Solus Linux Installation Issue

Solus Linux Installation Issue

Whenever I first install Solus Linux, the installer never adds Solus to the UEFI Boot Menu. Here are the steps to fix that issue:

Boot from your live CD/USB. Connect to the internet, and do the following:

Install efibootmgr: sudo eopkg it efibootmgr

(This paragraph probably isn’t necessary, but I am including it to remember how to clean up the UEFI Boot Menu 🙂 )
Run efibootmgr with no arguments. You should see an entry for Linux Boot Manager, which for some reason doesn’t show up in your actual boot menu but does here. There’s a number listed for that entry. Delete it with sudo efibootmgr -b [num] -B

Now you can recreate it. If your EFI partition is /dev/sda1 then do this: sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -l "\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi" -L "Linux Boot Manager"

Fix KDE on NVIDIA Driver

Fix KDE on NVIDIA Driver

For KDE font/gui size issues after switching to NVIDIA driver, I found the following post:

It’s a nvidia thing lol I had the same issue and never even noticed it until one day I gave the free noveau drivers a try and everything looked way better and smaller. For some reason nvidia sets/forces my DPI to I believe 120, anyways it’s really easy to solve.

Open the nvidia.conf file in your text editor

sudoedit /etc/X11/mhwd.d/nvidia.conf

Then edit or add the option DPI under the screen display sub section and disable UseEdidDpi.

To make things easier here is what I have under my “Screen” section which now forces the use of 96 for dpi scaling.

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Option "UseEdidDpi" "False"
        Option "DPI" "96x96"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

I hope this helps you as it did for me.

No Kernel Panic on Shutdown

No Kernel Panic on Shutdown

Okay, so my new computer likes to fail to shutdown in Linux with a kernel panic. Here’s the solution to fix it.

If using Grub:
Add initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver to the kernel command line.

Run in the terminal: sudo nano -w /etc/default/grub
Append blacklist string to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="… initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver"
Save the file.
For Debian:  sudo update-grub
For Fedora:  grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg
For Arch: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot and test!

If using goofiboot (Solus):
sudo nano -w /etc/kernel/cmdline
Insert the following line: initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver
Save the file.
sudo clr-boot-manager update
Reboot and test!

If using systemd-boot (Pop_OS):
sudo nano -w /etc/kernelstub/configuration
Insert the following line: "initcall_blacklist=dw_i2c_init_driver", Unless it is the final item in the list, do not miss the trailing comma!
Save the file.
sudo kernelstub
Reboot and test!

The Holidays Are Over!

The Holidays Are Over!

All I can say about that is, Thank you, God! The Holidays are so stressful. We started out with Elliott’s birth, then Todd’s birthday. We followed that up with Christmas, which we were planning on having at Donna’s parents, but since her dad had the flu we ended up staying home. We got to see my brothers, his wife and son, and my other brother on Christmas Eve. We actually got to go to our own Church’s Christmas Eve mass, which was kind of awesome.

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we had Donna’s dad’s Christmas Party. Her dad was better by then, and so we all went and had a good time. It turns out that Todd had the flu all that time, and so we ended up making my brother and his family, and then my family in Michigan sick with flu…. Ugh. Then I ended up getting the flu, and so we ended up staying home for New Year’s and Preston’s birthday… Then we had Christmas with Donna’s parents the following weekend. I had a sore throat the entire time…turned out to be strep. We finally all got better.

Then we had Elliott’s baptism, which was nice, but Russell was a toot for family pictures earlier in the day. Turns out he was getting sick. He had strep the next day. Followed by flu later in the week. And then Preston got the flu and strep at the same time that weekend… Let me just say, this is getting old!  Oh, I forgot to say.. Elliott had the flu at around the same time that I did.  He actually didn’t do too bad with it.

Happy Birthday To You!

Happy Birthday To You!

Elliott Johan Taylor

Happy birthday Elliott Johan Taylor!  He was born at 11:19pm on November 8, 2017 at United Regional Hospital in Wichita Falls, TX.  His official (but debated… he was 6lb 12oz the following day) weight was 6lb 1oz, and he was 20 inches long!

I hope you and your brothers are ready for each other!

All My Boys!
How to configure Plex Media Server in Linux

How to configure Plex Media Server in Linux

You need to configure fstab to set the proper permissions.

There is a whole page about how to do this on the Plex site, see: https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/200288606-Mounting-NTFS-Drives-on-Linux

To make it short:

  • Find the UUID of your drive:

    sudo blkid | grep ntfs

  • create a directory where you will mount the drive:

    sudo mkdir /media/ext_NTFS_USB_Drive

  • edit file /etc/fstab with command:

    gksu gedit /etc/fstab

  • add a line to this file and save.

    UUID=485CBF485CBF3014 /media/ext_NTFS_USB_Drive ntfs-3g permissions,auto 0 0

    where the UUID is the one your drive and the mount point is the folder you created.
  • now mount the drive:

    sudo mount /media/ext_NTFS_USB_Drive(you might get an error saying the drive is already mounted, in Nautilus for example. Just unmount it – Safely Remove Drive, or click the Eject Icon in Nautilus)

Now in Plex, you need to change the location of the media folder you were trying to add to somewhere inside: /media/ext_NTFS_USB_Drive

Slayaway Camp Killer Kodes

Slayaway Camp Killer Kodes

Slayaway Camp is a fun little puzzle game for those of us who love 80s slasher movies. I’m going to post some Killer Kodes which are used to unlock additional killers in the game:

campgate2016
freshmaker
gygax
badu
smiggles
beaster
lichee
griffin
gnollnumbertwo
forhades
comewithme
theyfloat
nananananananana
adieutube
slashback
awristrocket
scooper
dont-hang-up
groundhog
butthead
woodguardian
gotyoubabe
cup-of-wishes
soafraid
blowholepower
postlakeview
gonnalaughatu
bowels-out

Holy Week. Came and Gone…

Holy Week. Came and Gone…

I took Wednesday through the Monday-after-Easter off of work to focus more on Holy Week.  I am so glad I did!  It was exhausting… and beautiful!  I think that each evening’s service was more beautiful than the one before!  The only thing that I didn’t get to go to was the Tenebrae service, which is a shame.  I always loved that service in the Lutheran church.  But it was held after evening Mass, and the kids were – horrid – !  I found out later that the service lasted an hour and a half.  It’s a good thing I didn’t force them to stay.  I don’t think that would have gone over too well.  But as the days went on, I think that the kids began to enjoy it more and become a bit more well-behaved.  It ended up being a very nice Paschal celebration!

Long Time, No Updates!

Long Time, No Updates!

I’ve been really lazy with my updates this last year. Sorry about that! It’s been a pretty interesting year, to say the least. My Father-In-Law had a liver transplant a few weeks ago. That has been a real blessing for our family. He is doing much better than he had been. I’ve been really excited to see how much he has progressed!

God has really been blessing our family.  We were getting a little frustrated with some things at church, and as is our modus operandi, decided to try going back to the Catholic Church.  Well our priest at the Orthodox Church, Father Peter, stepped in and set us straight!  Instead of running from our problems, he has been helping us talk them out.  I am really thankful for him.

Preston and Russell have both continued to serve at the altar at church.  Preston has really taken to it!  He knows how to do most of the liturgy already, and I’ve heard him asking to learn how to do other parts!  I’ve been singing for the church choir, with the most important part being the Propers.  It has been challenging, stressful, fun, and completely fulfilling!

Todd still doesn’t like to eat much (except for candy, bread, and other junk-type food), so he’s still a tiny little dude.  I’m sure he’ll get better, though.

I’ve started a new diet as of one week ago.  My cholesterol has been a bit too high and my doctor keeps wanting me to take statins.  I have taken them before and don’t like the way they make me feel, so I think I’m going to try taking this low-cholesterol diet thing seriously this time!  I’ve also decided to experiment with going gluten-free.  This makes Russie pretty happy.  He is glad to not be the only one!  Let me tell you, my stomach has felt much better in the last week than it has in years!  I’m not sure if it is because of the smaller portions that I’ve been eating, or the lack of gluten, but whatever it is, I like it…  I used to have problems with heartburn almost constantly.  I have only had a couple of small episodes of heartburn since I’ve started my new diet.  Yay!!!

Lousy Past Couple of Weeks…

Lousy Past Couple of Weeks…

Well, it’s Advent now.  I normally look forward to Advent because I like to do a devotion as a family.  The kids always enjoy it, especially the playing-with-fire part!  But it has been a rough start, I’ll tell you what!  The furnace went out = -$400.  The front tires on the van needed to be changed = -$300.  And now it seems that Preston’s lousy teeth are going to cost us another $200!  Poor kid, he got his Mama’s teeth… lol

But, despite it all, we’re still getting by.  And that’s what counts.  Right?