- Talk - lists.gtalug.org

distro support for 32-bit UEFI
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 12 Apr '16

12 Apr '16

I have a couple of devices with 64-bit Atom CPUs, built to be cheap Windows devices, that have 32-bit UEFI firmware. With no old-fashioned BIOS or emulation thereof. This seems to be intentional crippling by Intel: they only provide power management firmware in 32-bit mode. The devices I have are an Asus TF100 "convertible" (tablet with detachable keyboard) and a Dell Venue 8 Pro. The Intel / Microsoft idea seemed to be: build very inexpensive devices to compete with ARM / Android. But be careful to limit the damage to the market for full-fledged Windows systems. It worked to some extent. The Hugh idea was: cheap computers that should run Linux! Close, but no cigar yet. What I want is a 64-bit distro that can boot from 32-bit UEFI. That could be managed but it doesn't seem to be available now. (The 64-bit Linux kernel knows how to call 32-bit UEFI functions. This feature is not always enabled.) Almost as good would be a 32-bit distro that can boot from UEFI. After all, these cheap boxes are limited to 2G of RAM anyway (crippled: see above). Scott informed me that 32-bit Debian Jessie (8.0) does support UEFI. Wonderful! But I'm chicken: there is no 32-bit UEFI live image and I don't want to install without trying. After all, there may well be unsupported bits on these screwy devices. (Sadly Linux distros seem to be weak on touch, one of the strengths of these little devices.) These cheap devices come with very little "disk". Mine each have 32G; some have 16G; a few have more. That's not really enough space for both Linux and Windows. I have a netbook built in the same style, but with 64-bit UEFI. I've found 32G quite reasonable for Fedora Linux. <https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI> Another bit of news from Scott: the next generation of Atoms, or at least some of them, drop support for virtualization! What jerks.

4 9

[GTALUG-Announce] Meeting Tonight at 7:30pm
by Myles Braithwaite 12 Apr '16

12 Apr '16

<http://gtalug.org/meeting/2016-04/> # Open Source Graphics Suite Panel Join Stewart, Trent, and Myles in discussing their practical experiences using a variety of open source graphics packages and suites. Bring your questions for our panelists! ## Panelists Stewart Russell is a Linux user who should probably be kept away from admin, dev and other sharp objects. He draws mostly geometric patterns and enjoys unusual output devices such as pen plotters. He mostly works in Inkscape, but also finds graphical uses for Gimp, Darktable, QCAD, OpenSCAD, Processing, Perl, PostScript, Python, netpbm and — when all else fails — ink and gouache. Some of his work is here: <https://www.flickr.com/photos/scruss/sets/72157666420609652/> --- Trent Drake is a freelance artist, with two decades experience in drawing anthropomorphic characters. A former qualitative data analyst, he continues to branch out in game design, animation, cartooning. He also directs and produces independent video productions for community organizations and YouTube. He works in Windows, using Inkscape, GIMP, and Blender. Links to content: * The Safety Prance: Lyricist, prop-builder, director: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dIu8gHkzEs> * Pixel art gallery: <https://www.weasyl.com/submissions/hiker> --- Myles Braithwaite is a web developer who sometimes has to designs user interfaces. He accomplishes this by using Open Source design tools like Inkscape for icons and wireframes, Dia for structure diagrams, and GNUpaint for rough sketching. He enjoys manipulating SVG files and manipulate them with Python and CSS (he was doing it before it was in vogue). On the rare occasion he has to interact with dead trees he uses Scribus to design page layouts. ## Location George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre 245 Church Street, Room 203 Ryerson University <http://goo.gl/maps/16oJ2> <http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/23447525> ## Schedule * 6:00 pm - Please discuss on the general mailing list (i.e. <talk(a)gtalug.org>) where you want to go for dinner. * 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation. * 9:00 pm - After each meeting a group of GTALUGers move to the The Imperial Pub (54 Dundas St East) for refreshments and more socializing. # Code of Conduct We want a productive happy community that can welcome new ideas, improve every process every year, and foster collaboration between individuals with differing needs, interests and skills. We gain strength from diversity, and actively seek participation from those who enhance it. This code of conduct exists to ensure that diverse groups collaborate to mutual advantage and enjoyment. We will challenge prejudice that could jeopardize the participation of any person in the community. The Code of Conduct governs how we behave in public or in private whenever the Linux community will be judged by our actions. We expect it to be honored by everyone who represents the community officially or informally, claims affiliation, or participates directly. It applies to activities online or offline. We invite anybody to participate. Our community is open. Please read more about the GTALUG Code of Conduct here: <http://gtalug.org/about/code-of-conduct/>. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about the GTALUG Code of Conduct please contact the GTALUG Board @ <board(a)gtalug.org>. --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

iproute2 cheat sheet
by James Knott 11 Apr '16

11 Apr '16

As net-tools is deprecated in favour of the iproute2 command, I thought I'd read up about it. I came across this "cheat sheet", which contains a lot of useful info. http://baturin.org/docs/iproute2/

2 1

dinner before tomorrow's meeting
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 11 Apr '16

11 Apr '16

| From: Myles Braithwaite <me(a)mylesbraithwaite.com> | * 6:00 pm - Please discuss on the general mailing list (i.e. | <talk(a)gtalug.org>) where you want to go for dinner. Reference material: <http://wiki.gtalug.org/pre-meeting_dinner> Please help maintain and improve this wiki page. Where do people wish to go? Since nobody has spoken up, and it is getting late, I'll dictate. Again. (Rebelion welome.) <https://wiki.gtalug.org/pre-meeting_dinner#kaiju_japanese_curry> This is in a food court so you can choose between about three places. This is slightly hard to find. It is in the basement of the Aura building at 384 Yonge St.

1 0

update to Win 10, a war story
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 11 Apr '16

11 Apr '16

I have a few tiny computers with Windows 8.x. They came with 2G of RAM and 32G of m.2 SATA SSDs. (A raft of systems were produced with these specs since the Windows licensing fees were essentially waived when these limits were observed.) 2G RAM + 32G HDD is actually a useful size for normal Linux distros. But there's not enough room for dual booting with Windows. I wanted to update to Windows 10 (1) before the deadline for free updates (2) because I could then wipe Windows and install linux without losing the ability to go back to licensed Windows. Note that the Windows 10 license authentication is based on Microsoft cloud records but previous versions require a magic code (that is no longer printed on the device) (I recently found out that it is in the ROM of these machines and can be discovered from Linux). For the life of me, I could not get one of the machines to update. The update process kept making disk demands that were impossible to fulfill on a 32G disk. I've been trying off and on for months. I've spent a couple of hours on the phone with HP and Microsoft support. I just solved the problem. I had installed an extra 8G of RAM in the machine. Once I removed it, Windows was happy to update. There was NO hint of this in any of the diagnostics. None of the support folks brought it up. Sheesh. Every time I muck with Windows I find new reasons not to touch it.

8 14

Bill That Would Ban End-to-End Encryption Savaged by Critics
by Ivan Avery Frey 09 Apr '16

09 Apr '16

http://interc.pt/1MkA3Xx

5 9

Making a second HD transparent to the user
by phiscock＠ee.ryerson.ca 09 Apr '16

09 Apr '16

The time is coming when I will have to increase my hard drive storage. I could backup, replace the current drive with something larger, and then copy the backup to the new, larger drive. Or I could add a second SATA drive. Is it possible to configure that second drive so that it seamlessly appears as an increase of size of the first drive? Peter -- Peter Hiscocks Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto http://www.syscompdesign.com USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator 647-839-0325

6 5

Re: [GTALUG] Can't list directory contents
by qwerty172 07 Apr '16

07 Apr '16

Try echo * If that gives you something then ssh is not setting your environment. also use the full path for the utilities. Ie /bin/ls should work. Bill Sent from Samsung Galaxy NoteRandy Jonasz <rjonasz(a)rjonasz.ca> wrote:On Wed, 2016-04-06 at 22:14 -0400, ted leslie wrote: > run df & mount in both env. compare. > also you may want to find out exactly how your encrypt part is > mounted and what tech it uses. > Ultimately you should be able to mount it manually, and then you can > try those step from > a non-mount state to a mounted state with each login method as well, > it may shine light. OK, this is very puzzling. I ssh into my laptop from my laptop and df and mount do not list this drive as mounted! I have two nfs mounts that autofs mounts and they show up. I can even manually mount the backup drive in the ssh session on the same directory it is mounted from xterm shell. I'm confused as to what is going on. --- Talk Mailing List talk(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk

2 1

Can't list directory contents
by Randy Jonasz 07 Apr '16

07 Apr '16

Hey everyone, I have the strangest problem. At home I have a manjaro laptop that has a mounted encrypted drive on /mnt/backup. At home I can cd into the directory and ls its contents. From work, when I ssh in from another manjaro laptop I cannot see the mounted drive. Is there something I can do to "fix" this? Thanks! Randy

2 6

Free / Cheap Ebooks
by Digiital aka David 05 Apr '16

05 Apr '16

Thought I would share this. https://www.packtpub.com/ Go to the website above and scroll down half way and click on FREE LEARNING FOREVER you will need to signup for a account. Every day/few hours they release a new free ebook. Here is a sample of what they have given away the past few days. [image: Inline image 1]

2 1