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applications open for the Institute, deeply rooted in software freedom
by Mark Galassi 16 Feb '23

16 Feb '23

Dear nmglugers, This is particularly of interest to us: the Institute for Computing in Research, and the pipeline leading up to it, teach students to do research using free/open-source software tools. TL;DR - please encourage any students you know to apply for summer research at: https://computinginresearch.org/summer-research-internship-program-2023/ (I am also attaching a flyer) Slightly longer story: The Institute for Computing in Research pays high school students (finishing 10th, 11th, 12th grade) to do research in the summer. We pair them with an active researcher in their field of interest, and purchase equipment that they then keep. We have opened up applications for summer 2023, and we hope you can urge your motivated students to apply. We seek students with diverse interests: humanities, social science, science, the arts, ..., and we have mentors who work in all those areas. We hope you can pass the link and flyer for the summer 2022 internship to your students and look forward to receiving their applications! Full information is at: https://computinginresearch.org/ A final note: we also offer the Research Skills Academy, focused on the non-computational and non-quantitative aspects of research. We would love to have your students join us there: https://computinginresearch.org/research-skills-academy/

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Meeting notes from 02/02/23
by Ted Pomeroy 03 Feb '23

03 Feb '23

NMGLUGers, We had a good meeting with 5 in attendance via jitsy. In no particular order I will jive some notes: Converting MacBks: we noted this can be frustrating. I have worked with the desktop products, but not the laptops. I found Rods Books most helpful https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ is the link to the rEFInd pages. This is Rod's boot manager (not loader) that helps to allow booting of external media. the use of blacklists is a problem built into the products in question. At this point I have given up on doing any attempts in this area. The proprietary parts and bridges built to frustrate the repair and conversions leave little leeway for progress. Buying a laptop at a good price: I purchased a laptop for under $100 on Ebay. My process is to think about repair and use. I wanted a multi-core, multi-thread processor, at least 4 GB ram and an accessible HDD. I found a refurbished Dell Latitude and it was delivered with 8 GB ram and a slightly newer version than listed. No webcam, hefty at about 5 lbs., but portable around my apartment or to a cafe. Others recommended an Asus VivoBook 14"; a currently available machine at retail outlets. I confess, my personal approach has been to rehab machines 10-5 yrs old for price reasons. I have also helped others repair/extend life of their hardware on a budget. Several seniors are using Ubuntu or LinuxMint with my help and occasional interventions. Thunderbird Mail Reader: Mark suggested that lack of support and general cumbersome settings makes most mail readers difficult for basic users. I agree, but I have one user who prefers Thunderbird to web/browser login to mail. I did not mention it but too many older users rely on the computer to save passwords, so they can forget them. Difficulties do arise from this. As a somewhat promiscuous user of various hardware I have noticed that my web-based email will alert me when I log in from a new machine or visit someone and use an alternate OS. They certainly are keeping track of these details and letting me know. On February 16 the plan is to meet at Violet Crown in Santa Fe. At least two of those present agreed to be there. Mark your calendar for this date if you can attend. In-person meetings are more fun. Thank you, Ted P

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Mtg Thurs, 02/02/23 1730 MST
by Ted Pomeroy 31 Jan '23

31 Jan '23

NMGLUGers, Our webpage shows that this week is a "virtual" week. I will try to attend and can report on a little work I did to sort our six laptops and what success I had with old and very old laptops. I will also be using a laptop, not my desktop unit this week, to test my choice of another older, but very useful machine. I am running LinuxMint 21.1. This is a "user friendly" edition, and it is just that. I have two or three users on this OS and one or two with Ubuntu 22.04. I try to share the freedom. Alas I am also helping at the Luisa Sr. Ctr. and another OS is the City's choice there. I answer basic and not so basic questions. For those who use a cellphone for email and then want to print it can be a bit challenging to master the intricacies of permissions and tracking by the email providers. Thank you, Ted P.

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Recommendations for rsync backup subsequent to Debian release upgrade
by Tom Ashcraft 31 Dec '22

31 Dec '22

Happy New Year nmglugers, Yesterday I finally got around to doing a 'release upgrade' on the laptop I most often use (hence the reluctance and tardiness; HP-Notebook running Debian 10 Buster KDE to Debian 11 Bullseye KDE.) This performed "in-place" versus my more traditional "nuke-n-pave" procedure (ref DebianUpgrade https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUpgrade?highlight=%28upgrade%29) In preparation, and per said ref recommendations among others, I also performed a full-system rsync backup onto an external spinning USB drive which had/has relatively modest extra space remaining. I used this command: sudo rsync -aAXv --delete --exclude=/dev/* --exclude=/proc/* --exclude=/sys/* --exclude=/tmp/* --exclude=/run/* --exclude=/mnt/* --exclude=/media/* --exclude="swapfile" --exclude="lost+found" --exclude=".cache" --exclude="Downloads" --exclude=".VirtualBoxVMs" --exclude=".ecryptfs" / /media/toma/8ef25fac-72e6-49dd-9bda-b58df57ef8d9/Deb10KDEhpnb I know I could bunch all those '--excludes' between braces, etc., but I'm lazy, and despite wading through the man page now and then I can never remember or fully comprehend all the ins and outs of rsync. So on the rare occasions that I actually bother to do a full backup, I just copy and paste the above in a text console with minimal modifications (usually only the source and destination specifications). I got the exact command string from some old notes I originally made mostly from an Average Linux User article and watching some YouTube videos. So in theory I now have what should be a sufficiently functional full-system and home directory copy with which to restore the entire, but now superceded, Debian 10 installation--if for some reason that should have become, or should in the future become, desirable. That now seems relatively unlikely and undesirable as, at least at present, everything I've checked in the upgraded Debian 11 appears to be present and working properly. And now that I have the new upgrade, it seems reasonable--especially since tomorrow is New Year's Eve and everything--that I should promptly do another rsync system backup to protect my new investment of time and effort and also the new data related to and stored in the now substantially modified system. So I was thinking that I would just change the name of the destination directory in the external USB drive to reflect the fact that it would now be a Debian 11 backup as opposed to a Debian 10 backup, and do the same rsync command above, again. The size of the net delta between the Debian 10 and 11 backups should be relatively small, right? But I'm also wondering about things like the flags --delete and --exclude=".cache" and --exclude ".ecryptfs". And maybe I should review -aAXv... I want to "strike while the iron is hot" before attrition and the demands of the new year destroy my focus and resolve. But I also want to err on the side of caution. So my remaining questions are: 1) am I about to do anything stupid?; and, 2) does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions about rsync and backups that I should be aware of or might benefit from? Thanks, Tom

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Mtg. Tomorrow 12-08-22 Virtual
by Ted Pomeroy 07 Dec '22

07 Dec '22

NMGLUGers, We are scheduled to meet virtually tomorrow, Dec. 8th at 1730 (local time in Santa Fe, MST) at the jitsi location. See the website https://nmglug.org/locations/virtual/ for details. I have no news, but I now have a 64-bit laptop running LinuxMint ready for an in-person meeting if I am up to going on Dec. 22nd or other in-person meeting. I wonder how many are interested in the December in-person? It's close to the holidays and people may be busy. But it could be a nice time to meet up and share ideas and good cheer. Thank you, Ted P, Santa Fe

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ffmpeg guidance, please to convert m4b to mp3
by LeRoy Diener 01 Dec '22

01 Dec '22

Hi NMGLUG folks, I would like to convert an audiobook .m4b file (probably with chapters in metadata) to .mp3 files split into chapters. I'm trying to learn how to convert files. I looked at https://ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.html but it gets overwhelming. I'm not sure what the best approach will be. I also found https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool where the author references https://github.com/sandreas/tone Additionally, I found this script from nitrag https://gist.github.com/nitrag/a188b8969a539ce0f7a64deb56c00277 Other options appear in https://www.videoproc.com/media-converter/m4b-to-mp3.htm Indeed, my first idea was to import the .m4b file into Audacity to do the conversion. Unfortunately, it doesn't import correctly into Audacity. I'm able to play .m4b file in VLC and SMplayer. It seems like it's possible to use VLC to do the conversion with some help from ffmpeg, though maybe not a great option. Any thoughts? Thanks, LeRoy -- There is something glorious birthing within all of us. I am the Love of God, no matter what.BSA LeRoy Diener 213-LEROYIZ 213-537-6949 https://leroydiener.com

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Matrix Server - Production Ready
by Jonathan Haack 23 Nov '22

23 Nov '22

NM GLUG, The matrix server (floss alternative to Discord) is now out of beta and fully functional. The last remaining piece, setting up email recovery for user, is now completed so this will be my last email on the this topic! 😉 https://element.gnulinux.club I've created a #nmglug room in a gnulinuxclub space that's publicly accessible, with integrated native jitsi capabilities within the server as well, and I have also created a #pubglug channel in case anyone in the fediverse wants to partner/chat with any of us. Lastly, as we all know, Matrix is wonky with E2EE, so here's what I recommend if you do decide to join: 1) Register account using link above (check spam, domain is new so it will go there despite having spf/PTR) 2) Once logged in, immediately log back out, and then back in - upon logging back in, choose to "Proceed with reset" / "Enter a Security Phrase" / download your "Security Key" / enter *password* again to confirm 3) Store these credentials securely and then log back in - moving forward, "verifying" will now be a breeze, just log in w/username and password, then enter your Security Phrase and done. It's still wonky and don't blame the messenger lol 😁. Of course, if you know Matrix well, you can do all of the steps above from within the user settings but it takes longer imho and is hard to locate for user. Note: when using the iOS / Playstore apps, make sure to edit your homeserver and enter "matrix.gnulinux.club" before logging in with user / password and Security Phrase. Lastly, thanks to GLUG member "treichelt" for helping me problem-solve a few things and to Jason Schaefer as well. Also, remember that you can join here and always migrate to a different home server later if you don't like it. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I have experience in being a community moderator for communities with over 1500+ users and I take privacy and your content very seriously. The server is co-located at Brown Rice Internet on zfs encrypted drives that can only open from a LUKS encrypted keystore, with keys generated with dd. The backups are held locally and pulled to an offsite backup server (also zfs encrypted) using rsync over ssh with only key authentication utilized. There is plenty of space on the server array for content growth (48TB RAID1, with 24TB actual). I also have an entire hot-spare ready to bring up in case of sudden hardware failure. Lastly, I've ordered an even more powerful server for upgrades within a year or two; it arrives this Friday. I hope everyone is well. As some of you know, I literally *hated Matrix* for a good long time. But/and, I don't like Discord either as it is not #floss, so I gave it another look. Although it's still wonky in places (notably on E2EE), it's now very stable and snappy and I must say I am enjoying it a ton. The integrated self-hosted jitsi is also killer. I also promise to be committed to running this long term and problem solving community issues if they emerge. Please never hesitate to reach me here and/or at jonathan(a)haacksnetworking.org if you need a quicker response. Here to help! Best to everyone, sorry for the long length, but I just want people to know what we have here and how it's run / how your privacy or data (should you choose to join) is respected and managed! 😊 Thanks, Jonathan Haack

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Self-Hosted Matrix/Synapse
by Jonathan Haack 21 Nov '22

21 Nov '22

Hi NM GLUG family, I created a fully self-hosted and manually configured Synapse/Matrix instance at: Initial testing shows everything is working, but as always, having testers / debuggers helps so much. I documented my steps taken here: https://wiki.haacksnetworking.org/doku.php?id=computing:synapse Also, please note that any instance I create leverage Jason Schaefer (whether he asks or not) as a co-host / admin for data retention purposes. I use the following backup script for my kvm VMS: https://repo.haacksnetworking.org/oemb1905/haackingclub/-/blob/master/scrip… These are rsynced to an offsite and secure location daily, and everything is encrypted. If you are interested in how I run the virtualization host, visit: https://wiki.haacksnetworking.org/doku.php?id=computing:vmserver Enjoy ... hope everyone is well. Please always know that I don't have any expectation that anyone join anything I create. It's there if you want to participate. This is a community based on distributed leadership and Free Software, not dogma or directives. Best to you all! Kindly Jonathan Haack https://haacksnetworking.org

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Mtg This Thurs 11/10, 1730 MST
by Ted Pomeroy 10 Nov '22

10 Nov '22

NMGLUGers, We are scheduled to meet this week and it will be good to decide if we go in-person or virtual or both. The nmglug.org website <http://nmglug.org> still list us as virtual, but we can decide what to do via email or phone. I have been working with wine and related programs to resurrect an old graphics suite. It works, but I have discovered that the thousands of illustrations are now dated themselves and may not be things I want to print. Also, LibreOffice has many of the same capabilities for composing a page or card. Still it has been worth the effort to identify and use the wine programs. Thank you, Ted P

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Mastodon Self-hosting & Safe Community
by Jonathan Haack 06 Nov '22

06 Nov '22

Hey Gluggers, If anyone is interested in giving Mastodon a try, I created new instance for myself and any others who want to hop on! https://gnulinux.social https://wiki.haacksnetworking.org/doku.php?id=computing:mastodon The tutorial borrowed heavily from Linux Babe (love them) but simplified and added a lot of surrounding services that folks interested in making their own might want. It's also helpful for me to document what I did (always) as site's routinely update or change their content. Hope everyone is well! Jonathan Haack

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