apt doesn't auto purge unused packages

problem: apt doesn't auto purge unused packages

By default, at least on my Debian systems apt and aptitude don't automatically purge unused packages. 

I'm sure you've come to purge a package and some other packages are proposed to be automatically removed but not automatically purged... 

The difference between remove and purge? "remove" removes the main package files but often the configuration is left intact. "purge" removes everything it can related to a given package including configuration.

Note that /var data and similar data created by running package executables/daemons is often not removed during package removal or purge because this data is written outside of the visibility or control of dpkg.

impact: cruft build up on the system.

solution: run aptitude with some apt options

⚠⚠⚠ DISCLAIMER ⚠⚠⚠ this approach can be destructive.
Make sure you really want to purge the unused  packages!

To remove the usrmerge package:

aptitude -o Aptitude::Delete-Unused=1 -o Aptitude::Purge-Unused=1 purge usrmerge

⚠⚠⚠ DISCLAIMER ⚠⚠⚠ this approach can be destructive. 

You can also autoclean and purge unused packages:

aptitude -o Aptitude::Delete-Unused=1 -o Aptitude::Purge-Unused=1 install

 

LinkedIn attempt at persistent device fingerprinting?

My firewall* detected a UDP outbound connection from Firefox desktop (v85.0.2) when visiting the LinkedIn sign in page: https://www.linkedin.com/login

* Windows Firewall Control: https://www.binisoft.org/wfc

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: stun.l.google.com
Addresses: 2a00:1450:400c:c0a::7f
64.233.167.127

I was interested to check the code that was making the request, because it doesn't show up in developer tools or uBlock's Logger (as far as I could see).

The request that delivered the js payload was: https://static-exp1.licdn.com/sc/h/6jblk5oqhlo45xbkmcr7s4zix

In the packed code was reference to stun:stun.l.google.com:19302?transport=udp. I did a auto unpack with de4js and the UDP call is related to static.getIPs method.

Packed code here (expired) for reference. Auto unpacked here (expired).

I'm not sure why LinkedIn is executing this code on clients. There were some potentially questionable ethics in the js. For example: static.getAdBlock and static.incognitoKey static.doNotTrackKey.

Looks like this is a fingerprinting script that might belong or relate to fingerprintjs. Here is an older commit showing very similar code to the packed version I found on LinkedIn CDN.

Makes a website visitor identifier from a browser fingerprint. Unlike cookies and local storage, fingerprint stays the same in incognito/private mode and even when browser data is purged.

Niiice. 😲🤮

2025-09-01 update

Firefox version 137.0.2. Visiting https://www.linkedin.com on a temporary browser profile caused the same firewall prompt as in 2021. Confirms that LinkedIn is still practising this behaviour.

Looks like the 2021 pastes on paste.hostux.net have expired. So in this update I'm including a LZMA compressed base64 encoded version of the packed code that is returned from https://static-exp1.licdn.com/sc/h/6jblk5oqhlo45xbkmcr7s4zix should anyone be looking for a copy to analyse in the future.

The sha1sums are as follows:
base64 encoded: b66915ab52e0056007f23a7fe83ec34fe04636d8
original content: e71ba2c95cec048ac13fbdd1d528715220021e20

A example decoding and decompression pipeline would look like this:

base64 -d 6jblk5oqhlo45xbkmcr7s4zix.lzma.b64 | plzip --decompress --stdout | less 

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Xbox One Controller For Windows not recognised correctly via Bluetooth

problem: Xbox One via Bluetooth on windows not working as expected

The "USB Game Controllers" calibration window is missing the LT and RT triggers/buttons axis etc when connected via Bluetooth. It works as expected when connected via USB.

impact: Games cannot use the L2 and R2 axis/triggers

solution: update windows 10

I wanted to write down the steps that helped me get my controller working on USB AND Bluetooth. USB was fine but Bluetooth was not working as expected with the LT and RT buttons/triggers/axis were not working nor showing up in the "Game Controllers" calibration GUI under windows.

Quick note, even after following these steps with everything working as expected, connected via USB the controller shows up as a "Controller (Xbox One For Windows)", and via Bluetooth it shows up as a "6 axis 16 button gamepad with hat switch", at least on my system. After these steps, the LT and RT buttons/triggers worked as expected via Bluetooth.

1. Install and use the Microsoft Store app called "Xbox Accessories" and connect the controller via USB-C and ensure the controller has the latest firmware.

2. Upgrade windows via the "Update Assistant" download tool from Microsoft.

3. After the update assistant is fully done installing/rebooting (its normally a few cycles), force a windows update to ensure you have the most recent cumulative updates. There is a specific cumulative update that includes the latest controller drivers with fixes the issue. Details here.
   
   Note: Step 4 might not be required, but I did them for good measure.
   

4. I recommend to un-pair and uninstall (via device mgmt WIN+x, m) the previous Xbox controller Bluetooth device(s). Afterwards re-pair the controller.

You should be all set.

footnote: I cannot recall 100% correctly but I think the Bluetooth controller label first showed up with less axis in the "Game Controllers" window, and the the LT / RT axis was definitely missing under the calibration GUI.

citation:

When researching this issue, this thread was very helpful: https://redd.it/jrhkeu

windows startup "elevated" shortcut for a non admin user

problem: you cannot create a windows startup shortcut that requires elevated (admin) rights for a non admin user

I spent hours trying to get this to work... I hope this saves some time for future me or anyone googling.

scenario:

1. You have windows account(s) that are NOT an admin because that is a good general practice.
2. So you have a dedicated admin account on-demand for things that require admin rights.
3. You have graphical program that you want to launch automatically at startup (log in) for the non-admin user(s).
4. The program requires elevated admin rights to launch.
5. Using the standard ways to try and create a startup shortcut don't work, the program is not launched.
   

impact: you have to launch the shortcut manually

... which means you will forget from time to time, this can be bad news for some critical programs, like energy or temperature controlling software, or software that applies hardware tweaks or similar power tools/toys.

solution: you need a little help from a windows power-toy called "elevate"

After trying various ways to create startup "log in" shortcuts, including shell:startup folder, the registry autostart, and task scheduler "log in" triggers...

The major sticking point seemed to be the fact non of the above was working for a non-admin user. The missing elevated token for the standard users was causing things to fail, the shortcut/program just failed to run or failed to run with the required elevated rights.

I caved in with the built in methods and used a .vbs and .cmd script combo from an official Microsoft PowerToy. Here is the git repo, this power toy was originally published in TechNet Magazine, June 2008.

The resulting shortcut placed in the user shell:startup folder looks like this:

"E:\Portable\elevate.cmd" "E:\Portable\ControlStation-FanControl.bat"

When the shell:startup is triggered during post log in, this shortcut is run, and fires a UAC prompt to elevate and launch whatever it is you want. So your admin credentials e.g. fingerprint are required to launch the software with admin rights. Hitting ESC or similar skips the launch.

citation:

Props to: Mark Richardson for putting the code on GitHub, and John Stephens and Michael Murgolo for the original work and scripts.

Virtualise a running legacy physical Linux server (P2V)

problem: You have a legacy physical Linux server, live in production, that you would like to virtualise (P2V) with near zero downtime?

My goal was to take a physical Linux P node running live-production and virtualise it. Primarily so the physical hardware could be repurposed as a hypervisor or retired. I didn't want to create and allocate multi terabyte disks that were present in the P partition table, nor have to use md raid in the V guest which the P node was using, because the target hypervisor (Proxmox 5) used ZoL/ZFS. I also wanted to mitigate downtime/reboots on the running P node as it was busy performing production tasks.

solution: I have documented the steps I took without using specific P2V tools

After researching multiple ways of solving this problem, I documented my steps on server fault.

There were multiple questions on the Stack Exchange network and some of the answered helped but there wasn't really an end to end guide on the process, at least not for my circumstances and goals. So after documenting and running my own steps, I posted the answer for others to use as a reference.

Check the answer on server fault for the details: https://serverfault.com/a/988703/64325.

Once I had successfully V'ed the P node, and had the V node running in my Proxmox PVE lab, I also posted my steps for repurposing the P node as a Proxmox hypervisor. This was a little tricky but with tips from the Proxmox forum I was able to make a clean Proxmox install with native ZoL/ZFS via network booted rescue image on the Hetzner service provider.
It was then possible to take a backup of the V node and transfer it to the new hypervisor and restore it with qmrestore.

Everything worked as hoped in the end. In the journey I had refreshed on some Linux knowledge and picked up a few new techniques. I had successfully repurposed the P node as a hypervisor and had the legacy Linux node running as a V in the new hypervisor. All with near zero downtime to production.

citation:

Props to:
Various Q&A authors @ the Stack Exchange network.
Various post authors @ Proxmox forums.
The various wiki authors @ the Proxmox wiki page for Migration of servers to Proxmox VE.
I also cited some useful links in my answer on server fault.

Firefox instances using profiles are grouped in a single group

problem: Windows from separate Firefox instances using profiles are grouped in a single group on the taskbar 

Lets say you have 3 Firefox profiles (about:profiles), or 3 portable Firefox instances, and you have the separate instances all running at the same time. I had the issue that all the windows from the various profile instances were grouped into a single group on the task bar, and I could not find a way to un-group them.

Until recently I've been primarily been a Chrome user, so I was used to separate profile instances having their own taskbar group. Excessive CPU/resource utilisation aka fan noise and less battery have pushed me back towards Firefox.

impact: hard to know which windows relate to which profile

This problem impacts productivity and increases frustration because you've no immediate idea which windows relate to which profiles. If you're like me and like to keep certain topics clean and separate, like work and private life, and various project work, this is a major issue.

solution: there is a config tweak workaround

There was an official bug fix for this issue titled "No way to un-group separate instances on Windows 7 TaskBar". It took me at least an hour of research to find and get this setting working after a number of dead ends, so sharing it here.

1. Open about:config
2. change browser.startup.blankWindow and the value to false.
3. Right click "new" > "boolean"
4. When prompted set the name to taskbar.grouping.useprofile and the value to true.
5. Restart Firefox

Note that the new setting does not use the browser. prefix.

citation:

Props to:
ptsampoukas @ MozillaZine forums for pointing me in the right direction.

Microsoft Visio 2013 :: Import of image file failed: '[name of the image file]'

problem: I cannot insert an image file into Visio 2013 (INSERT > PICTURES > (any graphic formats .png, .jpg, etc).

The popup message is: "Import of image file failed: '[name of the image file]'". Pasting the image also didn't work and complained with a pop up about not enough memory.

impact: cannot import images in Visio

solution: install Visio KB3114720

Here is a link to the update for Visio 2013 (KB3114720) (Applies to: Microsoft Visio 2013 Service Pack 1)

Interestingly enough making a new windows profile and trying to insert an image in Visio in the new profile worked fine. Opening that saved drawing in the profile that was not working showed a box with an X inside where the image had been successfully inserted in another profile.

Pasting from mspaint did work, but things like transparency were lost in this case.

citation(s):

Props to:
Pieter Pessemier @ answers.microsoft.com