Author Archives: pauljohn

About pauljohn

Paul E. Johnson is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas. He is an avid Linux User, an adequate system administrator and C programmer, and humility is one of his greatest strengths.

Get out of fail2ban jail

Ever get locked out of your own computer because you tried the password too many times when you were, well, not paying attention? I found it tough to find how to unban myself and was pretty frustrated by the ambiguity … Continue reading

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OpenBUGS-3.2.3 Linux Packages

I’m very sorry I stopped paying attention to the packaging on openbugs for a while. I stopped reading the gmail account because I hated their labeling system, but that account is where I’m registered in the OpenBUGS list. Oh, well. … Continue reading

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Gambit packages updated

Linux packages for Gambit were built yesterday. All of these do install and I’m able to open the Gambit GUI and create a game. I compiled with no special arguments, these may not include all of the features you want. … Continue reading

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Compiz, Multi-Head, Workspace Backgrounds

The approach described in the post earlier this week works well on single-head systems, but not when there are several monitors. Compiz handles these differently than XFCE4 or Gnome, causing some revision in the script. Since Compiz treats the combined … Continue reading

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Success: compiz wallpapers changed via python script (Ubuntu 14.10 XFCE4)

I started using Linux because it had cool desktop features that made it fun and interesting. The compiz window manager was a highlight, but I stopped using it for a while because I could not make the dbus commands work … Continue reading

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ssh: too many authentication failures

Did you follow along with the instructions to make ssh connections “automatic” and “secure” with your favorite servers by transferring your public keys to the authorizedKeys file an then editing your ~/.ssh/config? The .ssh/config file fills up with entries like … Continue reading

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R’s drop “gotcha” and the diag “curse”

This title is too dramatic. But it is justified. There really is a “drop gotcha” that has crushed my spirits, and the diag “curse” has caused me to lose sleep on many occasions. In 2013, I noticed a problem in … Continue reading

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Toggle panel below or above

I like to place windows so I only see the bottom half. I like to move windows almost off the screen so I can see something else. The current trend, to make the window manager in Linux work like a … Continue reading

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Ubuntu 14.04 on Dell Ultrabook 6430u

I inherited a Dell ultrabook 6430u from a departing colleague. I would not have chosen this system because the display is somewhat, well, crappy (terrible viewing angles), but I’m making the best of it. This is the first PC I’ve … Continue reading

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Swarm and Ubuntu 14.04: Package uploads

A couple of very pleasant students have been writing to ask for help on running some Swarm apps and yesterday I decided to rebuild some packages to try to smooth out the process. Here are the things I can remember. … Continue reading

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