- luv-main - luv.asn.au

Pro tip: Exclude /var/lib/docker from mlocate db
by Toby Corkindale 29 Apr '15

29 Apr '15

If you use docker much at all, I highly recommend excluding it from mlocate, if you use it. At least, with the btrfs version of docker (the only one worth using), you end up with what looks, to the filesystem, like an immense tree hanging off /var/lib/docker. And naive mlocate iterates through the entire lot, indexing it.

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System administration courses in Melbourne.
by Robert Shelton 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi all, Just wondering if anyone has attended Redhat Certified System Administrator training in Melbourne and would recommend it? Also interested in alternatives that might be worth a look? Many thanks, Rob.

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Running apps not appearing on "MATE Panel 1.8.0"
by Carl Turney 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi, Am running Linus Mint Qiana with the Mate interface. It's set to some classic mode, if I recall correctly (to look as similar as possible to an old Gnome style). Normally, the "bottom panel"(?), along the bottom of the screen, displays these things... -- Towards the left: "Menu" (which leads to Shutdown, Search, and all the installed apps), and all created short-cut icons. -- Towards the right: Date, time, network connection icon, System Update icon, sound control icon. -- In the middle: Tab for each application that is currently open and running (Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, etc.) But, in just the last day, all of the currently running apps (i.e. normally tabbed in the centre portion of the panel) do not appear in the centre of the panel. I'm only accidentally and haphazardly getting various programs to reappear on the screen, after I have minimised them, but I'm not sure how. Cause: Maybe I controlled my mouse incorrectly and can't recall how, and have configured the panel incorrectly? I've read through the Help offered when right-clicking on the Panel, and can see an incredible range of features, but nothing on making the tabs dis/appear for all running programs. Can anyone please help? ASAP? I'm concerned about shutting down the system with running apps and have trouble getting the running apps I want to access to "reappear" on the desktop. I have rebooted the system, but that hasn't fixed it. i.e. Minimised apps don't appear in the Panel. I think it only has one "desktop". i.e. There doesn't appear to be a shortcut way to switch between 2-3-4 different desktops/workspaces. So I don't think that's the problem. Thanks VERY much for any pointers. Carl Bayswater

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Raid and Linux
by Daniel Jitnah 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hi all, I have a system running on a Linux *software raid* 10 setup on Ubuntu 14.04. This system is running very well. However for some reasons this system needs to be moved from one (hardware) host to another host (a HP ML110 G7 Proliant Server). I had in mind to just take the drives from one machine to another. (The actual workload is in a VM hosted on a very basic KVM installation. so as long as I get a base host running, I am happy!) The HP Proliant though has hardware raid, (and I don't think I can disable it. The original host does not have raid.) Q: Can I install software raid on top of a hardware raid system? if Yes, how would I set the hardware raid? in effect I need the software raid to still see 4 hard drives? Thanks Daniel.

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In-place online encryption
by Noah O'Donoghue 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

Hey all, I have a few cases where I'd like to encrypt without taking the system down for extended periods, ie, servers. In the windows/apple world truecrypt / bitlocker / filevault will all let you encrypt the root partition as a background process, throttled to a low IO load. Usually this requires a reboot to get started, then runs in the background. Does anyone know how to achieve this in the Linux world? (preferably with luks) -Noah

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Fwd: Re: Raid and Linux
by Daniel Jitnah 27 Apr '15

27 Apr '15

> > i know for a fact, because i've done it many times, that i can take > software raid drives from one system and put them in another without any > hassle at all. Thats one of the main reasons that I had chosen a software raid setup before. In fact the original system was first setup on a HP Proliant G4 or G5(?) with Linux software raid. That was moved to another host zero problem, just moved the drives across and reboot. It was thought that it would be easy to just move to a HP Proliant G7. Daniel. > have you, or anyone else, actually done that with, say, a raid array > from HP being moved to an adaptec controller? or from any proprietary > HW RAID card to another brand? in my experience it's usually not even > possible when when moving to a newer model of the same brand, > > > see also my last message on flexibility advantages of SW RAID over HW RAID. > >> If you buy a HP server to run something important that needs little >> down-time then you probably have just that. If your HP server doesn't >> need such support guarantees then you can probably deal with a delay >> in getting a new RAID card. > > if you don't need such support guarantees, then why even use a > brand-name server? > > you get better performance and much better value for money with > non-branded server hardware that you either build yourself or pay one of > the specialist server companies to build for you. > > >>> that still doesn't make hardware raid a better or even good >>> solution, just a tolerable one. >>> >>> for raid-1 or 10, software raid beats the hell out of HW raid, >> >> For RAID-5 and RAID-6 a HP hardware RAID with battery backed >> write-back cache vastly outperforms any pure software RAID >> implementation. > > i used to have exactly the same opinion - battery-backed or flash-based > write caches meant that HW RAID was not only much better but absolutely > essential for RAID-5 or RAID-6, because write performance on RAID-5/6 > really sucks without write caching. > > but now ZFS can use an SSD (or other fast block device) as ZIL, and > kernel modules like bcache[1] and facebook's flashcache[2] can provide > the same kind of caching using any fast block device for any filesystem. > > so, that one advantage is gone, and has been for several years now. > > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bcache > [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashcache > > at the moment, the fastest available block devices are PCI-e SSDs (or > PCI-e battery-backed RAMdisks). in the not too distant future, they'll > be persistent RAM devices that run at roughly the same speed as current > RAM. Linux Weekly News[3] has had several articles on linux support for > them over the last few years. ultimately, i expect even bulk storage > will be persistent RAM devices but initially it will be cheaper to have > persistent RAM caching in front of magnetic disks or SSDs. > > > [3] search for 'NVM' at https://lwn.net/Search/ > > craig >

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hostapd-compatible USB wifi adaptor?
by Craig Sanders 24 Apr '15

24 Apr '15

my wifi access point (an eeepc 701) has just died, so i'm left with no wifi for my phone + tablets. can anyone recommend a good wifi adaptor that is known to work with hostapd? USB preferred, so i don't have to power-down to install a card. craig PS: I have a Netcomm NP902n but i can't get this piece of shit to work. i remember trying to get it to work several years ago when i bought it and gave up then. i've wasted several hours on it again today and have decided to give up again and just buy a decent adaptor. -- craig sanders <cas(a)taz.net.au>

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Fwd: In-place online encryption
by Noah O'Donoghue 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Daniel Jitnah <djitnah(a)greenwareit.com.au> Date: 23 April 2015 at 11:56 Subject: Re: In-place online encryption To: Noah O'Donoghue <noah.odonoghue(a)gmail.com> Of course please CC.. I did not realise I only replied to you! Cheers Daniel On 23/04/15 11:45, Noah O'Donoghue wrote: > Well, the use case does vary between machines, > > One use-case agnostic reason is because if you don't encrypt your root, > someone can modify your binaries in ways you might not notice; > > For example, downgrade packages to a version that is vulnerable to an > exploit, add backdoors, add applications that can leak your key, etc, etc. > > Another reason is sometimes I chain my encryption, for example I'll have > a keyfile that is stored on my root partition unlock all the other > partitions, to save me from remembering a passphrase per drive, instead > I only need to remember one. > > But in general, It would be good to be able to live-encrypt my data > holding partitions too. If I want to encrypt my 8TB drive array for > example, I don't want it to be offline for 4-5 days in the process... > > Do you mind if I CC this to the list? > > On 23 April 2015 at 11:34, Daniel Jitnah <djitnah(a)greenwareit.com.au > <mailto:djitnah@greenwareit.com.au>> wrote: > > Hi Noah, > > I am just curious as to why you would want to encrypt the whole root > partition? Would you want to encrypt only home folder or other data > holding folder? > > Daniel. > > On 23/04/15 08:36, Noah O'Donoghue wrote: > > Hey all, > > > > I have a few cases where I'd like to encrypt without taking the system > > down for extended periods, ie, servers. > > > > In the windows/apple world truecrypt / bitlocker / filevault will all > > let you encrypt the root partition as a background process, > throttled to > > a low IO load. Usually this requires a reboot to get started, then > runs > > in the background. > > > > Does anyone know how to achieve this in the Linux world? (preferably > > with luks) > > > > -Noah > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > luv-main mailing list > > luv-main(a)luv.asn.au <mailto:luv-main@luv.asn.au> > > http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-main > > > >

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Proposal to drop .com from .au addresses
by Steve Roylance 21 Apr '15

21 Apr '15

hi this proposal is from auDA to drop .com from .au addresses http://www.auda.org.au/assets/pdf/2015npp-issues-paper.pdf

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Lightweight Linux laptops/tablets
by Brian May 20 Apr '15

20 Apr '15

Hello, Just wondering for ideas for something that meets my needs. Requirements: * Must be lightweight - e.g my existing tablet is only 540g + keyboard. * Must have 4G data support (I think this rules out ASUS tablets). * Must have (standard) keyboard (e.g. with escape and backspace keys in standard locations) that is usable on train without tables (I think this rules out most other tablets). * Don't particularly care about OS, although I note that applications I use (e.g. ssh clients) don't appear to be particularly great on Android. Willing to try ChromeOS. * If ChromeOS or Android based, should support installing 3rd party OS or at the minimum have regular updates (rules out Samsung Android). Optional extras: * Good battery life (possibly conflicts with being lightweight). So far, a Google search suggests that the HP Chromebook 11 ticks a lot of these boxes (e.g. according to one review is the lightest Chromebook available - not sure if this is still current information), although it is missing some desirable features for a Chromebook (e.g. no touch screen, no standard HDMI socket, and only 2GB ram) and is considered by at least one review to be "Frustratingly slow". Any other suggestions? Thanks

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