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hosts.deny
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 05 Sep '15

05 Sep '15

Hi y’all! Could someone enlighten me about hosts.allow & hosts.deny please? I was reading up on linux networking, and it said I should consider the contents of these files. So networking aside, I've read up a bit and am a lot confused. As far as I can find, 1) if there's an match in hosts.allow an address is allowed to contact the machine. 2) if no match in 1), then if there's a match in hosts.deny, then the address is not allowed to contact the machine 3) if no match in 1 or 2, then the address is allowed to contact the machine. Is this right so far? If so, what's typically in hosts.deny? I ask because I've obviously edited this in the past - I have a vague recollection of doing it because I couldn't get anything working and I just stripped it all out - I know - a very very bad idea. All I've got in there is: ALL: ALL: ::1 As far as I can figure out, the first line, ALL: would do nothing. ALL: ::1 I think would block all IPV6 addresses from contacting. Is my interpretation of the above right? What's typically in the hosts.deny for a server? If it's set up to block by default, then what should I enable? Is it sufficient to use netstat to work out what's listening for a conversation and just allow these things if I think they should be allowed. If so what's the correct use of netstat to find out? If I have things running as cron jobs rather than as a daemon to check things, do I have to specifically allow these to contact the outside world, or is hosts.allow/deny just for daemons? Lastly, does this work like a firewall? As I have firewall already set up, is it a good idea to spend time on hosts.allow/deny as well? Any advice appreciated muchly! Steve

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Linux laptops
by samwise 04 Sep '15

04 Sep '15

So my main HP Pavilion laptop recently died ... it looks pretty permanent. It had a fairly good run, so I'm going to have to start looking for a replacement. Just wondered if anyone had any interesting thoughts or suggestions. I'm looking for a main PC. Sort of interested in shared tablet things like the Lenovo Yoga 3, though I'm not sure if it's a mite small. I see there has been some success getting Debian running on it. Peter. -- I ran the London Marathon 2015 in aid of the PSP Association. All sponsorship gratefully received. :) http://www.bagshot-row.org/marathonformum

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Cambridge Beer?
by Brett Parker 03 Sep '15

03 Sep '15

This probably more belongs on alug-social, but as we've not had a post on there in, like, totally forever... Anyone around the Cambridge area fancy a beer or 3 tomorrow? I recommend the Haymakers, but am happy to be convinced of the merits of other pubs... Cheers! -- Brett Parker

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 4th September.
by Viperfang 03 Sep '15

03 Sep '15

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

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Disc Errors
by Chris Walker 02 Sep '15

02 Sep '15

Hello, I have 3 SATA discs on my machine. One has Windows on it, another has Mageia 5 and the third is designated as Disc_Swap_Space to allow me to swap files between Windows and Mageia. It's formatted to NTFS. I prefer that to allowing Windows to write to any linux drives. But even though the swap drive functions perfectly under Windows, Mageia won't mount it. It complains 'non-zero exit status 14' and say that the file system is unclean. But I've run all the checks under Windows and that thinks it is clean. So how can I persuade Mageia to use it again? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:alug_cdw@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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update-alternatives --config java
by Paul Grenyer 02 Sep '15

02 Sep '15

Hi All I've installed Java 8 on my Linux Mint machine here: /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.8.0_60 and I want to be able to switch between it and currently installed Java version with: sudo update-alternatives --config java However, I can't find how to add Java 8 to one of the update alternatives options. Can someone help me out, please? -- Thanks Paul Paul Grenyer e: paul.grenyer(a)gmail.com b: paulgrenyer.blogspot.com t: pjgrenyer Have you thought what Naked Element could do for you? http://nakedelement.co.uk/ It's time to get technical: http://norfolkdevelopers.com

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Want an application for scanning and maximising WiFi signals
by Chris Green 30 Aug '15

30 Aug '15

I'm currently playing with an Alpha Networks external/outdoor USB WiFi device. It's essentially just a WiFi dongle with an aerial in a waterproof box on the end of a long USB cable. Thus you can position it in a window or up a pole outside to get a connection to a fairly distant WiFi source. I need a way to find and then maximise WiFi signals, you can't really just use Network Manager as there no easy way to monitor a signal while waving the aerial around. I have found wpa_gui which isn't very good, I can't get it to scan repeatedly at any reasonable rate. I have also tried iwScanner which is better but is no longer maintained and crashes at intervals, it would be nice if it could scan faster too. Can anyone recommend a good tool for this job, just needs to allow one to select a WiFi signal and then show its signal strength as a bar which is refreshed reasonably frequently. -- Chris Green

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Sort of OT (off Linux) but still - outdoor router that supports EAP-SIM authentication
by Chris Green 16 Aug '15

16 Aug '15

It's not really specifically Linux but it's computery. Does anyone know of an outdoor WiFi client box (i.e. something similar to the TP-Link TL-WA7210) that supports EAP-SIM authentication? EAP-SIM is authentication using data from a SIM but authenticates a WiFi connection. There are descriptions of how to do EAP-SIM authentication via wpa_supplicant in a Linux box but that requires the WiFi hardware to be in (or directly connected to) the Linux box. I'm after a way of doing it in a remote outdoor router connected by ethernet to my Linux box. I'm already investigating the alternative way of doing this with an outdoor USB WiFi adapter plugged into the Linux box. This is possibly the way to go but it's not all that straightforward getting USB WiFi adapters to work with Linux so the above external router method might be easier. -- Chris Green

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Exploit
by Anthony Anson 13 Aug '15

13 Aug '15

Can't remember where I saw this, but in case it's news to anybody: https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2015/08/06/firefox-exploit-found-in-the-w… -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 13th August
by Viperfang 12 Aug '15

12 Aug '15

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 13th August at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Huge file transfers?
by John Cohen 07 Aug '15

07 Aug '15

Apart from dropbox and other proprietary syncing software, how do you share large files (Say, 30 or 50GB) easily and securely with another person/client? I could buy wetransfer plus etc but I'd rather keep the files under my roof, saving time (not having to upload them somewhere else before sharing them) and not worrying about privacy issues. I have an FTP server which works fine, but when it comes to customers and other teamworkers who aren't that tech savvy, they just prefer using wetransfer or similar services, where files are dropped and uploaded on a browser and users notified by mail with a download link. (plus FTP isn't secure, and SFTP is complex if using keys when sharing with customers) I've tried the the following F*EX Pros: 1) pretty good because it's not PHP based and therefore hasn't got php / apache upload limitations. 2) The system feels pretty robust after trying it out and uses minimal resources. Cons: 1) Pretty ugly, and customization is basic unless you're a guru (which I'm not) 2) Relies on a mail server. I have postfix installed but I'd rather not have to rely on it as it's another layer of complication (namely emails arriving in clients spam folders, etc) Zendto Pros: 1) looks much more sophisticated in terms of functionality 2) looks very slick. Cons: 1) Php based. upload limits are 2gb unless tweaked, but even then not a great way to serve VERY large files (customers download interruptions etc) 2) Still relies on installing a mail server for notifications Owncloud Pros 1) Has a sync client for huge files, good for file sharing between work colleagues 2) easy to use for everyone 3) can send notifications with external mail server Cons: 1) Bit of a resource hog as it's designed for file syncing, not sending a large file from A to B 2) When sharing with others outside the team (via links), apache and browser limitations still exist. I can't guarantee clients have an up-to-date browser, and I wouldn't rely on sharing a file that large via php. Is there any other open source solution that you've tried which is both robust for huge file sharing and easy for the average folk to use? Any personal experiences? John

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How to prevent Google redirects to www.googleadservices.com?
by Chris Green 06 Aug '15

06 Aug '15

I use Google Shopping quite a lot but I'd like to prevent the redirects that record one's clicks through to sellers' web sites. These redirects also occur on the advertising links returned when you do a normal Google search. E.g. if you search for 'Sandals' in Google you will see a number of adverts (for places selling sandals amazingly) down the right hand side with a little yellow "Ads" at the top. I want to be able to click on these adverts and *not* get redirected via www.googleadservices.com. This is the default means by which advertisers see that you have clicked through from a Google search. Some advertisers don't go via www.googleadservices.com (e.g. eBay and Amazon), presumably they do their own thing somehow. Anyway I just want to go direct to the advertiser's/seller's site when I click the link, both for provacy and for speed. Surely there's a Firefox add-on that does this for me, all it needs to do is extract //www.toolandfix.com/carters-862e28-replacement-spade-and-fork-bent-taper-t-shovel-handle-28.html%3Futm_source%3Dgoogle_shopping from http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=CPuTM3g-5VdO6NKLk7gb16a… -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 7th August.
by Viperfang 04 Aug '15

04 Aug '15

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

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What Ad blockers do you use?
by Chris Green 28 Jul '15

28 Jul '15

What Ad blocking plugins do people use here (Firefox on Xubuntu mostly)? -- Chris Green

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Huge file transfers?
by John Cohen 24 Jul '15

24 Jul '15

Apart from dropbox and other proprietary syncing software, how do you share large files (Say, 30 or 50GB) easily and securely with another person/client? I could buy the service of wetransfer plus etc but I'd rather keep the files under my roof, saving time (not having to upload them somewhere else before sharing them) and not worrying about privacy issues. I have an FTP server which works fine, but when it comes to customers and other teamworkers who aren't that tech savvy, they just prefer using wetransfer or similar services, where files are dropped and uploaded on a browser and users notified by mail with a download link. I've tried the the following F*EX Pros: 1) pretty good because it's not PHP based and therefore hasn't got php / apache upload limitations. 2) The system feels pretty robust after trying it out and uses minimal resources. Cons: 1) Pretty ugly, and customization is basic unless you're a guru (which I'm not) 2) Relies on a mail server. I have postfix installed but I'd rather not have to rely on it as it's another layer of complication (namely emails arriving in clients spam folders, etc) Zendto Pros: 1) looks much more sophisticated in terms of functionality 2) looks very slick. Cons: 1) Php based. upload limits are 2gb unless tweaked, but even then not a great way to serve VERY large files (customers download interruptions etc) 2) Still relies on installing a mail server for notifications Owncloud Pros 1) Has a sync client for huge files, good for file sharing between work colleagues 2) easy to use for everyone 3) can send notifications with external mail server Cons: 1) Bit of a resource hog as it's designed for file syncing, not sending a large file from A to B 2) When sharing with others outside the team (via links), apache and browser limitations still exist. I can't garantee clients have an up-to-date browser, and I wouldn't rely on sharing a file that large via php. Is there any other open source solution that you've tried which is both robust for huge file sharing and easy for the average folk to use? Any personal experiences? Cheers, John

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IFTTT and FOSS alternatives
by Mark Rogers 21 Jul '15

21 Jul '15

Background: A couple of times I've had my garage freezer defrost. I'm pretty sure it's not failed, just that the door isn't properly shut, so I want to find a simple way to monitor it. I already have some basic wireless energy monitors and I figure a reduction in average usage (eg it failed) or an increase (door open) would be a good place to start. I've not done anything like this before and I'm thinking about building it around a Pi. But for the "if the energy drops below X or goes above Y for a period of Z then send me an email/text message/other alert" bit I figure I should use something standard. IFTTT came to mind (never used it, been aware of it for years). Or, if I care about my data, a FOSS alternative (Huginn and Bip.io came up from a Google search). Anyone here had any experience of anything like this to make a recommendation? This is intended to be the start of an adventure where I start playing with all sorts of potential triggers and actions so to be honest I'm not so fussed about a specific solution as I am in finding a gateway into something to play with. IoT is something I'd like to experiment with in general, but due to lack of time I really need to be able to get something useful up and running pretty easily that I can then extend when time permits. 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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Adobe Flash alternatives
by Bev Nicolson 18 Jul '15

18 Jul '15

And getting them working in Firefox, specifically. Given that version 18 of Flash is unlikely to be heading to to an update manager near me any time soon (or indeed anytime at all) and Firefox has restricted it, I'd be quite keen to swop. I've got gnash and lightspark installed now, but how do I get Firefox to recognise them. Bev.

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th July
by Viperfang 06 Jul '15

06 Jul '15

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th July at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 3rd July.
by Viperfang 30 Jun '15

30 Jun '15

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

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Reliable PCIE USB3 cards
by Mark Rogers 25 Jun '15

25 Jun '15

I've bought a number of USB3 cards in the past which usually work for a while but never for long. Maybe a reboot will bring them back to life, maybe it won't! Any recommendations for a good USB3 card for Linux (Ubuntu)? It'll be mainly used for accessing external USB drives, which may be connected 24/7. Chipset recommendations are useful, but I'm learning that either the card matters as much as teh chipset or not all chipsets are what they claim to be. Ideally I want 4 external ports, but 2 would suffice most of the time. (Everything that I connect to it will be powered so minimal USB power required, although I assume I'll still need to supply additional power to the card?) 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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Unable to install grub to server
by Jenny Hopkins 19 Jun '15

19 Jun '15

Hi all, I'd be grateful for some help getting my server booting again. It's running debian jessie, with software RAID and LVM, running xen (or was). Yesterday one of the disks failed, so I ordered another, and, when it arrived today, removed the dead one from the array, put the new disk in, and.....landed at the grub rescue prompt. So I booted up into a rescue disk, assembled the RAID, mounted the root on /mnt, and did a chroot. Running install-grub on the disk (/dev/sdb) gave me this error: warning: your core.img is unusually large. It won't fit in the embedding area. error: embedding is not possible, but this is required for RAID and LVM install. So I looked at the partition table. I have two partitions, /dev/sdb1 and /dev/sdb2. The latter is nearly 1TB, and is the root. Both are of type 'linux raid autodetect'. /dev/sdb1 started at 63, so I deleted this partition, created a new one as type linux raid autodetect, and it was automatically assigned the start of 2048. Then I ran grub install again, calling the raid and ext2 and lvm modules, but now I keep getting the error grub-install: error: unknown filesystem I'm not entirely sure what I'm actually doing here....been searching for help for hours. I found one page that suggested grub2 gets confused by a single disk in an array. Here's the current partition table: Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type /dev/sdb1 2048 996029 993982 485.4M fd Linux raid autodetect /dev/sdb2 * 996030 1915060454 1914064425 912.7G fd Linux raid autodetect /boot is part of the root on /dev/sdb2 rather than a separate lvm one. I'm not entirely sure how it even managed to boot before, but I only had the /dev/sda2 and /dev/sdb2 in a raid array, so there must have been a subtle difference in /dev/sda that had allowed grub to install to it. Maybe grub was installed before I created the RAID array - I originally only had one disk in there? Anyway, any suggestions very welcome. The trouble with a xen server being that all my eggs are in one proverbial basket. Jenny

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Re: [ALUG] Reliable PCIE USB3 cards
by Mark Rogers 18 Jun '15

18 Jun '15

On 18 June 2015 at 15:31, Bobby Moss <bobbyjmoss(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Wouldn't it make more sense to hang fire until USB3.1 PCIe cards appear? To be honest I know nothing about USB3.1. Any idea when cards might appear? Even so I'd probably only use the release of USB3.1 as an opportunity to get a decent USB3 card cheap and wait for USB3.1 cards to come down in price (and get any bugs fixed!). In the meantime, though, I have drives I need access to now, and I'm currently having to either shuffle them between the available USB3 front ports I have or drop to USB2. So an interim solution is still worthwhile to me. I will keep an eye out for USB3.1 though. -- 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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Detecting ethernet cabling issues
by Mark Rogers 17 Jun '15

17 Jun '15

Are there any tools that would help detect/locate cabling issues? I suspect I have a dodgy connection on a length of cable that runs outside my house between my (Ubuntu) desktop and my (OpenWrt) router. There's a gigabit switch between the two although I could probably reroute cables enough to bypass that if necessary. My old desktop has been generally slow for a while, and now that I've replaced it with a new PC, with a fresh install to a new SSD, it's (very disappointingly) no better. Given that most of what I use it for uses the network in some way I'm thinking that's my next place to look. 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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external HDD
by Anthony Anson 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

Just bought a portable hard drive enclosure and USB2 connection cable. The cable has two large USB connectors at one end - the second of which has a much shorter and skinnier cable; and a mini connector at the enclosure end. My not-very-portable storage of similar type, but big, has only one USB connector per end of its cable. I infer from this that the only one of the connectors at the pooter end should be (need be?) plugged in? The 500 GB HDD in the enclosure is SATA, as is the 160 GB one in the notebook. (because I had thought of installing things on the big one and puting it in the notebook...) Anyway, I can't poke it into life. I get the rude message: /Unable to mount location/ and underneath that: /Can't mount file./ Where is the fault? Hardware? Me? (I had meant to bring it along to the Norwich meet last night, but ) -- Tony http://www.girolle.co.uk/

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Mulberry Tree
by samwise 15 Jun '15

15 Jun '15

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back today, 15th June, at 20:00: The Mulberry Tree 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 225776 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA WWW: https://www.facebook.com/MULBERRYHOSPITALITY The Mulberry Tree, previously known as The Milestone Beer House, is a grade 2 listed building in the centre of Ipswich. It is located at the intersection between Woodbridge Road and the A1156, across the road from the old Odeon cinema and not far from the Regent Theatre. It re-opened on Thursday March 29th 2012 after a major refurbishment, under its original name of The Mulberry House and has already begun to regain a good reputation for its selection of beers and ales. It has a sizeable car park to the rear of the building. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I'll be there, but I may be a tad late ... Cheers, Peter. -- I ran the London Marathon 2015 in aid of the PSP Association. All sponsorship gratefully received. :) http://www.bagshot-row.org/marathonformum ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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