Bash Script for converting APE to FLAC

This is a little script I use for batch converting ape files in a folder into flac.

 

#!/bin/bash
for f in *.ape
do
    mac "$f"  "${f%.*ape}.wav" -d && flac --best "${f%.*ape}.wav" && rm "${f%.*ape}.wav"
done
 

AIMP Player for Android

I choose an Android One phone for its better support and cleaner launcher.  It is all good except one thing and that is Music Player.  The default Google Music player isn't great but passable.  Playlist is good but personally I prefer using folder for grouping.

The player isn't great but at least it is there to use, but now Google has decided ot take this away and replaced it with Youtube Music.  It is all good if you only use streaming services for your music.  However for people like myself who only play music off from my local collection, this action from Google is simple appaulling.

 Anyway, if you are in the same boat like myself, you may want to give AIMP (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aimp.player&hl=en_GB&gl=US) a try.  It is a nice free alternative with no ads.

Although without Google Music, there are many options available at the play store.  Still, I think it is a bad decision to take away a basic music player.

NanoPi R2S and OpenWRT

Although there is an OEM version of OpenWRT (FriendlyWRT) for NanoPi R2S, personally I prefer using the original version of OpenWRT if it is possible.  The FriendlyWRT is fine solution however it is few versions behind the official OpenWRT build.  In addition, the OEM version preloaded with many plugins that I either don't use or I don't know.  For instance, it comes it with many VPN related plugins that are populate in its home market.

Currently, its support hasn't make to the mainstream yet.  It is still under development and its image is under the snapshot branch.  Being a snapshot image, it only contains the very core.  That is it doesn't come with luci preloaded.  Here are steps that I use to set mine up.  Firstly, ssh into your NanoPi, then:-

1) Install luci to regain GUI access.

opkg update

opkg install luci 

2) Install packges for OpenVPN, Custom Command and ttyd.

opkg install openvpn-openssl luci-app-openvpn luci-app-commands luci-app-ttyd

3) Install packages for statistics such as CPU load, thermal etc

opkg install luci-app-statistics

opkg install collectd-mod-cpu collectd-mod-interface collectd-mod-memory collectd-mod-ping collectd-mod-rrdtool collectd-mod-wireless collectd-mod-thermal

4) Install Smart Queue Management (SQM) package

opkg install luci-app-sqm

You may need to restart the r2s to get this to work.

 https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/luci/luci_app_statistics 

 

Here is settings for the front LEDs in the /etc/config/system file.

config led 'led_wan'
        option name 'WAN'
        option sysfs 'nanopi-r2s:green:wan'
        option trigger 'netdev'
        option mode 'link tx rx'
        option dev 'eth0'

config led 'led_lan'
        option name 'LAN'
        option sysfs 'nanopi-r2s:green:lan'
        option trigger 'netdev'
        option mode 'link tx rx'
        option dev 'eth1'

 

 

n.b. all packages in one command:

opkg install luci openvpn-openssl luci-app-openvpn luci-app-commands luci-app-ttyd luci-app-statistics collectd-mod-cpu collectd-mod-interface collectd-mod-memory collectd-mod-ping collectd-mod-rrdtool collectd-mod-wireless collectd-mod-thermal luci-app-sqm

OpenWRT and Wireguard

VPN Unlimited has a great step by step guide ( https://www.vpnunlimitedapp.com/help/manuals/open-wrt-wireguard-setup) for setting up Wireguard on OpenWRT.

Here, I just want to add a few useful notes on setting up Wireguard.

First, these are packages required to make Wireguard working.

Second, you may need to restart the Wireguard interface to see settings being applied.  Sometimes you may even need to reboot the router.

Last but not the least, it is possible to have one local network using the normal WAN interface, and another network to use WG interface/ OpenVPN TUN Interface. You can do it by using VPN and WAN Policy-Based Routing (luci-app-vpn-policy-routing).

As below, you can specify the routing path for a machine, a group of machines or a network.

It is worth to note that, the policy routing only works if no NAT offloading is deployed.

Again, you may need to do a restart before you can see things become effective.

How to Update OPNSense to a specific version

Two days ago, I updated my OPNSense to version 20.7.2.  Then I started experiencing issue with my connection.  My connection would cut off after a few hours and I could not get onto the firewall.  Luckily, I have a backup of my configuration so reinstalling the firewall should not be a big problem.

Now, I have this issue of bring the firewall up to date.  If I use the standard method to update the firewall, it will update it to the latest version, i.e. 20.7.2 which is the version I had problems with.  Hence, I need a way to bring my firewall to the last good version, e.g. 20.7.1.

After consulting the know-it-all Google, here is what I found.  On the firmware settings page, rather than using the default flavor, choose "(other)".  In the box underneath, specify the version you want to update to, e.g.

<major version>/MINT/<decimal version number>/OpenSSL

20.7/MINT/20.7.1/OpenSSL

Save the settings, and then press the "Check For Update" button as usual.  You now should get an update offer to the version you specified.

I hope I don't need to do this again in the future, but I guess this is something good to know.

ref: https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?topic=9638.0

AdBlock Testing

I just want to share a few useful websites for AdBlock testing.

• https://ads-blocker.com/testing/
• https://canyoublockit.com/
• https://adblock-tester.com/

 

Useful Public DNS Providers

Just want to list a few public DNS providers I tend to use for my setups.

For unfiltered DNS service, I tend to use Google (8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4), Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), NextDNS (45.90.28.155, 45.90.30.155), dns.sb (185.222.222.222, 185.184.222.222) for DNS over TLS.  I was using DNS.WATCH (84.200.69.80, 84.200.70.40) before moved to DoT. DNS.WATCH is a nice alternative if you are looking for an option that is not from usual big providers.

Lastly, I uses  DNSForge.de,  a small DNS provider, if I need DNS with AdBlocking service.  DNSForge uses PiHole to do AdBlocking.  I use them over the others because they publish their blocklist on their site so I can determine what are blocked.

 

Adding a Supporting Router for VPN

There are many ways to connect to your favorite VPN. Most common ways are by browser plug in or by a little utility provided by your provider.

Today, I am showing you another way by using a supporting router. You may ask why another router? Why don't you just do it on the router? There are few reasons I can think of. For example, you may not want to touch your existing router settings; you don't want your entire network to use VPN etc.

You may also ask why bother to do it at the router level when it is much easier to use a plugin or a utility from VPN providers.  One of the reasons I can think of is performance.  If you running a VPN software on its host, all the work is done there and in turn it increases the load on that machine.  This may not be a problem on a high performance computer but this can be an issue on a mobile or low performance device.  With VPN is done on the router, all network traffics are just as normal, no extra work is needed.  The caught of this setup is your VPN performance is limited by the performance of chosen hardware specs of your supporting router.

For this type of setup, I highly recommand to use an OpenWRT router. In this example, I use a Raspberry Pie 3B+ (rpi) due to its cost and its relatively more powerful processor (Quad Core 1.2GHz Broadcom BCM2837 64bit CPU).  As mentioned before, a better CPU can improve the VPN performance.  Hence, the newer Raspberry 4 or something better may be a better choice.  However, for my own use, I am also looking for a solution that can run on passive cooling without a huge bill.  The RPI 3B+ hits the spot.

To start, first you go to the OpenWRT site and get the latest image for the rpi.

https://openwrt.org/toh/raspberry_pi_foundation/raspberry_pi

The version of image I used for this example is

OpenWrt 19.07.3 r11063-85e04e9f46 / LuCI openwrt-19.07 branch git-20.136.49537-fb2f363

The file is in GNU zip format (e.g. rpi-3-ext4-factory.img.gz).  If you are using Windows, 7-zip should do the trick to decompress it.  Once it was extracted, I used Rufus to write it onto my microSD card.

By default, the rpi is set to the static IP 192.168.1.1.  We need to change this IP to an IP within our network subnet range.  For example if you network is 192.168.100.1/24, then you need to set the rpi to an IP such as 192.168.100.2

Here are the steps for changing the IP

1) type uci set network.lan.ipaddr='new-ip-address' (“new-ip-address” is the new IP address you want for the LEDE device in your network, e.g. 192.168.100.2) and press Return,

2) type uci commit && service network restart and press Return

ref: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/openwrt_as_routerdevice

Alternatively, you can achieve the same by editing the /etc/config/network file using vi, e.g.

vi   /etc/config/network

Now use your browser to go to the IP you set up.

Under Network -> Interfaces, edit the LAN setting as below

Now save the settings using the Apply Uncheck option.

Next is to setup the rpi as a VPN client.  If your VPN provider provides you ovpn config file, then things can't be easily.  You simply upload the config file to the OpenWRT,  setup the password, and off you go.  A setup walk-through can be found on my another post, https://xpwithubuntu.blogspot.com/2019/05/set-up-openwrt-with-vpn-on-raspberry-pi.html

You are almost there.  To use this router, you need to change your computer network setting to manual so you can define the parameters yourself, e.g.

Instructions for Windows can be found at: https://kb.netgear.com/27476/How-do-I-set-a-static-IP-address-in-Windows

For Linux with Network Manager Applet, settings are:

Now, verify you setup by using sites such as https://www.expressvpn.com/what-is-my-ip

The network is now ready to be used.

With Network Manager Applet in Linux, you can easily change your network configuration by setting up profiles and changing between them.  With Windows, you aren't that lucky.  However, there is a way to get round the pain of Windows useless Networking GUI.  You can use good old batch script to give your profile equivalent in Linux.  Below is what I am using for switching between configurations.

@echo off
SET interface="Ethernet 2"
SET staticip="192.168.1.10"
SET vpnip="192.168.100.10"
SET vpngateway="192.168.100.2"

REM Quad9 DNS
SET dns1="9.9.9.11"
SET dns2="149.112.112.11"

REM dnsforge.de DNS for Ad Blcoking
SET dnsab1="176.9.93.198"
SET dnsab2="176.9.1.117"

:begin
netsh interface ip show config name=%interface%
:options
echo.
echo Select a task:
echo =============
echo -
echo 1) Pi-Hole DNS
echo 2) DHCP DNS
echo 3) VPN
echo 4) VPN (With adblock)
echo 5) Static IP %staticip%
echo 6) Default (DHCP)
echo 7) Show Config for All Interfaces
echo 10) Exit
echo -
set /p op=Type option:
if "%op%"=="1" goto pihole
if "%op%"=="2" goto dhcpdns
if "%op%"=="3" goto vpn
if "%op%"=="4" goto vpnab
if "%op%"=="5" goto staticip
if "%op%"=="6" goto dhcpip
if "%op%"=="7" goto allconfig
if "%op%"=="10" goto exit

echo Please Pick an option:
goto begin


:pihole
echo Set to use Pi-Hole DNS
netsh interface ip set dns name=%interface% source=static address=10.0.100.2
goto begin

:dhcpdns
echo Set to use DHCP DNS
netsh interface ip set dns name=%interface% dhcp
goto begin

:staticip
echo Set to use DHCP DNS
netsh interface ip set address name=%interface% static %staticip%
goto begin

:vpn
echo Set static IP to %vpnip%
netsh interface ip set address source=static name=%interface% address=%vpnip% mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=%vpngateway% gwmetric=0
netsh interface ip set dns name=%interface% source=static %dns1%
netsh interface ip add dns name=%interface% %dns2% index=2
goto begin

:vpnab
echo Set static IP to %vpnip%
netsh interface ip set address source=static name=%interface% address=%vpnip% mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=%vpngateway% gwmetric=0
netsh interface ip set dns name=%interface% source=static %dnsab1%
netsh interface ip add dns name=%interface% %dnsab2% index=2
goto begin

:dhcpip
echo Set to use DHCP DNS
netsh interface ip set address name=%interface% dhcp
netsh interface ip set dns name=%interface% dhcp
goto begin

:allconfig
netsh interface ip show config
goto options

:exit
@exit

This is it. Hope you find this useful. 

 

 

Update 2020-08-10:

 

Tested with FreeVPN.Me, the rpi 3B+, I managed to get 64Mb/s down and 16Mb/s.