No final vide grenier
There is a big vide grenier, one of the last big ones of the year, at a town a ways up the road called Coësmes (say kwem). It rained a lot yesterday, and was forecast to rain today, though I don't think it actually did. Cloudy and a bit windy though. More to the point, I simply didn't feel like it. I mean, I guess I'd have liked to have gone if I didn't need to drive and, more importantly, didn't have to find my way around hundreds of people. I last went in 2022 and while I got some interesting things, the weather was better and I did have to sit very quiet under a tree for a while to recover from all the everybody. It's also why I have avoided the massive one at Éssé earlier in the year. There's often plenty of choice at the bigger ones, but also plenty of people...
Besides, let's be honest, I don't think I need any additional junk right now.
Managing your Livebox with LiveboxMonitor
If you have one of the newer Liveboxes, the 5, 6, or 7, then you may be aware that the old MaLivebox app has been withdrawn, a mere shell of its functionality has been added to the Orange et Moi app, once you have managed to find it, and while the Livbox itself offers an interface to set it up, things are a bit spread out and unclear, not to mention there are numerous bizarre limitations.
For example, it doesn't seem possible to list known devices any more. It'll only show the ones that are actually connected. Furthermore, since you cannot see non-connected devices, you don't get the ability to delete old ones. I think the Livebox "forgets" things that have not been connected for a month, but sometimes you want to revoke or block and be certain that it has been done.
The Livebox built-in management interface.
There is a solution. It is so software, written in Python, called LiveboxMonitor. You can find this at https://github.com/p-dor/LiveboxMonitor
If you have Windows, or MacOS, refer to the above link for installation instructions. I shall describe how to get it running on Linux Mint because the suggested pip install LiveboxMonitor did not work.
If you try to install directly with pip, it will fail.
Rick@Rick-E200HA:~/LMon$ pip install LiveboxManager
error: externally-managed-environment
× This environment is externally managed
╰─> To install Python packages system-wide, try apt install
python3-xyz, where xyz is the package you are trying to
install.
[...blah blah blah...]
This is because LiveboxMonitor is externally managed, which means the dependencies may not match what is installed on the system.
There are two ways to deal with this. The one that you may find online that you should NEVER do is to run pip with the --break-system-packages option. In case the parameter name wasn't enough of a clue, this can cause stuff break - it's like trying to deal with a severed limb using duct tape.
Debian handles Python packages using apt, but there is no python3-liveboxmonitor package to install so what can we do?
Well, first we need to make sure we have pip, we'll need it later. This may or may not work, depending on what you have done in the past. I don't think it is supplied as standard, but doing stuff with Python may have caused you to include it.
sudo apt install pip
Then create a virtual environment in which to install our software. I have chosen to place it in a directory called LMon in the user home directory.
python3 -m venv ~/LMon
Now go into that directory and ensure that installation stuff is up to date.
cd LMon
bin/python -m pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel
It will take some time and spew info on the screen. Be patient.
Now we can install the LiveboxMonitor itself. It will take some time because there's a bunch of Qt6 stuff that it needs. Don't be patient, go put the kettle on and make yourself a nice cup of tea.
bin/python -m pip install LiveboxMonitor
We're not done. If you're using Debian/Mint there's one last thing that's missing that will stop the application running with a gibberish error message about window managers.
sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0
Okay, we're done. Go back to the user home directory, as that's usually where a new terminal opens, and then enter the command to run the program.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~/LMon$ cd ~
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ ./LMon/bin/LiveboxMonitor &
[1] 25493
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$
If you aren't familiar with task management, the trailing '&' disassociates the LiveboxMonitor task from the terminal, so whilst you'll still see some debug messages appear on the terminal, you can close it without LiveboxMonitor also closing.
You may prefer to make a shortcut and pin this to your backdrop, and then you won't have to fart around with the command line at all. To do this, simply right-click on the backdrop and choose Create a new launcher here and then fill in the details.
For the icon, it is held within /LMon/lib64/python3.12/site-packages/LiveboxMonitor/app/LmIcons.py as a Base64 encoded file. The simplest way to extract this is to copy the data (that's the gibberish that begins iVBORw0 and ends with SuQmCC""" and nothing else) to a new file, call it "lmicon.txt". Note there are multiple icons in that file, you only want the first one.
Then at the command line, enter:
base64 -d -i lmicon.txt > lmicon.png
Then simply choose the lmicon.png file as the app icon to display.
Setting up a clickable shortcut.
Anyway...
When it starts, it will ask for your Livebox password. Enter it, and smile at the fact that the user name on a major commercial broadband router is hardwired to "admin".
You'll then get a message asking if you want to copy the device names from the Livebox. Answer yes to this, as it's simpler than dealing with everything being called UNKNOWN. You can review things later on.
There are, I should point out, three device names. There's the name that the device is known on DNS. Some devices provide this information that the Livebox picks up on. There's the device name as given to the Livebox (which may or may not come from the device itself). And finally there's a device name as known to the LiveboxMonitor application. The reason for this dissociation is because a device can offer a name to the router, so by having the names in the monitor software being different, it can help to highlight unknown devices.
The replacement management interface.
The display isn't perfect. I don't know why the Redmi 12 phone is listed twice - I suspect MAC randomisation means it will be seen as a different device each time, I'll need to turn that off.
I don't know why the HP printer's IP is shown in red (unable to communicate) as it's on the network and responding to that IP address just fine.
And it resolutely refuses to show data transfer statistics for the E200HA laptop and the Letterbox ESP32. This is a Livebox issue, not this software, as it's just not reporting anything for those two devices.
And I'm not sure why the Pi3B+ which is exactly 277cm (yes, I measured) line-of-sight away from the Livebox has the same sort of signal strength as the little WiFi camera out back (about 500cm with ~70cm of it being stone walls (but with adjacent doors/windows but NO line-of-sight)) that uses a bit of wire as its antenna.
If your display is small like mine, it's worth reminding you that you can hold down the System key (this is usually the Left Alt key), then click-and-hold on any part of the window to drag it around to show the parts that are not otherwise visible. Note for RISC OS: this is a much better method than clipping the window to the screen size. ☺
If you prefer to have it appear in English, click on the rightmost tab "Actions", and in the right of the panel that shows up, about two halfway down, you'll see a button "Préférences...". Change the language there.
By looking at the statistics, I can see that my Livebox has been running for 194 days. This is because I have it running through the 12V battery backup supply that will take over in the case of a power failure...which is fairly common here in rural France. We don't get actual failures very often, but brownouts do happen (although it's better now than it used to be). My notebook isn't affected, obviously, as it has an internal battery. The two Pi machines can ride out a brownout because their current draw is so low that the power brick is basically dumping power out of its capacitors to ride out the problem. The Livebox, on the other hand, will instantly reboot at the merest whiff of a glitch. But with the box being slaved from the battery UPS, it's cool.
I was a little worried as the Livebox power brick is rated at 3A but my battery UPS is only rated 2A. However I don't use wired ethernet or PoE or anything fancy, and nothing I have needs or supports 6GHz WiFi so that stuff is deactivated, plus the power brick runs cool, as does the UPS, so I'm just going to guess that it isn't actually taking more than 2A in the way that I'm using it.
In the 194 days of operation, 286GB has been received via the fibre connection, and 33.1GB sent. The LAN is recording 377.3MB received and 3.2GB sent - this is "all data passed" but with the quirk that it's a 32 bit value so it wraps at 4GB. 🤦
More specifically the 2.4GHz WiFi received 149.9GB and sent 35.1GB while the 5GHz WiFi received 154.2GB and sent 13.6GB. So, YouTube out, Netflix in, right?
The Livebox has been rebooted 10 times, with a total number of reboots being 41. The last recorded reboot was at 14h38 on the 18th of February this year. The first recorded reboot was at 2h37 on the 29th of October 2024 when it was force-rebooted following a software update. This is recorded as the minute prior to the device's very first boot. This is confusing given that this is a replacement Livebox 6, thanks to Orange thinking that they can fix a fibre fault by sending out a new Livebox 🤦, and it was installed at the end of June 2025. I'm just going to guess that it's a bit like the ESP32 firmware that an update will trample on whatever was there before, wiping out some of the previous information, with the rest being held... somewhere else that didn't get nuked.
My connection has been up for 109 days, last connected on the 29th of October 2024. Anybody capable of counting will be thinking "hang on, it's nearly October now, how can it be 109 days?". You'd be right, it's more like 306 days. It also implies that the connection didn't go down during the last reboot 194 days ago, so... don't ask me. It doesn't make sense. I just hope Orange's billing isn't as screwy as this. ☺
My maximum data transfer rates are 2.4GBit down and 1.2GBit up. Since I'm not paying €€€ to Orange, they have artificially limited my rate to 1GBit per device maximum...which is a bit bloody pointless as everything runs via WiFi so I'll get about 98~109Mbit/sec (down) and 32~48Mbit/sec up if using 5GHz, and if I have to go via the Vonets WiFi extender that drops to an embarrassing 4.5Mbit/sec in both directions. My PC, which I think slaves its WiFi through USB, manages 44.8Mbit/sec down and 24.4Mbit/sec up.
So, really, allowing 2Gbit per device instead of 1Gbit would make exactly zero difference. I won't complain too much though, as before I had a measly 2Mbit where the line was absolutely the slow part. Now it's my equipment that can't keep up!
My fibre signal receive power is -19.706dBm (should be between -27 and -8), the transmit power is +3.41 dBm (should be between +0.5 and +5). It's a long line but all is within parameters. The bias is the laser power. It is 1.264mA (should be less than 150mA). The laser is 46°C at 3.3V.
The Livebox maintains data transfer statistics for about the past three and a half days, broken down per interface. Here are the upload statistics for the past 24 hours. Red is the fibre, blue is 2.4GHz WiFi and green is 5GHz WiFi. This was me uploading pictures and such for yesterday's blog article. You can see the parts where I got distracted and went off and did something else.
Data uploaded over the last 24 hours (when picture exported).
It is quite a lot simpler to manage the DHCP allocations here, than in the web interface. The Pi 2 is shown in red as UNKNOWN because it is currently not turned on, so it doesn't appear on the network. I could probably twiddle the names to make this work, but I can't be bothered at the moment. The golden rule of DNS is "if it works, don't touch it". Plus, I know what device .10 is.
Managing the DHCP allocations.
The Livebox keeps track of calls made and received, so it's easy to see without having to go to the website of the responder service. It seems that there are different ringtones, but this must need a more advanced phone than either of mine. It's a shame that it doesn't pulse the ring current differently, as I'd hear that in the bell of my traditional phone.
The built-in call log and address book.
There are some other, more advanced, things but they aren't so likely to be necessary for regular management of the Livebox.
At any rate, it's a very nice piece of software by Pierre Dor.
Livebox, battery UPS, and my two phones.
ls colours
If you list a directory, at least in Linux Mint, you'll see it can be quite colourful.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ ls /ftp
4df5-1920x1080.jpeg omg-bootlog.txt weathersettings.json
'BBC Micro startup sound.ogg' radiosettings.json
gbdoneit.jpeg rickcam20250510.zip
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$
But what does it all mean?
You can find out using the dircolors command. I have added annotations to explain the codes used.
rick@Rick-E200HA:~$ dircolors --print-ls-colors
rs 0 ← reset
di 01;34 ← directory
ln 01;36 ← symlink
mh 00 ← multiple hard link
pi 40;33 ← pipe
so 01;35 ← sock
do 01;35 ← door
bd 40;33;01 ← block device driver
cd 40;33;01 ← character device driver
or 40;31;01 ← orphan (symlink to missing file)
mi 00 ← the missing file
su 37;41 ← setuid
sg 30;43 ← setgid
ca 00 ← capability
tw 30;42 ← sticky/other writeable
ow 34;42 ← other writeable
st 37;44 ← sticky
ex 01;32 ← executable file
You probably won't see most of these in a normal directory listing.
This will be followed by a long list of file extensions that boil down to:
*.tar *tgz and other archive files appear in bright red. (01;31)
*.avif *.jpg and other image and video files appear in bright magenta. (01;35)
*.aac *.au and other audio files appear in normal cyan. (00;36)
And backup/temp/scrap files appear in grey. (00;90)
Those numbers may be familiar to you if you've ever done anything for a BBS "back in the day". They're the ANSI colour codes.
Cassette player repair
Somewhere along the way, I also found time to strip down my cassette player/recorder to change the loose belt for a newer tighter one.
Inside the cassette recorder.
The motor and drive belt.
The Sony TCM-400DV cassette recorder.
As mentioned just above, it's a Sony TCM-400DV cassette player/recorder. It supports two tape speeds, the normal 4.8cm/sec and a long play 2.4cm/sec, the latter being useful for dictations and such where fidelity is not so important. There is a voice operated recording function with two levels (for quiet and noisier places). There's a built in microphone, along with a socket for an external microphone; also a .5cm 200mW speaker. Neither are great, but they're functional. Note that it records and plays back two track monaural, because it is intended for dictations, not recording/playing music. It adjusts the recording level automatically.
There is a speed knob (for playback only) that adjusts the speed from about -15% to +30%, presumably for those professors and bosses that speak in slow motion. Usefully this also works when fast forwarding or rewinding. And there's a three digit tape counter, along with Cue/Review functionality. It was, in its time (2001-2009ish), pretty high tech for a dictaphone device using regular sized cassettes. One could get two hours out of a standard C60 tape, with an hour a side.
Your comments:
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| jgh, 1st September 2025, 21:36 |
mdfs.net/Docs/Comp/Comms/ANSISGR.htm
:)
|
| A tree-dwelling mammal, 2nd September 2025, 03:28 |
Your cassette player has a drive belt? "Wot, no quartz-locked direct drive capstan motor?"
The Matsushita-made cassette mechanisms from the early 1990s (sold under the Technics brand) had a quartz DD capstan motor, along with a second motor to drive the spindles. Unfortunately the gear drive from the spindle motor was made of a type of nylon that becomes brittle after a few years. And there's no remaining stock of replacement gears...
Of course the one on my Technics deck split. I had a 'bodge' in place for ages consisting of a bit of stiff wire to hole the gear onto the motor shaft. Unfortunately there was a slight alignment issue, so every time the spindle motor rotated it would send a jolt through the take-up spool. Which you could hear on the playback.
I finally did a permanent fix a couple of years back when I discovered that someone was selling 3D-printed replacement gears for about £4 for 2 on eBay. It now works perfectly. Not bad for a bit of hardware that's over 30 years old.
(I'm finally out of hospital and been given the all-clear for now, in case anyone wondered where I'd been.) |
| jgh, 2nd September 2025, 15:13 |
(X) to Mammal. |
(Felicity? Marte? Find out!)
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