Re: [GTALUG] Linux on Chromebook

[Michael Galea via talk]

On 2022-09-01 21:00, Michael Galea via talk wrote:

On 2022-08-26 18:40, Michael Galea via talk wrote:

I am hoping to tap the wisdom of the list.  I'm going traveling and I
don't want to lug around my 5.2 pound T420. Not on this trip.

If I buy a cheap refurb Chromebook from Best Buy or Canada Computers:
- Will I have luck wiping ChromeOS and installing Debian? Can I still
encrypt the disk?
- If instead I just run Linux on Chromebook, can I run a wireguard VPN?
- Can anyone recommend a minimum spec level for the machine?


Thanks to Colin, Hugh and others for their advice.

I went with the Lenovo Ideapad 3 11", mainly because of the weight.
Setup was straightforward, and performance was surprisingly good.

I installed the latest Debian on it but found that ChromeOS would not 
use Debian's kernel.  This breaks wireguard VPN as debian builds a 
kernel module that matches the resident kernel.


There is a voodoo approach to flashing the chromebook with debian 
directly but this version is new enough to not be supported by the tool 
chains that are out there, and I am cowardly.


So for now I'll use Linux to ssh and mutt while away. In retrospect, I 
should have taken Colin's advice and blown away the Windows laptop with 
debian.




The final point I have arrived at with running Linux on Chromebook is:
1) I'm running Debian Bullseye in the Linux container on the chromebook.
2) I can ssh home through a hole in the firewall opened by knockd.
3) I can vnc home through a hole opened by knockd.
4) I can raise a VPN home using the StrongVPN wireguard android app.
5) I have ran gimp, calibre and thunderbird on chromebook from the Linux
container.

Its #4 that is giving me pause. I have to have real trust in the 
StrongVPN app which I can't audit.  The company, which offers commercial 
access for their own VPN, seems to get rave reviews.  Does anyone on the 
list have any experience with strongVPN?


--
Michael Galea

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Re: [GTALUG] Data archaeology: archive KDE distortion from 2004ish

[Jamon Camisso via talk]

On 2022-09-14 6:39 p.m., D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:

| From: Stewart Russell via talk 

| Any suggestions for which ancient distro and where it might still live 
gratefully received.

Knoppix?  Perhaps 3.5, which had a DVD version?  There must be copies
around.  See this for a list of versions:

Not sure where to find it now.  Perhaps


This would surely require BIOS/MBR for booting.  And new fangled devices
won't be understood.

There are many other possible distros.


Kubuntu 6.06 might ship with DigiKam pre-installed?

https://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/kubuntu/6.06/

Otherwise, it should be available in the packages archive.

I'd boot that ISO in a virtual machine, mount the database files into it 
as a shared folder, and then try starting the program.


Good luck!


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[GTALUG] Tonight's meeting announcement?

[Stewart Russell via talk]

Did it go out?

As far as I understand, Colin McGregor will be introducing Linux on Boats.
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Re: [GTALUG] Data archaeology: archive KDE distortion from 2004ish

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

| From: Stewart Russell via talk 

| Any suggestions for which ancient distro and where it might still live 
gratefully received. 

Knoppix?  Perhaps 3.5, which had a DVD version?  There must be copies 
around.  See this for a list of versions:

Not sure where to find it now.  Perhaps 


This would surely require BIOS/MBR for booting.  And new fangled devices 
won't be understood.

There are many other possible distros.
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Re: [GTALUG] Linux on Chromebook

[o1bigtenor via talk]

On Sun, Sep 4, 2022 at 11:00 AM D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk
 wrote:
>
> A dirt cheap Windows netbook.  Not very good (screen is TN 1366 x 768).
> Should easily run Linux.
>
> https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/p/laptops/lenovo/windows-edu-laptops/lenovo-100e-2nd-gen-(amd)/len101l0021
>

Managed to get one of these.

Want to use it for digital books from the public library and maybe a
little more.
I would like to install *nix on it but - - - -
am having a hard time finding any information for how to access the bios.
(So that I can get it to boot from a usb stick where I have a web
install version
of the OS I want.)

Can't find anything searching using Lenovo E100 Gen 2  - - - -

please - - - - ideas???

TIA
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[GTALUG] Data archaeology: archive KDE distortion from 2004ish

[Stewart Russell via talk]

A friend has a data problem. Her father used to use Linux, and left copious art 
notes in pictures stored in DigiKam, KDE’s photo management tool. This was in 
2004 or so. 

Now my friend is trying to recover the notes. Current DigiKam won’t read the 
database. Given her very-tech background, we can assume she’s tried everything 
reasonable with modern software. I’m wondering: is there a LiveCD from around 
2004 that used KDE that might have a ready-to-go matching version of DigiKam? 
I’ve never been a KDE user, but maybe trying an old OS in a VM might be a way 
to go. 

Any suggestions for which ancient distro and where it might still live 
gratefully received. 

thanks
 Stewart

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[GTALUG] A motivate tutorial on the Domain Name System

[D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk]

Context:

Evan and Colin could not see our website in the last few days.
They also may have had trouble with email from or to our lists.
I don't know if this has started working again.
I think that the problem is rooted in the Domain Name System.

How the Domain Name System works:

DNS is a distributed database that is used to "resolve" domain names (like 
gtalug.org, penguin.gtalug.org, www.gtalug.org).

The distribution is hierarchical:

- there are Name Servers designated to resolve "." (the root of the DNS 
  tree).  The IP addresses of these servers are wired into your resolver.

- These servers will tell you the name servers responsible for "org"

- those servers will tell you the name servers responsible for "gtalug" 
  within "org"

To improve caching, most folks use "recursive name servers", usually
the one proposed by the ISP as part of the negotiation that assigns an
IP address (DHCP) to your gateway.  Your computer just asks this
recursive name server "What's the IP address for gtalug.org?" and the
recursive name server walks the DNS tree behind the scenes are returns
the ultimate result.  The recursive nameserver remembers results of
previous queries in a cache, saving repetitive queries.

Fine points of DNS:

DNS serves "resource records" of different types.  Some types are:
A: an IPv4 address for the named domain
: IPV6 address
MX: the mail server
NS: the Name Server

DNSsec is a system where each answer from a server is authenticated by
a digital signature.  This is somewhat complex and many domains don't
support it.

How the DNS data modifications be reflected in caches:

Each DNS record contains a TTL (time-to-live) in seconds.
Any cache of the data must respect the TTL.
So one can modify a record in the "authoritative name server" for a
"zone" and be sure that only the new record will be found after the
TTL of the old record.

DNS can fail in may ways, some hard to diagnose.  Now you know the
architecture you can think about failures that you observe.

Some command-line  tools to figure out DNS:

host(1):

$ host gtalug.org
gtalug.org has address 69.164.222.247
gtalug.org has IPv6 address 2600:3c03::f03c:91ff:fe50:ea0a
gtalug.org mail is handled by 0 penguin.gtalug.org.

dig(1):

This will craft a DNS query and show you the almost-raw results.  The
raw results are almost overwhelming but they can be understood.

$ dig gtalug.org A
"A" means: ask for the A record (IPv4 address)

; <<>> DiG 9.16.31-RH <<>> gtalug.org A
Leading ";" means comment.

;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 30332
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 1
This answer has three sections: the query, the actual answer to the
query, the authorities: name servers that were the ultimate source of
the information

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;gtalug.org.IN  A
Query: what is the A record for gtalug.org

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gtalug.org. 1190IN  A   69.164.222.247
Answer: the IP address is 69.164.222.247

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gtalug.org. 1190IN  NS  ns-128-c.gandi.net.
gtalug.org. 1190IN  NS  ns-165-b.gandi.net.
gtalug.org. 1190IN  NS  ns-136-a.gandi.net.
Authorities: three distinct name servers that will serve the zone for
gtalug.  We (GTALUG) contract with gandi.net to supply name services.

;; Query time: 1 msec
The result was quick.

;; SERVER: 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53)
The (recursive) name server that handled this query is on this very
machine.  Usint "sudo netstat -p -l" I find out that systemd-resolve
is listening on this UDP port.

;; WHEN: Wed Sep 14 17:02:55 EDT 2022
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 133

Now, trickier:
$ dig gtalug.org A +trace
This will get dig to do the queries itself, asking ., then org., then
gtalug.org.

Ask Google's public name server:
$ dig @8.8.8.8 gtalug.org A

Ask CLoudflare's public name server:
$ dig @1.1.1.1 gtalug.org A

Note: one of Cloudflare's tricks is to give different answers to
queries from different locations.  This is likely true for Google too.

Yesterday Google worked for gtalug.org and Cloudflare did not.  Today
they both work.  Maybe not for everyone.

Maybe the problem is solved.
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