November 2016 - luv-main

Re: [luv-announce] Notice of resumption of adjourned Special General Meeting, Tuesday 6 Dec 2016
by Craig Sanders 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

On Tue, Nov 22, 2016 at 02:32:23PM +1100, Andrew Pam wrote: > SGM BUSINESS > > The only matter of business to be considered at this meeting is: > > *That Linux Users of Victoria apply to become a subcommittee of > Linux Australia and conditional upon acceptance, wind up the present > Victorian association as per rule 76 and section 133 of the Act and > transfer all members and assets to the newly formed subcommittee of > Linux Australia.* Are there any details (or at least a reasonable summary) of this proposal available anywhere? and a rationale for why it has been proposed? what are the arguments for and against? At the moment, I have no strong opinion one way or the other (but with a slight leaning towards "why? what's the point?"), but would like to know if there's any reason why I should have such an opinion. if the LUV lists and meetings continue as before and there's no risk of losing autonomy, just easing of the administrative overhead then I can't see any reason to object. craig -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>

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expanding Europe's Linux Presentation Day to Australia
by Hauke Laging 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Hello, in May 2015 Berlin's Linux user group (BeLUG) has started a new type of event which has spread quickly all over Europe: the Linux Presentation Day (LPD) 2015.1: Berlin only 2015.2: 72 cities in three countries 2016.1: 110 cities in 10 countries 2016.2: 150+ cities in 14 countries (on October, 22nd) I contact you because we intend to expand the LPD beyond Europe next year. The aim of the LPD towards the general public is to provide biannual and comprehensive information events about Linux for private users who would like to get a first impression of Linux. The aim towards the media is to make the event so big (both nationally and internationally) that the nationwide non-IT media cover it regularly. The aim towards the Linux community is that an LPD event can be so small and easy to organize (even without costs) that really everyone can try to organize an event with good chances of success. The local organizers decide on their own what their event shall be like; we just make suggestions and offer support. You can find a longer description of the concept here: http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/idea/ Are you as an organization interested in participating in the LPD? If not: Are any of your members interested in helping us bring the LPD to Australia? This event is very useful for finding new LUG members. Best regards, (Mr.) Hauke Laging -- http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/ International phone contact for the Linux Presentation Day: tel:+49-30-55579620 (13:00–23:00, German and English) XMPP (Chat with OTR): linux-presentation-day(a)jabber.ccc.de OTR: 91626899 1C06F2BD 75EC2441 35C696CE 38F75997

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Virtualbox
by Russell Coker 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VirtualBox https://wiki.debian.org/VirtualBox Has anyone used Virtualbox? What's it like? It seems popular, osboxes.org seems to only have VMWare and Virtualbox image files. Apparently Qemu (and presumably KVM) support both those image types, is there any benefit of one over the other? My main aim at the moment is to get a Fedora VM going to see if they solved a bug I encountered in Debian/Unstable and if so copy their fix. One of the significant benefits of free software. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Web performance
by Russell Coker 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Is there a good FOSS system for monitoring web performance? I've just seen a demo of Dynatrace which is impressive and it would be good if there was a free alternative. -- Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with K-9 Mail.

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SP Ausnet and ZigBee devices
by Andrew Mather 24 Nov '16

24 Nov '16

Exhuming this thread: > Message: 7 > Date: Sat, 09 Apr 2016 22:08:45 +1000 > From: Chris Samuel <chris(a)csamuel.org> > To: luv-main(a)luv.asn.au > Subject: Re: SP Ausnet and ZigBee devices > Message-ID: <3111371.ZgvKCBQGVi@quad> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > On Saturday, 9 April 2016 9:41:05 PM AEST Allan Duncan via luv-main wrote: > > > Richard Keech gave a talk in August 2014 and I thought he had a kludge > > to access the data. > > I'm pretty sure Richard was on a different supply network who offered a > service so you could provide your ZigBee devices HW address & they'd > program > the smart meter to permit it to bind. > My RAVEn arrived the other day (from Fastnetworks) and it's now hooked up to a Raspberry Pi. Interestingly, the Rainforest Automation site no longer references the RAVEn at all, but I think Gordon at Fastnetworks will still have a few. I'm in a Powercor area. I was able to log in via the portal and once I'd registered the meter via the ID on a power bill, I was able to enter the Raven's MAC and another key from the device, at which point the meter and the RAVEn were paired and data began to flow. I'm using a script based on the one Ashley mentioned ( https://github.com/frankp/python-raven/blob/master/raven_script.py) I'm just getting my head around what data is produced, but it's all there and all available. Having solar panels on the roof causes out Instantaneous Demand figure to get really thrown out of whack, so I still have some hacking to do before I get a set of figures I'm happy enough to rely on. Good for exercising the very rusty Python skills ! I'll also happily receive pointers to any existing wheels so I am not re-inventing them ! Ultimately I plan to feed figures into RRDtool or similar to produce graphs. It is interesting how sensitive the readings are. I had it running and tailing the log file last night and it was quite easy to see the effects of turning lights, the TV and electric kettle on and off. Andrew -- - https://picasaweb.google.com/107747436224613508618 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "Voting is a lot like going to Bunnings really: You walk in confused, you stand in line, you have a sausage on the way out and at the end, you wind up with a bunch of useless tools" Joe Rios -

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Configuration and automation query
by Peter Ross 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Hi all, I have a question about merging default configurations with own changes. As an example, take an apache configuration. The default configuration may change, according to best practice(e.g. which encryption protocols are safe to use etc). so you are happy to use whatever the package provides (if it is well-maintained) However, some things you may not like, say: the "PermitRootLogin yes" line. [Okay, the example has a bit of a "design fault" because Apache configs have include statements etc. - but there are examples without, as ntp.conf, and some do not like to have two lines of the same key which are conflicting - so you really have to replace the default with yours. I just wanted to give this as an example you may familiar with] So, for the sake of this example, assume all is written in one httpd.conf (no includes) and you are not allowed to have two lines as PermitRootLogin yes PermitRootLogin no How do you keep track of the "latest changes" in default configuration while making the changes you really want? I wonder especially in the context of automation where you may run it on many instances without manual invervention. My solution at the moment is: 1st install: - backup default (copies etc/htttpd.conf to httpd.conf.defaults) - update_config (e.g. parses the defaults with awk and replaces PermitRootLogin "yes by "no"[simplified]: awk '{if $1=="PermitRootLogin") print $1" no"; else print}' Update: - backup $version (just in case..) - restore default (copies etc/htttpd.conf.default to httpd.conf so the upgrade finds a pristine config) - package upgrade - update_config (as before) The advantage of this: update_config can do a lot of things, including using system-specific variables (e.g. getting an IP address from the system so you tell the system to listen on this IP only - no localhost: "Listen IPAddress:80"). A "diff" can be used to monitor unexpected changes afterwards (the diff should oonly show the xpected lines) , to alarm me if things are not right. I wonder whether there is any better support from configuration management tools you are using. Thank you Peter

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USB-powered Ethernet to Wireless adapter
by Peter Ross 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

Hi all, I want to reanimate an old HP netbook (my other laptop died) but the wireless does not seem to work. (I will try again tonight after FreeBSD upgrade from 10 to 11, but I failed with 10 a while ago. Some firmware issue I could not figure out. In theory it should work but..It seems to be tricky with Linux too, according to some forum questions I found on the Web) Anyway, the Ethernet is working but it does not help me when travelling. Usually I am using my phone as a hotspot so I need a USB-powered Ethernet to Wireless adapter. (I do not want straight USB to Wireless because then I have the problem of supported/unsupported etc. again). Browsing yesterday I found a few devices (e.g. TL-WR802N, http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/cat-9_TL-WR802N.html) Do you use this or other devices and can recommend it? Local availability would be a bonus, so I can just walk into a shop, e.g. JayCar, and pick it up today. Thanks Peter

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Apache FilesMatch and RegEx
by Michael Schams 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Hi all, Could anybody point me in the right direction re a regular expression I try to implement as a <FilesMatch> directive in Apache 2.4 please? I would like to deny access to any files in a specific directory which file extension is not "whitelisted". The rule should be case insensitive. <Directory ... > <FilesMatch [WHITELIST] > Require all denied </FilesMatch> </Directory> I tried the following as [WHITELIST], but to no avail: "(?<!\.png|\.gif|\.jp?g)$" -> works, but is case insensitive "(?i:<!\.(png|gif|jp?g))$" -> does not match anything !"(?i:\.(png|gif|jp?g))$" -> does not match anything "(?i:<!\.png|\.gif|\.jp?g)$" -> does exactly the opposite (not negated) ...plus 100 combination, which all result in parsing errors :-) My understanding is, that ?i: means case insensitive and <! negates the expression. Any idea what am I doing wrong or how to achieve what I outlined above? Many thanks Michael

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Hardware library
by Cristian Ilyes 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Hi guys, Cleaning out my shed, came across an old server I played with (SunFire T1000) and just thought that it might come in handy for showing how linux works on non-intel based exotic architecture. The server is quite simple: 4G ram, 1Cpu-24 cores, 120G HDD and 4 gigabit ports. Note that there are no display adapter ports or keyboard/mouse ports. No USB, no nothing :) root@sparky:~# lspci 0001:02:00.0 PCI bridge: Broadcom EPB PCI-Express to PCI-X Bridge (rev b3) 0001:03:04.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5714 Gigabit Ethernet (rev a2) 0001:03:04.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5714 Gigabit Ethernet (rev a2) 0001:03:08.0 PCI bridge: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] PCI/PCI-X Bridge (rev b3) 0001:04:01.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10) 0001:04:01.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10) 0001:04:02.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS1064 PCI-X Fusion-MPT SAS (rev 02) root@sparky:~# root@sparky:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo cpu : UltraSparc T1 (Niagara) fpu : UltraSparc T1 integrated FPU pmu : niagara prom : OBP 4.25.11 2007/12/07 23:44 type : sun4v ncpus probed : 24 ncpus active : 24 D$ parity tl1 : 0 I$ parity tl1 : 0 cpucaps : flush,stbar,swap,muldiv,v9,blkinit,mul32,div32,v8plus,ASIBlkInit MMU Type : Hypervisor (sun4v) State: CPU0: online CPU1: online CPU2: online CPU3: online CPU4: online CPU5: online CPU6: online CPU7: online CPU8: online CPU9: online CPU10: online CPU11: online CPU12: online CPU13: online CPU14: online CPU15: online CPU16: online CPU17: online CPU18: online CPU19: online CPU20: online CPU21: online CPU22: online CPU23: online Currently it runs Linux 3.2.0-4-sparc64-smp #1 SMP Debian 3.2.54-2 sparc64 If it's not suitable for the HW library, then it's free to go to a good home. ***the nasty fine-print with asterisks***: it's very loud 1RU fans speeding at max rpms Cheers, Cristian

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Embedded Linux Conf videos etc
by Rodney Brown 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

HackerBoards, (previously LinuxDevices) links to a long list of Embedded Linux Conf. & IoT Summit videos http://hackerboards.com/ten-dozen-embedded-linux-conference-and-iot-summit-… Phil Koopman's Better Embedded Systems blog links to his 27th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering, Ottawa, Canada keynotes slides https://betterembsw.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/embedded-system-software-qualit… See also his preview videos on Security Plans and Peer Reviews

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