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Can anyone point me at a VLAN tutorial aimed at small 'soho' users?
by Chris Green 07 Jun '17

07 Jun '17

I'm trying to use VLANs to separate areas of my home LAN, mostly for security by, for example, keeping guest/Windows WiFi connections isolated from the rest of the system. It appears that just about every manufacturers' idea of what VLAN means is different! I have VLAN ability offered by my TP-Link VDSL router, by my Draytek Vigor 2820n router and by a TP-Link TL-SG108E managed switch. They all seem very different! On the TP-Link router (TD-W9980) the VLAN facility is closely connected with what it calls LAN groups. You can create groups and put the physical LAN ports and WiFi SSIDs into specific groups. Each group has its own DHCP server and thus a different IP range. You can't put anything (LAN port or SSID) into more than one group. In reality there seems to be little real separation between groups as, if you put (say) LAN port 2 into a group by itself any device connected to LAN port 2 will still get replies DHCP requests it sends from any/all the other LAN ports. A different subnet will run on LAN port 2 but if you configure a device connected to that port with a different subnet address it will happily talk to devices on the other ports. The 2820n is quite different. If you set up VLANs on that they all have the same DHCP server (in the 2820n) and are thus on the same subnet, but they are separated and unable to communicate with each other. Devices can be assigned to multiple ports. Thus it's possible to have one VLAN (to which everyone can belong) that has access to the internet and not much else and another VLAN which is the more secure internal VLAN. Finally the TL-SG108E offers three sorts of VLAN - Port based, tagged and MTU (confusing abbreviation that last one, it doesn't mean Maximum Transmission Unit). The manual isn't very helpful, it does the usual TP-Link thing of repeating what the words on the GUI confuguration tell you with no indication of *why* you would want to do anything. Port based VLANs are a bit like the 2820n ones described above except that they seem to expect different subnets, the others I'm not really sure about (as in I don't really understand them) but looking around the internet I gather that the descriptions confuse others too because they don't use the same terms for the same things as others (mostly Cisco) do. Help! :-) I just need a simple explanation of how to split up my LAN such that I can separate a 'Guest WiFi' part (more than one WiFi device), an area that all local users can access (with printer, DNS, etc.) and a more private area (my desktop, backup system, etc.) that only I can access. All users need access to the internet of course. -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 8th June
by Viperfang 05 Jun '17

05 Jun '17

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Norwich Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 8th June 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 https://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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I have bought my laptop replacement
by Chris Green 03 Jun '17

03 Jun '17

Well after much timewasting searching web sites, reviews, etc. and listening to advice here and elsewhere I have bought my replacement laptop (to replace my Thinkpad T430). I decided to stay with Thinkpad Txxx as reviews indicate they are some of the best machines around *and* they are good for Linux. Rather more in hope than expectation I bid for a T470 on eBay and got it for £650. The T470 is the current T series model and this one has a latest (7th) generation Core i7 processor, 8Gb memory and a 256GB SSD. It is ex-demo and thus virtually unmarked and comes with a full 3 year on-site warranty! New price is around £1500. Wow! :-) I have installed xubuntu 17.04 on it and it's lovely! :-) -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 2nd June.
by Viperfang 30 May '17

30 May '17

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

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Which laptop to buy, help me decide
by Chris Green 29 May '17

29 May '17

Having increased my budget somewhat I seem to have narrowed my choice of laptop on which to run Xubuntu to one of the following two:- A - pcspecialists/novatech/entroware custom system:- https://www.entroware.com/store/orion https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/ultraNoteIV-14/ These are all the same machine built by Clevo and configured by the various companies above. Pcspecialists are cheapest. For my 8Gb, Core I5, SSD machine the cost is around £540. B - A Lenovo Ideapad 510S http://www3.lenovo.com/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/500-series/Lenovo-IdeaPad-510S… Price (if you shop around) a little less than the one above. I've checked and according to Lenovo forums etc. Ubuntu Linux installs on it without problems. Does anyone have any comments about either of these machines that might push me one way or the other? -- Chris Green

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Has anyone heard of Entroware?
by Chris Green 29 May '17

29 May '17

While searching for my new laptop I came across this company:- https://www.entroware.com They build and sell Ubuntu OS laptops and the prices are not unreasonable. Does anyone know anything about them or has anyone here bought one? -- Chris Green

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Nedd new laptop AND seek rcovery of files from VirtualBox
by Ted Harding 27 May '17

27 May '17

Greetings All! Chris Green's recent message arrived as I was about to compose a similar one! My (somewhat ancient but much-loved) Advent 8117 recently crashed. It had Windows XP, into which I installed VirtualBox into which I then installed Debian (Etch, I think; and Ubuntu). It is the Windows, apparently, which crashed. While, after repeated attempts, it is possible to get windows started, many of the applications icons have vanished rom the screen, including the VirtualBox one. So Linux is now inaccessible on this machine. Yesterday I took it to be looked at by a Computer Suppport person I know (very amiliar with Linux), and we did get somewhere -- using a Slackware Live CD it was possible to have a look at the filesystem. However, when I tried to reboot it just now nothing happened: no sign of power reaching the compuyer (and the battery is dead anyway). I suspect that yesterday's 60-mile round trip may have broken a power-supply connection somewhere in the computer. So FIRST: I'm seeking a replacement. No special hardware requirements beyond a good amount of HD space and of RAM, plus the usual ethernet cable, print (via USB cable), USB ockets etc. And a nicely laid out keyboard with very visible labels (letters etc.) would be very welcome. especially if the "delete" key is at bottom right instead of top right. I'd like it to have Linux installed, preferably Debian, but with Gnome 2 desktop rather than later versions (Fermilab's Scientific Linux has stuck with Gnome 2), since the way I work depends heavily on the array of workspaces displayed at the bottom of the screen in Gnome 2. So any suggested offers? (willing to pay a reasonable price). Then SECOND: I really want to recover files in the Linux systems which have accumulated over the years (not fussy about the entire OS's, though some of the system config files are also important). The Linux filesystems are in VirtualBox ".vdi" files on the Windows XP system, which I was able to locate after booting with the Slackware CD. I've been looking around extensively for info about how to set about this. This does not seem to be straightfoward unless the VDI file is transerred (somehpow ... ) to another machine on which VirtualBox is installed. Any help or advice? With thanks, Ted.

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Looking for a laptop as my T430 has died
by Chris Green 27 May '17

27 May '17

My faithful Lenovo/IBM T430 seems to have died so I'm looking for a replacement. A similar specification would be fine, price is the major issue, the T430 is a refurbished one and I'd be quite happy to go for refurbished again. Requirements are:- Third generation core I5 or better processor 14" screen SSD drive (though I could transfer the one from my T430) 8Gb memory USB 3.0 Gbit ethernet There's no need for any OS though I guess it will be bound to have Windows in which case 7 preferred. There's not so many brands, basically Lenovo, HP/Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Asus and Acer seem to be it. Does anyone have any comments on good/bad brands? I've been happy with the Lenovo T430 (but it has died!). So recommendations awaited please. -- Chris Green

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Recovering from ext4 corruption, logs & rsync help
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 22 May '17

22 May '17

Hi gurus! Request for help below. First, what happened. I had made a copy of some music files/directories I wished to copy to my phone using pcmanfm (I think) but mid copy I got errors "Can't write to readonly filesystem". Thinking this meant that probably my main drive had errored somehow and switched to read-only mode, I decided to reboot, via the shutdown menu. OOPS. Machine would then not boot. It tried to do a on-book fsck, which crashed, but if I interrupted the fsck, it also crashed. I found a live cd, booted from it, loaded mdadm and reassembled my raid arrays then fscked my two partitions /, /home. Errors were found and fixed. Basically some inodes multiplly claimed, and a few reference counts were wrong. Files were placed in Lost + Found. Rebooted & booted OK. Worked out all the lost & Found files were jpgs from my photo albums. sorted them all out. Rebooted again, but sometimes my desktop won't appear, & I'm left at a text loging prompt. Q1) If the desktop doesn't appear, which log files to examine? Dmesg & xorg.*.log? Q2) Any ideas which log files I should check to try and work out what went wrong yesterday? I can't see anything obvious in Kern.log - just a few UFW entries then stuff from when I next booted it. I backup my files via various methods, but one is an Rsync to a USB drive. I backup using sudo rsync -av --del / /media/me/USBDrive/ --exclude-from=/home/me/rsynchbackexclude rsynchbackexclude is a text file containing stuff like /sys/* /dev/* /proc/* /media/* /mnt/* /tmp/* /lost+found/* /var/tmp/* *.iso I want to "compare" the backup with the live hard disk and see what, if anything, is missing. If anything is missing I'll restore if from a different backup source though. I suspect that I need to do a "dry-run" copy from the USB drive to the live hard disk q3) Am I right with this command line to do a "dry run" restore, i.e. show me what would copy, which is in effect, what is different between the USB disk and the live drive? sudo rsync -av --dry-run /media/me/USBDrive/ / --log-file=LogToFile -v = verbose -a = -rlptgoD =>r recursive l copy links as symlinks ptgo preserve permissions, times, group, owner D preserve device files & special files --dry-run = do a dry run --list-only = list changes but don't do any --log-file log to file is this right, or should I do i = itemise changes instead of dry-run? Any help/advise welcomed. Thanks Steve

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How to locate bookmarks data in Mozilla/Firefox/Iceweasel ...
by Ted Harding 18 May '17

18 May '17

Greetings all! I'm seeking to rescue important files and other info from a laptop that has just "crashed". I had installed Linux (Debian) on a virtual machine (VirtualBox) installed on windows XP. It's Windows XP which has gone both bottom-up and tits-up. I think I can probably use a CD with Slackware installed to boot from (Ive tried it on another machine, and it works), which should then give me access to the Linux filesystem stored on the hard drive separately from the Windows filesystem. Once there, when it concerns files which I know where to find on the filesystem, there should be no problem reading their contents (though extracting the files themselves for transfer to my working machine may be another issue). However, one important item which I would like to plant on my working machine is the set of bookmarks (hierarchically organised) that I have built up over many years on the crashed machine's Mozilla/Firefos/Iceweasel browser. Presumably this lurks somewhere is a ".filename" in my home directory. But I've not managed to sniff out such a file on my working machine (also Debian), so I wouldn't know where to look on the crashed machine. Therefore, please, can anyone tell me where the file is likely to be, and what it's likely to be named? Then I could transcribe its contents to the other machine. With thanks, Ted.

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