July 2016 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

Netgear 5-port Gigabit switch -- $10 ?
by William Park 05 Sep '16

05 Sep '16

Canada Computer is selling - Netgear GS105E ProSafe Plus Switch, 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet - 5 Ports - 5 x RJ-45 - 10/100/1000Base-T - Wall Mountable - http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=355&item_id=077172&ut… for $10. Any comment on the item? -- William

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mysterious restarts
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

We have a computer that started doing random and frequent restarts on the weekend. We don't know why. Any suggestions? It looks as if the power dips momentarily and the computer reboots, with no message that we have observe. But it could just as easily be a crash of some other kind that leaves no trace. The system is an HP Compaq Pro 6300 Small Form Factor PC running Fedora 20. The crash seems to be at different points (i.e. not one consistent software activity). The crashes don't seem correlated with heavy workloads (eg. it crashed a couple of times while I was staring at log files to see if there was any hint of the problem). Hypothesis: a Fedora 20 bug. But the software has not been changed in months. Updates have not been appled this year. Since the behaviour has changed without the software changing, I don't think that Fedora is to blame. Hypothesis: it might be heat-related (the room it is in gets warm). I vacuumed out the interior and defuzzed the heat sinks. This did not improve the uptime. Hypothesis: it might be contact-related. So I disconnected and reconnected most internal connectors and reseated the memory. This did not seem to improve the uptime. Hypothesis: it might be the power supply. Normally, I'd swap power supplies to test this hypothesis but this Small Form Factor computer has a unique (and probably expensive) power supply. I opted to move the disk to a Dell OptiPlex 990 Small Form Factor computer and use that. The Dell, with the HP's disk, seems stable. No rebooting. This is in the same warm room, but the weather has changed. In the original HP box, I installed a disk that I had laying around (a 60G drive from a discarded laptop), installed Ubuntu 16.04, and have been running four CPU-bound processes for 24 hours. No crash. I admit that this is in a cooler room. The heat and power load of a laptop drive is less than that of a 3.5" HDD, but I would not think that that is significant. The computer is a couple of years old but still has a year of warranty. There are confidential files on the disk drive so I'd like to narrow down the problem before calling in HP support. Asking for a particular replacement part is more convenient that shipping the computer back to HP.

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Re: [GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP PC;
by Russell Reiter 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

On Jul 25, 2016 10:50 AM, "Steve Petrie, P.Eng. via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > Warm Greetings To GTALUG, > > Please forgive the long email. -- have to provide some background. > > BACKGROUND -- BUILDING DEBIAN 8 PC TO REPLACE WIN XP PC > I usually have a couple of pieces of advise for home builds and integration. Unfortunately the first piece is no longer relevant. That was was go to active surplus and purchase a variety of items. Board standoffs, plastic washers and odd screws and ties. However they have closed both locations and it doesn't look like there is a comeback in the works. I have yet to find another place with such a comprehensive stock of the little odds and ends someone night need. The other is to have a build buddy, someone to bounce things around with when there is an unexpected problem. I do have this suggestion tho. Make friends with Hacklab. I haven't visited the facility so I don't know if they have storage for a build which may last longer than one day. Also I have no idea of the fee structure to use the space, but there are others on the list with more in-depth knowledge than I. Scott Sullivan perhaps? HTH Russell <snip the end>

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dinner tomorrow night
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

<https://wiki.gtalug.org/pre-meeting_dinner> We're playing chicken, and I always lose. I guess I care more about dinner than the rest of you :-) I suggest: Roti Roll Caribean Cuisine Address: 361 Yonge St. (A little hard to recognize from the street but it is there) Yelp Review: <https://www.yelp.ca/biz/roti-roll-caribbean-cuisine-toronto> visited 2015 November 10 Fallback: Donair Kebab House (Turkish) Address: 391 Yonge Street Stewart remembers: tasty shawarma, but limited seating and cash only visited 2015 October 13

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Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP PC;
by Steve Petrie, P.Eng. 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

Warm Greetings To GTALUG, Please forgive the long email. -- have to provide some background. BACKGROUND -- BUILDING DEBIAN 8 PC TO REPLACE WIN XP PC I'm working to replace an old Dell Windows XP SP3 PC with a new PC, booting Debian Linux 8 as the primary OS, with Win 7 set up to run under QEMU / KVM vbirtualization under Debian. A multi-boot setup will allow booting Windows 7 (OEM) on bare metal, if required for occasional use. I definitely am NOT going to use MS Windows as the primary OS in my new desktop PC !! I have almost no Linux / Unix experience. Some years ago doing application programming on IBM AIX / Korn shell and now for personal and business uses, getting into Debian Linux (and DragonFlyBSD) on cloud-hosted QEMU / KVM virtualization servers. However I do have a strong IT background. (I'm a "retired" software engineer). On 7 January 2016 I sent an inquiry email to hi(a)gtalug.org and Myles Braithwaite responded instantly with helpfull suggestions for which I was very grateful. Myles also encouraged to join the talk(a)gtalug.org mailing list and so now here I am. I'm looking for advice from GTALUG members on two issues: 1. Comments on my proposed PC configuration. I have already researched components and developed a detailed hardware configuration for the new PC. Please see below. This configuration is not yet published on ca.partpicker.com. 2. Advice on how to get the PC built from components, that I will purchase retail and supply to the builder. Here, one option I propose is for a "creative" solution from GTALUG (see point 3, next section). * * * * * * HOW TO BUILD THE NEW DEBIAN 8 PC ? It seems to me that there are three approaches I could take, to get this new PC built: 1. BUILD IT MYSELF. I can handle purchasing all the components. However, although I am comfortable messing around inside the case of a computer, I've never build one from components. I would prefer to have the PC assembled by more experienced hands that have the skills and use of the right tools. So building myself is a last resort. 2. USE A COMMERCIAL PC SYSTEM BUILDER. Any suggestions from mailing list participants, on commercial PC builders would be gratefully received. However, I do not want to have to deal with import hassles, so the builder must be operating in Canada.(preferably in the GTA) Problem: It seems it will be difficult to interest commercial PC bulders in Canada to supply a competitively-priced PC configured with Linux. So if I use a commercial builder, the plan would be to get the PC built and delivered with with Windows 7 only installed, but have a multi-boot setup. After I get the PC I will install Debian 8 Linux as the primary host operating system, and then install Win 7 to run under QEMU / KVM virtualization under Debian. 3. *** CREATIVE IDEA FOR GTALUG *** Perhaps there is a member (or members) of GTALUG who would be able to build the PC from comnponents I supply. Naturally I would be happy to pay a fee for this service Or (and this would be my preference) perhaps GTALUG would be interested in taking on the buuild project as a club project. I expect I would be much more happy to pay money to GTALUG for helping with the build, and to get the pleasure of working with GTALUG, than I would be paying and dealing with a commercial builder. Since I live in Oakville in a small apartment, it would make more sense for the build to happen in Toronto. >From my casual research, there are many Win XP "orphans" like me out there. Not only older-type people stuck on Win XP and wondering what to do before their old PC dies. But also there are plenty of small businesses still running XP (in fact there are probably more small business XP users left, than consumer XP users). You could consider me in a sense, a "poster senior" for a class of people, among whom some could possibly go the Linux route as they migrate away from Win XP. If only these poster seniors (or small business Win XP "orphans") had a helping hand from e.g. GTALUG. For example, run a kind of GTALUG "clinic" that Win XP "orphans" could come to (for a fee) and there work with GTALUG members to get their Linux PC built. And later get their data (e.g. emails) converted over to e.g. Thunderbird. Just a thought, for a way that GTALUG could get more involved with the wider community. And perhaps also pull in some club revenue to support GTALUG initiatives. Perhsps this is an idea the GTALUG Board could consider. I am happy to discuss the idea of being the "guinea pig" for such a project. * * * * * * PROPOSED PC CONFIGURATION Thsi is decidedly NOT a gamer's PC. It is intended to be an ultra-reliable, powerful, fast professional / small business workstation . There is no overclocking. There are no add-in graphics cards. It uses established CPU technology now being price-discounted because of the introduction of new CPU technology. ----------------- ----------------- CPU Intel 4-Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Processor, 64-bit, 6 MB cache, max 32 GB RAM, HD graphics; CPU Cooler Noctua NH-U12S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler, height w/fan 158mm, clears RAM & PCIe, PWM control; Motherboard ASRock Z97 EXTREME6 ATX LGA1150 Mainboard, PCIe: 2x 3.0x16, 1x 2.0x16, 2x 2.0x1, 1x mini, Ultra M.2 Gen3 8Gb/s x4 (uses 4x PCIe 3.0 CPU socket lanes), extra large heat sinks; Memory Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 RAM, 1.35 volt, timings 8-8-8-24; ----------------- Case Fractal Design Define R5 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case, 3-speed fan control (max 3 fans), bays: fan 9, drive: 2x5.25", 8x3.5", 2xSSD, CPU cooler height max 180mm, 2 dust filters; Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA P2 850W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply; ----------------- Solid State Drive Samsung SM951 128GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive, AHCI PCIe Gen3 8Gb/s x4, 256 MB cache, P/N MZHPV128HDGM; Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Blue Internal Hard Drive 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM 6Gb/s SATA 64MB cache; Optical Drive LG WH16NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer, SATA, 2/3/4 layers (128GB), 4MB data buffer; ----------------- Video Monitor LG 22MB35DM-I 21.5" Monitor Full HD 1080p 1920x1080 IPS LED Back-lit, DVI-D, D-Sub, contrast ratios: (static 1,000:1), (dynamic 5M:1), reader mode, flicker-safe; Keyboard Dell SK-8110 PS/2 Keyboard, PS/2 Interface, Black, DP/N 07N242, 104 keys, cable with purple 6 pin mini-DIN male (PS/2 STYLE) connector; Mouse Logitech SBF-96 PS/2 Wired Optical Mouse, 3 Buttons, wheel, cable with green 6 pin mini-DIN male (PS/2 STYLE) connector; ----------------- Dialup Modem US Robotics USR5638 56K* V.92, internal dial-up faxmodem card, (PCIe) PCI Express x1; ----------------- ----------------- Multi-Boot Main Host OS O/S Debian 8 LXDE Linux -- x86_64 (QEMU / KVM host o/s to Win7 x86_64 guest o/s); ISO on DVD (standard Debian installation ISO **NOT LIVE installation ISO**); Guest OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full, 32/64-bit, from ISO on DVD (guest o/s of Deb8); Emergency OS Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full, 32/64-bit, ISO on DVD (emergency multi-boot); ----------------- ----------------- Cables @@@??? Power Bar @@@??? ----------------- ----------------- The same configuratiton is attached as a PDF <ca.pcpartpicker.com -- deb8_win7_dual-boot_PC_business_24_7_duty - summary_bare - Steve_Petrie - 20160313.pdf>. For simplicity, I have omitted mention of: a SCSI controller, and a SCSI tape drive, and speakers. All of which I will acquire later, after the base PC is working. * * * * * * Many thanks to list members for taking the time to consider my email. Comments, questions welcome: 1. On the proposed PC configuration, 2. On the idea of GTALUG helping with the build project. Best Regards, Steve * * * Steve Petrie, P.Eng. ITS-ETO Consortium Oakville, Ontario, Canada (905) 847-3253 apetrie(a)aspetrie.net

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Re: [GTALUG] Advice -- Building Debian 8 PC To Replace Win XP PC;
by Steve Petrie, P.Eng. 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

Thanks to GTALUG Members, for the last series of emails I fetched on this thread. Many useful ideas and much interesting info. Copious snippets have been carefully collected into a text file. * * * * * * I have reviewed the quotation I received from NCIX, and can report: 1. Contrary to my earlier assertion, NCIX in fact has included an item for: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64Bit DVD SP1 OEM Price C$187.99 [Reg. C$214.98] 2. And the the (now corrected) NCIX total price for hardware components alone, seems reasonable: NCIX: $1593.13 PCPartPicker: $1517.98 Caution: NCIX has made some hardware substitutions, so the total prices are only generically comparable. I compared the sum of component prices, NCIX versus PCPartPicker, and NCIX is acceptably close to PCPartPicker. Here is a summary of the component price comparison (all prices $C): ----------------- NCIX* PC PartPicker** ----------------- -------- ------------- CPU $269.99 $249.25 CPU Cooler $92.98 $79.95 Motherboard $289.99 $228.98 Memory $44.99 $75.98 ----------------- Case $144.99 $129.99 Power Supply $214.98 $159.99 ----------------- Solid State Drive $135.70 $156.99 Hard Drive $67.99 $81.95 Optical Drive $92.98 $86.98 ----------------- Video Monitor $167.98 $167.92 Keyboard $15.98 $40.00 Mouse (incl.) $10.00 ----------------- Dialup Modem $54.58 $50.00 ----------------- ----------------- TOTAL1: $1593.13 $1517.98 ----------------- ----------------- MS Windows 7 $187.99 Assemble & Test $49.98 Environ. Fees $16.65 ----------------- ----------------- TOTAL2: $1897.73 ----------------- ----------------- Not an inexpensive PC. And not a souped-up gamer's PC. But one that I believe will run plenty fast and stay cool under 24/7 duty. With lots of expansion capacity for additional hardware, that will not stress the power supply or the cooling apparatus. My plan now is to revise the Linux PC specification, taking into account the avalanche of advice I have received from GTALUG members. (e.g. increase RAM to 16 GB from 8, drop the dial-up modem and source later, change HDD to Western Digital Black, etc.) Then I will ask NCIX for a revised quotation, confirm with NCIX a number of picky details (e.g. is the WIndows 7 DVD SP1 OEM at the latest SP level?, etc.) and get NCIX agreement on technical details of HDD partitioning (GPT) and boot setup (multi-boot, with Windows 7 installed; ready for a Linux (debian 8) drop-in installation. * * * * * * I'm probably not going to be able respond to many more individual posts to this thread, but I will read any that follow with interest. Will report back, upon conclusion of my negotiations with NCIX. The self-build option for the new Linux PC remains open, should NCIX be unable to satisfy the requirements. Many thanks again to GTALUG !! Best Regards, Steve * * * Steve Petrie, P.Eng. ITS-ETO Consortium Oakville, Ontario, Canada (905) 847-3253 apetrie(a)aspetrie.net

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Re: [GTALUG] GTALUG - BUILDING DEBIAN 8 PC TO REPLACE WIN XP PC
by Steve Petrie, P.Eng. 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

Hello Stan, Thanks for your response. My comments are inline below. Steve ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stan Witkowski" <stan(a)stanwitkowski.com> To: "Steve Petrie, P.Eng." <apetrie(a)aspetrie.net> Sent: Wednesday, July 27, 2016 12:02 AM Subject: GTALUG - BUILDING DEBIAN 8 PC TO REPLACE WIN XP PC > > > I suggest: > <snip> > > 2. Unless you have a specific need (MUST HAVE backup for stock market > trading, for example), > don't install a dial-up modem. Why? (Everything is Internet > based...) > Mainly because I use dial-upon the Win XP system, and I don't want the hassle of changing it to use DSL, before I get the new Linux PC. Also, I'm curious to see if the experience with dial-up is better on Linux than on Win XP. I do plan, after the Linux PC is operational, to switch to DSL. > 3. Install as much RAM as you can afford. (This also allows the use > of a ramdisk, > which can give you VASTLY faster access.) > Personally I would not build a system with under 16 GB RAM, and > better, 32 GB. > Others have mentioned this too. Makes good sense. I will change the spec to 16 GB and assure expandability to 32 GB. > > re: > Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Blue Internal Hard Drive > 750GB 3.5" 7200RPM 6Gb/s SATA 64MB cache; > > IMPORTANT: I used Western Digital Green drives (and now their > replacement, the Blue) > ONLY AS BACKUP DRIVES!!! These are "environmentally > friendly", > meaning they will spin down down after a short interval > (2 - 3 minutes) > if there is no access to them, to save on electricity. > THIS IS BAD IN A WORKING SYSTEM!!! > > They are perfect as external **ARCHIVE** drives (you write > a bunch of stuff > to them for archival use once an hour, say), but as daily > use drives > they can be a disaster. > > Example: The drive is written to, and spins down. A few > minutes later > it is accessed again, and so spins up. > Down/up/down/up............. > > Better: Western Digital Black drives = more expensize, but also > tougher, etc. > Advice worth it's wait in gold !! I'll look at the Western Digital Black drives. > Stan. > > (I'm moving in a week and hence am surrounded by packing and chaos > <grin>, so any > replies may be spotty...) > I saw no "spots" ... Please accept my extra thanks for taking time out from your move, to advise me. > > (I'll follow your progress - may go the same or similar route at some > point later.) > Stay tuned ...

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Re: [GTALUG] gmane.org gone, at least for now
by Russell Reiter 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

<snip> > https://web.archive.org/web/20150727001119/http://spark.crystalorb.net/mike… > and the reconfiguring of the endpoint solved the problem... > Hmm, my mobile says this: Wayback Machine doesn't have that page archived. > Soo, am thinking, in your case... > motherboard... --> bios? Is xHCI hand-off enabled in bios settings? > (we are using intel... - also, btw eHCI hand-off should be disabled) > or still usb 3 issue, passthrough? > > other than that it sounds like a frustrating and entertaining problem > (although it is solved for everyone else afaict :) ) I'm not sure this is a real solution but this guy plugged in a USB 2 device in the 3.0 port on boot and it initialized the port as 2.0. http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=101903 > > Andre > --- > Talk Mailing List > talk(a)gtalug.org > https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

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Scanner on USB 3.0 - was Re: gmane.org gone, at least for now
by Russell Reiter 31 Jul '16

31 Jul '16

This recent, well two year old, patch may be relevant. I read elsewhere that large block transfers also create endpoint issues, in particular with VIA chipsets. http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-usb/msg105480.html Russell Sent from mobile.

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Re: [GTALUG] gmane.org gone, at least for now
by ac 31 Jul '16

31 Jul '16

On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 16:40:49 +0200 ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 16:30:37 +0200 > ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > On Sun, 31 Jul 2016 10:01:01 -0400 (EDT) > > "D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk" <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > > BTW, this link is to discussion of a problem that I'm having. My > > > Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 won't work when plugged into a USB 3 port > > > on Linux. Very odd. This report is two years old and the problem > > > persists. --- > > eeek, soz, I only just saw this.. > > please post any output from dmesg (directly after plugging usb)? > whahaha, triple eeek... (- Sundays... go figure) just reading the way > back when link and your logs > (http://spark.crystalorb.net/mikem/dmesg.log) > I do not yet have anything easy/constructive to add and I promise to > only reply if I do :) > I started working through the thread (and the code) to try to understand the issue :) I noted: it seems that we round the interval for high speed bulk, where it should not have an interval that, combined with "Plugging the scanner to a USB2 port works flawlessly" After Mathias coded "It re-configures the endpoint every time a usb device driver clears a halt to make the toggle and sequence stay in sync between xhci and the device" result: - the scanner appears in lsusb then i hit this: https://web.archive.org/web/20150727001119/http://spark.crystalorb.net/mike… and the reconfiguring of the endpoint solved the problem... Soo, am thinking, in your case... motherboard... --> bios? Is xHCI hand-off enabled in bios settings? (we are using intel... - also, btw eHCI hand-off should be disabled) or still usb 3 issue, passthrough? other than that it sounds like a frustrating and entertaining problem (although it is solved for everyone else afaict :) ) Andre

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