Created Fedora 34 Gnome 40 bootable persistent Live USB and running it.

I wanted to try Gnome 40 and found that newest version of Fedora 32 Workstation has Gnome 40.

I downloaded the iso.

Checked sha256sum found ok.

In order to make persistent Live USB I downloaded

livecd-iso-to-disk script

made the script executable and kept it in the same folder as the iso

sudo ./livecd-iso-to-disk --overlay-size-mb 2048 Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-34-1.2.iso /dev/sdb1

to make Live USB with 2 GB for persistence.

It took lot of time:

Copying LiveOS image to target device...
squashfs.img
  1,896,591,360 100%    1.43MB/s    0:21:03 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)

Syncing filesystem writes to disc.
    Please wait, this may take a while...
Setting up /EFI/BOOT
Copying /images directory to the target device.
efiboot.img
     10,430,464 100%   70.83MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)
macboot.img
     21,938,176 100%   77.37MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)
initrd.img
     56,824,284 100%   11.06MB/s    0:00:04 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)
vmlinuz
     10,580,240 100%   30.12MB/s    0:00:00 (xfr#1, to-chk=0/1)
Updating boot config files.
Initializing persistent overlay...
2048+0 records in
2048+0 records out
2147483648 bytes (2.1 GB, 2.0 GiB) copied, 2250.09 s, 954 kB/s
Installing boot loader...

        ATTENTION:
        Failed to find /usr/share/syslinux/ldlinux.c32.
        The installed device may not boot.
                Press Enter to continue, or Ctrl C to abort.


        ATTENTION:
        Failed to find /usr/share/syslinux/libcom32.c32.
        The installed device may not boot.
                Press Enter to continue, or Ctrl C to abort.


        ATTENTION:
        Failed to find /usr/share/syslinux/libutil.c32.
        The installed device may not boot.
                Press Enter to continue, or Ctrl C to abort.

Target device is now set up with a Live image!

I changed BIOS Boot to Boot from USB and here is Gnome 40 Desktop:

 

Filing India Income Tax Return for AY 2021-22 on Linux.

Prior to AY 2013-14 it was necessary to have Windows on your PC to use offline utility (Excel File with Macros) to prepare the Income Tax Return and I was using Windows just to file the return.

In AY 2013-14 a Java Utility was introduced and I wrote about it on the blog post:

Income Tax efiling utility and DSC working on Ubuntu Linux.

For AY 2021-22 the department has switched to JSON but providing only Windows exe file so far. I have already raised a Help Desk request to provide Linux Utility which has been replied as:

Currently the team is analyzing the request; we will get back to you shortly. 

I installed the Utility in Wine(Version 5.0) on Ubuntu 20.04 but it did not work.

On Manjaro I had Wine Version 6.5 on which the Utility worked but it was not accepting Keyboard input. So there was hope.

Then on Ubuntu 20.04 I added Winehq repo and installed
wine-6.6 (Staging).

The Utility is working.

The procedure to install this wine version as follows:

download and add repository key:

wget -qO - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -After importing the key, proceed to add repository.
sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'

To install Staging Version:

sudo apt update 

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-staging

After installing confirm Wine Version:

wine --version

 should be 6.6

You can now install the exe file of JSON utility and run it by clicking the shortcut on Desktop.

NB: I could fill up the Income Tax Return completely, verify it but at last stage when the output JSON file is supposed to be downloaded it does not work. It says "Download Failed".

 

Watching free IPTV Live channels on Ubuntu 20.04

 I came to know that Linux Mint has developed IPTV app called Hypnotix. I downloaded the .deb file from github and installed it on Ubuntu 20.04.2.

There are many news channels like Zee News Aaj Tak India TV, DD News on this app.

 

Signal messaging app on Mobile and Desktop/Laptop.

 As WhatsAppp is updating its Privacy Policy the downloads of other apps like Telegram, Signal etc have increased and people are trying these apps.

I had downloaded Signal app on Mobile and found that many of my contacts are doing the same. I had nice video calls with couple of them.

Today I installed Signal Desktop app on Laptop and imported the Contacts from the Mobile.

If I send a message through the Desktop app unlike WhatsApp there is no need to keep the Mobile app working which is a great feature. 

Enjoying Xubuntu Live persistent on Dell Inspiron N4010 P11G

I came to Hyderabad to spend winter. I borrowed Dell Inspiron N4010 3 GB model with Windows 7 Professional for personal use. Before leaving home I had uploaded required Gnucash Files and Libreoffice files to Drive.

I downloaded Xubuntu 20.04 64 bit ISO while working on Windows 7 and installed Rufus to make Live USB with persistence. Making Live USB on Rufus was smooth.

I changed the Boot sequence in BIOS to bring USB drive on top and and booted to Try Ubuntu Install Ubuntu Desktop and choose Try Ubuntu. To remove the Try Ubiuntu/Install Ubuntu option I removed Ubiquity.

After shutdown the system asked for removal of USB. I wanted to remove this irritant and posted on Ubuntuforums. I got the following solution

xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ sudo mousepad /etc/systemd/system/casper-no-prompt.service

I wrote the file and saved it

# see /sbin/casper-stop
[Unit]
Description=Casper no-prompt

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=touch /run/casper-no-prompt

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl enable casper-no-prompt
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/casper-no-prompt.service → /etc/systemd/system/casper-no-prompt.service.
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl start casper-no-prompt
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ sudo systemctl status casper-no-prompt
● casper-no-prompt.service - Casper no-prompt
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/casper-no-prompt.service; enabled; ven>
     Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2021-01-17 15:04:41 IST; 20s ago
    Process: 23020 ExecStart=/usr/bin/touch /run/casper-no-prompt (code=exited,>
   Main PID: 23020 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Jan 17 15:04:41 xubuntu systemd[1]: Starting Casper no-prompt...
Jan 17 15:04:41 xubuntu systemd[1]: casper-no-prompt.service: Succeeded.
Jan 17 15:04:41 xubuntu systemd[1]: Finished Casper no-prompt.
xubuntu@xubuntu:~$ ls -l /run/casper-no-prompt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 17 15:04 /run/casper-no-prompt

Now I can shutdown safely without removing USB.

I installed Gnucash and Libreoffice was already present.

Live Xubuntu 20.04 is very fast on this 3 GB machine.

Enjoying it.

I bought Smart TV and enjoying it.

 I had bought Philips LCD TV in 2012 which had 3 HDMI ports. Later on I bought Google Chromecast in May 2015 soon after it was launched in India and my TV became Smart even before "Smart TV" became available.

I was streaming youtube, ZEE, Hotstart, voot, Sonyliv using Chrome Browser on Laptop or Mobile through Chromecast.

HDMI ports on Philips LCD TV were not very good and use to give flicker for a couple of minutes after switching on the TV. The flickering problem increased with time and ultimately the HDMI ports were unusable.

I got the Motherboard of the TV replaced through local Delhi Technician and HDMI Ports were working.

Later on the volume was going up and down without any command.

I bought Cloudwalker TV on amazon exchanging the Philips TV and it was delivered on 4th Nov 2020.

 This TV is AOSP based on Android 8.0 Oreo and has Aptoide App Store pre-installed.

I enjoyed Zee5, youtube, Sonyliv, Amazon Prime Video directly using the apps on TV.

Since I have Tikona Broadband which has max speed of 40 mbps (generally I get 20 mbps) the voot app on TV did not work properly.

I connected the good old Chromecast in the second HDMI port and used the voot on the mobile and it works perfectly as before.

The Hotstar app on the TV had no free option and I can still use the mobile or Laptop Browser version through the Chromecast as before.

Today I was talking to my friend who was looking for an app to show the Google Photos on the TV and I found an app called Fotoo which can connect to your Google Photos account.

Because it is not Google certified Android TV (it is AOSP) I don't have access to Google Play Store but Aptoide App Store has thousands of apps and there is no need for google play store.

I can login in youtube with Google Account and can use Google Photos and yes Aptoide has Google Drive app too. This is sufficient.

Built My Stock Tracker on Libreoffice Calc.

 The other day I built mutual fund tracker on LibreOffice Calc. Today I built my Stock Tracker using LibreOffice Calc.

Suppose the Stock is HDFC Life whose symbol is HDFCLIFE.NS on Yahoo Finance.

Open a new Spreadsheet. Click on Sheet/Link_to_External_Data and enter the URL as https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/download/HDFCLIFE.NS and press Enter.

After a few minutes (may be seconds) the Data will come click Ok and Ok to CSV.all

The Data will come in two rows for the day.

You can select the third row and link another URL say for SBI as https://query1.finance.yahoo.com/v7/finance/download/SBIN.NS and press Enter.

The Data can be updated every day by selecting Edit/Links_to_External_Files and clicking on Update Button.

How to convert a password protected pdf to unprotected pdf.

 Suppose you send your password protected Bank Statement in pdf to some entity to show your financial capacity the other party can't read it without password.

You can convert the password protected pdf to unprotected pdf using pdftk.

pdftk /home/user/Documents/BankStatement.pdf input_pw password output /home/user/Documents/BankStatementcopy.pdf

Replace password with actual password.

The BankStatementcopy.pdf will be an unprotected pdf and could be opened by anyone and you can send it.

Built my own Mutual Fund Tracker on Libreoffice Calc.

 I had used android app for tracking my Mutual Fund investments. I can also track the Funds in MyCams app.

Today I decided to build my own tracker using Libreoffice Spreadsheet.

AMFI updates NAVs of all Mutual Funds from India every day and one text file is available for previous day's NAVs.

I opened a Blank Sheet and clicked on Sheet/Link_to_external_Data_Source and entered the URL.and hit Enter.

The text file got loaded on the sheet.

Next I added another sheet and entered Scheme_Code, Fund Name, Date of purchase, NAV, Units allotted in the columns and added columns for current NAV and Date.

Then I used VLOOKUP function to get the values of currurent NAV and Date for the first entry in row 2 as follows:

For NAV =VLOOKUP(A2,$Sheet1.A$1:F$18034,5, )

For Date =VLOOKUP(A2,$Sheet1.A$1:F$18034,6, )

VLOOKUP function looks for the row having the value in A2 cell on Sheet1and picks up the value in column 5 for NAV and column 6 for Date,

Simple isn't it?

Sheet1 Data can be updated every day and Sheet2 containing the Data for my funds gets updated accordingly.

You may like to use the Date obtained through the above VLOOKUP function for further calculation by subtracting the Date of investment to get the total days of investment and the output of Date difference may produce error. To solve this do the following Settings:

Libreoffice Tools/Options/Libreoffice_Calc/Formula
Detailed Calculation Settings
Custom (conversion of text to numbers and more)
Details
Convert also locale dependent
Reference syntax for string reference Calc A1 | Excel A1

Running Manjaro Linux 20.1 Xfce edition with Linux Kernel 5.8.6-1 on acre aspire3.

 I downloaded and installed Manjaro 20.1 Xfce edition and installed replacing Zenwalk 15 milestone. The Xfce version is 4.14 (same as Zenwalk) but does not have the bugs I encountered on Zenwalk.

I could add the in keyboard through Xfce applet and switch it and could set the illumination using Fn+<> keys.

Manjaro installed Linux Kernel 5.8.6-1 by default and showing options of installing following kernels:

Adjusting Screen Brightness, Adding amsynth and Hindi Keyboard on Zenwalk 15 milestone 2020 XFCE 4.14.

 As posted in previous post I am having trial run of Zenwalk 15 milestone 2020 on my acer aspire Laptop. After adding the required software through Flatpak I started looking for a Synthesizer. On netpkg (the Zenwalk Cli only Package manager) you can search on one source at a time. After changing the source from slackware64-current to shrepos/current I could install amsynth and try my newly acquired usb midi controller. It worked well.

Screen brightness could not be set through the XFCE Widget. I used the commands:

 xrandr -q | grep " connected"

eDP connected 1366x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 344mm x 193mm

xrandr --output eDP --brightness 0.5

To reduce the brightness.

I need to use Hindi and Marathi on the Laptop so I added the indic keyboard but the Keyboard switching did not work. It seems to be a bug in XFCE Desktop.

Then I tried the good old command "setxkbmap -layout in" which resulted into following error:

Error loading new keyboard description

After googling I found that the culprit was the in symbol file in the newest version of xkeyboard (xkeyboard-config-2.30-noarch-1.txz).

I opened the file

bash-5.0# geany /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/in

and scrolled to line no 2329 =======

and commented out by putting # in front of it.

I tried the command "setxkbmap -layout in" once again and it worked.

Then I used the following to add the keyboard:

setxkbmap -layout "us,in"

and the XFCE Keyboard switcher also showed the two keyboards and the switching worked.

NB: XFCE 4.14 has a bug. I need to add the keyboard after every boot through the command:

setxkbmap -layout "us,in"

In a way it is good that I need to relearn the Linux commands to use Zenwalk Linux.

Running Zenwalk 15.0 - milestone 2020. It is Fantastic!

 I downloaded zenwalk-current-15.0-200703a.iso and installed it on a spare partition on my acer aspire3. It is based on Slackware and has Xfce 4.14 desktop and Flatpak support.

The distribution came with minimum applications but I could add Firefox, libreoffice, gnucash, aiselriot from Flathub and start the trial run of the distribution.

I am yet to understand the netpkg package manager to update but Zenwalk is light weight and great!
and more it has become rolling distribution.

Convert your QWERTY Keyboard into Accordion/Piano with VMPK.

VMPK is a wonderful Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard. There are 128 instruments (called Program) to play. It has its own Synthesizer SonivoxEAS, so you don't need any other. I have played a song on it and recorded on Audacity without starting Jackd.

I used following keys:
vbhq wrt6
to play the song
"Jane Kahan Gaye Wo DIN" using Accordion. You can also try.

 

Producing music is easier than playing music on a PC/Laptop.

As a child I learned to play Harmonium since there was one in the house. I also joined Vocal Indian Classical Music Class in the evening although there was a conflict whether to play in the ground (it was in front of our house) or go to music class in the evening. I passed Standard 8 of school and Intermediate level classical music at the same time but could not pursue music studies since there was a gap between the school closing and beginning of Music College and both were 3 Kms from my house and I could not walk the to and fro distance two times.

I used to play Flute in my College days (mostly Film Songs), directed College Orchestra, also bought Mouth Organ and Electric Guitar while working as a Trainee Enginner.

Recently I thought about converting my Laptop Keyboard into Midi Keyboard and the story begins.

As described in the last post I installed synthesizer played on it but it is not easy to play on QWERTY Keyboard compared to Harmonium, then connected my mobile phone through usb for Piano like keyboard.

Then I downloaded some Tabla/Drums wav files from Internet and played on their beats but did not like the quality of my music.

Finally I have discovered that producing music is easier than playing it on my Laptop.

I downloaded LMMS which was originally known as Linux Multimedia Studio but became cross platform for wider acceptance with the result that most popular plugin VST is based on Windows.

I searched for Tabla Loops and found free VST plugins.

I could not load VST plugins on LMMS installed on Ubuntu. Since I also have Windows 10 I installed LMMS on it and used the plugin.

Then I discovered that LMMS recommends that you install Wine on Ubuntu, download their AppImage from there website make it executable and run it on wine.

I find that it runs better on Ubuntu+Wine compared to Windows 10. I could load the VST plugin.

I made some preliminary music.
Yaman
Trital

Using amsynth Synthesizer on Ubuntu.

I installed amsynth synthesizer and jack-keyboard:
sudo apt install amsynth
sudo apt install jack-keyboard

I started QJackCtl
Clicked Setup/Settings/Midi_Driver/seq Advanced/Output_Device/hw:Generic, 0
Advanced/Input_Device/hw:Generic, 0 Ok
Then I clicked on Start

Then I started amsynth and Jacke-keyboard
On Jack-keyboard clicked on Connect/system:midi_playback_2

Selected BriansBank01 on amsynth

and started playing on Keyboard

V B N J Q W E R

which played the notes

सा रे ग म प ध नी सा

Next I need to record what is being played.

sudo apt install jack-capture
sudo adduser <username> audio
jack_capture -mp3

and I made first attempt to play a song and result is as follows:
Shared file on Drive.

Update 04 May 2020
Today I hooked up android midi keyboard to the Laptop:

Notice the Jack Connection:

Running Lubuntu 20.04 LXQt Desktop through USB

I was impressed with ExTiX LXQt desktop and decided to try Lubuntu 20.04 which has the same LXQt Desktop. I downloaded Lubuntu current image of ISO and prepared persistent USB using mkusb and booted into it. Here is how it looks:

The app for updating and installing additional software is called Discover:

 

 Since it was Live USB I had to select Locale:

 

Running ExTIX LXQt Mini Linux from USB with persistence.

I was looking for a Linux Distribution with Linux Kernel 5.6 and came to know about ExTix Linux with a Tagline The Ultimate Linux System. It is based on Ubuntu 20.04 built with Custom Kernel 5.6.2-exton and has LXQt Desktop version 0.14.1. which is being touted as A lightweight, modular, blazing-fast and user-friendly desktop environment.

I downloaded the iso and copied it to USB and booted and I was impressed with its speed and low memory usage.

I decided to stick with it but wanted persistence since it came only with Firefox Browser.

I used mkusb on Ubuntu 18.04 to make another installation on the same USB drive but this time with persistence. It worked since the distribution is based on Ubuntu.

The distribution is very simplistic and has the grand old Synaptic Package Manager but I am familiar with it since I am using Linux for 15 years. I applied updates and installed libreoffice, gnucash, Solitair and Mahjongg which I require on daily basis.

I am happily running ExTiX Linux LXQt version with Linux 5.6.2 from USB persistence and may install it to hard disk later.

NB: mkusb makes usbdata partition which I am using to keep the gnucash and libreoffice files which can be used also on installed Endless OS and Ubuntu 18.04.

Windows 10 in triple boot with Endless OS, Ubuntu 18.04 on acer aspire 3.

I bought acer aspire 3 with Endless OS pre-installed in Oct 18 after my Lenovo Laptop was broken. Subsequently I installed Ubuntu 18.04 in dual boot on this Laptop in dual boot.

Recently I came to know that Windows 10 installer allows installation on a partition. I downloaded Windows 10 ISO and made bootable USB stick using WoeUSB on Ubuntu 18.04 as posted in may last post.

I created 90 GB NTFS partition and booted on Windows 10 usb. I selected Windows 10 Home Single Language edition which was installed earlier on Lenovo Laptop. After choosing Custom install I selected the partition and installed Windows 10.

After install I could configure Windows 10 and boot into the Desktop.

Later on I changed the boot sequence in BIOS and changed to Ubuntu 18.04 Grub 2. After booting in Ubuntu 18.04 and updating grub I got the Windows 10 boot entry in grub 2.

Using WoeUSB on Ubuntu 18.04 to make bootable Windows 10 USB stick.

Windows 10 installer ISO is freely available on Microsoft site. Microsoft recommends its media creation tool which does not work on Ubuntu. WoeUSB is a utility which can be used to create boot-able usb stick from Windows 10 ISO. To install on Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install woeusb

Insert USB stick larger than 8 GB formatted with single partition.
Run WoeUSB, select Windows 10 ISO.
Select NTFS File System since FAT does not support files larger than 4 GB.
Select target device USB stick (say /dev/sdb)
Unmount the partition opening a terminal

sudo umount /dev/sdb1

Click on install.

WoeUSB will make bootable USB stick with Windows 10 installer.

Installing Broadcom b43 driver offline on HP Pavilion dv6.

My friend installed Ubuntu 18.04 on HP Pavilion dv6 but Wi-Fi did not work on the Broadcom wifi adoptor. Moreover Ethernet did not work.

I downloaded following files on my mobile phone and sent to him on WhatsApp:
b43-fwcutter_019-3_amd64.deb from packages Ubuntu 18.04.
broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2 from iwfinger.com

This friend was not familiar with Linux commandline and I had to make many calls and WhatsApp messages to execute following instructions.
Keep the files on Home folder and open terminal.
$ sudo dpkg -i b43-fwcutter_019-3_amd64.deb
$ tar xfvj broadcom-wl-5.100.138.tar.bz2
$ sudo b43-fwcutter -w /lib/firmware broadcom-wl-5.100.138/linux/wl_apsta.o

Reboot.
It works.