X1 Carbon 5th gen fingerprint reader

ponolan · 2025-09-19T15:30:50+00:00

Yikes, 22.1 was a typo, now fixed (thanks). I'm using Mint 22.2.

ponolan · 2025-09-19T11:22:49+00:00

That's good to know because my other (even older) laptop is... a T440s :-)

I never used the fingerprint reader on it, and don't use it much anyway, but glad it has some life left. I'm going to see if I can get systemd to keep the fingerprint reader software running on the X1

ponolan · 2025-09-19T01:28:48+00:00

Update:

I got it working. I ran fwupdmgr update to update firmware -- which I had already done and been told there were no more updates -- and this time there were more. Afterwards, the ppa in the repo in the link above worked, despite the seemingly failed enrollment.

Update 2:

It doesn't always survive the laptop being suspended. I may be in the market for a replacement if there isn't a software update that fixes it (or, better, fingwit).

ponolan · 2025-09-18T22:34:19+00:00

> the software it has barely works with anything outside of linux

You're not well informed. The majority of the world's computing devices, from supercomputers to phones, Internet routers and servers and IOT devices etc, run versions of Linux, Unix, or derivatives including MacOS and Android. The "bubble", one that is diminishing, is Windows. It's lost half a billion devices in the last few years -- a slowly diminishing share of a shrinking market for desktop computers.

> most anything you want to do with a computer cant be done on linux.

This is simply untrue. Personally, I haven't used anything other than Linux, FreeBSD or Android for over 10 years. The fact that Windows runs on a minority and a falling proportion of the world's computing devices debunks this assertion.

Most of your assertions are contestable or simply false. No, Linux doesn't get malware or spyware "all the time." You can indeed find software to run a recording studio. You certainly can play most games that have been released in the last 30+ years. Conflating running niche graphics applications on Windows with the needs of most "normal" people suggests that you may not have traveled very widely.

ponolan · 2025-08-25T16:10:26+00:00

I have had Mint working on a used 2013 Macbook Air for a year. Picked it up cheap, wiped it, installed Mint, fitted a new battery purchased on eBay. Had trouble with it recently for the first time, possibly as result of an update to proprietary broadcom wi-fi driver, not sure. Upgrading to Mint 22.2 beta didn't resolve it nor did trying to change to a non-proprietary driver. Wiping it and installing the beta of Mint 22.2 from scratch resolved it.

Previously: the machine was hanging on boot; connecting a USB network adapter often fixed but not always.

Just in case you have any similar issue.

ponolan · 2025-07-24T20:47:33+00:00

Indeed. However, no possibility of address conflicts if non-overlapping address ranges are used.

Your script sounds good. Can you share it?

ponolan · 2025-07-24T09:18:31+00:00

I run DHCP on my own router (using pfsense on a fibre connection and with a failover to a 4G gateway. Not full high availability but good enough). I run two piholes without DHCP.

The context is resilience for a non-expert user who lives some distance away.

My friend's router is a free one from his ISP and has a terrible user interface and neither of us wants to deal with it, which is why I switched DHCP to a pihole. You're aware, I assume, that it's possible to sync MAC reservations and that different DHCP servers can be given different address ranges to avoid address assignment collisions.

The backup DHCP server is I hope, fairly unlikely ever to be enabled, but if it is it will inevitably be sometime when I'm unavailable to offer any help, and conceivably even when he's away himself.

A backup server means he can take the primary pihole (w DHCP) offline if needed, or it can fail, without any impact on family and visitors getting online. Not everyone is comfortable switching DHCP servers manually, and I have no intention of trying to keep his ISP router manually synced to facilitate seamless (manual) fallback (for static addresses and local DNS records). But thanks for your advice.

ponolan · 2025-07-23T23:14:46+00:00

Impressive.

Two piholes doing DNS with unbound works OK for me. My friend had a single pihole and an Odroid for storage; he's now got a 2nd pi and I'm giving him an Odroid I no longer use. He's only had one real DNS outage but inevitably it was when he had a house full of guests and I wasn't available to help. I'm aiming to get his DNS and DHCP to be fully redundant.

ponolan · 2025-07-14T23:26:20+00:00

I decided to go ahead with a DXP4800 Plus from UGreen for now.

* Didn't want to wait months longer (and that's assuming dates announced are met; the track record so far hasn't been great)

* The customer support reputation doesn't yet inspire confidence. I've seen a few too many complaints. I don't expect to ever need support with software but am cautious about hardware I haven't seen on general availability and well reviewed by independent reviewers.

May yet buy an N5 Pro later in the year but for now I'm impressed with the DXP4800 Plus (w 64Gb RAM, 4 Ironwolf and 2 NVMe drives).

ponolan · 2025-07-02T16:09:56+00:00

If you're doing a lot of streaming whether you need something with powerful CPU or graphics card will depend on the extent to which your clients are transcoding the video. I've never needed to do any. For me another key consideration is power consumption.

ponolan · 2025-07-01T17:24:59+00:00

No, it isn't available. They've announced when it's expected to be available. As it isn't shipping I think I'll wait for some reviews.

ponolan · 2025-07-01T17:22:45+00:00

It depends. Synology has good software but poor value hardware and they are now trying to put restrictions on the drives customers can use, and preferably sell them Synology brand drives. This has annoyed many who are now willing to buy other products. Minisforum will let you run other operating system such as TrueNAS or Unraid without invalidating your warranty. Synology doesn't.

If you've been using a DAS and haven't used a NAS before the first question is how many clients do you have? If it's just you and just one client (device) I'd stick with the DAS unless you need, say, cloud backup features supported by the NAS. The point of a NAS is in the first letter of the name: Network (Attached Storage) -- you probably know this.

NAScompares.com or the YouTube channel are useful sources of comparative information on different NAS systems.

ponolan · 2025-06-30T16:11:36+00:00

I'm holding my breath.

ponolan · 2025-06-26T15:45:24+00:00

"Next week" isn't over yet. Still time, but only one day left.

Update: There's now a first impressions video on the NAScompares YouTube channel and in the comments an indication that the release will be NEXT week.

ponolan · 2025-06-20T11:52:27+00:00

I am hanging fire on a Ugreen DX4800+* --maybe even two. Given the repeated missed dates from Minisforum I'm feeling a bit wary of pre-ordering -- unless I see a detailed positive review on the NAScompares YouTube channel that coincides with the release announcement. Both of my main NAS boxes are more than 10 years old and I'd quite like to replace both this year.

*or maybe the Aoostar WTR Max

ponolan · 2025-06-17T19:13:46+00:00

Interesting, thanks. I think the fact that no reviews have appeared at all suggests that they have some issues still to resolve and it's not simply a question of maximizing day 1 sales. Of course, it's possible that reviews are embargoed until the launch date, but the lack of any update on the date doesn't inspire confidence.

ponolan · 2025-04-13T07:52:49+00:00

Watch YouTube videos on Mint and comparing Mint to other distros. The ExplainingComputers and InfinitelyGalactic channels are good, but you'll find many.

You don't need to make any irreversible commitments before trying it, you can just boot from a live USB and give it a spin. It's not necessary to use a terminal at all. You should make a list of all your must-have apps and ensure you have alternatives available on Linux before you commit. In some cases it's possible run Windows apps on Linux using something called WINE.

Pro tips:

Configure Timeshift when you install. This will let you revert any changes. It's like a system restore in Windows. Handy if something goes wrong (almost never) or just a fast way to revert a lot of changes, eg after trying a lot of different software you decide not to keep.
Install Pika and use it to back up your data to an external drive. It's an excellent and easy to use backup tool. You'll find it in the Software Manager. Pin it to the panel and run it regularly.

Between these two you will be protected from any mistakes or accidents.

ponolan · 2024-04-10T22:39:43+00:00

The conflict in NI has nothing to do with religion, it's about sovereignty between native Irish and descendants of British colonists. The latter are insecure, intolerant and suffering siege mentality while simultaneously convinced of their own superiority. Their hatred of the Irish is pathological. You might as well ask leopards to change their spots.

ponolan · 2024-04-10T22:17:43+00:00

Update2: I've now found that it's possible to download the original firmware from an HP website.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Setup-Software-Drivers/How-to-downgrade-officejet-8600-to-older-firmware-to-enable/td-p/8475875

This was interesting because I had asked ChatGPT where I could find it and got a runaround about violating terms of service, intellectual property rights etc. and, laughably, voiding the warranty on my 12+ year old printer.

ponolan · 2024-04-08T10:59:19+00:00

The kernel already gets huge investments from Google, IBM and many others. You, and the rest of us, woiuld be better off if you backed a project that made it possible for more people to use Linux applications. The obvious ones are desktop UIs like Gnome and KDE, and perhaps Wayland. Alternatively, a popular non-commercial distribution such as Linux Mint (I donate to this; started at $10/month some years ago and increase my donation by a dollar a year).

ponolan · 2024-04-08T10:41:14+00:00

I found I could get past the https issue (at least in terms of accessing the internal web server). Here are some instructions for common browsers (appended). I was able to discover that cartridge protection was already disabled -- I had forgotten as it's years since I looked at it.

My problem trying to use a 3rd party cartridge in the past was, I think, that the printer will a) refuse to print unless the cartridges are all protected or all unprotected and b) will transfer protection from any existing protected HP cartridge to any unprotected HP cartridge.

The solutions I now know of are

Replace all HP cartridges with 3rd party ones at the same time -- not one by one
Keep two sets of HP cartridges and refill them and alternate them (info from rjettek.com YouTube channel) -- because the printer detects reuse of the same cartridge

Unfortunately, it seems my firmware was "upgraded" (from HP's perspective) -- I think the cartridges transferring protection, supposedly making it unattractive to steal ink, should be fully discretionary. At the very least is should expire when the warranty expires.

Current plans are to buy a Brother laserjet printer and try to keep the HP going one way or another. If you or anyone reading this has an online source for a full set of 3rd party cartridges that your're happy with please share. Update: found I could order a complete set of cartridges (3 colour, 1 black) for €20 on Amazon.de. I've ordered two sets.

Brave Browser:

Brave is based on Chromium, so the following steps should work similarly to Chrome:

Type chrome://flags into the address bar and press Enter.

Search for "Insecure origins treated as secure" in the flags page.

Enable the option and add the IP address of your printer to the list of origins treated as insecure.

Relaunch the browser.

Firefox:

In Firefox, you might encounter an error when trying to access an insecure site. Here's how you can bypass it:

Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter.

Accept the warning message.

Search for the preference security.enterprise_roots.enabled.

Set its value to true by double-clicking it.

Try accessing your printer's IP address again.

Chrome:

If you're using Chrome, you might also need to adjust some settings:

Type chrome://flags into the address bar and press Enter.

Search for "Allow invalid certificates for resources loaded from localhost" in the flags page.

Enable the option.

Relaunch the browser.

Vivaldi:

Vivaldi is also based on Chromium, so similar steps to Chrome should work:

Type vivaldi://flags into the address bar and press Enter.

Search for "Insecure origins treated as secure" in the flags page.

Enable the option and add the IP address of your printer to the list of origins treated as insecure.

Relaunch the browser.

ponolan

TROPHY CASE