October 2021 - 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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[GTALUG-Announce] GTALUG AGM - Tues. Nov. 9th, 7:30pm
by hi＠gtalug.org 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

# GTALUG AGM - Tues. Nov. 9th, 7:30pm The next Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Greater Toronto Area Linux User Group (GTALUG) will take place virtually at 7:30pm on November 9, 2021. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81924329473?pwd=MndSWHNaRGNZSUtIeVB0WG1xTkZTQT09 Meeting ID: 819 2432 9473 Passcode: 655996 Find your local dail-in number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kd2rxnbq6D All Members of GTALUG in good standing are able to elect new Directors (four vacancies are to be filled). To ensure that your membership is up to date, please ensure that annual dues are paid by sending $20 by Interac e-transfer to [membership(a)gtalug.org] If the member for whom the dues are paid is not the sender of the Interac transfer, please indicate that in the note message accompanying the payment. For any inquiries please email [membership(a)gtalug.org] or ask on the discussion email list. We are able to accept new memberships and renewals up to and at the beginning of the AGM. If you are eligible to vote but cannot attend this meeting, you may designate someone else to act as your proxy to vote on your behalf at the election of Directors and regarding other business at the AGM. The only scheduled agenda item besides the election is the presentation of annual financial statements. At the start of the meeting, GTALUG’s designated Returning Officer will verify who is able to vote and who is running as a candidate for Director for the purpose of the election and any votes to be taken as part of the AGM. -- GTALUG board(a)gtalug.org --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Video of October talk with Mike Hoye
by Alex Volkov 07 Nov '21

07 Nov '21

Hello everyone, The video of October 2021 talk, The state of Mozilla with Mike Hoye, is now available here -- https://youtu.be/jXtPaZ-sGPk Alex.

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Heads up: Ubuntu 21.10 kills your desktop icons
by Stewart C. Russell 30 Oct '21

30 Oct '21

GNOME have finally made good on their threat to remove all support for icons on the Desktop. Any files in ~/Desktop no longer produce icons on the screen. The GNOME Shell plugin that was the last thing that allowed it is no longer supported. GNOME Shell itself seems broken: what was the Shell Preferences browser page now bring up a 404 page from gitlab. As someone who needs constant visual reminders of what he needs to be doing, this is a huge blow for me. Desktop icons are a kind of todo list for me. My own actual real desktop seldom has flat space on it*: right now it's relatively clear, with only 7 different MicroPython development boards on it. But in real and virtual life, my desktop is my work in progress. I guess GNOME's telling me my work's done now? I'm not even sure if there are other desktops for Ubuntu any more that aren't KDE. cheers, Stewart *: a real picture from a month ago: https://twitter.com/scruss/status/1439765045257383940

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Was Re: Heads up: Ubuntu 21.10 kills your desktop icons now - keyboards
by o1bigtenor 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

On Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 6:59 PM Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On 2021-10-20 11:03, Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote: > > > snip > I've just switched to xubuntu. I think it uses XFCE. So far (10 minutes > in) it mostly works. It does fail on one thing, though: > > > Let me alt+tab between the windows. > > I can't seem to do that. And I can't cycle between workspaces, either. I > hope it's not because I'm using an Apple keyboard. It's the least > disappointing keyboard I've tried, but Linux barely understands it. > > Is it maybe not so much that Linux doesn't understand the keyboards but that the keyboard manufacturers are making such junk that Linux just struggles to understand the signals? I've been using ergonomic keyboards for some about 20 years. Started with a logitech (IIRC) and then was forced to move to the M$ 4000 as they were the only game left in the 'reasonable' market. The last one is a Kensington but the last 3 M$ and this Kensington - - - they're real cheap POS! Its gotten to where 24 months is a great lifetime for a keyboard. I'm a fairly quick touch typist but I'm also seriously multi-lingual so a good keyboard is quite important. Crap - - - the old manual typewriters were far easier on me than these new items!! To get something that is going to last a bit better - - - is the only option the quite pricey items where they use the mechanical switches? Suggestions - - - - TIA

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Looking users of the Kenisis Advantage keyboards
by o1bigtenor 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

Greetings In the thread re: keyboards the Kenisis Advantage keyboards have come up in discussing ergonomic keyboards. Wondering - - - is there anyone out there that was a quite proficient user of a regular keyboard that moved to the Kenisis Advantage? I keep hearing about how it takes a month or two to 'relearn' the skills due to differences in the key layout. I know that moving from even a M$ 4000 ergonomic to my present Kensington has shown me that little things like a touch of space between the 'caps lock' and the 'a' show up. Maybe I'm just sloppier on the keyboard than I thought. I remember finding moving from a 'regular' keyboard to an ergonomic model (IIRC that was a Logitech) was a breeze. Somehow I'm wondering about that time to get comfortable on the Advantage keyboard. I would really like to know how challenging you found the change and/or how long it took until you were comfortable. If you would rather not share the thread private emails would be fine. TIA

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Do people have opinions about the Framework modular laptop
by Dave Collier-Brown 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

I see from Slashdot that it has an app store now: * https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2110258/modular-framework-lapt… * https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/14/22725935/framework-laptop-modular-marke… and I wonder if anyone has an opinion of it. --dave -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest dave.collier-brown(a)indexexchange.com<mailto:dave.collier-brown@indexexchange.com> | -- Mark Twain CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER : This telecommunication, including any and all attachments, contains confidential information intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. Any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure is strictly prohibited and is not a waiver of confidentiality. If you have received this telecommunication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return electronic mail and delete the message from your inbox and deleted items folders. This telecommunication does not constitute an express or implied agreement to conduct transactions by electronic means, nor does it constitute a contract offer, a contract amendment or an acceptance of a contract offer. Contract terms contained in this telecommunication are subject to legal review and the completion of formal documentation and are not binding until same is confirmed in writing and has been signed by an authorized signatory.

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Blank screen can't be refreshed
by Giles Orr 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Hi folks. My main machine is a Fedora 34 laptop that drives a 43" 4K Philips monitor (it's actually a "monitor," not a "TV"). I've set 'xscreensaver' to blank the machine after five minutes. The delay is that short because the Philips (while otherwise a nice display) is notorious for ghosting. It's a Barrier client to another computer (a NUC) - so the keyboard and mouse that control this machine are actually attached to another machine. Occasionally, the machine/screen can't be awoken from the blank screen state. The Philips backlight is on, I have a pointer I can move (either by Barrier, or by the touchpad on the laptop itself) ... but the screen remains blank. The machine is up and running, and I can SSH in and change stuff, but nothing non-disruptive I've found wakes the screen. I tried 'kill -HUP <openboxPID>' to no effect. I tried 'openbox --restart' but it failed because it's a remote machine (I can probably over-ride this with an appropriate environment variable(s), but haven't got to that). 'kill <openboxPID>' - also had no effect. But 'kill -9 <openboxPID>' brought me back to the login screen (functioning correctly on the previously blank screen). This (and rebooting) are the only solutions I've found so far. This problem has usually occurred on wake from suspend-to-RAM, but has now happened a couple times on wake from just screen blanking. Having had to write that out, it makes me think that Openbox is the problem. Openbox is supposed to accept 'kill -HUP' and do something sane with it, but it's clearly got itself in a state where it's not listening to 'kill' at all (thus the need for '-9'). I've looked at the machine logs: I'm not great at reading them, but I'm not seeing anything that looks like this problem, and I did spend a fair amount of time looking ... If it is Openbox, I should be looking at the X logs, which I haven't done yet? I've used Barrier heavily for many years, and this problem hasn't manifested on any of the several other computers that have been Barrier clients to the NUC ... but should I consider Barrier? What about xscreensaver itself? I could potentially compile Openbox rather than relying on the Fedora package. I don't want to do that, but if needed ... Huh - I suppose I could also switch to Fluxbox for a while, and see if it has the same issue. Any ideas appreciated, any thoughts on where to look or how to debug ... -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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War Story: Thunderbird vs my mail server
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

TL;DR: using self-signed x.509 certs with Thunderbird is hard I run a mail server for my family. One of us uses Thunderbird's POP3 to pick up mail. This is through our LAN, not on the public internet. My server uses self-signed certificates. I don't care to become a customer of any certificate vendor, although I think Let's Encrypt is a Good Thing. I haven't even bothered to create my own Certificate Authority. My certificates expire, so I have to regenerate them. (Since this happens only once a year, I don't always remember the drill.) I just did that. Thunderbird stopped being able to pick up mail. There was NO diagnostic. Not to the user, and not to the sysadmin. It didn't even say that it failed to pick up mail. I soon discovered that I needed to get the new certs into Thunderbird. Previously, if I remember correctly, when confronted with a new cert, Thunderbird warned the user but could be coaxed to accept it and remember it. How could I get Thunderbird to accept the new cert? Why was it unhappy with the old one? The lack of diagnostics meant I never did figure out why it was unhappy, but I did do a lot of experimenting. In the end, I decided to manually install the new cert into Thunderbird. Thunderbird has a facility to do this: Edit: Preferences: (search for "cert"): manage certificates: Add exception. The Thunderbird facility required me to fill in an HTTPS URL from which to get the cert. At first I thought that this would require me to set up a web server. No, this design actually makes some sense: since Thunderbird will use the cert for TLS, why not use TLS and harvesting the cert from the negotiation. The proper URL was HTTPS://my-pop3-server:995. 995 is the port used to serve POP3 (probably not obvious to many users). But that didn't work! With no diagnostic! The answer can be extracted from <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63947262/thunderbird-78-how-to-add-secu…> The problem is that Thunderbird seems to have its own firewall, set up to block port 995 in some cases. Which cases? Not for POP3, but yes for the "Add exceptions". Very Very dumb. How to punch a hole in this firewall: - find the registry editor (not called that, but that's what it is) Edit Preferences -> General -> Config Editor [at bottom] Add a new thing "network.security.ports.banned.override" and set it to the string 995 This is a string so that a list of ports can be used. This "preference" is documented (but not for Thunderbird): http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.security.ports.banned.override Now you can add the cert through HTTPS (see above). Optional: remove the security exception. I left it in so I don't have to do this next year.

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JOB| DBA (Mongo + Sybase)
by James Tobin 14 Oct '21

14 Oct '21

Hello, we are working with an employer that is looking to hire someone capable of managing Mongo and Sybase databases in Montreal and had hoped that some members of this list may like to discuss further off-list. Kind regards, James

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