General – Doesn’t fit anywhere else – ZM's Information Technology & Life Blog

17 Aug 2020 Monday

Install Python 3.7.x on Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi is made for running programme and projects written in Python. The standard (of the May 2020 release of the Raspberry Pi OS) ships with Python 2.7.1 which might not meet the requirements need. This How-to-Do installs Python version 3.7.4 but should work for 3.8.x as well. As we will install from source code we will need the development environment if not installed already to compile the binaries. Before we start and to avoid any confusion (unless for experimental reasons you need multiple version of Python installed) it is advisable to remove any old versions:

apt list –installed
sudo apt-get autoremove python*

This followed by ensuring the system is up-to-date:

sudo apt-get update

In the next step we install the development tools and any dependencies for building the binaries:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential tk-dev libncurses5-dev libncursesw5-dev libreadline6-dev libdb5.3-dev libgdbm-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev libbz2-dev libexpat1-dev liblzma-dev zlib1g-dev libffi-dev

Now we are good to go to get the source code:

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.7.4/Python-3.7.4.tar.xz
tar xf Python-3.7.4.tar.xz
cd Python-3.7.4

Configuring and compiling (This can take hours depending on your Raspberry’s performance and configuration):

./configure –prefix=/usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4
make -j 4

Installing the new Python version:

sudo make altinstall

Configuration the environment, create aliases and some housekeeping:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/pydoc3.7 /usr/bin/pydoc3.7.4
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/python3.7 /usr/bin/python3.7.4
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/python3.7 /usr/bin/python
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/python3.7m /usr/bin/python3.7.4m
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/pyvenv-3.7 /usr/bin/pyvenv-3.7.4
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/pip3.7 /usr/bin/pip3.7.4
sudo ln -s /usr/local/opt/python-3.7.4/bin/pip3.7 /usr/bin/pip
alias python=’/usr/bin/python3.7.4′
alias python3=’/usr/bin/python3.7.4′
ls /usr/bin/python*
cd ..
sudo rm -r Python-3.7.4
rm Python-3.7.4.tar.xz
. ~/.bashrc

And finally check if everything works:

python -V

By RZM 0 Comments

13 Aug 2020 Thursday

Securing SharePoint site for External File Share

Setting up a SharePoint site to share files with external parties or users is one of the most common requests. To start it is worth confirming the default settings for external Sharing. In the SharePoint Admin Centre go to Policies -> Sharing. Settings here apply default permissions to all Sharepoint sites and users personal OneDrives’. Depending on the security policies framework adhered to the default setting, which enables easy and convenient sharing, can be amended to be more restrictive.

SharePoint Admin Centre -> Policies -> Sharing

Be aware that these setting apply globally to all Sharepoint sites and users OneDrives’ and by default, the most restrictive permission will be applied. Next is to check the wether users in your organisation can add guests and share content. Go to the Microsoft 365 Admin Centre -> Setting -> Org Settings -> Security & Privacy and verify that you prefered option is

enabled or disabled. Once this is done we can proceed to create the SharePoint site. SharePoint offers a number of templates to create a new site. The default option is to create a Team site but there are also templates for Document Center, Enterprise Wiki and Publishing Portal. All templates are accessible via the SharePoint Admin Center -> Create -> Other options.

As we are looking at setting up a secure SharePoint site to share files externally it is advisable limited and tailer the features available on the SharePoint site to just what it is needed, in our case Document Center is the appropriate choice. After giving the site a name and assigning the Primary administrator it is advisable to expand Advanced setting and set the appropriate Time zone. After we have clicked on finish the site will be created and it might take a few moments before the site is available in the SharePoint Admin Center. Once the site shows up, from the top menu choose Permissions -> Manage Admins. The best practice is to have two (but for more, there has to be a justification). Add an additional Administrator and change the Primary Administrator if needed. Next click on the site name. This opens a blade that allows some customisations for the new site. We are particularly interested in the Policies tab and from there click on Edit under External sharing. The Sharing screen will have some familiar options available to us. To impose the tightest security we select “Existing guests only”. This implies that guests have to have an account in your AAD, either created by an Administrator or have been previously granted access to another Sharepoint Site, OneDrive or Teams belonging to your organisation. To facilitate external users to use the entire site the same way we change the Default sharing link type to People with existing access. The next steps are to open the new Site -> Site Contents and to create a new Document Library. Next, we have a look at Site -> Settings -> Site Permissions. Here we click on Site Sharing -> Change how members can share. Here we are restricting the sharing option to only have site owner share files and folders. This remove the capability of daisy-chain sharing permissions.

By RZM 0 Comments

06 Aug 2020 Thursday

SharePoint users can not share folders externally

Being able to share files or folders with external parties is one of the most common feature requests for a SharePoint site. After having set up the sharing permission via the SharePoint Admin centre and for the specific site, users are able to share files with external users but when trying to share an entire folder the following error message pops up:

"Your organization's profile don't allow you to share with these users. Go to External Sharing in the Office 365 admin center to enable it."

In addition to having applied and verified the correct permissions the “Limited-access user permission lockdown mode” has to be deactivated in Site Collection Features. Do do this go “Site Contents”, then “Site Settings” from the top right corner and then “Site collections features”.

Next make sure that “Limited-access user permission lockdown mode” is deactivate.

Once deactivated, users should now be able to share folder in the same way and with the same defaults as files.

By RZM 0 Comments

25 Jul 2020 Saturday

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter v2 – Connection failed

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter provides a convenient way to add public/sharing capabilities to any display that has at least one HDMI input, and preferable as a USB connection for the power requirements. The adapter utilises the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast technology, which uses Wi-Fi Direct to communicate between devices. The required stack is built into Windows 10, meaning no further installations are required. Once installed everything should work out of to box but it is advisable to install the Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter App from the Microsoft App Store. The App allows for managing the adapter settings such as renaming the adapter name, setting security features and update the firmware if available. As Wi-Fi Direct is used to communicate between the adapter and your mobile device the most common issues relate to the Wifi adapter of network settings. If you fail to connect to the display there a numerous suggestion to re-install the driver for the Wifi adapter. Before doing so or in case this is unsuccessful it is worth to look at any network security software or the built-in Windows Firewall. In my case, I had deployed the ESET Endpoint Security, which comes and enables by default an extensive set of Network security features.

Windows uses the Windows User-Mode Driver Framework Host (Wudfhost.exe) for the communication with the Wireless Display adapter. ESET will by default block all communication, cause the “Connection failed” error message with nor further indication what might be the cause. The WUDFHost process has to be able to receive inbound TCP packages on port 7236. For the ESET Endpoint Security suite a firewall rule to allow this traffic is required. Go to Setup -> Firewall (Configure Firewall) -> Advanced (Edit rules).

Once this rule as been created the inbound traffic will be allowed to go through to the WUDF process and you will be able to connect with no problems to the Wireless Display adapter. For ESET deployed in an Enterprise environment, a custom policy should be created with the above settings and assigned to clients as required.

By RZM 0 Comments

General – Doesn’t fit anywhere else

Install Python 3.7.x on Raspberry Pi

Securing SharePoint site for External File Share

SharePoint users can not share folders externally

Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter v2 – Connection failed

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