Chromebook is very popular and easy to use, most of the services we use today are cloud-based, so no need to install any software on your local computer. Your data sync up with Google drive account, in case some reason your Chromebook does not work and reset does not work, here is how you can recover it by using Chromebook recovery utility.
What you will need:
USB stick 4GB+ Chromebook Recovery Utility Working computer, so you can create recovery Image
When you open the Chromebook Recovery Utility, you will get see something like this: click Get started
Select the Model of your Chromebook or next option by model selection
Or by Selecting Model from list, then click Continue
If you have not put in your USB or SD card put and click Continue
Make sure you have selected correct media, it will wipe out any data on it. If you are sure, click Create now
Once you click Create now, it will start downloading, then it will install on your external media, you should see Success and done option if everything goes well.
Enter into recovery mode
Now that you have the image, You can plugin USB or SD card to your Chromebook then Press and hold Esc + Refresh then press Power. Let go of Power, when a message shows on the screen, let go of the other keys. Once done you should see fresh installed Chromebook welcome screen
These days most of us using virtual storage drives for a server, most of the time these virtual storage disks are configured dynamically, so it grows as we use it, but does not shrink when you delete data unless you do compact. If you are using Hyper-V servers, it’s very easy to do, other hypervisors also offer similar compacting, you may just have to look around.
Here is screenshot of before compacting drive:
To compact in Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor:
Open the Hyper-V Manager Select the VM Right-click on VM, click Settings Select the Hard Drive that you want to compact, then click Edit It will give you the location of the Disk and warning, please make sure you have a good backup, just in case something goes wrong Click Next
If you only see Expand option, that means your VM is running, you can’t Compact Click Next
Summary of Disk, click Finish and it will start compacting, time it takes to compact are depends on speed of drive and how much data you have deleted.
This is what it looks like after compacting, the size will vary depends on how much of your data being deleted.
After Compacting:
That’s it, if you don’t get the drive space back, make sure to do the Drive Optimization first then re-do the compacting
To drive Optimize:
Login into server and right click on the drive select Properties
Click on Tools tab Click on Optimize
Then select the drive if you have more then one and click on Optimize
It’s very common these days people are working from home and doing multiple tasks so they use the second monitor. The second monitor could be attaching directly to a laptop, desktop, tablet, or wirelessly. Some devices have built-in options some you have to use an adaptor, converter, or external docking station. Here are some options and settings to help you extend your screen to the second monitor.
Types of connections:
VGA, HDMI, DVI, min HDMI, micro HDMI, Type-C you can do a search on the specific type to get a picture if you don’t know what these are. There are so many others but these are common.
On Windows 10 computer:
Once you have your second screen connected or ready to connect if using wirelessly.
Click Notification icon near the bottom clock Then click on Project Click on Extend (if using a wireless click on Connect to a wireless display) you should see now both screen
on Windows 10 Connecting to Wireless display
Click Notification icon near the bottom clock Then click on Project Click on Connect to a wireless display It will give you options to choose your wireless display, some have code you need to enter some devices just connects. then you should see both screens
Some settings you should know:
Display resolution, higher the resolution clear the image, but texts and windows will get smaller. You can also use Scale (zoom) some apps may not display correctly. Every display has it’s own settings you can change that works for you, just look around for options.
If you need to change the way the arrow mouses from one screen to another, you can just rearrange the displays and so your mouse pointer moves the monitor way you have physically. If you don’t know you can click on Identify it will display 1 and 2.
If you need to make the second monitor as primary, so any application you open will open by default on the second monitor.
Select second monitor then under Multiple displays, check the box Make this my main display
That’s it, there are so many other settings you can look around to find what works for you, also based on the selection and type of device you will see more options.
There are many open-source and paid versions out there to set up Kiosk. I have set this up on Raspberry Pi version 1, 2, 3 and now 4. It’s a very simple setup, I am going to set website URL default to loading when Raspberry Pi 4 boots up, but you can change it to whatever you like, it could be a slide show, video, etc.…. You can even use it as Signage, there as some other out there are better for Signage.
What you will need:
Raspberry Pi 4 (you can use older version too, your settings may be different)
SD memory card 8GB or larger
Network connection LAN or WiFi
Terminal to SSH to Raspberry or run the command on the Raspberry
Download the “Raspbian Buster with desktop” or if you want the one with an application you can do so as well it’s Raspbian Buster with desktop and recommended software image, then you will need to unzip the download file. If your computer doesn’t have the unzip program you can download the 7zip from https://www.7-zip.org/download.html
Next, you will need the image burner software, if you have one use it or download this one https://www.balena.io/etcher/, it supports many operating systems including Windows, Linux, macOS, and Portable. Or https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/ it’s a little outdated, but still works.
Once you have downloaded and used one of the image burner software to burn into SD card, then put in the Raspberry Pi 4 and start it up and if everything goes well you should see, click Next to go through basic settings
Set your local Country, Language and Timezone, then click Next
Change Default Password, enter new password and click Next
Setup up screen settings, You may need this to enable or disabled, click Next
Select WiFi Network or click skip
Update Software, you can skip or let it search and install
Running very good even while searching for updates, see Task Manger
Once it’s finished searching, installing new updates or if you skipped you will see option to restart, click restart so all settings takes effects
Once the Raspberry Pi 4 restarts, open the Chromium once so it creates the Default/Preferences automatic, then just close it
Update the Raspberry Pi 4:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Create a script file:
Now setting up the script file, you can name it whatever you like: example StartApp.sh, inside copy and paste this code and change the URL to whatever you like
!/bin/bash
# If Chromium crashes (usually due to rebooting), clear the crash flag so we don't have the annoying warning bar
# waits for 10 seconds before opening URL
# To disable screen saver timeout
xset s 0
# To disabled Monitor going to sleep
xset -dpms
# clean up if the power or ssh in and poweroff or if hostname changes
rm -rf ~/.config/chromium/Singleton*
# Waits for 10 seconds before starting up
sleep 10
# Make sure to change the user name if it's not default pi
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' /home/pi/ .config/chromium/Default/Preferences
sed -i 's/"exit_type":"Crashed"/"exit_type":"Normal"/' /home/pi/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
chromium-browser --kiosk --disable-restore-session-state --disable-session-crashed-bubble --noerrordialogs --disable-infobars http://YourURL.com
You can add other options –no-default-browser-check –no-first-run that you like to prevent from pop up
Now make the .sh file executable:
chmod +x name_of_file.sh
Adding script file to auto-start when Raspberry Pi boots up
sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
@lxpanel –profile LXDE-pi @pcmanfm –desktop –profile LXDE-pi @xscreensaver -no-splash # add the following, if your script file located other location then the root of the user, then you will need to put the path
sh StartAuto.sh
Other setting you may need to change so it runs smooth, without any issue:
If you want to enable SSH, so you can make changes via Remote:
To remove the Mouse pointer: sudo apt-get install unclutter
Preventing Sleep of Monitor: it’s already included in the script file, but just in case you need to change it sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf In that file, look for: [SeatDefault] or [Seat:*] #uncomment and insert -s 0 dpms: xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms
If you need to fill your screen, you will need to disable the Overscan: raspi-config once it loads, choose Advanced Options> Next, choose Overscan:
To Disable chromium update message: sudo touch /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/01-disable-update-check;echo CHROMIUM_FLAGS=\”\${CHROMIUM_FLAGS} –check-for-update-interval=31536000\” | sudo tee /etc/chromium-browser/customizations/01-disable-update-check
To check the monitor resolution settings currently set to:
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -s Should display something like this: state 0xa [HDMI CUSTOM RGB lim 16:9], 1920×1080 @ 60.00Hz, progressive
To check what’s available settings for your monitor:
It’s always best to stay up to date with technologies that you are using these days, due to lots of data getting hacked because they are not updated. I had written a post earlier on how to upgrade Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04, the process is the same. Make sure you have a good backup and your backup is tested to be sure data you are backup are good. If you have an option you can do an upgrade on a test server and work out any issues, that way when you do upgrade on the production system it goes smooth.
Check list before starting upgrade process
Data backed up and verified, which includes configs, PHP, Databases, etc…
Make sure your application supports newer packages versions
List of application/services so it can be tested after the upgrade
Direct access to the server, remote session will give you an error
Stopping application/services, not required but if dealing with a database it’s safer
Double-check storage space for an upgrade to download/install, you will need about 10GB
Login to the server directly to do the upgrade, also before the upgrade make sure you are up to date and don’t have any issues with your server or resources.
You can run following commands to check for any updates:
Run the following command it will go through a check of currently installed packages and give you the option to check and make sure you are ok to start to upgrade. You should check and make sure your application support new version, so it does not break your application after the upgrade. You can press d to get detailed list, when done press q and it will bring you back to option to Continue or N to cancel. Press y and Enter when you ready
sudo do-release-upgrade
If you have apache installed you will get this prompt, which you can select option best fit your needs.
If you get option for sshd_config, select keep the local version currently installed
It will scan for any obsolete software and will give you option to remove it
Once that done, then it will ask to restart the server press y and Enter
Once the server comes back you should see Ubuntu 18.04.x
Total size was about 10.5 GB and it took about 2 hours, yours may be different based on server resources, an application installed, etc…
common issues and solutions:
Very common if you are using web server you might have issue with PHP: To check PHP version: php -v
Re-enable PHP, if upgrade from older version:
sudo a2enmod php7.2 sudo service apache2 restart
To install full PHP packages you can run following command:
If you run the upgrade via SSH session you will get this message, which is not recommended:
Find all PHP version installed on your system:
dpkg -l | grep ‘\(php\)’ or php -i | grep ‘php.ini’ or php -i | grep ‘Configuration File’
Find all mysql version installed:
dpkg -l | grep ‘(mysql)’
How to remove old PHP version:
Before running this command, make sure you have backup of your php.ini or any custom changes did. This command will wipe out everything Sudo apt purge php5*
