- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Debian’s Reproducible Binary Project Reaches 83% Mark
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

For a while now, Debian has been running a project to try to allow anyone to independently confirm that a particular Debian package was indeed built from a particular set of sources, by being able to reproduce the exact build steps themselves. (The security rationale for wanting to do so should be obvious.) As you can imagine, this is seriously non-trivial to achieve, since the least little difference in the version of your compilers or libraries can cause the binaries to differ, maybe not in any important way, but the idea is to end up with no differences at all. The Register has a report on the status of the project here <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/23/debian_project/>. More background here <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/02/msg00007.html>.

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Linus Torvalds Debuts First Linux 4 Release Candidate
by Paul Wilson 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

"The Linux 3.x kernel family is no more. Long Live Linux 4! The Linux 3.x kernel family first officially debuted <http://www.datamation.com/open-source/linux-3.0-debuts-with-xen-integration…>on July 22, 2011. Linux 3.0 was the first major version change for Linux since the 2.6 kernel debuted in December of 2003. While Linux 2.6 was a major milestone that signified a break with the past, Linux 3.0 really was just the renumbered Linux 2.6.40 kernel. In the same manner the Linux 4.0 kernel is the continuation of Linux 3.x and is the renamed Linux 3.20."

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How I upgraded my garden’s ugly drip system with a sexy OpenSprinkler
by Peter Reutemann 23 Feb '15

23 Feb '15

"After a few hours of work alongside an electrical engineering buddy this week, my home garden drip system became powered by a Raspberry Pi. I can control the entire thing locally from my iPhone and, to be frank, it’s pretty flippin’ cool." -- source: http://goo.gl/sDPGsr 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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“SSL hijacker” behind Superfish debacle imperils large number of users
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '15

21 Feb '15

I know, this is not strictly Linux related, but scary nonetheless and worthy of sharing, IMHO: "Thursday's revelations that Lenovo PCs ship with adware that intercepts sensitive HTTPS-protected traffic have focused intense scrutiny on Superfish, the company that markets the intrusive software. But lost in the furor is the central role a company called Komodia plays in needlessly exposing the passwords and other sensitive data of not just Lenovo customers but also a much larger base of PC users." -- source: http://goo.gl/KhA4KT 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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Empire of the Gates
by Ian Young 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

Better snap back to reality. On Arstechnica I see the following data as of 11/2014. OS share worldwide -- Windows allsorts 91.28%, OS X 7.27, all others [weeps] 1.45. Windows breakdown XP 13.57%, Vista 2.65, Win 7 56.41, Win 8 6.55, Win 8.1 12.1. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/you-can-offer-people-windows-10-for-… All hail his Billness. Though the figures for systems other than desktops must show a different story, and in phone and tablet world Windows is pretty well a joke apart from some misguided corporate purchases. (I stand to be corrected on that). Meanwhile back in the day, I had GEOS installed and it was passable. Even ran it within OS/2, freaky or what? Speaking of OS/2 last time I looked there were still some zealots keeping it working after a fashion. -quote- Unfortunately, OS/2 had a crucial flaw in its design: a Synchronous Input Queue (SIQ). What this meant was that all messages to the GUI window server went through a single tollbooth. If any OS/2 native GUI app ever stopped servicing its window messages, the entire GUI would get stuck and the system froze. OK, technically the operating system was still running. Background tasks continued to execute just fine. You just couldn’t see them or interact with them or do anything, because the entire GUI was hung. Some enterprising OS/2 fan wrote an application that polled the joystick port and was supposed to unstick things when the user pressed a button. It rarely worked. Ironically, if you never ran native OS/2 applications and just ran DOS and Windows apps in a VM, the operating system was much more stable. -quote- http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/half-an-operating-system-the-triump… And now we return to our normal programme and wonder whether Linux v4 is soon to arrive. 19 million lines in the kernel and counting. http://linuxgizmos.com/is-linux-heading-toward-the-big-4-0/

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Raspberry π 2 Ships Half Million In First Two Weeks
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

The next-generation Raspberry π seems to be doing rather well right out of the starting gate <http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2395948/raspberry-pi-2-sales-top-5…>. Meantime, while total sales of both old- and new-generation π models have wildly exceeded expectations, there is some dispute over the Foundation’s claim that it has become the best-selling British PC maker ever <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/18/raspberry_pi_5_million_sold/>.

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A History Of Photoshop
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Quite a few articles around to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Photoshop 1.0, but this one at The Register <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/19/feature_25_years_of_adobe_photoshop/> seems to offer the most background detail. And some nice (or not-so-nice) examples of its use...

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Microsoft's First Azure Hosted Service Is Powered By Linux
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

"Canonical, through John Zannos, VP Cloud Alliances, has proudly announced that the first ever Microsoft Azure hosted service will be powered by Ubuntu Linux. This piece of news comes from the Strata + Hadoop World Conference, which takes place this week in California. The fact of the matter is that the news came from Microsoft who announced the preview of Azure HDInsight (an Apache Hadoop-based hosted service) on Ubuntu clusters yesterday at the said event. This is definitely great news for Canonical, as their operating system is getting recognized for being extremely reliable when handling Big Data. Ubuntu is now the leading cloud and scale-out Linux-based operating system." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/02/19/1830232 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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Arduino Ructions
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Seems like the Arduino founders have split to go their separate ways <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150217/10345530055/is-arduino-heading-t…>. The unfortunate thing is that there are now lawsuits to try to decide who has exclusive rights to the “Arduino” name. Whatever happens, it seems likely there will continue to be more than one company making products that are “Arduino” in every way, if not in name. This is nothing new in open-source software, though it may be a first for open-source hardware.

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Seymour Cray’s Only Surviving Talk
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Seymour Cray, who was practically “Mister Supercomputer” through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, gives a talk at Los Alamos discussing the pending introduction of the legendary Cray-1 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtOA1vuoDgQ>. The date given in the title is 1976, but he repeatedly makes remarks in the talk that point to the year actually being 1974. He says the new machine will be installed at LANL the following year (actually it went in in 1976).

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How to rool the world by Bill G
by Ian Young 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Become the main supplier of an OS for PCs while IBM snoozes, replete with profits from existing business. Adopt the 386 processor while IBM messes about with the 286 perhaps because of sunk investment in that CPU. Make deals with the hardware makers they can't refuse and shut out any competition. Introduce the first GUI to become widely used on the machines soon to become predominant in desktop computing. Leave the superior OS/2 in the dust, and get IBM to sell Windows. Excel. Actually first came to fame on the Mac iirc, and rapidly drove out just about all other spreadsheets in its Windows guise. On its coattails came all the other applications we know today as MS Office, effectively wiping out all competitors. Get networking in the box with Windows and crush Netware and eventually Novell with it. And so it went until perhaps MS became like IBM in the 1980s and failed to see the next big thing on several occasions, or at least failed to achieve the same level of dominance as in the past in new fields. 2 cents is the suggested donation, I'll pass the hat around.

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Re: [wlug] PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Chris O'Halloran 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:40:02 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote: > 'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a > serious > -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 > > NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a > flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS > (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? > > Cheers, Peter Perhaps people have to consider why they use Linux on the desktop at all (and why others than don't at present would). I think its people with a technical interest that use Linux on the desktop, either because they are familiar with it on servers, are passionate about the 'freeness' of it or the ease (including cost) with which they can set up a development environment. I think the big players like Apple and Microsoft would have to make some serious stuff-ups for the rest of population to go through the hassle of switching OSes on their current desktops. While many of the FOSS applications (GIMP/LibreOffice/Firefox) run just fine on Windows (and possible Mac too I don't know), they also reduce the imperative to shift entirely to Linux or BSD. And the only thing I see that really could shift the corporate environment is a server based Office(Document/Spreadsheet/Mail) solution that was so compelling, that eventually system administrators started to wonder if there was any point in sticking exclusively to an MS Desktop. Cloud computing, Smart TVs and the advent of Android and iPhone have certainly helped computer *users* become more comfortable with alternative OS and user interfaces. -- Chris

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FreeBSD-Current Random Number Generator Broken
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

'The FreeBSD random number has been discovered to be generating possibly predictable SSH keys and SSL certificates for months. Time to regenerate your keys and certs if using FreeBSD-Current. A message to the freebsd-current mailing list reads in part: "If you are running a current kernel r273872 or later, please upgrade your kernel to r278907 or later immediately and regenerate keys. I discovered an issue where the new framework code was not calling randomdev_init_reader, which means that read_random(9) was not returning good random data. read_random(9) is used by arc4random(9) which is the primary method that arc4random(3) is seeded from."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/18/2026258 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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Google Chrome Will Adopt HTTP/2 In the Coming Weeks, Drop SPDY Support
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

''Google today announced it will add HTTP/2, the second major version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), to Google Chrome. The company plans to gradually roll out support to the latest version of its browser, Chrome 40, "in the upcoming weeks." At the same time, Google says it will remove support for SPDY in early 2016. SPDY, which is not an acronym but just a short version for the word "speedy," is a protocol developed primarily at Google to improve browsing by forcing SSL encryption for all sites and speeding up page loads. Chrome will also lose support for the TLS extension NPN in favor of ALPN. -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/2320244 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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PC-BSD - ubiquitous in world of future - or not
by Ian Young 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

Some years ago I had a brief dabble with PC-BSD. It was brief because every time I attempted to boot a live DVD the system would fail to boot or run only for a few minutes before crashing. The same equipment had no trouble with various Linux distros. That was then of course and the project continues to exist so presumably some people have managed to run it. However I will stick my neck out and say that imho PC-BSD is a most unlikely candidate for world domination .... Any one seen it in action? I think when I tried it there were issues like limited support for USB, and driver support still lags behind Linux.

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next meeting of lug topics
by Ian Young 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

Saw some mention of Kali distro as a topic at next meeting. Not sure where this has gone, but no problem for me sharing the time as required. Will stick with the Android x-86 idea, and maybe dispense with Puppy developments if need be. In latest news the live CD of Android I downloaded boots on a Compaq laptop and appears somewhat usable on that machine.

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PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a serious desktop OS contender by year 2020, since Linux so far has failed to grasp any serious market share. He writes, "Consider this: In the past 10 years has the distribution you run changed significantly in what it offers over other distributions? I think you'll find the answer is largely no. I do have to give a shout out to openSUSE for the OBS, but otherwise I've used my desktop in the same exact way that I have always used it within the continuity of distribution X,Y, or Z since I started using them. Distributions simply aren't focused on desktop features, they're leaving it up to the DEs to do so." He continues, "PC-BSD on the other hand in fitting with the BSD mindset of holistic solutions is focused on developing desktop features and is moving rapidly to implement them." What do you think?' -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? 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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End of the m0n0wall project
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

"m0n0wall has served as the seed for several other well known open source projects, like pfSense, FreeNAS and AskoziaPBX. The newest offspring, OPNsense (https://opnsense.org) aims to continue the open source spirit of m0n0wall while updating the technology to be ready for the future. In my view, it is the perfect way to bring the m0n0wall idea into 2015, and I encourage all current m0n0wall users to check out OPNsense and contribute if they can." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/end-of-the-m0n0wall-project.html 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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Will The Next Linux Kernel Be Called 4.0?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

Apparently Linus Torvalds is running a poll <http://lwn.net/Articles/633231/> to decide whether to continue with the 3.xx version numbering or start from 4.0.

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Fwd: Re: Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
by Chris O'Halloran 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:16:44 +1300, Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: >> I just downloaded and built it from source. To those accustomed to I'm using it on Windows8 machine at work. I like the pdf export to latex option. It periodically crashes but still very useable - just not as stable as the previous 'stable' version. Cheers all

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Fwd: Re: Removing Libsystemd0 From a Live-running Debian System
by Chris O'Halloran 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 13:52:45 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote: > > To those who may not understand the background to this, systemd is a > project, headed by Lennart “PulseAudio” Poettering, to modernize the Thanks for that Lawrence.

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Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
by Peter Reutemann 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

"Four years since the last major Inkscape release, now news is out about version 0.91 of this powerful vector drawing and painting tool. The main reason for the multi-year delay is that they've switched from their old custom rendering engine to using Cairo now, improving their support for open source standards. This release also adds symbol libraries and support for Visio stencils, cross platform WMF and EMF import and export, a native Windows 64-bit build, scads of bug fixes, and much more. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, or just jump right todownloading your package for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/31/1914255 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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Removing Libsystemd0 From a Live-running Debian System
by Peter Reutemann 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

"The introduction of systemd has unilaterally created a polarization of the GNU/Linux community that is remarkably similar to the monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft in the late 1990s. Choices were stark: use Windows (with SMB/CIFS Services), or use UNIX (with NFS and NIS). Only the introduction of fully-compatible reverse-engineered NT Domains services corrected the situation. Instructions on how to remove systemd include dire warnings that "all dependent packages will be removed", rendering a normal Debian Desktop system flat-out impossible to achieve. It was therefore necessary to demonstrate that it is actually possible to run a Debian Desktop GUI system (albeit an unusual one: fvwm) with libsystemd0 removed. The reason for doing so: it doesn't matter how good systemd is believed to be or in fact actually is: the reason for removing it is, apart from the alarm at how extensive systemd is becoming (including interfering with firewall rules), it's the way that it's been introduced in a blatantly cavalier fashion as a polarized all-or-nothing option, forcing people to consider abandoning the GNU/Linux of their choice and to seriously consider using FreeBSD or any other distro that properly respects the Software Freedom principle of the right to choose what software to run. We aren't all "good at coding", or paid to work on Software Libre: that means that those people who are need to be much more responsible, and to start — finally — to listen to what people are saying. Developing a thick skin is a good way to abdicate responsibility and, as a result, place people into untenable positions." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/15/1959209 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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Live Patching Now Available For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 13 Feb '15

13 Feb '15

'It provides a basic infrastructure for function "live patching" (i.e. code redirection), including API for kernel modules containing the actual patches, and API/ABI for userspace to be able to operate on the patches (look up what patches are applied, enable/disable them, etc). It's relatively simple and minimalistic, as it's making use of existing kernel infrastructure (namely ftrace) as much as possible. It's also self-contained, in a sense that it doesn't hook itself in any other kernel subsystem (it doesn't even touch any other code). It's now implemented for x86 only as a reference architecture, but support for powerpc, s390 and arm is already in the works (adding arch-specific support basically boils down to teaching ftrace about regs-saving).' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/02/12/1853215 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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Upcoming features of Fedora 22
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

New features to be included in Fedora 22 release currently scheduled for around May 2015 http://news.softpedia.com/news/Upcoming-Features-of-Fedora-22-472955.shtml Regards Paul Wilson

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