How to update BIOS on AMD Ryzen motherboard – the hard(ware) way

Hardware   / / / / / / 4 Comments

As we know AMD motherboards need BIOS updates to support new generations of Ryzen CPUs. This can normally be done using a recognized older gen CPU to power on the board and access the built-in BIOS updater function.

When there’s no older gen CPU around to use or you’re simply in the mood for some hardware tinkering, you can get your elbows dirty (figuratively, since the board is brand new and not dusty yet) using an EEPROM programmer.

How to pre-configure Raspberry PI for remote SSH and Wifi

Linux   / / / / / / Leave a comment

Many Raspberry PI projects are used headless (with no display device attached or if a display device exists, it’s not connected to the default HDMI or analog outputs).
In these instances it’s time consuming to connect the PI to a monitor and keyboard just to configure remote SSH access and wireless connection details (and in rare occasions it may even not be possible).

Luckily, the good folk developing Raspbian implemented shortcuts and workarounds that allow things to be pre-configured even before booting the PI.

How to disable/remove unwanted apps from Android (no root)

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Some manufacturers bundle a lot of unnecessary and sometimes even suspicious apps with their devices. Some can still be uninstalled or disabled, but for those specific apps that the manufacturarer wants to force on the user these actions are not available.

With a rooted device there’s no limit on what you do on the device you paid for, but in case you’re stuck with a non-rootable device there’s still a chance you may force disable or remove apps.

How to adjust TLER value on hard disk (for data recovery)

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In case the hard disk itself is taking too long to respond, some operations will fail and can cause the controller (software or hardware) to drop the disk out of the RAID.
Even when no RAID is used, the hard disk itself can still spend too much time retrying a (failing) read, causing unwanted delays and possible further damage.

To alleviate this, you can try to use a feature called TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery) or CCTL (Command Completion Time Limit).

Keeping SSH connections alive

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By default SSHd will terminate an ongoing connection if there was no traffic (incoming or outgoing) for a while.

If you usually leave remote sessions running for long amounts of time and hate the unexpected disconnects, this can be changed by enabling the keep-alive feature on the server directly so it applies to all remote sessions regardless of client used.

How to disable/uninstall problematic Magisk modules

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Magisk is a great solution for customizing (rooted) Android devices via modules without modifying the firmware (much…).

Magisk modules are easy to install and activate (through Magisk Manager), however in rare cases when something fails you can end up with a bootlooping device. In such instances you can either resetting/reflashing the device or use the handy Magisk module installer tool.

How to install OPNSense on PCEngines’ APU2

Hardware / Linux   / / / 2 Comments

I have been looking for a good alternative which could handle my gigabit internet connection and I believe I made a good choice going with PCEngine’s APU2 embedded system.

I tried following various tutorials dedicated for installing both pfSense and OPNsense on this device, however they didn’t quite work on the APU (or in my case), so I tried a personal method which proved successful.