The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category

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Some people still don’t know they should apply the Crucial Firmware Update For Crucial m4 SSD BSOD

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/01/10

Luckily I was watching over the shoulder of a friend when his hung as it was a while ago I had encountered issues like that.

Sometimes the system would get in trouble without warning: the machine would just hang. No Windows Event log or other place where we could trace back the origin.

I suspected failing hardware because it was similar to other machines I had seen: memory, loose connectors or power issues came to mind first.

After about a week of trial and error I decided to check SMART status. HDTune did not warn of anything special. SmartCtl however did:

This drive may hang after 5184 hours of power-on time:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Crucial-m4-Firmware-BSOD,14544.html
See the following web pages for firmware updates:
http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx
http://www.micron.com/products/solid-state-storage/client-ssd#software

The relevant links (I prefer the WayBack links as at times the site is very slow) are below.

After upgrading the firmware, the problems were gone.

version compatible products download
070H Crucial m4 2.5-inch (7mm & 9.5mm) SSD Windows® 7 Updater Application

[WayBack] download firmware

[WayBack] instruction guide

 Windows® 8 Updater Application

[WayBack] download firmware

[WayBack] instruction guide

 Manual Boot File for Windows and Mac®

[WayBack] download firmware

[WayBack] instruction guide
Release Date: 04/02/2013

Firmware 070H is recommended for anyone currently running 040H or previous firmware releases. It includes incremental improvements and refinements over these versions which may improve the overall user experience.

Like recent firmware versions, version 070H has improvements over versions 000F which are specific for Windows 8 and new UltraBook systems, although systems running Windows 7 and other operating systems may also see improvements. Any m4 firmware
version will function normally in Windows 8, even without these performance improvements.

The following is a summary of changes between 040H and 070H, which are independent of operating system:

  • Resolved a power-up timing issue that could result in a drive hang, resulting in an inability to communicate with the host computer. The hang condition would typically occur during power-up or resume from Sleep or Hibernate. Most often, a new
    power cycle will clear the condition and allow normal operations to continue. The failure mode has only been observed in factory test. The failure mode is believed to have been contained to the factory. This fix is being implemented for all new
    builds, for all form factors, as a precautionary measure. The fix may be implemented in the field, as desired, to prevent occurrence of this boot-time failure. To date, no known field returns have been shown to be related to this issue. A failure
    of this type would typically be recoverable by a system reset.

Additional details can be found in the firmware guide

–jeroen

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Posted in Hardware, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Brilliant device: iPazzPort Wireless Mini Handheld Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse Combo for Android TV Box and Raspberry Pi 3 and HTPC and XBMC KP-810-19S – Black: Computers & Accessories

Posted by jpluimers on 2020/01/03

Brilliant device: [WayBack] KP-810-19BTT Mini Bluetooth Keyboard with touchpad – Unisen Group iPazzPort

I got it via Amazon USA ([WayBack] iPazzPort Wireless Mini Handheld Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse Combo for Android TV Box and Raspberry Pi 3 and HTPC and XBMC KP-810-19S – Black: Computers & Accessories), but Amazon in Europe has it as well (this is the German link:[Archive.is] iPazzPort Mini Wireless Handheld Tastatur mit Touchpad: AmazonSmile: Computer & Zubehör; replace .de with .fr, .co.uk, to find your local link).

There are this one is 2.4 Ghz, includes a USB dongle in the battery compartment and requires 2 AAA batteries.

There are Bluetooth and back-lit versions too which cost slightly more.

Via: [WayBack] Raspberry Pi Cluster – Software Team Lead

–jeroen

Posted in Development, Hardware Interfacing, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, USB | Leave a Comment »

Magic SysRq key – Wikipedia

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/12/20

Cool: Magic SysRq key – Wikipedia

The magic SysRq key is a key combination understood by the Linux kernel, which allows the user to perform various low-level commands regardless of the system’s state. It is often used to recover from freezes, or to reboot a computer without corrupting the filesystem.[1] Its effect is similar to the computer’s hardware reset button (or power switch) but with many more options and much more control.

Sometimes reading fluffy fluff posts teaches you new things, so be sure to read this one:

[WayBack] I just got trolled by my cat, hard. Last night i left my linux laptop open and running while watching TV in the other room. I came back to find Marley … – Stephen Shirley – Google+

…

I started looking through the kernel logs from last night, to see if there was any indication of the issue starting. And then i saw it. One innocent line that said:

Dec 18 21:26:52 x240 kernel: [373001.156356] sysrq: SysRq : Emergency Remount R/O

The fluffy dumbass had somehow hit the Sysrq [0] key combo to mount all filesystems read-only. This is an old, low-level when-all-else-fails facility for dealing with an linux unresponsive system, and fluff-for-brains Marley had somehow hit alt+fn+s+u.

Sigh.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_SysRq_key

Via: [Archive.is] I just got trolled by my cat, hard. Last night i left my linux laptop open and running while watching TV in the other room. I came back to find Marley … – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Linux, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Node-RED

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/12/11

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click.

Seems one of the ways to automate our home: [WayBack] Node-RED, as it supports many input and output methods with all kinds of nodes between them:

input output
inject debug
catch
status
link link
mqtt mqtt
http http response
websocket websocket
tcp tcp
udp udp
serial serial

It is based on node.js, seems to need PM2 for running as a service, so I need to first figure out how well it runs on OpenSuSE (with more details than this gist).

After that I need to figure out how to version your configurations using git and document as it looks like the configurations sources are stored in JSON format [WayBack].

For resources:

  • StackOverflow node-red tag
  • Github node-red repositories
  • nodered documentation to:
    • get started (including Installation, Running, Adding non-stock Nodes, Upgrading, Creating your first and second flow, running on Docker / Windows)
      • running on a device (Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, Android) which needs extra device specific modules to hardware inputs/outputs
      • communicating with a device (Arduino)
      • running in the cloud (IBM Bluemix, SenseTecnic FRED, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure)
    • user guide (including Configuration, Security, Logging, Command-line Admin, Writing Functions, Embedding into an existing app)
    • cookbook (with many flows covering Basics, HTTP and MQTT)
    • creating nodes (with a wall of information: Creating your first node, JavaScript File, HTML File, Storing Context, Node properties, Node credentials, Node appearance, Node status, Configuration nodes, Help style guide, Packaging, Internationalisation)
    • flows (hundreds of them)

Code is published as JSON, but I wish more examples also showed the visual representation.

Via: [WayBack] Now I can go to bed :-) Added node-red [1] to my setup and thanks to node-red-contrib-ui [2] (replaced by node-red-dashboard [3]) I can now generate ni… – Jan Wildeboer – Google+ who also provided the large screenshot below.

–jeroen

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Posted in Development, Hardware Development, IoT Internet of Things, Network-and-equipment, Power User, Raspberry Pi | Leave a Comment »

Not sure why: ChromeCast on Harman Kardon BDS 580 series to Samsung MU6100 gives greenish tint

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/12/09

I had a problem similar to [Archive.is] MX613ST Color space conversion issue (detects YUV instead of RGB) – Google Product Forums.

In my case I had a Chromecast 1st generation connected to a [WayBack] Harman Kardon BDS 580, which was hooked up to a [WayBack] Samsung MU6100 TV.

Everything, especially the white and grey areas, had a greenish tint over it, and I think there was also a purple mismatch.

I think it has to do with YUV versus RGB, similar to [WayBack] Force RGB Color Space over HDMI? – Apple Community.

Though I did not notice that with an Apple TV 4th generation (which you can switch between YCbCr/RGB-High/RGB-Low) hooked up to the same BDS 580.

The solution: plug the Chromecast in the TV, then the ARC (Audio Return Channel) will automatically route the audio to the BDS 580.

–jeroen

Posted in 4K Monitor, BDS580, Displays, Hardware, Harman Kardon, Home Audio/Video, LifeHacker, Media, MU6100, Power User, Samsung TV, Video | Leave a Comment »

Forticlient “the user might login in another computer”, never found the cause

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/25

Could only find one reference using “the user might login in another computer” – Google Search, who also could not find out why this error happened:

When trying to log in on FortiClient, I get an error message that says, “the user might login in another computer” I assume that could mean that I’m logged in on another machine elsewhere? I could not find any information confirming that.

[WayBack] Error Message | Fortinet Technical Discussion Forums

So I reached out to Fortinet, the makers of Forticlient:

[WayBack] Jeroen Pluimers on Twitter: “@Fortinet what could cause this? Searching for the message “The user might login in another computer” did not get me any further: https://t.co/Bl4KoWJ7IB FortiClient 6.6.1.723 on MacOS High Sierra.…”

 

 

–jeroen

Posted in FortiGate/FortiClient, Network-and-equipment, Power User, VPN | Leave a Comment »

For my link archive: IPVoid.com

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/25

Nice landing page to check various aspects of IP addresses: [WayBack] ipvoid.com:

We offer a vast range of IP address tools to discover details about IP addresses. IP smtp blacklist check, whois lookup, dns lookup, ping, and more!

I irregularly use them to check out blacklist issues (yes, sometimes 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4 and even 9.9.9.9 appear on blacklists).

–jeroen

Posted in Internet, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Netgate SG-3100 is an ARM based pfSense Firewall Appliance

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/04

By now I should have had plenty of time to try out an ARM based pfSense multi-WAN router like the [WayBack]  Netgate SG-3100 is an ARM based pfSense Firewall Appliance.

So this is a reminder for myself to write down more detailed experiences than the summary at [WayBack]Netgate SG-3100 pfSense Security Gateway Appliance.

It is in the Mikrotik price range, but each time I use those I bump into mysterious RouterOS issues that only I seem to have.

–jeroen

via:

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Posted in Internet, Network-and-equipment, Power User, routers | 1 Comment »

ZeroShell Firewall/Router Linux Distribution Works on x86 Hardware, Raspberry Pi 2/3, & (Some) Orange Pi Boards

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/11/01

From a while back: [WayBack] ZeroShell Firewall/Router Linux Distribution Works on x86 Hardware, Raspberry Pi 2/3, & (Some) Orange Pi Boards.

I’m anxious to see how much it has grown up by now.

More info at Zeroshell – Wikipedia

–jeroen

via: [WayBack] ZeroShell is a ##Linux distribution for firewalls/routers fully configurable via a web interface, and that not only works on x86, but also on some ##Arm… – Jean-Luc Aufranc – Google+

Posted in Internet, Network-and-equipment, Power User, routers | Leave a Comment »

Sam Knutson on Twitter: ““Every piece of equipment is shipped from the factory able to successfully complete n power cycles and you only find out n at n+1” Anonymous IBM Customer Engineer (CE)… 

Posted by jpluimers on 2019/10/18

[WayBack] Sam Knutson on Twitter: ““Every piece of equipment is shipped from the factory able to successfully complete n power cycles and you only find out n at n+1” Anonymous IBM Customer Engineer (CE)… .

I could not track down earlier versions of the image than 2005; see the images below.

Failures

[WayBack] flowcart troubleshooting komputer | superplayboy:

–jeroen

Posted in Hardware, LifeHacker, Power User | Leave a Comment »

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