Reinstall KDE system with LXQt [3]

This is the third article in a series about problems with KDE leading to a reinstallation with LXQt. Both running on top of Debian 10.

The computer concerned is running two NICs because it needs to access both networks that I have here. I have the main one based on a corporate wireless link from next door, which is filtered and throttled, and a second networtk based on a Skinny cellular broadband network modem, which is not filtered or throttled, although speed is moot since there are limitations inherent with 4G cellular data. The Skinny modem is connected to the local devices through a Ubiquiti AirRouter, which includes a DHCP server and network switch. It also provides the wireless network for phones or tablets. The capabilities of the AirRouter are much better than those built into the Huawei Skinny modem for internal networks and that is why I am using it.

There are some issues with LXQt mainly in panels but apart from that the reinstallation of software has gone well on the platform. One issue with this computer in general is that it needs more installed RAM and I am planning to address that in the next week or two, since I need it to be able to run a virtual machine at the same time as the range of stuff I normally use it for. One issue was reinstalling Gimp, I had difficulty in working out where Gimp keeps its config data as I wanted to copy over the config from my existing computer. It turns out that Gimp uses ~/.config/Gimp as a path, but apparently it also used a Flatpak specific path in ~/.var/ to store some data and there is considerable confusion over why it maintains these two paths especially as the user interface of the Preferences dialog doesn't actually point to the ~/.config path when it appears it should.

One of the interesting experiments this week has been to work with the mounting arms that I use to hold some displays. I have used Brateck wall mount arms with VESA adapters on them for this for some years. The key has been to modify these to allow fine control of the height so that when displays are stacked vertically, it is easy to put them close together. 

This photo shows how the attachment of the arm to the "wall" (in this case a vertical post attached to the desk) has been modified to allow its height to be adjustable. This is done with two right angle brackets which are bolted together using 80 mm length M6 gutter bolts, which gives theoretically an adjustment range of 80 mm.

I have to work around issues with the backup system from one of my computers at the moment. rynsc has not been able to connect over the network between the computers and running the backup locally on a computer seems to be the way to go at the moment.

New bits for "old" computers [6]

The HDD bracket for serverpc arrived today so that is the opportunity to finish off this computer and bolt it to its shelf, all now complete. It was annoying that the expensive heavy brackets I bought from Mitre10 turn out not to be bent at a right angle, with the shelf drooping down more than 90 degrees, but a $5 bracket put underneath the shelf has lifted it up to be virtually level. I might add another bracket to ensure it stays that way. The biggest annoyance was the HDD adapter bracket that seems not to be able to fit into the drive bay, whether the holes are slightly out of line or something I didn't try to check, I just managed to get it in place and secured after a lot of fiddling.

As of now I still have to do just the shelf on top of the drawers. Which I guess will happen later this week.

Today the Unifi AP PRO seems to have gone on the blink and advertised itself as "Your New Wireless Network" instead of the correct name, but when I joined things up on this name, it changed to showing the correct name. Seems to be working properly now, but I am setting up a new VM to be a controller anyway. This one will be running Fedora, just to be different.

Fedora has a nice graphical installation, a cut above the Debian/Ubuntu ones, if you like pretty displays. I chose the XFCE desktop install, just to be consistent with everything else. Fedora was reasonably easy to set up and the ubiquiti controller was fairly straightforward once I obtained the fedora specific package for it. I don't actually need the controller right now but it will be there next time I need to reprogram the Unifi but it has to be adopted onto the controller first which is its own rigamarole so that can wait.

The K230 keyboard I use with serverpc has become a liability with a few issues surfacing unfortunately including repeated situations where the backtick just sticks down so I have ordered a replacement from Dove to come out by courier hopefully tomorrow, the old one will just have to be thrown away as I can't be bothered going back to globalpc to get it replaced. Hopefully it isn't a design fault, just a fault with that particular one.

Broadbandless household

Well how do you have a household without broadband? You skive off free wifi and use your huge 6 GB cellular data on your $50 phone plan is how you do it. Since Vodafone has just upped the data on my plan to 6 GB for no extra cost.

Simply put, I have decided to have my home broadband chopped because of cost at the present time, and I have the ability to get what Vodafone calls a "tablet share" on my cellphone plan. Normally they charge $10/month per tablet but from time to time they have offered this at $0/month which they are doing at the moment. It isn't clear if this is just for the signup or whether it is ongoing after the end of the offer.

I will need to use the cellular data because some free wifi limits access to social media sites. I already have a tablet share for my Samsung tablet, getting a second one will enable me to use a laptop with the vodem that I already have which I used to use with the sim that is now in the Galaxy Tab A. The laptop has obvious advantages over the Galaxy Tab A with a keyboard and screen size etc.

I am connecting to the wifi using a Ubiquiti bridge to allow my regular desktop computers to work over the wireless. I started working with it in Bridge mode. This essentially makes each computer on your network an address on the remote network. Its main disadvantages are that your computer is on that network and therefore subject to the traffic on the rest of that network - and vice versa.

I then had a go at setting it up in Router mode. The Nanobridge needed to be updated to the 6.0 firmware a few days ago when I first started playing with it, and then once I set the router mode it handed out local addresses using its own DHCP server, but it didn't actually work, until I went back through the settings and saw the NAT box needed to be ticked. Once that was sorted it all started working as expected.