Development Archives – Remons TechNotes

Local’s SSL “Trust” button is BROKEN on macOS. Here’s why, and here’s the fix. [A LocalWP Addon].

Click Trust next to your site’s SSL certificate in Local. Enter your admin password like a good citizen. Watch it report success. Open https://mysite.local and… “Your connection is not private”. Click Trust again. Password again. Success again. Warning again.

Insanity, as the saying goes, is clicking the same button twice and expecting different results. Or something like that.

The Problem

On modern macOS, Local’s Trust button doesn’t work. Well it does, but not for you. It shows the password prompt, appears to succeed, and changes absolutely nothing; browsers keep screaming about your .local certificate forever. And because it looks like it worked, you naturally assume the problem is elsewhere; your browser cache, your cert, your karma. It isn’t. It’s the button. Continue reading “Local’s SSL “Trust” button is BROKEN on macOS. Here’s why, and here’s the fix. [A LocalWP Addon].”

Sequel Pro can’t connect to Local’s MySQL 8? MySQL Fixes AddOn to the rescue [A LocalWP Addon].

The Problem

Connect a classic client (for example Sequel Pro, older Sequel Ace, older JDBC tools) to a Local site running MySQL 8 and you’re greeted with authentication errors about caching_sha2_password.

(I talked about this already, here)

The classic clients speak mysql_native_password; MySQL 8 defaults to the new plugin, and on 8.4+ the old plugin isn’t just non-default, but (and in my opinion, this is a bug of omission) it ships disabled.

Meanwhile Local’s own connections work fine, so from Local’s point of view there is no bug. From MY point of view, sitting in front of a client that can’t connect to my own database; there very much is. Continue reading “Sequel Pro can’t connect to Local’s MySQL 8? MySQL Fixes AddOn to the rescue [A LocalWP Addon].”

A quick note regarding MySQL error about caching_sha2_password.so not being able to be loaded

For local database manipulation I still use Sequel Pro. Why? Well, all the derivatives (Like Sequel Ace) have a smaller feature set, and alternatives (like MySQL WorkBench) are too complex, and even limited. (How hard is it to provide a socket based connection, or an SSH tunnel TCP connection…)

Anyhoo, a quick note to myself for fixing the error

Double-check that the socket path is correct and that you have the necessary privileges, and that the server is running.

MySQL said: Authentication plugin ‘caching_sha2_password’ cannot be loaded: dlopen(/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin/caching_sha2_password.so, 0x0002): tried: ‘/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin/caching_sha2_password.so’ (no such file), ‘/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin/caching_sha2_password.so’ (no such file), ‘/usr/local/mysql/lib/plugin/caching_sha2_password.so’ (no such file) Continue reading “A quick note regarding MySQL error about caching_sha2_password.so not being able to be loaded”

New toy – almost done – FluxEngine – stand-alone

Hello all.

Yes, I know. It’s been a long time since my last post, but I have a good reason. I have been busy, very very busy with a new 3D project.

Base on the fantastic work of David Given (https://cowlark.com) on FluxEngine I am in the process of developing a stand-alone device to read/write floppydisks (both 5,25 and 3,5 inch) to/from disk images. Please see David’s website on FluxEngine for more information on this part of the project.

You would say that the FluxEngine is the most difficult part made easy by David, and yes, that is true. What I am bringing to the party is the housing, fully 3D printed, the electronics to make it stand-alone, power supply, cooling etc. Interested? Please read on :)

Continue reading “New toy – almost done – FluxEngine – stand-alone”

This just in: Contact-Form-7 (WordPress) Vulnerability – 5 million websites at risk – CVE-2020-35489

A vulnerability has been discovered in Contact Form 7 that allows an attacker to upload malicious scripts. The publishers of Contact Form 7 have released an update to fix the vulnerability.

Unrestricted File Upload Vulnerability…

Noooo, I’m not going to steal/copy/plagiarize this article, just read the article on CVE 2020 35489 on searchenginejournal.com.

But I do have something to add. Continue reading “This just in: Contact-Form-7 (WordPress) Vulnerability – 5 million websites at risk – CVE-2020-35489”

Migrating from SVN to GIT. It has been done before, …, but has it?

Recent changes in policy re-ignited our quest to migrate away from Subversion to GIT, as GIT is much more powerful for branching and merging e.t.c.

Migrating from Subversion is not very hard; you just start over, right? So you want to lose all the project history? I don’t think so.

The migrated GIT-repository should include all history, all commit messages, all tags, all branches. How do you do that? Continue reading “Migrating from SVN to GIT. It has been done before, …, but has it?”

Handy script: lbf

[Edit: This script is defunct since Local rebuilt the application and ditched the virtual machine. This script works only with the old “Local by Flywheel” and not with the “Local Lightning” app. For the latter, see my lbl script]

Local (by Flywheel) is great, but for a terminal type of person as I am, I find it way more convenient to SSH into a VM and use the WP-CLI to perform WordPress tasks. With a platform like Vagrant, one has the

vagrant ssh

command to shell into the virtual environment.

With Local, you can do this with the push of a button in Local, but as said, I like the terminal better.

lbf ssh

is waaaaay faster than going to the Local app, find the site, click the SSH button.

But wait, there is much more ;) Continue reading “Handy script: lbf”

macOS High Sierra, the magnificent update that killed the development environment.

[UPDATED sep 26]
[UPDATED again on oct 27th, see tags UPDATE2]

macOS High Sierra is awesome~~, but unfortunately, it killed my “old style” development environment~~. It was not just High Sierra; brew upgrade also had a big part in the failing of the development setup, if not ALL of it. I brew upgraded my set-up on Sierra (not High yet) and it got F’ed up as well. My guess; 95% Brew’s fault, 5% High Sierra (and only because High Sierra sort of forced me to brew upgrade)

If you are still using the “old” way for development websites (a.k.a., using macOSs own apache2 and brew php), you might want to wait with upgrading to High Sierra; I don’t have a working solution yet.

[UPDATE2] I think I might have a solution :)

Continue reading “macOS High Sierra, the magnificent update that killed the development environment.”

Synology NAS software on non-Synology hardware

I am the proud owner of a Synology DS1512+. She’s getting old but she’s still one of my more sensible purchases. The hardware quality and ease-of-use of the Synology Disk Manager (DSM) still pleases me every day.

I need my NAS to be operational. I use it for all my important stuff but I also have the “urge” to develop my own tools for it. I need a platform to develop software on, without the risk of losing any of my data.

Recently I found XPEnology. Is it a Synology DSM clone? No. It IS the original Synology DSM, without alterations. You just need something to boot it with; a bootloader. Is it legal???? I’m not sure. And when in doubt, go for safe; consider it illegal.

In retrospect, setting-up a XPEnology NAS is surprisingly easy. But for most tutorials you need a Windows computer (windows-only software is used). But on a Mac, you don’t need (most of this) 3rd party software. You have a Mac! A Mac comes with tools, but what tool to use and how?

Continue reading “Synology NAS software on non-Synology hardware”

Out with the old, in with the new — Switching from built-in software to one awesome piece of engineering: Local (by Flywheel)

A multitude of recent developments have aided me to make a choice. Some of them are

Apple going for thinner, lighter instead of stronger performance, and
Microsoft integrating Bash into Windows 10 with WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

While the new Macbook Pro is quite a feet of engineering, it is hardly “Pro”. Surely intel graphics are enough for typing letters and calculating spreadsheets, it’s not Pro. A 16GB memory limit (which with the compression tech used is like 24GB for any other OS) is great for battery life, but it’s not “Pro”. The keyboard is ultra thin and has good tactile feedback, but the keys need a firm press, and travel almost nothing. Great for thinning the device, but again, not “Pro”. For the same amount of money you can buy a portable powerhouse like the Asus ROG G752vy (seen in my post about this). This one has other issues, but at least it has got awesome graphics (nVidia 980), max 64 GB RAM and a “normal” laptop keyboard.

(Yeah, I know, I KNOW, I don’t need ‘awesome graphics’ for web development, but I like to game also, and to be honest; my favorite IDE – phpStorm – DOES prefer a sturdy GPU. Don’t know why, but it runs so much better on a discrete GPU than it does on intel Graphics)

Reasons to stay with macOS are rapidly diminishing, and reasons to start using Windows again are gaining support. Since the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, Windows offers Bash and all goodness that comes with Ubuntu linux, right at your fingertips. Well, not ALL goodness, but most of it.

Continue reading “Out with the old, in with the new — Switching from built-in software to one awesome piece of engineering: Local (by Flywheel)”