Blackpool LUG Meeting 29/01/11

Another week with lots to do and lots of people there.

This we had 8 attendees

• Mike
• Dave
• Arran
• Colin
• Ed
• John
• Les
• And new member Mark, Hi Mark!

Dave and Les continued there session on virtual machines, this we we learnt how to use an ISO disc image as a CD/DVD in Virtualbox. We also investigated installing an OS on the virtual hard drive. This is a simple procedure, you treat the virtual hard drive, just as you would a real hard drive.

John and Colin installed the latest version of Firefox on an Acer Aspire netbook, that was running Linpus. This was not a straightforward procedure, as Linpus is fairly locked down compared to other Linux distros, but with perseverance, coffee and biscuits they did it!

Ed and Arran discussed backing up OS installations. Lets here from Ed

"As I am a linux newbie and most of my IT experience is with Windows I was

interested to here how linux might achieve things such as backing up data
and whole drives in the same way as ghost does for windows. I was also
interested to see how someone with more linux experience uses the command
line to manage the system and run applications.

We discussed hacking and security in particular the backtrack distro. I also
saw how you can run multiple sessions with a single terminal window useful
if managing a system via ssh.

I saw how I can view network information and we also installed wireshark.

I recently wondered why using the ifconfig did not display any information
about the wireless network connection. The answer was that I should use
iwconfig instead.

Piping things into "less" was also very useful when a command produces more
than a screens worth of information."

Mark and Mike discussed their Linux experience. Mark is relatively new to Linux, but has a good grounding in IT, harking back to MS DOS.

Mark has an avid interest in retro games consoles and computers. He has just received a Pandora http://www.openpandora.org/ A fantastic little device that runs an ARM CPU and can run a full desktop.

The included OS is based on Angstrom Linux, but has been tweaked for the Pandora.

Mark's first hurdle was installing and using VLC media player on his device. The installation was easy, literally copying a binary file to the desktop, but Mark did not know where his SD card was located. This is a common problem for first time Linux users, I showed Mark the file system of a Linux computer, and where the system mounted the SD card. After a few minutes we were ready to watch a video on his Pandora.

Mark then showed the group the MSX emulator, running Metal Gear 2 - Snake's Revenge.

Another busy week at Blackpool LUG.

For reference, if anyone would like a copy of my Linux Command Line guide, then please help yourself http://dl.dropbox.com/u/448790/The%20Linux%20Command%20Line.pdf

All the best

Les

Blackpool LUG Meeting 22/01/2011

Those present, an outstanding **9** People

WOW!!! The highest number of attendees EVER!!

• Mike
• Tony
• Peter
• Les
• Rob
• Ed
• Arran
• John
• Dave

What did we do today?

Les talked about UCubed, an event that he is organising in Manchester on the 2nd of April.

UCubed is an event that brings together the Ubuntu and Debian communities for a day of talks, hacking, learning and fun.

The main idea is that Ubuntu and Debian based distro users can get together and discuss their chosen distros, and learn from one another.

On the day there will be workshops hosted by the organisers and attendees, talks hosted by attendees and by special guests.

There will also be the oppurtunity for attendees to bring their projects / ideas to the event, and to work with others to develop said projects / ideas.

We are lucky to be supported by Canonical, the people that brought you Ubuntu, and by Linux Format, who are advertising our event in their magazine.

We are also very lucky to be supported by the Linux Outlaws and Ubuntu UK podcasts, both of which will be playing our adverts on their shows.

So please come along and enjoy the day, there'll be lots to see and do, and all for free.

You can find out more at our website, which is ucubed.info we'll have our website ready for mid February

We talked about the state of the Linux Kernel, in light of microsoft undertaking patent trolling. Microsoft have stated in previous attempts, that they have a patent on the ability for a user to temporarily elevate their privleges, along with a few other patents.

Unix users have been able to do this since the early 80's, way before Microsoft was able to do this.

Microsoft trolling is also similar to previous attempts by SCO and Oracle, both of which have been thrown out of court.

Virtual Machines

Dave wanted to know more about running a virtual machine on his laptop.

A virtual machine can be defined as a method of running virtual hardware in a software environment. This can be through emulation, such as QEMU, or through virtualisation such as KVM/Virtualbox.

For todays lug we used Virtualbox, which is available at virtualbox.org , Virtualbox is straightforward tool to setup virtual machines, and is avaialble for many distributions.

We were using Ubuntu as the "Host OS" (this is the operating system on which Virtualbox is running), so we could of used the software centre to download the packages for us, but the packages offered through Ubuntu are for the fully open source version, which does not include USB support. So instead we used the licensed, but free version from virtualbox.org.

We download the package and installed, which took about 5 minutes on our fast connection and equipment.

We then used a live CD of Damn Small Linux (DSL) to test the installation.

We configured the amount of RAM that the virtual machine would have available, then created a virtual hard drive, in case we wanted to install an OS. Next we configured the CD drive in Dave's laptop to be available in Virtualbox (look under storage in settings ;) )

After we had finished configuring the virtual machine, we then booted the DSL cd, in a couple of minutes we had a working virtual machine running DSL.

I hope Dave will enjoy using his new vitual machine.

Les handed out a few giffgaff sims.

Giffgaff is a new type of moobile telco, they offer really cheap deals, as they only offer a SIM card, they don't sell phones, just network access.

Les is a big fan of giffgaff as they offer unlimited (fully unlimited no fair use policy) internet access on their 3G network, which is piggybacked on top of the O2 network, so coverage is very good.

The SIMs are free, and if you use Les' link you will get an extra £5 on top of your first top up ;)

http://giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/biglesp

They offer a great "goodybag" for £10 a month, you get

250 minutes of calls

Unlimited text messages

Unlimited internet access.

The only restriction for internet access is that you are not allowed to tether your phone to a computer, but anything else is allowed.

Blackpool LUG Meeting 15th January 2011

Once again we hit the heady heights of 7!

Peter, Arran, Colin, Mike, Ed, Dave and Les all met this week.

And what can I say, it was a very busy meeting.

Colin and Mike tinkered with Colin's Micro Core Linux installation, Colin installed a browser so he could surf the web.

Mike and Colin then learnt a few lines of Python, using a book that Mike is currently reading and this website http://try-python.mired.org/.

Les and Peter created a video using an application called Openshot, which is part of Pinguy OS which we were using.

Pinguy is based on Linux Mint, and is a very good distribution, but I feel that it was a little too resource hungry, as it consumed nearly 700mb on boot!

Openshot is a great little video editor, and it allows you to add transitions and effects very easily. Les will be looking into this application.

Finally Arran and Dave learnt how to download source files and use configure, make and make-install.

Ed joined in with various discussions, and next week is hoping to bring his server so that we can build a bare metal server.

Tune in next week for more action.

Les

Meeting - January 8th 2011 - catch up chit-chat.

Two new faces arrived for the first meeting of 2011, welcome Ed and Aaron.

4 'old hands' attended, Colin, Tony, Les and Mike, and Peter representing the Fylde computer club, 7 in total, and we only have 8 chairs!

A lot of Linux 'chit-chat' took place as there was a lot of catching up to do.

A few Christmas presents were on display, but not much in the way of work got done this week.

We should get back into it soon!