December 2018 - WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

new/old toy soon? (yet another Gigabyte GA-NNN looming)

by Doug Mildram

Thanks for the support and keeping the list alive. Perhaps too alive (I can rant/ramble!) Are Gigabyte motherboards OK? I've only had one so far. Now dying perhaps. Looking ahead..... since I upgrade "combo style" (all ram and cpu attached/included) I'm gonna look at (days from now) a used motherboard+cpu+ram+beast video+beast fan, hope it fits under my hood, dude speaks well about his retired GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 SKT.AM3 AMD870+SB850 4XDDR3-1866, IEEE1394 USB3, SATA3, RAID, ATX plus cpu,ram, and even fan info on this BEAST of a fan, should i be scared? https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U9B-SE2-CPU-Cooler/dp/B002VT1GZ6 doug> I find it cool that a machine/mb that old, is still way more than I need. I've only got one HD/disk for example. I'll try to buy her a tiny computer NEW someday if my new/old cheap-out fails. I want less power! Good brakes please! Ballpark of $100+ for the combo you CAN still find online if you dare and you get lucky that it really works for you. ...below, tangent about the seller i will meet this weekend. Sounds very smart/honest! I almost got him interested in our meeting. He said: (plus, he's a CS engr) Hello network engineer, me> Engineer too....I also a) use Linux only at home b) used Linux only on that machine, rock solid :) The cpu does not come with embedded gpu : I saved 10$ at the time, too bad now!

Dec. 12, 2018

Re: desktop (wife=moved->linux Mint) MB/sata/grub fun

by Doug Mildram

a year or more old... 18.3. Wanted to check it running and run "uname", can't yet... But I have 3 machines bootable to mint 18.3. Seems like a keeper. ......a long term support release which will be supported until 2021 (they say.) Linux Mint 18.3 features Cinnamon 3.6, a Linux kernel 4.10 and an Ubuntu 16.04 package base. doug> thanks for asking! this pc has hardware problems, which arose just sitting in the living room. Old age. "host bus errors"(below)= I'm thinking "sata bus freaking out". NO WORRIES (well actually, shopping time) i will fix or find new something. JUST FOR FUN, /var/log/syslog ( catch-all ) logfile below, while dying on the 2nd sata port I am trying ( may as well try all four.....) Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044071] ata2.00: failed command: WRITE DMA Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044081] ata2.00: cmd ca/00:08:18:30:ac/00:00:00:00:00/e8 tag 0 dma 4096 out Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044081] res 51/84:00:1f:30:ac/84:01:08:00:00/e8 Emask 0x30 (host bus error) Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044086] ata2.00: status: { DRDY ERR } Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044090] ata2.00: error: { ICRC ABRT } Dec 10 21:34:51 xx kernel: [100646.044101] ata2: soft resetting link Dec 10 21:34:52 xx kernel: [100646.206534] ata2.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible Dec 10 21:34:52 xx kernel: [100646.209681] ata2.00: supports DRM functions and may not be fully accessible Dec 10 21:34:52 xx kernel: [100646.210266] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33 Dec 10 21:34:52 xx kernel: [100646.210280] ata2: EH complete Linux Mint 18.3 features Cinnamon 3.6, a Linux kernel 4.10 and an Ubuntu 16.04 package base. On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 4:35 PM Richard Klein via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > I think stock Linux Mint is still on 4.15. > > On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 2:55 PM Chuck Anderson via WLUG < > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > >> >> What kernel version are you running? If it is 4.19.x, you may have have >> hit a data corruption bug in Linux's block layer: >> >> >> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.19-EXT4-Issue-L… >> >> My suggestion--rollback to 4.18.x until this is all resolved. >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> >

Dec. 12, 2018

Topic of Thursday meeting

by Keith Wright

> From: "Anderson, Charles R" <cra(a)wpi.edu> > Subject: [WLUG] WLUG meeting this week > > We have a WLUG meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 7pm in the WPI > Campus Center, Mid-Century Room (the location we use most often). > > Subject: [WLUG] Re: December Meeting Reminder! > From: Chuck Anderson via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > Maybe we could talk about DMARC, DKIM, and SPF! ****pssst! Frank!*** Why does one message say From: cra(a)wpi.edu, and the other From: wlug(a)lists.wlug.org? (Nervermind, CRA explained that.) I don't want to try to prevent anyone from talking about anything, but I don't have much to say about that. I would have wrote you a letter, but I couldn't spell PHLTT!! If Frank does not have a presentation, I could commit by Thursday to make some slides and bring a laptop. I tested slide-showing a few months ago with the WPI cable in the Mid-century Room and it worked. Here's the catch: My usual ride is unavailable that day. I don't drive and I have not been walking well. I used to walk to WLUG; I fell on the hill. No problem; I got up and went on; it happens. I don't want to be carrying heavy and fragile equipment. I tried to go for a walk this morning, but fell and skinned my knee at the end of my own driveway. If someone could commit to pick me up at my house about 1/2 hour before the meeting I would make sure I was ready enough to fake it. I live about a mile from WPI. Send me mail. I will show you some of what I have been doing, and how I do it. The title of my talk: Love Programs work better than Love Poems Computatational Metaphysics Why and how to write soutce code that can be read Or something else if I thnk of it. Someone said recently that one of the best talks ever was Doug Waud showing TeX printing stuff nobody understood. I thought: "I could do that". I am not a pharmacist, so I will dazzle you with Scheme programs and Algebraic Geometry run through LaTeX. All in living black and white (or glowing green). -- Keith

Dec. 10, 2018

WLUG mailing list

by Keith Wright

> From: "Anderson, Charles R" <cra(a)wpi.edu> > To: "wlug(a)lists.wlug.org" <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > Subject: [WLUG] WLUG meeting this week > > I haven't seen any messages to the list since November 8, > so I'm sending this message to see if the mailing list still works. > We have a WLUG meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 7pm in the WPI > Campus Center, Mid-Century Room (the location we use most often). There might be something wrong, I saw: > From: "thinkbrown(a)gmail.com" <thinkbrown(a)gmail.com> > Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2018 18:27:19 -0500 > To: wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > Subject: [WLUG] Frantic last minute room change > Sorry for the last minute notice > Logan (pretending to be Tim) I missed that meeting, and I think the one before that, due to scheduling conflicts. You might find these two in the tl/dr filrer: > From: Dennis Payne <dulsi(a)identicalsoftware.com> > Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2018 07:56:41 -0500 > Subject: [WLUG] OpenGameArt Movie Video Game > I spent the month working in my free time on a new computer game. > > From: Doug Mildram <dmildram(a)gmail.com> > Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2018 23:07:05 -0500 > To: wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > Subject: [WLUG] desktop (wife=moved->linux Mint) MB/sata/grub fun > > Warning: there's a couple "fun" ( my definition for "new to me") > errors/areas in this LONG email. If you want 140 character dim witticisms, you know where to look. This not that. The message that demands attention is this: > From: Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [WLUG] December Meeting Reminder! > > We've got a meeting coming up next week! > > Date: Dec 13, 2018 @ 7PM. > > Location: WPI Campus Center (Mid Century Room 331) > > Topic: To Be Decided! If there's something you'd > > like to talk about drop me a line! Otherwise > C.R.A continues: > From: "Anderson, Charles R" <cra(a)wpi.edu> > Subject: [WLUG] WLUG meeting this week > > We have a WLUG meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 7pm in the WPI > Campus Center, Mid-Century Room (the location we use most often). Yes. If you did not see Tim's announcement of the same, then something is wrong. Which leads me to my proposal, which I will put in another message so that it is not lost at the bottom. -- Keith PS: While I was writing this, two new messages came to me from wlug, one appears to be a copy of Doug Mildram's message dated 2018-12-09 the other a reply to that.

Dec. 10, 2018

Re: desktop (wife=moved->linux Mint) MB/sata/grub fun

by Richard Klein

I think stock Linux Mint is still on 4.15. On Mon, Dec 10, 2018 at 2:55 PM Chuck Anderson via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Doug Mildram wrote: > > ON BOOT, it would sometimes STOP at this prompt > > > > initramfs> > > > > and with good eyes as the boot-attempt screen(s) would fly by and return > to > > above prompt, > > I discovered I could fix it with ( actually i did not use the "-y" > > prompt, but it's the same fix either way) > > > > initramfs> fsck -y /dev/sda1 > > What kernel version are you running? If it is 4.19.x, you may have have > hit a data corruption bug in Linux's block layer: > > > https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.19-EXT4-Issue-L… > > My suggestion--rollback to 4.18.x until this is all resolved. > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >

Dec. 10, 2018

mailing list issues

by Anderson, Charles R

Some people (including myself) have not been receiving emails sent to the list. I'm guessing that DMARC may be blocking messages from senders' domains that have DMARC set up, so I made a MailMan change to enable DMARC Mitigations. This works by replacing your "From: you(a)wherever.com" with "From: Your Full Name via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org>". Your original From: appears in the Reply-To: header. I'm also sending this message to test delivery to a few domains like yahoo.com and gmail.com.

Dec. 10, 2018

Re: December Meeting Reminder!

by Chuck Anderson

Tim Keller wrote: > Date: Dec 13, 2018 @ 7PM. > Location: WPI Campus Center (Mid Century Room 331) > Topic: To Be Decided! If there's something you'd like to talk about drop me > a line! Otherwise Maybe we could talk about DMARC, DKIM, and SPF! ****pssst! Frank!***

Dec. 10, 2018

Re: desktop (wife=moved->linux Mint) MB/sata/grub fun

by Chuck Anderson

Doug Mildram wrote: > ON BOOT, it would sometimes STOP at this prompt > > initramfs> > > and with good eyes as the boot-attempt screen(s) would fly by and return to > above prompt, > I discovered I could fix it with ( actually i did not use the "-y" > prompt, but it's the same fix either way) > > initramfs> fsck -y /dev/sda1 What kernel version are you running? If it is 4.19.x, you may have have hit a data corruption bug in Linux's block layer: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.19-EXT4-Issue-L… My suggestion--rollback to 4.18.x until this is all resolved.

Dec. 10, 2018

desktop (linux Mint/ubuntu) Motherboard/sata/grub fun

by Doug Mildram

Warning: there's a couple "fun" ( aka "new to me") things in this LONG email. SUMMARY 2-lines-below: 1) on reboot, an initramfs prompt, errors only seen briefly as boot screen overwrites it. Needed fsck. 2) later when things got worse, my solution followed by a different error message re: "environment block too small". the LONG story: Months ago i managed to move wife/maureen's desktop environment to Mint(ubuntu underneath). Usage: firefox,gmail (almost nothing else of note. This took some persuading, but desktops are such a fallback these days......another topic for another day) DESKTOP: 10?yr-old Gigabyte motherboard with sata2/sataII ... 4 ports. I only use 1 sata port. I "gave" it a $90/bestbuy 256g SSD Samsung months ago for /dev/sda which ran well+fast of course, turns out the SSD is actually still fine internally. A FEW WEEKS AGO, the "hint" symptom (1 of 2 in this long story) for disk woes was.... ( it started crashing occasionally, then) ON BOOT, it would sometimes STOP at this prompt initramfs> and with good eyes as the boot-attempt screen(s) would fly by and return to above prompt, I discovered I could fix it with ( actually i did not use the "-y" prompt, but it's the same fix either way) initramfs> fsck -y /dev/sda1 Which worked every time (a few times), nothing scary for an ex-unix-sysadmin, followed by initramfs> exit ######## would allow it to boot and be OK for days or so. I taped THAT magic (fsck...) onto a paper mini-sign on the PC for another rainy day. TODAY, the crash was followed by not booting (random results, kernel panics or bios/grub waiting). So I brought the SSD to my other living room desktop (not booting FROM it...) checked SSD with sudo smartcl -a /dev/sda #### AND ITS FINE. I moved the SSD "back" to wife's PC on another SATA port. It's fine! (motherboard deteriorating i guess....but might last another decade). I did run into.... ("created" by moving the disk i assume) .... a boot/warning error NEW TO ME: On initial boot a WARNING ERROR on the early/black screen (similar to where initramfs> shows up..just before that i think) "warning: environment block too small" was actually ignorable (after a few secs, boot marched on to kernel/logo). But I found "it's a thing" and the error appears solvable with first google hit suggesting linux user# sudo rm /boot/grub/grubenv # or "mv" it somewhere.old; 1024 byte file. ...............# sudo grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv create and reboot. Seems good now except (new i think; probably from the sata port move?) there's a ONE MINUTE wait on the initial boot with the Mint logo flashing. Final things-to-inspect: (no need to "fix" /etc/fstab which of course does find the disk parts ( just / and swap) by UUID and /var/log/syslog ( I have exportedthe old history to study, i think the disk errors stopped. ) =========================WRAPUP Haven't solved this learn-all mission yet, but...hope to make it to WLUG THURS EVE and i just thought of a (this) topic. Trick is knowing where to start such a story/tutorial; I'd try to skip over BIOS and sata/disk/etc basics, the fuzzy parts for me involve "initramfs" ... grub ..... and maybe that's it for me. Desired talk/take-home: linux BOOT steps you don't want to know. -doug

Dec. 10, 2018

WLUG meeting this week

by Anderson, Charles R

I haven't seen any messages to the list since November 8, so I'm sending this message to see if the mailing list still works. We have a WLUG meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 7pm in the WPI Campus Center, Mid-Century Room (the location we use most often).

Dec. 10, 2018