August 2019 - 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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Running Dell branded Nvidia gtx 1060 in non-dell system
by Alex Volkov 03 Oct '19

03 Oct '19

Hey everyone, I'm looking to buy used Nvidia GeForce GXT 1060 to run some ML tutorials. I got a good deal on Dell OEM one. Are there any pitfalls in running one in a non-dell system? More specifically nothing even close to that i.e amd fx CPU and AMD 970 chipset. Alex. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

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Script to show HTTP(S) and TLS details for a website
by Giles Orr 16 Sep '19

16 Sep '19

This may be seen as self-promotion - that's not totally wrong. But I think this may also be useful to others and (as I acknowledge in the blog post) I'm quite pleased with the resultant script. Over the past year and a half I've slowly developed a shell script that gives a concise summary of the state of TLS and HTTP(S) on a given website. It looks like this: $ tlsdetails google.ca Using OpenSSL: /usr/bin/openssl Expiry Date: Oct 27 17:27:07 2019 GMT (78 days) Issuer: Google Trust Services, CN TLS Versions: tls1_3 tls1_2 tls1_1 tls1 (tried but unavailable: ssl3 ssl2 ) HTTP Version: 2 I first started work on it after a couple embarrassing certificate expiries. It then grew to check the Issuer, TLS versions, and more recently whether or not a site supports HTTP2. (The pointer to the OpenSSL version is shown because the script will also run on Mac, and their version of 'openssl' is problematic at best. That line is of course easy to remove if you don't like it.) If you're interested, you can find the details here: https://www.gilesorr.com/blog/tls-https-details.html Any suggestions to improve the script would be most welcome. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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Raspberry Pi 4
by Stewart Russell 04 Sep '19

04 Sep '19

More RAM, proper USB 3 and fast Ethernet, better processor, and dual HDMI output (incl 4K @ 60Hz): https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/

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Samsung router?
by William Park 29 Aug '19

29 Aug '19

I had routers from D-Link, TP-Link, Asus, Linksys. They all died. Current one is Asus RT-N66U and 5GHz band is flaking out. So, while browsing at Canada Computers, I found "Samsung Connect Home 2x2" and "4x4". https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_1046_1573&item_id… https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=27_1046_1573&item_id… Anyone heard good thing about them, as pure wireless router? The online reviews mostly talk about "smart" features which I have no idea what they're talking about. -- William Park <opengeometry(a)yahoo.ca>

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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting on Tuesday, September 10 at 7:30pm
by hi＠gtalug.org 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2019-09/> # Fear and Loathing and Mailing Lists with Evan Leibovitch In today's environment of spambots, blacklists, European privacy laws and Canadian anti-spam regulations, sending out bulk email these days is not for the timid. This presentation will describe one organization's search for the best way to do this. In the process it will identify some of the tools available - both open source and cloud based - and offer advice and warnings to others looking to use this method of communications. ## Location George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street, Room 203 Ryerson University <https://goo.gl/maps/16oJ2> <https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/23447525> ## Schedule * 6:00 pm - Please discuss on the general mailing list (i.e. <talk(a)gtalug.org>) where you want to go for dinner. * 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation. * 9:00 pm - After each meeting, a group of GTALUGers move to The Imperial Pub (54 Dundas St East) for refreshments and more socialising. # 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 jeopardise 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 honoured 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: <https://gtalug.org/about/code-of-conduct/>. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the GTALUG Code of Conduct please contact the GTALUG Board @ <board(a)gtalug.org>. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Register for Our Networks 2019 > RE: Infrastructures, September 20-22 in Toronto!
by dc 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

Hi all, I'm one of the co-organizers of Our Networks, a conference about the past, present, and future of building our own network infrastructures. Now in its third year, the theme for 2019 is RE: Infrastructures, and explores the collective care and maintenance of alternative networking practices—new protocols, peer-to-peer connections, offline-first computing, and community-based governance. The program and registration have recently launched (full blurb below) and we're all pretty excited about the line up! It'll be a mix of hands-on workshops, talks, and discussions around the decentralized and peer-to-peer web as well as community governance and networks. We also have some social activities planned, screenings, a zine library, and more! The event has a sliding scale registration ($25-110 CAD) and ticket scholarships available, to register and find out more: https://ournetworks.ca/#registration Hope to see some of you all there, Dawn -------- Forwarded Message -------- To: ournetworks(a)lists.mayfirst.org Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2019 13:22:16 -0400 From: Our Networks <ournetworks(a)lists.mayfirst.org> Subject: [ournetworks] Our Networks 2019 program and registration launched! 🍃🎛🛠📡 ⚐ CONFERENCE PROGRAM We are excited to announce the preliminary program for Our Networks is online! Sessions include: ▶︎ Experiments with resistant and solar-powered infrastructures ▶︎ Workshops on creating a website on Dat and hosting over IPFS ▶︎ Discussions on tech worker organizing and the future of work Check out the full schedule now: https://ournetworks.ca/program/ dat://ournetworks.ca/program/ The event will take place at the Toronto Media Arts Centre, 32 Lisgar Street in Queen West. Venue info: https://www.tomediaarts.org/location Map: https://osm.org/go/ZX6BI2mzS?m=&node=6181451977 The venue is accessible with a range of options for getting to the venue and accommodations. We've created a page to detail information for those visiting Toronto: https://ournetworks.ca/visiting/ ⚐ REGISTRATION OPEN Registration is now live for Our Networks 2019: https://ournetworks.ca/#registration We have three admission levels on a sliding scale from $25-$110: Organization Supporter, Supporter, and Reduced Cost. While the cost for us to host this event is $78 per person, we want to ensure all can attend. We are looking for volunteers (in return for complimentary admission) and are able to offer a limited number of scholarships, please contact us at orga(a)ournetworks.ca See you in September! 🍃 🍂 _______________________________________________ ournetworks mailing list Post: ournetworks(a)lists.mayfirst.org List info: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/ournetworks To Unsubscribe Send email to: ournetworks-unsubscribe(a)lists.mayfirst.org Or visit: https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/options/ournetworks/dc%40dcwalker.ca You are subscribed as: dc(a)dcwalker.ca

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For Chris: Commodore BASIC as a scripting language
by Stewart Russell 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

This is not a place of honour:. https://github.com/mist64/cbmbasic Go do some damage!

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Fairphone 3 - facilitates right to repair by design
by Russell Reiter 28 Aug '19

28 Aug '19

The CEO described this phone as kinder to people and to the Earth. Personally I was somewhat disappointed when Google Brazil's Project Ara was cancelled. Modularity in that design seemed to be a natural next step towards sustainable development and best practices. https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/27/fairphone-3-ethical-smartphone-hands-on/ This is their third offering to the marketplace and the reviewer sums the the two primary ethical features of the manufacturing process. "The point of a Fairphone is to reduce your CO2 emissions and ensure you aren't buying a device made with sweatshop labor." Its nice to see ethical manufacturing practices which allow a person to support their own moral values in a globalized commercial market environment.

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Magic SysRq: ever known to fail?
by Stewart Russell 20 Aug '19

20 Aug '19

This shouldn't happen, but I've got a Linux computer with the clock frozen at an hour ago and unsaved work that I can't access Does Magic SysRq always work? Am I doing it wrong? (Alt + PrtSc + key, eg REISUB) A website took out Firefox's JS process, which coincidentally manages Gnome's UI. System becomes slow, eventually locks up. I suspect that a process goes mad and eats all memory. Machine has fallen off network because of this, so no SSH for me Any of the console access from X keys don't work. Mouse pointer no longer moves. CPU fan is making the one core is maxed out noise Any suggestions for getting my machine back without damaging the SSD gratefully received - disk access light solid. Any potential diagnostics for after the fact (I'm assuming the machine's non-responsive to new connections) also welcome Thanks Stewart

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