March 2015 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

“*ERROR* pipe is still busy with an old pageflip”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 May '15

24 May '15

I’ve been hitting an occasional display freeze that matches this description <http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7675146.html>. Looks like a known problem with the 3.16 kernel. I thought things had got better with a system update I did 11 days ago, but this afternoon the freeze recurred. Unlike the previous times, killing all my user processes succeeded in unfreezing the display, so I was able to log in again without rebooting.

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New Multi-Core Raspberry Pi 2 Launches
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '15

01 May '15

'Coming in at the same $35 price-point that has come to be expected from the Raspberry Pi, it looks like the new Model 2 will be packing a quad-core ARM processor with a GB of RAM. From the article: "The Raspberry Pi Foundation is likely to provoke a global geekgasm today with the surprise release of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a turbocharged version of the B+ boasting a new Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz quad-core system-on-chip with 1GB of RAM – all of which will drive performance "at least 6x" that of the B+."' -- source: http://build.slashdot.org/story/15/02/02/0134211 And also in the news: "Microsoft Announces Windows For Raspberry Pi 2 Microsoft is expanding their Windows Developer Program for Internet of Things by delivering a version of Windows 10 that runs on the Raspberry Pi 2. This release of Windows 10 will be free for the maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT. With an official partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Microsoft is bringing development tools, services and ecosystem to the Raspberry Pi community. More details will be shared in the coming months. You can already join the program and be amongst the first to receive product information and beta software releases." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/02/02/1326225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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VMware Being Sued For Infringing GPL
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Mar '15

28 Mar '15

As I understand it, an important part of VMware’s closed-source hypervisor depends on Linux device drivers to communicate with hardware. VMware implemented their own interface, compatible with the Linux one, in order to allow these drivers to work. However, in doing so, they appear to have copied a lot of GPL-licensed code from the actual Linux kernel. There are probably more subtleties to the lawsuit than that, but more details here: <http://lwn.net/Articles/635290/>.

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RaspEX - another Linux version for Raspberry Pi
by Ian Young 25 Mar '15

25 Mar '15

That man from Sweden has now put together a Linux version for the Pi. He wants money for it however. $7 US. http://raspex.exton.se/ News 150318 I have made a perfect (as I think) Linux ARM system for Raspberry Pi 2. I call it RaspEX. It is based on Debian Jessie (upcoming Debian 8), Ubuntu Vivid Vervet (upcoming Ubuntu 15.04) and Linaro (Open Source software for ARM SoCs). Why shall I use RaspEX? Eight Operating Systems are recommended by Raspberry.org. Among them Noobs, Raspbian (Debian Wheezy) and Snappy Ubuntu Core. RaspEX is faster, more useful and more fun to use. (In my opinion). How do I install RaspEX? Just like any other Raspberry system. I.e.: Unpack the downloaded ZIP file (raspex-ubuntu-15.04-armhf-923mb-150318.zip) and transfer the IMAGE file (raspex-ubuntu-15.04-armhf-3050mb-150318.img) to your Micro SD card of at least 8GB. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Linux-Distributions/RaspEX-103737.shtml

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MIPS Wants To Join In The Fun
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Mar '15

24 Mar '15

With all the huge popularity of ARM chips in mobile and embedded devices, Imagination Technologies (owner of the MIPS architecture) would like to remind us that the MIPS ecosystem shipped 800 million chips last year, making them the world’s number 2 CPU architecture. This article <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/imagination-technologies-wants-to-ta…> reviews a reference tablet design running Firefox OS. Not impressive in itself, but hopefully a forerunner of things to come? And earlier they announced their CI20 development/hobbyist board <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/mips-creator-ci20-released-interesti…>, clearly trying to take on the BeagleBoard and Raspberry π market.

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Tails 1.3.1 Is an Emergency Release to Patch Critical Security Issues in Tor Browser
by Peter Reutemann 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

"According to the release notes, Tails 1.3.1 is an emergency release that includes Tor Browser 4.0.5, based on the patched Mozilla Firefox 31.5.3 ESR web browser, fixing critical security issues disclosed at the Pwn2Own hacking contest. Tails 1.3.1 has now transitioned to an all-new OpenPGP signing key, which is currently used to sign the official ISO images of the distribution, as well as to certify other OpenPGP keys that are used by the project. More details can be found here." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Tails-1-3-1-Is-an-Emergency-Release-to-Patch… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 22 Mar '15

22 Mar '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting tomorrow: Andrew Crosby: Raspberry Pi 2 demo, what's new, what's hot. Michael Cree: BeagleBone demo, consisting of general introduction of the BeagleBone and on using it for interfacing with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/220635633/ Cheers, Peter

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Fwd: [NZLUG] Document Freedom Day
by Peter Reutemann 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

Apologies, if you've received this already. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Nicola Feltrin" <nicola.feltrin(a)fsfe.org> Date: Mar 20, 2015 9:33 PM Subject: [NZLUG] Document Freedom Day To: <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> Cc: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear Sirs/Madams, I'm writing to this address hoping to reach the largest possible number of New Zealand LUGs. If you feel I should contact your groups in any other way, please let me know. I'd like to bring to your attention the impending Document Freedom Day [1]. As you may know, the last Wednesday of March (this year it is the 25th), people around the world organize events to raise awareness over Open Standards, expressing how much these matter to them. If you think we should push more and more people towards the adoption of Open Standards, you could propose to organize something within your community. We support events of any size, from a chat with your friends at the local coffee house (or pub) to proper conferences. You can look at the "get involved" page [2] to get some inspiration and more detailed information. If you decide to do something, keep in mind that we offer some free [3] promotional material (posters, leaflets, flyers, stickers...) [4]. In addition we'd like to support local groups on the financial level by offering a refund for your expenses [5]. Finally, don't forget to register your event [6], so that anyone can see that Open Standards matter all around the globe. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly or the FSFE through the conventional channels [7]. Thank you for your time and best wishes for all your activities, Nicola Feltrin [1] http://documentfreedom.org/ [2] http://documentfreedom.org/getinvolved.html [3] both as in freedom and as in free beer [4] http://documentfreedom.org/promotion.html - Keep in mind that the pack has to travel from Germany to you by postal service, so be sure to order in time... [5] http://documentfreedom.org/funding-expenses.html - There was a deadline fixed at 11/3, but we can still offer refunds if needed [6] http://documentfreedom.org/registerevent.html [7] http://documentfreedom.org/contact.html - -- Nicola Feltrin Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin tel. +49-30-27595290, mob. +49-152-04682063 Your donation enables our work (fsfe.org/donate) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJVBuuCAAoJEDh/5ZfdTAopHWwP/iPERUsgeZYat0CBEevp76Q6 za9XM5zTpthG3mgRxC7tybcsxkINA+iNF0e/JHS4Ricmj7fqOGxOGLt8wSIW0Vsv +QznECV91L+5YTHQuHnmtTu/3b7lyUOHB3KJRfcPzwuiasZrlMibfMJD5u9wi9sq NfpfQNd0br3QbHvhuaLjtQlxwTjeJSDlJslCxgHi5MLHjQqkxL7tKBZ74f4xgLTA Qg4ryQvI3u09mA2gqhMpybxT2qpGXsVwO+e8q5YgILhYmrrNb7fRW2Y3uG5OVwP8 3BcJwOkGZWZ2Pg0DWpAvPGR5WRSfa9HpM+c8+fIzklroSqehJ5R6yzVFRipYl4+g QoYsIrXMHxSUxs/mucaYPaD5LfdmBVj6nHZ0sIfSFFCA8Vv7pZ7aM6DcybWOb+go pKImh3yfn67X5EsQEQAlEFPq0M7wlF3cwz72QKHe3Epju38KsCjdjDrQbYjigQ9B o8KYnZBLqFEbeEi4f6s+zS1/MIyaoQ0SB4dWtUoWR9pzFJ4Nrb7daNlASo6+tg7W k4Eyk6cej5AjP+nkbV2qGSv7+W/oLavvTzln7Pe9yVn9KEFjoNvRULMwrwgjFs9M C0O4IjQOawHG43md868QZGxKx4WgY8Ys6GJ2tchCNsp8c2oozdfY+gY3o8KULzdC 8GtOlviTzgym8SXEKIJp =GOiP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug

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Discarding data to /dev/random instead of /dev/null
by Eric Light 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

I just happened across this article, recommending that discardable output be redirected to /dev/random instead of just thrown into /dev/null https://pthree.org/2014/12/07/use-dev-random-instead-of-dev-null/ Looks interesting - keen to hear other thoughts. Eric -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es

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Dell Linux Laptop With 4K Screen
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Mar '15

18 Mar '15

For US$100 less than the Windows version, you can get the Dell M3800 Developer Edition “workstation” laptop with Ubuntu 14.04. The desktop works nicely on the 3840×2160 15.6” screen, but app support is a bit mixed <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/review-dell-m3800-developer-edition-…>.

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 16 Mar '15

16 Mar '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting next Monday: Andrew Crosby: Raspberry Pi 2 demo, what's new, what's hot. Michael Cree: BeagleBone demo, consisting of general introduction of the BeagleBone and on using it for interfacing with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/220635633/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Silicon Graphics workstation
by David Nicholls 15 Mar '15

15 Mar '15

I happen to have a silicone graphics irix indego workstation still in working order as far as I know if anyone wants it. I've had it for some time but never had a chance to play as I intended. I have the O/S disk and other bits let me know if you are interested.

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Android for tweakers, USB-C
by Ian Young 14 Mar '15

14 Mar '15

Someone on the internet said, "The advantage of Android is that you are free to tweak everything to your liking. The disadvantage is that you have to." There was some sort of comparison with the Apple enclosed garden going on. Experiments with the v5 Android live CD from exton continue. Seems picky about hardware, more so than the Kitkat from android-x86 project. Meanwhile the release of a new Apple lightweight laptop reveals the existence of USB-C. Say what? http://www.wired.com/2015/03/usb-type-c-faq/ Coming to a device near you soon now apparently. Oh dear, so hard to keep up.

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Google to close Google Code open source project hosting
by Peter Reutemann 13 Mar '15

13 Mar '15

"Google Code is to join the long list of Google projects that have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The open source project hosting service will no longer be accepting new project submissionsas of today, will no longer be accepting updates to existing projects from August 24, and will be closed entirely on January 25, 2016." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/google-to-close-googl… Well, there goes another free service... Now I have to move my remaining projects over to github. Grr... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OpenSSL To Undergo Massive Security Audit
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '15

12 Mar '15

"Now that its codebase is finally viewed as stable, OpenSSL is getting a good top-to-bottom once-over in the form of a sweeping audit. As part of the Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative, the foundation and the Open Crypto Audit Project are sponsoring and organizing what may arguably be the highest-profile audit of a piece of open-source software in history. The audit itself will be conducted by the information assurance organization NCC Group, and its security research arm, Cryptography Services, will carry out the code review of OpenSSL's 447,247 line codebase over the next several months." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/03/12/1928259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Kernel Adopts 'Code of Conflict'
by Peter Reutemann 11 Mar '15

11 Mar '15

'Motor was one of several readers to note that a small patch recently added to the Linux kernel contains guidelines for discourse and dispute resolution within the community. It's called the "Code of Conflict."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/10/237257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Cutting-edge hack gives super user status by exploiting DRAM weakness
by Peter Reutemann 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

"In one of more impressive hacks in recent memory, researchers have devised an attack that exploits physical weaknesses in certain types of DDR memory chips to elevate the system rights of untrusted users of Intel-compatible PCs running Linux." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/cutting-edge-hack-gives-super-user-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How to create a full backup of your Android device without root
by Peter Reutemann 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

"Sometimes, a backup of a smartphone or tablet just isn't enough, especially if you have a number of (the same) devices that have to be quickly deployed (or redeployed). For that, you need a bit more power than Titanium Backup or Google Drive. If you want to do full-blown backup of devices, you must turn to the Android Software Developer Kit (SDK). With this powerhouse tool, you can easily create a complete backup of a device with a single command." -- source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-create-a-full-backup-of-your-and… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Android v5 live CD version from Sweden
by Ian Young 08 Mar '15

08 Mar '15

A live CD of Android 5.0.2 by a gentleman named Arne Exton who seems to have a passion for running up pimped out versions of sundry distros. Looks like he also plays golf. Not yet run by me. Arne's work sometimes has quirks, he is a one man band afaik and comes up with something new at least fortnightly. AndEX (Android) x86 5.0.2 Lollipop Live CD with kernel 3.10.58-exton-android-x86 :: Free Download https://extonlinux.wordpress.com/ -- currently at top of this page. http://andex.exton.net/?page_id=13

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You Thought PC Security Was Bad...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Mar '15

06 Mar '15

To those still reeling from Baden’s presentation on cracking PC security, there’s worse to come. At least PC OSes do get some patching. But think of all the other devices around your home which have the core of a computer running something resembling an operating system on them which might be many years out of date (even on a newer device!). But the vendor can’t be bothered to provide fixes for any security holes which may be discovered. And even if they did, most of the buyers of these devices wouldn’t even know patches were available. Case in point: wireless routers, which are so full of unpatched holes that it’s actually unusual to find a reasonably secure one <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/05/broadband_routers_sohopeless_and_ve…>.

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Red Hat Strips Down For Docker
by Peter Reutemann 06 Mar '15

06 Mar '15

"Reacting to the surging popularity of the Docker virtualization technology, Red Hat has customized a version of its Linux distribution to run Docker containers. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host strips away all the utilities residing in the stock distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that aren't needed to run Docker containers. Removing unneeded components saves on storage space, and reduces the time needed for updating and booting up. It also provides fewer potential entry points for attackers." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/03/05/2240245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Software Freedom Conservancy Funds GPL Suit Against VMWare
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '15

05 Mar '15

"Jeremy Allison - Sam writes with this excerpt from a news release from the Software Freedom Conservancy: Software Freedom Conservancy announces today Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. This is the regretful but necessary next step in both Hellwig and Conservancy's ongoing effort to convince VMware to comply properly with the terms of the GPLv2, the license of Linux and many other Open Source and Free Software included in VMware's ESXi products. Serge Wroclawski points out the SFC's technical FAQ about the suit. One nugget: This case is specifically regarding a combined work that VMware allegedly created by combining their own code (“vmkernel”) with portions of Linux's code, which was licensed only under GPLv2. As such, this, to our knowledge, marks the first time an enforcement case is exclusively focused on this type of legal question relating to GPL" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/05/1721231 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Pulling Remote Word Documents from RAM using Kali Linux
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '15

05 Mar '15

With the Kali demo at last month's meeting in mind, I just came across this post here and I thought people might be interested in this: "In this tutorial we will see how to pull a Word document from a remote machine’s memory, parse it for text and view it in Kali Linux." -- sources: http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/pulling-remote-word-documents-from-ram-u… https://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/pulling-remote-word-documents-fr… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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FREAK Attack Threatens SSL Clients
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '15

04 Mar '15

"For the nth time in the last couple of years, security experts are warning about a new Internet-scale vulnerability, this time in some popular SSL clients. The flaw allows an attacker to force clients to downgrade to weakened ciphers and break their supposedly encrypted communications through a man-in-the-middle attack. Researchers recently discovered that some SSL clients, including OpenSSL, will accept weak RSA keys–known as export-grade keys–without asking for those keys. Export-grade refers to 512-bit RSA keys, the key strength that was approved by the United States government for export overseas. This was an artifact from decades ago and it was thought that most servers and clients had long ago abandoned such weak ciphers. The vulnerability affects a variety of clients, most notably Apple's Safari browser." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/03/03/2036241 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux and Multiple Internet Uplinks: a New Tool
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '15

04 Mar '15

"Linux has been able do multipath routing for a long time: it means being able to have routes with multiple gateways and to use them in a (weighted) round-robin fashion. But Linux is missing a tool to actively monitor the state of internet uplinks and change the routing accordingly. Without it, from a LAN perspective, it's like having a RAID-0: just one uplink goes down and all of your LAN-to-WAN traffic goes down too. Documentation and examples on the subject are lacking; existing solutions are few and deeply integrated in firewall/routing specific distributions. To address these issues, a new standalone tool was just released: Fault Tolerant Router. It also includes a complete (iptables + ip policy routing) configuration generator." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/03/1910206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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