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NAS
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 13 May '24

13 May '24

OK, so in my quest to simplify things, I'm going to eventually do-away with my server. Can anyone recommend a NAS? Old me would probably have rolled-my-own with FreeNas or similar, but perhaps I need to go "of-the-shelf". Should I get RAID, or not bother? My fileserver is RAIDed (mirrored). Any thoughts? Cheers Steve

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Mail Woes - new provider needed.
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 24 Apr '24

24 Apr '24

Posted Midday Friday 12/4/24 I'm not sure if my previous post yesterday about mail problems will get posted on the group or not. This supersedes it. Yesterday I became aware that I couldn't send outgoing email. I run my own mailserver, and it seems that due to my email addresses being harvested and used in spam, my mailserver's IP address had been blacklisted, so I couldn't send email. After emailing my ISP and one of the websites that had me listed, I find I can send email again. This is good. But being able to send email is quite important to me (!), so being unable to do has increased the need to migrate away from my own mail server soon. So - where to go? What do I do/need? I have taken advantage of my mailserver's forwarding, so that I can have email addresses like user-suffix@mydomain will all route to user@mydomain, no matter what suffix. I have no idea of what suffixes I have used over the years. :-( I'd like to be able to continue that, but if not, it shouldn't reject user-randomsuffix@mydomain and instead route it to a default recipient. Hopefully! 3 main users. For 2 I'd probably like to do a blanket redirect to other email addresses that they mainly use now. e.g. user2@mydomain, and user2-anysuffix@mydomain redirect to user2@gmail I can probably move the whole domain to a new provider. I don't have a website or FTP. I use VPN to remote in to it, to access machines, but I can probably hack that with a dynamic DNS. So it's mainly email. Any thoughts please? Steve

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Pruning online inbox to store on laptop
by Bev Nicolson 16 Apr '24

16 Apr '24

I finally decided to start using Betterbird a while ago. Given the way two of my accounts are set up (storage on my ISP's servers is limited) I need to prune them. I'd like to store the emails on my laptop but none of Betterbird's menu options make it clear how to do that. Are the local folder folders just for offline storage or what? (I have googled. It didn't help.) I'm sure this is a very basic question but all help gratefully received. Bev

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Kubuntu hard lockups since December
by Srdjan Todorovic 21 Feb '24

21 Feb '24

Hi all Anyone else experiencing hard lockups since approx December 2023 on Ubuntu / Kubuntu? I've got the same hardware, there's no hardware changes. I suspect it might have been a kernel / driver upgrade, I did pull some info from dpkg logs that said 12th December > 2023-12-12 09:47:49 upgrade linux-image-generic:amd64 5.15.0.89.86 5.15.0.91.88 Does this mean that I went from version 5.15.0.89.86 to version 5.15.0.91.88? How does one revert back to test for stability? When the lockup occurs, it seems that all graphics processes freeze, mouse freezes. No blinking lights on the keyboard. I vaguely remember that sometimes I can switch to one of the other terminals (what used to be tty2-6) but nothing seems to respond. When I tried to do this a couple of weeks ago, it seemed to be wanting to remove lots of things, and I never proceeded. > sudo apt-get purge linux-image-5.15.0-91-generic I had journal logging to Konsole back then and saw some messages (I have a phone on my phone) about PCIe Bus Error, BadTLP and BadDLLP and timeouts, Uncorrected fatal errors with AER, and nvme0: frozen state and PCIe bus error. How does one even know if their NVME drive is failing? AFAIK, smartctl doesnt work on them in the same way it does on spinning drives. Or is this a kernel bug? Thanks, Srdjan

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Choosing a distro
by Mark Rogers 02 Feb '24

02 Feb '24

I've been using Linux for a long time. I started out playing with RedHat around 25y ago but having been burnt by some RPM dependency issues that horribly broke a server (and not just once) I have been on Ubuntu since around 2005 and therefore far more comfortable with .deb/Apt. Recent Ubuntu versions have gone off in some odd directions. I actually didn't mind Unity (didn't love it either) but have never got on with Gnome 3. I'm currently running Kubuntu on my desktop (my first attempt to use KDE as my daily driver) and I'm getting on OK with it. Where I seem to get stuck frequently now is with Ubuntu's move towards Snaps, mostly due to the arguable reasonable sandboxing design just getting in my way all the time. So I'm wondering whether it's time to take a step back and reconsider my options. I assume that RedHat derived distros should no longer scare me because of packaging issues, but maybe the whole CentOS saga should be enough to keep me away? I use Debian quite a lot on things like headless Raspberry Pis but I like that Ubuntu tends to be more up to date. Should I grow a pair and look at Gentoo/Arch or their derivatives? Should I pick something like Mint? I quite like the idea of a rolling distro but maybe experience would change that. I guess my priority is "low hassle" - I'm not looking to spend my time playing with Linux just to get a job done. If there's software I need to install I want a decent chance of being able to do that without lots of extra work because I picked a niche distro that the developer/packager never considered. But I'm far more likely to be installing stuff from a terminal than a GUI, I'm not particularly looking for "user friendly". I guess "power user", with equal emphasis on both those words (I want something to use, not tinker with). Really that's why I keep defaulting to Ubuntu, but even that's getting in my way more often than it used to. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0344 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Re: Choosing a Distro (Mark Rogers)
by peter.northerly＠gmail.com 31 Jan '24

31 Jan '24

I've been using Debian for years now. Decades in fact! If Stable is not up to date enough you can move to Testing, which I did for a while without any problems, but for now am just sticking with Stable. Its always worked perfectly. Debian is where people end up. I use Fluxbox myself, as WM, which I find perfect, and Lightdm as DM. Its fast, keeps out of the way, handles workspaces very well, i have lots of keyboard shortcuts which makes it very convenient. It has a really neat feature, you can combine different apps into tabs in the same window. So for instance, you are writing something and need to refer to a web site and a spreadsheet as you write. You have all three apps open in tabs in the same window and can just click back and forwards between them. I have put in MATE on Debian for someone else, and that has worked out very well. MATE is also very simple and keeps out of the way, and the team have the rare ability to refrain from fixing what works. Its about like Gnome 2 used to be, before they went crazy and ruined it. Debian is Systemd now, which I don't much like. If you want Debian without Systemd, then probably MX Linux. I might go for this if changing distros, but am not bothered enough to move from Debian for it. Or there is Devuan. Mint with MATE for someone I put it in for was also fine. It depends what you want, Mint strikes me as full-on consumer grade. Whereas if you install plain Debian, Fluxbox with Lightdm, tweak the right click menu, startup and keyboard shortcuts to suit you, you have something which will probably suit you better and keep out of the way, but it would not be fair to install that for a naive user. I have tried tiling WMs, but they are not for me. i3 is said to be the best. So I think this is a vote for Debian with Fluxbox. Or, if you want to keep away from Systemd, MX Linux. One reason for going with Debian is that its going to be around for ever. Not sure about some of the less used distros, and that is a real factor for me. And if you decide you want a full-fat consumer experience, Mint. There is not going to be a huge difference between Mint with MATE and Debian with MATE. You could also put Fluxbox on Mint. I think Mint, like Debian, will be around. I have tried Arch in a VM, and didn't care for it, but it has a great user community and excellent documentation. Matter of taste, really. I use Foxclone for backups by the way. Really recommended. Peter

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Re: GIMP - book recommendations?
by Bev Nicolson 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

Thank you both. I shall have a look at those. Bev On Sun, 2024-01-21 at 11:06 +0000, BD wrote: > Hi, > > I never used gimp for anything more than simple image manipulation as > it is quite advanced. Similarly never had the need to look at other > options. > > In the past I had to learn how to use Inkscape and tutorial from "TJ > free" was more than enough. Have a look at this playlist as it might > be what you are looking for: > https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqazFFzUAPc4vITMJaF3Fnqh3pccSMnC4 > > Cheerio, > Bart > 21 Jan 2024 08:51:08 Bev Nicolson <lumos(a)gmx.co.uk>: > > > I confess I find GIMP baffling, for the most part. I've tried > > figuring > > it out, I got a book on it a while back but it didn't help that > > much to > > be honest. All I can do is simple stuff like re-sizing phots or > > (if I > > can find the widget again) resythnesizing. > > > > Does anyone know if there's anything like a Dummies Guide to GIMP > > out > > there? Something that explains it clearly and simply (like you've > > never > > used photo editing software before) *and* gives a glossary of > > terms > > too? > > > > Bev > > _______________________________________________ > > To unsubscribe send an email to main-leave(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

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GIMP - book recommendations?
by Bev Nicolson 21 Jan '24

21 Jan '24

I confess I find GIMP baffling, for the most part. I've tried figuring it out, I got a book on it a while back but it didn't help that much to be honest. All I can do is simple stuff like re-sizing phots or (if I can find the widget again) resythnesizing. Does anyone know if there's anything like a Dummies Guide to GIMP out there? Something that explains it clearly and simply (like you've never used photo editing software before) *and* gives a glossary of terms too? Bev

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Transferring sms to computer
by Bev Nicolson 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

Are there any Linux apps for transferring sms messages to a computer? I'm getting new phone and am keen to keep the texts (or some at least) I have on the old one. The only caveat is that it is quite an old phone. (Android 7.1. Old.) TIA. Bev

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Editing SVG files at commandline
by Mark Rogers 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

I have some large svg files I need to edit that crash programs like Inkscape when I try to do much with them, but the changes I want to make are essentially removing bits from them that I don't want which are easily found within the svg if viewed as text, What I'm looking for is a way to do things like: - completely remove group B which is nested inside group B - remove all "path" elements residing inside group C, unless they match a regex pattern - move all elements from group D into group E (or ungroup them) I imagine that with the rightXML skillset, which I don't have, this is probably fairly simple? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0344 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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