How to play sounds (or run anything) on startup and shutdown with Raspbian

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The Raspberry Pi is very handy for fun projects, and sometimes these projects require running specific events (like playing a sound) on startup or shutdown, or even in both instances – for an interactive machine that reacts to user input and presence, for example.

Sounds on startup and shutdown can also be used as a means of confirming those specific actions taking place – startup is complete and shutdown is taking place (and will complete in a very short while).

Sound Blaster Audigy 5/Rx software controls

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Since I’m personally interested in using soundcards that support tone (bass / treble) adjustments and I’ve noticed this information is particularly difficult to find online I’m posting screenshots with the software functionality and controls of the cards that I’ve personally tested and/or used, for anyone else that may be looking for this same information.

How to configure a proxy host in Apache

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Proxy virtual hosts are very handy when you need to publicly access a tertiary system on your local network and you only have one IP address to use but there’s a master web server already configured.

If that server is running Apache, adding a proxy vhost to pass outside requests to the correct LAN system is as simple as adding a new virtual host to the configuration.

How to install Windows 10 on a Ryzen onboard RAID

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Loading a RAID driver for the motherboard integrated controller is a familiar procedure for anyone having used such a setup under Windows regardless of using AMD or Intel-based systems.
However, the AMD Ryzen series of chipsets have a slightly odd driver initialization procedure needing the use of multiple driver layers loaded in the correct order.

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

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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)

Hardware / Linux   / / / Leave a comment

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).