scripting | Tom's Notes

Git vibes?

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 14/10/2025 0 Comment

Another day, another project nobody really needs… but here it is! 😁

As I was reorganizing some stuff, mostly on multiple Git repositories (both, internal and GitHub), I noticed that sometimes I forget to save my work. So, to remember (and potentially stop this from happening), came up with a small and simple PowerShell script… helping me to remember. Of course, it was vibe-coded with the ChatGPT’s help.

The idea behind it – I have a local folder with multiple projects/repositories on which I’m working. As I mostly switch from one thing to another (or a computer to computer, or …), I sometimes do something and forget to save it on the remote Git instance. And as things with computers tend to happen… 🙂

Smart people of the Internet say (borrowed from https://mastodon.social/@nixCraft/111489234007874526):

So, to potentially stop forgetting (and losing my work), a simple PowerShell script (Check-GitRepos.ps1) goes into the local “projects” folder, gets the latest updates, asks and commits the local changes (if there are some). For now, it doesn’t create additional branches, commits to them, etc. – it may be a feature of the next version.

Current version is just fine for my personal “use case” – smart, simple and quick.

Examples of running it on a local folder:

So, not much else to add – it does what it’s supposed to do. And, as always, it’s available on my GitHub.

Cheers!

P.S. Yeah, I also thought about the question that presents itself – and who will remind me to run the script?! Oh, well… 🤷‍♂️😅

P.P.S. There is also git-fire, which may help with the emergencies.

The Need for (Internet) Speed… graph

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 10/10/2025 0 Comment

Another one of more or less useful “projects” that got my attention was enabling Zabbix (while monitoring everything else) to also keep track of my Internet speed. There are sources on the Internet that tell you how (easy it is) to do it, but I was not that lucky – had issues trying to set it up. 🤷‍♂️🙂

What I’m using:
– Zabbix 7 (installed on Ubuntu 24.04)
(https://www.zabbix.com/download?os_distribution=ubuntu)
– Speedtest CLI by Ookla
(https://www.speedtest.net/apps/cli)
– some scripts

So, Zabbix is installed and working, no big surprise there.

Next thing we need to install is Speedtest CLI by Ookla – it’s a simple installation… sort of.
Installing it directly on Zabbix server.

(copy/paste from Ookla’s site – https://www.speedtest.net/apps/cli):

## If migrating from prior bintray install instructions please first...
# sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/speedtest.list
# sudo apt update
# sudo apt remove speedtest
## Other non-official binaries will conflict with Speedtest CLI
# Example how to remove using apt-get
# sudo apt remove speedtest-cli
sudo apt install curl
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/ookla/speedtest-cli/script.deb.sh | sudo bash
sudo apt install speedtest

## If migrating from prior bintray install instructions please first...

# sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/speedtest.list

# sudo apt update

# sudo apt remove speedtest

## Other non-official binaries will conflict with Speedtest CLI

# Example how to remove using apt-get

# sudo apt remove speedtest-cli

sudo apt install curl

curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/ookla/speedtest-cli/script.deb.sh | sudo bash

sudo apt install speedtest

This usually works, but didn’t work for me. 🙂

E: The repository 'https://packagecloud.io/ookla/speedtest-cli/ubuntu noble Release' does not have a Release file.

1	E: The repository 'https://packagecloud.io/ookla/speedtest-cli/ubuntu noble Release' does not have a Release file.

Something cannot be found… hmmm… maybe if we look for “jammy Release”? 🤔

sudo sed -i 's/noble/jammy/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ookla_speedtest-cli.list
sudo apt update

1 2	sudo sed -i 's/noble/jammy/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ookla_speedtest-cli.list sudo apt update

That (= changing “noble” to “jammy” in the sources list file) fixed it! Yaay! And now we can install speedtest:

sudo apt install -y speedtest

1	sudo apt install -y speedtest

If all goes well, we can check the version:

speedtest --version
# Speedtest by Ookla 1.2.0.84 (ea6b6773cf) Linux/x86_64-linux-musl 6.8.0-85-generic x86_64
# The official command line client for testing the speed and performance of your internet connection.

speedtest --version

# Speedtest by Ookla 1.2.0.84 (ea6b6773cf) Linux/x86_64-linux-musl 6.8.0-85-generic x86_64

# The official command line client for testing the speed and performance of your internet connection.

And we can test it couple of times manually, to see if it’s working:

sudo speedtest --accept-license --accept-gdpr --format=json-pretty
# {
#     "type": "result",
#     "timestamp": "2025-10-10T13:41:42Z",
#     "ping": {
#         "jitter": 0.165,
#         "latency": 9.937,
#         "low": 9.787,
#         "high": 10.120
#     },
#     "download": {
#         "bandwidth": 6384715,
#         "bytes": 74974592,
#         "elapsed": 11900,
#         "latency": {
#             "iqm": 88.716,
#             "low": 15.697,
#             "high": 539.705,
#             "jitter": 22.146
#         }
#     },
#     "upload": {
#         "bandwidth": 3615276,
#         "bytes": 14101120,
#         "elapsed": 3900,
#         "latency": {
#             "iqm": 19.483,
#             "low": 13.968,
#             "high": 264.839,
#             "jitter": 7.657
#         }
#     },
#     "packetLoss": 0,
#     "isp": "ISP",
#     "interface": {
#         "internalIp": "INTERNAL_IP",
#         "name": "eth0",
#         "macAddr": "MAC_ADDRESS",
#         "isVpn": false,
#         "externalIp": "EXTERNAL_IP"
#     },
#     "server": {
#         "id": 52611,
#         "host": "ookla.akton.hr",
#         "port": 8080,
#         "name": "Akton d.o.o.",
#         "location": "Zagreb",
#         "country": "Croatia",
#         "ip": "81.17.228.30"
#     },
#     "result": {
#         "id": "RESULT_ID",
#         "url": "https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/RESULT_ID",
#         "persisted": true
#     }
# }

sudo speedtest --accept-license --accept-gdpr --format=json-pretty

# {

# "type": "result",

# "timestamp": "2025-10-10T13:41:42Z",

# "ping": {

# "jitter": 0.165,

# "latency": 9.937,

# "low": 9.787,

# "high": 10.120

# },

# "download": {

# "bandwidth": 6384715,

# "bytes": 74974592,

# "elapsed": 11900,

# "latency": {

# "iqm": 88.716,

# "low": 15.697,

# "high": 539.705,

# "jitter": 22.146

# }

# },

# "upload": {

# "bandwidth": 3615276,

# "bytes": 14101120,

# "elapsed": 3900,

# "latency": {

# "iqm": 19.483,

# "low": 13.968,

# "high": 264.839,

# "jitter": 7.657

# }

# },

# "packetLoss": 0,

# "isp": "ISP",

# "interface": {

# "internalIp": "INTERNAL_IP",

# "name": "eth0",

# "macAddr": "MAC_ADDRESS",

# "isVpn": false,

# "externalIp": "EXTERNAL_IP"

# },

# "server": {

# "id": 52611,

# "host": "ookla.akton.hr",

# "port": 8080,

# "name": "Akton d.o.o.",

# "location": "Zagreb",

# "country": "Croatia",

# "ip": "81.17.228.30"

# },

# "result": {

# "id": "RESULT_ID",

# "url": "https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/RESULT_ID",

# "persisted": true

# }

Cool! This works! 🙂
Now the tough part – how can I make Zabbix pick it up?!

Let’s just say that the “normal and direct way” didn’t work that well (Speedtest tool was probably hitting timeouts on the Zabbix side, and had issues in delivering results to Zabbix – seen the timeout errors).

So, another solution was necessary – to work around the timeout errors, I’m actually running the Speedtest tool, store/cache data temporarily, and then Zabbix picks it up when it’s in the mood to do so. As I’m doing measurements every 15 minutes or so, there is plenty of time to pick the numbers up and not run into timeouts.

Solution is (relatively) simple:

– script that runs and stores/caches measurements (speedtest-cache.sh)
– systemd service and timer that run the script in 15-minute intervals (zabbix-speedtest.service, zabbix-speedtest.timer)
– script that reads measurements from the Zabbix side (speedtest-read.sh)
– Zabbix items representing measured values (template-speedtest-cache.xml)
– widget/graph that shows data in Zabbix

And here it is:
/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts/speedtest-cache.sh:

#!/bin/bash

SPEEDTEST_BIN="/usr/bin/speedtest"
CACHE_DIR="/var/lib/zabbix/speedtest"
CACHE_FILE="$CACHE_DIR/latest.json"

export HOME="/var/lib/zabbix"

mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR"

/usr/bin/timeout 90 "$SPEEDTEST_BIN" --accept-license --accept-gdpr -f json > "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" 2>/dev/null

if [ -s "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" ]; then
    mv "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" "$CACHE_FILE"
fi

#!/bin/bash

SPEEDTEST_BIN="/usr/bin/speedtest"

CACHE_DIR="/var/lib/zabbix/speedtest"

CACHE_FILE="$CACHE_DIR/latest.json"

export HOME="/var/lib/zabbix"

mkdir -p "$CACHE_DIR"

/usr/bin/timeout 90 "$SPEEDTEST_BIN" --accept-license --accept-gdpr -f json > "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" 2>/dev/null

if [ -s "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" ]; then

mv "$CACHE_FILE.tmp" "$CACHE_FILE"

/etc/systemd/system/zabbix-speedtest.service:

[Unit]
Description=Zabbix Speedtest Cache Updater
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=zabbix
Group=zabbix
ExecStart=/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts/speedtest-cache.sh
Nice=10
ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=yes
NoNewPrivileges=yes

[Unit]

Description=Zabbix Speedtest Cache Updater

After=network-online.target

[Service]

User=zabbix

Group=zabbix

ExecStart=/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts/speedtest-cache.sh

Nice=10

ProtectSystem=full

ProtectHome=yes

NoNewPrivileges=yes

/etc/systemd/system/zabbix-speedtest.timer:

[Unit]
Description=Run Speedtest for Zabbix every 15 minutes

[Timer]
OnBootSec=2min
OnUnitActiveSec=15min
AccuracySec=30s
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

[Unit]

Description=Run Speedtest for Zabbix every 15 minutes

[Timer]

OnBootSec=2min

OnUnitActiveSec=15min

AccuracySec=30s

Persistent=true

[Install]

WantedBy=timers.target

/usr/lib/zabbix/externalscripts/speedtest-read.sh:

#!/bin/bash

CACHE_FILE="/var/lib/zabbix/speedtest/latest.json"

if [ -s "$CACHE_FILE" ]; then
    cat "$CACHE_FILE"
else
    echo '{"error": "no_data"}'
fi

#!/bin/bash

CACHE_FILE="/var/lib/zabbix/speedtest/latest.json"

if [ -s "$CACHE_FILE" ]; then

cat "$CACHE_FILE"

else

echo '{"error": "no_data"}'

(manually imported) template-speedtest-cache.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<zabbix_export>
  <version>7.0</version>
  <templates>
    <template>
      <uuid>deaa5b087f2547c1bf8e589bbebfc5b4</uuid>
      <template>Template Speedtest Ookla JSON</template>
      <name>Template Speedtest Ookla JSON</name>

      <groups>
        <group>
          <name>Templates</name>
        </group>
      </groups>

      <items>
        <!-- MASTER ITEM: JSON (cached) -->
        <item>
          <uuid>24b5d9052df444de9b015376d2c22bda</uuid>
          <name>Internet Speedtest JSON (cached)</name>
          <type>EXTERNAL</type>
          <key>speedtest-read.sh</key>
          <delay>60</delay>
          <history>7d</history>
          <trends>0</trends>
          <value_type>TEXT</value_type>
          <description>Raw JSON output from cached Ookla Speedtest results updated by systemd timer.</description>
        </item>

        <!-- DEPENDENT ITEM: DOWNLOAD -->
        <item>
          <uuid>1c0c5db38bbd4b579a19d59446a3d939</uuid>
          <name>Speedtest Download Mbps</name>
          <type>DEPENDENT</type>
          <key>speedtest.download</key>
          <master_item>
            <key>speedtest-read.sh</key>
          </master_item>
          <value_type>FLOAT</value_type>
          <units>Mbps</units>
          <preprocessing>
            <step>
              <type>JSONPATH</type>
              <parameters>
                <parameter>$["download"]["bandwidth"]</parameter>
              </parameters>
            </step>
            <step>
              <type>MULTIPLIER</type>
              <parameters>
                <parameter>0.000008</parameter>
              </parameters>
            </step>
          </preprocessing>
        </item>

        <!-- DEPENDENT ITEM: UPLOAD -->
        <item>
          <uuid>64cfd5a304b74cb19a027a9c72b9eae0</uuid>
          <name>Speedtest Upload Mbps</name>
          <type>DEPENDENT</type>
          <key>speedtest.upload</key>
          <master_item>
            <key>speedtest-read.sh</key>
          </master_item>
          <value_type>FLOAT</value_type>
          <units>Mbps</units>
          <preprocessing>
            <step>
              <type>JSONPATH</type>
              <parameters>
                <parameter>$["upload"]["bandwidth"]</parameter>
              </parameters>
            </step>
            <step>
              <type>MULTIPLIER</type>
              <parameters>
                <parameter>0.000008</parameter>
              </parameters>
            </step>
          </preprocessing>
        </item>

        <!-- DEPENDENT ITEM: PING -->
        <item>
          <uuid>8b3145983e2e47a38e6282f4df537456</uuid>
          <name>Speedtest Ping ms</name>
          <type>DEPENDENT</type>
          <key>speedtest.ping</key>
          <master_item>
            <key>speedtest-read.sh</key>
          </master_item>
          <value_type>FLOAT</value_type>
          <units>ms</units>
          <preprocessing>
            <step>
              <type>JSONPATH</type>
              <parameters>
                <parameter>$["ping"]["latency"]</parameter>
              </parameters>
            </step>
          </preprocessing>
        </item>

      </items>
    </template>
  </templates>
</zabbix_export>

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<zabbix_export>

<uuid>deaa5b087f2547c1bf8e589bbebfc5b4</uuid>

<template>Template Speedtest Ookla JSON</template>

<name>Template Speedtest Ookla JSON</name>

<group>

<name>Templates</name>

</group>

</groups>

<items>

<item>

<name>Internet Speedtest JSON (cached)</name>

<type>EXTERNAL</type>

<key>speedtest-read.sh</key>

<value_type>TEXT</value_type>

<description>Raw JSON output from cached Ookla Speedtest results updated by systemd timer.</description>

</item>

<item>

<name>Speedtest Download Mbps</name>

<type>DEPENDENT</type>

<key>speedtest.download</key>

<master_item>

<key>speedtest-read.sh</key>

</master_item>

<value_type>FLOAT</value_type>

<step>

<type>JSONPATH</type>

<parameter>$["download"]["bandwidth"]</parameter>

</parameters>

</step>

<step>

<type>MULTIPLIER</type>

</parameters>

</step>

</preprocessing>

</item>

<item>

<name>Speedtest Upload Mbps</name>

<type>DEPENDENT</type>

<key>speedtest.upload</key>

<master_item>

<key>speedtest-read.sh</key>

</master_item>

<value_type>FLOAT</value_type>

<step>

<type>JSONPATH</type>

<parameter>$["upload"]["bandwidth"]</parameter>

</parameters>

</step>

<step>

<type>MULTIPLIER</type>

</parameters>

</step>

</preprocessing>

</item>

<item>

<name>Speedtest Ping ms</name>

<type>DEPENDENT</type>

<key>speedtest.ping</key>

<master_item>

<key>speedtest-read.sh</key>

</master_item>

<value_type>FLOAT</value_type>

<step>

<type>JSONPATH</type>

<parameter>$["ping"]["latency"]</parameter>

</parameters>

</step>

</preprocessing>

</item>

</items>

</template>

</templates>

</zabbix_export>

Added all the scripts, timers and services, fixed all the permissions, checked that I have data, and now my Internet Speed Monitor widget looks like this (it’s not much, but hey! 🙂):

Cheers!

P.S. I’m not a Zabbix expert, and I’m not responsible if this “solution” causes you any troubles!

P.P.S. Don’t just copy everything from the Internet! It’s full of bad people (and code)! 😉

Challenge with FM radio signal… Raspberry Pi to the rescue!

By Tomica Kaniski in Other 27/03/2023 4 Comments

Not so long ago (actually, a weekend or two ago), I was presented with a real-life issue – an issue that needs to be taken care of… ASAP!

Production was suffering. Production of high-quality foods in my mom’s kitchen, that is! 🙂

So, what was the issue?

To better help you understand the issue, we need to introduce you to the environment first – there’s my mom’s kitchen, from where many amazing dishes come out on a daily basis.

And there’s a small FM radio in this kitchen, providing her company when cooking alone – nothing special, but it’s an essential part of the kitchen (and the overall cooking process)!

About two weekends ago, the user (mom) starts complaining that the radio is having issues with the reception of her favorite FM station. It’s not good when users start complaining, of course. Especially if they are the important ones!

If this isn’t taken care of, production (of food) may suffer! 🙂

So, let’s solve the issue.

As nothing has changed from the FM radio perspective, it seems that the issue is somewhere else. After a short research, it seems that adding a new frequency to the user’s favorite radio station somehow impacted the remaining two (one of which we were using)… and now we’re having bad reception.

Tried to switch to the other two frequencies… didn’t help. This station is transmitted in at least three frequencies, but none of it provides us a good reception anymore.

Even tried with another antenna… no luck.

Switching to another radio station… is not an option. 🙂

When I was thinking about other options, I remembered that this radio station also streams over the Internet (like the example I’m using below)!

Splendid!

As I had this spare Raspberry Pi just standing there, collecting dust, an idea was born – turn it into the “Internet radio”!

The initial solution needs to be basic as possible, headless, work as soon as connected, wireless (as much as possible), and stream the radio station in question. Rather than ditching the FM radio, I’ll use it for the output part – so, Raspberry Pi’s 3,5mm output as an input to the AUX IN of the FM radio, using its amplifier and speakers (switching to AUX input is just one click away, which is fine).

I started by preparing my Raspberry Pi:

downloaded Raspberry Pi Imager
used it to download and customize the Raspbian image (Raspberry PI OS (32-bit)):
- set hostname
- enabled SSH
- set username and password
- configured wireless LAN
- configured locale settings
booted my Raspberry Pi and did additional configuration via the included raspi-config utility:
- configured System Options – Boot/Auto Login – Console Autologin
- configured some other tiny things (like extending the storage, etc.)

Now it seems that I’m prepared for bringing up the “software part”.

After some reading and trying things out, I decided to go with VLC Player.

Now I just need to make it play what I want, play it on power on and without any other interaction.

Luckily, it’s not thaaat hard! 🙂

### check that you have your radio station's stream address (the right one)!
### i'll use https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream, not https://www.radio-banovina.hr/uzivo/

# install all updates:
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

# install VLC (if not already):
sudo apt install vlc -y

# when I tried to play the stream, I got an error stating that the TLS certificate is not trusted
# so, I downloaded and copied CA (AlphaSSL CA - SHA256 - G2) and Root CA (GlobalSign Root CA) certificates into the /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/:
sudo cp *.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/*

# and updated the certificates in use:
sudo update-ca-certificates

# that took care of the TLS error and stream could finally run:
vlc https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream

### check that you have your radio station's stream address (the right one)!

### i'll use https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream, not https://www.radio-banovina.hr/uzivo/

# install all updates:

sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y

# install VLC (if not already):

sudo apt install vlc -y

# when I tried to play the stream, I got an error stating that the TLS certificate is not trusted

# so, I downloaded and copied CA (AlphaSSL CA - SHA256 - G2) and Root CA (GlobalSign Root CA) certificates into the /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/:

sudo cp *.crt /usr/local/share/ca-certificates/*

# and updated the certificates in use:

sudo update-ca-certificates

# that took care of the TLS error and stream could finally run:

vlc https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream

Great! That works if I manually start it… and there are no issues.

For the autostart part, I’m choosing to run it as a service, so:

### create the service file /etc/systemd/system/runRadio.service:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/runRadio.service

### inside the file, insert something like this:
[Unit]
Description=runRadio

[Service]
User=tomica
Environment="DISPLAY=:0"
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 30
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vlc -I dummy "https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream"
WorkingDirectory=/home/tomica
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

### to register this service, I'm using standard commands:
sudo systemctl enable runRadio.service
sudo systemctl start runRadio.service
sudo systemctl status runRadio.service

### tips:
### - VLC shouldn't start with 'root', so this is why I'm using a user 'tomica'
### - -I dummy is something I learned during troubleshooting - it doesn't work (as a service) without specifying the correct (I)nterface!
### -  also, I'm using sleep 30 to make sure everything is up before starting a player (could be nicer, but... works!)

### create the service file /etc/systemd/system/runRadio.service:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/runRadio.service

### inside the file, insert something like this:

[Unit]

Description=runRadio

[Service]

User=tomica

Environment="DISPLAY=:0"

ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 30

ExecStart=/usr/bin/vlc -I dummy "https://audio.radio-banovina.hr:9998/stream"

WorkingDirectory=/home/tomica

Restart=always

[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

### to register this service, I'm using standard commands:

sudo systemctl enable runRadio.service

sudo systemctl start runRadio.service

sudo systemctl status runRadio.service

### tips:

### - VLC shouldn't start with 'root', so this is why I'm using a user 'tomica'

### - -I dummy is something I learned during troubleshooting - it doesn't work (as a service) without specifying the correct (I)nterface!

### - also, I'm using sleep 30 to make sure everything is up before starting a player (could be nicer, but... works!)

And… that’s it!

With a few hits and misses, there’s finally a simple wireless Internet radio, which starts playing once Raspberry Pi powers on (and connects to WiFi, and waits for 30 seconds, of course)! No more bad FM reception and the user is satisfied! 🙂

Cheers!