July 2025 - Talk - lists.gtalug.org

Dollar store computer audio system...
by Colin McGregor 21 Aug '25

21 Aug '25

A feature of the original Raspberry Pi from the original on up to the Raspberry Pi 4 was a 3.5 mm audio jack for sound output. I am told by audiophiles that the Pi audio out ... wasn't very good, but to me it sounded fine. With the Raspberry Pi 5 that audio jack was dropped. The loss of that audio jack isn't an issue if you're connecting to a TV via HDMI (use the TV audio), or if you don't need audio, or you use a Bluetooth speaker. But what if you want things more-or-less the way they were before? A visit to Dollarama might be your answer. At Dollarama I ran across a USB-C to audio cable for use with the likes of mobile phones for a little less than $5. Of course the Raspberry Pi 5 uses USB A for its' USB input/output connectors, but again for a little less than $5 you can get a Dollarama USB A to USB C adapter. Connect the above together and the Raspberry PI will see this as an audio device and be able to pass audio out. Less than $10 (before tax) and you can be back almost to the way things were before (okay granted this way you are down one USB port :-( , still that isn't too bad in most situations). Going beyond the above, Dollarama does sell an audio speaker (available in white red or black) about the size of a beverage can with a 3.5 mm input jack for $5 (plus HST) that can (in my case) run off an old phone charger (I didn't try the Dollarama phone charger, but that could be an option). Add in a Dollarama audio cable and you are good. Now, I am not enough of an audiophile to be able to tell if all of the above is good, but it does sound fine to me. I thought that getting a complete, if VERY modest, computer audio system at a dollar store is a bit wild and worth sharing.

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The Y2038 issue and Debian 13 (aka: "Trixie")
by Colin McGregor 04 Aug '25

04 Aug '25

Below is a story about where Debian 13 (aka: "Trixie") stands regarding the Y2038 issue. In quick summary the Y2038 issue is that time in the current stable Debian release (and to the best of my knowledge all other Linux distributions) stores time as a 32 bit number with the number of seconds since January 1st, 1970 AD. After 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038 you may have Linux systems thinking it is 1970. "Trixie" will be the first Debian release to use 64 bit time. so they will be kicking the issue of running out of time from 2038 to 40,000,000,000 A.D. which should be good enough for most applications :-) . Trixie is in final testing with a final release date not yet announced, so this is in the "coming soon" class... https://lowendbox.com/blog/starting-to-catch-up-linux-finally-addresses-the… For anyone who is saying to themselves this doesn't matter to me because I run ..."<<Blah>>"... Linux remember that a bunch of other Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS are based off of Debian, so this change will ...echo... well outside just Debian.

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Re: The Y2038 issue and Debian 13 (aka: "Trixie")
by Scott Allen 30 Jul '25

30 Jul '25

This discussion reminded me about the GPS week number rollover problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_week_number_rollover I have an old Magellan GPS 2000 handheld receiver that suffers from this. Other handheld and portable automotive units I've owned have required firmware updates to address it. Coincidentally but unrelated, the next occurence will be in 2038, the same year (but a different month and day) as the Unix issue. -- Scott

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Re: The Y2038 issue and Debian 13 (aka: "Trixie")
by Nick Accad 29 Jul '25

29 Jul '25

Trixie is the purple dinosaur Bookworm is green worm from the 3rd movie On Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 22:10 Karen Lewellen <klewellen(a)shellworld.net> wrote: > Really? there is a toy story character named bookworm? > Time to read some screenplays. > For a moment I felt someone was a fan of Harry Potter fanfiction. > Trixie is sometimes a nickname for Bellatrix LeStrange. > > > > On Tue, 29 Jul 2025, Nick Accad wrote: > > > All Debian releases are named after Toy Story characters > > > > On Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 22:01 Karen Lewellen via Talk < > talk(a)lists.gtalug.org> > > wrote: > > > >> ..trixie? > >> Who decides these distribution names? > >> Kare > >> > >> > >> > >> On Tue, 29 Jul 2025, Colin McGregor via Talk wrote: > >> > >>> My bad, I was looking at some old stuff... There is currently a > >>> planned release date for "Trixie", so barring some huge strange / > >>> bizarre last minute issue "Trixie" will be out August 9th, 2025. > >>> > >>> On Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 5:55 PM Colin McGregor <colin.mc151(a)gmail.com> > >> wrote: > >>>> > >>>> Below is a story about where Debian 13 (aka: "Trixie") stands > >>>> regarding the Y2038 issue. In quick summary the Y2038 issue is that > >>>> time in the current stable Debian release (and to the best of my > >>>> knowledge all other Linux distributions) stores time as a 32 bit > >>>> number with the number of seconds since January 1st, 1970 AD. After > >>>> 03:14:07 UTC on January 19, 2038 you may have Linux systems thinking > >>>> it is 1970. > >>>> > >>>> "Trixie" will be the first Debian release to use 64 bit time. so they > >>>> will be kicking the issue of running out of time from 2038 to > >>>> 40,000,000,000 A.D. which should be good enough for most applications > >>>> :-) . Trixie is in final testing with a final release date not yet > >>>> announced, so this is in the "coming soon" class... > >>>> > >>>> > >> > https://lowendbox.com/blog/starting-to-catch-up-linux-finally-addresses-the… > >>>> > >>>> For anyone who is saying to themselves this doesn't matter to me > >>>> because I run ..."<<Blah>>"... Linux remember that a bunch of other > >>>> Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS are based off > >>>> of Debian, so this change will ...echo... well outside just Debian. > >>> ------------------------------------ > >>> Description: GTALUG Talk > >>> Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe(a)lists.gtalug.org > >>> Start a new thread: talk(a)lists.gtalug.org > >>> This message archived at > >> > https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/CCOICK… > >>> ------------------------------------ > >> Description: GTALUG Talk > >> Unsubscribe via Talk-unsubscribe(a)lists.gtalug.org > >> Start a new thread: talk(a)lists.gtalug.org > >> This message archived at > >> > https://lists.gtalug.org/archives/list/talk@lists.gtalug.org/message/CXMFJD… > >> > >

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(hardware) PC speaker brand
by William Park 28 Jul '25

28 Jul '25

I'm looking to replace my 30-year old PC speakers. I just need basic, nothing fancy. I know of Logitech and Creative brand, at the low end. Are there other brands that have come along in the last 30 years?

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Bash syntax checking
by Ron 28 Jul '25

28 Jul '25

Dave at YSAP has a nice little 3 minute video on syntax checking bash scripts. He introduces the `bash -n` feature and compares and contrasts it with https://www.shellcheck.net/ for doing that (and more). If 3 minutes is too long, `bash -n` syntax checks without executing the script. It's matched to *your* specific version of bash. It considers an empty file valid (as no errors occurred).

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Ghosted?
by James Tobin 28 Jul '25

28 Jul '25

Hi, if you were represented by a recruiter (headhunter, recruitment consultant, agent, or whatever they prefer to call themselves) for a potential job with an employer, would you *want* them to do everything possible to get feedback on your resume, skills, experience, overall application, and suitability directly from the employer after you'd been presented?

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Can You Write A Web Server in PURE BASH?! (no socat, no netcat, no external tools)
by Ron 25 Jul '25

25 Jul '25

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L967hYylZuc Although the thought of this challenge is mildly nauseous, the video is mesmerizing! He builds a web server in pure bash, just like he promised. Even enhanced it by cloning and modifying the accept builtin to support keep-alive. https://github.com/bahamas10/bash-web-server *This guy would make The Best presenter at a LUG, hint hint.* Here's his bash web server in action - amazing output: curl ysap.sh It's also amazing in a web browser with JS. I made something similar years ago (a terminal in JS) but not as nicely as https://ysap.sh Also, he highly recommends "pure bash bible": https://github.com/dylanaraps/pure-bash-bible > The goal of this book is to document commonly-known and lesser-known > methods of doing various tasks using only built-in bash features. > Using the snippets from this bible can help remove unneeded > dependencies from scripts and in most cases make them faster. I came > across these tips and discovered a few while developing neofetch, > pxltrm and other smaller projects.

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August Meeting Reminder - Aug 12, 2025, 7:30PM
by Alan Heighway 24 Jul '25

24 Jul '25

Looking for lighting talks for the August meeting! Topic: Anything related to Linux or FLOSS Length: 5 - 15 minutes Please reply to me and I'll add you to the list. Thanks everyone! Alan. *A*lan *H*eighway <http://heighway.ca/> heighway.ca 416-712-5247 VA3WAH / VA3YKZ [image: Please consider the environment before printing]

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where to buy a phone revisited?
by Karen Lewellen 22 Jul '25

22 Jul '25

Hi all, Hoping for some local perhaps off the beaten path options. to be forthright? I am really running out of time to find a solution. There are options even outside of lg, the xp3 or xp3 plus for example. Challenge is finding them, given the touch screen focus. The symbol, chatter's only flip is off the table, no accessibility features. The tcl rogers item seems to have talking..but not at your ear. phone need not be a flip of course, just have buttons..like a blackberry. Which used to have fine speech as well. store ideas? sadly, save for a firm model, this is not an on line sort of buy. with appreciation, Karen.

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