+5V voltage feed on HDMI cables and a failing HDMI2AV converter

After quite a while of working perfectly well, the mini HDMI2AV module I have (in the picture above, mentioned in this post) started producing an unstable picture, and in the end a completely garbled one. It took some time to nail down this specific component in the foodchain, because there was also an HDMI splitter [...]

Lubuntu 16.04 on ARM: Turning off the “Suspend” etc. options

In short On an embedded ARM-based Lubuntu 16.04, I had LXDE’s logoff dialog window offering suspend as an option, and when that was chosen, the system got itself into some nasty state with network and keyboard off. The serial console was still active, and yet, I was better off without it. It turned out that [...]

systemd random jots

As systemd seems to be here to stay (or at least I hope so), this is a post of random notes to self that I jot down as I explore it. It will probably grow with time, and become a mixture of basic issues and rather advanced stuff. Also see my post on systemd services [...]

A watchdog script for restarting Cinnamon hogging memory at startup

Introduction August 2019 update: I’ve disactivated the service described below on my own machine, because in the end, the system didn’t recover properly from the condition it was supposed to solve. No solution, in the end. Having installed Linux Mint 18.1 (kernel 4.4.0-53) with overlayroot on a Gigabyte Brix BACE-3160 (see other notes on this [...]

systemd user services and Pulseaudio on Lubuntu 16.04

Introduction These are my notes as I made Pulseaudio work on an ARM v7-based Embedded Lubuntu 16.04, which doesn’t support Pulseaudio otherwise. The goal: On a mini-distribution based upon Lubuntu, for use of others, make Pulseaudio work even though the Lubuntu desktop won’t start it. In fact, it’s supposed to run even without any X [...]