Effective 17 February, the Ubuntu Arizona Local Community Team (AZLOCO) will only hold on line meetings on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month. The time, 9:00-9:30 pm, and of course the IRC channel, #ubuntu-us-az on freenode.net, will remain the same. This change is the result of several factors, the low attendance at the on line meetings and the apparent repetitive release of information. The meeting notes will continue to be sent to those members who have subscribed to the AZLOCO mailing list.

I setup a gigabit switch and wanted to check the transfer rate between 2 linux systems.

1) Using iperf
==============
install iperf on both server and client, sudo apt install iperf

on server: iperf -s
on client: iperf -c server_host
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to server_host, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 85.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[ 3] local 10.0.0.44 port 36798 connected with 10.0.0.30 port 5001
[ ID] Interval Transfer Bandwidth
[ 3] 0.0-10.0 sec 1.09 GBytes 939 Mbits/sec

2) Using nc
===========
nothing to install, nc is already installed.

on server: nc -vvlnp 12345 >/dev/null
on client: dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1K | nc -vv server_host 12345

Connection to server_host 12345 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 9.16265 s, 117 MB/s

iperf reports 939 Mbits/sec, about same as 117 MB/s (divide 939 / 8 bits/byte)

END

So for anyone who actually read the first email i sent out they’d remember i removed the write protection screw from the Asus C200 that Rex gave me.. and then i proceeded to unlock the developer edition of the chromeOS and then i used https://mrchromebox.tech/#fwscript (Firmware Utility Script) to overwrite the default BIOS of the chromebook with a custom EFI bios and then i attempted to install Antergos and had it fail to a EFI issue so i went with the Default Linux Distro for Chromebooks GalliumOS 2.1 for a while.. and then went to the Alpha Branch of 3.0 for a bit. but i was never really to happy since i prefer an Arch distro.. so this is where part two comes into play..

i wiped the drive again and installed Antergos from an USB and again was hit by the efi issue so it wouldn’t boot.. well i found out by hitting “ESC” while the bios loaded i could go into the Boot Maintenance Manager of the BIOS and find the efi file by default from antergos and finally get my chromebook to load antergos. but i obviously was not going to do this every time.. so here comes the fix for the first issue with using an distro that does not place the EFI in the right place when using a EFI based BIOS on a chromebook

sudo su
mkdir -p /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT cp /boot/efi/EFI/antergos_grub/grubx64.efi
/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi

this fixed my issue with the distro not loading correctly on boot. so i now had a working laptop without any “major” issues.. another issue with chromebooks is the fact GalliumOS uses a custom kernel to have audio working.. so i attempted to use the AUR (Arch User Repository) to build and install the GalliumOS kernel for me and be done with it.. seemed easy and was going to take no hassle. well unfortunately that meant it wanted to sync that github on my laptop and then build the kernel from the machine and then install it… issues with that was my chromebook only has 13gb of storage.. so that solution instantly got shut down… so after a few hours of googling and searching i finally found something on the bugs.archlinux.org for an older bug report with kernel 4.5.0.1 breaking audio on these chromebooks.. and someone had a fix for it that worked for them.. i tried it.. and i got it to work finally after many tries and hours…

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/plbossart/UCM.git
cd UCM
sudo cp -r chtmax98090/ /usr/share/alsa/ucm/
alsaucm -c chtmax98090 set _verb HiFi set _enadev Speakers
sudo alsactl store

running this initially would do nothing but throw up some errors about parsing a certain file/folder and would never completely work so i gave up for a bit.. and went back to googling and trying to find another solution.. and after finding no other working solution i tried again.. but this time.. i decided to look for the said folder and file on the machine to see what was going on with those and why it wouldn’t work.. and this is where i finally found my solution to get working audio on my chromebook with kernel 4.18.4 and finally having it show the actual sound card rather then dummy output..

i made the folder
/usr/share/alsa/ucm/GOOGLE-Quawks-1.0-Quawks/
and then i copied the files from
/usr/share/alsa/ucm/chtmax98090 to the newly created folder and then
renamed chtmax98090.conf to GOOGLE-Quawks-1.0-Quawks.conf

and reran the last two lines of the last commands i did before.. and rather than having it spit errors out at me this time.. it worked and after a reboot i had a working Chromebook with Arch and sound.. i do use Volume Amplification because sound is a bit quiet to me.. but it at least works.. also with running Arch versus GalliumOS the trackpad on the Chromebook now works as a normal laptop. no longer do i need to two finger tap the trackpad for a right click it now somehow separated the bottom of the trackpad for right click and left click.

i write this because Rex thought it would be a nice thing to allow others to see the process and the ability of a chromebook with some tinkering and a lot of bug fixing.

As some of you may already know, the Tempe Ubuntu Hour that was scheduled to meet at Xtreme Bean every 4th Thursday had been canceled because there was no one to host it. Our previous host had moved to North Phoenix. Well, pavlos has accepted the mantle and will now be hosting the Tempe Ubuntu Hour on the 4th Thursday of each month effective immediately as well as the Tempe Ubuntu Hour on the 1st Thursday of each month. Both Ubuntu Hours will meet at the Xtreme Bean, 1707 E. Southern Ave. in Tempe. Come out and enjoy some time away from your very busy schedule. While the Ubuntu Hour is nominally a social get together designed for members to grab a cup of coffee or a soda and talk to other members and prospective members, inevitably the conversation turns to some project or problem that one person has and solutions are offered by others present. It is a chance to share your knowledge with others and possible pick up a solution to that computer problem that has been nagging you.

With an installfest approaching (back on 04 August) and being devoid of Canonical flash drives to distribute to the new people who always show up and want to have Ubuntu installed on their computer, a conference pack was ordered from Canonical which would include the flash drives as well as other swag to be distributed to new converts. The conference pack arrived well before the installfest date (on 25 June) but the flash drives were of the 16.04 variety. Since 18.04 had been released on 26 April, we wanted to install the latest and greatest. With experienced people on hand in Sierra Vista we split the task of creating the Ubuntu 18.04 install media on the newly arrived Canonical flash drives. At the installfest five of the 25 flash drives were used to attempt to install Ubuntu on a Mac-Mini. All five installed Ubuntu 18.04 but failed to reboot after the flash drive was removed. This gave us cause to believe that perhaps the flash drives were not any good or could not be rewritten with a newer version in them. Not likely because we had been rewriting them as each point release came out for Ubuntu 16.04.
After the installfest three additional Canonical flash drives were used to attempt an install on a Dell Opti-Plex. The result was the same. The 18.04 ISOs had been downloaded using torrent so the hashes had not been checked prior to the installfest or being written to the flash drives. However after so many had failed, they were checked (SHA256SUM) and the hashes matched. In addition the Ubuntu 18.04.1 ISO was downloaded (again using torrent and the hashes again matched). Ubuntu 18.04.1 was used to create install media on three Canonical flash drives. They were also used in an attempt to install on the Dell Opti-Plex but failed after the install and reboot just before the user login appeared. This was the same result as the 18.04 flash drives.
In an attempt to eliminate possibilities, Ubuntu 16.04.4 was written to a flash drive and attempt to install was made. In this case it was successful. Now it was assumed that the Canonical flash drives would not allow the 18.04 version. This was quickly disavowed when the 18.04 versions of Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, and Ubuntu Budgie were downloaded and placed on Canonical flash drives using Startup Disk Creator. In turn each was successfully installed on a partition and rebooted. So it could not possibly be defective Canonical flash drives.
Several personal flash drives were made available and Ubuntu 18.04.1 were placed on them using Startup Disk Creator. Once again each installed on the Dell Opti-Plex but the screen would freeze just prior to the login appearing after the withdrawal of the flash drive and reboot, the same location it had always been freezing. Not to be outdone and to cover all bases, an installation with nomodeset was attempted with the same result. One article on the internet suggested that instead of writing over partitions that perhaps they should be deleted prior to the install. This didn’t really make any sense but it was tried as well with the exact same result. Running out of options, a minimal install was tried and once again we had an installation but a screen freeze prior to the login. In many of these cases the option of Try Ubuntu was activated before installing. Also the icon on the Desktop as well as the icon in the Dash were used.
The problem or little quirk was submitted to the Ubuntu Forums and drew a response of “full Ubuntu is now really for newer systems as GUI needs better gpu and system”. Well, so is Kubuntu which is just as robust if not more so than the mother distro. The problem remains. Why will Ubuntu 18.04 (and 18.04.1) not reboot after an install on some computers that meet the minimum requirements for installation.

With the anticipated release of the new LTS version of Ubuntu, Bionic Beaver, the Ubuntu-Arizona Local Community Team had a Release Party on 21 April 2018 from 1400 to 1800 at the home of Walter and Ingeborg Mack in Chandler AZ. Invitations to attend were sent via the Team mailing list, announcements were made at the weekly Sunday Team meetings, and postings were placed on the Team web site. There were 12 attendees.
The party was a rousing success. Our gracious hosts Walter and Ingeborg Mack were kind and well prepared with more condiments and refreshments than anyone could ask for. Walter (wmack) did the honors at the grill cooking the hamburgers and bratwursts and Inge insured that everyone had more than enough to eat. Rex (MajB) and Rose once again provided chili and home made tortillas from Sierra Vista. Tammie supplied an excellent pot of baked beans. Our Team Leader, Todd (toddc), showed up late but contributed a very tasty chicken pot pie. Paul (pavlos) and Christy provided a cheese cake that probably had more than calories in it than allowed by law but sure tasted delicious. Once again there was more food than we could eat at two release parties.
The visiting and conversation took place before, during, and after the consumption of the food. There were many that returned to the kitchen for seconds, some boldly and some surreptitiously. Whenever there are a group of Linux users gathered for any reason other than work the conversation generally starts at Linux and Free and Open Source Software. This gathering was no exception. Discussion started with the Final Beta and Release Candidate versions of 18.04 and moved in all directions from there. After consuming vast quantities of food the conversation got lighter to include travel and non-IT hobbies.
Photos were taken to prevent members from ever denying that they were present at some future time in their life.

Please note that we have introduced extra security features and are interested in feedback. If you see this site go down, please inform wmack at componentsw.com
Thank you.

Cloudflare’s mission is to help build a better Internet and today April 1st, are releasing a new DNS resolver, 1.1.1.1 - a recursive DNS service. This is not an April fool's joke. Use the following IPv4 addresses for your resolver: 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1. Easy to remember.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/dns-resolver-1-1-1-1/
https://1.1.1.1/

# Monitoring /var/log/auth.log for intrusion
#
# REF: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/123029/history-of-ip-addresses-...
# REF: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/190907/how-to-retrieve-ip-addre...
# feb 2018
#

# sample /var/log/auth.log
=====
Feb 22 14:06:03 zentyal sshd[28061]: Failed password for root from 115.238.245.4 port 35807 ssh2
Feb 22 14:06:03 zentyal sshd[28061]: Received disconnect from 115.238.245.4: 11: [preauth]
Feb 22 14:06:03 zentyal sshd[28061]: PAM 2 more authentication failures; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=115.238.245.4
user=root
Feb 22 14:06:09 zentyal sshd[28068]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=115.23
8.245.4 user=root
Feb 22 14:06:10 zentyal sshd[28068]: Failed password for root from 115.238.245.4 port 32916 ssh2
Feb 22 14:06:13 zentyal sshd[28068]: Failed password for root from 115.238.245.4 port 32916 ssh2
=====

# This will list IPs and the number of times each IP tried ...

grep "Failed password for" /var/log/auth.log | grep -Po "[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+" | sort | uniq -c

1 43.229.205.182
1 47.223.140.95
2786 5.188.86.46
1 54.2.63.218
2 59.182.130.89
3 61.6.107.192
7 66.84.25.210
4 78.165.8.203

# this will grep rhost= which lists the hostname/ip of who tried.
# Then use geoiplookup from the geoip-bin package to get the Country.

zgrep sshd /var/log/auth.log* | grep rhost | sed -re 's/.*rhost=([^ ]+).*/\1/' | sort -u

web1.status-telecom.ru
wsip-70-169-35-74.tu.ph.cox.net
wsip-70-182-157-6.br.br.cox.net
www2.daniweb.com
www2.hcchurch.org.tw
xplr-204-237-24-107.xplornet.com
y117067.ppp.asahi-net.or.jp

# another one liner to count all failed atempts and sort them in descending order (hi-lo)

awk '/Failed/ {x[$(NF-3)]++} END {for (i in x){printf "%3d %s\n", x[i], i}}' /var/log/auth.log | sort -nr

588 119.249.54.217
499 185.143.223.4
459 103.213.115.45
348 209.92.176.114
113 37.72.176.165
80 35.201.226.248

# Also, look at other packages like fail2ban and http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net/

END

Canonical will be releasing Ubuntu 18.04, Bionic Beaver, on 26 April 2018. To celebrate this event Ubuntu-Arizona Local Community Team will conduct a Release Party at the home of Walter and Ingeborg Mack, 5831 W. Kesler St. Chandler, AZ on 21 April from 2-6pm. The AZLOCO/PLUG Installfest for the same day at the University of Advancing Technology will be relocated to that location also starting at 2 pm. instead of the normal 10 am. Internet will be available, installs will still be conducted and problems will be solved while we celebrate the release of Bionic Beaver and enjoy some excellent food, great camaraderie, and some serious (and some not so serious) discussions. More details to follow. Pencil in the event on your calendar now. Everyone interested in Free and Open Source Software is invited. This will be a potluck party so please bring a dish to share. For any questions, please contact releaseparty@componentsw.com

Please RSVP to questions@azloco.com with the dish that you will be bringing and the number of people that will be attending. Thank you

The installfest scheduled for 06 January has been canceled because the UAT needs to use of the room that we had reserved. This is unfortunate and beyond our control. So to add some continuity to our events which have been scheduled for the first and third Saturdays of each month, we will hold an extended Ubuntu Hour/Linux get together at the Xtreme Bean, 1707 E. Southern Ave. in Tempe from 10-4 pm on 06 January. Treat it as an impromptu Installfest/Linux Workshop/Extended Ubuntu Hour/Linux get together. Attend if you can.

I just wanted to shout out that thanks to MajB and others Ubuntu Arizona Loco Team
has been verified as active and in high Standing as a team for all our events and community support both ours and assisting other groups to further linux opens source
linux and Ubuntu Thanks for all the help and support from everyone Todd

The Cochise Linus User Group in conjunction with the Ubuntu-Arizona Local Community Team will be conducting their third Installation Festival on 28 October 2017, 10-4pm at the University of Arizona South Learning Resource Center, 1140 N. Colombo Ave. Sierra Vista AZ.
As with any Installfest that AZLOCO participates in, all are welcome to come and have a Linux Operating System installed on their computer, talk to members about Linux and Open Source software, or bring their problems or concerns for members to assist in arriving at a solution.
Active LUG's are in integral part of the Linux Community. Working with them expands our pool of resources and extends our reach through out the state. Support this Installfest.

It is time for the AZLOCO Team to be re-verified by the LoCo Council. We are on the agenda for their 12 September 2017 meeting at 2000 UTC (1300 our time). The meeting will take place on #Ubuntu-meeting on irc.freenode.net. Attend the meeting if you can to support your local Team. Our application for re-verification can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ArizonaTeam/Re-validationApplication2017. If you have and comments or corrections please submit them to majb@azloco.com.

From: Brian Murray
Subject: Changes to do-release-upgrade and meta-release files
To: Ubuntu Development

I've recently made some changes to how do-release-upgrade, called by
update-manager when you choose to upgrade releases, behaves and thought
it'd be a good time to clarify how things work and the changes made.

When do-release-upgrade is called it reads a meta-release file from
changelogs.ubuntu.com to determine what releases are supported and to
which release to upgrade. The exact meta-release file changes depending
on what arguments, --proposed or --devel-release, are passed to
do-release-upgrade. The meta-release file is used to determine which
tarball to download and use to actually perform the upgrade. So if you
are upgrading from Ubuntu 17.04 to Artful then you are actually using
the the ubuntu-release-upgrader code from Artful.

One change implemented some time ago[1] was support for the release
upgrade process to skip unsupported releases if you are running a
supported release. For example, when Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) becomes
end of life and you upgrade from Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) with
"Prompt=normal" (found in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades) then
Ubuntu 16.10 will be skipped and you will be upgraded to Ubuntu 17.04
(Zesty Zapus). This ensures that you are running a supported release and
helps to test the next LTS upgrade path i.e. from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu
18.04. Similarly, when Ubuntu 17.04 becomes end of life an upgrade from
Ubuntu 16.04, with "Prompt=normal", will upgrade you to Ubuntu 17.10.

I've also just modified[2] the documentation regarding the '-d' switch
for ubuntu-release-upgrader and update-manager to make it clear that
'-d' is for upgrading from the latest supported release (Ubuntu 17.04
right now) to the development release of Ubuntu. The documentation used
to incorrectly imply that any release could be updated to the
development release, something that would be an unsafe upgrade path.

Additionally, the meta-release-development and
meta-release-lts-development files were modified to only contain
information about releases relevant to the upgrade path. So
meta-release-lts-development is currently empty and
meta-release-development only contains information about Ubuntu 17.04
and Artful Aadrvark which will become Ubuntu 17.10.

I hope this makes things a bit clearer!

[1] http://launchpad.net/bugs/1497024
[2] http://launchpad.net/bugs/1700829

The critical information was found on this page: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=211313

We theorized that a driver needed for the laptop keyboard is on the encrypted drive and therefore not yet available when the password was needed.

using lsmod showed more than 100 modules loaded. Which ones were needed for the keyboard wasn't clear (simply using those ones that mention "hid" was not successful). We simply added all modules shown by lsmod to the /etc/initramfs-tools/modules file and re-created the initramfs.
On next boot the keyboard was operational and usable for entering the disk password.

This is a handy tool if ever find you need a Lan and only have wifi and a laptop/Desktop with wifi
and work on most distros of linux
step 1. Connect to the wifi

step 2. Open Network Manager (Gnome) Click edit connections,

step 3. Click add, Ethernet should be viewed then create it and name it Wifi Tether

step 4. on the general tab uncheck automatically connect to this network when it is available

step 5. on the IPv4 Settings Tab, change Automatic (DHCP) to Shared to other computers

step 6.save

to use it
connect Ethernet cable from other computer or router click on wifi tether done!

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Internet/ConnectionSharing

yes you can do it cli

Background
I have 10 Proxmox servers to maintain all are basically the same, AMD FX 8350 CPU and asus motherboards with several more servers coming soon. FX 8350's are known to run hot and stock coolers weak per web searches. AMD just released a new wraith Cooler to help this issue. Time to figure out if there is a issue and how to fix it if there is a problem.

Testing (this should work on any debian based system)
install these
sudo apt-get install lm-sensors (a program to check system sensors including temp)

sudo apt-get install stress (a program to load the cpu and make it work hard)

run these
sudo sensors-detect (keep hitting enter to activate all sensors)
sudo service kmod start (records sensor outputs)
sudo watch -n 1 sensors (updates sensor readings every second)
watch cpu and fan temps

open a second terminal
sudo stress-ng --cpu 8 --io 4 --vm 2 --vm-bytes 128M --fork 4 --timeout 10m
( this will run all 8 CPU's at full load for 10 minutes)

record idle cpu temps and fan speed if you want to see how hard the fan is working
record the loaded max cpu temps and fan speeds
below is my first tests and I will add as I get more info I use NT-H1 thermal paste
and or stock if already on a cooler

FX 8350 server 1
stock cooler +59.0c loaded +28.0c idle
Deepbluegamaxx400cooler +51.3c loaded +36.0c idle

FX8350 server 2
wraith AMD upgraded cooler +65.0c loaded +30.0c idle

FX8350 server 5

LOGISYS Computer BETA 400 ST +61.0c loaded +29.0c idle

Deepbluegamaxx400cooler cheap great reviews BIG and will not fit many installs
4 heat tubes 120MM fan included brackets for 2nd fan rated for 130w est 25.00

LOGISYS Computer BETA 400 ST AC4400BT 92mm Hydro Bearing AMD CPU Cooler
same size as stock 4 heat tubes rated for 95w est 20.00

Paul Kairis, AKA pavlos, has been accepted as a Ubuntu member. He brings the total of Ubuntu members who are also AZLOCO members to 10. Ubuntu membership is granted to those individuals who have demonstrated a sustained and significant contribution to Ubuntu and/or the Ubuntu community. We wish to congratulate all three of our newly accepted Ubuntu members for their contributions and wish them success in all of their endeavors.

Two AZLOCO members, Walter Mack and Mark Thomas, have been accepted as Ubuntu members on 2 February 2017. Official Ubuntu Membership means recognition of significant and sustained contribution to Ubuntu or the Ubuntu community. Congratulations to both of them. They are well deserving of the honor which is not handed out lightly.

One of the requirements to become a Ubuntu member is to have signed the Code of Conduct. It may seem like a formidable task and it was for me. I was only able to accomplish the task on my third attempt. There are several web sites that purport to make the task easier. Two are from Ask Ubuntu. "How do I sign the Ubuntu Code of Conduct" http://askubuntu.com/questions/100275/how-do-i-sign-the-ubuntu-code-of-c... and "How do I make a PGP key?" http://askubuntu.com/questions/100281/how-do-i-make-a-pgp-key There is also the "Code of Conduct Signing Assistant" on Launchpad itself. https://launchpad.net/code-of-conduct-signing-assistant. These sites, especially the last one, should make the task relatively easy.

Kudos to Rex and his team for putting on a fantastic event. More than 20 people were in attendance, and a number of installs were performed.

AZLOCO now has a meet-up account https://www.meetup.com/Ubuntu-Arizona/. We will be posting our meetings and events there as well as on the Team web site calendar http://azloco.org/node/28 and the Ubuntu Arizona LoCo Team portal http://loco.ubuntu.com/teams/ubuntu-arizona/. Hopefully this will reach additional people to inform them of our activities.

Back when I was distro hopping after I became dissatisfied with the operating system that I was using, it was not uncommon for me to have two, three, or even four operating systems on the same hard drive. An incident occurred at the recent Installfest on the 3rd of December that brought to mind a a small application that I had used to change the default operating system, Grub Customizer. If you have two or more operating systems installed on the same hard drive it is possible to use Grub Customizer to change the default boot order. When you install a second Operating system, it usually becomes the default one (the OS that will boot if you take no action during the Grub display). I used to change Operating Systems frequently so the default one would change every time I installed a new one. Today when an individual wants a dual boot system with Microsoft Windows and we install a Linux system for him, it becomes the default boot system. If that individual still wants Microsoft Windows as the default system, you can change the boot order from the command line or you can install Grub Customizer.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Once installed and you launch Grub Customizer, you can change the boot order with several clicks of the mouse. Merely select the item that you want to move up to the default boot position and use the up arrow to move it to the top. You can also change the number of seconds before the computer will boot the default on the second tab. After you have made your changes you simply save the configuration and close the application.

At a recent #ubuntu-us-az meeting, this url was posted as an easy way to generate a password. I kinda liked option 4 which uses perl, available in most Linux distros. Should you not have it, apt-get install perl will install it.

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# REF https://www.ostechnix.com/4-easy-ways-to-generate-a-strong-password-in-l...
# save as pw.pl
#
my @alphanumeric = ('a'..'z', 'A'..'Z', 0..9);
my $randpassword = join '', map $alphanumeric[rand @alphanumeric], 0..7;
print "$randpassword\n"

The code is simple, it creates an array with all the upper, lowercase, and numeric characters. You could add special characters into that array if you want. The [rand @array] generates a random number between 0 and the length of the array, the map $array maps the random number to the random-th element of the array, the join function will join those characters together and it will repeat this 8 times, 0..7

Executing perl pw.pl a few times will help the randomless of the generated password.

--

Two of us drove from Sierra Vista to attend the initial meeting of the Tucson Linux Meet-Up. The meeting took place at the Summit Hut, 5251 E. Speedway Blvd, Tucson from 6-7:30pm. There were 11 attendees. After an introduction of all those present to include their backgrounds there was a discussion on the direction(s) that the group should take to meet the members needs and desires. The concept of presentations to the group was well received and several attendees volunteered to give them. The subject of installfests was raised which was also well received provided that after installation there was a method created for follow up should the individual have additional questions or should problems rear their ugly head.
We provided them with POCs for AZLOCO and the CLUG in Sierra Vista as well as information for receiving support for installfests and Linux workshops. Information on the other two Linux groups in Tucson was submitted to them as well should they decide to coordinate their efforts.

The location for the 1 October 2016 and the 5 November 2016 Installation Festival/Linux Workshop has changed. Since the University of Advancing Technology is using all of the rooms on the 1st of October and the 5th of November, we will be moving the Install-fest to Gangplank, http://gangplankhq.com/chandler/, 260 S Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225. There is free public parking just across the street next to Circle K. The time will remain the same 10-4. The Install-fest for 15 October 2016 will remain unchanged and will meet at UAT.

Three of us from Sierra Vista drove up to Tucson to attend an “unofficial” Tucson Free Unix Group meeting at Cafe Luce in Main Gate Square outside of the University of Arizona on 31 July 2016 at 2:30 pm. There were four Tucson residents there who were interested in starting physical meetings for the group. We provided them with POCs for both AZLOCO and the Cochise Linux User Group in Sierra Vista and some basic information on communication between members and some requirements for holding Installation Festivals/Linux Workshops. They want to meet twice a month but no one was willing to step up to be the group driver. We recommended that that position be occupied by several people to prevent the loss of continuity if that person should lose interest, move away from the community, or otherwise absent himself. We also expressed a willingness to provide assistance in the way of advice or lessons learned from the establishment and early months of the CLUG. They have been provided with four email addresses of possible previous admins or organizers and the information on their domain name. We will now await further activity on their part.

Once again we have to cancel events because many of our members will be out of town or have family plans for the Labor Day weekend. The Installation-Festival scheduled for 3 September and the regular AZLOCO weekly meeting scheduled for 4 September 2016 have been cancelled. We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause. The Install-fests will once again resume their normal 1st and 3rd Saturday schedule on 17 September and the weekly Sunday meetings will begin again on 11 September.

This note describes how to overcome an installation problem we had in today's installfest. The system would not boot from the hard disk, and when trying to boot from a USB stick, we received a message saying: alloc magic is broken at 0xxxxxx.

What finally worked was this: In the BIOS setup, select UEFI boot and enable secure boot!.

Then boot into the USB grub menu.

Because the date for the first install-fest in July falls during the 4th of July weekend and many of our members will be out of town or doing other activities, we are cancelling the 2 July install-fest. Normal activities will continue on the third Saturday, 16 July.

After the release of Xenial Xerus, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, on 21 April, there was much anticipation of the AZLOCO Release Party which took place on Saturday 14 May. Invitations to attend were sent via the Team mailing list, announcements were made at the weekly Sunday Team meetings, and postings were placed on the Team web site. There were 15 attendees.
Well, the party was a rousing success. Our gracious hosts Mr and Mrs Mack (wmack on IRC) were kind and well prepared. Walter did the honors at the grill cooking the hamburgers and hot dogs. There was a great spread of various potato salads, macaroni salads, edamame, onions, tomatoes with all the necessary condiments. The team from SV provided a kick-ass chili which was honored well -- no leftovers. However, there was some profound discussion on the viability of that chili. Opinions ran from too thin to too thick to too spicy to not spicy enough. Needless to say everyone seemed to have a different opinion. There were many desserts, chocolate cake, ginger cookies, waffle thins, and coffee. There was more food there than could be consumed at two parties had it not been for the presence of several of our well known Team members who enjoy eating as much as they do Free and Open Source Software. After the meal, several members were provided with a tour of the outside garden and identified all cacti growing there.
Whenever more than two Team members gather anywhere, the conversation will eventually move to Linux and FOSS related topics and that certainly happened here (with moderate success). One of our Team members is starting a new job with Canonical in London, UK next month. He was provided with a contact there (whose name has been withdrawn to protect privacy) should he require any assistance settling in. There were times of heavy technical discussion on Systemd, writing iso's to usb sticks, and plans for the future. The discussion seemed to dwell on Rex's inability to create a bootable USB flash drive even after trying Unetbootin, Start-up disk Creator, Rufus, and mkusb. That of course casts serious doubts on his ability to do other things. The possible use of Landscape for our servers was also discussed.
Not to be outdone, wives and friends of Team members decided to move to a different room for their own discussion (in German and English) with the hostess and friends. Their conversation moved from shipping socks from Greece 30+ years ago, to bargain $3 waffle irons with patterns and grandkids occasional in-ability to distinguish between Kraft mac & cheese and the generic.
A commemorative picture was taken as proof that certain individuals were present to prevent them from denying that fact in the future. Before the party broke up there was a brief rehash of the “How to skin a rabbit” presentation/discussion that was initially bought up at the Tempe Ubuntu Hour.

By Matt Hartley
April 25, 2016

Without a doubt, Ubuntu 16.04 is said to be the biggest and most significant release of the distro in years. In my opinion, the reason for this release's perceived significance comes down to one thing – Ubuntu snap packages.

The idea (from the user's perspective) behind snap packages is that Ubuntu enthusiasts can have access to the latest software packages without needing to worry about rushing to a new release of Ubuntu. Obviously, one must have 16.04 or higher going forward, but the general idea stands.

Key point: If Ubuntu can execute this process correctly without any major mishaps, this would change the way we look at desktop packages for Linux.

The Good

So what's good about the inclusion of the new snap packages option for Ubuntu? As mentioned above, you'll have access to newer packages without needing to worry about having a distro with the right dependencies. This potentially means access to new application features, bug fixes and application isolation. More on the isolation feature later.

For those of us who have had to wait for a new Ubuntu release just to have access to the latest software, snap packages are a pretty big breakthrough. Previously if you wanted the latest bleeding edge software for Linux, you needed to run a bleeding edge distribution like Arch or a distribution based on Arch.

To be ultimately fair, this isn't the first time this sort of thing has been available for Linux. In the past, there was a project called Klik. Using Klik meant you needed to download and install the Klik client, but the overall concept shared some of the same ideas as Ubuntu's snap packages. Today, the Klik project has evolved into a portable apps concept that is designed to be distribution neutral. The idea being a developer can build their application once and not need to worry about compatibly between distributions.

And of course, there's the promise of security through application isolation. The suggested idea here is that since the application is isolated from the rest of the operating system, the entire application inclusion process can be automated because software security is less of an issue.

If everything goes as planned, I believe Ubuntu developers hope this provides the perfect storm to entice developers and end users alike, to give Ubuntu a serious second look. Besides, if the idea of snap packages does nothing for you, PPAs and deb packages will continue to be supported for the foreseeable future.

The Bad

One consideration folks with older systems may need to be aware of is that software installation may require more hard drive space. When a new snap application is installed, it's going to require quite a bit more hard drive space than it did in the past. This is because all of its dependencies are included with each new snap package being installed. The one saving grace to this issue is that when an update to an installed snap package occurs, it only adds new dependencies as needed. It'll reuse any of it's original package files if possible.

Still, this is something users need to be aware of. Some would argue that in 2016, hard drive space isn't an issue. I'd counter that they're looking at this through narrow geek goggles and should try looking at the hard drive space available on many older systems. They might be surprised.

My advice is this: take a moment and really examine how much hard drive space you have available. If you're at all concerned and plan on installing a lot of new snap packages, perhaps this is a good opportunity for a new hard drive?

The Ugly

As one might expect, the controversy has already begun. One developer, Matthew Garrett, has already sounded the alarm claiming that "as long as the Ubuntu desktop still uses X11, the snap format provides you with little meaningful security." However, as this article explains, the issue is actually an issue with X11, not the snap format. Speaking for myself, I'm agreeing with the InfoWorld article.

Another potential issue is this isn't going to be rolled out into other distributions, at least not for the foreseeable future. My understanding is that due to the underlying core requirements for snap packages, it's an Ubuntu specific technology at this point. Yes, other distributions are free to adopt some of those core additions into their own releases, but I don't see this happening.

Finally, as I look into my Linux crystal ball, I see snap packages becoming perhaps the single most divisive issue within the Linux community since the debate regarding systemd. The one saving grace with snap is that for now it's an Ubuntu-only technology. So if the idea behind it turns you off, the immediate solution is not to use it. Pretty simple.

Exciting times for the Ubuntu desktop

Putting aside those who would disparage the idea behind snap packages, I find the idea of being able to live in a LTS release of Ubuntu while still having access to the very latest in software to be very appealing.

On the flip side, I do have concerns about potential unforeseen security "gotchas" yet to be discovered. Not because of the X11 comments above, rather due to the automated approval process for snap packages. Perhaps all well be fine with the introduction of new packages, but I believe only time will tell.

Speaking for myself, I find myself cautiously excited. Having tried solutions in the past like Klik, I definitely can see the appeal to such a solution. But my biggest concern is how this is going to be received by the community and whether or not distributions outside of the Ubuntu space will decided to adopt this. At this stage in the game, anything is possible.

What say you? How do you think things with snap packages will work out? Does this add value to the Ubuntu desktop? Maybe you feel like it's a divisive issue that does more harm than good? Whatever your feelings, don't be shy – hit the Comments and share your feelings on the matter.

The following article was submitted by Yorobobi.

Splunk recently held their annual Splunk Live! for Arizona at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort + Spa, featuring local customer presentations from Bechtel and CenturyLink.

What is Splunk, you may ask? From http://www.splunk.com/ :

You see servers and devices, apps and logs, traffic and clouds. We see data—everywhere. Splunk® offers the leading platform for Operational Intelligence. It enables the curious to look closely at what others ignore—machine data—and find what others never see: insights that can help make your company more productive, profitable, competitive and secure. What can you do with Splunk?
Just ask.

After registration and free breakfast, we gathered for the requisite sales pitch from Splunk and the customer presentations.

For the morning sessions we heard from Ryan Chapman of Bechtel Corporation who gave a presentation on how their Security Operations teams use Splunk to search for and report on vulnerabilities and attempted (or successful) intrusions to their servers, network appliances, and end-user workstations.

Following Ryan's presentation we heard from Thom Waldahl, an engineer with CenturyLink who described how they used Splunk to correlate data from field agents to help reduce the number of dispatches to customers. CenturyLink uses data captured by the hand-held devices used by their field agents when installing or troubleshooting customer DSL lines. They correlate data such as loop length, signal-to-noise ratios, and firmware versions for connected devices and use this data to determine whether a customer requires a bonded connection or if a firmware upgrade is required.

At the conclusion of Thom's presentation, we were treated to lunch, courtesy of Splunk then attended two of six possible break-out sessions presented by Splunk Engineers including "Getting Started with Splunk Enterprise - Hands-On", "Getting Started with IT Service Intelligence Hands-On", "DevOps Powered by Splunk," "Splunk Enterprise for Information Security Hands-On," "Machine Learning + Analytics in Splunk," and "Taking Splunk to the Next Level".

As is the tradition for Splunk, drinks were provided during the Happy Hour sponsored by several of Splunk's partners or interested parties.

The plans for the party have been finalized. 14 May 2016, from 2pm until it is over. Location: 5831 W. Kesler St., Chandler. Please RSVP to questions@azloco.com with a number attending and whatever type of food that you will be bringing to share with your fellow team mates so our hosts can have a general idea of a number of attendees.

The Release Party scheduled for 14 May to celebrate the release of the new LTS version of Ubuntu now has a home. It will take place at 5831 W. Kesler St., Chandler AZ 85226 from 2 PM until ??. While primarily a social gathering to meet and greet Team members, wireless will be available and you will be able to install the new version. As previously published if you have already installed the new version feel free to bring it along to show it off.
We are asking you to RSVP to questions@azloco.com with a number attending and whatever type of food that you will be bringing to share with your fellow team mates so our hosts can have a general idea of a number of attendees.

Unfortunately the Installfest co-sponsored by AZLOCO and PLUG that was scheduled for 5 March from 1000-1600, has been cancelled because of classroom scheduling problems. UAT needed all of their classrooms on that Saturday. Sorry for the inconvenience.

For those of you that provided input, thank you. The AZLOCO Xenial Xerus 16.04 LTS release party is now tentatively scheduled for 14 May at 1500 hours. It will be pot luck. While the party is primarily intended as a social event and will occur 24 days after the scheduled release, we will have wifi available to install the new version if you so desire. If you have already installed it, feel free to bring your laptop and show Xenial off to your friends. Details are being ironed out and will be released as they are firmed up.

For those of you that use one of the ten different officially approved and supported versions of Ubuntu, the new Long Term Support (LTS) version Xenial Xerus 16.04 is scheduled to be released 21 April 2016. Like the other LTS releases many of the "flavors" will be supported for 5 years. The release of a new LTS versions means many things to many people but it means PARTY TIME to me.
AZLOCO wants to have a release party to celebrate the release of the new version and all members will be encouraged to attend. Obviously with people's work and school schedules and since the 21st is on a Thursday, that is probably not a good day for a party. The dates that appear to be available are all Saturdays: 23 April, 30 April, 7 May, 14 May, 21 May, and 28 May. We want this to be a social event as well as an event where people can install or show off the new version that they have already installed. Plans are currently being formulated. Everyone is welcome to attend whether you use a Ubuntu derivative or not. We want to extend a special invitation to folks from Tucson, Prescott, Flagstaff, Sierra Vista, and other cities where people live that do not normally travel to the Phoenix metropolitan area to attend events. Please look at your schedules and let us know what day and/or days that you prefer and can attend. Obviously we will never be able to get a date that will make everyone happy or be able to accommodate all of our members. Your responses would be welcome soonest so proper planning can be completed. The location, at least for plan A, will be at the Cole residence. As additional information becomes available it will be distributed here and via the AZLOCO mailing list.

As some of you may have noticed, there have been orange Ubuntu ball point pens circulating at Ubuntu Hours and Installation Festivals. They are swag that have been passed out to advertise the Ubuntu Operating System. I received several well over a year ago and noticed that they could not be opened with the simple right twist that we as ball point pen users have grown accustomed to. To open them you had to do a left twist to be able to write with them. This anomaly was apparently brought up at the Tempe Ubuntu Hour hosted by pavlos on the 4th of February. I of course was not privy to all of the conversation, since I was not in attendance, but was informed that since I did not report the "bug" the pens (which were probably prototype models) went to mass production with the bug. Various theories were discussed about why the pens opened with a left twist instead of a right twist at the Ubuntu Hour. One of them was that the pens were produced that way to promote Copyleft (which is probably an inane idea.) The work around my fellow Ubuntu-ites is simply do the left twist and use the pens as you would a right twist pen and forget about all the garbage.

Based on a recent Slashdot post, here's a simple way to measure your Internet speed. The project is on GitHub at https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli, and to get the Python-based program, simply do this:

wget -O speedtest-cli https://raw.github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/master/speedtest_cli.py
chmod +x speedtest-cli
Execute ./speedtest-cli --simple to get your results.
See ./speedtest-cli --help for details.

You can also try an HTML5 (no flash, no Java needed) Internet Speed test, http://speedof.me/

Hope this helps.

The Southern California Linux Expo 14x will be held 21-24 January 2016 at the Pasadina Convention Center. It is expected to host 150 exhibitors and 130 sessions, tutorials, and special events. https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/14x Full access pass is only $75 and a 50% discount code can be obtained from PLUG. Volunteers are needed so if you want to volunteer please contact toddc@azloco.com or philipballew@ubuntu.com.
Concurrently, the Ubucon will be held at the same location 21-22 January 2016. https://insights.ubuntu.com/2015/10/21/announcing-the-ubucon-summit/ Mark Shuttleworth will be giving the keynote address.

Well, it was not a fluke. There is some interest in Linux and Free and Open Source Software in Cochise County. Therefore, contrary to some misinformed individuals, it is not required that you must live in the Phoenix metropolitan to have an interest in Linux. The third Cochise Linux User Group meeting was held on 21 October 2015 from 1700-1830 at the University of Arizona, Sierra Vista campus, room C165A North. While we did not have the turnout that our second meeting drew we still had 7 people present for a presentation on Engineering Careers in the Electrical Utility Industry co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Continuing Education Division and the IEEE Fort Huachuca Section.
It has been decided by the membership that we will move to a twice a month format following the very successful example of the PLUG. The second meeting each month will be on a Saturday designed to attract those individuals that are unable to attend a meeting on a week day due to their job, class schedule, or family obligations. It is also designed to be a bit more open where members can present problems with their OS or FOSS programs and perhaps receive a solution or a work around. The next meeting is scheduled for 7 November 2015 at the Sierra Vista public library conference room.
We found it useful while we were organizing to ensure that if a task had to be accomplished, there should be at least two individuals who were capable of completing that task. That was to ensure that the organization would never have to rely on one individual. If one individual lost interest or was unable to participate, it would not be the death of the organization. It is something to think about.

After 13 months of hosting a Ubuntu Hour in Sierra Vista and discovering the previous existence of a now defunct Linux User Group, I joined with two other Linux users and members of AZLOCO to attempt to bring the Cochise Linux User Group (CLUG) back to life. After an initial organization meeting in August where some guidelines were set up, we had our first meeting in September with an unexpected turnout of 14 people. There was a presentation on “Introduction to Linux”. We intend to meet once a month to provide a platform where Linux users can talk to other Linux users, Linux users can go to hear presentations from other members and outside vendors about Free and Open Source Software, and Linux users can have a place to increase their education to enable them to obtain a better job or increase the efficiency of their own organization. Meetings will held on the second Wednesday of each month (except for October and November when it will be the third Wednesday) at 5 pm. at the University of Arizona, Sierra Vista campus, room C165A North. The next meeting will be on 21 October and the presentation will be “Terminal for Beginners”. All are invited to attend.

I found this page showing where to get free online linux training. I hope this helps for people trying to learn linux.

There are 12 different places to choose from.

http://www.itrunsonlinux.com/trainingcourses/