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Opensource remote conferencing
by Steve Mynott 17 Mar '20

17 Mar '20

Hi All, With the current situation it's obvious there will be more remot conferencing and I was wondering what open source solution (GPL/BSD or similar licence) people recommend? Ideally it would allow audio, video, text chat and shared whiteboarding and be cross-platform (Windows, macOS and Linux) and be fairly simple to operate. -- Steve Mynott <steve.mynott(a)gmail.com> cv25519/ECF8B611205B447E091246AF959E3D6197190DD5

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Where does software RAID get configured and started?
by Chris Green 09 Mar '20

09 Mar '20

I have an old WD NAS that I'm trying to resurrect. It's actually mostly working and I can see the web configuration GUI and login to it with ssh. However its RAID setup has got broken somehow. It was configured to use its two 1Tb disk drives in SBOD mode to give what is supposed to look like one 2Tb disk. However something has gone wrong and it would appear that only one of the two disk drives is configured on the RAID array. It's not possible to unRAID it (I hate RAID) so one can't just configure it to have two disks. The web configuration GUI just shows that both drives are OK/good but that the second drive isn't joining the RAID configuration properly. So how is software RAID usually configured and started up? I can't find anything that looks as if it's "start up the RAID software" in any of the init files in /etc. So how's it done? The 'symptom' I see is that /dev/md4 isn't created and mounted, all the rest are OK (i.e. /dev/md0, /dev/md1, /dev/md2 and /dev/md3). -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 12th March
by Viperfang 09 Mar '20

09 Mar '20

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, 12th March 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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Re: [ALUG] Is there a way to discover what subnet a device is using?
by Chris Green 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

On Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 01:06:47PM +0000, linusoft wrote: > Try netdiscover. It uses arp to find hosts on an interface. > Thanks, looks like it should do the sort of thing I want. -- Chris Green

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Is there a way to discover what subnet a device is using?
by Chris Green 05 Mar '20

05 Mar '20

I have an old WD My Book NAS which has been sitting on the shelf for quite a while (i.e. three or four years). I just wanted to see if the disk drives in it have anything useful on them still so I powered it up and I'm trying to 'see' it. The lights on the front are doing the right sort of thing but I can't get the reset button to do anything. It does have custom software in it so it may be that the reset/power switches don't do what the manual says they should. I have of course tried simply connecting it to my main LAN which has a DHCP server but that hasn't got it working so it seems (if the WD box is working) that it must have a static IP. I've tried guessing what LAN subnet it might be set up for and connecting to my laptop with the same subnet configured statically in the laptop. The hardware interface comes up OK, gigabit duplex, but no actual data connection. I can't try many subnets this way. So is there any tool that I can install on my laptop which will try and get some sort of response from the WD box and help me identify the IP address? -- Chris Green

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2600 meeting at 18:00 on Friday the 6th March.
by Viperfang 03 Mar '20

03 Mar '20

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

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Thunderbird problem OT?
by Bev Nicolson 06 Feb '20

06 Feb '20

I have googled this but haven't yet found anything that addresses the problem I have. Every so often I'll get emails that are directed to the spam folder. Some will be spam, but some are emails I'd like to know about. The difficulty is, I don't know there are any in the folder unless I look because, unlike other folders, it doesn't show a number for new emails. I've put the addresses into my address book, I've made sure I have subscribed to the folder. Nothing's worked so far. Any ideas? Bev. (Linux Mint 19.01., Thunderbird 68.4.1)

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How to get the MAC address of the 'local' system given the IP address?
by Chris Green 31 Jan '20

31 Jan '20

You'd think this was easy but although I can find the information easily enough I can't find a concise way of doing it. What I want is to get same information for the system I'm logged into as is given by 'arp-scan -lx' for all other systems on the LAN:- root@t470:~# arp-scan -lx 192.168.1.1 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx DrayTek Corp. 192.168.1.3 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH 192.168.1.4 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Raspberry Pi Foundation 192.168.1.10 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx TP-LINK TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD. 192.168.1.20 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx DrayTek Corp. 192.168.1.50 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. 192.168.1.96 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx HUMAX Co., Ltd. 192.168.1.98 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx TP-LINK TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD. 192.168.1.111 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx TP-LINK TECHNOLOGIES CO.,LTD. 192.168.1.114 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx MICRO-STAR INT'L CO.,LTD 192.168.1.95 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Sonos, Inc. 192.168.1.104 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx Amazon Technologies Inc. I can get IP address of my current LAN connection using 'hostname -i':- chris$ hostname -i 192.168.1.92 ... but I can't find a neat way of getting the corresponding MAC address and company information as for arp-scan. The MAC address can be obtained using ifconfig or ip but it's an exercise in frustration trying to extract the relevant bits:- chris$ ifconfig enp0s31f6: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether c8:5b:76:de:2a:fc txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 0 bytes 0 (0.0 B) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 device interrupt 16 memory 0xec200000-ec220000 lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING> mtu 65536 inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 255.0.0.0 inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128 scopeid 0x10<host> loop txqueuelen 1000 (Local Loopback) RX packets 639 bytes 279749 (279.7 KB) RX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 639 bytes 279749 (279.7 KB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 wlp4s0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 inet 192.168.1.92 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.1.255 inet6 fe80::8239:9067:e11:92be prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x20<link> ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx txqueuelen 1000 (Ethernet) RX packets 14315 bytes 7281010 (7.2 MB) RX errors 0 dropped 1 overruns 0 frame 0 TX packets 14719 bytes 1911802 (1.9 MB) TX errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0 carrier 0 collisions 0 You'd have to first find that the WiFi device wlp4s0 is providing the LAN interface (I want it to work when it's wired with enp0s31f6 when that's in use, can't just hard code wlp4s0) and then go to the 'ether' line to get the MAC address. Even then you don't get the company name. It's possible but hard work and messy, I'd like to find a simple way. -- Chris Green

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VPN question, or how to get a single WiFi device to seem to be in the UK
by Chris Green 29 Jan '20

29 Jan '20

I have a Kobo eReader which connects to a local network by WiFi. It uses the connection to download books (surprise) and also to do other things with my library on-line account. All very well when I'm in the UK but for (stupid?) reasons known only to themselves the Kobo/Overdrive/Library software and connections work only when the Kobo is connected to a UK IP address. So, when I'm trotting around the world, or more likely when I'm sitting in my little boat in France, I can't get the Kobo to update even though I have books available at the library. What makes it even sillier is that I *can* read the books on my laptop, even when connected from France, so it's not an issue about "you can't read that book in France" it's just a quirk of the eReader software. Anyway, down to the question, what's the simplest way to get a connection to the eReader such that the library/Overdrive software will think it's in the UK? I can see that it *could* be done with two VPN aware routers, one in the UK (I have Drayteks at home which can do VPN) and one here on the boat. However that does seem a rather heavyweight solution just to connect a single WiFi device. (and I don't have a VPN capable router here at the moment though in the longer term I could bring one out) Is there any other way of doing it (VPN or not, ssh maybe)? I already use an ssh proxy occasionally to allow my laptop to seem to be in the UK so I can connect to my NHS Doctor site (silly restriction again!). However I can't do this (so easily) with the eReader because it's basically a 'closed' system with just the eReader software in it. Any bright ideas anyone? -- Chris Green

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Mint Cinnamon
by Phil Thane 22 Jan '20

22 Jan '20

Hello Is anyone else using Linux Mint 19.3 with Cinnamon desktop? I've found a bug I think. I'm in the habit of hitting [Alt][F2] to bring up a simple CLI application starter. On previous desktops (and Mint 19.2 I think) there's an autocomplete function and if you mistype you get an error message. On the current version bringing up the app starter greys out the rest of the screen and if you type correctly the full name and hit [Enter] it works OK. There's no autocomplete though and if you mistype and hit [Enter] then the dialog box freezes, the screen stays mostly grey and the panel stops working. The only way out as far as I can see is to logout or reboot. Fortunately the keyboard/mouse still work so you can bring up the menu with the 'winkey' and log out from there. I've tried PS UX in a terminal to try to find the process and kill it but there's nothing obvious there. I've tried Googling* without success. Any suggestions? Worth signing up to the Mint forums? PINEBOOK PRO UPDATE It's working fine, since updates Firefox is more stable so I've set that as default instead of Chromium. There's a dearth of browser plugins, I guess they have to be recompiled for ARM. I use ad blockers and tracker blockers normally plus 'copy plain text' but none of them are available. You Tube plays fine, sound is as you'd expect from tiny built-in speakers, OK for speech, terrible for music. I have a slightly odd use-case in that I have a canal/river cruiser and take long trips in the summer. Last year I installed a 12V radio/amp in the boat and ran my old laptop audio through that, I plan to do the same with the Pinebook Pro but haven't tried it yet. Unlike some trendier devices it still has a conventional 3mm audio-out socket. Libre Office and Gimp work OK except none of the GEGL operations seem to work in GIMP. They are a bit half-assed in the AMD64 version anyway so until it becomes mainstream you're not missing much. New themes are a bit of a lottery but the default appearance isn't bad and I've tweaked it a bit. The trackpad is much better since the firmware upgrade but I'd still like a wider target area on the window corners/edges to resize things. Mind you that's an issue on my Mint desktop too. Dodgy old eyesight and shaky hands probably don't help. Just read a review of a new KDE laptop. Higher spec than PinebookPro (Intel i7) but literally 10x the price. * Not Google I use Start Page but Googling seems to have become a verb. -- Phil Thane www.pthane.co.uk Tweet @pthane 01767 449759 07582 750607

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