BerkeleyLUG: Virtual meetup this Sunday 2020-08-09

[goossbears]

BerkeleyLUG: Virtual meetup this Sunday 2020-08-09

Meetings (virtual) … as listed at https://berkeleylug.com/ and per the schedule https://berkeleylug.com/meetings/

Haven't [yet] seen the reminder typically posted by Tom L or Michael P on this.

So unless am badly mistaken, the 2nd Sunday virtual meeting starts ~11am via

meet.jit.si/berkeleylug

Corrections, comments and/or additional notes about that from Tom, Michael, or anyone else?

-Aaron

[Christian Peeples]

Aaron:

Thanks.  I’ll be there.

-- Chris Peeples --

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BerkeleyLUG" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to berkeleylug...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/berkeleylug/f21f6249-2040-41fa-81ea-507cf5e23621o%40googlegroups.com.

[tom r lopes]

Yes, 

Thank you Aaron for getting the message out.  

I'll be there.  Probably trying to get MythTV working in 

Virtualbox.  I have a couple old drives from when I used to 

run MythTv and I'm curious to see what I have on there.  

So my plan: install Ubuntu 20.04?  and  an old version of mythTv 

then try to import the database.  

Also Ubuntu has release the first point release 20.04.1 

So people on 18.04 should be getting the upgrade prompt.  

And kernel 5.8 released.  I haven't seen it yet in Arch Core 

But when it does I should have webcam on my Baytrail tablet.  

Thomas

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/berkeleylug/646715289.1160310.1596837397984%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Michael Paoli]

BerkeleyLUG and Pi.BerkeleyLUG meetings,
and now yet more officially and persistently, respectively:
https://berkeleylug.com/meetings/ https://meet.jit.si/BerkeleyLUG
and:
https://berkeleylug.com/Pi.BerkeleyLUG/ https://meet.jit.si/Pi.BerkeleyLUG

Note also that's a change in the Pi.BerkeleyLUG Jitsi meet URL
to be consistent with the naming/string/"branding", per:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/berkeleylug/YQiQmlxoGd0/eAcxaecBCAAJ
etc.

Also note, that meeting "room" locations on Jitsi are cAsE iNsEnSiTiVe.
Likewise DNS domains. The capitalization bits are mostly to help
convey some relevant bits of information (and be slightly more
human-friendly - at least to read).

[Rick Moen]

Quoting tom r lopes (tomr...@gmail.com):

> Yes,
>
> Thank you Aaron for getting the message out.
>
> I'll be there. Probably trying to get MythTV working in
> Virtualbox. I have a couple old drives from when I used to
> run MythTv and I'm curious to see what I have on there.
> So my plan: install Ubuntu 20.04? and an old version of mythTv
> then try to import the database.

Presumably you know what you're doing, but I'd expect that a combination
of Ubuntu and MythTV would be just a bit heavy-weight for running in a VM.
(Not a reason against, really.)

[tom r lopes]

On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 1:19 PM Rick Moen <ri...@linuxmafia.com> wrote:

Quoting tom r lopes (tomr...@gmail.com):

> Yes,
>
> Thank you Aaron for getting the message out.
>
> I'll be there.  Probably trying to get MythTV working in
> Virtualbox.  I have a couple old drives from when I used to
> run MythTv and I'm curious to see what I have on there.
> So my plan: install Ubuntu 20.04?  and  an old version of mythTv
> then try to import the database.

Presumably you know what you're doing,

 I disemble that remark!  

If I'd let that stop me I'd still be on Windows.  

Thomas

but I'd expect that a combination
of Ubuntu and MythTV would be just a bit heavy-weight for running in a VM.
(Not a reason against, really.)

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BerkeleyLUG" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to berkeleylug...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/berkeleylug/20200808201946.GQ29756%40linuxmafia.com.

[Rick Moen]

Quoting tom r lopes (tomr...@gmail.com):
> On Sat, Aug 8, 2020 at 1:19 PM Rick Moen <ri...@linuxmafia.com> wrote:
>
> > Presumably you know what you're doing,
>
> I disemble that remark!
>
> If I'd let that stop me I'd still be on Windows.

I approve of your attitude more than you're probably aware, Thomas.

As I like to say, I started running Unixey servers in the '80s
mostly because nobody had gotten around to advising me not to try -- so
I just tried, and it worked. Later, when people told me 'I don't know
enough about computing to be a system administrator', my honest response
was 'Gee, I'm glad nobody warned _me_ about that.'

(I was just a staff accountant with no real IT knowledge.)

[goossbears]

On Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 2:22:17 AM UTC-7, trl wrote:

Yes, 

Thank you Aaron for getting the message out.  

You are welcome... went ahead and assumed the reminder was
just delayed for one reason or another, but that the virtual
meetup later this morning would certainly be happening :-)

 

I'll be there.  Probably trying to get MythTV working in 

Virtualbox.  I have a couple old drives from when I used to 

run MythTv and I'm curious to see what I have on there.  

So my plan: install Ubuntu 20.04?  and  an old version of mythTv 

then try to import the database.

My own mini-project aim for today and this upcoming week is
to install an i686 (i.e., 32bit x86) Linux distro or distros that will
still be around and maintained (hopefully!) within the next
half-dozen years onto a pair of fairly low-end laptops. 
Futhermore, and aside from possible rants from one or two
sysadmins reading this, would like to configure the i686 Linux
laptop installs so that they appear as close as possible similar
to the MS Windows 10 desktop environment (DE) that the
intended users of these low-RAM laptops prefer on their
higher-end 64bit desktop PCs, while also allowing for easy
desktop switching to the non-Windows-like,
low-RAM-requiring DE's that _I_ prefer using.
The top two contenders are....
- Debian Linux https://www.debian.org/  (DE's: XFCE, LXQt)
+and+
- Slackware Linux http://www.slackware.com/ (DE's: XFCE, FluxboxWM)

Sorry Rick and others, for various reasons, the ultimately
Debian-derived lightweight distros Devuan
GNU+Linux https://devuan.org/ , Lubuntu https://lubuntu.me/ ,
Bodhi Linux https://www.bodhilinux.com/ and a few others
don't quite make the grade here :/
-Aaron

---

[Rick Moen]

Quoting goossbears (acoh...@gmail.com):

> My own mini-project aim for today and this upcoming week is
> to install an i686 (i.e., 32bit x86) Linux distro or distros that will
> still be around and maintained (hopefully!) within the next
> half-dozen years onto a pair of fairly low-end laptops.
> Futhermore, and aside from possible rants from one or two
> sysadmins reading this, would like to configure the i686 Linux
> laptop installs so that they appear as close as possible similar
> to the MS Windows 10 desktop environment (DE) that the
> intended users of these low-RAM laptops prefer on their
> higher-end 64bit desktop PCs, while also allowing for easy

> desktop switching to the *non*-Windows-like,

> low-RAM-requiring DE's that _I_ prefer using.
> The top two contenders are....

> - Debian Linux https://www.debian.org/ <https://www.debian.org/>(DE's:

> XFCE, LXQt)
> +and+
> - Slackware Linux http://www.slackware.com/ (DE's: XFCE, FluxboxWM)
>
> Sorry Rick and others, for various reasons, the ultimately
> Debian-derived lightweight distros Devuan
> GNU+Linux https://devuan.org/ , Lubuntu https://lubuntu.me/ ,
> Bodhi Linux https://www.bodhilinux.com/ and a few others
> don't quite make the grade here :/

I'm not offended in any way! ;->

What's really great is that you have a fairly well thought out sense of
what you're seeking, and I'm very far from arguing with your logic or
your starting premises (not to mention that issues of personal taste are
involved).

For the record, I likewise respect LXQt, XFCE4, and Fluxbox.

The task of having desktop environments comfortable for Windows 10
desktop users, while doing so with 2020 Linux distros on low-spec IA32
laptops is sort of threading the needle, so I applaud you taking on the
challenge.

--
Cheers, "My hot flight attendant asked how I like my coffee.
Rick Moen And that's when she told me: 'That's cute, honey, but
ri...@linuxmafia.com the coffee's free. You don't have to pay for it, here."
McQ! (4x80) (seen on Twitter)

[goossbears]

Well, was actually able to get quite far yesterday on the Debian

installs and Windows10-like configuration on both 32bit laptops :-)

To wit:

- Installed all necessary apps (e.g., VLC, Chromium...) as well

as created+activated a useful swap partition via a customized

and sufficiently-sized partitioning scheme...

/dev/sda1 ---> /<root>

/dev/sda2 --->swap

/dev/sda3 --->  /var

/dev/sda4 ---> /home

====

- Activated (i.e., set "Untrustworthy" to "Trustworthy")

all desktop application shortcuts and renaming some of

them, e.g., 'Evince' to 'PDF Reader' and 'Mousepad' to

'WordPad' (hope that nobody's going to turn me in to

the BSA or MS police for that :-O )

- Changed desktop and icon themes to those more similar

to a Windows 10 desktop.

- Limited XFCE (and LXDE and LXQt) wallpapers and

backgrounds to just downloaded ones most similar to

the standard Windows 10 wallpapers+backgrounds that

I've seen before on machines with that OS installed

- Used GIMP and Inkscape respectively to convert

one or two of the raster .jpeg background images to

vectorized .svg files for changing the desktop manager

LightDM's greeter background to a more Windows10

-similar greeter background *

* Note: contrary to the Debian wiki's instructions

for changing the LightDM greeter background at

https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM#Change_the_greeter.27s_background

I found that I actually had to edit the 01_debian.conf file

in the /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf.d

directory to change the greeter background instead :-\

- Made the desired edit according to

https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM#Enable_user_list

to enable the single-user laptops to solely require

that one user to enter their login password rather than

also requiring them to fill out their username first.

Sure, that could be a calculated security risk, but

one carried out for the convenience of many of

our typical Windows users :-|

-Aaron

[Michael Paoli]

For doing multiple installs - or even reinstalling some of same
packages, can be much faster (and less load on Debian
servers and mirrors) to cache the relevant Debian files (most
notably .deb files).

Once-upon-a-time I saw an excellent bit on it on some Debian
posting/list ... looked for it, but wasn't able to find it
again ... may have been
Debian Project/Weekly News
https://www.debian.org/News/weekly/
... notably about some various tools Debian has for doing such
caching and/or sharing among Debian hosts, etc.

I've also got some of my own semi-manual/semi-automated methods.
At least in part typically involves:
o saving "cached" to /var/local/cache/
o deduplicating from the above what I have on ISOs
o using --print-uris with apt-get(8)
o using matched files from /var/local/cache/ and ISOs to pre-seed
/var/cache/apt/archives/
o some of the "tools" (programs) I use on that:
uris2f
uris2find
rmdebdup
dedupcache
and of course stuff like ssh, scp, tar, ...
Have a peek around:
http://www.mpaoli.net/~michael/bin/
http://www.mpaoli.net/~root/bin/

> From: goossbears <acoh...@gmail.com>
> Subject: Virtual meetup this Sunday 2020-08-09; own mini-project
> Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2020 08:09:55 -0700 (PDT)

> On Saturday, August 8, 2020 at 2:22:17 AM UTC-7, trl wrote:
>>
>> Yes,
>>
>> Thank you Aaron for getting the message out.
>>
>
> You are welcome... went ahead and assumed the reminder was
> just delayed for one reason or another, but that the virtual
> meetup later this morning would certainly be happening :-)
>
>
>
>> I'll be there. Probably trying to get MythTV working in
>> Virtualbox. I have a couple old drives from when I used to
>> run MythTv and I'm curious to see what I have on there.
>> So my plan: install Ubuntu 20.04? and an old version of mythTv
>> then try to import the database.
>>
>
> My own mini-project aim for today and this upcoming week is
> to install an i686 (i.e., 32bit x86) Linux distro or distros that will
> still be around and maintained (hopefully!) within the next
> half-dozen years onto a pair of fairly low-end laptops.
> Futhermore, and aside from possible rants from one or two
> sysadmins reading this, would like to configure the i686 Linux
> laptop installs so that they appear as close as possible similar
> to the MS Windows 10 desktop environment (DE) that the
> intended users of these low-RAM laptops prefer on their
> higher-end 64bit desktop PCs, while also allowing for easy

> desktop switching to the *non*-Windows-like,

> low-RAM-requiring DE's that _I_ prefer using.
> The top two contenders are....

> - Debian Linux https://www.debian.org/ <https://www.debian.org/>(DE's:

[Michael Paoli]

Oops ... that was supposed to go to list ... anyway ...

> From: "Michael Paoli" <Michae...@cal.berkeley.edu>
> Subject: Debian wiki, /usr, ...Re: Virtual meetup this Sunday
> 2020-08-09; own mini-project
> Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2020 06:20:55 -0700

>> From: goossbears <acoh...@gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: Virtual meetup this Sunday 2020-08-09; own mini-project
>> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2020 09:25:05 -0700 (PDT)
>
>> * Note: contrary to the Debian wiki's instructions
>> for changing the LightDM greeter background at
>> https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM#Change_the_greeter.27s_background
>

> Hey, it's a wiki - you can update/correct what's on the wiki! :-)

>
>> I found that I actually had to edit the 01_debian.conf file
>> in the /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf.d
>

> Per FHS
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_Hierarchy_Standard
> https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs-3.0.html#theUsrHierarchy
> and Debian Policy
> https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#file-system-hierarchy
> https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-files.html#location
> under /usr wouldn't be the correct place to make such a change.
> There's likely an override location in /etc ... might possibly have
> to create it, though (e.g. it may default to what's configured in /usr
> if it doesn't find corresponding overrides at appropriate location(s)
> under /etc).
> Changing it under /usr rather than /etc would also violate the
> Principle of least surprise/astonishment
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_least_astonishment

And, yep, found it:
/etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
Change it there to override ...
I added this in the [greeter] section ... might not all be needed:
#background=/usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg
background=/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/user-offline-symbolic.svg
... mostly just copied background from
/usr/share/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf.d/01_debian.conf
as a base and added it to existing [greeter] section,
and the SVG file, I just selected randomly from .svg files
found under /usr (for proof-of-concept), and restarted
# systemctl restart lightdm.service
(under systemd - adjust accordingly for other init),
and the background was changed as specified in that file under /etc.

>> directory to change the greeter background instead :-\

And also handy saving lots of redundant downloads, e.g.:
> From: "Michael Paoli" <Michae...@cal.berkeley.edu>
> Subject: caching Debian packages (notably .deb files): Re: Virtual
> meetup this Sunday 2020-08-09; own mini-project
> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2020 21:42:47 -0700

e.g.:
$ ssh -ax -l michael 192.168.55.254 'cd /var/cache/apt/archives/.f/ &&
du -sh .'
4.0K .
$ scp -pq $(ssh -ax -l michael 192.168.55.254 'apt-get -y --print-uris
install lightdm' | uris2find)
mic...@192.168.55.254:/var/cache/apt/archives/.f/ 2>>/dev/null
$ ssh -ax -l michael 192.168.55.254 'cd /var/cache/apt/archives/.f/ &&
du -sh .'
87M .
$

# pwd -P
/var/cache/apt/archives/.f
# chown 0:0 *.deb && chmod 644 *.deb && mv -n *.deb ../
# ls -A
#

$ scp -pq $(ssh -ax -l michael 192.168.55.254 'apt-get -y --print-uris
install xterm' | uris2find)
mic...@192.168.55.254:/var/cache/apt/archives/.f/ 2>>/dev/null

# pwd -P
/var/cache/apt/archives/.f
# chown 0:0 *.deb && chmod 644 *.deb && mv -n *.deb ../
# ls -A
#
etc.

[tom r lopes]

Lately I have been using just one partition mounted on /

So typical for me is 

swap 

EFI --> mounted at /boot/efi on Ubuntu's and /boot for Arch (though the Arch wiki now suggests /efi 

but I like efistub)  

Then the rest --> /

If I have a SSD and HDD then 

SSD --> / 

HDD --> /home

I don't dual boot much but I wonder how is it if you use the same /home on each OS.  

Because there are those .files in your home wouldn't they depend on the distribution?  

And would you get conflicts?  

Thomas

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BerkeleyLUG" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to berkeleylug...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/berkeleylug/85623481-8178-4ac2-abf0-d63477c2e924o%40googlegroups.com.