Posts Tagged ‘ANY’

Debugging Jitsi Meet Server Problems: A Practical Guide

Saturday, April 26th, 2025

Jitsi Meet is a powerful open-source video conferencing platform. But like any real-time communication system, it can run into issues—from video/audio glitches to full-blown connection failures. Debugging Jitsi Meet can be tricky due to its multi-component architecture. This guide walks you through a systematic approach to identify and resolve common server-side issues.

1. Understand the Architecture

Before diving into logs, it's important to understand Jitsi Meet's core components:
 

  • Jitsi Meet (Web UI) – The front-end interface.
  • Jicofo (Focus component) – Manages conference sessions.
  • Prosody (XMPP Server) – Handles user authentication and signaling.
  • JVB (Jitsi Videobridge) – Routes video/audio streams.
  • Nginx or Apache – Web server proxy (often with HTTPS and WebSocket forwarding).


Knowing how these interact helps pinpoint the failing layer.

2. Check Logs in the Right Places

Each component has its own logs. Check them in the following order:

Prosody Logs

Location: /var/log/prosody/prosody.log and prosody.err
​Look for: Authentication issues, connection denials, or component registration problems.
 

Jicofo Logs

Location:  /var/log/jitsi/jicofo.log
Look for: Room creation errors, XMPP connection failures, conference creation attempts.
 

JVB Logs

Location: /var/log/jitsi/jvb.log
​Look for: ICE failures, STUN/TURN issues, packet loss, and bridge reachability.
 

Web Server Logs (Nginx/Apache)

Location (Nginx): /var/log/nginx/error.log and access.log
Look for: HTTP errors (404, 502), WebSocket connection problems.
 

Browser Console Logs
 

Tools: Press F12 in browser → Console/Network tabs.
Look for: WebSocket failures, CORS issues, or media permission problems.
 

3. Common Problems & Fixes

"Failed to join conference"

  • Cause: Prosody may not be running or not configured correctly.​

Fix: Restart Prosody and check domain configuration in /etc/prosody/conf.avail/

 

 

No Audio or Video
 

Usual Cause: Media not reaching the bridge or blocked by firewall

Fix:

  • Verify JVB is listening on correct ports (UDP 10000).
  • ​Check firewall/NAT settings (especially on cloud VMs).
  • Use tcpdump or ss to check traffic flow.
     

WebSocket Connection Fails

 

Usual Cause: Web server (Proxy) misconfiguration.

Fix:

Ensure Nginx is forwarding WebSocket requests to /xmpp-websocket/ .
Add proper proxy settings in nginx.conf
 

Authentication Not Working


Cause: Misconfigured JWT or internal authentication.

Fix:

  • Check Prosody's config for authentication method.
  • If using JWT, verify token structure and shared secret.
     

4. Use Debugging Tools

  • Jitsi Meet in debug mode:


​Add #config.debug=true to your meeting URL.
 

  • ICE Debugging:

     

     

     

    Check about:webrtc (Firefox) or WebRTC Internals (Chrome).
    Look at ICE candidate gathering and connectivity checks.
    Test TURN/STUN:

    • Use tools like trickle-ice to validate your server's ICE configuration.

5. Networking and Firewall Checks

Make sure these ports are open:
 

  • TCP 443 – HTTPS
  • UDP 10000 – Media (JVB)
  • TCP 4443 – (Optional, fallback media)
  • TCP 5222 – XMPP (if not using BOSH/WebSocket)
     

# ss -tuln ufw status


6. Component Health Checks

Do 
# systemctl status for each main jitsi component services:

# systemctl status prosody
# systemctl status jicofo
# systemctl status jitsi-videobridge2

Check uptime, errors, or failure restarts.

7. Enable More Verbose Logs

Increase logging levels for deeper debugging:
 

  • Prosody: Edit /etc/prosody/prosody.cfg.lua → set log = { ... debug = "*" }.
  • Jicofo/JVB: Edit /etc/jitsi/jicofo/logging.properties and /etc/jitsi/videobridge/logging.properties
    → change log level to FINE or ALL .

 

8. Update & Restart Services

Sometimes updates or configs don’t apply until services are restarted:
 

# apt update && apt upgrade systemctl restart prosody jicofo jitsi-videobridge2 nginx

 

Final Closure Thoughts

Debugging Jitsi Meet requires a structured approach, start from the user-facing symptoms, trace through each service, and verify network and authentication configurations.
Debug the status of prosody, jicofo and jitsi-videobridge2, check the firewall openings are okay to the jitsi server
With some log analysis and a bit of patience, experimentation and the help of forums or Artificial Intelligence tool like ChatGPT, the Jitsi server errors will get solved.

All Debian Linux package repository apt sources.list file for Debian versions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Friday, May 31st, 2024

debian-package-management-repositories-for-all-distributions

If you have to administrate legacy Debian servers, that keeps hanging either for historical reasons or just because you didn't have time to upgrade it up to latest versions, machines that are hanging in the hangar or a mid office building Old server room, doing nothing but simply NAT (Network Address Translation), Proxying, serving  traffic via Squid / Haproxy / Apache / Varnish or Nginx server but you still want to have the possibility to extend the OS even though it is out of date / End of Life reached and out of support as well as perhaps full of security holes, but due to its unvisibility on the Internet hanging in a Demilitarized network the machine stayed on the Local (DMZ)-ed network and still for example you need to install simple things for administration reasons locally on the machine, for example nmap or netcat or some of the network tools for monitoring such as iftop or iptraf etc. you might find out unfortunately that this is not possible anymore, because the configured /etc/apt/sources.list repository mirror is no longer available at its URL. Thus to restore the functioning of apt and apt-get pkg management tools on Debian you need to correct the broken missing package mirrors due to resructurings on the network with a correct ones, originally provided by Debian or eventually if this doesn't work a possible Debian package archive URL. 

In this article, I'll simply provide such URLs you might use to correct your no longer functioning package manager due to package repositoriy unavailibility, below are the URLs (most of which that should be working as of year 2024). To resolve the issues edit and place the correct Debian version you're using.

1. Check the version of the Debian Linux

# cat /etc/debian_version


or use the universal way to check the linux OS, that should be working on almost all Linux distributions

# cat /etc/issue
Debian GNU/Linux 9 \n \l

2. Modify /etc/apt/sources.list and place URL according to Debian distro version

# vim /etc/apt/sources.list


3. Repositories URL list Original and Archived for .deb packages according to Debian distro release
Debian 6 (Wheezy)

Original repostiroes (Not Available and Not working anymore as of year 2024)

 

Old Archived .deb repository for 6 Squeeze

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian squeeze main
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian squeeze-lts main


​Debian 7 (Wheezy)

Original repostiroes (Not Available and Not working anymore as of year 2024)

Old Archived .deb repository for Jessie (still working as of 2024) :

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian wheezy main contrib non-free
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security wheezy/updates main

( Security updates are not provided anymore.)

NOTE:  If you get an error about keyrings, just install it
 

# apt-get install debian-archive-keyring


Debian 8 (Jessie)
Original .deb package repository with non-free included for Debian 8 "Jessie"

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

Old Archived .deb repository for 8 Jessie (still working as of 2024):

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main non-free contrib
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main non-free contrib
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security/ jessie/updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-security/ jessie/updates main non-free contrib

 

# echo "Acquire::Check-Valid-Until false;" | tee -a /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10-nocheckvalid

# apt-get update

# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

 

 If you need backports, first be warned that these are archived and no longer being updated; they may have security bugs or other major issues. They are not supported in any way.

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main


Debian 9 (Stretch)
Original .deb package repository with non-free included for Debian 9 "Stretch":

 

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free

Archived old repository .deb for Stretch :

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian/ stretch-proposed-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main contrib non-free


Debian 10 (Buster)
Origian repository URL:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster-updates main non-free contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main non-free contrib

 

Fixing unworking backports for Debian 10 Buster


Change the /etc/apt/sources.list URL with this one

deb http://archive.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free


If you want to list packages installed via the backports repository only, that needs to be replaced with newer versions (if such available from the repository)

# apt list –installed | grep backports
# dpkg –list | grep bpo
# dpkg –list | grep -E '^ii.*bpo.*'

ii  libpopt0:amd64                        1.18-2                         amd64        lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  libuutil3linux                        2.0.3-9~bpo10+1                amd64        Solaris userland utility library for Linux
ii  libzfs4linux                          2.0.3-9~bpo10+1                amd64        OpenZFS filesystem library for Linux


Debian 11 (Bullseye)
Origianl repository address:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free

Debian 12 (Bookworm)
Original Repository :

 

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free-firmware non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free-firmware non-free

Add Backports to sources.list

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main


Thats all, hopefully that would help some sysadmin out there. Enjoy !

Monitoring network traffic tools to debug network issues in console interactively on Linux

Thursday, December 14th, 2023

transport-layer-fourth-layer-data-transport-diagram

 

In my last article Debugging and routing network issues on Linux (common approaches), I've given some step by step methology on how to debug a network routing or unreachability issues between network hosts. As the article was mostly targetting a command line tools that can help debugging the network without much interactivity. I've decided to blog of a few other tools that might help the system administrator to debug network issues by using few a bit more interactive tools. Throughout the years of managing multitude of Linux based laptops and servers, as well as being involved in security testing and penetration in the past, these tools has always played an important role and are worthy to be well known and used by any self respecting sys admin or network security expert that has to deal with Linux and *Unix operating systems.
 

1. Debugging what is going on on a network level interactively with iptraf-ng

Historically iptraf and today's iptraf is also a great tool one can use to further aid the arsenal debug a network issue or Protocol problem, failure of packets or network interaction issues SYN -> ACK etc. proto interactions and check for Flag states and packets flow.

To use iptraf-ng which is a ncurses based tool just install it and launch it and select the interface you would like to debug trafic on.

To install On Debians distros

# apt install iptraf-ng –yes

# iptraf-ng


iptraf-ng-linux-select-interface-screen
 

iptraf-ng-listen-all-interfaces-check-tcp-flags-and-packets


Session-Layer-in-OSI-Model-diagram
 

2. Use hackers old tool sniffit to monitor current ongoing traffic and read plain text messages

Those older who remember the rise of Linux to the masses, should remember sniffit was a great tool to snoop for traffic on the network.

root@pcfreak:~# apt-cache show sniffit|grep -i description -A 10 -B10
Package: sniffit
Version: 0.5-1
Installed-Size: 139
Maintainer: Joao Eriberto Mota Filho <eriberto@debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14), libncurses6 (>= 6), libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8), libtinfo6 (>= 6)
Description-en: packet sniffer and monitoring tool
 Sniffit is a packet sniffer for TCP/UDP/ICMP packets over IPv4. It is able
 to give you a very detailed technical info on these packets, as SEQ, ACK,
 TTL, Window, etc. The packet contents also can be viewed, in different
 formats (hex or plain text, etc.).
 .
 Sniffit is based in libpcap and is useful when learning about computer
 networks and their security.
Description-md5: 973beeeaadf4c31bef683350f1346ee9
Homepage: https://github.com/resurrecting-open-source-projects/sniffit
Tag: interface::text-mode, mail::notification, role::program, scope::utility,
 uitoolkit::ncurses, use::monitor, use::scanning, works-with::mail,
 works-with::network-traffic
Section: net
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/s/sniffit/sniffit_0.5-1_amd64.deb
Size: 61796
MD5sum: ea4cc0bc73f9e94d5a3c1ceeaa485ee1
SHA256: 7ec76b62ab508ec55c2ef0ecea952b7d1c55120b37b28fb8bc7c86645a43c485

 

Sniffit is not installed by default on deb distros, so to give it a try install it

# apt install sniffit –yes
# sniffit


sniffit-linux-check-tcp-traffic-screenshot
 

3. Use bmon to monitor bandwidth and any potential traffic losses and check qdisc pfifo
Linux network stack queues

 

root@pcfreak:~# apt-cache show bmon |grep -i description
Description-en: portable bandwidth monitor and rate estimator
Description-md5: 3288eb0a673978e478042369c7927d3f
root@pcfreak:~# apt-cache show bmon |grep -i description -A 10 -B10
Package: bmon
Version: 1:4.0-7
Installed-Size: 146
Maintainer: Patrick Matthäi <pmatthaei@debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.17), libconfuse2 (>= 3.2.1~), libncursesw6 (>= 6), libnl-3-200 (>= 3.2.7), libnl-route-3-200 (>= 3.2.7), libtinfo6 (>= 6)
Description-en: portable bandwidth monitor and rate estimator
 bmon is a commandline bandwidth monitor which supports various output
 methods including an interactive curses interface, lightweight HTML output but
 also simple ASCII output.
 .
 Statistics may be distributed over a network using multicast or unicast and
 collected at some point to generate a summary of statistics for a set of
 nodes.
Description-md5: 3288eb0a673978e478042369c7927d3f
Homepage: http://www.infradead.org/~tgr/bmon/
Tag: implemented-in::c, interface::text-mode, network::scanner,
 role::program, scope::utility, uitoolkit::ncurses, use::monitor,
 works-with::network-traffic
Section: net
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/b/bmon/bmon_4.0-7_amd64.deb
Size: 47348
MD5sum: c210f8317eafa22d9e3a8fb8316e0901
SHA256: 21730fc62241aee827f523dd33c458f4a5a7d4a8cf0a6e9266a3e00122d80645

 

root@pcfreak:~# apt install bmon –yes

root@pcfreak:~# bmon

bmon_monitor_qdisc-network-stack-bandwidth-on-linux

4. Use nethogs net diagnosis text interactive tool

NetHogs is a small 'net top' tool. 
Instead of breaking the traffic down per protocol or per subnet, like most tools do, it groups bandwidth by process.
 

root@pcfreak:~# apt-cache show nethogs|grep -i description -A10 -B10
Package: nethogs
Source: nethogs (0.8.5-2)
Version: 0.8.5-2+b1
Installed-Size: 79
Maintainer: Paulo Roberto Alves de Oliveira (aka kretcheu) <kretcheu@gmail.com>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.0), libncurses6 (>= 6), libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8), libstdc++6 (>= 5.2), libtinfo6 (>= 6)
Description-en: Net top tool grouping bandwidth per process
 NetHogs is a small 'net top' tool. Instead of breaking the traffic down per
 protocol or per subnet, like most tools do, it groups bandwidth by process.
 NetHogs does not rely on a special kernel module to be loaded.
Description-md5: 04c153c901ad7ca75e53e2ae32565ccd
Homepage: https://github.com/raboof/nethogs
Tag: admin::monitoring, implemented-in::c++, role::program,
 uitoolkit::ncurses, use::monitor, works-with::network-traffic
Section: net
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/n/nethogs/nethogs_0.8.5-2+b1_amd64.deb
Size: 30936
MD5sum: 500047d154a1fcde5f6eacaee45148e7
SHA256: 8bc69509f6a8c689bf53925ff35a5df78cf8ad76fff176add4f1530e66eba9dc

root@pcfreak:~# apt install nethogs –yes

# nethogs


nethogs-tool-screenshot-show-user-network--traffic-by-process-name-ID

5;.Use iftop –  to display network interface usage

 

root@pcfreak:~# apt-cache show iftop |grep -i description -A10 -B10
Package: iftop
Version: 1.0~pre4-7
Installed-Size: 97
Maintainer: Markus Koschany <apo@debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.29), libncurses6 (>= 6), libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8), libtinfo6 (>= 6)
Description-en: displays bandwidth usage information on an network interface
 iftop does for network usage what top(1) does for CPU usage. It listens to
 network traffic on a named interface and displays a table of current bandwidth
 usage by pairs of hosts. Handy for answering the question "Why is my Internet
 link so slow?".
Description-md5: f7e93593aba6acc7b5a331b49f97466f
Homepage: http://www.ex-parrot.com/~pdw/iftop/
Tag: admin::monitoring, implemented-in::c, interface::text-mode,
 role::program, scope::utility, uitoolkit::ncurses, use::monitor,
 works-with::network-traffic
Section: net
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/i/iftop/iftop_1.0~pre4-7_amd64.deb
Size: 42044
MD5sum: c9bb9c591b70753880e455f8dc416e0a
SHA256: 0366a4e54f3c65b2bbed6739ae70216b0017e2b7421b416d7c1888e1f1cb98b7

 

 

root@pcfreak:~# apt install –yes iftop

iftop-interactive-network-traffic-output-linux-screenshot


6. Ettercap (tool) to active and passive dissect network protocols for in depth network and host analysis

root@pcfreak:/var/www/images# apt-cache show ettercap-common|grep -i description -A10 -B10
Package: ettercap-common
Source: ettercap
Version: 1:0.8.3.1-3
Installed-Size: 2518
Maintainer: Debian Security Tools <team+pkg-security@tracker.debian.org>
Architecture: amd64
Depends: ethtool, geoip-database, libbsd0 (>= 0.0), libc6 (>= 2.14), libcurl4 (>= 7.16.2), libgeoip1 (>= 1.6.12), libluajit-5.1-2 (>= 2.0.4+dfsg), libnet1 (>= 1.1.6), libpcap0.8 (>= 0.9.8), libpcre3, libssl1.1 (>= 1.1.1), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4)
Recommends: ettercap-graphical | ettercap-text-only
Description-en: Multipurpose sniffer/interceptor/logger for switched LAN
 Ettercap supports active and passive dissection of many protocols
 (even encrypted ones) and includes many feature for network and host
 analysis.
 .
 Data injection in an established connection and filtering (substitute
 or drop a packet) on the fly is also possible, keeping the connection
 synchronized.
 .
 Many sniffing modes are implemented, for a powerful and complete
 sniffing suite. It is possible to sniff in four modes: IP Based, MAC Based,
 ARP Based (full-duplex) and PublicARP Based (half-duplex).
 .
 Ettercap also has the ability to detect a switched LAN, and to use OS
 fingerprints (active or passive) to find the geometry of the LAN.
 .
 This package contains the Common support files, configuration files,
 plugins, and documentation.  You must also install either
 ettercap-graphical or ettercap-text-only for the actual GUI-enabled
 or text-only ettercap executable, respectively.
Description-md5: f1d894b138f387661d0f40a8940fb185
Homepage: https://ettercap.github.io/ettercap/
Tag: interface::text-mode, network::scanner, role::app-data, role::program,
 uitoolkit::ncurses, use::scanning
Section: net
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/e/ettercap/ettercap-common_0.8.3.1-3_amd64.deb
Size: 734972
MD5sum: 403d87841f8cdd278abf20bce83cb95e
SHA256: 500aee2f07e0fae82489321097aee8a97f9f1970f6e4f8978140550db87e4ba9


root@pcfreak:/ # apt install ettercap-text-only –yes

root@pcfreak:/ # ettercap -C

 

ettercap-text-interface-unified-sniffing-screenshot-linux

7. iperf and netperf to measure connecitivity speed on Network LAN and between Linux server hosts

iperf and netperf are two very handy tools to measure the speed of a network and various aspects of the bandwidth. It is mostly useful when designing network infrastructure or building networks from scratch.
 

If you never used netperf in the past here is a description from man netperf

NAME
       netperf – a network performance benchmark

SYNOPSIS
       netperf [global options] — [test specific options]

DESCRIPTION
       Netperf  is  a benchmark that can be used to measure various aspects of
       networking performance.  Currently, its focus is on bulk data  transfer
       and  request/response  performance  using  either  TCP  or UDP, and the
       Berkeley Sockets interface. In addition, tests for DLPI, and  Unix  Do‐
       main Sockets, tests for IPv6 may be conditionally compiled-in.

 

root@freak:~# netperf
MIGRATED TCP STREAM TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to localhost () port 0 AF_INET : demo
Recv   Send    Send
Socket Socket  Message  Elapsed
Size   Size    Size     Time     Throughput
bytes  bytes   bytes    secs.    10^6bits/sec

 87380  65536  65536    10.00    17669.96

 

Testing UDP network throughput using NetPerf

Change the test name from TCP_STREAM to UDP_STREAM. Let’s use 1024 (1MB) as the message size to be sent by the client.
If you receive the following error send_data: data send error: Network is unreachable (errno 101) netperf: send_omni:

send_data failed: Network is unreachable, add option -R 1 to remove the iptable rule that prohibits NetPerf UDP flow.

$ netperf -H 172.31.56.48 -t UDP_STREAM -l 300 — -R 1 -m 1024
MIGRATED UDP STREAM TEST from 0.0.0.0 (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to 172.31.56.48 () port 0 AF_INET
Socket Message Elapsed Messages
Size Size Time Okay Errors Throughput
bytes bytes secs # # 10^6bits/sec

212992 1024 300.00 9193386 0 251.04
212992 300.00 9131380 249.35

UDP Throughput in a WAN

$ netperf -H HOST -t UDP_STREAM -l 300 — -R 1 -m 1024
MIGRATED UDP STREAM TEST from (null) (0.0.0.0) port 0 AF_INET to (null) () port 0 AF_INET : histogram : spin interval
Socket Message Elapsed Messages
Size Size Time Okay Errors Throughput
bytes bytes secs # # 10^6bits/sec

9216 1024 300.01 35627791 0 972.83
212992 300.01 253099 6.91

 

 

Testing TCP throughput using iPerf


Here is a short description of iperf

NAME
       iperf – perform network throughput tests

SYNOPSIS
       iperf -s [options]

       iperf -c server [options]

       iperf -u -s [options]

       iperf -u -c server [options]

DESCRIPTION
       iperf  2  is  a tool for performing network throughput and latency mea‐
       surements. It can test using either TCP or UDP protocols.  It  supports
       both  unidirectional  and  bidirectional traffic. Multiple simultaneous
       traffic streams are also supported. Metrics are displayed to help  iso‐
       late the causes which impact performance. Setting the enhanced (-e) op‐
       tion provides all available metrics.

       The user must establish both a both a server (to discard traffic) and a
       client (to generate traffic) for a test to occur. The client and server
       typically are on different hosts or computers but need not be.

 

Run iPerf3 as server on the server:

$ iperf3 –server –interval 30
———————————————————–
Server listening on 5201
———————————————————–

 

Test TCP Throughput in Local LAN

 

$ iperf3 –client 172.31.56.48 –time 300 –interval 30
Connecting to host 172.31.56.48, port 5201
[ 4] local 172.31.100.5 port 44728 connected to 172.31.56.48 port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr Cwnd
[ 4] 0.00-30.00 sec 1.70 GBytes 488 Mbits/sec 138 533 KBytes
[ 4] 30.00-60.00 sec 260 MBytes 72.6 Mbits/sec 19 489 KBytes
[ 4] 60.00-90.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.5 Mbits/sec 15 542 KBytes
[ 4] 90.00-120.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.3 Mbits/sec 13 559 KBytes
[ 4] 120.00-150.00 sec 228 MBytes 63.7 Mbits/sec 16 463 KBytes
[ 4] 150.00-180.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.4 Mbits/sec 13 524 KBytes
[ 4] 180.00-210.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.5 Mbits/sec 14 559 KBytes
[ 4] 210.00-240.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.5 Mbits/sec 14 437 KBytes
[ 4] 240.00-270.00 sec 228 MBytes 63.7 Mbits/sec 14 516 KBytes
[ 4] 270.00-300.00 sec 227 MBytes 63.5 Mbits/sec 14 524 KBytes
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Retr
[ 4] 0.00-300.00 sec 3.73 GBytes 107 Mbits/sec 270 sender
[ 4] 0.00-300.00 sec 3.73 GBytes 107 Mbits/sec receiver

Test TCP Throughput in a WAN Network

$ iperf3 –client HOST –time 300 –interval 30
Connecting to host HOST, port 5201
[ 5] local 192.168.1.73 port 56756 connected to HOST port 5201
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[ 5] 0.00-30.00 sec 21.2 MBytes 5.93 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 30.00-60.00 sec 27.0 MBytes 7.55 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 60.00-90.00 sec 28.6 MBytes 7.99 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 90.00-120.00 sec 28.7 MBytes 8.02 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 120.00-150.00 sec 28.5 MBytes 7.97 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 150.00-180.00 sec 28.6 MBytes 7.99 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 180.00-210.00 sec 28.4 MBytes 7.94 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 210.00-240.00 sec 28.5 MBytes 7.97 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 240.00-270.00 sec 28.6 MBytes 8.00 Mbits/sec
[ 5] 270.00-300.00 sec 27.9 MBytes 7.81 Mbits/sec
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate
[ 5] 0.00-300.00 sec 276 MBytes 7.72 Mbits/sec sender
[ 5] 0.00-300.00 sec 276 MBytes 7.71 Mbits/sec receiver

 

$ iperf3 –client 172.31.56.48 –interval 30 -u -b 100MB
Accepted connection from 172.31.100.5, port 39444
[ 5] local 172.31.56.48 port 5201 connected to 172.31.100.5 port 36436
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams
[ 5] 0.00-30.00 sec 354 MBytes 98.9 Mbits/sec 0.052 ms 330/41774 (0.79%)
[ 5] 30.00-60.00 sec 355 MBytes 99.2 Mbits/sec 0.047 ms 355/41903 (0.85%)
[ 5] 60.00-90.00 sec 354 MBytes 98.9 Mbits/sec 0.048 ms 446/41905 (1.1%)
[ 5] 90.00-120.00 sec 355 MBytes 99.4 Mbits/sec 0.045 ms 261/41902 (0.62%)
[ 5] 120.00-150.00 sec 354 MBytes 99.1 Mbits/sec 0.048 ms 401/41908 (0.96%)
[ 5] 150.00-180.00 sec 353 MBytes 98.7 Mbits/sec 0.047 ms 530/41902 (1.3%)
[ 5] 180.00-210.00 sec 353 MBytes 98.8 Mbits/sec 0.059 ms 496/41904 (1.2%)
[ 5] 210.00-240.00 sec 354 MBytes 99.0 Mbits/sec 0.052 ms 407/41904 (0.97%)
[ 5] 240.00-270.00 sec 351 MBytes 98.3 Mbits/sec 0.059 ms 725/41903 (1.7%)
[ 5] 270.00-300.00 sec 354 MBytes 99.1 Mbits/sec 0.043 ms 393/41908 (0.94%)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams
[ 5] 0.00-300.04 sec 3.45 GBytes 98.94 Mbits/sec 0.043 ms 4344/418913 (1%)

UDP Throughput in a WAN

$ iperf3 –client HOST –time 300 -u -b 7.7MB
Accepted connection from 45.29.190.145, port 60634
[ 5] local 172.31.56.48 port 5201 connected to 45.29.190.145 port 52586
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams
[ 5] 0.00-30.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 7.67 Mbits/sec 0.438 ms 64/19902 (0.32%)
[ 5] 30.00-60.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 7.69 Mbits/sec 0.446 ms 35/19940 (0.18%)
[ 5] 60.00-90.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 7.68 Mbits/sec 0.384 ms 39/19925 (0.2%)
[ 5] 90.00-120.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 7.68 Mbits/sec 0.528 ms 70/19950 (0.35%)
[ 5] 120.00-150.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 7.67 Mbits/sec 0.460 ms 51/19924 (0.26%)
[ 5] 150.00-180.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 7.69 Mbits/sec 0.485 ms 37/19948 (0.19%)
[ 5] 180.00-210.00 sec 27.5 MBytes 7.68 Mbits/sec 0.572 ms 49/19941 (0.25%)
[ 5] 210.00-240.00 sec 26.8 MBytes 7.50 Mbits/sec 0.800 ms 443/19856 (2.2%)
[ 5] 240.00-270.00 sec 27.4 MBytes 7.66 Mbits/sec 0.570 ms 172/20009 (0.86%)
[ 5] 270.00-300.00 sec 25.3 MBytes 7.07 Mbits/sec 0.423 ms 1562/19867 (7.9%)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth Jitter Lost/Total Datagrams
[ 5] 0.00-300.00 sec 272 MBytes 7.60 Mbits/sec 0.423 ms 2522/199284 (1.3%)
[SUM] 0.0-300.2 sec 31 datagrams received out-of-order


Sum it up what learned


Debugging network issues and snooping on a Local LAN (DMZ) network on a server or home LAN is useful  to debug for various network issues and more importantly track and know abou tsecurity threads such as plain text passowd communication via insecure protocols a failure of proper communication between Linux network nodes at times, or simply to get a better idea on what kind of network is your new purchased dedicated server living in .It can help you also strenghten your security and close up any possible security holes, or even help you start thinking like a security intruder (cracker / hacker) would do. In this article we went through few of my favourite tools I use for many years quite often. These tools are just part of the tons of useful *Unix free tools available to do a network debug. Tools mentioned up are worthy to install on every server you have to administratrate or even your home desktop PCs, these are iptraf, sniffit, iftop, bmon, nethogs, nmon, ettercap, iperf and netperf.
 If you have some other useful tools used on Linux sys admin tasks please share, I'll be glad to know it and put them in my arsenal of used tools.

Enjoy ! 🙂

Living of New Martyr Saint Onuphrius of Gabrovo, a Bulgarian saint martyred in year 1818

Friday, June 17th, 2022

sveti-Onufrij-Gabrovski-saint-Onufrius-Gabrovski

The New Martyr saint Onufrij ( Onuphrius ) (1786 – 1818) was born in Gabrovo, Veliko Tarnovo Diocese, to pious and noble parents.
(His father Decho later became a monk under the name of Daniel in the same Hilendar monastery on Mount Athos, where his son was then active).
The child Onuphrius was given the name Matthew in Holy Baptism.
When he grew up, he was sent to a one of scarce Bulgarian schools, where he studied well.
When he was 17 years old, his parents once punished him for some childish thing unrest, and out of frivolous childishness, he declared in the presence of Turks that he would accept the Muslim faith.

In such cases, the Turks immediately seized the person who gave the promise to convert to islam and performed the rite of Mohammedan circumcision on him.

To prevent this, his parents hid him and perhaps sent him to the "fotress" of Christian Orthodox FaIth and keeper of Bulgarian spirit, the Troyan Monastery "Holy Mother of God".
In Troyan Monastery, to this day there is a the mouth to mouth legend that the Venerable Martyr Onuphrius began his monastic feat and received his first monastic haircut here with the name Manasseah (Manasij).

sveti-Onufrij-Gabrovski-Bylgarski-svetec

He ascended diligently in spiritual life, but the voice of his conscience began to rebuke him more and more for his public denial of Christianity, even if only in words.
Probably because of this he went to Holy Mount Athos, hoping that there, under the guidance of more experienced elders, he would repent enough and calm his conscience.
Manasseah spent some time in the Hilendar Monastery (a monastery that at this time has been inhibited with many Bulgarian monks), where he was ordained a deacon.

But, as the holy fathers of the Church say, the more a Christian grows in virtue, the deeper he humbles himself and his small sins seem great., same happened with Hierodeacon Manasseah.

He was always impressed by the words of the Savior Christ:

"Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven; but whosoever denieth me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 10: 32-33).

And from the lives of the saints he was especially deeply moved by the example of the holy martyr Barlaam, who held his hand without trembling over the burning pagan altar until his hand burned completely, but did not drop incense on the altar, to protect the occusation that he has offered incense to the idols.
His heart was inflamed with jealousy when the Venerable Euthymius, Ignatius and Acacius (Agathius), performed their martyrdom.
Then Manasseah secretly left Hilendar and went to the Forerunner's Hermitage to the local clergyman (elder) Nicephorus with a request to prepare him for such a martyrdom.

For four months he worked hard on enormous spiritual and bodly feats under the guidance of this elder.
Every day Manasseh made four thousand bows; his prayer was unceasing; his remorseful mood brought tears to his eyes.

During these four months of preparation he ate two and a half kilograms of dried grapes, and in the strictest forty-day fast he ate 30 grams of bread every two or three days and drank water in moderation.
After Elder Nicephorus thus prepared him for the impending martyrdom, he cut his hair in a great scheme receiving the great-schema name of Onufrij ( Onuphrius ) and sent him to the island of Chios with the same companion, Elder Gregory, whom he sent with the other martyrs анд вхере тхеир feat would take place there.

On Island Chios Saint Onuphrius lived one Sunday in fasting and prayer, while on Friday, the day of Christ's suffering, he appeared in Turkish robes before the local turkish judge, openly blasphemed Muhammad and threw the green turban on his head.

holy-new-martyr-Onufrius-Onufrij-of-Gabrovo

He was exhorted, thrown into prison, tortured, and sentenced to death the same day.
On January 4, 1818, his head was cut off on the seashore and along with his blood his body was thrown into the sea, so that Christians could not take for granted his holiness any particle veneration of the Venerable Martyr.

Before his death, some asked him about his name and homeland.
The Venerable Martyr replied that his name was Matthew and that he was from Veliko Tarnovo.
In this way he wanted to save the Holy Mount Athos and his monastery from troubles by the Turks.
Soon after his martyrdom, the Greeks from Mount Athos, soon canonized him and compiled a (living) biography and a service in his honor.

Text Translated from:

© Lives of the Saints. Synodal Publishing House of Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Sofia, 1991, edited by Parthenius, Bishop of Lefkada and Archimandrite Dr. Athanasius (Bonchev).

In Praise of Holy 40 Martyrs of Sebaste – a medieval work by Saint Clement of Ohrid (The Wonderworker)

Wednesday, March 9th, 2022

Holy_40_Martyrs-martyrdom-Bulgarian-icon

I consider / think for the will of the same mind and the equality of wisdom of these fourty martyrs and in amazement, I resort to Christ,  by whom clearly comes every good giving and every gift, as the Many-Blessed Paul said and blessed: “Thou are Christ – a God’s power and wisdom.” And with that power, were filled the many-blessed fourty warriors, martyrs for Christ.

They shone in the world like the brightest stars and illuminated the whole universe with the rays of the knowledge of God, having among them the spiritual sun – Christ. Illuminated by its light and adorned with great beauty, they blossomed with special faith like fragrant lilies, abundantly watered with the dew of the Holy Spirit. Decorating themselves with good deeds, they became beloved of their Lord, because in purity and love they surpassed each other. They shone like lamps with spiritual radiance: some with fasting and abstinence, others with good faith and hospitality; some with kneeling prayer and sincerity, and others with humility and meekness; some with vigilance and sincere love, and others with love and mercy for the poor. Indeed, the power of the Holy Spirit was with them, urging them to every good deed and by faith protecting them from every calamity.

And so, they were as homogeneous in appearance and beauty. Weaved through faith and love like a golden necklace, they were connected to each other by unanimity. Leaving the vain way of life, they zealously wished to stand before the unspoken glory of God through good deeds and sincere love. They urged each other to hurry to the holy path of feat. Instead of armor, they put on the faith, and instead of a shield, they armed themselves with The Cross and appeared in battle like Lightning – Riding against thousands and tens of thousands and were glorified with Victory. They fought a double war – with Visible and Invisible enemies.

Ivory_Relief-from-Constantinople_40_Martyr-10th-century-now-kept-in_Bode-museum-Berlin

Ivory Relief icon 40 Martyr 10th century from Constantinople now kept in Bode museum Berlin

The devil, who could not see their beauty and faith, as well as their pure life, fought against them by entering the malevolent court of Licinius, who was autocratic at the time. He raised persecution against Christians. Wanting to deceitfully capture the faithful martyrs, Licinius forced everyone to worship idols. But the ancient prophet proclaimed and said: “Lord will not leave the rod of the wicked on the lot of the righteous, so that the righteous do not stretch out their hands to iniquity. Lord, do good to the good and to the righteous at heart! ” With this light they illuminated themselves, striving brilliantly and wonderfully in martyrdom, despising the ordinary pleasure of joy. Cheering each other on, they said to each other, “Brethren, let us not be afraid of this short-lived torment, which passes quickly like a shadow, but brings us into the eternal dwellings. Therefore, brothers, stand firmly armed against the adversery-enemy, so that we may be adorned with victorious crowns of Christ God!
Because for the sake of earthly life and for the sake of the mortal king we did not spare ourselves in battles, but, having fallen into many troubles, protected by the power of God, we emerged victorious, then – if we try to follow him, taking upon ourselves his voluntary sufferings, we hope that he will be with us, as he promised: “When you are taken to assemblies, to authorities, to prisons, to kings and princes, and to tormentors for my name's sake, do not worry about what to say or what to answer, for I will give you words and wisdom that all your adversaries will not be able to resist or contradict. And do not be afraid of those who kill the body and can do no harm to the soul; but be afraid of him; who, after the murder, has the power to throw into hell. "

With these words, they learned and supported each other, and powerfully trampled on the devil's cunning. They gladly endured all kinds of sorrows, saying to themselves the apostolic word: "God is not unjust, brethren, to forget your labor."

40_Holy_Martyrs-of-Sebaste-Sebastia-in-the-ice-cold-lake-icon

40 Holy Martyrs of Sebaste martyrdon in the Lake Εκκλησιαστικό Μουσείο (Alexandrupoli, Greece Church Museum)

When they stood at night, in the cold, in the middle of the swamp, near the town of Sebastia, here is one of them, turning away, ran to the bathroom (built near the plateau) and, touching the heat, it melted like ice and died. And suddenly an unspeakable light shone from the sky on them, and the cold turned from it into warmth. And forty crowns descended from heaven upon their heads. Only one wreath remained, with nowhere to stop.The guardian, seeing this miracle, took off his clothes, jumped to the martyrs and cried out in a loud voice: “I believe in the Son of God Jesus Christ, in whom even these holy martyrs believe; may He honor me with the same glory, so that I may complete with them a martyr's deed! ” And immediately the crown of unspeakable glory descended on his head and stood. This is God's mercy, as the Lord Himself said, "The last shall be first, and the first last."

oly_Forty_Martyrs_Church-in-Veliko-Tarnovo-Trnov-Bulgaria
Church of Holy Martyrs, ex-Capital of Bulgarian Empire Tarnovo / Trnov, Bulgaria

Therefore, how can we praise the most holy company, from which this wretched man fell away, as Judas once fell away from God's chosen company, and as the devil fell away from the angelic staff and from the light and became the ruler of darkness and deserved eternal torment. His envy engulfed this wretched man. But still the devil was trampled by the invincibles.

The church nourished them with spiritual food, crowned them with the brightest wreaths; he made them companions of the angels and showed them to the whole universe as bright lamps. With their miracles they shine more than the sun. The prophet announced about them in antiquity, saying: “You have tested us, O God, you have melted us as silver is melted; put men over our heads. We went through fire and water and you set us free. " As they desired this eternal peace, they left behind the beauty of life, houses, wealth, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, wife, children, and even despised their lives, according to the Lord's command. That is why the Lord has miraculously shown all His favor to them. Indeed, they were vessels of good use, chosen for the service of the only ruler and our savior, Jesus Christ. Nothing could separate Christ's love from them: no fire, no water, no other suffering.

That is why today we celebrate their memory with respect and, giving them the due praise, we say: "Rejoice, all-honorable and wonderful company of the most glorious army!"

They became like the disembodied forces and surpassed them; for they, being disembodied, stand in their place and enjoy the unspeakable beauty. And the martyrs, having swum the earthly ravaged sea , illuminated the whole world with their blood. With spiritual wings, they flew up and stood before the unspeakable glory of God. They abundantly heal the sick, cast out demons, alleviate suffering, enlighten churches, keep the peace, guide people to good deeds, cast out demons and quickly destroy their cunning, enrich the poor in two ways – mentally and physically – destroy heresies. Shining with the brightest dawns, they became great advocates – martyrs for the faith.


Chapel_of_the_Forty_Martyrs_holy-martyrs-holy-relics-Church-of-Holy-Sepulchre-Jerusalem

Chapel of the Forty Martyrs containing the Holy Relics Church of Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem


So what mouth or which tongue will be able to praise these heavenly lamps, which appeared brighter than the sun? With their pure relics, they illuminated the whole world like stars. They warmed the day's frost, ignited by the Holy Spirit. And fiery flames extinguished them, as once the godly youths in Babylon. With their golden bones they illuminated the streams of the river, adorned all the churches with their fragrant relics, delighted the world with their unspeakable miracles, banished deception, and planted the truth, stepped on the devil, rejoiced Christ! That is why the right hand of the Almighty adorned them with bright wreaths and illuminated them with the rays of the unspeakable light, honored them wonderfully and with the honor to stand before God, clothed them with God-woven clothes, filled them with the power of the Holy Spirit and made them equal to disembodied forces. . That is why God is wonderful among his saints, always glorifying those who glorify him, and miraculously honoring them with unspeakable miracles. I want to tell one of their many miracles, namely how children listen to their noble mother.

Sveti-40_Mychneici-Bylgaria-Holy-40-Martyrs-Manastir_-_Vrachesh-Bulgaria

A Nun Monastery near Vrachesh Village, Bulgaria – Monastic Church

When these blessed martyrs surrendered their holy souls into the hands of the Lord, one of them was still breathing. His mother, seeing that he was left alive, rejected the female weakness, took male audacity, took his beloved son on his shoulders and, following him (after the car loaded with the bodies of the martyrs), said to him: "Do your best, Sufferer for Christ, be courageous and strengthen your heart, and may my soul rejoice for you! Do not fall away, as Judas once fell away from the apostles, nor as one of you has now fallen away, but give God all your hope and your spirit, and he will support you; for, behold, Christ is standing before you, brother, to receive your soul and await your arrival. ” As she spoke this, her son, carried by her, surrendered his soul into the hands of the Lord. She took it, placed it with the saints, and said, "Rest, child, with your holy company, and remember me with them in your holy prayers, so that I may accomplish your martyrdom." Then she returned with joy, praising God. Have you heard, brethren, of the love and boldness of the Christ-loving mother? How she feared neither the king, nor the tormentor, nor the sword, nor the fire, but only the life-giver of God.

Merdanya_monastery_40_Martyrs-after-the-battle-of-Klokotnitsa-by-Bulgarian-ruler-Ivan_Asen-II-near-Lyaskovec

Church of 40 Holy Martyrs in Merdanya Monastery near Lyskovec Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria (The monastery in thankfulness to the martyrs for helping the Bulgarian King Ivan Asen II in the Famous Medieval battle of Klokotnitsa which occured on 9th of March year 1230 near the Village of Klokotnitsa – As a result, Bulgaria emerged once again for short time as the most powerful state in South-Eastern Europe)

Therefore, if we reject from ourselves any fear of men, let us make room in ourselves for the fear of God. May he enlighten our souls and hearts! May we always abide in fasting, in purity and sincere love, in meekness and obedience, abstaining from all evil. Let us adorn ourselves with good deeds, like these most holy martyrs, glorifying the Most Holy Trinity, one in three persons – the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit – now and always, and forever. Amen!

Text originally existing in Church Slavonic and translated to Bulgarian language by Archimandrite Dr. Atanasii Bonchev (who was also the Author of the Book the Living of the Saints used in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church even today)
 

The Menaion (one of Liturgy service books) of the Eastern Orthodox Church lists the names of the Forty Martyrs as follows:

  • Hesychius, Meliton, Heraclius, Smaragdus, Domnus, Eunoicus, Valens, Vivianus, Claudius, Priscus, Theodulus, Euthychius, John, Xantheas, Helianus, Sisinius, Cyrion, Angius, Aetius, Flavius, Acacius, Ecditius, Lysimachus, Alexander, Elias, Candidus, Theophilus, Dometian, Gaius, Gorgonius, Eutyches, Athanasius, Cyril, Sacerdon, Nicholas, Valaerius, Philoctimon, Severian, Chudion, and Aglaius.


A curious fact is in the Eastern Orthodox Church, there is a prayer mentioning the Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste is also placed in the Orthodox Wedding Service (referred to as a "crowning") to remind the bride and groom that spiritual crowns await them in Heaven also if they remain as faithful to Christ as these saints of long ago.

Hearing on the enormousness of Saintship of the Holy Fourty Martyrs and their endurance. 
Let us ask them for their holy prayers for more peace, love, faith and hope and endurance and patience on the hard trials each one of us face constantly!

Holy 40 Martyrs of Sebastia Pray the Lord Jesus Christ so we find mercy in God!

How to Create New Windows 10 NTFS Drive partition from new empty ( Unallocated ) space with Windows Disk Management or diskpart command

Thursday, November 18th, 2021

Windows-10-paritioning-with-disk-management-diskmgmt.msc

As mentioned in previous article, I've been setting up a new PC that is a bit old a 11 years old Lenovo ThinkCentre model M90P with 8 GB of Memory, Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU         650  @ 3.20GHz   3.19 GHz, Intel Q57 Express Chipset.

After the installation was successful on the new Desktop PC attached SSD, I was curious to see how Windows detects the 521 GB Solid State Drive Samsung  Disk, as well as to assign all the SSD Disk space, so I don't have unused parts of the drive hanging around.

To get the exact type of SSD installed on the Lenovo ThinkCentre, it comes to a simple PowerShell command (note that the PowerShell command has to be executed as Administrator).

 

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\Windows\system32> Get-PhysicalDisk

Number FriendlyName               SerialNumber   MediaType CanPool OperationalStatus HealthStatus Usage            Size
—— ————               ————   ——— ——- —————– ———— —–            —-
0      SAMSUNG MZ7LN512HAJQ-00000 S3TVNX0MC04330 SSD       True    OK                Healthy      Auto-Select 476.94 GB


PS C:\Windows\system32>
 

 

PowerShell-Get-PhysicalDisk-command-print-exact-SSD-type-attached-to-a-Windows-computer 

During the Windows installation, I did installed Windows on a 110GB partition that was left behind from my attempt to copy another 120GB ssd drive as, I've described in my previous article.
Cause of that big part of the SAMSUNG MZ7LN512HAJQ-00000 SSD was left unpartitioned ( unallocated ) and respectively the space did not show in Windows, hence to work around this I was supposed to 
create new Windows Drive and format it either in VFAT (FAT32) or NTFS. Through the years when I had to do such an operations I often either booted from some bootCD and did the desired partitioning or if
partitioning had to be done on a LivePC without reboot, I've used Windows Partitioning Software, such as:

  • The Industry Standard Partition Manager ( Acronis Disk Director ) 
     
  • EaseUS Partition Manager


Using a Good partition manager is a great thing if some complicated partitioning operations needs to be done,  however for such a trivial stuff such as mine in that case – Creating a new NTFS filesystem from unallocated space is a bit of nonsense, thus this time I've decided to use the Windows Standard tool for Partitioinng
 

  • Disk Management

To run the tool you need to run Computer Management tool first either by just looking it up in the Search bar near Start menu (Windows 10 flag icon) or by invoking command line start window, by pressing together

Windows Button + R and runnining command:

C:\Users\Emilian> compmgmt.msc

 

From there on navigate to

Storage -> Disk Management

windows-computer-management-screenshot

Go over box Unallocated (365.15 GB) and Press Right Mouse Button and select

-> New Simple Volume

new-simple-volume-screenshot

Next steps are quite self explanatory, had to just follow the New Simple Volme Wizard steps

windows-computer-management-screenshot

windows-computer-management-screenshot-3

windows-computer-management-screenshot-4

I Prefer to use NTFS because it is quicker and kinda of a standard since Windows 8+ onwards, besides that this computer will be used as a simple web browsing station and there is no plans the disk will ever have to be attached to a different OS like UNIX / LInux..However always keep in mind for compitability reasons VFAT Filesystem is usually not a bad idea. 

windows-computer-management-screenshot-5

https://www.pc-freak.net/images/new-ntfs-volume-F-drive-windows-10-screenshot

As you can see the drive is prepared and now accessible from Windows Explorer under Drive F:\. If you wonder why the drive is not D:\, it seems to create the D:\ the unallocated space is supposed to be be on a separate Disk which waas not the case with this PC setup.

After installing the SSD drive and setting the proper partitions another good practice is to use Disk Defragmenter Win tool to optimize the Drives for speed. Another useful feature of disk degragmenter is you can use it to check what kind of hard drive you have installed e.g. SATA or SSD, as well as check if the installed SSD is NVME (Non-Volatile-Memory-Express), e.g. of a faster type.

To run Disk Degrafmenter do  Win key + R
 


C:\Users\Emilian> dfrgui

 

dfrgui-command-screenshot-windows-1

Below is what dfrgui reports on the ThinkCentre after running Disk Optimize for each Drive – (Optimize All) option.

dfrgui-partitions-on-lenovo-thinkcentre-windows-screeshot

Just to show you what you can see with dfrgui, here is the dfrgui screenshot from another PC that has attached both SATA disk and NVME SSD Drive.

dfrgui-command-screenshot-windows-2

 

How to do partitioning from Windows console with diskpart command (useful for scripting)

 

If you're coming from Linux world and you're pretty used to fdisk / cfdisk etc. to do partitioning daily, then you'll be most happy to hear about existence of the diskpart command in Windows, which is a kinda of an equivalent tool.
The tool is perfect for domain administrators which need to do some dynamic partitioning operations on multiple computers at once.

 To use diskpart you need Administrator command prompt, there is much you can do with diskpart, below is how to create another NTFS partition on a secondary

C:\Windows\System32> diskpart

diskpart-win-screenshot-1

DISKPART> list disk

diskpart-win-screenshot-2

DISKPART> select disk 2

diskpart-win-screenshot-3

To clean all the content (e.g. delete everything on hard drive) e.g. all files and directories

!!! BEWARE NOT TO DELETE BY MISTAKE YOUR DATA DON'T BLAME ME IF YOU JUST COPY PASTE IRRESPONSIBLY WITHOUT THINKING.
AFTER ALL IT IS YOUR COMPUTER !!!

DISKPART> clean

 

diskpart-win-screenshot-4

Next lets, create a partition, in below screenshot you can see how to use help and what are the supported partition types in Windows 10 as of year 2021.


/diskpart-help-create-partition-type-screenshot
 

DISKPART> create partition primary

diskpart-win-screenshot-6

To format new assigned primary partition as NTFS

DISKPART> format fs=ntfs

diskpart-win-screenshot-7

Once formatted to assign Drive letter that is the next available free one in order

DISKPART> assign

 

diskpart-win-screenshot-8

If instead of auto assigning a letter to new formatted partition, you would want to assign a specific Drive letter, lets say F:\> as it was in our case with the Graphical Windows Disk Management tool earlier in article.

DISKPART> assign letter=F


Using diskpart it is pretty easy to do much stuff from command line such as formatting a new attached empty unallocated drive, or formatting and setting a desired filesysteem of external attached Hard Drive. Note that the disk list arguments will list any externally attached Supported Storage and you can use disklist similarly to do quick format / repartition / wipe out data or whatever.

Further on just for fun I've run CPUID which is a great Windows freeware tool to report System Information, pretty much like the good old Everest such as exact CPU type, MainBoard, Graphics Card and Mainboard type of the certain hardware you have on running.

cpuid-screenshot-windows-10
 
That's all folks Hope this article, helped you learn something new.

Cheers 😉

 

Saint Georgi of Sofia “the Newest” Bulgarian Confessor Christian saint martyred 1534 AD during reign of Turkish Sultan Selim in Medieval Serdika (Sofia)

Tuesday, June 1st, 2021

Saint-Martyr-George-of-Sofia-Georgi-Sofijski-in-traditional-wear-kalpak

Troparion, voice 4
With a soul wounded by the love of your God, the wise George the Glorious, he preached to the ungodly, Christ God, trampled with his feeth, the Turkish heresy; and when he adorned himself with the crown of martyrdom, you ascended to the heavenly multitudes: ask Christ God to preserve your homeland, this city (Sofia) and the people who always worship your deeds.

On 26-th of May the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of one of the great Bulgarian Martyr saints Saint Georgi the Newest.
С~тый Геԝ̀ргїй Софїѝскїй Новѣ̀йшїй) St. Georgi (The Bulgarian equivalent name of George) is one of the 3 saints holding the name Georgi which has confessed Christianity refused to accept islam and accepted Martyrdom for Christ in period of 1396 till year 1530 and one of the 9 famous Sofia city saints. Saint Georgi of Sofia the Newest was named after the highly venerated in Bulgarian just like in whole Christian world saint George.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-saint-great-martyr-George-and-The-Mother-of-God-iconostasis

St. Georgi was born in the city of Medieval Sofia (Sredetz), fortress of Serdika today’s Sofia in a family of Ivan and Maria – a wealthy and society recognized family of that time. He has born after a fervent and lengthly prayers of his parents who couldn’t have children for a long time and has been given a kid by the prayers of Saint Great Martyr George
It is important to say Georgi (the newest) celebrated on 26-th of May is a different saint from St. Georgi called “the new” whose memory in the Church is commemorated on 11-th of February.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-noveishij-icon

Miracle making icon of saint Georgi Sofiyski (currently in the Church in yard of Alexandrovska Hospital Sofia)

The young Georgi quickly learned to write and read, a skills that only the most educated people usually coming from noble families could do. His favourite activity
in his free time when he was not in help of his parents was reading the Holy Scriptures.
He was grown by his parents in Christian goodness and fervency for the Christian faith.

Sveti_Georgi_Novi-Sofijski-wall-painting-icon-st-George-Sofia
Aged 25 he orphaned as his beloved father passed away to Christ. Georgi posessesed an extraordinary beauty, sharp mind and virtues, seeing the young man in his grief the local Turkish authorities tried as they usually do to attract the youngster to the islamic faith to make their way to interact with Georgi and do their business easier and most importantly have Georgi in their auhotirities congregation consisting only of people belonging to the islam as it was up to the Ottoman Turkish consistution law of the day.

To attract Georgi, turks first tried with hypocritical kindness and a care for the young to help him raise in the power of authorities of the city, not succeeding with that they have, they have forcefully wrapper the Muslim turban on his head and proclaimed him officially Muslim. Feeling offended by the ungodly deed of this enemies of Christ, immediately the saint throw the imposed turban on the ground and trampled on it.
The enraged muslim crowd seing his public offence for the prophet Muhammed handed him over to the Qadi in the court.

Neither the seductive promises of high office nor the cruel tortures could break the unshakable firmness of his Christian faith. The judge ordered that his body be cut into strips from head to toe and that the wounds received be scorched with dirty candles, which made the martyr’s body so hot that his face could not be seen. But all efforts were in vain.

The final verdict of the judge followed – Georgi to be hanged on the main barn in the city of Sofia, where there was a furnace for melting iron and copper ore. The execution command also stated that his body should remain on the gallows for three days in order to begin to decay, so that the faith of the Christians in the incorruptible relics of the saints and in the resurrection of the dead to be refuted and hence disgrace christianity. However, exhausted from his suffering mrtr. Georgi died at the hands of the executioners before they managed to hang him. To fulfill the command turks, anyhow hung him on a rope to show the sentence has been successfully carried out.

For three days the body hung on the gallows without any sign of decomposition, and on the contrary, an unusual fragrance of the holy relics of the martyr wafted through the barn. His mother sat under the gallows and grieving his beloved son hugged her son’s legs, staying next three three days to her son. The hanging took place on May 26, 1530 (according to other document sources in 1534). Thus on 26th of may the Church set a service in memoriam.

Ancient-Church-ROtonda-St-George-Sofia-Bulgaria

5-th Century Church of Rotonda St. George Centre of Sofia

The-Grave-of-Saint-Georgi-Sofiyski-Grobat-na-sv-Georgi-nai-novi

Saint Georgi Sofiyski / Saint George of Sofia the Newest grave near Rotonda Church Saint George in City Center of Sofia, Bulgari

After the expiration of the sentence, the kadi handed over the body of the martyr to be buried in a Christian way, and the burial was solemnly performed by the then Metropolitan of Sofia Jeremiah in the church “St. the great martyr George the Victorious ”. Now these relics are in obscurity. The mother of the martyr died on the 40th day of George’s death and was buried at her son’s feet.

These events took place during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I Kanuni (the Legislator) also known as Suleiman the Magnificent. This “Golden Age” for the Ottoman Empire was a time of unheard of atrocities against Christians in the territory of the empire and very difficult times for the Bulgarian people. The reign of Suleiman I and his father Selim I was a time of obscurantism and severe persecution of the Christian population, a time during which many Christian new martyrs on Balkans had the courage to defend their faith.

saint-Georgi-Sofijski-newest-icon-painting

The capture, trial and torture of St. George of Sofia The latest took place near the then Sofia. Today the place is located in the yard of the famous Alexandrovska Hospital which was a King’s hospital during the times of Kingdom of Bulgaria after liberation took place from the Turks in 1878 y.. The exact location where martyrdom occured is between street St. Georgi Sofiyski ”and“ Pencho Slaveykov ”Blvd.

There was a large stone cross with an inscription on the site, which a few years after 1944, due to the risk of being destroyed, was collected by Sofia priests and is still preserved in the altar of the church “St. Georgi Pobedonosets ”on Blvd. Partriarch Euthymius”. Until the 1940s, a liturgical procession was held from the place of death of the saint to the Rotunda on May 26.
Nowadays happily, the old Lithia tradition is being renewed and a small Lithia is conducted by Bulgarian Orthodox Christian clergy and layman.

In the garden next to the building of the Second Surgical Clinic there was a stone cross, which indicated the place and history of the martyrdom of the saint, and today a temple was built in honor of the saint.

Church-of-saint-Georgi-Sofijski-in-Alexandrovska-hospital-Sofia-Bulgaria-the-place-of-martyrdom-of-saint-Georgi-Sofijski
source: Lives of the Saints. Synodal Publishing House, Sofia, 1991, edited by Parthenius, Bishop of Lefkada and Archimandrite Dr. Athanasius (Bonchev).

Saint_Georgi-naj-novi_Sofijski

HOLY MARTYR GEORGE OF SOFIA THE NEWEST, PRAY GOD FOR US!

How to Install and Play old Arcade Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator Games on Linux in 2021 with xmame and GXMame GUI Frontend

Friday, May 14th, 2021

mame-multiple-arcade-machine-emulator
I've earlier blogged on how to install and play old arcade games with xmame compiled from source on the now old Debian 7 Linux under the article Install xmame from source on Debian Linux 7.0 (Wheezy) to play for better MAME (Arcade Games Emulation)
as well article on using the newer version of MAME emulator instead of xmame under the article Playing Arcade old school games on Debian Linux as well as how to make the MAME emulator work with a joystick see my previous How to configure Joystick ( Gamepad ) on Debian, Ubuntu, Mint GNU / Linux easily.

Since I have preinstalled my notebook with fresh Debian 10 Buster, for a long time I did not have the time as well as desire to play my favourite games of the youth to name a few this is Xain'd Sleena / Cadillacs and Dinosaurs (1993) / the Punisher (1993) / Captain Commando (1991) / Super Mario / Contra / Final Fight etc. and rest of the the SEGA Mega Drive / GameBoy / Nintendo / Terminator game (fake clone of nintendo) and other killing Arcade Classics of the late 90s and early year 2000, which we played on a public houses on a game cabinets with a joysticks. 
Hence I tried to reproduce some of my articles just as of 2021 to see whether still we can get a nice playable MAME emulator on Linux with a Graphical GUI for Mate or GNOME. And it seems using a straight mame out of Debian standard repositories did not work with some of the more sophisticated ROM .zip files from the nices such as Punisher or XSLEENA.zip, this is how this article got born in an attempt to give a way for such old school game freaks as me to be able to play there favorite games of the youth.

Below is the few steps adapted mostly from above articles with some head banging and loosing multiple hours wondering until I finally got a working XMAME ROM emulator with the simple but working GXMAME graphical frontend for M.A.M.E..

To compile xmame with joystick support be it analog or whatever joystick you have to use a Makefile like below

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-0.103-Makefile-for-joystick

Copy it on your PC and remove it to Makefile in the xmame-0.103 source dir:

# cd /usr/local/src/xmame-0.103


I have to install all the necessery package dependencies development header files, some of which are mentioned in the beginning of post articles and some of which I had to install manually, such as the preset Debian meta-package build-essentials Things to install on newly installed GNU / Linux (My favourite must have Linux text and GUI programs missing in fresh Linux installs), just to mention a few I remember had to install based on some compilation errors:

# apt-get install build-essential
# apt-get install –yes zlib1g-dev

# apt-get install –yes libexpat1-dev
# apt-get install –yes libghc-x11-dev
# apt-get install –yes x11proto-video-dev
# apt-get install –yes libxv-dev
# apt-get install libxext6
# apt-get install libxext6-dev
# apt-get install libxext-dev
# apt-get install libjpeg62-turbo-dev
# apt-get install libxinerama-dev
# apt-get install libgtk-3-dev
# apt-get install syslog-ng-dev
# apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev


If I'm missing some package necessery here you will have to find it yourself based on the *.h file produced as error during compile you should look it up with a cmd like:

# apt-file search glib2.h


And install it further.

You will need to edit Makefile or take and straight use or if necessery adapt an already prepared Makefile for my purpose:
 

# wget https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-0.103-Makefile-for-joystick;
# mv https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-0.103-Makefile-for-joystick Makefile
# make && make install


Some .zip roms does not properly work with the newer mame you need to instead use xmame ..

Below is the version I use on Debian 10 as of May 2021 year.

hipo@jeremiah:/usr/local/src$ xmame –version
GLINFO: loaded OpenGL library libGL.so!
GLINFO: loaded GLU    library libGLU.so!
xmame (x11) version 0.103 (May 13 2021)


To make the joystick work in xmame you will need to have a preset of modules loaded on the Linux for my old Genius joystick this is what works.

hipo@jeremiah:~/Games$ cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.
snd-seq
3c59x
snd-emu10k1
snd-pcm-oss
snd-mixer-oss
snd-seq-oss
joydev
ns558
sidewinder
gameport
analog
adi
pcigame
iforce
evdev
usbhid


Fill in your joystick module there and make sure you manually load each one of the modules with modprobe command.
Next calibrate the joystick with some tool like jktest-gtk

jktest-gtk-linux-screenshot
If you need a good frontend for MATE / GNOME for xmame try gxmame. It is a real pain in the ass to configure, note that the only working version of xmame with good configuration as well as gxmame with a game list that is prebuild.
If you need xmame-0.103.tar.bz2 exact xmame version I'm using thethe archive is on:

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-0.103.tar.bz2
An old bundle of both gxmame and xmamerc configs is here

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame.tar.gz

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-config-for-joystick-hipo.tar.gz
For example my old working version of xmame ~/.xmame is here https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-config-for-joystick-hipo.tar.gz

Configuration of gxmame (even though it has has a GUI for configuring is below:

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/gxmame.tar.gz

xmamerc sample working file is here

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmamerc

My newest current version as of Debian 10 Squeeze of xmame and gxmame is below:

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/gxmame-config-newest_may_2021.tar.gz

https://www.pc-freak.net/files/xmame-config-newest_may_2021.tar.gz

Note that my rom files and stuff is located and configured in neewst configs to be under /home/hipo/Games/roms/ if your location is others grep it in .xmame/* and .gxmame/* files and set the correct PATH locations.

A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE is not to use the stable version of GXMAME even though it worked in 2003 fine as the project is abandoned and unsupported as of 2021 the latest downloadable stable gxmame file on Sourceforge gxmame-0.34b website is not working correctly (even though it compiles fine).
You have to compile and use instead the newer version gxmame-0.35beta1.

If you want to use gxmame with a joystick you need to compile it with the respective option:
 

root@jeremiah:/usr/local/src/gxmame-0.35beta1# ./configure –enable-joystick

 

gxmame 0.35beta1

Print debugging messages…… : no
Joystick support………….. : yes

GXMame will be installed in /usr/local/bin.
Warning: You have an old copy of gxmame at /usr/local/bin/gxmame.

 

configure complete, now type 'make'

To install compiled binaries do the usual:
 

# make && make install

gxmame binary should be installed under /usr/local/bin/gxmame once launched you should get the shiny gxmame GUI.

gxmame-screenshot-debian-10-gnu-linux-mate-desktop

Perhaps there was other stuff I've done in the process I forgot to document here, so if you try to follow my guide and something does not work please tell me what I'm missing and you can't handle it either contact me.

The guide is for Debian Linux but should work on other .Deb based Linux distros such as Ubuntu / Linux Mint etc.

To enjoy my 4GB present of ROM files containing many of best well known M.A.M.E. ARCADE GAMES check archive here. Note that this collection was downloaded on the Internet and I do not hold any responsibility of the archive. If it contains files with any copyright infringment this is to be on your own.