I hope you're doing well

[Don Peer]

Good morning, all,

  This lockdown had been both a blessing and a curse! The curse came two weeks ago when I tried to upgrade the HD in my Every Day Driver (EDD) system from 500GB to 1TB using Clonezilla.

  Afterwards, the new drive would boot to a black screen with cursor (not Openbox). So, I put the old drive back in and it did the same! WTF? To make a long story short: nuke & rebuild.

  That's when the blessing kicked in. I had loaded the machine up with VMs of all the most popular distros while looking forward to our get-together. During the rebuild I realized that I was actually only interested in demonstrating the various Desktop Environments (DE).

  Since I'm running Debian 10, I already had Xfce, LXDE, MATE, LXQt, Gnome, Plasma, and Cinnamon. So, I only need to add VMs for Enlightenment (done), Budgie, Unity (why?), and Pantheon.

  What is your favorite DE? Did you pick your distro because of the DE it offered?  What other DEs have you tried? Is there one that you don't like? (as my GF would say, "Not my favorite.")

  I hope that you're healthy, happy, and kicking Microsoft's and Apple's butts with your Linux box!

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

[L. V. Lammert]

On Wed, 10 Jun 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> Good morning, all,

> Afterwards, the new drive would boot to a black screen with cursor (not
> Openbox). So, I put the old drive back in and it did the same! WTF? To make
> a long story short: nuke & rebuild.
>

That's a shame, .. but Clonezilla, while being a great product, can get
complicated at times, ... though have never had it damage the source
drive.

If anyone else is in this situation, suggest hanging an external USB drive
and saving the image there.

> What is your favorite DE? Did you pick your distro because of the DE it
> offered? What other DEs have you tried? Is there one that you don't like?
> (as my GF would say, "Not my favorite.")
>

Been using Gnome for 15+ years on openSuSE, ever since I threw away Unity
& Ubuntu.

Stay safe!

Lee

[Joan Leach]

Hi,

Isn't there a Live CD/DVD that has all or most of the desktops to demo?

I usually have too few hard disks to do cloning, so I try to use Puppy to selectively copy the files. I use Puppy since it can do Win files, etc..

My problems are YahooMail and Firefox. Maybe RoboLinux's Firefox has something to do with it, too? When I feel better (getting old is a big pain) I'll call ATT to get a new password and try again.

Take care everyone,

Joan, near Silverada and Oddie, Reno

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[Don Peer]

My go-to for light hardware is Linux Lite.

  Regarding your email issue, let me suggest getting a Gmail account. They're free and I've never had problem setting up a desktop client for it. Either that or simply forgo the client and use the web interface.

  As for multiple DEs, try this option:

https://fossbytes.com/ventoy-create-multiboot-usb-ubuntu-linux-put-multiple-iso-in-one-bootable-usb/

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

_________________________
http://www.ThePeers.com
http://www.Facebook.com/DonPeer
http://www.MySpace.com/530803720
http://DPeer2000.BlogSpot.com
http://www.bandmix.com/mond0/

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHGXDmk_MyYeDY0bKhSqxqOMHCm09Phz9dTYLkrLRXfAmnAgQw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Daniel Ramon]

XCFE now and forever. Been using it since I first installed debian 5. It's now on every linux distro I own, aside from the fun systems that run manajaro.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHioj9Va2SfaaXBz1rRjPqqXxgHNoajVv6rggC4DQHUVHYvuqw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jay Woods]

My favorite is KDE. For a long time it was on Fedora but I am testing Debian as Raspberry Pi OS is being used.

My problem is/was that everything was slow. When I checked with top, three indexers were running and hogging CPU and memory. It was easy to get the indexers down to tracker (which was uninstalled) and baloo (which was disabled and the indexes removed). It is odd because both were running priority 19 which should have kept them from interfering. But now things are zippy.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHGXDmk_MyYeDY0bKhSqxqOMHCm09Phz9dTYLkrLRXfAmnAgQw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Mark Magee]

Good to see so many people responding. Glad to see you guys are doing well.

My favorite DE right now is Gnome. I have tried KDE and am not really a fan. I think it is because of all the options and I just get lost trying to make it do what I want or look like.

I have tried Cinnamon and Mate but they just seem to much like windows. This is normally what I give family when I set them up with Linux so that it gives them a similar look and they feel to Windows.

I have tried XFCE on Manjaro, but only for testing and to mess around with it. I have also used LXQT, but this only on my virtual admin PC that jump into administer my home lab stuff.

Overall my distro of choice is Fedora. I use this because for work I do a lot of RHEL installs so I like to have similarity with what I run daily and what I work with.

I do find that I test a lot of distros when new versions come out just to see what's new, but I always come back to Fedora.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CABjEcM8%2BdvzSH-_n7xNJpkCoaPm5F7v1r0CUF91W5t1761c0Gg%40mail.gmail.com.
>

--

Mark Magee

[Reggie Darden]

I’ve always liked Gnome and Mate.  Ran with KDE in my Mandrake/Mandriva days. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 10, 2020, at 1:07 PM, Daniel Ramon <dram...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Don Peer]

Since you use OpenSUSE, perhaps you can help answer a question for me:
Do they have an "LTS" version?
You see, both Tumbleweed and Leap claim to be "stable". Yet, they
are both approaching End Of Life. The terms "regular release" and
"rolling release" are not clear about how often either update. Both of
them claim to be good for developers, which would indicate they're NOT
long term versions, but cutting edge versions instead. The best
differentiator I see on their site is that Tumbleweed has the newest
packages (which indicates that Leap does not) and Leap is "complete"
(which indicates that Tumbleweed is not).
Long Term Support is more important to me than having the
latest/greatest/bleeding edge tech. So, is there an actual LTS version
and which version are you running?

Mondo

--
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;

Kindness the chorus!

- Don Peer ( o)==#

_________________________
http://www.ThePeers.com
http://www.Facebook.com/DonPeer
http://www.MySpace.com/530803720
http://DPeer2000.BlogSpot.com
http://www.bandmix.com/mond0/

Twitter: @DPeer2000

[L. V. Lammert]

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> Since you use OpenSUSE, perhaps you can help answer a question for me:
> Do they have an "LTS" version?
>

Leap is two years, .. Tumbleweed is rolling release.

> Long Term Support is more important to me than having the
> latest/greatest/bleeding edge tech.
>

Actually that is fiction created by Ubuntu (like Unity). The Leap two year
cycle is more than suffBicient for any application.

If you REALLY want to support ancient crap that can't even work anymore
(e.g. TLS 1.1 -> 1.2), stick with CentOS and build a transparent proxy in
front to talk to everyone else.

> and which version are you running?
>

15.2 on workstations, 15.0,1 on servers.

Lee

[Don Peer]

Thanks, Lee,

  I've built a couple of servers, including CentOS. But, sooner or later I got frustrated with something (VMs, sharing, user/group management, etc) and nuked it.

  Currently, I have an Ubuntu server (18.04) that I'm out of room on and need to upgrade. However, as you know, I haven't had good luck with that. I plan to image it to a larger HD (not with Clonezilla!) and attempt to upgrade this summer. I'm waiting on a Synology box I've ordered before moving forward on that.

  The one thing I haven't been able to figure out on the servers is how to access a VM's desktop remotely. Once I do that, I won't need a Windoze desktop in the house any longer!

  If you've got any idea how to do that, let me know.

  Take care and stay safe,

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;

Kindness the chorus.

 - Don Peer ( o)==#

[Reggie Darden]

I recently set up Apache Guacamole server to access my VMs without having to use my VPN. Works great with RDP, VNC, SSH, and Telnet. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2020, at 12:53 PM, Don Peer <dpee...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Don Peer]

Really?

  You have an internet facing server you can access without a VPN?  How do you protect it?

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

_________________________
http://www.ThePeers.com
http://www.Facebook.com/DonPeer
http://www.MySpace.com/530803720
http://DPeer2000.BlogSpot.com
http://www.bandmix.com/mond0/

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/FF57D8EA-C788-4D57-80EC-B721C16C3869%40gmail.com.

[L. V. Lammert]

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> I've built a couple of servers, including CentOS. But, sooner or later I
> got frustrated with something (VMs, sharing, user/group management, etc)
> and nuked it.
>

Best to upgrade and then just copy data across, ..

> The one thing I haven't been able to figure out on the servers is how to
> access a VM's desktop remotely.
>

Huh? If you need a desktop, run VirtualBox on a decent workstation. If you
have VMs remotesly, you only need ssh.

> Once I do that, I won't need a Windoze desktop in the house any longer!
> If you've got any idea how to do that, let me know.
>

For what do you need a Windoze desktop? If you have a specific application
(e.g. Quickbooks), build a VM and start the VM when you need that app.

> Take care and stay safe,
>

You too!

Lee

[Don Peer]

I support several clients from ComputerLand, which closed in 2017. They are all windows based and so I need to be able to have Windows available to me. The day I fully retire I will leave M$ completely behind!

To that end I would like to virtualize windows on server and access the VM only when needed. But I don't want to have to go to the server every time I need to do that. Thus, the desire for remote access from my Linux workstation.

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

[L. V. Lammert]

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> To that end I would like to virtualize windows on server and access the VM
> only when needed. But I don't want to have to go to the server every time I
> need to do that. Thus, the desire for remote access from my Linux
> workstation.
>

Ahh, .. a "server" is a machine built to provide a "service", .. a la web
server, database server, dns server, email server, etc. As such, there is
no GUI, so access is via the "service" API or keypair and ssh for
maintenance.

If you have a VM with a GUI, you need a LOT more resources than a "server"
provides - more CPUs, more memory, MUCH more powerful display adapter. For
that sort of VM, you would use VirtualBox on your main workstation (where
you have enough resources to run a VM or two AND your host OS).

OTOH, since you mentioned Synology, it sounds more like you might be
thinking about a 'personal SAN', where it provides 2nd tier storage (e.g.
those 64GB VM images are saved on the SAN, but that VM is run on your main
workstation?

Lee

[Don Peer]

That's the plan. So far, at least. 😕

  The "server" is running on an HP z400 Workstation in the lab. I've imaged my old Win7 machine to a .vhd file. But, haven't gotten it to work yet, even on ESXi. Just about given up on the idea.

  As for running it on my EDD, I had a Win10 image there before the system burned down on me. I just haven't gotten around to rebuilding it yet.

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

[Reggie Darden]

It’s a Remote Desktop gateway so the server only has access to the systems I allow it to. It only needs port 80 to the guacamole server.  I could also put it on a non standard port and forward to port 80 on the guacamole server. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2020, at 1:32 PM, Don Peer <dpee...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[L. V. Lammert]

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020, Reggie Darden wrote:

> It's a Remote Desktop gateway so the server only has access to the
> systems I allow it to.
>

Perhaps, .. but if a hacker started banging on port 80 on that exposed
machine, you risk a rootkit installation, ..

Much better off to use a VPN; setup is getting pretty simple with
Wireguard, now in the kernel.

Lee

[Reggie Darden]

I generally use a vpn. I heard about Guacamole and had to check it out. It’s really neat.

In other news, just set up my first Wireguard VPN via PiVPN. Works great.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 11, 2020, at 4:59 PM, L. V. Lammert <lvla...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Brian Frias]

Just checked out Guacamole docs on the Apache site. At its most simple explanation it is essentially a SSL VPN with a fancy web front-end and custom router service as the middle-ware. But taking a deeper dive into the docs, it quickly becomes obvious that there is good segregation of services with the added benefits of strapping on LDAP and/or 2FA if desired. Toss this behind an NGINX reverse proxy with SSL certs and this looks about as secure as any SSL VPN I have messed with, including OpenVPN and Cisco implementations.

Maybe I am missing it. Can anyone explain how this Guacamole implementation as an ssl vpn on ports 443 would be any weaker or different than any other vendors implementation of the same? Properly configured and hardened of course :D

******************************
Brian Frias
br...@trout-bum.org
http://trout-bum.org
******************************

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[Don Peer]

Ah! So, it's RDP. I assume that you've got GUIs on your VMs you need
access to? What Operating Systems are you hosting?

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/E6BB1EA9-5DF2-4853-8FE7-6B19436B5031%40gmail.com.

--
Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;

Kindness the chorus!

- Don Peer ( o)==#

_________________________
http://www.ThePeers.com
http://www.Facebook.com/DonPeer
http://www.MySpace.com/530803720
http://DPeer2000.BlogSpot.com
http://www.bandmix.com/mond0/

Twitter: @DPeer2000

[Reggie Darden]

It does RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet and more.

I have quite a few VMs. I’m into the home lab scene so I have a few old enterprise servers in a ESXi cluster along with some FreeNAS servers for storage.

Running a couple of Windows servers along with various Linux distros for whatever tickles my fancy.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 11, 2020, at 6:53 PM, Don Peer <dpee...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ah! So, it's RDP. I assume that you've got GUIs on your VMs you need

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHioj9XT4cYL-DCprvnmG-En_q%3DRA9MkB2cNvprcVeGYNHrw2g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Peer]

Wow! Sounds like fun. Unless it's actually work!

  Are you a SysAdmin somewhere?

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/2CCEEDA2-74A6-4648-BCCF-4B62B4873226%40gmail.com.

[Reggie Darden]

It’s super fun. I get to test out things and it’s similar to my environment at work. 

I’m a systems admin for Safran USA. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2020, at 9:11 PM, Don Peer <dpee...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHioj9VCUuOb764BtEspKuXBWdcL-rweKaEvpi_RDK50gmvNRg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Peer]

If you have a minute, would you call me?

775/331.7103

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/B0EF0EA0-2E5A-4B77-AAC3-79911036EE58%40gmail.com.

[Reggie Darden]

Feel free to call, text, or email any time. 

775-386-7774

reggie...@gmail.com

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2020, at 9:18 PM, Don Peer <dpee...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHioj9VFVi4cDUFxBKoKrS_p4K-y-2rZ59P9Qwd3z2LJbjuHRg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Peer]

Thanks for the call, Reggie.

  This address is my musicians address. It's just the one that I had already registered with Google and MeetUp. That's how I first found out about RLUG.

  My Linux email is Mo...@LinuxMail.org

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/4E9E2651-EACE-42CE-92B7-1E1E1175913C%40gmail.com.

[Don Peer]

https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-warns-of-severe-bleedingtooth-bluetooth-flaw-in-linux-kernel/

Mondo

[Daniel Ramon]

Hey everyone, I FINALLY was able to move back to Reno. I'd love to be a part of the group. Did this group ever get a meeting schedule set up?

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CAHioj9Wn4PqneOggvYdgz_jnovYa4syhsYx9E3strbDiBfujzw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Peer]

Sorry, Daniel,

  The first attempt at getting together was foiled by the lock-down and we haven't been able to connect since. I'm still looking forward to making this happen, though!

  Hang in there. This can't go on forever...

Mondo

---

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, it is not certain.

As far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

  ~ Albert Einstein

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/renolug/CANdcnKCQpTePxOjgYXThyRrt7nRzrv6O24psFfeVAKkqFX7ehQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[L. V. Lammert]

On Fri, 16 Oct 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> Sorry, Daniel,
> The first attempt at getting together was foiled by the lock-down and we
> haven't been able to connect since. I'm still looking forward to making
> this happen, though!
> Hang in there. This can't go on forever...
> Mondo
>

Many other LUGs have actually expanded audience during the lockdown, ..
Jitsi is freely available, as is basic Zoom.

For example, the St. Louis LUG (stllug.org) meeting this Thursday on
Wireguard has a speaker from Des Moines, and attendees from Grand Rapids
as well as distant Missouri locations.

Would be happy to host a Zoom session if folks would like, ..

Lee

[Don Peer]

Thanks, Lee,

  That's great to hear! How many LUGs are you a member of? If you're willing and able, it would be great to do something virtual!

  Why don't you go ahead and work out a time for us all to meet online? My schedule is wide open, but others may not be.

What days work best for you all and what time would work best for you?

  I'm looking into Jitsi now!

Mondo

-- 

Love is the music of life;
Compassion is its melody;
Kindness the chorus.
 - Don Peer ( o)==#

[Don Peer]

https://jitsi.linux.it/

Kindness the chorus!

- Don Peer ( o)==#

[Jay Woods]

For me online is a necessity, Reno is 3 hrs away and I can't travel at night because of eye problems.

I am set up for Zoom and Jitsi was tried once.

[Don Peer]

Good morning, Jay,
I'm messing around with jitsi right now. It's really easy; just a web page!
If you want to try it with me, goto https://meet.jit.si/RenoLUG

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[L. V. Lammert]

On Sat, 17 Oct 2020, Don Peer wrote:

> Thanks, Lee,
> That's great to hear! How many LUGs are you a member of? If you're
> willing and able, it would be great to do something virtual!
>

Hey Mondo,

Five or six, .. but St. Louis and Des Moines are the ones that hold
monthly meetings.

> Why don't you go ahead and work out a time for us all to meet online? My
> schedule is wide open, but others may not be.
>

How about inviting you folks to one of the other LUGs?

* St. Louis LUG (stllug.org, also sluug.org) - this Thursday will be a
presentation on Wireguard (from a chap in Des Moines)? Room opens at 6ish
(CDT, 4PN PDT), ..

* The Central Iowa LUG (cialug.org) has a meeting this Wednesday.

I normally attend both, and personally I am very happy about Covid - I
don't get to Des Moines that much any more (my wife is from there), but
with meetings online I can attend every month.

> What days work best for you all and what time would work best for you?
>
> I'm looking into Jitsi now!
>

Excellent! Jitsi is a great Open Source conferencing system, .. but we
have seen problems with larger groups (i.e. over 15-20).

Lee