Friday, May 17, 2013

how to disable secure boot when Windows 8 is installed

And you want to create a multiboot with another Linux installation.

Look here


Copied this, a part of the article from Ask Ubuntu to have it more easy to find:
many thanks to the original poster.


Create a new partition from within windows 8: 
Run compmgmt.msc as admin on Windows 8. (Open the Charms bar with Windows key + c and search powershell and rightclick on the program icon and execute as administrator.)
From there on, create a partition with enough size. Note that I mention creating this FROM Windows 8 because I have had cases where doing the partition from the LiveUSB rendered Windows 8 unbootable, even after doing a boot repair. So to remove that problem or have a greater chance of removing it (Or simply skipping the problem altogether) and making sure both systems work, partition your hard drive from within Windows 8 first.

Windows 8 shoould not be  shutdown in either Hibernation mode or any other mode that leaves it on a saved state. Shut Windows 8 in the normal way, with the shutdown option. This will prevent other problems related to this from appearing.

Check if secure boot is indeed enabled:

We first need to know with what type of motherboard options we are dealing with. Open a terminal (By going to the start menu and typing powershell for example) and run the terminal as an Administrator (Right Click the app that will show in the start menu and select Run as Administrator). Now type Confirm-SecureBootUEFI. This can give you 3 results:
True - Means your system has Secure boot and is Enabled
False - Means your system has Secure boot and is Disabled

Cmdlet not supported on this platform - Means your system does not support Secure boot and most likely you do not need this guide. You can install Ubuntu by simply inserting the LiveCD or LiveUSB and doing the installation procedure without any problems.

If you have it Enabled and have the necessary partitioning done then we can proceed with this guide. After booting into Windows 8 we go to the power off options and while holding the SHIFT key, click on Restart.

enter image description here

Or If this doesn't work for you:
On systems with Windows 8 pre-installed, you can access the UEFI (BIOS) setup screens from the Windows 8 boot menu:
  1. Press the Windows (Image: icon_Windows8_key.png) key + C, or swipe in from the right edge of the screen to open your Charms.
  2. Click Settings.
  3. Click Change PC Settings.
  4. In PC Settings, select General.
  5. Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. The system will restart and show the Windows 8 boot menu.
  6. In the boot menu, select Troubleshoot.
  7. In the Troubleshoot menu, select Advanced options.
  8. In the Advanced options menu, select UEFI Firmware Settings.
  9. Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).
Windows 8 will show you a totally different restart window:
enter image description here
When you get the menu above, select Troubleshoot


You will then get the following options:
enter image description here



Select UEFI Firmware Settings
THIS IS AN IMPORTANT PART
The system will reboot and you will be allowed to go to the BIOS (If not press the appropriate key, some common are DEL,F2 or F10).
In this part I can't help much since each BIOS is different for each Motherboard model. There are 2 options you can take here, you can either look for an option to disable Secure Boot or an option to disable UEFI. In most cases you will be able to find both, it will show in the BIOS as an option called Secure Boot or Enable UEFI.

If you find this options, then disable Secure Boot, to be able to still stay in UEFI mode and also be able to Boot with Ubuntu. In most motherboards, this will be the only option you actually need to change and also will be the only option you see related to UEFI because they will not offer the possibility to disable UEFI.

In other motherboards that do offer the possibility to disable UEFI which would completely eliminate UEFI and Secure Boot on it and boot in the normal BIOS like way, if you find this is the way you want (To have a UEFI free computer and not face any of the problems related to this) then by all means do it. I for one have tested the Intel DZ68DB and did both case studies.
Remember to also select the Boot Order to make sure that it boots either your CDROM, DVDROM or USB Drive so you can boot from your Live Ubuntu image after rebooting.


Some points we should consider before continuing:
  1. If Windows 8 was installed with UEFI enabled, it is recommended to stay in UEFI, but you can actually disable it and after installing Ubuntu, GRUB will create the bootable part for Windows 8. But in the case where you disable UEFI and want to access Windows 8 afterwards (before installing Ubuntu), it will not work since the boot part for Windows 8 needs UEFI.
  2. If you only disable Secure Boot, there is no problem. You are only disabling the part that creates the most problem between Windows and Linux, which is the one that prevents Ubuntu from booting correctly. In either case, if you disable any of them and install Ubuntu, you will be able to boot to Windows 8 afterwards through the GRUB Boot Menu.
Now before saving, some motherboards offer a Boot Mode option. Verify that this option is not pointing to UEFI Boot but instead to CSM Boot (Compatibility Support Module) which provides support for Legacy BIOS like systems.
Other systems offer a UEFI Boot option you can enable or disable. Depending on the options I mentioned above you can set this to the one you want.
And lastly others offer a UEFI/Legacy Boot First option where you select which one you wish to use first. Obviously the option is self explanatory.
Now save the changes and reboot.





Monday, May 13, 2013

Update error gdk-pixbuf2

Solution reinstall gdk-pixbuf2

Error message:
failed for /usr/lib/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/libpixbufloader-svg.so: libpng15.so.15: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

List packages from AUR -Arch


pacman -Qm

Update only AUR packages:
$packer -Su --auronly

Only do this if you have just finished a full system update!!

More

Friday, April 26, 2013

reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.

Getting warnings like:
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 14: reading configurations from ~/.fonts.conf is deprecated.

Johns solution also worked for me:
I was able to resolve this issue by doing the following:

mkdir ~/.config/fontconfig 
mv ~/.fonts.conf ~/.config/fontconfig/ 

Thursday, April 25, 2013

BTsync file sharing or syncing without intermediates


Source:
http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrents-secure-dropbox-alternative-goes-public-130423/

See also:
http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync/get-started.html

Earlier this year BitTorrent started a closed Alpha test with a limited number of users, and today Sync is being released to the public for the first time.
“We’re really excited about opening up this Alpha. The feedback has been universally positive. Those in the closed Alpha have already synced more than 200TB since we started the program,” BitTorrent announces.
Over the past weeks many improvements have been made to the Sync application, prompted by user feedback. Among other things it is now possible to allow one-way synchronization and to exclude files or directories from being shared.
While Sync uses BitTorrent technology, people’s files are not accessible to outsiders. Only those who have the unique private key can access the shared folder.
“All the traffic is encrypted using a private key derived from the shared secret. Your files can be viewed and received only by the people with whom you share your private secret,” BitTorrent explains.
sync-secret
To increase security, the latest Sync version also has the option to let the secret key expire after a day so new devices can’t be added, even if outsiders have the private key.
BitTorrent stresses that Sync is still in Alpha development but tests carried out by TorrentFreak confirm that it works very well. It is an ideal tool for people who want to share large amounts of data between computers without going through third-party services.
The application is also surprisingly easy to configure. There’s no need to create an account and it only takes a few clicks to get going.

The Sync application is available for Windows, OSX, Linux and has the ability run on NAS devices through a web-interface. Readers who are interested in giving it a spin can head over to BitTorrent labs, where the Sync app can be downloaded: http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html


User manual: manual


I log by  using the webbrowserto open the gui interface: http://0.0.0.0:8888/gui/

Instructions for using it in Linux: https://gist.github.com/MendelGusmao/5398362

See also: http://forum.bittorrent.com/topic/16526-feedback-btsync-on-linux/

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Forward journald to var/log in systemd journal.conf file

You can edit /etc/systemd/journald.conf to forward all messages to syslog.
Just remove the # before
#ForwardToSyslog=yes

Suggestion from Oliver

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