- Talk - lists.gtalug.org

Oct 26 - Hacklab's Junk Independence Day
by Scott Sullivan 22 Oct '25

22 Oct '25

It's the time again, a Hacklab Toronto Junk Independence day. Bring out spare, disused electronic or e-waste. Maybe find some treasures in what others bring. Sunday October 26 12 Noon – 6PM https://hacklab.to/archives/junk-independence-day-october-26/ -- Scott Sullivan

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history question on dos partiton tables
by CAREY SCHUG 21 Oct '25

21 Oct '25

Boy, I am out of it. Memory failure, or not keeping up I remember when there was an absolute limit of 7 usable partitions on a disk. I forgot or never realized this limit went away for a DOS-formatted disk (I know Solaris and other basically different disk formats had different limits). Going back to MSDOS 5.0. The primary partition table 64 bytes, per AI) had 4 entries, but one of those could point to an "extended" partition with its own partition table, also of 4 entries (and 64 bytes), so the other 3 primary, and 4 extended partitions were all I could use for my data. If I tried to create one more extended partition, the format program refused. Some thing(s) could ONLY be in a primary partition (certain operating systems? multi-boot loader? I don't remember). Apparently, now there can be many extended partition tables, thus a practically unlimited number of partitions. 1. When did that change? Meaning with what level of Microsoft software, and what level of Linux, if Linux had also been limited to 3+4 originally? 2. I presume some old operating systems only recognize the first 4 extended partitions? Or can they totally not recognize a disk with a "new" DOS format mbr at all? This could be as a data disk if I am transferring data from a legacy computer to a current one. 3. Where are the groups of 4 extended partition definitions located? All in the first sector of the extended partition? Somewhere else? 4. If the extended partition tables are all in the first block of the extended partition, for a 512 byte sector size, wouldn't that mean a limit of 8 x 4 extended partitions? Hmmm, 32 is starting to jigle some memory cells as a possible limit for extended paritions. (nb the AI queries seemed to deny there was ever a limit on the number of extended partitions, probably because it wasn't trained on information that old) Carey

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Testing Android app on real phone
by William Park 20 Oct '25

20 Oct '25

Hi, I have question about testing or controlling Android app on a real cell phone. How would you test "user interaction" of Android app, that you didn't build and don't have access to code? Eg. Calculator app. As user, you would press on screen, 2 + 3 = and you get 5 on the screen. So, how would you duplicate this user interaction, without actually pressing the screen buttons? What *keywords* should I search online? On Windows, there is TeamViewer that you can click and type remotely. I did use it manually, but never via scripts or macros. On Linux, there is VNC macro which duplicates key press and mouse click. I did use it, long long ago.

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4k monitors
by o1bigtenor 20 Oct '25

20 Oct '25

Greetings A number of you have indicated that you're now using 4k monitors. I've got a 24" monitor that is showing signs of dying and am considering what to do. I have an LG 43" 4k monitor, I like it, but its no longer available. It seems that I would need to spend in the $1250 can or more range to get a monitor that has decent reviews. (The LG cost me barely over $700 can (!!).) For those that are running 4k monitors - - -what are you running and are you happy with it? TIA

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`nala` instead of `apt` -- very nice front-end for libapt-pkg
by Ron 19 Oct '25

19 Oct '25

https://github.com/volitank/nala?tab=readme-ov-file#nala Anyone tried `nala` as a front-end for `apt`? It's a Python app featuring: Pretty colours, better parsing of output: > Nala is a front-end for libapt-pkg. Specifically we interface using > the python-apt api. > > Especially for newer users it can be hard to understand what apt is > trying to do when installing or upgrading. > > We aim to solve this by not showing some redundant messages, > formatting the packages better, and using color to show > specifically what will happen with a package during an install, > removal, or upgrade. Parallel downloading: > Outside of pretty formatting, the number 1 reason to use Nala over > apt is parallel downloads. > > Nala will download 3 packages at a time per unique mirror in your > sources.list file. This constraint is to limit how hard Nala hits > mirrors. Opening multiple connections to the same mirror is great > for speeding up downloading many small packages. History: > Our last big feature is the nala history command. > > If you're familiar with dnf this works much in the same way. Each > Install, Remove, or Upgrade we store in /var/lib/nala/history.json > with a unique <ID> number. > > At any time you can call nala history to print a summary of every > transaction ever made. You can then further manipulate this with > commands such as nala history undo <ID> or nala history redo <ID>. Apparently, it also automatically runs "update" when "install" is run, and "autoremove" or "autoclean" when "remove" is run. Unverified but could be handy. Just heard about it on Linux Matters podcast, episode "Terminal Full of Sparkles" at (https://linuxmatters.sh/66/) and promptly installed it for a look. Much nicer so far. Will install everywhere that has up-to-date Ubuntu or Debian.

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Kitchener Waterloo LUG
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 16 Oct '25

16 Oct '25

<https://kwlug.org/> I've just joined their discussion mailing list, prompted by William's posting to both lists. It's too early to say what list content is like. They don't seem to have an archive of list messages. They seem to have a hybrid meeting (attend in person or virtually) each month. The next one is Monday November 3. It seems to be two talks "AppDaemon for Home Assistant" and "Using Ceph and Proxmox as a Distributed NAS" <https://luma.com/ohn4ttrn>

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Softphone on Linux/Windows?
by William Park 16 Oct '25

16 Oct '25

I finally ported my old home phone to VoIP.ms, and installed their softphone on my cell phone. FYI, - VoIP.ms does business in US$. - They bill in 6-second increment (0.1min), so 30sec call is 0.5min. Now, I tried 2 other softphones on Linux: - ZoiPer Communicator -- binary - Linphone -- appimage They are okay I haven't used them heavily to give a meaning feedback, though. Have you used other Softphone on Linux (or Windows), that you liked? --

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Re: [kwlug-disc] Softphone on Linux/Windows?
by William Park 15 Oct '25

15 Oct '25

MicroSIP -- I like it. It has the usual Windows layout and forms, easy on the eyes, and recent (2025-Sep-5). Thanks. On 2025-10-16 00:53, Jason wrote: > You mentioned the two I've used. > > You may want to check out MicroSIP. It's a Windows client but > apparently can run on Linux via WINE, and there's even a support page > for VoIP.ms: > > https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Microsip > > They also have their own wiki page for other soft phone clients: > > https://wiki.voip.ms/article/Softphones > > On Thu, Oct 16, 2025, 12:12 AM William Park via kwlug-disc > <kwlug-disc(a)kwlug.org> wrote: > > I finally ported my old home phone to VoIP.ms, and installed their > softphone on my cell phone. FYI, > - VoIP.ms does business in US$. > - They bill in 6-second increment (0.1min), so 30sec call is > 0.5min. > > Now, I tried 2 other softphones on Linux: > - ZoiPer Communicator -- binary > - Linphone -- appimage > They are okay I haven't used them heavily to give a meaning > feedback, > though. > > Have you used other Softphone on Linux (or Windows), that you liked? > -- > > > _______________________________________________ > kwlug-disc mailing list > To unsubscribe, send an email to kwlug-disc-leave(a)kwlug.org > with the subject "unsubscribe", or email > kwlug-disc-owner(a)kwlug.org to contact a human being. >

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Ubuntu includes "coreutils" rewritten in Rust
by William Park 14 Oct '25

14 Oct '25

Just noticed at Distrowatch. Ubuntu is now using "coreutils" package that has been rewritten in Rust. Interesting that it's not Golang.

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ot: sort of, a Rona store worth a rave?
by Karen Lewellen 07 Oct '25

07 Oct '25

Hi all, Asking both because it came up in a thread about dyi electronics, and because my Home depot visit was profoundly disappointing..I do not visit Canadian tire. Anyone have a location that they love? large selection, great service? Its firmly in the dyi area, shelf related repairs. one shelf is on my production computer workstation though! Thanks, Kare

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