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Pinebook Pro
by Phil Thane 02 May '20

02 May '20

I promised you a report at some point, so here you go. I ordered a Pinebook Pro as soon the regular user version was available. Pine64 is a very 'open' hardware developer starting with an ARM64 SoC board rather like a Raspberry Pi but more powerful then creating the original Pinebook. The Pro is bigger and more more powerful, but very slim like a Macbook. They are currently developing a PinePhone and PineTime watch. They also have a cluster board and modules and have just begun to shift their own server stuff onto their own ARM64 cluster. All the hardware is released in limited numbers at a prototype stage to keen developers to hack on. Then there's a community edition when the hardware is sorted but the free software community get stuck in to tweak various distros and drivers before finally releasing a polished version to the masses. Mine arrived just after Christmas. Probably the best comparison with other devices would be a Chromebook with a full Linux distro installed. But without the hassle. At the time they were released with an ARM version of Debian. There were a couple of firmware bugs in the first few, a keyboard repeat fault that kkkkkeeeepppptttt repeating letters and a hyper-sensitive touch pad that sent your typing mad if your wrist touched the keypad ever so gently. There was a firmware upgrade issued almost straightaway with very detailed instructions. That omitted one step and sent me into a panic. Sorted though. Debian was OK but a bit dull. Last month Pine64 announced that the Manjaro port that various aficionados had been raving about on the forums was to become the default option on new PinebookPros. And Manjaro released a simple to install version to upgrade existing machines. If you are really keen and want to hack it seems possible to port all manner of OS but I want a laptop to use for all the usual stuff, writing, email, photos... I'm not a hacker. The early port of Manjaro had no installer, one had to use DD to copy an image to the internal EMMC which frankly didn't appeal. The final released version has an install script that works much like any normal distro installer. I chose the KDE version of Manjaro, though once again I failed to get on with Kontact and soon reverted to Thunderbird. When it works Kontact is the closest thing to Outlook (as I remember it from long ago) but it's been a pain ever since they based it around the Akonadi database server. That aside KDE is fine, I've changed the theme a few times and tinkered with the settings, there seems to be an obsession these days with 'Dark Mode' and flat icons nut as ever you can customise it to your heart's content. Manjaro is based on Arch, so my habit of sudo apt... doesn't work and I haven't yet learned the Arch equivalents. There's a good software installer and upgrader though. Software selection is more up to date than Debian, including Gimp 2.10. Both Debian and Manjaro have a problem with 'Sleep' so I suspect it's a firmware thing, there was something on the forum about it a while ago but it went over my head. By trial and error I've figured out that if I have T'bird or Firefox in an active window sleep doesn't work. It seems to, but then wakes up again after a few seconds even if the lid is shut. If you close, or even just minimise the windows then it sleeps like a log. Battery life is pretty good, it usually lasts me a couple of days, but I don't use it much. It was intended to be my connection to the outside world on this year's great boat trip but that's on hold for obvious reasons. All in all I'm pleased with it. It'd be better if there was a UK or even EU supplier, it's $200 US but with delivery and VAT came to £286 here. Still a bargain for a lightweight 14" laptop though. -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

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systemd services which only start on some MAC addresses
by Mark Rogers 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

Sorry for the vague subject! What I want to achieve is a single filesystem image (for a Pi) that can be installed on multiple devices (identical SD card contents) but the list of systemd services that runs will depend on the MAC address of the unit. I can think of various ways to do it, I'm after thoughts as to the best way (which probably isn't in my list!). My thoughts: 1. Have all "optional" services disabled but run a script on startup which selectively starts them (ought to be OK but I'm not sure how robust this would be and by starting manually I'd lose some of the benefits of optimised startup and dependency management by systemd) 2. Modify the actual scripts that the services run so that they do all start, but those that shouldn't run exit immediately. (Would work for my own scripts but not for other system services.) 3. Use systemd "ConditionPathExists" or similar; have a unit which starts first and creates temporary files for all optional units that should start, then those units won't start if the temporary file hasn't been created. Downside is that it means hacking unit files for system services but might be more robust than (1)? Note that I want the list of units started per MAC to be a single file (per MAC or combined, I don't mind) - ie I don't want each service to include the list of MACs that it starts for as that would be a maintenance nightmare. Any other suggestions, or comments about my ideas, or other thoughts? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 1st May.
by Viperfang 28 Apr '20

28 Apr '20

Quick heads up about this months Norwich 2600 meeting, more info at http://www.norwich2600.co.uk

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Forum software that also allows E-Mail posting and reading - any recommendations?
by Chris Green 27 Apr '20

27 Apr '20

I used to belong to a very nice boating forum where you could visit the forum on the web but it also functioned as a mailing list. Sadly they moved platform and changed to a forum which didn't support E-Mail. I'm now looking for forum software which does what their old forum did, I want a web forum which also supports posting and reading by E-Mail. I've discovered Discourse which seems to do this but does anyone know of any other possibilities? To be installed on Ubuntu probably, either a real system or, more likely, a virtual server. -- Chris Green

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Samba 4 as a domain controller
by B D 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

Hi, Where I work, we have a small disconnected network in which there is almost as many servers as users <rofl>. Some are old MS2008r2 some are newer Server 2016 machines and in the next couple of years they all will be out-of-support. With the imminent decision of what to do with the upgrade and my attempt to introduce Nextcloud to the environment I started testing Samba4 as AD. All seams to be working, if I have access to RSAT installed on a Windows workstation, but it gets more complicated from Ubuntu cli. With the help of some tools I found here and there I can manage the domain but it's is far from pretty (not to mention business continuity - if I was to leave such setup no-one would be able to manage - or maybe that's a good thing? ;) My questions here are: #1 - Has anyone came across Samba4 environment or has personal experiences? #2 - Do you know of any tools that would make it easier to manage Samba4? #3 (this is a lengthy one) How on earth RedHat is building its environment where it manages muiltiple client OSs (purely theoretical question but I could consider moving to CentOS if AD management is simpler). Cheers Bart

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Re: [ALUG] Samba 4 as a domain controller
by B D 20 Apr '20

20 Apr '20

Hi Stuart, Zentyal and Nethserver are options that I do consider but they are so heavily customised I'm concerned about installing Nextcloud & Collabora from other packages. That could lead to other problems after a while. Cheers pon., 20 kwi 2020 o 11:32 Stuart Bailey <Stuart.Bailey(a)ast-uk.com> napisał(a): > > Have you looked at Zentyal? > > ________________________________ > From: main <main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk> on behalf of B D <dzidek23(a)gmail.com> > Sent: 20 April 2020 11:29 > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk>; main(a)lists.plug.org.uk <main(a)lists.plug.org.uk> > Subject: [ALUG] Samba 4 as a domain controller > > Hi, > > Where I work, we have a small disconnected network in which there is > almost as many servers as users <rofl>. Some are old MS2008r2 some are > newer Server 2016 machines and in the next couple of years they all > will be out-of-support. With the imminent decision of what to do with > the upgrade and my attempt to introduce Nextcloud to the environment I > started testing Samba4 as AD. > > All seams to be working, if I have access to RSAT installed on a > Windows workstation, but it gets more complicated from Ubuntu cli. > With the help of some tools I found here and there I can manage the > domain but it's is far from pretty (not to mention business continuity > - if I was to leave such setup no-one would be able to manage - or > maybe that's a good thing? ;) > > My questions here are: > #1 - Has anyone came across Samba4 environment or has personal experiences? > #2 - Do you know of any tools that would make it easier to manage Samba4? > #3 (this is a lengthy one) How on earth RedHat is building its > environment where it manages muiltiple client OSs (purely theoretical > question but I could consider moving to CentOS if AD management is > simpler). > > Cheers > Bart > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

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DMARC and ALUG
by Mark Rogers 17 Apr '20

17 Apr '20

I've been made aware of some of my messages to this list going into spam because of a failed DMARC check. How should I fix this? Note: I have control over my sending domain's DNS. Should I just remove the DMARC DNS record? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Cheap Linux VPS
by Steve Mynott 16 Apr '20

16 Apr '20

Can anyone recommend a cheap Linux VPS? -- Steve Mynott <steve.mynott(a)gmail.com> cv25519/ECF8B611205B447E091246AF959E3D6197190DD5

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Re: [ALUG] Installing Ubuntu dual-boot on an Asus X512FAC laptop
by Mark Rogers 15 Apr '20

15 Apr '20

On Tue, 14 Apr 2020 at 18:32, B D <dzidek23(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > I wonder if your "corrupted" drive is a hibernated (locked) ntfs > partition... in windows 10 when you "power down" the OS it hibernates > more that switches off. Try to load hard drive pulled from windows > machine and you are more than likely to find "corrupted"/inaccessible > filesystem. The corrupted partition is where the EFI boot code sits, that is FAT not NTFS. That said I did disable Windows fast boot (or whatever it is called) as I know that doesn't play nicely with dual boot because, as you say, it leaves the main Windows partition locked. > I'm really interested what did you had to do to fix the EFI boot? Wiped the disk and let Ubuntu do its thing. >From what I read, if I now reinstall Windows it'll mess up grub (to be expected) but aside from that (which grub-repair will fix) that will allow dual boot. But I don't have sufficient need for dual-boot that I can be bothered now I have a working Ubuntu install. > For the num lock issues have you tried to update the BIOS to the latest version? Yes, and sadly no option, which seems an odd omission but there you go I have opened a support ticket with ASUS, I'm sure they can tell me if I have missed something.. Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Numlock at boot (grub)
by Mark Rogers 14 Apr '20

14 Apr '20

So now the laptop boots, and I have the boot disk encrypted. But like every good password it includes numbers, and the laptop boots with numlock off. Annoyingly there's no UEFI setting for it. Does anyone know if there's a way to force numlock on before entering the encryption password? Seems like an obvious need but the only answers I have found are to enable it in the BIOS which only works if the option is there. I do have numlockx installed but that only kicks in later in the boot. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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