https://snapcraft.io/nextcloud I have been using the Nextcloud snap package for a long time, but some recent system changes in my colocation facility mean that it is time for a big upgrade. Rather than migrate my existing Nextcloud instance, I have decided to build a new install and here are my goals for the new installation: Use lets encrypt to have automatic and valid HTTPS certificates Have the data path for Nextcloud on a HDD and the rest of the host OS on an SSD. Host OS Details For this setup, I am using Ubuntu 18.04 installed on a 30GB SSD backed partition. I then have a 1TB disk attached and mounted to /media. ...

There might be a number of reasons to want to prevent your windows screensavers and lock-screens from engaging and in some cases (no doubt yours if you have hit this article from a search engine) local policy on the machine preventing you from changing these settings. Powershell lets us work around this problem and prevent the machine from locking or activating a screensaver. Prevent Screensavers and Lock-screens The bulk of the code below has been lifted from this great write up: https://dmitrysotnikov.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/prevent-desktop-lock-or-screensaver-with-powershell/ I just took things one step further by adding an infinite loop. My version of this code will run indefinitely. ...

I’ve made previous posts about backing cloud services with RCLONE – Backup Google Photos with Rclone – and this post will detail how to backup a self-hosted cloud service, Nextcloud. Get started with Nextcloud There are a lot of benefits to running your own private ‘cloud’ storage system, but for me, my top concern is privacy and Nextcloud gives me the ability to take accountability for my own data. With this in mind, I am conscious of my Nextcloud server going offline or suffering data loss, so I want a way to create 1 or more backups of my datacentre hosted, Nextcloud data on my home NAS. ...

Here’s a quick guide on how to convert ESXi VMs to and UNRAID KVM virtual machine – it’s a simple process but a minefield to navigate on searches and forums. I currently have a windows 10 VM running on an ESXi server (vmdk) which I want to migrate to my UNRAID server which uses KVM to host VMs. The vmdk file is unfortunately thick provisioned, so I have had to do some disk juggling, due to my limited amount of available of space on my array. ...

Google photos auto backup is a nice way to make sure that all your photos on your mobile phone are backed up. It takes the pain out of backups by allowing you to automatically upload your photos and videos to Google servers. For those who would also like an offline copy of those photos, it is now easy to automate this. Here is how to backup your Google Photos library to your local computer or NAS with Rclone. ...

Rejoice! Kali Linux 2020.1 is here! The first release of 2020 has arrived and this post will contain some updates and my initial thoughts on the fresh release. Kali Linux 2020.1 features and changes Non-Root by default Kali single installer image Kali NetHunter Rootless Improvements to theme & kali-undercover New tools Full Kali release notes as per their release blog post: https://www.kali.org/releases/kali-linux-2020-1-release/ Got root? Kali has installed with root as the default user since the dawn of its existence, Backtrack, WHAX and Whoppix, but finally, the devs have decided that it time to bring Kali in line with Debian on this one and have a default user which is no longer root. ...

https://ddclient.net A quote short post on how to secure your DDNS updates with Namecheap, SSL and DDClient. For those of us who use dynamic DNS to work around roaming IP addresses, it is important to make sure that you are updating your DNS records securely with SSL. The default DDclient config has an example configuration file for using Namecheap’s DDNS service, however, it does not use SSL to check for your IP. In theory that connection could be manipulated and a false IP result could be returned – updating your DNS records to a wrong, malicious IP could cause a number of problems. ...

Yet another simple problem/resolution. If you are looking to make your VirtualBox VM’s resolution match that of your host making full-screen mode, truly full screen, look no further, here is the answer. Once again we are looking at an issue caused by a default setting. You can set your VM to full-screen mode, but it not likely to rescale to the native resolution of your display. The setting which you need to change requires you to have the VM powered off. Enter the settings for the VM > Display > Screen Tab > Graphics Controller: VBoxSVGA. ...

A short and sweet problem/resolution. If you are looking to enable subnet overlapping on a Fortigate so that you can give multiple interfaces an IP in the same subnet, this is the post for you. NOTE: This feature can only be enabled in the Fortigate’s CLI. To enable the overlapping feature, enter the following commands: config system settings set allow-subnet-overlap [enable/disable] end What is subnet overlapping? Subnet overlapping is disabled by default in fortiOS and for good reason; if you misuse subnet overlapping it can cause massive routing issues for your clients and their traffic. Subnet overlapping lets you apply IPs from the same subnet (e.g 192.160.1.X/24) to multiple interfaces that are not in the same virtual/physical switch. ...

Note: Python 2.7 EOL has now passed. This article is kept for historical reference — if you’re still running Python 2.7 in production, the migration guidance here remains relevant, but the urgency framing is dated. 1st January 2020 marked the official end of python 2.7 development, including feature support and security fixes. Python 2.7 was over 9 years old in development years, making it the longest supported version to date. The code freeze is no in place, with the final release – 2.7.18 – scheduled for an April 2020 release. So yes there will be one more version to come down the tubes but it’s probably best that the new python project you were thinking of starting is written in 3.7 or above. ...