October 2017 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

war story: power failure makes CentOS system unbootable
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 30 Sep '22

30 Sep '22

tl;dr / spoiler: change fstab so that /boot/efi is not automatically mounted. See the recommendation at the end of this message. My gateway computer is a little PC running CentOS. It does not come back after a power failure. The reason (as best I can tell) is interesting and I think that I have a fix. My system is UEFI. It boots from a UEFI system partition, known as /boot/efi to Linux. If this gets corrupted, it won't boot. It is a VFAT partition. On my gateway (a Zotac Zbox RI321, a cute little box with two ethernet ports), the UEFI firmware apparently won't boot if the dirty bit is set in the system partition. CentOS normally runs with /boot/efi mounted. So when the system isn't shut down cleanly, the dirty bit will be on. Consequence: the system is not going to boot after a power failure. Odd observation 1: if I put a live Fedora 25 USB stick in the system and try to boot in this otherwise-unbootable state, CentOS boots from the main disk. So this really looks like a firmware bug/quirk. Odd observation 2: fsck doesn't seem to automatically fix the system partition. Once CentOS 7 booted, I dismounted /boot/efi and did an fsck on it. $ sudo fsck /dev/sda1 fsck from util-linux 2.23.2 fsck.fat 3.0.20 (12 Jun 2013) 0x25: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt. 1) Remove dirty bit 2) No action ? 1 Leaving filesystem unchanged. /dev/sda1: 16 files, 2420/51145 clusters Googling got me to <https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=50917> In particular, this advice seemed quite good: ==== recommendation ==== Two other changes I recommend for UEFI systems, to each OS's /etc/fstab. - For the /boot/efi mountpoint, add the mount options x-systemd.automount,noauto - Change fs_passno (last column) to a 1 or 2; the canonical fstab instructions suggest 2, but systemd treats 1 and 2 as the same. The first change means the EFI System partition will not be automatically read-write mounted at boot time; it's a bad idea this is the default because it puts the ESP at risk especially if ther are crashes, FAT has no journal and will therefore always be marked dirty in such a case; no other UEFI OS mounts the ESP by default. Second, if anything tries to access /boot/efi (read or write), systemd will automatically mount it, and because of the fs_passno 1 or 2, it will fsck it first and that fixes and clears the dirty bit in case it's set. Right now without these changes, it's just a matter of having the right number and bad timing of crashes to render the EFI System partition corrupt.

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Any Debian Developers here can help me sign my GPG key?
by tlugys.ats＠spamgourmet.com 26 Feb '18

26 Feb '18

Hi GTALUG members, Do we have any Debian Developers here? I am in the second step of becoming New Debian Maintainer process -- https://nm.debian.org/process/194 and now need to have my GPG key signed by a Debian member. I was directed to the THUG group (Toronto (GNU)/Hurd User Group) http://www.nongnu.org/thug/ but only to find that their listed email (thug(a)gnu.org) is no longer working. So I'm in a bad position now, and really hope that there is a Debian Developer here, or you know of, that can help me. I live in GTA, North York to be exactly. Any help can comfort my desperate heart. Thanks Antonio

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BASH on Android OS
by R360 Design INC 31 Oct '17

31 Oct '17

Hello everybody, Where can we find Bash scripting guide specifically for Android devices? Ideally we will create Bash scripts that automatically execute when we turn on the Android device. -- r360design.ca

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Web hosting questions
by o1bigtenor 31 Oct '17

31 Oct '17

Greetings I bought web hosting and registered 2 domains with a company. The domains need to be renewed annually but the hosting is on a three year rotation. The renewal is going to be about 2.7 x the original hosting contract. Is this normal? What do you of those that have a personal or small business website do - - - move before renewal - - - or ????? I have managed to setup a webserver here at home. I tried to use one of my domains - - - that doesn't work because dns resolves to my host and not here. Any suggestions on what and/or how to setup things to experiment here before I go live with something? (I want to try things like horde's webmail groupware (Have it installed locally already) and other tools in the running of the business.) TIA Dee

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Call for Support: Internet Society FOSS SIG
by Evan Leibovitch 31 Oct '17

31 Oct '17

Hi all, At the request of a number of members of the Internet Society, I am initiating an application for a Free and Open Source Software Special Interest Group (FOSSSIG). Part of the application process requires me to collect the names and contact information of at least registered 25 Internet Society members. If you are an ISOC member and would like your name added to the list of original supporters, please let me know by personal email (ie, don't respond to the list). Once completed, a application to form the SIG will be submitted to ISOC. If approved, it will have two years to establish governance, strategic objectives, and hopefully execute a project or two. Thanks for any offers of support. -- Evan Leibovitch Toronto, Canada Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56

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I let a spam message slip past moderation
by Alex Volkov 30 Oct '17

30 Oct '17

Hello everyone, You may have received a spam message in Chinese addressed to talk(a)gtalug.org <talk-owner(a)gtalug.org>. I apologize I accidentally marked it 'to accept' instead of 'to discard'. Please disregard that message and delete it.Don't mark it as spam as that may cause talk(a)gtalug.org <talk-owner(a)gtalug.org> to be blacklisted and you wouldn't receive updates from the mailing list. - Alex.

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Someone has a Unihertz Jelly Pro smartphone?
by znoteer＠mailbox.org 27 Oct '17

27 Oct '17

Hi, Was it on this list that someone said they had a Jelly Pro phone from Unihertz? If so, would you mind answering a few questions? 1) How is the general build quality of the phone (as rugged as any other smartphone, or flimsier)? 2) 240x432 pixels is not terribly high res. How is this for browser, app and general phone use? 3) Given the small screen, how is typing on the on-screen keyboard with big fingers? If I've got the wrong list, sorry for the noise. Cheers, -- znoteer znoteer(a)mailbox.org

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FSOSS Speakers, we welcome you!
by Scott Sullivan 23 Oct '17

23 Oct '17

If you, or someone you know, was planning to speak at FSOSS. We'd love to hear from you, GTALUG is always looking for speakers. Please contact me off list at 'speaker-coordinator[AT]gtalug.org'. -- Scott Sullivan

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Gairdner Symposia [was Re: FSOSS 2017 cancelled due to strike]
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 19 Oct '17

19 Oct '17

| From: Stewart Russell via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> | Subject: Re: [GTALUG] FSOSS 2017 cancelled due to strike | While there might be occasional grizzles on this list about FSOSS, the fact | that there is a conference on open things within transit range of us at all | is pretty neat. Let's hope it gets going again soon. I think that FSOSS has been great. Not perfect. Well worth my time. One problem: it is always scheduled for the same dates as the Gairdner Symposia. These are about things medical, not up my alley, but amazing. So this year I'm going to hit the Gairdners hard. <http://gairdner.org/events-upcoming/> The Gairdner Awards have been given our for decades and have an amazing record of predicting who will later win a Nobel prize in medicine. Each fall they put on three series of talks at the McLeod Auditorium, part of the Med. Sci building at the University of Toronto. They are free and open to the public but some require more background than I have. (They also scatter talks at campuses of other universities, including York.) Oct: 26: Here's the most accessible one of the three, The Gairdner Foundation Laureate Symposium. These are from each of the folks who got an award this year: <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-laureate-symposium/> Oct 27: Another symposium is "New Frontiers in Targeted Therapies for Human Health". This one may require more background, but I'm going to try it. <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-symposium-new-frontiers-targeted-t…> Oct 25: Still another is "2017 Gairdner Global Health Symposium". This one is not in the McLeod Auditorium. The morning session is at 686 Bay St. and the afternoon is at the U of T Faculty Club. It is free but requires registration (through Eventbrite). Again, I'm going to try it even though I expect that I don't have enough background. <http://gairdner.org/events/2017-gairdner-global-health-symposium/> Since the GGHS ends early on Oct 25, you could even follow it up with the "Women in Science with Dr. Huda Zoghbi" at 4:30. Free, but requires registration. (She was awarded a Gairdner in 2017.) Less fortunately, "CRISPR Unplugged: The Editing Business" starts before the GGHS but overlaps with it. CRISPR is a relatively recent discovery/invention which is revolutionizing gene editing. (Barrangou was awarded a Gairdner in 2016.) There are plenty of othr things on through the year. I'm watching this right now: <http://gairdner.org/events/public-lecture-dr-antoine-hakim/> Oops: it is in French. I wish I were more functional in French.

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Bruce Schneier speaking at SECTOR
by Dave Cramer 18 Oct '17

18 Oct '17

https://sector.ca/tag/bruce-schneier/ Dave Cramer

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