Re: [PLUG] Test

[Tom Elliott]

Please remove me from this list,

Thanks,

Tom

Tom Elliott
408 707 2550

From: p...@pdxlinux.org 
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023 12:45:27 AM
To: Portland Linux/Unix Group 
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Test

Got it

On Mon, Feb 6, 2023, 00:31 Michael Dexter 
mailto:dex...@pdxlinux.org>> wrote:
This is a test.

Lots of list issues going on.

Michael

Re: [PLUG] Printing from Virtual Box

[Tom]

Hi Denis,

I am having second thoughts about your problem. Some times, the easiest
thing is to leave the working stuff alone, working.

You say that it works for you on your desktop. I assume that it is the
same W2k VM, right?

If the above is true, it should be as simple as copying your VM setup
from the desktop to laptop and starting it.

Here is how I would approach it:
* backup your existing ;aptop VM setup if you have any other VM already
configured on the laptop differently than on the desktop. You will
merge the differences later.
* stop vBox
* you need to cary over following directories/files in your home from
the laptop home dir:
  rsync -a --progress desktop:VirtualBox\ VMs ./
  rsync -a --progress .config/VirtualBox .config/
* start vBox and the W2k VM and it should work identical to desktop.

If it does not still work you will need to check firewall on your
laptop, try NAT 

Hope it helps, Tomas

On Sun, 2017-11-05 at 18:17 -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> The saga continues---
> (The subject should be NOT printing from VB)
> 
> It was suggested that in installing the printer from the Win2k guest
> I
> should give the port name of 9100.  Did not help.  (Note that this is
> the
> name, not the number.  The number has on all recent attempts  been
> 9100.)
> 
> I have stumbled on a list of messages in a file accessed through
> control
> panel/administrative tools/computer management/system tools/event
> viewer/system  Here is one that might mean something to those skilled
> in
> the art.  I was asked what the error message was.  This is all the
> detail I
> have been able to come up with.
> 
> 11/3/2017 9:13:15
> Printer hp deskjet 990c series was created.
> 
> 11/3/2017 10:28:43
> The document Test Page owned by Administrator failed to print. Win32
> error
> code returned by the print processor: 3003 (0xbbb).
> 
> Whenever I attempt to print I see this identical error, whether a
> test page
> or document.
> 
> Note that I can ping the printer from the guest, so that hints to me
> that
> the issue is the installation of the printer in windows, not in the
> network.  I have lost track of how many times I have deleted the
> printer
> and reinstalled.  Note that this driver works from the windows2000
> guest on
> my desktop. I also note that the printer worked before changing the
> desktop
> and the router, although I have had issues in the distant past,
> details of
> which my foggy head cannot recall.
> 
> Is changing to NAT still a thing worth trying?
> 
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] Configuring Ubiquiti ER-X

[Tom]

May I suggest using the config wizard and pick one of the few scenarios
available?

If that does not cut it, you will need to learn how to configure the
router from the command line. There are few things at play with these
enterprise like routers: routing, switching, NAT and DHCP, DNS and
stateful firewall. For that reason, the setup needs patience, proper
planning and configuring all the pieces to work in concert.

The best way is to start with network diagram routing, forwarding, NAT
and firewall rules. You can configure DHCP at the end with DNS for each
LAN subnet.

There are plenty of pretty nice tutorials written for ERL and ERP.
Ubiquity also has some guides and examples. I would stray away from
forums as people tend to repeat things out of context without properly
understanding the subject.

If you need simple gui type setup, this might not be the best router to
use out of the box. In that case, I would suggest installing LEDE/oWRT
on it. Lede lists it as fully supported.

Best luck, Tomas


On Sun, 2017-11-05 at 15:04 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Sun, 5 Nov 2017, Daniel Bolduc wrote:
> 
> > 
> > So you're able to communicate with the router and configure it when
> > connected to its WAN port, but not the LAN port?
> > 
> > Try enabling DHCP on the router and see if your computer receives
> > an IP
> > address from it.
> 
> Dan,
> 
>    Supposedly it should work with either DHCP or a static IP address.
> I can
> reconfigure the laptop and get back to the router and change the LAN
> ports.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Moving/copying old home to new machine

[Tom]

Both cp -pr and rsync will copy your data. rsync also works over the
network, so you can copy without the need to mess with a drive medium.
Transfer speed depends on how much data you are planning to copy and
how fast the network versus the drive.
Here is how to copy your home from pc1 to pc2:
rsync -a --progress /home/denis pc2:/backupDir/
This will copy home dir denis from pc1 into dir /backupDir on pc2 over
your network using ssh. You could also change users between the pc's.
You cannot copy data between two remote machines directly though.
For more, read: man rsync
Tomas
On Sun, 2017-09-03 at 21:42 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> I am wanting to copy my home folder from my old machine to my new
> one.  I
> was planning on putting either the old or the new drive in a usb dock
> and
> copying everything over using cp -pr.  But web comments mention
> rsync.
> What are the risks/rewards of the various choices?
> 
> Thanks,
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] Suggestions for featherweight laptop

[Tom]

I have 1st class Linux experience with Lenovo Thinkpad X2x0 (currently
x=7), Dell XPS 13 and HP Elitebook 820 G3 (HP is the most expensive one
)
Both are almost identical in size, weight and have decent battery life
(~8 hours) in lightweight formats.
Pros:
Dell has better 13" LCD with 100% sRGB gamut. I have IPS 1920x1080 - it
has significantly better battery life than with QHD panel and and costs
less. XPS 13 probably thinner and lighter.
Lenovo has 2 batteries - one internal, one external - so that you can
swap the external without shutting the laptop down. It also has
ethernet port, mechanical 3x touch pad buttons, RAM DIM slot and real
dock port at the bottom.
Cons:
Dell has soldered-on RAM and does not have ethernet port
Lenovo - you can get 10+ hours of extended battery run time, but you
need extended battery which is thicker than the standard 3 cell type
which gives you about 4-5 hours. The 12.5" IPS LCD panel has lower
gamut ~ 65% sRGB
Both laptops have 2xUSB3.0 ports and 1xTB3/USB3.1v2-C-type ports and SD
card reader.
No recent laptop has serial port - you will need USB dongle for about
$10 or more. They generally just work on Linux.
The Thinkpad and Dell XPS13 are about the same cost for equivalent
configuration.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-09-03 at 19:02 -0700, Dave Lien - W7DAL wrote:
> Portege R100.
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Re: [PLUG] The joy of refactoring

[Tom]

Yes, Perl is fun:
* I do not recognize any Perl code I wrote more than about year ago -
despite all the evidence at hand
* Bugs you do not see do not exist AKA Schrodinger's cat AKA looking
for any stuff (code or not) makes it appear or disappear depending
whether you want to find it or not.
I have decades of experimental evidence to support it!
-T
On Tue, 2017-08-22 at 19:48 -0700, Alan wrote:
> Found an obscure bug in a Perl program that I started over 20 years
> ago. (I have made changes off and on since then.) Decided to rewrite
> it. Found even more bugs. (A few of the WTF variety.)
> 
> Sometimes a rewrite is a useful and needed thing.
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Cheap printer for Raspberry Pi idea

[Tom]

I solved this kind of portability, and more, by purchasing an inverter.
I find that way more universal than trying to get stuff working on
battery power with unstable voltage. True 110V socket in the car is
awesome for road and marine trips. The size of the inverter is about
15x20x5cm.
If you chose to go this route, I would advice to get true sine wave
inverter. It costs 2-3x more but it works way better than the square
and/or modified sine wave inverters. They (not the true sine wave one)
caused my power bricks + the inverter to overheat and it was bloody
noisy. You can draw max 15A out of lighter socket in the car so 120
-150W inverter is all you can feed without wiring it directly to the
battery. I got it in Frys' after returning the cheaper modified sine
wave one. 
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-08-20 at 23:08 -0700, Michael Barnes wrote:
> Good to know. What would be really great is to find a similar printer
> that
> would run from 12VDC. I'd like to set up a completely portable fly
> -away
> package that ran from 12VDC to utilize battery/vehicle/solar power.
> 
> Michael
> 
> 
> On Sun, Aug 20, 2017 at 7:35 PM, Dave  wrote:
> 
> > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/pipermail/plug/2017-August/087027.html
> > 
> > Here's a follow-up report:
> > 
> > /I ordered an HP Deskjet 1112 from Amazon for this application. It
> > claims
> > //
> > //to have full support for Linux Debian (RPi?) and Mint via USB.
> > For $29
> > it's //
> > //worth a try. If it works, it should be a perfect small addition
> > to a //
> > //stand-alone RPi student learning station.//
> > /
> > ---
> > -
> > 
> > Received the HP Deskjet 1112 and installed it first in Windows 7 to
> > make
> > sure it worked. Then installed it to a Raspberry Pi 3B.
> > 
> > The software installation went mostly smoothly, carefully following
> > the
> > detailed instructions and accepting the defaults found at:
> > 
> > http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/install/install/index.html
> > 
> > They are close enough. (You do NOT have to worry about editing some
> > ???
> > file mentioned. It's not on the RPi.)
> > 
> > The only glitch was the install requires a root/superuser password.
> > If I
> > had one it apparently didn't like it so I added *sudo passwd root*
> > and
> > made "*root*" the password. That worked. In the future I'll do up
> > front
> > before beginning the software install to get it out of the way.
> > 
> > I'm quite pleased with the results. For the price, it is a lot of
> > printer; quick, and excellent quality. But the HP software isn't
> > perfect. I can't get it to print the last page first despite a tab
> > to
> > that effect, and it doesn't print footers despite showing them on
> > the
> > screen. Since the printed text appears to be a little larger than
> > it
> > should that probably explains the missing footers. I may be doing
> > something wrong, but again, for $29, and having an easy RPi3
> > Install,
> > this ain't bad.
> > 
> > Will also be installing the 1112 to a Linux MINT machine just to
> > wring
> > it out some more and see what happens. Hope this helps someone.
> > 
> > 
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Re: [PLUG] Does my Lenovo desktop support msata?

[Tom]

Judging by the page 45 of this manual, it should be just a matter of
screwing the drive in.
http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/user_guides/m82_m92_sff_ug_
en.pdf
unless of course I am missing something.
On Sat, 2017-08-19 at 20:30 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> Great idea, Tomas.  But the issue is at least mechanical:  How do I
> fit the
> thing in?  There is a space under the optical drive, but it seems
> unwise to
> just stick a bare board into a space surrounded by metal protrusions
> and
> let it slide around at random.  After solving the mechanical issues,
> then I
> can explore the connections.  The mechanical issues are solved by the
> "storage converter", and that is what I have been unable to find or
> even
> identify in any specific way.
> 
> -Denis
> 
> On Sat, Aug 19, 2017 at 3:53 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > You should have asked locally for a loaner msata device to try in
> > your
> > device.
> > I have bunch of low capacity ones laying around from old laptops.
> > I am sure that thy are pretty common around drawers and bins - they
> > were once used ac hdd cache on 32GB capacities
> > Sometimes, just trying things is the best way to find out ...
> > :-) Tomas
> > On Fri, 2017-08-18 at 11:45 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > > Found answer.  Lenovo telephone tech support (866 910 7924)
> > > answered
> > > in
> > > less than 1 minute!  He looked it up and said yes.  He could not
> > > tell
> > > me
> > > about the SSD storage converter, however.  That is referenced in
> > > the
> > > manuals.  As an aside, the room that the tech was in was filled
> > > with
> > > loud
> > > chatter in either Hindi or strong Hindi accents, which matched
> > > his
> > > accent.
> > > But I got my answer in record time.
> > > 
> > > -Denis
> > > 
> > > On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com
> > > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > I have posed this question to Google & Lenovo websites, but the
> > > > closest I
> > > > can come is Lenovo's  phrase "Not available on all models" in
> > > > the
> > > > manuals
> > > > for my model.  The manuals are not model-specific enough.  I
> > > > suspect the
> > > > answer is "no", but it appears that the physical space exists. 
> > > >  The
> > > > mechanical mounting may be the issue.  I wonder if anyone here
> > > > has
> > > > knowledge that might help.
> > > > 
> > > > The machine:
> > > > Lenovo ThinkCenter M92P
> > > > Machine type: 3227
> > > > Model #: W3S
> > > > S/N: MJ28WA0 (final could O)
> > > > Prod. ID: 3227 W3S
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > -Denis
> > > > 
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Re: [PLUG] Does my Lenovo desktop support msata?

[Tom]

You should have asked locally for a loaner msata device to try in your
device.
I have bunch of low capacity ones laying around from old laptops.
I am sure that thy are pretty common around drawers and bins - they
were once used ac hdd cache on 32GB capacities
Sometimes, just trying things is the best way to find out ...
:-) Tomas
On Fri, 2017-08-18 at 11:45 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> Found answer.  Lenovo telephone tech support (866 910 7924) answered
> in
> less than 1 minute!  He looked it up and said yes.  He could not tell
> me
> about the SSD storage converter, however.  That is referenced in the
> manuals.  As an aside, the room that the tech was in was filled with
> loud
> chatter in either Hindi or strong Hindi accents, which matched his
> accent.
> But I got my answer in record time.
> 
> -Denis
> 
> On Fri, Aug 18, 2017 at 10:02 AM, Denis Heidtmann <
> denis.heidtm...@gmail.com
> > wrote:
> 
> > I have posed this question to Google & Lenovo websites, but the
> > closest I
> > can come is Lenovo's  phrase "Not available on all models" in the
> > manuals
> > for my model.  The manuals are not model-specific enough.  I
> > suspect the
> > answer is "no", but it appears that the physical space exists.  The
> > mechanical mounting may be the issue.  I wonder if anyone here has
> > knowledge that might help.
> > 
> > The machine:
> > Lenovo ThinkCenter M92P
> > Machine type: 3227
> > Model #: W3S
> > S/N: MJ28WA0 (final could O)
> > Prod. ID: 3227 W3S
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > -Denis
> > 
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Re: [PLUG] Century Link sales at the door

[Tom]

Hi Denis,
As about "CL, Comcast and just about anybody else ranking down in the
mud" - Isn't this the general trend including politics, health, car
dealers, etc., etc., etc.?  With very few exceptions such as Amazon's
customer service, .
That being said, we still have to get on living and it does no harm to
visit CL office and be nice to them. After all you can cancel the
service for free during the first 30 days. It has worked for me and I
got the service and decent treatment.
When I was listening to the other customers, I decided to trust them
what they say despite their info on the web. That was a change for me.
Of course, the Corporation screwed up my signing up confirmation email
and doubled the price.
One more visit to the local branch/shop, being nice about it, they
refunded the difference. I returned the router too, so it was not
wasted visit. I promptly signed up for the paperless billing and auto
payment, so that I can go for more refunds if needed again.
Is that ideal state of affairs? It certainly is not, but this is not
the great first class country "it maybe once was" anymore. Like in any
other 3rd world place personal relationships matter more. Thankfully,
one does not have to bribe them to get connected yet.
The email turned up much longer than I expected, hope it entertains,
Tomas
On Mon, 2017-08-14 at 11:37 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 13, 2017 at 9:00 PM, wes  wrote:
> 
> > ...
> > not sure what you mean by the "not on super service" point -
> > literally
> > anything is better than comcast.
> > 
> > -wes.
> > 
> 
> I think there are some who say it is draw, others put CL below
> Comcast.  In
> any case, compared to reasonable customer service, they both rank
> down in
> the mud.
> 
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] Century Link sales at the door

[Tom]

To compare ..
I switched to CenturyLink fiber about month ago for $45 for 100Mb/s
down 50Mb/s up (-router+paper-less bills+autobilling) in SE Portland. I
had to get the router and return it.
Local alternatives - Comcast increased my price from $50 to $90 for
100Mb/s down 10Mb/s up last month.
I have both Comcast cable and CenturyLink fiber available on the poles.
I would not bundle the phone in US - it is very expensive. Get bare
Internet + VoIP phone for free with Google and buy a VoIP phone or
subscribe to some of those $5-$10/month VoIP deals - sold at Fry's. Or
just use your cell, it costs you anyway and you might get less
spam.
-T
On Sun, 2017-08-13 at 20:39 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> The young lady said that fiber to the home is SO much better-
> -reliable,
> etc.  I asked about the download speed. 40.  Up? 20. Cost? I think it
> was
> just under $100. (Phone and internet; no TV). How do they expect to
> compete
> with Comcast if their intro stuff is more expensive?  Certainly not
> on
> superior service.
> 
> My son plays one off the other to keep lower prices.  Maybe Century
> Link is
> dropping out of that game on the west side.
> 
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] ENU,Inc R.I.P.

[Tom]

You could still do this "rummage in the bins for " in surplus
gizmos in Hillsboro
Just a RIP thought:
I had an interesting experience while visiting local CenturyLink store
a few weeks ago - there are so many people without basic networking and
computer knowledge - not even a clue.
In the past they would probably go to their local PC shop for advice.
Now they get hopelessly upset at ISP shop and just buy smartphone with
$60+ per month to fix their internet needs.
One would think that there would be tons of small time IT guys/shops
around to solve people's networking/computing issues ... I really
wonder where are we heading and why.
On Sun, 2017-08-13 at 11:54 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Aug 2017, Edward Koenig wrote:
> 
> > I really do miss the days browsing the local shops for part to
> > build my
> > own boxes.
> 
>When I had my ham radio license and built my own transmitters and
> receivers I used to go down to Canal St (NYC) and rummage in the bins
> for
> the resistors, capacitors, switches, vacuum tubes, etc. I needed. No
> blister
> packs; buy only what you need. Those days are gone. To a large
> extent, I
> miss them.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Migrating Win 10 on new machine to VirtualBox

[Tom]

My apology for being sloppy 
I meant VM and general term for Virtual Machine - regardless if vBox,
KVM, Xen or VMware
-T
On Sat, 2017-08-12 at 21:01 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> Tomas,
> 
> Thanks for the suggestion.  I did not know that the recovery  could
> be used
> for installing in Virtual Box.  (You said VM--I know that VM has a
> special
> routine for extracting an installed OS for a virtual machine, but was
> uncertain about Virtual Box.)
> 
> I am not certain if I will use Win 10--I use Win 2K at present for
> two
> legacy programs.  And a third might be better with 10.
> 
> -Denis
> 
> On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 5:23 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Alternatively, you could create Windows recovery USB media before
> > installing linux on the box.
> > It can be used to fully reinstall already activated Windows in VM
> > or on
> > the laptop when you want to give it away.
> > I store the USB media on a filer as VDI disk image, forever. I have
> > never used any of those backups - even when selling old computers,
> > they
> > were always bought by a Linux geek.
> > What are the chances that you would want to use windows Denis?
> > I have bunch of MS Win VM's which I use for single task - boot them
> > up
> > and waste couple of hours updating them every quarter.
> > What a waste - I behave like the monkeys with the banana in a cage!
> > Tomas
> > On Sat, 2017-08-12 at 16:25 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > > The latest question, "Is it activated?" , the answer seems to be
> > > "yes".
> > > Posts I have seen say that if not activated personalization
> > > should
> > > not be
> > > possible.  It is possible for this installation.  But...
> > > 
> > > I read that Win 10 can be moved to a virtual machine:
> > > https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-wind
> > > ows_
> > > install/convert-windows-10-activation-to-virtual-machine/284089e3
> > > -af42-4b42-acb6-1e63d50a4212?auth=1
> > > 
> > > So I think I will take this route.  I can get an ISO from MS,
> > > then go
> > > through the activation as described.
> > > 
> > > Thanks for all the ideas.
> > > 
> > > -Denis
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:52 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > I entered settings, searched for "Is windows activated".  The
> > > > response was
> > > > unable to reach activation servers (not connected).  It also
> > > > had an
> > > > entry
> > > > to change the product key, but no existing product key was
> > > > shown.
> > > >  So I
> > > > think I am still uncertain.  I can connect and try again
> > > > (tomorrow).
> > > > 
> > > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:12 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > I will search windows, but not being familiar with it I may
> > > > > have
> > > > > difficulty.  BTW I managed to boot from a 16.04 flash drive-
> > > > > -progress.
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 7:54 PM, Garrett Bigart <
> > > > > gbig...@gmail.com>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Before you install Ubuntu could you check in the settings
> > > > > > to
> > > > > > see whether
> > > > > > it
> > > > > > says activated or not? I might need to do something
> > > > > > depending
> > > > > > on what
> > > > > > that
> > > > > > says.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 7:48 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > > > > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com>
> > > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > > That helps.  It is F12 on this system.  But USB is not on
> > > > > > > the
> > > > > > > list, so
> > > > > > I
> > > > > > > have to use a 14.04 CD that I have, rather than the 16.04
> > > > > > > flash
> > > > > > drive.  But
> > > > > > > for starters, this will help me check the system.
> > > > > > >

Re: [PLUG] Migrating Win 10 on new machine to VirtualBox

[Tom]

Alternatively, you could create Windows recovery USB media before
installing linux on the box.
It can be used to fully reinstall already activated Windows in VM or on
the laptop when you want to give it away.
I store the USB media on a filer as VDI disk image, forever. I have
never used any of those backups - even when selling old computers, they
were always bought by a Linux geek.
What are the chances that you would want to use windows Denis?
I have bunch of MS Win VM's which I use for single task - boot them up
and waste couple of hours updating them every quarter.
What a waste - I behave like the monkeys with the banana in a cage!
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-08-12 at 16:25 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> The latest question, "Is it activated?" , the answer seems to be
> "yes".
> Posts I have seen say that if not activated personalization should
> not be
> possible.  It is possible for this installation.  But...
> 
> I read that Win 10 can be moved to a virtual machine:
> https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_
> install/convert-windows-10-activation-to-virtual-machine/284089e3
> -af42-4b42-acb6-1e63d50a4212?auth=1
> 
> So I think I will take this route.  I can get an ISO from MS, then go
> through the activation as described.
> 
> Thanks for all the ideas.
> 
> -Denis
> 
> On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:52 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> denis.heidtm...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > I entered settings, searched for "Is windows activated".  The
> > response was
> > unable to reach activation servers (not connected).  It also had an
> > entry
> > to change the product key, but no existing product key was shown. 
> >  So I
> > think I am still uncertain.  I can connect and try again
> > (tomorrow).
> > 
> > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 9:12 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > I will search windows, but not being familiar with it I may have
> > > difficulty.  BTW I managed to boot from a 16.04 flash drive-
> > > -progress.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 7:54 PM, Garrett Bigart <
> > > gbig...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Before you install Ubuntu could you check in the settings to
> > > > see whether
> > > > it
> > > > says activated or not? I might need to do something depending
> > > > on what
> > > > that
> > > > says.
> > > > 
> > > > On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 7:48 PM, Denis Heidtmann <
> > > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > That helps.  It is F12 on this system.  But USB is not on the
> > > > > list, so
> > > > I
> > > > > have to use a 14.04 CD that I have, rather than the 16.04
> > > > > flash
> > > > drive.  But
> > > > > for starters, this will help me check the system.
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Wed, Aug 9, 2017 at 10:00 PM, John Jason Jordan <
> > > > > joh...@gmx.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > On Wed, 9 Aug 2017 18:26:56 -0700
> > > > > > Denis Heidtmann  dijo:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > > I figured out how to get to the bios.  There is not boot
> > > > > > > -order
> > > > option
> > > > > > > I am accustomed to--the order is set by properties
> > > > > > > UEFI/legacy
> > > > rather
> > > > > > > than CD/HD, etc.  I set it to legacy, but it still did
> > > > > > > not boot the
> > > > > > > CD.  UEFI is disabled as well.  I guess I need to explore
> > > > > > > other
> > > > > > > options.  Ideas?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > This will probably not help, but here goes anyway. On my
> > > > > > current
> > > > laptop
> > > > > > there are two boot options: one takes you to the BIOS and
> > > > > > the other
> > > > (F7)
> > > > > > gives you a list of devices from which you can select the
> > > > > > one to boot
> > > > > > to. But this is not a Thinkpad. :(
> > > > > > ___
> > > > > > PLUG mailing list
> > > > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > > > 
> > > > > ___
> > > > > PLUG mailing list
> > > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > > 
> > > > ___
> > > > PLUG mailing list
> > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
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Re: [PLUG] Cheap printer for Raspberry Pi idea

[Tom]

I am great fan of HP printers and multifunction devices - because they
just work on Linux (with some rare exceptions).
My current one HP 8600, in the past: HP 3510, HP 1505N, .
Generally, it just prints and also scans with some minor love.
I have also owned Epson C88 (I think) - the printer worked just fine in
Linux - it wasted as much ink as the HP printers, but it would not work
with EU bought ink - which was major pain.
Just look up the printer in CUPS list before buying it - it is trivial
to carry the list in the smart-phone avoiding two trips to store.
If fact, I would not hesitate returning the printer if it would not
work with Linux - it is their problem to solve if they do not bother to
write a statement for Linux users on the box.
I do not expect much from a printer these days 50-100 pages a year -
hence my bias - some years are 3x depending on moves/relocation
WARNING: Customary rant about printers
I hope that I am not starting something bigger by expressing my
opinion:
 - there is not such thing as cheap inkjet printer these days due to
ink cost coupled with regular head cleaning cycles.
 - I do not print a lot - there have been couple instances that I have
printed about 20-30 pages per 4x cartridge set due to time passage and
regular cleaning cycles.
 - My wife prints a lot (work related) and went trough $150 ink per
month in her cheap ~$60 HP printer. We got expensive, enterprise
printer with low per page cost to fix that.
 - Without calculating it - owning reliably functioning inkjet printer
can costs as much as $80 per year in ink printed or wasted.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-08-12 at 14:19 -0700, Dave wrote:
> I'm looking to buy a a small cheap inkjet printer to dedicate to a 
> Raspberry Pi. USB connect, no multipurpose, and actually has a driver
> in 
> the CUPS list. Ideas appreciated.
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Thoughts on Linux Distros & Desktop Enviro

[Tom]

I would be very careful to check sha256sum and compare it against
known, published source before installing anything off a public torrent
 these days.
Better be safe than sorry.
Just my 2c,
Tomas
On Mon, 2017-07-10 at 19:10 -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 16:40:13 -0700
> John Jason Jordan  dijo:
> 
> > On Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:29:44 -0700
> > "Mike C."  dijo:
> > 
> > > Last year I cam across Deepin. It's a Debian based distro w.
> > > their
> > > own Desktop Enviro. And not only do all the lil' things work as
> > > you
> > > would expect like w. a MS Win or MAC OS, it works well, is
> > > beautiful
> > > and fast/fluid. Rolling updates are quick & painless. 
> > 
> > This sounded interesting so I asked Mr. Google to come up with a
> > live
> > ISO for me. Indeed, he did, but it is 2.6 GB and I couldn't get the
> > server to send it to me faster than 20K/sec. I looked all over for
> > torrents, but none to be found. For now I have given up. 
> 
> The Pirate Bay came up with a torrent and I now have the ISO. Maybe
> I'll play with it at the next Clinic.
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Re: [PLUG] Printing PDF files

[Tom]

You shy away from naming the bank ... 
My bank - First Tech FCU encrypts the statements and restricts their
printing in PDF.
I have no idea why would one wanted to do this, they apparently do no
have any idea themselves too.
However, they also do not seem to be able to do anything about it.
I do wonder why I trust them with my money, when they do not
what/why/how they operate the business.
Technically:
The encryption, which is needed to enforce their stupid anti-print DRM
rule uses empty password - thankfully.
So every now and then, I use following qpdf in a bash script to strip
off that nonsensical DRM:
https://github.com/tomas-kuchta/decryptPdfs/blob/master/decryptPdfs.bas
h
If your problem is identical fell free to reuse/learn from the code.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-07-08 at 12:58 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>I download monthly business account statements from my bank's
> website as
> PDF files and save them with names I give them. (My names are
> different from
> the string of numbers the bank gives them.) For a reason I've not yet
> found,
> they will not print from the command line (lpr) nor from within xpdf.
> They
> display in the CUPS jobs page as 'rendering completed' but never make
> it to
> the printer. Using MasterPDFEditor I can print them. However, despite
> MPE
> being configured to print double-sided they come out single sided.
> 
>If you have any thoughts on why a) they won't print using lpr or
> that
> command within xpdf or b) why they print single-sided while the
> printer is
> configured for double-sided printing please share them with me.
> 
> Rich
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Choosing a USB headset mounted microphone - was [Current state of Linux voice recognition]

[Tom]

I have found that USB headsets generally just work with Linux. I am
using recent 2015+ openSuse and Ubuntu.
I used many models from Logitech, Plantronics and Jabra with zero
issues. I cannot remember the exact models,
I usually use them at work, but it must have used about 10 different
wired and wireless models over the last 5-7 years.
Just to give you an idea - pricing is high for the DECT devices - Right
here at home & office I have or had -  and they just work at plug in:
  - Plantronix Audio 995H - wireless USB stereo headset
  - Plantronix C50 USB - wireless USB mono business headset - this is
long range DECT device (like cordless phones)
  - Plantronix Savi 440 - wireles USB mono business headset - this is
long range DECT device (like cordless phones)
  - Jabra 920 Pro - Wireless USB mono business headset - this is long
range DECT device (like cordless phones)
  - Jabra Evolve 30 - wired USB headset - stereo
Alternatively, you could get one of those under $10 USB audio dongles
and connect your normal analog 3.5mm jack headset to it.
Generally, I stay away from the foam ear cushions as they tend to
disintegrate into nasty mess over time.
I configure it by setting preferences application in KDE using and
addhoc setup using pavucontrol (pulseAudio).
My device collection is very much skewed by the fact that I hang on
Skype/WebEx/BlueJeans/WebRTC for work and with family a lot.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Sat, 2017-07-08 at 11:48 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 06/28/2017 08:52 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > [snip]
> > I'm already investigating good microphones with good A/D resolution
> > and preferably a high sample rate [I've ideas on pre-processing I
> > would like to experiment with].
> 
> There are conflicts between what I want, what is available, and what 
> current speech recognition software expects as input.
> 
> My current specifications:
> 1. headset mounted for consistent microphone placement
>[non-negotiable].
> 2. earphone(s) not required.
> 3. USB output - 16 bit resolution
>  20 kHz high frequency response
>  48 kHz sample rate
>[That exceeds input specification of most voice recognition
> software.
> I expect to filter and re-sample appropriately. Those
> specifications
> also meet requirements of another project.]
> 4. available Linux software to save as a WAV format file.
> I've found many products specifying Windows and Apple
> compatibility.
> They have bundled software which I have no use for and there is
> no
> indication if the microphone can be used with other software.
> 5. expected price ~$30 - $50
> 
> I know such product are available. Finding a potential supplier who
> has 
> a website that gives the information in a usable format.
> 
> Suggestions?
> TIA
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Convert MPEG2 to MPEG4...

[Tom]

+1 for HandBrake - it is great for casual simple converting use - it
comes in two parts: CLI and GUI
If you ever need it, use ffmpeg for more complex tasks such as muxing
in/out different streams, and converting formats HandBrake does not
understand.
I would also recommend combination of x264 for video and AAC for audio
streams inside mkv (Matroska) container format.
If your Plex take it, Matroska (mkv) is by far most flexible container.
I usually keep original resolution/geometry (by selecting Dimensions -
-> Optimal for Source) and let the player do the scaling.
Tomas
On Wed, 2017-07-05 at 18:21 -0700, michael wrote:
> Is there a free tool that works under Linux that will do the
> conversion? 
>   Plex media server can't play MPEG2 files, but MPEG2 is
> what my Hauppauge USB2 device produces.
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Re: [PLUG] Bluetooth A2DP and audio streaming fidelity

[Tom]

Well, that is different kettle of fish - you mentioned that you want to
drive amplifier/stereo through RCA connectors.
This thing would drive speakers directly, making your amplifier
redundant.
If you want to just drive your amp, then you need DAC - either one of 
 the cheap USB ones or if you like HiFiBerry - then this would do what
you need:
https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-dacplus-rca-version/
I would advise you to do some google search and see some project pages
and videos. It will give you an idea what kind of software and GUI you
can get and if it meets your needs.
You can control these players/streaming devices using web interface
from a PC or phone or add touch screen like many others.
The moment you add a touch screen + case the total cost will go up
significantly, depending on what you get.
As an example , the RPi official 7" touchscreen goes for about $60-ish,
then a case $15-ish 
Best luck, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-07-02 at 08:44 -0700, VY wrote:
> Thanks.
> 
> I found this yesterday:
> 
>  https://www.hifiberry.com/shop/boards/hifiberry-amp-plus/
> 
> Which is an RPi add-on.  Is it worth trying?
> 
> -v
> 
> 
> On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:34 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Yes, even something like this will sound sound better than
> > Bluetooth as
> > well as better than RPi for that matter when connected to amplifier
> > or
> > car stereo.
> > It works under linux without hassle.
> > RPi uses RC circuit instead of real/active DAC that is why it does
> > not
> > sound too good.
> > I have equally "bad" Plugable USB audio adapter for about the same
> > cost
> > to feed my car stereo and it sounds OK.
> > I am talking about casual listening and low cost gear, but not bad
> > gear, so please bear that in mind.
> > For better and/or known/guaranteed quality I could not recommend
> > anything like this.
> > Tomas
> > On Sat, 2017-07-01 at 09:04 -0700, VY wrote:
> > > Thanks
> > > 
> > > And for the suggestion of using USB dongle, is it something like
> > > this
> > > one:
> > > 
> > > 
> > > https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/d
> > > p/B0
> > > 0IRVQ0F8
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 6:33 AM, Michael Barnes <
> > > barnmich...@gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > RPI = Raspberry Pi  Small $30 credit card sized Linux computer.
> > > > Very
> > > > popular.
> > > > 
> > > > On Jun 30, 2017 06:12, "VY" <vyau5...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > Thanks for your input.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What is RPI?
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > On Jun 30, 2017 02:12, "Tomas" <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > Expressing audio quality opinion is pretty dangerous thing.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > In my experience - bluetooth music audio quality is pretty
> > > > > > bad
> > > > > > no
> > > > > > matter what you use it with - be it Linux, OSX, iOS, MSWin
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I find
> > > > > > bluetooth OK for spoken word
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I use cable instead you will hear clear difference with
> > > > > > decent
> > > > > > audio
> > > > > > source. I find BT quite tonaly compressed (muffled)
> > > > > > compares to
> > > > > > cable
> > > > > > connection even in the noisy car environment, not to
> > > > > > mention
> > > > > > with Hi-Fi
> > > > > > and average speakers. Bluetooth quality is especially bad
> > > > > > and
> > > > > > observable with good quality BT headphones with cable
> > > > > > input.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Alternatively, one can get cheap USB audio dongle + RPi -->
> > > > > > connect it
> > > > > > to audio and stream to it. It will work over much longer
> > > > > > distance and
> > > > > > it will sound superior to bluetooth.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Here are some basic BT measurement and comparison:
> > > &g

Re: [PLUG] Bluetooth A2DP and audio streaming fidelity

[Tom]

Yes, even something like this will sound sound better than Bluetooth as
well as better than RPi for that matter when connected to amplifier or
car stereo.
It works under linux without hassle.
RPi uses RC circuit instead of real/active DAC that is why it does not
sound too good.
I have equally "bad" Plugable USB audio adapter for about the same cost
to feed my car stereo and it sounds OK.
I am talking about casual listening and low cost gear, but not bad
gear, so please bear that in mind.
For better and/or known/guaranteed quality I could not recommend
anything like this.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-07-01 at 09:04 -0700, VY wrote:
> Thanks
> 
> And for the suggestion of using USB dongle, is it something like this
> one:
> 
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/dp/B0
> 0IRVQ0F8
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jun 30, 2017 at 6:33 AM, Michael Barnes <
> barnmich...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > RPI = Raspberry Pi  Small $30 credit card sized Linux computer.
> > Very
> > popular.
> > 
> > On Jun 30, 2017 06:12, "VY"  wrote:
> > 
> > > Thanks for your input.
> > > 
> > > What is RPI?
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > On Jun 30, 2017 02:12, "Tomas" 
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Expressing audio quality opinion is pretty dangerous thing.
> > > > 
> > > > In my experience - bluetooth music audio quality is pretty bad
> > > > no
> > > > matter what you use it with - be it Linux, OSX, iOS, MSWin 
> > > > I find
> > > > bluetooth OK for spoken word
> > > > 
> > > > I use cable instead you will hear clear difference with decent
> > > > audio
> > > > source. I find BT quite tonaly compressed (muffled) compares to
> > > > cable
> > > > connection even in the noisy car environment, not to mention
> > > > with Hi-Fi
> > > > and average speakers. Bluetooth quality is especially bad and
> > > > observable with good quality BT headphones with cable input.
> > > > 
> > > > Alternatively, one can get cheap USB audio dongle + RPi -->
> > > > connect it
> > > > to audio and stream to it. It will work over much longer
> > > > distance and
> > > > it will sound superior to bluetooth.
> > > > 
> > > > Here are some basic BT measurement and comparison:
> > > > http://www.sereneaudio.com/blog/how-good-is-bluetooth-
> > audio-at-its-best
> > > > 
> > > > Just my opinion,
> > > > Tomas
> > > > 
> > > > On Thu, 2017-06-29 at 09:14 -0700, VY wrote:
> > > > > Dear All
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am using Bluetooth to stream music (mostly MP3 but can be
> > > > > other
> > > > > codecs)
> > > > > from my Linux host to a bluetooth audio adapter that is
> > > > > connected to
> > > > > my
> > > > > amplifier/receiver.   (the bluetooth adapter is RCA wired to
> > > > > my
> > > > > receiver).
> > > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > I am wondering if there is anything I can do on my Linux end
> > > > > of
> > > > > improve
> > > > > audio fidelity?
> > > > > I am not complaining that the audio quality is bad coming out
> > > > > of my
> > > > > speakers but just curious if I can further improve the state
> > > > > of the
> > > > > audio.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Any tips much appreciated!
> > > > > 
> > > > > thanks
> > > > > 
> > > > > -v
> > > > > ___
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> > > > ___
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> > > > 
> > > ___
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Re: [PLUG] How to launch script when user logs in?

[Tom]

In graphical file browser:
  1. navigate to your script and select it.
  2. make it executable in Properties - most likely by right clicking
on said script
  3. click or double click on your script should run it (depending on
your file browser)
On command line:
  1. cd yourScriptDirectory
  2. make the script executable by: chmod u+x yourScriptName
  3. Execute the script by: ./yourScriptName
How to write script to execute is another matter most likely for
Google/
Hope that this is what you were looking for,
Tomas
On Sun, 2017-06-25 at 01:10 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> Oops. Should have mentioned I'm using MATE desktop.
> Just glanced at man pages for Xsession and xinit.
> That should get me going in right direction.
> Will have to read carefully in morning when awake ;/
> Thank you.
> 
> 
> 
> On 06/25/2017 12:16 AM, Cryptomonkeys.org wrote:
> > Depends on whether its shell or graphical. If the former, something
> > like .cshrc, .bashrc (.login?), etc.
> > If graphical, probably depends on the environment, but I’ve done it
> > with .xsession in the past.
> > 
> > 
> > > On Jun 24, 2017, at 8:35 AM, Richard Owlett 
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > If it makes a difference, I'm using Debian Stretch.
> > > How do I launch a script which is stored in a sub-directory of
> > > the
> > > user's home directory?
> > > What should I have read?
> > > TIA
> > > 
> > > 
> > > ___
> > > PLUG mailing list
> > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > --
> > Louis Kowolowski
> > lou...@cryptomonkeys.org
> > Cryptomonkeys:   
> > http://www.cryptomonkeys.com/
> > 
> > Making life more interesting for people since 1977
> > 
> > ___
> > PLUG mailing list
> > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Nautilus problem with Windows share.

[Tom]

I do not normally use this, but I maintain it for other users. Here is
how this works on our systems:
1. Start the file browser (Nautilus)
2. Connect To Server (bottom left hand side (BLHS) of the window)
3. Server address: smb://yourSmbServerGoesHere --> Connect
4. You should see the shares exported by your SMB server
5. Double Click on the share you want to access - Dialog with
user/domain/password pops out --> Connect
That is how it works on my side.
I personally do not like that I cannot access these shares in normal
linux file system which creates bunch of usage problems. So, I usually
mount it either using autofs or mount.
Best luck, Tomas
On Sat, 2017-06-17 at 01:43 -0700, Michael Christopher Robinson wrote:
> I need to connect to a FreeNAS 11 exported Windows share as a 
> different user than my Linux user.  My Linux user is Michael, 
> the share owner is Andy.  Nautilus doesn't seem to allow 
> connecting to a cifs share as a different user than the login 
> user.  Is there a simple workaround for this problem?  Every 
> attempt to connect to a share by nautilus or even Windows 10 
> for that matter should require a username, workgroup name, and
> password.  I want to explicitly force logging in to connect to 
> a share.  I want to block anonymous and other users who don't 
> own a share from even seeing that share let alone copying the 
> contents.
> 
> The FreeNAS documentation suggests that not checking browseable 
> offers very little security.  If you aren't Andy, you shouldn't 
> be able to read let alone see Andy_Backup.  Maybe implementing 
> that isn't possible.  Someone else's backup is none of my 
> business where restoring it on my computer is potentially 
> illegal as well as a privacy issue.
> 
> Note that I don't know what active directory is and I'm doing 
> NT4 on the FreeNAS 11 server.  There isn't a domain controller 
> nor is the FreeNAS box a domain master.  The passwords and 
> usernames are easily going to be different on the Windows or 
> Linux box than the FreeNAS 11 box.  Nautilus is problematic 
> because it doesn't allow connecting to a share as someone 
> else or with a different password.
> 
> I don't want a central authentication scheme for Windows where 
> failure of the authentication server translates to not being 
> able to use your own laptop or desktop machine.  For this 
> reason and because of my limited knowledge, I'm leery of 
> implementing openldap or any other central authentication 
> scheme.
> 
> If only someone would implement a Windows, Linux, and Mac 
> OS-X compatible alternative to CIFS that is secure.  Seems 
> like Novell Netware was better back in the day, not sure 
> about now with Novell abandoning IPX/SPX in favor of 
> TCP/IP.
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Re: [PLUG] Modifying business card field in LibreOffice

[Tom]

I've only created business card two times, once to time pressure and
the second time to learn that I want to order proper business cards on
-line, so your mileage might vary ...
I actually used labels function instead of business cards, simply
because it works better. I would recommend that you try labels,
hopefully it will get you around your issues.
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-05-30 at 10:26 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>If you have experience with the business card capability in LO5's
> Writer
> perhaps you can answer a question. I want to change the content of
> one
> pre-defined field (BC_COMP_MAIL) and have not found how this can be
> done.
> 
>The field cannot be edited in place and I've no idea how to access
> the
> setup page where it could be changed. My web searches have found
> nothing
> relevant.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Modifying business card field in LibreOffice

[Tom]

File --> New --> Business Cards
This will bring back the same dialog you used before. You can edit the
fields as needed and create new document with the modifications.
It is the same type of strange behavior like with Insert --> Envelope
-Tomas
On Tue, 2017-05-30 at 10:26 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>If you have experience with the business card capability in LO5's
> Writer
> perhaps you can answer a question. I want to change the content of
> one
> pre-defined field (BC_COMP_MAIL) and have not found how this can be
> done.
> 
>The field cannot be edited in place and I've no idea how to access
> the
> setup page where it could be changed. My web searches have found
> nothing
> relevant.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Emulating scroll wheel and middle button on Trackman Marble

[Tom]

Perhaps the rule (MatchProduct "Logitech USB Trackball") is not
matching your TrackBall thingy.
If you have hwinfo in Slackware, run following command to see what is
your Mouse/Trackpad advertising:
hwinfo --mouse
if you do not have hwinfo, you can try following to see the device
info:
lsusb -v
or lspci
If this does not help, perhaps you do not have all those
buttons/gadgets on your trackpad and you need to change the mapping.
-Tomas
On Mon, 2017-05-29 at 16:00 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Mon, 29 May 2017, Tom wrote:
> 
> > with init V:
> > stop X: sudo init 4
> > start X: sudo init 5
> 
> Tomas,
> 
>Slackware defines runlevels a bit differently:
> 
> #   0 = halt
> #   1 = single user mode
> #   2 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
> #   3 = multiuser mode (default Slackware runlevel)
> #   4 = X11 with KDM/GDM/XDM (session managers)
> #   5 = unused (but configured the same as runlevel 3)
> #   6 = reboot
> 
>When I log in it's to runlevel 3 (console mode). After logging in
> I enter
> 'startx', which is in ~/.bash_profile: alias startx='startxfce4' to
> move to
> the GUI mode. As far as I know, that does the same thing as invoking
> init in
> runlevel 5 in your example. Have I missed something?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Emulating scroll wheel and middle button on Trackman Marble

[Tom]

Unless someone knows better, you need to restart X for these files to
be read. Logout/login is not enough.
Depending on your distro and its age:
stop X: sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target
start X: sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
with init V:
stop X: sudo init 4
start X: sudo init 5
- Tomas
On Mon, 2017-05-29 at 11:53 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>Germane to the replacement for my deceased Logitech trackball that
> had a
> separate scroll wheel and used a press on it to emulate the middle
> mouse
> button.
> 
>There are very few choices for a trackball with the 'marble' in
> the center
> where it's operated by an index or middle finger and do not have a
> large
> square footprint. The Logitech Trackman Marble and a Kensington
> equivalent
> are reasonably priced versions but both lack a scroll wheel and
> pressing
> both large buttons does nothing rather than emulating a middle-button
> click
> for pasting highlighted text.
> 
>A web search found a script to enable scrolling and middle
> -clicking. Since
> xorg.conf is deprecated, the script is in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ with
> the
> name 10-evdev.conf:
> 
> Section "InputClass"
> Identifier "Marble Mouse"
> Driver "evdev"
> MatchProduct "Logitech USB Trackball"
> MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
> MatchIsPointer "yes"
> Option "ButtonMapping" "1 9 3 4 5 6 7 2 8"
> Option "EmulateWheel" "true"
> Option "EmulateWheelButton" "3"
> Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
> Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
> Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
> EndSection
> 
>(The author wrote this for the Gnome desktop and set
> Emulate3Buttons to
> false; I changed this to true.)
> 
>My question is what is required to get the kernel to read this
> file?
> Logging out and back in doesn't do anything. I can't source the file
> because
> there are no executable commands. Is there anything short of a system
> reboot
> that will enable this configuration file?
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Linux newbie needs guidance

[Tom]

Rich Shepard's instructions were pretty accurate. It is pretty standard
build and install process.
I would encourage you to try it after reading the document in the
README file you listed.
The only complication might be missing dependencies which you will need
to install using apt-get.
You can find out what is missing by looking for errors and
package/library output of the configure command:
./configure
When there is missing library or package needed for build:
make
You typically need xyz-devel package. You can identify the full name by
searching for it by:
sudo aptitude search package/library
To see what the commands do, you can ask Linux manual to help on the
individual commands.
For example: man tar
Best regards,
Tomas
On Fri, 2017-05-26 at 10:04 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 05/26/2017 09:15 AM, Bill Barry wrote:
> > On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 5:34 AM, Richard Owlett <
> > rowl...@cloud85.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > Though a computer _user_ from vacuum tube era, I'm still new to
> > > Linux.
> > > I run Debian Stretch (Testing) and typically install using
> > > Synaptic or
> > > apt-get.
> > > 
> > > I am currently running Tomboy 1.14.1 from the Debian repository
> > > and wish
> > > to run the latest version from upstream. There is not a .deb
> > > package for
> > > it. I have downloaded & extracted
> > > 
> > > .xz>
> > > to a directory set aside for non-Debian software.
> > > 
> > > What to do after having backed-up my existing notes?
> > > 
> > > I suspect it's only a couple of commands.
> > > What I'm looking for is some documentation describing the
> > > process.
> > > A cookbook solution would be nice but my goal is to know what I'm
> > > doing.
> > > 
> > > My motto is "If retirement isn't for education, what use is it?"
> > > 
> > > TIA
> > > 
> > > 
> > While there may not be a deb package, it is possible that you can
> > build one > from the source. Try this
> > 
> > https://wiki.debian.org/BuildingTutorial
> > 
> 
> GROSS overkill and may not be applicable to MY goals.
> It may have given hint for solving an unrelated problem that's been 
> bugging me for eons.
> 
> Upstream considers the supplied file (once extracted) to be
> satisfactory 
> for a typical user to trivially install tomboy. There are lots of 
> scripts in top level. But I've no idea of which to run in what order.
> 
> richard@stretch-2nd:/usr/local/common/tomboy/tomboy-1.15.8$ dir 
> --group-directories-first
> data> >testcompile>   >  configure>   >   
>  intltool-extract.in 
> Makefile.in>  >   README
> help> >Tomboy  config.guess  configure.ac  intltool
> -merge.in 
> Makefile.include  tomboy.doap
> libtomboy  aclocal.m4  config.h.in   COPYING> >intltool
> -update.in 
> missing>  >   >   tomboy.spec
> m4>   >AUTHORS config.rpath  depcomp> >ltmain.sh> 
>   > NEWS> >   >   tomboy.spec.in
> po>   >ChangeLog   config.subinstall-shMakefile.am>   
>   > pot-update.in
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Make RPM

[Tom]

PRICELESS!!
Thanks, well deserved.
On Sun, 2017-05-21 at 14:27 -0700, wes wrote:
> http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=lmgtfy
> 
> -wes
> 
> (I'm sorry, I just could not resist)
> 
> On Sun, May 21, 2017 at 1:00 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > I apologize if this did not come across as genuine question about
> > how
> > was this Google search visualized.
> > I find this useful and elegant and I can see possible use of this,
> > especially if this can be universally applicable other web
> > apps/forms.
> > I have thought about asking privately, but I truly believe that it
> > might be of value to others too.
> > Perhaps I should have used different Subject line.
> > Tomas
> > On Sun, 2017-05-21 at 09:05 -0700, Galen Seitz wrote:
> > > On 05/20/17 19:13, Tom wrote:
> > > > Would you be willing to share your filling Google form
> > > > education
> > > > class
> > > > creation know-how Paul?
> > > > Would it be universally applicable to other web applications?
> > > > I am sure that the answer is just another G search away, but I
> > > > am
> > > > at
> > > > loss what to look for ...
> > > 
> > > Tom, I'm guessing you intended that as snark.  Regardless, Paul
> > > has
> > > definitely made contributions on the "how to build an rpm"
> > > subject.
> > > 
> > > <https://www.madboa.com/geek/specs/>
> > > 
> > > If you're curious how I found that, well, I've been on this list
> > > a
> > > *long* time.  I knew that if I put 'heinlein rpm' into google,
> > > I'd
> > > probably find a link to one of Paul's web pages.  As it turns
> > > out, it
> > > was the second link.
> > > 
> > > 
> > > galen
> > ___
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Re: [PLUG] Make RPM

[Tom]

I apologize if this did not come across as genuine question about how
was this Google search visualized.
I find this useful and elegant and I can see possible use of this,
especially if this can be universally applicable other web apps/forms.
I have thought about asking privately, but I truly believe that it
might be of value to others too.
Perhaps I should have used different Subject line.
Tomas
On Sun, 2017-05-21 at 09:05 -0700, Galen Seitz wrote:
> On 05/20/17 19:13, Tom wrote:
> > Would you be willing to share your filling Google form education
> > class
> > creation know-how Paul?
> > Would it be universally applicable to other web applications?
> > I am sure that the answer is just another G search away, but I am
> > at
> > loss what to look for ...
> 
> Tom, I'm guessing you intended that as snark.  Regardless, Paul has
> definitely made contributions on the "how to build an rpm" subject.
> 
> <https://www.madboa.com/geek/specs/>
> 
> If you're curious how I found that, well, I've been on this list a
> *long* time.  I knew that if I put 'heinlein rpm' into google, I'd
> probably find a link to one of Paul's web pages.  As it turns out, it
> was the second link.
> 
> 
> galen
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Re: [PLUG] Make RPM

[Tom]

Would you be willing to share your filling Google form education class
creation know-how Paul?
Would it be universally applicable to other web applications?
I am sure that the answer is just another G search away, but I am at
loss what to look for ...
Thanks -T
On Thu, 2017-05-18 at 17:27 -0400, Paul Heinlein wrote:
> On Thu, 18 May 2017, VY wrote:
> 
> > Dear All:
> > 
> > I have not used Centos for a long time.  I now have a need to use
> > it 
> > and also make software packages available using RPM.
> > 
> > The last time I had to make RPM, I was still editing an RPM config 
> > file which I no longer remember the details.
> > 
> > What's the latest and best way to package software as an RPM?
> 
> With no irony or rancor, I offer you this URL:
> 
>http://lmgtfy.com/?q=build+rpm
> 
> There is a LOT of documentation on building RPMs on the Internet. If 
> you encounter a specific obstacle, then PLUG may be a better
> resource.
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu upgrade

[Tom]

Trouble shooting the presence of the ethernet link is relatively easy. 
Here are a few suggestion from my limited tool box.
Following commands will show if the link is UP - if it sees a carrier
from the switch - opposite side of the cable.
old fashioned: /sbin/ifconfig will print the link status (note UP and
Tx/Rx status/errors/collisions/etc.)
> /sbin/ifconfig
eth0  Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 50:7B:9D:04:AB:53  
  inet addr:192.168.1.230  Bcast:192.168.1.255 
 Mask:255.255.255.0
  inet6 addr: fe80::527b:9dff:fe04:ab53/64 Scope:Link
  UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
  RX packets:5690410 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  TX packets:1338157 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
  RX bytes:8161292947 (7783.2 Mb)  TX bytes:134265512 (128.0
Mb)
  Interrupt:20 Memory:f120-f122 
loLink encap:Local Loopback  
  inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
  inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
  UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:65536  Metric:1
  RX packets:135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  TX packets:135 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
  RX bytes:10123 (9.8 Kb)  TX bytes:10123 (9.8 Kb)
New equivalent: ip address will print more or less the same
information. Note the presence of UP/DOWN, and the fact that ifconfig
did not show the disabled wlan0 interface
> ip address
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
group default 
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 50:7b:9d:04:ab:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet 192.168.1.230/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global dynamic eth0
   valid_lft 81579sec preferred_lft 81579sec
inet6 fe80::527b:9dff:fe04:ab53/64 scope link 
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0:  mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group
default qlen 1000
link/ether 94:65:9c:91:72:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Alternatively command "ip link" will just narrow down the print out to
link relevant info:
> ip link
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
mode DEFAULT group default 
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 50:7b:9d:04:ab:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0:  mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode
DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 94:65:9c:91:72:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
Now when I unplug the ethernet cable (Note eth0 went DOWN and NO
-CARRIER):
> ip link
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
mode DEFAULT group default 
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 50:7b:9d:04:ab:53 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
3: wlan0:  mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode
DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 94:65:9c:91:72:a6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
As about the interface naming that depends on your
kernel/distro/device.
This is example for enp3s0: Realtek RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit
Ethernet controller on kernel 3.16.7-53:
> ip link
1: lo:  mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN
mode DEFAULT group default 
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp3s0:  mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast
state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 70:85:c2:07:47:ab brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
> /usr/sbin/hwinfo --netcard
19: PCI 300.0: 0200 Ethernet controller 
  [Created at pci.328]
  Unique ID: UOJ9.sw6bxR4vqR7
  Parent ID: hoOk.6EfNe3ljZ_F
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci:00/:00:1c.2/:03:00.0
  SysFS BusID: :03:00.0
  Hardware Class: network
  Model: "Realtek RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x10ec "Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd."
  Device: pci 0x8168 "RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1849 "ASRock Incorporation"
  SubDevice: pci 0x8168 "Motherboard (one of many)"
  Revision: 0x11
  Driver: "r8169"
  Driver Modules: "r8169"
  Device File: enp3s0
  I/O Ports: 0xe000-0xefff (rw)
  Memory Range: 0x91304000-0x91304fff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0x9130-0x91303fff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  IRQ: 138 (81048274 events)
  HW Address: 70:85:c2:07:47:ab
  Link detected: yes
  Module Alias: "pci:v10ECd8168sv1849sd8168bc02sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
Driver 

Re: [PLUG] Firefox 52 crashes on older 32 bit distro

[Tom]

General view that fewer releases == fewer failures is generally not
true, especially in today's data driven age. That is why Mozilla
improves/fixes/releases Firefox often.
In general, Firefox quality has improved for most users since they
started rapid releases. They can support it by real data.
I understand that thing might not always work for your exotic setup.
You might have to, eventually, file bugs and submit patches to Mozilla
to keep it working for you.
I would definitely encourage to see yearly State of DevOps compiled by
Puppet for data on that more frequent software product and service
releases and enabling automation increases quality and reliability.
Findings from the 2015 State of DevOps Report:
* High-performing IT organizations experience 60X fewer failures
and recover
  from failure 168X faster than their lower-performing peers. They
also
  deploy 30X more frequently with 200X shorter lead times.
* Lean management and continuous delivery practices create the
conditions for delivering value faster, sustainably.
* High performance is achievable no matter if your apps are
greenfield, brownfield or legacy.
* DevOps initiatives launched solely by C-level executives or from
the grassroots are less likely to succeed.
* IT managers play a critical role in promoting diversity and
limiting burnout.
There is more about this in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps
It goes beyond upstarts like Puppet, here is IBM (source of your
beloved T60's) 
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/se-devops/part1/
It is worth considering.
-Tomas
On Sat, 2017-05-13 at 17:28 -0700, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> On some of my machines, I run 32 bit Scientific Linux
> 6.9, a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.9.  RHEL6.x
> is supported until November 2020, perhaps to 2023 if Red
> Hat repeats past practices, and SL (supported by a team
> at Fermilabs, with extra scientific packages added), is
> an enhanced clone of RHEL.
> 
> However Firefox 52.1esr, the supposedly stable extended
> release, SEGMENTATION FAULTS with the 32 bit version. 
> Safe mode ditto.  No trace files left after the segfault.
> 
>   Could be worse; On one of my laptops (hacked hardware),
>   Firefox sometimes crashes Linux, causing a reboot. 
>   My favorite programming language is solder, but that
>   doesn't leave trace files, either.
> 
> So, I downrevved Firefox to 45.9esr, turned off automatic
> updates, and will put up with the nagging messages from
> websites demanding the latest and greatest.  Better than
> crashes.  Maybe the next ESR release won't segfault, and
> I can turn updates back on.
> 
> I'm told that version 52 is a MAJOR re-redesign of Firefox,
> an all-singing all-dancing multithreaded media munching
> monster.  Not competely tested, apparently.  Perhaps
> Mozilla should work on their testing processes first.  
> 
> BTW, the good thing is that Firefox stores itself 
> entirely in /usr/lib/firefox, so changing versions is
> as easy as moving them into directories with names like
> /usr/lib/firefox45, then simlinking /usr/lib/firefox to
> that.  When the next version XXesr comes along, I will
> remove the symlink, install to /usr/lib/firefox, rename
> that to /usr/lib/firefoxXX, then symlink to that.  A
> small hassle, but better than crashes.
> 
> --
> 
> While I am slowly upgrading the machines to  SL7.3 64 bit,
> I have a 20 year accumulation of more than 1000 binaries
> to recompile and verify, so this will take a while. 
> 
> I run long term support distros so I don't have to do this
> often, but our friends at Mozilla seem to prefer churn.
> Perhaps they should get a job at Microsoft, churning Word.
> 
> I prefer the fewer failures, fewer features corner of the
> map.  I can generate plenty of my own failures, thank you.
> 
> Keith
> 
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Re: [PLUG] HOW to search for a specialized text editor?

[Tom]

I use any of the following applications to side by side visually
compare and merge text files: kompare, kdif3, tkdiff
My tool choice depends on what is available to me on a given Linux
machine I use at that time. I am sure there are other tools to do this.
See example screen-shots here:
kompare: https://www.tomask.org/~tomask/dropbox/screenshots/kompare.png
kdif3: https://www.tomask.org/~tomask/dropbox/screenshots/kdiff3.png
libreoffice: 
https://www.tomask.org/~tomask/dropbox/screenshots/libreoffice.png
-Tomas
On Mon, 2017-05-01 at 16:42 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> Please note the _*FIRST WORD*_ of the subject line 
> [Did a preliminary web search. Results indicated I was clueless ;]
> 
> Background:
> Last week I was asked to be one of the proofreaders of a near final 
> draft of a ~1300 word document. IOW the structure and desired content
> were firmly established. Although fluent in English, it is not the 
> author's primary language. He had prepared the English text I (and 
> others) were reviewing.
> 
> Desired specifications:
> 1. It shall have exactly 2 panes.
> 2. Pane 1 shall:
> a. have a verbatim copy of the original text.
> b. assign immutable tags (visible or not) to beginning AND
>end of each paragraph.
> c. be intrinsically READ-ONLY.
>That implies that both text and tags are immutable from
>invocation to invocation.
> 3. Pane 2 shall:
> a. on initial invocation be a byte for byte duplicate
> [*INCLUDING*
>tags] of the original.
> b. as Pane 2 is edited maintain visual sync of initial paragraph
>start and ultimate edited paragraph extent. [Is that vague ;]
> 
> Am I even "asking right questions"?
> 
> TIA as "owl" *DUCKS* fer cover
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] computer freeze forcing manual reset and reboot question

[Tom]

Instead of different keyboard, You could also try to press power button
and wait a minute, which is separate from keyboard, and should shut
down your PC/laptop by default.
If the crashes are HW related and there is no kernel panic - there is
little you could do in the absence of logs. Is your fan spinning after
the freeze? How about hdd activity LED? Do you see anything on your
display?
If the crash/freeze was once off event you have nothing to work with.
If it repeats, you could try different distribution with different
kernel version to see if it helps. If it persists across distributions
and you cannot correlate it to particular usage, you could try
memory/CPU/storage tests if they trigger something.
You did not mentioned what HW (CPU/chipset/graphics) you have. openSuse
42.1 (kernel 4.1) often crashed with SkyLake CPUs due to graphics, so
if you have KabyLake (kernel 4.4) maybe you need newer kernel than the
default in opensuse 42.2.
Tomas
On Sun, 2017-04-23 at 12:03 -0700, Ken Stephens wrote:
> logical american wrote:
> > Hello:
> > 
> > I am looking for pointers on how to troubleshoot a thorny problem.
> > This
> > afternoon at 4:30 pm, my openSuse
> > Leap 42.2 Linux OS froze up the keyboard, the mouse and left a
> > black
> > screen.  I tried some of the emergency
> > keyboard buttons, but they did not respond either.  I had to
> > finally
> > manual reboot the system by pressing the reset switch.
> > 
> > The monitor detected no input from the graphics card at all, I
> > noticed
> > while pushing keyboard buttons and turning the
> > monitor off and on.
> > 
> > I believe that the system was running normally and I only have 4
> > gigs of
> > memory loaded in 12 gig memory space, as
> > the running leds for normal operation were lit.
> > 
> > After the manual reset, I went to the /var/log area, but it was
> > clean,
> > as if everything was normal.
> > 
> > How does one troubleshoot a problem like this? I am not even sure
> > of
> > where to start?
> > 
> > Thanks for the assist.
> > 
> > Randall
> > ___
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> > 
> Randall,
> 
> Did you unplug and plug your keyboard back in to your USB.  I have
> had a few keyboard dropouts without 
> any explanations.  The system would appear to be frozen because the
> keyboard had been dropped from USB.
> 
> Ken
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] 'tree' output not in US-ASCII character set

[Tom]

Disclaimer: I have no experience with Alpine or urxvt. In fact, I have
never hear of either and since I have not clue what they might be
google is not really helpful either.
With the above out of the way - your Copy & Paste action is most likely
routed through your Desktop environment. In KDE/Gnome there is setting
for Languages and Keyboards in their appropriate setting panels as well
as in the application defaults and your environment (login shell
LC_all/defaults..). I suspect that you are probably not a
mainstream guy, so before you say something like fvwm2, motif, CDE,
. LXDE - these have language and keyboard settings too, and some
precedence for application and environment settings also - which could
mess up you Copy + Paste outcome.
Some email clients, office and editors have "Paste Special" or "Paste
as Text" function in menu - you could try those if that helps. Also if
your desktop environment runs on X you could also try to select the
text in terminal and try to paste it by middle click - if that is
wrong, perhaps look at your X settings (they are scattered all over the
place in /etc as well ac in your home and /tmp)
Good luck,
Tomas
On Thu, 2017-04-20 at 12:25 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Apr 2017, Paul Mullen wrote:
> 
> > Just to review...  You run `tree` in your terminal and it looks
> > normal.
> 
> Paul,
> 
>Yes, the urxvt supports unicode, and the file command tells me the
> character encoding is utf8.
> 
> > Then you cut and paste into another terminal window and end up with
> > a lot
> > of control sequence gibberish. When you sent the above-quoted
> > message, did
> > it appear to be koi8-r-encoded?
> 
>If I tell tree to use utf8 or us-ascii I get the control sequence
> gibberish. When I paste (or insert) the tree output (without
> specifying a
> character code) into a composing alpine message something changes the
> character encoding to koi8-r.
> 
>The command to invoke alpine specifies urxvt but that's ignored
> and the
> alpine window frame shows it's an xterm. Could this change character
> encoding of the enclosed text only with line drawing characters
> included?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] 'tree' output not in US-ASCII character set

[Tom]

Have you considered those files/directories to be showing their correct
UTF-8 names?
If that is so, and you do not like it, rename them.
If you cannot easily rename them because of their "funny" names, I
recommend using find with its plethora of options to pick up those
files individually. Something like this normally saves my skin:
find ./ -name/size/date/type 'searchGlobString/regexp/number/date/...' 
-exec mv {} newNameInASCII \;
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Wed, 2017-04-19 at 05:50 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Tue, 18 Apr 2017, Paul Mullen wrote:
> 
> > Do you have any unusual LANG or LC_* environment variable settings?
> 
> Paul,
> 
>Nope:
> 
> $ locale
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_COLLATE=C
> LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
> LC_ALL=
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Public SSH server configs

[Tom]

In my mind - trust, security, privacy, power, cooperation,  - are
the fundamental friction points in this society. Given how important it
is for the human kind, it is surprising how many people do not
understand it.
If you are after technical stuff - stop reading here and do something
better with your time.
Access control to data and services, firewall, audits and monitoring
should help you to stop, discover and trigger response to malicious
attacks and actors.
Identify sensitive and business critical data sources and the services
allowed to use them - and set up p2p controls and authentication for
their use.
Encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transport, especially in "cloud".
Ironically, ssh on ports >1024 is good way to do this for some use
cases, so are other services which can be used to secure your data as
well as malicious communications.
Delete and not collect data you absolutely do not need - example: SSN
or address + credit card - you only need it to complete a transaction -
give users the choice to decide their level of risk - to store or not
their data for the future use.
This maybe old school and definitely not 100% effective - Setup and
enforce the use of proxy and network protocols at the perimeter. Do not
decrypt/manInTheMiddle ssl/tls data - this breaks security and creates
monumental and well advertized attack target. Create DMZ for services
that needs it. Make it easy for users to work and communicate, so they
are not forced to come up with innovative ways to bypass your controls.
Monitor and learn what normal/heathy baseline looks like. Make it too
restrictive and you will waste peoples work time and their desire to be
productive and innovate. If you do not trust your users and show it to
them at every opportunity - they will know it, and will be asking
themselves why were they hired and for what purpose - they will not not
be part of your security/team/company, you will alienate them. It is
fine line to walk - ask yourself what your priorities are, what you
want to achieve at the end of it all.
I work in engineering, development and data analysis environment -
being able to use network ports is essential to being able to work
productively. Without that, we are be restricted to single computing
process on a single machine or passing data through the file system
(which is essentially slow and high latency network) - that leaves you
in 20th century in terms of productivity a capabilities. On the top of
all that above - restrictions on using computers effectively - leads us
back to architecture/security review boards and that stalls any kind of
progress in its tracks, including security.
I hope that you see the trade offs here, use your full toolbox to
provide safe and productive work environment. The only real 100%
effective IT security is not to have IT, turn off power and networks. 
Alternatively, I've that HugesNet has very good service for keeping
networks, citizens, children and internet safe from bad actors. LOL
Tomas
On Wed, 2017-04-12 at 13:08 -0500, Cryptomonkeys.org wrote:
> Sure. and that would be fine for all the people who aren’t malicious.
> 
> 
> > On Apr 11, 2017, at 7:53 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > That is what contracts, firewalls, monitoring and compliance tools
> > are
> > for.
> > If you do not trust users to start a process or use network ports -
> > disable their login and physical access to computers.
> > There are so many avenues which can be exploited beside ssh or any
> > myriad of other server processes.
> > Tomas
> > On Tue, 2017-04-11 at 18:41 -0500, Cryptomonkeys.org <
> > http://cryptomonkeys.org/> wrote:
> > > On Apr 10, 2017, at 2:17 PM, Jim Garrison <j...@jhmg.net> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > On 4/10/2017 8:22 AM, Paul Heinlein wrote:
> > > > > I've got a CentOS 7 VM running off in the cloud. It exposes
> > > > > SSH
> > > > > on 
> > > > > port 22 to the world. I've thought about moving it to an
> > > > > alternate 
> > > > > port, and may someday do so, but in the meantime I've tried
> > > > > to
> > > > > keep up 
> > > > > with best practices for sshd configuration.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I recently changed the KexAlgorithms setting, removing all 
> > > > > key-exchange algorithms based on NIST curves. (Google
> > > > > variants of
> > > > > "ed25519 nist ssh ecdh" for my reasoning.) Anyway, the new
> > > > > setting:
> > > > > 
> > > > > KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha...@libssh.org,diffie-hellman
> > > > > -group
> > > > > -exchange-sha256
> > > > > 
> > &g

Re: [PLUG] Public SSH server configs

[Tom]

That is what contracts, firewalls, monitoring and compliance tools are
for.
If you do not trust users to start a process or use network ports -
disable their login and physical access to computers.
There are so many avenues which can be exploited beside ssh or any
myriad of other server processes.
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-04-11 at 18:41 -0500, Cryptomonkeys.org wrote:
> On Apr 10, 2017, at 2:17 PM, Jim Garrison  wrote:
> > 
> > On 4/10/2017 8:22 AM, Paul Heinlein wrote:
> > > I've got a CentOS 7 VM running off in the cloud. It exposes SSH
> > > on 
> > > port 22 to the world. I've thought about moving it to an
> > > alternate 
> > > port, and may someday do so, but in the meantime I've tried to
> > > keep up 
> > > with best practices for sshd configuration.
> > > 
> > > I recently changed the KexAlgorithms setting, removing all 
> > > key-exchange algorithms based on NIST curves. (Google variants of
> > > "ed25519 nist ssh ecdh" for my reasoning.) Anyway, the new
> > > setting:
> > > 
> > > KexAlgorithms curve25519-sha...@libssh.org,diffie-hellman-group
> > > -exchange-sha256
> > > 
> > > All of my machines (MacOS 10.12, CentOS 6, CentOS 7) can work
> > > with 
> > > this setting, so I don't have to worry about infinite backward 
> > > compatibility.
> > > 
> > > One interesting and unintended result of this change is that many
> > > SSH 
> > > scanners will fail while trying to negotiate a key exchange. The
> > > log 
> > > entries are short and sweet:
> > > 
> > > sshd[18200]: fatal: Unable to negotiate a key exchange method
> > > [preauth]
> > > 
> > > The number of scanners that even get through to the stage of
> > > 'Invalid 
> > > user' has dropped from a couple hundred per day to less than a
> > > dozen.
> > > 
> > > Everyone's situation is different, of course, and this alteration
> > > may 
> > > not work in your environment -- but you may find it worthwhile
> > > raising 
> > > the bar on the KexAlgorithm, Ciphers, and MACs in your
> > > sshd_config, 
> > > especially if your SSH daemon is exposed to the world at large.
> > > 
> > 
> > I've been running sshd on a non-standard port above 5000 for about
> > 7
> > years, on various hosting services, both real hardware and more
> > recently
> > virtual machines.  I think in 7 years I've seen only **two**
> > attempted
> > connections and I think those were from someone just doing a
> > portscan,
> > as the log messages were one-offs and not repeated.
> > 
> > There has never been any effort from anybody to actually connect.
> > 
> Any thoughts on the consequences of arbitrary users being able to run
> their own sshd on port numbers >1024? Would that mean that if
> somebody got access to your machine, they could replace the listening
> sshd with their own?
> 
> --
> Louis Kowolowski
> lou...@cryptomonkeys.com
> Cryptomonkeys:   
> http://www.cryptomonkeys.com/ 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Tarnished chromium

[Tom]

Going to https://www.key.com I can reproduce your findings.
  Firefox, Chrome - no issues
  Chromium  the same error related to transparent certificate chain
(possibly Symantec related)
I seems to recall that Symantec was caught issuing unauthorized certs
again and the browsers decided to stop accepting them over the course
of year or so. If I am not mistaken here, Chromium, might be more
proactive in taking action.
Tomas
On Mon, 2017-04-10 at 15:13 -0700, Paul Mullen wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 10, 2017 at 01:46:15PM -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> > I'm confident that most US banks have enough security to allow
> > customers to reach their home page, log in, and futz with their
> > accounts.
> 
> You would be well-served to have less confidence in any remote site
> hosting your valuable personal data.  There are so many ways the data
> can be compromised, through ignorance and malice alike.  When your
> browser complains about a security issue, pay attention.
> 
> > I've no idea why chromium complains about this.
> 
> Chromium is pickier about connection security than Firefox, by
> design.
> That's a feature, not a bug.  If it were my money on the line, I'd
> want to get to the bottom of this.  For what it's worth, I don't get
> any errors when loading https://www.key.com/ from here.
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Re Tarnished Chromium

[Tom]

It seems that you are fighting an epic battle against security features
- if you win and your gateway/router or ... is compromised, your victor
y against the browsers could cost you.
If you want, contact me off list with your bank's URL and I will try it
with my Firefox/Chromium/Chrome/ to see if I get the same issue. If
I cannot replicate it, it should get you motivated enough to take your
laptop to a neighbor to see if it behaves differently with their
internet connection.
Would that help?
Tomas
On Mon, 2017-04-10 at 13:49 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Apr 2017, John Bartley K7AAY j...@503bartley.com wrote:
> 
> > Google wants no more http and if a site is not secure, obscure
> > warning you
> > will get.
> 
> John,
> 
>Any way to turn that off? Besides, I'm specifying https, not plain
> http.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] monitor drops to lower resolution after OS upgrade

[Tom]

Hi Randall,
I am glad that you got your graphix card working.
Would you be able to share what you had to do for the old HD 5450 to
get it working?
I have unused laptop which I would like to donate to a friend and I
believe that it has the same graphics card HD 5430/5450/5470. I will be
reinstalling it to 42.2 this or next week before handing it over, and
your experience could save me time researching the same issue.
Thank you, Tomas
On Sat, 2017-04-08 at 18:01 -0700, logical american wrote:
> On 4/8/2017 12:53 AM, Tom wrote:
> > I am able to set the resolution to max and lower values my monitor
> > supports in 42.2 KDE: Configure Desktop -->  Display and Monitor
> > What is you graphic card/CPU? I had no issues with Intel internal
> > graphics forever.
> > If it is not graphic card related, then your problem may be - the
> > monitor is not auto detected properly hence you cannot use its full
> > native resolution.
> > What does xrandr say your max resolution is?
> > Did you try different cable for the monitor?
> > Using dual monitors can also cause these problems from time to time
> > -
> > If I remember correctly - when my monitor setup fails (undock
> > before
> > full shutdown, or try to dock powered laptop, etc.), I boot to text
> > mode or as different user and remove this directory:
> > ~/.local/share/kscreen (or was it whole .kde4 dir???) then login
> > again.
> > I learned to avoid causing myself trouble, so it is hard to
> > remember
> > now.
> > There used to be (not anymore) wonderful tool called SaX for
> > resolving
> > these issues - I believe that it was modifying /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> > These days everything is autodetected, but you could play with
> >   /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf
> > See Monitor section of: man xorg.conf
> > Check this article for guidance: 
> > https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configurin
> > g_graphics_cards_and_monitor_settings
> > As about obtaining correct resolution, hsync, vsync and refresh
> > rates
> > for your screen - this maybe tricky - you might have to try to
> > temporarily boot Knoppix or old 13.2 from USB stick and see what
> > they
> > were using.
> > Our old Visio TV is causing these kind of (and worse) problems - it
> > is
> > pretending to be HD, but the panel is some weird non standard,
> > lower,
> > definitely not HD resolution. So, I get to have similar type of
> > "fun"
> > from time to time - at least I can resolve it with enough
> > determination
> > in Linux. There is no chance to get proper image of that beast in
> > Windows, not that I care (TM).
> > Good luck, Tomas
> > On Fri, 2017-04-07 at 22:25 -0700, logical american wrote:
> Tom:
> 
> Here's the true story.
> 
> 1. System has the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card, supported by the 
> flglrx kernel module in openSuse 13.2
> 2. Leap 42.2 does NOT support the video module.
> 3. After upgrading system, system failed to autoload the correct
> radeon 
> kernel module.
> 4. I had to change a couple of boot up files in the /etc/init.d and 
> /etc/sysconfig areas to autoload the module on boot up.
> 
> Things are okay now, back to native 1920x1080i resolution.
> 
> Randall
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Re: [PLUG] Backup RPi SD card

[Tom]

Follow the second link, scroll down to product description about half
way through the page, and check the Duo-Charge Section:
 Product description

 








  












  

   

  

  



 Offer Type:19200mAH

  
  


  

  




 
   
 

 
  
 
   

 




TeckNet PowerTitan T2 19200mAH External Battery:
Save time when charging! 

.
.
.
Duo-Charge:
The Duo-Charge function enables charging of the PowerTitan while it
recharges a connected device such as an iPhone or iPad.
 ...
Besides the battery capacity, there does not seem to be functional
difference between the chargers. Either of them should keep mostly idle
RPi running for at close to a day. I have 6500mAh USB charger running
RPi + PWM hat + WiFi dongle + a few sensors on a robot cart for about 8
-9-hours straight. The Pi lasts much longer than the other battery pack
feeding the motors.
I should have mentioned it in my original post, I thought that it is
obvious:
If your RPi consumes close to or more than the charging current max 2A
(depending on your actual power supply) - about 10% to power the
charger = ~1800mA --> your battery pack will not recharge after the
outage. In such case you would have to come up with different UPS
solution.
Best luck, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-04-09 at 19:23 -0700, Chuck Hast wrote:
> Tomas,
> The second selection looks more like what I am looking for but the
> first one
> will certainly work. But I do not see mention of pass through
> charging or
> charge while charging.
> 
> Went ahead and bought the first selection.
> 
> On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 6:46 AM, Nat Taylor <biob...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > I use something like that second battery to power my pi, it's just
> > a cell
> > phone charger, I'm not sure what running it while plugged in does
> > to it's
> > life.   One could put it on a timer so the power cuts, it drains
> > the
> > battery for a while, then charges back up if that was advantageous
> > for
> > battery life...
> > 
> > On Sun, Apr 9, 2017 at 2:39 AM Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > There are probably other USB power banks which can be charged and
> > > discharged together. Here are two examples:
> > > https://www.amazon.com/TeckNet-Universal-16750mAh-Output-PowerZen
> > > /dp/B0
> > > 0FAU7ZB2/ref=pd_cp_107_1?_encoding=UTF8_rd_i=B00FAU7ZB2_rd_
> > > r=0JMM
> > > HXMXK7RYWY9K361K_rd_w=712hM_rd_wg=6mOCV=1=0JMMHX
> > > MXK7RY
> > > WY9K361K
> > > <https://www.amazon.com/TeckNet-Universal-16750mAh-
> > Output-PowerZen/dp/B00FAU7ZB2/ref=pd_cp_107_1?_encoding=
> > UTF8_rd_i=B00FAU7ZB2_rd_r=0JMMHXMXK7RYWY9K361K_rd_
> > w=712hM_rd_wg=6mOCV=1=0JMMHXMXK7RYWY9K361K>
> > > https://www.amazon.com/PowerTitan-19200mAh3-Port-Portable-Externa
> > > l-Tech
> > > nology/dp/B01B534D4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless=5713662011=UTF8
> > > =1
> > > 491729627=1-1
> > > <https://www.amazon.com/PowerTitan-19200mAh3-Port-
> > Portable-External-Technology/dp/B01B534D4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=
> > wireless=5713662011=UTF8=1491729627=1-1>
> > > Based on recommendation from this guy:
> > > http://raspi-ups.appspot.com/en/index.jsp He used older model
> > > which is
> > > no longer available.
> > > I wonder how smart is the circuit in avoiding the
> > > charge/discharge
> > > battery cycles when the power is on - it relates to the battery
> > > life.
> > > Tomas
> > > On Sat, 2017-04-08 at 18:57 -0700, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > > > On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Tom <
> > > > tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > dd nor rsync alone will not be able to do full backup of
> > > > > running
> > > > > computer (RPi).
> > > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > That was what I figured, just wanted to make sure.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > The best course of action is to separate the OS from your
> > > > > data -
> > > > > whatever your RPi is normally writing - then backup each
> > > > > separately.
> >

Re: [PLUG] Backup RPi SD card

[Tom]

There are probably other USB power banks which can be charged and
discharged together. Here are two examples:
https://www.amazon.com/TeckNet-Universal-16750mAh-Output-PowerZen/dp/B0
0FAU7ZB2/ref=pd_cp_107_1?_encoding=UTF8_rd_i=B00FAU7ZB2_rd_r=0JMM
HXMXK7RYWY9K361K_rd_w=712hM_rd_wg=6mOCV=1=0JMMHXMXK7RY
WY9K361K
https://www.amazon.com/PowerTitan-19200mAh3-Port-Portable-External-Tech
nology/dp/B01B534D4Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=wireless=5713662011=UTF8=1
491729627=1-1
Based on recommendation from this guy: 
http://raspi-ups.appspot.com/en/index.jsp He used older model which is
no longer available.
I wonder how smart is the circuit in avoiding the charge/discharge
battery cycles when the power is on - it relates to the battery life.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-04-08 at 18:57 -0700, Chuck Hast wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 8, 2017 at 3:42 PM, Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > dd nor rsync alone will not be able to do full backup of running
> > computer (RPi).
> > 
> 
> That was what I figured, just wanted to make sure.
> 
> 
> > The best course of action is to separate the OS from your data -
> > whatever your RPi is normally writing - then backup each
> > separately.
> >   * When you separate the data, you could even store it off the RPi
> > avoiding need for local data backups on RPi altogether.
> > 
> 
> The drive has two partitions on it /boot and /.  /boot is a vfat, the
> rest
> of
> it is ext4. I supposed that I could stop the service (weather data
> capture)
> back up the files that are critical to the weather station.After the
> back up
> is done start the service again. Maybe store them on a jump drive and
> after the station service is back up and running ship them off to the
> location
> I will keep the back ups in. I figure that I could do the back up in
> the wee
> hours of the morning.
> 
> 
> >   * If you want to keep the data on RPi, you could back it up by
> > rsync
> > to separate media (USB) or a network storage
> >   * You cannot back up the OS while you are using it - that is why
> > this
> > is normally done on a separate computer. It is easier and faster
> > than
> > booting your RPi from USB or network and then doing the backup.
> >   * Perhaps the OS does not need to be backed up often or not at
> > all as
> > you could simply create separate OS image, even on another SD card
> > attached to your Pi.
> > 
> 
> All I really need for recovery is the WeeWx db file, WeeWx config
> file,
> skins
> file and the nginx configuration. I could actually keep a separate
> image and
> just insert the latest files and quickly swap out the bad SD card.
> That
> should
> take care of it.
> 
> I should be able to automate the OS configuration, so that I just run
> a
> script
> it looks for the SD card, installs the OS makes sure that the
> parameters
> that
> I set manually on installation are set correctly, probably can
> automate the
> whole process.
> 
>   * Your backup target/media could be another SD card connected to
> RPi
> > in a SD card reader, that way you could just swap the cards 
> > Thinking outside of a box - perhaps you need little UPS for your Pi
> > to
> > avoid regular data corruption altogether. There are some USB
> > charging
> > batteries which can be charged and used both at the same time (most
> > can
> > be either charged or used, not both).  Modest battery could keep
> > your
> > Pi running for hours.
> > 
> 
> I have been looking for a battery pack that will allow me to let it
> float
> on the
> powersupply until power goes away, then it takes over. So far all of
> them
> that
> I have looked at will not switch between charge/float/discharge. I
> have seen
> a couple that plug into the pin field on the RPi, but I am trying to
> keep
> the
> case clean. I have built up a power supply with a battery on it, and
> a heavy
> duty USB dual port power cartridge that supplies the power I need for
> the
> RPi and the WX station console. It is kind of big, I am certainly
> looking
> for
> one of the power pack batteries that does not care if it is being
> charged or
> not.
> 
> 
> > I hope that this is pointing you in the right direction to your
> > particular circumstances.
> 
> 
> Yes it confirmed most of what I was already suspecting. Now if I can
> just
> find a nice clean battery pack that meets the above requirement.
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Re: [PLUG] Backup RPi SD card

[Tom]

dd nor rsync alone will not be able to do full backup of running
computer (RPi).
The best course of action is to separate the OS from your data -
whatever your RPi is normally writing - then backup each separately.
  * When you separate the data, you could even store it off the RPi
avoiding need for local data backups on RPi altogether.
  * If you want to keep the data on RPi, you could back it up by rsync
to separate media (USB) or a network storage
  * You cannot back up the OS while you are using it - that is why this
is normally done on a separate computer. It is easier and faster than
booting your RPi from USB or network and then doing the backup.
  * Perhaps the OS does not need to be backed up often or not at all as
you could simply create separate OS image, even on another SD card
attached to your Pi.
  * Your backup target/media could be another SD card connected to RPi
in a SD card reader, that way you could just swap the cards 
Thinking outside of a box - perhaps you need little UPS for your Pi to
avoid regular data corruption altogether. There are some USB charging
batteries which can be charged and used both at the same time (most can
be either charged or used, not both).  Modest battery could keep your
Pi running for hours.
I hope that this is pointing you in the right direction to your
particular circumstances.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-04-08 at 14:00 -0700, Chuck Hast wrote:
> Folks,
> I have been looking to setup a backup of a particular RPi that has a
> tendency
> to corrupt the sd card due to read/write activity during a power
> loss.
> 
> What I want to do is backup the whole image off of the unit to
> another
> machine.
> 
> I know how to use dd to create an image of the card. But I would like
> for
> it to
> ship it off to another machine so in the event of a corrupt image I
> can
> just to
> pull the last good one and put it on a SD card and press on.
> 
> I see a lot of recommendations, using dd and rsync but most of them
> in one
> form or another either require you remove the SD card and put it in
> another
> machine or you do not get all of the files you need. So I figure that
> if I
> can just
> say at about 2 a.m. start the process and let it capture the image as
> a
> snap-
> shot things will be good. But I want the image to be created on
> another
> machine
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] monitor drops to lower resolution after OS upgrade

[Tom]

I am able to set the resolution to max and lower values my monitor
supports in 42.2 KDE: Configure Desktop --> Display and Monitor
What is you graphic card/CPU? I had no issues with Intel internal
graphics forever.
If it is not graphic card related, then your problem may be - the
monitor is not auto detected properly hence you cannot use its full
native resolution.
What does xrandr say your max resolution is?
Did you try different cable for the monitor?
Using dual monitors can also cause these problems from time to time -
If I remember correctly - when my monitor setup fails (undock before
full shutdown, or try to dock powered laptop, etc.), I boot to text
mode or as different user and remove this directory:
~/.local/share/kscreen (or was it whole .kde4 dir???) then login again.
I learned to avoid causing myself trouble, so it is hard to remember
now.
There used to be (not anymore) wonderful tool called SaX for resolving
these issues - I believe that it was modifying /etc/X11/xorg.conf
These days everything is autodetected, but you could play with
 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf
See Monitor section of: man xorg.conf
Check this article for guidance: https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configurin
g_graphics_cards_and_monitor_settings
As about obtaining correct resolution, hsync, vsync and refresh rates
for your screen - this maybe tricky - you might have to try to
temporarily boot Knoppix or old 13.2 from USB stick and see what they
were using. 
Our old Visio TV is causing these kind of (and worse) problems - it is
pretending to be HD, but the panel is some weird non standard, lower,
definitely not HD resolution. So, I get to have similar type of "fun"
from time to time - at least I can resolve it with enough determination
in Linux. There is no chance to get proper image of that beast in
Windows, not that I care (TM).
Good luck, Tomas
On Fri, 2017-04-07 at 22:25 -0700, logical american wrote:
> After upgrading from openSuse 13.2 to Leap 42.2, I have lost the 
> 1920x1080 60hz native resolution of my graphics card output to the 
> monitor which can easily handle it.
> 
> openSuse is running KDE's Plasma 5.8.6 desktop, but I cannot budge
> the 
> monitor resolution higher than 1400x1080 despite tinkering with the 
> xrandr command to create a new mode and then adding it, which xrandr 
> outputs okay, but when I try to activate the new mode using the KDE
> tool 
> under Desktop Configure, then Plasma tells me "Cannot change monitor 
> resolution"
> 
> Has anyone been able to successfully change monitor resolution under
> KDE 
> Plasma 5.8.6?  I spent at least 2 hours tonight tinkering with the 
> settings, but even a local ~/.xprofile file does NOT work. The system
> seems stuck on the odd mode.
> 
> Any ideas on how to get back my higher resolution screen?  It is 
> disappointing to see the screen with a somewhat weird raster and
> letters 
> oddly spaced to each other and run together, as my monitor is
> attempting 
> to cope with the reduced mode.
> 
> - Randall
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Re: [PLUG] USB enclosures

[Tom]

I understand that you are choosing RAID0 because you need 8+8=16GB of
storage space instead of redundancy.
I would advise you against using RAID0 if you care about your data -
single disk failure and you loose everything.
JBOD will give you the same storage space at about the same performance
over 1Gb/s ethernet + you are only risking some of the data, depending
which disk fails. So, JBOD is lower risk at almost no tradeoff versus
not-redundant RAID0 over 1Gb/s network.
RAID0 is really only useful for performance reasons as locally
connected storage inside a workstation - it doubles the disk speed.
That being said, local SSD/NVME will beat 2 disk HDD RAID0 in common
desktop/media/engineering workloads.
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-04-04 at 15:19 -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Mon, 3 Apr 2017 15:25:26 -0700
> John Jason Jordan  dijo:
> 
> > On Mon, 3 Apr 2017 11:04:30 -0700
> > Galen Seitz  dijo:
> > 
> > > On 04/03/17 10:40, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> > > > I am looking for a 2-bay USB enclosure, at least USB 3.0, with
> > > > internal software capable of Raid 0. I have been looking at the
> > > > ICY
> > > > DOCK MB662U3-2S:
> 
> The shopping is done. I ordered two WD 8TB Red Pro drives (5 year
> warranty) and the Mediasonic ProRaid HUR3-SU3S3 2 Bay 3.5" SATA Hard
> Drive Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA Support UASP and SATA III 6.0Gbps
> Speed:
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCEAXJW/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza
> 
> The drives are coming from an eBay seller with two-day shipping. The
> Mediasonic is coming from Mediasonic Inc, fulfilled by Amazon,
> expected
> by April 10.
> 
> When it all gets here I will make a final backup of the current old
> and
> end of life 5TB USB drive to the Synology, then pull the 6TB WD Red
> Pro
> drive out of the Synology and set it aside. Then I will install the
> new
> 8TB drives in the Synology and set them up as Raid 0, and make sure
> the
> computer can mount the Synology the same as it now does. And then I
> will
> back up the old 5TB USB drive to the Synology again, now backing up
> to
> the new drives with 16TB of space.
> 
> And finally, I will put the 6TB drive from the Synology into the new
> Mediasonic USB enclosure and plug it into the computer, unplugging
> the
> old 5TB drive to retire it for good. And then I will have some tricky
> stuff to make sure all the programs and the operating system can find
> and use the 6TB in the Mediasonic the same as they used to see and
> use
> the old 5TB drive. 
> 
> I hope my plan works. :)
> 
> Thanks to all for the advice and suggestions. :)
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Re: [PLUG] Examples of customized grub2 configuration files?

[Tom]

Would these articles help you to get started?
https://www.suse.com/documentation/sled-12/singlehtml/book_sle_admin/bo
ok_sle_admin.html#cha.grub2
https://nnc3.com/mags/LM10/Magazine/Archive/2010/111/058-060_grub2/arti
cle.html
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/10830 - page 2
Tomas
On Mon, 2017-04-03 at 14:30 -0700, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
> I'm looking for examples (with explanatory comments) of
> customized configuration files to use in the /etc/grub.d
> directory, somewhere out there on the intertubes.
> 
> Specifically, what I hope to add is a "11_single" file
> to /etc/grub.d that adds a boot menu option for booting
> the most recent kernel in single user mode. 
> 
> Yes, I know I can select a menu entry with "e", and
> then edit "SINGLE" onto the end of the kernel line.
> However, I will typically only do this when something
> is wrong, I am in a hurry to fix it, and prone to
> mistakes.  I prefer to prepare for emergencies in
> advance, when I am calm and have time to think things
> through, so I will have more brain cells to focus on
> on the specifics of an unplanned emergency.
> 
> I do best by copying and understanding examples.  The
> example "41_custom" file has almost no useful comments;
> they are there to remind the grub2 maintainer, not teach
> a newbie to make safe tweaks.  Ditto the documentation.
> 
> Completely implemented and explained, the new grub2
> setup could be a lot safer and easier to use than the
> old grub setup.  But old grub was simple vi tweaks of
> a single grub.conf file, and the new setup requires
> far more knowledge to operate properly.  I prefer to
> learn from multiple tested examples.  I'd rather spend
> an hour than a week learning to do this.
> 
> Any suggestions?  I did find an almost-germane
> explanation of a particular grub2 customization at
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/CustomMenus
> but my brain is too small to translate that into the
> solution that I am hoping for.
> 
> Keith
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Raid confusion

[Tom]

Why new filer? They take more than one disk, no? Some of them can have
expansion enclosures too.
On Mon, 2017-04-03 at 15:31 -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Mon, 03 Apr 2017 14:40:39 -0700
> Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com> dijo:
> 
> > Raid 0 is striping - it combines the disk space from 2 or more
> > disks to
> > larger volume - obvious disadvantage is you loose all data on any
> > disk
> > failure and at RAID0 creation.
> > If you want the combined disk space from 2 disks and do not care
> > about
> > redundancy - just add the disk to your Synology filer, add it to
> > disk
> > group, create JBOD volume and you are done or you can create new
> > volume
> > and export it separately. In the event one of your disks failing,
> > the
> > data on the second one are normally accessible either in the filer
> > or
> > as ext4 filesystem.
> > I would think that using your Synology filer is better, safer and
> > more
> > reliable way to go than some exotic USB enclosure. Feel free to
> > bring
> > your filer + disk to PLUG clinic to get help.
> 
> Considering the problems I am having finding a reliable 2-bay USB
> enclosure with Raid I am revisiting the idea of just getting a second
> Synology. 
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Re: [PLUG] Raid confusion

[Tom]

Synology can auto expand storage volume by adding disks to redundant
RAID types such as RAID1,5 or 6. In your case, adding disk and asking
the filer to integrate it will add it to RAID1 configuration - you will
gain redundancy, not capacity. If you add another 2 disks and ask the
filer to integrate them - it will create RAID5 - giving you redundancy
and expand the storage capacity to 2x - RAID 5 uses one disk for
redundancy/parity, so the volume size is always sum(n-1), n-being
number of disks.
Raid 0 is striping - it combines the disk space from 2 or more disks to
larger volume - obvious disadvantage is you loose all data on any disk
failure and at RAID0 creation.
If you want the combined disk space from 2 disks and do not care about
redundancy - just add the disk to your Synology filer, add it to disk
group, create JBOD volume and you are done or you can create new volume
and export it separately. In the event one of your disks failing, the
data on the second one are normally accessible either in the filer or
as ext4 filesystem.
I would think that using your Synology filer is better, safer and more
reliable way to go than some exotic USB enclosure. Feel free to bring
your filer + disk to PLUG clinic to get help.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Mon, 2017-04-03 at 11:53 -0700, Robert Citek wrote:
> Most likely, yes.  The RAID (of any level) needs to be initialized,
> and that process will effectively wipe data on the attached physical
> devices.
> 
> That said, there are some interesting RAID-like technologies that
> automatically expand across new devices, e.g. Drobo, acting like a
> hybrid of RAID and LVM.  I don't know if Synology NAS employs that or
> similar technology.
> 
> Regards,
> - Robert
> 
> On Mon, Apr 3, 2017 at 10:44 AM, John Jason Jordan 
> wrote:
> > If I start with one 8TB drive in my Synology NAS, and later add
> > another and set them up as Raid 0, does the striping to Raid 0 mean
> > that the data on the existing drive gets wiped out?
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[PLUG] Linux Fest Northwest - Bellingham - May 6-7 2017

[Tom]

Conference details at: https://www.linuxfestnorthwest.org/2017

If anybody plans to go to LFNW and would like to share ride with me, I
can take up to 3 people for the annual pilgrimage North.
I plan to leave Portland on Friday 5th at about 3pm, returning back on
Sunday 7th after the conference (typically ends by 2pm).

If you are interested, please contact me privately,
Tomas

Small print:
I am friendly, and I try to be funny/entertaining, always - depending
on your taste, bring ear plugs, duct tape or sedatives.
I am flexible with the travel arrangements, as long as it does not mean
too late arrival on Friday or missing on the event on Sunday.
I can refrain from playing laud guitar music, classical pieces to
accommodate fellow geeks.
I do not do singalongs under any circumstance - If you like pain, bring
your own Vogon poetry and headphones.
This is no fuss trip - pitstops and quick food/sandwitch only - unless
you know of an excellent, casual, unforgettable place to eat, and we
have the time ;-)
I'll be staying in QualityInn on Kellog Rd., if you get accommodation
nearby expect to get local transport too.
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Re: [PLUG] Finding appropriate USENET group or mailing list?

[Tom]

Please try to understand - site:lists.pdxlinux.org is just a filter to
show relevant data from the mountain of search. It is all there, it
just needs to be pulled out using the query language of the search
engine.
What I am trying to say is - you need to be able to express what you
are looking for and - do efficiently in one simple sentence. If you
came to me and say "Comcast" you would probably hear something on the
top of my mind related to that term - My contract renewal is coming,
and they are one of the nastiest companies I had to deal with, ever.
That is all greatly "interesting", but probably not what you are
looking for to find out.
With the amount of stuff indexed by search engines, like with humans or
programming, it is the skill/art of expression to be able to ask the
right way in order to obtain the answers you are looking for. 
I consider myself human, at times, I skimmed your posts related to this
subject - honestly I cannot tell what you are talking about, not to
mention what answer you might be seeking. Part of it is that I do not
know much about the state of your mind, and I also do not know anything
about Usenet at this moment.
Not trying to defend AI/robots/GoogleProgramers - See how inefficient
and ambiguous is my answer above, most people would be done with
reading and trying to understand by the second sentence.
Yours truly, philosopher, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-04-02 at 05:56 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> {rearranged text to maintain flow of thought;}
> On 04/02/2017 12:47 AM, Tom wrote:
> > On Sat, 2017-04-01 at 09:18 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > [SNIP]
> > > 
> > > Search engines aren't intelligent enough. They can retrieve
> > > individual posts with a keyword. They will likely return a
> > > link if the keyword is in the group's or list's name/title.
> > > But will give no hint that a particular topic is "on topic".
> > > For example if one was looking for
> > > information on "Debian", "Ubuntu", or "Comcast", I know of no
> > > search
> > > engine that would return "lists.pdxlinux.org".
> > > 
> > Try Google searching for: Comcast site:lists.pdxlinux.org
> > https://www.google.com/search?q=Comcast+site:lists.pdxlinux.org
> 
> That actually demonstrates the point I was trying {unsuccessfully?} 
> trying to make. I.E. if you want to if a subject is covered by a 
> specific list then do a "site search". However there is no method for
> discovering a previously unknown site that covers a subject. THAT 
> requires human intelligence not AI.
> (that link claims 59 results is "About 3,720 results" ;/)
> 
> 
> > See other Google search details:
> > https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en
> > https://www.lifewire.com/advanced-google-search-3482174
> 
> I won't say what I think those links say about Google Inc. They did 
> suggest a way however to *COERCE* it to be a search engine.
> http://www.google.com/advanced_search appears to provide a
> pictographic 
> representation of a Boolean search for Google's [pejorative
> adjectives 
> deleted] target audience.
> 
> > Best luck, Tomas
> 
> Thank you for trying.
> 
> > 
> > > That's why I asked here having already come up dry with search
> > > engines.
> > > 
> > > > [snip]
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Finding appropriate USENET group or mailing list?

[Tom]

Try Google searching for: Comcast site:lists.pdxlinux.org
https://www.google.com/search?q=Comcast+site%3Alists.pdxlinux.org=ut
f-8=utf-8
See other Google search details:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en
https://www.lifewire.com/advanced-google-search-3482174
Best luck, Tomas
On Sat, 2017-04-01 at 09:18 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 03/31/2017 05:41 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:
> > On Fri, 31 Mar 2017, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > 
> > > If USENET then I have adequate server -- need title
> > > If mailing list, need pointer to archive and subscription info
> > 
> >Two different animals. I've searched the web for mail lists on
> > specific topics and learned wheter one exists.
> 
> Search engines aren't intelligent enough. They can retrieve
> individual 
> posts with a keyword. They will likely return a link if the keyword
> is 
> in the group's or list's name/title. But will give no hint that a 
> particular topic is "on topic". For example if one was looking for 
> information on "Debian", "Ubuntu", or "Comcast", I know of no search 
> engine that would return "lists.pdxlinux.org".
> 
> That's why I asked here having already come up dry with search
> engines.
> 
> > 
> >USENET is a pull system like web-based fora. In the latter world
> > stackoverflow and stackexchange are very good resources for
> > computer- and software-related questions. Sometimes these are the
> > only available resources.
> > 
> > Carpe weekend,
> > 
> > Rich
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Movie fan needs storage space

[Tom]

That is to be expected for a drive behind simple USB to SATA
controller. If the drive is internally SATA, pull it out of the
enclosure, connect it to SATA port in your PC and get the info.
>From my experience the drives in USB enclosures are typically fine and
have clean Smart data. Data corruption typically happens due to
disconnects, crashes or the usb-sata controller, unless of course it
suffered an impact. Once you recover the data, reformat the drive or
replace broken enclosure, things go back to normal. Based on limited 4
USB drives experience from various people I helped ...
On Sat, 2017-04-01 at 10:15 -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Mar 2017 23:09:25 -0700
> Chuck Hast  dijo:
> 
> > sudo apt install smartmontools, or whichever tool your distro uses
> > to
> > pull down
> > applications. smartctl is part of the above package.
> 
> Thanks. Got it installed and it works. The only problem is that the
> external USB drive that I am worried about returned this:
> 
> SMART support is: Unavailable - device lacks SMART capability.
> Error Counter logging not supported
> Device does not support Self Test logging
> 
> Sigh. :(
> 
> Oh well. I don't have the purchase information, but it has to be at
> least past its three year warranty and the issues it is displaying
> convince me that it's time for replacement.
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Re: [PLUG] Movie fan needs storage space

[Tom]

On Fri, 2017-03-31 at 14:59 -0700, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Fri, 31 Mar 2017 13:18:32 -0700
> Tom <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com> dijo:
> 
> > I wish other companies would publish yearly hardware failure rates
> > like
> > this one:
> > https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-benchmark-stats-2016/
> 
> I've been there before, but I find their web page impossible to
> figure
> out.
> 
> > > I have had a lot of Seagates die, but every few WD drives, and
> > > never
> > > had one just up and quit, the WD's always gave me some sort of
> > > warning prior
> > > to taking a dive, the Seagates were bad about just failing.
> 
> I can echo your sentiments about Seagates failing - I've had the same
> experience. However, I recently heard or read (can't remember where)
> that Seagates lately have become much better and are now worthy of
> consideration. Even if true, their previous performance has lost me
> as
> a customer. We customers tend to have long memories.
The problem you are trying to address, cannot be solved by currently
available data:
You want the latest, the largest capacity and the most reliable drive
you can get your hands on:
  - There is no reliability data available for these drives until maybe
year or two later - at which point you will know whether your drive
works or not.
  - You are focusing on drives with extended warranty - which is
rational at first look - but all that that guarantees you - is the
drive replacement, not your data.
  - If you think that warranty length correlates to failure rate, that
is not necessarily the case - what you are actually buying is drive
replacement promise.
 - If you have two identical size drives for identical price with
different warranty - the longer warranty drive must be more reliable to
be equally profitable.
 - If you buy identical size drive with 2x longer warranty at 3x
the price - the reliability can be equal or only marginally better to
achieve higher profits. Depending on how easy/cheap you make the
replacement/shipping process.
If you want to maximize/guarantee data reliability for given $$$ - the
sweet spot is mainstream, good price, known reliability drives in
redundant setup such as RAID/ZFS/Btrfs/HDFS/..., typically accessed
over network.
This way you can chose your reliability/size/speed/$$$ ratio and you
can share the storage between all your computers too, minimizing the
cost per computer and decoupling the storage from computers.
I hope it helps, Tomas
> > 
> > > 
> > > The idea of purchasing a external drive case and buiding your own
> > > drive is a good idea. 
> > > 

> > 

> 
> 
> That is the best bit of advice I have seen in this thread. In fact,
> that is exactly what I now plan to do.
> 
> 
> > 
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > For instance, the WD Black and Datacenter drives appear to
> > > > have 5 year warranties, as does the Seagate BarraCuda Pro.
> > > > galen
> > > > 

> > > 

> > 

> 
> 
> I know that the 8TB WD in my Synology has a five year warranty, but
> I'll be damned if I can remember which color it is or which model
> number. I just spent the last half hour looking everywhere for the
> purchase details, but all I can determine is that it was not from
> Amazon, and the date must have been early July 2016, because that's
> when I signed up for the Synology forums, and I bought the drive and
> the Synology at the same time. I also remember them both arriving in
> the mail. 
> 
> For drives inside my computer I can get the drive information with
> Palimpsest (now Gnome-drive-something), or gparted, but those two do
> not see the NAS and I have no idea how to poke at it to get the drive
> model number. I'd like to get another of the same model because the
> Synology is a two-bay NAS and some day I might want to use it there. In
> the meantime I'll get a USB enclosure for it. 
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Re: [PLUG] Awk script repositories?

[Tom]

While this is not the answer you are looking for - if you are looking
for all sorts of data manipulation libraries - I would turn your
attention to Python or Perl - both have more libraries than you could
discover/learn in one lifetime.
While awk is supper fast and convenient, especially when used in pipes,
it is not the shining example of modern modular tool for large/long
projects. That being said, you are probably using unique data files and
formats for every little thing you do. So, you will need at least some
light custom data processing for each of those jobs, and in that case,
reusable awk scripts maybe a good choice.
Tomas
On Fri, 2017-03-31 at 14:05 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>Are there available repositories of working, complex awk scripts
> for
> manipulating large text files? These are not related to system or
> network
> administration, but general business information.
> 
>I frequently have large lists, such as names and addresses, that
> need to
> be re-organized (e.g., grouped by county) or reformatted (e.g., for
> insertion into database tables). It is really time consuming to do
> all this
> manually and I'm not sufficiently experienced writing complex awk
> scripts to
> know where to begin writing my own.
> 
>If there are libraries of such scripts I might find one that does
> what I
> need in any given situation, or find several that I can glue together
> to
> accomplish what needs to be done.
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] CentOS 7 iso too big to burn...

[Tom]

I would advise you against trying to install Linux to drive you just
booted from - the things will likely go wrong as soon as the installer
start partitioning the drive.
While you could pre-partition the drive for the install before booting
from it - avoiding partitioning - you could still run into trouble when
making the partitions bootable.
Put the ISO on USB stick, you will save yourself a lot of time and
trouble. Here is how: 
https://www.linuxunit.com/how-to-create-bootable-usb-key-centos7/
Alternatively you could setup boot server and install from that via PXE
- If you have spare PC and do not mind setting up DHCP, tftp, NFS
server and setting up PXE boot image. Although that would probably take
longer to setup than driving to the nearest store for a USB stick. The
advantage, you could automate it and use the setup to install a lot of
PCs pretty quickly.
Best luck, Tomas
On Thu, 2017-03-30 at 23:21 -0700, Nat Taylor wrote:
> Install from usb key? 
> https://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
> might fit on an 8gb, def a 16gb
> 
> Or maybe just dd the install file onto your partition and pretend its
> a usb
> key and tell your bios to boot from that partition?
> 
> dd if=CentOS-6.5-x86_64-bin-DVD1.iso of=/dev/sdb1
> 
> note that I put the 1 on the end of /dev/sdb , as you are dd'ing to
> the
> partition, not the drive.   Worth a try.  make sure you get that
> partition
> right, so you don't wipe stuff out.
> 
> On Thu, Mar 30, 2017 at 10:59 PM, Michael Robinson <
> mich...@robinson-west.com> wrote:
> 
> > The CentOS 7 iso is 7.8 gigs.  My DVD-R media tops out at about
> > half that.  The server I'm trying to upgrade would have to use
> > an external DVD drive in order to upgrade from a DVD.
> > 
> > I am trying to upgrade from CentOS 6.8 to CentOS 7.3.  I want
> > to install CentOS 7.3 on a newly installed and unused 500 gig SSD.
> > So far, I have created a 10G ext2 partition at the beginning of the
> > new SSD and I have copied the CentOS 7.3 iso's contents to it.  I
> > used a loop mount to mount the iso and then cp -av.  I am trying
> > to figure out how to install from a local hard drive instead of
> > a DVD disk.
> > 
> > I have Grub 1 in CentOS 6.8, is there a way to trigger the
> > installer
> > from my existing Grub on the second SSD?  Can I seamlessly upgrade
> > the old CentOS 6.8 to use Grub 2 instead of Grub 1?
> > 
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Re: [PLUG] question on upgrading

[Tom]

To be honest, I do not fully understand what is your partitioning
scheme and what do you mean by scrubbing /usr, /var, /lib, /bin, /etc
partitions.
Scrubbing, in my mind, means cleaning, keeping your old stuff, but
cleaning/removing temporary or unused files <-- I am afraid that that
old 13.2 binaries, libraries and many config files would not work in
new system such as current 42.2.
For the sake of my opinion below, I hope that you do not have following
partitions: /usr, /var, /lib, /bin, /etc - I would not recommend this
partition scheme, unless you have good reasons for it.
1. In principle, you can keep your existing partitions as long as your
needs did not change and you are willing to do the required manual
configuration.
2. I would recommend deleting existing installation by formatting
partitions outside your /home partition
3. Default, stable and in my opinion good partition scheme for 42.x is:
   /boot/efi  vfat   ~180MB
   swap   swap   ~2GB  unless you need more
   /  btrfs  ~25GB this is about 2x what it used to be with
ext4 due to the space needed for snapshots
   Your needs might vary depending on DB, http,
virtual drive files
   /home  xfs  if you have existing /home partition with
data, by all means keep it
4. Note on /home: Delete all application and desktop environment data
from /home by removing all kde, gnome and config data. Not doing so
will cause issues in your desktop environment. I normally delete all
files and directories starting with '.' and anything I did not create
such as Documents, Downloads, Videos, Music, Email . meaning - keep
your data, but delete everything else.
5. Note on /: if you chose to use not default (btrfs) root '/ '
directory such as ext4, then, you will not need more than about 12GB
for normal desktop system.
6, Note on btrfs: After using btrfs for root partition for about 3
years, I quite like the automated snapshots and how it integrates with
the boot and restore process. The default setup isolates directories
such as /var, /srv, /boot/grub2, /usr, /opt into separate btrfs sub
-volumes which is great for things like DB files, virtual images, etc.
This is used to turn off snapshots and CoW for the appropriate sub
-volumes. The automatic snapshots have saved me from serious trouble or
reinstalling - when trouble comes, just boot older snapshot, delete the
new one, reboot and you are back to any past updates or a config state.

I think, because of the above, and due to the fact that you should have
backup before reinstalling, that it would be easier to start from an
empty disk and restore your data from backup after the fresh instal.
This can be done during install at Suggested Partitioning step by
choosing: Create Partition Setup --> Choose Hard Disk --> Use Entire
Hard Disk

It could make your life easier to note and replicate existing users
together with their UIDs. You can create them manually from your notes
or Import User Data from a Previous Install - Select all or desired
users to import. Please note that this will only import user names,
groups, UIDs and GIDs, not their actual data from /home.
As always, you can experiment and get more familiar with the
installation process using virtual machine. Your current openSuse 13.2
should run VirtualBox or KVM without any trouble.
You can get help with the install at the Linux clinic or feel free to
reach out to me any time.
Best luck, Tomas
On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 19:58 -0700, logical american wrote:
> To all:
> 
> I am going to have to soon upgrade from openSuse Linux v13.2 to the 
> newer Leap version. But what I don't know is whether to scrub my
> /usr, 
> /var, /lib, /bin, /etc and other system partitions and leave my /home
> partition alone and hope that the installer on the DVD will NOT
> insist 
> upon repartitioning the disk and set up a newer linux into the new 
> partitions, but will overlay into the already existing partitions.
> 
> The current partitions are pretty balanced as to the necessary sizes,
> including swap.
> 
> Or I can make a copy of the /home area, then clean the hard drive and
> install fresh, as openSuse prefers.
> 
> Is it better to do the 2nd, just copy your own IP, save it,  then 
> install fresh and then copy back all your data to /home?
> 
> Either method, I still have to reinstall my own local programs back
> into 
> /usr and /etc areas, including the HP printer CUPS program.
> 
> Randall
> 
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Re: [PLUG] HP laptop

[Tom]

My experience with UEFI on HP and Lenovo laptops goes like this:
 * Unless you can import your distribution signing keys (openSuSE and SuSE 
installers do that automatically) or disable secure UEFI boot you will have 
various degrees of trouble double booting. Although the UEFI boot menu (usually 
F12) should still get you boot from whatever GTP partition you want to boot 
from.
 * Please note that disabling secure UEFI boot typically means that you get 
some degree of manual intervention hassle booting Win10
 * If you care about your Win installation, I recommend to create and verify 
Windows recovery media and automate or at least document your Linux install. 
This might come handy if you loose signed Win10 boot-loader or cannot boot 
Windows anymore or learn about to make the setup better.
 * Double booting is automatically setup by SuSE and Ubuntu installers 
typically only for the first time. So if you change distribution, reinstall or 
do not succeed at UEFI and Windows detection - you will need to 
adjust/configure the boot loader manually. I find it annoying at most because 
to manually configure UEFI require significant knowledge and I only do that 
once per couple of years, so I always forget wow it all works and do not have 
the days required to re-learn all that stuff - it is also moving target.
 * These days, I typically solve this by wiping Windows altogether and run it 
in VM under Linux if I need to, which I normally do not need to do.
Overall, I think that this UEFI thing is succeeding at making dual boot
predictably unpredictable hassle. That being said, it mostly lets you
boot Linux and Windows without too much of a fight even when enabled.
Warning - personal opinion below:
We went from a state where dual boot was so trivial to setup that the
installers almost always took care of it.
Today, Everybody who wants to dual boot Win10+, regardless whether they
can disable the secure boot or not, will have various degrees of
trouble running around the booting process. If a person does not have
any hassle now, they can expect it in the future either with the boot
process itself or loading compiled drivers, kernel, etc at least once
in a while at reinstall times.
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-03-28 at 10:57 -0700, VY wrote:
> Hello All:
> 
> 
> We have an HP laptop that we attempted to install Linux on it.  At
> the very
> end, there were issues in writing the bootloader (laptop is UEFI
> based).
> 
> Right now, it won’t boot up.
> 
> 
> 
> Do you know how Linux can be installed on such kind of laptop?
> 
> Before I Google, I thought I ask about any personal experience here.
> 
> 
> thanks
> 
> 
> -v
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Re: [PLUG] Linux Mint / Evolution <--SYNC--> Galaxy S7 ?

[Tom]

I use iCal for synchronizing evolution calendar and cardDav for the
address book with android's default calendar and address book via self
-hosted ownCloud. I guess that you could do it without ownCloud, but it
need quit a bit of manual synchronization without always on and always
accessible addressBook/Calendar ...DAV server such as ownCloud.
I have some rough notes on my Linux configuration here: 
https://www.tomask.org/noticeBoard/evolutionOwnCloudConfig.html
On the Android side, I use iCal and cardDav to synchronize my calendar
and address book to my ownCloud. It is simple as that. The only
inconvenience I need to occasionally take care of - is to manually
initiate a sync after each iCal or cardDav app update to "sort of"
unstuck it. It is not big deal as the apps update only a few times a
year.
I am not sure is there is some Samsung S7 related dependency. I doubt
it, but maybe if one uses some special calendar/addressBook Android app
incompatible with the cal/cardDAV protocol.
If you need more details, feel free to follow up,
Tomas
On Sun, 2017-03-26 at 17:27 -0700, Charles Sliger wrote:
> Does anyone out there have experience putting something like this
> together?
> 
> Linux Mint / Evolution / Radicale / Galaxy S7 / SyncEvolution 
> 
> > From what I can gather on the web, this seems like it should enable
> syncing the Calendar and Contacts info between my Linux Mint system
> and
> my Samsung Galaxy S7 smartphone.
> 
> I can't seem to find documentation on how it actually works other
> than
> generalized CalDAV / WebDAV info.
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Monitor... dead audio

[Tom]

Before replacing any parts, it may be worth to try to inject some audio
signal to the amp amplifier first  there are other failure modes
possible such as PCB, capacitor, mixer/volume control, DAC, .. 
In any case, when you get all the way here into the TV - you could even
explore integrating the whole R-Pi with an amplifier shield into the
thing wiring the speakers directly from the shield  and a lot of
other possibilities when you are really determined and equiped with
soldering iron, osciloscope, 
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-03-25 at 11:16 -0700, Galen Seitz wrote:
> On 03/25/17 10:48, Chuck Hast wrote:
> > Yes, I have tried both inputs, and zip. There is something wrong in
> > the
> > audio
> > path. I can feed another TV with the HDMI cable from the RPi and
> > get good
> > audio, so the issue is with the TV/Monitor. I can tell you this
> > much
> > Westinghouse
> > is useless, I sent them a note to the address given for such
> > issues, they
> > sent
> > me a USER manual which I had stated very clearly that I had. Then
> > they sent
> > me a 800 number, I called that, they told me they were going to
> > send it
> > right
> > out to me, they sent me a USER manual, called them and told them
> > that I
> > already had the USER manual, and that I needed the service manual,
> > guy told
> > me he did not have it, asked to talk to a manager and he hung up on
> > me.
> > 
> > Called back, got a chick, she pulled up the trouble ticket number
> > and put me
> > on hold, and never came back online. Whatabunchaputzes...
> > 
> > I have looked high and low for it, I am trying to go through the
> > FCC it has
> > a
> > FCC symbol on the back but no grantee code. So not sure what is
> > going on,
> > flat screen tv/monitors fall under part 15 because they radiate, so
> > they
> > have
> > to have gone through the radiation testing, unless the label is
> > boggus.
> > 
> > Once I can get the grantee I will KNOW who the actual manufacterer
> > is, and
> > I can try to go to them. Or FCC may have it on the site, I have got
> > diagrams
> > of devices off of the FCC site before.
> 
> I think there's a snowball's chance that you'll track down a manual.
> Actually I'd say there's a snowball's chance that a manual even
> exists,
> much less getting a hold of one.  Then there's the potential language
> issue.
> 
> Assuming you're comfortable working on this and know enough to stay
> away
> from the AC supply ... sorry, I should have noticed the call sign
> earlier.  That probably means what I'm about to suggest is what you
> would have done anyway.
> 
> Pull the rear cover.
> 
> Find the audio amp if you can.  Presumably it's an integrated class D
> amp.  Post the part number here if you find it.
> 
> Look for a datasheet.  If you can find one, consider that a minor
> miracle.
> 
> Feed an audio signal into the monitor.  My preference would be the
> 3.5
> mm jack.
> 
> Probe the audio amp, looking for the line level audio.  Check the
> supply
> pins too.
> 
> Discover that the amp is dead.
> 
> Order a replacement part.  This is where the major miracle occurs.
> 
> Replace the part and cross your fingers.
> 
> 
> galen
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Re: [PLUG] Raspbian sqlite project...

[Tom]

Hi Michael,
I assume that you are somewhat familiar with C and SQL.
If you need SQL introduction (essential for using any SQL DB) I would
recommend: https://www.w3schools.com/sql/ and replicate the examples
using sqlite3 command line interface.
You will see plenty SQL examples how to count rows in a table or table
selection.
With that out of the way, here is the answer you are looking for in C:
1. Consider C code example here: https://www.sqlite.org/quickstart.html
2. main function: int main(int argc, char **argv) if you compile it and
call the resulting program from shell - it takes 2 parameters.
  So, example command line would look like: mySqlProgram sqlDbName
"sqlCommand"
3. Following on SQL the basics: Use that command to create DB, create
table, insert some data rows, etc.
4. Use the code from Jonas like this: mySqlProgram sqlDbName "SELECT
Count(*) FROM tblName"
Note: Replace sqlDbName and tblName as appropriate.
I hope it helps, Tomas
On Tue, 2017-03-21 at 22:56 -0700, Michael Christopher Robinson wrote:
> > Why don't you make the (sensor,timestamp) combination the primary
> > key
> > instead?
> > 
> Makes sense, how do I set the combination (sensor,timestamp) as the
> primary key in C code?  Note that I'm using sqlite3.h.
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Re: [PLUG] Multiple hard drive types in SAS raids.

[Tom]

Here is how I look at this...
There are couple of potential issues with mixing different disks and
speeds - 1. reliability 2. economy
1. Reliability - The level of risk depends mainly on whether you are
using software or hardware RAID.
  There is no additional risk for software RAID as long as the disks
work.
  The risk for hardware RAID comes from insufficient testing and not
following your HW RAID controller
  recommendations/spec. Check your RAID card manual and spec - that
should answer the risk level.
  In my somewhat limited experience with couple of hundreds drives -
there is rarely speed/manufacture
  requirement. It is just usual practice in the enterprise, not often
followed by the storage vendors themselves.
2. Economy - mixing fast and slow drive is waste of $$$ for the faster
drives - the RAID is only as fast as its
  slowest component.
Please note that there are other reliability issues to consider beside
mixing different drives and speeds - such as are all the drives
suitable for 24/7 operations, MTTF, max spin up counts, heat, etc.
Perhaps it is one of these monkey's wisdom cases: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-PvBo75PDo
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-03-21 at 19:28 -0700, Thomas Groman wrote:
> It has become quite expensive to maintain all the same vendor and
> model
> 15K SAS drives in large raid arrays.
> 
> Would using different vendor SAS drives in the same array cause any
> problems/performance degradation/reliability/ differences?
> 
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Re: [PLUG] serial communication over ethernet (VY)

[Tom]

While I do not have direct experience with the device, I see a few
misconceptions in what you describe.

1. I assume that you want to configure, setup, control and use the
Lantronix device from a Linux PC.
2. You need to have working network which you can use to communicated
with the Lantronix device
3. The normal and easiest way is to connect both Linux PC and Lantronix
device to working network with DHCP address assignment.
4. In order to communicate to the Lantronix device you need to know its
IP address.
   You can find it the IP by executing this on your Linux PC: arp -a
   This will list all devices known to your PC. Here is example output
from my PC formatted to columns for readability:
   > /sbin/arp -a | column -t
 pc01 (192.168.1.214) at  00:60:2F:3C:14:A5  [ether]  on  eth0
 ?(192.168.1.10)  at  00:60:2F:9E:B7:B4  [ether]  on  eth0
 gateway  (192.168.1.1)   at  00:60:2F:95:56:F9  [ether]  on  eth0
 srvr01   (192.168.1.11)  at  00:60:2F:B7:24:D5  [ether]  on  eth0
   >
   One of the IPs (2nd column) will be your Lantronix device.
   You can see which one it is either by its name or try to connect to
the suspects by telnet
5. Connecting by telnet from your PC is described in the PDF document
bellow:
   Example: telnet 192.168.1.10:
   Then pres Enter within 5 seconds to configure the serial port part
of the Lantronix device
   Save and exit the configuration - it should remember the configured
values
   If you do not want to use DHCP network the next time you use the
device - configure it
   with static IP of your choice, but do not forget the static IP.
6. Connect something to the serial port of the Lantronix device and
communicate
   with it using telnet connection

If you do not have working network with DHCP address assignment
available - step 3 above
you will need to create it. This can be done by number of ways the
easiest one would be
to use home router/gateway with multiple ethernet ports (use the LAN
ports) to connect
the PC to Lantronix device. You should not need to connect the
router/gateway to the Internet.

Alternatively, you could use your PCs ethernet port and setup simple
DHCP server
on your PC to assign IP to the Lantronix device. Please note that if
you do this,
you will need to disable the DHCP server before connecting the PC to
any other network,
otherwise you would most likely cause serious trouble for the connected
devices.
Google for: How to setup DHCP server on ubuntu/centos/

I hope this helps, Tomas

On Mon, 2017-03-20 at 15:46 -0700, VY wrote:
> I just tried to configure this Lantronix device but my experience
> seems a
> bit different than yours.
> I am connecting to the device via a normal ethernet cable.
> 
> I connected it and has the following messages showing in
> /var/log/messages
> (include below)
> I then tried using "nmtui" to set an IP on the NIC where the device
> is
> connected.  I am able to do so, activated the NIC and able to
> ping the IP.   I don't see how I can configure things like baud rate.
>   And
> I believe "nmtui" is only configuring the NIC and not actually
> writing the
> IP onto the
> Lantronix unit.
> 
> When running "arp -a", I also don't see this device (or the NIC to
> which
> this is connected to) showing up.
> I have not connected to my LAN yet since I do not have a router. 
>  Even if I
> do, I would have to login to router configuration to see what is it
> new IP.
> I am hoping I can configure this unit from a Linux box and nothing
> else.
> 
> I think I am missing something.
> How do I actually configure it from my Linux host?
> 
> Any help much appreciated.
> 
> 
> 
> --   /var/log/messages   --
> 
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper kernel: igb :03:00.0 enp3s0: igb:
> enp3s0
> NIC Link is Up 10 Mbps Half Duplex, Flow Control: None
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.4918] device (enp3s0): link connected
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.4931] device (enp3s0): state change: unavailable ->
> disconnected (reason 'carrier-changed') [20 30 40]
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.4951] policy: auto-activating connection 'enp3s0'
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.5043] device (enp3s0): Activation: starting connection
> 'enp3s0'
> (4db2432d-0792-46b8-b045-682a2cdddf4f)
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.5051] device (enp3s0): state change: disconnected ->
> prepare
> (reason 'none') [30 40 0]
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.5118] device (enp3s0): state change: prepare -> config
> (reason
> 'none') [40 50 0]
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper NetworkManager[875]: 
> [1490049576.5278] device (enp3s0): state change: config -> ip-config
> (reason 'none') [50 70 0]
> Mar 20 15:39:36 en12-beekeeper avahi-daemon[761]: Joining mDNS
> multicast
> group on interface enp3s0.IPv4 with address 

Re: [PLUG] USB to ethernet adapters

[Tom]

I have used the adapter Wes suggested and it works like a charm on
Linux, and it is good price for $10.
If you need to buy local (limited choice) and want to be sure that it
works, why not bring a laptop and try to plug it in it should show as a
network card.
You should be able to see and inspect the new network (ethernet)
interface by any of the following commands:
ip link
ifconfig
hwinfo --netcard
hwinfo --network
lshw -class network
Best luck, Tomas
On Mon, 2017-03-20 at 15:51 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 03/20/2017 03:28 PM, wes wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 20, 2017 at 12:59 PM, Richard Owlett <
> > rowl...@cloud85.net>
> > wrote:
> > 
> > > On 03/19/2017 08:25 AM, David wrote:
> > > > On 03/19/2017 05:45 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > > > > The recent thread about the Lantronix XPort caught my
> > > > > attention.
> > > > > A quick search found a variety of USB to ethernet adapters.
> > > > > 
> > > > > I will be visiting a local Staples next week. Their website
> > > > > lists
> > > several.
> > > > > What should I look for?
> > > > > A better question might be "What should I avoid?"
> > > > > TIA
> > > > 
> > > > I can't speak for Staples specifically, but I recently bought a
> > > > laptop
> > > > without RJ-45 on-board and successfully used both an old
> > > > Netgear FA120
> > > > and an Apple USB-RJ45 without any problems.
> > > 
> > > I visited the local Staples. All they stock locally is an Apple
> > > product,
> > > MC704ll/A. The package label says it is for use with only a
> > > Macbook Air.
> > > A web search was inconclusive - 1 says can't work, 1 says works
> > > fine.
> > > 
> > > Is that the model you have?
> > > Should it work easily with Debian Jessie?
> > > TIA
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > sounds like a lot of extra money for uncertain function. I would be
> > very
> > surprised to find that this model won't work on any mainstream
> > linux
> > distribution, however I'm not willing to bet $20 on that
> > expectation.
> 
> Nor I ;/
> That is why I asked if it was the model David used.
> 
> > This one:
> > https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ET4KHJ2
> > does work on any OS you can dream up.
> 
>  It was Amazon and Ebay, from their respective foundings,
> which 
> are my primary reason for dealing with with brick-b-mortar vendors. 
> There is one more local vendor to check. They are now primarily an IT
> consultant, but I've been a low volume customer for >20 years, since 
> they started as a consumer oriented storefront.
> 
> > 
> > -wes
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] USB to ethernet adapters

[Tom]

USB2 with maximum transfer speed 480 Mb/s is plenty fast for fast
ethernet (100Mb/s) but not fast enough for 1 Gb/s ethernet - hence
those come mainly wit USB3 (or 3.0 or 3.1 v1 to confuse people) which
is 5Gb/s. Please note that USB3 gigabit ethernet adapter will work just
fine with recent linux when plugged in USB2 port.
I used may "no name" USB2 and USB3 to ethernet adapters over the years
and never had any issues with them on linux the "brands" were selected
at random by their price and form factor mainly: Cable Matters,
AmazonBasics, Anker, StarTech, SIIG and Linksys. The adapters are about
$10 for 100Mb/s and $15 for 1Gb/s on amazon.com - they are all
backwards compatible to 10/100Mb/s.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Sun, 2017-03-19 at 08:59 -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 03/19/2017 08:25 AM, David wrote:
> > On 03/19/2017 05:45 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > > The recent thread about the Lantronix XPort caught my attention.
> > > A quick search found a variety of USB to ethernet adapters.
> > > 
> > > I will be visiting a local Staples next week. Their website lists
> > > several.
> > > What should I look for?
> > > A better question might be "What should I avoid?"
> > > TIA
> > 
> > I can't speak for Staples specifically, but I recently bought a
> > laptop
> > without RJ-45 on-board and successfully used both an old Netgear
> > FA120
> > and an Apple USB-RJ45 without any problems.
> > 
> > The only thing to note (if not mentioned elsewhere already) is that
> > most
> > of the USB dongles only support 100MB speeds for data transfer. If
> > you
> > need speeds exceeding that, you may run into compatibility issues
> > with
> > Linux and likely pay a premium for that feature.
> > 
> > dafr
> 
> My only speed criteria is that it is as fast the 56k dialup link I
> used 
> up until ~1 year ago.
> 
> Also, the old machine that prompted this question only has USB 2.
> 
> Thank you
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu and NFS during boot

[Tom]

You could use "user" and "noauto" mount options in fstab instead of
relying on "bg" and then run mount command with timeout by a script in
a loop very couple of minutes until it is mounted. Or give up after so
many unsuccessful attempts.
Would that work for you?
On Fri, 2017-03-17 at 20:36 -0700, John Meissen wrote:
> robert.ci...@gmail.com said:
> > Sounds like you want autofs:
> > 
> > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Autofs 
> 
> No, different use case. What I want is for 'mount' to work the way
> it's 
> supposed to:
> 
>   bg / fg   Determines  how the mount(8) command behaves if an
> attempt
> to mount an export fails.  The fg option causes mount(8)
> to 
> exit with an error status if any part of the  mount 
>  request
> times  out  or  fails  outright.  This is called a
> "foreground"
> mount, and is the default behavior if neither the fg nor
> bg 
> mount option is specified.
> 
> If the bg option is specified, a timeout or failure
> causes the
> mount(8) command to fork a child  which  continues  to 
>  attempt
> to mount the export.  The parent immediately returns
> with a zero exit code.  This is known as a "background"
> mount.
> 
> It works fine if I run it manually. What's different about the boot
> process?
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Wireless video cameras?

[Tom]

While I will not be recommending any HW beside R-Pi - here is my
experience with the use of security cameras for similar purpose in the
past:
* If you want your recording actionable by PD - please talk to them
first about what they need.
* If the image quality or camera placement is not good enough to be
used as evidence - they might not be able to help you. This is
surprisingly hard to do.
* The only affordable and good enough camera placement I could come up
was in the door itself disguised as normal view port + porch light at
night + sound recording. This surprisingly unobtainable product, given
the obvious utility value.
* If you do not want to end up having additional hassle - make sure
that you are not recording public or neighbors, etc. - as that usually
invites challenges/conflicts or more vandalism with an aid of a hoodie,
distance rock throwing and various face covering schemes.
I found it very frustrating and almost impossible to defend self
against persistent occasional vandals and local harassment, especially
juvenile. The more you fight it, the more attractive it is for the
perpetrators. If your trouble is persistent, be ready for many
disappointments, lots of PD report filing legwork, cost for repair and
legal help.
Good luck
On Mon, 2017-03-13 at 16:40 -0700, Rich Shepard wrote:
>A while ago someone exploded a small pipe bomb in my mailbox.
> While this
> is the first incident of its type in the 24 years I've lived here
> past
> performance is no guarantee of future behaviors. And, I have a couple
> of
> vehicles parked outside (one in the driveway the other along the
> curb).
> Neighborhood vandalism seems to be increasing in spots around the
> metropolitan area and where the next acts occur cannot be predicted.
> 
>Given the hackability of many IoT devices, I would like to
> purchase a
> securable color video camera I can mount outside that would record
> when
> started by a motion sensor (like my exterior garage light) and
> transmit
> results to my desktop server.
> 
>Is such hardware and suitable linux software available?
> Recommendations
> and advice are needed.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Browsers and banks

[Tom]

Did you try with some other Linux computer, perhaps with different
distribution?
I know that this is hard to hear and do - If this truly is your Bank's
problem - maybe the time has come to move the accounts to somewhere
where they can serve your needs.
I had to do this couple of times in my life, and it is not pretty nor
easy (that's what banks are banking on), but changing bank is very
effective in resolving all sorts of bureaucratic issues. It is getting
easier as I they remind me the level of commitment towards me. It works
like this:
1. pick a new bank
2. open an account with minimal funds
3. verify that all works as you need, including  electronic transfers,
bill pay, bank cards, etc. This might take month or two.
4. transfer some funds over from the old bank and transfer
payments/customers
5. Wait at least another month or two to see if you feel good about the
new bank
6. De-fund the old bank account and close it or leave it be --> no
transactions should mean no cost, right?
I know what many people would say, this is difficult, hassle, I am
busy, what about the children/customers, and I like the bank, if only
they would fix X and maybe Y 
This is how economy is supposed to work, vote with your feet after you
tried to fix it. Bank will not change for one customer, but might
change for 100+ or chose to go out of business.
If people/customers/voters would be willing to behave at least as
aggressively as the banks/gov./businesses/politicians/ISPs behave
towards them - the world would likely be different place.
Just imagine, how well would you feel  car dealer  this is not
meant to be political.
I do not have issues with on-line banking with BoA, Fidelity, UBS, 
hell ... airlines even give me discount for shopping from Linux PC
versus wife's Mac or Windows PC!
Tomas
On Wed, 2017-03-08 at 09:53 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Wed, 8 Mar 2017, Richard Owlett wrote:
> 
> > Look carefully. Our local morning TV news (SouthWest Missouri)
> > about a
> > scam that had a very good visual imitation of the legitimate site.
> > What
> > warned the possible victim was looking carefully at the displayed
> > URL.
> 
>I strongly doubt that a fake site would ask the same security
> questions
> and accept the answers when they are correct. Not quite the second
> layer
> security of sending a one-time numeric key to my cell phone, but
> close
> enough.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Reverse SSH tunnel

[Tom]

Reverse ssh tunnel is secure solution, if configured properly and using
robust keys, access control and strong password. It keeps control over
the connection with the connecting user/site as it should be in normal
customer/supplier relationship.
I do not want to speculate about what you've heard. If you were not
told why/what the problem is, I would do due diligence on the ssh side
(patching CVE reviews, access logs, configuration, best practices, key
rotation, etc.), formally request details from the person making the
security issue claim. If the outcome is not negative for the existing
ssh proxy/tunnel a measured by data, not by fear, and there are not
other considerations against it (such as maintainability, existing VPN
infrastructure, etc.), I would recommend keeping it.
There are many FUD type claims against openSSH, openSSL,
insertYourFavouriteProtocolHere based on past issues in favor of other
closed, small, not well maintained/updated alternatives. Despite the
bad press/performance in the past, Network Time Protocol, OpenSSH and
OpenSSL are Linux Foundation Core Infrastructure Projects for a while -
with significant quantitative quality and funding improvements, reviews
and full disclosures in the open.
I hope it helps, Tomas
On Fri, 2017-03-03 at 09:13 -0800, VY wrote:
> Unfortunately, I have no access to that person anymore.
> 
> Based on your experience, there were no issues that you have run into
> with
> such deployment?
> 
> -v
> 
> 
> On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 9:07 AM, Robert Citek 
> wrote:
> 
> > I would ask the person who told you that this is not secure to
> > elaborate.
> > I have worked with a number of companies that do this. So I am as
> > curious
> > as you are.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > - Robert
> > 
> > On Fri, Mar 3, 2017 at 9:01 AM VY  wrote:
> > 
> > > Dear All:
> > > 
> > > I am supporting a client that has product linux PCs running in
> > > the field.
> > > The person before me has built a reverse SSH tunnel (connection
> > > initiated
> > > by the device itself back to us and the connection is monitored
> > > by
> > > autossh).
> > > 
> > > I was told this is not secure.   I am no expert in security. 
> > >  What are
> > the
> > > possible issues with this approach?  And what would be a more
> > > secure
> > > mechanism than reverse SSH?
> > > 
> > > thanks
> > > 
> > > -v
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Re: [PLUG] Job running in background

[Tom]

To see if your background process does something with the CPU rather
than just hang around waiting for user input for example - you could
see the process CPU load and wall clock time - the time should be
increasing.
The easiest way is to fire: top and see what CPU percentage the process
uses and if the TIME+ metrics is increasing.
Please note that some processes do not run in background - if you put
them in background they sleep until they are in foreground. If that is
the case for your process, you need screen, tmux or vnc to keep the
process in the foreground. Also some progress indicator - in a log file
perhaps would be great to have for long running applications.
Tomas
On Thu, 2017-03-02 at 08:38 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Thu, 2 Mar 2017, Larry Brigman wrote:
> 
> > If you started it with nohup; it will stay running until it exits
> > on its
> > own or is killed. The output of jobs (based on my reading) is local
> > to the
> > running shell. So each window/shell could result in different
> > output. If
> > the shell closes, the jobs list is removed. Current running jobs
> > would
> > receive a SIGHUP when the shell closes. NOHUP causes the shell to
> > not send
> > the signal, just like if disown job_num was issued.
> 
> Larry,
> 
>I forgot that nohup is local to the starting shell.
> 
> > These background jobs tend to be monitored by a status file.  If
> > you don't
> > have some way to determine how far into the program/data the
> > program has
> > progressed you won't know it has stalled.
> 
>That's true.
> 
> > Putting this in screen or tmux will allow you to come back to the
> > session
> > even if you have totally logged out of the machine. To check the
> > status,
> > login and re-attach to the (still) running session.
> 
>A good lesson. Next time I'll learn how to use screen or tmux
> instead of
> nohup. But, I have a time-step issue to result first. Running in the
> foreground the ETA for the run completion keeps increasing so I need
> to
> learn how to get daily time steps rather than one-second time steps.
> A
> message to the model's author is waiting for a response.
> 
> Thanks very much,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Evolution/Android Contact/Calendar Sync

[Tom]

I keep my calendar and contacts in ownCloud on the web and synchronize
everything to it.
It works like charm with Android, iOS, Linux (Evolution/Kontact/Kmail)
... did not try Win (but other people say that it works too).
In Android, I use iCal and CardDAV apps to do the synchronization with
the native Address Book and Calendars by Google. Naturally, it all
works for the rest of the family too. Additional benefit is file file
storage synchronized between all the devices and being able to share
files/calendar/... with the other users/family.
In my opinion, it is well worth the setup effort.
Tomas
On Wed, 2017-03-01 at 11:52 -0800, Charles Sliger wrote:
> What are people using for synchronizing the contacts and calendar in
> Evolution with an Android smartphone?
> I have Evolution on Linux Mint (Ubuntu) and a Samsung Galaxy S7.
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Re: [PLUG] ownCloud/nextCloud

[Tom]

Yes, the synchronization works both ways + you could revert to old
versions on the server side, if needed.  It is also smart to rename
remote directories/files, if you rename local copy, so it does not
waste bandwidth + you can share files with other users and you can
select which users or public and sharing expiry dates,  and other
little bits and pieces.
I do not believe that it would work on PalmOS, though, you could sync
your windows copy.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-02-25 at 15:54 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Sat, 25 Feb 2017, Tom wrote:
> 
> > I am using ownCloud to replace G..gle services as well as to
> > synchronize/access personal data around many devices.
> 
> Tom,
> 
>When you write 'synchronize' does this copy data from the desktop
> to the
> handheld as well as the other way?
> 
>I use -- depend on -- jpilot to sync data to my Treo 700p. I've
> read
> anguished complaints from former PalmOS users trying to obtain the
> same
> functionality with android phones.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] question on Mozilla Firefox holding up Yast2 system admin program

[Tom]

I still do not think that what you see is Firefox related.
Are you trying to use Yast2 remotely from another machine? If so, how
do you log in? Ssh/VNC/.?
To give you head start for further follow up, here is little Yast2
trivia if you run on local machine:
  * Yast2 needs to be started as root
  * on SuSE, sudo does not forward X traffic, so running: sudo yast2
will start Yast2 in text (ncurses) mode. You might not like that.
  * To get Yast2 to come in X GUI, use following commands:
- become root: su
   - start Yast2: yast2
If you need to run yast on remote machine and want X GUI, The best way
is to use VNC.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Sat, 2017-02-25 at 12:36 -0800, logical american wrote:
> On 2/23/2017 10:10 AM, wes wrote:
> > I think you're still in "too terse" territory. We are not familiar
> > with any
> > way for Firefox to "block" any other application from opening. What
> > do you
> > actually see when you try to open Yast2 while Firefox is already
> > running?
> Wes:
> 
> I went back and checked again.  It was the yast2 command which
> failed, 
> but because it could NOT open an X-window. Unfortunately the message 
> which popped up on my screen indicated that Firefox had blocked the 
> command from executing from the CLI terminal window.
> 
> This most likely was caused by some gnome interception of the error
> code 
> and an attempt to identify the cause.
> 
> I understand that the true cause was the inability of yast2 to
> properly 
> open up a new popup window.
> 
> Thanks for your questions and telling me to be more specific and less
> terse.
> 
> - Randall
> 
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Re: [PLUG] ownCloud/nextCloud

[Tom]

Changing topic/subject to own/nextCloud ...
I am using ownCloud to replace G..gle services as well as to
synchronize/access personal data around many devices. I use the
storage, address book, calendar, bookmarks and photo modules
exclusively from ownCloud keeping no such data with G. That being said,
G sees my emails and phone calls, so I am sure that they can/do build
my address book (email and phone No., without the postal part)
themselves. Own/nextCloud integrates well with Android, iOS as well as
Gnome/KDE applications leaving me in charge of my own personal data.
I switched to ownCloud after experiencing the hassle of changing to
different cell provider and to Android, bot at the same time -
realizing that - the only way to be free to change services the next
time , avoid lock-in and to be able to share the same data on desktop -
is to invest in self hosting of cloud storage and personal info such as
address book and calendar. I find ownCloud stable and mature, with 2
years of active full time experience.
The easiest and cheapest way to setup ownCloud/nextCloud securely is to
run it on a virtual computer in cloud using cloud providers like Linode
or AWS-LightSail rather than self hosting at home. There are many
reasons, primary being reliability, cost and having recognized SSL
certificates (via LetsEncrypt) without the need for own DNS server and
paying for own IP at home. Linode/AWS-LightSail will cost less than a
static IP from my ISP; and again, I am free to change the cloud
provider much easier/cheaper than ISP. To make own/nextCloud
practically useful, one needs: domain + DNS, SSL certificate and full
control over a web server on the internet. That disqualifies shared
hosting and makes self hosting at home more complex thing to do. Using
own/nextCloud service could make backups and switching painful, leading
to repeating the same pain later.
I find own/nextCloud the most useful on portable devices such as phone
and my collection of laptops. It is great to be able to synchronize
bin, Documents and other files in my home dir between portable devices
as well as to share common address book, calendar and other bits and
pieces.
There are better ways for bulk data sharing than own/nextCloud such as
free (as in beer) BtSync AKA resilioSync which will work from home
without too much setup and one can host TBs without too much expense,
albeit at relatively slow home upload speeds.
I hope that this does not sounds too much like and infomercial or fan
-boy zeal.
Tomas
On Sat, 2017-02-25 at 08:54 -0800, Erik Lane wrote:
> > > 
> > > I have had a couple instances where I actually needed to create
> > > the keys
> > as
> > > root as well. I was using rsync with sudo, (and the files were
> > > owned by a
> > > different user for Owncloud) so I had to have root create the
> > > keys, since
> > > that was what would be running the ssh transfer. Well, there
> > > might have
> > > been other options, I really don't know, but setting it up that
> > > way took
> > > care of it for me. Once I got it working I stopped looking for
> > > other ways
> > > to do it. :)
> > > 
> > 
> > having root do anything on the "cloud" (esp the way some distros
> > configure sudo) is absolutely insane.  Nuts.  Bonkers.
> > 
> > 
> At first I was confused, but then I remembered that I mentioned
> 'owncloud'... I don't have anything going out to any cloud services,
> well
> other than that we do use Gmail and Google's various other cloud
> stuff. I
> had Owncloud running on a Raspberry Pi, just for fun, and only
> exposed to
> my own LAN. It's firewalled from the internet. In fact I haven't used
> it
> for months - I was thinking of trying to get it up and running well
> enough
> to get away from doing Google drive type stuff, but then didn't spend
> enough time and effort to actually get it into good enough shape to
> really
> be useful. I don't know if it's mature enough to provide enough
> incentive
> to make my wife want to change.
> 
> Thanks,
> Erik
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Re: [PLUG] Remote host lost ssh key verification [UPDATED]

[Tom]

I apologize for contributing to further confusion.
I have not realized that you had two different email threads with
different subjects going on the same topic.
I should have staid out of it with so many messages in flight.
Maybe, it would help to re-read the man page for ssh and make some
notes for the next time... That is what I do with confusing and
infrequent issues... Perhaps even automate the setup, so that you can
easily reset the configuration.
Tomas
On Fri, 2017-02-24 at 14:46 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Feb 2017, Tom wrote:
> 
> > a) Yes it will wipe all existing entries from known_hosts file, but
> > they will be all recreated when you login to those hosts again in
> > the
> > future.
> 
> Tom,
> 
>I thought this is the case when I moved the public key files to
> authorized_keys and found instant connection from the laptop to the
> desktop
> with ssh. Whew! I thought I had this all configured when I replaced
> the hard
> drive on the laptop with a 500G SSD and installed Slackware
> -14.2/x86_64 on
> it. Obviously, I did not set up ssh keys at that time.
> 
> Much appreciated,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] boot filled

[Tom]

Hi Denis,

Need to run to remove unused old versions of kernels and other
packages?
Run: sudo apt autoremove --purge

That should fix that for you automagically.

If you want to prevent the problem happening in the future without
remembering the command, you can configure it by following this guide:
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/05/remove-old-kernels-ubuntu-1
6-04/

I just run the "autoremove" command whenever I remember, one a year
maybe. 

Hope it helps, Tomas
On Fri, 2017-02-24 at 07:57 -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> The last time this happened Tomas told me what to do, but I did not
> write
> it down and my mind is a sieve.  What is the solution?  There are 9
> archived images.  How do I safely throw out the older ones?
> 
> Thanks,
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] Remote host lost ssh key verification [UPDATED]

[Tom]

You have two choices here Rich:
a) Yes it will wipe all existing entries from known_hosts file, but
they will be all recreated when you login to those hosts again in the
future.
b) delete only the line in known_hosts file corresponding to the host
you have difficulties to login to. When you do this, do nothing else
ssh to your remote machine and answer yes to the question about adding
the host to known_hosts file. After that, things should be as you are
used to.
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Fri, 2017-02-24 at 13:55 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Feb 2017, King Beowulf wrote:
> 
> > Just delete ~/.ssh/known_hosts and it will regenerate from what's
> > in
> > /etc/ssh
> 
> Ed,
> 
>This would wipe out the existing portable in known_host.
> 
>I think the problem is more basic. While the laptop has ed25519
> and ecdsa
> private/public keys in /etc/ssh/, it does not have the private and
> public
> id_ed25519 in ~/.ssh/.
> 
>I believe that I need to run ssh-keygen on the laptop (with the
> same
> passphrase as used on the server and other laptop), then run ssh-copy
> -id to
> copy the public key on the server.
> 
>Stand by for results ...
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] question on Mozilla Firefox holding up Yast2 system admin program

[Tom]

If I understand you correctly, you have done following:
1. Opened gnome terminal
2. Started Firefox by typing: firefox
3. You tried to start yast2 from the same terminal by typing: yast2
And nothing happened - Am I right?
If yes, then try to start firefox and yast2 as background processes by
adding & to the end of your command lines - like this:
firefox &
yast2 &
That way the commands will not block your terminal from executing
further commands.
Does that help?
Tomas
On Thu, 2017-02-23 at 09:57 -0800, logical american wrote:
> On 2/22/2017 10:38 PM, Tom wrote:
> > Can you describe what do you mean? How is Firefox  blocking Yast2?
> > Are you:
> > a) Downloading some one-click package from OBS expecting Firefox to
> > start Yast2?
> > b) Starting Yast2 from command line and something tells you that
> > Firefox prevents it from running?
> sorry about being too terse.
> 
> I was starting Yast2 from the command line, in one gnome terminal 
> window, but I had another firefox window open already.
> 
> I was totally surprised, when firefox blocked the CLI command from 
> executing.
> 
> - Randall
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Re: [PLUG] "Installing" the Debian installer - How?

[Tom]

Please see my comments inline...
On Thu, 2017-02-23 at 06:07 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 02/23/2017 02:36 AM, Tom wrote:
> > > > As about your direct ISO file usage - Please realize that .iso
> > > > is
> > > > disk
> > > > image file format, not a file system where you can access and
> > > > execute
> > > > individual files.
> > > 
> > > That basically was the point of my post.
> > > Perhaps my subject line could have been "How to translate iso
> > > -hybrid
> > > to extN?"
> > > That phraseology has its own problems. HOWEVER, phrasing it that
> > > way
> > > reminds me
> > > of an {on the surface} unrelated thread from ~2 years ago on
> > > another
> > > forum. It
> > > may not yield a solution to my current problem but should give me
> > > guidance to
> > > better question. There will be a delay there are 150+ messages to
> > > review :}
> > > 
> > > 
> > You mount .iso through loop device and copy/rsync the content. Here
> > is
> > and example:
Following command will mount your iso file named: fileName.iso to /mnt
directory. If you look into /mnt, you will see the content of the .iso
file as if you would burn it to CD/DVD and mount it. If you want to
copy the content to an empty partition for further work or booting, you
will need to create, format and mount it as destinationDir.
> > sudo mount -o loop fileName.iso /mnt
> > 

following command will recursively copy the content of the iso file 
 into destinationDir and preserve the file timestamps. the rsync
command is an alternative to cp which works incrementally and/or if you
want to see progress.
> > cp -pr /mnt/* destinationDir/
> > # or: rsync -a --progress /mnt/* destinationDir/
> > 

Following command will unmount the .iso file from /mnt whne you are
done with using it.
> > sudo umount /mnt
> > If you want to make this bootable, copy the content to empty disk
> > partition, make it bootable by grub2.
> > Ubuntu CDs/DVDs typically use combination of Syslinux and Grub2
> > selected by BIOS/UEFI respectively to boot from the media:
> > 
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Install
> > 
> > I hope it helps,
> > Tomas
> > 

> 
> 
> Yes, but perhaps not in expected ways ;/
> For example, I could read and but not really grok your code example. It 
> prompted me to spend a productive hour in man pages. That may lead to a 
> solution for some problems totally unrelated to this thread.
> 
> 
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Install#ISOLINUX ties 
>  ties 
> together this thread with some problems/symptoms with attempting to use 
> debootstap for "my goals" 
> (https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/02/msg00871.html).
> ).
> 
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Running a Python application in the background

[Tom]

I'd second the use of screen as that will allow you to reconnect with
the shell where you started the command should you need it.
Another alternative to nohup I often use: at -f commandToRun now
The dependency is to start atd.service
The advantages to nohup that is that you will get the command's output
by email, so that you can check the success/failure and what happened.
Another good thing is that you can start your command with delay or at
certain time/date if needed.
Tomas
On Thu, 2017-02-23 at 19:29 -0800, Galen Seitz wrote:
> On 02/23/17 19:18, Rich Shepard wrote:
> >A hydrologic model I need to run has an estimated completion
> > time almost 4
> > days in the future so I start it in the background by appending '&'
> > to the
> > command line.
> > 
> >The problem is when I log out of the system and log in as root
> > that
> > process (actually, there are 3 processes running, one with status
> > Rl the
> > others as S (suspended).
> > 
> >Is there an alternative way to have a program keep running after
> > the user
> > invoking it logs off?
> 
> Traditionally this was done using nohup, but screen is probably a
> better
> choice.
> 
> 
> (not *the* definitive link, just the first one that seemed to cover
> what
> you were asking)
> 
> galen
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Re: [PLUG] "Installing" the Debian installer - How?

[Tom]

> > As about your direct ISO file usage - Please realize that .iso is
> > disk
> > image file format, not a file system where you can access and
> > execute
> > individual files.
> 
> That basically was the point of my post.
> Perhaps my subject line could have been "How to translate iso-hybrid
> to extN?"
> That phraseology has its own problems. HOWEVER, phrasing it that way
> reminds me 
> of an {on the surface} unrelated thread from ~2 years ago on another
> forum. It 
> may not yield a solution to my current problem but should give me
> guidance to 
> better question. There will be a delay there are 150+ messages to
> review :}
> 
> 
You mount .iso through loop device and copy/rsync the content. Here is
and example:
sudo mount -o loop fileName.iso /mnt
cp -pr /mnt/* destinationDir/
# or: rsync -a --progress /mnt/* destinationDir/
sudo umount /mnt
If you want to make this bootable, copy the content to empty disk
partition, make it bootable by grub2.
Ubuntu CDs/DVDs typically use combination of Syslinux and Grub2
selected by BIOS/UEFI respectively to boot from the media:
http://www.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=Install
I hope it helps,
Tomas
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Re: [PLUG] question on Mozilla Firefox holding up Yast2 system admin program

[Tom]

Can you describe what do you mean? How is Firefox  blocking Yast2?
Are you:
a) Downloading some one-click package from OBS expecting Firefox to
start Yast2?
b) Starting Yast2 from command line and something tells you that
Firefox prevents it from running?
If a) is you problem:
* Check your MIME type settings in Preferences --> Applications -->
YaST Meta Package - should be set to: Always ask
  See more at: https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Manage-preferences-and-ad
d-ons/Applications-panel-Set-how-Firefox-handles-different-types-of/ta
-p/1900
  Alternatively you can always start Yast2 from the command line as
root by typing: yast2 
-Tomas
On Wed, 2017-02-22 at 20:43 -0800, logical american wrote:
> To all:
> 
> For some strange reason, recently while running Mozilla Firefox
> v50.1.0 
> on the openSuse 13.2 linux system, it blocked Yast2, which is a
> system 
> administration program, which I was going to use for software
> management.
> 
> Why would Firefox be blocking Yast2?  This doesn't make sense to me?
> 
> - Randall
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Other options besides VNC (or RDP)

[Tom]

Beside already mentioned TeamViewer, I also successfully used Nomachine
(nomachine.com) and NetViewer renamed to GoToMeeting (gotomeeting.com)
They are not free to use as VNC, so your OSsupport/longevity/cost/exist
ence will likely change over time.
Tomas
On Fri, 2017-02-17 at 17:16 -0800, Roderick Anderson wrote:
> I'm looking for any other options to remote into a graphical desktop 
> besides VNC or RDP.
> 
> I'd like a client that runs on Linux and Android with MAC and Windows
> a 
> bonus.  Server should run on Linux with Android, MAC and Windows as 
> another bonus.
> 
> I remember coming across something, while searching for something 
> compeletely different, but the name now eludes me.  Must be a case of
> CRS. :-(
> 
> 
> TIA,
> Rod
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Re: [PLUG] acroread for 64-bit machines?

[Tom]

You must have some environment dependency difference - I use this on
various versions of SuSE, SLE, Fedora, Ubuntu all with KDE, LXDE or
Gnome - do not see any frame at full screen mode.
Just tried it on Ubuntu + Unity and YES, as you mentioned, Evince needs
F5 to hide the frame. 
Tomas
On Tue, 2017-02-14 at 10:45 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Feb 2017, Tom wrote:
> 
> > I regularly use okular and evince for presenting from PDF. To go to
> > full screen (presentation) mode use:
> >  evince - F11
> 
> Tom,
> 
>I just tried this and while F11 does expand to the full screen,
> the frame,
> side window, and icons along the top of the slides remain. Looking at
> the
> menu I learned that F5, presentation mode, centers the slides on the
> screen
> while maintaining the aspect ratio. The [Esc] key brings the display
> back to
> the small window which can then be closed.
> 
>It's interesting that when xpdf is invoked with -fullscreen it
> does so,
> but with a wide monitor it puts the slides toward the left side and
> fills in
> the right side with plain white background. On a non-wide-monitor
> portable
> xpdf works fine, but with a wide monitor evince/F5 is the way to go.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Rich
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Translating spreadsheet file: XessSE to LO calc

[Tom]

If you have the old Xess installation media, I should be able to find
old SuSE 6.x or 7.x installation media from circa 1999/2000 to run it
on.
It should all still run in VirtualBox and mount storage with all your
spredsheet files to convert.
On Thu, 2017-02-09 at 17:06 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Thu, 9 Feb 2017, Tom wrote:
> 
> > I deal with these things by exporting to universally digestible
> > format
> > from the original application.
> 
> Tom,
> 
>Except that I gave up on Xess years ago (when they raised their
> price) and
> no longer have it on any system here.
> 
> > The only truly universal converter I have ever came across was
> > BabelFish
> > created by late Douglas Adams.
> 
>Yes, that's true. But the only output is 42, the answer to
> everything.
> 
> Rich
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Translating spreadsheet file: XessSE to LO calc

[Tom]

I deal with these things by exporting to universally digestible format
from the original application.
I recall Xess was reliably reading/wring to Exel's .xls which would be
most likely 100% digestible by LibreOffice unless you used macros.
I've been fairly successful in converting not only data, but also
equations and basic formatting back in the days.
For the rare occasions where I forgot to export the documents (I still
have many mif and fm documents) to usable format at the archiving time
(90's), and I really need it - I resort to installing the ancient app
in old Linux/Windows/Dos in a virtual machine. Naturally I keep that
VM, so I could do such conversion again,  if I ever need it. Just in
case someone asks, I do not have working Xess installation, but I have
FrameMaker and old Open/StarOffice for the occasional old files
LibreOffice refuses to read.
The only truly universal converter I have ever came across was
BabelFish created by late Douglas Adams.
I highly recommend it, it is wort every penny. It even correctly
converts between various character encodings going back to ancient
times.
Tomas
On Thu, 2017-02-09 at 08:20 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
>I have a 113K XessSE-5.0.8 spreadsheet file from earlier this
> millenium
> and LibreOffice's Calc does not recognize the format and convert it.
> Is
> there a universal spreadsheet format converter for linux?
> 
>If not, suggestions on how to extract column headings and rows are
> certainly welcome.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Needed: Modern equivalent of a "null-modem cable"

[Tom]

I have been watching this threat for a while - unsure how to respond to
such quest and be contributing without writing complete how-to on how
to use networking wrong way.
Since you now discovered USB to serial convertors it appears to me
that:
  a) You have the resources to purchase two USB-to-serial convertors at
a cost probably higher than the cheapest network router
  b) You are set to somehow transfer files over terrible serial port
speeds between 2 computers - using completely inappropriate technology
today
  c) This, originally, networking thread is about to become further
complicated by USB-to-serial issues with fake FTDI chips destroyed by
FTDI drivers, or worse ...
I would love to help you to resolve this -- Here are two possible ways
to resolve your task:
1. Your original request
  a) Chose two IPs for your computers. I suggest 192.168.1.2 for WinXp
and 192.168.1.1 for you Linux
  b) follow this guise for windows setup:
 https://blog-archive.josephcs.com/setting-up-a-simple-lan-connecti
on-between-2-pcs/#main_content
  c) Follow Russell's instruction from this mailing list on how to set
IP on your Linux PC
  d) setup SAMBA file sharing on Debian/Ubuntu so that you can copy
files between the PCs
2. How to setup networking properly when you are able to spend a few $$
on a cheap basic router:
  a) return the configuration on both (all) your PCs to their default
network configurations
  b) get one of these (any) cheap routers. The cost should be roughly
equivalent to pair of USB-to-serial:
 $19 - https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Wireless-Router-WNR1000-100NA
S-N150/dp/B001UI4RTG/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc=UTF8=1484776439=1
-5=router
 $29 - https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless-Router-450Mbps-TL-WR
940N/dp/B003Y5RYNY/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc=UTF8=1484776439=1
-3=router
 $35 - https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-WRT54GL-Wireless-G-Broadband-
Router/dp/B000BTL0OA/ref=sr_1_11?s=pc=UTF8=1484776439=1
-11=router
 If you come to some of our Linux meetups - let me know, I will
give you working old router for free and even throw in a switch so that
you can connect more than 4 PCs together.
  c) get two ethernet CAT5e or CAT6 patch cables for each PC. Any patch
cable should do, but you will need fully populated ones for 1Gb/s
  d) Plug the PCs to the router's LAN (not the WLAN) ports. Power
everything up and you should be done with the networking part.
  e) Find out each PC's IP address assigned by the router:
  on Windows run: cmd.exe <-- ipconfig (You should see something
like 192.168.x.y or 10.x.y.z - depending what is the default router
setup
  on Debian/Ubuntu run: ip address (look for the IP associated to
eth0, It should be similar to the IP on your other PC, not the same)
  e) Using any PC + browser + router's manual - login to the router for
further seting and configuration
  f) connect your router to internet if you wish using the WLAN port
  g) connect more PCs, even Phones and laptops over Wi-Fi
  h) setup file sharing so that you can copy files between the PCs or
you can access them directly over the network.
  i) ASK FOR HELP with your networking setup here
I understand that you want to learn thus keep repeating the "null
modem" moniker.
I would advice you to try to build good network foundation first and
when you master it - expand you understanding to "null modem" over
ethernet technology.
I hope that this summary is helpful, Tomas
On Wed, 2017-01-18 at 08:43 -0600, Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 1/14/2017 8:53 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > I suspect what I'm looking for is ONE 3 ft piece of terminated
> > Cat6 cable ;)
> 
> Actually not <*GRIN*>
> Seems it dawned on someone that the "U" in "USB" wasn't really 
> universal.
> There is now a "null modem cable".
> Data sheet
> http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/163/DS_USBNMC-5030.pdf
> 
> I'll be checking local suppliers while continuing to pursue the 
> LAN option - it's a learning experience.
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Temperature and Raspberry Pi.

[Tom]

As mentioned by Chuck and his links - the beauty of these sensors is
that you can connect quite a few of them together to 1-wire bus and
address them by their unique ID.
DS18B20 are really much better choice than USB thermometers when you
need to measure temperature at more than one/two places.
a) you need USB port for every USB thermometer - so you end up building
chains of USB hubs and being limited by length and cost of USB cables
b) 1-wire interface can connect many DS18B20 thermometers over long
distance and the cable is dirt cheap/thin.
c) DS18B20 are about order of magnitude more precise than USB Tempers
Chuck mentions many useful links which I will not repeat.
In short, you do not need to develop anything for this mature problem.
Just hook the stuff together on RaspberryPi, use the 1-wire kernel
modules (w1-gpio w1-therm) and read the values from /sys/bus/w1/devices
- you will see one directory for each device.
Have a look at this web page about the project scope/difficulty: 
https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-temperature-sensor/
Here is datasheet for the sensor itself: 
https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/DS18S20.pdf
I personally used the USB thermometers to debug some cooling zone
balancing problems in my data center. It is trivial to just plug the
Tempers to front panel USB ports on a servers in different cooling
zones/isles, read them by cron and push the values to a DB for simple
web CGI interface. I was OK with +-2.5C precision for trending and zone
balancing modifications. The thermometers were also great for remote
alarms when something went completely wrong - the cooling went down
once per 2-3 years kind of events caused by people shutting PCW,
clogged filters or . All that because the cooling system
monitoring/alarms/control were linked to some closed source systems at
fire and disaster response and not me ... 
Hope it helps, Tomas
On Tue, 2017-01-17 at 11:54 -0800, Michael C. Robinson wrote:
> > I would highly recommend the Maxim DS18B20 as mentioned in the link
> > by
> > Chuck if you need something more accurate. They cost under $2 in
> > the
> > waterproof version.
> > Hat-down to the analog designers @ Maxim designing them so precise
> > within this wide temperature and voltage range (±0.5°C Accuracy
> > from 
> > -10°C to +85°C @ Vdd=3-5.5V)  <-- the probe + reference + A/D
> > convertor
> > are at the same hot/cold temperature and at variable voltage for
> > about
> > $1 per sensor delivered. Amazing, in my opinion.
> > I hope it helps, Tomas
> 
> Using the GPIO pins would work if I needed one temperature, but I'm
> trying to monitor the temperature of the air coming out of 7 servers.
> Maybe I need different scripts or maybe I need a special out of tree
> driver.
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Re: [PLUG] Temperature and Raspberry Pi.

[Tom]

You will need to calibrate the sensors to get real/absolute
measurements out of these devices, in my experience.
I used them for datalogging and they were +-3C between the three of
them I had.
They were self heating by the read process, so you need to let them
stabilize before calibrating and then read them at the same (slow >
60s) intervals as when calibrating.
I calibrated them to 0C and 60C, determining offset and scaling for
each of them. Although the thermometers were not very linear to this
simple calibration, they were OK to +- about 1C within the range.
I would highly recommend the Maxim DS18B20 as mentioned in the link by
Chuck if you need something more accurate. They cost under $2 in the
waterproof version.
Hat-down to the analog designers @ Maxim designing them so precise
within this wide temperature and voltage range (±0.5°C Accuracy from 
-10°C to +85°C @ Vdd=3-5.5V)  <-- the probe + reference + A/D convertor
are at the same hot/cold temperature and at variable voltage for about
$1 per sensor delivered. Amazing, in my opinion.
I hope it helps, Tomas
On Mon, 2017-01-16 at 23:48 -0800, Michael C. Robinson wrote:
> I am using a Raspberry Pi 3 2016 Model B.
> 
> I'm trying to use USB TEMPer2 Thermometers to detect the temperature 
> of ice water and the temperature of nearly boiling water.  I am not
> getting the correct temperatures.
> 
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ cat temper-pi.txt 
> http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/temper-pi
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ 
> 
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ lsusb
> Bus 001 Device 010: ID 0c45:7401 Microdia 
> Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0c45:7401 Microdia 
> Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0c45:7401 Microdia 
> Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0409:0058 NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
> Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0a81:0205 Chesen Electronics Corp. PS/2
> Keyboard+Mouse Adapter
> Bus 001 Device 011: ID 0c45:7401 Microdia 
> Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0c45:7401 Microdia 
> Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0409:0058 NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
> Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0424:ec00 Standard Microsystems Corp.
> SMSC9512/9514 Fast Ethernet Adapter
> Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:9514 Standard Microsystems Corp. 
> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ 
> 
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ lsusb -t
> /:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=dwc_otg/1p, 480M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/5p, 480M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class,
> Driver=smsc95xx, 480M
> |__ Port 2: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 6, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 4: Dev 11, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 4: Dev 11, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 3: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
> |__ Port 3: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
> |__ Port 4: Dev 7, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 8, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 1: Dev 8, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 2: Dev 9, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 2: Dev 9, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 4: Dev 10, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> |__ Port 4: Dev 10, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device,
> Driver=, 1.5M
> pi@raspbypi:~/project $ 
> 
> pi@raspbypi:~/project/temper-python $ cat take_temps.bash 
> #!/bin/bash
> 
> while (true)
> do
>   > sudo temper-poll -p
>   > sleep 10
> done
> 
> @raspbypi:~/project/temper-python $ ./take_temps.bash 
> Found 5 devices
> Device #0 (bus 1 - port 4): 25.1°C 77.1°F
> Device #1 (bus 1 - port 2): 24.1°C 75.3°F
> Device #2 (bus 1 - port 1): 21.5°C 70.7°F
> Device #3 (bus 1 - port 4): 23.8°C 74.9°F
> Device #4 (bus 1 - port 1): 23.2°C 73.8°F
> Found 5 devices
> Device #0 (bus 1 - port 4): 25.1°C 77.1°F
> Device #1 (bus 1 - port 2): 24.1°C 75.3°F
> Device #2 (bus 1 - port 1): 21.5°C 70.7°F
> Device #3 (bus 1 - port 4): 23.8°C 74.9°F
> Device #4 (bus 1 - port 1): 23.2°C 73.8°F
> Found 5 devices
> Device #0 (bus 1 - port 4): 25.1°C 77.1°F
> Device #1 (bus 1 - port 2): 24.1°C 75.4°F
> Device #2 (bus 1 - port 1): 21.5°C 70.7°F
> Device #3 (bus 1 - port 4): 23.8°C 74.9°F
> Device #4 (bus 1 - port 1): 23.2°C 73.8°F
> Found 5 devices
> Device #0 (bus 1 - port 4): 25.1°C 77.1°F
> Device #1 (bus 1 - port 2): 24.1°C 75.4°F
> Device #2 (bus 1 - port 1): 21.5°C 70.7°F
> Device #3 (bus 1 - port 4): 23.8°C 74.9°F
> Device #4 (bus 1 - port 1): 23.2°C 73.8°F
> Found 5 devices
> Device #0 (bus 1 - port 4): 25.1°C 77.1°F
> Device #1 (bus 1 - port 2): 24.2°C 75.5°F
> Device #2 (bus 1 - port 1): 21.5°C 70.7°F
> Device #3 (bus 1 - 

Re: [PLUG] T430 fan problem under Debian but not Windows

[Tom]

For what it is worth it, I have run (and still do) various versions of
openSuSE and Knoppix on T430 without any strange fan control problems.
The only fan issue I have encountered was noise from fan's dead
bearings after heavy 3 years use, resolved by replacing the
fan/heatsink assembly.
I'd think, that you could try to install or run live Ubuntu (because it
is close to Debian) and see what controls the fan, trace it to a
package or kernel module and install it on your Debian copy.
Scrolling through lsmod output I see following modules (smells like fan
related) loaded: thinkpad_acpi, thermal and various i2c modules maybe
used to control the fan's PWM
-Tomas
On Sat, 2016-12-31 at 22:05 -0800, Chuck Hast wrote:Mate on a X-201 and
a X-301, both of them run the fans,
> > > indeedthermal
> I have them listed in Gkrellm and can see the speed vary as load
> > > varies on
> the machine. I have not really thought about it as seems that they
> > > are "just
> there", but I will look and see what it is doing.> 

> On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 8:23 AM, Richard Owlett 
> > > wrote:> 


> > On 12/31/2016 9:36 AM, Bill Barry wrote:

> > > On Sat, Dec 31, 2016 at 2:29 AM, Richard Owlett 
> > 
> > wrote:


> > > > I just purchased a used T430 to replace a R61 which had died due
> > > > to a fan failure.
> > > > I've installed a minimal Jessie including what the installer
> > > > considers standard utilities and a very basic MATE DE.> > > > 

> > > > I used Synaptic to install "mate-system-tools".
> > > > An error message said "thinkfan post installation script returned
> > > > error exit status 1".
> > > > I checked for airflow - there was NONE.
> > > > Booted into Windows 7. There was warm airflow whose temperature
> > > > decreased with time.
> > > > I returned to Debian and attempted to reinstall "thinkfan".
> > > > Error message stated "attempted to reinstall E: Internal Error,
> > > > No file name for thinkfan:i386".> > > > 

> > > > Two questions:> > > > 

> > > > 1. How may I force the fan to run continuously at maximum speed.
> > > > Noise &/or power consumption is not important.> > > > 

> > > > 2. What/where is this "missing file"? Any diagnostic suggestions
> > > > > > 
> > > 

> > > The lm-sensors package has utilities for measuring temperature and
> > > > > > > fan
> > > speed and setting the fan speed accordingly. That might be a good
> > > place to start. As for your specific error message I don't know what
> > > that is about. It could be what is causing lm-sensors to not  do it's
> > > job.> > > 

> > > This might help
> > > http://www.lxle.net/forums/discussion/821/how-to-set-up-
> > 
> > thinkfan-on-a-lenovo-thinkpad-t430/p1
> > > 

> > > Bill> > > 

> > > > 

> > I think I've installed lm-sensors but I have to double check.
> > I hadn't seen that your yet.
> > I'm beginning to get responses on the Debian user list. I'll
> > merge your info into what I'm getting there.
> > Thank you.> > 
> > 

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Re: [PLUG] recommended hardware question on VPN router

[Tom]

I second that - check with what the particular VPN enpoint
needs/supports.
One thing I do not understand from the original post:
* I assume that the VPN connection is to be terminated at the stock
trading house
* Purpose of the VPN connection is to maintaining secure connection for
the purpose of trading
* Setting VPN between the trading house and home router would send all
home traffic through the VPN pipe
Q: This does not seem right - why to send all personal
Netflix/Youtube/Gmail/Instagram... traffic to the trading house?
Q: Would not it be better to use Software VPN client
provided/recommended by the trading house to secure the traffic only
from the PC used for trading?
 And use said VPN client only for the duration of the trading?
Tomas
On Mon, 2016-12-19 at 21:17 -0800, bro...@netgate.net wrote:
> To connect anything via a VPN you would need to first know what the
> other 
> side supports. For example, if you were conencting to an Amazon VPN 
> endpoint in 2016 you could reference this:
> 
> http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/vpn-connections
> .html
> 
> On Mon, 19 Dec 2016, logical american wrote:
> 
> > Can someone suggest good vpn hardware for a VPN client?  My friend
> > has
> > an account with a popular stock trading house, but he is now
> > nervous,
> > since so much hacking has occurred.
> > 
> > I did check one of the big local chain stores, but they only had 2
> > routers for sale, supporting vpn.  I see 2 other chain stores
> > listing a
> > Linksys Gigabit VPN router, but not sure of their quality.
> > 
> > Any suggestions?
> > 
> > 
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Re: [PLUG] Emacs: convert all uppercase words to capitalized

[Tom]

I am not into that Emacs thing, but since you mentioned sed - I know a
few ways that work guaranteed in sed:
1. by letter for letter translation:
   echo "I've looked in both the emacs" | sed 'y/qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxc
vbnm/QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM/'
   returns: I'VE LOOKED IN BOTH THE EMACS
2. using \U
   echo "I've looked in both the emacs" | sed
's/\([[:alnum:]]\)/\U\1/g'
3. In awk:
   echo "I've looked in both the emacs" | awk '{print toupper($0)}'
If these commands do not work for you then you should check LC_ALL in
your locale:
command: locale
Perhaps setting LC_ALL to C might help you resolve your trouble with
sed, sort and other regexp/char based commands.
See this for its effect on sort:
LC_ALL=en_US sort <<< $'a\nb\nA\nB'
LC_ALL=C sort <<< $'a\nb\nA\nB'
Perhaps that is what is stopping your Emacs from behaving.
Best luck, Tomas


On Mon, 2016-12-19 at 16:41 -0800, Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Dec 2016, Rich Shepard wrote:
> 
> >   I've looked in both the emacs docs and the wiki and both show me
> > that M-c
> > will convert individual uppercase words to initial capitalized
> > words, but
> > I've not found the way to do this for all words rather than one at
> > a time.
> 
>I've also tried sed and perl (from web searches) and they're not
> working
> either.
> 
> Rich
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Re: [PLUG] Help with v4l2 Video Driver

[Tom]

This is what I use for v4l webcams - which maybe be identical to your
video capture card:
* Finding webcam (part of v4l-utils package) :
v4l2-ctl --list-devices
Integrated Camera (usb-:00:14.0-8):
/dev/video0
* list formats available for the device:
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -list_formats all -i /dev/video0
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0xcc7740] Raw   : yuyv422 : YUV 4:2:2
(YUYV) : 640x480 320x180 320x240 352x288 424x240 640x360 848x480
960x540 1280x720
[video4linux2,v4l2 @ 0xcc7740] Compressed:   mjpeg :   
 MJPEG : 640x480 320x180 320x240 352x288 424x240 640x360 848x480
960x540 1280x720
* play the video:
mplayer tv:// -tv driver=v4l2:width=640:height=480
* capturing the video:
ffmpeg -f v4l2 -framerate 25 -video_size 640x480 -i /dev/video0
video.mkv
* playing captured video:
mplayer video.mkv
Hope this helps you some way, Tomas
On Sat, 2016-12-17 at 00:02 -0800, Erik Lane wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 7:54 PM, King Beowulf 
> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 08:25 Erik Lane  wrote:
> > 
> > [snip...]
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > No one is an expert until you ask questions and fiddle around...
> > 
> > I haven't used tvtime so not sure of the underlying caoture
> > libraries.
> > 
> > I would try ffmpeg.  mplayer/mencoder can be cranky unless the
> > video format
> > is absolutely correct - also depends how you distro compiled the
> > package.
> > 
> > ffmpeg is more flexible and gives lots of feedback on the CLI. If
> > the
> > capture card runs via v4l2 it should work.
> > 
> 
> > 
> Thanks for the suggestion! I wasn't aware that ffmpeg would take
> input
> straight from a card, but I guess it makes sense. This box is
> reasonably
> powerful, with 4 cores, but I'm a little worried that transcoding
> would
> cause it to miss a frame here or there. I really don't know what kind
> of
> power it might take to handle the stream. I know that ffmpeg has a
> command
> to simply copy the input to the output with a wrapper around it for
> some
> formats at least, so I'll have to see what it can do with a raw
> stream. I
> see an example of a simple command to save the input as 'cat
> /dev/video0 >
> filename.ts' and if that works then I might do ffmpeg afterwards to
> turn it
> into mp4. Though if ffmpeg can save straight to .ts with raw data,
> that
> will be another thing I can try.
> 
> To give added info, since my last post I found out VLC could record
> from a
> capture card, as well as stream from one. When I tried it the
> recording
> worked well for a while, but ended up with errors in the video file
> that
> spit out errors on the command line of missing timestamps and the
> audio
> went AWOL somewhere in there. (I started VLC from the command line to
> easily see the errors.) It actually worked well for about half an
> hour each
> time before failing, so I suspect that it might be running out of
> memory. I
> have no evidence for that, though. The streaming option looked like
> everything was good from the GUI, but the command line spit out some
> errors
> about missing files, and the video never got sent to a file that I
> could
> find. Of course I tried many times with different options and
> different
> file names in different directories.
> 
> I also wiped out the box and started over with mythbuntu, thinking an
> all
> in one solution would 'just work' and then I could get this done. It
> failed. It found the card, but then when I got to a screen where it
> was
> going to scan for channels, it couldn't initialize the card. I tried
> for
> hours with every variation I could come up with, but no luck.
> 
> I'll try a bit more in the morning before reinstalling my old system
> and
> then seeing if the simple cat or ffmpeg will grab it. I only need to
> save
> about 10 old VHS tapes from being lost to history, so manual
> processes are
> perfectly acceptable. Once I'm done with this, fingers crossed I
> won't need
> to do something like this again. (Well, until the next friend comes
> up with
> an old irreplaceable tape or whatever.) :)
> 
> Thanks for the suggestions!
> Erik
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Re: [PLUG] 4k displays with video card recommendations?

[Tom]

I see, So you have gen 1 core CPU - no build-in graphics and your AMD
card cannot drive higher resolution than 1920x1200 or 2560 x 1600.
Any recent graphic card with DisplayPort 1.2 (or better) should be able
to drive 4k display. DVI max resolution is 2560 x 1600 and HDMI v2.0 is
only in newer cards thus expensive.
Good place to see what gfx cards are supported under Linux and how: 
www.phoronix.com - Older/cheaper the better due to your PCIe v2.0
limitation. I guess that you might not be able to find anything less
than gtx-750 with DP these days - unless maybe on Ebay.
Good luck, Tomas
On Tue, 2016-12-13 at 12:25 -0800, Russell Senior wrote:
> > > > > > "Tom" == Tom  <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> Tom> Maybe you do not need a graphics card on your i7 if your desktop
> Tom> has DisplayPort ... depending on the screen you get.  2nd/3rd
> Tom> Generation Intel® Core - 2560 x 1600 over DP 4th Gen H
> -Processors:
> Tom> 3840 x 2160 over DP 5th/6th Gen H-Processors: 4096 x 2304 over
> DP
> Tom> and HDMI 1.4 Assuming that you are not gaming; normal desktop
> and
> Tom> video works fine.  I use 30" 2560 x 1600 via DP - exactly that
> way
> Tom> since 2012 using 3rd Gen i7 desktop CPU and 2nd Gen i7 laptop
> CPU.
> Tom> I like taller screens than 16:9, if I can help it.  Tomas
> Tom> On Sun, 2016-12-11 at 00:28 -0800, Russell Senior wrote:
> 
> > > I have a very early i7 quadcore desktop box with a dual monitor
> > > setup.  However, it has some annoying features, not least being
> > > the
> > > bezels on the two displays running down the middle.  I'm
> > > interested
> > > in getting a single 4K display to replace them, maybe in the 30
> > > -36"
> > > diagonal range.  In addition, I'd need a suitable linux-friendly
> > > video card to drive it.
> > > 
> > > Has anyone set up a 4K rig with recommendations on hardware?
> > > 
> > > Thanks!
> 
> My /proc/cpuinfo says:
> 
>   [...]
>   processor   : 7
>   vendor_id   : GenuineIntel
>   cpu family  : 6
>   model   : 26
>   model name  : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920  @ 2.67GHz
>   [...]
> 
> Google tells me that the 920 launched in Q4 of 2008.  There is no
> onboard video on the motherboard, an ASUS P6T DELUXE.  lspci says
> I've
> got a dual output radeon card:
> 
>   02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
> [AMD/ATI] Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM]
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] 4k displays with video card recommendations?

[Tom]

Maybe you do not need a graphics card on your i7 if your desktop has
DisplayPort ... depending on the screen you get.
2nd/3rd Generation Intel® Core - 2560 x 1600 over DP
4th Gen H-Processors: 3840 x 2160 over DP
5th/6th Gen H-Processors: 4096 x 2304 over DP and HDMI 1.4
Assuming that you are not gaming; normal desktop and video works fine.
I use 30" 2560 x 1600 via DP - exactly that way since 2012 using 3rd
Gen i7 desktop CPU and 2nd Gen i7 laptop CPU.
I like taller screens than 16:9, if I can help it.
Tomas
On Sun, 2016-12-11 at 00:28 -0800, Russell Senior wrote:
> I have a very early i7 quadcore desktop box with a dual monitor
> setup.
> However, it has some annoying features, not least being the bezels on
> the two displays running down the middle.  I'm interested in getting
> a
> single 4K display to replace them, maybe in the 30-36" diagonal
> range.
> In addition, I'd need a suitable linux-friendly video card to drive
> it.
> 
> Has anyone set up a 4K rig with recommendations on hardware?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
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Re: [PLUG] Problems Turning Off USB Booting

[Tom]

It seems that your BIOS is doing something wrong by not accepting the
boot order OR that your boot process is corrupted somehow and the BIOS
is falling back to the USB after failing to boot from the HDD.
I have following ideas to explore:
  1. You could try to reset the bios to defaults, reboot and try to set
the boot order again. That might help clearing up some invisible BIOS
issues.
  2. see if your internal boot drive is marked as boot and if your MBR
(or your boot partition if your bios uses modern GPT partitioning) is
not corrupted. Refreshing Grub(2) should fix that.
  3. See if your external USB drives are not flagged as boot drives. If
they are, then parted or gparted should be able to clear that up.
  4. you could install grub2 in the USB disks MBR to boot from your
internal drives. That way, if BIOS gets it wrong, grub will boot what
you want anyway.
  5. You could try to update the BIOS to get it working properly again 
- though this might cause some unwelcome changes/risks.
I hope that you find the root cause :-)
Tomas
On Sat, 2016-12-10 at 13:28 -0700, Mark Phillips wrote:
> I have an old laptop running Linux version 4.8.0-1-amd64 (Debian
> 5.4.1-3)
> that I use as a "headless" server for backups and Plex. It has two
> USB
> drives attached to it for the backups and the media files.
> 
> I have issues whenever I reboot the laptop. It appears to be trying
> to boot
> off the backup USB drive for hours, then gives up and goes to the
> internal
> hard drive and boots the rest of the way. It freezes in the initial
> bios
> boot up screen. F2 and F12 do not respond...it is as if the machine
> is
> frozen or dead, but eventually it does complete booting up. The last
> entry
> in the bios screen is the name of the back up USB drive, then it
> hangs for
> a long time. Eventually it gets to the next entry for the bios screen
> which
> is enabling the touchpad, and continues to boot from there.
> 
> * In the bios, I changed the boot order to start with the internal
> hard
> drive, then the CD/DVD, and then the USB devices are disabled.
> 
> * I moved mounting the usb drives from /etc/fstab to autofs, which
> seems to
> work just fine. Once the machine is running, I can access the two
> drives. I
> had the same booting issues when the drives were listed in
> /etc/fstab.
> 
> * If I remove the backup USB drive and then reboot, the laptop boots
> normally and does not hang in the initial bios screen.
> 
> * I tried moving the backup USB drive to another port (there are four
> in
> the laptop), but nothing changes.
> 
> Some technical details on the drives -
> 
> Hard drive the system should boot from:
> 
> root@orca:/home/mark# fdisk -l /dev/sda
> Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disklabel type: dos
> Disk identifier: 0x00043575
> 
> Device Boot  StartEndSectors   Size Id Type
> /dev/sda1  *  2048 1920129023 1920126976 915.6G 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2   1920131070 1953523711   33392642  15.9G  5 Extended
> /dev/sda5   1920131072 1953523711   33392640  15.9G 82 Linux swap
> /
> Solaris
> 
> Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
> 
> backup USB
> 
> root@orca:/home/mark# fdisk -l /dev/sdb
> Disk /dev/sdb: 2.7 TiB, 3000558944256 bytes, 732558336 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
> Disklabel type: dos
> Disk identifier: 0x00028375
> 
> Device Boot Start   End   Sectors  Size Id Type
> /dev/sdb1 256 732558335 732558080  2.7T 83 Linux
> 
> Plex media USB. NTFS because I trade media with folks who only have
> Windoze. I use fuse to access it.
> 
> root@orca:/home/mark# fdisk -l /dev/sdc
> Disk /dev/sdc: 1.8 TiB, 2000365289472 bytes, 3906963456 sectors
> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
> Disklabel type: dos
> Disk identifier: 0x48f9a2e9
> 
> Device Boot StartEndSectors  Size Id Type
> /dev/sdc12048 3906963455 3906961408  1.8T  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
> 
> Any thoughts you might have on fixing this annoyance would be greatly
> appreciated!
> 
> Mark
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Re: [PLUG] more desktop issues

[Tom]

Hi Denis,

I hope that I did not miss this obvious suggestion in your past posts.
If so, I regret pointing the obvious.

Did you check the file system on the drives?

If you did not, here is how to do this safely:
1. check what filesystems you have at what partitions, in case that you
you need it later
2. boot into recovery mode or life distribution using CD/DVD/USB, so
that you are not using your hard drive(s) or SSD(s) in the machine.
3. run fsck on all partitions excluding swap. Example:
fsck /dev/sda1
4. If you encounter errors, follow the instructions on how to fix them.

I hope things get better soon ...
Tomas

On Sun, 2016-11-20 at 09:28 -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 20, 2016 at 9:16 AM, Rich Shepard <
> rshep...@appl-ecosys.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 20 Nov 2016, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > 
> > > Ideas?
> > 
> >If this were my problem the first thing I'd do is separate
> > hardware from
> > software issues. You wrote that you have a live USB drive with some
> > distribution on it. Try booting the problem host with that, or even
> > another
> > distribution.
> > 
> >If the system boots and works normally you know it's the OS
> > software and
> > not the hardware. Otherwise, you know it's a hardware issue.
> > 
> > HTH,
> > 
> > Rich
> 
> 
> Has the hardware messed up the software?  Sometimes it boots fine,
> esp.
> after I run the recovery mode.  The "sometimes" nature points to
> hardware,
> but the repair of dpkg errors points to messed up sw.   I will try
> your
> suggestion after running a memory check for a few hour--maybe
> overnight.
> 
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] laptop error msg out of space for /boot

[Tom]

I am glad that it sorted your problem.

All you need to do, what I do anyway, is to run the auto remove command
every few months, or as often as you feel like in order to remove old
packages and kernel versions. It took a while to fill your /boot
partition, so you should have about the same time before seeing the
problem again.

When apt removes the unused kernel packages, it takes care of Grub
configuration too.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, Tomas

On Sat, 2016-11-19 at 14:54 -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 19, 2016 at 11:13 AM, Richard England <
> rlengl...@frontier.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > On 11/19/2016 09:50 AM, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > > On Sat, Nov 19, 2016 at 9:43 AM, Richard England <
> > > rlengl...@frontier.com
> > > 
> > > wrote:
> > > 
> > > > On 11/18/2016 05:54 PM, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 5:13 PM, Russell Senior <
> > > > russ...@personaltelco.net>
> > > > > > Denis> This is a recent install, so I expect that there may
> > > > > > not be
> > > > > > many
> > > > > > Denis> kernels.  How do I see what older kernels I have?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I use aptitude for package management.  Look for packages
> > > > > > named
> > > > > > linux-image-* and the associated linux-image-extra-*.  You
> > > > > > want to
> > purge
> > > > > > them, I think.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Russell Senior, President
> > > > > > russ...@personaltelco.net
> > > > > I looked using synaptic.  I see 4.4.0-42.62 both in generic
> > > > > and extra.
> > > > > There are 7 earlier, all listed as installed.  But I also see
> > > > 4.4.0-47.68,
> > > > > yet uname shows 42.68.  Is it possible that the install of
> > > > > 47.68
> > stalled
> > > > > when I got that memory error?  But regardless, it seems I
> > > > > have some
> > older
> > > > > stuff to get rid of.
> > > > > 
> > > > > But you said "..., I think."  That makes me reluctant. 
> > > > >  Someone as
> > > > > incompetent as I am needs certainty to minimize the chance of
> > > > catastrophe.
> > > > > -Denis
> > > > > ___
> > > > > PLUG mailing list
> > > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org
> > > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > > > I'm not adept at Ubuntu but if you are installing updates with
> > > > apt-get
> > > > can't you use
> > > > 
> > > > sudo apt autoremove --purge
> > > > 
> > > > to remove the old kernels as well as other unused packages?
> > > > 
> > > It worked.  Why do you say that I "cannot use" ?  Or are you
> > > asking a
> > > question?
> > > 
> > > -Denis
> > > ___
> > I use Ubuntu mostly on VMs so I am rarely concerned with removing
> > SW.
> > The machines don't last long enough to merit updating much less
> > removing.
> > 
> > I was questioning my understanding and the applicability in your
> > environment.
> > 
> > Hope that helped clean things up for your update.
> > 
> > ~
> 
> 
> Yes.  /boot has only two versions now: 4.4.0-42 and -47.  So it
> worked.  I
> had 8 before.
> 
> -Denis
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Re: [PLUG] laptop error msg out of space for /boot

[Tom]

Need to run to remove unused old versions of kernels and other
packages?
Run: sudo apt autoremove --purge

That should fix that for you automagically.

If you want to prevent the problem happening in the future without
remembering the command, you can configure it by following this guide:
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2016/05/remove-old-kernels-ubuntu-1
6-04/

I just run the "autoremove" command whenever I remember, one a year
maybe. 

Hope it helps, Tomas

On Fri, 2016-11-18 at 17:54 -0800, Denis Heidtmann wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2016 at 5:13 PM, Russell Senior <
> russ...@personaltelco.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > > > > > > "Denis" == Denis Heidtmann 
> > > > > > > writes:
> > 
> > Denis> This is a recent install, so I expect that there may not be
> > many
> > Denis> kernels.  How do I see what older kernels I have?
> > 
> > I use aptitude for package management.  Look for packages named
> > linux-image-* and the associated linux-image-extra-*.  You want to
> > purge
> > them, I think.
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > Russell Senior, President
> > russ...@personaltelco.net
> 
> 
> I looked using synaptic.  I see 4.4.0-42.62 both in generic and
> extra.
> There are 7 earlier, all listed as installed.  But I also see 4.4.0
> -47.68,
> yet uname shows 42.68.  Is it possible that the install of 47.68
> stalled
> when I got that memory error?  But regardless, it seems I have some
> older
> stuff to get rid of.
> 
> But you said "..., I think."  That makes me reluctant.  Someone as
> incompetent as I am needs certainty to minimize the chance of
> catastrophe.
> 
> -Denis
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