Category: General Computing

Categories
General Computing

Forcing AdGuard Home to disable 53 lookups at bootstrap

I am migrating from pfsense to a Unifi Fiber gateway. The first thing I needed to do was to figure out how I was going to get away from the feature rich pfBlockerNG. That thing was a beast, combined with unbound, very customizable. But i’ve been using it for 6+ years, it’s had its quirks and I am ready to try something new. The internet seems to be saying AdGuard Home is the new champion in DNS for selfhosters. It is no longer pi-hole (thick and heavy php stack requirements), nor is it technitium (to new, not open source) and I would never use nextdns due to its cloud/internet requirement. AdGuard Home is written in go, has a sleak reporting function and it has DOH and DOT built in, unlike Pi-Hole. For whatever reason, the developers of Pi-Hole do not think DNS needs to be encrypted, so they’re off the list.

Setup of AdGuard Home was super simple. I threw it on a pi running latest raspian. Went through the quick wizard and off I went. First step was to setup my upstream DNS servers. I chose these:

https://dns10.quad9.net/dns-query
https://dns.cloudflare.com/dns-query
https://dns.mullvad.net/dns-query
https://dns.google/dns-query

To get DOH to work, you need to do a 53 DNS lookup. I did not like that idea. So in the bootstrap section, you can actually use an 853 TLS/DOT look up. So I put these in:

tls://1.1.1.1
tls://8.8.8.8

I watched the traffic with tcpdump on my current router, and boom, all 853 to 443 traffic for lookups. I blocked all 53 traffic on WAN and it’s functioning perfectly.

I then dumped in my custom DNS black lists I have accumulated over the years. As well as a few DNS rewrites and then my preferred DNSBL. If you need help with a good set of lists, I would start with the green section for firebog:

https://firebog.net

That was it, now i’ll let AdGuard Home slowly cover all my internal DNS needs and watch it work. So far I enjoy the metrics over pfBlockerNG. I will miss pfBlockerNG, but it’s nice having something built quite simply.

Categories
General Computing Operating Systems

Format USB drive to FAT32 in a 32GB and larger thumbdrive world

I always need a FAT32 formatted drive so that I can upgrade some firmware or BIOS updates. I also need FAT32 for things like network equipment that only take FAT32 still, even the new stuff, looking at you Cisco. You can format a larger 64GB+ thumb drive with Microsoft Windows 11 natively, no need for extra apps. You can use the built in diskpart utility.

First step is to hit your windows key, and type CMD. Right click CMD and run it as administrator. Then you can drop into diskpark:

diskpart
list disk
select disk X (select the disk you know is yours)
clean
create partition primary size=32768
select partition 1
format fs=fat32 quick
exit

Done, now you have a drive that is fat32 formatted and you can dump your files on it that you need.

Categories
Linux

AlmaLinux 8 fails GPG key check

Are you getting these errors trying to install new packages or update your existing packages? Does it look something like this?

sudo dnf upgrade almalinux-release
Last metadata expiration check: 1:48:55 ago on Tue 28 May 2024 08:39:46 PM PDT.
Dependencies resolved.
=========================================================================================================
 Package                        Architecture        Version                    Repository           Size
=========================================================================================================
Upgrading:
 almalinux-release              x86_64              8.10-1.el8                 baseos               27 k

Transaction Summary
=========================================================================================================
Upgrade  1 Package

Total size: 27 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
[SKIPPED] almalinux-release-8.10-1.el8.x86_64.rpm: Already downloaded
AlmaLinux 8 - BaseOS                                                     3.3 MB/s | 3.4 kB     00:00
Importing GPG key 0xC21AD6EA:
 Userid     : "AlmaLinux <packager@almalinux.org>"
 Fingerprint: E53C F5EF 91CE B0AD 1812 ECB8 51D6 647E C21A D6EA
 From       : /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Key imported successfully
Import of key(s) didn't help, wrong key(s)?
Public key for almalinux-release-8.10-1.el8.x86_64.rpm is not installed. Failing package is: almalinux-release-8.10-1.el8.x86_64
 GPG Keys are configured as: file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux
The downloaded packages were saved in cache until the next successful transaction.
You can remove cached packages by executing 'dnf clean packages'.
Error: GPG check FAILED

There is a quick and easy fix that works as of Aug 2024. Run this on your OS, this will import the latest GPG keys:

rpm --import https://repo.almalinux.org/almalinux/RPM-GPG-KEY-AlmaLinux

Then run this to update yum/dnf:

dnf upgrade almalinux-release

Then you should be all good for you yum upgrade and install needs!

Categories
Google chrome Software

Removing google Chrome drop down in tab bar – March 2024

Updated chrome to 123.0.6312.58, and they re added the drop down in the top left, again. OY, this is getting old Google. They need to stop forcing these UX changes. If you see this:

and want to remove it, open up a new tab in chrome and go to chrome://flags and disable “Customize Chrome Side Panel” If this is your first time dealing with these changes, also disable “Chrome Refresh 2023“. Once done, it will look like this:

Relaunch chrome and the drop downs in the tab bar is gone.

Categories
General Computing

Google search results showing incorrect date stamps and calendar – updated Sep 2023

I run into this a lot when I travel, or live in different parts of the world for a little bit. Example, my search results are showing up as BE while I am in Thailand. And as of Sep 22 2023, it looks like Google changed the way you modify this. So this is an update to what I previously posted November of 2022:

Google search results showing incorrect date stamps and calendar

Same issue, slightly different way to fix it. Caveats, you will need to be logged into a Google account to fix. And protip, set your homepage to ncr, as that will not give you a region lock either: https://www.google.com/ncr

Click on Settings then Search settings in the bottom left:

Select other settings on the left, and then Language & region

Then select results region

Then search for and select your region and click on confirm

Then you are good to go. Enioy your search results.

Categories
General Computing

How to remove “All Bookmarks folder” in Chrome

This started happening a few days ago. Super annoying and takes up an extra folder or two in my bookmarks bar. But it can be removed. You can remove it by opening a new tab and typing:

 about://flags

Scroll to “Power bookmarks side panel” and change it to disabled. It will require a chrome relaunch.

Categories
Operating Systems

Did you get a Windows configuration update for Windows 11?

Did you received a Windows configuration update for Windows 11 on September 13th 2023 or so? I noticed this on 3 of my Windows 11 22H2 computers. This one was weird, typically there is a request for reboot based on a KB and lets you know. This one had no information regarding what it was related to.

Looking at my Windows update history (Search for Update History on your search bar), it is likely KB5030219 or KB5031217 . If you click on those links, it will direct you to the Microsoft KB and details as to what it likely was related to.

Let me know if I am wrong, but I am guessing this is likely what that meant.

Categories
Linux

Expanding / partition in Linux operating system live with no downtime

I had a disk that was not fully expanded. It only partitioned 4.8GB to the /. So I wanted to expand it live, with no downtime, or data loss. Either way, I would ALWAYS back up the data before doing this even you care about it at all. Either way you should have backups if you want to keep it regardless. I tested this just now with Almalinux 8, but I imagine it would work for a slew of other operating systems, as you only need fdisk and resize2fs, which all come with most operating systems.

I will say it one more time before we start, BACK UP YOUR DATA, always. And test those backups.

df -h to check current disk size or fdisk -l /dev/vda1

[root@72 ~]# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs        3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           3.8G  395M  3.5G  11% /run
tmpfs           3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vda1       4.8G  3.8G  774M  84% /
tmpfs           777M     0  777M   0% /run/user/0

You will notice your mount pount/partition is tight or 100% used up. Expand that partition via KVM, VMWARE, Cockpit, Proxmox, etc. That is outside the scope of this article. It is technology dependent how you want to expand your disk. Once you’ve done that, you can reboot, or try running a rescan.

echo 1 > /sys/block/vda/device/rescan

Once that is done and you’ve expanded your disk, we can expand it. Drop into fdisk:

[root@72 ~]# fdisk /dev/vda

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.32.1).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.

Then we will run through deleting the primary partition, and recreating it with the entire disk you now have. Here is the combo of letters to get through the prompts. I will follow it up with text I ran, as I prefer to see it in console. p, d, 1, n, p, 1 and then hit enter for default first and last sector. Then n to NOT remove the signature, and w to write it out. 

Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/vda: 250 GiB, 268435456000 bytes, 524288000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x318ba904

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/vda1  *         2048 507508351 507506304  242G 83 Linux
/dev/vda2       507508352 524285567  16777216    8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 1

Partition 1 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): n
Partition type
   p   primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free)
   e   extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1,3,4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-524287999, default 2048):
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G,T,P} (2048-507508351, default 507508351):

Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux' and of size 242 GiB.
Partition #1 contains a ext4 signature.

Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: n

Command (m for help): w

The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.

Now that is done you can resize to expand it with resize2fs and run df -h once again to see the expansion complete.

[root@72 ~]# resize2fs /dev/vda1
resize2fs 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
Filesystem at /dev/vda1 is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 31
The filesystem on /dev/vda1 is now 63438288 (4k) blocks long.

[root@72 ~]# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
devtmpfs        3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs           3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           3.8G  395M  3.5G  11% /run
tmpfs           3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/vda1       239G  3.8G  225G   2% /
tmpfs           777M     0  777M   0% /run/user/0
[root@72 ~]#

Boom, enjoy.

Categories
cPanel

Email accounts disappeared in cPanel

I am unsure why, but most likely this comes through via some sort of exploit of a plugin a user has. I have seen email accounts disappear in cPanel users email accounts page. Yet their email functions fine. I found this article and it spoke a little about the issue:

https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/articles/360052477034-Email-accounts-are-missing

I found it was easiest to lay it out. My example shows user anthony@vivithemage.com was not there, and this is how to restore it. If you have the passwd file or if you recall what the usernames of the email accounts should be, you can get them back showing in cPanel to modify them. This will show you what user had an email account:

[root@madhost613 vivithemage.com]# cat /home/vivithem/etc/vivithemage.com/passwd
anthony:x:671:673::/home/vivithem/mail/vivithemage.com/anthony:/usr/local/cpanel/bin/noshell
[root@madhost613 vivithemage.com#

Or you can pull it out from your email_accounts.json file:

[root@madhost613 vivithemage.com]# cat /home/vivithem/.cpanel/email_accounts.json
{"vivithemage.com":{"quota_mtime":1676555934,"disk_mtime":1676530335,"account_count":1,"shadow_mtime":1676555934,"accounts":{"anthony":{"suspended_login":0,"disk_mtime":1494927201,"diskused":"8041555","diskmtime":1676530335}}},"__version":3,"vivithemage.net":{"accounts":{},"account_count":0},"vivithemage.org":{"accounts":{},"account_count":0}}
[root@madhost613 vivithemage.com]#

now create a new shadow file in the correct directory and change ownership to the ACCOUNT. In my case it is:

cd /home/vivithem/etc/vivithemage.com/
chown vivithem:vivithem shadow

and dump this line in for EACH user missing:

anthony:$6$eGMpFjEJEI3349z3$.dhfm1rs/ftxFa8Rt8zs4yAA5dHCBdOb7P2T42Pwi/i5GpXb45BjoXiDccRbtmrwwoQkAHWF3mOwOouloYvvS1:18635::::::

If you have a second user with Elyssa you would now have this:

anthony:$6$eGMpFjEJEI3349z3$.dhfm1rs/ftxFa8Rt8zs4yAA5dHCBdOb7P2T42Pwi/i5GpXb45BjoXiDccRbtmrwwoQkAHWF3mOwOouloYvvS1:18635::::::
elyssa:$6$eGMpFjEJEI3349z3$.dhfm1rs/ftxFa8Rt8zs4yAA5dHCBdOb7P2T42Pwi/i5GpXb45BjoXiDccRbtmrwwoQkAHWF3mOwOouloYvvS1:18635::::::

replace anthony with your username missing from passwd. The hash following is irrelevant, because once you do this, you can change the password via cPanel as you would normally.

Once done this auto populates them in cPanel with no restarts required. It’s a bit of a manual process, but at least this way you can get back on with your life and reset passwords.

Categories
General Computing

Google search results showing incorrect date stamps and calendar

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 22 2023 with a new link due to changes by Google:

Google search results showing incorrect date stamps and calendar – updated Sep 2023

I run into this a lot when I travel, or live in different parts of the world for a little bit. Example, my search results are showing up as BE while I am in Thailand.

This is actually a pretty easy fix. In chrome, while logged into my Google account, I go to google.com. Protip, set your homepage to ncr, as that will not give you a region lock either: https://www.google.com/ncr

Then click on settings, then Search settings.

Once there, scroll to the bottom and you will see the option for region settings. The default is current region, which picks up where you are based on IP address most likely, I have not investigated how it picks that region up.

Click on the show more option to show all of the other countries.

My preference is the United States, I select that and click save.

Once that is done, you are good to go. Your Google search results should always show your preferred date and calendar.