- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Could someone help with setting up a computer with linux
by Michelle 13 May '16

13 May '16

Hi, My name's Michelle. I've been using Linux on and off for the last few years. If this has not been sent to your LUG mailing list (if you have one) could you please send it to that or to all the people in your LUG please? I'm looking for someone who would help me set up a computer with linux on it. I had a Dell on which I set up Puppy with no problem whatsoever. The computer died and so then I took the puppy distro and the other disto I'd bought (can't remember what) and tried to install them on 2 older computers I had but it didn't work. I don't know why, maybe it was because one of the distros was on a stick and not compatible or maybe both computer hard drives were stuffed? After that I bought a mini-pc (I think it was supposed to run linux) but it didn't work at all. Then I bought a tablet but after a month or two it stopped working or pretty much? Stopped working. So I just used a phone for about a year and last year bought a brand new Toshiba laptop. The problem with this was two fold: 1. It was a laptop. 2. It was a Toshiba (oh how I hate Toshiba) I had known that not all computers were readily compatible with linux but after my easy experience with the Dell I wasn't too concerned. I bought two linux distros on different media and hoped/assumed? that something would work – it didn't. I bought another say 2 or 3 distros and managed to get the Mint to install on this Toshiba. It wasn't until after this annoying endeavor that I found out online that: - laptops are less compatible than desktops with linux and that - Toshiba out of the maybe top 6 or 8 computer manufacturers is consistantly about the least compatible with linux ( I HATE TOSHIBA) I don't happen to have a few spear thousand dollars sitting around to enable me to buy a computer and try and set it up with the distros I want, find it dosen't work, buy another computer, find it doesn't work, buy another and finally find one that works with the distros I want. So I am sending this message to basically all the Linux users groups in NZ and hoping someone can help me set up a computer with the two linux distros I want. I don't know how that would work. Maybe someone is about to buy a new computer and can try these distros before they put theirs on, maybe someone has a partition on their computer that is spare and can try it there, maybe they own a computer shop or work in a computer shop or at a university or polytech with computers or computer parts around. So for anyone who may be willing to help me here is what I would like: - a desktop (not the modern ones that are a computer plus other thing/s but just a computer - not a toshiba - Whonix to run on top of Qubes. Whonix is great for anonimity and Qubes is designed for security/safety. - I have a DrayTek vigor 120 modem. I connect it via DSL. When looking into whonix I read that it is complex to configure and setup, so I was hoping that you might have such a modem or access to one and set it up with whonix and then tell me how you did it. - I don't want the computer to come with wifi or bluetooth or any similar thing. I don't want it just not running, I don't want it there at all. - I'm wanting to install 3 old encyclopedias. I was reading about the new versions online and people were recommending old ones. I've bought Encarta 2004, 2001 and Encyclopaedia Britannica '98. To run them on I've bought Windows 98 second edition and Windows NT (first edition?). If you have or could borrow these windows OS could you see if you could get them running in whonix or qubes? - One or both of the encyclopedias need 2 DVD players so I'd like at least 2 DVD players with one being a recorder. - I'm not looking for a high end computer. As long as it will play youtube, that's fast enough. BUT I would appreciate hearing any recommendation about if I just add such and such for $100 or $150 it would go much faster. I'd like 500GB hard drive at least and I've been recommended to get 8GB RAM at least. I wouldn't buy the computer off you but rather if you could tell me what computer/computer parts worked, I'd pay up to $150 for the info. If 10 different people told me what worked of course I couldn't pay 10 different people $150. I am sending this to: the wlug, Glen Ogilvie at nelg(a)linuxsolutions.co.nz in Auckland, the Welly LUG through hugh(a)davenport.net.nz, nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz and Wellington LUG through jethro.carr(a)jethrocarr.com. If you know of any active LUG that I have missed or anyone else that might be willing to assist me could you please pass this onto them? My email is michelle400(a)orcon.net.nz. If this is posted to a mailing list (I've never used one before) and I don't reply in a week could you get back to me on my email? Thank you to anyone willing to help Michelle Gorringe.

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BitKeeper Becomes Open-Source
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 May '16

10 May '16

BitKeeper was the distributed version-control system that Linus Torvalds and the other kernel developers were using over a decade ago. It was a proprietary product, but the Linux folk were allowed use of it for no charge, under a licence that prohibited reverse-engineering, and that obligated them to uprade to newer versions with whatever new licence terms the company wanted to impose. It was a stoush over this reverse-engineering prohibition that led to BitMover giving notice it was cancelling this agreement, which in turn led to Torvalds creating Git. And the rest, as they say, is history. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=BitKeeper-Open-Source>

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Debian Dropping Support For Older CPUs
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '16

09 May '16

'The Debian project supports a wide range of hardware architectures, including 32-bit x86 CPUs. Changes are happening in Debian's development branches which will make older versions of the 32-bit architecture obsolete. Ben Hutchings provides the details: "Last year it was decided to increase the minimum CPU features for the i386 architecture to 686-class in the Stretch release cycle. This means dropping support for 586-class and hybrid 586/686 processors. (Support for 486-class processors was dropped, somewhat accidentally, in Squeeze.) This was implemented in the Linux kernel packages starting with Linux 4.3, which was uploaded to Unstable in December last year. In case you missed that change, GCC for i386 has recently been changed to target 686-class processors and is generating code that will crash on other processors. Any such systems still running Testing or Unstable will need to be switched to run Stable (Jessie)."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/05/09/028259 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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Leading-Edge Technology ... Or Not
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 May '16

07 May '16

To service the McLaren F1 supercar, McLaren needs a Compaq LTE 5280 laptop which hasn’t been manufactured in about 20 years <http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/3/11576032/mclaren-f1-compaq-laptop-maintena…>. The laptop has a special CA (“Conditional-Access”) card, and "The CA card is an interface between the laptop software (which is DOS-based) and the car." .. the CA card was used as custom hardware as part of an integrated system for security and copy protection. In other words, this is part of a system to ensure that nobody but McLaren can access the car software. Their attempt at vendor lock-in has led to vendor lock-in being imposed on them.

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embedded projects
by rowan schischka 06 May '16

06 May '16

there is about five weeks of lectures left at uni so looking to get some things together now due to international shipping delays. does anyone want to share shipping costs on an intel curie? http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/do-it-yourself/arduino-101.html I would also appreciate some buying advice. there are a number of retailers but the cheapest one only sells instore in north america. I also need to purchase a small suitable rechargeable battery. also where is the maker scene at waikato? -- Rowan Schischka

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UK Spooks Say: Don’t Keep Resetting Your Passwords!?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 May '16

06 May '16

On World Password Day (who knew?), the Communications-Electronics Security Group (CESG), part of GCHQ, is telling sysadmins not to force their users to keep resetting their passwords <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/05/stop_resetting_your_password_says_u…>. The result, according to CESG, is that we are more likely to write our password down. Or forget the password altogether, forcing service desks to reset them, chewing up time and resources. So what was wrong with writing them down, again? You know how to keep your cash, credit cards and house keys safe; why can’t you keep your written passwords in the same place? The last three paragraphs of the article are, um, worth reading carefully...

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Microsoft unveils new effort to make its documentation great again ... or does it?
by rowan schischka 06 May '16

06 May '16

>Just one problem: while Microsoft itself uses the term ?open sourced? I think you will find that Microsoft will make its own definition of the word 'open'. for example for years they have been calling their bulk license purchasing plan the 'Open License' (OLP, OLV, OVS, etc). Their Open is not GPL. They want hobbyists and students to tinker with their products and if you're not making money they wont bother you. for example they give charities and schools dirt cheap pricing because they just want everyone to use their products. Their bottom line is; if you make money off our product we want our cut of that to return to our investors.

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TLS Proxies: Insecure By Design
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 May '16

06 May '16

A “TLS Proxy” short-circuits the security of TLS/SSL connections so it can do deep-packet inspection on encrypted connections. This kind of thing always seemed dodgy. And now it turns out that is so for good reason: these devices are full of holes <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/05/tls_proxies_are_insecure/>. The paper mentioned there concentrated on consumer/retail devices. But it’s unlikely ones designed for business/enterprise use are going to fare any better...

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Unity 8 And Snaps Are Conquering The Ubuntu Desktop After Ubuntu 16.10
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '16

05 May '16

"Today is the last day of the Ubuntu Online Summit 2016, and the Ubuntu developers discussed the future of the Ubuntu Desktop for Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) and beyond. It looks like Snaps (Snappy) and Unity 8 with Mir are slowly conquering the Ubuntu Desktop, at least according to Canonical's Will Cooke, Ubuntu Desktop Manager. Work has already begun on pushing these new and modern technologies to the Ubuntu Desktop, as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS has just received support for installing Snaps from the Ubuntu Snappy Store. Canonical's Will Cooke has mentioned the fact that the Unity 7 desktop enters its twilight years, which means that it gets fewer features and it's being reduced to only critical and OEM work. This is because Unity 8 desktop is getting all the attention now, and it will become the default desktop session somewhere after Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak)." -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/05/05/2038256 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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Microsoft unveils new effort to make its documentation great again ... or does it?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 May '16

05 May '16

<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/05/microsoft-unveils-new…>: Some teams within Microsoft, such as those developing ASP.NET and .NET Core, had already open sourced their documentation. On the new site, all documentation will be handled similarly. Every article will have an "edit" button enabling changes and fixes to be proposed. These changes will be handled as pull requests on GitHub, with the documentation itself using the popular Markdown markup language. Just one problem: while Microsoft itself uses the term “open sourced” <https://docs.microsoft.com/teamblog/introducing-docs-microsoft-com/>: All documentation on docs.microsoft.com is open sourced and designed to allow community contributions. Nowhere does it actually spell out what the copyright licence is. Clicking on the “Terms of Use” link takes you here <https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/intellectualproperty/copyright/defaul…>, where it says Personal and Non-Commercial Use Limitation Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services.

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Proprietary Software Riddled With Old Open-Source Vulnerabilities
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 May '16

04 May '16

No big news, really: closed-source software, even if it is built on open-source components, will inevitably accumulate long-standing bugs that never get fixed. And sometimes the bugs have security implications. This report from Black Duck uses the term “commercial” software, but it’s quite clear they mean “proprietary” software, i.e. closed-source <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/04/commercial_software_chokkas_with_an…>. The telling phrase in the report is “visibility into the components that are included in their code base is required”. How would you *not* have such visibility, if the source of your product is open? A lot of companies may hate copyleft licences, but at least they force a level of transparency that makes this kind of thing much harder to cover up.

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Hard Drive Warranties Are Now Specifying Data-Write Limits?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 May '16

04 May '16

It used to be that warranties for hard drives were for some specified number of years, it didn’t matter how much load they were under (compare SSDs). But it seems that is now changing, as capacities are pushed to the point where ever more creative strategies are needed to get the devices to work at all <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/05/03/when_did_hard_drives_get_workload_r…>.

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The Tao Of Programming
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 May '16

04 May '16

<http://www.mit.edu/~xela/tao.html>: 4.3 The Master was explaining the nature of Tao to one of his novices. "The Tao is embodied in all software -- regardless of how insignificant," said the Master. "Is the Tao in a hand-held calculator?" asked the novice. "It is," came the reply. "Is the Tao in a video game?" asked the novice. "It is even in a video game," said the Master. "Is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?" asked the novice. The Master coughed and shifted his position slightly. "The lesson is over for today," he said.

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Aging and bloated OpenSSL is purged of 2 high-severity bugs
by Peter Reutemann 03 May '16

03 May '16

"Maintainers of the OpenSSL cryptographic library have patched high-severity holes that could make it possible for attackers to decrypt login credentials or execute malicious code on Web servers. The updates were released Tuesday morning for both versions 1.0.1 and 1.0.2 of OpenSSL, which a large portion of the Internet relies on to cryptographically protect sensitive Web and e-mail traffic using the transport layer security protocol. OpenSSL advisories labeled the severity of both vulnerabilities "high," meaning the updates fixing them should be installed as soon as possible. The fixes bring the latest supported versions to 1.0.1t and 1.0.2h." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/05/aging-and-bloated-openssl-is-purged… 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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Huge number of sites imperiled by critical image-processing vulnerability
by Peter Reutemann 03 May '16

03 May '16

"A large number of websites are vulnerable to a simple attack that allows hackers to execute malicious code hidden inside booby-trapped images. The vulnerability resides in ImageMagick, a widely used image-processing library that's supported by PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, Python, and about a dozen other languages. Many social media and blogging sites, as well as a large number of content management systems, directly or indirectly rely on ImageMagick-based processing so they can resize images uploaded by end users." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/05/easily-exploited-bug-exposes-huge-n… 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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fast good unlimited internet
by Ian Young 03 May '16

03 May '16

As per the subject it sounds great. Alas this is New Zealand, home of the rapacious duopoly, and one cable outwards. So you won't be looking at 'Spark' (aka former monoply Telecom) or global corp Vodafone. The fast thing has got a bit better since the powers that be finally fibred up at taxayer expense at least in part. Or so I hear. Ultra fast is probably an exaggeration compared with benchmark nations. Long white cloud has some issues with population density and geography. However it sounds like there may be a local option. Tauranga is an opulent region so there must be some money in it for small providers. Until a bigger fish appears bent on acquisition.

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Art Or Spam?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 May '16

03 May '16

A bot has been hanging around 3D-printing site Thingiverse, generating random and bizarre/surreal remixes of objects posted to the site by others <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/05/that-time-a-bot-invaded-thingiverse-…>. The creators of the bot recently showed some of the results at an exhibition. Is “confrontational art” just another term for “trolling”? Opinions about the bot’s contribution to the community seem mixed...

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Tauranga ISPs
by Chris McClimans 03 May '16

03 May '16

Any suggestions for fast, good, unlimited broadband? Maybe with a chance for static IPs?

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Ubuntu Quietly Raises Install Image Size to 2GB
by Peter Reutemann 02 May '16

02 May '16

'You can expect to see a larger Ubuntu desktop installation image by the time the Yakkety Yak yips out. Developers are currently debating the exact size limits that official flavours will adhere to, with some favouring a 2GB hard limit while others are looking to go full-DVD size at 4.7GB+. Canonical's Steven Langasek explains the plans for Ubuntu 16.10 Yakkety Yak: "I've finally gone ahead and bumped the limit on Ubuntu desktop images to 2GB for a minimally-sized USB stick; this gives us a new limit that I think we will care about, while also leaving us headroom so we're not constantly fighting it back down to the line." The Ubuntu ISO is supposed to be around the 1GB mark but has creeped past this in recent releases. The current Ubuntu 16.04 LTS desktop .iso is 1.4GB.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/05/02/1035248 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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From Paintbox to PC: How London became the home of Hollywood VFX
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 May '16

01 May '16

Nice article about the video-effects business, from the Quantel Paintbox to present-day CGI <http://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2016/05/how-london-became-the-home-of…>, from Ars Technica UK. Betting on Moore’s Law: Framestore tried to predict when technology would allow them to charge what their clients were willing to pay, and adjust the business accordingly. It was a risky, yet incredibly shrewd plan—and it paid off. This same company went on to make “Walking With Dinosaurs”. Moving away from the legendary SGI workstations of the early 1990s, towards more commodity hardware nowadays: Today, VFX studios are powered by Intel processors, Nvidia graphics cards (all the VFX studios I spoke to used Nvidia graphics cards, citing reasons of driver stability), and Linux operating systems. These parts are just as accessible to consumers as they are to businesses: one only need look at the rise of YouTube and high-quality homemade videos to see just how far the commoditisation of VFX technology has come. But those Nvidia cards are mainly used for on-screen previews, not the final renders: Like the rest of the VFX industry, Pixar is yet to introduce GPUs into its render farms, preferring instead to use them in local or farm-based workstations for quick and dirty lighting previews. It faces the same issue as everyone else: GPUs simply don't have enough memory. Each frame in a final render requires as much 64GB of system memory, with films like Avatar pushing 128GB. The highest-end Nvidia graphics card comes equipped with just 12GB of memory. The article has a strange reluctance to use the term “renderer”. It describes Arnold as “a cutting edge lighting program” and Renderman as “a way to flesh out an existing 3D model or animation with interactive lighting and shading”. One quote I found revealing: At most VFX studios the final render is done at around 2K resolution. It doesn’t qualify this by saying this is for TV work, not for film work. So is 2K enough even for film work? And just like when they moved from TV to film, studios like MPC, Framestore, and Pixar are waiting for technology to catch up with their creative ambitions, even if they're not all convinced 4K is the answer. Meanwhile, some people are managing 4K renders <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=blender+foundation+4k> just fine...

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Re: [wlug] Intel?s Atom Chips Circling The Plughole (Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
by rowan schischka 01 May '16

01 May '16

>I wondered--still wonder--why Intel doesn?t just make ARM chips. It?s got to be more profitable than the billions it has wasted on developing Atom processors that nobody seems to want. I believe the Atom was Intel's competition to the AMD geode which is I think is still available. I wouldnt say no one wants them. Microsoft has been keen on them since Windows RT failed. Arm is an old competitor to Intel; remember Acorn computers? I dont think they would attract investors if they were buying licenses from ARM. Seems logical they are dropping the Atom in favour of their new IoT chips. Im more interested in what Samsung is doing with its Artik 12x12mm SOC, an arm you can fit in your undies! -- Rowan Schischka

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Intel’s Atom Chips Circling The Plughole
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Apr '16

30 Apr '16

The next, “Broxton”, generation of Intel’s Atom chips have been cancelled, along with future SoCs incorporating Atom cores <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/30/intel_atoms_cancelled/>. I can remember when the first generation of Atom chips were announced, back in 2008 or so with the debut of “netbooks”--remember them? (/me glances at an old Asus Eee 701 sitting within arm’s reach.) Intel claimed it was two years ahead of ARM at that point, and able to offer the “full Internet experience” (which was code for “can run Flash videos”). That “two years ahead” claim went quiet after a few months... I wondered--still wonder--why Intel doesn’t just make ARM chips. It’s got to be more profitable than the billions it has wasted on developing Atom processors that nobody seems to want.

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Intel’s Clear Linux Is Making Waves
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Apr '16

26 Apr '16

Intel has brought out “Clear Linux”, incorporating many optimizations for speed. Now the Fedora folks are looking into these speedups, with a view to making them more mainstream <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Fedora-Looks-At-Clear>.

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Cinnamon 3.0 Desktop Environment Tagged for Linux Mint 18, Here's What's New
by Peter Reutemann 25 Apr '16

25 Apr '16

"With updated dependencies on board and numerous bug fixes, Cinnamon 3.0 comes with multiple new features, among which we can mention an option that lets users display or hide the favbox in the Menu applet, the addition of new default application buttons, as well as support for displaying the panel-launchers actions. The Sound settings have been rewritten in Python, and there's a custom page that shows users when there's no input devices available or if any apps are now playing. Additionally, the Sound panel received a custom settings box that should prevent the sound effects dialog to be opened in a very tall window." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/cinnamon-3.0-desktop-environment-tagged… 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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Mozilla Seeks New Home For Email Client Thunderbird
by Peter Reutemann 25 Apr '16

25 Apr '16

"In a report commissioned by Mozilla to explore the next home for Thunderbird, two potential new hosts have been offered: the Software Freedom Conservancy (host to git, boost, QEMU, and a host of other projects) and The Document Foundation (home of LibreOffice). At the same time, the report discusses completely uncoupling Thunderbird from the rest of the Mozilla codebase and bringing in a dedicated technical architect to chart the software's roadmap. Given that the two named organizations are already on board with taking Thunderbird under their wing, is this a new lease on life for the email program Mozilla put out to pasture four years ago?" -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/04/25/1949239 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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Still On For Tonight?
by Chris McClimans 25 Apr '16

25 Apr '16

I noted that we seem to be scheduled, even though it is a public holiday today. I was planning to attend, but wanted to make sure it was still on. I have some fun org-babel-async stuff I use that might be fun to share. (vim users might enjoy looking at spacemacs.org as well) Cheers, -chris

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Docker-Online-Meeting tomorrow 9am
by Chris McClimans 24 Apr '16

24 Apr '16

http://www.meetup.com/Docker-Online-Meetup/events/230475901/ Wouldn't mind meeting in person if anyone is up for it. Cheers, -chris

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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Available To Download; Mozilla To Offer 0-Day Firefox Releases Via Snaps
by Peter Reutemann 22 Apr '16

22 Apr '16

"The latest, and hopefully, the greatest version of Ubuntu is now available to download. On the sidelines, Mozilla today announced the availability of future releases of its popular Firefox web browser in the snap package format for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Earlier today, Canonical unleashed the final release of the highly anticipated Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, bringing users a great set of new features and improvements. Also today, it looks like Canonical has renewed its partnership with Mozilla to offer Firefox as the default web browser on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and upcoming releases of the Linux kernel-based operating systems. As part of the new partnership, Mozilla is committed to distributing future versions of Firefox as a snap package. Having Firefox distributed in the snap format means that you'll have 0-day releases in Ubuntu 16.04. Yes, just like Windows and Mac OS X, users are enjoying their 0-day releases of Mozilla Firefox and don't have to wait for package maintainers of a particular GNU/Linux distribution to update the software in the main repositories. For Mozilla, having Firefox as a snap package means that they'll be able to continually optimize it for Ubuntu." -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/04/21/1940213 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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meeting next Monday
by Ian Young 21 Apr '16

21 Apr '16

If there is time available I could talk about a distro called LXLE I have been looking at lately. ~ Ian Y

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Tauranga Makerspace
by Chris McClimans 20 Apr '16

20 Apr '16

http://onurcelebi.com/blog/how-a-diode-changed-my-life/ I've been working with electronics over the past year, including making a keyboard with batteries, and charging ports, etc for use with various embedded systems, usb, and bluetooth. Reading this article actually helped me solve some of the charging and power problems, and makes me realize I don't know much about electronics. I'm looking forward to getting together with other folks who solder, and see what happens. (Still trying to find housing, but I'm hanging around @basestationnz most mornings)

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Intel To Sack “Up To 12,000” Staff
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

<http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/04/intel-announces-evolution-away-from…> ...the firings were meant to "accelerate [Intel's] evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices." And yet they still insist on trying to push unpopular x86 chips on these markets, instead of the ARM chips that everybody else wants to use.

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topics for next monday?
by Peter Reutemann 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

Hi everyone At the moment, we don't have anything lined up for next Monday. Any ideas for topics? New distros or applications uncovered? 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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Cybersecurity Report From 1970
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

<http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/flashback-declassified-1970-dod-cyb…> The Ware Report included a list of conclusions and recommendations that (based on recent data breaches and security failures) many have failed to take to heart. “Plus ça change”, as they say...

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by rowan schischka 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

> What about a MIPS-oriented distro like OpenWRT? I have never tested OpenWRT. I would think that the strength of openWRT would be in its web interface and it has been customised for specific hardware. Both my embedded devices are capable of running debian and I have no need for a web interface. I think you would use OpenWrt if you already have the hardware for it.

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Re: [wlug] The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by Roger Hardy 18 Apr '16

18 Apr '16

I run several instances of pfsense on both pcengines APU boards and as Xen VM's, and I would use that over pretty much anything these days. Good throughput, easy to manage, and lots of features. In my case this was because my iptables script was getting to be handful as well as IPSec and OpenVPN installations that are now much easier to manage and monitor. Industrial strength magic for home router price from my point of view.

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by rowan schischka 18 Apr '16

18 Apr '16

A few years ago I built an ap on a pc engines alix board. Of course the choice of wireless card is going to be the deciding factor in performance as the alix's cpu and ram is higher than most wireless appliances. My performance was good but not as good as similar priced appliances. I am not using it atm because I'm using a skinny 4g modem. If I needed a wireless ap in the future I would buy an appliance over built due to cost, time, and performance. What you loose out on appliance ap is software and security upgrades. Also the coolest thing with building a router based on debian is you can install anything you want. But if you want to install proxy server, file server and virus scanners don't go for an embedded chip, get a proper pc with decent cpu and hard drive. And lastly I tested the original raspberry pi as an ap. Throughput was terrible. About 1mb per second file transfer speed using rsync, my understanding is that is due to everything running through its USB controller

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by Peter Reutemann 17 Apr '16

17 Apr '16

"After finally reaching the tipping point with off-the-shelf solutions that can't match increasing speeds available, we recently took the plunge. Building a homebrew router turned out to be a better proposition than we could've ever imagined. With nearly any speed metric we analyzed, our little DIY kit outpaced routers whether they were of the $90- or $250-variety." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-ro… 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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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Will Bring Snap Packages For Up-To-Date, More Secure Apps
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '16

13 Apr '16

"Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company, has announced that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Long Term Support) will come with support for the snap packaging format and tools. As a result, end users will get more up-to-date apps, something that proved tricky in the past due âoethe complexity of packaging and providing updates,â which prevented updates to some apps being delivered. Snaps will make the Ubuntu platform more unified, developers will more easily be able to create software for PC, Server, Mobile, or IoT devices. The other major benefit of snaps is that that they're more secure than software installed through deb packages. Snaps are isolated from the rest of the system, meaning that malware packaged with a snap won't be able to affect your Ubuntu installation." -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/13/1627204 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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The Future of Firefox is Chrome
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '16

13 Apr '16

"Mozilla seems to think a new future for Firefox [lies in Chrome]. While they claim that it is only about new ways of browser design, it is also an open secret that they are running into more and more problems lately with web compatibility. [Senior VP Mark Mayo caused a storm by revealing that the Firefox team is working on a next-generation browser that will run on the same technology as Google's Chrome browser. The project, named Tofino, will not use Firefox's core technology, Gecko, but will instead plumb for Electron, which is built on the technology behind Google's rival Chrome browser, called Chromium.] The benefit of Chromium/Electron would be that it is a solution they could pull much faster forward than their own Servo plans [Servo being Mozilla's Rust-based web engine]. What the real outcome of all this will be, only Mozilla knows so far. But inside Mozilla there is much resistance against such plans... Interesting times are ahead." -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/12/2025215 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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Yes, Badlock bug was shamelessly hyped, but the threat is real
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '16

13 Apr '16

"In a nutshell, Badlock refers to a defect in a security component contained in just about every version of the Windows and Linux operating systems. Known as the Distributed Computing Environment/Remote Procedure Call (DCE/RPC), it's used by administrators around the world to access the most valuable asset on any Windows network—the Active Directory, which acts as a network's digital security guard, allowing, for instance, an organization's CFO to log in to an accounting server, while locking out the janitor or the groundskeeper. Because Active Directories enforce security policies and contain password data and other crucial credentials, they are almost always the first asset hackers access once they gain a limited foothold into a targeted network." "An Active Directory infrastructure with a Samba server as a domain member is vulnerable to this flaw," an advisory published Tuesday by Linux distributor Red Hat warned. "A man-in-the-middle attacker could intercept DCE/RPC traffic between the domain member and the domain controller to impersonate the client and get the same privileges as the authenticated user account. The attacker could view or modify secrets within an AD database, including user password hashes, or shutdown critical services." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/yes-badlock-bug-was-shamelessly-hyp… 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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Linux-On-Windows Performance
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Apr '16

11 Apr '16

Some initial benchmarks on the Linux layer that Microsoft has added to Windows 10: <http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=windows-10-lxcore&num=1>. Summary: CPU performance seems quite good, while I/O is terrible.

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Popular Firefox Add-Ons Open Millions To New Attack
by Peter Reutemann 09 Apr '16

09 Apr '16

'Security researchers claim that NoScript and other popular Firefox add-on extensions are exposing millions of end users to a new type of vulnerability which, if exploited, can allow an attacker to execute malicious code and steal sensitive data. The vulnerability resides in the way Firefox extensions interact with each other. From a report on SlashGear, "The problem is that these extensions do not run sandboxed and are able to actually access data or functions from other extensions that are also enabled. This could mean, for example, that a malware masquerading as an add-on can access the functionality of one add-on to get access to system files or the ability of another add-on to redirect users to a certain web page, usually a phishing scam page. In the eyes of Mozilla's automated security checks, the devious add-on is blameless as it does nothing out of the ordinary."' 'Firefox's VP of Product acknowledged the existence of the aforementioned vulnerability. "Because risks such as this one exist, we are evolving both our core product and our extensions platform to build in greater security. The new set of browser extension APIs that make up WebExtensions, which are available in Firefox today, are inherently more secure than traditional add-ons, and are not vulnerable to the particular attack outlined in the presentation at Black Hat Asia. As part of our electrolysis initiative -- our project to introduce multi-process architecture to Firefox later this year -- we will start to sandbox Firefox extensions so that they cannot share code."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/04/09/1758255 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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Researchers Help Shut Down Spam Botnet That Enslaved 4, 000 Linux Machines
by Peter Reutemann 09 Apr '16

09 Apr '16

'A botnet that enslaved about 4,000 Linux computers and caused them to blast the Internet with spam for more than a year has finally been shut down. Sophisticated Mumblehard spamming malware flew under the radar for five years. Known as Mumblehard, the botnet was the product of highly skilled developers. It used a custom "packer" to conceal the Perl-based source code that made it run, a backdoor that gave attackers persistent access, and a mail daemon that was able to send large volumes of spam. Command servers that coordinated the compromised machines' operations could also send messages to Spamhaus requesting the delisting of any Mumblehard-based IP addresses that sneaked into the real-time composite blocking list, or CBL, maintained by the anti-spam service. "There was a script automatically monitoring the CBL for the IP addresses of all the spam-bots," researchers from security firm Eset wrote in a blog post published Thursday. "If one was found to be blacklisted, this script requested the delisting of the IP address. Such requests are protected with a CAPTCHA to avoid automation, but OCR (or an external service if OCR didn't work) was used to break the protection."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/04/09/1827238 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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Developer Warns Of "Uncorrectable Freedom & Security Issues" For x86
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Apr '16

05 Apr '16

Modern Intel and AMD x86 chips cannot even boot up without various pieces of locked-down proprietary binary firmware. Effectively this is an OS-within-an-OS, that retains ultimate control of the processor, regardless of what the owner of the machine might want. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=x86-Uncorrectable-Freedom>

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Microsoft Windows Linux Take 2
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Mar '16

30 Mar '16

From <http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/03/ubuntus-bash-and-linu…>: ...we've known for several months now is that the company has developed some Windows kernel components (lxcore.sys, lxss.sys, presumably standing for "Linux core" and "Linux subsystem," respectively) that support the major Linux kernel APIs. ... Microsoft is calling this the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" (WSL). ... Canonical has provided a system image containing the Ubuntu versions of the various command-line tools that are typically found in a Linux distribution. Our understanding is that these are not recompiled or ported versions of the programs (as are used in tools aiming to provide a Unix-like environment on Windows such as Cygwin) but instead unmodified programs. Microsoft is describing this in terms of providing a Linux-like command-line environment at the moment, but from what we can gather, there's little fundamental restriction to this, potentially opening the door to running a wide range of Linux programs natively on Windows. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that tomorrow is April 1...

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meeting on Monday
by Peter Reutemann 28 Mar '16

28 Mar '16

Hi everyone We have a WLUG meeting on Monday. Unfortunately, there won't be a demonstration of the Raspberry Pi 3 and I'm not sure about the Pine 64 either. http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/229051656/ 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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Red Hat Achieves 2 Billion USD In Annual Revenue
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Mar '16

23 Mar '16

Red Hat has taken just 2 years to double its annual takings <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Red-Hat-Two-Billion>. I remember a senior executive saying some years ago that for every dollar of revenue they get, they take $10 away from their proprietary rivals. So their overall effect on the market is massively deflationary.

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Oracle Versus PostgresQL
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Mar '16

21 Mar '16

Looks like Russia’s Government departments are looking to move to PostgresQL instead of Oracle. In response, Oracle has released a document trying to point out all the problems with PostgresQL <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/03/21/oracle_fights_russian_software_poli…>. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you...

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How to maintain my connection to squeeze
by Chris O'Halloran 12 Mar '16

12 Mar '16

Hi all, I have a server at work that is hacked and customized to bits to keep a wiki going using mediawiki [1] software including node.js [1a] binaries. It was a turneky [2] appliance based on Debian 6 or squeeze. It's work very well these past 6 or 7 years. It also runs a ruby on rails app clockingit.[3] I've installed the anaconda python distribution [4] on it and that is running fine. It was the only way to get python 3.4 running nicely with notebooks. A thing I've been tinkering with lately is the latex circuit package circuitikz [5] for my making nice circuit diagrams and another bit of ipython magics [6] allows you to insert these into your ipython notebooks. I know this keeps putting off the inevitable but I'd rather procrastinate further than rebuild the server. It seems squeeze has experienced some sort of migration to an LTS release even though officially it's not longer supported. The point is, I'd like to sudo apt-get install texlive-science but say it will have problems chris(a)wiki apt/sources.list.d$ sudo apt-get install texlive-science Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming. The following information may help to resolve the situation: The following packages have unmet dependencies: texlive-science : Depends: python2.7 but it is not going to be installed Depends: texlive-base (>= 2015) but it is not going to be installed Depends: texlive-latex-base (>= 2015) but it is not going to be installed Depends: tex-common (>= 6) but 2.08.1 is to be installed Depends: texlive-latex-recommended (>= 2015) but it is not going to be installed Depends: texlive-binaries (>= 2015.20160222.37495-1) but 2009-8 is to be installed E: Broken packages when I do sudo apt-get update Err http://cdn.debian.net squeeze/main amd64 Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 180.214.94.18 80] Err http://cdn.debian.net squeeze/contrib amd64 Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 180.214.94.18 80] Err http://cdn.debian.net squeeze/non-free amd64 Packages 404 Not Found [IP: 128.61.240.89 80] Fetched 39.3 kB in 7s (5257 B/s) W: There is no public key available for the following key IDs: 7638D0442B90D010 W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 180.214.94.18 80] W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/contrib/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 180.214.94.18 80] W: Failed to fetch http://cdn.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/non-free/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found [IP: 128.61.240.89 80] So is seems I need to update the squeeze sources to still access the old repos. I'm nervous about upgrading because of all the customisations and don't wish to break things. Any clues on how I have have my server still able to download old packages. Cheers Chris [1] http://mediawiki.org/ [1a] https://nodejs.org/en/download/ [2] http://www.turnkeylinux.org/ [3] http://www.clockingit.com/ [4] https://www.continuum.io/downloads [5] http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/circuitikz/ [6] https://github.com/mkrphys/ipython-tikzmagic

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Former Microsoft CEO No Longer Negatively Attacks Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Mar '16

11 Mar '16

Interview with Steve Ballmer linked from <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ballmer-Linux-Cancer-Free>: Fifteen years after calling the open-source operating system Linux a "cancer," former Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) Chief Executive Steve Ballmer has softened his position. Speaking on Wednesday night at a dinner hosted by Fortune magazine, Ballmer said the position was right for the time, but the threat from Linux was now "in the rearview mirror." Which is why Microsoft is spending more effort than ever on Linux, no doubt...

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