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War Story: installing Fedora 24 on an old Acer Aspire 9300-3089
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 13 Oct '16

13 Oct '16

TL;DR: - if booting hangs, remove "quiet" and "rhgb" from the kernel command. This will show you the boot log in realtime. - if a module is causing the hang, you can suppress it with "modprobe.blacklist=modulename" We needed a computer for casual use at a remote location. So we pulled one out of retirement. Boring first task / adventure: back up all the precious files. It was dual boot Ubuntu 12.04 / Windows Vista. Vista had suffered some kind of bit rot: svchost (or some name like that) was eating 100% CPU so that it was impossible to do backup from it. Not a virus. I wasted a lot of time trying to cure the problem but so many Vista tools have disappeared that I didn't get anywhere. We'll do backing up of the Windows filesystem from Linux at some later date. I replaced the 120G HDD with a 128G SSD that I bought yesterday for $40 from The Source. Boy those are getting cheap. I did *not* copy the old disk to the new one. I then tried to install Fedora 24 "Workstation" using a USB stick. It hung part way through the balloon in the startup screen. How I diagnosed and dealt with this is the real subject of this War Story. - I rebooted the stick, selecting "check installation medium". Checking succeeded but the installation hung the same way - rebooting from the stick, I hit "tab" on the menu item for installing. This lets you edit the kernel parameters. I removed "quiet" and "RHGB". This puts a boot log on the screen instead of the splash screen. - thet boot stopped making progress when "acer_wmi" was started. This is a module intended to do things with Acer's ACPI stuff for wireless (I think). I guess my notebook is too old to match this module's expectations. The machine has hung but I've learned what's important. - I reboot again, hitting tab again, removing "quiet" and "rhgb" again. And I add "modprobe.blacklist=acer_wmi". This magic incantation solves the problem and I can complete the installation. Apparently this also sets up /etc/modprobe.d correctly so that the installed system will work too. I discovered the incantation in the Fedora 24 Installation Guide section 8.2.3. The required parameter was "rdblacklist" in Fedora 16 days so perhaps it is different in your distro of choice too.

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Good news for procrastinators! FSOSS early bird extended
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 13 Oct '16

13 Oct '16

Normally I wouldn't just forward an ad but I think that is worth your attention. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: FSOSS <fsoss(a)leapproject.ca> Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2016 19:23:36 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Good news for procrastinators! FSOSS early bird extended Reply-To: FSOSS <fsoss(a)senecac.on.ca> Good news: We have extended the early bird price for the Seneca Free Software and Open Source Symposium until October 14th (that's this Friday)! Don't waste any time and Register for<https://apps.senecacollege.ca/eventregistration/events/fsoss2016> FSOSS 2016<https://apps.senecacollege.ca/eventregistration/events/fsoss2016><https://apps.senecacollege.ca/eventregistration/events/fsoss2016>! We're looking forward to seeing you on October 27-28. Keep an eye on fsoss.ca<http://cdot.fsoss.ca/> and @fsoss on Twitter<https://twitter.com/fsoss> for further announcements! FSOSS 2016 Organizing Team

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Happy 25th once again to Linux, 'the little OS that definitely could' | Network World
by James Knott 12 Oct '16

12 Oct '16

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3128185/happy-25th-once-again-to-linux-… Linux/Open Source Alert 2016-10-12&utm_term=networkworld_linux_open_source_alert <http://www.networkworld.com/article/3128185/happy-25th-once-again-to-linux-…>

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Neat presentation by Grek GH on the linux development model
by lsorense＠csclub.uwaterloo.ca 12 Oct '16

12 Oct '16

https://kernel-recipes.org/en/2016/talks/patches-carved-into-stone-tablets/ Covers lots fo about email clients, patch application, patch reviewing, and such. -- Len Sorensen

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Presentation resources from tonight's meeting on Ansible
by Myles Braithwaite 11 Oct '16

11 Oct '16

You can find all the presentation resource files from tonight's meeting over on GitHub: <https://github.com/myles/2016-10-11-ansible>. The book Giles was referenceing is called "Ansible: Up and Running": <http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920035626.do>. Here it is at the Toronto Library: <http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM3321121&R=3321121>.

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Hacklab Junk Independence Day, Sun. Oct 23rd
by Scott Sullivan 11 Oct '16

11 Oct '16

Hacklab is hosting it's next Junk Independence Day on October 23rd. https://hacklab.to/archives/junk-independence-day-sunday-october-23-2016/ This a recurring event where electronic junk or e-waste can be brought down, swifted through swap-meet style, and the reminder is sent to recycling company on the following Monday. I've a had lot of odds and ends that have lost utility to me, but found new homes with others. On the other hand, I once took down a half-broken Stereo, and came back with a better working Stereo. -- Scott Sullivan

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On learning something new
by David Thornton 11 Oct '16

11 Oct '16

Hey guys, I saw this and though about how we give talks to further our own understanding on a topic rather not doing a talk until we feel like experts. https://lettertoanewmanager.wordpress.com/2016/08/01/three-steps-to-get-up-… What are you learning now? Come give us a talk on it and further your own understanding. David David Thornton @northdot9 https://www.quadratic.net

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Where I'll be having dinner
by Seneca Cunningham 11 Oct '16

11 Oct '16

Since I have not yet heard any compelling suggestions from the list as to where I should sup, I intend to visit King Place. King Place is at the southwest corner of Dundas & Sherbourne, and has both tasty Pakistani food and plenty of seating.

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[GTALUG-Announce] GTALUG Meeting on Tuesday at 7:30pm
by hi＠gtalug.org 09 Oct '16

09 Oct '16

<http://gtalug.org/meeting/2016-10/> # October 2016 GTALUG Meeting ## Annual General Meeting (7:30 p.m.) * GTALUG Update - 5 minutes * Treasury Update - 5 minutes * Board Elections - 15 minutes ## Ansible (8:00 p.m.) Ansible allows you to turn your infrastructure administration into a codebase. Descripting all the processes that are necessary for deploying a server with a set of provisioning scrips that can be stored in version control. Myles Braithwaite will be giving an overview of deploy and configure your infrastructure with Ansible. Alex Volkov wil be going over running Vagrant as test environment, setting free as in speech LXC and KVM hypervisors with Vagrant, notes on getting from bare hardware running with Debian automated install, and a few wrong Ansible commands. ## 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 Imperial Pub (54 Dundas St East) for refreshments and more socialising. # 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 jeopardise 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 honoured 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

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OT - the heuristics of privacy
by Russell Reiter 09 Oct '16

09 Oct '16

Interesting tech news about Stingray surveillance. I wonder if there is some way to detect that an intruder has captured your signal. You can test for capture and cause them to power down by having someone near you call 911. Apparently authorities have to let EMS calls access the real network. I think black hats.... umm not so much. http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/technology/government-surveillance-rules-rcmp-c… Russell Sent from mobile.

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