OpenWRT and VLAN

I use a NanoPi R2S as my back up router.  Another day, I was setting it up from scratch.  I set up VLANs on it as I did before, however, I couldn't get an IP from any of the newly created VLAN networks.  I have checked the VLAN set up over and over again, and compare it with setups found in YouTube videos.  Everything seems in order.  Then, I check my switch, and again everything seems right too.  I was puzzling for a few days.

Few days later, I looked at the settings again, still couldn't see anything wrong.  Then it dawned on me to check the firewall settings, and the problem was indeed an firewall issue.  I may be wrong, but I think the own default was

input -> accept

output -> accept

forward -> reject

where as the new default is 

input -> reject

output -> accept

forward -> reject

As I highlighted, the culprit for my problem is the change to the input default setting.

INPUT governs traffic originating from devices in the zone that has its final destination on the router. Examples for this would be DHCP requests or DNS lookups

With input set to reject, computers on the network cannot talk to the router, i.e. getting access to the DHCP etc.  Hence, my computer appeared as having problem to join the network.

Simply change the input to accept, the problem fixes.

Move Show Apps button to the left

Being a long time Windows users, one thing that bugs me in GNOME is the location of the "Show Applications" button.  When the dock is set to bottom, it is on the right hand side rather the left.  There is no option in setting sto move this the left bottom corner.

After a bit of research, it seems the command below would fix my problem.

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock show-apps-at-top true

At first, I find it odd as it sets the button to the top rather than to the left.  Then, I remember the default layout of the dock is vertical.  The button was on the bottom.  Now setting the button to the "top" makes a lot of sense as when laying the dock horizontally, the left spot is what it was the "top" position when it was vertical.

Now the fix makes the dock perfect.

Missing firmware

If you have the missing firmware warnings similar to below, you can try this.

update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.9.7+bpo-amd64
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/rtl8126a-2.fw for module r8169
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/mtl_gsc_1.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/dg2_huc_gsc.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/mtl_huc_gsc.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/mtl_guc_70.bin for module i915

1) Get firmware files from git repository

git clone https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git   --depth=1

or alternative, only required files from 

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/

2)  copy the files download in (1) to corresponding path, e.g.

rtl8126a-2.fw => /lib/firmware/rtl_nic/

 mtl_gsc_1.bin => /lib/firmware/i915/

3) Run update-initramfs  -u again.  Warnings should be gone this time.