WiFi op de Open Universiteit
Een verbinding maken met de medewerkers-wifi van de OU onder Ubuntu gebruikt de volgende settings: WiFi naam: ou-medewerker Security: WPA & WPA2 Enterprise Authentication: Protected EAP Inner...
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Connecting Thunderbird to an Exchange (Outlook) server
So, my new employer uses Exchange servers for email (i.e. Outlook for clients). I’m not on an Outlook-supported platform, so that’s not ideal. DavMail to the rescue! It’s a piece of software that runs...
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Exchange + Google calendars in Thunderbird
Part 2 of getting set up. Obviously, I have an Exchange calendar. Obviously, people are going to be using that to gauge when I’m available. So I need to manage that calendar in a way that works. Enter...
View ArticleConnecting to VPN (Juniper) on Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit
The OU is using a VPN. You can connect with a Java applet, unfortunately, we’re still running an older version that relies on the 32 bit java version. Instructions for working around that can be found...
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1 step closer to printing *and* NTLM authentication
With some help of the OU IT staff, I got one step closer to two things! NTLM authentication This was my goof-up. The cntlm config file was only readable by root. Le doh! So: install cntlm config...
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Cleaning up Windows
Thanks to some helpful tips from Wichard, I’ve cleaned up my Win8 installation. Funny thing: I’ve hardly used it (time I spent actively using it is measured in minutes, not in hours), yet Windows had...
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CNTLM downer (setting up my laptop for the OU, part X)
From the CNTLM man page: But please note that NTLM WWW auth (that is auth to HTTP servers), when it is running without any parent proxy as a standalone proxy server in itself, won’t probably be...
View ArticleWriting my own python proxy (OU setup part XI)
Python seems to have partially solved my problems. In particular, the requests-ntlm package works. So far, I’ve done this: sudo apt-get install python-pip sudo pip install requests_ntlm Follow the...
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NTLM authentication working!
Woohoo! I got NTLM to work! What a relief to finally feel “connected” with the rest :) How I finally managed: I installed NTLM APS version 0.9.9.5, and used the following config values (keeping only...
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Ubuntu + Bluetooth disabling / re-enabling every 5 seconds on Toshiba Z930
There’s an interesting thing happening with Bluetooth and Ubuntu 14.04. If you check dmesg, you’ll see something like: .... [ 464.115830] toshiba_bluetooth: Re-enabling Toshiba Bluetooth [ 464.155555]...
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BlackBoard Collaborate powerpoint import problem
In a nutshell: if you get an error “the <ppt> file type is not supported“, download the Visual Basic 5 Runtime from Microsoft and install it. This solved the problem for a colleague of mine in...
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Libreoffice and Apache OpenOffice side by side on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS
Here’s the conundrum: to load slides into BlackBoard Collaborate (the Open Universiteit’s online teaching environment), I need Apache OpenOffice (AOO). To collaborate with people who work in MS Office...
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USB3 DisplayLink adapter and Linux: a big nono
The OU is using Kensington DisplayLink docking stations. They’re pretty nifty: one USB plug gets you internet, audio, and video. Under windows, that is :s. After googling a bit, it turns out that...
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Printing OU style
Following up on my previous instructions, this time the full story – including double sided printing. Go to the “add printer” dialog Choose LPD printer, add the name. Name is something like...
View ArticleZSH man pages missing on Ubuntu 14.04
Fix is from a bug report: sudo apt-get install zsh=5.0.5-4ubuntu1~ubuntu14.04.1 zsh-common=5.0.5-4ubuntu1~ubuntu14.04.1 zsh-doc=5.0.5-4ubuntu1~ubuntu14.04.1 Hattip to this comment on the original bug....
View ArticleFirefox opening binary files in gedit
Firefox started getting a nasty habit of opening some files in gedit. Of course, there’s a bug report. In there, there’s a workaround: I found a strange entry in...
View ArticleThunderbird+Lightning not processing ICS attachments
In some cases, Thunderbird+Lightning plugin (calendar plugin) do not process an email with an attached ICS file as a calendar event. Bug report. Yet another years-old bug not being handled :s. Anyway,...
View ArticleHow to fix a Unity crash
Due to some nefarious use of my computer (unplugging a monitor and closing the lid in some order), something weird happened with the display. All the window decoration was gone. No keyboard shortcuts,...
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Displaylink driver hogging CPU
As mentioned before, DisplayLink works over USB3.0 connection. Hooray! Except that the current driver is hogging unfortunate amounts of CPU. ~2% when nothing’s happening, but up to 80% when switching...
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Installing Ubuntu 16.04
Recently, I had my trusty Z930 upgraded to a shiny new 500GB disk (instead of the 128GB disk it used to have, divided over 2 OSes…). Of course, the disk was completely empty. Plug in an Ubuntu 16.04...
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