Category Archives: Linux

Namecheap DDNS does not work in Asus Merlin (Tomato) Firmware until 384.7_2

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My router only supported Merlin (Tomato) firmware up to 380.70_0 (2018-04-08) and there are no more updated from that branch.

Turns out the Namecheap DDNS client is not working. I searched its source code at Github for “Namecheap” to see if I can fix the HTTP 400 error (seen in router log) using “in:file” hoping to see if I can fix the bug myself (since it’s just a simple REST API, aka URL call) command and found this:

It means Asuswrt-Merlin (Tomato)’s firmware’s Namecheap DDNS service is broken UNTIL 384.7_2, which is for newer routers than what I have.

I compared the “namecheap” keyword search for the two versions and it seems like they are written very differently, so it might not be worth the effort to fix the obsolete Merlin branch. Doing a bit of additional search and discussions about John’s Merlin fork from the early days are still updated until 2019-04-17 :

It took me a while to find John’s forum post to get to the said 2019-04-18 release. The download link he provided has more updates up to Update-44EA (2020-07-12) and it still worked on my old router, so it’s not just the Update-39L3 previously discussed in the forum:

Do not get discouraged when John’s Merlin fork says version 374.43 instead of 380 (a lower number). All updates, even the latest one from John still use 374.43, which I suppose it’s to mark when the two code branches part ways. It’s not an older version.

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Off the Matrix Notes

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Namecheap Shared Hosting

  • Free Dynamic DNS with domain (Namecheap has a free Windows client. Use zoneclient for Linux)
  • Email (IMAP): usese Maildir (for those who need migration)
  • Contacts: CardDav (use DavX5 adapter on Android)
  • Calendar: CalDav (use DavX5 adapter on Android)
  • Notes/Tasks: NextCloud (can sync with NextCloud’s built-in CalDav server)
  • Blog: WordPress
  • And of course, your own website!

VPS Hosting

  • NextCloud has File-On-Demand (like OneDrive) called Virtual File System (VFS)
  • YunoHost: easy to use modular self-hosting
  • UBOS Linux: distro for self-hosting. Even works for Raspberry Pi
  • Awesome-Selfhosted: has many free web services packages

Phone (Android only)

  • De-google your phone with microG Project
  • Play store: F-droid (Bonus: many open source apps that are paid apps on Google store offer the full version for free on F-droid to encourage you to move away from Google Play), Yalp Store

Research

  • restoreprivacy.com
  • Rob Braxman Tech (He knows about the nasty dictators like the Chinese Communist Party. Don’t think you are safe in America. The reach of the Chinese Communist Party Mafia, formerly known as the Chinese SOVIET Republic) is beyond our imagination.

Alternatives to Big Tech respecting privacy (for now)

  • Search (Google): DuckDuckGo
  • Browser (Chrome): Brave
  • Email (Gmail): see above (self-host) or ProtonMail (zero knowledge encryption)
  • Cloud (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc): see above (self-host) or use zero-knowledge encryption
  • Text/Chat (Whatsapp, Line): Signal App
  • Calling: Telegram has better voice quality than signal, but sometimes it has weird behavior on certain phones. Telegram does not have zero-knowledge proof, so it’s up to Pavel Durov (he’s usually good at not bending to totalitarians).

Alternatives to Big Tech that refuses to censor and manipulate users (for now)

  • Video (Youtube): Odysee (LBRY), Rumble
  • Facebook: MeWe
  • Twitter: Gab, Safechat, CloutHub has a crappy search feature, Parler now has PC bots patrolling and misfiring

Zero-knowledge encryption means the server have no access to the info you put in there as they are all encrypted and protected by a password which only you have (preferably use zero-knowledge proof so the owner of the server do not have any master keys to see your data: you lost the key and the data is practically gone forever)

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Updates to Linux on Pogoplug v4

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I have an old Pogoplug v4 series hacked to install Debian Linux based on this instruction long ago: http://blog.qnology.com/2014/07/hacking-pogoplug-v4-series-4-and-mobile.html
which boots on an SD card, which I used as a no-ip update client.

I realized some of the URLs to the package servers are broken. So here’s my notes to update it.

First apt-get doesn’t work anymore because the files has been moved to the archive package server. The solution is to replace all the contents (now obsolete) in /etc/apt/sources.list by this line:

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian wheezy main

Then you update the package manager (apt-get) with this command:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

Note that it’s still Debian 7 and it will not work with new software that requires later versions

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Linux setup notes – hostname to communicate with Windows computer

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In Debian, the hostname is located in /etc/hostname. The name won’t show up on my router (linux firmware) until I’ve got the right hosts order:

# /etc/nsswitch.conf
hosts:          files dns wins

However, Windows doesn’t recognize the hostname since it uses NetBIOS, which means I need nmbd in sambapackage:

apt-get install samba

Install it and I can ping right away and use the SMB shares!

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Use SSD for bootable USB stick Linux liveboot

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If you flash a Debian-style Linux live-boot image that’s intended for USB stick on a USB-SSD itself (for speed), it will get stuck at initramfs on boot because unlike USB sticks, USB SSD drives are not considered removable drives, yet the live-boot parameters (scripts) set to search only removable media, hence it cannot find the right device.

The solution is to remove live-media=removable as boot parameter (typically under append initrd). You can do that quickly on each boot by TAB key to modify this key-value pair out of the boot parameters and hit enter.

To make it persistent, you have to edit the scripts where these boot parameter lives. The live USB stick/CD was supposed to be mounted as a read-only volume, so we need to first remount it as writable in order to modify the scripts:

mount -o remount -w /lib/live/mount/medium

Note the -w parameter which means writable. -o means options. -o remount,rw means exercising the remount option as a writable drive (-w is alternate syntax for writable).

Make sure you have root access (to modify these files), and edit these live*.cfg files if it shows up in the following folders:

/lib/live/mount/medium/syslinux/live*.cfg
/lib/live/mount/medium/EFI/boot/live*.cfg

Then take out live-media=removable in for the boot menu item you normally use for each of these script .cfg files. Reboot after you are done.

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