Upgrading Ubuntu from Yakkety to Bionic

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Bionic Beaver

I had an old virtual machine that I wanted to upgrade from 16.10 to 18.04

Since Yakkety (16.10) is no longer supported I followed this guide and updated my source list:

I then did the standard commands to upgrade:

However I got this following error after “apt upgrade”:

To fix this I did the following:

Then did the upgrade again:

Success !

A Quick and Dirty Web Maintenance Page Using .htaccess

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Maintenance Page

Sometimes when working on a web site you need a quick and dirty “This Site is Down” Maintenance page. WordPress or other similar software may have this feature built-in or through a plugin, but sometimes you may need to put up a page while moving files around using ssh or scp/sftp/ftps.

If you use Apache or an Apache compatible web server that uses .htaccess, the easiest way to generate a  maintenance page is to combine the deny/allow directives with a custom 403 page which can be written directly in .htaccess. The directives will allow only your IP address to work on and view the web site while everyone else will see the maintenance page.

Single File Web Maintenance Mode

This method requires no php or other separate scripts, and no redirects.  Enabling the mode is simple – just remove (maintenance mode) or add (go live) the hash comment from two lines ( 21 and 23 in the example below).

Editing Htaccess File

Follow these simple steps:

  1. Using Winscp, ssh, or other similar utility login to your website server, and open .htaccess file located in your web root.
  2. Add the following lines to the top of the .htaccess file:
  3. Ask Google “What is my ip address ?“. This is your workstation ip address, select and copy it.
  4. Replace XXX.XXX.XX.XXX with the IP address you copied in the prior step.
  5. Edit the example to put in your own html code and save whatever picture you’d like to use as your background as “background.jpg” in your web root. Make sure any quotes on the ErrorDocument line (line 23 in the example) are  single quotes except the outer ones. Also the entire ErrorDocument line should all be on one line with no carriage returns (it will be displayed in the example as multiple lines but that’s just the presentation for this post, the code itself is all one line). 
  6. Save the .htaccess file.
  7. That’s it. To enable maintenance mode, uncomment line 21  “deny from all” and line 23 “ErrorDocument 403”. To disable maintenance mode and go “live” comment those same two lines out.
  8. Note that if you get an “Internal Server” error you have a syntax error in your .htaccess file. Fix and try again.

 

Maintenance Page

 

Answer Skybell Automatically on Android Using Tasker

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Skybell App Opening

Skybell and other video doorbells ring your phone and allow you to see who’s at the door. But they require you to click on the notification and by the time you do that a minute or two may have gone by. In addition you may want to hang a tablet from a wall to act as an electronic peephole, allowing you to see at a glance who’s at the door and to communicate with them.

If you have a Skybell you can do this with Tasker.

Install Skybell, Takser, and Notification Listener Apps

  1. Make sure you have installed your Skybell app.

    2. Android Skybell HD App Install Page

  2. Go to the Google Play store and purchase and install Tasker. Tasker allows you to automate tasks on Android devices. Tasker’s currently $3 and well worth the price.

    3. Google Play Tasker Page

  3. Also from the Google Play store install “Notification Listener” a free plugin for Tasker.

    4. Google Play Notification Listener App Page

    Configure Tasker App To Ring A Bell

  4. In Tasker, click on Profiles tab, then the + sign, and add an Event, Tap “Plugin”, then “Notification Listener”, then “Notification Listener” again:

    5. Notification Listener App Screenshot

  5. Click “Configuration”, and change the event to “Notification to Any”, Click on the App button to select the Skybell App, and change the “Text” option to “You have a visitor at your door.”, settings should look like this:

    6. Tasker Configuration Page - Any Notification Event

  6. Save by clicking on the Checkmark and exiting out.
  7. Back at the Profiles screen, click on “New Task” on the dialog that pops up, name it as “Open Skybell On Ring”, Tap “+”, select “Plugin”, “Notification Listener”, and then “Gestures”:

    Takser Action Plugin

  8. Fill out the Gestures screen by adding “%nlkey” to “Notification Key” and toggle on the “Click on notification”:

    Takser Notification Key Screenshot

  9. Click the checkmark and make sure Tasker and the new profile is enabled. You are done. Your profile tab should have an entry that looks something like this:

    Notification Listener Event

    Now whenever your Skybell rings, tasker will automatically “Tap” on the Skybell notification, and the tablet should automatically open to the live streaming view of your door.

    Troubleshooting: If you are getting notifications but the Skybell app is not opening automatically, make sure you have Tasker and the event/task profile you created above is enabled, and you have permitted Tasker and Notification Listener to have access to the Android notification services (you should have allowed this during setup). If Skybell notifications are not occurring at all, try changing the tablet’s WIFI IP to a static one and use Google’s 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 DNS as described in my previous post, or uninstalling and reinstalling the Skybell app.