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war story: missing boot entry in UEFI
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 01 Apr '18

01 Apr '18

This may never hit you. I blame the problem on an early UEFI firmware (2012). Background: I had an old cute PC that I dusted off and then installed Fedora. - Foxconn nT-A3500 - the disk drive had decayed so I installed a new one (shucked from an external portable drive) - installed Fedora 27 in UEFI mode, then updated it - I then noticed a newer firmware and installed it + firmware installation required DOS + I fiddled with the boot sequence to legacy-boot a FreeDOS USB stick with the updates + applied firmware updates and shut down + the firmware was from 2012 -- quite old. No Secure Boot support. At this point, Fedora would not boot off the HDD?!?!? End of background The firmware setup pages seemed to offer no way to specify booting something from the HDD in UEFI mode. Quite odd. (Remember that there was a way before the firmware update.) The HDD had a proper EFI System Partition (FAT with type code EF00). I could boot the Fedora 27 live USB in UEFI mode. That was a reasonable platform for exploration. Beware: /boot/EFI points to something on the USB stick, not the HDD (you can use chroot magic to get around this). fsck showed no problems with the hard drive's EFI System Partition. (I have reported on the list how one computer I have won't boot off of the EFI System Partition if it had not been cleanly unmounted.) UEFI settings live two places: - in what we used to call the CMOS memory of the motherboard. A small chunk of persistent memory on the motherboard. - in the EFI System Partition of the HDD You need different tools to change each. I decided that the problem must be in the CMOS memory. After all, a firmware update is unlikely to change a disk. The tool I used to examine and modify the settings was efibootmgr(2). It can show, add, or modify boot entries. Warning: some of that crap is in UTF16, a perversion that is awkward to deal with. Show the boot entries. Each entry has a 4-digit number. '*' means active. $ sudo efibootmgr BootCurrent: 0001 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002 Boot0000* SATA: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Boot0001* UEFI: ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 Boot0002* ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 REALLY show the boot entries. What was shown before was what a user is expected to understand. The -v also shows the part that the bootloader actually uses. If you have a Windows entry, it will likely include UTF16. This computer does not have Windows (or a Windows license). BBS seems to stand for "Bios Boot Setting", meaning old fashioned Master Boot Record style booting. $ sudo efibootmgr -v BootCurrent: 0001 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002 Boot0000* SATA: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 BBS(17,,0x0) Boot0001* UEFI: ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x2563bf1a,0x1b9d0,0x4664) Boot0002* ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 BBS(21,,0x0) Magic sequence to add an entry for Fedora 27. "-c" means Create an entry. "-l" means Loader: what the entry should do I accepted the default for: "-d disk" specifies the disk; default /dev/sda "-L label" specifies the user-readable description; default "linux" $ sudo efibootmgr -c -l '\EFI\FEDORA\SHIM.EFI' BootCurrent: 0001 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0003,0001,0000,0002 Boot0000* SATA: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 Boot0001* UEFI: ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 Boot0002* ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 Boot0003* Linux REALLY show the boot entries. Notice the new entry has a lot of gobbledigook. I can read that but I'm glad that I didn't have to write it. $ sudo efibootmgr -v BootCurrent: 0001 Timeout: 1 seconds BootOrder: 0003,0001,0000,0002 Boot0000* SATA: TOSHIBA MQ01ABD100 BBS(17,,0x0) Boot0001* UEFI: ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x2563bf1a,0x1b9d0,0x4664) Boot0002* ADATA USB Flash Drive 1.00 BBS(21,,0x0) Boot0003* Linux HD(1,GPT,7ff1c66f-7d72-4295-ad96-01203c384c0b,0x800,0x64000)/File(\EFI\FEDORA\SHIM.EFI) After this, everything worked. I don't know why the firmware setup screen had no way to accomplish this (I tried a lot of settings). Reference: <http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/installation.html>

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Stealthy Stealing Bitcoins - jumpering the fence
by Russell 30 Mar '18

30 Mar '18

Heres another prime and probe issue. SGX was supposed to be fencing itself against associated timing attacks. According to this article and its backgrounded links, a hypervisor can leak information to itself by compromising branch prediction units and using "near field" affected border timing exploits. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/03/28/intel_shrugs_off_new_sidechannel_a… -- Russell

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USB-C/3.1 Video and Linux
by Giles Orr 29 Mar '18

29 Mar '18

A couple days ago I got a Best Buy flyer, and they have this item: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-zenscreen-15-6- fhd-60hz-5ms-gtg-ips-lcd-monitor-mb16ac-dark-grey/10737845.aspx? It's a portable IPS LCD screen from Asus. I have a similar item from about three years ago that has two connectors, one for USB power-only and the other for VGA/HDMI. There were other models at the time that used only one connector, USB for both data and power - but that required a driver (and would have been painfully slow if it was USB2). But now here's this new model: it's one connector only, USB-C. And presumably USB3.1. And USB3.1 can carry video. But at this point I get lost among the standards and their implementations and which one supports what. I have an Asus Zenbook (it's Linux-only at this point) that has a USB-C connector, but I suspect it's USB3.0. So the first question is: how do I check that? Second, does Linux support video-over-USB3.1? Do I need a special cable? Is this "Thunderbolt?" How can I check if my machine would support this? I admit that I'm probably not going to run out and buy this tomorrow as the old one is mostly sufficient for my needs, but I'm very curious about the state of Linux support for USB3.1 and Thunderbolt's many features. And I'd like to know if my USB-C port supports USB3.1. Thanks. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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New Deaktop PC -- To Run debian Linux - PCPartPicker Recipe;
by Steve Petrie, P.Eng. 29 Mar '18

29 Mar '18

Greetings To GTALUG, At long last I have created a final build recipe for my new desktop PC to run debian Linux. Replacing an ancient Dell PC running WIndows XP: a.. https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/Steve_Petrie/saved/#view=krFNNG The configuration is an Asus LGA1151 socket motherboard with Intel i5-6500 CPU and 16 GB DDR4 memory.. A dialup modem remains to be added: US Robotics USR5637 V.92 USB Faxmodem Comments welcome. * * * * * * My plan is to be ordering the parts by Friday 30 March or or Monday 2 April at the latest. The HP PS/2 keyboard and HP PS/2 mouse are already ordered (from PC-Canada) but that order is still on hold, pending addition of items to the order.. Steve

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Re: [GTALUG] New Deaktop PC -- To Run debian Linux - PCPartPickerRecipe;
by Steve Petrie, P.Eng. 29 Mar '18

29 Mar '18

Many thanks to so many responders impossible to mention all individually !! Have duly noted around a half-dozen configuration items of the build recipe, for review and no doubt at least some already for revision. All postings greatly appreciated ... Steve

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cheap colour printing with a privacy issue
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 26 Mar '18

26 Mar '18

<http://forums.redflagdeals.com/amazon-ca-hp-envy-4520-wireless-all-one-prin…> This is a scanner + printer device. Apparently with Linux support via HPLIP. It costs as little as $33.52 + tax through Amazon Warehouse deals (customer returned units, I think). If you manage to add something to your order to reach $35, you qualify for free shipping. This device is qualified for free ink for life at the rate of 15 pages per month. These are not just nominal pages (i.e. with 5% coverage), they are any pages (eg. prints of photos). The major downside is that the printer must be allowed to contact HP at all times through its wireless and your internet connection. What is it sending to HP? HP tries to address these concerns but they didn't satisfy me. Could Bad Guys hack this channel? Reluctantly, I think that I'll pass on this bargain.

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I'm now officially working for Index Exchange, and we're officially hiring
by David Collier-Brown 26 Mar '18

26 Mar '18

There's a dev position posted at https://boards.greenhouse.io/indexexchange/jobs/626598?gh_src=pcqt311 and a full list of positions attached to it Currently we're up near the Allen expressway, but we're moving downtown some time later this year, and have jobs in Waterloo and Montreal as well. --dave -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb(a)spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain

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Booting Fedora from M.2 Optane Nvme
by Russell 19 Mar '18

19 Mar '18

With all the CPU cache fencing going on I thought it might be fun to fiddle with NVM express on Fedora 27. My primary SSD on this z370-A, was/is in build limbo while I updated bios and waited for outcomes. I installed a 32gib module from Newegg ($90 delivered) and I booted from F27-workstation live on usb. I let the anaconda installer do the automatic partitioning. 5gib of the 32gib reported was left unallocated for over-provisioning. First boot appeared to be twice as fast as on the SATA SSD. Three or four seconds to get to the gui login as opposed to 7 or 8 on the original drive. Had to install hdparm from the repo. # hdparm -tT --direct /dev/sda1 /dev/sda1: Timing O_DIRECT cached reads: 930 MB in 2.00 seconds = 464.92 MB/sec Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1370 MB in 3.00 seconds = 456.30 MB/sec # hdparm -tT --direct /dev/nvme0n1 /dev/nvme0n1: Timing O_DIRECT cached reads: 2302 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1151.84 MB/sec Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 3474 MB in 3.00 seconds = 1157.65 MB/sec More info on Nvme with a nice diagram of the Linux storage stack here. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express I switched back to the original SSD. An os-probe mapped the device to /dev/dm-1 and I was able to remake grub.conf and add this install to the bootloader on that drive. A couple of switches back and forth between drives and it looks like the 10% performance hit I had experienced after the microcode updates, is now somewhat reduced, +-5%. Guilding the lilly a bit, as I didn't have any day to day problems with performance. Although it's hard to name Intel's product actions around this issue a field of Lilly's. -- Russell

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dmesg not reporting the mount point on USB insert
by William Witteman 17 Mar '18

17 Mar '18

In the past, when I stuck a USB stick in to my computer, I would look at dmesg and see that the device had been assigned a place in /dev. This week, I can see the device's details (Lexar, Sandisk, whatever), but there is no line for where I can address that device. Graphical file managers are also not showing the inserted media (I have tried several different sticks and card readers). I imagine that something changed in Debian that has lead to this, but I can't tell what's missing. ehci is picking up the device insertion, but not giving me a place to use in a mount line. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks. William

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Creative Commons Summit 13-15 April 2018 in Toronto ($250)
by Bob Jonkman 17 Mar '18

17 Mar '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Just found this via @fsf@status.fsf.org : https://summit.creativecommons.org/ == Creative Commons Global Summit 2018 == > We’re pleased to announce that our 2018 Global Summit will take > place in Toronto, Canada from April 13-15, 2018, at the Delta > Toronto Hotel. As one of the most multicultural cities in the > world, Toronto is an ideal location for this key meeting of the top > minds of the field. > The participant fee for the 2018 Global Summit is $250 USD. Fee > includes: > > Three days of full access to all conference programming including > sessions & keynotes Breakfast, lunch, snacks Swag bag - -- Bob Jonkman <bjonkman(a)sobac.com> Phone: +1-519-635-9413 SOBAC Microcomputer Services http://sobac.com/sobac/ Software --- Office & Business Automation --- Consulting GnuPG Fngrprnt:04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 Comment: Ensure confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiability iEYEARECAAYFAlqsw+oACgkQuRKJsNLM5er/NACdGg6XLHiVzZKAhMI2tl1kR84H KGAAn0yQoVNIC2WckSp/gFm/ha/MkXZa =GV6g -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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