- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Meeting tonight - apology
by Michael Ryan 25 Aug '14

25 Aug '14

I'm not able to get to tonight's meeting; the Green Party have decided to make an appearance in TeA tonight and I want to go to it. -- Regards Michael Ryan Partner Ryan Law Solicitors ph (07) 889 8041 fax (07) 889 8709 DX GA24027 P.O. Box 104 Morrinsville, New Zealand ph (07) 884 0002 fax (07) 884 0039 DX GA24502 P.O. Box 77 Te Aroha, New Zealand This communication is confidential and may contain privileged or copyright material. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not use, disclose, copy or retain it. If you have received it in error, we apologise and would appreciate your advising us by return email and your deleting the email and any printed form you may have made of it. We do not guarantee the integrity of this communication, or that it is free from errors, viruses, or interference arising from its method of transmission.

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It's Elementary, with Sparks, and Unity
by Peter Reutemann 25 Aug '14

25 Aug '14

"In today's Linux news Jack Wallen review Elementary OS and says it's not just the poor man's Apple. Jack Germain reviewed SparkyLinux GameOver yesterday and said it's a win-win. Linux Tycoon Bryan Lunduke testdrives Ubuntu's Unity today in the latest entry in his desktop-a-week series. And finally tonight, just what the heck is this Docker thing everybody keeps talking about?" -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/its-elementary-with-sparks-and-unity 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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WLUG meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 24 Aug '14

24 Aug '14

Hi there There is a WLUG meeting tomorrow: "3D animations (or CGI) are everywhere nowadays. You don't need deep pockets for purchasing good software, the FLOSS world has its own package for creating first-class animations:Blender. Lawrence D'Oliveiro will give a hands-on demonstration on how to use Blender, introduce you to the basics and show how to create simple animations. He will also present some of the animations that he created over the years." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/197651342 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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Qt Upgrades From LGPLv2.1 to LGPLv3
by Peter Reutemann 20 Aug '14

20 Aug '14

"Digia has announced that existing Qt modules will now be covered under the LGPLv3 in addition to the LGPLv2.1, GPLv3, and the enterprise (proprietary) license. New modules will be dropping LGPLv2.1 and GPLv3+ and be released under the LGPLv3 and GPLv2+ instead. This should be a good move: new Qt modules will be Apache license compatible, LGPLv3 code can trivially be converted to GPLv3, and Digia is even releasing a few modules it intended to make proprietary as Free Software. The KDE Free Qt Foundation is on board. The move was made because of device vendors exploiting a loophole in the GPLv2/LGPLv2.1 that denied users the right to modify Qt or write their own applications. Digia has some self-interest as well, since those vendors were exploiting the tivoization loophole to avoid buying enterprise licenses." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/08/20/1446240 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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WLUG meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '14

19 Aug '14

Hi there There is a WLUG meeting coming up next Monday: "3D animations (or CGI) are everywhere nowadays. You don't need deep pockets for purchasing good software, the FLOSS world has its own package for creating first-class animations:Blender. Lawrence D'Oliveiro will give a hands-on demonstration on how to use Blender, introduce you to the basics and show how to create simple animations. He will also present some of the animations that he created over the years." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/197651342 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-on-the-desktop pioneer Munich now considering a switch back to Windows
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '14

18 Aug '14

"The world is still waiting for the year of Linux on the desktop, but in 2003 it looked as if that goal was within reach. Back then, the city of Munich announced plans to switch from Microsoft technology to Linux on 14,000 PCs belonging to the city's municipal government. While the scheme suffered delays, it was completed in December 2013. There's only been one small problem: users aren't happy with the software, and the government isn't happy with the price." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/08/linux-on-the-desktop-pioneer-munich… 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 Git Repositories Add 2-Factor Authentication
by Peter Reutemann 18 Aug '14

18 Aug '14

yubikeys in the news: "For a few years now Linux kernel developers have followed a fairly strict authentication policy for those who commit directly to the git repositories housing the Linux kernel. Each is issued their own ssh private key, which then becomes the sole way for them to push code changes to the git repositories hosted at kernel.org. While using ssh keys is much more secure than just passwords, there are still a number of ways for ssh private keys to fall into malicious hands. So they've further tightened access requirements with two-factor authentication using yubikeys." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/08/18/191251 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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Turin To Be The First Italian Open Source City
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '14

12 Aug '14

"Turin’s local authorities have decided to switch to open source and entirely ditch all the Microsoft products, saving alot of money to the local government. The mission of this move is to get rid of proprietary software, make Turin one of the first Italian open source city and save six million euros. [...] According to republica.it 8300 computers of the local administration will soon be powered by Ubuntu, shipped with Mozilla Firefox web browser and Open Office. No more Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer." -- source: http://www.unixmen.com/turin-first-italian-open-source-city/ 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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Free Intro to Linux Online Course Starts Today (ie 1st August 2014)
by Peter Reutemann 03 Aug '14

03 Aug '14

"The Linux Foundation's free online course, Introduction to Linux, started today on the edX website. Students have already begun to take the course, which covers the basic tools and techniques commonly used by Linux programmers, system administrators and end users. It's not too late to sign up! You can complete the lessons, interact with students and instructors on the message board, and take the tests at your own pace. The first thing you'll do is install Linux – instructions are available in a PDF sent to all students enrolled in the course. Topics covered during the course include:" -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/782685 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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The Art of Failure 2014
by chris 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/semiconductors/materials/the-art-of-failu re-2014/ The Art of Failure 2014 <http://www.mmsend10.com/link.cfm?r=788576329&sid=47555527&m=5637048&u=IEEEN Y&j=20644385&s=http://spectrum.ieee.org/slideshow/semiconductors/materials/t he-art-of-failure-2014/?utm_source=techalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0 73114> When chipmakers examine failed semiconductors for clues regarding why they went kaput, they sometimes discover beauty amid the ashes. We've collated some of the more spectacular happy accidents from factories and labs around the world for this year's showcase.

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LibreOffice 4.3 upgrades spreadsheets, brings 3D models to presentations
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jul '14

31 Jul '14

"LibreOffice's latest release provides easier ways of working with spreadsheets and the ability to insert 3D models into presentations, along with dozens of other changes." -- source: http://bit.ly/1tvDM9e 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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Old Apache Code At Root of Android FakeID Mess
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jul '14

30 Jul '14

'A four-year-old vulnerability in an open source component that is a critical part of Android leaves hundreds of millions of mobile devices susceptible to silent malware infections. The vulnerability affects devices running Android versions 2.1 to 4.4 ("KitKat"), according to a statement released by Bluebox. The vulnerability was found in a package installer in affected versions of Android. The installer doesn't attempt to determine the authenticity of certificate chains that are used to vouch for new digital identity certificates. In short, Bluebox writes, "an identity can claim to be issued by another identity, and the Android cryptographic code will not verify the claim." The security implications of this are vast. Malicious actors could create a malicious mobile application with a digital identity certificate that claims to be issued by Adobe Systems. Once installed, vulnerable versions of Android will treat the application as if it was actually signed by Adobe and give it access to local resources, like the special webview plugin privilege, that can be used to sidestep security controls and virtual 'sandbox' environments that keep malicious programs from accessing sensitive data and other applications running on the Android device. The flaw appears to have been introduced to Android through an open source component, Apache Harmony. Google turned to Harmony as an alternative means of supporting Java in the absence of a deal with Oracle to license Java directly. Work on Harmony was discontinued in November, 2011. However, Google has continued using native Android libraries that are based on Harmony code. The vulnerability concerning certificate validation in the package installer module persisted even as the two codebases diverged.' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/07/29/2230242 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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The great Ars experiment—free and open source software on a smartphone?!
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '14

29 Jul '14

"Android is a Google product—it's designed and built from the ground up to integrate with Google services and be a cloud-powered OS. A lot of Android is open source, though, and there's nothing that says you have to use it the way that Google would prefer. With some work, it’s possible to turn a modern Android smartphone into a Google-less, completely open device—so we wanted to try just that. After dusting off the Nexus 4 and grabbing a copy of the open source parts of Android, we jumped off the grid and dumped all the proprietary Google and cloud-based services you'd normally use on Android. Instead, this experiment runs entirely on open source alternatives. FOSS or bust!" -- source: http://bit.ly/1ppiC8V First time that I came across F-Droid, the FLOSS app catalogue: https://f-droid.org/ 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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15 alternatives to your default image viewer on Fedora
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '14

29 Jul '14

"Is the default image viewer in your desktop environment just not working the way you want? need more features (or maybe something simpler) from an image viewer? Well, you are in luck, as there is no shortage of choices when looking at alternative image viewers in Fedora. This article covers 17 image viewers in Fedora." -- source: http://fedoramagazine.org/15-alternatives-to-your-default-image-viewer-on-f… And most likely not limited to Fedora. 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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seL4 Verified Microkernel Now Open Source
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jul '14

29 Jul '14

'Back in 2009, OKLabs/NICTA announced the first formally verified microkernel, seL4 (a member of the L4 family). Alas, it was proprietary software. Today, that's no longer the case: seL4 has been released under the GPLv2 (only, no "or later versions clause" unfortunately). An anonymous reader writes OSnews is reporting that the formally verified sel4 microkernel is now open source: "General Dynamics C4 Systems and NICTA are pleased to announce the open sourcing of seL4, the world's first operating-system kernel with an end-to-end proof of implementation correctness and security enforcement. It is still the world's most highly assured OS." Source is over at Github. It supports ARM and x86 (including the popular Beaglebone ARM board). If you have an x86 with the VT-x and Extended Page Table extensions you can even run Linux atop seL4 (and the seL4 website is served by Linux on seL4).' -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/14/07/29/1913259 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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Valencia Linux School Distro Saves 36 Million Euro
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jul '14

27 Jul '14

"The government of the autonomous region of Valencia (Spain) earlier this month made available the next version of Lliurex, a customisation of the Edubuntu Linux distribution. The distro is used on over 110,000 PCs in schools in the Valencia region, saving some 36 million euro over the past nine years, the government says." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/07/27/223220 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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Linus Torvalds: "GCC 4.9.0 Seems To Be Terminally Broken"
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jul '14

27 Jul '14

'A pointed critique from Linus Torvalds of GCC 4.9.0. after a random panic was discovered in a load balance function in Linux 3.16-rc6. in an email to the Linux kernel mailing list outlining two separate but possibly related bugs, Linus describes the compiler as "terminally broken," and worse ("pure and utter sh*t," only with no asterisk). A slice: "Lookie here, your compiler does some absolutely insane things with the spilling, including spilling a *constant*. For chrissake, that compiler shouldn't have been allowed to graduate from kindergarten. We're talking "sloth that was dropped on the head as a baby" level retardation levels here .... Anyway, this is not a kernel bug. This is your compiler creating completely broken code. We may need to add a warning to make sure nobody compiles with gcc-4.9.0, and the Debian people should probably downgrate their shiny new compiler."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/07/27/1838219 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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GOG.com Announces Linux Support
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '14

24 Jul '14

"We've put much time and effort into this project and now we've found ourselves with over 50 titles, classic and new, prepared for distribution, site infrastructure ready, support team trained and standing by ... We're still aiming to have at least 100 Linux games in the coming months, but we've decided not to delay the launch just for the sake of having a nice-looking number to show off to the press. ... Note that we've got many classic titles coming officially to Linux for the very first time, thanks to the custom builds prepared by our dedicated team of penguin tamers. ... For both native Linux versions, as well as special builds prepared by our team, GOG.com will provide distro-independent tar.gz archives and support convenient DEB installers for the two most popular Linux distributions: Ubuntu and Mint, in their current and future LTS editions." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/14/07/24/1438211 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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Raspberry Pi Gameboy
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '14

23 Jul '14

'An enterprising hacker took on a project to rebuild a broken Gameboy using emulation software, a Raspberry Pi, and a few other easily-obtainable parts. The result: success! The hacker has posted a detailed walkthrough explaining all of the challenges and how they were solved. "Using a Dremel, I cut out a most of the battery compartment as well as some posts that on the case for the LCD that would no longer be needed. Doing so, the Pi sits flush with the back of the DMG case. ... The screen was the first challenge. The screen runs off 12V out of the box which wouldn't work with the USB battery pack. The USB battery pack is rated at 5V, 1000mAH so the goal was go modify the screen to allow it to run at 5V. ... I finally got it to work by removing the power converter chip as well as soldering a jumper between the + power in and the resister on the top right."' -- source: http://build.slashdot.org/story/14/07/23/2138217 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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Open-Source Blu-Ray Library Now Supports BD-J Java
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '14

23 Jul '14

"Updates to the open-source libbluray, libaacs, and libbdplus libraries have improved the open-source Blu-ray disc support to now enable the Blu-ray Java interactivity layer (BD-J). The Blu-ray Java code is in turn executed by OpenJDK or the Oracle JDK and is working well enough to play a Blu-ray disc on the Raspberry Pi when paired with the VLC media player." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/07/23/0016245 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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Exodus Intelligence Details Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Tails OS
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jul '14

22 Jul '14

"Tails OS, the Tor-reliant privacy-focused operating system made famous by Edward Snowden, contains a number of zero-day vulnerabilities that could be used to take control of the OS and execute code remotely. At least that's according to zero-day exploit seller Exodus Intelligence, which counts DARPA amongst its customer base. The company plans to tell the Tails team about the issues "in due time", said Aaron Portnoy, co-founder and vice president of Exodus, but it isn't giving any information on a disclosure timeline. This means users of Tails are in danger of being de-anonymised. Even version 1.1, which hit public release today (22 July 2014), is affected. Snowden famously used Tails to manage the NSA files. The OS can be held on a USB stick and leaves no trace once removed from the drive. It uses the Tor network to avoid identification of the user, but such protections may be undone by the zero-day exploits Exodus holds." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/07/22/165231 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 Saturday Workshop
by Bruce Kingsbury 22 Jul '14

22 Jul '14

I'll be running another Saturday Linux Workshop this weekend; Saturday July 26th, 2014 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 This is a GNU/Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs, Laptops, Pi's, Android devices etc for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome - light lunch provided - gold coin donation appreciated

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The "Rickmote Controller" Can Hijack Any Google Chromecast
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

'Dan Petro, a security analyst for the Bishop Fox IT consulting firm, built a proof of concept device that's able to hack into any Google Chromecasts nearby to project Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," or any other video a prankster might choose. The "Rickmote," which is built on top of the $35 Raspberry Pi single board computer, finds a local Chromecast device, boots it off the network, and then takes over the screen with multimedia of one's choosing. But it gets worse for the victims: If the hacker leaves the range of the device, there's no way to regain control of the Chromecast. Unfortunately for Google, this is a rather serious issue with the Chromecast device that's not too easy to fix, as the configuration process is an essential part of the Chromecast experience.' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/07/21/1956258 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 next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

Hi there We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "The Yubikey is one time password generator that conveniently connects a USB keyboard to your PC. It is port powered and small enough to kept on your keyring. The Yubikey uses Yubico's authentication server and can be used conveniently with Lastpass.com to provide two factor authentication to your online password vault. Third parties have written yubikey authentication mechanisms to secure restricted access to Apache webservers. There are many other applications and there are alternative hardware yubikeys capable of connection to smart phones. The authentication server technology is open source allowing users to create their own authentication servers. Yubico provides their service for free. At roughly $US25 a key, the technology is very competitively priced (cf RSA tokens) and well within the price range of most enthusiasts. Unfortunately, Google doesn't (yet) provide it as an option for their two factor authentication. The presenter will talk about lastpass.com and apache authentication." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/185499622/ 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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Slackware Turns 21 Years Old
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jul '14

21 Jul '14

"It was on this day in 1993 that Patrick Volkerding announced the Slackware 1.00 release that was inspired by the Softlanding Linux System. Slackware remains kicking after 21 years of guidance by its leader Patrick Volkerding. The most recent release of Slackware is version 14.1 that took place late last year with the Linux 3.10 kernel -- a long way from the initial Slackware 1.00 release that used the pre-1.0 Linux kernel (0.99.11). " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTc0Mzc 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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