GSConnect doesn’t mount my phone on Manjaro Gnome, this is the solution

Hi there! I am using the Gnome shell extension GSConnect on Manjaro Gnome to share files from my phone to my laptop. There is an option called “Mount” that initially didn’t work on Manjaro but I found a solution and it now works like a charm!

All you need to do is to edit the file /etc/ssh/ssh_config

sudo vim /etc/ssh/ssh_config

and add to the end of the file the following:


Host 192.168.*.*
HostKeyAlgorithms +ssh-rsa

Install docker and docker-compose on Linux Mint 20.3

Issue the following commands in the terminal, one by one and you are ready to go! It’s simple as that 🙂

#docker setup
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update
sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io pigz

#execution permission
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

#docker compose
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/2.2.3/docker-compose-$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose</pre>

Fingerprint reader 0a5c:5843 Broadcom Corp. 58200 Ubuntu / Linux mint driver install

First, we need to checkout the following repo containing the driver:

git clone https://git.launchpad.net/~oem-solutions-engineers/libfprint-2-tod1-broadcom/+git/libfprint-2-tod1-broadcom/

Then go into the cloned folder and issue the following commands:

sudo sh install.sh
python3 debian/update-fw.py

You may need to restart the laptop in order the changes to be applied.

Finally, enable fingerprint login using the following command:

sudo pam-auth-update

Accessing Samba on Manjaro: failed to retrieve share list from server

A few days ago I got my shiny new StarBook Mk V and installed Manjaro on it for the very first time. I have no prior experience neither with Arch-based distros not rolling releases. Anyway, soon after I installed it I realized that I can’t access my homemade NAS server over Samba. I have a samba network at home with a mix of Linux (Linux Mint, Manjaro) and Windows 10 (don’t judge me) computers. Samba has always worked well to connect to each other. But now, when opening smb://192.168.1.6 in Gnome file manager I get this error: Failed to retrieve share list from server: Invalid argument

After quick duckling I found the solution: everything you need to do is to add these two lines in the global section of /etc/samba/smb.conf file on the server

client min protocol = CORE
server min protocol = CORE

and then restart it:

sudo service smbd restart

Voila!

P.S. The solution is based on the original post on the Manjaro forums here.

How to use bootstrap icons in React project

There are a few ways to go about it but I found this way to be the easiest and simple. First of all, download the package and add it to your dependencies.

npm i bootstrap-icons --save

Then add this line to your styles.css file at the top of your index.js file

import 'bootstrap-icons/font/bootstrap-icons.css';

Now, whenever you write an HTML with i tag with the bi code like below, you’ll see the icon appear!

<i class="bi bi-house"></i>

For example, go to https://icons.getbootstrap.com/icons/house/ we can see the code to the right that the code snippet is indeed “bi bi-house” for the house icon.

PHP Warning: PHP Startup: mcrypt: Unable to initialize module

If you have installed multiple PHP versions using PPA maintained by Ondrej Surý you may end up with the following error message:

PHP Warning: PHP Startup: mcrypt: Unable to initialize module
Module compiled with module API=20190902
PHP compiled with module API=20170718

This is caused by a misconfiguration: the php.ini file is pointing to the latest version of mcrypt instead of the one compiled for PHP 7.2. To fix that you have to correct the path to the extension. Open the file for editing:


sudo vi /etc/php/7.2/cli/conf.d/mcrypt.ini

and replace extension=/usr/lib/php/20190902/mcrypt.so with extension=/usr/lib/php/20170718/mcrypt.so. Do the same for /etc/php/7.2/fpm/conf.d/mcrypt.ini file.

If you have the module mcrypt.so listed in /etc/php/7.2/cli/php.ini or /etc/php/7.2/fpm/php.ini – delete it to avoid “PHP Warning: Module ‘mcrypt’ already loaded in Unknown on line 0” error

Install the latest versions of Vagrant and VirtualBox on Linux Mint 19.2

I use Linux Mint 19.2 as daily driver on my ThinkPad L480. This step by step tutorial will guide you through the process of getting the latest versions of VirtualBox and Vagrant instead of the outdated versions available in the official Ubuntu repositories.

VirtualBox and Vagrant receive updates on Linux much often than the repositories update. If you want to consistently get these updates when they become available, you’ll want to add VirtualBox and Vagrant repository to your system. This will allow you to get notified for new versions and update trough Linux Mint Update Manager and apt.

Continue reading

Mask email address for GDPR reasons with JavaScript

This is a simple JavaScript function that will mask your email address following this pattern:

  • If it’s not an email, the input string will be returned without modification.
  • If the first part of the email is shorter than 4 characters, the entire username will be masked (me@example.com => *@e*****e.com)
  • If the domain part of the email is shorter than 4 symbols, the entire domain will be masked
    (username@abc.com => u******e@***.com
  • The TLD part (.com/.net/.org and etc) is never masked
  • If the input string contains multiple emails (for example the whole log message from the server), all email addresses found in the string will be processed.
/**
 * Mask email address with asterisks to comply GDPR
 * john.doe@example.com => j******e@e****e.com
 * @param {string} emailAddress email address
 * @returns {string} masked email address
 */
function maskEmailAddress (emailAddress) {
	function mask(str) {
		var strLen = str.length;
		if (strLen > 4) {
			return str.substr(0, 1) + str.substr(1, strLen - 1).replace(/\w/g, '*') + str.substr(-1,1);
		} 
		return str.replace(/\w/g, '*');
	}
	return emailAddress.replace(/([\w.]+)@([\w.]+)(\.[\w.]+)/g, function (m, p1, p2, p3) {		
		return mask(p1) + '@' + mask(p2) + p3;
	});
	
	return emailAddress;
}

return maskEmailAddress('random string username@example.com test');

10 things to to after installing WordPress blog

This guide provides a list of 7 things that you should do after installing a new WordPress site. Some of the steps are optional, but many others are essential if you want to comply with GDPR and Google AdSense policy, to have at least basic on-site SEO and manage the updates easier.

This guide provides links to other articles that will aid in your learning of WordPress content management system. Many of the steps refer to 3rd party sites where you can find more information on a particular topic.

After you have finished this guide, you will have easy to maintain SEO optimized website that complies to GDPR and Google AdSense policy. Continue reading

Batch rename files with Cyrillic filenames to Latin ones (transliterate file names)

If you have a bunch of files with Cyrillic file names, there is a chance that some old devices such as TV embedded players, car audio systems, mp3 players may not recognize them or fail to read. The quick and dirty solution is to rename these files to Latin only characters. In order to save some time I use this handy bash script. It works flawlessly on both Windows (Git Bash) and native Linux systems. Continue reading