All posts by Malte

GLKVM: Enter AMI-BIOS setup of connected device

Linux, , , , , ,

I recently got to use a GLKVM device to remote control a SFF computer that runs as a server. It features a normal mainboard with an AMI-BIOS. The default of the splash screen of the AMI-BIOS was 1 second.

After trying a couple times to enter the BIOS for WOL and other settings, I failed trying Esc, F1, F2, Del, F10, F11. None of them worked. Supposedly because the time to input was so short and the delay of the remote console just made finding the right moment even more difficult.

The solution I had not heard of before: Keep the right button pressed throughout the whole boot process until you entered the BIOS setup.

And that worked. I kept pressing F2 throughout the whole boot process and suddenly entered the BIOS setup successfully. Afterwards I changed the splash screen timeout from 1 to 5 and retried with a normal button press while the AMI BIOS splash screen kept waiting: Success. A normal short button press worked now due to the updated timeout.

ThinkBook G13/G13s G4 IAP and similar microphones not working recently

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I just experienced a strange behaviour with the named ThinkBook’s, that affects G13 G4 books and similar devices. After an upgrade of “Elevoc AudioProcessingObject” to (in my case) 4.0.5.199 via Windows Update, the microphone just stopped working.

After finding a thread on reddit about this, I installed the latest 5.0.5.238, which also did not work. Scrolling through the thread revealed that a user had this exact problem even with the latest 5.0.5.238 version. Installing 5.0.5.234 manually via device manager fixed the problem immediately, even without a restart.

https://catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=Elevoc

Shows the available packages as .cab. They can be extracted manually and then installed via the device manager. Downgrade works by uninstalling or downgrading to a previous version, then rolling forward as much as needed.

Problems with Ubuntu 24.04 in VirtualBox 7.0.20 VM on a Windows 10 host

Linux,

I recently had the bright idea to upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04 inside my Ubuntu VM that is running with VirtualBox 7.0.20 on Windows 10.

As you propably guessed: Its a catastrophy.

Not only is there problems with the vmwgfx driver that comes with newer kernels but also Xorg fallback mode is not working anymore. There was regular stack traces at boot that could be to some part fixed by enabling hpet mode.

It also shows regular boot delays or fully gets stuck related to systemd-resolved, oomd or timesyncd.

At this point I would like to show you possibilities to prevent these problems, but I got no advice more than the things mentioned above and disabling 3D acceleration in the settings + using the VMSVGA graphics mode.

I have also tried the VirtualBox 7.1 Beta 1, with no improvements.

Running Dell C1660w/Xerox Phaser 6000B on Ubuntu 24.04

Linux, , , ,

No matter if you are a Windows-, Linux- or Mac-Person, the way some producers of peripheral devices such as printers, plotters, scanners, sensors, diagnostics tools handle their software support, frankly, sucks.

I want to try to supply you with some instructions on how to get a Dell C1660w, a Dell branded version of the Xerox Phaser 6000B, running on your latest Linux distro with a 100% satisfaction guarantee1.

Continue reading Running Dell C1660w/Xerox Phaser 6000B on Ubuntu 24.04 →

Fun with regex: We match the requirements for the HTTPS DNS record type defined by RFC 9460

Linux, PHP, , ,

To be able to fully read, understand and transfer RFCs into a standard-aligned application can be very difficult. You may become a lawyer as well.

We start off with section 2.1 of RFC 9460 which defines the following rules for us to apply:

  • the record data must be formatted as “SvcPriority TargetName SvcParams” where
    • SvcPriority is a number between 0 and 65535
    • TargetName is a domain-name, which is a combination of texts (labels) that can contain alphabetic characters, digits and hyphens, these labels can be up to 63 characters each and can be bonded together using dots up to a length of 255 characters
      • Note: The domain-name is not specified in RFC 9460, but already in RFC 1035
    • SvcParam is one or more of either only a key such as ‘mykey’ or a key-value pair such as ‘mykey=”myvalue”‘ where the quotation mark is mandatory
Continue reading Fun with regex: We match the requirements for the HTTPS DNS record type defined by RFC 9460 →

Compile SquirrelMail imapproxy with OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 3.0

Linux,

imapproxy is a application aware (POP3/IMAP) proxy, which enables webmailers such as SquirrelMail or Roundcube to save on roundtrips by using a local low-latency connection to a mail server over a high-latency connection that is being kept open.

SquirrelMail as well as imapproxy is very outdated software and you may not want to use it. However, if you really want, you may want to compile it yourself as shown in the rest of this article.

Continue reading Compile SquirrelMail imapproxy with OpenSSL 1.1.1 and 3.0 →