Occasionally I see some of our Ubuntu machines having /boot partition filled up by the initrd files generated from old kernels which no longer were no longer installed on the machines. root@matht232:/boot# uname -a Linux matht232 5.3.0-40-generic #32~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 3 14:05:59 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux root@matht232:/boot# dpkg -l linux-image-\* | grep ^ii ii linux-image-5.3.0-40-generic 5.3.0-40.32~18.04.1 amd64 Signed kernel image generic ii linux-image-generic-hwe-18.04-edge 5.3.0.46.102 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image root@matht232:/boot# ls -1 /boot config-5.3.0-40-generic config-5.3.0-46-generic grub initrd.img-3.13.0-46-generic initrd.img-4.15.0-88-generic initrd.img-4.4.0-101-generic initrd.img-4.4.0-122-generic initrd.img-4.4.0-87-generic initrd.img-5.3.0-40-generic lost+found System.map-5.3.0-40-generic System.map-5.3.0-46-generic vmlinuz-5.3.0-40-generic vmlinuz-5.3.0-46-generic I tried to remove these initrd files manually, and they were generated again when a new kernel is installed. I haven’t figured how did this happened, until today! ...

Dell just released a new system BIOS version 1.7.3 on April 8 for Dell Latitude 7400. This release is marked as Urgent, and comes with the following fixes and enhancements: Fixes: Fixed the issue where the Type-C port works from BIOS Boot Menu with external USB port disabled. Fixed the issue that there is no user interface for wireless connection in BIOS Connect cloud SOS interface. Fixed the issue where the system stops responding on Dell logo when SMM Security mitigation and Secure Boot is enabled. Fixed the issue where the system is not able to update the BIOS from BIOS Boot Menu with SMM Security Mitigation enabled. Enhancements: ...

So another new post, another new firmware update? You bet it is! Early this month, Lenovo just released another BIOS firmware for ThinkPad P1 Gen 1. It looks like Lenovo has fixed a few bugs comparing to the the previous firmware release in March. CHANGES IN THIS RELEASE Version 1.28 [Important updates] - Addresses CVE-2019-0154 (https://cve.mitre.org//cgi-bin//cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2019-0154) Refer to Lenovo's Security Advisory page for additional information about LEN-27714 "Multi-vendor BIOS Security Vulnerabilities" (https://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product_security/LEN-27714) - Addresses CVE-2020-0548 (https://cve.mitre.org//cgi-bin//cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2020-0548) - Addresses CVE-2020-0549 (https://cve.mitre.org//cgi-bin//cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2020-0549) - Addresses CVE-2020-0543 (https://cve.mitre.org//cgi-bin//cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2020-0543) [New functions or enhancements] - Updated the CPU microcode. [Problem fixes] - Fixed an issue where system might hang after Intel AMT Control is set to Disabled by ThinkPad Setup. Let’s update the firmware, shall we? ...

My Gentoo based Linux laptop which is still running the older kernel 5.3.15. A short while back, I had a failed attempt to upgrade the kernel to 5.4.2 as the disk which encrypted with dm-crypt couldn’t be decrypted on boot. Since the older kernel 5.3.15 was working fine and free time was I what I lacked of, it seemed logical to just not doing anything about it. Today while updating all the packages on my Gentoo laptop, I notice there was a newer kernel available: 5.6.3. So let’s try to install this newest kernel again and see if the issue with Luks/dm-crypt still persists. ...

On Linux to list running services and open ports, I either use netstat or ss (socket stat?) most recently. Though netstat is available on FreeBSD, the syntax is completely different. Today, I have the need to list the running services with the port display. On FreeBSD, we can do this using sockstat command. root@bsd1:~ # sockstat -4 -l USER COMMAND PID FD PROTO LOCAL ADDRESS FOREIGN ADDRESS minio minio 49274 10 tcp46 *:9000 *:* root sendmail 675 4 tcp4 127.0.0.1:25 *:* root sshd 672 4 tcp4 *:22 *:* ntpd ntpd 616 21 udp4 *:123 *:* ntpd ntpd 616 22 udp4 149.171.180.154:123 *:* ntpd ntpd 616 25 udp4 127.0.0.1:123 *:* root syslogd 523 7 udp4 *:514 *:* Here are some other options which can be passed to the sockstat command: ...