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[GTALUG-Announce] AGM & Round Table Q&A - Tonight
by hi＠gtalug.org 09 Nov '21

09 Nov '21

<https://gtalug.org/meeting/2021-11/> # AGM & Round Table Q&A A Round Table Q&A Session is where we take questions from the audience, and the audience discusses and attempts to answer those questions from their own knowledge. It's a great way to meet fellow members of our community and discover the skill sets we each bring to the table. There will be a bit of organizational business, as we hold the Annual General Meeting of GTALUG, which will involve: - A brief financial report for the year - The 2021 Board Elections ## Location We're going to use Zoom for this meeting: **Time:** November 9, 2021 07:30 PM Easter Time **Join Zoom Meeting:** [https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81924329473?pwd=MndSWHNaRGNZSUtIeVB0WG1xTkZTQT09]… **Meeting ID:** 819 2432 9473 **Passcode:** 655996 **Find your local number:** [https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kd2rxnbq6D](https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kd2rxnbq6D) ## Schedule * 7:30 pm - Meeting and presentation. # 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: <https://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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help run GTALUG!
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 08 Nov '21

08 Nov '21

GTALUG requires members, board members, and voluteers to run it. The better they do their job, the less we see how important it is. We have the Annual General Meeting tomorrow. That's when board members get elected. Details were sent out on Oct 30. Please consider joining or renewing your membership. It's easy -- see the Oct 30 email. That supports GTALUG and it allows you to vote. Consider putting your name forward for a position on the board. We definitely need new blood because several mainstays are retiring. No experience is necessary but any experience is valuable.

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Video of October talk with Mike Hoye
by Alex Volkov 07 Nov '21

07 Nov '21

Hello everyone, The video of October 2021 talk, The state of Mozilla with Mike Hoye, is now available here -- https://youtu.be/jXtPaZ-sGPk Alex.

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Re: [GTALUG] [GTALUG-Ops] Command doesn't work in script but works on command line? (fwd)
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 06 Nov '21

06 Nov '21

Jim accidently sent this to me privately instead of to the list. He confirmed this in further private email. (I normally don't like copying private email to a public list.) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jim Ruxton <jim.ruxton(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2021 10:24:43 -0400 Subject: Re: [GTALUG] Command doesn't work in script but works on command line? I am running the script by double clicking on it after making it executable and setting scripts to run this way via nautilus. All the other scripts I wrote run fine this way. I tried running the script from the command line and that does work. So it is only not running correctly when activated by the mouse? Still a mystery. Jim On 2021-11-06 10:04 a.m., D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote: > | From: Jim Ruxton via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> > > | I'm having trouble with a simple script. It adds a second sounccard. This > | command works on the command line but not in a script. Any ideas why? > > How are you running that script? Is it from a cron script or something > like it? Does your script work when invoked from your command line? > > I haven't paid attention to JACK, but I assume that each Linux user > session has some kind of jack context -- plumbing done by one user should > not affect the plumbing of another user. I don't really see this issue > addressed in the first few jack documents I read. > > My guess is that your script is modifying a different context from the one > you are observing. That's really vague and hand-wavy, but that's the > direction I'd investigate.

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Heads up: Ubuntu 21.10 kills your desktop icons
by Stewart C. Russell 30 Oct '21

30 Oct '21

GNOME have finally made good on their threat to remove all support for icons on the Desktop. Any files in ~/Desktop no longer produce icons on the screen. The GNOME Shell plugin that was the last thing that allowed it is no longer supported. GNOME Shell itself seems broken: what was the Shell Preferences browser page now bring up a 404 page from gitlab. As someone who needs constant visual reminders of what he needs to be doing, this is a huge blow for me. Desktop icons are a kind of todo list for me. My own actual real desktop seldom has flat space on it*: right now it's relatively clear, with only 7 different MicroPython development boards on it. But in real and virtual life, my desktop is my work in progress. I guess GNOME's telling me my work's done now? I'm not even sure if there are other desktops for Ubuntu any more that aren't KDE. cheers, Stewart *: a real picture from a month ago: https://twitter.com/scruss/status/1439765045257383940

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Was Re: Heads up: Ubuntu 21.10 kills your desktop icons now - keyboards
by o1bigtenor 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

On Wed, Oct 20, 2021 at 6:59 PM Stewart C. Russell via talk <talk(a)gtalug.org> wrote: > On 2021-10-20 11:03, Lennart Sorensen via talk wrote: > > > snip > I've just switched to xubuntu. I think it uses XFCE. So far (10 minutes > in) it mostly works. It does fail on one thing, though: > > > Let me alt+tab between the windows. > > I can't seem to do that. And I can't cycle between workspaces, either. I > hope it's not because I'm using an Apple keyboard. It's the least > disappointing keyboard I've tried, but Linux barely understands it. > > Is it maybe not so much that Linux doesn't understand the keyboards but that the keyboard manufacturers are making such junk that Linux just struggles to understand the signals? I've been using ergonomic keyboards for some about 20 years. Started with a logitech (IIRC) and then was forced to move to the M$ 4000 as they were the only game left in the 'reasonable' market. The last one is a Kensington but the last 3 M$ and this Kensington - - - they're real cheap POS! Its gotten to where 24 months is a great lifetime for a keyboard. I'm a fairly quick touch typist but I'm also seriously multi-lingual so a good keyboard is quite important. Crap - - - the old manual typewriters were far easier on me than these new items!! To get something that is going to last a bit better - - - is the only option the quite pricey items where they use the mechanical switches? Suggestions - - - - TIA

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Looking users of the Kenisis Advantage keyboards
by o1bigtenor 23 Oct '21

23 Oct '21

Greetings In the thread re: keyboards the Kenisis Advantage keyboards have come up in discussing ergonomic keyboards. Wondering - - - is there anyone out there that was a quite proficient user of a regular keyboard that moved to the Kenisis Advantage? I keep hearing about how it takes a month or two to 'relearn' the skills due to differences in the key layout. I know that moving from even a M$ 4000 ergonomic to my present Kensington has shown me that little things like a touch of space between the 'caps lock' and the 'a' show up. Maybe I'm just sloppier on the keyboard than I thought. I remember finding moving from a 'regular' keyboard to an ergonomic model (IIRC that was a Logitech) was a breeze. Somehow I'm wondering about that time to get comfortable on the Advantage keyboard. I would really like to know how challenging you found the change and/or how long it took until you were comfortable. If you would rather not share the thread private emails would be fine. TIA

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Do people have opinions about the Framework modular laptop
by Dave Collier-Brown 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

I see from Slashdot that it has an app store now: * https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2110258/modular-framework-lapt… * https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/14/22725935/framework-laptop-modular-marke… and I wonder if anyone has an opinion of it. --dave -- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest dave.collier-brown(a)indexexchange.com<mailto:dave.collier-brown@indexexchange.com> | -- Mark Twain CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER : This telecommunication, including any and all attachments, contains confidential information intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. Any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure is strictly prohibited and is not a waiver of confidentiality. If you have received this telecommunication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return electronic mail and delete the message from your inbox and deleted items folders. This telecommunication does not constitute an express or implied agreement to conduct transactions by electronic means, nor does it constitute a contract offer, a contract amendment or an acceptance of a contract offer. Contract terms contained in this telecommunication are subject to legal review and the completion of formal documentation and are not binding until same is confirmed in writing and has been signed by an authorized signatory.

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Blank screen can't be refreshed
by Giles Orr 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Hi folks. My main machine is a Fedora 34 laptop that drives a 43" 4K Philips monitor (it's actually a "monitor," not a "TV"). I've set 'xscreensaver' to blank the machine after five minutes. The delay is that short because the Philips (while otherwise a nice display) is notorious for ghosting. It's a Barrier client to another computer (a NUC) - so the keyboard and mouse that control this machine are actually attached to another machine. Occasionally, the machine/screen can't be awoken from the blank screen state. The Philips backlight is on, I have a pointer I can move (either by Barrier, or by the touchpad on the laptop itself) ... but the screen remains blank. The machine is up and running, and I can SSH in and change stuff, but nothing non-disruptive I've found wakes the screen. I tried 'kill -HUP <openboxPID>' to no effect. I tried 'openbox --restart' but it failed because it's a remote machine (I can probably over-ride this with an appropriate environment variable(s), but haven't got to that). 'kill <openboxPID>' - also had no effect. But 'kill -9 <openboxPID>' brought me back to the login screen (functioning correctly on the previously blank screen). This (and rebooting) are the only solutions I've found so far. This problem has usually occurred on wake from suspend-to-RAM, but has now happened a couple times on wake from just screen blanking. Having had to write that out, it makes me think that Openbox is the problem. Openbox is supposed to accept 'kill -HUP' and do something sane with it, but it's clearly got itself in a state where it's not listening to 'kill' at all (thus the need for '-9'). I've looked at the machine logs: I'm not great at reading them, but I'm not seeing anything that looks like this problem, and I did spend a fair amount of time looking ... If it is Openbox, I should be looking at the X logs, which I haven't done yet? I've used Barrier heavily for many years, and this problem hasn't manifested on any of the several other computers that have been Barrier clients to the NUC ... but should I consider Barrier? What about xscreensaver itself? I could potentially compile Openbox rather than relying on the Fedora package. I don't want to do that, but if needed ... Huh - I suppose I could also switch to Fluxbox for a while, and see if it has the same issue. Any ideas appreciated, any thoughts on where to look or how to debug ... -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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War Story: Thunderbird vs my mail server
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

TL;DR: using self-signed x.509 certs with Thunderbird is hard I run a mail server for my family. One of us uses Thunderbird's POP3 to pick up mail. This is through our LAN, not on the public internet. My server uses self-signed certificates. I don't care to become a customer of any certificate vendor, although I think Let's Encrypt is a Good Thing. I haven't even bothered to create my own Certificate Authority. My certificates expire, so I have to regenerate them. (Since this happens only once a year, I don't always remember the drill.) I just did that. Thunderbird stopped being able to pick up mail. There was NO diagnostic. Not to the user, and not to the sysadmin. It didn't even say that it failed to pick up mail. I soon discovered that I needed to get the new certs into Thunderbird. Previously, if I remember correctly, when confronted with a new cert, Thunderbird warned the user but could be coaxed to accept it and remember it. How could I get Thunderbird to accept the new cert? Why was it unhappy with the old one? The lack of diagnostics meant I never did figure out why it was unhappy, but I did do a lot of experimenting. In the end, I decided to manually install the new cert into Thunderbird. Thunderbird has a facility to do this: Edit: Preferences: (search for "cert"): manage certificates: Add exception. The Thunderbird facility required me to fill in an HTTPS URL from which to get the cert. At first I thought that this would require me to set up a web server. No, this design actually makes some sense: since Thunderbird will use the cert for TLS, why not use TLS and harvesting the cert from the negotiation. The proper URL was HTTPS://my-pop3-server:995. 995 is the port used to serve POP3 (probably not obvious to many users). But that didn't work! With no diagnostic! The answer can be extracted from <https://stackoverflow.com/questions/63947262/thunderbird-78-how-to-add-secu…> The problem is that Thunderbird seems to have its own firewall, set up to block port 995 in some cases. Which cases? Not for POP3, but yes for the "Add exceptions". Very Very dumb. How to punch a hole in this firewall: - find the registry editor (not called that, but that's what it is) Edit Preferences -> General -> Config Editor [at bottom] Add a new thing "network.security.ports.banned.override" and set it to the string 995 This is a string so that a list of ports can be used. This "preference" is documented (but not for Thunderbird): http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.security.ports.banned.override Now you can add the cert through HTTPS (see above). Optional: remove the security exception. I left it in so I don't have to do this next year.

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