Canberra Linux Users Group Install Fest for May 2009
The Canberra Linux Users Group invites anyone in the Canberra region to
come along and learn more about Linux. We help you install Linux on
your computer, we teach you about how it works and the way to get around
a modern Linux desktop, and we help you fix the problems that have been
nagging you with your Linux system in the past. We can even demonstrate
what it looks like and why it's not as dangerous as it sounds if you're
not ready to install it just yet.
There's more information on my website, so
please feel free to email
me with your questions. If you want to come along and are interested
in having a sausage for lunch, please also drop me an email by Friday!
posted at: 22:45 | path: /tech/clug | permanent link to this entry
Installing and debugging Minimyth for fun and profit
In the ongoing quest to save power, I am moving my MythTV backend
onto my low-power home web server, and building a new low-power
frontend based on a fanless Via EPIA M board and the
Minimyth custom linux distro.
This is a cut-down system designed to boot off TFTP or NFS, but
can be also adapted to boot off a CompactFlash card, which is what
I'm doing (my firewall has a DHCP server but the web interface
doesn't allow me to set a TFTP boot option, and I can't be bothered
to work out PXE boot just this moment).
It's a very neat little package, with everything you could want compiled in, but this also means that setting it up is a rather complicated process. First you write a specialised config file, which has to go in a specific place. Then you unpack the various bits and pieces onto the CF card and run syslinux on it to make it bootable. Then you stick it in the machine and boot it, and if anything goes wrong you telnet (yes, telnet) into it and peruse its /var/log/messages to find out what went wrong. Then you take the CF card out, fiddle with the contents a bit on your own computer, plug it back in and see if that helped.
This is made somewhat frustrating by the lack of examples and somewhat minimalistic approach to explanation that the minimyth documentation takes. It also leans more toward the network boot process (to have no flash drive in the machine at all, and to allow you to run a writable root partition) and covers the flash install side somewhat minimally. The site also doesn't provide a sample / working / minimal minimyth.conf file, so you have to google around and womp up one on your own. Add to that the minimyth machine's habit of only bringing up its telnet connection (yes, telnet) about two minutes after you've booted it,
I started this nearly a week ago, and various delays and frustrations
have prevented me from documenting all the steps. But I'll try to get
more of the process documented soon.
posted at: 22:40 | path: /tech | permanent link to this entry
Canberra Linux Users Group monthly meeting for May 2009
The first of many CLUG Linux Learners Meetings!
This meeting is a 'fixfest' and learner session for people new to Linux or still finding their way around. (That's most of us!) We'll be having short talks about a variety of subjects but the majority of the night will be given over to people helping other people fixing problems and learning their way around Linux.
Lana Brindley will be starting the night with a talk entitled "10 Reasons Why You Do Not Want To Install Linux. Ever." and with a provocative title like that you can tell it's going to be interesting! Paul will then give a short talk on tips he's learnt in using Bash, the current standard command line shell in Linux.
You're welcome to bring your computer along but please email me
(paulway@mabula.net)
beforehand so I can get an idea of the numbers of machines involved.
posted at: 22:39 | path: /tech/clug | permanent link to this entry
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