Root Access

Journeyman Geek

00:44

morning

Luke

Morning @JourneymanGeek

I'm off work in about 15 minutes, so good evening from me :P

KronoS

01:04

►

HackToHell

01:25

@OliverSalzburg putting the command in ' ' will cause errors ! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find#Execute_an_action

jokerdino

imgur is down for me now :(

HackToHell

@jokerdino will this be VTC'd ? askubuntu.com/questions/222376/…

jokerdino

probably not

it probably won't get an answer either :P

HackToHell

Now I have to hunt through directories finding out where the debs are :/

jokerdino

just use the find command

Oliver Salzburg

01:42

@HackToHell oops :D

Well, it worked without quotes for me

@KronoS Nice

HackToHell

VirtualBox hangs madly in Ubuntu :'(

allquixotic

@HackToHell yup

HackToHell

wow, I didn't know that vbox sucks this bad in linux

It is nice in windows

Tom Wijsman

02:34

@HackToHell Works fine enough here on my Gentoo, though I'm considering reinstalling in kvm to get a bit of extra performance so it's more snappy.

And well, changing my second drive away from ntfs-3g, because that's slow too... :D

Bob

o.O

interesting 404 page: thecompany.pl/game/search?

3

@TomWijsman how's exfat support in linux now?

Tom Wijsman

No idea, although any USB flash drives I've touched are fine.

I even have no clue what filesystem is on them... :P

Bob

I've never actually used exfat.. it's been either fat32 or ntfs for me, simply because they're so well supported

and of course most other filesystems aren't exactly easy to use in Windows

Journeyman Geek

the mattwu ext driver has worked well for me

its even signed

allquixotic

03:37

@Bob exfat works fine

android even supports exfat natively

although i'm not sure if the license for exfat has to come from microsoft

(to be legal)

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: I think a good chunk of the money MS claims to be getting from android licencees is for exfat

(which actually makes sense and is the system working as it should)

allquixotic

hmm, upon further research it seems that the open source exFAT code for Linux is ... at risk of patent claims, while several manufacturers have legally licensed exFAT to run it above-ground on android

@JourneymanGeek the system "working as it should"? any time an implementation of a software patent is suppressed for legal reasons, the system is NOT "working as it should". software patents are materially identical to saying "whoops, nope, we're going to have to tear out all the pages on integrals from calculus books; RSA has patented them, you'll have to pay $1 per integral you write or use anywhere."

Software patents are a plague, a disease that needs to be utterly wiped out, ripped out and eradicated, and we will not stand for them. And on that note, goodnight.

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: Oh, they have an actual implimentation which they use, and licence FRAND

better than patent slapfights

not ideal, but its close to the spirit of what was intended

Bob

06:23

well, 31 character answer. ok.

Journeyman Geek

superuser.com/questions/511019/… this one?

Bob

yup

I have not clicked on the link :P

Journeyman Geek

lol

Sathya

07:37

did someone flip the fonts around?

Bob

@Sathya What fonts?

Sathya

Bob

o.O

looks normal here

Sathya

Bob

weird.

Journeyman Geek

07:40

looks fine to me

Sathya

amazing

if I zoom in/zoom out, it looks proper

Journeyman Geek

why are you having the blue sidebar?

Sathya

wtf./

Bob

Sathya

@JourneymanGeek ? Super User's had the blue sidebar since long?

53 secs ago, by Sathya

if I zoom in/zoom out, it looks proper

at 100% zoom I get boxes :-s

Bob

07:41

o.O

Chrome?

Sathya

yes, Chrome stable

Journeyman Geek

I'm not seeing it now

Bob

zoom doesn't affect mine at all

Journeyman Geek

I see the yellow sidebar

Bob

@JourneymanGeek that's even weirder

it's been blue for a while now

Journeyman Geek

07:43

one moment, I'm on canary

let me check on FF

oh never mind

the how to ask is still blue

Bob

@Sathya what about other browsers?

do you get the same effect in a word processor with the same font & size?

Sathya

@Bob same effect in other websites too

lemme check in a word processor

@Bob it's fine in Firefox

Bob

@Sathya if you can get the exact font size this happens in (CSS computed value inspector?), that might help

Sathya

font-size: 15px;
height: 19px;

Bob

07:58

Arial?

Sathya

yes, Arial

Bob

and I guess it's fine at that size in a word processor

Sathya

@Bob yes, looks fine.. Chrome doing something wrong?

> Version 23.0.1271.64 m

there's an update, hmm

Bob

check the encoding?

settings => customise fonts?

Sathya

08:13

@Bob Windows threw a BSOD and now it's fine :\

Bob

o.O

perhaps just a restart

Sathya

22

Q: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

I'm troubleshooting a Windows 7 PC for a friend. A couple of days ago it started running 'slow'. It turns out 'slow' is about 15 minutes to the first glimpse of the desktop, and another 30 to show icons. It is possible to open Task Manager, and nothing seems awry, CPU usage at 1-5%, plenty of mem...

oh god

@Bob yeah..

HaydnWVN

08:40

anyone floating?

Bob

09:00

@HaydnWVN Floating as in?

jokerdino

poppers

Sathya

0

Q: Reputation vs. value

There was recently a question about why people lose abilities when paying a bounty. I'd like to ask a related question. My Super User reputation score is 2,576 (as of this writing). I have answered 159 questions. My average score is 16.2. It can be said that on average I'm going to provide T...

discussion reputation

Journeyman Geek

Trying to fingure out how to answer that without bringing up my rep ;p

jokerdino

I honestly have much better things to do than talk about some random useless internet points.

Bob

@jokerdino ?

jokerdino

09:05

@Bob "recreational drugs"

Bob

:S

Journeyman Geek

lol

Bob

0

A: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

Dont just reinstall, wipe the harddrive first. SysRescCD.org and PartedMagic.com have Derek's Boot and Nuke (DBAN). Can you do much from a Live Linux CD? For many people that is all they run all the time on their machine. When travelling for a year, i didn't use anything but Live Linux. With ...

DBAN seems like overkill for dealing with malware :\

Journeyman Geek

@jokerdino you just did

jokerdino

NOOOoooooooooooo

HaydnWVN

09:19

@Bob Ubuntu - running 24/7 happily, then randomly (in logs) we see tty1 & 2 (local) root logins when we know nobody should have been accessing the server. A few seconds prior it logs a time change and then seems to refresh it's hosts file (which we use for the local network machine entries). Normal behaviour?

Journeyman Geek

actually at this point, I think the soft power dynamics on SE sites is more interesting than rep dynamics ;p

Bob

@HaydnWVN no clue

@JourneymanGeek soft power?

Journeyman Geek

@HaydnWVN: hmm, could script something with inocron

HaydnWVN

@jokerdino heard of anything like this?

Bob

I'm more clueless than usual today, which is saying something

Journeyman Geek

09:21

@Bob: being able to influence things through meta and chat

rather than direct voting and exercise of rep-related mod-like-powers

jokerdino

@HaydnWVN cron?

Bob

@JourneymanGeek ah

HaydnWVN

@jokerdino Don't see anything in logs about cron

Journeyman Geek

@HaydnWVN: set up inocron, make it trigger lsof when this next happens (or an appropriate command) and you'll know what process is doing it

HaydnWVN

@JourneymanGeek This is the first (and hopefully only) time it's ever happened

Journeyman Geek

09:23

lol

but that makes it harder to track!

/me notes package tracking is evil

HaydnWVN

09:37

Exactly... Grrr lol

Sathya

> More participation from the YOU! More users need to start answering, and editing posts. That's the only way to make AE a much better place and the perfect help for new users. As you go on answering and editing, you will soon become a power user yourself! And we will have healthy community of Android Enthusiasts! - Suraj

okay but why do you have this in your nomination pitch?

Journeyman Geek

lol

"I know, I'll be a mod and make everyone else do all the work. Its brilliant!"

Oliver Salzburg

I really hate to point at others' achievements, but " if you check for top editors for this month you'll see my name somewhere in top two rows"... come on :\

Journeyman Geek

lol

least its not EC ;p

Sathya

@JourneymanGeek waiting for that...

Journeyman Geek

09:51

;p

Oliver Salzburg

superuser.com/questions/511019/…

Wow

So much garbage :D

jokerdino

> Besides, I promise to be active on the site and try to help the Android community with whatever best I can

he promised \o/

Oliver Salzburg

> The best tool I have used is Malwarebytes. I used it when I worked in IT a few years ago. Additionally, Kaspersky is good as is AVG (as suggested above), or a combination of all.

Jeeze...

bbl :D

jokerdino

cya :P

malwarebytes

Bob

@OliverSalzburg In this situation, the best tool is arguably an industrial strength magnet...

jokerdino

10:02

Thor's hammer

Sathya

2 hours ago, by Sathya

oh god

@jokerdino pinky promise

Oliver Salzburg

@Sathya You said it best :D

Sathya

> by the support of the users of this blog. - reply to my earlier comment

Journeyman Geek

the irony is the best answer in that question is the oneliner...

and the guy blasted through the rep cap ;p

Sathya

that loud crashing sound you heard is me just flippin' the tables of my workstation

Journeyman Geek

10:04

lol

...

blog?

jokerdino

even forums is better

Journeyman Geek

ooh, he actually got 330 rep from that

Bob

@Sathya (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Sathya

@Bob thank you, I was searching for that -.-

Oliver Salzburg

@JourneymanGeek It's a horrible answer. It should be a comment

Journeyman Geek

10:06

@OliverSalzburg: yet, its what I'd do

More details would be nice, but I might have answered almost the same way

Oliver Salzburg

I much prefer it over "Run this awesome anti-virus (it's the best, because I use it). If that doesn't help, run CCleaner (it's also awesome, because it defragments the registry!!!). If that still didn't solve it (yeah, right :D), format PC!!!"

Manishearth

Dual-boot a Linux distro. You shall be doing ~~Linus Torvalds'~~ God's work and the heathen OS shall be cleansed.

Solution to all Windows problems

jokerdino

@Manishearth If you use linux, you will get hacked.

Manishearth

@jokerdino Linux Distro=Ubuntu/Redhat/fedora

Pretty secure, IMO

as long as you disable booting into root

jokerdino

popular misconception about Linux

Manishearth

10:12

and encrypt your home folder

Bob

@Manishearth That's just trading one set of problems for another.

Journeyman Geek

lol

Manishearth

:P

Journeyman Geek

actually linux is useful here for testing the drive

Oliver Salzburg

It's just ridiculous that so many people would simply throw in the towel and reinstall and even leave that as the "best advice" for other people who might have the same issue.

jokerdino

10:16

it's the best advice bro. it works for me

Oliver Salzburg

@jokerdino :D

jokerdino

on average, a linux user reinstalls far more than a Windows user though

oh Firefox crashed? Never mind, reinstall Ubuntu.

Bob

@OliverSalzburg when you have known malware (and 30 min + wait times), that may be the only reliable course of action

@jokerdino I've bricked my Linux VMs so much more than I ever have for Windows :P

jokerdino

@Bob iHah

Bob

My only physical installation of Linux so far has been patchy too :\

extend display to TV at high resolution? lag lag lag crash

Manishearth

10:20

@Bob I currently run Win7/Ubuntu 12.04/Backtrack 5r3 on a triple boot. Also have the BT and 12.10 live thumb drives. And tried to install Win8 on a thumb drive, some problems (I have a genuine key--DreamSpark ftw!)

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob I'd start by examining auto-starting entities from an alternative OS to make investigation possible

Maybe it can't be recovered. So re-installation should be the last option

Bob

@Manishearth as a live OS, always good. it just doesn't work for me for anything long term

@OliverSalzburg for security, malware => nuke and pave

Manishearth

So far it only gives me problems if I poke it (i.e., try making major changes. Like when my Backtrack installation went boom due to the small partition I gave it)

Oliver Salzburg

It just pains me how man low-quality (from my point of view) answers there are on that question and that the highest voted one is not a good example of what I consider a good answer :(

Bob

@OliverSalzburg as @JourneymanGeek said, that answer can be improved. but the general advice (start over) is good, from a security perspective

Oliver Salzburg

10:24

@Bob Start over after you've recovered it and all the contained data :P

Bob

but be careful with data recovery from infected systems

I assume there's no backup :\

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob There never is when it's an important machine

Bob

@OliverSalzburg or it can't be restored

jokerdino

Backups are for sissies :D

Oliver Salzburg

brb ... have to run backups

jokerdino

10:29

lol

Bob

the extent of my backup testing is just checking if I can open/mount the files

jokerdino

i used to backup on the same drive last time ;p

Bob

I was doing that until this week

jokerdino

and then accidentally deleted everything.

Bob

:\

jokerdino

10:30

i used find -delete -name instead of find -name -delete :/

it darn deletes everything in ~

Bob

...

at least you didn't run it on /

jokerdino

heh

it's almost the same as running on / without su

Journeyman Geek

posted an answer

hope I didn't miss anything

jokerdino

you should probably connect your user profile feed to twitter and have it announce whenever you post an answer

Journeyman Geek

lol

you're being sarcastic today ;p

jokerdino

10:42

actually, it would be quite a thing

Journeyman Geek

I meant for the specific question everyone was complaining about ;p

jokerdino

@JourneymanGeek oh heh

@JourneymanGeek working with Gtk yo

makes your head go whee

Bob

@JourneymanGeek More backticks please :P

uncleanly mounted => uncleanly unmonted?

Journeyman Geek

go ahead and edit ;D

Bob

lol

Oliver Salzburg

10:45

@JourneymanGeek Seems like it was all for nothing

0

A: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

Use System Mechanic, it will fix all errors on your PC and will make your PC stable and performing.

How can you compete with that? :D

Journeyman Geek

let me go get my magic wand and pixie dust

Bob

nice detailed answer

jokerdino

@OliverSalzburg wow spammers have some rep beforehand?

Bob

@OliverSalzburg I swear that thing is malware o.O

Sathya

@OliverSalzburg facepalm

jokerdino

10:48

i hope you guys plan on locking / deleting the question in a while's time

Bob

6

A: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

I'm going to hop in here and ask more about this first, and then post my assumptions about the computer. You said that its using only 1-5% of the CPU, but its still moving slowly? While I'm not saying that it isn't riddled with viruses or anything because it could very be, I do want to point out ...

my doppelganger suggesting resource/performance monitor

if he actually tries that, we might hear from him sometime next week

those tools take a while to open on a good day for me :S

jokerdino

oh doppelganger. i misread it

Bob

@jokerdino what the hell can you misread that as? o.O

jokerdino

never mind

Bob

lol

Oliver Salzburg

10:51

Sometimes I wonder if people run this userstlye .postcell { font-size:1px; } #submit-button { font-size:600%; }

Personally... I like it :D

Journeyman Geek

actually, what's with the massive amount of voting on that question?

Sathya

0

A: Do questions about using VMWare belong on Stack Overflow or Super Users?

Questions on installing software/configuring are more suited for Super User. In this specific case: There's no mention of the guest OS There's no mention of the host OS No mention of what DE is being used No mention of what version/edition of VMware is being used (no, mentioning "latest" vers...

Bob

in The Bridge, 13 hours ago, by fredley

0

Q: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

I'm troubleshooting a Windows 7 PC for a friend. A couple of days ago it started running 'slow'. It turns out 'slow' is about 15 minutes to the first glimpse of the desktop, and another 30 to show icons. It is possible to open Task Manager, and nothing seems awry, CPU usage at 1-5%, plenty of mem...

windows-7 malware

that might have something to do with it

I dunno

Sathya

@Bob it's on the multicollider hotlist

in the top position

220 v/s 94 for the second one

Journeyman Geek

ahh that would do it

Bob

11:03

@Sathya that would be after rising though, wouldn't it?

@Sathya what are those numbers anyway?

Sathya

@Bob I'd say it goes hand-in-hand, more votes & views increases the score which further causes more views & votes which causes....

19

A: How are "Hot" Questions Selected?

What Formula Should Be Used To Determine "hot" Questions? Based on my analysis of the above and the comments so far, here's the second version of what I have implemented so far. This might suck. I don't know: (log(Qviews)*4) + ((Qanswers * Qscore)/5) + sum(Ascores) ----------...

that's the formula

Bob

o.O

that same one

Sathya

11:23

> how can i get gamil mails in my mobile through inbox? - just another day in webapps

Journeyman Geek

who is gamil?

why is he mailing you?

WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE?

Sathya

:D

Bob

:S

HaydnWVN

11:41

@JourneymanGeek TAANSFL?

Journeyman Geek

there ain't no such thing as a free lunch

HaydnWVN

Ahhh ok, never heard that acronym before :P

jokerdino

thank you. i was confused with that random mashup of letters

Journeyman Geek

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch" (alternatively, "There's no such thing as a free lunch" or other variants) is a popular adage communicating the idea that it is impossible to get something for nothing. The initialisms TNSTAAFL, TANSTAAFL, and TINSTAAFL are also used. Uses of the phrase dating back to the 1930s and 1940s have been found, but the phrase's first appearance is unknown. The free-market economist Milton Friedman also popularized the phrase by using it as the title of a 1975 book, and it often appears in economics textbooks; Campbell McConnell writes that the idea i...

Oliver Salzburg

11:58

0

A: How can I fix a computer that is literally too slow to do anything?

You could try the key combination Windows+Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Prt. Screen+Page Up+End+R It will automagically reinstall windows immediately and also result in a 200% speed-boost.

I like it

jokerdino

►

@OliverSalzburg wait what?

Journeyman Geek

lol

I was gonna link that

Sathya

@OliverSalzburg return from suspension & still the same, I see. (cc @slhck)

Journeyman Geek

Near instant self deletion though.. what was the point of that?

klyonrad

12:33

Rage! why the hell does windows randomly let junctions disappear?

Journeyman Geek

cause it hates you? ;p

jokerdino

Did you try switching it off and on back again?

klyonrad

@jokerdino No! :P

maybe it's an error with the LinkShellExtension

jokerdino

Well then, proceed.

HackToHell

0

A: How can I extract the deb files from the ubuntu iso?

Mount the iso. Copy squashfs and unsquash it. in the extracted folder i'd execute this from the shell. find -name "*.deb" -type f -execdir cp {} ~/Desktop/thefolder_you_choose/ \; This finds all .deb files and dumps all of them (without the folder structure) in your destination folder.

klyonrad

12:35

because the arrows that the extension adds into the explorer don't appear

HackToHell

I got an answer :P

Though I just figured that there are no debs in the iso

It's pre installed and the installer just copies it from the vfs to the HDD :/

jokerdino

hm, you have an answer from canonical employee

HackToHell

But he misunderstood my question

jokerdino

he said to unsquash so you can get the deb

HackToHell

thing is there are no debs there :/

> Most of the debs Ubuntu uses are installed into a chroot before generating the ISO image, so you can't just get them back. If you unsquash the filesystem, you'll see it looks like just a root filesystem

jokerdino

12:40

it is not available as deb

do you know how a live work?

HackToHell

He posted instructions for messing around with it only

jokerdino

well anyway, you can just download the deb

HackToHell

@jokerdino I thought there would be a minimalistic ubuntu and then the debs would be installed

jokerdino

yeah, i was lazy to tell you earlier ;p

Journeyman Geek

@jokerdino >_>

jokerdino

12:42

<_<

HackToHell

Bad canonical killed alternate askubuntu.com/questions/221581/…

jokerdino

alternate is merged with live

Journeyman Geek

boo

HackToHell

:P System wide settings will be erased if I upgrade from live

Journeyman Geek

@jokerdino: that looks like inglish

HackToHell

12:43

and that sucks :P

jokerdino

@HackToHell backup ;p

@JourneymanGeek live and alternate are merged

HackToHell

@jokerdino gellost

HaydnWVN

superuser.com/questions/511019/… - agree with me?

TBH that answer is all of what's wrong about SU to me

jokerdino

letting the question stay is all of what's wrong about SU to me

HackToHell

2 hours ago, by jokerdino

Backups are for sissies :D

HaydnWVN

12:44

The answer itself could solve the problem, but it's not the be all and end all of the problem or fixes.

Journeyman Geek

@HaydnWVN: hmm..

lol, I'm a bit torn on that

HaydnWVN

Ideally that answer would be a 'final step' in a series of other diagnotics to eliminate any hardware failures and not to mention a possibly easy to remove infection. ~20 mins reinstall with +~20 mins reinstalling drivers and +~20 mins software = ~1 hour wasted if the fault is a bad RAM chip/failing hard drive

Journeyman Geek

kinda like my answer? ;p

HaydnWVN

Also an hour wasted, where proper research regarding the infection with the correct tools, fixes and removal revives the Windows install

Journeyman Geek

lol

HaydnWVN

12:52

Yeah, very much :P

Journeyman Geek

the problem here is getting the system to a point where you can get anything done on it

HaydnWVN

Still fail to see why that crap answer has got so many upvotes

Journeyman Geek

>_>

cause thats what anyone would do ;p

Hell, these days I would.

HaydnWVN

Anyone hoping that the infection is isolated to the Windows install (and not the users data), also anyone who's never experienced a failing hard drive/struggling processor/faulty RAM chip and doesn't want to check for those first

Shouldn't be let loose fixing very general problems

Journeyman Geek

XD

I have hard drives that just.. slowed down

HaydnWVN

12:55

The infection could only be 5% of the problem :P

Journeyman Geek

and a install I have set to reboot every night

yup

HaydnWVN

Equally it may be 100% of the problem, in which case the answer is valid

So my expert opinion and diagnosis is - "meh."

Journeyman Geek

lol

Its one of those things thats best handled by someone who knows what he's doing ;p

(or she, lest I be accused of being sexist)

HaydnWVN

Yeah

jokerdino

how dare you assume it is a human?!?!

Journeyman Geek

12:59

my answer is what I'd THINK of doing, but the exact process would vary on what I find

@jokerdino: I assume it fits the gender binary

jokerdino

it does?

what about hermaphrodites?

Journeyman Geek

Don't know any. Know one intersexed person, but I can't remember if that person cares what gender I use

jokerdino

right. haha

haahahahah huhhh

HaydnWVN

@JourneymanGeek See i'd go the other route... I tend to trust the OS, hold the user as the unknown factor but always consider hardware the first cause

But that may tend to be my age and the fact i've been fixing problems for a long time... ie when hardware was more frequently the cause of problems like that

I'd run a memtest (upto and including test 4), then a hard drive quick scan, next i'd do malware scans

as the time it takes to do a malware scan, i'd get the quicker scans out of the way first to rule those out

Journeyman Geek

@HaydnWVN: the OS isn't working well enough for it to be any use

HaydnWVN

13:05

Then while the malware scan (MWB) was running i'd be online googling the errors/symptoms

The hardware tests don't require the OS

Journeyman Geek

and if i'm running a livecd for data recovery (which I'd want to do anyway), I might as well benchmark the parts and do basic checks

oh thats what I did

but I assumed the OS is utter shite, and work on the idea everything will break

HaydnWVN

Yeah but the data recovery would usually happen after the diagnosis, for me anyways

Journeyman Geek

well, data recovery is useful if its hardware problem.

and i'd rather get SOME data out than none

HaydnWVN

'data recovery' being making sure the users data is secure

Journeyman Geek

pretty much

diagnoses here is to make sure I do it the 'smart' way

(I DID suggest smart before dd/file copy, since smart tests don't read drives much)

HaydnWVN

13:08

exactly, it's not an 'overnight' problem (ie its been broken a while) so a memtest and HDD check shouldn't damage any of the data

Journeyman Geek

any more than it is

I have a drive...

oh.. wait...

HaydnWVN

Natually, if i thought it was a HDD problem i'd usually clone it before even doing anything

Journeyman Geek

Its got no os, and the computer it was in is in parts around somewhere, but it had very similar early stage symptoms

HaydnWVN

as the ease of cloning a drive and firing up the machine with the known working drive is very quick to eliminate the HDD

Journeyman Geek

yup

HaydnWVN

13:18

tomshardware.com/reviews/… Amazing real world talk about FPS games and weapons relation to such

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