[Sat Jan 26 16:49:53 CST 2019]

For a while now, when running apt update; apt upgrade on my Debian box, I have been seeing a problem about the Nvidia packages being held back like the one reported here. Basically, it looks like this:

The following packages have been kept back:
  libcuda1 libcuda1:i386 libegl-nvidia0 libegl1-glvnd-nvidia libgl1-nvidia-glx
  libgl1-nvidia-glx:i386 libgles-nvidia1 libgles-nvidia2 libgles1-glvnd-nvidia
  libgles2-glvnd-nvidia libglx-nvidia0 libglx0-glvnd-nvidia libnvidia-cfg1 libnvidia-compiler
  libnvidia-eglcore libnvidia-fatbinaryloader libnvidia-fatbinaryloader:i386 libnvidia-glcore
  libnvidia-glcore:i386 libnvidia-ml1 libopengl0-glvnd-nvidia nvidia-alternative nvidia-driver
  nvidia-driver-bin nvidia-driver-libs nvidia-egl-icd nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-kernel-support
  nvidia-opencl-icd nvidia-smi nvidia-vdpau-driver xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 32 not upgraded.

From the looks of it, there are plenty of users who run into this particular issue. For the record, the fix in my case was simply running apt update; apt dist-upgrade. Why should that make a difference? This exchange from an Ubuntu forum clarifies it. {link to this entry}

[Sat Jan 26 16:22:00 CST 2019]

Ealier today, I went through the process of configuring mutt with a new Gmail account. Although most tutorial out there will recommend that you use add your password to the configuration file in clear text, I think it makes far more sense to configure Google to accept an app password. It's easy and more secure. {link to this entry}

[Fri Jan 25 13:05:41 CST 2019]

A few weeks back, I decided to try tmux, but I ran into some issues with mutt, my favorite email client. For whatever reason, when chaging from the message view to the folder view, the terminal did not redraw correctly. It looked all garbled. I also managed to reproduce this issue on at least three or four different terminal apps. So, in the end, I returned to GNU Screen, which I have been using for years. Today, though, since GNU Screen started misbehaving and freezing for no apparent reason, I decided to try tmux again and, after some research, discovered this tip on Superuser.com that so far appears to work. Basicaly, just set the terminal type as follows (example in bash; if you are running a different shell, the command to set and export the variable may be slightly different):

$ export TERM=screen-256color

Alternatively, the following instruction in the tmux configuration file also works:

set -g default-terminal "screen-256color"

{link to this entry}

[Fri Jan 25 09:20:58 CST 2019]

A couple of days ago, I decided to configure things in GNU Screen to automatically open a few tabs with vim sessions. However, I also needed these sessions to use an alternative vim configuration file (i.e. not the default ~/.vimrc file) more fit to the purpose of the files I was editing in said sessions. So, I used the -u option to load the alternative configuration file, and everything appeared to work fine. However, after a few minutes, I noticed some strange behaviors in vim. For example, the backspace key would not delete the characters at all. It would just behave like the left arrow key and move the cursor towards the left, but without deleting any characters. After doing some research, I found the reason, as well as the solution, here. As it turned out, vim uses the -u option for initializations, and it has the side effect that the compatible mode will be enabled by default (i.e. it will behave more like the old vi). To solve the situation, you can start the vim session with the following command:

$ vim -Nu <config_file> <file>

Alternatively, it looks as if adding set nocompatible to the top of the alternative configuration file should also work. {link to this entry}

[Wed Jan 23 11:45:01 CST 2019]

For a while now I've been using gedit as a scratch pad of sorts. The only reason why I used gedit for this particular purpose (instead of my beloved vim, which I consider far superior) is because most of the time I need to copy all the contents of the file from my scratch pad, and then paste it elsewhere. Sure, vim allows me to "yank" whatever contents I want, and then paste them into another file (or the same one) within vim. The problem, though, is that I needed to copy this other text to the clipboard instead, and vim was just not doing it. I knew it would just take some research, but until today I didn't find the time to do that. And yes, that means that for a while now, I have been saving files in gedit peppered with ":wq" and other traces of a veteran vim-user. So, first of all, here is some general information about how vim deals with the X11 primary selection and X11 clipboard. Then, all you need to do is follow this other suggestion to yank the contents of the whole file into the clipboard from vim:

:%y+

On a completely different note, I also had an issue with the vimium extension for Firefox: although the "i" key is supposed to enter insert mode, it didn't appear to work for me. Here the problem is one of understanding the vimium documentation correctly. As someone pointed out here, insert mode in vimium does not do what one might think. I thought it'd allow me to enter text into the input boxes on the web pages. However, that is not what it does. Apparently, it just disables the vimium hotkeys on a page. In order to enter text into an input box we are supposed to use "gi". Sure enough. That works. {link to this entry}

[Fri Jan 18 09:23:18 CST 2019]

I recently had to reset a Chrombebook in order to remove all our personal data before returning it to the vendor. The instructions can be found here. Basically, follow these steps:

1. Sign out of the Chromebook.
2. Press and hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift + r.
3. Select "Restart" from screen dialog.
4. Select "Powerwash", and then "Continue".

{link to this entry}

[Tue Jan 15 16:12:50 CST 2019]

While reading a piece titled Top 5 Linux Distributions for Productivity, I encounter the following comments about Debian GNU/Linux, the Linux distribution recommended by the author for system administration work:

If you’re looking to find one of the most productive distributions for admin tasks, look no further than Debian. Why? Because Debian is not only incredibly reliable, it’s one of those distributions that gets out of your way better than most others. Debian is the perfect combination of ease of use and unlimited possibility. On top of which, because this is the distribution for which so many others are based, you can bet if there’s an admin tool you need for a task, it’s available for Debian. Of course, we’re talking about general admin tasks, which means most of the time you’ll be using a terminal window to SSH into your servers (...) or a browser to work with web-based GUI tools on your network. Why bother making use of a desktop that’s going to add layers of complexity (such as SELinux in Fedora, or YaST in openSUSE)? Instead, chose simplicity.

The thing, though, is that to me, those very same features are what make Debian the best all-round distro for many other purposes too. I switched to it about 10 years ago, and I'm happy I did. I've never looked back since I started using Debian. If you price stability and reliability (i.e., if you just want to get your work done, as is my case), then run the stable stream. On the other hand, if you prefer to be on the cutting edge and run newer versions of the packages, then use the unstable or testing streams. Either way, chances are you will be very happy with it. {link to this entry}

[Wed Jan 9 19:25:19 CST 2019]

I cannot believe I've just discovered this after so many years! It must have been close to twenty years now that I have been using xmodmap to map the keys on my US keyboard to be able to type Spanish characters. For the most part, I've remapped keys in the numeric keypad that I don't use for anything else. However, recently, I've spent a good amount of days searching around for a way to remap my Alt_R key into something similar to the AltGr key on most European keyboards. The idea here is that one could easily type any Spanish characters simply by combining two keys and without leaving the home row. However, no matter how hard I tried to accomplish this with xmodmap, I wasn't able to. Sure, there is plenty of advice on the Web (for example, check out this, this, this, this, or this). Yet, none of it worked here. So, what wouldn't be my surprise when I read Debian Wiki page on configuring the keyboard, and discovered that it is possible to configure any standard US keyboard as an international keyboard just by entering the following command:

$ setxkbmap -model pc105 -layout us -variant altgr-intl

It works like a charm. The end result is something like this:

{link to this entry}

[Fri Jan 4 13:38:49 CST 2019]

One more useful resource for the configuration of i3. There are apps that, although used fairly often, don't truly fit nicely into any particular category (which is what's often used to separate the different workspaces). Since tiling window managers don't have the concept of a window that is always visible on every workspace, it is possible to use the scratchpad as a workaround. This document provides detailed information on how to do this. Also, notice that you can use a variation on this idea to simply jump to a particular window that you use more often. For example, in my case, I added the following lines to my configuration file to easily jump to Spotify and Hexchat:

bindsym $mod+Shift+s [class="Spotify"] focus
bindsym $mod+Shift+x [class="Hexchat"] focus

{link to this entry}

[Fri Jan 4 09:27:22 CST 2019]

I just needed to find the command to kill a dettached GNU Screen session. Found it here:

$ screen -X -S [session] quit

{link to this entry}

[Wed Jan 2 15:37:21 CST 2019]

Today was the first day I used the the i3 window manager at work, and I ran into a little surprise when I logged into my Windows 10 virtual machine. Since I had previously configured the Windows key on my keyboard as the Super key for i3, that meant it was now captured by the virtual machine and I couldn't use it. So, I had to figure out a way to disable that on Windows 10. A quick search turned up this document offering four different solutions, including one that involved manually editing the registry keys. I couldn't help it but to find the irony. Doing the same thing on GNOME 3 is infinitely simpler. Yet, for whatever reason, the stereotype that Windows is far more user-friendly lives on. Yes, I know, life is not fair. {link to this entry}