I lost the internet (actually just DNS not resolving correctly) after installing Winscribe for Linux and disconnecting the session. WTF windscribe! I know it’s beta version, but at least you should check if it bricks people’s internet after a fresh install and first use!

Turns out that on first connection, it re-binds /etc/resolv.conf to /run/resolvconf/resolv.conf which has this line:

# Generated by resolvconf
nameserver 10.255.255.2

So like systemd-resolve, Windscribe lets resolvconf steal the DNS redirection that’s supposed to go straight to my router to an intermediary 10.255.255.2 that doesn’t do the job! Aargh!

To fix it (needs to be done every time after a Windscribe connection, so I’m getting rid of this lamely written Windscribe CLI for now), remove the symlink /etc/resolv.conf:

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf

and restart NetworkManager

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

so NetworkManager will re-generate /etc/resolv.conf directly (no symlink) with the correct name server from the GUI config program (in my case, automatically obtained from my router).

Turns out it’s a common scene that in Linux, many DNS resolution program fight over the control over /etc/resolv.conf. NetworkManager kicks in after you disabled the rest.

I regularly consolidate my disk drives to higher capacities as they are available to reduce the complexity managing many controllers, so I’ll often have to wipe the drives before I sell them (trade up). Often they are sold at very little moment’s notice, sanitizing the data might take too long. I learned that if I encrypt my data drives, I don’t really have to do much other than just clearing out the partition before I sell them, and there’s little performance penalty for Bitlocker in modern hardware.

Right now dislocker (Linux version of bitlocker) does not have a GUI to automatically unlock and mount the encrypted drives. Here’s the script that has the form “BL_{drive name}.sh” that will unencrypt the device and mount it and at the same time creating the script in the same folder to unwind (unmount & lock) the drive.

#!/bin/bash

# Extracting partition name from file name (BL_*.sh)
FN_base="$(basename -- $0)"
FN_bare="${FN_base%.*}"
partition=${FN_bare/BL_/}

# TODO: Check with /dev to make sure it's legit
echo $partition
dev_partition="/dev/$partition"

# Unlock the device into a raw image 'file'
path_raw="/media/dislocker/raw_$partition"
sudo mkdir -p $path_raw

file_raw="$path_raw/dislocker-file"
sudo dislocker $dev_partition -u -- $path_raw

# Mount the image file as a disk
path_mount="/media/dislocker/mount_$partition"
sudo mkdir -p $path_mount

sudo mount -o loop $file_raw $path_mount

# Build wind down file
script_unwind="unwind_$partition.sh"
# Leave /media/dislocker there for isolation
echo "#!/bin/bash"             > $script_unwind
echo "sudo umount $path_mount">> $script_unwind
echo "sudo rmdir $path_mount" >> $script_unwind
# Note that the website is wrong. umount the path, not the dislocker-file
echo "sudo umount $path_raw"  >> $script_unwind
echo "sudo rmdir $path_raw"   >> $script_unwind
# Make sure the "$0" is literal including the $ sign or it will
# delete this file instead of the unwind_sd*.sh file
echo "sudo rm -- \"\$0\""     >> $script_unwind
chmod +x $script_unwind

There are reports that newer zuluCrypt can now do bitlocker volumes. Will get back to that later.

I tried to get zuluCrypt on Linux Mint and ran into a few quirks

• They claim zuluCrypt after 5.7.1 and above supports Bitlocker
• Linux Mint 20.1 (Ulyssa)’s package repositories are conservative. It only supports up to zuluCrypt 5.7 when 6.0 is out
• Zulucrypt’s website says you still need dislocker backend for zuluCrypt use Bitlocker
• Nonetheless after these requirements are done, I cannot unlock a Bitlocker drive. The error message says it’s ‘missing a parameter’. What parameter?
• I figured that the Bitlocker malfunction might be solved with 6.0 so I tried to download the .deb files from zulucrypt’s website for 6.0. It’s missing a bunch of dependencies that are NOT SATISFIABLE, including a libqt5 dependency that’s nowhere to be found. I found the .deb file yet there’s a chain of dependencies that also cannot be found
• I tried to get the cryptsetup (LUKS) referred by Zulycrypt’s website but it has its down dependencies problem
• So to install zulycrypt 6.0, I have no easy option other than moving to Ubuntu.
• I chose Mint because Ubuntu’s UI defaults are annoying to Windows users from my previous experiences, the glitches and a lot of missing options in their default GUI programs frustrates me.
• So I wondered if I can install Cinnamon (Mint’s core interface) on Ubuntu so I can get the latest and the greatest packages without waiting for the authority of Linux Mint to implement them.

Turns out there’s already a linux distro that’s uses Cinnamon on Ubuntu by default! It’s called “Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix“! Even better, after I’ve installed it, I realized I don’t have to muck with the dislocker/zulucrypt/cryptsetup/LUKS shit at all! Bitlocker just work right out of the box! When you click on the Bitlocker encrypted volume, it will prompt you for the password and that’s it!

FULL DISK ENCRYPTION IS BUILT IN Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix 20.04!

Install these:

• Putty (or remember to use ssh -l loginName)
• Install freerdp-x11 before installing KRDC (Remote desktop client)

Foobar2000 requires snapd to install. It doesn’t have a GUI package manager (either use “sudo snap install” or use Snap Store to find the app and click ‘Install’ directly from there)

There’s a chicken-and-egg problem with snap store though. On Linux Mint, snap-store needs to be installed with command line before the button on the web page works correctly. So there’s no way around doing this command line once: “sudo snap install snap-store”

You’d be better off just doing “sudo snap install foobar2000” if you are not going to use SnapCraft store again later. Alternatively, use DeadBeef.

My other favorite Windows app Notepad++ is also on snap store. Unfortunately, these are both Wine applications that Cinnamon doesn’t scale them properly with HiDPI mode. I’ll use NotepadQQ instead.

It’s a pain in the butt to deal with snap store because it won’t automatically create shorcuts on the panel or desktop. Then you cannot directly run it in the command line either because the apps are install under /snap/bin and it’s not in the path either! Add it in /etc/environment and RE-LOGIN!

There are websites that teaches you to extend the path in /etc/profile.  It’s not necessary if you did /etc/environment already. Doing both will have the path added twice!

Finally, the icons files are hidden in: /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications and the panel icons can be anebled by linking the .desktop folders:

sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/ /usr/share/applications/snap 

Geeze! A windows program this broken these days are not the norm. They never work right out of the box for the most natural and common use cases!

Only Evolution Mail Client supports Google accounts from GNOME online account services. Install Evolution first before adding accounts or they will be called “Unnamed” and there’s no way to change it until you remove the account and re-add.