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When we install Ventoy on a USB stick, it creates 2 partitions: Ventoy and VTOYEFI. We put ISO images into the Ventoy partition, but rarely, if ever, touch the VTOYEFI partition. However, both partitions are mounted every time the USB stick is inserted, be it in Windows or in Linux. My goal is to disable this behaviour, while making sure the USB stick is still fully functional.

The ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 AMD was released in 2020, and it is actually one of the newest / youngest laptops I ever had. Since I am using Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu LTS, the kernel is relatively old and I realized that I need to update to a new kernel if I want to have good hardware compatibility.

The latest release of Linux Mint (20.3) is still based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, not Ubuntu 22.04 LTS which was just released -- usually Linux Mint will get a new release a few months after the Ubuntu LTS release. Therefore, I'm upgrading to the latest kernel available in the Ubuntu 20.04 repositories.

Nowadays, with the price of SSDs getting cheaper all the time, we would often upgrade an existing laptop HDD into an SSD. And most of the time, in order to do that, it is best to migrate the existing Windows installation on the HDD.

Migrating a Windows 10 installation from HDD to SSD is usually done using Windows tools like the Samsung Data Migration Software or various forms of AOMEI Partition Assistant. I never trusted the latter application 100%, to be very honest.

Also, this time I don't have Admin access on the laptop to be migrated. At least not on Windows 10. But the BIOS (UEFI) is unlocked, so we can at least boot a Linux live ISO.

When we download a file in the browser, there is usually an option to "Show in folder". For the longest time, I've been looking for a way to do replicate this functionality on the command line.

Today I needed my Vaccination certificates in order to apply for my third shot. It was not as straightforward as it seemed.

If you live in Indonesia, you probably have a PeduliLindungi account, and have the app installed on your phone. It works for downloading the certificates, but I had to rummage through my phone storage in order to access it.

A few days ago, I just installed an NVMe SSD on my home server. Then I went on a quick trip, and found out that I couldn't access my server anymore. I had thought to myself, could it be that the SSD was bad? (I bought it used, but barely)

It turns out that the default NetworkManager settings are not suitable for my use-case, as described by this forum post:

The nmcli docs state:

The number of times a connection should be tried when autoactivating before giving up. Zero means forever, -1 means the global default (4 times if not overridden).

Four? Why four? Why not 42? What kind of default is that supposed to be? Kind of “Please try, but not that hard.” 🙂

Before you say anything, yes I use a Wi-Fi adapter for my home server. It's just an educational server running a few VM's, so Wi-Fi makes sense here. Running a cable between the server and the router would have complicated the installation.