KDE Neon – mintCast https://mintcast.org The podcast by the Linux Mint community for all users of Linux Wed, 26 Aug 2020 04:56:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://mintcast.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cropped-small-logo-32x32.png KDE Neon – mintCast https://mintcast.org 32 32 mintCast false episodic CC-BY-SA 4.0 CC-BY-SA 4.0 podcast KDE Neon – mintCast https://mintcast.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/big-logo-1600.png https://mintcast.org TV-G 164426984 mintCast 342 – Security Theater (mp3) https://mintcast.org/mintcast-342-security-theater-mp3/ Wed, 26 Aug 2020 04:50:08 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4592 Then, in our news, Pinta, Lutris and Mozilla
In security, we talk security recommendations and the NSA
Download
]]>

Download

We would like to welcome Owen Peery to the team. He’s our new editor!

1:40 Wanderings
46:32 News
1:05:05 Security
1:22:05 Outro

First up, in our Wanderings, I’ve been testing out a new keyboard, Tony Hughes tries to remove a finger (again), Joe has been soldering and reading, Moss has been adding more distros,

Then, in our news, Pinta, Lutris and Mozilla

In security, we talk security recommendations and the NSA

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Leo
    • Digging into some errors I got, last stream on Youtube. It was complaining that I was streaming at only 3500kbps. That was odd as I’ve always streamed at OBS’s default. Turns out, Youtube wants 4500kbps now. So, I cranked the video bitrate up to 6400 in OBS’s Output section. No errors!
    • Kernel 5.8 is smooth as silk
    • Got a new keyboard. A cheap mechanical with OUTEMU Red switches. Cost $35, but also came with a mouse pad and mouse. They’re all RGB of course, except for the mouse pad.
    • Been watching Star Trek Lower Decks. It’s hilarious. It’s a story of about 5 ensigns that work on the starship Cerritos. They’re not high ranking, and only get to do grunt work for the most part, but they find their niche and get their jobs done. I’ve never been much of a Trek fan, but this is seriously something I can see myself watching until the end of the series. It has the feel of Rick and Morty and Futurama fused together. Hijinks obviously ensue.
    • Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Trailer
  • Tony H
    • So I managed to drill my finger in an accident while doing some work on the matchbox cars, it’s not good when a drill bit brakes while you are drilling a post out and you have the model held in your hand, the cut was very sore and the end of the finger is still numb from a little bit of nerve damage as a result. What with that and cutting myself while cooking my wife thinks I have a death wish.
    • As a result of the accident I haven’t been doing much in the way of restoration for the last couple of weeks but I have made some nice eBay buys which have resulted in the collection and spares to the restoration has grown a little larger, although I had to stop bidding on stuff as I wouldn’t have been around for any deliveries that may have arrived after I came away, it has probably saved me a few shekels.
    • For a little light relief I installed Ubuntu Touch on my OnePlus 1 and while it was a fairly painless process unlike trying to update Lineage OS to 17.1 on the same phone which I can’t get it to do, it is definitely NOT ready for prime time yet. All the apps seem to be web based and do not work very well, I was thinking of Using the phone as my Sat Nav for my car but as you need the internet even if it worked well, which it doesn’t then I would need to get a new sim card and data plan as it will not work on the GPS alone as it needs a web connection for the apps to work. I also tried to connect to the WiFi here at Woodbrooke and it will not connect to the login page to finish authorising access to the WiFi.
    • I’m continuing to play with Mint 20 Mate on the DHD laptop with the intention of this being my review for the September show. Given my findings so far It might be a short review as apart from the Snapd issue and a few programs being updated it is pretty much business as usual, so while I am here at Woodbrooke I’m having a look at a distro suggested by a listener, SparkyLinux and while it is based on Debian they do what Mint used to do with the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and base one of the spins on the testing branch with a warning that it is not for those wanting a stable system or are new to Linux. Just to note that both iso’s will fit on a 2Gb Flash drive (or less than 1GB if you opt for one of the stable minimal GUI spins). So if you have an old one kicking around you were wondering what to use it for, then maybe SparkyLinux could be an option.    
    • I wrote the 4th in my Full Circle Magazine series on podcast production the first of which was in issue 159 at the end of July. I’m not a natural writer but I have been enjoying sharing what I have learned since starting on mintCast and DHD.
  • Moss
    • I installed Gecko ROLLING to my desktop. So now I have ROLLING on my desktop and STATIC on my laptop (equivalent to openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap, respectively). 
    • On the 15th, I installed KDE neon, also to my desktop. Oddly, the announcement that neon was available based on 20.04 did not mention that you would still be installing the 18.04 version, and then be greeted with the Upgrade button. It took a few more button pushes to get the upgrade started, but it ran beautifully. I then ran updates and installed some of my more common additions, including Stacer 1.10. Stacer ran great, but Discover popped up and said there was an update to it. I ran the update. And now Stacer wouldn’t load, it said “program not found”. So I reinstalled from my .deb package and it worked again… and Discover said there was an update again. I have posted to the KDE neon user forum to report this issue and ask how I can get Discover to ignore the update. Apparently they think an app in the repo is newer than the same app from a .deb file, but why it disables the program to run the update is beyond me. Note to self: Check the repo to see if an application is there before installing saved .deb files.
    • I now have only one free partition each on my desktop and laptop. And I’m starting to have memory issues — not my computer, me, trying to remember what all I have installed. Updating has already gotten beyond the “fun” level.
    • I am tempted to install Releax Linux to my system even though it’s only 0.5beta. This is a fully independent distro out of India, with a new package manager and everything. It sounds really exciting. Maybe I should dig up Tony Hughes’ instructions and learn how to install it in a VM.
    • I posted a new blog to LinuxQuestions.org.
    • I did some performing on Thursday the 20th on Eurofilk, which is now happening every other Thursday. I got to play with Cecilia Eng, first time for me and she’s a legend, and a total of 9 others in the Zoom room, including my friend K.J. Noren. This is the first performing I’ve done since about 2 weeks after my accident. My shoulder hurt a lot more afterward, but I seem to have gained mobility.
    • We’re about ⅔ of the way through Blood Rites, the 6th Dresden Files book. Dresden missed a huge hint when he had a major data download from Thomas; there is no explanation for that miss. We’re enjoying the book, we just wish Dresden could be more successful stopping people from dying.
  • Joe
    • Watched a lot of YouTube and did some soldering
    • Took a break for a few days from reading but still got some in
      • Up to book 20 in Drizzt
      • Demon Accords book 16
      • Big Damn Hero
        • Firefly book, surprisingly good
    • Soldered some headphones
      • New MMCX connectors came in and got them set up on 2 sets of headphones.
      • Only need to redo one of the connections at this point
    • Was informed that I missed the 8th book of the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.  Although I am more than a little disillusioned by his work since he uses it as a platform to push his ideology on age of consent.
      • Also the book does not exist in audio format from what I can see so if I do read it, it will have to be text aloud
    • Attempted to make the macro keyboard, followed the instructions exactly but was not able to get it working.
      • Rechecked my soldering several times but it was solid
      • Only about 6 of the 12 keys would work.  
      • So I took it apart down to the board on the keypad and did continuity tests on the whole thing
      • Bad board and a slightly different pinout than was in the instructions but the different pinout shouldn’t be a concern
      • I could try to solder directly to the board and to the pins but that seems a little crazy even for me.  Although if I get bored enough you never know.
      • I have ordered a couple of different types of keyboards to give another try using different methods
      • Right before the show a test set of 4 mechanical keys showed up and I was able to get them wired in place although I still need to wire the Promicro and I need to 3D-print the case for it
      • Thinking about ordering a set of 90 MX Cherry Blues and 3d printing everything else
  • Tony W
    • Refinishing my basement practice/rehearsal/studio/home office space
      • Installed carpet to cover concrete floor
      • Covered the one concrete wall in this room with drywall/heavy cloth, for now
      • Have insulation and drywall ready to go for remaining walls/ceilings
      • Will most likely get a permit from county before installing drywall over electrical, ductwork etc
      • This involved disassembling all of my tech, my podcast setup, etc and almost did not set back up before today’s podcast
    • Updated to Mint 20
      • Upgrade was fairly seamless, but had a couple minor issues
        • The update did break my Grub.  Reinstalled Grub very easily using MX Linux live USB Boot Repair (courtesy of Ventoy)
        • The version of Mumble installed from Software Manager didn’t work, had to install the Flatpak
      • Installed Linux via Crouton on Acer Chromebook 314
          • Crostini was great, but somewhat useless to me as there is no direct access to hardware (particularly USB audio devices) 
        • Crouton gives you full Linux desktop courtesy of chroot
        • Process to install:
          • Have to turn on Developer mode (which erases local data)
          • Follow instructions to install via crosh (Chrome terminal)
          • Once installed, to enter Linux desktop: Sudo enter-chroot startxfce4 (or sudo startxfce4 as a shortcut)
        • From there, Ctrl/Alt/Shift Forward and Ctrl/Alt/Shift/Back to switch between ChromeOS and XFCE (or desktop of your choice)
        • Default is XFCE but Cinnamon, KDE, e17, LXDE and Unity are also available 
        • IT WORKED!!!  My audio interface works perfectly with XFCE running on the Chromebook. 
          • Audacity, Mumble, OBS studio ready to go
        • Downsides: 
          • Developer Mode
          • Not supported – ChromeOS updates can break it
          • Default install is 16.04.  I believe you can specify 18.04
        • I think I will be using this.  It’s a cheap, light portable device with 12 hour battery life that I can take on the go

THE NEWS

SECURITY UPDATE

  • NSA reveals SOMETHING about Russian hacks
  • Linux Malware and Securing Your System
    • CTT goes in early about preventive measures and turns his nose up at the idea that someone would be running kernels earlier than 3.7 because it was released in 2012. RHEL 6 is still on 2.6… Sure. For a desktop user, it’s probably not likely, but for Enterprise? The NSA and the FBI didn’t put out a report for grandma in her kitchen. They put it out for the military and other institutions that are slow moving. In some cases, RHEL 5 is still in use and in Extended Life Phase.
    • Don’t install untrusted kernel modules or unsigned kernels.
    • SecureBoot
    • CTT offers a script that does:
      • Turning on UFW
      • Limiting SSH (which prevents brute force/dictionary style attacks)
      • Opening 80/443
      • Denying everything else incoming
      • Allowing everything outgoing
    • The script is a little odd. While limiting SSH is good, much thought should be given to just using keys, and disabling password login altogether. Also, why open 80 and 443? You would really only need this if you’re hosting a website of some kind. Most tools use custom ports (i.e., Cockpit uses port 9090).
  • Alexa Can Be Hacked, Instagram Retains Deleted Data, Linux Malware Found By NSA & FBI – ThreatWire

Announcements:

Our next episode will be September 6, 2020 at 2 pm Central US Time, 7 pm UTC, 8 pm British Summer Time – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Add Dallas Tx

Wrap-up:

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible … 

  • Londoner for his suggestion to use timeanddate.com
  • Hobstar for his work on the new logo
  • Josh for all his work on the website
  • Hacker Public Radio for the Mumble server we are using to record
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about.
]]> full 4592 mintCast 342 – Security Theater https://mintcast.org/mintcast-342-security-theater/ Wed, 26 Aug 2020 04:49:31 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4588 Then, in our news, Pinta, Lutris and Mozilla
In security, we talk security recommendations and the NSA
Download
]]>

Download

We would like to welcome Owen Peery to the team. He’s our new editor!

1:40 Wanderings
46:32 News
1:05:05 Security
1:22:05 Outro

First up, in our Wanderings, I’ve been testing out a new keyboard, Tony Hughes tries to remove a finger (again), Joe has been soldering and reading, Moss has been adding more distros,

Then, in our news, Pinta, Lutris and Mozilla

In security, we talk security recommendations and the NSA

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Leo
    • Digging into some errors I got, last stream on Youtube. It was complaining that I was streaming at only 3500kbps. That was odd as I’ve always streamed at OBS’s default. Turns out, Youtube wants 4500kbps now. So, I cranked the video bitrate up to 6400 in OBS’s Output section. No errors!
    • Kernel 5.8 is smooth as silk
    • Got a new keyboard. A cheap mechanical with OUTEMU Red switches. Cost $35, but also came with a mouse pad and mouse. They’re all RGB of course, except for the mouse pad.
    • Been watching Star Trek Lower Decks. It’s hilarious. It’s a story of about 5 ensigns that work on the starship Cerritos. They’re not high ranking, and only get to do grunt work for the most part, but they find their niche and get their jobs done. I’ve never been much of a Trek fan, but this is seriously something I can see myself watching until the end of the series. It has the feel of Rick and Morty and Futurama fused together. Hijinks obviously ensue.
    • Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 1 Trailer
  • Tony H
    • So I managed to drill my finger in an accident while doing some work on the matchbox cars, it’s not good when a drill bit brakes while you are drilling a post out and you have the model held in your hand, the cut was very sore and the end of the finger is still numb from a little bit of nerve damage as a result. What with that and cutting myself while cooking my wife thinks I have a death wish.
    • As a result of the accident I haven’t been doing much in the way of restoration for the last couple of weeks but I have made some nice eBay buys which have resulted in the collection and spares to the restoration has grown a little larger, although I had to stop bidding on stuff as I wouldn’t have been around for any deliveries that may have arrived after I came away, it has probably saved me a few shekels.
    • For a little light relief I installed Ubuntu Touch on my OnePlus 1 and while it was a fairly painless process unlike trying to update Lineage OS to 17.1 on the same phone which I can’t get it to do, it is definitely NOT ready for prime time yet. All the apps seem to be web based and do not work very well, I was thinking of Using the phone as my Sat Nav for my car but as you need the internet even if it worked well, which it doesn’t then I would need to get a new sim card and data plan as it will not work on the GPS alone as it needs a web connection for the apps to work. I also tried to connect to the WiFi here at Woodbrooke and it will not connect to the login page to finish authorising access to the WiFi.
    • I’m continuing to play with Mint 20 Mate on the DHD laptop with the intention of this being my review for the September show. Given my findings so far It might be a short review as apart from the Snapd issue and a few programs being updated it is pretty much business as usual, so while I am here at Woodbrooke I’m having a look at a distro suggested by a listener, SparkyLinux and while it is based on Debian they do what Mint used to do with the LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and base one of the spins on the testing branch with a warning that it is not for those wanting a stable system or are new to Linux. Just to note that both iso’s will fit on a 2Gb Flash drive (or less than 1GB if you opt for one of the stable minimal GUI spins). So if you have an old one kicking around you were wondering what to use it for, then maybe SparkyLinux could be an option.    
    • I wrote the 4th in my Full Circle Magazine series on podcast production the first of which was in issue 159 at the end of July. I’m not a natural writer but I have been enjoying sharing what I have learned since starting on mintCast and DHD.
  • Moss
    • I installed Gecko ROLLING to my desktop. So now I have ROLLING on my desktop and STATIC on my laptop (equivalent to openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap, respectively). 
    • On the 15th, I installed KDE neon, also to my desktop. Oddly, the announcement that neon was available based on 20.04 did not mention that you would still be installing the 18.04 version, and then be greeted with the Upgrade button. It took a few more button pushes to get the upgrade started, but it ran beautifully. I then ran updates and installed some of my more common additions, including Stacer 1.10. Stacer ran great, but Discover popped up and said there was an update to it. I ran the update. And now Stacer wouldn’t load, it said “program not found”. So I reinstalled from my .deb package and it worked again… and Discover said there was an update again. I have posted to the KDE neon user forum to report this issue and ask how I can get Discover to ignore the update. Apparently they think an app in the repo is newer than the same app from a .deb file, but why it disables the program to run the update is beyond me. Note to self: Check the repo to see if an application is there before installing saved .deb files.
    • I now have only one free partition each on my desktop and laptop. And I’m starting to have memory issues — not my computer, me, trying to remember what all I have installed. Updating has already gotten beyond the “fun” level.
    • I am tempted to install Releax Linux to my system even though it’s only 0.5beta. This is a fully independent distro out of India, with a new package manager and everything. It sounds really exciting. Maybe I should dig up Tony Hughes’ instructions and learn how to install it in a VM.
    • I posted a new blog to LinuxQuestions.org.
    • I did some performing on Thursday the 20th on Eurofilk, which is now happening every other Thursday. I got to play with Cecilia Eng, first time for me and she’s a legend, and a total of 9 others in the Zoom room, including my friend K.J. Noren. This is the first performing I’ve done since about 2 weeks after my accident. My shoulder hurt a lot more afterward, but I seem to have gained mobility.
    • We’re about ⅔ of the way through Blood Rites, the 6th Dresden Files book. Dresden missed a huge hint when he had a major data download from Thomas; there is no explanation for that miss. We’re enjoying the book, we just wish Dresden could be more successful stopping people from dying.
  • Joe
    • Watched a lot of YouTube and did some soldering
    • Took a break for a few days from reading but still got some in
      • Up to book 20 in Drizzt
      • Demon Accords book 16
      • Big Damn Hero
        • Firefly book, surprisingly good
    • Soldered some headphones
      • New MMCX connectors came in and got them set up on 2 sets of headphones.
      • Only need to redo one of the connections at this point
    • Was informed that I missed the 8th book of the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony.  Although I am more than a little disillusioned by his work since he uses it as a platform to push his ideology on age of consent.
      • Also the book does not exist in audio format from what I can see so if I do read it, it will have to be text aloud
    • Attempted to make the macro keyboard, followed the instructions exactly but was not able to get it working.
      • Rechecked my soldering several times but it was solid
      • Only about 6 of the 12 keys would work.  
      • So I took it apart down to the board on the keypad and did continuity tests on the whole thing
      • Bad board and a slightly different pinout than was in the instructions but the different pinout shouldn’t be a concern
      • I could try to solder directly to the board and to the pins but that seems a little crazy even for me.  Although if I get bored enough you never know.
      • I have ordered a couple of different types of keyboards to give another try using different methods
      • Right before the show a test set of 4 mechanical keys showed up and I was able to get them wired in place although I still need to wire the Promicro and I need to 3D-print the case for it
      • Thinking about ordering a set of 90 MX Cherry Blues and 3d printing everything else
  • Tony W
    • Refinishing my basement practice/rehearsal/studio/home office space
      • Installed carpet to cover concrete floor
      • Covered the one concrete wall in this room with drywall/heavy cloth, for now
      • Have insulation and drywall ready to go for remaining walls/ceilings
      • Will most likely get a permit from county before installing drywall over electrical, ductwork etc
      • This involved disassembling all of my tech, my podcast setup, etc and almost did not set back up before today’s podcast
    • Updated to Mint 20
      • Upgrade was fairly seamless, but had a couple minor issues
        • The update did break my Grub.  Reinstalled Grub very easily using MX Linux live USB Boot Repair (courtesy of Ventoy)
        • The version of Mumble installed from Software Manager didn’t work, had to install the Flatpak
      • Installed Linux via Crouton on Acer Chromebook 314
          • Crostini was great, but somewhat useless to me as there is no direct access to hardware (particularly USB audio devices) 
        • Crouton gives you full Linux desktop courtesy of chroot
        • Process to install:
          • Have to turn on Developer mode (which erases local data)
          • Follow instructions to install via crosh (Chrome terminal)
          • Once installed, to enter Linux desktop: Sudo enter-chroot startxfce4 (or sudo startxfce4 as a shortcut)
        • From there, Ctrl/Alt/Shift Forward and Ctrl/Alt/Shift/Back to switch between ChromeOS and XFCE (or desktop of your choice)
        • Default is XFCE but Cinnamon, KDE, e17, LXDE and Unity are also available 
        • IT WORKED!!!  My audio interface works perfectly with XFCE running on the Chromebook. 
          • Audacity, Mumble, OBS studio ready to go
        • Downsides: 
          • Developer Mode
          • Not supported – ChromeOS updates can break it
          • Default install is 16.04.  I believe you can specify 18.04
        • I think I will be using this.  It’s a cheap, light portable device with 12 hour battery life that I can take on the go

THE NEWS

SECURITY UPDATE

  • NSA reveals SOMETHING about Russian hacks
  • Linux Malware and Securing Your System
    • CTT goes in early about preventive measures and turns his nose up at the idea that someone would be running kernels earlier than 3.7 because it was released in 2012. RHEL 6 is still on 2.6… Sure. For a desktop user, it’s probably not likely, but for Enterprise? The NSA and the FBI didn’t put out a report for grandma in her kitchen. They put it out for the military and other institutions that are slow moving. In some cases, RHEL 5 is still in use and in Extended Life Phase.
    • Don’t install untrusted kernel modules or unsigned kernels.
    • SecureBoot
    • CTT offers a script that does:
      • Turning on UFW
      • Limiting SSH (which prevents brute force/dictionary style attacks)
      • Opening 80/443
      • Denying everything else incoming
      • Allowing everything outgoing
    • The script is a little odd. While limiting SSH is good, much thought should be given to just using keys, and disabling password login altogether. Also, why open 80 and 443? You would really only need this if you’re hosting a website of some kind. Most tools use custom ports (i.e., Cockpit uses port 9090).
  • Alexa Can Be Hacked, Instagram Retains Deleted Data, Linux Malware Found By NSA & FBI – ThreatWire

Announcements:

Our next episode will be September 6, 2020 at 2 pm Central US Time, 7 pm UTC, 8 pm British Summer Time – https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

Add Dallas Tx

Wrap-up:

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible … 

  • Londoner for his suggestion to use timeanddate.com
  • Hobstar for his work on the new logo
  • Josh for all his work on the website
  • Hacker Public Radio for the Mumble server we are using to record
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about.
]]> full 4588 mintCast 336 – Sneaky Snek (mp3) https://mintcast.org/mintcast-336-sneaky-snek-mp3/ Wed, 03 Jun 2020 04:55:30 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4442 Then, in the news, Gnome wins, Microsoft loses, Linux moves on
In security, GitLab goes fishing
Download
]]>

Download

First up, in our Wanderings, Erik gardens, Tony Hughes bakes cars, Moss throws everything up in the air, Tony Watts goes live, Joe fills his brain, Bo fights a snake, and Leo fixes an oven

Then, in the news, Gnome wins, Microsoft loses, Linux moves on

In security, GitLab goes fishing

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Erik
    • Planting our gardens. We live in the country with some land and we have 4 separate gardens. We’re working on the last one now which is a little behind schedule for planting
    • Reopened our office with a ‘soft reopening’ with the Coronavirus. Still have the majority of my staff working remotely but we’re able to come back into the office for various items. 
    • Testing new laptops with dedicated graphics cards for the CAD and 3D design software. Looking at Lenovo ThinkPads, HP, and MSI gaming laptops. 
    • Took a 600 mile round trip to pick up a machine for use at the business. Picked up 2 ‘mini-trucks’ for using on projects – design and construction projects. 
      • The trucks are Japanese over the road vehicles but not highway vehicles in the US (for the most part)
      • Full creature comforts with a regular cab, heat, A/C, radio, wipers, etc. 
      • Four-wheel drive but you drive on the opposite side (right side) and shift with your left hand – that takes some getting used to
      • Size of a UTV but with weigh about 2000 pounds but 5 feet wide and 11 feet long
  • Leo
    • Rocco recently released a Linux Spotlight featuring… me!
    • We fixed our oven!
    • Got show audio working! CMUS
    • Playing with Cloudready. Not too bad! Virtualbox is really easy to get going for anything Cloudready doesn’t do natively.
  • Tony H 
    • More work on my models and recording another episode for HPR about the process. I’m enjoying the process although documenting all the stages of the process takes a lot of time remembering to take pictures of the stages as I go along. 
    • I started to use one of my Toshiba Z30’s as my Zoom/Jitsi box as it is easier to move around and set up in the workshop when I need to join a Zoom or Jitsi call. I hadn’t switched this Laptop on for well over 2 months and still had to fully configure my Mint 19.3 install, ran all the updates and installed Zoom and everything is great. I joined the Makerspace/LUG via Jitsi the last few weeks, just a point that for some reason Jitsi seems to be better on Chrome/Chromium than FireFox where it is a little flakey. It does work but you may wish to alter the video resolution to get a smoother experience.
    • Found a bug in my install of Kubuntu on the Dell E7440 for the next Distrohoppers, when you suspend the laptop it will not reconnect to the WiFi network. I have to reboot to get WiFi back. This has happened a couple of times, but as I rarely suspend my laptops it is not a major issue and I’m not sure if this is an issue for others. I did do some research and this issue seems to go back to 2016 it looks like a WiFi driver issue according to the Ubuntu documentation. It does say update your computer but it is fully up to date on the latest 20.04 release.
    • Continuing to bake bread and other things, I made another 2 loaves of Sourdough yesterday. Although on Monday we treated ourselves to a delivery of a traditional British afternoon Tea, as it was the Bank holiday and part of celebrating My wife’s birthday during the week as we couldn’t go out for our usual meal.
    • Since the lockdown I have been going out daily for a walk as my normal exercise at the gym can not happen, this last 2 weeks I have now got over 62 days of walking in excess of 5000 steps a day, yes I know they say 10000 is the amount to remain fit, but us oldies are advised to do 150 minutes a week and I’m blasting that.
  • Moss
    • Yesterday during the show meeting, my Linux box just was not working right, I could hear Tony Hughes great, Joe pretty well, and everyone else was breaking up. I tried a bunch of things. Nothing worked. So. Less than 2 hours before the show, I decided to switch machines. I set up my Kudu, with the i7 CPU instead of an i3 but otherwise similar specs, and loaded Mint. I decided to try out the software in advance (about 13.30 prior to a 15.00 showtime), and found Audacity 2.4.1 was just not working. After asking a few questions of Leo and Tony with no resolution, I rebooted to Pearl OS 9, where Audacity 2.3.3 was working just fine. So I went to set up Mumble, and discovered that the version in the repos does not accept our certificate. Leo told me to get the snap, so I did, and it’s working fine. I think.
    • I got KDE neon loaded to my Kudu laptop, in preparation for the next Distrohoppers’ Digest. I got everything set up in case I wanted to use it for a podcast, and, for the first time, got HexChat set up such that I log right into the mintCast room with admin privileges. Of course, that means I will never use it for a podcast, ever. Everything else is set up except that I haven’t bothered to validate my Trakt.tv and real-debrid accounts for Kodi.
    • And then the trouble started. For some reason, whether I’m connected via either wifi or ethernet, I get a yellow exclamation point stating “Limited Connectivity”. I asked around a bit, and after determining it is using exactly the same kernel as Mint (so that is not the issue), I checked the KDE Community Forums and found others had the same problem, supposedly to be fixed soon in an update. This does give me something to complain about in my review next DHD.
    • The Linux box is cruising along. After a lot of chatting with the guys in Telegram and with Leo, it seems that I don’t really need to do much in the way of upgrading it. I need to get some connectors for the Molex and data cables to be able to use them for SATA, a new (larger) SSD, and that’s about it.
    • I finally got tired of loving the look of OpenMandriva Lx 4.1 but not being able to do much with it, so I looked around a bit and installed the new Pearl OS 9. You may remember me talking about Pearl Desktop 8 a few months back, it’s been relabeled and updated. I’m getting a lot of negative comments from the peanut gallery, to the effect of if I wanted a Mac desktop I should get a Mac, but that’s fine with me. It’s almost pure Ubuntu with some Mint tools, the desktop is hybrid XFCE and LXDE with lots of Compiz Fusion, and it still uses less than 800 Mb RAM. I had to strip some political stuff from it, as the dev is very much into Qanon and Alex Jones, as shown by the included links and apps.
    • I listened to the first 15 minutes of Brian Lunduke’s current version of Linux Sucks. These have been pleasant in the past, host aside, but this one was a complete waste of my time and I just stopped. Not the worst 15 minutes of my life but it was in the running.
    • My wife and I are now into Death Masks, the 5th book of Dresden Files. and are chugging right along. She just recently noticed that we had cut off reading Temeraire and suggested we might get back to it someday. I’m still unemployed, working pretty hard to change that but there aren’t many jobs out there yet. I sent out 6 resumes last week and got 3 of them back as bad addresses, one as a vacant lot. Did a bunch more research and sent three more out yesterday, two of them to the current addresses of those which got returned. It’s sad when you find computer company addresses on the Internet which are over 5 years old.
  • Tony Watts
    • Played a real live gig last week, at a brewery
    • “Attended” a virtual Clutch concert on Wednesday
    • Renewing PIA
    • Received velour headphone cushions for ATH-M50x
    • More testing with audio/video recording 
      • Audio interface successfully tested on Android phone and Amazon tablet
      • Successful FB Live test on both Thinkpad T480 and Dell 7130, using just web browser, audio interface and internal webcam (no streaming software)
      • Played a bit with OBS on Dell 7130
    • Kubuntu on the Dell 7130
      • Suspend works properly, have not always had good luck with that on other distros
      • Only issue encountered, rear-facing camera does not work in Kubuntu but also does not work in any other Linux distro I’ve tried.  Only the front “selfie” camera works in Linux (never tried Windows? Could be hardware issue for all I know)
      • Noted Chrome automatically has touch scrolling working as a default, upon install.  The included FireFox does not.  
  • Joe
    • Worldship Humility by RR Haywood
      • Really good book.  The action was steady but not overpowering.
      • High quality audio and a good story. Will be trying other titles from the same author
    • Brandon Sanderson sequel to Skyward called Starsight
      • Very enjoyable sequel.  Lots of new information in building the world
      • A good addition to what should be a solid series.
      • Because Brandon Sanderson just needed another really good book series
    • Delta V by Daniel Suarez
      • Really good book with some solid ideas in regards to mining in space
    • Influx by Daniel Suarez
      • An interesting book if less memorable
      • About the suppression of technology to control the advancement of society 
    • Second book in the Sprawl trilogy, Count Zero by William Gibson
      • This series has been difficult for me to get through.  I really want to like it but it is more a series that I would have to dedicate a lot more cycles to than I have available at any given time.  So maybe the next time I am on vacation…
    • Haven’t been spending enough time listening to the podcasts that I enjoy mostly because I normally listen at work and most of work lately has been taken up with meetings.  The joys of working from home.  I used to hate the days that I would spend 6 hours of the day in meetings and now it almost feels like the norm.
    • But i did make sure to listen to Leo on the Linux Spotlight and yes i will be talking more about headphones today.
    • Second pair of Sony XB700’s.  The ones I bought for parts so I could fix the first pair.  
      • Bad battery which is why I got them cheap.  Would not charge at all and would not turn on
      • Also I removed the drivers in them to use on the other ones
      • So none of the grill or ear pads were there either
      • I also had a pair of EarPollution Moguls that were in pretty bad shape and the only good thing they had going for them in the first place was decent drivers
      • It took several iterations and test prints to get all the dimensions correct but I designed and printed the grill and driver mount as well as an expanded ear cup mod. 
      • Used a method I saw on “My Mate Vince” YouTube channel to resurrect the battery.  Pulled the battery out and connected it to a PCB USB battery charger and monitored the charge with my voltmeter.  Voltage went from 0 to 3.7 volts very quickly.  I then disconnected the battery from the charger and resoldered to the headphones and verified that the built in charger could finish the job up to 4.2 volts
      • So the Sony XB700’s are now over ear instead of on ear and have 50mm drivers instead of 30mm drivers
      • I glued the drivers into place to prevent rattling and the volume is good although if I use the enhanced bass features too much I get a bit of distortion.  I do have other drivers on the way from china or i may pick up some better ones or pull the ones i have in an old pair of tritons
      • Testing the batteries over a long period of time before gluing all the new parts in place.  Am also looking at maybe making my own mounting screw holes since I was not able to use the originals.  This would allow for modifications and fixes in the future.  But for now it looks like the battery is completely restored and i have a second pair of headphones that are really good for all day wear
    • I also think i have ruined my music listening with this being stuck at home and getting to use cans instead of the hbs 770s.  I switched back to them for jogging the other day and normally while jogging i will listen to an audiobook or podcasts but instead i decided to listen to some metal.  The only thing that was going through my mind was how tinnie it sounded and how little bass there was.  This was with the better modular drivers that i had added and it still sounded horrible.  So I may be looking for other really good in-ear drivers that I can mod to use the modular connections and improve sound quality.
    • Or I may buy some MMCX in-ears that rate well.  Then try to build my own later.  I only need one good pair to start with because I can move them to all my modular headsets.  Still, at 50 bucks, that is a bit of a splurge for me for the 
    • Traded one of the Skullcandy Crushers with the 3D printed hinge for a HP Touchsmart
      • Also made sure to 3D print a spare hinge so that if the other one breaks i won’t be in a hurry to send another one.
    • Looking at building or buying a new tower computer for my server.  But not certain where i want to go with it
      • The mini ITX and micro ATX builds seem very cool and not as expensive as i supposed they would be but it seems a bit pointless if i am planning on adding 4 hard drives.  I don’t need a lot of peripherals added but i should put a decent graphics card on for transcoding with plex.
      • I could add in a graphics card to my current build as long as it is not trying to use board power and has a seperate power connector but the server that i have is still having problems where it overheats and crashes.  I may just try a full reinstall.
    • Spent some time helping listener Dustin get resilio sync set up so that I could easily transfer some of my audiobooks over to him so he has something to listen to at work.  
      • I did see that resilio sync is not the easiest thing to set up.
      • But I still recommend it as a way for transferring large files amongst devices.
      • Granted I usually use it to sync files across my own machines.
      • Also had a really good conversation about books and fiction and what writers are good and what writers aren’t.  Didn’t get too far down the rabbit hole but it was still a good conversation.
      • Sounds like I got a new person to check out the Stormlight Archive.  I like this because I don’t have too many people to talk to about my obsessions 
    • Also been trying out some small things with plex.  Right now I have turned on the function to use ram as a temp space for the transcoding.  Dont notice too much of a difference but does seem a bit more stable.
    • Received the replacement micro sd card for my pi but have not set it up yet.  I think that I will be going with the Ubuntu OS for that.  But i will be keeping my option to switch back to raspbian open in case i cant get netflix working.
  • Bo
    • Removing a snake from my car
    • DIY coffee roaster 
    • Krita for android in beta 

THE NEWS: 

SECURITY UPDATE: 

Announcements:

  • Our next episode will be at 2 pm Central US time, 7 pm UTC, June 14, 2020. That’s 8PM British Summer Time.

Wrap-up:

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible … 

  • Hobstar for his work on the new logo
  • Josh for all his work on the website
  • Hacker Public Radio for the Mumble server we are using to record
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about.
]]> full 4442 mintCast 336 – Sneaky Snek https://mintcast.org/mintcast-336-sneaky-snek/ Wed, 03 Jun 2020 04:29:51 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4437 Then, in the news, Gnome wins, Microsoft loses, Linux moves on
In security, GitLab goes fishing
Download
]]>

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First up, in our Wanderings, Erik gardens, Tony Hughes bakes cars, Moss throws everything up in the air, Tony Watts goes live, Joe fills his brain, Bo fights a snake, and Leo fixes an oven

Then, in the news, Gnome wins, Microsoft loses, Linux moves on

In security, GitLab goes fishing

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Erik
    • Planting our gardens. We live in the country with some land and we have 4 separate gardens. We’re working on the last one now which is a little behind schedule for planting
    • Reopened our office with a ‘soft reopening’ with the Coronavirus. Still have the majority of my staff working remotely but we’re able to come back into the office for various items. 
    • Testing new laptops with dedicated graphics cards for the CAD and 3D design software. Looking at Lenovo ThinkPads, HP, and MSI gaming laptops. 
    • Took a 600 mile round trip to pick up a machine for use at the business. Picked up 2 ‘mini-trucks’ for using on projects – design and construction projects. 
      • The trucks are Japanese over the road vehicles but not highway vehicles in the US (for the most part)
      • Full creature comforts with a regular cab, heat, A/C, radio, wipers, etc. 
      • Four-wheel drive but you drive on the opposite side (right side) and shift with your left hand – that takes some getting used to
      • Size of a UTV but with weigh about 2000 pounds but 5 feet wide and 11 feet long
  • Leo
    • Rocco recently released a Linux Spotlight featuring… me!
    • We fixed our oven!
    • Got show audio working! CMUS
    • Playing with Cloudready. Not too bad! Virtualbox is really easy to get going for anything Cloudready doesn’t do natively.
  • Tony H 
    • More work on my models and recording another episode for HPR about the process. I’m enjoying the process although documenting all the stages of the process takes a lot of time remembering to take pictures of the stages as I go along. 
    • I started to use one of my Toshiba Z30’s as my Zoom/Jitsi box as it is easier to move around and set up in the workshop when I need to join a Zoom or Jitsi call. I hadn’t switched this Laptop on for well over 2 months and still had to fully configure my Mint 19.3 install, ran all the updates and installed Zoom and everything is great. I joined the Makerspace/LUG via Jitsi the last few weeks, just a point that for some reason Jitsi seems to be better on Chrome/Chromium than FireFox where it is a little flakey. It does work but you may wish to alter the video resolution to get a smoother experience.
    • Found a bug in my install of Kubuntu on the Dell E7440 for the next Distrohoppers, when you suspend the laptop it will not reconnect to the WiFi network. I have to reboot to get WiFi back. This has happened a couple of times, but as I rarely suspend my laptops it is not a major issue and I’m not sure if this is an issue for others. I did do some research and this issue seems to go back to 2016 it looks like a WiFi driver issue according to the Ubuntu documentation. It does say update your computer but it is fully up to date on the latest 20.04 release.
    • Continuing to bake bread and other things, I made another 2 loaves of Sourdough yesterday. Although on Monday we treated ourselves to a delivery of a traditional British afternoon Tea, as it was the Bank holiday and part of celebrating My wife’s birthday during the week as we couldn’t go out for our usual meal.
    • Since the lockdown I have been going out daily for a walk as my normal exercise at the gym can not happen, this last 2 weeks I have now got over 62 days of walking in excess of 5000 steps a day, yes I know they say 10000 is the amount to remain fit, but us oldies are advised to do 150 minutes a week and I’m blasting that.
  • Moss
    • Yesterday during the show meeting, my Linux box just was not working right, I could hear Tony Hughes great, Joe pretty well, and everyone else was breaking up. I tried a bunch of things. Nothing worked. So. Less than 2 hours before the show, I decided to switch machines. I set up my Kudu, with the i7 CPU instead of an i3 but otherwise similar specs, and loaded Mint. I decided to try out the software in advance (about 13.30 prior to a 15.00 showtime), and found Audacity 2.4.1 was just not working. After asking a few questions of Leo and Tony with no resolution, I rebooted to Pearl OS 9, where Audacity 2.3.3 was working just fine. So I went to set up Mumble, and discovered that the version in the repos does not accept our certificate. Leo told me to get the snap, so I did, and it’s working fine. I think.
    • I got KDE neon loaded to my Kudu laptop, in preparation for the next Distrohoppers’ Digest. I got everything set up in case I wanted to use it for a podcast, and, for the first time, got HexChat set up such that I log right into the mintCast room with admin privileges. Of course, that means I will never use it for a podcast, ever. Everything else is set up except that I haven’t bothered to validate my Trakt.tv and real-debrid accounts for Kodi.
    • And then the trouble started. For some reason, whether I’m connected via either wifi or ethernet, I get a yellow exclamation point stating “Limited Connectivity”. I asked around a bit, and after determining it is using exactly the same kernel as Mint (so that is not the issue), I checked the KDE Community Forums and found others had the same problem, supposedly to be fixed soon in an update. This does give me something to complain about in my review next DHD.
    • The Linux box is cruising along. After a lot of chatting with the guys in Telegram and with Leo, it seems that I don’t really need to do much in the way of upgrading it. I need to get some connectors for the Molex and data cables to be able to use them for SATA, a new (larger) SSD, and that’s about it.
    • I finally got tired of loving the look of OpenMandriva Lx 4.1 but not being able to do much with it, so I looked around a bit and installed the new Pearl OS 9. You may remember me talking about Pearl Desktop 8 a few months back, it’s been relabeled and updated. I’m getting a lot of negative comments from the peanut gallery, to the effect of if I wanted a Mac desktop I should get a Mac, but that’s fine with me. It’s almost pure Ubuntu with some Mint tools, the desktop is hybrid XFCE and LXDE with lots of Compiz Fusion, and it still uses less than 800 Mb RAM. I had to strip some political stuff from it, as the dev is very much into Qanon and Alex Jones, as shown by the included links and apps.
    • I listened to the first 15 minutes of Brian Lunduke’s current version of Linux Sucks. These have been pleasant in the past, host aside, but this one was a complete waste of my time and I just stopped. Not the worst 15 minutes of my life but it was in the running.
    • My wife and I are now into Death Masks, the 5th book of Dresden Files. and are chugging right along. She just recently noticed that we had cut off reading Temeraire and suggested we might get back to it someday. I’m still unemployed, working pretty hard to change that but there aren’t many jobs out there yet. I sent out 6 resumes last week and got 3 of them back as bad addresses, one as a vacant lot. Did a bunch more research and sent three more out yesterday, two of them to the current addresses of those which got returned. It’s sad when you find computer company addresses on the Internet which are over 5 years old.
  • Tony Watts
    • Played a real live gig last week, at a brewery
    • “Attended” a virtual Clutch concert on Wednesday
    • Renewing PIA
    • Received velour headphone cushions for ATH-M50x
    • More testing with audio/video recording 
      • Audio interface successfully tested on Android phone and Amazon tablet
      • Successful FB Live test on both Thinkpad T480 and Dell 7130, using just web browser, audio interface and internal webcam (no streaming software)
      • Played a bit with OBS on Dell 7130
    • Kubuntu on the Dell 7130
      • Suspend works properly, have not always had good luck with that on other distros
      • Only issue encountered, rear-facing camera does not work in Kubuntu but also does not work in any other Linux distro I’ve tried.  Only the front “selfie” camera works in Linux (never tried Windows? Could be hardware issue for all I know)
      • Noted Chrome automatically has touch scrolling working as a default, upon install.  The included FireFox does not.  
  • Joe
    • Worldship Humility by RR Haywood
      • Really good book.  The action was steady but not overpowering.
      • High quality audio and a good story. Will be trying other titles from the same author
    • Brandon Sanderson sequel to Skyward called Starsight
      • Very enjoyable sequel.  Lots of new information in building the world
      • A good addition to what should be a solid series.
      • Because Brandon Sanderson just needed another really good book series
    • Delta V by Daniel Suarez
      • Really good book with some solid ideas in regards to mining in space
    • Influx by Daniel Suarez
      • An interesting book if less memorable
      • About the suppression of technology to control the advancement of society 
    • Second book in the Sprawl trilogy, Count Zero by William Gibson
      • This series has been difficult for me to get through.  I really want to like it but it is more a series that I would have to dedicate a lot more cycles to than I have available at any given time.  So maybe the next time I am on vacation…
    • Haven’t been spending enough time listening to the podcasts that I enjoy mostly because I normally listen at work and most of work lately has been taken up with meetings.  The joys of working from home.  I used to hate the days that I would spend 6 hours of the day in meetings and now it almost feels like the norm.
    • But i did make sure to listen to Leo on the Linux Spotlight and yes i will be talking more about headphones today.
    • Second pair of Sony XB700’s.  The ones I bought for parts so I could fix the first pair.  
      • Bad battery which is why I got them cheap.  Would not charge at all and would not turn on
      • Also I removed the drivers in them to use on the other ones
      • So none of the grill or ear pads were there either
      • I also had a pair of EarPollution Moguls that were in pretty bad shape and the only good thing they had going for them in the first place was decent drivers
      • It took several iterations and test prints to get all the dimensions correct but I designed and printed the grill and driver mount as well as an expanded ear cup mod. 
      • Used a method I saw on “My Mate Vince” YouTube channel to resurrect the battery.  Pulled the battery out and connected it to a PCB USB battery charger and monitored the charge with my voltmeter.  Voltage went from 0 to 3.7 volts very quickly.  I then disconnected the battery from the charger and resoldered to the headphones and verified that the built in charger could finish the job up to 4.2 volts
      • So the Sony XB700’s are now over ear instead of on ear and have 50mm drivers instead of 30mm drivers
      • I glued the drivers into place to prevent rattling and the volume is good although if I use the enhanced bass features too much I get a bit of distortion.  I do have other drivers on the way from china or i may pick up some better ones or pull the ones i have in an old pair of tritons
      • Testing the batteries over a long period of time before gluing all the new parts in place.  Am also looking at maybe making my own mounting screw holes since I was not able to use the originals.  This would allow for modifications and fixes in the future.  But for now it looks like the battery is completely restored and i have a second pair of headphones that are really good for all day wear
    • I also think i have ruined my music listening with this being stuck at home and getting to use cans instead of the hbs 770s.  I switched back to them for jogging the other day and normally while jogging i will listen to an audiobook or podcasts but instead i decided to listen to some metal.  The only thing that was going through my mind was how tinnie it sounded and how little bass there was.  This was with the better modular drivers that i had added and it still sounded horrible.  So I may be looking for other really good in-ear drivers that I can mod to use the modular connections and improve sound quality.
    • Or I may buy some MMCX in-ears that rate well.  Then try to build my own later.  I only need one good pair to start with because I can move them to all my modular headsets.  Still, at 50 bucks, that is a bit of a splurge for me for the 
    • Traded one of the Skullcandy Crushers with the 3D printed hinge for a HP Touchsmart
      • Also made sure to 3D print a spare hinge so that if the other one breaks i won’t be in a hurry to send another one.
    • Looking at building or buying a new tower computer for my server.  But not certain where i want to go with it
      • The mini ITX and micro ATX builds seem very cool and not as expensive as i supposed they would be but it seems a bit pointless if i am planning on adding 4 hard drives.  I don’t need a lot of peripherals added but i should put a decent graphics card on for transcoding with plex.
      • I could add in a graphics card to my current build as long as it is not trying to use board power and has a seperate power connector but the server that i have is still having problems where it overheats and crashes.  I may just try a full reinstall.
    • Spent some time helping listener Dustin get resilio sync set up so that I could easily transfer some of my audiobooks over to him so he has something to listen to at work.  
      • I did see that resilio sync is not the easiest thing to set up.
      • But I still recommend it as a way for transferring large files amongst devices.
      • Granted I usually use it to sync files across my own machines.
      • Also had a really good conversation about books and fiction and what writers are good and what writers aren’t.  Didn’t get too far down the rabbit hole but it was still a good conversation.
      • Sounds like I got a new person to check out the Stormlight Archive.  I like this because I don’t have too many people to talk to about my obsessions 
    • Also been trying out some small things with plex.  Right now I have turned on the function to use ram as a temp space for the transcoding.  Dont notice too much of a difference but does seem a bit more stable.
    • Received the replacement micro sd card for my pi but have not set it up yet.  I think that I will be going with the Ubuntu OS for that.  But i will be keeping my option to switch back to raspbian open in case i cant get netflix working.
  • Bo
    • Removing a snake from my car
    • DIY coffee roaster 
    • Krita for android in beta 

THE NEWS: 

SECURITY UPDATE: 

Announcements:

  • Our next episode will be at 2 pm Central US time, 7 pm UTC, June 14, 2020. That’s 8PM British Summer Time.

Wrap-up:

Before we leave, we want to make sure to acknowledge some of the people who make mintCast possible … 

  • Hobstar for his work on the new logo
  • Josh for all his work on the website
  • Hacker Public Radio for the Mumble server we are using to record
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about.
]]> full 4437