July 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.

3 9

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

5 13

Desktop swap
by Evan Leibovitch 05 Aug '17

05 Aug '17

Hi all. For about the mid-nineties to the late aughts, I was a heavy-duty KDE fan. The integration and customization was what I needed, it was good looking and functional. Then it started getting more bloated and slower, seemingly outpacing the increases in CPU speed and decreases in RAM cost. Or maybe it was just the Kubuntu implementation. But I found that it wasn't working for me. So I experimented for a while. Yech. I found GNOME to be something of soap opera that required a whole set of sub-choices (GNOME 2? GNOME 3? Mate? Unity? WTF?). My first GNOME experiences (with the default position of icons moved from the sensible bottom to the left) seemed more like an exercise in social engineering (ie, what the devs wanted dumb users to do) rather than any real attempt to make my computer less intrusive in the path to doing Real Stuff. And then I discovered Linux Mint and its wonderful little Cinnamon desktop. Yeah I know it's gtk based and has big chunks of GNOME in it, but its look-and-feel seems less ... disruptive. It's served me well for much of this decade. But I still miss KDE. So I've been having another look. I've been reading that prefer the Linux Mint version over Kubuntu, and that it's still big but now much speedier. I know it's technically possible to have both KDE and Cinnamon physically installed on my Mint desktop. But I've also been reading that the two systems are so different in default ways of doing things that switching between them is an invitation for grief that will bork things. Most of the forum stuff I've read says that it's much cleaner to do a reinstall. Has anyone else here played with systems that can casually switch between KDE/Qt and GNOME/gtk? Is anyone here using current KDE? Thanks! - Evan

9 10

Any suggestions on hardware to run KODI
by Dave Cramer 31 Jul '17

31 Jul '17

The minix neo U9-H seems like the most reasonable at the moment. Dave Cramer

1 0

Tutorials on Linux command-line -- any interest?
by William Park 31 Jul '17

31 Jul '17

Subject of "tutorial" comes up every year at Linux BBQ. This year, at Hacklab, was no different. OK, I'll bite first. I will give a series of tutorials on "Linux Command-Line", starting with - Shell (bash) - Vi editor (vim) It will be workshop style. So, you can bring laptop (Windows and Chromebook), try out examples, and ask questions. How many are interested? We'll work out the logistics later. -- William

10 20

ISO QA - it really is a war story
by Russell 29 Jul '17

29 Jul '17

I really like Hughs war stories. They are full of gentle good humor and I always learn something interesting and usefull. Standardization in individual industries has existed for a very long time however, ISO is a military tool. It was established in order to ensure that quality assurance abstracts are enforced. If whatever is provided under military contracts, extends beyond sic sigma indicators, there are consequences. Sic sigma, not to be confused with Six Sigma as co-opted by Motorola, ensures that the widget is as described and operational within the norms of standard deviation. Motorola couldn't name their own process sic sigma, as the military holds the patent. Motorola made up some bafflegab around their own military involvement with yattadadada, in six parts, and ran with it. If you file a patent with a government patent office, it is firstly vetted by the military establishment. They can deny the patent to you and use the information you provided themselves. Or they can fund you and take your rights, whichever is easier. The military holds up the patent process. In essence all technology is military technology, even if it is designed and built by civilians for civilian use. No one can patent a construct, even though they had done all the research and initial product development, untill it is vetted by MI. Under military driven ISO, civilian organizations do advertise their "certified" ISO QA contsructs starting at number 9000, first published in 1987. This is what causes the confusion between adoption of a standards process and a manufactures certification of the same process. On a personal note, 1987 was around the time I worked in building during the day and for after work, I bought a book on 6809 assembler and the assembly language rom cart for my girlfriend's TRS 80. I have been a hacker since then. Prior to that all I had done was read discarded IBM manuals I picked up at various job sites etc. For troubleshooting systems integration, I abstract the OSI model under ISO this way. SAP is a Standardly Applied Protocol. SOP is a Standard Operating Procedure. FORM is the First Order of Reliability Methods. SORM is the Second Order of Reliability Methods. This is sufficient for my own purposes. For penetration testing there is a THFM, Third Heuristic First Movement <begin_spooky_Roswell_music> but the data is fuzzy on that and the jury is still out ... there ... somewhere ... </begin_spooky_Roswell_music> ;-) -- Russell Sent by K-9 Mail

1 0

SAP ISO SR26000:20010 - listserv etiquitte was: for any hardware gurus
by Russell 28 Jul '17

28 Jul '17

This subject is mostly for the list maintainers as it is in fact related to the list policy. It can get tiresome to have people send me private emails at the address they have harvested from this list. Social responsibility dictates that I have a process I may follow, albeit a voluntary one. In general if you have sent me a private email: You are not a troll; if you are on the list and I reply in kind without mentioning the word troll. If you are a troll, I told you that. I told you that because, you don't know the first rules of online etiquette. Now I have to address the OP. When you started the conversation off list, you don't respond to my online post off-list again just by putting the word off-list in the subject, we have never met face to face. On a list, if you don't know someone personally, the correct way to take it off-list is to send a post saying lets go off-list as this is not general interest or otherwise private. You are a double troll if we have never interacted and you email me privately, but that was a different person. <snip all the stuff the OP doesn't know about IO streams> I tried to be nice but this is what I finally said to the last troll. <begin_repelling_troll> "I have to remember the first rule of listserve, don't feed the trolls they are ungrateful and bite the hand that feeds them. All the techs who didn't respond, did that because you don't know the basics and they couldn't be bothered. This list is a little different, it has a lot of newbies so I bothered to ask, now I'm sorry I did. You don't know what init process is you don't know what configuration files to look for and are a Windows transplant in the world of GNU software. You are like every other user who has trolled me from this list, poorly regurgitating what someone else has told you without understanding of the basics. You know that, that is why you took it off-list and why I went back to the list after you made me do the homework you don't have a clue about. There are no how-tos for dealing with trolls, but there is a troll spotting guide and I followed it." </begin_repelling_troll> For the list maintainers. I don't know who the OP is or where they are but if they are an employed Tech, self or other, who is trying to work with hardware they don't understand, they should at least know this. In fact everyone who is employed should know this. This is why I included the SAP ISO. Canada is a first signer of this protocol. Clause 7 addresses volunteerism. -- Russell Sent by K-9 Mail

4 4

for any hardware gurus
by o1bigtenor 26 Jul '17

26 Jul '17

*working with xrandr 1.5 not finding how to connect second or third gpu* ------------------------------ Greetings Running debian buster (testing) using lxqt. Have 3 nvidia 570 gpus and 4 1920x1080 monitors. Have had this system now for almost 5.5 years and have had it running the four monitors all that time. Updated to buster (new testing) and found that there were some issues with proprietary drivers nvidia 375.66 - - - was having one gpu halt and upon reboot things seemed to work again. The time between reboots was getting down to less than 12 hrs when I landed up with a system with corrupted networking on a reboot. So in the process of re-install I decided to try the Nouveau drivers instead. So now I have a one gpu 2 monitor system available. Got to very much like the four monitors for my work layout so I want the other two monitors working. Using xrandr I can see Provider 0,1 and 2. DVI-I-1 and DVI-I-2 are connected. DVI-I-2-5 and DVI-I-2-6 are listed as disconnected. I have been able to create a virtual screen of 3840 x 3000 which is how I had things before this reinstall using $xrandr --fb 3840x3000 . Tried $xrandr --setprovideroutputsource 1 0 no changes looked for pci addresses found 01:00.0. 02:00.0 and 03:00.0 Looked in the kernel log and all I can see is a error code of -19 (for both Provider 1 and 2) which, after a lot of digging, seems to be saying "no such device" Tried $ xrandr --addmode DVI-I-2-5 1920x1080 then DVI-I-2-5 still shows as disconnected but with a resolution of 1920x1080 60.00 Next I tried $ xrandr --output VGA-2 --mode 1920x1080 --pos 1280x1280 --rotate inverted result - - warning: output VGA-2 not found; ignoring It used to be that this setup happened in xorg.conf (and was a monolithic file), then things were changed to files placed in /etc/xorg.conf.d (as individual descriptions - - - ie. devices, monitors and AIUI screens) and in my system these kind of files are now in /etc/X11/Xsession.d but there aren't any to do with graphics issues. Any information I haven't provided that would help others help me? I can't find any guides on how to setup xrandr to use multiple gpus AND more than 2 or 3 monitors (usually from only 1 gpu). Most of the randr information I can find is for at newest randr 1.3 and I have 1.5. Randr 1.4 is where the multiple gpu option was introduced so it should be possible but . . . . I've found https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/pr...oto-1.5.0#n160 likely everything I need is hidden in this file but for the life of me I can't figure out what commands to use. If I were an expert I wouldn't be asking but I'm not and there are no examples to follow (or try). Suggestions please? (Maybe do I have to go for newer proprietary drivers? (rather not I sort of like the no issues right now with Nouveau!) TIA Dee

2 2

War Story: interestingly named firmware (BIOS) options
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 24 Jul '17

24 Jul '17

I just bought an MSI Cubi (a cute little PC). I'm having some problems so I want to flash new firmware. Without a windows license. So that means FreeDOS for flashing. I could not get FreeDOS to boot. Only UEFI options were offered. So I asked on MSI's forum, and got a useful answer! Even though the forum looks a little like a ghost town, at least for the Cubi. <https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=289811.0> The option to choose between "Legacy mode" and UEFI mode is called "Windows 8/8.1 feature"; disabled means Legacy mode. (I haven't yet tested this.)

1 0

[GTALUG-Announce] Linux in the Park 2017 this Saturday (22 July) at 2pm
by Myles Braithwaite 21 Jul '17

21 Jul '17

<http://gtalug.org/picnics/2017/> GTALUG is having the annual Linux in the Park Potluck this year at HackLab.TO's Backyard on 22 July at 2 pm. Things we will provide Bathroom, BBQ, Plates, Cutlery, Serviettes, Cups, and Garbage bags. Things you might want to bring: chairs, tasty beverages, food stuffs that you would like to share and enjoy, tarp/blanket, sunscreen, hats, things to help survive the warmth of the Canadian Wilderness. We will be doing this in a pot-luck style. Thus, please bring enough food and drink for yourself and your guests, and try to bring enough to share with others in the group. We are using the GTALUG wiki to organise everything: <https://wiki.gtalug.org/event:linux_in_the_park_2017>. ## Location HackLab.TO - Backyard 1266 Queen St. West, Suite #6, Toronto Toronto, Ontario <http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/3522641496> ## Code of Conduct We want a productive happy community that can welcome new ideas, improve every process every year, and foster collaboration between individuals with differing needs, interests and skills. We gain strength from diversity, and actively seek participation from those who enhance it. This code of conduct exists to ensure that diverse groups collaborate to mutual advantage and enjoyment. We will challenge prejudice that could jeopardize the participation of any person in the community. The Code of Conduct governs how we behave in public or in private whenever the Linux community will be judged by our actions. We expect it to be honored by everyone who represents the community officially or informally, claims affiliation, or participates directly. It applies to activities online or offline. We invite anybody to participate. Our community is open. Please read more about the GTALUG Code of Conduct here: <http://gtalug.org/about/code-of-conduct/>. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the GTALUG Code of Conduct please contact one of the GTALUG Board Members @ <board(a)gtalug.org>. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

3 3