Re: [DNG] Docker leaves Ubuntu for AlpineLinux (and hires its dev)

[Wim]

Quote from Solomon Hykes' blog:

"To build Docker we have re-used large quantities of plumbing: Linux, Go,
lxc, aufs, lvm, iptables, virtualbox, vxlan, mesos, etcd, consul, systemd…
the list goes on. "

https://blog.docker.com/author/solomon/

I also don't understand that some media state he has been hired by Docker,
as according to his Linked In profiles, he is the founder and CTO:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/solomonhykes

More questions than answers, I'm afraid.

2016-02-13 1:11 GMT+01:00 Nate Bargmann :

> I know Alpine Linux  has been mentioned before on this list so I took
> some time and have investigated it a bit more.  While I still prefer the
> Debian way that I've grown to know over the past 16 1/2 years, I do like
> certain aspects of Alpine.  Even the largest ISO installed a very lean
> base system into a Virtual Box VM.  OpenRC makes a very nice
> presentation on system start and the system seems lightning fast.  There
> is even a Pi version I may need to try.
>
> If nothing else, the alternatives are proving to be an interesting
> change from the mainstream.
>
> - Nate
>
> --
>
> "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
> possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."
>
> Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us
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Re: [DNG] Bad UEFI: was Systemd at work: rm -rf EFI

[Wim]

The proposed fix is to mark it in fstab as read only...

I was under the impression fstab was one of the things systemd wanted to
replace/eradicate?

2016-02-02 16:15 GMT+01:00 Fernando M. Maresca :

> On Tue, Feb 02, 2016 at 10:07:17AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> > Back in the BIOS/MBR days, we had a very thin, very tiny interface to
> > the pre-boot stuff. About the only way you could mess it up was to blow
> > a bios upgrade, so you were always *very* careful during that process.
> > But in every other respect with BIOS/MBR, nothing you could do in
> > software could damage your hardware.
> >
> > BIOS/MBR had a very thin interface.
> >
> > Now comes UEFI, with this huge interface, to its pre-boot firmware and
> > non-volatile RAM, intended to be accessed by run of the mill
> > application programs and even commands typed in at the command prompt.
> > How is this exposure of many different "EFI variables" to every
> > possible software on the system different from systemd's spaghetti web
> > of dependencies?
> >
> > Answer: It's not. It's one more case of abdication of modularity.
>
> +1
>
> --
> Fernando M. Maresca
> - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Cel: 221 15 545 8196
> Tel: 221 450 5378
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[DNG] Systemd at work: rm -rf EFI

[Wim]

Hi all,

It seems you can delete EFI vars if you're not careful. Someone found that
executing "rm -rf --no-preserve-root /" also deleted EFI vars, turning his MSI
Notebook into a brick.

It also seems mounting these is hardcoded into systemd:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=207549

efibootmgr needs to write to EFI vars, it seems. Here's Poettering's answer:

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2402

Well, you've probably guessed the answer - Won't fix.


Cheers,


Wim
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Re: [DNG] Purchasing a new computer/laptop

[Wim]

2016-01-27 16:57 GMT+01:00 Simon Hobson <li...@thehobsons.co.uk>:

> Wim <object...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [snip]
> > * Yes, the one with the faulty SATA that doesn't like 3gbps drives - you
> try finding a drive these days that has a jumper for 1.5gbps operation :-(
> >
> > You don't need to jumper drives. I've never encountered any drive that
> doesn't work with these machines.
>
> You have been lucky then. I've tried several, and every drive I tried did
> not work (I think I must have tried about 3, different makes - including
> buying another new 750G that didn't work) - it would appear to connect etc,
> but once "in use" would cause constant errors. I did try the local genius
> bar, and they were more helpful than I expected (2nd hand machine, out of
> warranty). First off he was able to see from the service history that it
> had already had a ribbon cable replacement which I gather was the usual
> suspect. And he did run some tests - but as it wasn't an Apple drive he
> couldn't do much more.
>
>
I would take a look at that SATA cable AGAIN. These break far too often.
And when they break, they often don't break completely. Symptoms vary from
weird boot problems, to the OS going corrupt, to a general slow drive.

If by 750G, you mean the Seagate hybrid 750 GB drive, I have several users
with a 2008 Macbook Pro using these. I installed them and they all worked
on first try. Could be worse with "revision A" Macbooks. We don't get those
here in Europe. That's a US privilege. I only see them from people who
bought their machine while in the USA. And I can't recollect if I ever saw
an early 2008 rev. A MB Pro.



> In the end, I looked at the drive model, looked up the specs, and saw that
> there was a 500G version - this machine had 250 in it originally. So I kept
> an eye on eBay until an Apple branded one came up and got that - and added
> a second one in the optical drive bay.
>

There used to be a difference between Apple labeled harddisks and
"ordinary" HD's. It mattered when doing AV stuff on G4 or older. I can't
say there's any difference nowadays. Except for label and price :D


> Incidentally it was only one or two models that had this problem - I think
> mine was the first. Earlier models only supported 1.5G SATA, later models
> fixed the issue. These had a 3G SATA interface which was "flaky" if urn at
> 3G, but the drives Apple used were only 1.5G. It was only when people
> upgraded with "other" drives that the problem showed up.
> There's was fair bit of noise in the forums about it for a while.
>

I know. I do support for a living, with an estimated 70% of users on OSX.
Most of these users are AV professionals, so they can't use Linux. A few of
the web devs I support have a Debian Wheezy VM or partition. It's stil a
bit better to be able to test stuff on the real thing, as OSX has some
differences.


>
> > OSX even sends UNSAVED documents to the cloud, according to some.
>
> If you let it ;-)
> But yes, it defaults to pressuring you to linking up with your Apple
> account so it can automatically sync stuff. Most of the builtin
> applications now autosave as they go along - so it's not surprising that
> the autosave versions get synced.
>

It is amazingly hard to stop OSX from sending metadata. I don't have an
icloud account, but had to rip out several background services to get
Mavericks stable when doing audio recordings.


> Safari also defaults to sen

ding every URL you edit to Google (via Apple ?)


Not via Apple. That's the one thing I"m fairly sure about. Apple is
collecting data, but they will never share it with anyone else.

I've been using DuckDuckGo for a long while. It's good. I also use Ghostery
to block tracking. Amazingly good, if you take into account that it's made
by an advertising company.

- not just what you type, but the entire URL. It's also irritatingly stupid
> in that it will sometimes decide that your url doesn't look like a url and
> do a search or it will decide that your search term looks like a url and
> fail to load it. I'm of the school where if I type into a search box I
> expect it to search, and if I type in a url box I expect it to be treated
> as a url - and the two boxes are different things and should be separate.
>
>
> > I don't think legislation to keep hardware "open" will work. Legislators
> tend not to understand the matter and hardware manufacturers are way too
> clever bypassing laws.
>
> I agree. Something is only likely to happen "after the fact" if enough
> people complain. I suspect that the same law that got the guy (in the link
> I posted earlier) a refund and his legal costs paid might go somewhere. If
> the hardware won't run an "unapproved" OS, the

Re: [DNG] Purchasing a new computer/laptop

[Wim]

making lots of similar models.



> My biggest beef is their "closed maintenance" attitude. They only sell
> spares to authorised service centres, and they impose a "no resale"
> condition to stop those service centres selling on new parts - that wasn't
> too bad back in the days when I part owned a dealership and our margins off
> list price was 32% :-), sucks now I'm an end user :-(. Not too bad if you
> have an older model - then there's usually supplies of cannibalised spares
> available.
>
>
There is a very thriving third party market that doesn't play by Apple's
rules. Even new parts are no problem, except maybe for the very latest
models. But those should still be under warranty.

There's also a growing number of small companies that do component repair
(reballing, replacing flaky GPU's fi) on mainboards over here.

All recent Mac models have the ram soldered to the main board. No expansion
possible, except the Mac Pro. You need to configure the machine when buying
new and that is at inflated Apple prices for ram.

Batteries in Macbooks are glued in. SSD's still can be replaced. LCD
screens are Philips/LG and are available from China, for a lot less than
Apple prices. Luckily, DisplayPort is a standard in screens, so they are
plentiful.

Batteries can also be obtained from China, and I have good experiences with
these. On about 30 procured over the years, only one failed after a week.
When I emailed the seller, he sent another one promptly. No need even to
return the defective one and since sending to China from here will cost an
arm an a leg, that's good.

Another, unrelated note: Dell service was hacked. So, if you buy a new
Dell, don't give them your credentials, or you might get a call from a
scammer that has all your personal data, including type of computer,
serial, and your address, phone number... and will sound convincing on the
phone.

 I don't think legislation to keep hardware "open" will work. Legislators
tend not to understand the matter and hardware manufacturers are way too
clever bypassing laws.

Fi, I just noticed that the Toshiba laptop's batteries have a sticker that
reads "Exempt from environmental tax"...



Cheers,

Wim
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Re: [DNG] Debian is endorsed by Microsoft

[Wim]

Hi List,


... Follow the money...

Maybe this is related too?

http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/39546.html

The Linux Foundation quietly dropped community representation. No more
voting rights for simple members.

Looks like a coup to me.

And that begs the question: "Who is Karen Sandler?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Sandler

Both major law firms she worked for in the past, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
and Clifford Chance, have multiple ties to Microsoft. In itself not
remarkable, perhaps, as both have most of the fortune 500 as clients.

One example: Project Tomorrow, see
http://www.tomorrow.org/docs/Gibson-Dunn-laptopdonationrelease.DOC
What's in a name?

Makes me think about a Hillary Clinton remark to someone stating that talks
between the tech industry and US govt about encryption backdoors weren't
exactly successful: "That's not what I've heard"...

Slip of the tongue?

What do you think?

Cheers,


Wim

2016-01-22 0:34 GMT+01:00 Arnt Karlsen <a...@iaksess.no>:

> On Thu, 21 Jan 2016 15:46:55 +0100, Didier wrote in message
> <56a0ef5f.3050...@in2p3.fr>:
>
> > Le 21/01/2016 13:08, Simon Hobson a écrit :
> > > What if we s/Microsoft/Rackspace/
> > > (you can use pretty well any hosting outfit really)
> > > The basic underlying thing that this announcement shows is that
> > > ${company} now supports ${OS} on it's hosting platform. Yes, the
> > > sole reason they are doing it where ${OS}==Debian is because they
> > > think there's money to be made from it. I think you'll find that
> > > most of the hosting outfits are in it to make money - sorry if the
> > > idea that someone is allowed to make a profit upsets some sensitive
> > > types.
> >
> >  I don't know for Rackspace.
>
> ..learn ;o):
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/search.php?query=Rackspace+=phrase===0=all=0=search
>
> > But MS has a specific log of trying to kill FOSS and specifically
> > Linux, by *all means*, including technical locking and abuse of law.
>
> ..drumroll please, _I_ ;o) suggested we put "Microsoft Litigation" here:
> http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=2005010107100653
> aaand on the left hand stortcut menu, where it has gained an extra
> "s" since "my post-Groklaw" litigation took off.
>
> ..the _appearant_ importance of #550,000 over rounder figures like
> #500,000, #600,000, #700,000, #800,000 etc in e.g.
> https://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2015/08/index.en.html#newdpn
> also have me doubt the other "Once upon a time"-tales of "Microsoft
> support of Debian 8 only" and "only since March 2015" etc that I
> see here.
>
> ..the US 5 M$ Microsoft reported spending on "combating computer
> viruses" to the SEC for Q3-2003 and the US 106M$ they squirmed
> away to their TSG etc proxy litigation in that same SEC filing for
> that same Q3-2003 quarter, speaks volumes of their intentions,
> is why we said "Always, Always, Always Follow The Money." ;o)
> http://www.groklaw.net/staticpages/index.php?page=20030831174259231
>
> > I haven't seen any sign they're going to give up anytime soon on that
> > fight, and I don't think here is such a sign: they earn a lot of
> > profit and the little more they can gain with Linux on Azure is
> > completely negligible in comparison with the strategic goal of
> > killing Linux.
> >
> >  Maybe MS haven't any legal means to forbid their employees to
> > work for Linux during their free time. Otherwise, they have other
> > reasons to tolerate it.
>
> ..such "tolerance" is done mostly "to know thy enemy", it's also
> quite handy for luring in e.g. patent litigation poisons, "good"
> design ideas, "binary [in the chemical warfare sense] poisons"
> etc tools to scuttle e.g. GNU, Debian etc Linux, e.g. by telling
> e.g. our dear Lennart tall stories about "How the War on Terror
> Desperately Needs Secret National Security Backdoors in Linux"
> etc.  Etc.  Explains their zeal, etc.
>
>
> --
> ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt Karlsen
> ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
>   Scenarios always come in sets of three:
>   best case, worst case, and just in case.
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Re: [DNG] Giving Devuan sans-initramfs capabilities

[Wim]

2016-01-02 15:05 GMT+01:00 Stephanie Daugherty <sdaughe...@gmail.com>:

> Might be worth trying to get interest upstream for functionality to
> "merge" binary modules with an already compiled kernel as a single file.
> Presumably, it wouldn't be *that* difficult for the kernel to look for
> modules at the end of its image and load them early.
>
> Not sure what the kernel maintainers would say to this idea, but it seems
> like it would be more robust than initrd/initramfs.
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 6:25 AM, aitor_czr <aitor_...@gnuinos.org> wrote:
>
>> On 01/02/2016 11:28 AM, Mitt Green <mitt_gr...@protonmail.ch>
>> <mitt_gr...@protonmail.ch> wrote:
>>
>> I think that there is no real alternative to initrd/initramfs for 
>> a>general-purpose kernel, as those included in the install image of 
>> a>distro. At the same time, nothing prevents a user from compiling 
>> and>installing her own preferred kernel, with or without initramfs.
>>
>> What prevents devs (kernels packages' maintainers)
>> from compiling a kernel without initramfs support? (:
>>
>> Peace,
>> Mitt
>>
>>
>> Without the initramfs support the distro would not run in live mode.
>>
>>Aitor.
>>
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>
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> Hi all,

I like simple things.

Stepanie's idea seems great to my noob mind.

As for live CD's, couldn't they implement a simple switch not to load
modules at the end of kernel load and load initram/fs, for those
circumstances?



Cheers,

Wim
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Re: [DNG] Ian Murdock's Twitter hijacked?

[Wim]

Yes, it's gone.

Probably just a hijacked account. Sorry for the gossip ;-)

Cheers,

Wim

2015-12-30 2:05 GMT+01:00 dev1fanboy <devuanfan...@startmail.com>:

> page shows as not existing my end
>
> On Tuesday, December 29, 2015 8:27 PM, Teodoro Santoni <
> asbras...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hiya,
> >
> > 2015-12-29 21:08 GMT+01:00, Wim <object...@gmail.com>:
> >> Hi List,
> >>
> >> I'm not sure this is really appropriate for this list, but here goes:
> >>
> >> Ian Murdock, one of Debian's founder is threatening via Twitter to
> >> commit
> >> suicide after being beaten by Police twice. See:
> >>
> >> https://twitter.com/imurdock
> >>
> >> The most logical thing seems to be some troll hijacked his Twitter
> >> account.
> >> My gut feeling tells me something else.
> >>
> >> You guess is as good as mine. Maybe someone knows him more intimately
> >> and
> >> can contact him.
> >>
> >> The DNS for his blog goes to Google. Also weird.
> >>
> >> Wim
> >>
> >
> > The strange thing is, no clickbait master website is giving attention
> > to this story. Being a seldom follower of twitter, I can say that if
> > you hadn't write here I wouldn't have notice of that.
> >
> > I dunno if it's a troll or what. Fishy, anyway.
> > ___
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[DNG] Ian Murdock's Twitter hijacked?

[Wim]

Hi List,

I'm not sure this is really appropriate for this list, but here goes:

Ian Murdock, one of Debian's founder is threatening via Twitter to commit
suicide after being beaten by Police twice. See:

https://twitter.com/imurdock

The most logical thing seems to be some troll hijacked his Twitter account.
My gut feeling tells me something else.

You guess is as good as mine. Maybe someone knows him more intimately and
can contact him.

The DNS for his blog goes to Google. Also weird.

Wim
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[DNG] An abrupt end to Debian Live CD version?

[Wim]

Hi,


This popped up:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-live/2015/11/msg00024.html

Another dev throws in the towel under pressure. The list of downstream
distro's is long...

Cheers,

Wim
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Re: [Dng] Another reason of why I am considering Devuan

[Wim]

Hi Marc,


P2P dns springs to mind. But it seems to have no recent development...

https://github.com/Mononofu/P2P-DNS
http://sourceforge.net/projects/p2pdns/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtdnsp2p/
http://qtdnsp2p.sourceforge.net/

You could also have a look at MaidSafe, for P2P cloud storage and currency.
http://maidsafe.net/
https://forum.safenetwork.io/
It's not dns per sé, but it has a lot of interesting stuff. And a small
open and dedicated community. Development by a well funded Scottish company.

Also, NameCoin, CryptoCoin and other virtual currencies seem to have P2P
dns buitl-in:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_DNS_root#NameCoin_P2P_DNS

Let's also not forget that names.space is still suing ICANN:
https://rally.org/namespace.



Cheers,


Wim



2015-04-03 22:55 GMT+02:00 marc marc...@welz.org.za:

  If I recall correctly, so far *every* Linux I've used uses an external
  DNS by default instead of installing its own recursor.
 
  I figure there must be a reason, but I don't know what it is.

 So a cache becomes more efficient if several machines use it -
 especially given the branching/hierarchical structure of DNS.
 But that was in the good old days - thesedays with intrusive
 monitoring, it might be worthwhile to run a local DNS cache
 for the privacy benefit and take the hit of a bit more back
 and forth - modern client machines have enough resources to
 run it

 I believe some distributions already use things like dnsmasq
 to do simpler caching, and I remember that a while ago
 libc offered a caching daemon (nscd ? nsdc ?) for anything
 in nsswitch.conf although I think the API there didn't allow for
 some of the subtleties that DNS offers

 Actually it might even even be worth investigating alternate
 NS implementations - maybe somebody knows of a proof-of-work
 libnss_* library ? Something like that might decentralise
 things even more ...

 I suppose the latter are pie in the sky ideas - getting a
 useful release out is more important, but maybe work for
 later...

 regards

 marc
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Re: [Dng] Raspberry Pi 2

[Wim]

Hi Robert and list,


I've been reading this list since the beginning. Felt the need to reply to
this, but it's only a Me too!.

The Raspberry foundation has stated already that they will adopt Jessie
as-is, with systemd. Discussion of systemd on the forum is frowned upon.
Most threads got closed fairly fast.

I would love to see Devan on ARM, or Devuan on Raspberri Pi. Mine are
running Raspbian too, although I've been trying out Kali and a couple of
others too. Kali seems to be one of the distro's that rejected systemd too.

I'm waiting for the dust to clear after the launch of the Pi 2 to buy one.
Setting up a Devuan testbed on the Pi would be a very worthwhile cause.


Cheers,


Wim

2015-02-10 9:18 GMT+01:00 Robert Storey robert.sto...@gmail.com:

 I just saw this announcement:

 Raspberry Pi 2 Now on Sale for US$35
 http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/

 It will probably be a few months before I can buy one in my part of the
 world (Taiwan), but it's on my shopping list. Maybe for my birthday (in
 May).

 Anyway, it's got an ARM7 processor, so at last there is a Pi that is fast
 enough to use as a real computer. The relevance for us here on this list is
 that this looks like a good target for Devuan sometime in the future when
 we've got a final release.

 No hurry of course. Just wanted to share the news with other Pi
 enthusiasts. Right now I'm running Raspbian on mine, but since I imagine
 they will go systemd (if they haven't already - don't know since I haven't
 updated) I will definitely be looking for an alternative distro.

 cheers,
 Robert



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