Meeting

This week at Blackpool LUG there was Mike, Colin, Tony and Les

What we did / discussed today

1. Colin's Project of the Week
2. Compiling wireless drivers for Colin's dongle
3. Microsoft offering free Microsoft products to students - Has Linux put them on the back foot?
4. Using Free and Open Source Software to transition from Windows to Linux
5. The problem with Linux is...
6. QEMU - Try other distributions
7. Open BSD
8. Linux command line tips of the week
9. Our LUG calendar

This weeks photos are here

1 Colin's Project of the Week

This week Colin ran Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx on his Apple iBook G3.
This was a remarkable achievement, given that the hardware is over a decade old!

2 Compiling wireless drivers for Colin's dongle

Mike and Colin had a go compiling wireless drivers for Colin's infamous wireless dongle. This looked promising until during the compile process there were a number of errors.
which all looked to stem from one source, the kernel. Perhaps Colin should ask Tony for a really long ethernet cable? ;)

3 Microsoft offering free Microsoft products to students - Has Linux put them on the back foot?

Mike mentioned that his son had been given free Microsoft developer software, as he is an accomplished programmer.
Does this show an early indication that Microsoft is worried about the availability of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)?
Traditionally children have used Microsoft products in schools, but could this be changing? Could future generations grow up with the choice to use FOSS?

4 Using Free and Open Source Software to transition from Windows to Linux

We discussed the use of FOSS in helping those wishing to transition from Windows / Mac to Linux.
Common applications are

• Internet Explorer
• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Illustrator
• Windows Mail
• iTunes

And their FOSS alternatives are (respectively)

• Firefox, Chrome
• Gimp
• Inkscape
• Thunderbird
• Rhythmbox, banshee, Amarok

Windows / Mac users are not stuck paying for software, they can use these free alternatives instead.

5 The problem with Linux is...

We have great developers, coders, technical experts. All working hard to produce the best software for us. But where we have a problem is with documentation. We are improving but we need to ensure that we have quality documentation, and more of it.

6 QEMU - Try other distributions

Mike set a challenge, for each of us to follow this guide and build a USB key that can run puppy linux inside Qemu.
Qemu is a emulator that allows you to emulate various CPU architectures, such as 68000, ARM and standard x86.
The emulation does not work like Virtualbox, which really just sits on top of the base operating system and works along side. Qemu instead emulates the architecture required for the operating system, the downside of this is that you will struggle to run the operating systems at anything near normal speed.

7 Open BSD

We had a brief look at Open BSD, looked very old school. Like something from the early 2000's. But it ran well and offered a high level of security. Pictures are on my Flickr photostream.

8 Linux command line tips of the week

Tired of pressing the up arrow key to search through your history? Then try this in a terminal instead
Ctrl+r (Press the control key and the r key in a terminal)
You should see this
(reverse-i-search)`':
Now start typing in part of a command, and it will search the history as you type to find what you are looking for!
When you have the right command press
Ctrl+o (Press the control key and the o key in a terminal)
This will now run the command.

Another quick tip, don't want a command to appear in your history? Then enter a space before the command and it wont appear!

9 Our LUG Calendar

We have a great Google Calendar that shows events and important information in the Linux world.
Les will update the calendar regularly, so please keep an eye on it.
Important dates this week

• How Why DIY 21st / 22nd August (exact date TBA in Liverpool): A tech event where people can get together and share ideas. Les will be there providing Ubuntu and free software advice to attendees.
• Ubuntu Global Jam 27th to 29th August 2010, at Madlab Manchester. This is a great event to go to. Help others file bug reports, fix bugs and work to improve documentation. Or just have a chat with like minded individuals. Les and Rick will be going, anyone else fancy it?
• Software Freedom Day in Machester on the 18th September Manchester Free Software will be hosting a day of events and workshops to celebrate Software Freedom Day. Tony, Rick, Rob and Les will be there promoting Ubuntu and Free Software
• Ubuntu 10.10 Release Party. October 10th 2010 (10/10/10 ;) ) Come and celebrate the release of Ubuntu 10.10 at Madlab in Manchester. Details are still be fleshed out but as I learn more I will let you know.
  

See you next week
Les

Meeting

This week at Blackpool LUG there was Mike, Colin, Tony and Les

What we did / discussed today

1. The format of the LUG
2. Ubuntu and floppy disks
3. The Linux Command Line
4. Colin's mini disro of the week
5. Are distros that use unsigned packages safe? Could they be used for criminal purposes?
6. How to install an application from source
7. Etherape - Keeping an eye on what the kids are looking at
8. Next weeks LUG
9. Our LUG Calendar

This weeks photos are here

1 The format of the LUG

Mike raised the point that the LUG should cater to the attendees interests. So that each week we have a relevant and interesting content.
At the same time the LUG should also appeal to new members.

Does anyone have any ideas or Linux related interests / projects that they would like to bring to the group?

2 Ubuntu and floppy disks

Colin had a few problems with Ubuntu reading his floppy disks (Hey kids, remember these?)
When we tested his floppy disks on our sacrificial machine they worked 1st time. Colin will retry at home and report next week.


3 The Linux Command Line

Les has created a guide to the Linux Command Line and we used the guide to work on the command line, using a few basic commands.
This guide is a work in progress and if anyone has any ideas, then please do contact Les (@biglesp on Twitter).

4 Colin's mini disro of the week

This week, Colin has been using Coyote Linux
Coyote Linux is a floppy based Linux distribution, primarily aimed at creating a firewall.
Take a look and see what you think.

5 Are distros that use unsigned packages safe? Could they be used for criminal purposes?
We discussed the need for packages to use signed packages to ensure security for a distribution.
For example some distributions do not check new packages in their repositories, but let the community use them straight away.
What if there was a group with malicious intent that altered a package to steal information, how would we find out?
Can every package be checked?
Can we rely on others to check every package?
How often do you look at the source code of the packages you install?

6 How to install an application from source

Tony asked how to install an application from the source code, well below is a quick guide on how to do this.

Our file is called foo.tgz, and for the purpose of this guide we are working in he same directory as foo.tgz.
In a terminal type
gunzip foo.tgz
This will extract foo.tgz to foo.tar.
Now type
tar -xvf foo.tar
this will extract the files from foo.tar into the current working directory.
If there is a folder called foo, change your directory to foo
cd foo
Now in the terminal type this command
./configure
This will check your machine to ensure that it is able to compile the source code.
If you receive an error, you will need to ensure that you have all of the necessary dependencies installed.
Now in a terminal type
make
This will compile the application.
Now you need to change to root
su for most linux distributions
and run this last command, which will install the application on your PC.
makeinstall
**Special note for Ubuntu users**
You need to use the command
sudo su instead of just su, this is due to the configuration of Ubuntu.

Now you should be able to type in foo in the command line and run your new app.
Enjoy

7 Etherape - Keeping an eye on what the kids are looking at

Etherape is a great tool that shows what PCs on your network are looking at on the internet / network. Mike uses this to show his kids how much of his precious bandwidth the kids are using.

8 Next weeks LUG
Does anyone have any suggestions for next weeks LUG?
Let us know on the mailing list, remember this is your LUG, so please let us know.

9 Our LUG Calendar

We have a great Google Calendar that shows events and important information in the Linux world.
Les will update the calendar regularly, so please keep an eye on it.
Important dates this week

• How Why DIY 21st / 22nd August (exact date TBA in Liverpool): A tech event where people can get together and share ideas. Les will be there providing Ubuntu and free software advice to attendees.
• Software Freedom Day in Machester on the 18th September Manchester Free Software will be hosting a day of events and workshops to celebrate Software Freedom Day. Tony, Rick, Rob and Les will be there promoting Ubuntu and Free Software

See you next week
Les

Meeting

This week at Blackpool LUG there was Mike, Colin, and Les

What we did / discussed today

1. The development of the LUG


2. Projects


3. Colin's IBM Thinkpad Adventure


4. Photographing each weeks LUG


5. Mailing list


6. Next Weeks LUG


7. Future Events

1 The development of the LUG

We discussed the development of the LUG and how we can focus our activities to ensure that we get the most out of our sessions.
Mike is keen to point out that the direction of the group is determined by the members.
We discussed the use of a mission statement, to determine our focus, is this a good idea?

Remember this is your LUG, if you want to do something then please tell the group and we will do it.

2 Projects

Following on from our discussion on the development of the LUG, we discussed the use of projects to generate interest and educate the group.
Les is keen to follow this approach, and will chair the first session on Saturday 17th July.
The idea generated from our discussion would be to split our LUG session into sections, for example

10:00 to 10:30 Coffee and general chat
10:30 to 11:30 Arranged session
11:30 to 12:00 Any other business

Would this work? Does anyone have any questions?

3 Colin's IBM Thinkpad Adventure

Today we worked hard on Colin's IBM thinkpad (P2 233mhz CPU and 32mb of RAM) to install a USB wifi dongle on Damn Small Linux .
We installed the dongle and used the terminal command
tail -f /var/log/messages
to ensure that the laptop detected the dongle, which it did.
We then used Ndiswrapper to load the Windows driver for the dongle, and set the wireless SSID and WEP key. For some reason the device would not work (and an added bonus was that loading the driver disabled the keyboard!)
To determine the root cause of the issue we used the terminal command
lsusb
to show the status of attached USB devices. This showed that the dongle was attached and identified, but it looks like we will need to update the kernel using modprobe for this to be a success.
We shall carry on this activity for the first part of next weeks LUG.


4 Photographing each weeks LUG

Les is keen to photograph elements of our LUG and upload them to his Flickr account .
This way we can generate interest in the LUG and record our activities for future use.

Does anyone have any objections?


5 Mailing list

If there are any people on the mailing list who haven't said hello, then please do, we're a friendly bunch and would love to hear from you.


6 Next Weeks LUG

10:00 to 10:30 Colin's laptop.
10:30 to 11:30 Beginiing the command line, basic commands to get the job done.
11:30 to 12:00 Any other business.

7 Future Events

There are quite a few events in the north west that we might be interested in, all of the events are recorded in the LUG Google calendar

18th September Software Freedom Day

10th October Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat is released

And another barcamp, currently being arranged by the Barcamp Blackpool team.

TBA Barcamp Nottingham