December 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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YAD-Zenity-GTK on Pi - assistance needed
by Giles Orr 30 Jan '21

30 Jan '21

YAD ("Yet Another Dialog") is a fork of Zenity - essentially a way to display GTK+ dialogues from shell scripts. I've chosen YAD because it supports a couple things Zenity doesn't have, namely form buttons and tabs. I've created an ugly but functional interface that's meant to go on a 3.5" touch screen on a Raspberry Pi. But here's the problem: by the time it gets on a screen that small, the buttons are too small to reliably poke with a finger. So I want to increase the font size. All that was needed to fix that on my Fedora desktop was: # file: ~/.configs/gtk-3.0/settings.ini [Settings] gtk-font-name = Sans 32 And voila, 'yad' appears with a super-huge font. However - this behaviour isn't replicated on the Pi. It's an old(ish) Debian stretch install on an old Pi B (not Pi 2 B, just "Pi B"). I'm pretty sure that ~/.configs/gtk-3.0/settings.ini is the right file, because when I mis-configured it, 'yad' complained loudly. But it ignores the font setting that works fine on another host. I tried 'yad --font' which throws up what amounts to a GTK font selection dialogue, and "Sans 32" is a valid font on the Pi. Anyone got any ideas on this? -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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dsl modem ideas for bell?
by Karen Lewellen 17 Jan '21

17 Jan '21

Hi folks, Hope you all are finding ways to feel creative. Wondering if anyone might have a suggestion providing a solution. Bell is my dsl provider, they also provide my land line and satellites service as well, but that is not the issue really. Because I still use analog phone service, its tied to some of my adaptive technology, my dsl modem / rooter combination provided by Bell is a tw or two wire model...or at least it was until this weekend. Honestly I am not a major user of data, but I do often need to connect more than one Ethernet setup, and require that someone using wireless be able to do this with little fanfare. Largely because none of bell's software works for my setup. anyway, the problem is that bell has replaced my beloved modem with one that causes my landline to click, as in makes a constant clicking noise whenever the modem is connected, which is all the time. What I am seeking is hopefully an older, but still to be found prospect, with several Ethernet ports the ability to connect wirelessly, yet being a tw model. My old one had stream in the title if that rings a..bell. I have literary had 5 technicians here since Saturday, with three of them messing up my Internet on top of not addressing the issue. Any bell modem ideas come to mind? why on earth by the way, must I only use bell equipment in the first place? Kare the ranter.

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odd evince command behaviour
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 12 Jan '21

12 Jan '21

I have a PDF filename named "RE: something.pdf" This fails: evince "RE: someting.pdf" with the error messages on stdout: ** (evince:397922): WARNING **: 11:14:02.077: The specified location is not supported ** (evince:397922): WARNING **: 11:14:02.080: set_filenames: The specified location is not supported The message in the evince window is more interesting: Unable to open document “file:///tmp/evince-397922/document.SR35V0- something”. The specified location is not supported. Clearly evince is trying to treat the prefix "RE:" as something magic. Just what, I don't know. But it sure isn't in the evince man page. This command works fine: evince ./"RE: someting.pdf"

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"dd" in Windows?
by William Park 17 Dec '20

17 Dec '20

Hi all, How do you write "image" file to USB stick in Windows 10? In Linux, I would do 'dd', but it has to be Windows. 'dd' is available in Git for Windows, Windows Subsystem for Linux, BusyBox for Windows, and Ubuntu in Hyper-V VM. But, I can't get them to access USB drive. -- William Park <opengeometry(a)yahoo.ca>

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Re: [GTALUG] "dd" in Windows?
by lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca 17 Dec '20

17 Dec '20

On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 11:23:46AM +0200, ac via talk wrote: > Is Microsoft Windows now completely "free" as in GPL/Opensource? > > Can anyone download it, install it and then pay no money and get free > support on Linux lists? > > Or are there free Microsoft Support Users Lists? > > I feel so left out of this entire conversation as I know almost nothing > about Microsoft or Windows 10. It feels like this conversation has > nothing to do with me. To make things worse, for me, I do daily battle > with Outlook.com and all the rubbish, cyber crime and attacks from them > as they succeed in mixing ham and spam and cyber crime and malware with > legit email. My clients are ignorant as to who is relaying spam, cyber crime and > rubbish and Microsoft seems to sometimes directly attack me. Between > Microsoft and Google (Google does the same thing) they are effective > at dominating, dividing and destroying. > > I actually do HATE @microsoft and @google behavior, strategy and lack > of ethics and common decency. > > Now, I have to read about Microsoft and in a support and "helping" way... > > When their other products are plain evil. So I guess the strategy is no > longer make money from operating systems but generate forever payments > from Office and by dominating business email relay and "subscriptions" I assumed someone was trying to create a linux install USB and only had windows available to do it. Not an uncommon starting point. -- Len Sorensen

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information storage ideas
by o1bigtenor 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

Greetings I tend to work on quite a number of different things if not at the same time then in quite short order. So far most projects will get some notes or phone call references or other information jotted down on paper. Over time this means that I all too often tend to redo things - - - sometimes to improvement but sometimes I don't know where the previous work is so I'm looking or I'm redoing. So I'm looking at collecting things like contact information (and their value/area etc etc), project ideas, info sources, project planning, project design parameters, project components all of which hopefully results in some in the end. Have been trying to use taskwarrior and its a decent reminder system but the storage of all the other 'stuff' isn't there. Been trying to just save things into a folder (that's not so useful when information is applicable to multiple projects). Has anyone found a 'reasonable' system that would effect this less than simple 'idea'? TIA

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Mike's links from tonight
by Stewart Russell 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

* Free As In Health Care « blarg? — http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2016/08/29/free-as-in-health-care/ * The Evolution Of Open « blarg? — http://exple.tive.org/blarg/2018/11/09/the-evolution-of-open/

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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting Tomorrow
by hi＠gtalug.org 07 Dec '20

07 Dec '20

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2020-12/> # The state of Mozilla with Mike Hoye We will be meeting on Zoom: * Join Zoom Meeting -- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89306740154?pwd=V0xGekxFWGFpMExXUDdFQnVPbGNPZz09 * Meeting ID: 893 0674 0154P * Passcode: 456858 * Find your local dial-in number -- https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kijld0Qm1 ## Location Zoom meeting room url -- https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89306740154?pwd=V0xGekxFWGFpMExXUDdFQnVPbGNPZz09 ## Schedule * 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation. # 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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Meeting tomorrow?
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 07 Dec '20

07 Dec '20

Are we meeting Tusday, 2020 December 8? In past days, I would have asked Chris Browne :-( In the more distant past, we would have travelled to dinner and the meeting together.

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