Episode 095 – Effing Rsync

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Total Running Time: 1:12:44

Un-edited Live session – http://youtu.be/NkxPuVs3eXU

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Summary

Kernel News: Mat
Time: 16:35
Distro Talk: Tony
Time: 20:35
Mary Distro Review
Time: 33:50
Tech News:
Time: 42:20
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time: 56:40
Listener Feedback
Time: 1:02:30
Outtro Music
Time: 1:09:00

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Intro:

Tony Bemus, Mat Enders, and Mary Tomich
Sound bites by Mike Tanner

Kernel News: Mat

Time: 16:35

Release Candidate:
On Sun, 28 Jul 2013 21:42:36
Linus Torvalds released kernel 3.11-rc3
“Another week, another -rc.

And please just forget about me telling you people to get back to work last week. You got. -rc3 has about 50% more commits than -rc2 did. Part of it is that a few people missed rc2, but part of it is that people just sent me more. Please stop. It’s summer. It’s nice outside. Take the kids to the pool or something. Send me just regression fixes.

Otherwise I’ll have to start shouting at people again.

Anyway, remember how I asked people to test the backlight changes in rc2 because things like that have really bad track records? Yup. That all got reverted. It fixed things for some people, but regressed for others, and we don’t do that “one step forward, two steps back” thing. But never fear, we have top people looking at it.

The crc t10 dif crypto supprt got reverted too, since there were initrd infrastructure problems with it.

But the bulk here is some block driver updates (drbd, rsxx, xen, bcache, libata), and the drm changes (mostly qxl, but there’s changes to the “big tree” too: radeon, intel, nouveau). And various random other drivers – usb, scsi, pincontrol, etc.

There’s also the usual arch updates (mainly alpha, arm, powerpc).

Full shortlog since rc2 appended. It’s big enough that I debated doing just a merge-window style “mergelog” overview, but hey, maybe people enjoy this kind of detail?”
–Linus Torvalds

Mainline:
3.11-rc3

Stable Updates:
On Sun, 4 Aug 2013 17:24:09 TST
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.0.89
With 27 files changed, 255 lines inserted, and 190 files deleted

On Sun, 4 Aug 2013 17:38:01 TST
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.4.56
With 47 files changed, 387 lines inserted, and 235 lines deleted

On Sun, 4 Aug 2013 17:38:32 TST
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.10.5
With 111 files changed, 1120 lines inserted, and 697 lines deleted

On Fri, 02 Aug 2013 23:50:58 EET
Ben Hutchings released kernel 3.2.50
With 78 files changed, 535 lines inserted, and 285 lines deleted

Kernel Developer Quote:
Comes Greg Kroah-Hartman
“drivers/staging/ has less reported issues than drivers/net/wireless?

The fun things you can do with statistics 🙂
(hint, there are other problems with drivers/staging/ than just coverity-found things…)”
–Greg Kroah-Hartman

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Distro Talk: Tony

Time: 20:35

Distrowatch.com

• 7-28 – Puppy Linux 5.7 “Precise” – minimalist and fast distribution featuring the JWM window manager and compatible with Ubuntu 12.04
• 7-31 – Wifislax 4.6 – Slackware-based live CD with a collection of security and forensics tools
• 7-31 – Superb Mini Server 2.0.5 – Slackware-based distribution designed for servers and featuring Webmin
• 8-01 – Parted Magic 2013_08_01 – specialist live CD featuring utilities for disk management and data rescue tasks
• 8-01 – OS4 OpenLinux 13.6 – buntu-based distribution featuring a customised Xfce desktop environment:
• 8-03 – FreeNAS 9.1.0 – open-source and BSD-based NAS solution that enables the users to build networked storage devices on a multitude of hardware platforms

Distro of the Week: Tony

5. OS4 – 1201
4. Ubuntu – 1451
3. Puppy – 1534
2. Debian – 1628
1. Mint – 2681

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Mary Distro Review – Point Linux

Time: 33:50

This week’s review covers a Linux distribution that just cracked Distrowatch’s front page with its most recent release in June. Born from the bosom of Mother Russia and weighing in at 946MB, this Linux distribution is configured to look retro…back to the heady days of Gnome when all was right with the world. I want to make a point of saying the name of this distro—because that’s its name—Point Linux.

So, will retro be cool like a Siberian Spring when I take a look at this distro or will reviewing this distro review be as tasty as a bowl of beet soup…let’s find out.

The Vitals:
Name: Point Linux
Maintainer: Peter Ryzhenkov
Distro Latest Birthday: 6/9/2013 when it made its inaugural appearance on Distrowatch
Derivative: Debian (Wheezy)
Kernel: 3.2.0-37
Review Desktop: MATE (1.4)

Live Environment:

Point Linux uses Mate, a Gnome 2 fork,which is customized to resemble Gnome 2, albeit with a crisper graphics than I remember (probably because I am using a higher quality graphic adapter). The system tray in the upper right corner contains the typical icons– network, sound, battery, date/time, and shutdown (which opens to show several system options including hibernate and suspend)

Graphics: ( nouveau)
Wireless: (iwl4965)

The Defaults
Browser: Firefox
Office Suite: LibreOffice
Mail Client: Thunderbird
File Manager: Caja (nautilus based)

The default wallpaper has a spacey northern lights look to it and I have to say that the entire desktop reminded me of Trisquel Linux as far as looks go, minus Trisquel’s ethereal boot-up music. Again very clean and simple.

The Install Process:

Normal graphical install prep process with the standard questions. After answering questions, a summary with the collected responses appeared. All looked OK. At the bottom, checked by default, was the option to send an anonymous installation report. I decided not to send. After all it’s probably on the NSA computers anyway.

I also decided not to install Grub but to update my existing grub install to add Point Linux to its list.

The installation itself was problem fee and easy.

Installed Environment:

Point Linux rebooted into the same clean, straight-forward desktop I saw in the live environment. I easily connected to my network, changed my mouse buttons and was ready to further explore this distro.

Naturally Point Linux uses the Debian update manager which, if you have used it, provides useful information regarding the dependencies for each file that is listed. There were 62 updates waiting which consumed 122 MB. I was asked whether I wanted to perform a safe upgrade where no packages are installed or removed, just updated. I said no—which I thought meant no restrictions and I could install and uninstall. I scanned the list and noted an updated kernel was in the list, too. So I started the update. After a while I noticed the update manager seemed to be stuck downloading at 0mbs/sec—a hung process. A ping test showed no latency at my end. I could not stop the update manager the normal way so I killed it via the command line. Any attempt to use it again during that session resulted in a fatal error, I rebooted but still could not download the updates. Luckily, Point Linux also has Synaptic package manager and, after using kpkg –configure -a to clean up after the last attempt, I successfully applied the updates without a problem.

During the course of my review I happened to click on help and noted that they did not appear to be installed.

Point Linux’s menu is compact with all the basics a regular user would need. The previously noted LibreOffice suite included Writer, Calc, Draw, Impress, and Base. Point Linux also includes by default VLC.

SimpleScan, a clean easy-to-use scanning program is included.

Engrampa, the Mate archive manager, is included. I really appreciate the clean interface and setting up an tar.gz archive was no problem at all.

Point Linux includes a chat client (Pidgeon), torrent client (Transmission), Remmina (for remote desktop connections).

Because it’s based on Debian, you have literally thousands of programs at your disposal.

Rating:

Point Linux is a solid, no frills distro. Although the install is a little on the frugal side, the power of Debian gives it a boost exactly where it needs it. I give Point Linux 3.5 cups of hot Russian borscht…oops, I mean coffee.

 

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Tech News:

Time: 42:20

Nouveau Puts Out Call For NVIDIA Data Dumps

So if you’re just a regular user this a way for you to help out. Back when the Nouveau project was just starting out, they needed loads of MMIOtrace dumps, in order to reverse engineer the NVIDIA binary blob. They tend not to need so many of these dumps now-a-days, but for some of the GPU’s they still need some dumps. So what they are looking for are dumps of the GeForce 8 series mobile GPUs, GeForce 9 series mobile GPUs, NVIDIA ION, and the nForce IGP. What they are looking fo is a better understanding of the NVAC clock tree. If need some help in understanding how to acquire the dumps the Nouveau Wiki has some documentation you should look at.

A Power Capping Framework Proposed For Linux

Increasing numbers of hardware devices are supporting power monitoring and limiting. So there is now a need for a standardized interface. The framework being proposed for addition into the kernel would try to provide a unified interface for userspace on top of sysfs. This would allow users to make changes to these settings for different hardware in side the system, and to creata a unified driver API for the implementation of these features.

Openfiler Project Switching To CentOS

Openfiler is a distribution targeted at creating NAS systems. The current Openfiler uses the Conary package management system, created by rPath. When the transition is complete they will then be using the yum package management system. Development on Openfiler was stalled for an extremely long time. So long in fact some considered it dead. However a few good people have gotten together to revive the distribution. They released Openfiler 2.99 in April 2013. The next release will probably be 3.0 and based on CentOS 6.4.

Facebook Enables Secure Browsing For All Users
http://www.informationweek.com/security/application-security/facebook-enables-secure-browsing-for-all/240159298?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_Security

Gone in 30 seconds: New attack plucks secrets from HTTPS-protected pages
http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/08/gone-in-30-seconds-new-attack-plucks-secrets-from-https-protected-pages/

Ubuntu Forums are back up and a post mortem
http://blog.canonical.com/2013/07/30/ubuntu-forums-are-back-up-and-a-post-mortem/

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Is it Alive?

Time: 56:40
(or is it animal vegetable or mineral…)?

During this segment of the show, I challenge Mat and Tony to identify whether a Linux Distro is alive or dead? Every other week, I twist the concept and challenge Mat and Tony to decide if the named entity was a Linux distribution or something else.

This week is twist week and I challenge I challenge Mat and Tony to decide whether the named Linux distro’s logo is animal (critter), vegetable (plant based) or mineral (non-living). Extra credit will be given if after Mat and Tony correctly identify the distro, they also correctly identify whether it is alive or dead. The items for this week’s show are:

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Springdale Linux

Springdale Linux (formerly PUIAS Linux) is a complete operating system for desktops and servers, built by compiling the source packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

MAT: a d
TONY: m a
VERDICT: Animal Alive

====================================
Kuki Linux

Kuki Linux was a lightweight, Ubuntu-based distribution built as a replacement for Linpus Lite on the Acer Aspire One netbook.

MAT: a
TONY: a
VERDICT: mineral – Dead

===================================
Web Converger

Deep-Water/Linux is a fully graphical, minimalist live CD distribution released under the GNU General Public License. 

MAT: v -a
TONY: m
VERDICT: Plant – Alive

===================================
Kademar Linux
The kademar Linux distribution is a complete desktop Linux operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux

MAT: m – a
TONY: m -d
VERDICT: Animal – Alive

===================================

Deep Water Linux
Deep-Water/Linux was a fully graphical, minimalist live CD distribution released under the GNU General Public License. 

MAT: m-a
TONY: a-a
VERDICT: Mineral – Dead

===================================
Paldo is a hybrid (source and binary), Upkg-driven GNU/Linux distribution and live CD. Besides aiming to be simple, pure, up-to-date and standards-compliant, paldo offers automatic hardware detection, one application per task, and a standard GNOME desktop.

MAT: v-
TONY: v
VERDICT: Animal – Alive
===================================

Mat won!

 

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Listener Feedback:

show (at) smlr.us or 313-626-9140
Time: 1:02:30

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Outtro Music

Time: 1:09:00
Nine Inch Nails 26
http://archive.org/details/nineinchnails_ghosts_I_IV

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