March 2024 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

anyone have this bell item?
by Karen Lewellen 06 Mar '25

06 Mar '25

hi all, Layered times, leaving me reading more than commenting. My landlord wishes to provide, but cannot seem to successfully secure from bell, the box below. it's a basic bell cable box vip2502 https://www.bellmts.ca/support/tv/fibe-tv/installation-and-setup/arris-vip2… Anyone have this sitting in a closet? Might be wise to confirm the idea will work. This entire property, even outside, has bell fibe for home coverage including internet..But my on going issues with them have me a bit scared. Thanks, Kare Who has not given up on Over The Air, just gauging offered options.

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Feature Highlight - Wayland Compositor Hand-Off
by Scott Sullivan 24 May '24

24 May '24

http://blog.davidedmundson.co.uk/blog/qt6_wayland_robustness/ This is a robustness improvements that let Wayland clients (applications/programs) gracefully survive and reconnect with the Wayland Compositor after a crash / restart or even complete replacement with a different Wayland compositor. X11 Server, from what I understood in my old explorations, architecturally it would not have been possible to get there from within the limits of X11's design. As someone who daily drives KDE Plasam Wayland, I'm really looking forward to this coming down stream. I've at various time suffered the pain of loosing my whole session over crash bugs. A frustrating, but thankfully brief example was a combination of PrusaSlicer and the QT file dialog triggering a compositor crash. It really takes me back 15 years, when the same level of instability was in X11's ecosystem. But I switched to KDE's Wayland compositor because there are meaningful parts that are already surpassing the prior art, and competing with what the commercial OSes are putting out. -- Scott Sullivan

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GPU advice needed
by Evan Leibovitch 31 Mar '24

31 Mar '24

Hi all. Although I really don't want to, I need to upgrade the graphics card on my main desktop. I currently have an AMD RX 6600 but some of the applications I want to work with, notably in AI and content creation, either don't work well on AMD cards or not at all. For decades I've stuck to AMD cards -- partly because of their better track record with Linux drivers, but also because of my affinity for ATI in Markham. Alas, though, I must get something from Team Green now. Leaning towards an RTX 3060 12GB, that should be enough for me. Here is my question. Even having picked that one chipset, there are a dozen variations that I see between CanadaComputers and Amazon. These vary in price by more than $150. The only differences I can tell are the number of fans and the output connectors (some have 2 HDMI and 2 Displayport, some 1/3). Are there any compelling reasons other than price that would drive a purchase? I don't care how many fans so long as the GPU is sufficiently cooled (I have no interest in overclocking). Also, any GTA store recommendations besides CC are appreciated. Thanks! -- Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56

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GPU advice needed
by 8hpehgmr＠obscured.anonaddy.com 31 Mar '24

31 Mar '24

I don't think a $150 price premium is worth it for negligible performance and cooling gains due to slight core/memory clock differences, https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=499&sort=price&page=1 I consider Memory Express to have better customer service compared to CC but anything is better than Amazon. On 2024-03-29 15:36, Evan Leibovitch via talk 'talk at gtalug.org' wrote: > Hi all. > > Although I really don't want to, I need to upgrade the graphics card > on my main desktop. > I currently have an AMD RX 6600 but some of the applications I want to > work with, notably in AI and content creation, either don't work well > on AMD cards or not at all. > > For decades I've stuck to AMD cards -- partly because of their better > track record with Linux drivers, but also because of my affinity for > ATI in Markham. Alas, though, I must get something from Team Green > now. Leaning towards an RTX 3060 12GB, that should be enough for me. > > Here is my question. Even having picked that one chipset, there are a > dozen variations that I see between CanadaComputers and Amazon. These > vary in price by more than $150. The only differences I can tell are > the number of fans and the output connectors (some have 2 HDMI and 2 > Displayport, some 1/3). > > Are there any compelling reasons other than price that would drive a > purchase? I don't care how many fans so long as the GPU is > sufficiently cooled (I have no interest in overclocking). Also, any > GTA store recommendations besides CC are appreciated. > > Thanks! > > -- > Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada > @evanleibovitch / @el56 > This email was sent to 8hpehgmr(a)obscured.anonaddy.com (gtalug) from > talk(a)gtalug.org > Click here > <https://app.addy.io/deactivate/0501485b-824a-492f-bba8-8849ed40e8d4?signatu…> > to deactivate this alias >

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Backdoor found in widely used Linux utility
by Ron / BCLUG 30 Mar '24

30 Mar '24

> Backdoor found in widely used Linux utility breaks encrypted SSH > connections > >> Malicious code planted in xz Utils has been circulating for more >> than a month. https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/backdoor-found-in-widely-used-linu…

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Securely wiping SSDs
by Giles Orr 29 Mar '24

29 Mar '24

I have, for many years, used "Darik's Boot and Nuke" on a USB stick to securely wipe spinning hard disks. It takes a long time, but I mostly understand and trust the process. I'm now at the point that I have to wipe and dispose of SSDs, and I'm feeling a bit shaky on the methodology. Here's what I did: # hdparm -I /dev/sdX Looked for enabled/locked/frozen in the output ... I won't go into making sure those are toggled correctly, but that appears to be needed. This also lists what appears to be info about doing a wipe on the drive: 6min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT, 60min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT Then, set a password (why? but seems to be needed): # hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass foobar /dev/sdX Last, run the wipe: # hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced foobar /dev/sdX Doing something like `dd if=/dev/sdX bs=5M count=5 | strings` (or sending it to `less`) definitely shows that it's changed from something organized to something full of identical characters. But I've never seen this wipe process take more than 60 seconds, which makes me wonder about the `hdparm` declaration about the time required for a secure wipe. So I guess the big question is: should I trust this process? Do we really think it's securely wiped? Or should I be taking a hammer to the chips on the SSD because that's the only way to ensure it's fully wiped? -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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Re: [GTALUG] Debian Live Linux -- Change Overlay Filesystem -- From Tempfs Ramdisk To Hard Drive ?? [was] Re: Debian Live Linux -- Overlay Filesystem -- Where Allocated ??
by Steve Petrie 24 Mar '24

24 Mar '24

Thanks to Len Sorensen, Hugh Redelmeier and Ron(a)bclug.ca for taking their time offering suggestions, all of which I have investigated. * * * * * * Paranoia and low tolerance for anxiety have me deciding on this strategy, to get to a Debian 12 configuration with root filesystem persistence: (1) Buy a second multi-TB SATA hard drive to install in my Debian linux PC (Western Digital or Seagate). (1) Build a bootable live Debian 12.5 linux USB memory stick. (3) Use (2) to install Debian 12 on the new SATA drive, and use this SATA Debian 12 for ongoing regular daily operations. (3) Keep both the current bootable live Debian 11 USB memory stick, and the new bootable live Debian 12 linux USB memory stick, for emergency linux boot purposes. * * * * * * This strategy offers these benefits: (1) gets regular linux operations to most current Debian version, and simplifies life by booting directly from hard drive, (2) (hopefully) saves time by booting the PC from hard disk, instead of from USB memory stick, (3) adds a large comforting increment of hard disk capacity, complementing the current 1.8 TB hard drive, which already is almost 50% used, (4) leaves me with two (2) Debian emergency boot USB memory sticks. * * * * * * I will report back on results. Steve Petrie Etobicoke (Toronto), Ontario, Canada apetrie(a)aspetrie.net 416-233-6116

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Concert tickets for tonight, free
by Evan Leibovitch 22 Mar '24

22 Mar '24

Hi. I have a pair of tickets to a concert tonight (March 22) by musician Dan Hill, tonight at Hugh's Room (Broadview south of Gerrard). We're sick and can't go. If you're sure you can use them let me know in private email (not to the list). First response gets them. - Evan

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DOS > bash
by Ron / BCLUG 22 Mar '24

22 Mar '24

Okay, clickbait subject line, but hear me out. I had a bunch of files called *.sh for backing up stuff. I decided to use `run-parts` to run the entire folder of shell scripts at once. `run-parts` won't run *.sh files (?!?), they need to be *.s-h or something dumb. I wanted to REName *.sh -> *. In DOS: `ren *.sh *.` In bash, that will not work (with file globbing & pathname expansion enabled by default). I had to do this instead: for I in *.sh ; do mv ${I} ${I%%.sh} done Clearly, DOS > bash. (Told ya so, Hugh.) rb

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Solar eclipse
by William Park 22 Mar '24

22 Mar '24

Anyone planning a group trip for solar eclipse viewing? I guess I can go a little south (Niagara or along Lake Erie) and find a parking spot somewhere. But, we have had any group field day for long time. --

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