Author: erik

Android 9.0 Pie available for LG G7 ThinQ

Finally, Android 9.0, which was released a few months after the LG G7, is now available to download for the G7 – nearly a year later.

The update for the LM-G710ULM model (US Unlocked, used by Google Fi) can be obtained immediately through LG Bridge, or you can wait for the OTA update in the upcoming weeks.

“Android OS Upgrade” – great detail in those release notes, LG

Crouton broken by Chrome OS security update – here’s a fix

A security update in Chrome OS 73 patches a security hole used to run the Crouton script. Luckily, it’s easy to work-around with a simple permission change on the Crouton file.

  • Use CTRL+SHIFT+T to open the terminal window like normal.
  • Then type shell like you normally would.
  • Enter the following to alter the permissions in order to allow you to run the Crouton script:
sudo install -Dt /usr/local/bin -m 755 ~/Downloads/crouton

You’re done! Now you can update Crouton or install targets as you would normally.

My article on how to setup Crouton and Steam on a Chromebook has been updated to reflect this change.

February security update for LG G7

The US Unlocked LG G7 ThinQ has received the February security update for Android. G710ULM

I’m not optimistic that LG will get the Android 9.0 Pie update out before the end of Q1 like they promised, despite the fact that it was already released in South Korea in January. In fact, the Korean software has just received a feature update and bugfix release. LG treats the world outside South Korea as second class customers and then wonders why their mobile division operates at a loss.

Neverwinter Nights Enhanced Edition produces black screen on Linux

I decided I wanted to start playing the new release of the classic game Neverwinter Nights, on my Chromebook using my Ubuntu Linux chroot. My download comes from GOG. While my install worked great on my Windows desktop and Fedora laptop, the game isn’t starting on my Chromebook. It just produces a black screen instead of the game’s main menu.

Another Beamdog re-release, Baldur’s Gate, works great on here. The solution for NWN should be pretty simple: turn off full screen mode. But how can you do that without entering the game?!

Easy:

  • Navigate to /home/<your user>/.local/share/Neverwinter Nights
  • Edit nwn.ini
  • Change the following:
FullScreen=0
FullScreenDesktopMode=1
Borderless=1

You’re done! The game won’t run in true full screen, but it will be a full-screen borderless window.

Possible missing firmware for module tg3

When recently updating my Debian 9 Stretch’s boot image, it produced the following warning:

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3_tso5.bin for module tg3
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3_tso.bin for module tg3
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3.bin for module tg3

That doesn’t look good! Without this module, I suspect my network card will not work after reboot. What’s needed is the package firmware-linux-nonfree but it’s not available in the standard Debian free repos – you need the nonfree repo.

Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian stretch main non-free

You can install firmware-linux-nonfree with apt-get, which will allow your adapter requiring the tg3 module to continue working.

Pi-hole logrotate parent directory has insecure permissions

My Pi-hole was producing this error every day:

Cron test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts –report /etc/cron.daily )

/etc/cron.daily/logrotate: error: skipping “/var/log/lighttpd/access.log” because parent directory has insecure permissions (It’s world writable or writable by group which is not “root”) Set “su” directive in config file to tell logrotate which user/group should be used for rotation.
error: skipping “/var/log/lighttpd/error.log” because parent directory has insecure permissions (It’s world writable or writable by group which is not “root”) Set “su” directive in config file to tell logrotate which user/group should be used for rotation.
run-parts: /etc/cron.daily/logrotate exited with return code 1

The solution to this was pretty easy:

  • sudo vi /etc/logrotate.d/lighttpd
  • Under /var/log/lighttpd/*.log { add the following line:

su www-data www-data

That’s it! You may want to do sudo systemctl restart cron to make it reload, and now the error should not reoccur.

Have root send as a different address using postfix

If you have scripts or other services that run as root that need to send to outside email addresses, via postfix, without being root@hostname, this is what you need to do:

    1.  sudo vi /etc/postfix/generic

      root name@tld.com

    2. sudo vi /etc/postfix/main.cf

      smtp_generic_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/generic

    3. sudo postmap /etc/postfix/generic
    4. sudo systemctl restart postfix

Done! Now root will send as name@tld.com instead. Substitute whatever you want for name@tld.com

Setting NTP settings on Windows Server

Here’s how to set your Windows server to sync its time with an NTP server.

  1. Open a Command Prompt as Administrator
  2. Enter: w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:pool.ntp.org /syncfromflags:MANUAL
  3. Enter: net stop w32time
  4. Enter: net start w32time
  5. Initiate a sync: w32tm /resync
  6. Check the status: w32tm /query /status

You’re done! You can also now use this server as a time server for other devices on your network. Just follow the above steps and replace pool.ntp.org with your server’s IP address.

If your server is a VM, you may need to disable time syncing from your hypervisor. Otherwise, your sync efforts will be for naught, as the VM will keep syncing with its hardware host.

Camera and July security update for LG G7 ThinQ

My LG G7 ThinQ just received the camera update that delivers 4K 60fps and a more responsive camera app. Included in the update is the July security update for Android.

My G7 is the unlocked version, G710ULM. It brings my device to software version G710ULM10f.

Keep it up, LG!

LG710ULM