Thinkpad – mintCast https://mintcast.org The podcast by the Linux Mint community for all users of Linux Mon, 14 Feb 2022 15:27:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://mintcast.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cropped-small-logo-32x32.png Thinkpad – mintCast https://mintcast.org 32 32 164426984 378 – Reaching Enlightenment https://mintcast.org/378-reaching-enlightenment/ Mon, 14 Feb 2022 15:16:27 +0000 https://mintcast.org/?p=5335 In security, Ubuntu Kernel Security Patches, FGKASLR gets closer to mainline, Data stealing malware hides on Linux servers, Go Daddy data breach
In our Wanderings, Joe does some 3d printing, Josh got a new monitor, Norbert switches OS’s, and Clayton looks back
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]]> 1:37 The News
23:17 Security Update
26:04 Bi-Weekly Wanderings
1:05:52 Announcements & Outro

First up in the news, Mint 20.3 Una is released, Pipewire has a new release and Solus co-lead resigns

In security, Ubuntu Kernel update fixes vulnerabilities and Ryzen Mobile CPU’s and Pluton Security

In our Wanderings, Joe talks about the HPR New Year Show, Norbert watched a new series, Bill has been on the grind with cold temperatures, Nishant joined the Serenity OS team and Moss is back

Twitter. Discord. Telegram. Matrix. Reddit. Youtube.

The News

Security Update

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

  • Joe
    • HPR New Year Show, headphones, fixing laptop, CES
  • Norbert
    • Arcane, Gentoo
  • Moss
    • ThinkPad, Distrohoppers’ Digest
  • Bill
    • Setting up a new desktop, Bodhi Linux
  • Nishant
    • Serenity OS, birthday

Announcements

Wrap-up

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

  • Norbert for our audio production
  • Leo for timestamps and publishing
  • Josh Lowe for all his work on the website
  • Hobstar for our logo
  • initrd for the animated Discord logo
  • Londoner for our time sync
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • HPR for our backup Mumble room
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about <Thanks, Clem!>
]]> 5335 374 – Mounted Archery https://mintcast.org/374-mounted-archery/ Wed, 17 Nov 2021 07:16:41 +0000 https://mintcast.org/?p=5274 In security, A Dutch newspaper gets hacked, Azure is vulnerable, and AMD and Intel have more security flaws
Then in our Wanderings, Joe works on an xbox, Josh remodels a bathroom, Tony got a new phone and Norbert tells us about running arch
Download
]]> 1:49 The News
10:37 Security Update
20:35 Bi-Weekly Wanderings
41:38 Announcements & Outro

First up in the news, Linux Mint Monthly News, Firefox 94 released, Steam OS announcement, System76 Desktop announcement, Intel has been doing this for a long time and Nvidia released a fix

In security, A Dutch newspaper gets hacked, Azure is vulnerable, and AMD and Intel have more security flaws

Then in our Wanderings, Joe works on an xbox, Josh remodels a bathroom, Tony got a new phone and Norbert tells us about running arch

Twitter. Discord. Telegram. Matrix. Reddit. Youtube.

The News

Security Update

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

Announcements

Wrap-up

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

  • Norbert for our audio production
  • Leo for timestamps and publishing
  • Josh Lowe for all his work on the website
  • Hobstar for our logo
  • initrd for the animated Discord logo
  • Londoner for our time sync
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • HPR for our backup Mumble room
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about <Thanks, Clem!>
]]> 5274 369.5 – The LMDE to Be https://mintcast.org/369-5-the-lmde-to-be/ Wed, 15 Sep 2021 06:16:12 +0000 https://mintcast.org/?p=5207 And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions
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]]> 2:02 Linux Innards
23:36 Vibrations from the Ether
44:48 Check This Out
50:36 Announcements & Outro

In our Innards section Debian 11, and what that means for LMDE

And finally, the feedback and a couple of suggestions

Twitter. Discord. Telegram. Matrix. Reddit. Youtube.

Linux Innards

What will LMDE 5 look like?

Vibrations from the Ether

  • Henrik
  • Hank
  • Raphaël
    • https://linuxmint-troubleshooting-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/faq.html

Check This Out

Announcements

  • If you had issues getting to mintCast.org over the past few weeks, there was an issue with billing even though we were all paid up. Thanks to Josh Lowe for wrangling everything for us. The site is back up and going strong.
  • Leo will be stepping down as Host for the foreseeable future starting with Episode 272. You’re in very capable hands and who knows? Maybe more community hosts!
    • I’m not going far. I’ll stay on to help produce the shows in content and editing, and I’ll likely be back with a voice where I can find the open weekends.
  • Next Episode – 2 pm US Central time on Sunday September 19, 2021
  • Get mintCast converted to your time zone
  • Next Live Stream –  2 pm US Central time on September 25, 2021

Wrap-up

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

  • Owen Peery for our audio production, Josh Lowe for all his work on the website, Hobstar for our logo, initrd for the animated Discord logo, and Londoner for our time sync
  • Bytemark Hosting for hosting mintcast.org and our Mumble server
  • Archive.org for hosting our audio files
  • HPR for our backup Mumble room
  • The Linux Mint development team for the fine distro we love to talk about <Thanks, Clem!>
]]> 5207 mintCast 327 – The Mozilla Thrilla https://mintcast.org/mintcast-327-the-mozilla-thrilla/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 08:02:54 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4152 Then in our news a new Wine, GParted, Edge and Yaru theme for Ubuntu. The Pinephone ships and Firefox runs into issues.
Finally, in security, we talk password leads and Mozilla addon bans.
Download
]]>

Download

First up, in our Wanderings, I follow in Tony H’s footsteps and paint, Tony H upgrades a laptop and attends another LUG, Josh returns, Moss meets a mintCast listener, Joe listens to more books and learns about Cockpit, and Tony Watts edits video and works on his Studio.

Then in our news a new Wine, GParted, Edge and Yaru theme for Ubuntu. The Pinephone ships and Firefox runs into issues.

Finally, in security, we talk password leads and Mozilla addon bans.

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Leo
    • DnD Mini painting! D:
  • Tony H
    • Upgraded a Windows 8.1 Sony VAIO i5 laptop to Windows 10 and after the upgrade replaced the spinner with a 120Gig SSD and upgraded the RAM from 4 to 6Gb and this now boots in under 10 seconds. Even I was impressed with the performance improvements, I’m sure part of the issue was that over time the Win8 install had built up a load of windows bloat which slowed it down, but the person who asked me to do this will be very happy to have a workable laptop back. Listening to the first part of the HPR new years eve/day marathon event which was released this week, if you want to know what me and Popey talked about, have a listen.   
    • Went to the LUG and talking to a new member who has just moved to the area and we seem to have trod a similar path with Linux, starting with Ubuntu and migrating to Mint with the advent of the Unity DE. Good to see new people coming to the LUG. 
    • Oh and this week at the LUG I got given some sourdough starter which I have christened ‘Fred’ well it is a living organism lol. So this week sometime I will be trying to bake a sourdough loaf, may have to do a little YouTube research beforehand to make sure I’m doing it right. I’ve made many loaves before but this will be the first time making sourdough. Wish me luck.    
    • And I can’t forget the Matchbox cars, had a lucky flea-Bay find and picked up some very nice models that can go straight into the collection for around a £1 each. I’m sure I can get a lot more than that if I ever want to part with them, but for now they will be staying put. Considering having a stall at the next swap meet, to try and move on some of my many repeats either sell or swap.
  • Moss
    • So I missed the Thinkpad Lovefest last episode. I had a great time at GAFilk (as I always do, which is why I keep going year upon year), but the resultant video did not sound great. I’m waiting for better audio to patch in, foretelling my first go with KDEnlive.
    • At least you didn’t decide to replace me permanently with Alan Pope. My first Thinkpad was purchased only 5 or 6 years ago, a X130e, which later I replaced with a T430 and sent the X130e to my fiancee (now wife). After about a year, she decided she wanted a T430, so we sold the X130e and bought her one. She still has hers; I just sold mine to listener Dale Miracle at a price which was definitely to my benefit, and we got dinner along with it. Thanks, Dale!
    • I’ve been playing Musical Distros on my machines, and somehow managed to have Mint Cinnamon and KDE neon on both computers. I need to find some more distros to play with.  I looked at Nitrux but it doesn’t look like you actually install it. 
    • The problem I was having with Feren OS on my Galago Pro 2, which to date has only shown itself when using only with Kmines and KMahjongg, was not a Feren problem, it was something between the Galago video system and KDE. I had the same issue with KDE neon. And while the blocks of video dropout are white in regular mode, they are dark grey in Dark Mode, which is really something. I haven’t tried Kubuntu to further investigate, but the Galago Pro was reported to have been pretty well-used when listener Jackie Moore sent it to me so it could just be wear.
    • To the people in our Telegram group who seem to think I have the record for the most distros on a machine: one of my MeWe friends has 11. And I have done the math: if I allocated a generous 25 Gb for each distro, I could easily fit 50 distros on my Galago Pro 2; however, thinking about having to update all those distros, not to mention navigating the GRUB menu. I think I’ll stick with 7.
    • I’m trying to talk Tony into doing Peppermint 10 Respin for Distrohoppers’ Digest Episode 010 on February 5th.  I tried it and was driven bonkers by the peppermint candy icon in the taskbar. I hate doing negative reviews, especially for good distros, so I’ll get Tony to do a positive one, if he’s up for it. I believe I’ll do Feren OS again, it’s a whole new distro with KDE and what he has done is simply amazing. Our episode download numbers keep increasing, with currently 2 episodes over 500 downloads and 3 more over 400 out of 9 episodes. For as niche-y as we are, those are nice numbers.
    • I replaced Ubuntu Budgie 19.10 with Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, because that’s what we’re doing this episode. I have no need for two versions of Ubuntu 19.10, but I will miss Budgie. 
    • My wife and I have finished reading Storm Front and got a $1.99 deal on Fool Moon (Dresden Files series), so I’m reading that to my wife now. Apparently these books are not in Kindle Unlimited — which beggars the use of the word “unlimited”, but there you have it. Our flying the skies with Temeraire continues to be on hold.
    • The Rehab facility sent my mom home again just yesterday. Hope she can stay there.
  • Josh
    • Back from Australia
    • Problems with Grandad’s PC (He needs a new one)
    • Editing photos
    • EduBlocks draggable video tutorials
    • Much less of me on the show due to exams in 14 weeks
  • Joe
    • Listened to some good books
    • NOS4A2 by Joe Hill who is the son of Stephen King
      • Really good book
      • You can tell that it was heavily influenced by King
      • Lots of references to Kings works
      • Very detailed but still easy to follow. 
      • Highly recommend and I will be trying a few more books from the same author.  Maybe find out if he has written any series
    • Listened to the Avalon Chronicles which are a continuation of the Hellequin novels
      • Well read but complex enough that for the first read through I needed to drop the speed from 3x to 2x
      • I like the following of new characters while still having the cameos from the previous series to tie it all together.
      • Book 2 and 3 jumped around a lot
    • Started the Lost Fleet series so I could get the beginning of the story.
      • Really having read the second series of this I am having trouble getting through because it is so similar that I feel like I have already read it.
      • Don’t know if I will finish the series any time soon but I will keep it in my library
    • Listening to the Daniel Faust novels again
    • Was hoping to listen to the Demon Squad novels but my copy is gone and I have not found a new one yet
    • Also Yancy Lazarous novels but I was able to find another copy.  So it will be next on my list
    • Started using voice aloud reader which was recommended to me by one of my co-hosts on the linux lug cast.
      • I have never before liked text-aloud books, but using one of the online voice reader options it has worked out very well.
      • So far I have read the 6th book from the Garrett P.I. novels and the first book of the Aubry Knight trilogy
        • Both series are available as ebooks but not audiobooks
        • Both are very good books that I always wanted to get in audio
        • It is not perfect but it is much better than it was 10 years ago
    • Haven’t done much with PI’s in a while and all I have left at this time is some Pi 1’s and a couple of zero w’s
      • For a warm up I plan on setting up a zero w as a pi hole
        • Used raspbian lite
      • I would like to order a Pi 4 and I will get around to it
      • Also looking hard at some physical switches on the GPIO to run scripts
      • But I may just use a usb numpad to start off with.
      • Also looking at 7 inch hdmi touch screens for the pi’s 
    • Thanks Popey for coming on the show last time.  Also thanks for the suggestion on cockpit
      • It helped me easily diagnose the problems on my server.  Yes it all could have been found elsewhere but this tool made it easy with everything consolidated.  I was also able to use the interface to find the issue while I was several miles away at the office.  
      • Turns out one of my 4tb hdds has some bad sectors.  Sadly it is the partition that has all my configurations for docker and all my audiobooks.  
      • Which explains the corrupt audiobook files that I have been seeing. 
      • Ordered an 8tb to replace it.  
    • 8Tb HDD was really easy to set up.  Didn’t have to jump through all the large hard drive hoops that I used to have to.
      • Setup in disks and then use rsync to copy everything over 24 hours to copy 4tb of data.  Power down and power back up to make sure the data is still there and the partition is accessible.
      • Use disks again to change the mount name to what the old drive was(one of them the one for docker) and change the mount point on the old drive
      • Restart the machine and make sure that docker is working then point plex to the new drive location.  
      • Do a full shutdown with no power for a few minutes
        • Yes I’m paranoid
      • It is all working.  I now feel comfortable taking the 4Tb out Although I may wait a few days before doing anything with it.  
    • Installed android x86 on the 7140 which may spend some time as my testing machine
      • I did not want to wipe out my hard drive so I attempted to install it to a USB stick
      • I think my powered usb hub or the cable to it was simply not up to the task
      • So I wiped my drive and ran it there.  
      • It was nice being able to play some of the android games on full screen and install all the apps that I usually use on my phone
      • But the sound did not work on either the speakers or the 3.5mm jack but did work over bluetooth so kinda usable 
      • The only issue I had was recovering when it attempted to sleep since the 7140 does not support that.  The touchpad and wifi would both stop working although I could fix the wifi I could not fix the touchpad without a full restart
    • So I wiped the drive again and attempted to install ubuntu cinnamon.  Invalid partition table every time.
      • Will talk about that in the innards but I did get it fixed
    • Also am attempting to install android x86 in virtualbox on my 7130
      • Need to increase the resources for it but it does seem to be working
    • May have to buy a larger/faster drive for the 7140 
    • Dell Venue 8 Pro woes
      • Spent a couple of days trying to get that set back up
      • Couldn’t install anything with cinnamon
      • Ended up install Mint Mate to replace mint xfce
      • Tried all the old audio fixes and could not get the audio working
      • Surprisingly though the Bluetooth is now working
    • Copyq from the going linux podcast
  • Tony W
    • More progress on digitizing 8mm video
      • Located all of the cables for camcorder
      • VLC did capture both audio and video streams, after selecting video camera as source (vs analog TV as used previously per instruction in a reddit or something)
      • Resulting video files from VLC capture are HUGE.  Uncompressed AVI format
      • Essentially the process is to capture audio/video, then convert the raw uncompressed files to MP4 etc (I will use Handbrake for this)
    • I will be doing some work on my home studio in the basement very soon
      • Drywall and insulation, framing around ducts and pipes, carpet…
      • Need permit from county
      • Planning to host band practice at my house for yet another band project
    • Have been enjoying some of the basic features of Plex I had somehow managed to avoid to this point
      • Bought the android app
      • Casting to chromecasts in the house
      • Added user accts for the kids – gives control over BOTH libraries and ratings restriction

THE NEWS:

SECURITY UPDATE:

Announcements:

  • Our Next Episode will be live Feb 9, 2020. 2PM CST, 8PM UTC

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
]]> 4152 mintCast 327 – The Mozilla Thrilla (mp3) https://mintcast.org/mintcast-327-the-mozilla-thrilla-mp3/ Wed, 29 Jan 2020 07:40:07 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4150 Then in our news a new Wine, GParted, Edge and Yaru theme for Ubuntu. The Pinephone ships and Firefox runs into issues.
Finally, in security, we talk password leads and Mozilla addon bans.
Download
]]>

Download

First up, in our Wanderings, I follow in Tony H’s footsteps and paint, Tony H upgrades a laptop and attends another LUG, Josh returns, Moss meets a mintCast listener, Joe listens to more books and learns about Cockpit, and Tony Watts edits video and works on his Studio.

Then in our news a new Wine, GParted, Edge and Yaru theme for Ubuntu. The Pinephone ships and Firefox runs into issues.

Finally, in security, we talk password leads and Mozilla addon bans.

BI-WEEKLY WANDERINGS:

  • Leo
    • DnD Mini painting! D:
  • Tony H
    • Upgraded a Windows 8.1 Sony VAIO i5 laptop to Windows 10 and after the upgrade replaced the spinner with a 120Gig SSD and upgraded the RAM from 4 to 6Gb and this now boots in under 10 seconds. Even I was impressed with the performance improvements, I’m sure part of the issue was that over time the Win8 install had built up a load of windows bloat which slowed it down, but the person who asked me to do this will be very happy to have a workable laptop back. Listening to the first part of the HPR new years eve/day marathon event which was released this week, if you want to know what me and Popey talked about, have a listen.   
    • Went to the LUG and talking to a new member who has just moved to the area and we seem to have trod a similar path with Linux, starting with Ubuntu and migrating to Mint with the advent of the Unity DE. Good to see new people coming to the LUG. 
    • Oh and this week at the LUG I got given some sourdough starter which I have christened ‘Fred’ well it is a living organism lol. So this week sometime I will be trying to bake a sourdough loaf, may have to do a little YouTube research beforehand to make sure I’m doing it right. I’ve made many loaves before but this will be the first time making sourdough. Wish me luck.    
    • And I can’t forget the Matchbox cars, had a lucky flea-Bay find and picked up some very nice models that can go straight into the collection for around a £1 each. I’m sure I can get a lot more than that if I ever want to part with them, but for now they will be staying put. Considering having a stall at the next swap meet, to try and move on some of my many repeats either sell or swap.
  • Moss
    • So I missed the Thinkpad Lovefest last episode. I had a great time at GAFilk (as I always do, which is why I keep going year upon year), but the resultant video did not sound great. I’m waiting for better audio to patch in, foretelling my first go with KDEnlive.
    • At least you didn’t decide to replace me permanently with Alan Pope. My first Thinkpad was purchased only 5 or 6 years ago, a X130e, which later I replaced with a T430 and sent the X130e to my fiancee (now wife). After about a year, she decided she wanted a T430, so we sold the X130e and bought her one. She still has hers; I just sold mine to listener Dale Miracle at a price which was definitely to my benefit, and we got dinner along with it. Thanks, Dale!
    • I’ve been playing Musical Distros on my machines, and somehow managed to have Mint Cinnamon and KDE neon on both computers. I need to find some more distros to play with.  I looked at Nitrux but it doesn’t look like you actually install it. 
    • The problem I was having with Feren OS on my Galago Pro 2, which to date has only shown itself when using only with Kmines and KMahjongg, was not a Feren problem, it was something between the Galago video system and KDE. I had the same issue with KDE neon. And while the blocks of video dropout are white in regular mode, they are dark grey in Dark Mode, which is really something. I haven’t tried Kubuntu to further investigate, but the Galago Pro was reported to have been pretty well-used when listener Jackie Moore sent it to me so it could just be wear.
    • To the people in our Telegram group who seem to think I have the record for the most distros on a machine: one of my MeWe friends has 11. And I have done the math: if I allocated a generous 25 Gb for each distro, I could easily fit 50 distros on my Galago Pro 2; however, thinking about having to update all those distros, not to mention navigating the GRUB menu. I think I’ll stick with 7.
    • I’m trying to talk Tony into doing Peppermint 10 Respin for Distrohoppers’ Digest Episode 010 on February 5th.  I tried it and was driven bonkers by the peppermint candy icon in the taskbar. I hate doing negative reviews, especially for good distros, so I’ll get Tony to do a positive one, if he’s up for it. I believe I’ll do Feren OS again, it’s a whole new distro with KDE and what he has done is simply amazing. Our episode download numbers keep increasing, with currently 2 episodes over 500 downloads and 3 more over 400 out of 9 episodes. For as niche-y as we are, those are nice numbers.
    • I replaced Ubuntu Budgie 19.10 with Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix, because that’s what we’re doing this episode. I have no need for two versions of Ubuntu 19.10, but I will miss Budgie. 
    • My wife and I have finished reading Storm Front and got a $1.99 deal on Fool Moon (Dresden Files series), so I’m reading that to my wife now. Apparently these books are not in Kindle Unlimited — which beggars the use of the word “unlimited”, but there you have it. Our flying the skies with Temeraire continues to be on hold.
    • The Rehab facility sent my mom home again just yesterday. Hope she can stay there.
  • Josh
    • Back from Australia
    • Problems with Grandad’s PC (He needs a new one)
    • Editing photos
    • EduBlocks draggable video tutorials
    • Much less of me on the show due to exams in 14 weeks
  • Joe
    • Listened to some good books
    • NOS4A2 by Joe Hill who is the son of Stephen King
      • Really good book
      • You can tell that it was heavily influenced by King
      • Lots of references to Kings works
      • Very detailed but still easy to follow. 
      • Highly recommend and I will be trying a few more books from the same author.  Maybe find out if he has written any series
    • Listened to the Avalon Chronicles which are a continuation of the Hellequin novels
      • Well read but complex enough that for the first read through I needed to drop the speed from 3x to 2x
      • I like the following of new characters while still having the cameos from the previous series to tie it all together.
      • Book 2 and 3 jumped around a lot
    • Started the Lost Fleet series so I could get the beginning of the story.
      • Really having read the second series of this I am having trouble getting through because it is so similar that I feel like I have already read it.
      • Don’t know if I will finish the series any time soon but I will keep it in my library
    • Listening to the Daniel Faust novels again
    • Was hoping to listen to the Demon Squad novels but my copy is gone and I have not found a new one yet
    • Also Yancy Lazarous novels but I was able to find another copy.  So it will be next on my list
    • Started using voice aloud reader which was recommended to me by one of my co-hosts on the linux lug cast.
      • I have never before liked text-aloud books, but using one of the online voice reader options it has worked out very well.
      • So far I have read the 6th book from the Garrett P.I. novels and the first book of the Aubry Knight trilogy
        • Both series are available as ebooks but not audiobooks
        • Both are very good books that I always wanted to get in audio
        • It is not perfect but it is much better than it was 10 years ago
    • Haven’t done much with PI’s in a while and all I have left at this time is some Pi 1’s and a couple of zero w’s
      • For a warm up I plan on setting up a zero w as a pi hole
        • Used raspbian lite
      • I would like to order a Pi 4 and I will get around to it
      • Also looking hard at some physical switches on the GPIO to run scripts
      • But I may just use a usb numpad to start off with.
      • Also looking at 7 inch hdmi touch screens for the pi’s 
    • Thanks Popey for coming on the show last time.  Also thanks for the suggestion on cockpit
      • It helped me easily diagnose the problems on my server.  Yes it all could have been found elsewhere but this tool made it easy with everything consolidated.  I was also able to use the interface to find the issue while I was several miles away at the office.  
      • Turns out one of my 4tb hdds has some bad sectors.  Sadly it is the partition that has all my configurations for docker and all my audiobooks.  
      • Which explains the corrupt audiobook files that I have been seeing. 
      • Ordered an 8tb to replace it.  
    • 8Tb HDD was really easy to set up.  Didn’t have to jump through all the large hard drive hoops that I used to have to.
      • Setup in disks and then use rsync to copy everything over 24 hours to copy 4tb of data.  Power down and power back up to make sure the data is still there and the partition is accessible.
      • Use disks again to change the mount name to what the old drive was(one of them the one for docker) and change the mount point on the old drive
      • Restart the machine and make sure that docker is working then point plex to the new drive location.  
      • Do a full shutdown with no power for a few minutes
        • Yes I’m paranoid
      • It is all working.  I now feel comfortable taking the 4Tb out Although I may wait a few days before doing anything with it.  
    • Installed android x86 on the 7140 which may spend some time as my testing machine
      • I did not want to wipe out my hard drive so I attempted to install it to a USB stick
      • I think my powered usb hub or the cable to it was simply not up to the task
      • So I wiped my drive and ran it there.  
      • It was nice being able to play some of the android games on full screen and install all the apps that I usually use on my phone
      • But the sound did not work on either the speakers or the 3.5mm jack but did work over bluetooth so kinda usable 
      • The only issue I had was recovering when it attempted to sleep since the 7140 does not support that.  The touchpad and wifi would both stop working although I could fix the wifi I could not fix the touchpad without a full restart
    • So I wiped the drive again and attempted to install ubuntu cinnamon.  Invalid partition table every time.
      • Will talk about that in the innards but I did get it fixed
    • Also am attempting to install android x86 in virtualbox on my 7130
      • Need to increase the resources for it but it does seem to be working
    • May have to buy a larger/faster drive for the 7140 
    • Dell Venue 8 Pro woes
      • Spent a couple of days trying to get that set back up
      • Couldn’t install anything with cinnamon
      • Ended up install Mint Mate to replace mint xfce
      • Tried all the old audio fixes and could not get the audio working
      • Surprisingly though the Bluetooth is now working
    • Copyq from the going linux podcast
  • Tony W
    • More progress on digitizing 8mm video
      • Located all of the cables for camcorder
      • VLC did capture both audio and video streams, after selecting video camera as source (vs analog TV as used previously per instruction in a reddit or something)
      • Resulting video files from VLC capture are HUGE.  Uncompressed AVI format
      • Essentially the process is to capture audio/video, then convert the raw uncompressed files to MP4 etc (I will use Handbrake for this)
    • I will be doing some work on my home studio in the basement very soon
      • Drywall and insulation, framing around ducts and pipes, carpet…
      • Need permit from county
      • Planning to host band practice at my house for yet another band project
    • Have been enjoying some of the basic features of Plex I had somehow managed to avoid to this point
      • Bought the android app
      • Casting to chromecasts in the house
      • Added user accts for the kids – gives control over BOTH libraries and ratings restriction

THE NEWS:

SECURITY UPDATE:

Announcements:

  • Our Next Episode will be live Feb 9, 2020. 2PM CST, 8PM UTC

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
]]> 4150 mintCast 326.5 – Biscuits and a Thinkpad https://mintcast.org/mintcast-326-5-biscuits-and-a-thinkpad/ Wed, 22 Jan 2020 06:19:33 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4141 And finally, the feedback
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]]>

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In our Innards section, we talk all things ‘Lenovo Thinkpads’

And finally, the feedback

Linux Innards:

  • Maybe the first thing to say is how many Lenovo laptops we have or have used in the past ** indicates still owned.
  • We missed two predictions from Discord!
    • Katya predicts that there will be an official red hat version of fedora IoT
    • Cryptodan predicts that Microsoft will acquire Ubuntu
  • Tony H – x61s, x200, x200 Tablet**, x201**, X230i** 
    • None of the ones I still have are in daily use so the x61 has just gone to go to Egypt with a package of other stuff as a donation to a school there.
    • Back when I first started to use Lenovo laptops about 8-9 years ago the thing that I appreciated on the X200 series was the portability (12” screen) battery life and robustness, these laptops were built to be used on the road and were very well built.
    • If it weren’t for aging eyes, I would probably still use my X230i as it is a great little laptop but these days I use my Dell E7440 as a compromise of portability and screen size. The bigger 400 series are just that little too heavy for toting a couple in a laptop bag which I can do with the E7440.
  • Tony W –  
    • Had an old IBM thinkpad, 2004 or 2005 machine but do not have anymore and don’t know the model (before my Linux days)
    • Using a Lenovo H50 desktop in the house, budget desktop from 2015
      • Was given to me by my grandfather because he couldn’t stomach Windows 10
      • 4th gen i3 processor
      • Upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB
      • Added low profile 2GB nvidia card to it
      • Works fine for most purposes and will play low resource steam games
    • Current work laptop Thinkpad T480
      • Processor i7, 8GB RAM
      • Internal + External Battery
          • Internal battery is used until depleted, then external is used
          • Can hot swap batteries
          • Seems to be some debate online about lack of option to set external battery to drain first
        • Extremely solid feel
        • Trackpad is great in my experience (though not a lot to compare to)
        • Perfect size
        • Appreciate the built in webcam cover
      • Only very minor CONS 
        • The thing is a finger smudge magnet (don’t really care)
        • HDMI and USB C display out cannot be used simultaneously – one or the other
      • WHY are the Thinkpad docks so expensive?
        • They are nearly $200
        • Many aftermarket hubs are a lot cheaper
          • Aftermarket hub w/ actual working dual displays seem to run about $80
          • My workaround dock situation: USB C hub with one display + one USB C to HDMI adapter.  Cost ~$40
  • Popey – 
    • Main machine: ThinkPad T450 – Ubuntu 19.10 (i7, upgraded to 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 250 GB m.2 SSD, replaced screen with matte display.). Docking station, 2 external displays. Multiple external batteries.
    • Previous main machine: ThinkPad X220 (i7, 16GB, swappable hard disks) – mainly used for testing various distros
    • X61s Command line only system – C2D 1.6GHz / 6GB RAM / 250GB SSD
    • T43 – Pentium M 2.0GHz / 1.5GiB RAM / 40GB disk
    • R50e – Celeron 1.4GHz / 1.2GiB RAM / 40GB disk 
    • 380XD – Pentium / 32MiB RAM / 4GB disk / Windows 98
  • Joe
    • Thinkpad x120e
      • One of the few early netbooks with a 64 bit processor
      • Not quite fast enough for daily use
      • Works phenomenally as a batocera machine playing old games including ps1’s armored core masters of arena. 
  • Leo
    • Thinkpad T450s
      • My daily driver. Bought it second-hand about 2 years ago now. My first and only Thinkpad. I’ve used others before, and quite liked them. Best laptop choice I’ve ever made.
      • i5 5300u, 20GB RAM, 512GB SATA SSD with Mint, 256GB m.2/SATA with Windows. Considering putting something else on it since I haven’t booted into Windows on this laptop for over a month.

Vibrations from the Ether:

  • Erik Lietz

I didn’t realize I would be the only listener to submit my 2020 predictions. Thanks for reading them! I accept the challenge to beat the rest of you on your predictions! I will have to figure out some audio equipment if I’m invited onto the show.

Since you asked some questions about my predictions, I will offer some clarifications.

  1. Purism will go out of business – the Librem 5 phone endeavor will put it under
    (Purism’s reach into so many products will be their undoing and even with some products doing well, this will be too much for their business to sustain)

  2. The PinePhone will be an amazing product and success story for Pine64
    (I am waiting for the second offering after the Brave Heart edition. The PinePhone product development will set a ‘gold’ standard how to correctly launch new product)

  3. An major industry specific software company (Adobe, Autodesk (for AutoCAD), or similar) will offer a Linux version for a flagship software product
    (Adobe, Autodesk, or another specific flagship program dedicated for a very specific task. Running natively, no Wine, no web apps – AutoCAD can already run as a web app)

  4. Microsoft will offer Office 365 on Linux
    (MS Word, Excel, Power Point at a minimum will be running natively on Linux, no Wine, no web apps)

  5. Linux preinstalled from a major hardware supplier will be available in big box stores available off of the shelf
    (a large hardware vendor (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc)

As Moss said, it very well could have been Martin Wimpress or Alan Poppe who first stated this. I give credit where credit is due, but I can’t find this quote again on my other podcasts to confirm who said it.

By the way – our Linux conversion at the office is now complete! We have all of our workstations (CAD, engineering, and office support staff) running on Mint 19.1 with the 5.0 kernel. We have a server running Ubuntu Server 18.04. Hardly any issues at all, and the issues we do have is with network printing on copiers and accessing files on older Synology NAS boxes. Which, has forced us to do some much needed upgrades on both the copiers and network storage. One main benefit to switching to Linux has been enabling my wife and I as business owners to do all of the IT work ourselves, instead of outsourcing this work. Another benefit is that the setup and maintenance on the Linux machines is easily less than half the amount of time. Time = money! Linux has enabled us to take back control of our computing.

Thanks again for the great podcast!

  • G

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to say thanks for the great podcast. I have been listening since 2018. On episode 325, I would like to shout out a big THANK YOU!  to you all for being diplomatic about the recent Purism news and for reminding us of the differences between the Pine Phone and the Librem 5. Bravo! 

  • David

I applied the 19.3 latest updates which required a restart and now Mint hangs after I get the new LM boot screen, it never gets past this screen.  I’ve only been using Linux Desktop for about a year, so still learning and this is the first time I’ve had a single issue with Linux.

I do have TimeShift running Daily, Weekly, Monthly but I can’t even get to that point.

Any suggestions on how I can get to ??? So I can do a restore from TimeShift?

Thanks.

Check This Out:

Announcements:

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
]]> 4141 mintCast 326.5 – Biscuits and a Thinkpad (mp3) https://mintcast.org/mintcast-326-5-biscuits-and-a-thinkpad-mp3/ Wed, 22 Jan 2020 06:18:47 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4139 And finally, the feedback
Download
]]>

Download

In our Innards section, we talk all things ‘Lenovo Thinkpads’

And finally, the feedback

Linux Innards:

  • Maybe the first thing to say is how many Lenovo laptops we have or have used in the past ** indicates still owned.
  • We missed two predictions from Discord!
    • Katya predicts that there will be an official red hat version of fedora IoT
    • Cryptodan predicts that Microsoft will acquire Ubuntu
  • Tony H – x61s, x200, x200 Tablet**, x201**, X230i** 
    • None of the ones I still have are in daily use so the x61 has just gone to go to Egypt with a package of other stuff as a donation to a school there.
    • Back when I first started to use Lenovo laptops about 8-9 years ago the thing that I appreciated on the X200 series was the portability (12” screen) battery life and robustness, these laptops were built to be used on the road and were very well built.
    • If it weren’t for aging eyes, I would probably still use my X230i as it is a great little laptop but these days I use my Dell E7440 as a compromise of portability and screen size. The bigger 400 series are just that little too heavy for toting a couple in a laptop bag which I can do with the E7440.
  • Tony W –  
    • Had an old IBM thinkpad, 2004 or 2005 machine but do not have anymore and don’t know the model (before my Linux days)
    • Using a Lenovo H50 desktop in the house, budget desktop from 2015
      • Was given to me by my grandfather because he couldn’t stomach Windows 10
      • 4th gen i3 processor
      • Upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB
      • Added low profile 2GB nvidia card to it
      • Works fine for most purposes and will play low resource steam games
    • Current work laptop Thinkpad T480
      • Processor i7, 8GB RAM
      • Internal + External Battery
          • Internal battery is used until depleted, then external is used
          • Can hot swap batteries
          • Seems to be some debate online about lack of option to set external battery to drain first
        • Extremely solid feel
        • Trackpad is great in my experience (though not a lot to compare to)
        • Perfect size
        • Appreciate the built in webcam cover
      • Only very minor CONS 
        • The thing is a finger smudge magnet (don’t really care)
        • HDMI and USB C display out cannot be used simultaneously – one or the other
      • WHY are the Thinkpad docks so expensive?
        • They are nearly $200
        • Many aftermarket hubs are a lot cheaper
          • Aftermarket hub w/ actual working dual displays seem to run about $80
          • My workaround dock situation: USB C hub with one display + one USB C to HDMI adapter.  Cost ~$40
  • Popey – 
    • Main machine: ThinkPad T450 – Ubuntu 19.10 (i7, upgraded to 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 250 GB m.2 SSD, replaced screen with matte display.). Docking station, 2 external displays. Multiple external batteries.
    • Previous main machine: ThinkPad X220 (i7, 16GB, swappable hard disks) – mainly used for testing various distros
    • X61s Command line only system – C2D 1.6GHz / 6GB RAM / 250GB SSD
    • T43 – Pentium M 2.0GHz / 1.5GiB RAM / 40GB disk
    • R50e – Celeron 1.4GHz / 1.2GiB RAM / 40GB disk 
    • 380XD – Pentium / 32MiB RAM / 4GB disk / Windows 98
  • Joe
    • Thinkpad x120e
      • One of the few early netbooks with a 64 bit processor
      • Not quite fast enough for daily use
      • Works phenomenally as a batocera machine playing old games including ps1’s armored core masters of arena. 
  • Leo
    • Thinkpad T450s
      • My daily driver. Bought it second-hand about 2 years ago now. My first and only Thinkpad. I’ve used others before, and quite liked them. Best laptop choice I’ve ever made.
      • i5 5300u, 20GB RAM, 512GB SATA SSD with Mint, 256GB m.2/SATA with Windows. Considering putting something else on it since I haven’t booted into Windows on this laptop for over a month.

Vibrations from the Ether:

  • Erik Lietz

I didn’t realize I would be the only listener to submit my 2020 predictions. Thanks for reading them! I accept the challenge to beat the rest of you on your predictions! I will have to figure out some audio equipment if I’m invited onto the show.

Since you asked some questions about my predictions, I will offer some clarifications.

  1. Purism will go out of business – the Librem 5 phone endeavor will put it under
    (Purism’s reach into so many products will be their undoing and even with some products doing well, this will be too much for their business to sustain)

  2. The PinePhone will be an amazing product and success story for Pine64
    (I am waiting for the second offering after the Brave Heart edition. The PinePhone product development will set a ‘gold’ standard how to correctly launch new product)

  3. An major industry specific software company (Adobe, Autodesk (for AutoCAD), or similar) will offer a Linux version for a flagship software product
    (Adobe, Autodesk, or another specific flagship program dedicated for a very specific task. Running natively, no Wine, no web apps – AutoCAD can already run as a web app)

  4. Microsoft will offer Office 365 on Linux
    (MS Word, Excel, Power Point at a minimum will be running natively on Linux, no Wine, no web apps)

  5. Linux preinstalled from a major hardware supplier will be available in big box stores available off of the shelf
    (a large hardware vendor (Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc)

As Moss said, it very well could have been Martin Wimpress or Alan Poppe who first stated this. I give credit where credit is due, but I can’t find this quote again on my other podcasts to confirm who said it.

By the way – our Linux conversion at the office is now complete! We have all of our workstations (CAD, engineering, and office support staff) running on Mint 19.1 with the 5.0 kernel. We have a server running Ubuntu Server 18.04. Hardly any issues at all, and the issues we do have is with network printing on copiers and accessing files on older Synology NAS boxes. Which, has forced us to do some much needed upgrades on both the copiers and network storage. One main benefit to switching to Linux has been enabling my wife and I as business owners to do all of the IT work ourselves, instead of outsourcing this work. Another benefit is that the setup and maintenance on the Linux machines is easily less than half the amount of time. Time = money! Linux has enabled us to take back control of our computing.

Thanks again for the great podcast!

  • G

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to say thanks for the great podcast. I have been listening since 2018. On episode 325, I would like to shout out a big THANK YOU!  to you all for being diplomatic about the recent Purism news and for reminding us of the differences between the Pine Phone and the Librem 5. Bravo! 

  • David

I applied the 19.3 latest updates which required a restart and now Mint hangs after I get the new LM boot screen, it never gets past this screen.  I’ve only been using Linux Desktop for about a year, so still learning and this is the first time I’ve had a single issue with Linux.

I do have TimeShift running Daily, Weekly, Monthly but I can’t even get to that point.

Any suggestions on how I can get to ??? So I can do a restore from TimeShift?

Thanks.

Check This Out:

Announcements:

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
]]> 4139 mintCast 326 – One Byte Opposition (mp3) https://mintcast.org/mintcast-326-one-byte-opposition-mp3/ Wed, 15 Jan 2020 07:10:03 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4126 Then, in our news - Dell shows a new developer XPS 13 laptop at CES, there is a new enterprise Chromebook from Samsung and EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield and more.
In Security - It’s time to update Firefox... again. And Cablehaunt spooks your modem.
Download
]]>

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First up, in our Wanderings, Special Guest Alan Pope finds gold in the loft and plays 30+ year old games online, Leo wins at gifts, but fails at MicroK8s, Tony Hughes plays with Ubuntu Studio, more Matchbox cars, and donates some tech, Joe tries to repair a pebble, fixes more headphones and listens to lots of books, Tony Watts converts 8mm film to digital, plays with a dual monitor setup on his Thinkpad and reconfigures his recording setup.

Then, in our news – Dell shows a new developer XPS 13 laptop at CES, there is a new enterprise Chromebook from Samsung and EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield and more.

In Security – It’s time to update Firefox… again. And Cablehaunt spooks your modem.

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

  • Alan P
    • Found a bunch of old audio cassettes in the loft. Bought a cassette player off ebay to sample them into a PC (thinkpad, of course) and then feed them into an emulator if they’re computer stuff.
    • Some of them were programs that I’d written with a friend over 30 years ago.
    • Also played some old 8-bit games with my friend Martin Wimpress on our new twitch channel “8bitversus”. We decided to start playing games online when a friend in the Ubuntu Podcast telegram channel suggested it might be fun to watch. I was a massive sinclair spectrum fan, and he was a commodore 64 fan. In these streams we take turns choosing games and get the other person to play games on the other persons platform. It’s fun!
  • Leo
    • Got handed a desktop sans case from a friend that wasn’t using it anymore and was moving out of state. I’ve been wanting to build a new server for quite a while to get more into Docker and other enterprisey-type things and I saw it as a sign to forge ahead!
    • i5-6600k, 16GB 2400MHz RAM, ASUS Fancy Pants motherboard, and a 700W PSU.
    • Planning on moving the services I have at home, like Nextcloud, from snap and VMs to MicroK8s, but am having some issues with getting the Dashboard to listen outside on a local LAN subnet.
    • Making slow but steady progress on the manual Raspberry Pi Zero W motion camera setup.
  • Tony H
    • Having issues with Ubuntu Studio that I had installed on my Dell 7440 i7 it was reporting errors every time I started it. So I swapped out the M2 SSD with a 2.5” SSD and did a clean install to this drive. More problems, the new iso would not boot, so I ended up finding and using the original iso off my portable HDD to make a new bootable USB install drive this worked and I have a clean install of Ubuntu Studio on the Test laptop for January’s test distro. One issue I have found so far is not an Ubuntu issue but a Firefox issue, I can no longer copy my Firefox folder over to the new machine and have all my bookmarks as they were previously installed. Yes I have a FireFox account but it does not seem to be doing what it is supposed to and syncing bookmarks which is a pain when you have several Hundred of these that you would like to access. Previously it was a doddle to copy my FireFox over to a new install and it was one of the reasons I still use it. And yes my desktop PC is linked to the laptop as far as sync is concerned, just not doing it.
    • Recording the latest Distrohoppers Digest episode with Moss, it went out on Friday.
    • Continuing to play with Matchbox models, pick up a couple of bargains over the holiday but now it’s time to start actually restoring a few. Started on a Ford GT superfast restoration and have a couple of others on the go as well. I’ve ordered some replacement parts from one of the model suppliers here in the UK to enable me to restore some of the models with parts missing, but where possible I try to use parts from other models bought for this purpose. Yesterday I went to a collectors Fair / swap meet and bought a few things and did a couple of swaps, thinking next time I may get a table to sell a few things that I have surplus, in the collection.    
    • Going back to PC stuff, I made a donation of some Pi stuff and a couple of Laptops to a friend of my friend Les Pounder. Drew works in Egypt and is hoping to teach local children Computing, but has absolutely no equipment, or didn’t have until Les sent him some Pi’s and an old Lenovo x61s with Raspbian x86 installed so the children will be using the same software on all the machines. One of the PC’s I am sending is an x61s and also a Dell E6220 with some random Pi stuff and a couple of Pi’s to the cause. It’s easy to forget that having access to fairly cheap older hardware via various sources such as ebay is beyond the financial ability of many in much of the world, and for some even in the rich countries. A shout out to Zeb from Destination Linux who did a 24Hr marathon YouTube stream of Euro Truck simulator over the holiday to raise funds for Free Geek, in the US you can find them HERE. There are similar projects in the UK one is the WEEECharity based in the North West so if you want to help people in your own community bridge the digital divide consider a donation of unused and unloved hardware or bung them a small donation to help out. 
    • Finally joined the BDLL Euro show, realised at the last minute that it was the second Saturday of the month, so after a quick check in with the crew dropped out of the pre show mumble chat and jumped into the BDLL Zoom after installing the Zoom client as I was on the Ubuntu Studio laptop, after a bit of a glitch at the beginning with the hardware it went OK for the rest of the 2 hours. 
  • Joe
    • Someone gave me an equallogic ps6500  Toyam gave it to me.
    • I have no idea what to do with it
    • Honkeymagoo sent me a pair of pebble watches to work on
      • They both needed battery replacements
      • I failed miserably
      • Ruined one of the ribbon cables that go around the side on one
      • Did get the new batteries connected but was not able to get them to turn on
      • Other then the ribbon break i am not sure what I did wrong
      • One of the boards did get hot at one point but I reflowed the connection for the battery and it settled down
      • Interesting highlights.  I did have to solder a cable onto one of the battery boards.  Just used some wire from some ethernet cable that i had sitting around.  The cable is a little stiff for this application but when i checked the voltages it came out fine.
    • Jim Butchers Codex Alera
      • Good series.
      • Had to replace my copy because the old one was corrupt.  
      • Not sure if it is my hard drive with bad sectors or one of the ones that I used for a backup
    • The book of 5 rings
      • Interesting but because of the type of book and the fact that i am going over it with audio i think i am going to have to go through it several more times before i get the most out of it
    • Shattered Bonds, book 13 in the Jane Yellowrock series
      • Good book, not the easiest to follow.
      • Jumps around a bit and references some obscure aspects of the long series before it
    • Alex Verus novels again
      • Really good series.
      • Better after a couple of read throughs and getting in all the details
    • Also was able to get a python class in this morning.  We should start meeting weekly again. I think the next class that we are going to take may be centos
    • Working on old headphones again
      • Replaced the cable on my daughter’s cheap little headphones
      • Not even sure what brand they are just grabbed an old aux cable and replaced the broken cable
      • I have found that full cable replacements are sturdier and more reliable than patching the cable or replacing the jack
    • Fixed one set of 770’s by shortening the cable on one side
    • Fixed one set of 510’s by shortening the cable on one side and replacing the other
      • I had a problem with the replaced side
      • I tried shortening the original cable first but the sound was dim so i just did a replacement.  
      • Sound was still dim on that side so what I ended up doing was putting some flux down on the board and running my iron over a bunch of the connections while the device was on and playing music(do not try that) this reseated whatever was loose and fixed the sound issues
    • Fixed 2 sets of 810’s and a set of insignia’s by opening the speaker up and shortening the cable from that side
      • 1 more 810 to do that on
      • This is a very difficult fix because of the small size and the fact that it doesnt like to go back together if you get too harsh taking it apart
        • One of the 810s have another problem that i am not going to be able to fix but the insignias work well
          • The 810s i was able to get the earpiece working but it is much dimmer than the other side.  Next time i am setup i may try to reflow some of it 
          • But I think the problem is the connections on the spindle are wearing out so i may take it all the way apart and try to clean that up
          • The insignias work well for audio books but have terrible call quality in and out
        • The other 810 is working good
    • Full cable replacement on some earforce recon 50x’s that i found at goodwill for 4 dollars
      • Will probably also do the same for my other pair of 60p’s
      • This model has a separate line going to each ear one with the cables for the mic
      • The only issue that i have found is when the mic is in the correct position the left and right channels are reversed
    • Did a full band replacement on the z2’s.  Glad the replacement model worked.
      • Was not an exact match on the hinges but was close enough to the same size that i was able to get it together
      • Had to switch back to the standard sized ear cups because this band is narrower than the original
      • Much more clamping force but still comfortable
      • Used the earcups on the razer kraken z2’s
    • Attempted to replace the full cable from the board to the earpiece on a pair of 780’s but was plagued with problems and had to set it aside before i got frustrated while wielding a soldering iron. But as i mentioned before that is a difficult fix.
    • Picked up a pair of Meze 99 neos for 20 dollars
      • These headphones are 200 new on Amazon
      • Work perfectly and sound great
      • I am using a portable amp to push the headphones when i want a good sound
    •  Also picked up a pair of razer krakens for 15 dollars.
      • Had some problems where the left speaker was acting as the mic instead of the mic but was also pushing through sound
      • This had the side effect where everything that played on the headphones was transmitted in complete clarity back through the mic connection.
      • Attempted a cable fix directly at the 3.5mm jack but this did not work and left me somewhat confused as to the actual pinout of the device. Essentially when i had it hooked up right it was doing the same thing as before.
      • Cut the cable again above the included remote as that is the next likely place for an issue to arise. Hooked up a second cable from there and still got the same issue
      • Did a full cable replacement and while testing i found out that the mic is completely shot.
      • Works as a pair of headphones until i find another solution but i think i may mod an old mic from another system. 
      • Basically bypassed the surface mount board that is built in and hooked everything up direct except for the offside speaker
      • Sound good and are comfortable
      • I have a couple mono connectors that i might be able to use, i will need to look more closely 
      • Did not realize that it took proprietary ear cups but the ones i bought for the z2’s to add extra padding worked fine with the extra built in edge material.
      • Even covers up the hole from where i removed the mic 
    • Gave serious consideration to recording the whole thing and while i could have done it from my phone i had 2 problems
      • My phone is my bluetooth testing device
      • If I were planning on posting anywhere i would have had to refrain from cursing. And I was not about to do that.
    • For those of you that are wondering I go through a lot of bt headphones and my kids go through a lot of cans.  Dont think they are going to be using the meze’s though
    • Ordered some new tips for my soldering iron as the ones from microcenter dont quite fit
      • These do fit and work very well.  
    • My server is down after the most recent round of updates.  Not sure what is wrong yet. Need to put the video card back into the server. Which is annoying.  
  • Tony W
    • Miracle Morning 
      • First heard about it from User Error
      • S.A.V.E.R.S. explained – “The Miracle Morning”
      • More about habit and discipline than time spent or results 
      • Will stick with some variation of this morning routine
    • Music keeping me very busy (4 “gigs” in the last 4 days)
    • Converting old 8mm video using VLC
    • Thinkpad dual display conundrum
    •  Recording setup revisions
      • New boom stand (cheap Neewer)
      • Presonus Audiobox
      • Still using budget Behringer XLR mic
    • Have really been enjoying convenience of true wireless earbuds
      • Using Anker Liberty Soundcore buds that were a Christmas gift
      • Plex on the go is great for breaks

News:

Security Update:

  • Mozilla Patches Zero-Day Being Actively Exploited in 72
    • The Firefox team updated version 72 one day after initial release because of a Type Confusion flaw that is being exploited in the wild.
    • These flaws essentially do not look at some specific input and run whatever is given to it. This can cause issues when privileged data is requested.
    • Upgrade to Firefox 72.0.1 or Firefox ESR 68.4.1 to fix this issue.
  • Cable Haunt Vulnerability Affects Hundreds of Millions of Cable Modems
    • Users of cable modems with Broadcom chips are affected.
    • The spectrum analyzer on the Broadcom chip, typically used for debugging and testing purposes, can be leveraged to:
      • Change default DNS server
      • Conduct remote man-in-the-middle attacks
      • Hot-swap code or even the entire firmware
      • Upload, flash, and upgrade firmware silently
      • Disable ISP firmware upgrade
      • Change every config file and settings
      • Get and Set SNMP OID values
      • Change all associated MAC Addresses
      • Change serial numbers
      • Be exploited in botnet
    • ISPs or manufacturers can fix the issue with a firmware update. There’s not much you can do about it. However, the complexity of the attack is very high, so unless you’re under the microscope, you’ll likely not be affected.

Announcements:

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
]]> 4126 mintCast 326 – One Byte Opposition https://mintcast.org/mintcast-326-one-byte-opposition/ Wed, 15 Jan 2020 07:02:29 +0000 http://mintcast.org/?p=4131 Then, in our news - Dell shows a new developer XPS 13 laptop at CES, there is a new enterprise Chromebook from Samsung and EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield and more.
In Security - It’s time to update Firefox... again. And Cablehaunt spooks your modem.
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First up, in our Wanderings, Special Guest Alan Pope finds gold in the loft and plays 30+ year old games online, Leo wins at gifts, but fails at MicroK8s, Tony Hughes plays with Ubuntu Studio, more Matchbox cars, and donates some tech, Joe tries to repair a pebble, fixes more headphones and listens to lots of books, Tony Watts converts 8mm film to digital, plays with a dual monitor setup on his Thinkpad and reconfigures his recording setup.

Then, in our news – Dell shows a new developer XPS 13 laptop at CES, there is a new enterprise Chromebook from Samsung and EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield and more.

In Security – It’s time to update Firefox… again. And Cablehaunt spooks your modem.

Bi-Weekly Wanderings

  • Alan P
    • Found a bunch of old audio cassettes in the loft. Bought a cassette player off ebay to sample them into a PC (thinkpad, of course) and then feed them into an emulator if they’re computer stuff.
    • Some of them were programs that I’d written with a friend over 30 years ago.
    • Also played some old 8-bit games with my friend Martin Wimpress on our new twitch channel “8bitversus”. We decided to start playing games online when a friend in the Ubuntu Podcast telegram channel suggested it might be fun to watch. I was a massive sinclair spectrum fan, and he was a commodore 64 fan. In these streams we take turns choosing games and get the other person to play games on the other persons platform. It’s fun!
  • Leo
    • Got handed a desktop sans case from a friend that wasn’t using it anymore and was moving out of state. I’ve been wanting to build a new server for quite a while to get more into Docker and other enterprisey-type things and I saw it as a sign to forge ahead!
    • i5-6600k, 16GB 2400MHz RAM, ASUS Fancy Pants motherboard, and a 700W PSU.
    • Planning on moving the services I have at home, like Nextcloud, from snap and VMs to MicroK8s, but am having some issues with getting the Dashboard to listen outside on a local LAN subnet.
    • Making slow but steady progress on the manual Raspberry Pi Zero W motion camera setup.
  • Tony H
    • Having issues with Ubuntu Studio that I had installed on my Dell 7440 i7 it was reporting errors every time I started it. So I swapped out the M2 SSD with a 2.5” SSD and did a clean install to this drive. More problems, the new iso would not boot, so I ended up finding and using the original iso off my portable HDD to make a new bootable USB install drive this worked and I have a clean install of Ubuntu Studio on the Test laptop for January’s test distro. One issue I have found so far is not an Ubuntu issue but a Firefox issue, I can no longer copy my Firefox folder over to the new machine and have all my bookmarks as they were previously installed. Yes I have a FireFox account but it does not seem to be doing what it is supposed to and syncing bookmarks which is a pain when you have several Hundred of these that you would like to access. Previously it was a doddle to copy my FireFox over to a new install and it was one of the reasons I still use it. And yes my desktop PC is linked to the laptop as far as sync is concerned, just not doing it.
    • Recording the latest Distrohoppers Digest episode with Moss, it went out on Friday.
    • Continuing to play with Matchbox models, pick up a couple of bargains over the holiday but now it’s time to start actually restoring a few. Started on a Ford GT superfast restoration and have a couple of others on the go as well. I’ve ordered some replacement parts from one of the model suppliers here in the UK to enable me to restore some of the models with parts missing, but where possible I try to use parts from other models bought for this purpose. Yesterday I went to a collectors Fair / swap meet and bought a few things and did a couple of swaps, thinking next time I may get a table to sell a few things that I have surplus, in the collection.    
    • Going back to PC stuff, I made a donation of some Pi stuff and a couple of Laptops to a friend of my friend Les Pounder. Drew works in Egypt and is hoping to teach local children Computing, but has absolutely no equipment, or didn’t have until Les sent him some Pi’s and an old Lenovo x61s with Raspbian x86 installed so the children will be using the same software on all the machines. One of the PC’s I am sending is an x61s and also a Dell E6220 with some random Pi stuff and a couple of Pi’s to the cause. It’s easy to forget that having access to fairly cheap older hardware via various sources such as ebay is beyond the financial ability of many in much of the world, and for some even in the rich countries. A shout out to Zeb from Destination Linux who did a 24Hr marathon YouTube stream of Euro Truck simulator over the holiday to raise funds for Free Geek, in the US you can find them HERE. There are similar projects in the UK one is the WEEECharity based in the North West so if you want to help people in your own community bridge the digital divide consider a donation of unused and unloved hardware or bung them a small donation to help out. 
    • Finally joined the BDLL Euro show, realised at the last minute that it was the second Saturday of the month, so after a quick check in with the crew dropped out of the pre show mumble chat and jumped into the BDLL Zoom after installing the Zoom client as I was on the Ubuntu Studio laptop, after a bit of a glitch at the beginning with the hardware it went OK for the rest of the 2 hours. 
  • Joe
    • Someone gave me an equallogic ps6500  Toyam gave it to me.
    • I have no idea what to do with it
    • Honkeymagoo sent me a pair of pebble watches to work on
      • They both needed battery replacements
      • I failed miserably
      • Ruined one of the ribbon cables that go around the side on one
      • Did get the new batteries connected but was not able to get them to turn on
      • Other then the ribbon break i am not sure what I did wrong
      • One of the boards did get hot at one point but I reflowed the connection for the battery and it settled down
      • Interesting highlights.  I did have to solder a cable onto one of the battery boards.  Just used some wire from some ethernet cable that i had sitting around.  The cable is a little stiff for this application but when i checked the voltages it came out fine.
    • Jim Butchers Codex Alera
      • Good series.
      • Had to replace my copy because the old one was corrupt.  
      • Not sure if it is my hard drive with bad sectors or one of the ones that I used for a backup
    • The book of 5 rings
      • Interesting but because of the type of book and the fact that i am going over it with audio i think i am going to have to go through it several more times before i get the most out of it
    • Shattered Bonds, book 13 in the Jane Yellowrock series
      • Good book, not the easiest to follow.
      • Jumps around a bit and references some obscure aspects of the long series before it
    • Alex Verus novels again
      • Really good series.
      • Better after a couple of read throughs and getting in all the details
    • Also was able to get a python class in this morning.  We should start meeting weekly again. I think the next class that we are going to take may be centos
    • Working on old headphones again
      • Replaced the cable on my daughter’s cheap little headphones
      • Not even sure what brand they are just grabbed an old aux cable and replaced the broken cable
      • I have found that full cable replacements are sturdier and more reliable than patching the cable or replacing the jack
    • Fixed one set of 770’s by shortening the cable on one side
    • Fixed one set of 510’s by shortening the cable on one side and replacing the other
      • I had a problem with the replaced side
      • I tried shortening the original cable first but the sound was dim so i just did a replacement.  
      • Sound was still dim on that side so what I ended up doing was putting some flux down on the board and running my iron over a bunch of the connections while the device was on and playing music(do not try that) this reseated whatever was loose and fixed the sound issues
    • Fixed 2 sets of 810’s and a set of insignia’s by opening the speaker up and shortening the cable from that side
      • 1 more 810 to do that on
      • This is a very difficult fix because of the small size and the fact that it doesnt like to go back together if you get too harsh taking it apart
        • One of the 810s have another problem that i am not going to be able to fix but the insignias work well
          • The 810s i was able to get the earpiece working but it is much dimmer than the other side.  Next time i am setup i may try to reflow some of it 
          • But I think the problem is the connections on the spindle are wearing out so i may take it all the way apart and try to clean that up
          • The insignias work well for audio books but have terrible call quality in and out
        • The other 810 is working good
    • Full cable replacement on some earforce recon 50x’s that i found at goodwill for 4 dollars
      • Will probably also do the same for my other pair of 60p’s
      • This model has a separate line going to each ear one with the cables for the mic
      • The only issue that i have found is when the mic is in the correct position the left and right channels are reversed
    • Did a full band replacement on the z2’s.  Glad the replacement model worked.
      • Was not an exact match on the hinges but was close enough to the same size that i was able to get it together
      • Had to switch back to the standard sized ear cups because this band is narrower than the original
      • Much more clamping force but still comfortable
      • Used the earcups on the razer kraken z2’s
    • Attempted to replace the full cable from the board to the earpiece on a pair of 780’s but was plagued with problems and had to set it aside before i got frustrated while wielding a soldering iron. But as i mentioned before that is a difficult fix.
    • Picked up a pair of Meze 99 neos for 20 dollars
      • These headphones are 200 new on Amazon
      • Work perfectly and sound great
      • I am using a portable amp to push the headphones when i want a good sound
    •  Also picked up a pair of razer krakens for 15 dollars.
      • Had some problems where the left speaker was acting as the mic instead of the mic but was also pushing through sound
      • This had the side effect where everything that played on the headphones was transmitted in complete clarity back through the mic connection.
      • Attempted a cable fix directly at the 3.5mm jack but this did not work and left me somewhat confused as to the actual pinout of the device. Essentially when i had it hooked up right it was doing the same thing as before.
      • Cut the cable again above the included remote as that is the next likely place for an issue to arise. Hooked up a second cable from there and still got the same issue
      • Did a full cable replacement and while testing i found out that the mic is completely shot.
      • Works as a pair of headphones until i find another solution but i think i may mod an old mic from another system. 
      • Basically bypassed the surface mount board that is built in and hooked everything up direct except for the offside speaker
      • Sound good and are comfortable
      • I have a couple mono connectors that i might be able to use, i will need to look more closely 
      • Did not realize that it took proprietary ear cups but the ones i bought for the z2’s to add extra padding worked fine with the extra built in edge material.
      • Even covers up the hole from where i removed the mic 
    • Gave serious consideration to recording the whole thing and while i could have done it from my phone i had 2 problems
      • My phone is my bluetooth testing device
      • If I were planning on posting anywhere i would have had to refrain from cursing. And I was not about to do that.
    • For those of you that are wondering I go through a lot of bt headphones and my kids go through a lot of cans.  Dont think they are going to be using the meze’s though
    • Ordered some new tips for my soldering iron as the ones from microcenter dont quite fit
      • These do fit and work very well.  
    • My server is down after the most recent round of updates.  Not sure what is wrong yet. Need to put the video card back into the server. Which is annoying.  
  • Tony W
    • Miracle Morning 
      • First heard about it from User Error
      • S.A.V.E.R.S. explained – “The Miracle Morning”
      • More about habit and discipline than time spent or results 
      • Will stick with some variation of this morning routine
    • Music keeping me very busy (4 “gigs” in the last 4 days)
    • Converting old 8mm video using VLC
    • Thinkpad dual display conundrum
    •  Recording setup revisions
      • New boom stand (cheap Neewer)
      • Presonus Audiobox
      • Still using budget Behringer XLR mic
    • Have really been enjoying convenience of true wireless earbuds
      • Using Anker Liberty Soundcore buds that were a Christmas gift
      • Plex on the go is great for breaks

News:

Security Update:

  • Mozilla Patches Zero-Day Being Actively Exploited in 72
    • The Firefox team updated version 72 one day after initial release because of a Type Confusion flaw that is being exploited in the wild.
    • These flaws essentially do not look at some specific input and run whatever is given to it. This can cause issues when privileged data is requested.
    • Upgrade to Firefox 72.0.1 or Firefox ESR 68.4.1 to fix this issue.
  • Cable Haunt Vulnerability Affects Hundreds of Millions of Cable Modems
    • Users of cable modems with Broadcom chips are affected.
    • The spectrum analyzer on the Broadcom chip, typically used for debugging and testing purposes, can be leveraged to:
      • Change default DNS server
      • Conduct remote man-in-the-middle attacks
      • Hot-swap code or even the entire firmware
      • Upload, flash, and upgrade firmware silently
      • Disable ISP firmware upgrade
      • Change every config file and settings
      • Get and Set SNMP OID values
      • Change all associated MAC Addresses
      • Change serial numbers
      • Be exploited in botnet
    • ISPs or manufacturers can fix the issue with a firmware update. There’s not much you can do about it. However, the complexity of the attack is very high, so unless you’re under the microscope, you’ll likely not be affected.

Announcements:

Wrap-up:

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

  • Josh for all his work on the website and the livestream
  • 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 (Thanks, Clem!)
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