May 2020 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

There is a Time Machine Clone for Linux
by Ivan Avery Frey 14 May '20

14 May '20

https://www.rastersoft.com/programas/cronopete.html

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Lightweight Linux Distributions and Graphics Drivers
by Nicholas Krause 14 May '20

14 May '20

Greetings. I've not looked recently but from memory and the discussion yesterday seems people have a use case for them. Off the top of my memory the three ideal candidates depending on what you requirements would be: 1. Arch or Gentoo if your fine rolling basically your own distro with a package manager 2. Debian - Any version with a lightweight desktop should work 3. Debian unstable derivatives based on Debian unstable. Seems there were a lot, the only issue was some like antix were 32 bit, but it now seems to have a 64 bit version. They recommend 256 mems of ram and I was able to open like 3 "normal tabs without hitting swap in firefox with that. Idles between 0 and 3% of a single core from a i5 2500K at 4.2 Ghz in a VM. Rarely hits 3 percent at idle, through mostly its a flat 0% to 1% usage. Even on that amount of hardware it was surprisingly fast. And yes it can probably run YouTube 1080p on a Pentium 4 with enough ram, didn't try through. https://antixlinux.com/ Debian or Arch would be best if your using GPU packages as those would be in either AUR, the user Arch repo probably or another non distribution repo for Debian. Also to my knowledge outside of Nvidia and a few ARM vendors most GPUs are upstreamed in Mesa these days. The problem is that Nvidia has been the only real choice in the high end due to it performing better there for the last few years, there are rumors of Intel building discrete cards through: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-xe-graphics-all-we-know Maybe that helps some people as I forget to mention this yesterday, Nick -- Fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism. - Thomas Nagel

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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting Tomorrow
by hi＠gtalug.org 12 May '20

12 May '20

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2020-05/> # Lightning talks and Round Table This is GTALUG's version of an un-conference, a loosely structured short talks emphasizing the informal exchange of information and ideas between participants, rather than following a conventionally structured GTALUG meetings. If you already have a topic in mind please send an email speakers(a)gtalug.org to be added to the list of scheduled talks. A Round Table Q&A Session is where we take questions from the audience, and the audience discusses and attempts to answer those questions from their own knowledge. It's a great way to meet fellow members of our community and discover the skill sets we each bring to the table. Zoom meeting URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82232483670?pwd=SEp6eU1FWUNCTDJncllqWFYzN292dz09 Meeting ID: 822 3248 3670 Password: 093063 One tap mobile: * tel:+14388097799,,82232483670 * tel:+15873281099,,82232483670 Dial by your location(Canada): * tel:+1-438-809-7799 * tel:+1-587-328-1099 * tel:+1-647-374-4685 * tel:+1-647-558-0588 * tel:+1-778-907-2071 Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/acqLA3Cd7V ## 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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Linux servers attacked!
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 11 May '20

11 May '20

<https://www.blackberry.com/content/dam/blackberry-com/asset/enterprise/pdf/…> This describes a lot of attacks, starting with a Linux server victim. Sounds like juicy stuff. I didn't find it so. It didn't clearly say what vulnarabilities were being exploited. The article hinted that a foothold was established via brute-force password guessing at logins. My servers only allow SSH logins, so this would not work on my machines. Does anyone still use passwords for logins facing the internet? Consumer crap (wireless routers, baby monitors, ...), I guess. After the login, a kernel module is installed. Where does the privilege come from? An unmentioned hole? There is a claim that this stuff is widespread and has been for a long time. I don't think any quantitative evidence is revealed.

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Actual ttyS0 MIA
by Stewart C. Russell 11 May '20

11 May '20

On my desktop (i7-4790K, 32 GB DDR3, Asus H97M-E) I've run out of serial ports I can usefully access via USB serial adapters*. The motherboard does have a real COM port on it, though, and just after I built the system I added an adapter cable/bracket (one of these, IIRC: https://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=5_1336_1449&item_id=…) But it's never worked as a port, and I want to make it work. It's enabled in the BIOS and Linux (Ubuntu 19.10) finds it: ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4, base_baud = 115200) is a 16550A I'm a member of `dialout`, and the ports seem to check out: $ ls -l /dev/ttyS0 /dev/ttyUSB0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 64 May 6 21:54 /dev/ttyS0 crw-rw----+ 1 root dialout 188, 0 May 3 07:50 /dev/ttyUSB0 No data goes in or out. Curiously `stty -F /dev/ttyS0` hangs for a few seconds, but that's the only odd thing I see. Hardware serial ports are kind of ancient history. Anyone remember ancient magic to make 'em work? There's a chance that ASUS don't use the standard serial pin header assignment: I'll trace that if necessary. thanks, Stewart *: you run out of ways to identify the interfaces via /dev/serial/*. Unless I reinvested a fortune in real FTDI adapters with unique serial numbers, I'm kind of stuck. I currently use: 1 real FTDI, 1 knock-off FTDI, a QinHeng HL-340, a Prolific PL2303 and a Silicon Labs CP210. I have another knock-off FTDI and another Prolific, but they identify identically and make device selection problematic.

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Cheesiest way of backing up?
by Gron Arthur 11 May '20

11 May '20

I'd have to move to the recent release of Debian to get Duplicity to work. So I've passed on this option. I can't mount the backup I've created with restic, not sure why. So, I've also passed on this option. Now I'm just going to compress and password protect with 7z, and upload to Backblaze. It's mostly personal files, like pictures, that can be easily archived. How cheesy is this?

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Re: [GTALUG] Free Linux VMs
by Howard Gibson 11 May '20

11 May '20

On Sun, 10 May 2020 12:06:20 +0200 ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > in my opinion, avoid any ongoing "free" services, more so if it is a > huge multinational doing the offering as the huge companies all have > some sort of "dominate the planet" and kill off all competition type > long term goal... ac, How legal do you think it is for a free online database to mine your data? I would regard this as a thread. -- Howard Gibson hgibson(a)eol.ca jhowardgibson(a)gmail.com http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson

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Re: [GTALUG] Free Linux VMs
by Alvin Starr 10 May '20

10 May '20

On 5/10/20 1:38 PM, ac wrote: > On Sun, 10 May 2020 13:09:47 -0400 > Alvin Starr via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: >> Think of it like the thief who tries to steal your old >> rear-projection television and gives himself a hernia. >> Then suing you for his medical expenses and loss of revenue. >> > roflmao, you are sooooo FUNNY! As my mother use to say. No sense getting old if your not getting cute. -- Alvin Starr || land: (647)478-6285 Netvel Inc. || Cell: (416)806-0133 alvin(a)netvel.net ||

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Free Linux VMs
by Ansar Mohammed 10 May '20

10 May '20

So just an update to my earlier email, you can get 2 free Linux instances on Oracle's Cloud platform and 1 free instance on Google's Cloud platform. These are not time restricted. If you do take up the offer, I strongly suggest you leave ssh password auth disabled and use a key. These systems get millions of password spray attacks every day over ssh.

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AMD releases 3100 and 3300x
by Nicholas Krause 09 May '20

09 May '20

Seems AMD is launching around low end processor line: https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/amd-ryzen-3-3100-and-3300x-review,1.h… Its 120 dollars US for 4 cores/8 threads. According to my research seems to be equal to a i7700K and those go used for around 300 US. May be a interesting option for a budget system if your workloads aren't thread heavy. Seems Intel was really just sitting around after Sandy Bridge for the most part, Nick -- Fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism. - Thomas Nagel

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