rissoles
a simple rissole recipe
Apple Crumble
mum is visiting today and is making an apple crumble with a bunch of spare apples.
Dead simple pancakes
This recipe is from taste.com.au. I don't make any changes to it (apart from double it), but I like to transcribe some of my old favs onto my own site incase they go away one day.
Ingrediants
- 4 eggs
- 3 and 1/2 cups of milk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 4 cups of s/r flour
- 2/3 cup of sugar (whatever you have)
- Butter for frying
Method
Whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together in a jug. Pour flour into a large bowl. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the center. Add milk mixture. Whisk until just combined.
Self explainitory
Consume with ice cream and maple syrup.
Tags: cooking, dessert-recipe, recipe
Win32 OpenSSH Package
I've recently been using Macos at work lately in order to share admin responsibilities across the team. Still suppporting Windows, however there are a couple of tools I use to make working Windows from a Mac simpler.
PowerShell
Microsoft Open-Sourced PowerShell in 2016 and today in 2018, you can get stable installations for Macos, Linux and Windows on github which is often referred to as PSCore.
As an aside, this new version of powershell is not nativly backward compatible with compiled binary modules of the previous "Windows Powershell", however recently in development is a new module: WindowsCompatibility (currently only available on Windows Insider builds) that allows your to import "Windows Powershell" modules into PSCore.
When alpha and beta builds first became available I started testing remote sessions from Linux and Macos to Windows (As I would prefer to work from a unix system at work), but quickly found that the native "Enter-PSSession" wasn't supported from PSCore.
OpenSSH
Around the same time, Microsoft began working with the OpenBSD's OpenSSH project to bring official OpenSSH builds to Windows and the PSCore team found a way to make "Enter-PSSession" work with this.
Packaging PSCore
Packaging PSCore is very straightforward and I won't go into detail here. Suffice it to say that PSCore is released as an MSI and these are very simple to deploy using tools like Configuration Manager.
OpenSSH Package
Essentially I created a Windows Powershell script which follows the installation directions on the Win32 OpenSSH github Installation page.
The Scripts
Deploying an application using scripts in Configuration Manager, usually requires 3 scripts, and this case is no exception. I have provided the all needed scripts below:
Install.ps1
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param()
#region Helper functions
function Get-Path {
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param(
[ValidateSet(
"Machine",
"User"
)]$Context = "User",
[Switch]$Raw
)
If ($Context -eq "Machine") {
$Root = 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager'
} else {
$Root = 'HKCU:'
}
If ($Raw){
Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "$Root\Environment" -Name Path
} Else {
Try {
(Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "$Root\Environment" `
-Name Path -EA SilentlyContinue) -split ';'
} Catch {
Write-Warning "No user environment variables found"
}
}
}
function Add-Path {
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
[ValidateScript({
if (Test-Path -Path $_) {
$True
} else {
throw "Unable to validate path $_"
}
})]$Path,
[ValidateSet(
"Machine",
"User"
)]$Context
)
Write-Verbose "Adding $Path to environment"
if ($Context -eq 'Machine') {
If (! $Path -in (Get-Path -Context Machine)){
Write-Verbose "Adding $Path to machine context"
setx /m PATH "$(Get-Path -Context Machine -Raw);$Path"
}
} else {
Write-Verbose "Adding $Path to user context"
If (! $Path -in (Get-Path -Context User)){
Write-Verbose "Adding $Path to user context"
setx PATH "$(Get-Path -Context Use -Raw);$Path"
}
}
}
function New-SymbolicLink {
Param($Link,$Target)
If (-Not (Test-Path -Path $Link)){
If ((Get-Item $Target).PSIsContainer) {
cmd.exe /c mklink /D $Link $Target
} Else {
cmd.exe /c mklink $Link $Target
}
}
}
#endregion
# Extract OpenSSH
$Archive = Get-ChildItem -Filter *.zip
Expand-Archive -Path $Archive -DestinationPath $env:ProgramFiles
Rename-Item -Path $Env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH-Win64 -NewName OpenSSH
#Add InstallDir to Path
Add-Path -Path $Env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH -Context Machine -Verbose
# Configure OpenSSH
& $Env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH\install-sshd.ps1
# Start sshd service
Start-Service -Name sshd
# Set service startup
Set-Service sshd -StartupType Automatic
Set-Service ssh-agent -StartupType Automatic
# Setup pwsh link to work around
# https://github.com/PowerShell/Win32-OpenSSH/issues/784
# Find PSCore Install and Make symbolic link
$PSCoreDir = Get-ChildItem -Path $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell `
-Directory | Select-Object -Last 1
New-SymbolicLink -Link $env:SystemDrive\pwsh -Target $PSCoreDir.FullName
# Enable Password Authentication and set pwsh as default shell
$NewConfig = Get-Content -Path $Env:ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config |
ForEach-Object {
Switch ($_) {
{$_ -match '^#PasswordAuthentication\syes'} {$_.replace('#','')}
{$_ -match '^#PubkeyAuthentication\syes'} {$_.replace('#','')}
{$_ -match '^Subsystem\s+sftp\s+'} {
'Subsystem powershell c:\pwsh\pwsh.exe -sshs -NoLogo -NoProfile'
}
Default {$_}
}
}
# Update sshd config
Set-Content -Path $Env:ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config -Value $NewConfig `
-Force
# Restart sshd
Restart-Service sshd
Uninstall.ps1
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param()
#region Helper functions
function Remove-SymbolicLink {
Param($Link,$Target)
If (Test-Path -Path $Link){
If ((Get-Item $Target).PSIsContainer) {
cmd.exe /c rmdir $Link
} Else {
cmd.exe /c del $Link
}
}
}
function Get-Path {
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param(
[ValidateSet(
"Machine",
"User"
)]$Context = "User",
[Switch]$Raw
)
If ($Context -eq "Machine") {
$Root = 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager'
} else {
$Root = 'HKCU:'
}
If ($Raw){
Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "$Root\Environment" -Name Path
} Else {
Try {
(Get-ItemPropertyValue -Path "$Root\Environment" `
-Name Path -EA SilentlyContinue) -split ';'
} Catch {
Write-Warning "No user environment variables found"
}
}
}
function Remove-Path {
[CmdLetBinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
$Path,
[ValidateSet(
"Machine",
"User"
)]$Context
)
Write-Verbose "Removing $Path from environment"
if ($Context -eq 'Machine') {
If ($Path -in (Get-Path -Context Machine)){
Write-Verbose "Removing $Path from machine context"
$NewPath = ""
Get-Path -Context Machine | Where-Object {
$psItem -ne $Path -and
$psItem -ne ""
} ForEach-Object {
$NewPath += "$psItem;"
}
setx /m PATH "$NewPath"
}
} else {
Write-Verbose "Removing $Path from user context"
If ($Path -in (Get-Path -Context User)){
Write-Verbose "Removing $Path from user context"
$NewPath = ""
Get-Path -Context User | Where-Object {
$psItem -ne $Path -and
$psItem -ne ""
} ForEach-Object {
$NewPath += "$psItem;"
}
setx PATH "$NewPath"
}
}
}
#endregion
& $Env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH\uninstall-sshd.ps1
# Extract OpenSSH
Remove-Item -Path $env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH -Recurse -Force
Remove-Path -Path $env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH -Context Machine -Verbose
# Find PSCore Install and remove symbolic link
$PSCoreDir = Get-ChildItem -Path $env:ProgramFiles\PowerShell -Directory | Select-Object -Last 1
Remove-SymbolicLink -Link $env:SystemDrive\pwsh -Target $PSCoreDir.FullName
# Remove old config
Remove-Item -Path $env:ProgramData\ssh -Recurse -Force
Detect.ps1
$AssumeInstalled = $True
If (-Not (Test-Path $Env:ProgramFiles\OpenSSH)) {
$AssumeInstalled = $False
}
If (-Not (Test-Path $Env:SystemDrive\pwsh)) {
$AssumeInstalled = $False
}
If (-Not (Get-Service sshd -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue)) {
$AssumeInstalled = $False
}
If ($AssumeInstalled) {
Write-Output "True"
}
Using OpenSSH with Powershell
Now that I have used these scripts to deploy OpenSSH and PSCore, I can PSRemote to a PC using my Mac.
The old way to use "Enter-PSSession" was by specifying the ComputerName parameter like so:
PS\> Enter-PSSession -ComputerName Blah
However, when using OpenSSH with a PS Session you do the following:
PS\> Enter-PSSession -HostName Blah -UserName MrBlah
You could also setup a session in a variable and resue it multiple times in a session:
PS\> $s = New-PSSesssion -HostName Blah -UserName MrBlah
PS\> Enter-PSSession -Session $s
[Blah] PS\>
I hope you have found this usefull.
Tags: powershell, pscore, openssh, windows, macos
Snaps on Gentoo
Why?
Many will think it is heresy to put binary packages on a Gentoo system let alone a package system which encourages binary packages to come with their own set of shared libraries.
While I tend to agree, the practicality of sticking to this arrangement can be difficult for a couple of cases. Here are a few I can think of:
- Source not available
- No binary package or source ebuild for Gentoo
- ebuild takes too long to compile
In the case of ebuilds taking too long (eg. chromium), I have a limited budget and can't really afford to leave my power hungry desktop on 24/7 to keep chromium builds up-to-date.
Here are a quick list of software that I use which fall into one of these categories:
- Citrix Reciever
- Powershell (Available as source, but no ebuild and I haven't had the time to try write one myself)
- Minecraft (Gaming with the kids)
- Discord (Chatting with games)
- Chromium (Primarily a firefox user, but have some trouble with getting it to see and work with Citrix)
With my excuses for putting snap's on Gentoo out of the way, here is how I've got it working for my systems.
Overlay
There are a few overlay's for Gentoo out there. Even an official one maintained (or as the case may be, unmaintained) by zyga from Canonical. I tried that one, and many of the forks with no such luck.
After googling around I stumbled on a thread on snapcraft.io and a post from user jamesb192 about the progress on their snapd overlay.
JamesB192 overlay works, but it doesn't have an overlay.xml file for adding with layman. To overcome this, I've hosted one on my site here. You can add this to your system using overlay like this:
echo app-portage/layman git >> /etc/portage/package.use/layman
emerge app-portage/layman
layman -o http://jesseharrisit.com/overlay.xml -f -a JamesB192
Now that you have the overlay installed should be able to emerge snapd like so:
emerge app-emulation/snapd
Note - You may need to adjust your kernel config and the ebuild is pretty good at highlighting which options need to be set.
Issues
During my testing of snaps on Gentoo, I've come across a couple of issues that either have been solved or could be solved in the ebuild
- snap packages only install and run as root (This was solved by setting suid on /usr/lib64/snapd/snap-confine, and solved in ebuild 2.34)
- /var/lib/snapd not created (manually mkdir the directory)
Final thoughts.
Snap packages feel like a great augmentation for Gentoo. It allows me to keep using Gentoo as a daily driver and augment some of it's missing packages with packages from more popular distros.
Downgrade Gentoo from testing to stable
At some point in my main Gentoo boxes life I added the ~amd64 keyword into my make.conf. I don't remeber why I did this, but I can't think of a reason I need my entire install to be bleeding edge.
I did some googling around on the best approach to achieve this and from what I read on forums, having a bunch of testing packages downgrade to stable is not such a good idea.
One reason might be that per app config files are usually only designed to be backward compatible, not forward compatible.
At any rate, the idea is to gather a list of currently installed testing packages and add them to package.keywords for their current version.
With this method, eventually those packages will become stable.
The method I used is basically from the sabayon wiki with a few tweaks.
First, edit make.conf ACCEPT_KEYWORDS to:
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS=amd64Now use equery, sed and grep to construct a new packge.keywords
equery -C -N list -F '=$cpv $mask2' '*' | \ grep \~ | sed 's/\[~amd64 keyword\]/~amd64/' > \ /etc/portage/package.keywords/testpackagesBasically I added '-C' to remove colours and grep
Examine testpackages for sanity, and then test with a world upgrade.
emerge --ask --update --newuse --deep --with-bdeps=y @world These are the packages that would be merged, in order: Calculating dependencies... done! Nothing to merge; quitting.
Ripping an album from youtube - CLI Style
With the advent of Spotify, Apple Music, Youtube, Pandora and many other streaming music services, the need to have local mp3 files doesn't crop up very often. However, my kids either have cheap mp3 players or use their 3ds's to play local mp3 files.
This post is a quick tip on ripping an album from youtube using a web browser and a few cli apps. Remember, most tasks don't need a bloated gui to be done efficiently.
Requirement
- A Web browser that can play youtube videos
- Youtube-dl
- ffmpeg
- Bash
Prep work
Install ffmpeg
Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg -y
Fedora
sudo yum install ffmpeg
Gentoo
sudo emerge ffmpeg
Install Youtube-DL
If your on a Debian or Ubuntu flavor of linux
sudo apt-get install youtube-dl -y
Fedora
sudo yum install youtub-dl
On my favourite, Gentoo
pip3 install youtube-dl --user
Download the album
At this point you have all the tools you need to get the job done. Have a browse around on youtube to find the album you want an offline copy of and copy the url of the page. Then from a command prompt:
mkdir ~/tmp
cd ~/tmp
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 https://youtube.com/fullurltovideo
Create a list file
While the audio file is downloading, your going to want to create a simple txt file which lists the tracks, titles and start and end timings. I simply fast forwarded through each track toward the end of the song and made note of the mintes and seconds. I created a file with each line representing a track in the album with the following details:
Track Number-Track title-Start duration-End duration
The durations are in the form of HH:MM:SS. Here is what my file looks like:
cat ~/tmp/list.txt
01-The Greatest Show-00:0:00-5:08
02-A Million Dreams-00:5:08-9:38
03-A Million Dreams Reprise-00:9:39-10:38
04-Come Alive-00:10:38-14:25
05-The Other Side-00:14:25-17:58
06-Never Enough-00:17:58-21:28
07-This Is Me-00:21:38-25:23
08-Rewrite the Stars-00:25:23-28:59
09-Tightrope-00:28:59-32:50
10-Never Enough (Reprise)-00:32:50-34:14
11-From Now On-00:34:14-40:12
Split the audio to seperate mp3's
Now that my file has finished downloading, I can convert the file into seperate song files Here is the little bash script I wrote to split the file based on the contents of the list.txt file
cat splitsong.sh
#!/bin/bash
while read -r p; do
TRACK=$(echo "$p" | awk -F- '{print $1}')
TITLE=$(echo "$p" | awk -F- '{print $2}')
START=$(echo "$p" | awk -F- '{print $3}')
END=$(echo "$p" | awk -F- '{print $4}')
FILENAME="${TRACK} - The Greatest Showman - ${TITLE}.mp3"
ffmpeg -i "$2" -acodec copy -ss "$START" -to "$END" "${FILENAME}" < /dev/null
done <"$1"
I then execute the file like this:
chmod +x splitsong.sh
./splitsong.sh list.txt 'Some Sound Track List-qDZLSHY1ims.mp3'
And the whole thing is over in a matter of seconds.
Tags: bash-tips, mp3, ffmpeg, cli, script, youtube, music, linux