Zorin 16 Review (Linux distro)...

  I think this is my first Linux Distro (mini) review ever.  But after watching a Zorin 16 review on the Youtube channel, ‘Explaining Computers’, which handed out a solid ‘RECOMMENDED!!!’, and seeing the ‘Distrowatch’ internet site giving it a 8.5 out of 10 rating, I felt compelled to post, if only to blow off steam.

  Zorin is actually a commercial package, the developer asking £39 Sterling for the 'Professional' version.  The 'Core' version I'm commenting on is available free-of-charge, and according to the Explaining Computers review, is essentially the same as  the Pro version, minus some installed (though freely available for download) software packages and User-support from Zorin.  So, yes, I’ve installed Zorin, mainly out of curiosity, based on the overly positive review by ‘Explaining Computers’.  In fact, I'm typing this from Zorin, using the excellent Libre Office that’s provided.  I remember, back in the 90’s, paying for my first introduction to Linux – Suse Linux, at around £30 – and feeling slightly embarrassed for the community at the word-processing package that was supplied.  It worked ok, it was just that the user-interface was well below par when compared to the M$ Word offering at the time.  But that was the past, Libre Office is a well-polished piece of software that is a pleasure to use.

  And apart from that one positive point, it’s going to be all down-hill from here!  Wait, I’ll make it two – I was really impressed at how fast Zorin ‘can’ close down the computer – I emphasise ‘can’ for a reason - 1st time it switched off the computer really rapidly, next shutting-down, the system just hung and I had to hit the ‘Reset’ button, so there’s that...

  Anyway, after first backing up my prized Deepin 20 installation using Terabyte, I installed Zorin over it, on the partition where it resides.  I did this ‘cos I had initially tried installing it on my old laptop – Dell M1210, 2006 vintage, ‘only’ 4GB (3.2 usable) of RAM etc. - but that ended in failure, for the same reason I’m sure I’ve commented on here previously.  You see, a ‘regression’ (sic) introduced into the Linux kernel years ago (shortly after Mint 17.3’s debut)  which has never been rectified, results in kernels newer than 2.6.32.74 (Mint 17.3) failing to even detect the SSD in use. Long story...

  The Zorin installation is on a AMD 5350-based computer, so definitely not what you’d call a powerhouse – yet it’s the best I’ve got!  It’s one plus is that it has 8GB RAM (7.2 usable), so no memory issues, which is just as well.

  So after just a couple hours using Zorin (though ‘enduring’ seems more apt), it's time to cite its shortcomings. 

1:  It’s got possibly the worst boot-screen I’ve ever seen – all black & white, with an overly-large font – looks like something you’d have seen running on a ‘286 in the 80’s.
2:  Out of the gate, it uses at least 900MB of RAM, with a ‘new-to-me’ 600MB+ of ‘Cache’ memory also in use.  Why not just say it needs 1.5GB just to boot and be done with it!
3:  Although it seems to recognise my hardware, it fails to set the max screen resolution – the max it provides is 1024 x 768, my old monitor is capable of 1360 x 768.  Deepin sets it properly, Zorin should too!
4:  It doesn’t detect the integrated Bluetooth of my 7260AC wireless card.  In fairness neither does Deepin.  It’s a disgrace that cards of this popularity, which work (BT included) fine on EOL platforms such as Mint 17.3, no longer do on so-called ‘improved’ Linux kernels.
5:  Even an external ‘universal’ Bluetooth dongle doesn’t work!  It detects it, will with difficulty 'pair' with my BT headset, but that’s as far as I can get.  The installed BT s/w, that’s part of Gnome 3.xx is abysmal, and always has been.  Deepin’s heavily based on Gnome 3.xx so suffers similarly.  That’s the reason my first act whenever I’m confronted with Gnome 3.xx is to install Blueman.  Works well with Deepin, can’t get it to work at all with Zorin – a first!  Installs fine.  With BT disabled, Blueman’s icon is visible.  Click it, select ‘Enable BT’ and the icon disappears from the taskbar!  Try getting it to show itself by running it from the programs Menu also fails, periodically throwing up a pop-up, explaining that the connection to Bluez failed, and therefore it cannot continue!  Bloody infuriating!!!
6:  The Software manager UI sucks.  It’s got the same spartan appearance you see at boot-time – all B&W, depressing as hell.

  And the above is just after 2 hours of (ab)use.  I’m afraid of what I’d discover with extended use.  Believe it or not, I’m not even having a go at Zorin here.  The underlying problems are caused by crap like Gnome 3.xx.  I recall the (justified) backlash to it when it first came out, also the Developers wildly optimistic ‘Roadmap’ – they were supposed to have version 4 up & running 2014-2016 if memory serves.  Yet here we are, 2022 on the horizon, still 3.xx and it still sucks!  The fact that these clowns can’t provide an even usable BT solution this far down the line really baffles me though!  One of the biggest complaints way back when was their insistence in ‘dumbing-down’ the UI.  Well, 10+ years later, nothing has changed.  The BT configurability that's provided is almost non-existent, and providing an unusable BT experience, for me anyway.

  The fact that Gnome 3.xx is the future of Linux doesn’t bode well for Linux.  But we're stuck with it, it seems.  On the upside, Deepin Linux is in fact based on Gnome 3.xx though heavily modified – thank the Lord – but as they say, a pig with lipstick is still a pig.  And despite the almost apologetic tone from reviewers for daring to say something favourable about a Chinese Linux distro, Deepin is thee most polished Linux OS out there, for quite a while - if not, since forever - the pig it's built on of course, not withstanding!

  Summing up.  I’m sick & tired of superficial ‘reviews’ such as are being supplied by the likes of ‘Explaining Computers’ and Distrowatch.  They are little more than a Bells & Whistles summation, with little or no real-world review of the OS’s provided features being done.  Distrowatch I get, has to remain positive about the state of Linux, come what may, it’s their bread & butter after all.  Then there’s the kernel developers.  Bugs are introduced that will more likely than not, EVER be fixed.  The affected user is left with little choice but to suck it up.  Despite this, the number of ‘new’ Linux distros being released doesn’t seem to be abating, despite 90% of them offering nothing on what’s already available.  Cynical old me is beginning to conclude most are doing it for the money – in the form of donations – that successful distros tend to bring in. 

In conclusion, I'm not impressed with Zorin and it definitely doesn't warrant paying £39 for it, and that's excluding VAT as well!  By all means, install it and check it out, or alternatively, try it out online here - I wish I had!!!  I may play with the installed version a bit more, given the effort I've already put into getting it up & running, but its days are numbered.
 

Addendum.

True to my word, or NOT, as in this instance, I still have Zorin installed, on not one, but two computers.  Not an endorsement by any means either!  I had spent so much time trying to get it working properly on my 'good' machine (AMD 5350) that I figured, what was there to lose trying it on my mini-itx Intel Atom quad-core pc - only more time, as it turned out!

The Intel pc also has just 2Gig of memory, so I expected that Zorin would refuse to install, not, as it happens.  Neither does it boot successfully - the current Linux kernel just doesn't like the integrated Nvidia graphics that it finds, refusing to start Xorg.  After a huge amount of time, I discovered that if I booted in recovery-mode, dropped to the root-terminal and tried starting X manually, it still threw up the same 'refresh-rate' error, but would eventually start X-server.  Once up, I then found that I could switch over to Wayland, with which, the problem disappeared.

Despite this 'success', Zorin proved effectively unusable with 2Gig of ram.  Not a shocker given that the Gnome 3.xx garbage still grabs most of the memory anyway - I had been curious though to see if Gnome, on seeing how little memory was available (only 1.73Gig after the Bios has had its nibble) would curtail its voracious appetite somewhat - no such luck!  Load an instance of Firefox, and things grind to a halt and the system locks up.  So yeah, unusable.

Ever indefatigable, I then decided to see if Zorin Lite would work on the 2Gig machine.  This is in effect Zorin 15.  Things didn't start well - the very same Nvidia graphics bug exists with the Lite version!  I also have to go through the same rigamarole to get to boot as root, sans Wayland however, so not a usable solution long-term.  Once achieved, I was treated to a user-interface that is really spartan in appearance.  Yet despite the 'Lite' moniker, Gnome still insists in gobbling up well over 1Gig of the available ram.  The only plus was that the system didn't hang when I then ran Firefox.

Having had my fill of Zorin Lite, I wiped it from existence by restoring the Zorin 16 backup (via Terabyte) that I had made, over it, then installed Zorin 16 on my AMD 5350 machine instead - at least here Gnome 3.xx would have 8Gig to play with.

Different machine, different problems, though thankfully not graphics-related.  Here my memory constraints are SSD-related, having just a puny 120Gigs to play with.  I was forced to split the partition occupied by Deepin Linux, but in the knowledge that thanks to Terabyte, reverting back to how things were, wouldn't be an issue if/when Zorin proved more trouble than it was worth.

And that is pretty much where it stands.  Zorin 16 runs ok on the AMD setup.  Since this is the 'Core' version of a commercial offering, there are some limitations, and one of those is the number of UI setups that are available.  Of those that are, none contain a 'Clear desktop' method - this is unacceptable.  The other thing that really rubs me the wrong way concerns Wine.  While Zorin offers "Windows support", the word "Wine" is never mentioned.  So, despite the entirety of this "Windows support" being provided by the Wine Project, those good people never seem to be outwardly given any credit by the Zorin developer.  This fact is exacerbated after you have manually installed Wine and tried running a M$ program - Zorin interjects, each and every time, with a pop-up, warning you that you are about to run a Windoze program (Duh!) and do you wish to continue.  Again, the backbone of all of this functionality is Wine-based, yet not a mention of this, as far as Zorin is concerned.  Yep, it grinds my gears. 

As mentioned, Deepin 20 is also built on Gnome 3.xx.  Therefore, I challenge anyone to compare & contrast the two operating systems.  IMO, Deepin wins hands-down in almost every category.

One thing I will add in conclusion.  Given the appalling performance issues I've experienced with Zorin on the 2gig Intel system, as well as having recently become curious at how good Cloud-based OCR'ing has become, I downloaded & installed Windows 8.1 (which 'UI-Path' lists as a pre-requisite) onto it.  I had never played with Windows 8.x before, so the fact that it even installed onto such a low-spec, 2008-era machine, was a surprise.  Even more so that I can also browse the i-net without issues.  The fact that UI-Path (a 500Meg download) installs & runs perfectly, albeit very slowly, even with a concurrent instance of Firefox, is amazing.  I have in fact, just ordered from Amazon, a 2Gig of DDR2 ram-stick for all of £6 Sterling, in the hope that whatever remains after being BIOS-SODIMM'ised may facilitate a worthwhile speed-boost!  Contrast this with the fact that I can barely get Zorin to run on the same hardware...

Methinks I may have pre-judged Windows 8.x a mite harshly - a late realisation I know!  But I do hate all of those stupid menu-items, as well as that awful M$ Store you need to register with to even install software.  I've actually tried 3 time thus far to register, only to be told right at the end of the registration process, that it failed and to try again later - Grrrr.  To my credit, I did download & install Windows 10 at one time, for a look & feel.  I wasn't impressed.  It appears that Windows 8.1 is quite a benign OS in comparison.

More Chinese FAKE Components shenanigans...

 Though many of my posts start off by saying that they'll be short, then end up anything but, this I promise shall be to the point - therefore, short!

 I ordered 10 2n3819 N-FET's well over a year ago but didn't have a reason to call one into service until today.  While they look exactly as they should, lazar-etched as well, they are not what they claim.

 They turn out to be NPN transistors, not FETs!!!  Below is a (poor) photo of a fake 2n3819 (left) along side the genuine article (right), along with both component-tester's results.

 Those pesky orientals really grind my gears at times.

 

 

Linux - Bluetooth SUCKS!

 Though past-posts here might lead one to believe that it's Linux-wireless that has been my major bug-bear over the years, truth is, it hasn't been so for a long time.  Seems, somewhere along the line, the Linux Devs got their shit together - that, or Intel finally started supplying drivers that actually work, who the hell knows.

 Anyway, it's Linux Bluetooth that has been driving me demented for the longest time.  Pretty much from the 'beginning' actually, when I switched over to Linux, 2008 or thereabouts.  Sure BT has always kinda worked, but you try mix-&-matching and you're in for a whole world of pain.

 My setup involves three BT-enabled PC's, but only one BT-headset.  Surely it's not unreasonable to expect pretty much seamless usage of said headset across all three pc's?  That has always been my expectation at any rate, but 12+ years of experience to the contrary had proven this to be wishful thinking.  This isn't just a Linux problem either - though I can't speak for current M$ offerings, Win7 is just as bad.

 Confined to a single pc, BT works pretty well - once your BT-headset has been paired with the pc, you can generally expect hassle-free performance.  The problems begin when you then try using the same headset with a different pc (which works fine) and then switching back.  Trying to get the already-paired headset to re-connect with the pc can be a nightmare.  With Win7 it is in fact easier to just re-pair the device.  Linux is generally more amenable, particularly if you're working with Blueman, but still way more hassle than it has any right to be.

 The question is, WHY???  Much as I loathe Android, it manages to make re-connecting to an already-paired device a doddle - so why can't Linux do the same?  While I don't have an explanation, I at least have figured out a reasonably hassle-free means of getting my BT-headset re-connected.

 Incidentally,  almost all of the BT problems I've experienced revolve around 'Audio-sink' connections - 'headset' connections seem to work flawlessly, but are of no use when just trying to listen to music.  The fact that this is so and that my M-Pow headset has a built-in mic, and therefore chooses a 'headset' connection by default has been a source of constant irritation, salting the wound, you might say.

 The re-connection problems all stem from the Pulseaudio module 'module-bluetooth-discover', at least on my setup.  If you are unable to connect to your headset via a 'Audio-sink' connection, but a 'Headset' connection attempt works fine, issue the following command from the terminal;

pactl load-module  module-bluetooth-discover

 If it spits back a number, that means the module was not loaded, so another attempt to connect with a 'Audio-sink' connection will almost certainly succeed.  Why 'module-bluetooth-discover' unloads itself is open to question, but one thing I have discovered is that any problem with Pulseaudio itself will result in 'module-bluetooth-discover' being purged.  Thing is, Pulseaudio is so integrated into Linux, that any Pulseaudio crash would likely go unnoticed by the user anyway - the OS immediately reloads Pulseaudio in the event of a crash.  There are in fact many forum threads devoted to trying to STOP Pulseaudio being reloaded in this fashion - not an easy thing to do apparently. But I digress...

 What I've opted to do is, rather than trying to fix Linux, instead, if a 'Audio-sink' connection fails, just run the following Bash script;

#!/bin/bash

pulseaudio --kill                                  
kill -9 $(ps -e | grep blueman-manager | awk '{print $1}')
pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover           
sleep 5                                              
pactl load-module module-bluetooth-discover

 

 All this does is, kill Pulseaudio (it will restart itself) and Blueman (Blueman often hangs when it experiences a re-connection issue, it will also self-start).  Then load the Pulseaudio module  'module-bluetooth-discover' TWICE, with a 5sec delay in between.  For some unknown reason, while loading it just once 'works', it immediately unloads itself!  The 5sec delay between reloading is also crucial - setting 1,3 etc. delays, result in a failed attempt at reloading.

Edit.

 I've been playing with a brand-spanking new Deepin 20.2 release, Bluetooth specifically, and once again, I'm underwhelmed.  In a nutshell, BT SUCKS with bells on!  Frankly, I can't believe BT is this bad with current Linux versions.

 Nothing that I've commented on above applies to Deepin 20.2's problems - for instance, the 'bluetooth-module-discover' is correctly & intelligently reloaded whenever it is either deliberately removed, or when (on Mint 17.3 at least) some other BT-related crash causes it to be purged.  Yet despite this, nothing works properly, with the exact same problem described above, being the order of the day!  Whereas Mint 17.3 now always reconnects to my BT headset, no matter what it had been paired & connected to previously - that is, once the above Bash script is run - Deepin BT absolutely refuses to reconnect, where the headset had been last connected to another machine.

 So, although both OS's display identical re-connection problems, the underlying reason for their failure seem to be completely different.  Bloody infuriating.

 Although I commented on M$ Windows 7's similarly shabby BT performance above, I neglected to mention that at least one available Windoze application fixes the problem - IVT BlueSoleil - Bluetooth done properly!  I've only just discovered that they also do a Linux version, which is intriguing.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason, their site is down at the moment, so no link available.  Oddly, they still don't have a 'secure' https URL which is strange - and maybe part of the reason their site seems to have been hacked.

Edit.

One last comment on this.  As I've mentioned already, BT on my Raspberry PI 3B+ is practically unusable, providing the worst BT experience of the lot.  I've just discovered though, after trying it with an old (BT 2.0) CSR BT stick, that bluetooth works perfectly well!  Trying out the same old BT stick on both my laptop & Linux/Win7 Desktop computers, both of which sport Intel 7260AC Wireless/BT cards, the experience, while not perfect, is markedly better.  And if memory serves, integrated BT with Qualcomm cards was equally awful.

So it's beginning to appear that combined Wireless/BT cards are generally a bad idea.  In fact I've noticed that on my laptop, when I introduce the CSR BT dongle to the mix, Intel BT does not seem at all happy.  Bluemon generally refuses to allow switching between the Intel & CSR adapters, often crashing Wireless itself, and requiring either a reboot or a Suspend/Resume if I'm lucky, in order to restart it.  Given that I'm using native Intel BT drivers with both my machines, I guess I can only conclude that if the almighty Intel can't get their own cards to work properly,  what hope is there for the rest of us.  Sigh.

Linux Developers & Printing...

 Just one more thing that 'Grinds My Gears'.  I'm still using Mint 17.3 as my main OS, because for the most part, it works.  I've found through experience, when crucial stuff stops working in Linux, it's invariably down to Linux Developers and their piss-poor/non-existent Beta-testing of new kernel releases.  And when they break shit, it more often than not stays broken!  The two examples near & dear to my heart are 1) the kernel 'regression' that caused my Transcend SSD to no longer be detected, and 2) the one that rendered my Canon scanner useless.  One moment everything works fine, update kernel, and stuff gets broken for good.

I'm sure I've mentioned it already, but their way around introduced-bugs like these is simply to 'wait them out'.  They acknowledge they exist, sure, but if there's not enough of a public outcry, they're just ignored until enough time has elapsed, that the bug-reports can be quietly marked as 'Closed'.

 And I get it, tracking down each & every little bug would be an impossible task.  But that doesn't change the fact that the older your computer & peripherals, the greater the chance that each & every kernel upgrade can potentially 'brick' your system.  This was certainly the case with my Transcend SSD - every kernel that succeeded 3.0.19-32 could no longer detect & boot from the SSD.  But what happens when it's not a hardware-driver issue, but an entire subset of the computer experience that's being neglected - in this case, Printers & printing.

Network-printing worked fine for me on Mint 17.3 for years.  Unfortunately, since the 17.3 repositories are now offline, I can no longer add new network printers to my laptop, as part of the setup procedure includes downloading the appropriate printer-driver from the net.  On discovering this yesterday, I decided to boot up my Mint 19.1 installation, which doesn't go EOL till 2023.

But what used to be a 2 minute job with 17.3, I spent more than an hour trying to do - or, 'fix' rather. Printing on Mint 19.1 seems a complete shambles.  Nothing seems to work properly.  When I try adding a new network-printer by doing a search for it, nothing is found, using either the network-printer or the Samba-printer options.  With the network-printer option, the network computer hosting the printer 'pings' fine, yet I'm told that there's no computer detected.  The Samba-printer option's search is equally clueless.  Including the entire SMB path to the printer will detect it instantly however.  The next hurdle you encounter involves permissions.  Once the network printer is detected, you are prompted for your username & password, which it accepts, no problem.  However in order to proceed, I need to 'Set authentication details now', using the exact same username & password that I've just entered - not a problem in itself - what is a problem is that the same bloody username/password combo is now not accepted!

Nevertheless, it will allow you to proceed, though you are then prompted for a username/password every time you want to print a document.  What's irritating as hell about this is, when the username/password prompt box appears, it includes a tick-box to remember these login details - but it doesn't work either.

Although I think what annoys me the most about all of this is the 'New Printer' dialog itself (see pic).  Notice the way the 'Password' field is placed above the 'Username' field!  Show me an OS, a Linux distro or even a web-page that requires the user to login, that puts the password before the username!!!  They don't exist, or at least I've never come across one.  But the lazy shit that coded this thought it perfectly fine.  This is a perfect example of someone who DOESN'T  use Linux as their main OS.  Or use printers for that matter.  Printers are still an integral part of computer systems yet this shoddy, slap-shod, buggy implementation is deemed acceptable?!?!?!?

It just makes me sad.

Unscrupulous Car Dealers...

 Another moan, but mercifully, I'll make this one short.

 As alluded to a post or two ago, I was recently coerced by circumstance into buying another car.  My purchase-window was narrow as I was 'on the clock', having rented a car from Hertz expressly for this purpose.  Given the time available, I opted for getting something from a dealer, as opposed to delving into the murky depths of the private-seller's market

 The saying about, "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is", I now see in a different light.  I decided on a dealer based on price.  I had also decided on a price, at least one I would not go above, but circumstance (always a bitch!) & exorbitant car-insurance quotes made it clear that I'd either have to fork out more on insurance or buy a newer used car.  No mention of 'quality' here, all insurance companies are interested in is a car's year of manufacture & engine size.

 I went intending to buy a 2011 Ford Focus 1.6L from the dealer (aka, villain) in question, but after some horrifying insurance quotes, ended up buying a gutless 2014 Skoda Fabia 1.2L, for about 50% more than I had planned spending.  And not just any Fabia, this as it turns out, is one of the lowest-spec Fabia that Skoda manufacture - not sure of the model-name, but this one has no glove-box door, just a hole in the dash & no mirror(s) in the sun-visors - two things I had never seen in any car, let alone one that I owned.

 But this I was assured was in perfect condition, had been serviced, and was being supplied with a new NCT - so the 'luxuries' just mentioned, I reckoned I could live with(out).  In truth, it looked respectable, and given my urgent need for a car, I signed on the proverbial dotted line.  Not before taking it for a test-drive of course.  I specifically requested that I do this solo, something the dealer didn't have a problem with - whether this was down to COVID19 or the percentage of gray hairs I sport, I know not!  It drove ok, and nothing stood out as being a deal-breaker.  One thing I noticed was that the fan-blower only worked at level 4, the highest setting - an easy fix, or so I figured.  The dealer even agreed to deliver the car, free of charge, which was cool.  But things were about to heat up.

 On dropping the car off at my house, the dealer was gone in the blink of an eye.  I had resolved to get a receipt of payment from him, the transaction for which I had done online by way of a money-transfer, the same day I'd given him a €100 deposit - but totally forgot!  I was more interested in checking out my new toy!

 That interest turned to annoyance not long after.  Almost immediately, I discovered that the passenger & driver's electric windows would not open.  I quickly contacted him, and made known my findings.  He 'played dumb' but told me that if I dropped it back to him, he'd check it out and provide me with a replacement car while it was being repaired.  Guessing that the problem was down to water damage to the door-switches concerned, I instead decided to investigate the matter myself.  Turned out I was correct, and on both doors.  The drivers side was particularly bad (see pics) but with some isopropyl alcohol, I soon had them working again, temporarily at least.  After a quick trawl through Ebay, I had replacements ordered, costing a little over €10 - I could live with that. The Blower-fan problem turned out to be a slightly more expensive fix - €14 including P&P for the resistor module that had blown - but it was here that problems started to be compounded!

 Seeing as I didn't want to wait months for fan-blower parts from China, I ordered the resistor-module from the UK instead.  But in order to be certain that I was ordering the right part, it was first necessary to extract it - this meant removing the passenger airbag in order to get at it.  The big mistake I made was, after ascertaining the correct part to order,  I did not reconnect the airbag - instead, I drove around for a week with it disconnected.  After replacing the fan-blower part, on starting the car , I was greeted with an airbag-error icon on the dash!  I had figured on computer code-errors being generated, but hey! I had an EBD2 dongle - I'd just clear them!  Or not, as it turned out.  An Internet search revealed that my EBD2 dongle has only access to engine error-codes.  When I run a scan, I am informed that all is well, there are no errors detected.  After more searching the net, I soon discovered the problem - and problems usually cost money to rectify.

 Due to the ever-increasing number of 'features' found in cars today, manufacturers have long deemed it necessary to assign different categories to each.  Airbag faults for example don't fall into the engine-category.  And the more categories that an EBD2 dongle can access, the more expensive the item - naturally, I had bought the cheapest dongle available, capable of scanning only engine faults.  In practice, what this meant was that I could either go to a dealer to get the airbag error-code reset, or I could try and do it myself - and I've chosen the latter option, though it might prove more expensive, at least I'll learn from the experience.  To that end, I've ordered a 'real' VCDS dongle through Aliexpress, capable of reading all VW/Skoda/Audi/Seat fault-codes, and a whole lot more!

 But I still haven't even got to the point of this post - so much for it being brief!  What prompted this little missive was of what transpired earlier today.  Recall, I was eager to procure from said Car-dealer, a receipt for the amount that I had paid for the car.  After contacting him nearly two weeks ago about it, I was informed that he was not at home, but if I would text him my address, he would post one out to me.  Well into the second week of waiting for it, I phoned him today - no answer.  While I was composing a text to him, I received a call from his number.  On answering the call, I was greeted to a full 2 minutes of 'snap-crackle-pop' - no voice, just random noises, as if crinkling paper, rapping the phone against something etc. After listening to this for as long as I could, without receiving a response, I hung up, texted him, politely inquiring as to why he still had not forwarded me the receipt of purchase as promised.  After waiting several more hours, with still no response to my text, I tried phoning him again.  This time, I received an immediate, "your call cannot be completed" message - as if my number was after being blocked!  That was all the motivation I needed - despite the late hour, I resolved to drive the 50+Km to his place of business to confront him in person.

 Arriving there, I put through another call, which was also ignored.  Turned out he wasn't at his car-lot either.  After walking around and examining a couple of dozen cars of his, I made my way to the nearest house on the off-chance that he might live there.  He didn't - but the really nice guy that did, knew who I was looking for, and more importantly, where our villain resided.  Just up the same road as it happened!  As I drove up to his house, he was collecting something from his lorry.  He seemed startled at my unexpected appearance, and none too pleased to see me.

 The first words out of his mouth were, "Well, what's wrong with it", meaning the car.  For someone selling cars with a 3-month warranty, it's not what you'd expect to hear as an opening line, or at least I didn't!  After telling him I was only there for the receipt, he perked up somewhat.  I ended up  getting the receipt but little else for my long drive.

 But I'm convinced that his reluctance to provide me with a receipt had nothing to do with the state of the car - after all, he seemed quite willing to repair the window problem and provide me with a replacement car.  It's much more likely to be down to having to declare (or not!) the car-sale to the tax-man - no receipt, no paper-trail to taxable-income.

Mobile Broadband: Device-Unlocking Issues...

 But before that, a round of applause for ME - this will be my seventh post for the year - a new record!  Maybe it's down to COVID19, or maybe I'm just more irascible than normal - which is also a hint that this is going to be a another grumbling post.

So, Broadband.  As I've mentioned in the last few posts, Three has been my ISP for 12 years, though it seems longer.  Generally, I was happy enough with the service, up until 1-2 years ago.  The modem/routers supplied by Three got faster, the monthly data-transfer cap increased dramatically (going from 25Gig to 768Gig) and all for less money, well, almost - it started out 12 years ago at €25/month, reached its zenith at €42/month, and I'm now paying €30.  Great!  What wasn't there to like?  The service provided, that's what!

On paper, I had better kit, better transfer-speeds, and a better monthly cap.  In reality, the download speeds during peak-hours was a joke, so I really couldn't avail of any of the improvements in the technology.  So as I've mentioned already, I went searching for a new ISP, and eventually settled on '48', an off-shoot of Three, using Three's network, though a separate company in its own right.  Before November 10th 2020, 48 are offering a 100gig/monthly data allowance, which includes unlimited calls & texts to all Irish mobile & landline numbers - and all for just €7.99.  For me, the unlimited calls bit was the clincher.  I currently have a pre-pay phone with O2 (which is owned by Three) that will eat through €10 of credit in no time.  Since my Huawei B525 modem has a standard telephone socket, all I needed to do was plug in a telephone - I did, and it works perfectly!

48 doesn't provide any modem/routers to its customers like Three does.  Instead, it outlines the requirements & steps required to get Three to unlock your Three phone/modem - which of course presumes that you are/were already with Three.  Interestingly, it also points out that, failing to get Three to unlock the device, there are many mobile-related business' that provide an unlocking service, but doesn't recommend any one in particular.

After ordering a 48 sim, it didn't take long to realise that it, along with every other ISP, was barred from using my Huawei B525 - 'sim-locked' in mobile parlance - so effectively useless.  In order to get the B525 unlocked, about 3 weeks ago, I opted to look for help through Three's 3Community forum.  Since this is ongoing, I won't say much about it.  Suffice it to say, my interactions with various moderators there went from the sublime to the ridiculous, with my username/profile suddenly no longer capable of posting to the forum, a situation that still has not been resolved.  I may relate the sad, sordid details in a future post.

Falling at that hurdle, I then tried to get help through Three's 'Web-chat'.  From past experience, this has become a 'last-resort' option for me when it comes to seeking answers.  These guys/gals, usually from India, will keep you on for ages, and generally achieve nothing in the end.  This time however, I got a result.  After explaining my unlock request to the rep. I was informed that he could see that an unlock request had already been put through for me, and granted!  I informed him after a thorough check, that no unlock-code had been emailed to me, and would he be so kind as to resend it.  This he did, only for us to discover as the minutes ticked away, that his email wasn't going to arrive.  After another failed attempt, he instead tried sending the unlock code as an SMS to my BB account - success, finally!!!

Naturally, I was elated, happier than a pig in shit.  A few minutes later, I had the 48 sim in the B525, a prompt for a SIMLOCK code, then finally, one unlocked device - EASY PEEZY!  Finding that the transfer-speeds with the 48 sim were identical to the Three BB sim was another plus, so there seems to be no throttling in evidence by the parent company.

But, as the saying goes, "Much wants more", so with the B525 puzzle cracked, I diverted my attention to the other Three dongles I have lying around, namely a E5573 and a E5220, both from the Huawei stable.  The E5573, being 4G-enabled, therefore the more able of the two, I chose to try getting unlocked by Three again, though this time, via their 'Web-chat' help service.  There was no virtually instant unlocking to be had second time round though.  The rep. told me that it's actually Huawei that provides the unlock-codes, Three just forwarding them the request.  I was further informed that I 'should' hear within a month if my unlock-request will be granted.  So I await with trepidation, if not much hope.

The E5220 I figured would be an easy fix as it was old and there must surely be a unlock-code 'calculator' freely available somewhere on the web.  Despite loads of links enticing the unwary to malware sites with promises of such, none was to be had, at least none that worked.  But there must be dozens of sites offering to unlock E5220's, with unlock-fees ranging from the ridiculous (€59) to the downright reasonable (€2-5), the latter's 'cheapness' making them immediately suspect.  Then I came across this site.  It is like most of the rest, promising to unlock modems, while charging rather hefty unlock fees.  But this one takes a different tack to attract customers - the E5220, being just 3G, so now regarded as 'old technology' , it unlocks for free!

Or at least that is the claim.  I submitted my IMEI/Country/ISP 10 days ago and waited anxiously for the coveted SIMLOCK code to be posted on their site.  The only red-flag that something may be amiss is that your request-information is not immediately viewable on their site. Only after the 'unlock codes' have been generated, is their a mass-posting of the requests, accompanied of course by the generated unlock-codes.  The second suspect thing I noticed was that, having just received a working unlock-code from Huawei, the generated-code doesn't look 'right' - the real unlock codes are made up of a variation of numbers & letters, the latter being both of upper & lower case characters.  The site's generated code is simply a string of 8 numbers.

Which doesn't work!  My first attempt was a copy & paste from the site, which resulted in a "invalid code" error.  So, just in case there was some 'invisible' character being included in the Copy & paste, I tried it again, typing it in this time.  Same result - that's 2 of 10 unlock tries wasted, with only 8 more attempts permissible before the E5220 gets 'bricked'.  What the site presents to the public is dozens of legitimate unlock-requests, accompanied by their non-working unlock-codes.  So basically, just more scumbags, giving people false hope. [UPDATE!!! Though I didn't mention it, after the failed attempt to unlock the E5220, I copy & pasted from the E5220's Web-browser interface, the hardware information from its 'Device Information' option, and re-posted it to the free-unlock site, in the vain hope that they might have made a mistake. As this 'extended information' contained an identical IMEI number to the first one I posted there, I didn't hold out much hope.  So imagine my surprise just a few minutes ago, when intent on closing forever, the Firefox open-tab to this site, I saw my re-posted hardware information there - along with a newly generated unlock-code!  AND THIS ONE WORKS!!!  I obviously owe the guys running this site an apology - SSSOOORRRYYYY.  Terrific!!! - two down, just the E5573 to go].

So it's looking like the B525, the best of the lot, is the only one I'll get unlocked, at least without paying for the service, be that from Three/Huawei, or one of the unlock sites available online.  Or maybe I'll see if some of the mobile-phone selling shops in my locality do unlockings cheaply.

Although I planned to ditch Three last month, I dithered, then finally decided to hang in there for another month, just in case there are more unlockings to be had from them.  If not, it's no biggie.  I have the 48 ISP waiting on the side-lines.  I've been using them for over a week and can see no difference in the level of service provided - and at less than a third of what I'm paying Three!  Sure, not an "unlimited" (aka 768Gig) data allowance, but 100Gig is more than enough for what I do.  Then there's the included unlimited calls & texts - also something I'll never use much, but again, it's nice to have!

Edit:

Dropped into my local mobile unlocking/internet cafe today to inquire about getting these unlocked.  Not a problem, according to the guy I spoke to, for about €25 a pop - actually less than I was expecting to be quoted!  Probably not worth doing the E5220 for this amount seeing as it only offers 3G speeds, but if Three/Huawei won't unlock the E5573, I'll definitely consider it. [Update: After Three Web-chat proved unhelpful, I played my last card and asked one of the 3Community moderators could she see if my request to unlock the E5573 had been submitted.  24hrs later, I had one unlocked E5573!!!  For the record, the sim-(un)lock code she provided was another 8-digit number, just like that generated by the unlock-site, so completely different to the E525's unlock code.] 

I've had the B525 and the E5573 setup & running from the same location for a while now, so that I can see how they compare, and I've gotta say that the B525 is the clear winner.  Even without the 'rabbit-ears' antennas, transfer-rates are much higher with the B525.  But the E5573 and E5220's 'super-power' is that they're battery-powered,  so are not without their uses.

 

FBD Insurance: "Insurance for Farmers, By Farmers"... - BOLLOCKS!!!

 Another rant ensues.   I gave up on the car six years ago, mainly because it was only a 10 minute cycle-ride to my workplace.  The last 'serious' cycling I had done had been in my teens, so getting 'saddle-fit' once more, proved the biggest obstacle I encountered - don't know if it's typical, but going from saddle-sore to saddle-fit took me about six-months, an experience I don't remember fondly either.  Ouch!

 Up till now, any time I needed a car, I'd just rent one from Hertz, who, though not the closest car rental company to me, have at least proven to be both cheap & reliable.  Damn, I could do a whole other 'Rant' regarding car rental outfits, given all the experience I acquired while on hols here, when I lived in the UK - but I'll suppress the urge!  Anyway, car procured, I'd do my thing, then go back to pedalling.  This was my routine, and since I like cycling and have no special affinity for cars, it worked for me - and it was much cheaper!

 Fast-forward to the present.  Events dictated that another car-purchase was essential, and in order to do so, back to Hertz I went, as it's practically impossible to car-shop without having a car!  Long story short, I ended up buying a car that would definitely not have been my first-choice under normal circumstances, but given that I had a limited time available, it will have to do for now.  But onto the meat of the post.

 Everyone in Ireland knows what a rip-off the Car-Insurance market here is.  It has in fact been proven that it's little more than a price-fixing Cartel.  So before actually buying a car, I had sought insurance quotes from multiple players here, the first of whom was FBD Insurance, mainly because I'd been insured with them continuously for 12 years, and 'claim-less' for the entire period.  Also, being of Farming-stock, I was more inclined to give my business to a company that had started out (and continue to advertise), providing "Insurance for Farmers, By Farmers".

 Therefore, I was initially disappointed to discover that FBD-online could not provide me with an insurance quote, suggesting that I should visit their office instead - which I proceeded to do on the last day of my Hertz car-rental.  This disappointment turned into bewilderment on being told by the FBD rep. I spoke to, that she could find no trace of my decade+ with them on their system, then outright anger when she said they would not even be prepared to offer me an insurance-quote.  I could accept that it was policy throughout the insurance industry to render a lapsed-driver's no-claims-bonus (someone that had been off the road for more than 2 years), null-and-void.  But for an insurance company to purge all traces of my time with them, then treat me like some 17 year-old starting out, rather than someone who has been on the road & claim-less, since 1984, just made me angry.  To top it off, a couple of days later, I received in the post a letter from FBD, explaining their refusal to insurance-quote me, though in reality, explaining nothing, which I'll include below.

  Thing is, they were the ONLY insurance company that refused to offer me a quote!  I'm not saying that ALL of the other insurance companies offer quotes, only that the half-dozen or so that I requested quotes from, did so - and they all did so online as well, which is another black-mark against FBD.  In fact, I'm now convinced that the FBD rep. I spoke to, has no more access to the FBD 'innards' than I have - all she sees on her computer screen is what I see when I apply for a FBD-quote online.  Irrespective of how they operate, they've burned their bridges with me, I'm done with those arse-holes.

 I eventually ended up getting car-insurance with Liberty Insurance, who offered me the best quote by far.  AXA Insurance's quote was close to twice that from Liberty, who then proceeded to spam my email with the same quote!  The worst quote was from XS Direct - these jokers quoted "Fully Comprehensive" for considerably more than Liberty did, but also stipulated a €3,000 excess (Liberty's is only the standard €300 excess). Good as Liberty's quote was, it was still more than 3 times as much as I was paying 6 years ago - so, I miss my no-claims-bonus, Sob.

 But, the thing is, they all at least offered me a car-insurance quote, which is more than can be said for FBD, The Farmer's Friend Fiend.  SCUM-BAGS.

 The only thing worse than Car-Insurance companies, are Car-Insurance Brokers.  I came so close to falling into the Brokers net.  This in fact was at the behest of the FBD rep. I visited as well!  A real pretty lady too, which given the nature of the business, is probably a pre-requisite to getting the job.  It turned out that the quotes I received from her, for Liberty car-insurance, were almost TWICE what I ended up paying Liberty by going direct.  I know Brokers have got to eat too but for fcuks sake, there's price gouging, then there's financial-rape - how can these pricks legally get away with this?  I tried two other online-brokers, but only one of them offered a direct online quote, which was €600 less than the one I visited in person - so, not so desperate to screw you over!  Most broker's sites give you the impression that they will give you a direct quote, only for you to discover, once you've fed them all of your contact details, that you must then phone them to proceed.  These guys are vermin, that are being freely allowed to prey on the unwary.