January 2020 - 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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security threats of Open Source
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 25 Nov '20

25 Nov '20

<https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-spots-malicious-npm-package-stealin…> This article list six cases of malware contributed to npm (the repo for sharing node.js and JavaScript source). How many undetected cases exist? I've alway pretended that Linux distros vet their code. I'm not sure how true that is. Probably the greatest protection is the time delay between contribution and distribution. I wonder what can be done about this problem. I've said so at our meetings a few times too. Of course the problem is worse with closed source: it is impossible to audit the source. But closed source might have fewer contributors and more supervision. Of course much closed soure is built on top of open source and thuse all its weakness

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LibrePlanet Canada Registration (keynote from Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle)
by Stephen Paul Weber 21 Feb '20

21 Feb '20

Hello all! As previously mentioned, LibrePlanet is coming via satellite this year to southern Ontario. March 14th and 15th. Registration is open: https://2020.libreplanet.ca/register/ and is pay-what-you-want. We don't want finances to prevent anyone from attending. The Free Software Foundation has confirmed Brewster Kahle (founder of the Internet Archive) as a keynote speaker, with announcement of more speakers coming soon. Hope to see some of you there! Let me know if there are any questions.

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I believe Amazon is leaking delivery information.
by Alvin Starr 02 Feb '20

02 Feb '20

When I order something from Amazon not long after I get emails from various phisherpeople claiming to be UPS or some other delivery company. The messages are coming through an old email address that is badly spam filtered. I would like to ask if people order from Amazon check your spam folders for messages with attachments claiming to be from UPS or others. I would like to try and see if its just me or if there is a systemic problem at Amazon. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin(a)netvel.net ||

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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting on Friday, February 14 at 07:30 PM
by hi＠gtalug.org 02 Feb '20

02 Feb '20

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2020-02/> # Concurrency with Warren McPherson High-performance applications use graphics processors to do hundreds of calculations in parallel yet people often misunderstand some of the foundational problems. We review a couple of those problems tracing the career of Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport. Then we look at the impact of these ideas on Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. ## 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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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting on Friday, February 14 at 07:30 PM
by hi＠gtalug.org 31 Jan '20

31 Jan '20

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2020-02/> # Concurrency with Warren McPherson High-performance applications use graphics processors to do hundreds of calculations in parallel yet people often misunderstand some of the foundational problems. We review a couple of those problems tracing the career of Turing Award winner Leslie Lamport. Then we look at the impact of these ideas on Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. ## 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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Can a smart TV be made dumb?
by Evan Leibovitch 31 Jan '20

31 Jan '20

Hi all., I've been reading up about the ridiculously (to me) low prices for high-quality TVs these days, and the economics of it all is quite fascinating. It seems that the cost of manufacturing is being well offset by the revenue from collecting information on a household's watching habits and sending it back to the manufacturer, Google and who the heck knows who else... It would seem, on the surface, ridiculously simply to disable the information gathering by refusing to connect the device to the Internet and simply have it do nothing besides switch between tuner and HDMI port for input. That way I can have better control of my TV's "smarts" with my own choice of smarts -- Shield, Chromecast, Roku, RasPlex, Android TV, Linux desktop or whatever. Sure some apps of those devices may also be reporting, but it's not all-encompassing -- Netflix sends them my Netflix watching, but not my OTA, YouTube. Kodi or other channel choices. I haven't bought a TV in a decade so I don't know the current landscape. What I have seen is that *everything* now is "smart" except for the lowest-end which tend not to have the best picture. Is it possible on modern TVs to install without an Internet connection so they don't phone home? Or does keeping the TV offline disable important functions? And are some brands easier to "dumb down" than others? Thanks! -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch or @el56

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Risc-V Meetup
by Nicholas Krause 29 Jan '20

29 Jan '20

Greetings, Not sure if anyone else found the meetup for Risc-V: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Area-RISC-V-Group/ It may be of interest to others, Nick

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November 2019 video (taskwarrior)
by Alex Volkov 29 Jan '20

29 Jan '20

Hello everyone, The recording of A dive into Taskwarrior Ecosystem with Tomas Babej from our November 2019 meeting is now available here -- https://youtu.be/tijnc65soEI Meeting page for this event -- https://gtalug.org/meeting/2019-11/ Alex.

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January 2020 meeting videos
by Alex Volkov 26 Jan '20

26 Jan '20

Hello everyone, Here are the videos from our January meeting * What I've learned about Ultra HD with D. Hugh Redelmeier -- https://youtu.be/i-eXS-1wdzI * Chris' intro to Kubernetes -- https://youtu.be/F7z8AZjS28U * ZEO Bedside 2020 with Seneca Cunningham -- https://youtu.be/NIMRI3wr1Yc * LUG community organizing and meetup.com with Alex Volkov -- https://youtu.be/0I880MBDAXM Here are these videos in a single playlist -- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUgE6dqIXiEukZ9-hlcBfMniy_avsB6bQ I would like to know you opinion -- Should I send the email about posted videos to announce list, or just sending it to talk is enough? Thank you, Alex.

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