Welcome

The thoughts and text on this blog is mine, and mine alone.

  • I upgraded Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04

    I read an article on Hacker News about a guy who ran Ubuntu 16.04 for 10 years and moved over to FreeBSD. Then I rememebered, I have an Ubuntu Server running. And it has been running for a while now.

    I have been keeping it up-to-date, but it was still Ubuntu 22.04, with the latest long-term support released from Ubuntu being 26.04. So I decided it was time to do the dreaded release-upgrade.

    Why do I say “dreaded”? Well, things have broken in the past, and I was sure something would break again. It almost always do.

    So, the first step was to take a full backup. I run it as a virtual machine on VMware ESXi, but since I have had some issues in the past with the snapshot feature, I have learned not to use it, but instead make a copy of the files manually.

    After making sure that every package was up-to-date, and the machine rebooted, I ran do-release-upgrade and let it do it’s thing. I was surprised that most things just worked after the upgrade. But some small things showed up:

    1. Python 2.7 was removed, so some home made scripts stopped working. I need to fix this at some point in the future, maybe.
    2. PHP was disabled for users, that is for files in the public_html directory.
    3. Apache 2.4 (I came from 2.2) introduced some new rules replacing “Order allow, deny” and “Allow from all” with “Require all granted” (or denied, or somewhere in between).

    One side effect, which I spent a lot of time on in Apache configuration files, was that I was not allowed to view files in a subfolder under public_html. But in the end it turned out to be because of PHP being disabled, and this blocked indexing of subdirectories. Viewing the files with a full URL worked, except for PHP files.

    So far everything seems to be running fine, but it will be interesting to see if Certbot is running as it should, because I have a vague memory that this broke when upgrading to 22.04 a few years back.

    I do plan to run another do-release-upgrade to get it up to 26.04, but once I got 24.04 to run as expected, I did not want to ruin it well knowing I did not have the time to take a new backup and fix potential issues.

    All in all, the upgrade was a success. Almost no issues at all.

  • Personal Computer

    When I was a kid, somtimes in the early 90s, my mom borrowed a computer from her work home for a weekend. I think. It is a while ago, so maybe I am wrong. But that is not important.

    I asked what PC stood for; “personal computer” was the answer. And while you may say there was nothing “personal” about the computers of the early 90s, in terms of user friendlyness, it was personal in the sense that you controlled it.

    Now, this is the part that is important. You controlled it, not the other way around. And I feel that this has been gradually lost over the years. Sure, the PC is still personal, but only if you install something like Linux or BSD. But if you use Windows 11, it is far from personal. You are no longer in control. It feels downright hostile.

  • Fun with waves

    A week ago, me and two other kayakers decided to have some fun in the waves. This time they were bigger than last time. A lot bigger.

    We started as usual in Matlaug just outside of Haugesund. A safe haven where the water can be completly flat while waves up to 2 meter can rage just on the outside. Like it did this day.

    The previous image and the next one is taken just outside of Matlaug.

    After playing around and getting used to the waves, we continued north along Gardsøy and Tonjer. We kept a good distance from the shore since the waves would break in the islets just outside and create rolling waves that did not stop until it reached land.

    After deciding it was unsafe to be on the west side of Tonjer, we padled around the north tip and placed ourselfs on the east side. The waves would break over the small island and create “safe waves” to play in. Should we fall into the ocean, we would not be pushed into land, but rather away from it.

    The next two images shows the difference a wave can make in height difference.

    This next one is of me having fun.

    Some of the more interesting waves are the once you get from the side. There is only one trick to stay upright. Lean heavily into the wave with a brace strok and ride it out.

    The waves can make you look really small.

    The first map shows Matlaug. As you can see it really is a well proteced area. The big waves came in from north-west (right-ish)

    Then I have marked the area we continued to afterwards in green. We stayed well away from the area I marked as red on our way up, but on the return we did cross, but only because the waves had diminished quite a bit.

  • Kayak in Waves

    Saturday I had my second kayak trip of the year. This time in waves.

    The forcast said it would be around 1,2 meters, but I don’t think it was more than one meter. Luckly we know how to find waves to play in. Way more than one meter.

    Me getting a salty wash. Photo: Arild Haugstulen
    Looks like I forgot my kayak. Photo: Arild Haugstulen
    Luckly, I was not the only one that forgot his kayak.

    After having fun in the waves, we practiced rescue. I was happy my self rescue in waves went without problems, even if it was only 70-80 cm. We also practice rescuing each other.

    Never go kayaking in whitewater waves alone. You may end up in a situation you need rescuing. Even if you know self rescue, you may get injured.

    Practice, practice, practice…

    This was my first time trying a new waterproof camera, the OM System TG-7. The image quality is not as good as I am used to from my Canon 5D series cameras. But unlike the Canon, this one can be submerged in water without issues.

    All in all, a good day.

  • First Kayak Trip of the Year

    On Saturday I had my first kayak trip of the year. It was short, in and around Vibrandsøy, just outside of Haugesund. The weather was calm, but visibility was like a 3D game of the late 90s; Foggy.

    View padling out of Haugesund.
    Crystal clear water. Also very cold water.
    Tonjer lighthouse in fog. Also noticed that I have picked up some litter.
    MS Utsira (Haugesund – Utsira) in fog.