oldcpu

5 hours ago, petl said:

No Alsa Mixer installed (that I can find). The sound problem seemed to happen after I did a routine software update recently, everything else seems OK.

Have you restarted your PC since the routine software update?   

Do you know what an 'xterm' (ie x-windows terminal) is ?   If so you can run alsamixer by typing "alsamixer" in such a terminal (don't type the quotes).   

I live in Phuket so can not help with your Udon Thani technician question.

Further to the above, sometimes after doing a kernel update, all that is needed is a reboot to load the new kernel.

If above unsuccessful, and if you do not have any immediate success, you could run a diagnostic script to provide more information, and it may shed a clue as to the issue ...

In an xterm as a regular user, with PC connected to internet, send the following command. It will download the diagnostic script, and run it.

wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

Select the 'Share/Upload' option, and let the script run to completion.  When complete, in the xterm, it will give you a URL where the diagnostic information was uploaded.   Share that URL here, and we can look it and it may be able to point out to you where the problem exists.

Further to the above, dependent on your linux distribution and your PC age, prior to cloning it may be a good idea to check the /etc/fstab file and (if grub1 and not grub2) the /boot/grub/menu.lst of the old hard drive, to see if it uses disk-by-id identification in the /etc/fstab, the /boot/grub/menu.lst, and the /boot/grub/device.map files.   I believe one does not want disk-by-id identification if cloning.   I don't think clonezilla looks after this (albeit its been years since I used it, so I can not recall).

Of course its always good to have a backup prior to conducting any such operation.

I've only done such with identical hard drives to the same computer.   Once one adds a different computer (and different type of drives) into the mix, there is IMHO the potential for things to go afoul. Likely work arounds/fixes are available, but the ease or difficulty of doing such may depend on your GNU/Linux knowledge (assuming that is what you are cloning).  Different hardware could mean problems if MBR or EFI, or if different graphics devices on two different PCs.  If using secure boot w/EFI you could have issues when transfering (I think < not sure> ) .  Assuming both PCs use MBR for boot, but have different graphics devices, you may find booting to run level 3 (text screen) dependent on whether using proprietary or free open source graphic drivers.   Also different monitors may cause an issue, dependent on what your previous setup was.  

I am posting this in case this solution helps anyone else using Thunderbird email program and Thai fonts.

My Thai wife was struggling to get Thai fonts to work on her computer with Thunderbird email program.   Every time she sent an email the Thai fonts were changed to question marks.  Now while she uses Windows-10, I was able to 100% reproduce the problem with Thunderbird on openSUSE GNU/Linux Leap-15.0  (i.e. I had the same problem with GNU/Linux Thunderbird).  We tried many different advice on the internet to solve this, and the only fix we could find was the following (for GNU/Linux).

In GNU/Linux Thunderbird go to :   Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Config Editor >  ... select YES to accept the risk ... > search for "mail.strictly" and change "mail.strictly_mime" to "true".  Close the window.  After this the Thai font correctly transmitted in the email.

For any MS-Windows users =>  after seeing the GNU/Linux fix, my wife in Windows-10 my wife did something similar in Thunderbird:   Tools > options > Advanced > Config Editor >  ... select YES to accept the risk ... > search for "mail.strictly" and change "mail.strictly_mime" to "true".  Close the window.  After this the Thai font correctly transmitted in the email.

6 minutes ago, TaoNow said:

At the local land office I was told that, as a foreigner, I could have my name on the land deed, but only a Thai national could have their name recorded as the owner of the house which sits on the land.  Go figure!

Interesting.  Well "This is Thailand" but if I had to speculate, I would say the local land office made a mistake and got it 180-deg reversed in error.  

On 4/25/2019 at 3:01 PM, Joe Mcseismic said:

One other possible glitch. I told the bank staff that was getting me the immigration letters, that next year they would have to supply a statement for a full year instead of the present three months. She told me that the branches can issue these statement for up to six months, but a statement for the full year has to come from Bangkok and takes from five to seven days. This is Bangkok Bank.

I also have a Bangkok Bank account, but I likely have over a year before I go for my next Type-OA non-immigrant visa.  After reading your post, I'm thinking/speculating an approach would be to ask for the full year statement from Bangkok Bank  (two weeks or more in advance), and then the day of the Visa application obtain a 6-month statement.  Then when at Thai immigration and apply for the next Type-OA, submit both the 'full year' and the 'six month' statements at the same time .  The idea is the 'six-month' provides current details, and the 'full year' provides what is needed to meet the full requirement.

My speculation is your situation is a bit nebulous despite your success  in being granted authority as "Administrator of the Estate of xxxx (you wife's name)".  I'm amazed you succeeded in doing what you were able to do.   I assume you succeeded as your children are Thai citizens (even thou they live in the USA) and they are in fact now the owners of the land in which your house is built.

To avoid such complications, this is one reason why I insisted my wife and I purchase a foreign freehold condominium.

In your case, I speculate an approach could be to either:

(a) if land owner is now your children, and if they read/speak Thai, ask them to create account in Thai immigration database in the Internet for that property, and register you ASAP , or

(b) one or two days before you go to immigration, you check in to the most inexpensive hotel you can find (even if you do not stay there) and obtain assurances from them that they will submit a TM30.  And then when reporting to immigration, use the TM30 from that Hotel if asked for such.

Maybe someone else has a better idea ?

3 hours ago, bbi1 said:

How do you report yourself as a foreigner online for the TM30 instead of wasting your time going to immigration to do it? Especially if you are staying in the same rented place and have just come back from overseas. What's the website to do it?

Indeed this is up to the landlord/owner to provide the TM30.  If one is about to leave their place for a day or more, and then return, I recommend advising the landlord that one is to be away for some days, advise the planned date of return, confirm to landlord upon return, and making a point of asking for the TM30.

wrt the Landlord/owner registering/setting up an account at the immigration web site (for TM30 entry), in my Thai wife and my case, since we were in Europe, we had a family member (attractive young Thai woman) do this for us.  She went to immigration, and sweet talked a Thai official at the immigration office to help her log on and create our account.  She had a stack of paperwork with her (proof of our ownership, passports copies , etc ... but I suspect most of that not needed < I don't know details > ).

Having typed that, a Thai female friend of ours in Thailand who is an owner of a couple of condos, registered one in the immigration TM30 database without going to the immigration office, as she registered/created an account, completely online for her unit in that condo complex.   ...  The funny part here is after doing such, then 2 months later when she manged to get her first tenants, she could no longer remember how to navigate the site and make the TM30 entries, so she contacted my wife in Europe, and my wife walked her through the process. ....

My wife advised me that if one owns a unit in more than one condo complex, each complex (of condos) by that specific owner requires a separate database registration.    As it turns out, our Thai female friend noted her 2nd condo may be available to rent in a year or so, and she is scratching her head, trying to remember how she succeeded the 1st time to register/create an account - as she can no longer remember how.  

So I suspect the web site is not so easy to navigate for Thai people (and its all in Thai language).  My wife's view is a non-Thai speaker would likely not be able to navigate the site to create an account (as landlord/property owner) nor apply the TM30 updates.

My wife uses it.   Phuket.

27 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Most on single/multi entry don't do 90 day reports or TM30s. 

The landlord thou still needs to register the foreigner via the TM30.   And IMHO the landlord should then provide the tenant a copy/evidence of the TM30.   

Where IMHO it gets more difficult wrt implementation, is not for the landlord registering the main (foreign) tenant staying in a condo unit, but when guests stay for only a couple of days with main tenant.   There were a few occasions in past few years where a tenant on a 3-month rent of my condo, had their (foreign) family staying with them for a few nights  My wife and I had to act quick, and register those guests in the Thai immigration database.    In one case it turned out to be important, as these guests on the next day, went to Thai immigration to extend their Visa ...  If we had not prepared the TM30, there could have been fines.

We made it very clear to our tenant, that any time they had foreign guests (ie non-Thai) staying with them in our condo, that they needed to inform us immediately (and send us their passport/entry info) such that we could be complaint with the Thai law for a TM30 (24 hour registration requirement).

A further complication is when my wife and I stay with her Thai family.   Her family are supposed to register us via a TM30, but they are not set up for that.   IMHO from a practical perspective, when staying with a Thai family in a Thai owned house, the TM30 registration gets much more difficult to implement.

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

You forget the landlord has just admitted to renting properties to the government and will have to pay tax on that rental.

Hmm ... I guess we have a different way of looking at this.   I had assumed paying tax on rental was necessary per the law whether a TM30 is issued or not issued.

As a side speculation, my suspicion also is Thailand may still be sorting out the information exchange between Thai immigration and Thai Tax/Revenue - and likely at present time this information is not being passed between departments.   Having typed that speculation, my view also is that it is better for the landlord to pay tax on their rental, as I believe to do otherwise would be against Thai law.  

45 minutes ago, lkv said:

For people on non O-A's, non compliance of TM30 is cheaper and hassle free.

Out of curiousity, how is non-compliance cheaper?  There is a risk the entire time one is staying in Thailand if one is not registered via a TM30.   

Is it not better to have a landlord who properly submits the TM30, which costs the tenant nothing and costs the landlord nothing except their time to both register one in the TM30 immigration database and then send the tenant (on the non-O-A) a screen print copy of the TM30?

8 hours ago, mtls2005 said:

I guess I'm surprised that you can access this website from outside of Thailand? Or are you using a VPN?

We can access the Thai immigration web site from Europe. It is very slow at times - but it works.

Quote

So, do you ever receive a receipt or confirmation of the TM-30 submittal? I'm surprised Immigration accepts a screen-print, but if it was accepted and matches their system, understand that they might.

According to my Thai wife, unfortunately the Thai immigration web site (for TM30 registration) software is not yet setup to provide a receipt nor confirmation TM-30 print out.  So a screen-print is all that one can do.  I believe the immigration officials are aware of that.  I suspect they can also login to the database and confirm that which is on the screen print is accurate - although this 'suspicion' of mine is speculation.

Quote

Finally, your Condo Juristic entity allows sub-leases of short duration? That is unusual, IME.

Its not a sub-lease.  We are co-owners of a unit in the condominium.  The Condominium Juristic Person (CJP) allows rentals compliant with Thai law, which our understanding (and CJP understanding) is rentals one month or longer are legal.  Rentals less than one month, not legal for condominiums that do not meet Hotel regulations and not registered as such (if such registry for a condo is even possible, which it may not be).

This is an old thread ... but for information my recent experience.  I recently tested transferring Canadian $ from Canada to Thailand in Thai baht ( 65,500 Thai baht) to a Thai bank using TransferWise.  The TransferWise fee was $28.05 Cdn.   I conducted this such that there were no Canadian bank fees for this. The exchange rate was the 'spot' rate (i.e. best possible, 1/2 way between buy/sell).

I have a Bangkok Bank Thai baht account, and also have a "premium" bank account with Bank of Montreal (i.e. BMO in Canada) in Canadian $,  and I also have a TransferWise borderless account.  I have TransferWise setup in my BMO account as a potential bill payment item.   I have read TransferWise use BMO for their banking services.

In my Transferwise Borderless account I initiated a transfer of Canadian$ to Thai Baht (to my Bangkok Bank account) of 65,500 Thai baht.  The Spot exchange rate was 1 CAD = 23.76891 THB.   In my BMO account I paid $2,783.75 CAD as a "bill payment" to TransferWise, where upon receipt TransferWise subtracted $28.05 CAD from that as their fee.   Two days later, 65,500 was deposited in my Bangkok Bank account labelled as an "international transfer".  There were no Canadian BMO nor Bangkok Bank fees.

I deliberately selected 65,500 thai baht for this 'test' as it is representative of a 'monthly' income deposit from Canada.   

I believe for very large transfers of money (say $25,000 CAD or more) then a simple Canadian bank to Thai bank transfer may be better than TransferWise, but for something smaller like the 65,500 Thai baht ($2,755.70 CAD before the $28.05 CAD fee) then a service like TransferWise works well IMHO - and I believe is likely cheaper than bank only transfers.
 

Back in December last year, there was an English language article entitled "Amendment to Change Long Stay Visa in Thailand to Require Insurance Clears First Hurdle" ( https://weexpats.com/long-stay-visa-in-thailand-now-requires-insurance/ ) which is consistent with the "bankgokbiznews" Thai language article on the Thai Cabinet approval.   I don't see a reference to 4,000 baht/month ... only a speculation (?) that   

" all foreigners wishing to apply for this visa will require Thai insurance policies covering the entire duration of their one-year stay. This policy will require a minimum of a 40,000 THB out-patient medical bill coverage, as well as a minimum 400,000 THB in-patient medical bill coverage." 

Fortunately for those of us already with health insurance from abroad, there is the statement

"The good news is that if you already have overseas insurance policy coverage that is valid in Thailand for the policy listed above do not need to get Thai insurance as well. Their current insurance will qualify them to apply for the Long Stay Visa. For those, who have comprehensive expat medical insurance valid anywhere in the world, it seems that their bets will covered".

I am one of the fortunate to have significant health coverage (valid in Thailand) with my pension plan, so this should not be a concern for myself. ....  I've been told, thou, by friends who are less fortunate, that for older people in their 60s or 70s, it could be a challenge to find monthly health insurance with payments for as little as 4,000 baht/month.  I would be happy to be proven wrong here, with a pointer for these friends (in late 60s and early 70s) where such relatively inexpensive health insurance for one in their late 60s or 70s can be found.

I searched, but could not find this latest development on Thai Visa ... According to Bangkok Biz News website (in Thai language), it has now been approved by Thai Cabinet (as of 2-April-2019) to apply a health insurance requirement to Long Stay visas (Type-OA) :

http://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/831535

The article is in Thai language (and I used Chrome browser to translate), but if accurate, that suggests that the Type-OA will be used as a 'trial' for this requirement.  Presumably the implementation will occur sometime in the near (?) future.

I'm an openSUSE user (age 65).   

Have openSUSE on 3 old PCs here in Europe (2 desktop's and 1 laptop). Laptop is Toshiba Satellite Z930. Desktops both custom: one with a core i7-4770 on a Gigabyte Z87X-DH3 motherboard and the oldest a very old core-i7-920 on an ASUSTek P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard. 

I plan to retire in Phuket in May this year (as my wife and I have already purchased a condo), and bring my laptop and Gigabyte motherboard based desktop with me, discarding the very old ASUSTek PC.

My first introduction to GNU/Linux was in Phuket in 1998 when while living in Phuket (on sabbatical for a couple of years) I installed Red Hat GNU/Linux for the first time on an ancient Compaq LTE5200 laptop.  I have not looked back since and still happy with GNU/Linux.    

I hope to drop in on this forum thread a bit more often after May this year.