Re: [PLUG] Is there a functional search engine for the intentional user?

"Google and DuckDuckGo appear to value quantity over quality. >From DuckDuckGo I frequently get responses of form: Including results for ... Search only for ... ? The first mutates your search terms to those in its approved vocabulary. The second condescends to search for your desired terms. An

Re: [PLUG] Seeking something between Raspberry Pi and NUC

"Is there a class of computers out there low-power enough to run for hours on a USB battery pack but significantly more capable (and perhaps more "standard", e.g. able to run GRUB2 and generic Debian) than the Raspberry Pi 5?" Generally speaking, the class of computers you're referring to are "n

Re: [PLUG] (Modular Component Kluge) CPUs supported by current 64 bit Debian?

"Perhaps some patient reader (with a tall screen) has read down this far, and can suggest modular components for laptop replacement. Bonus points if the kludge can talk to the cell network IN ADDITION TO CAT6 ethernet." The 1st thing that comes to mind is Raspberry PI, A quick Google turned up th

[PLUG] Github Malware Network

I stumbled across this Wired article about "Cybersecurity researchers spotting a 3,000-account network on GitHub that is manipulating the platform and spreading ransomware and info stealers" and I know some PLUG folks use Github. https://www.wired.com/story/github-malware-spreading-network-starg

Re: [PLUG] An IT question

"I can understand a bank's web server accepting on Chrome and M$'s browser from all OS versions, but not before had I had one reject all three browserson the older OS version while accepting them on the newer version. Why might that be?" We could all guess until the cows come home, but your bes

Re: [PLUG] Web browser recommendations

"I find Google to be quite intrusive and I'm at an age where I value the privacies we used to have and try to retain as much of them as possible. That's my main concern." I take privacy & security pretty seriously and I'm also very anti-corporate. One of things I actually like about Google is t

Re: [PLUG] Web browser recommendations

"I try to avoid Google as much as I can so I've been using the Brave Browser for a while now." -- I'm curious to know what exactly you're trying to about Google? Is it their browser?, their search engine or both? I ask because you can change the default search engine in the browser to DuckDuck

Re: [PLUG] Network test distro, Real-Time Linux?

RTLinux, and Real-Time Linux with PREEMPT_RT patches added to the kernel. The only RTOS that I'm familiar with is VxWorks. This is the OS the Nortel Passport Multi-Service telecom switches ran on. Coincidentally, both VxWorks and RTLinux are both developed by Wind River Systems. VxWorks was

Re: [PLUG] scp between two local (LAN) hosts

"To transfer a file from the laptop to the desktop tried `scp ./ salmo'. That failed. So did adding the port option. What am I missing?" The correct scp command syntax is scp [file_name] remoteuser@remotehost:/remote/directory Because it's SECURE copy, you have to provide user login credenti

Re: [PLUG] Brave browser: asks for password when loading

A quick Google on "brave browser asks for password every time", returns a few recent results regarding Brave & whatever the resident password manager app is. This might be the most relevant result from the Brave Community Forum, https://community.brave.com/t/bug-never-fixed-save-password-defaul

Re: [PLUG] - attack on sshd via xz => More XZ Libs malware info

"The most troubling aspect is that there's too little supervision of changes in projects." Nope! It's far less about supervision and far more about process. Especially in the FOSS world, which relies heavily on peer review & the user community to ferret out bad code as happened in this cause by

Re: [PLUG] attack on sshd via xz

"Ya'll can keep yer fancy pants linux distros with yer systemd, dpkg/apt/yum and other silliness." Thanks! I will! It wasn't a problem for me! =)

Re: [PLUG] - attack on sshd via xz => More XZ Libs malware info

Firstly, thank you for making me aware of this! "It also helps that it really only made it to the public through Debian unstable and testing." According to this article, https://thenewstack.io/malicious-code-in-linux-xz-libraries-endangers-ssh/, xz is a "core Linux compression utility". I was

[PLUG] SSH Fails w. "No Matching Mac Found" error mssg

I changed the subject line from "Secure shell from/to laptop [RESOLVED--Partially" to a more specific one because in all my many years of using SSH, I've never had to specify. I've read through the thread, and is common after a while it gets difficult to keep track of everything that's been don

Re: [PLUG] ANNOUNCEMENT: Portland Linux/Unix Group Celebrates 30 years at this month's General Meeting!

Now we just have to find someone to pop out of the cake in a penguin costume and do the chicken dance to a live German Oompah band! I'll break out the Lederhosen for that! =)

Re: [PLUG] Why multiple ssh ports?

"I found a Slackware script that hides the accepted ssh port number while rejecting all others, including 22. The example script includes: > # First, set SSHD back to the default port 22. > # Next, figure out what port or ports you want to do SSH over. > # Were going to use 99, 88, and 8889 here.

Re: [PLUG] Linux man pages and documentation?

"I will leave aside the fact that no one submits an executable file to Linux; each distribution (Red Hat, Debian, etc) picks the executable files to include with the Linux kernel." Ah,so executable files are only developed and maintained by the Linux kernel team? If I were to write an app, ROF

Re: [PLUG] Assigning labels to USB pen drives

"Clarification: how to mount any inserted USB pen drive on /media/thumb." Sounds like you want to create a custom mount point for your USB thumb drives? If so, This should walk you through the steps. https://linuxconfig.org/howto-mount-usb-drive-in-linux

[PLUG] Linux man pages and documentation?

"I was surprised to find < 15% of the command executables were documented. Naturally I was hoping for something like 50% to 75%." I'm starting a new thread from Randall's thread about man pages, because I'm getting lost and confused with all the scripting and I'm kind of stuck on one very simpl

Re: [PLUG] something I am considering doing...

"I was surprised to find < 15% of the command executables were documented. Naturally I was hoping for something like 50% to 75%." I don't run Suze, but color me very suspicious. I did a quick Google search and found this thread about missing man pages. You might want to read through it. In summa

Re: [PLUG] SWAP size based on host's installed memory

"The advice to create a SWAP partition sized at RAM x 2 comes from the past when computers had very little memory." That recommendation is for RAM < 2 GB for ram > 2 GB, the recommendation is RAM + 2 GB.

Re: [PLUG] rsync: not all files copied

"I worry that the copy omitted content. Especially when the size reported as copied doesn't match the size of something like "du -s"" rsync = remote synchronization of local & remote files. If there's no delta, there's no need to sync the files.

Re: [PLUG] rsync: not all files copied

"you can tee stdout to a file > > $ rsync blah-blah |2>&1| | tee rsync.log "|2>&1" grabs both stdout and stderr. Now you can view rsyn.log at your leisure." Additionally, you can use -vv to increase verbosity and use -q so that only errors get written out to a log file. Also, using the -n optio

Re: [PLUG] Partitioning new HDD; installing file system

"It's always good to have a repeatable, known good method and/or procedure for doing things. You'll start to remember how to do these tasks and in the event something goes wrong, you'll have a standard documented set of steps to refer back to for troubleshooting." Alternatively, you can always

Re: [PLUG] Partitioning new HDD; installing file system

"I do this so infrequently I need to remember, or relearn, the sequence. And, a bit more web research reminded me to use cfdisk on the new disk because it has an DOS disklable type by default." At this point, you might consider compiling some good crib notes or what we used to call "Method of Pr

Re: [PLUG] Celebration time, COME ON Apple SHUT THE F UP!!!

"I notice Google and Android are not out there whining like pansies." Quoted from the article. "A cell phone industry trade group and various other electronics organizations and companies opposed the legislation." The aforementioned trade groups and organizations are unnamed and the companies t

Re: [PLUG] Linux Software for Data Center Monitoring

"I will absolutely dissuade folks from rolling your own, we've done something like this before just for integration into our other infrastructure." There is a valid counter argument here to be considered that depends on the type of environment, the skillset and the proclivities of the person(s)

Re: [PLUG] Linux Software for Data Center Monitoring

"Set up a local development environment that mirrors the servers using virtual box, vagrant, docker, etc, there are a lot of options in the space. The main goal is to be capable of developing manifests locally that you can confidently push out to the fleet." I gotta say this is really the golden

Re: [PLUG] Linux Software for Data Center Monitoring

" Are there any good FOSS software tools to help organize and monitor a mess like this? Yes, I've used Nagios, Cacti and Zabbix in the past. Nagios can do everything you want to do and probably tons more. It has plugins, APIs, scripts, and a huge ecosystem. There is both a FOSS and commercial

Re: [PLUG] US Mobile Home Hphone Line (ZiplyFiber VoIP Router)

"To jump in here about other services, I think a service like US MOBILE's home phone line [0] makes the most sense in this sort of situation. It's $10/month (if payed lump sump annually, $12.99/month otherwise). You do have to pay for their hardware though at about $90 one time fee [1]. IMHO hav

Re: [PLUG] Replace ZiplyFiber VoIP router

"Another example of the power of monopoly to affect consumers." Sadly, we traded one monopoly, phone companies, for another, internet service providers and generally got a less regulated, less reliable and more expensive service. Not too mention that phone company jobs were solid union jobs tha

Re: [PLUG] Replace ZiplyFiber VoIP router

"Apparently the eqipment I have is a WiFi-6 multigig fiber optic gateway made by CommScope and is used by Ziply. So, might the TP-Link Deco XE-75 work asa replacemen? " If I'm understanding all of this thread thus far correctly, you seem to be

Re: [PLUG] Replace ZiplyFiber VoIP router

"His explanation seemed weak to me, but I was unaware that I'd be paying for it each month. I'd appreciate learning of a replacement router (no need for WiFi or internet access) just for the VoIP on my regular Panasonic phone with portable handset." I don't have Ziply service and I don't know m

Re: [PLUG] Router Vulnerability

It's also worth mentioning that most home WiFi routers are sit behind your ISP's internet router/gateway and has a private ip addr that is NAT'd so your home WiFi router cannot be connected to directly from the Internet by a nefarious actor. What you really should be keeping an eye out for is f

Re: [PLUG] Router Vulnerability

"I did a search for my Buffalo WZR-600DHP but didn't find it listed among the vulnerable ones." I also searched on that model and the news you saw might've been an update on a previous CVE. 6 previous CVEs applicable to Buffalo were updated in January. Ref - https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerabi

Re: [PLUG] SMS/Texting interface for Linux desktop/laptop

"Is that the free Google Voice account or one of the paid ones?" Free

Re: [PLUG] SMS/Texting interface for Linux desktop/laptop

"Google Messages uses the phone as the gateway. The web app sends the messages to and receives the messages from the phone. If the phone is off this does not work. However the phone does not need to be nearby just on and connected to the internet and in a cell coverage area." If you're already

Re: [PLUG] Weather underground no longer reached by browser

"One caveat to that is that modern browsers may be (i think it's on by default with firefox) doing their own DNS via DNS-over-HTTPS or DNS-over-TLS, so stand alone tools like dig or nslookup might give different results than your browser." Possibly, my networking-fu ain't what it used to be and m

Re: [PLUG] Weather underground no longer reached by browser

can't DNS name resolution to an IP address, then that's what's going on Sent from Proton Mail mobile Original Message On Feb 1, 2024, 2:41 PM, Rich Shepard wrote: > On Thu, 1 Feb 2024, MC_Sequoia wrote: > Rich -What happens if you search on > weather und

Re: [PLUG] Weather underground no longer reached by browser

Rich -What happens if you search on weather underground and then click on the search result? Sent from Proton Mail mobile Original Message On Feb 1, 2024, 1:23 PM, Rich Shepard wrote: > I tried refreshing https://www.wunderground.com and both brave and chromium > tell me that

Re: [PLUG] Testing mailx script

Rich - If you do a web search on temporary email addresses, you can quickly and easily get an email address or addresses to use for testing purposes. Sent from Proton Mail mobile Original Message On Feb 1, 2024, 1:19 PM, Rich Shepard wrote: > I have a list of four test address

Re: [PLUG] Touch support in Linux

"I am looking to get one of those Dell 2-1 laptop with touch. Does Linux supports touchscreen well?" Generally speaking, Linux will only support any manufacturer's touchscreen as well as the Linux driver support the manufacturer provides. I'd start with Dell FAQs, forums, support, etc.

Re: [PLUG] mailx: use of -S option

"The '-s' option means subject; the '-S' option is a keyword:value pair." Rich - See example 6: 6. Specify "Reply-To" address The reply to address is set with the internal option variable "replyto" using the "-S" option. # replyto email $ echo "This is message" | mail -s "Testing replyto" -S

Re: [PLUG] mailx: use of -S option

"The mailx man page describes the -S option: -S variable[=value] Sets the internal option variable and, in case of a string option, assigns value to it. I've not found an example of its use." Here are some examples on use of the mailx -s option: https://www.binarytides.com/linux-mailx-command/

Re: [PLUG] Edit PDF

> "Nothing beats Master PDF" > > Yes, for the commercial ($) version, but no for the FOSS version. > > https://code-industry.net/free-pdf-editor/ I also couldn't get it run after installing the .deb file w. gdebi on my Debian 11 Bullseye system. =(

Re: [PLUG] Edit PDF

"Nothing beats Master PDF" Yes, for the commercial ($) version, but no for the FOSS version. https://code-industry.net/free-pdf-editor/

Re: [PLUG] Edit PDF

"I am looking for some tools on Linux I can use to edit PDF documents. Any recommendation much appreciated!" Over the past few years, I've tried a variety of Linux PDF editing apps and I've had a very mixed experience depending on what I was trying to do. For example, simply filling out a PDF

Re: [PLUG] what is the best way to check an UPS unit for real battery capacity?

"Is the best way to check done by killing the AC power? Randall >From a System Admin / Operations Manager perspective, there's nothing better >than a real life load test. Also, ideally you test it when the systems it's >providing backup power to when their under their heaviest workload and whe

Re: [PLUG] virus check methods

"1 of my vendors had their email compromised recently. the attacker the sent out emails with docs to sign for renewals via ms office/outlook links." Also, whatever your mail server situation is, whether it's a hosted provider or in-house, I'd suggest looking into some kind of email malware/spam

Re: [PLUG] virus check methods

"what do you recommend I should do to make sure none of us are compromised, have trojans, etc? As a long time Debian user and former Sys-Admin, I'd suggest starting with ClamAV and a root kit scanner. Here's a link to some good info on how to install and use both, https://upcloud.com/resources

Re: [PLUG] How to script USB device detection

"I am trying to write a bash script to detect if USB device is plugged into a device and post a message with a device name that is plugged to stdout. Complications are USB webcams, USB controllers, and this is going to be used on large number of systems, so I can't customize to each system." I

Re: [PLUG] Wireless ghosts in the machine

Physically removed the wifi card? I can't remember the last machine that had a pci card slot! Or is it some internal stuff? I am using a usb dongle on my Thinkpad X220 though... It's an internal pci wifi card. It's a smaller form factor than an external pci card. Here's a link to a photo if y

[PLUG] Wireless ghosts in the machine

Just sharing this as this was a fairly rare problem that required a manual hardware intervention. After powering down my laptop, the wifi interface wouldn't come up. I found it to be hardware blocked in rfkill, presumably by the wifi button. However, when I pressed & released the wifi button, r

Re: [PLUG] 'Linux devices are under attack by a never-before-seen worm' - ArsTechnica

"TL;DR, this is using password guessing. Solution: use better passwords or urn off passwords altogether and use ssh authorized_keys." Indeed and this is probably obvious and easy for high level users, but not everyone is and also there might be folks who've setup rsync and/or use scp with simpl

[PLUG] 'Linux devices are under attack by a never-before-seen worm' - ArsTechnica

"For the past year, previously unknown self-replicating malware has been compromising Linux devices around the world and installing cryptomining malware that takes unusual steps to conceal its inner workings, researchers said. The worm is a customized version of Mirai, the botnet malware that in

Re: [PLUG] fdisk not recognizing external SATA HDD

"PRO TIP: Connect JUST the USB adapter - no drive - and check dmesg. It should not disconnect (just show 'media removed') and the USB adapter MUST be listed in 'lsusb'. For example, for my 3.0 USB adapter." I didn't see this mentioned or perhaps you already now, but the best way to see log mssgs

Re: [PLUG] Ziply fiber - fixed IP address?

"Does Ziply offer fixed IP addresses at the lower bandwidth tiers? Perhaps for an extra fee, or a business account?" A quick Google search seems to suggest that yes, you can get a biz acct. w. a static ip addr and even request to have your personal info unlisted. "As of December 2021, Ziply do

Re: [PLUG] Looking for some WiFi AP Security Advice

> > "I want to set up some sort of secure connection between the cell phone > > and the web site running on the Pi." > > > > This should be doable via a vpn client/server. A quick google search on > > "raspberry pi cell phone vpn" returned this: > > > Are you saying a VPN is needed along with

Re: [PLUG] Looking for some WiFi AP Security Advice

"I want to set up some sort of secure connection between the cell phone and the web site running on the Pi." This should be doable via a vpn client/server. A quick google search on "raspberry pi cell phone vpn" returned this: "If you're going to be connecting to Pi VPN on a mobile device, I rec

Re: [PLUG] Network Security issue => ARP table cache

For future reference for anyone playing along at home, if you discover an dup ip addr listing in the arp table cache, you can just manually delete it from the command line. A quick & easy Google search will get you the command. Also, dup ip addrs are very bad because a broadcast loop storm can a

Re: [PLUG] Network Security issue

> "Suspected threat blocked because of duplicate IP addresses on network." > > That would seem to imply that it saw multiple MAC addresses with the same > IP address. That might happen if your laptop was plugged into a wire for > part of the time, and connected by wifi for part of the time. Each o

Re: [PLUG] question about freecarrierlookup.com and txt messages

Firstly, I didn't know about this website and service. It worked for me. I got the carrier, sms & mms gateways. It even gave me a carrier for my Google Voice number, which I thought it would return invalid number.

Re: [PLUG] Can someone enlighten me on H.265/HEVC

"Like I said the only option for Firefox, apparently, is downloading the H.265 video, transcoding it to H.264 via Ffmpeg, then viewing it in Firefox." I'm running Linux debian 4.19.0-22-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.19.260-1 (2022-09-29) x86_64 GNU/Linux with Firefox 102.5.Oesr and I can play this HEVC

Re: [PLUG] Can someone enlighten me on H.265/HEVC

"Is it possible to get Firefox to display HEVC videos? Everything I have read indicates the Mozilla developers have some religious war thing going on with MPEG-LA and refuse to put support into Firefox for it -" HEVC isn't supported in Firefox because it's no a license-free codec. Some people