System Program Problem Detected Fix for Mythbuntu

In the beginning my Mythbuntu system worked great. But over time, with various upgrades and updates, things have gotten a little wonky at times.

One recurring problem is the popup telling me that a "System Program Problem Detected". This popup gives no real information on what has happened, and although it does offer to 'report the problem' there is no real resolution of the issue(s) that may have caused the error. And ignoring the problem, and proceeding to use the system seems to cause no real problems either.

The catch is that, although this problem was intermittent at first, the frequency of these events have steadily increased to the point that they are occurring almost daily. Ultimately it was time to put a little Google-Fu to use to see what can be done to address the current state of affairs.

From what I can tell, this issue seems to be caused by an application caused apport, which *should* be disabled in a stable, LTS version of Ubuntu, but does apparently somehow get itself enabled anyway. A quick check on my system determined that this was indeed the case. It only took a quick edit of the appropriate control file to set things right.

In a terminal window execute the following command.

sudo nano /etc/default/apport

Look for the line that says enabled= and make sure it is set to:

enabled=0

Save the file, and reboot. This *should* solve the recurring 'System Program Problem Detected' error message.

Many thanks to Manuel Jose at the Tech Drive-In for this solution!

http://www.techdrivein.com/2012/08/how-to-disable-system-program-problem.html

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VLC - now for Android!

VLC has long been my 'go to' media app, on computers running LINUX or  Windows. Now that it is also available for Android, it's officially a Triple Media Treat! If you are not using VLC, it's past time you did!

VLC Beta for Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.videolan.vlc.betav7neon&hl=en

VLC for Windows or LINUX

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

The Best Hidden Features of VLC
http://lifehacker.com/the-best-hidden-features-of-vlc-1654434241

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How's your anti-phishing IQ?

On an average day, I routinely report anywhere from 6 to 12 email accounts to the appropriate authorities for phishing email activity. 

How is your anti-phishing email smarts??? 

Take this test to see how good you are at spotting these nefarious types of email!

Phishing IQ Test

By anyone's measurements, there is an ever increasing worldwide phishing epidemic. The reason I report so many email accounts for phishing activity on a daily basis is because I receive that many phishing emails each day. It's up to all of us to report these emails to assist the authorities in stemming this onslaught.

Phishing Email Q and A

Q. How do I report phishing emails?

A. Most often you would report phishing emails to the company or organization the email is pretending to be sent from. For example, emails claiming to be from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, or PayPal should be reported directly to them. A quick Google search "How do I report phishing emails to xxxx" will most often give you the correct way to report these types of enails.

Q. I don't even have an account with this company. Why shouldn't I just ignore the email instead of taking the time to report it?

A. That certainly is an option. However, even if you don't have an account, are you certain that one of your friends or relatives don't have an account there, and could be tricked by this same sort of phishing attempt? By reporting all phishing emails you also help protect others from being taken advantage of. We are all in this together, and phishing hurts everyone, directly and indirectly.

Q. What should I do if I think I may have responded to a phishing email by mistake?

A. Contact the company that has your account IMMEDIATELY. Explain the situation and follow their instructions on how to protect your account.

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MythTV Users, Big Changes in Schedules Direct Coming!

If you are a MythTV user, and you are using Schedules Direct for your listings data, there is an important change coming, effective Nov1, 2014. Full Details of the changes can be found here:

Mythbuntu - Schedules Direct Changes - November 1st

In a nutshell, if your MythTV system is running a version prior to .27, you will need to upgrade in order to get the required fixes. This upgrade is mandatory to all backend and frontend machines if you want to keep using Schedules Direct as your listings source. For most folks using Mythbuntu. you can select the version .27 repository from the Mythbuntu Control Center. Then run the system update manager.

It took a bit of work on my backend  since a partial upgrade was needed due to some residual issues from a previously failed upgrade. But once this was accomplished, and the machine rebooted, all I had to do was run the MythTV backend setup program, run the mythfilldatabase program, and my system was completely updated. Updating the frontend machines was accomplished by selecting the .27 repository from the Mythbuntu Control Center and then running a system update as well.

And by the way, the enhancements in version .27 over versions .26 and before are really SWEET!

10/25/2014 Followup:
I had a few days last week where the listings did not update, and the number of days in the listings dropped down as low as 11 days instead of  the usual 13-14 days. The most recent update seems to have resolved that and now I am showing 13-14 days of listings, which extend well beyond Nov 1st .


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Mythbuntu 12.04 and the mythfilldatabase bug - SOLVED!

I had a bit of a scare the past few days when I suddenly realized my MythTV HTPC was showing only 6 days of programming info. Searching various forums indicated that this was not uncommon, and the solutions, even over a year since these reports started to flood in, were not clear, and in fact, most suggestions were either horribly complicated or virtually ineffective. After hours of searching, checking settings, checking file permissions, emailing back and forth with Schedules Direct, I did finally fix the problem on my machine. In the event that my solution might actually help someone else avoid this type of HTPC angst, I'm posting it here-

For reference, I am running Mythbuntu 12.04 and myth .025, and I did a complete shutdown and reboot before proceeding with these steps-

1) Using a different computer, log into Schedules Direct, and select the resend lineups button
2) On the HTPC, shut down frontend and backend, go into backend setup

3) Manually check every channel to make sure none are using EID data

4) Clear and re-enter the password for logging into Schedules Direct (Data Direct), and made sure the user ID is correct

5) Download the lineup data from Schedules Direct

6) Match the correct lineup from the pull down to the correct source (I have two)

7) Repeat steps 4-6 for each additional source.

8) Exit the backend setup, then run mythfilldatabase.

9) Run mythfilldatabase a second time using the --dd-grab-all option

10) Restart the backend and the frontend and if all goes well, you should find all the listings were restored properly

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At Last! A FIX for the annoying FULLSCREEN bug in Chrome and Chromium!

Since sometime in 2011, Google Chrome and it's open source equivalent Chromium have been plagued with the dreaded ''Fullscreen'' bug which *seems* to occur randomly after updates. I've labored over editing configuration files in the past, so that I didn't have to restart with a blank user profile, and then rebuild, which is most often suggested as the only solution.So when I got slammed with the bug again today, and was painfully searching for the info I needed to once again do a manual edit of the configuration file, I found this little gem - A solution that is painless, and nothing short of miraculous! Thanks Dansoonie, for sharing this with the rest of us! You are AWESOME!

http://dansoonie.tistory.com/m/post/view/id/665

In a nutshell, when faced with this problem, you simply change your screen resolution to one SMALLER than you normally use. Your browser will resize itself accordingly. After that, it's simply a matter of reverting back to your normal screen resolution, and your problem is permanently fixed! No need to lose your existing profile settings, no need to painstakingly edit the profile defaults by hand!

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Tomato Firmware makes a great wireless bridge!

Since my oldest son Bill told me yesterday that he didn't need the spare WRT54G wireless router I had, I decided to flash it with the latest Tomato firmware and turn it into a wireless bridge so that I can use the Laserjet network printer that has been sitting idle in the laundry room for lack of usable space to hook it up within reasonable cabling distance to a network connection. The other alternative, crawling underneath the house and running Cat5 cable wasn't too appealing, especially in the middle of a Michigan winter! The flashing process was relatively simple. After that was done, it took a while to configure the new bridge so that it could communicate with the existing router, and I had to switch network cables from the normal router to the bridge and back again about a dozen times before I got it all set up. Now every computer in the house can print directly to the Laserjet. No more copying files to a USB key and having Michelle take them to work to print them out!!! Of course, you do have to remember to turn the printer on first before trying to print to it!

Kudos to polarcloud for their awesome Tomato firmware -
http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

And a hat's off to Wi-Fi Planet and Aaron Weiss for an excellent tutorial on how to set it all up-
http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/tutorials/article.php/3810281

Next project will be using my Tomato powered Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 with all of it's advanced network/traffic/monitoring capabilities to replace the stock Linksys router we are currently using!

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