August 2017 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Mageia 6: is it the rise of Phoenix?
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '17

18 Aug '17

'There is no secret that I always preferred distributions with the DEB package format. However, there is an exception. Mageia was the distribution that I ran for quite long time on various laptops. Unfortunately, the issues with outdated packages made me leave this distribution behind some time ago. Just as a reminder, Mageia is an off-spring from the famous Mandriva family that survived when the Mandriva tree crashed. And to fill out the whole forest, OpenMandriva is another off-spring, and my recent test showed that it is far below the mother quality. Coming back to Mageia, it has been a long time since the previous version of this operating system was released. Mageia 5.0 was the “most recent release” for 1.5 years, and 5.1 was merely an update to it. Mageia 6 was released just few weeks ago, in July 2017. It is a good time to check it out now.' -- source: http://linuxblog.darkduck.com/2017/08/mageia-6-is-it-rise-of-phoenix.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How To List The Dependencies Of A Package In Linux
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

'The other day I was trying to figure out if there is any easy way to find or list the dependencies of a package in Linux. I have been using Linux as my primary OS for few years now, yet I couldn’t how to find the dependencies for a certain package. Fortunately, I found a workaround after a few google searches and wanted to share it with our readers. So, here you go.' -- source: https://www.ostechnix.com/list-dependencies-package-linux/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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When The Cookie Meets The Blockchain
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are supposed to allow for completely anonymous financial transactions. However, if you use them at an online shopping site, such places often have enough tracking information in place to link you to a particular currency transaction anyway. <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2017/08/17/when-the-cookie-meets-the-blockchai…>

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Learn the basics of the ZSH shell
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

'Bash isn't bad. It gets the job done just fine, but have you ever considered what it'd be like if Bash had some extra features to make it more convenient to work with? That's more-or-less what ZSH is. It includes all of the features that you'd expect from Bash, but it also has some really nice additions to make your life easier. Actually, you'll be amazed at how much easier they make working in the command line. ' -- source: https://linuxconfig.org/learn-the-basics-of-the-zsh-shell Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How to secure your LAMP server
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

'The LAMP stack which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL/MariaDB and PHP/Python/Perl is a very popular combination of free and open-source software used to run millions of websites today. Although many opt for the much efficient LEMP stack based on Nginx instead of Apache, there are still a significant number of users that choose LAMP for their projects. In fact, more than 30% of the active websites today run on top of LAMP. The stack is considered as reliable and very suitable for running high-performance high-availability web applications. In this tutorial we are going to show you how to secure the LAMP stack on your Linux VPS.' -- source: https://www.rosehosting.com/blog/how-to-secure-your-lamp-server/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Email Provider ProtonMail Says It Hacked Back, Then Walks Claim Back
by Peter Reutemann 17 Aug '17

17 Aug '17

'On Wednesday, encrypted email provider ProtonMail claimed it had hacked someone who was impersonating its service in phishing emails, and the company then swiftly deleted the tweet. Early Wednesday morning, the security researcher known as x0rz tweeted out a series of screenshots allegedly showing someone sending emails that directed targets to a fake ProtonMail login screen. "You have an overdue invoice," the message read. In response, ProtonMail said it had taken action. "We also hacked the phishing site so the link is down now," ProtonMail tweeted. Depending on the context and what exactly the retaliating organization did, hacking back can be illegal. Hacking could violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or perhaps even wiretapping legislation. A recently proposed bill would attempt to legalize the practice. ProtonMail swiftly deleted its tweet, but not before x0rz could grab and subsequently tweet a screenshot. x0rz then deleted his own tweet at the request of ProtonMail.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/08/16/2021257/email-provider-protonmail-sa… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Review: System76’s Galago Pro solves “just works” Linux’s Goldilocks problem
by Peter Reutemann 16 Aug '17

16 Aug '17

'In recent years, the PC industry has finally spawned a few manufacturers offering up machines with Linux pre-installed to eliminate this issue. By this point, I've tested most of them around Ars: Dell's XPS and Precision lines both have Linux-friendly offerings, and dedicated Linux manufacturers like System76 have long offered decent hardware with Linux pre-installed. In all this testing, I've yet to encounter a driver problem, which is the real benefit of a machine with Linux pre-installed. (Though to be fair, I could say the same for the Lenovo x240 that serves as my daily driver.) Still, finding the perfect Linux laptop has always been and remains something of a Goldilocks problem: this one is too big, this one is too underpowered, this one has too little RAM, this one lacks a big SSD, and so on. Generally speaking, if you want power and storage you're going to end up with something too big to comfortably throw in a bag and carry all day. The Dell Precision 7520 and the System76 Oryx Pro are good examples of this. [...] What Linux users like myself have long wanted is a laptop with roughly the form factor and weight of a Macbook pro, but with the option to get 32GB of RAM or 3TB of storage. This is the mythical unicorn of pre-built Linux machines, a laptop that is both reasonably lightweight and powerful. And that, my fellow Linux users, is refreshingly what System76 has managed to deliver with its new Galago Pro laptop.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/review-system76s-galago-pro-solves-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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OpenSource.com Test-Drives Linux Distros From 1993 To 2003
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '17

14 Aug '17

'A unique trait of open source is that it's never truly EOL (End of Life). The disc images mostly remain online, and their licenses don't expire, so going back and installing an old version of Linux in a virtual machine and getting a precise picture of what progress Linux has made over the years is relatively simple... Whether you're new to Linux, or whether you're such an old hand that most of these screenshots have been more biographical than historical, it's good to be able to look back at how one of the largest open source projects in the world has developed. More importantly, it's exciting to think of where Linux is headed and how we can all be a part of that, starting now, and for years to come. The article looks at seven distros -- Slackware 1.01 (1993), Debian 0.91 (1994), Jurix/S.u.S.E. (1996), SUSE 5.1 (1998), Red Hat 6.0 (1999), Mandrake 8.0 (2001), and Fedora 1 (2003). Click through for some of the highlights.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/08/12/0341251 Cheers, Pete -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Clamping Down On VPNs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Aug '17

12 Aug '17

“The Listening Post” on Al Jazeera this week <http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2017/08/great-firewall-up…> talks among other things about the attempts by China and other countries to clamp down on their citizens’ access to virtual private networks. While these have many legitimate “non-political” applications (particularly for business), they can also be used to bypass state censorship. China, as you may know, has the most advanced system for restricting access within its borders to sources of content outside them that the state has deemed undesirable. The plan for ensuring that this clampdown on VPNs is done in a way that doesn’t hurt its own business interests is to license VPN providers within the country, and make sure they allow state monitoring, and do not give access to “undesirable” sites. Apple, for one, has acquiesced to China’s demands and removed VPN apps from its Iphone app store within the PRC. However, as one of those interviewed in the piece points out, on the Android side there are 400 different app stores accessible within China, and it would be quite another matter to make sure they all comply with the new law.

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That Reminds Me ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

... I finally got around to writing up some notes on the tips I presented for accessing the systemd journal at that talk last year <https://github.com/WLUG/meetings/tree/master/2016/2016-06-27>.

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