nVidia with Ubuntu - no X or low graphics mode

After updates and a reboot, Ubuntu 12.04(.1) reports low graphics mode and/or X does not start when using the nVidia driver.

I've seen this problem on two systems recently and it appears to be a timing issue in that the nVidia driver does get loaded but apparently not in time for X to find a valid screen.

Workaround is simple: add nvidia to the file /etc/modules it will then get loaded on boot and X will start normally.

EFI Stub - booting without a bootloader

In this post I'm detailing a quick and easy method to use EFI Stub boot introduced in the Linux kernel version 3.3.0 that provides for a faster boot without the use of a bootloader (such as grub) on a UEFI capable system.

no bootable device - gpt

Some legacy BIOS's may have an issue with a GPT partitioned drive.


Ran across this recently with an Intel D975XBX board. I GPT partitioned a drive with gdisk, installed Ubuntu and when I rebooted after the install completed with surprised to see "No Bootable Device..." displayed.

CUPS Samba 64bit automatic driver download

The same ease of using Samba hosting for automatic download of the CUPS/Windows Postscript drivers for 32 bit clients can be implemented for 64 bit clients as well.

NT4 inaccessible_boot_device

I recently needed to boot a cloned image of an old NT4 system under a virtual machine. Of course, nothing is easy sometimes. In this case I was using VirtualBox as between it and Qemu(KVM) it seemed to have the best support for NT4. However it didn't emulate the Adaptec SCSI hardware that the original system used and boot attempts were met by the famous BSOD with inaccessible_boot_device. Loading up a new VM with NT4 and booting with /sos (selecting VGA mode is one way) to see what drivers were being loaded the difference was that the new install loaded ATAPI.SYS and the cloned image was loading AIC78xx.SYS, which gave me an idea. I booted the cloned image from a SystemRescueCD mounted the "C:" drive with ntfs-3g and copied the ATAPI.SYS driver over the AIC78xx.SYS driver as AIC78xx.SYS and voila, the system now boots! Not claiming this will work in every case but it did work in this one.

Samba and guest shares with "security = user"

How to have a guest share on Samba without resorting to the deprecated "security = share" configuration.

This is a regular query on the Samba mailing list. When it comes to "security = share" just say no!

Practice safe and secure SSH !

Some tips to consider when using SSH.

Probably the most ubiquitous piece of software in use is OpenSSH. It is from the developers that also bring us that most secure OS, OpenBSD. We all use it, we all love it, we all depend on it. Please donate to these great projects if you can! And read on for the tips...