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Re: DECStation 3100 on a RPi2040...

by Michael Voorhis

On 7/6/24 3:27 PM, John Stoffel via WLUG wrote: > Yeah, we had a ton of DECstations and a bunch of various early model > Alphas at WPI which we beta tested for DEC. I have one of these CPUs in my office. --MCV.

July 6, 2024

Re: DECStation 3100 on a RPi2040...

by David Glaser

>> The implementation was kept so secret that it caught Dave Cutler, >> then working on DEC's next-generation operating system and chips, by >> surprise when it debuted at a Board Meeting in Maynard, >> Massachusetts. Shortly after that board meeting Mr. Cutler left >> Digital and moved (with some of his team) to Microsoft. > Do you think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back? > Actually, Cutler was already in trouble with management because of the Prism project. Prism was the first try at building a RISC machine (this was in the 1985-1986 time frame) and it was managed by Dave Cutler. Unfortunately, Dave was not a good administrator. He was doing a very bad job of managing the project and doing a very bad job of keeping management up to date on what was going on. Finally, management cancelled Prism and that is when they decided to go with the MIPS architecture. Dave was trying to rehabilitate himself but the DECStation 3100 basically yanked the rug from under him -- among other things. The adoption of the MIPS architecture caused a lot of grumbling and unhappiness with the troops because of the NIH factor. This in turn allowed Bob Palmer and others to push for a new try at a RISC architecture and thus the Alpha was born. Unfortunately, Alpha took up a lot of resources (hardware design, software, semiconductor) that should have been used elsewhere - e.g., Concentrate of MIPS for high end and intel or motorola for the low end, Ultrix instead of OSF, etc. The Hudson facility (along with disk drives) was a real money sink. Bob Palmer came from the manufacturing side and I think he loathed dismantling DECs vertical integration. When the board of directors told him to preserve shareholder equity, he then started to sell off pieces of the company which started dismantling the vertical integration. But then it was too late. -David

July 6, 2024

Re: DECStation 3100 on a RPi2040...

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Jon" == Jon \"maddog\" Hall via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > The DECstation 3100 (aka the PMAX) was a system based on the same > motherboard as the VAXstation 3100, except with a MIPS processor. > It was the first time that Digital had built a system using another > company's chip architecture. That's an interesting statement. I would think it was the same case and port setup, but a different motherboard since you couldn't just slot a MIPS processor into a VAXstation processor. > We had a choice between supporting the MIPS R2000 chip as "big > endian" or "little endian". We chose to support "little endian" to > be compatible with PDP-11s, VAXen and Intel chips, rather than be > compatible with other manufacturers. This, in my mind, was very > important since it let us share data over NFS and give greater > compatibility with programs and libraries of applications already > running on other Unix-like systems such as Ultrix, BSD, etc. Sun > experienced this grief when they ported Solaris off the big endian > Motorola and SPARC chips to little endian Intel. > One of the few issues of the DECstation 3100 (and 2100, known as the > "PMIN" after that) was that the serial I/O port did not support > hardware handshaking. To save a couple of pennies per system the > VAX hardware designers determined that having full hardware modem > control (DECstandard 52) on the board was not needed, because "very > few workstation users hook a modem up to their serial line". What > they meant was that "very few VMS workstation users hooked a modem > up to their serial line", opting for DECnet to handle their > networking. Therefore the pins necessary to support hardware modem > control were missing from the DECstation product lines. Yes! It's coming back to me, the 3100s were horrible for serial, though I think they had fixed it for the 5000 series systems, since the DECstation 5000 and the DECserver 5100 were identical, except the DECStation had a graphics card and cost 10-20% _less_ than the DECstation 5000. So we bought DECStations and used them as servers. :-) I used to live and breathe the DEC options catalog, which was something like an inch thick book in purple (maybe blue? maybe changed each year?) with all the various options and configurations you could get. > Unix users, on the other hand, often had modems hooked up to their > workstation, to handle cu(1), uucp(1) and other serial line > protocols. We eventually got around this by better refining > software modem control, but it was painful. The EE department had Sun 1s at WPI, and they have the 9600 baud bitnet connection running of a VAX 11/780 at the time. > The proposal, design and release of the DECstation 3100 was a > top-secret project inside of DEC, kept secret from even many people > in the Digital Unix group in Nashua, New Hampshire. The > development of the system was done in Palo Alto's WorkStation > Engineering group and the software engineering was done in the > Western Software Labs in Palo Alto, albeit by taking key engineers > from the Nashua facility and transplanting them temporarily to Palo > Alto. > The implementation was kept so secret that it caught Dave Cutler, > then working on DEC's next-generation operating system and chips, by > surprise when it debuted at a Board Meeting in Maynard, > Massachusetts. Shortly after that board meeting Mr. Cutler left > Digital and moved (with some of his team) to Microsoft. Do you think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back? > The DECstations only were manufactured for a couple of years, as the > DEC Alpha processor replaced MIPS in Digital's lineup. Although > originally promised that OSF/1 would be ported to the DECstation > line, this port was dropped due to realizing that there would never > be an application base to support the customers of a DECstation > OSF/1 port. It was better for ISVs and customers to maintain the > Ultrix base for the DECstations than to split the base into Ultrix > and OSF/1. Yeah, we had a ton of DECstations and a bunch of various early model Alphas at WPI which we beta tested for DEC. The AS2100 with 8 DEC StorageWorks canisters (which Netapp used on their early F220, F330, F740 NAS systems) holding 3.5" disks, dual ported, hot-swapable. Nice gear. The move from Ultrix to DEC OSF/1 was a bit painful, but not terrible as I recall, but I'm sure I've blocked all the bad memories from then. Thanks for the walk down memory lane! John

July 6, 2024

You-Do-It Founder

by gmcaplan＠gmcaplan.org

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/john-ahigian-obituary…

July 6, 2024

Re: DECStation 3100 on a RPi2040...

by Jon "maddog" Hall

The DECstation 3100 (aka the PMAX) was a system based on the same motherboard as the VAXstation 3100, except with a MIPS processor. It was the first time that Digital had built a system using another company's chip architecture. We had a choice between supporting the MIPS R2000 chip as "big endian" or "little endian". We chose to support "little endian" to be compatible with PDP-11s, VAXen and Intel chips, rather than be compatible with other manufacturers. This, in my mind, was very important since it let us share data over NFS and give greater compatibility with programs and libraries of applications already running on other Unix-like systems such as Ultrix, BSD, etc. Sun experienced this grief when they ported Solaris off the big endian Motorola and SPARC chips to little endian Intel. One of the few issues of the DECstation 3100 (and 2100, known as the "PMIN" after that) was that the serial I/O port did not support hardware handshaking. To save a couple of pennies per system the VAX hardware designers determined that having full hardware modem control (DECstandard 52) on the board was not needed, because "very few workstation users hook a modem up to their serial line". What they meant was that "very few VMS workstation users hooked a modem up to their serial line", opting for DECnet to handle their networking. Therefore the pins necessary to support hardware modem control were missing from the DECstation product lines. Unix users, on the other hand, often had modems hooked up to their workstation, to handle cu(1), uucp(1) and other serial line protocols. We eventually got around this by better refining software modem control, but it was painful. The proposal, design and release of the DECstation 3100 was a top-secret project inside of DEC, kept secret from even many people in the Digital Unix group in Nashua, New Hampshire. The development of the system was done in Palo Alto's WorkStation Engineering group and the software engineering was done in the Western Software Labs in Palo Alto, albeit by taking key engineers from the Nashua facility and transplanting them temporarily to Palo Alto. The implementation was kept so secret that it caught Dave Cutler, then working on DEC's next-generation operating system and chips, by surprise when it debuted at a Board Meeting in Maynard, Massachusetts. Shortly after that board meeting Mr. Cutler left Digital and moved (with some of his team) to Microsoft. The DECstations only were manufactured for a couple of years, as the DEC Alpha processor replaced MIPS in Digital's lineup. Although originally promised that OSF/1 would be ported to the DECstation line, this port was dropped due to realizing that there would never be an application base to support the customers of a DECstation OSF/1 port. It was better for ISVs and customers to maintain the Ultrix base for the DECstations than to split the base into Ultrix and OSF/1. md On Fri, Jul 5, 2024 at 9:02 AM John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > > My first real Unix workstation, reduced. > > https://github.com/rscott2049/DECstation2040 > > This brings back memories. I think they had 8mb of RAM and 525Mb > 5 1/4" full height hard drives in external SCSI enclosures way back in > the late 80s.... > > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/W47HD… >

July 5, 2024

DECStation 3100 on a RPi2040...

by John Stoffel

My first real Unix workstation, reduced. https://github.com/rscott2049/DECstation2040 This brings back memories. I think they had 8mb of RAM and 525Mb 5 1/4" full height hard drives in external SCSI enclosures way back in the late 80s....

July 5, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by Tim Keller

Sadly I only went to You Do it once and it was really amazing. It was before the pandemic in their full glory. My co-worker is a big ham guy and he needed some stuff to repair a couple radios as well as some connectors for his various antennas. He was in there all the time and immediately was greeted by a sales guy who dove right into a deep conversation about dipole yaggi's, etc. I wandered the aisles, just amazed. They had a pretty decent 3d printing corner as well. Sadly, I think the market for building your own electronics is continuously shrinking. Tim. On Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 2:46 PM John Stoffel via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > >>>>> "gmcaplan---" == gmcaplan--- via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > > They're gone already, it was pretty quick, I missed being able to make > a trip too. > > > This is terrible news! Have they closed already? I was planning to > > go there on Tuesday (July 2) when I have a medical appt. in > > Newton. They were probably destroyed by the Web, BUT their location > > was not ideal. The traffic in that area was horrible. > > > On 2024-06-28 4:53 pm, Jeff Moyer via WLUG wrote: > >> Hi, David, > >> > >> David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > >> > >>> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice > >>> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is > >>> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? > >> > >> That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as > >> You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: > >> http://www.electronicsplus.com/ > >> > >> They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. > >> > >> -Jeff > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > >> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > >> Change Settings: > >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > >> Web Forum/Archive: > >> > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C… > > _______________________________________________ > > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/DPXGK… > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/KWIQU… > -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

July 2, 2024

Re: Keeping your package manager happy in Ubuntu and Debian -- from prior upgrade discussion

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "Michael" == Michael Voorhis via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: Mike puts out some great info, but I just want to make a single comment here, because my main system at home has gone from Debian 9 (I think!) to 10, 11 and now 12. Lots of cruft has built up over the years, and this was a great set of commands to help clean stuff out. > Does your machine harbor software not attached to any software repo? > (these are AKA "Obsolete packages") Learn the shocking truth: > aptitude show '~o' | grep Package | awk '{print $2}' | sort | fmt This really needs to be: aptitude show '~o' | grep Package: | awk '{print $2}' | sort | fmt because sometimes aptitude shows package info across two or more lines.

July 2, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "gmcaplan---" == gmcaplan--- via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: They're gone already, it was pretty quick, I missed being able to make a trip too. > This is terrible news! Have they closed already? I was planning to > go there on Tuesday (July 2) when I have a medical appt. in > Newton. They were probably destroyed by the Web, BUT their location > was not ideal. The traffic in that area was horrible. > On 2024-06-28 4:53 pm, Jeff Moyer via WLUG wrote: >> Hi, David, >> >> David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: >> >>> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice >>> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is >>> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? >> >> That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as >> You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: >> http://www.electronicsplus.com/ >> >> They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. >> >> -Jeff >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ >> Change Settings: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ >> Web Forum/Archive: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C… > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/DPXGK…

July 2, 2024

Keeping your package manager happy in Ubuntu and Debian -- from prior upgrade discussion

by Michael Voorhis

On 7/1/24 9:34 PM, gmcaplan--- via WLUG wrote: > John, Thank you for your help with my recent Linux problems. Sorry I > did not say anything sooner. I'm coming late to this discussion; sorry about that. Re: "old packages from a previous upgrade" ... in Ubuntu, the "do-release-upgrade" script is supposed to clear those out. But if do-release-upgrade crashes out, people can get lost as they don't know how to duke it out with the package manager. My standard "update the software" in Ubuntu/Debian looks for deletable and orphan packages specifically. Nuking orphan stuff and removing old cruft beforehand, is THE WAY to make your upgrades work better. The only other source of complication is old additional software repos in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/[...] which are NOT supported in the OS release you're upgrading INTO. Does your package manager want you to delete stuff? dpkg -l | grep '^r' | awk '{print $2}' | sort | fmt ... this command should return no output if your system is clean. Does your machine harbor software not attached to any software repo? (these are AKA "Obsolete packages") Learn the shocking truth: aptitude show '~o' | grep Package | awk '{print $2}' | sort | fmt ... this command should also produce no output on a happy machine, other than perhaps one-shot .deb files installed from downloads (i.e., if you download the zoom client by hand and install that without using a repo, etc). The more cruft, the worse your major-version-upgrade experience will be. The upgrade is performed entirely by the package manager, so that part of your OS needs to be happy before you can start an upgrade with confidence. --MCV.

July 2, 2024

Re: Seeking Ubuntu Help

by gmcaplan＠gmcaplan.org

John, Thank you for your help with my recent Linux problems. Sorry I did not say anything sooner. George Caplan On 2024-06-26 9:39 pm, John Stoffel via WLUG wrote: >>>>>> "gmcaplan---" == gmcaplan--- via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> >>>>>> writes: > >> I hope one or more of you can help me. >> I upgraded today from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS on my desktop >> computer. (I know I am way behind, but I can do this only in the >> summer >> etc., etc.) >> I used the built-in Ubuntu update feature. >> It worked better than I expected and took less that two hours. The >> data >> backups I did ahead of time took much longer. > >> Anyway, 20.04 is running but I have two problems. > >> Number One: > >> Many terminal commands give this message: >> Errors were encountered while processing: >> linux-image-4.15.0-212-generic >> Processing was halted because there were too many errors. >> W: Can not find PkgVer for 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-122-generic' >> E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) > >> In particular, here is what happens when I try to remove 4.4.0-212. > >> sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic >> Reading package lists... Done >> Building dependency tree >> Reading state information... Done >> E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic >> E: Couldn't find any package by glob >> 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' >> E: Couldn't find any package by regex >> 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' > > This is funky. I suspect that you have an old package from a previous > upgrade, did you come from Ubuntu 16.x or earlier on this same system? > > You might try to run the following, all as root or with sudo: > > apt clean > apt update > apt install --fix-missing > apt upgrade > > and see what each command says. So please share the full and complete > outputs. You might also be able to do: > > apt purge linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic > > But maybe you can share the output of: > > dpkg-query -l | grep linux-image-extra > > and see if that package is listed and share with us the full details? >> From the looks of it, you DID do a previous upgrade from Ubuntu 16.0 > at some point, but didn't didn't do: > > apt autoremove > > once you finished the ugprade to 18.x, but I think we can make this > work with a bit of finagling. > > Also, please look at these instructions, and once we get this fixed, > I'm going to suggest you go right to 22.04 LTS, and then just stick > with LTS versions if you can't upgrade very often. > > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades > > But the last thing to try, if none of the above works might be to do: > > dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq > linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic > > and see if _that_ does the trick. > > John > > > > >> Number Two: > >> I cannot get audio out of Line Out to my speakers. And I cannot get >> audio into Line In to make recordings. I *do* get audio from the audio >> output on my HDMI monitor. This might be related to the need for >> codecs, >> but when I try various terminal commands to load more codecs, I get >> problem Number 1 ! > > Yeah, let's fix your apt-repo, which seems to be in a wierd state. But > maybe you can also post what your hardware is, including the output > of: > > lspci > >> Some of what I read on the Web mentions tex files that could cause >> Number 1. I do have TeXstudio installed. I tried to uninstall >> texstudio and texlive, but when I do that, I get the message ant >> Number One! > > Yeah, I doubt that's the problem, but we'll try to help here. > > Do you have any special stuff in /etc/apt/sources.list or do you have > any extra file in > > ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ > > and what I'd probably do is remove all extra sources in there for now, > just to make sure things are ok. > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/Y23FW…

July 2, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by joel d

Was last in you-do-it May 17 when travels took me nearby. Store was about 80 percent empty then. Sign of the times. Going forward we all plan weeks ahead with free shipping things from China. Joel On June 29, 2024 10:30:27 AM David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > Hi Jeff, > > June 12th was the last day. > > -David > > On 6/29/2024 9:38 AM, gmcaplan--- via WLUG wrote: >> This is terrible news! Have they closed already? >> I was planning to go there on Tuesday (July 2) when I have a medical >> appt. in Newton. They were probably destroyed by the Web, BUT their >> location was not ideal. The traffic in that area was horrible. >> >> On 2024-06-28 4:53 pm, Jeff Moyer via WLUG wrote: >>> Hi, David, >>> >>> David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: >>> >>>> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice >>>> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is >>>> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? >>> >>> That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as >>> You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: >>> http://www.electronicsplus.com/ >>> >>> They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. >>> >>> -Jeff >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >>> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >>> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ >>> Change Settings: >>> https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ >>> Web Forum/Archive: >>> https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C… >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ >> Change Settings: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ >> Web Forum/Archive: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/DPXGK… > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/Y3SIV…

June 29, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by David Glaser

Hi Jeff, June 12th was the last day. -David On 6/29/2024 9:38 AM, gmcaplan--- via WLUG wrote: > This is terrible news! Have they closed already? > I was planning to go there on Tuesday (July 2) when I have a medical > appt. in Newton. They were probably destroyed by the Web, BUT their > location was not ideal. The traffic in that area was horrible. > > On 2024-06-28 4:53 pm, Jeff Moyer via WLUG wrote: >> Hi, David, >> >> David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: >> >>> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice >>> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is >>> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? >> >> That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as >> You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: >> http://www.electronicsplus.com/ >> >> They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. >> >> -Jeff >> >> _______________________________________________ >> WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org >> To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org >> Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ >> Change Settings: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ >> Web Forum/Archive: >> https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C… > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/DPXGK…

June 29, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by gmcaplan＠gmcaplan.org

This is terrible news! Have they closed already? I was planning to go there on Tuesday (July 2) when I have a medical appt. in Newton. They were probably destroyed by the Web, BUT their location was not ideal. The traffic in that area was horrible. On 2024-06-28 4:53 pm, Jeff Moyer via WLUG wrote: > Hi, David, > > David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > >> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice >> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is >> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? > > That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as > You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: > http://www.electronicsplus.com/ > > They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. > > -Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C…

June 29, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by John Stoffel

I’ll second electronics plus as well, but not sure how much long Fran will keep it running… Sent from my iPhone > On Jun 28, 2024, at 4:01 PM, Jeff Moyer via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> wrote: > > Hi, David, > > David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > >> You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice >> resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is >> within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? > > That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as > You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: > http://www.electronicsplus.com/ > > They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. > > -Jeff > > _______________________________________________ > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > Change Settings: https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > Web Forum/Archive: https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/WSZ6C…

June 28, 2024

Re: You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by Jeff Moyer

Hi, David, David Glaser via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice > resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is > within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? That is sad. I don't know of another store that is as big as You-Do-It, but there is Electronics Plus in Littleton: http://www.electronicsplus.com/ They are more like a radioshack in terms of size and inventory. -Jeff

June 28, 2024

You-Do-It Electronics is dead, long live You-Do-It Electronics

by David Glaser

You-Do-It Electronics went out of business. It was a very nice resource. Does anyone know of a similar electronics store that is within a 1 hour drive of Woosta? -David

June 28, 2024

Problems Solved

by gmcaplan＠gmcaplan.org

I used grub-customizer to remove image 212 from grub. hat solved the error problem. Then a removed and re-installed alsa-base and pulseaudio. Now sound works.

June 27, 2024

Re: Seeking Ubuntu Help

by John Stoffel

>>>>> "gmcaplan---" == gmcaplan--- via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > I hope one or more of you can help me. > I upgraded today from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS on my desktop > computer. (I know I am way behind, but I can do this only in the summer > etc., etc.) > I used the built-in Ubuntu update feature. > It worked better than I expected and took less that two hours. The data > backups I did ahead of time took much longer. > Anyway, 20.04 is running but I have two problems. > Number One: > Many terminal commands give this message: > Errors were encountered while processing: > linux-image-4.15.0-212-generic > Processing was halted because there were too many errors. > W: Can not find PkgVer for 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-122-generic' > E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) > In particular, here is what happens when I try to remove 4.4.0-212. > sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic > Reading package lists... Done > Building dependency tree > Reading state information... Done > E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic > E: Couldn't find any package by glob > 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' > E: Couldn't find any package by regex > 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' This is funky. I suspect that you have an old package from a previous upgrade, did you come from Ubuntu 16.x or earlier on this same system? You might try to run the following, all as root or with sudo: apt clean apt update apt install --fix-missing apt upgrade and see what each command says. So please share the full and complete outputs. You might also be able to do: apt purge linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic But maybe you can share the output of: dpkg-query -l | grep linux-image-extra and see if that package is listed and share with us the full details? From the looks of it, you DID do a previous upgrade from Ubuntu 16.0 at some point, but didn't didn't do: apt autoremove once you finished the ugprade to 18.x, but I think we can make this work with a bit of finagling. Also, please look at these instructions, and once we get this fixed, I'm going to suggest you go right to 22.04 LTS, and then just stick with LTS versions if you can't upgrade very often. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades But the last thing to try, if none of the above works might be to do: dpkg --purge --force-remove-reinstreq linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic and see if _that_ does the trick. John > Number Two: > I cannot get audio out of Line Out to my speakers. And I cannot get > audio into Line In to make recordings. I *do* get audio from the audio > output on my HDMI monitor. This might be related to the need for codecs, > but when I try various terminal commands to load more codecs, I get > problem Number 1 ! Yeah, let's fix your apt-repo, which seems to be in a wierd state. But maybe you can also post what your hardware is, including the output of: lspci > Some of what I read on the Web mentions tex files that could cause > Number 1. I do have TeXstudio installed. I tried to uninstall > texstudio and texlive, but when I do that, I get the message ant > Number One! Yeah, I doubt that's the problem, but we'll try to help here. Do you have any special stuff in /etc/apt/sources.list or do you have any extra file in ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ and what I'd probably do is remove all extra sources in there for now, just to make sure things are ok.

June 27, 2024

Seeking Ubuntu Help

by gmcaplan＠gmcaplan.org

I hope one or more of you can help me. I upgraded today from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to 20.04 LTS on my desktop computer. (I know I am way behind, but I can do this only in the summer etc., etc.) I used the built-in Ubuntu update feature. It worked better than I expected and took less that two hours. The data backups I did ahead of time took much longer. Anyway, 20.04 is running but I have two problems. Number One: Many terminal commands give this message: Errors were encountered while processing: linux-image-4.15.0-212-generic Processing was halted because there were too many errors. W: Can not find PkgVer for 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-122-generic' E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) In particular, here is what happens when I try to remove 4.4.0-212. sudo apt-get --purge remove linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' E: Couldn't find any package by regex 'linux-image-extra-4.4.0-212-generic' Number Two: I cannot get audio out of Line Out to my speakers. And I cannot get audio into Line In to make recordings. I *do* get audio from the audio output on my HDMI monitor. This might be related to the need for codecs, but when I try various terminal commands to load more codecs, I get problem Number 1 ! Some of what I read on the Web mentions tex files that could cause Number 1. I do have TeXstudio installed. I tried to uninstall texstudio and texlive, but when I do that, I get the message ant Number One! I'd appreciate any help or suggestions. Thank you. George Caplan email: gmcaplan(a)gmcaplan.org Phone: 978-263-5288 (landline, no texts)

June 26, 2024

Re: LLM's and graphical interfaces.

by John Stoffel

Jansen, Thanks for posting this tutorial! I don't have any nVidia hardware at home so I'll have to try and spin this up in the cloud somewhere. Won't get much of a chance to poke at this until the next meeting. Will we see you and your wife there by any chance? John

June 25, 2024

Re: LLM's and graphical interfaces.

by Jansen Smith

I made a mild how-to, for replicating my setup. Please note that the Nvidia driver setup is a SEPARATE "huge deal" that is out of scope for this how-to. You'll know the system is working if you see action in response to a prompt while running nvtop: I run the open-webui stack found here: https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui In order to have ollama (the LLM backend) available for my other fun projects and to ensure that the GPU is utilized by ollama, make sure you run the api and gpu compose files: docker compose -f docker-compose.yaml -f docker-compose.api.yaml -f docker-compose.gpu.yaml up -d --build I've catted my own versions of these files below: (base) house@chonkers:~/open-webui$ cat docker-compose.gpu.yaml services: ollama: # GPU support deploy: resources: reservations: devices: - driver: ${OLLAMA_GPU_DRIVER-nvidia} count: all capabilities: - gpu (base) house@chonkers:~/open-webui$ cat docker-compose.api.yaml version: '3.8' services: ollama: # Expose Ollama API outside the container stack ports: - ${OLLAMA_WEBAPI_PORT-11434}:11434 (base) house@chonkers:~/open-webui$ cat docker-compose.yaml version: '3.8' services: ollama: volumes: - ollama:/root/.ollama container_name: ollama pull_policy: always tty: true restart: unless-stopped image: ollama/ollama:${OLLAMA_DOCKER_TAG-latest} open-webui: build: context: . args: OLLAMA_BASE_URL: '/ollama' dockerfile: Dockerfile image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:${WEBUI_DOCKER_TAG-main} container_name: open-webui volumes: - open-webui:/app/backend/data depends_on: - ollama ports: - 3131:8080 environment: - 'OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434' - 'WEBUI_SECRET_KEY=' extra_hosts: - host.docker.internal:host-gateway restart: unless-stopped volumes: ollama: {} open-webui: {} (base) house@chonkers:~/open-webui$ On Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 11:48 AM John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: > > Thanks for sending out this info Jansen, now to find time to actually > play with this stuff! > > > (can this email address be added to the mailing list?) > > > the self-hosted webui i use is here: > > https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui > > > ollama! > > https://github.com/ollama/ollama > > > here's the docker for ollama: > > https://hub.docker.com/r/ollama/ollama > > > On Tue, May 14, 2024 at 5:32 PM Kevin Harrington < > mad.hephaestus(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > ---------- Forwarded message --------- > > From: Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > Date: Tue, May 14, 2024, 4:49 PM > > Subject: [WLUG] LLM's and graphical interfaces. > > To: Worcester Linux Users' Group General Discussion < > wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > Cc: Tim Keller <turbofx(a)gmail.com> > > > A couple meetings ago Jansen showed up a really cool graphical > interface for LLM. > > > Does anybody remember what it was? > > > Thanks, > > Tim. > > > -- > > I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their > constituents as > > "consumers". > > _______________________________________________ > > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > > Web Forum/Archive: > > > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/XVOQB… > > _______________________________________________ > > WLUG mailing list -- wlug(a)lists.wlug.org > > To unsubscribe send an email to wlug-leave(a)lists.wlug.org > > Create Account: https://wlug.mailman3.com/accounts/signup/ > > Change Settings: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/postorius/lists/wlug.lists.wlug.org/ > > Web Forum/Archive: > https://wlug.mailman3.com/hyperkitty/list/wlug@lists.wlug.org/message/4ZQIW… >

June 23, 2024

This is for Brendan! Running VMs with GPU pass through

by John Stoffel

I haven't spent any time on this, but saw this article and thought of Brendan right off the bat. https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/19/proxmox_xcp_ng_gpu_passthrough/ This might be what he needs to run stuff at home on his GPU pass-through attempts. John

June 21, 2024

Re: Reminder: Meeting June 13th 2024 at 7PM! Topic: Your own personal LLM!

by John Stoffel

Hi all, I think we had a good meeting last night, it was certainly neat seeing how well ollama2 and ollama3 are at answering questions. It was also interesting to see how it could start going off the rails a little bit when asked interesting questions, because it couldn't (in my mind!) reason about things properly. Can you tell I'm an AI skeptic in some ways? It will make big changes at some point, but I don't think it will be as much as people think right away. It's still on the hype phase, and we haven't gotten to the reality crash yet. So hopefully we'll get some more details posted so we can all play around with ollama3 on our own systems. It's a bummer I can't use my AMD GPUs since that's all I have, no nVidia stuff at all in my house. And for next month, what do people want to talk about? I can try to resurrect my talk on KiCad, updated for v8 that was released ealier this year. Or I can talk about 'duc' which is the software package I help maintain. It's for indexing large large filesystems and displaying disk usage via CLI, GUI or web pages. It's really useful for when you have a 12Tb filesystem with 30 million files, because plain 'du' just takes way too long. https://github.com/zevv/duc is where you can find it. It's been quiet for a long time, but I've been recently getting ready to update and push out a new release. Hopefully this month if I'm lucky! John

June 14, 2024

Re: Reminder: Meeting June 13th 2024 at 7PM! Topic: Your own personal LLM!

by Keith Wright

Tim Keller via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> writes: > We've got a meeting tomorrow!! > Date/Time: June 13th 2024 @ 7pm. > Virtual Location: (back to the old haunt) https://meet.jit.si/WlugMA Tried a few times to get in between 6:55 -- 7:10. It asks for permission to share mike/video I say yes, it asks do I want to be moderator, I say no, it says you will get in when someone lets you in and displays the circling circle.... I'll try again. Then give up. -- Keith

June 13, 2024