netplan Not Going To Plan…

With a /etc/netplan/00-global.yaml having the following contents:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd

And all other .yaml files in the /etc/netplan directory not having an explicit renderer, the system should default to networkd… Just netplan apply and done! Simple, right?

Yeah, right.

Seems like netplan apply still thinks to use NetworkManager even when no single .yaml file declares its use; and since I disabled and masked the service, netplan apply was complaining NetworkManager was masked.

The secret sauce?

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x11vnc Copy-and-Paste…

To prevent typos and OS line break-type kerfuffles, I typically copy files instead of copy-pasting any files’ contents across VNC sessions.

Somehow, I came across wanting to just copy-paste a file via a VNC session, which used to work ye long ago… But it just was not happening…

Diving into the ‘net for answers, I came across autocutsel… Although some places stated to use xstartup files, as I was using x11vnc, this was not possible, so I simply ended up creating a services file (with a dependency on the x11vnc service):

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Upgrading Ubuntu Server LTS 16.04 to 18.04 (aka GDM and x11vnc)

So, the time has come to upgrade my Ubuntu Server LTS 16.04 to the latest LTS 18.04…

It’s a straight-forwards upgrade, easy-peasy, right?

The Triumph Defeat of Hope Over Reality

Compared to what Linux used to be in the recent past, the upgrade via the stock 16.04 UI went fairly smooth…

I already knew that I had to do the standard ZFS pool upgrade:

sudo zpool upgrade <poolname>

But after the whole upgrade was done, I tried to VNC into the machine again after it rebooted… and failed.

2018/12/25 Update:

I suddenly noted that my Unifi Controller was no longer working… I later discovered that it was due to the Ubuntu LTS upgrade… Another day, another battle

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