Re: [GTALUG] Planning April Meeting

[William Park via talk]

Our company uses Zoom.  So, a vote for Zoom.
-- 
William Park 

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 08:25:23PM -0400, Alex Volkov via talk wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> 
> We're thinking of doing April meeting online, we're thinking of having a
> Q
> 
> Which of the teleconference software do you find the most comfortable to
> work with?
> 
> 
> * Zoom
> 
> * Hangouts
> 
> * Jitsi
> 
> * Something completely different
> 
> * Let's just skip a meeting
> 
> 
> Please reply to this email so we can gauge the interest in the next meeting.
> 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> 
> Alex.
> 
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Re: [GTALUG] Planning April Meeting

[James Medeiros via talk]

Same here. Glad I can make one virtually (work in Toronto, live in Niagara)

I’ve had great experiences with Zoom.

James

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 9:05 PM 90ur1 90ur1 via talk 
wrote:

> This is great!
>
> I couldn't make it to the meetings because of the commute.
>
>
> Gouri
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 8:26 PM Alex Volkov via talk 
> wrote:
>
>> Hello Everyone,
>>
>>
>> We're thinking of doing April meeting online, we're thinking of having a
>> Q
>>
>> Which of the teleconference software do you find the most comfortable to
>> work with?
>>
>>
>> * Zoom
>>
>> * Hangouts
>>
>> * Jitsi
>>
>> * Something completely different
>>
>> * Let's just skip a meeting
>>
>>
>> Please reply to this email so we can gauge the interest in the next
>> meeting.
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>>
>> Alex.
>>
>> ---
>> Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org
>> Unsubscribe from this mailing list
>> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>>
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Re: [GTALUG] Planning April Meeting

[90ur1 90ur1 via talk]

This is great!

I couldn't make it to the meetings because of the commute.


Gouri


On Wed, Mar 25, 2020, 8:26 PM Alex Volkov via talk  wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
>
>
> We're thinking of doing April meeting online, we're thinking of having a
> Q
>
> Which of the teleconference software do you find the most comfortable to
> work with?
>
>
> * Zoom
>
> * Hangouts
>
> * Jitsi
>
> * Something completely different
>
> * Let's just skip a meeting
>
>
> Please reply to this email so we can gauge the interest in the next
> meeting.
>
>
> Thank you,
>
>
> Alex.
>
> ---
> Post to this mailing list talk@gtalug.org
> Unsubscribe from this mailing list
> https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
>
---
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[GTALUG] Planning April Meeting

[Alex Volkov via talk]

Hello Everyone,


We're thinking of doing April meeting online, we're thinking of having a 
Q


Which of the teleconference software do you find the most comfortable to 
work with?



* Zoom

* Hangouts

* Jitsi

* Something completely different

* Let's just skip a meeting


Please reply to this email so we can gauge the interest in the next meeting.


Thank you,


Alex.

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[GTALUG] Video of our march meeting

[Alex Volkov via talk]

Hello Everyone,

Here's the video of our March meeting.


Ham Radio with a side of Linux with Alan Heighway -- 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzE3nnzs9PM



Alex.

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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

| From: William Witteman via talk 

| I am poking around in Android development, and I have run into a snag
| as my machine is pretty old, and doesn't have, or doesn't have
| enabled, some virtual machine features.  Specifically:
| 
| > To use VM acceleration on Linux, your computer must also meet these 
requirements:
| >
| > For Intel processors: Support for Virtualization Technology (VT-x), Intel 
EM64T (Intel 64)
| > features, and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality enabled.
| > For AMD processors: Support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).
| 
| I am not at all sure that my machine will do this - 

Apparently this half of your message was a throw-away, and we were
supposed to ignore it.  Odd.

| if I was looking
| for a new machine, are there any caveats, warnings, red flags to watch
| for?  I'd prefer not to have to spend a ton of time/money thinking
| about my hardware - I'd like it to run Debian with as little messing
| about as possible.

Only you know what features you would find useful.  You haven't
answered previous questions so I won't ask you to explain what you
want.

I'm guessing that you don't really want to get your hands dirty.  If
so, I suggest you pick a laptop.

Me?  I still like desktops.

- expandable / upgradability (within limits)

- faster

- more RAM, HDD space

Clearly your choices would be different from mine.  If you care about
my thoughts, from two years ago:


A really good notebook is getting to be about $2k -- wow.
You can find useful ones at about $400-$600.

For Linux, I think that it is a good idea to avoid NVidia GPUs.  Intel
ones (built into their CPUs) are fine for what I do.

Avoid notebooks with no RAM sockets.  You might want to add RAM.
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[Lennart Sorensen via talk]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 03:09:32PM -0400, William Witteman wrote:
> Thank you for your help!
> 
> My CPU isn't relevant to this - I have determined that it predates
> these features.

Most Core 2 Duo and Quad support it.  It has to be very old to not
support it, or one of the models intel purposely disabled it (like a
few Q8xxx and Q9xxx models).

> The CMOS battery is definitely an easy fix, and I even have CR2032s
> kicking around - it's just never been important enough to fix.
> 
> I was looking for any warning or things I should watch out for getting
> a new system.  Thanks.

Oh.  Want new toys.  My last purchases were apparently so severely
overkill that now I haven't got to buy anything new in like 7 years.

For linux support (assuming that is what is important) with kvm pretty
much any current intel or amd cpu should do.  I can't think of any that
don't support that given windows is using hyperv features for a lot of
things now which requires those features.

AHCI and NVMe disk interfaces seem to be standardized well enough that
those tend to just work.

Network controllers can be a problem if it is too new to be supported
in the kernel yet, which sometimes happens.

Probably no reason to go less than 32GB these days, although I haven't
checked desktop ram prices in a while.  I guess 16GB is enough for a
lot of people too, although I haven't had that little in a long time.

Video should at least work in VGA mode, and usually better without too
much trouble.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[William Witteman via talk]

Thank you for your help!

My CPU isn't relevant to this - I have determined that it predates
these features.

The CMOS battery is definitely an easy fix, and I even have CR2032s
kicking around - it's just never been important enough to fix.

I was looking for any warning or things I should watch out for getting
a new system.  Thanks.

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 14:19, Lennart Sorensen
 wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 01:02:36PM -0400, William Witteman via talk wrote:
> > Yeah, that's the crux of it - my CPU is definitely 10+ years old.
> >
> > The magic of Linux has meant that my quad core machine with 2 Gb of
> > RAM has been serving me well for a decade.
> >
> > The only problem the machine has given me is that the CMOS battery
> > died, so I have to reset the time whenever there's a power outage.
>
> On many motherboards the battery is a plain old CR2032 in a pop in holder.
> Worth checking if it would be trivial to swap out.
>
> So what CPU model is it?
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[Lennart Sorensen via talk]

On Wed, Mar 25, 2020 at 01:02:36PM -0400, William Witteman via talk wrote:
> Yeah, that's the crux of it - my CPU is definitely 10+ years old.
> 
> The magic of Linux has meant that my quad core machine with 2 Gb of
> RAM has been serving me well for a decade.
> 
> The only problem the machine has given me is that the CMOS battery
> died, so I have to reset the time whenever there's a power outage.

On many motherboards the battery is a plain old CR2032 in a pop in holder.
Worth checking if it would be trivial to swap out.

So what CPU model is it?

-- 
Len Sorensen
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

| From: William Witteman via talk 

| Yeah, that's the crux of it - my CPU is definitely 10+ years old.

You still haven't told us the model of your CPU.

A good problem report includes enough data to work on the problem.

| The magic of Linux has meant that my quad core machine with 2 Gb of
| RAM has been serving me well for a decade.
| 
| The only problem the machine has given me is that the CMOS battery
| died, so I have to reset the time whenever there's a power outage.

That's almost certainl easy to fix.  There is a little battery on the
motherboard that needs to be replaced.  It is chrome-coloured.  It's a
disk.

- remember its orientation (+ up or + down)

- find its model number (eg. cr2032)

- buy a replacement and install it.  Many sizes are available
  inexpensively at Dollarama.  But in these times, perhaps ebay or
  amazon are safer.
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[William Witteman via talk]

Yeah, that's the crux of it - my CPU is definitely 10+ years old.

The magic of Linux has meant that my quad core machine with 2 Gb of
RAM has been serving me well for a decade.

The only problem the machine has given me is that the CMOS battery
died, so I have to reset the time whenever there's a power outage.

Thanks to all!

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 12:25, Lennart Sorensen
 wrote:
>
> On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 03:45:30PM -0400, William Witteman via talk wrote:
> > I am poking around in Android development, and I have run into a snag
> > as my machine is pretty old, and doesn't have, or doesn't have
> > enabled, some virtual machine features.  Specifically:
> >
> > > To use VM acceleration on Linux, your computer must also meet these 
> > > requirements:
> > >
> > > For Intel processors: Support for Virtualization Technology (VT-x), Intel 
> > > EM64T (Intel 64)
> > > features, and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality enabled.
> > > For AMD processors: Support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).
> >
> > I am not at all sure that my machine will do this - if I was looking
> > for a new machine, are there any caveats, warnings, red flags to watch
> > for?  I'd prefer not to have to spend a ton of time/money thinking
> > about my hardware - I'd like it to run Debian with as little messing
> > about as possible.
>
> How old is your machine?  Those features have been available on most
> machines for 10+ years, although sometimes you have to change a BIOS
> setting to enable them.
>
> /proc/cpuinfo ought to show if it is available.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
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Re: [GTALUG] VM Support in Linux

[Lennart Sorensen via talk]

On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 03:45:30PM -0400, William Witteman via talk wrote:
> I am poking around in Android development, and I have run into a snag
> as my machine is pretty old, and doesn't have, or doesn't have
> enabled, some virtual machine features.  Specifically:
> 
> > To use VM acceleration on Linux, your computer must also meet these 
> > requirements:
> >
> > For Intel processors: Support for Virtualization Technology (VT-x), Intel 
> > EM64T (Intel 64)
> > features, and Execute Disable (XD) Bit functionality enabled.
> > For AMD processors: Support for AMD Virtualization (AMD-V).
> 
> I am not at all sure that my machine will do this - if I was looking
> for a new machine, are there any caveats, warnings, red flags to watch
> for?  I'd prefer not to have to spend a ton of time/money thinking
> about my hardware - I'd like it to run Debian with as little messing
> about as possible.

How old is your machine?  Those features have been available on most
machines for 10+ years, although sometimes you have to change a BIOS
setting to enable them.

/proc/cpuinfo ought to show if it is available.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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