Anthony Campbell's Blog 1 - computers

Three tiling window managers

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 13:25:00 +0000

Gmail - Using Canned responses (templates)

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Fri, 15 Feb 2019 10:18:00 +0000

Introduction
I should say at the outset that I don't like Gmail and avoid it whenever possible (I use Mutt), but my wife uses Gmail all the time and needs the facility to have templates (which Gmail calls Canned responses). Some time ago I researched how to set this up for her but recently I found it didn't work any more. Apparently Gmail has "improved" its method of doing this. I searched the Web and discovered plenty of instructions, mostly out of date. The best site I came across was by Heinz Tschabitscher (21 Nov 2018), but even that has one or two inaccuracis due no doubt to subsequent changes in Gmail; also, I think, the author doesn't suffiently draw attention to the peculiarities of the Gmail menu system. Here I offer an outline of the steps I use at present (15 Feb 2919).

A. Preliminary: enable canned responses (if not already done)
1. Start Gmail
2. Click cogwheel symbol (Settings) at top right
3. In the menu, click Settings
4. Click Advanced (towards right-hand end of top line)
5. Enable Canned responses (templates)
6. Click Save changes

B. Composing a Canned response (template)
1. Click Compose
2. Write the text you want to use as a template (don't fill in To: or Subject: at this stage)
3. Click More options (three vertical dots at the bottom right)
4. Choose Canned responses
5. In the Canned responses menu, click New canned response
6. You'll be prompted for a name for the new template; type in something to identify it
7. Click OK to save the template

C. Using a Canned response (template) in an email
1. Click Compose
2. Fill in To: and Subject:
3. Click More options (three dots. at bottom)
4. Choose Canned responses
5. In the menu, choose a template FROM THOSE AT THE UPPER PART OF THE MENU! (ignore duplicate entries for the same template that appear further down - see Note 1 below)
6. The template text will appear in Compose, where you can edit it if necessary
7. Click Send

Notes
1. The Canned responses menu is confusing. It has greyed-out entries for Insert, Save, and Delete. Usually greying-out means that a button is inactive for some reason and I assumed that this was the case here. In fact, these are section headings. You will see every template listed under each section - three times in all. If you click on a template that appears under Delete you get the option to delete it. If you click on the same template under Save it will be replaced with whatever you have in Compose (if there is nothing there you will get a blank template). Clicking a template under Insert will paste the template into Compose ; this is what you want most of the time.

2. If you change your mind and want to use a different template in your email you must delete the draft and start afresh (click the X at top right of Compose or the symbol like a little house at bottom right)

Making Caps Lock work as Escape in the console on OpenBSD

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Mon, 14 May 2018 13:43:00 +0000

I installed OpenBSD on a refurbished Dell Optiflex 3020 a couple of days ago, replacing the Windows 7 it arrived with. From something I'd read on the web I thought there would be some configuring needed to get the installation to work with EFI, but in fact it went smoothly out of the box.

A couple of minor things to say about the console.

1. I wanted Caps Lock to give me Escape in the console. The OpenBSD FAQ tells you how to do this with wsconsctl but I got a message saying that Caps_Lock was not a keysym. I found a fix for this at reddit (thanks, Kernigh).

2. Still on the console, I get messages about the mouse, saying _"wsmouse0 detached" . This seems to be a known bug but I don't have a satisfactory fix. I can stop the messages appearing by installing the mouse on the console but then it doesn't work in X. It's annoying but not serious since I normally start X immediatejy after logging in.

Probably the easiest solution is simply to unplug the mouse when you're in the console.

OpenBSD after 4 years' use

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 10:24:00 +0000

Note added 31 August 2019: OpenBSD has just introduced a new feature, sysupgrade, which makes it even easier to upgrade than it was already.

Why I'm posting this
I started using OpenBSD for my desktop in September 2014 after many years on Linux. I thought it might be useful to summarise my experience since then, particularly for anyone who is thinking of making the same transition. I've blogged a lot about this previously (see the bsd tag) so this is really just an update.

In brief, I still like OpenBSD and have no thought of going elsewhere. I use the -current flavour and update the system about once a week. OpenBSD -current is roughly the equivalent of Debian Sid or Arch; in other words, it's a moving target. This may suggest that you need a lot of experience to use it and that doing so is rather risky, but I've found it to be if anything more stable than either of those linux distributions.

There have been occasional hiccups, mainly with packages rather than the base system (unlike in Linux, these are maintained separately in the BSDs), but there have been no show-stoppers and I've been able to solve problems with help from various kind people on the internet. But OpenBSD differs from Linux when it comes to finding help.

Getting help
OpenBSD users are always advised to read the (excellent) man pages, which often provide the answer, so that's usually the place to start. The online FAQ is also essential reading.

All the Linux distributions I've used have mail lists and these are probably the most widely accessed resources for help with the different distributions. OpenBSD has a general mail list (misc@openbsd.org) but this is not the place to ask newbie questions. Most of the discussion is more technical than what you will find on a typical LInux list and many of the topics are not relevant to desktop users. I read it daily and learn from it, but even after 4 years much of it still goes over my head.

A very good place to go when starting out with OpenBSD is http://daemonforums.org. There are some very knowledgeable people there who kindly and patiently answer beginners' questions. Remember to search the site before you ask your question; you'll often find that it's already been answered.

If you think you've found a bug either in the base system or a package you can submit a bug report. Even if you don't do this it can be useful to keep an eye on the bug reports at https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-bugs. If the problem is with a package you can email the package maintener whose address is given in the info page for each package; I've had very helpful responses in this way. Incidentally, a useful place to look for ports is http://openports.se.

If you are following -current you should certainly keep an eye on https://www.openbsd.org/faq/current.html.

Finally, anyone who has decided they want to use OpenBSD regularly should get a copy of Absolute OpenBSD by Michael W. Lucas.

Firefox: error_net_inadequate_security

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:28:27 +0000

I kept getting this error code when trying to connect to various sites such as YouTube and Wikipedia. The solution required a good deal of digging on line. In brief I did this:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter/Return.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste http2 and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the network.http.spdy.enabled.http2 preference to switch it from true to false

Note added March 24 2017
Since updating Firefox to 52.0 the problem is fixed and I have restored the above entry to True.

Firefox: enabling HTML5 for BBC iPlayer

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:08:14 +0000

BBC iPlayer is now moving away from Flash towards HTML5, which is excellent news. But in recent versions of Firefox (e.g. 49.0) I found nothing was happening when I tried to play programmes. The solution is quite simple.

Select New Tab and enter about:config (the warnings about this being dangerous no longer seem to appear; ignore them if they do).

In the search box, insert "media" (without the quotes). Look through the list that this produces and find:

media.autoplay.enabled: false

Toggle this to "true" by clicking on it. Now you can exit about:config and BBC programmes on iPlayer will work correctly.

Novo Computers

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 07:46:14 +0000

I gave a recommendation here in May 2016 based on my experience of buying a refurbished desktop from them. That computer is still working well, and encouraged by this I place another order with them recently for a refurbished monitor. Unfortunately my experience this time has been very different. The order is still marked as Unfulfilled and I cannot get any response from them either by email or phone. So I'm now £79.99 out of pocket. I can only advise anyone who reads this NOT to have any dealings with Novo. (Eventually I did get a refund just before they closed -- see below.)

Note added 30/4/2017: They've now ceased trading, although I I think Zack, who owned the firm, is starting up a business under another name. Definitely to be avoided.

Annoying email from Crucial

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:12:55 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I bought a memory upgrade for my Thinkpad Z61m from Crucial UK. It arrived the day after I ordered it and installed and worked perfectly so thank you Crucial. Today they sent me an email asking me to review the product: "it's easy - just click on the link." Oh yes? I couldn't see the link either in my standard email program (mutt) or in Firefox. I also tried viewing it as text with an editor but it was so incredibly complex that I could make nothing of it.

I really would have liked to give them a good review but I can't. So Crucial get full marks for me for their product and service but zero for their post-sales communication skills. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Why I'm using OpenBSD rather than Linux

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:35:00 +0000

Introduction
I used various flavours of Linux for many years, but since 2014 I've changed to OpenBSD. This happened more or less by accident. I first installed OpenBSD largely from curiosity, not dissatisfaction with Linux. But the more I used it the better I liked it. until I finally installed it on all my computers.

At first I kept one laptop running Linux so that I could use Adobe Flash and Skype, neither of which runs on OpenBSD. But Flash is no longer maintained for Linux and the sites that demand it (fortunately a decreasing number) complain that the version on Linux is too old. Skype is no longer available for 32-bit machines (like mine) so that is no longer a reason for me to keep Linux.

OpenBSD is often praised for its security but that wasn't what attracted me initially. I didn't think myself to be particularly vulnerable, but I've changed my mind somewhat now in view of the increasing quantity of internet fraud and the number of ISPs and other holders of data whose security has been breached (TalkTalk is the latest example as I write). OpenBSD gives me a degree of confidence, though I hope not complacency.

There is a different kind of security that I also care about: what to do if everything goes wrong. Recently I stupidly managed to delete my /etc directory, thus rendering my system unbootable. I regularly backup /home via tarsnap, but of course I needed to reinstall the system. OpenBSD is the easiest OS to install that I've ever used, so reinstalling took only about half an hour. I still had to fetch the third-party packages that I use, but I keep a list of those so I knew what I needed to get. Best of all, I didn't even need my backup of /home; OpenBSD helpfully sets up a separate /home partition by default and I could avoid overwriting this during the reinstall. Recovery from my mistake was therefore relatively painless. (For details of how to do this see here.

I could have done all this on Arch or Debian too, but installing those takes a lot longer.

Using OpenBSD as a desktop
I find that OpenBSD works well as a desktop OS. Any disadvantages? I've already mentioned Flash and Skype, both of which have security risks so you are better off without them if they are not essential. Arch and Debian have more packages than OpenBSD but in practice this hasn't made much difference to me. Arch is more bleeding-edge than OpenBSD but again that hasn't been a problem. And I like the *BSD concept of having a unified base system, which even includes X in the case of OpenBSD.

The stability of OpenBSD is excellent. I use the -current flavour, which is roughly comparable with Debian Sid or Arch. This does occasionally spring the odd surprise on you, but in almost 3 years I've never had any major problems.

Conclusion
There's a lot more to say about OpenBSD as a desktop OS, including why I find it works better for me than does FreeBSD, but I have other posts about that and I won't repeat myself here. Please use the tags to read more.

OpenBSD: Full details

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:33:00 +0000

Revised 5 January 2018

MY HARDWARE
I have a variety of computers, ranging from a desktop (Dell 3020 i3-4150) through pretty antique Thinkpads (32-bit). All run OpenBSD.

INSTALLATION
OpenBSD was probably the easiest OS to install that I've ever tried. By simply following the defaults (except for choosing the uk keyboard) I found myself, after about 15 minutes, with a working system including X. Everything else worked as expected too, including sound, which is often something you have to struggle with in Linux.

Installing third-party applications such as Firefox was equally easy. OpenBSD does have ports via a scheme borrowed from FreeBSD, but you don't need to use them since all the ported stuff also exists on OpenBSD as packages, and you are encouraged to use those instead of ports. (You only need ports when you want to modify a supplied program.) I found that nearly everything I wanted existed as a package so getting my system into order was pretty easy.

But of course nothing is ever as simple as it seems at first. Coming from a Linux background I had to adapt to new ways of thinking. This particularly applies to updating/upgrading the system.

UPDATING/UPGRADING OPENBSD
There are three "flavours" of OpenBSD which are upgraded or updated differently.

1. There is an official "-release" every 6 months, in May and November, from which you can upgrade your system.

2. There is a "-stable" branch which only gets serious errata and security fixes; you have to compile this yourself from source and it doesn't get you anything new (so you can't install new versions of third-party packages, since they won't work). This could be compared to Debian Stable.

3. There is also a "-current" branch, in which the developers post their new code. It is updated frequently both as code and as "snapshots". There are differing opinions about the desirability of using this but plenty of people do it on production machines. I've now done numerous snaphot upgrades and there have been no serious problems in 3 years. Snapshots are roughly comparable to Arch or the 'Sid' branch of Debian, but in my experience OpenBSD -current is more stable than either of these. (Incidentally, the "-release" referred to above is simply a snapshot at a particular moment, so if you're following -current you don't need -release and shouldn't use it.)

Packages are maintained separately from the core system and have to be upgraded separately.

Keeping OpenBSD up to date with snapshots and packages isn't difficult although it does take a little time to do (mostly downloading the files). But you don't have to do it too frequently—just when you think it is necessary, perhaps because a new or updated package that you need has become available or to maintain security.

POSSIBLE DISADVANTAGES IN USING OPENBSD
1. The number of packages available for OpenBSD is smaller than in most Linux distributions. I found most of what I needed but in a few cases (qsf, sitecopy) I had to compile my own from source. This happened smoothly.

2. Some packages are rather old. Mostly it doesn't matter too much, but it can be a problem. For example, I transferred a lot of slides made with LyX and Beamer on another machine, and when I wanted to edit them I couldn't because the OpenBSD version of LyX was not compatible with the one I'd used previously. (LyX was updated a month or two later for OpenBSD, after which the problem disappeared.)

3. Some things I looked for simply don't work on OpenBSD. One of these is Flash, which is still needed on a few sites although the number is fortunately decreasing. There is no Flash for OpenBSD and most people who use the system don't want it anyway because of its poor safety record.

Skype is also not available for OpenBSD. If you need this you will have to use 64-bit Linux.

4. My flatbed scanner (Epson Perfection v330) needs proprietary software that isn't available for OpenBSD. So I brought back my Epson Perfection 1650 from abroad and this works out of the box with the sane backend. Incidentally, I think this now-superseded model is a better scanner than the v330.

5. To get round these and similar difficulties it might seem logical to install OpenBSD and Linux on the same machine and dual boot, but although this is technically possible it's harder to do than you might expect. You are probably better off using at least two machines rather than attempting to dual boot. Virtualisation is another possibility but I haven't tried that.

GETTING HELP
If you want to use OpenBSD you have to be willing to learn new things. (You might say that's a feature not a drawback since it helps to keep your brain alive!) At first glance OpenBSD is quite similar to Linux but on closer acquaintance numerous differences appear. One of the most important is knowing where to look for help.

OpenBSD users are always advised to read the (excellent) man pages, which often provide the answer, so that's usually the place to start. The online FAQ is also essential reading.

All the Linux distributions I've used have mail lists and these are probably the most widely accessed resources for help with the different distributions. OpenBSD has a general mail list (misc@openbsd.org) but this is not the place to ask newbie questions. Most of the discussion is more technical than what you will find on a typical LInux list and many of the topics are not relevant to desktop users. I read it daily and learn from it, but even after 3 years much of it still goes over my head.

A better place to go when starting out with OpenBSD is www.daemonforums.org. There are some very knowledgeable people there who kindly and patiently answer beginners' questions. I'm extremely gratdful to the people who post on this site, who helped me a lot in my early months with the OS. Remember to search the site before you ask your question; you'll often find that it's already been answered.

Google (or in my case duckduckgo) might seem like an obvious place to go for help but be careful. A lot of what you find there is out of date or misleading so it's seldom a useful resource.

For help with a particular ported package you can email the developer who packaged it. I've had helpful replies in this way.

Finally, anyone who has decided they want to use OpenBSD regularly should get a copy of Absolute OpenBSD (2nd edition) by Michael Lucas (ISBN-13 978-1-59327-476-4).

FreeBSD: Full details

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:01:00 +0000

Which *BSD as desktop: OpenBSD or FreeBSD?

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 15:43:16 +0000

Most people who think of trying a BSD would probably go for FreeBSD, but OpenBSD is also a possibility. and is what I prefer. Here I offer my assessment of the differences.

Installation
Both are easy to install, OpenBSD slightly more so. But the difference isn't important.

Post-installation
On OpenBSD very little needs to be done. In particular, X works out of the box. Both systems have very good packaging systems, but FreeBSD doesn't always install all the dependencies you might need. For example, I had a lot of difficulty getting LyX Beamer to work on FreeBSD because of unsatisfied dependencies that took quite a time to figure out. FreeBSD has more packages than does OpenBSD but so far I've missed only two that I needed on OpenBSD: qsf and sitecopy, both of which I compiled myself without difficulty

Sometimes things that you would think would be easy need a lot of work in FreeBSD. For example, getting xsane to work as user took me hours in FreeBSD whereas it worked out of the box with OpenBSD. The same applied to printing with CUPS. And FreeBSD gave me a blank black screen when I closed X; there is a solution to this but why did I have to spend time finding it? Suspend to ram worked automatically in OpenBSD but needed research in FreeBSD, and after a minor upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2 it stopped working again (and locked up the computer when I tried to do it).

Conclusion
Both OSs can work well as desktops but FreeBSD needs a lot more work to achieve this than does OpenBSD. For that reason I'd say that OpenBSD is the better choice. I have a lot more information about both OSs; please use the BSD tag below or on the right.

FreeBSD as desktop (revised 16 July 2019)

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Sat, 23 May 2015 10:39:00 +0000

INTRODUCTION
I was a Linux user for many years but I was drawn to the BSD philosophy of having a core system with third-party packages maintained separately rather than the Linux idea of a kernel plus packages as a unified distribution. I know that quite a number of Linux users feel the same attraction and some try out a BSD, although I suspect that most go back to Linux fairly quickly. The BSD version most often chosen for such experiments is FreeBSD, but as I explain in other posts here, I found that OpenBSD is better for the desktop than FreeBSD.

What I want in a desktop
Perhaps I should have said "What I don't want in a desktop". I don't want Gnome, KDE. or any other desktop environment. I don't want complicated window managers either, with lots of widgets or decorations. My window manager is spectrwm; if I wasn't using that it would probably be dwm or ratpoison. If you are looking for more fancy stuff you probably won't use any BSD, although I'm sure that both FreeBSD and OpenBSD can provide it on request. My computing philosophy is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

I found that FreeBSD gives me a lot of what I want but it does have some fairly important problems for the desktop user. For details of these and how I (mostly) solved them, please see FreeBSD: Full details.

More links to my other posts on BSD below.

Writing Greek in Linux and BSD

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 18:07:57 +0000

Writing Greek text is quite difficult in Linux and BSD, especially if you want all the accents, breathings etc. used in Classical Greek. But I've found an easy way to do thjs via your browser (Firefox in my case). Simply point the browser at Type Greek. You can type your Greek text here and then cut-and-paste into LyX or Libreoffice.

For writing Greek using vim, please see Writing Polutoniko Greek With Vim and Latex

OpenBSD as desktop

nospam@example.com (Anthony Campbell) — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 10:35:51 +0000

INTRODUCTION
Many Linux users, I think, harbour a curiosity about the BSD family and quite a few try out one of its members, though I suspect most of them return to Linux fairly quickly. I did so myself in the past but I now use OpenBSD on all my computers. I used to think it was only of interest to people running servers, but then I chanced to read this article in DistroWatch. It suggested that OpenBSD can, in fact, be useful as a desktop, at least if you don't want anything too fancy (that's me). (DistroWatch now has a more recent review of OpenBSD.) But why did I make the change?

What I want in a desktop
Perhaps I should have said "What I don't want in a desktop". I don't want Gnome, KDE. or any other desktop environment. I don't want complicated window managers either, with lots of widgets or decorations. My window manager is spectrwm; if I wasn't using that it would probably be dwm or ratpoison. If you are looking for more fancy stuff you probably won't think of using any BSD, although I'm sure that both FreeBSD and OpenBSD can provide it on request. In computing my motto is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).

For further details of my experience of using OpenBSD as a deskto please see OpenBSD: Full details.