Annoyance on Blogarious

Xfce4 4.20 upgrade issue on font size

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With the recent upgrade of Xfce4 4.20, I was facing the font size issue on my laptop. I am using icewm . And the upgrade causes my fonts become too small. But some applications are too big, like Brave and FreeFileSync. I spent some time to fix this. And this is my final solution,

Allow xfsettingsd at startup,

xfsettingsd --daemon -D

And use xfce4-appearance-settings, at the Fonts > DPI, enable Custom and set the value to 120 as in .Xresources . The effect is immediate. This solves the font size for all applications.

Logitech M590 mouse and Linux 6.11.4

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Due to the recent upgrade of Linux kernel to 6.11.4, my bluetooth mouse (Logitech M590) cannot connect. I tried many times, and sometimes I can connect, but most of the time it fails. There were several related posts: here and here.

Since my storage doesn’t have enough space to install Linux LTS, I can only wait for the fix from Linux. While waiting for the fix, I remembered that M590 allows to use a USB receiver. As a result, I installed ltunify package and now it works. The only drawback is that one of my USB ports is occupied.

Android playing iOS MOV video

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I am using an Android phone, specifically Vivo. I found that when I play the MOV video transferred from iOS, only sound is able to be played properly but the picture is not showing.

None of the solutions from the Internet helped me to solve my problem. After trial and error, I found that the MOV file can be converted to MP4 format using ffmpeg with some parameters. Eg,

fmpeg -i input.MOV -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -vf "scale=720:1280,fps=29" -ac 1 -x264opts "ref=0:cabac=0:b_pyramid=0:bframes=0" -profile:v baseline -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

Based on my experience, the most crucial parameter is “-pix_fmt yuv420p”, so the MP4 video is 8-bit depth.

Switching from Openbox to IceWM

Sun, 19 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Bye-bye Openbox, welcome IceWM.

Due to the recent upgrade of glib2 on Arch Linux, it crashes my Openbox when I am running Wine or Proton. Downgrade to 2.74.6 is not a solution, because Nemo, Caja, Nautilus are using 2.76.0.

As a result, I have to find an alternative. From Wikipedia, I found that LXDE can be configured with other window manager rather than Openbox, eg Fluxbox, IceWM, or Xfwm.

I tried Xfwm, but it fails to run. Probably needs extra configuration, but I didn’t continue trying. I tried Fluxbox long time ago, can’t remember the feature. Then I found that, compare to Openbox, IceWM is still in development. Hence I decided to try IceWM.

Malaysia Airlines online booking review

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I was doing online booking using Malaysia Airlines (MAS). In summary, the experience is too bad.

I cannot login using GMail with password.
Sending email as feedback to get support, but never get reply.
Passenger name cannot be too long. Need to use initials.
The first name and last name is super weird. The last name suppose to be family name. For Chinese with Christian name, such as James Wong Hang Seng, the family name is Wong, the last name suppose to be Wong, but the instruction says to fill the last name as James Wong. This doesn’t make any sense.

Twitter interests deselection bookmarklet

Sun, 13 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I like to use Twitter, but the new Topics and Interests feature of Twitter is damn annoying. It keep showing something I am not interested of.

I looked for the solution from Internet, and finally I come out with this bookmarklet, which can be used in Settings > Privacy and Safety > Content You See > Interests.

javascript:(async()=>{const sleep=ms=>new Promise(r=>setTimeout(r,ms));const inputs=document.querySelectorAll('section[aria-label="Section details"] input:checked');for(let i=0;i<inputs.length;i+=1){const rand=Math.floor(Math.random()*2e3);await sleep(9e3+rand);const input=inputs[i];input.click()}})();

After trigger the bookmarklet, just leave the page there, it will slowly deselect one by one.

Dell Vostro 5459 revive

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I was using Dell Vostro 5459 previously. However, it has some hardware deficiencies. The battery capacity keeps dropping drastically within a year. That’s a very bad experience. Now, the fully charged battery is only 1% of the designed capacity. Then I purchased an external power bank from Dell. But that’s not an ideal design for a laptop that you need to bring extra gadget to everywhere, and charging external battery is too troublesome.

Solution on Evernote login issue

Tue, 09 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I faced the login issue with Evernote since around two weeks ago. It leads me to a blank page, with the HTTP status code 418. There is similar issue reported here. I made the bug report, but the issue not yet solved. Looks like it happened in Malaysia and Vietnam according to the forum. Suggested solution in the forum was to use VPN.

This is how I solved the issue as a temporary solution to login.

Brave or Chromium

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I am in dilemma of choosing Brave or Chromium as my default browser.

The following is my comparison,

	Chromium	Brave
Arch Linux official repo	Yes, in Extra	AUR
Sync	Sync a lot of things, including tabs, history, compatible to Google Chrome	Sync bookmark only
AdBlock	Require extension, such as uBlock Origin	Built-in adblock, but leads to difficulty to customize blocking certain HTML elements. Adblock also breaks some anti-adblock sites. But adblock works on mobile version on both Android and iPhone
Start	Fast start	Slower than Chromium, because it runs `pacman` (Arch Linux package manager) to check `pepper-flash`.
Privacy	Nothing special	Built-in Tor feature for private browsing with Tor

I am still continue using Brave, because I prefer Brave over Firefox on Android. In order to conform with Brave on Android, I choose Brave on desktop.

Microsoft To Do

Sat, 18 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In my previous post, I mentioned I migrated Wunderlist to Microsoft To Do.

However, there are two annoying things. Firstly, do not expect there will be Chrome App version of Microsoft To Do similar to Wunderlist and Google Keep, because Chrome Apps is going to be discontinued.

Secondly, I frequently experienced To Do web page doesn’t load properly, either stuck at the loading page, or the tasks not showing or showing partially.

LightDM background image

Sun, 20 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Recently my old laptop, due to some unknown configuration, it shows a background image in the LightDM login. It is annoying, and it is user specific. Meaning, if I choose another user, the background image will be changed to black background.

Searched for the solution on Internet, most of links are about gsettings, or edit the image in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf. But none of the related to my issue.

Finally, I found the solution. The problem is not LightDM itself, but related to AccountsService.

Vivo Y17 and Wunderlist

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Recently changed to new phone Vivo Y17. Installed all the apps needed. Then I discovered an issue with Wunderlist.

Wunderlist widget keep showing “loading”, and I cannot change the list to be viewed.

The reminder doesn’t show notification in time.

Then I tried to migrate Wunderlist to Microsoft To-Do, and it has same issue as well.

Searching the solution and I finally get this page.

To summarise the solution, go to Settings > Permission Management > Autostart, then enable Wunderlist or Microsoft To-Do.

AAC file re-visit

Sun, 23 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In my previous post, I mentioned about AAC and the ID3 tag. And I mentoined that

I have an AAC audio file (technically M4A) […]

I used Audacious previously, then change to DeadBeef. The main reason I changed was because I kept failing to play AAC audio file. What’s wrong? FFplay can play it, SMPlayer can play it, DeadBeef can play it, Clementine can play it, but Audacious cannot. Audacious has a AAC plugin, it should support AAC format.

AAC audio file and ID3 tag

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I just found that, if I have an AAC audio file (technically M4A), and if I added the ID3 tag 2 (aka ID3v2), then the audio file will failed to be converted by ffmpeg.

It can be either converted to mp3

using DeadBeef audio player, or
remove the ID3v2 tag then convert

So, how to add the metadata like ID3 tag? Use the Kid3 and add the Tag 3 (aka APE tag). This will not affect how ffmpeg to read the file.

Bye-bye Xiaomi Mi 3

Sat, 26 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Prelude

Last weekend was a long story, that I my Xiaomi Mi 3 is screwed! It happened like this.

I was in the car, using the phone to surf net and go through the social networks. Then suddenly, it popped up a notification saying that my phone is too hot, asked me to cool down, with a system button “Cool Down”. I cannot guarantee that this is not a virus, but I believe that my phone doesn’t have virus. (I can hardly find the Cool Down feature online, this is the only one.) So, I pressed the Cool Down button. With this press, sorry my phone. You got a stroke, and never overcome. Bye-bye!

Linux no sound after boot into Windows

Fri, 14 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Just now was trying to boot into Windows, by plugged in the HDMI cable, which supports for video only. But then, I rebooted into Linux without plugged out the HDMI cable. Then, it caused no sound in Linux.

Try 1: I killed the pulseaudio, then delete the ~/.config/pulse, and rebooted Linux. Failed.

Try 2: Run alsamixer, turned on everything, and do Try 1 again. Failed.

Then I guessed it was caused by the HDMI cable, which the Windows may assume there is audio, then caused my computer somehow ouptut the audio through the HDMI, even I rebooted into Linux.

MIUI 7 Google Calendar sync problem

Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, I found that, the calendar item (agenda) created in MIUI 7 Calendar does not sync to my Google Calendar. Then I ignore it.

And until today, I found that, the agenda from Google Calendar does not sync to MIUI7 Calendar too. Then this will be serious. So, I search around the forum, and finally get this solution.

Install Google Calendar! This will solve the calendar syncing problem. Enjoy!

Xfce4 Power Manager, NVIDIA, Nouveau backlight issue

Sun, 08 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I move back to use my (around) 4 years old laptop, HP Pavilion dv3. It has NVIDIA graphic card. But since I (re-)installed Arch Linux 64 bit on it, I failed to run the X11 with the proprietary NVIDIA driver. As a result, I used the Nouveau module instead. Then, I tried several times and finally successfully run the X11 with NVIDIA driver.

To use the Nouveau module, in the mkinitcpio.conf, we have to add in “nouveau” module, then build the initramfs (refer to wiki page). And use the “Xorg -configure” to generate the xorg.conf.

MIUI upgrade

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Today I just upgraded the MIUI to version 7. Actually, it prompted for the upgrade since some times last week. But I failed to upgrade, expected to be server problem.

So, today I determined to find the solution for manual upgrade. The upgrade version is MIUI 7.0.5.0. I visited the official site and searched the ROM, but the official site does not have this ROM. As a result, just did a search, and found the target ROM in the MIUI official forum. Then everything becomes easy now.

LibreOffice Writer table tips

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Preface

LibreOffice Writer is better than Microsoft Word. If you are a web developer, you should understand that there are class and style. Using LibreOffice is tended to using class-like style, instead of direct formatting, which causes a lot of inconsistent, troublesome, and time consuming modification throughout the word processing. And this is happened when the newbies are using Microsoft Word to create templates for the advanced user like me, and causes me full of trouble as being tortured.