Add hard drive into Linux Mint 21.1 Vera/Ubuntu/Debian

This is a condensed version on how to add hard disk into Linux Mint/Ubuntu/Debian. First check hard drives in the system, like so:

$: sudo lshw -C disk

It should show (partial data only) like this:

*-disk:1
   description: ATA Disk
   product: WDC WD3200AAKX-0
   vendor: Western Digital
   physical id: 1
   bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
   logical name: /dev/sdb
   version: 1H15
   serial: WD-WMC2E0871450
   size: 298GiB (320GB)
   capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
   configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=e32ff1f9

Using parted, let's now configure the harddisk/partition

$: sudo parted /dev/sdb

In parted prompt, create a new GPT partition table

(parted) mklabel gpt

Change the default unit to GB

(parted) unit GB

Create one partition occupying all the space on the drive

(parted) mkpart primary ext4 0 100%

Check to verify the layout

(parted) print

It should show something like below:

Model: ATA WDC WD3200AAKX-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name     Flags
 1      0.00GB  320GB  320GB  ext4         primary

Save and quit parted

(parted) quit

Format the partition using ext4

$: sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdb1

Formatting process should show something like below:

mke2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
/dev/sdb1 contains a ext4 file system labelled 'VMs'
        last mounted on /mnt/b41faa95-6135-47f6-a24e-ed1909d6fc18 on Sun Dec 25 19:06:43 2022
Proceed anyway? (y,N) y
Creating filesystem with 78142464 4k blocks and 19537920 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 1b7f46da-9aa6-4c30-afec-d983f35a19d5
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (262144 blocks):
done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

Now let us create a mount point

$: sudo mkdir /mnt/vmdisk

Add an entry in fstab to automount the new partition

$: sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add a line entry in fstab like below

/dev/sdb1    /mnt/vmdisk   ext4    defaults     0        0

We should be able to use the partition without rebooting, so mount it manually for now.

$: sudo mount /mnt/vmdisk

Add directory to be writable by user

$: sudo mkdir /mnt/vmdisk/vms

Make the user named timus owner of the new folder

$: sudo chown -R timus:timus /mnt/vmdisk/vms

Refs:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingANewHardDrive

Install VirtualBox 7.0.4 on Linux Mint 21.1 Vera

▣ Download VirtualBox 7.0.4 from www.virtualbox.org, select Ubuntu 22.04.

▣ Once download is complete, open a terminal and run the following:

$: cd Downloads/
$: sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-7.0_7.0.4-154605~Ubuntu~jammy_amd64.deb
$: sudo apt -f install
$: sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers timus

Replace timus with the current user

Qt console hello world

This guide shows how a Qt console hello world looks like.

▣ Open Qt Creator and click on Create Project...

▣ Create Qt Console Application by following the section from @1 to @3. 

▣ In Project Location window provide a project name, i.e., HelloWorldConsole

▣ In Define Build System select CMake

▣ In Translation File, take the default values

▣ In Kit Selection, select the toolchain kit to be used. Below shows only one which is MinGW 64-bit. 

▣ In Project Management, take the default. 

▣ In line 6, I have added an instruction to output Hello World in to the console. Also changed to return 0 to exit the application as event loop is not needed.

▣ Gist source code shown below for convenience

▣ Running it using Qt Creator is well and good but we probably want to run it external to the IDE. To deploy the binary with all the dependencies, open the compiler environment used to build the application. In the case above we have used Qt 6.4.1 (MinGW 11.2.0 64-bit). 

▣ Run the following command (change the paths as necessary)

cd \
md tmp
cd tmp
copy C:\Users\t\Documents\build-HelloWorldConsole-Desktop_Qt_6_4_1_MinGW_64_bit-Debug\HelloWorldConsole.exe
windeployqt HelloWorldConsole.exe

▣ The folder structure should look like this. It also shows a sample out from the application. 

Keywords: CPP, Qt, Hello World

Qt Widget hello world

Qt Widget "Hello World" using the Designer 

▣ Open Qt Creator and click on Create Project...

▣ Create Qt Widgets Application

▣ Set project location and provide a name - HelloWorld

▣ Use CMake for the build system

▣ Use the default when defining the main class

▣ For the translation file, do the default for now

▣ Select the Kit (toolchain) to use - if you have followed this installation instruction then you will only have one option as below

▣ In the Summary, just do the default

▣ The HelloWorld project should show the editor with main.cpp files content.  Double click on mainwindow.ui to open the designer.

▣ In the Controls palette, scroll all the way down and look for Label, then drag and drop into the canvas, see below. Then double click to change the text to Hello World. Change the size to show the entire text.  

▣ Click on the Run button, see below for the location

▣ An application with MainWindow title bar and Hello World text should show up. Congratulations on your first Qt application!

Keywords: Qt Creator, Hello World

Installing Qt Creator 9.0.1 on Windows 10

This is a quick guide on installing Qt Creator 9.0.1 on Windows 10. As of December 24, 2022, the latest available online installer is qt-unified-windows-x64-4.5.1-online.exe. Binaries can be downloaded from https://www.qt.io/download, I was using Qt for open source use.

What follows are the screen captures to get working installation of Qt Creator (Qt 6.4.1).

Welcome Screen

Accept open source obligations

Welcome to open source Qt setup

Contribute to Qt development

Installation Folder - Custom installation

Select Components - Use default, add "MinGW 11.2.0 64-bit"

License Agreement

Start Menu Shortcuts

Ready to Install

Installing

Finished

Keywords: Qt Creator, CPP

Installing Qt Creator 4.11.x on Windows 10

This is a quick guide on installing Qt Creator 4.11.x on Windows 10.

* Download the QT Online Installer (as of March 2020 it can be downloaded from here).
* Run qt-unified-windows-x86-3.2.2-online.exe and follow the installation wizard like below

Welcome screen

Create an account or login 

Accept Qt Open Source obligations

Setup Qt

Contribute to Qt Create User Experience Development

Select installation folder

Select Components - Default selection

Select MinGW 7.3.0 32-bit and MinGW 7.3.0 64-bit

Under Developer and Designer Tools - check MinGW 7.3.0 32-bit/64-bit

Accept License Agreement

Start Menu Shortcuts

Ready to Install

Installing Qt

Creating Maintenance Tool

Completing the Qt Wizard

Qt Creator!

Keywords: Qt Creator, MinGW 7.3.x

Native boot into VHDX

Native boot into VHDX

Why would you boot into VHDX instead of dual booting? Because it is easy(ier) vs adjusting partition post-Windows installation. And the partition layout may not be easy to adjust without using advanced partitioning tool. Also booting into native VHDX gives full access to the hardware without the penalty of virtualization. This allow you to run say other virtuaization on top of native boot!
I prepare VHDX using Hyper-V and once it is ready to my liking I use the VHDX to boot into it. Below are the general steps:

• Copy a VHDX into the desired location. For example, copy C:\VMs\W21H1M2\Virtual Hard Disks\W21H1M2.vhdx to C:\VMs\NaviteBoot\NaviteBoot.vhdx
• Mount C:\VMs\NaviteBoot\NaviteBoot.vhdx using File Explorer
• Note of volume/drive letter for the mounted VHDX, e.g. V:
• Change directory to V:\Windows
• Run bcdboot V:\Windows. This should have added the VHDX into the boot options
• Optional, change the boot description. Get the GUID entry for the just added VHDX. The GUID can be displayed by running bcdedit /v. Look for the GUID that corresponds to the folder location of the VHDX. Then run bcdedit /set like below

  c:\>bcdedit /set {02e6ec1d-d2c3-11ea-a71f-b3a579503f4b} description “W10VHDX2”

  
  Where:
  {02e6ec1d-d2c3-11ea-a71f-b3a579503f4b}: was taken from step above
  W10VHDX2: is the label
• Optional, change boot order. Using the same GUID, run bcdedit /default like below

  c:\>bcdedit /default {02e6ec1d-d2c3-11ea-a71f-b3a579503f4b}

Now reboot and note that the first entry in the boot sequence is labled W10VHDX2. To delete the entry use msconfig.exe