July 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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Re: [GTALUG] web hosting question
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 31 Jul '20

31 Jul '20

| From: ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> Just to make sure that people know some of your odder statements are grounded... | oooh, just when they said not to open those nice packets of seeds sent | from China... now there are boxes of pandora's... In the news, some US and now Canadian folk are getting unmarked packages of seeds, apparently sent from China. They are being advised NOT to plant them. Last I heard, "they" didn't know what kind of seeds they were. | luckily for us Pandoras box is fiction, like that preacher doc, with | the demon sperm and the myriads of nephilim all around us waiting to | pounce (as the Noah flood apparently did not "take out the nephilim" ) Donald Trump Jr. got suspended from twitter for 12 hrs for promoting a video from a group of doctors promoting hydroxychloroquine. His father retweeted other's tweets of the same video but has not been suspended. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/28/trump-coronavirus-misinfor…> The doctor in the video has blamed demons (as AC describes) for illnesses. President Trump strongly complemented the doctors wisodm or something (you can never tell whata Trump is actually saying). <https://www.thedailybeast.com/stella-immanuel-trumps-new-covid-doctor-belie…> So AC didn't make this stuff up.

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Re: [GTALUG] web hosting question
by o1bigtenor 30 Jul '20

30 Jul '20

On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 6:53 AM ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On Thu, 30 Jul 2020 06:17:08 -0500 > o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor(a)gmail.com> wrote: > <snip> > > As part of my 'I don't really know enough' understanding was the > > asking here of what hopefully wasn't a trivial question. > > > > Thanking all the respondents muchly! > > your question is a very valuable question and answers depends greatly > on many things including POV :) > > for small web hosting look for the very best value proposition, the > point at which your buck has the most bang, but there are also many > other important factors... > The first round I chose service based on economics - - - - this round I'm trying to avoid the 'service' issues that the first choice exposed. > > How ethical is your "supplier" - check their IP network range(s) here: > http://multirbl.valli.org/ > -- how many of their IP numbers have how many listings? > Went to the proffered url - - - - - I don't think I even begin to understand what is displayed when I type in the url of the hosting company that I'm considering - - - - suggestions for a 'user guide' or 'what the sam snot' that means kind of thing? > > Reliability and real/working 24/7 support (actually do check > references hosting is sometimes like insurance - you only find out > really how good it is when you really do need it...) > It seems when looking for shared hosting that references are sorta thin on the ground - - - :-( . > > Then, if web hosting is in 'shared' (as in non dedicated) hardware > resources - a whole different universe of questions become relevant > and the answers are often literally in quicksand. > Please - - - - suggestions for questions would be appreciated!! > > and, yes, I also think it is a good idea ever to have a registrar on one > network and services (web/email/etc) elsewhere > > Finding reputable providers of 'all' the parts is not being at all straightforward. > hth > > You have helped to open 'Pandora's box' a little more (chuckling!). So thank you!!!!

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Re: [GTALUG] web hosting question
by o1bigtenor 30 Jul '20

30 Jul '20

On Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 2:49 AM ac via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On Wed, 29 Jul 2020 12:09:34 -0500 > o1bigtenor via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > On Wed, Jul 29, 2020 at 11:43 AM Alvin Starr via talk > > <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > > > On 7/29/20 12:19 PM, Don Tai via talk wrote: > > > > A friend on here uses Planethoster, a Canuck company based in > > > > Montreal but also have servers in France. He has had good > > > > experiences so far, but you might need to request English once in > > > > a while. Why do you want to have a Canuck host provider? This > > > > severely limits your choices of host provider. I use A2 in > > > > Michigan. > > > The US hosting rules are such that the EU does not allow things like > > > medical and certain kinds of personal data to reside in the US. > > > Currently Canada is still considered safe byt the EU. > > > Not completely sure how that relates to US companies that have > > > Canadian centers. > > > > > > > I will admit to being more than somewhat paranoid over bureaucratic > > oversight and intervention. OUr Canuckistani versions are problematic > > enough so I'd rather not add even more 'fun'. > > > As I am a registrar, have all my own software, etc my needs are: 'bare > metal' and > quality Internet connectivity (so, cabinets/racks and network incl ddos, > in/egress, etc) > > I used to be a client @ esecuredata.com (Vancouver) for over 15 years but > have > recently moved everything to Germany (EU) as the quality is a lot > higher, new equipment and new hardware schedules, hw maintenance plans, > etc. > > So, I guess 'web hosting' and hosting in general depends on what you > need, as in do you need working email relay and do you need 100TB+ > ddos protection and do you need 500 1U servers or 1 x 1U or do you just > need 10% of 1x1U - do you have/need your own DNS servers (and how many) > as this may also mean that you need 'hosting' on three or four+ > different networks and all over the planet. Sometimes I also require my > own PIX or other Cisco hw in the same cabinet(s) - some of my clients > have 8 or more DNS servers in many different datacenters some use > shared dns, etc etc > Hmmmmmmmmmm - - - - I'm just starting with a on-line hosted website 'stuff'. I'm thinking that maybe that 10% of a 1x1U is going to be plenty. If more is required, based on usage/need, I would expect to be able to scale up the resources (of course for a greater fee - - - - grin!). > > What I have learned in the last 30+ odd years on the Internet is that > everyone has different needs and expectations and that there is > sometime a huge disparity in what people think they need and what they > actually need - and that a lot of $$$ can actually be saved with some > planning, but what I have also learned is that I learn new stuff every > day > > and only when you know that you know everything do you realize how > much you still need to know :) > > As part of my 'I don't really know enough' understanding was the asking here of what hopefully wasn't a trivial question. Thanking all the respondents muchly!

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web hosting question
by o1bigtenor 30 Jul '20

30 Jul '20

Greetings Reading past emails it seems that using a separate provider for domain registration and web hosting is the suggested norm. Finding a reasonable Canadian web hosting company is proving to be more than somewhat challenging. How negative is having both services at one particular company? Please advise

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New Build Computer?
by Peter King 29 Jul '20

29 Jul '20

My main computer is in the shop (it won't pass a POST) and it looks like the motherboard may be the culprit. The last computers I had built were put together very well but the places where they were done no longer exist. Suggestions/recommendations for places that build computers to custom specs with high build quality? And, for that matter, what a future-proof solid set of specs looks like these days? (This is to replace a 12-core i7 box with 32GB RAM and some 10TB of storage.) Thanks! -- Peter King peter.king(a)utoronto.ca Department of Philosophy 170 St. George Street #521 The University of Toronto (416)-946-3170 ofc Toronto, ON M5R 2M8 CANADA http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/ ========================================================================= GPG keyID 0x7587EC42 (2B14 A355 46BC 2A16 D0BC 36F5 1FE6 D32A 7587 EC42) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 7587EC42

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Video Conferencing in Toronto
by steve＠linuxsuite.org 29 Jul '20

29 Jul '20

Howdy! I am looking for people interested in building a Video Conferencing System that is located in Toronto/GTA and maintained locally. Jitsi seems to be OpenSource favorite.. http://jitsi.org I have a Jitsi up in a Data Center in Toronto. I have also made contact with one other person interested and am looking for more. web.net has one GTALUG I believe had one up.. These are just single servers and in order to scale up architecturally, need to create a meshed video bridge on an out of band backplane.. ideally.. Jitsi is doing well, and It would be fun and useful to build out a system locally. All possibilities / details open to discussion at this point.. Anyone interested? Or know of other forums for this search? thanx - steve

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SPI holding 2020 board election
by Christopher Browne 28 Jul '20

28 Jul '20

SPI are the parent organization that supports Debian, amongst other projects. http://spi-inc.org/corporate/votes/2020-board-election/

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[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting on Tuesday, August 11 at 07:30 PM
by hi＠gtalug.org 22 Jul '20

22 Jul '20

# 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. ## Location https://jitsi.flamy.ca/GTALUG ## 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 at board(a)gtalug.org. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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