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Diagnosing a Windows 10 PC that will not post

August 7, 2021 by Simon

I had a friend who said his Windows PC was not booting and needed advice on how to fix it.

This post is to help others and to assist with a Warranty RMA ticket (spoiler one part died).

My Experience

I have been in the computer industry for 27 years working in the following areas.

Jobs I have worked in:

Computer Sales (Pentium 1 and Cyrix Media GX days)
Software Engineer (medical software and Y2K prep work)
Computer Repairs and Installation
IT Helpdesk
Web Content Administrator
Software Developer (Data Design and Development)
System Administrator

In this time I have built possibly 50 computers and reinstalled the following versions of Windows thousands of times

MS-DOS 6.22
Windows 3.11
Windows NT 3.5
Windows 95
Windows NT 4
Windows 98/98SE
Windows 2000
Windows Me
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7
Windows 8/8.1
Windows 10 (v1507, v1511, v1607, v1703, v1709, v1803, v1809, v1903, v1909, v2004, v20H2, v20H1, v20H2)
etc Windows Server

How hard can it be, it was possibly a dead power supply or corrupt BIOS based on what I knew.

The (Dead) System Specs

The specifications of the PC are as follows.

Mainboard: ASUS TUF AM4 B450-PLUS Gaming (v1.03)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 3600X (6 core 12 threads)
Graphics Card: ASUS TUX 1660Ti 6GB Memory
Memory Corsair Vengenace LPX 16GB 3000Mhz DDR4 (2x sticks)
Silverstone: 550 Power Supply (SST-ET550-B V1.1)
Storage 1: 500GB M.2 nVME SSD
Storage 2: 2TB Magnetic Hard Drive
Case: Antec Dark Phantom DP301M Case
Operating System: Windows 10 Home

The PC was pre-built and tested by a leading Australian store on the 12th of December 2019 (#1225616)

Diagnostics Plan

This was my roughy plan

Warning: Do not open a computer without an anti-static strap and use a clean static-free earthed surface (do not walk on carpet and touch computer parts). Make sure the power cable is not connected to the power supply and let the power in the system dissipate over 30 minutes first.

Look for external damage or damage to the parts inside (as this can tell a story) and check connections).
Evaluate the dust inside the case and power supply. Dust is the prime candidate for PC’s shutting down.
Plugin the system and try and boot it (and smell evidence of “Blue Smoke” from a dead part)
Follow the evidence (check that all fans spinning, look in the BIOS and investigate windows errors).

0. BIOS Beep codes

The PC had no BIOS Speaker installed one

On power on the PC speaker made a short beep (video card present but no kleyboard_ code)

Nothing displayed on screen and I tried another keyboard but no luck.

1. Look for Damage and Check Connections

There was no external damage on the corners or the case or damage to parts inside of the PC.

All external case screws are connected and present. I opened the side panel (thumbscrews) and have a look around.

All internal cables were firmly connected and not loose.

ATX-12V/EPS 8 Pin CPU Power cord was well seated in the Mainboard
The 24 pin Power plug was well seated.
The CPU Fan power plug and 21x Case fans were connected correctly.
The M.2 SSD and SATA Drive cable was connected.
The SATA drive had power.
All cables were routed cleanly and were zip-tied down.

2. Dust

My heart sank when I saw that there was little dust inside the PC. Dust is usually is a good sign that the PC can be quickly repaired as dust can block fans.

ATX PC INside, Mainboard, Video Card and memory

I checked the Antec Dark Phantom DP301M Case top, front panel and bottom dust filters and they were a bit dusty but not bad.

Looks like Dust is not an issue. I know the family who uses this PC are not smokers or cat owners so this explains the clean PC.

3. Start the System

I started the system with my nose right behind the back of the PC to quickly smell evidence of past or present electrical shorting.

When I pressed the Power button to turn on the Power Supply, CPU, Video card and case fans all spun up. No bad smell from dead parts. I kept tapping the delete key every few seconds to hopefully enter the BIOS. After a few seconds, the PC did not fire up the Video card image connected to a 1080P screen.

4. Follow the Evidence

The PC had no PC Speaker so I connected a spare one I had. The BIOS was not loading and no BIOS beep codes came out of the speaker.

Hmmm, Maybe the mainboard or video card is dead. I cannot get an image on a screen?

I shut down the PC and installed an MSI 1030 Ti video card and tried to start the PC.

No luck, the system would not boot with a working video card.

I installed known good DDR 4 memory into the system to test the memory.

Installing working memory did not help.

I plugged in a Radeon 570 Video card and it to would not boot.

I plugged in the ASUS TUF 1660Ti video card into another working PC and it worked just fine. The video card was not dead.

Maybe the Power supply is not properly working?

I plugged in a working 750W power supply to the system.

The external working power supply did not allow the PC to boot.

Maybe the Mainboard, Mainboard BIOS or processor is dead?

I read the manual and tried restoring the BIOS and reloading the BIOS with the ASUS Crash Free BIOS.

BIOS Recovery

The manual had a nice QR code link with instructions to follow.

I placed a new BIOS onto a USB key as instructed, renamed it and started the PC and waited 10 minutes.

The BIOS did not load.

Dead Processor?

In my 27 Years, I have only heard of one processor dying (an AMD Duron 600Mhz with no internal temperature sensors where the heatsink fell off). I was 99% certain that the Mainboard was dead. I gave the processor a 1% chance of being dead.

The only way to confirm this was to swap in an AMD Ryzen 3200G processor into the dead system.

I removed the heatsinks from the donor and dead systems and cleared the thermal paste off the processor(s) and heatsink(s)

When I removed the heatsink from the dead system there was some dust under the heatsink fins. There was a good coating of thermal compound on the heatsink.

I had plenty of fresh thermal compound so I used a fresh application on each processor installation.

Starting the dead system with a donor CPU

I started the dead PC with a known good AMD Ryzen 3200G processor and to my amazement the system booted and I was able to enter the BIOS.

I am glad I did not order a new mainboard on a 99% hunch as it looks like the AMD Ryzen 3600X is dead.

I reviewed BIOS settings (nothing unusually) and I loaded optimized defaults and booted the PC to Windows.

Windows loaded just fine.

After a few hours of testing, updating drivers and software updates I rebooted to the BIOS and applied the latest BIOS.

Maybe a fresh BIOS will get the system loaded with the Ryzen 3600X processor?

The new BIOS applied just fine.

Is the Ryzen 3600X dead?

I installed the Ryzen 3600X into a good PC, applied thermal paste and a heatsink (for an AMD 3700X) and tried to boot the PC, It would not boot.

Looks like the AMD 3600X is dead.

I returned the Ryzen 3200G to its PC and reinstalled the dead Ryzen 3600X to its PC, Maybe the new BIOS will get it going?

Conclusion

I will submit an RMA as this is still covered under warranty.

We received an RMA authorization

I checked every CPU pin and took a photo (10x photos)

The CPU Box did not have a plastic holder for the CPU fan so I wrapped it in bubble wrap.

I placed the CPU in its clam shell and an anti-static bag

CPU Box

Bubble Wrap

Packaged ready to send for RAM

Now we wait.

Using a 12-year-old dual Xeon server setup as a desktop PC

July 26, 2021 by Simon

Even since the mid 90’s I have alway wanted a dual processor/socket system. My first PC was an AMD K6-2 333 MHz (Single Core) processor and I have always loved building computers from parts.

Recently, I stumbled across Tech Yes City’s video about buying a 12 year old Xeon (server) processors an dusing it in a gaming machine..

I do not need a gaming PC but I do need a spare development PC and PC my kids can use for Homework.

I searched eBay, GumTree and AliExpress in vein for a cheap a X58 mainboard. I ended up finding a new (new really) Tyan S7012 (S7012GM4NR) mainbaiord for $119 USD.

Mainboard

NEW - Tyan S7012GM4NR Dual Intel Socket LGA1366 DDR3 Motherboard

I was mesmerized by the 18 Memory Slots and dual CPU sockets.

Memory

I orderd 12 x Hynix RDIMM PC3-10600R 1333Mhz (HMT351R7BFR8C) memory modules (48GB in total).

12 RDIMM Hynix 24GB (6x 4Gb) 2Rx8 PC3-10600R 1333Mhz (HMT351R7BFR8C)

I ordered 12 because I could not find a cheap set of 18 x RDIMM’s. I will try and find 6 more memory modules later.

I ordered 2x Intel Xeon E5620 SPEC SLBV4 for 99c. These chips are 4 core, 8 threads per processor.

Processor(s)

After some research, I realised these chips are way too slow.

At the same time, I accidentally won an auction for 2x 6 core/12 Thread Intel Xeon E5645 Processor (SLBWZ 2.4GHz 12M).

Matched Pair Intel Xeon E5645 Processor 6 Core CPU LGA 1366 SLBWZ 2.4GHz 12M

The more I researched, I realised I should purchase 2 of the fastest X5600 series processor possible. I purchased 2x X5690 Xeon processors from Ali Express.

Each processor is a 6 core/12 thread 3.46Ghz (single-core boost to 3.73Ghz), 12MB cache processor made with 32nm lithography.

1 hour after purchasing from Ali Express I has confirmation from the seller.

The board arrived in a few weeks, The board was in mint condition.

Heatsink(s)

I ordered2 S7012 compatible heatsinks (Noctua NH-U9DX i4)

Preparing the Processor(s)

I was a bit scared of the potential 2x 130W each processor could generate at 100% usage so I decided to lap the surface of each processor using 400 to 3000 grit sandpaper. I used a sheet of glass to lap each processor with a fresh wet/dry sandpaper sheet. I used Isopropot alcohol to lubricate the paper and carry away metal.

It turns out that each processor was very distorted. The IHS was bent out of shape.

lapping of theheqatsink shows the cou IHS was distorted.

I lapped each processor to remove each concave and convex shape.

Each processor IHS was very flat.

Case

I was lucky enough to get a Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 D-RGB Tempered Glass Full-Tower ATX Case – Black case for $141

The Tyan S7012 Mainbioard is 30cm x 33cm and it will nt fit in a ATX case.

The installed Tyan S7012 case looks tiny when installed in the Phanteks case.

Power Supply

I ordered a Corsair RMx Series™ RM1000x — 1000 Watt 80 PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX PSU as it has the 3x EPS12V power connectors that the Tyan S7120 requires.

Etc

I added a Sound card, USB 3 card, 12 fans.

I added a Wifi6 card

Installing Windows

I grabbed a DVD Drive, 500Gb Solid State Drive (from an old Retina Mac book and a GT1033 Video card and plugged it all together. I had read that the northbridge CPOU gets hot so I added a fan to the heatsink on the Northbridge.

The S7012 booted after a 30 seconds self-test, I installed Windows 10 and to my surprise, everything was detected.

After the first boot, the Windows 10 Task Masnger reported 12 cores/24 threads and 48GB of memory.

On a cool winters night, the CPU’s were barely 10c above ambiet temperatures.

Time to run Cinebench R23 and stress every core.

Now CPU cores were hitting 39c under 100% load.

Cinebench R23 was reporting 8277 points, that’s only 20% behind my AMD Ryzen 3700X

What was concerning was 366 Watts full load (all Core stress test

Power Savings

I set the Windows Power plan to “Power Savings” and now the power dray is a respectable 128W.

Using more than 4x PCIe Cards

In order to use more than 4 PCI cards, I had to buy some PCI over USB extension cards. The Heatsinks were blocking 2x PCIe slots.

In routed 2x PCI-E slots over USB to allow the Heatsink to intake air.

I routed 1x sound cards and 1x USB 3 card to the vertical PCIe card mounts on the case.

Looks ghetto but it works

Filling the empty memory banks

I managed to find 6 more RDIMM memory sticks that matched the memory that was installed. It was even made in the same week.

18 Memory banks were populated.

72GB memory installed at full speed.

Fans

I installed the fans ready for summer.

I routed some case RGB under my power cable.

Conclusion

Even though this system is 12 years old it boots Windows in 20 seconds (after self-test) and it is a fast machine to use.

Would I game on this? No.

Would I code on it? Yes.

Would I run it 24/7? No.

Would I do this again? Yes

I still have a spare PCI-E slot for a SATA 3 card.

Handy Links

How to create a Private GitHub repository and access via SSH with TortiseGIT

July 17, 2021 by Simon

Here is a guide on using the GUI TortoiseGIT, GIT for Windows with GitHub.

Creating a GitHub Account

Make sure you have a GitHub account (free is OK) https://github.com/

I used my defined hardware Security Key

I clicked New Repo

Repo Settings

I set Private
Added a readme
Set .gitignore for Visual Studio files
I had no idea what licence to select (read more on licences here)

I clicked Create repository

Creating RSA Keys

Now I will create an SSH key to protect communications with GitHub.

When logged into GitHub, I clicked the SSH and GPG Keys menu

I clicked New SSH Key button

GitHub wants a public SSH Key

Setup Git Locally

I checked to see if the “git” command was installed on my local machine.

I will install Git from https://gitforwindows.org/

I download Git-2.32.0.2-64-bit.exe and started the installer

Folder C:\Program Files\Git

Set Options (e.g I like Check for Daily updates)

Start Menu Folder

Text Editor: I like Sublime Text from https://www.sublimetext.com/3

Set an Initial Branch name

Set 3rd party software options

Set HTTPS options

Set Line Endings preferences

Set Terminal Emulators preferences

Set Git Pull default preferences

Set Credential Manager preferences

Set Extra Options

Experimental Options

Installing

First Launch

Git is installed

Install Tortoise GIt

Visit https://tortoisegit.org/

Download Gif (64bit)

I started the installer.

Licence Agreement

SSH Type

Components

Install

Installing (Wizard)

Language: English

Shell Extension

I checked for a known git path.

I set my desired git username and email

I set desired SSH settings

Folder for Code Repositories

I create C:\Code\MyTestRepo

Before I can clone a repository I need o set the past to SSH in TortoiseGit.

I right-clicked on C:\Code\MyTestRepo and selected TortiseGit\Settings

I expanded the Network Node and set the following as the SSH Client

“C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitPLink.exe”

I saved the Settings.

Clone a GitHub Repository via git and Tortoise GIT

Now I can clone a repositor to C:\Code\MyTestRepo,

I right clicked on C:\Code\MyTestRepo in explorer and clicked Git Clone

I added by GIT URL (Obtained from GitHub), I also set the path for the Private Key I created earlier.

I was informed that the key is in the wrong format

I need to convert the RAS Private Key to a Putty PPK Key

Convert an RSA Key to a Putty PPK with PuuttyGen

I opened the Open Putty Gen

I click Load and select the id_github_test private key I created earlier

I entered my private key password

The private key loaded.

Now I can export the private key to a PPK format

Clone (with a PPK Private Key)

Getting back to cloning a repository I right-clicked on C:\Code\MyTestRepo

I set the PPK private key

I entered the password

I accepted the key

The Repository started cloning.

Creating a Quick Visual Studio Project

I created a quick Visual Studio project and saved it to C:\Code\MyTestRepo\Hello World

Visual Studio files were visible in C:\Code\MyTestRepo

I Commit the new files to the repository (main branch)

I selected desired files to commit

Files were added

I right-clicked on C:\Code\MyTestRepo and selected TortoiseGit\Push

Files are now visible in GitHub

Awesome

Setup on Multiple Machines

I set up Git on multiple machines, cloned, made chances, committed those changes and pushed. I was able to Sync down those changes to each machine.

Good advice on Using Git

Happy Coding

Recovering a Dead Nginx, Mysql, PHP WordPress website

July 10, 2021 by Simon

(laptrinhx.com – do not steal this post)

In early 2021 www.fearby.com died and it was all my fault. Here is my breakdown of the events.

On the 4th of January 2021, I woke to see my website not loading.

Cloud flare reporting my websitre was unavailable.

https://www.fearby.com had 2 servers.

Web server (www.fearby.com)
Database server (db.fearby.com)

Upon investigating why my website was down I found out that WordPress could not talk to the database server. I tried to log into the database server via SSH failed (no response). I tried logging into my db.fearby.com server via the root console and it too did not work.

I was locked out of my own server and memory told me it was caused by my be playing with fail2ban and other system auditing tools a few months earlier.

I tried restoring the db.fearby.com serer from backups (one at a time). I had the last 7 days as individual backups. I had no luck, all of my backups were no good (I sat on the problem too long).

In mid-2020 I locked myself out of db.fearby.com (SSH and root console) because I setup an aggressive fail2ban, AIDE intrusion detection system(s) and firewall rules. I could no longer access my db.fearby.com server via SSH or the root console. The database server was still operational and I foolishly left it running (with no access).

I did not know how to (or had enough time) reset the root password on the Debian server. I was unable to think of a fix to restore my website. I should have reset the root password, it is easy to do thanks to a post from Janne Roustemaa – How to reset root password on cloud server.

A few months ago I finally found out how to reset the root password of a Debian server.

How to Reset the Root Password on a Debian server on UpCloud

I followed Janne Roustemaa’s guide here: How to reset root password on cloud server.

I logged into the Up Cloud Hub.

I shut down db.fearby.com from the UpCloud Dashboard.

I created a backup of db.fearby.com (just in case). I upgraded my backup plan from 1 backup every 7 days to daily backups for 7 days and weekly backups for 1 month.

Deploy a temporary server to reset the root password

I deployed a new temporary (cheap) server alongside the dead server in Chicago.

Get $25 free credit on UpCloud and deploy your own server: Use this link to get $25 credit (new UpCloud users only).

I called the server “recovery.fearby.com” and set Debian 9 and the Operation System (same as the dead server).

I added the command “shutdown -h 1” to the Initialization script to ensure the server shuts down after it was deployed.

I can only add the disk to the new server if the old db.fearby.com server is shut down.

I shut down db.fearby.com and recovery.fearby.com servers.

Both servers have shut down

Detach the disk from db.fearby.com

I detach the disk from db.fearby.com server.

In the UpCloud Dashboard, I opened the db.fearby.com and clicked the resize tab

I clicked the Detach button.

I clicked Continue

Attach db.fearby.com disk to recovery.fearby.com

Now I attached this disk as a secondary disk onto the recovery.fearby.com server.

In the UpCloud hub I clicked Servers then selected the recovery.fearby.com server, then clicked the Resize Tab

I scrolled down and clicked Attach existing storage

Attach existing storage dialogue

I selected the system disk from the db.fearby.com (that I detached earlier)

I clicked Add a storage device button

Now I have attached the storage from db.fearby.com and attached it to recovery.fearby.com as a secondary disk.

Starting the recovery.fearby.com server

I started the recovery.fearby.com server by clicking Start

The server is starting

When the server started, I obtained its IP and connect to it with MobaXTerm.

Now I can access the db.fearby.com disk.

I do not want to reset the root password until I undelete the files I need.

Viewing Disks

I ran this command to verify the attached disks.

lsblk

Two disks were visible

Alternatively, I can view partitions with the following command

cat /proc/partitions
major minor  #blocks  name
 254        0   26214400 vda
 254        1   26213376 vda1
 254       16   52428800 vdb
 254       17   52427776 vdb1

I can see partition data with these commands

recovery.fearby.com disk: /dev/vda1

fdisk -l /dev/vda1
Disk /dev/vda1: 25 GiB, 26842497024 bytes, 52426752 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

db.fearby.com disk: /dev/vdb1

fdisk -l /dev/vdb1
Disk /dev/vdb1: 50 GiB, 53686042624 bytes, 104855552 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I ran this command to mount the second disk

mount /dev/vdb1 /mnt

I looked in the “/mnt/Backup” folder as this was where I had daily MySQL dumps saving too on the old system.

The folder was empty. It looks like the file system was corrupted.

Finding Deleted Files

I assumed the file system was corrupt, I installed Testdisk as I wanted to recover deleted SQL dump backups in the backup folder.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install testdisk

I confirmed testdisk was installed

photorec --version

I ran testdisk and passed in the disk as a parameter

sudo photorec /dev/vdb1

I selected the Disk /dev/vdb1 – 53GB and pressed enter

I selected ext4 partition and pressed enter (not whole disk)

I selected ext2/ext3/ext4 filesystem and pressed enter

I selected Free to only scan in unallocated space and pressed enter

When asked to choose the recovery location to restore files to I selected /recovery (on the recovery.fearby.com disk , not the db.fearby.com disk.

I just realized that the recovery.fearby.com disk is 25Gb and the db.fearby.com disk is 50GB, lets hope I do not have more than 25GB of deleted files (or I will have to delete recovery.fearby.com and deploy a 100GB system) and run undelete again.

After 20 minutes 32,809 files were recovered to /recovery/recup_dir

I pressed CTRL+C to exit photorec

I changed directory to /recovery

cd /recovery

I counted the recovered files

find . -type f | wc -l
>32810

Recovered Files were placed in sub folders.

drwxr-xr-x 68 root root  4096 Jan 19 13:28 .
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root  4096 Jan 19 13:28 ..
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.1
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.10
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.11
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.12
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.13
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.14
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.15
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.16
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.17
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.18
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.19
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.2
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.20
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 24576 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.21
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.22
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 24576 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.23
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.24
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.25
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 32768 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.26
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 32768 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.27
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.28
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 32768 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.29
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.3
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.30
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.31
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.32
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.33
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.34
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.35
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.36
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 32768 Jan 19 13:22 recup_dir.37
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.38
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.39
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.4
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.40
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.41
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.42
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.43
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.44
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.45
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:23 recup_dir.46
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:24 recup_dir.47
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:24 recup_dir.48
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:24 recup_dir.49
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.5
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:24 recup_dir.50
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:24 recup_dir.51
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:25 recup_dir.52
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:25 recup_dir.53
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:25 recup_dir.54
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:25 recup_dir.55
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.56
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.57
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 24576 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.58
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 36864 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.59
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.6
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.60
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:26 recup_dir.61
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:27 recup_dir.62
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:27 recup_dir.63
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:27 recup_dir.64
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:28 recup_dir.65
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 12288 Jan 19 13:28 recup_dir.66
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.7
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.8
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 20480 Jan 19 13:21 recup_dir.9
66 folders were recovered

I calculated the folder size

sudo  du -sh /recovery
13G     /recovery

I immediately started downloading ALL recovered files (13GB) to my local PC with MobaXTerm

On recovery.fearby.com I searched for any trace of recovered *.sql files that I was dumping daily via cron jobs

find /recovery -name "*.sql"

Many pages of recovered sql files were listed

/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36487168.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f35110912.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36667392.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36995072.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f35667968.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f35078144.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f37535744.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36913152.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f33996800.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36421632.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f35061760.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36143104.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36618240.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f34979840.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f37273600.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f35995648.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f36241408.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f37732360.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f34603008.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.49/f33980416.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.1/f0452896.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.1/f0437184.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.1/f0211232.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f16547840.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f16252928.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f15122432.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f17159720.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f15089664.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f15958016.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.17/f15761408.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f69582848.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f69533696.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f69173248.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68321280.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70483968.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70746112.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68730880.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f67862528.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70123520.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68337664.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70172672.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f71057408.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68796416.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70533120.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f69419008.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68239360.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f69779456.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68255744.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f67764224.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f71204864.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f70336512.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f68501504.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.57/f67944448.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39059456.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38518784.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40206336.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40927232.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39485440.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39092224.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40861696.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39731200.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40337408.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38862848.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f41664512.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f41074688.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40828928.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f41713664.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38092800.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39878656.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38305792.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38830080.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39534592.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f39813120.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40435712.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f41467904.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f37901728.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38682624.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38191104.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f38174720.sql
/recovery/recup_dir.50/f40878080.sql
//and many more

It would take a few hours to download 32,000 files from the other side of the world. Next time I deploy fearby.com, I will deploy it to Sydney Australia.

It looks like MobaXTerm does not copy to the selected destination that I selected when dragging and dropping files, Being impatient I scanned my system for a file that MobaXTerm had copied. MobaXTerm saves download to “%Documents%\MobaXterm\splash\tmp\dragdrop\”.

I opened some of the recovered SQL files and it looks like all files were partial and were not the whole database backup. A compete mysql dump should be over 200 lines long. Dang.

I downloaded all files I could from the these folders

/mnt/etc/nginx
/mnt/var/lib/mysql
/mnt/Scripts

Disappointed, I sat on things for a few weeks, I thought I had lost my website.

Try 2 – Reinstall a fresh db.fearby.com

After I copied files from the old db.fearby.com serve to recovery.fearby.com, I reattached the storage to the old db.fearby.com system.

In vein, I tried mending the broken MySQL service on db.fearby.com. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling MySql on db.fearby.com (each time no luck). I was having trouble with MySQL not starting.

I had too many rabbit holes (mysql errors) to list. I thought my database was corrupt.

I was kicking myself for letting my access to db.fearby.com lapse, I was kicking myself for not having more backups.

Try 3 – Reinstall MySQL

I tried deploying a new server and setting it up, maybe from the frustration I did not do it correctly. I had HTTPS issues with CloudFlare. I gave up for a few months

Try 4 – Check for Database Corruption

I downloaded DiskInternals – MySQL Recovery and scanned my database. To my amazement, it reported no database corruption.

Maybe I can recover my website?

Try 5 – Using RunCloud.io to deploy a website

Having failed with setting up a server from scratch, a friend (Hi Zach) said I should try RunCloud to deploy a server.

I tried to document everything from attaching RunCloud to UpCloud and Cloudflare’s API to deploying a server.

Long story short, RunCloud is not for me. I had too many issues with RunCloud and IPV6, CloudFlare API Integration, No SSH access to my server, no Nginx editing capabilities with RunCloud.

I deleted the RunCloud deployed server.

Try 6 – 10 minutes deploying a serer by hand

I ended up deploying a server in 10 minutes manually without taking notes.

Summary

I deployed a server (this time to Sydney).

I Installed the UFW firewall (configured and started)

sudo apt-get install ntp

Set the date and time

sudo timedatectl set-timezone Australia/Sydney

Installed ntp time server

sudo apt-get install ntp

I Installed PHP 7.4 and PHP 7.4 FPM (I cheated and googled: https://www.cloudbooklet.com/install-php-7-4-on-debian-10/ )

I edited PHP Config

sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/fpm/php.ini

Installed NGINX webserver

sudo apt-get install nginx

Configured NGINX (I got an CLoudflare to NGINX SSL Certificate), I also sighned up for a Cloud flare SSL certificate

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Contents

worker_cpu_affinity auto;
worker_rlimit_nofile 100000;
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;

events {
        worker_connections 768;
         multi_accept on;
}

http {
        root /www-root;
        client_max_body_size 10M;

        proxy_connect_timeout 1200s;
        proxy_send_timeout 1200s;
        proxy_read_timeout 1200s;
        fastcgi_send_timeout 1200s;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 1200s;

        ##
        # Basic Settings
        ##
        sendfile on;
        tcp_nopush on;
        tcp_nodelay on;
        keepalive_timeout 65;
        types_hash_max_size 2048;

        # server_tokens off;
        # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
        # server_name_in_redirect off;

        include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
        default_type application/octet-stream;

        ##
        # SSL Settings
        ##

        ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
        ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

        ##
        # Logging Settings
        ##

        access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
        error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

        ##
        # Gzip Settings
        ##


        gzip on;
        gzip_disable "msie6";

        gzip_vary on;
        gzip_proxied any;
        gzip_comp_level 6;
        gzip_buffers 16 8k;
        gzip_http_version 1.1;

        gzip_types text/plain application/xml;
        gzip_min_length 256;
        gzip_proxied no-cache no-store private expired auth;


        ##
        # Virtual Host Configs
        ##

        include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
        include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}

I edited sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

Contents

server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        listen [::]:80 default_server;

        # SSL configuration
        #
        listen 443 ssl default_server;
        listen [::]:443 ssl default_server;

        ssl on;
        ssl_certificate /path/to/ssl/certs/cert.pem;
        ssl_certificate_key /path/to/ssl/private/key.pem;

        root /path-to-www;

        # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
        
        index index.html index.php;

        server_name fearby.com;

        #Security Headers
        add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains" always;
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
        add_header Referrer-Policy "no-referrer-when-downgrade";
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block" always;
        add_header X-Frame-Options SAMEORIGIN always;
        add_header Permissions-Policy "accelerometer=(), camera=(), geolocation=(), gyroscope=(), magnetometer=(), microphone=(), payment=(), usb=()";

        # Force HTTPS
        if ($scheme != "https") {
                return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
        }

        # DENY RULES
        location ~ /\.ht {
                deny all;
        }
        location ~ ^/\.user\.ini {
                deny all;
        }
        location ~ (\.ini) {
                return 403;
        }

        if ($http_referer ~* "laptrinhx.com") {
                return 404;
        }

        if ($http_referer ~* "bdev.dev") {
                return 404;
        }

        if ($http_referer ~* "raoxyz.com") {
                return 404;
        }

        if ($http_referer ~* "congtyaz.com") {
                return 404;
        }


        location / {
                try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
                include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
                fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
        }

        # DNS
        resolver 1.1.1.1 1.0.0.1 valid=60s;
        resolver_timeout 1m;
}

I tested Nginx and PHP.

I installed MySQL (I Googled a guide)

I created a database, database user and assigned permissions for my blog.

I installed the WordPress CLI tool

I installed WordPress the using the wp-cli tool

wp core install --url=example.com --title=Example --admin_user=supervisor --admin_password=strongpassword [email protected]

When I had a blank WordPress I uploaded the blog folder that I backed up before.

I ran this command to allow Nginx to read the backed up website files

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /path-to-www

I also uploaded the backup of my mysql database to /var/lib/mysql/oldblogdatabase

I ran this command to allow mysql to read the backed up database

sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/oldblogdatabase

I also uploaded the following files to /var/lib/mysql

TIP: These files are very important to restore. You cannot just copy a database in a subfolder.

ibdata1
ib_logfile0
ib_logfile1
ib_logfile1
ibtmp1

I ran this command to allow mysql ro read the ib* files

sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql/ib*

I was able to load my old website

I still have some issues to solve but it is back.

Lessons Learned

Save all passwords and have backup accounts and roll back before working backups are gone.
Setup a Dev Test, Pre Prod Environment and do no test on production servers.
Do not delay disaster recovery actions.
Do not rely on automation.
Have more than a weeks worth of backups.

Get $25 free credit on UpCloud and deploy your own server: Use this link to get $25 credit (new UpCloud users only).

Change Log

Version 1.2

laptrinhx.com is stealing website content

December 23, 2020 by Simon

I searched google for one of my articles and I noticed that the website https://laptrinhx.com had copied over a hundred of my blog posts and were re-publishing them at https://laptrinhx.com/tag/fearby-com

I could see they copied 127 of my blog posts. They never asked for my permission.

laptrinhx.com is copying the text content and were loading resources from my website.

A quick browse revealed that they were copying hundreds of other peoples websites and passing it off as guest posts.

It looks like they are well known for stealing peoples content

Who are https://laptrinhx.com?

I could not see an about page or contact form but I can see these websites in the footer

https://laptrinhx.com/
https://bdev.dev/
https://raoxyz.com/
https://congtyaz.com/

It looks like Cloudflare is their Registrar.

Reporting Abuse to Cloudflare

I opened the Cloudflare Report Abuse Page

https://www.cloudflare.com/abuse/form

I submitted a report with the URL’s

Let’s see how long until Cloudflare takes down the pages.

Reporting the issue to the website owner

I also visited Cloudflare’s contact form (https://domaincontact.cloudflareregistrar.com/laptrinhx.com) for the site owner and requested they take down my content.

At first Cloudflare’s form failed to submit.

After a few retries I was able to submit this.

I was not happy with Cloudflare’s terse message about the site owner is under no obligation to reply.

If Cloudflare does not resolve this I am under no obligation to pay Cloudflare for services for my website.

Blocking Traffic from their domains

I edited my /etc/nginx/sites-available/default file and added the following rules to block requests from their servers.


if ($http_referer ~* "laptrinhx.com") {
        return 404;
}

if ($http_referer ~* "bdev.dev") {
        return 404;
}

if ($http_referer ~* "raoxyz.com") {
        return 404;
}

if ($http_referer ~* "congtyaz.com") {
        return 404;
}

I loaded the config and restarted NGINX

sudo nginx -t
sudo nginx -s reload
sudo service nixstatsagent restart

I checked the status of NGINX to ensure it came back up.

sudo systemctl status nginx

I will keep adding refer blocks if they are using other domains to scrape my site.

FYI: I resolved a CDN issue and also asked my CDN provider (EWWW Image Optimizer) to block image loads from these domains. EWWW.io are awesome.

I will keep updating this post with news from Cloudflare etc.

Good luck content owners.

Update: July 2021, Still no reply from Cloudflare, I submitted a second Copyright form with Cloudflare

Version: 1.5 Fixed image Links

How to perform a clean Windows 10 installation

November 28, 2020 by Simon

Twenty years ago it was quite common for me to reinstall Windows (Windows 3.11, 95/98/Me/2k/XP/Vista/7/8) every 6 months due to Windows becoming slow or error-prone. Luckily Windows 10 only needs to be reinstalled every year or two.

Fyi: Windows 10 has had 8 minor releases since 2018 and Windows 10 (Version 20H2) is the latest version.

In the last 3 months, my Windows (v2004) installation has become unresponsive and some USB devices are not detecting properly. I looked at my hard drive SMART data on my Windows drive and it has reported that Windows has been on for 5,152 hours, started 589 times and had 65 unsafe shutdowns (from Windows lockups).

Over 60 unsafe Widnbows shutdowns are not surprising as my Mainboard has some BIOS stability issues for 6 months.

I could have restored an Acronis True Image backup of my Windows installation but I did not keep a copy of a stable Windows from a few months ago. Lesson learned I have ordered larger hard drive to store more Acronis backups.

I can confirm Windows needs a reinstall by using a free program called DPC Latency Checker.

It shows frequent delays in Windows performing low-level tasks (red spikes in latency).

Running a system benchmark tool like Cinebench shows a 10% drop in system speed since the first time I ran this after building my system.

Backup, backup and backup

I always make sure I have backups of my files before reinstalling Windows.

I use Backblaze and Back Blaze Buckets to backup files and I use Acronis True Image software to backup my Windows 10 Partition. Every month I back up my Windows drive with Acronis and upload it offsite.

It’s time I reinstall Windows.

The Plan

I will perform a full (clean) Windows 10 installation by.

Backing up all important files.
Documenting all Hardware Drivers, Software and Configuration (drives and redirected folders).
Downloading the latest version of all of my driver and software.
Writing down all software serial numbers to re-activate Windows and software.
Creating a Windows 10 Install Image (USB Drive).
Shutting down and disconnecting all drives that are not C:\ Drive (e.g M.2 and SATA).
Installing Windows 10
Reinstall Drivers
Reinstall Essential Software
Setup Drive letters and redirect Special Folders.
Swap out a 2T drive for a larger 10TB Drive
Install BackBlaze and Inheriting my old PC backup state
Creating an Acronis True Image Backup of C:\ Drive (Windows)
Reinstalling Games
Drive Stats.
Misc

Background

I have a 1TB C Drive (M.2 NVME SSD) with Windows on it and a multiple spinning magnetic hard drives where I redirect Windows folders to.

Backing up all important files.

I am fortunate that I have redirected (moved) many of my system folders (e.g Favorites, Downloads, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos etc) to other drives and I can disconnect them to keep files safe before reinstalling Windows.

Never perform a Windows reinstall if you have files or data partitions on the same disk that Windows is installed on.

WinDirStat (View Files)

I will use a free program called WinDirtStat to find files still on C drive.

After scanning C Drive with WinDirStat I can spot large files and file types on my C Drive.

I can see a large Outlook file that needs backing up.

I moved all files I wanted to keep from C Drive to another Drive (that will be disconnected before reinstalling Windows).

I manually reviewed C:\ Drive for missed files to ensure I have backed up everything.

If I forget a file I can log in to my Backblaze backup history and restore it. I pay and extra $2 a month to ensure every file is kept for a year (all versions of every file too).

I backed up my Simon profile (default Windows User) folder with the free FreeFileSync Program.

All files I want to keep are off C:\ Drive.

Documenting all Hardware Drivers, Software and Configuration

I need to audit the location of all system folders so I can remap them after I reinstall.

I opened regedit.exe and navigate to the following registry path

a) Auditing Redirected Special Folders

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

In the past, I have redirected the following paths and I do not need to back these up as they are on other drives.

My Music = M:\Music
My Pictures = U:\Pictures
My Video = U:\Videos
Personal = U:\Documents

b) Auditing Drive Letters

I open Computer Management (Start, Run then compmgmt.msc) tool, click Disk Management and view attached Disks.

I will set up the same drive letters after the rebuild so BackBlaze backup can resume backup states. If I do not record the drive letters the new Windows will assign new drive letters. If I have new drive letters Back Blaze will re-upload 7TB of data. If I reassign the same drive letters post Install Back blaze will not get confused.

c) Auditing Software

I used SUMo (Software Update Monitor) software (read my review here) from https://www.kcsoftwares.com/?sumo to list all of my installed applications.

I exported all applications to a Spreadsheet in SUMo

d) Auditing Drivers

I used DUMo (Driver Update Monitor) also from https://www.kcsoftwares.com/?dumo to document my drivers.

I exported a list (Text file and Spreadsheet) in case I needed it later.

Now I am confident I have documented my current system.

Downloading the latest version of all of my driver and software

I pre-downloaded all of my computers drivers and apps that I might need after reinstalling Windows.

There is nothing worse than reinstalling Windows and not having drivers for Network or WiFi Cards.

I methodically store all files needed for a reinstall on a separate hard drive.

I have all fresh drivers needed to reinstall all devices in my new Windows.

Writing down all software serial numbers to re-activate Windows and software.

I checked to see if I have all of my serial numbers and passwords needed to activate software.

Windows 10
Office 2019
1Password
Cyber Duck
Back Blaze
EaseUS Partition Master
Acronis True Image
Bit Defender Antivirus
Proton VPN
SUMO and DUMo
Fritzing
MobaXTerm

I obtained my Windows 10 Serial number with help from here.

Creating a Windows 10 Install Image (USB Drive).

I can create a free USB based Windows installation media instead of using a Windows 10 DVD by visiting https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10.

I clicked “Download tool now“.

I ran the MediaCreationTool20H2.exe

I accepted the terms by clicking Accept.

Getting things ready appeared again.

After a few minutes, I was able to select “Create installation media (USB Flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC“

I accepted the defaults and clicked Next

I selected my USB Drive to save the installation media to.

The correct USB drive was selected

The Media Creation tool was busy “Getting a few things ready“

Downloading took about 20 minutes

The USB key is ready to use to Install Windows 10.

It’s time to install Windows 10 🙂

Shutting down and disconnecting all drives that are not C:\ Drive

Now I will shut down my PC and physically disconnected all of my secondary SATA hard drives (where the data is that I want to keep).

Experience has taught me to only connect the desired C drive disk when installing Windows. If other drives are present Windows can get confused.

I will leave my G:\ Games M.2 Drive connected (as I deleted all partitions on it). The second M.2 drive has a heatsink on it with sticky thermal adhesive strip and I do not want to damage it.

Now I am ready to wipe my old Windows drive and install a fresh copy.

Installing Windows 10

I inserted the freshly made Windows Install USB device into my PC USB port and restarted my PC. I entered my BIOS (by pressing F2). I configured my PC boot drive from the USB Key (not the drive with Windows on it).

On the next reboot, the Windows 10 Install program loaded from the USB key.

I set the language and keyboard location clicked Next.

I clicked Install now.

I entered my previously purchased Windows 10 Serial number and clicked Next.

I reviewed the license terms and clicked Next.

I had the following options.

Upgrade: Install Windows and keep files, settings and applications.
Custom: Install Windows 10 only (advanced)

I will choose Custom (advanced) as it will be a clean install.

I selected my C:\ Drive (1TB) as the drive to install Windows to, not the second 500GB M.2 SSD (I will use for games later).

I deleted the existing Windows partition to delete the existing Windows 10 installation.

I clicked OK to the message about additional partitions being created.

fyi: This is what the storage disk will look like after Window’s is installed

Windows gave me a breakdown of the partitions. Windows will install to the 931GB partition.

I clicked Next.

Windows is installing 🙂

After 10 minutes Windows had installed enough to start asking questions.

I selected Australia (my country).

I selected the US keyboard layout.

Windows took a moment to install some more files.

I was asked is this is a Personal or Business installation.

Personal of course.

I entered my Microsoft Account. This appears to be unskippable like in previous versions of Windows.

I entered my MFA password to verify my account.

Windows asked me to create a PIN (not a password)

I setup a pin

I disabled all options giving away my privacy

I skipped saving files to One Drive.

Windows resumed installing

I entered my Product Key for Office

I clicked Not Now to disable setting up Cortana

Windows processed files for 2 more minutes.

Windows Rebooted and it started downloading plug and play devices.

Windows 10H2 was installed and I was logged into the desktop.

That took less than 30 minutes.

Reinstall Drivers

I shut down my PC and plugged in all hard drives again.

70% of my drivers were auto set up by Windows and I just had to install the odd (pre-downloaded) driver install files.

It only took 5 minutes to install all missing drivers.

Reinstall Essential Software

I went through my list of applications that I wanted to be reinstalled and installed them one by one.

I skipped installing the older apps that I no longer wanted.

Setup Drive letters and redirect Special Folders.

I opened the Windows 10 Disk Manager application and reset all drive letters and te redirected Special Folders to their old values (e.g Favorites, Downloads, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos etc)

Swap out a 2T drive for a larger 10TB Drive

I noticed that one of my 2TB Drives was reporting (S.M.A.R.T data) that is was not healthy.

I ordered a 10TB Western Digital Gold Drive) to swap out the 10-year-old WD Green Hard Drive. I can use the extra space to keep 6 months of weekly Acronis backups too.

The 10TB drive arrived.

I plugged in the new 10TB WD Gold hard drive and gave it the temporary Y:\ drive letter. The drive was healthy (0 power-on hours) and not a refurbished drive.

I performed a Full format (not quick) to test every sector, this format took over 12 hours,

I swapped the drive letters M: became X:, and Y: became M:\ drive.

I copied (with FreeFileSync) everything from the aging 2TB drive to the new 10TB drive.

Copied data frop, the 2TB Drive to the 10TB drive

Before disconnecting the old 2TB Drive I copied data to as another backup. It may die, but may not.

Copying large amount’s of data between SATA drives takes a long time.

Install BackBlaze and Inheriting my old PC backup state

I have about 4TB of data backed up to Back Blaze on my older Windows installation. I could delete that and re-upload 4TB but In will Inherit my backup state from my older Windows and only back up what I have moved between drives.

Snip from Backblaze – Inherit Backup State

NO IU need to inherit my old Back Blaze backup state so I don’t have to re upload 4TB of data.

The Inherit Backup State feature allows a new installation of the Backblaze software to inherit an existing license and backup under the same account. This will prevent the unnecessary re-upload of files that have previously been backed up. This is useful in a number of circumstances, such as the following examples:
Inherit Backup State – Backblaze Help

To inherit the backup state I logged into Back Blaze and downloaded Back Blaze (trial), I Installed it and logged in.

Back Blaze installed files.

Back Blaze took 10 minutes scanning my hard drives.

Back Blaze reported I had 7+ TB of data on all of my disks.

I only want to backup 4TB of files.

Back Blaze has not prompted me to inherit a backup state yet???

I selected my desired drives to backup.

I also excluded folders that I did not wan’t backed up.

I clicked Inherit Backup State. I logged in again.

I could see previous backups states 🙂

Upon selecting a previous backup state I had to enter the Encryption key (created at the time of the previous backup creation).

Inheriting the previous backup state takes a while.

Please wait dialog.

Success the past backup state was intertied.

I double checked that my excluded paths and folders were still being excluded.

I could see the files left to upload.

I only had 970GB of files to upload now after inheriting 4.8TB of previously backed up data.

This is a relief, I always feel safer when I have online backups..

Creating an Acronis True Image Backup of C:\ Drive (Windows)

I use Acronis True Image to take full backups of my C:\ (read my review here).

I opened Acronis True Image 2021 and clicked the Backup Tab to specify what to backup (by default Acronis will back up all disks and partitions).

I clicked my PC’s name (ZENigma) and then clicked Disks and partitions.

I selected my C:\ Drive partition (named MP600_1TB) and then presses OK.

I selected Browse to specify a local drive to back up to.

Acronis True Image can backup to the cloud but I prefer to do that myself with BackBlaze (it’s way cheaper).

I selected M:\_Acronis_Backups\ZENigma as the location to Backup C:\ Drive to. M:\ now has 5TB free.

I set a schedule to backup at 7PM on Friday’s.

I specified Version Chain as the backup type.

Read more on backup types here: Acronis True Image 2021 Help – Backup Schemes

I configures email alerts.

I set backups to be split into 100MB chunks. I find 100MB is the optimal size to upload to BackBlaze.

I configured backup validation frequency.

Now my Windows (C:\ partition) is ready to be backed up.

TIP: It is a good idea to disable any of your Antivirus programs before performing a backup of system files.

I disabled my Bitdefender Antivirus until my next Windows Reboot.

I started my Acronis true Image backup of C:\ Drive.

I could see the backup is being created in the M:\_Acronis_Backups\ZENigma folder.

Create a System Image

Although I have little faith in Windows System Restore I will create a System Restore Image just in case.

If I am feeling lazy I can use this restore point to restore my system at a future date.

I can choose from past restore points.

Documenting Drives

While I am here I will document my hard disk and estimate the replacement date (10 years).

One hard drive was 10 years old and S.M.A.R.T Diagnostics was recommending I replace the drive ASAP. This is how I knew to buy a bigger hard drive (above).

Reinstalling Games

I created a partition on the games M.2 SSD and downloaded games to that drive. This took days.

All games.

Drive Stats (Old 2TB M:\ Drive)

fyi only:

Here is a chart of all of my drives:

Hard Drive – Power On Count:

All of my Magnetic rives are very old.

Hard Drive – Power On Hours.

Hard Drive – Read Benchmark

Hard Drive – Write Benchmark

One thing to note is NVME M.2 SSD’s are way faster than SATA drives.

How do I restore an Acronis True Image Backup

Acronis has been running for 2 weeks now and a restore of Windows is quite easy. Under the Backups menu, I can click Recovery then restore the Windows partition.

I can restore individual partitions if needed.

I can just restore files if I wish form Acronis inside Windows.

I followed the prompts to create a Universal Restore boot media

I installed the Acronis Universal Restore bootable media builder program.

I created a USB based Bootable rescue media.

I created a rescue media bootable usb stick

I can use this USB key to boot my system and restore and files, partitions of weekly snapshots of Windows.

Misc

I redirected my Windows Temp Folder to my new M Drive to prevent my Windows Solid-state drive getting worn out.

Conclusion

Windows is reinstalled and is super snappy and had less junk installed.

Reinstalling is much easier with a second hard drive and patience backing everything up at before you start reinstalling.

DPC Latency checker showed I had no issues with latency.

1.0 Initial Draft

MobaXterm tabbed SSH client (etc) for Windows

July 7, 2020 by Simon

After posting my last blog post (Goodbye Dropbox, One Drive, iCloud and Hello Nextcloud private cloud on UpCloud) I received comments from readers as to why I used Putty/WinSCP and not MobaXterm. To be honest I had no idea MobaXterm existed.

I did a quick Google and checked out the pros and cons of Putty/WinSCP v MobaXTerm.

MobaXterm Highlights

MobaXterm is a lot faster at uploading and downloading files over SSH connections
MobaXterm can connect to practically anything (SSH, Telnet, RDP, RSH, Xdmcp, VNC, FTP, SFTP, Serial, Shell etc)
Multiple terminals can either be in tabs or split horizontally or vertically.
Edit remote files via SSH and SFTP – Pro feature
Supports macro controls (multi commands in single screen) – Pro feature
MobaXterm has many plugins
MobaXterm can be run from a portable USB drive

Nice

MobaXterm Website

I visited https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/ website screenshot

I had an option to download the Free Version or to purchase a Professional Version.

I will be reviewing the Pro version (you will see why later). I am reviewing Version 20.2 (Build 249). You can download the free version at https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download.html.

If you purchase the Pro version (with 12 months of updates) for $69 USD. Delivery is done by email within 24 hours after payment is received.

Installing MobaXterm

I downloaded the 1.5MB Installer (the link was emailed to me after purchase)

I opened the MobaXterm installer and entered my Pro serial number (emailed to me) then I clicked Next

Customise Options (during the install)

I clicked Customise MobaXTerm Professional settings button

The customizer options are impressive (Import and export settings, enable/disable features, generate a portable package etc)

I had an option to customise the banner or any server I connect to but I left the banner as the default banner.

I reviewed all options for the application. This is more in depth than Putty for sure.

Enable or disable just about everything.

I reviewed my default SSH settings. SSH Keep alive will be turned on for sure.

I had an option to add plugins to MobXTerm

I had the option to generate a portable of full installer

Now I can resume the setup of MobaXterm, I clicked Next

I accepted the licence agreement and clicked Next

I installed MobaXterm to my C:\ Drive

I clicked Install

MobaXterm was now installed

MobaXterm

I opened MobaXterm

Apologies in advance I setup Dark Mode in MobaXterm as soon as I opened the Configuration. All screenshots will be shown below in Dark Mode.

There are 12 colour themes to choose from.

Main Interface

The MobaXterm interface is more feature packed than Putty.

Menu Bar, Toolbar, Tabs and options are available

Windows prompted me to allowed access to MobaXTerm in my Windows firewall.

Time to create a connection to a server.

Adding a SSH Connection to a Server

I created a new SSH server connection to one of my existing servers.

I specified the IP address, username and protocol.
I set “SCP (enhanced speed)“

I specified the path to my private key (for the server)

I reviewed other terminal settings.

I changed the font to Courier New, Size 12 (I am sad). I also increased the initial size of the terminal (width and height)

I reviewed network settings (all good)

I added a shortcut to the server onto my desktop

When I opened the connection to the server I was prompted to enter the Passphrase I set on my Public Key (nice).

Then I was prompted to put in my 2FA One Time Password (OTP) in the main terminal windows and a second time in a popup form (for the connection that builds the folder structure on the left). This is how I configured my website. To get the OTP I need to insert my YubiKey and one the YubiCo Authenticator app and enter my keys password.

Some people say that having a passphrase on a public/private key and 2FA Authentication is a bit overkill but that is not everything I do.

I need to enter two OTP’s to connect to my site.

If you are fast you can use the same OTP in both windows (but they expire in 30 seconds)

Nice I was able to connect to my Server just like Putty. The cool thing is I can see files and folders without opening WinSCP.

This is way more convenient than using two programs.

I enabled the Remote Monitoring status bar in MobaXterm. Now I can see system resources on my server without running CLI commands.

Upload Speed to Singapore from Australia

I uploaded a 1GB file with to the same server from WinSCP and MobaXterm to simulate a restore.

I was gobsmacked, WinSCP could only upload a file at 342KB/s, MobaXterm could upload at 4.42MB/s.

I was uploading a 1GB file from my house to a server in Singapore (within 5 minutes of each other). I did set “SCP (enhanced speed)” when Installing MobaXterm.

MobaXTerm is 12x faster than WinSCP at uploading for me. This is well worth upgrading to a Professional licence.

Download Speed (from USA/East Coast) to Australia

I ran a practical download test (this time from Chicago). In the right-hand side of MobaXterm I zipped up my entire website folder (1.66GB)

zip -r /temp/www-22-Jun-2020.zip /www-folder

Then in the left-hand side of MobaXterm I downloaded the file, this is as simple as right-click then download.

I was presented with a directory tree specify where to save the file to.

I noticed the file was downloading at 16Mbps then 18Mbps then 22Mbps within seconds.

The download speed settled down to 26Mbps after a few minutes.

This is amazing for a download from the other side of the world (200ms ping and on a VPN, 19 traceroute server hops away).

I downloaded the same file from the same server with WinSCP to compare and MobaXTerm was 10x faster at downloading. WinSCP could only manage 2.57/MB/s

Plugins

I will look into plugins soon: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/plugins.html

Local Terminal

I can also start a local terminal (documentation here)

I can run Linux commands on my Windows machine via Cygwin

“ls -al” on Windows anyone

I noticed MobaXterm had found my WSL 2 Installation of Debian on my Windows 10 v2020.

I can now use MobaXterm to open my WSL Linux installations.

MobaXterm can easily connect to my local and online Linux servers with ease.

Multiple Exec

I used the Multiple Exec (similar to the multiple cursors in Sublime Text Editor) to control 2 serves at once and run identical commands.

Import Putty Sessions

I did not notice until later but you can import existing Putty connections.

Generate Public/Private Keys

Also, you can generate SSH Public and Private Keys from the Tools menu or the left-hand side (tab).

Pros

File/Folder and Terminal window side by site
13x faster file uploads over SSH
10x faster downloads over SSH
Integration with WSL Linux Images
Import Putty Settings
Local Terminals/Cygwin

Cons

It would be nice to only have to enter my 2FA OTP once when connecting to one of my serves.
The user interface is full-on, I am still learning it

Conclusion

Honestly having faster uploads and downloads over SSH is a dream come true. I live in Australia and we have terrible latency and I have better things to do than to watch slow uploads/downloads.

I look forward to investigating MobaXterm plugins in the near future as I feel I I have just scratched the surface.

Links

MobaXterm Documentation: https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/documentation.html

v.1.1 Plugin info fix

Finding software that needs updating on Windows using SUMo (Review)

May 30, 2020 by Simon

Recently I blogged about using Acronis True Image 2020 to backup and restore your Windows computer after a friend had to manually reinstall her Windows PC.

Her Windows PC died and she could not recover Windows with a System Restore snapshot or via the retailers systems image recovery process.

I use Back Blaze software to automatically backup my computer but I do not have an up to date collection of needed installation files in case I need to perform a Clean Installation of Windows 10.

I found SUMo in the process of assisting my friend.

SUMo to the Rescue

I found SUMo (Software Update Monitor) from KC Softwares that allows me to analyse my existing installed software and their versions, find and download new versions (installers or setup files) for my software.

I am using the Pro version of SUMo (buy here).

Tip: The trial version will inform you of an update but it will not show you links to obtain the updates easily.

SUMo Trial Limitations

The best feature of SUMo is I can find apps on my PC that need updating.

Also in one click (Right click) you will be directed to the applications official site (official site (or App page on SUMo)) and be able to download the app installer to the new version of the app.

Rigth click on an outdated app in SUMo to get the new aopo.

The Trial version is limited to informing you that an update is available.

SUMo telling your there is an update available

Also updating SUMo to the PRO version streamlines it’s own updates too. You can update SUMo in the PRO version with one click. 🙂

SUMo Pro Scan

After I opening SUMo PRO (I waited for it to find installed apps) then I clicked “Check” to scan all my apps for updates.

SUMo happily went through the list of my installed apps and gathered the applications versions (and checked online if newer versions existed).

SUMo found 239 installed applications on my PC, 188 were up to date, 53 needed minor (recent updates) and 2 needed major (old) updates.

Its awesome that in one click and I can see what software needs updating. In the process I was able to see what applications I don’t use (they were old versions) and I uninstalled them

SUMo Settings

I will update my software and to ensure my software does not get out of date I enabled “Load at startup” and “Check for new software at startup” (SUMo).

I did not enable “Scan for new software at startup” but seeing SUMo Start and update will remind me to check for updates if I have time.

I also enabled “Show file path” in the SUMo Application list so I can see where the programs are. I found multiple instances of Python installed all over my PC.

Getting Application Updates

I right clicked on each of my applications (that needed updating) and clicked “Get Update from…” then “.. from developer’s Site (Direct)“.

If you don’t want to right click you can click the “Get Update” button in the tool bar to get selected applications update.

This will open a web browser page to the software vendors website.

SUMo also has a page available with stats on the application’s known statistics (nice table of versions, beta or stable status and numbers of users).

Updating Software

I was able to right click “Get Update from…” – “.. from developer’s Site (Direct)” for each application in the list that needed an update. I was directed to the software vendors page for each software where I could download the app updates.

Within minutes I had dozens of vendor pages open with links to new versions of my outdated software.

Dozens of site pages with fresh app installs.

Within a short period I had amasses gigabytes of new application installs.

4.5GB of data of new application installs

I installed each of the new updates and then moved the new installs to my B:\Installs folder (in case I have to manually reinstall Windows in the future).

Checking Application Update Status

After I updated my out of date applications I then right clicked on the apps in SUMo and clicked Check to re check the status of the applications

SUMo Right Click Actions

Fyi: SUMo has a number of actions in the right click menu (on an installed Application).

Delete: Removes item from list. Will appear again on next scan or manually addition
Ignore: Blacklist : this Software/company pair will never appear again, whatever the version, file path, …
Skip: Items remains listed but a SPECIFIC version gets no longer notified as update for a given time (1 day / week / month) or forever.

(snip from here)

I had a few items I Deleted from the list or Ignored.

My Visual Studio (development) software was reporting an older version of Python (2.7). I updated Visual Studio to the latest version but Python 2.7 remained. I deleted Visual Studio from the list and was prompted (this is not deleting the application from the hard disk just from the generated list.

After a few hours updating apps

I whittled down the list of my applications that needed updating

I could sort applications in the list by OK status or apps that needed Minor or Major updates applied.

All Apps Updated

I can now say that all of my Applications are all up to date.

Export

I used the export feature in SUMo to build an excel file listing all my applications.

Fyi: SUMo exported this list as a “;” separated file, I opened the file in Sublime Text Editor and replaced “;” with TAB and then pasted this list back into Excel.

Conclusion

SUMo allowed me to update my installed applications and update my aged cache of application installs I was keeping in case I needed to manually rebuild Windows.

SUMo made this an absolute pleasure to do.

Pros

Price: 19.99 Euros (about $33.27 AUD) is a bargain.
Simplicity (it just works so well, why does Windows not do this)
Saves me time finding out of date apps and update files for an emergency and inevitable manual Windows reinstall.
My apps are more secure after updating them

Cons

I needed this in my life 10 years ago
Would be nice to have an inbuilt help file (instead of email support)

Try the free version here

v 1.0 Initial Post

Using Python to use buttons on the PiTFT Plus 320×240 TFT Touchscreen with a PiHole

May 9, 2020 by Simon

I recently setup a Raspberry PI as a DNS Sinkhole to block ads and Trackers on my home network and I love it. I paid about $120 for a Raspberry Pi LCD Screen and Case from Pakronics to go with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ I had laying around to Setup as a PiHole. This post will show how I made my Screen buttons work.

This post is not a sponsored advertisement, I like to log what I have done for documentation

Long story short, the Pi Hole is great and the LCD Screen and Case is working a treat and I needed to get the buttons on the LCD Panel and case working.

I love the stats that PiHole provides.

In only have Python 2.7 (and for a device on a private home network) and this is ok, given Python 2.7 is no longer supported.

How to check your Python version.

$ python --version
Python 2.7.16

I know Python 2.7 is a bit old, Python 2.7.16 was released in March 2019. I need to update my script to Python 3.

I created this Python Script to handle the button events

sudo nano ~/simonpihole_buttons.py

I added this code to the Python file that will handle the LCD button presses.

Tip: Make sure your commands work before you add them to the Python Script.


#!/usr/bin/python

import subprocess
import time
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
import os

GPIO.setwarnings(False)

channel_list = [17, 22, 23, 27]

backlightOn = True
piHoleOn = True

def buttonPowerOff(channel):
    os.system("sudo shutdown -h now")

def buttonToggleBacklight(channel):
    global backlightOn
    if backlightOn:
        backlightOn = False
        backlight.start(0)
    else:
        backlightOn = True
        backlight.start(100)

def buttonDisablePiHole(channel):
    global piHoleOn
    if piHoleOn:
        piHoleOn = False
        os.system('pihole disable')
    else:
        piHoleOn = True
        os.system('pihole enable')

def buttonRestartDNS(channel):
    os.system('pihole restartdns')

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
GPIO.setup(channel_list, GPIO.IN, pull_up_down=GPIO.PUD_UP)
GPIO.setup(18, GPIO.OUT)

backlight = GPIO.PWM(18, 1023)
backlight.start(100)

GPIO.add_event_detect(27, GPIO.FALLING, callback=buttonPowerOff, bouncetime=200)
GPIO.add_event_detect(22, GPIO.FALLING, callback=buttonToggleBacklight, bouncetime=200)
GPIO.add_event_detect(23, GPIO.FALLING, callback=buttonDisablePiHole, bouncetime=200)
GPIO.add_event_detect(17, GPIO.FALLING, callback=buttonRestartDNS, bouncetime=200)

while True:
    time.sleep(1)

GPIO.cleanup()

I tested the script and commands many many times and I can the python script to test the button functionality

cd ~
sudo python simonpihole_buttons.py

I decided to make the first button (from the top) power down the pi, then Disable the PiHiole Service then toggle the Raspberry Pi LCD (ON/OFF) and finally the last button restarts the DNS service.

I created this file to create the service for the Python script

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/simonspibuttons.service

I added the following code to the service

[Unit]
Description=Simons pibuttons Script
After=multi-user.target

[Service]
User=pi
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python -u /home/pi
/simonpihole_buttons.py

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I ran this command to start the button service

sudo systemctl enable simonspibuttons.service
sudo systemctl start simonspibuttons.service

If this does not work you can reboot your pi.

{“type”:”block”,”srcIndex”:24,”srcClientId”:”00b90020-9b1d-4d70-a9f9-62282db13e7f”,”srcRootClientId”:””}After the service was enabled I checked it’s status.

sudo systemctl status simonspibuttons.service

● pibuttons.service - pibuttons Padd PiHole Script
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/simonspibuttons.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2020-05-08 19:13:33 AEST; 21h ago
 Main PID: 787 (python)
    Tasks: 3 (limit: 2067)
   Memory: 6.4M
   CGroup: /system.slice/simonspibuttons.service
           └─787 /usr/bin/python -u /scripts/simonpihole_buttons.py

May 08 19:13:33 raspberrypihole systemd[1]: Started Simons pibuttons Script.

Cool the service has enabled and is working

Result

After a few weeks I am happy with the button order and functionality.

Shutting down from a button press (before a storm or a the kids bedtime is priceless). I did add some of my wife’s nail polish to add a different colour to each button.

I intend to add a flat heat pipe and external heatsink to the PiHole so there will be heaps of room for printed labels for each button. The Pi CPU doe’s not get super hot but it does get above 55c from time to time.

I love my PiHole

Troubleshooting

If you having troubles making the service run the following to force the service creation (but enter your service name)

cd /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl --force --full edit simonpibuttons.service

The Python service won’t boot, try

systemctl journalctl --boot --unit=simonibuttons.service

The Python script won’t run, try

chmod +X /scripts/simonpihole_buttons.py

Install Python 2.7

sudo apt-get install python2.7

v1.1

Setting up a Raspberry PI as a DNS Sinkhole to block ads and Trackers

April 15, 2020 by Simon

What is PiHole (Version 5)?

fyi: I updated this post 3 months after I created it as I killed my 32GB Raspberry Pi Micro SD card when I pulled the power (before a storm) without shutting down the Raspberry PIU first. Always shutdown the pi before removing the power. I have a 16GB Micro SD card that I will use instead.

I am following my guide to re setup up my PiHole.

Snip from WikiPedia: “Pi-hole is a Linux network-level advertisement and Internet tracker blocking application which acts as a DNS sinkhole (and optionally a DHCP server), intended for use on a private network. It is designed for use on embedded devices with network capability, such as the Raspberry Pi, but it can be used on other machines running Linux and cloud implementations. Pi-hole has the ability to block traditional website advertisements as well as advertisements in unconventional places, such as smart TVs and mobile operating system advertisements.”

What is a Raspberry PI?

A Raspberry PI is an inexpensive (5V Volt, 2 Amp) ARM based computer that can run off the power from a USB cable.

Here is a photo of my Raspberry Pi 3B+ with an Adafruit LCD Screen

My Raspberry Pi has the following specifications

4 x 1.4GHz 64-bit (quad-core processor)
1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM
Dual-band wireless LAN
Bluetooth 4.2/BLE,
Faster Ethernet
Extended 40-pin GPIO header
Full-size HDMI 4 USB 2.0 ports
5V/2.5A DC power input

My screen has the following specifications (purchased from Pakronics)

3.5″ display with 480×320 16-bit colour pixels
Resistive touch overlay

I plugged in a full sized USB Keyboard, Mouse and HDMI cable.

SD Card Choice

Read my guide to download and write an Raspberry Pi Operating System to an SD card.

I would not put a cheap/slow MicroSD card in the Raspberry PI, aim for at least a UHS (1) or UHS (3) speed SD card for the best bang for buck.

fyi: I bought a new 32GB Samsung UHS 1 Ultra Micro SD card and it died after 12 hours of use. I replaced it with another 32GB No name brand CLASS 10 SD Card I had laying around.

(after I killed my 32GB Micro SD card I have chosen a 16GB Micro SD card as it is all I have spare)

Raspberry Setup

I download and saved the Raspian (Full) Operating System to a SD Card and inserted it into my Raspberry PI 3B+ (view the guide here on preparing an Operating System on a SD card).

I used the American 110-240V AC to 5.25V 2500ma DC power supply (with a US to AUS adaptor) that came with the Adafruit Screen. It had a Micro USB connection on one end.

It did not work though (I just had a flashing red light on the Raspberry Pi).

I had an Australian 240V AC to 5V 2500ma DC power supply to Micro USB. from a previous project and it worked (the Raspberry Pi Started up).

I also have a number of Moki brand 240V to USB (1A and 2.4A) adapters.

I will use the 2.4mA plug. I know my Adafruit screen uses 100mA so this will do.

I plugged the HDMI cable into my Monitor and set up the HDMI as a Picture in Picture output so I can see my Main 4K screen (Display Port) and the Raspberry Pi HDMI input at the same time.

My First Raspberry Pi Boot

Mmmm my 4K screen with a 1080P HDMI picture in picture image (from the Raspberry Pi).

The Raspberry Pi booted fast and a welcome screen appeared

Apologies in advance, photos below are bad (I don’t have a HDMI capture card).

I clicked Next to setup the Raspberry PI

I set my timezone and language

I set a password

I skipped connecting to WiFi (I want pure Ethernet)

I was prompted to update the software (I clicked Next)

Setup is complete

I rebooted the Raspberry Pi

Second Boot

I changed further configuration by clicking the Raspberry Pi start button then Preferences then Raspberry PI Configuration

Screenshot of the Raspberry Pi menu showing Raspberry Pi Configuration

I changed the hostname to “raspberrypihole”, set Boot to CLI , Login as “pi“, and set Wait for network.

Update: After my Samsung SD card died I re setup my PI with a no name brand SD card and entered the name “raspberrypihole“

Under display I reviewed the display options

I enabled SSH, SPI and I2C.

Enable SSH, SPI and I2C features screenshot.

I increased the GPU memory to 132GB

Time for a Reboot

SSH Access

I do not want to leave a keyboard, mouse and screen connected once I finish setting it up so I setup a SSH connection to the Raspberry Pi.

TIP: Putty is a free program for SSH connections.

I SSH’ed (more information on SSH below) to the Raspberry Pi and ran these commands to update it’s software and firmware.

sudo apt-get update  && sudo apt-get upgrade

Output

[email protected]:~ $ sudo apt-get update  && sudo apt-get upgrade
Hit:1 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian buster InRelease
Hit:2 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian buster InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

The program “htop” is good for viewing system resources.

Now it’s time to look at the Adafruit screen and case.

I put the Raspberry PI in the Adafruit Case

I purchased this kit for the Raspberry Pi, the LCD screen just connects to the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins. It has a Adafruit LCD screen and a case for my Raspberry Pi 3B+

Photo of a Raspberry Pi 3B+, LCD screen and case

The screen just connects onto the GPIO pins

The LCD screen allows you to use pins below the screen.

GPIO pins documentation from https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/

GPIO pin documentation from https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/

A nice stack 🙂

Photo showing the LCD screen connected to the Pi

The case clips are hard to clip over the Raspberry Pi (Don’t force it or you might break for Pi)

Photo showing a case clip over the raspberry pi board

The case clip near the GPIO pins is on

Photo showing the case clip near the GPIO pins.

The clip near the power plug was off because the Raspberry Pi was not positioned correctly

Photo of the Raspberry PI off center of the lugs

After 30 minutes I carefully put the Raspberry Pi and LCD screen into the Case.

Photo showing the LCD screen in the case.

Side of the case with USB and Ethernet and USB porws exposed.

Photo of the Case exposing the USB and Ethernet port

HDMI, Power and Audio plugs are visible and lined up 🙂

Photo showing HDMI, Power and Audio plugs

The screen is visible through the case

The screen dips down on one side, I might have to prop it up (hot glue gun) a bit inside later

Photo showing the LCD screen dips to one side

SSH Connections to the Raspberry PI

I created an SSH connection to my Raspberry PI with MobaXterm (review here) and connected to it.

I ran the “ifconfig” command to get a list of all network interfaces.

I ran “ifconfig” to list all network interfaces.

I ran these commands to update my Raspberry PI Software

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt -y dist-upgrade

I updated the Pi Firmware too (this is dangerous, only update if you have issues).

sudo rpi-update

I rebooted and connected to the Raspberry Pi and ran this command to get the Ethernet and wireless mac address.

The first interface is my Ethernet adopter the second if the WiFi adaptor.

ifconfig |grep ether
ether b8:27:eb:d9:00:86 txqueuelen 1000
ether b8:27:eb:8c:55:d3 txqueuelen 1000

The first Mac address is my Ethernet address on The Raspberry PI and the second is WiFi.

I logged into my router (Telstra DJA0230) and clicked Advanced then Local Network. I could see my DHCP range was from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254, I shortened this to 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.200 (so I can set a static IP Address for the Raspberry PI) then I set a Static IP address for the Raspberry pi to 192.168.0.201.

I rebooted the Raspberry PI and checked the IP address

I logged into my Router (at https://192.168.0.1)

When my Samsung SD card died I had to re-setup a new SD card but the IP address came across as the mac address stayed the same (as it was the same hardware), I did, however, change the name of the Static IP hostname in my home router to match the new name “raspberrypihole” (not “pihole”)

I set a static IP for this Ethernet address and defined 192.168.0.201 as the IP address.

Setting Up PiHole on the RaspBerry PI

I SSH’ed to my Raspberry Pi (with the new IP address) and ran this command

Now its time to install Pi Hole onto My Raspberry Pi

wget -O basic-install.sh https://install.pi-hole.net
sudo bash basic-install.sh

I was presented with “This installer will transform your device into a network-wide ad blocker! “

I was presented with “This installer will transform your device into a network-wide ad blocker! “

PiHole is free, but powered by your donations (consider donating)

I donated. Thanks PiHole Team.

This will pay for itself in no time.

Static IP address is required.

I chose to just have PiHole work on Ethernet (and not Wifi)

I was prompted to set my upstream DNS provider.

I selected all default blacklist lists.

I allowed PiHole to use IPv4 and IPv6.

My IP and Gateway was displayed on the screen.

Final warning about setting a static IP address.

The PiHole IPv6 address is show

Install a admin interface (Yes)

Install lighthttpd (Yes)

I chose to log all DNS queries.

I oped to allow the viewing of all logged data. This is less secure but I can reduce this later.

PiHole is now setting up

Installation took about 10 minutes

A PiHole admin URL and Password was displayed (write this down)

I loaded the PiHole initial admin screen (http://192.168.0.201/admin/) and it was a bit empty.

PiHole Interface

I logged into my PiHole (at http://192.1768.0.201/admin/) with the password provided during setup.

The Raspberry Pi Pi Hole service was up and waiting for connections

I have Zero traffic going through the PiHole.

Before I add computers on my network to the PiHole I had better uninstall the nextdns.io (my blog post about NextDNS.io here) as the Pi will now be the main DNS blocking Sinkhole in our house.

On my Windows 10 PC I added the DNS server for the PiHole in IPV4 and IPV6.

I obtained the PiHole IPV4 and IPV6 addresses (1) PiHole Admin, 2) Pi Hole Settings Page, 3) IP Address)

PiHole IPV4 and IPV6 addresses.

I added the Pi Holes IPV4 IP address to my Windows 10 IP Settings.

I added the PIHole DNS to the IPV4 and IPV6 on my Windows 10 Ethernet adaptor

I added the Pi Holes IPV6 IP address to my Windows 10 IP Settings.

After 20 hours or rining computers through the Pi-Hole Admin interface I loaded the PiHole Admin Interface (at http://192.168.0.201/admin/index.php) was reporting stats.

I can view stats for Protocol and answered queries

I can also see stats for permitted and blocked domains

Default Block Lists

I can also see the source blocked domains

Add 3rd party block lists

I added these block lists to my PiHole list of sites to block (Thanks Jol)

https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easyprivacy.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Ads.txt
https://gitlab.com/quidsup/notrack-blocklists/raw/master/notrack-blocklist.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FadeMind/hosts.extras/master/add.2o7Net/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/master/data/hosts/spy.txt
https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/lists/ads-and-tracking-extended.txt
https://hostfiles.frogeye.fr/firstparty-trackers-hosts.txt
https://hostfiles.frogeye.fr/multiparty-trackers-hosts.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/android-tracking.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/AmazonFireTV.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Airelle-trc.txt
https://bitbucket.org/ethanr/dns-blacklists/raw/8575c9f96e5b4a1308f2f12394abd86d0927a4a0/bad_lists/Mandiant_APT1_Report_Appendix_D.txt
https://gist.githubusercontent.com/anudeepND/adac7982307fec6ee23605e281a57f1a/raw/5b8582b906a9497624c3f3187a49ebc23a9cf2fb/Test.txt
https://gitlab.com/quidsup/notrack-blocklists/raw/master/notrack-blocklist.txt
https://gitlab.com/quidsup/notrack-blocklists/raw/master/notrack-malware.txt
https://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.txt
https://hosts-file.net/emd.txt
https://hosts-file.net/exp.txt
https://hosts-file.net/grm.txt
https://hosts-file.net/psh.txt
https://isc.sans.edu/feeds/suspiciousdomains_Medium.txt
https://mirror1.malwaredomains.com/files/justdomains
https://mirror.cedia.org.ec/malwaredomains/immortal_domains.txt
http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts
https://phishing.army/download/phishing_army_blocklist_extended.txt
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/CW_C2_DOMBL.txt
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/LY_C2_DOMBL.txt
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/RW_DOMBL.txt
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/TC_C2_DOMBL.txt
https://ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch/downloads/TL_C2_DOMBL.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/master/data/hosts/spy.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker/master/data/hosts/win10/spy.txt
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/data/add.2o7Net/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/data/add.Risk/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/data/add.Spam/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/data/KADhosts/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/hosts
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZeroDot1/CoinBlockerLists/master/hosts
https://reddestdream.github.io/Projects/MinimalHosts/etc/MinimalHostsBlocker/minimalhosts
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_ad.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_malvertising.txt
https://s3.amazonaws.com/lists.disconnect.me/simple_tracking.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/AdguardDNS.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Airelle-hrsk.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easylist.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Easyprivacy.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Ads.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Malware.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Prigent-Phishing.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/Shalla-mal.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/static/SamsungSmart.txt
https://v.firebog.net/hosts/static/w3kbl.txt
https://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt
https://www.squidblacklist.org/downloads/dg-malicious.acl
http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts
https://zerodot1.gitlab.io/CoinBlockerLists/hosts
https://zeustracker.abuse.ch/blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist
http://www.joewein.net/dl/bl/dom-bl.txt
http://www.networksec.org/grabbho/block.txt

I updated all block lists at http://192.168.0.201/admin/gravity.php

666,862 domains on my block list 🙂

I now have the Pi Hole blocking 666,862 domains, this number will increase as sites are added to the remote lists, nice.

LCD Screen Setup

I followed thin guide to setup the screen.

I can this code from the pi (logged in as root)

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/Raspberry-Pi-Installer-Scripts/master/adafruit-pitft.sh
chmod +x adafruit-pitft.sh
sudo ./adafruit-pitft.sh

I was prompted to choose a screen

Select configuration:
1. PiTFT 2.4", 2.8" or 3.2" resistive (240x320)
2. PiTFT 2.2" no touch (240x320)
3. PiTFT 2.8" capacitive touch (240x320)
4. PiTFT 3.5" resistive touch (320x480)
5. PiTFT Mini 1.3" or 1.54" display (240x240)
6. MiniPiTFT 1.14" display (240x135) - WARNING! CUTTING EDGE! WILL UPGRADE YOUR KERNEL TO LATEST
7. Quit without installing

SELECT 1-7:

I entered “3” for PiTFT 2.8″ capacitive touch (240×320)

I then was prompted to set the rotation of the screen

Select rotation:
1. 90 degrees (landscape)
2. 180 degrees (portait)
3. 270 degrees (landscape)
4. 0 degrees (portait)

SELECT 1-4:

I entered “3” for 270 degrees (landscape).

I was prompted to allow the console to appear on the screen

Would you like the console to appear on the PiTFT display? [y/n]
y

Install Summary

I rebooted

Reboot [y/n]
y

I edited /boot/config.txt and changed these values

framebuffer_width=320
framebuffer_height=240

Installing PADD to display PiHole stats on the LCD

I followed this guide to install PADD (the software that displays the PiHole stats on the LCD screen)

cd ~
wget -N https://github.com/jpmck/PADD/files/4320681/padd.txt
mv padd.txt paddsimon.sh
chmod +x paddsimon.sh

Making PADD starts at boot

Edit this file

sudo nano  ~/.bashrc

and add the following to the end of the file

# Run PADD
# If we're on the PiTFT screen (ssh is xterm)
if [ "$TERM" == "linux" ] ; then
  while :
  do
    /root/paddsimon.sh
    sleep 0.2
  done
fi

I rebooted the PI.

sudo showdown -r now

How to Update the PiHole from the CLI

I ran the following command to update the PiHole block lists

pihole -g

Output…

  [i] Pi-hole blocking is enabled
  [i] Neutrino emissions detected...
  [✓] Pulling blocklist source list into range

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: mirror1.malwaredomains.com (justdomains)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: sysctl.org (hosts)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: s3.amazonaws.com (simple_tracking.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: s3.amazonaws.com (simple_ad.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: hosts-file.net (ad_servers.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (ytadblock.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Easyprivacy.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Prigent-Ads.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: gitlab.com (notrack-blocklist.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (spy.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: www.github.developerdan.com (ads-and-tracking-extended.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: hostfiles.frogeye.fr (firstparty-trackers-hosts.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: hostfiles.frogeye.fr (multiparty-trackers-hosts.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (android-tracking.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (SmartTV.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (AmazonFireTV.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Airelle-trc.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: bitbucket.org (Mandiant_APT1_Report_Appendix_D.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: gist.githubusercontent.com (Test.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: gitlab.com (notrack-malware.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: hosts-file.net (emd.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: hosts-file.net (exp.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: hosts-file.net (grm.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: hosts-file.net (psh.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: isc.sans.edu (suspiciousdomains_Medium.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: mirror.cedia.org.ec (immortal_domains.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: someonewhocares.org (hosts)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: phishing.army (phishing_army_blocklist_extended.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch (CW_C2_DOMBL.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch (LY_C2_DOMBL.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch (RW_DOMBL.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch (TC_C2_DOMBL.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: ransomwaretracker.abuse.ch (TL_C2_DOMBL.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (spy.txt)
  [✗] Status: Not found
  [✗] List download failed: no cached list available

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: raw.githubusercontent.com (hosts)
  [✗] Status: Not found
  [✗] List download failed: no cached list available

  [i] Target: reddestdream.github.io (minimalhosts)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: s3.amazonaws.com (simple_malvertising.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (AdguardDNS.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Airelle-hrsk.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Easylist.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Prigent-Malware.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Prigent-Phishing.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (Shalla-mal.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (SamsungSmart.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: v.firebog.net (w3kbl.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: www.malwaredomainlist.com (hosts.txt)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: www.squidblacklist.org (dg-malicious.acl)
  [✗] Status: Connection Timed Out (Cloudflare)
  [✗] List download failed: no cached list available

  [i] Target: zerodot1.gitlab.io (hosts)
  [✓] Status: No changes detected

  [i] Target: zeustracker.abuse.ch (blocklist.php?download=domainblocklist)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: www.joewein.net (dom-bl.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful

  [i] Target: www.networksec.org (block.txt)
  [✓] Status: Retrieval successful
  [i] Received empty file: using previously cached list

  [✓] Consolidating blocklists
  [✓] Extracting domains from blocklists
  [i] Number of domains being pulled in by gravity: 1178534
  [✓] Removing duplicate domains
  [i] Number of unique domains trapped in the Event Horizon: 954486
  [i] Number of whitelisted domains: 2
  [i] Number of blacklisted domains: 0
  [i] Number of regex filters: 0
  [✓] Parsing domains into hosts format
  [✓] Cleaning up stray matter

  [✓] Force-reloading DNS service
  [✓] DNS service is running
  [✓] Pi-hole blocking is Enabled

I can view all possible command line options by running

pihole /?

Output..

Usage: pihole [options]
Example: 'pihole -w -h'
Add '-h' after specific commands for more information on usage

Whitelist/Blacklist Options:
  -w, whitelist       Whitelist domain(s)
  -b, blacklist       Blacklist domain(s)
  --wild, wildcard     Wildcard blacklist domain(s)
  --regex, regex       Regex blacklist domains(s)
                        Add '-h' for more info on whitelist/blacklist usage

Debugging Options:
  -d, debug           Start a debugging session
                        Add '-a' to enable automated debugging
  -f, flush           Flush the Pi-hole log
  -r, reconfigure     Reconfigure or Repair Pi-hole subsystems
  -t, tail            View the live output of the Pi-hole log

Options:
  -a, admin           Web interface options
                        Add '-h' for more info on Web Interface usage
  -c, chronometer     Calculates stats and displays to an LCD
                        Add '-h' for more info on chronometer usage
  -g, updateGravity   Update the list of ad-serving domains
  -h, --help, help    Show this help dialog
  -l, logging         Specify whether the Pi-hole log should be used
                        Add '-h' for more info on logging usage
  -q, query           Query the adlists for a specified domain
                        Add '-h' for more info on query usage
  -up, updatePihole   Update Pi-hole subsystems
                        Add '--check-only' to exit script before update is perfo                                                     rmed.
  -v, version         Show installed versions of Pi-hole, Web Interface & FTL
                        Add '-h' for more info on version usage
  uninstall           Uninstall Pi-hole from your system
  status              Display the running status of Pi-hole subsystems
  enable              Enable Pi-hole subsystems
  disable             Disable Pi-hole subsystems
                        Add '-h' for more info on disable usage
  restartdns          Restart Pi-hole subsystems
  checkout            Switch Pi-hole subsystems to a different Github branch
                        Add '-h' for more info on checkout usage

After 1 Week

After 1 week stats were rolling into the PIHole.

40% of all traffic was being blocked.

I could see blocked and allowed domain calls

I can white list domains if they are blocked.

I white listed fearby.com and events.gfe.nvidia.com

Done

This is what it looks like done

Nice

Did it block Ad’s

Mostly Yes. Not all advertisements are blocked but most are.

Some YouTube Advertisements seem to get through but I am seeing far less Advertisements in web pages

Using Python to use buttons on the PiTFT Plus 320×240 TFT Touchscreen with a PiHole

Read this guide to make the buttons word: Using Python to use buttons on the PiTFT Plus 320×240 TFT Touchscreen with a PiHole

Troubleshooting

If you receive an update about updating languages on your first boot while updating you can manually update all software by running this after you first reboot in a Terminal window.

sudo apt-get update && apt-get full-upgrade

If your Micro SD cad is filling up you can run to free some space

sudo apt clean

I needed to white list “events.gfe.nvidia.com” to allow my video card drivers to upodate.

Cooling

The Raspberry Pi is running cool at 47c (even though it is in a tight space).

I might add a heat pipe to it and have an external fan. I will thermal epoxy the hat pipe to the Pi CPU and run it outside to a external heat sink and fan.

eBay purchase for a fan, thermal epoxy and heatpipes.

I have many spare heat sinks laying around.

I will update when the part’s arrive.

Update: I did not end up adding extra cooling, there was no need in summer.

Rotating the screen

I did exit my /boot/config.txt to rotate my LCD Screen orientation

Buttons

Read this guide to see how I setup a Python script to make my buttons work.

Do edit your /boot.config.txt to configure your screen rotation (if need be) and to check if the LCD screen is setup (by Adafruit)

framebuffer_width=240
framebuffer_height=320

Backup and Restore PiHole Settings

I used the PiHole Backup feature (at http://192.168.0.201/admin/settings.php?tab=teleporter) to backup all of my PiHole Settings to a zip file.

Handy Links

Handy Guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/pi-hole-ad-pitft-tft-detection-display/pitft-configuration to configure the LCD Screen

Schematics of the screen: https://learn.adafruit.com/assets/25555

Donate to PiHole: https://pi-hole.net/donate/

Raspberry Pi GPIO Pins: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/gpio/

v 2.3 Updating to PiHole 5.1.2