Category: general

How to use Github for sysadmins

It’s pretty basic stuff. It’s for someone very new who works in an IT team who uses GitHub to deploy services/servers in azure/GCP/AWS etc. usually, they will have a terraform script we create a pull request, and someone will approve, and the CI tool will take over from there to do what we ask us to do. I will go through how we can set up CI etc. this is just a guide to deploy on an already setup system.

  • If you already not done this please setup your Mac PC or linux to use GitHub over the ssh key
  • On a business envirment you have to do more things ask your company IT team for that
  • Go to the script you want to edit on the web copy the ssh link
  • type git clone git@github.com:1dustindavis/gorilla.git
  • go to the folder cd .\gorilla\
  • before you start working do a git pull
  • open the folder or the file you need to work with on Visual Studio code and edit the file basically copy the code and edit it to what you planning to do and save the changes
  • Create a branch git checkout -b "create_a_branch_name"
  • commit the chnages git commit -am "I did something"
  • to push it to remote git push --set-upstream origin create_a_branch_name
  • click on the remote pull link on the termain and create a pull request put all the details and submit
  • From above CI should take over if approved will do the things you requested

Some housekeeping things

  • when you create brunches it will automatically switch to that brunch if you want to request a main file do a git checkout main before you do a git pull
  • git branch wil list all the brunches you have
  • If you have too many brunches and want to remove them only leave the main one on the repo use git branch -D @(git branch | select-string -NotMatch "main" | Foreach {$_.Line.Trim()})

Ubuntu under windows 10 (WSL) and get GitHub to work without using git bash

I never liked Git Bash to use with GitHub. It’s a bit like using an add on, where macs and Linux worked natively.

I thought we have Ubuntu on windows using the WSL works really well for my network tools, why can’t I use that for GitHub as well. It’s bit tricky to get this working.

Here is the steps 1st you need to change the home directory

Ubuntu type sudo nano /etc/passwd

  1. Find your account’s line, which might look like:
    din100:x:1000:1000:"",,,:/home/din100:/bin/bash
  2. Change the home directory, which above is /home/din100, to the new directory, using WSL notation (If you want to set Windows directory as home directory, you need to prepend it with /mnt/c/Users/din100/Documents
  3. Re-launch the ubuntu on windows home directly will show the above if type pwd

Now follow the steps from here for Linux

when you try to add the keys to the ssh agent you will get a message 

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@         WARNING: UNPROTECTED PRIVATE KEY FILE!          @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Permissions 0777 for 'privkey.pem' are too open.
It is required that your private key files are NOT accessible by others.
This private key will be ignored.ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

even when do

chmod 600 /.ssh

It wont update the permission

Go to  sudo /etc/wsl.conf If the file doesn’t exist just create it

add the following 

[automount]
options = "metadata"

Save the file reboot your machine then run

chmod 600 /.ssh

you are good to go

Soldering using HAKKO FX-888D Soldering Station,

Lockdown means our weekend trips to the Zoo and nature reserve can’t happen, so I have a lot of time. It’s only so much you can work on your bike and your daughter bike. Raspberry PI released a microcontroller called PICO. It’s very cheap only issue was it doesn’t come with headers.

I have tried soldering with cheap irons in the past it wasn’t easy to do it. I gave up, and always bought the pre-built kit, even my ham radio practical I just about made it.

Now I have time, so I decided to buy HAKKO FX-888D It comes with the pointy tip. It’s not a cheap one, but soldering thing was easy. I have done the pico for less than 5 mins. Not bad for a 1st try

I had lots of boards and electronic items that need soldering, which I’m doing that now. Lots of fun to do with this Iron,

Set the correct temp for your type of solder and way to go. I Never thought it would be this easy to do it.

Nest Wifi Google’s mesh router

Update 20/10/2020:- because way this mesh router works you can’t manage how we manage ubiquity APs. IPv6 I couldn’t get it to work. Still no issue with access and wireless speed.

I now have google’s Nest WiFi router and WiFi point. It’s not a big house, so coverage is excellent also easy to set up and troubleshoot. You connect the cable from your firewall to the Nest WiFi router and go to your google home app, and it’s pretty much sets it’s self.

Ones you do that plug the Nest WiFI point and follow the same on the google home, and it will work with no issues. If you need to move the Wifi point, it will tell you on the app. Also, you can use this WiFi point as google speakers it sounds good too. If you have a bigger house idea is to add more as you need, for me, one is enough with the router.

I have set up lots of home APs in my time, but this is the simplest to do also everything in one app and works. I didn’t have any issues so far all working great will happily recommend

frog bikes 48 kids bike review

Update 16/07/2020: It’s now slightly more than a year bike stood, stand of time. No issues apart from a break-cable coming off a bracket, two mins fix. Other than that it’s a reliable bike. Even when we get a massive hill or something She can’t handle, she jumped off the bike and bike took those impacts very well. No damage still looking like a new bike and ride well. I have to wash and put some chain lube on, but it doesn’t need it.

She now needs the next bike Frog 52, her hight is still ok for this bike, but She now needs the gears. I will update it. No stock anywhere at the moment.

I can sell this bike now for £150 bought it for £230, so I only lost £80 that is not bad after more than a year worth of usage.

Original review 4th April 2019: I needed to get a bicycle for my daughter as she is quite comfortable with a balance bike. Did my research most of the kid’s bike are proper rubbish and heavy, hard to ride, no real air tires etc. Don’t get me started on the “girls” princes bike and “boy” superhero bikes nonsense.

Close call between Isla bikes and frog bikes. I decided to go with frog as the local dealer had the colour my daughter wanted, and dealer assembled it and I got it ready to ride.

The bike is super easy to carry for me and easy to ride for my daughter. I didn’t use training. She pretty much got the hang of it on the day one but still few days training to go to stop and start without my help. The overall bike was easy enough, and even a few falls bike handled it well. Will highly recommend.

Price-wise it is not cheap but not very expensive as well. comes with five year warranty. Resell values are good if you want to buy a bigger size in the future


Brompton M6L 2020 Electric

I have a canyon bicycle, review coming later for that. Brompton is my other half’s bicycle, but I gave it a spin as I wasn’t keen on the idea of electric bikes, but I tell you why I like this electric Brompton.

You can use it as a regular folding bike. The motor on the front doesn’t impact on the riding not heavy at all. The battery is about 2.3 kgs even with that I didn’t notice any difference.

There a lot of Chinese made foldable e-bikes on the market some UK companies like MiRider rebrand it changes a few parts and change something on firmware and selling them as the UK made. It is still a mass-produced and builds to a cost I can’t expect them to last more than a few years if that. Also, I don’t think you can use them as a standard bicycle without electric assistance.

I usually don’t care about where they made. I need something that will last longer and gives me less trouble. Brompton fit the bill correctly. All the parts are less complicated to fix when it goes wrong. Can’t say the same about my canyon bike :D.

Electric assistance when I put it on to level 1 it just gave that general push like the wind is behind you feeling I liked this level. I didn’t like that level 2, and 3 maybe I’m in a rush and need to go somewhere without getting tired I would use it, Level 1 is my ideal assistance level.

Overall on my usage, it was excellent and easy to live with and charge. No gimmick features like an app or big LCD screen on the middle etc. just a bike with all you need.

The only downside, I can think of it is a price, but If I use it every day to work, I will make that money back in a year. This bike is built like a tank. I can see a lasting number of years.

We bought the bike from Evans Cycles. Surprisingly excellent service too. We were not expecting that. Overall I can recommend this bike. You will be happy with it.

Install certificates on WatchGuard for SSL VPN or general management

This link provides half of the story as WatchGuard you can’t import the certificate you create on this method as Watchguard need root and the intermediate certificate installed before WatchGuard can accept the certificate for the domain you created. WatchGuard will give you an error

Here is how you create the intermediate and root certificate on windows 10

open the cert.crt file your signing authority give you this should look something like this

click on the certificate path tab

select the highlighted in the blue one and click view certificate and click on the details

click copy file and save that as an intermediate certificate make sure you selected base 64 encoded x.509 (.CER) format do the same thing but select the setico for the root certificate and call it root.cer

on WatchGuard, go-to system manager view>cetificates and import the root.cer 1st (make sure you select the .cer format on the dropdown menu)

do the intermediate same way

then do the certificate your CA gave but convert it to pfx format follow my guide for that

Casio Pro Trek PRG-80L long term review

I had this watch from 2008 this is was my gift from my Mrs. It’s still working for this day all the triple sensor on the watch works as the day I got them. Even the battery is great if you see them battery is still high, I just leave it near window and It had a hard life. I wear it every where. only thing I changed on this watch was the strap. it was bit rubbish. Casio UK replaced it for me for £40 I send it to them and they send it back with new strap installed and all good after that. here is the picture after 11 years of hard use

Google Pixel 3 XL user review

I got the google pixel 3 xl as a gift, what can I say all the reviews talks about notch is not an issue at all. It’s just some reviewer created issues. It doesn’t affect me but you can turn it off, If you don’t like it. It doesn’t bother me. UI is same as pixel xl so that wasn’t a issue for me.

Phone is faster lot faster than I was expecting and speakers are really good and mic It can hear me from anywhere. as their signature feature camera is amazing. Low light night time any situation works well.

I don’t install lots of application even the apps I install have only the permission they need for my use. try and close it when I don’t need it. so I didn’t come across any issue with memory management etrc.

Charging is so fast I can do that in the morning and enough for me to use it all day. I don’t do wireless charge but if you don’t buy the pixel stand it will only do 5 w charge that is slow. If you are thinking of the planet you shouldn’t be wireless changing anyway. because lots of energy is wasted on converting. It’s little but add up if everyone is started using it.

I bought the pixel fabric cover It’s really nice hand feeling case but gives really no protection though, My weekend activity if I keep fabric case will end up a Fabric mud case 🙂 so bought a tech21 case which will be my weekend case that case is plastic so can easily washable. phone its self now have ip68 rating.

Security update this is the good thing about pixel phones. every month I get updates without any issues. even the old pixel still get updates never missed a month.

Another thing people don’t talk about it is storage with google phone you get unlimited storage when you take photos and videos with the device even the high-resolution one. It’s free for 3 years. one you can do is remove the pictures from the phone they all live in Google servers and I can still see them and download again as necessary. with Apple devices, you have to pay something like £9.99 per month to get these features.

Overall it’s a good device. It doen’t has all the bells and whistles of Samsung phones. to me, this phone works really well.

I think google is going after iPhone users with this device, It even copy all the data from iPhone users and all the cables and ear phones are on the box.

If you are normal user this phone is fine and will last you long time. because google will keep this phone updated for 3 years you will have the latest android all the time.