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Installing Linux: Still a PITA, continued
by Evan Leibovitch 09 May '22

09 May '22

Or maybe I'm not keeping track of chapters. As some of you know, I've been on a quest to upgrade my daily desktop from Windows to a dual-boot Linux system (and eventually, I hope, to eliminate Windows). As some of you know, I've been replacing systems with dual-boot (first Unix, then Linux) on systems for almost 30 years, though I don't have that technical a bent. But I swear, things are getting harder rather than easier for the non-technical. First step was backing up the Windows and getting ready on my newer, double-the-size M.2 drive. Cloning the old drive was the best option, but not using Clonezilla which was absolutely useless to me. Couldn't find the Windows drive, despite multiple tries. Maybe it did, but its UI is beyond awful. Tried many hours before giving up. I had considerably greater success with the free version of Macrium Reflect, which knew exactly what I wanted to do and did it with ease. Swapping the hardware was easy enough, given that my system's motherboard has two M.2 sockets even though it's several years old. System boots Windows just fine, identical to what I had before except I now have 250GB unallocated. Online help about how to partition a Linux system is as confused as ever, some saying a single partition will do for everything, and others saying that even a UEFI system needs a separate ext4 partition for /boot even if there is an existing EFI one already there. And then the final step (i thought) -- installing. I decided, after hearing from everyone here, that MX Linux KDE would be the best combination of things I needed and things I didn't. Downloaded the bootable image and used Rufus, where I had to decide if the bootable USB stick would be GPT or MBR (not obvious to a newcomer). All loaded, reboot, and .... no graphics. The mouse pointer shows up for a half second and vanishes, with the screen at alt-F1 inviting me to do a CLI install whose partition choices threaten to wipe out my windows system and don't have an intuitive way to customize. Thankfully (I think), I was able to scp the X.org log file to another computer so I wouldn't lose it on the USB stick's live boot. I attach it below, and ask assistance from anyone who can read these files so I can understand why it's dying. My graphics card is a fairly recent AMD RX 6500 XT which works fine under Windows and is claimed to be supported by X. Or do I just give up on MX? A search on its forum appears to draw blanks, except for me to boot in failsafe mode which didn't change anything. Will this be better on another distro? One option is to boot a gparted live stick, partition as I want, install Linux VIA MX's CLI and pray it updates with current graphics drivers. But sheesh. One would think that given 20 years to improve the install experience, it can be more confusing than ever. Any help is appreciated. Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada @evanleibovitch / @el56

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[GTALUG-Announce] Reminder: May Meeting, Tomorrow Night.
by Alan Heighway 09 May '22

09 May '22

Linux on RISC-V <https://gtalug.org/meeting/2022-05/> with Drew Fustini <https://gtalug.org/> 10 May, 2022 at 07:30 PM It is an exciting time for Linux on RISC-V, the open instruction set (ISA) that is quickly gaining critical mass. I will introduce the pieces needed to boot Linux on RISC-V including the Privileged Architecture, OpenSBI and U-Boot, and how that fits into the upcoming RISC-V Platform Specification. I will break down support for existing hardware and current upstreaming efforts. We're going to use Big Blue Button for this meeting: *Time:* May 10, 2022 07:30 PM Eastern Time *Join Big Blue Button:* https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl *A*lan *H*eighway <http://heighway.ca/> heighway.ca VA3WAH / VA3YKZ [image: Please consider the environment before printing] --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Ubuntu review on Distrowatch
by William Park 04 May '22

04 May '22

https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20220502#ubuntu [Last paragraph] I think the launch of Ubuntu 22.04 is a clear sign Canonical is much more interested in publishing releases on a set schedule than producing something worthwhile. This version was not ready for release and it's is probably going to be a costly endeavour to maintain this collection of mixed versioned software and mixed display server and mixed designs for a full five years. It's a platform I would recommend avoiding. --

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Next week's talk about Linux and RISC-V
by Ivan Avery Frey 02 May '22

02 May '22

Will the talk be recorded? If so where will it be uploaded?

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Ethernet alias triggering network security warnings
by Kevin Cozens 28 Apr '22

28 Apr '22

Greetings, all. I am using an embedded system that is running a version of an Ubuntu distro. The embedded system is being set up so that the physical Ethernet port will have two aliases. One is eth0:0 and the other is eth0:1. eth0:0 is set to get an IP address via DHCP when a network cable is plugged in (assuming a DHCP server is available). The eth0:1 is set to have a static IP address. This allows an installer to connect a laptop to the system and do some onsite configuration (setting WiFi parameters). The network settings I'm using are: auto eth0:0 iface eth0:0 inet static address 192.168.100.110 netmask 255.255.255.0 gateway 192.168.100.1 auto eth0:1 allow-hotplug eth0:1 iface eth0:1 inet dhcp This was working at one point but lately a Windows machine on the network will start complaining either about possible ARP poisoning or it will say there is a duplicate IP address. The program on the Windows box reporting the problem is esset Internet Security. I know nothing about the program. It is on the machine of the person preparing boxes to be sent out in to the field. When I check the system that seems to have triggered the duplicate IP address warning I see no duplication. I have checked all the MAC addresses, inet v4 and inet v6 IP addresses listed by the ifconfig program. Does anyone on this list know anything about that security program or why the person setting up the embedded systems would be seeing the duplicate IP warnings? -- Cheers! Kevin. http://www.ve3syb.ca/ | "Nerds make the shiny things that https://www.patreon.com/KevinCozens | distract the mouth-breathers, and | that's why we're powerful" Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172 | #include <disclaimer/favourite> | --Chris Hardwick

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U of T alumni mail + Thunderbird
by William Park 24 Apr '22

24 Apr '22

To those with @alumni.utoronto.ca email account, I have an old UofT account, and I'm trying to set it up in Thunderbird. (1) Getting Email: I can download via IMAP. But can't via POP3. Is it same experience for other people? (2) Sending Email: I can't send email via their SMTP server. Thunderbird asks for password which errors out.

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Google Gsuite Legacy domain replacement
by Andrew Heagle 19 Apr '22

19 Apr '22

Hello, I have one of those Google gsuite legacy domains that I use for personal use/family. I signed up in 2009. I figured that at some point I'd have to start paying for it and the time has come. But the pricing they are asking for is a bit high for use. $7.80 (Plus tax I assume) per user per month, or $420/yr. This is a bit pricey for a family of 4, 2 of which are kids and don't really even use it much, just a vanity thing. I thought they might ask around $10/mth for the domain for 5 users or something like that for personal/family with business apps removed, etc.. but no. So anyway, I am just wondering if anyone else is in the same boat and what plans you have? Or does anyone have recommendations for other services? Mostly just interested in email and calendar which can also use my own domain name. Andrew

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[GTALUG-Announce] April Meeting
by Alan Heighway 11 Apr '22

11 Apr '22

Open Source Program Officer <https://gtalug.org/meeting/2022-04/> with Evan Leibovitch <https://gtalug.org/> 12 April, 2022 at 07:30 PM More companies are creating an Open Source Program Officer. Why create this position? What is it and what do they do? The answer to these quesitons and more. We're going to use Big Blue Button for this meeting: *Time:* April 12, 2022 07:30 PM Eastern Time *Join Big Blue Button:* https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl *A*lan *H*eighway <http://heighway.ca/> heighway.ca VA3WAH / VA3YKZ [image: Please consider the environment before printing] --- GTALUG Announce mailing list announce(a)gtalug.org https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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OT: NYT article "How To Construct a Chip Factory
by Ivan Avery Frey 09 Apr '22

09 Apr '22

The Huge Endeavor to Produce a Tiny Microchip https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/08/technology/intel-chip-shortage.html?unlo…

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Gmail + Thunderbird
by William Park 06 Apr '22

06 Apr '22

For a while, I couldn't send out through SMTP@Gmail using Thunderbird. POP@Gmail was okay though. It turns out Gmail switched to "app password" like Yahoo did. Once you generate "app password" (2-factor needs to be ON), you have to use it for both POP and SMTP. Web login is the same as before. --

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