
    MsgBox, Bye Bye

Making Podman work

This process feels a lot like the olden pre-Docker days.

• Install Debian from the Microsoft Store, as strange as that sounds
• Install the prerequisites.

apt install curl
apt install gnupg2 

• Install the repository per these instructions.

# Debian 10
echo 'deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/Debian_10/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable.list
curl -L https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/Debian_10/Release.key | sudo apt-key add -

• Install podman itself

apt update -qq
apt upgrade
apt install podman

podman --version
podman version 1.9.3

I was sort of hoping for version 2, but pressing on anyway. Does this work? Strangely enough it does.

podman run docker.io/library/hello-world
Trying to pull docker.io/library/hello-world...
Getting image source signatures
Copying blob 0e03bdcc26d7 done
Copying config bf756fb1ae done
Writing manifest to image destination
Storing signatures

Hello from Docker!
This message shows that your installation appears to be working correctly.

To generate this message, Docker took the following steps:
 1. The Docker client contacted the Docker daemon.
 2. The Docker daemon pulled the "hello-world" image from the Docker Hub.
    (amd64)
 3. The Docker daemon created a new container from that image which runs the
    executable that produces the output you are currently reading.
 4. The Docker daemon streamed that output to the Docker client, which sent it
    to your terminal.

To try something more ambitious, you can run an Ubuntu container with:
 $ docker run -it ubuntu bash

Share images, automate workflows, and more with a free Docker ID:
 https://hub.docker.com/

For more examples and ideas, visit:
 https://docs.docker.com/get-started/

Synology Cloud Station Drive

I rsync'ed all the TrailPeople data over from Plover and then I linked the server. That avoided pulling a fresh copy of every file over from the server.

Audio output to two places

With Windows 10 is possible to have audio directed out to 2 sets of speakers at the same time, in my case a pair of powered speakers plugged into the Realtek sound output of the motherboard (which is set as Default Device) and a Bose Mini II connected over bluetooth. I found helpful instructions here.

It is not intuitive. For one thing I don't understand how a "headset" can be a Recording Device.

Be sure to look at the Sound Control Panel, not the Sound Settings. Did I mention how weird Windows 10 is??

It's freaky that you have to type "Control Panel" to get at it, or dig around at the bottom of the Sound Settings. Also it's very freaky that getting the output settings correct required a reboot. What is this, Windows 98?

Printing

Install the Brother drivers from their site. https://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadhowto.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=hll2320d_us_as&os=10013&dlid=dlf100985_000&flang=8&type3=11

Install the Synology Assistant and run it. It will help you add the printer.

LibreOffice Base

To get Base to work with MySQL, I had to install the 64-bit version of Oracle's JRE and I had to install the MySQL Connector/J file from the Community Edition of MySQL Client bundle.

See Tools->Options->Advanced and set Java to point at the folder which is in c:\Program Files\Java\ and set the Class Path to the JDBC driver for MySQL

Windows Terminal

As yet I am unconvinced this app is that much better than the ancient command window. It's in the Windows Store but you can also download a MSIX file should your IT department disable the Windows Store.

I need it to work with Git Bash. That's the whole point. These instructions are very helpful. https://medium.com/@techpreacher/using-git-bash-with-the-microsoft-terminal-bd1f71fa17a1