It's on…
And…
All right. Good evening, everyone. This is Thursday, January the 22nd.
2026. Uh, this is the St. Louis Linux user group, St. Louis Log.
It is part of the larger group, the St. Louis Linux Unix users group.
And, uh, this is our usual third Thursday of the month meeting.
And, uh, going to turn it over to our MC for the evening.
James Conroy. James.
Hello, hello! Uh… Yes! Welcome to St. Louis Linux Users Group!
Uh, we have a wonderful discussion tonight. I did not prepare for this at all.
Uh, so I'll turn this over to… Lee!
Yeah.
Is this called past the buck time? Just so it gets on the bookend for the recording, our speaker tonight is Ken Johnson, a long-time member of the group.
It's always been a great contributor, and uh… His topic tonight, uh, is going to be what to do in the first 10 minutes on a system.
And, uh, this is a, uh… a remake, a redo.
of a talk that Andrew Latham did for us, uh, back in… was it 20… Uh, so Andrew is here tonight.
2016.
5.
Back in Andrew's day, though, it was what to do in the first 10 minutes of being on the system, so… I'm sorry, the first 5 minutes, excuse me. And, uh, so, uh, Ken's, uh, Ken's kind of updated it for us, so…
Um, that, uh… I should say that Ken is also a consultant, an IT consultant.
I believe your… your… your own company, right, Ken?
I operate as a, uh… sole… sole proprietor.
So, for all of your IT needs, at least in the first 10 minutes, go see Ken. With that.
I'm going to turn it over to Ken.
Okay, let's see about sharing the screen.
Uh, excuse me one second, Ken, I've just been, uh… bugged, uh, uh… Stan, you have the slide deck to put up?
Oh, dear, okay. Well, it's found you, you're Sean.
I can't find Zoom.
I know I'm Sean, but I can't find the thing.
I got… P sugar.
Anyway, at the end of… at the end of Ken's talk, uh, we'll have a couple slides. We'll have the Q&A for Ken's talk.
General Q&A and any announcements. So… and we do have a couple announcements for afterwards, so back to you, Ken.
We'll have to do it later.
Yes, sir it is.
Correct.
Okay, it looks to me like that's showing. All right, thanks for coming to the January Linux meeting on Thursday.
Um…
Here is the standard blurb that says, you know, who I am and what I do, and why you might want to pay attention to what I say.
So the goal of my presentation is to teach you how to quickly cast.
A wide or broad but pretty thorough net when you start troubleshooting a system.
10 minutes is an approximation, it probably will depend a little bit on.
exactly how prepared you are. But… it gives… It's certainly ability… it's certainly reasonable to think you can get a lot done in that time.
So why? All right, you need to troubleshoot a system that's new to you.
You need to troubleshoot a system you're familiar with.
But it's got a problem that you are not familiar with.
Or, you know, you've started a new job. Hey, hi there, says admin.
We have a little problem. So.
Um, here's… how it's going to go. I have a few things that are sort of introductory to say.
And then we'll talk about the theory or the concepts, or the approach.
that we're going to take in spending our 10 minutes.
And that'll be followed by specific commands. that fit with the theory and concepts. And then finally, there are a few things to wrap up.
I encourage you to open a shell window. And try out the commands as we go along when we get to that section.
Uh, sometimes you will need sudo or an equivalent.
Um, I show some INXI examples, INXI needs Pearl.
So, if you're going to have to install INXI, keep that in mind.
Finally, when you're issuing those commands, it might not be a bad idea to have a text editor.
Or if you're really old school, a technical notebook.
open, just in case you see something interesting that you want to pursue later.
Acknowledgements. I'd like to acknowledge Andrew Latham, whose tutorial for the January 2016 Wednesday meeting inspired this rework.
And also for kindly reviewing my slides and notes.
Nonetheless, any errors? that remain our mind.
I would also like to acknowledge Udagawa Hiroshigi. whose name I have probably badly mispronounced.
A Japanese sprint maker. and painter who was active.
In the 19th century.
So, what are the shortcomings of the presentation tonight?
Andrew's stories are better than mine. There are no demos, but there are screenshots or, strictly speaking, there's.
text captures from a terminal window. All of the examples are from Debian Systems.
Um, so if you're running. Red Hat, or SUSE, or something else.
You'll need to make a few adjustments. There's homework that might be considered to be a shortcoming. Yes.
I can. There's… you're a little muffled. Is there anything between you and the microphone?
Oh, 2 inches of air. Um, let me see… If I can… Bumps again on the mic.
Okay. Now, if you have frequency control, maybe a little more treble.
A little less space. A little less space.
That, I don't think… well, wait a minute.
I need to make sure he doesn't get too close to the microphone, he starts getting what they call popping peas.
I took the carrots out of my ears and it works much better.
You know, when it comes out. So…
Good point, Phil.
Okay. So is this any better, or at least not any worse?
A little bit. A little better.
Lee, I rejoined. Can you make me co-host again?
Okay.
Stan.
Uh, I'll find it.
Let's see… oh, yes! Homework. All right, so you know that that's coming.
So, this is… this is a print by our acknowledged printmaker.
And this is where we talk about an idea that.
If you give someone a fish, they eat for a day, and if you teach them to fish, they eat for a lifetime.
This is, of course, an oversimplification, but it does have a kernel of truth.
And simplifications help us get started. So, in the first section, the theory concepts plan section.
I'm going to be teaching you to fish. In the example command section, I'm basically giving you some fissure as a reward for your hard work.
And then, as I mentioned, this is a print by Mr. Hiroshi.
Uh, trout, I believe. All right. There can be more than one thing wrong.
Don't stop looking after you find the first one.
This immediately brought to my mind, at least, uh, Tom Van Vleck's article about three questions about each bug you find.
One of those questions is, is this mistake somewhere else? Also.
Um, although in this particular case, we're talking about system administration and not.
software development, the same concepts really apply for the most part.
The same problem can exist in one… more than one place. And by the way, I think the Through Questions article is worthwhile. There is a copy at the Malticians website.
Um, so… You know, go look it up. Oh, let me mention, at this point, there will be a PDF.
of my slides and notes. Um, I'll get that over to someone.
Who should I send that to?
editor at slug.org.
Let me make a note of that.
We'll get that done tonight. So, if you want to come back and refer to any of this, that should be possible.
Surely. All right.
So, these are guidelines, not hard rules. Um… there are different kinds of systems, and we're going to talk about those a little bit, but that's one thing you want to keep in mind when you're doing this kind of thing.
What kind of system is this? And therefore, how do I need.
How will I benefit by. adjusting my approach slightly to keep that in mind.
Divide and conquer is often useful. We're going to talk about different parts of the system.
Um… Yeah.
And never underestimate the power of a checklist.
So, kinds of systems. Servers, workstations and laptops.
Routers? Embedded systems. This slide borrows very heavily from Andrew in my discussion of it.
Servers may have a larger number and wider variety of services running.
Okay. Laptops and workstations are subject to more extensive custom configuration.
I'll say, oh, I like this, but I want the colors to be this way, or… Whatever.
Rotors and embedded systems are maybe more likely to overflow their storage with log files.
And they may have smaller and weaker storage implementations.
That is, like, microSD cards, instead of NV… NVMe drives.
So that's one of the things to keep in mind when you're looking at those systems.
And obviously as well, depending upon the kind of system.
You may be seeing some different kinds of hardware that supports.
the particular function of the system. So, here's 8 parts of a system.
I think these categories are useful even if they're not perfectly orthogonal.
If you'd like to use a different set of categories that make more sense to you, then go for it, by all means.
I do think it's helpful to. Think in terms of dividing things up into categories, because I think it helps you focus.
on particular areas as you're going through this process.
These are the categories I happen to choose; they're not magical.
They're… They're my examples.
Okay, CPUs. If it boots and runs, the CPU is probably okay.
However, it's not a bad idea to check the temperature.
To check the firmware or BIOS and see if there's an upgrade out there that hasn't been applied.
You could consider the system-specific CPU diagnostic if the system you're using has one, although that's not going to fit into the first 10 minutes.
And is it the CPU you expect? Um… Keeping in mind that for this, this applies to the first case, a system unfamiliar to you, a last case, you've started a new job.
People sometimes tell you that, oh, this is CPUA, and it's actually CPUB.
They may not actually know. Um, and depending upon what the CPU is, you may have certain kinds of expectations about its capabilities.
So… Memories.
How much is being used? In this old… that also applies in the sense of.
Um… It's all being used up and is… The swap space filling up?
Um, is there spare and unused memory available? Does all of the memories that you expect report in?
Memory sometimes fails. When you boot the system up, maybe it only finds… the first 16GB, and not the second 16.
Again, there is… Memory hardware diagnostics available.
that won't fit in the first 10 minutes either.
Um, on a router. Depending upon how the router is configured.
there can actually be too much memory available. And leading to, well, what they call buffer bloat.
As too many packets get buffered by the router.
in some ways, it can be better for the router to say no.
I've got enough… I have… I'm only using this much memory.
For packet buffers. And if you've got more than that, you need to wait.
And finally, it's important to keep in mind that on some system, some of the main memory can be.
end up being used for video support. Um, if there is an fancy AMD or NVIDIA.
video card that might not be happening. But it's certainly a possibility.
Discs. Are there any smart error reports?
Are they all there? already unexpectedly full or empty.
I encountered a situation where. A temporary.
automated procedure, a cron job had been set up.
But that cronjob failed to mount the special file system it needed.
So, after a reboot, the next time that cron job ran.
Slash got full instead. So… Um, check these things.
The operating system. Well, what time is it?
So, on that last example, did you say slash got molested?
No, slash got full instead. Right, so there should have been something mounted.
Got full, okay.
For example, say, under… slash MNT slash special.
But if it's not mounted there.
Those rights, you know, those rights happen anyway. You know, it looks, you know, special just looks like it's a directory.
Then… pretty soon that disc is full.
Okay.
Is there a question from Lee?
No, this is Gary, but I'm… I'm talking on the same microphone in the back table.
Oh, okay, that's fine. Yeah, that's fine.
Um… right. operating system.
Through a lot of operations. particularly network operations that depend on the correct time.
Um… of times of less than 60 days, please, unless you have no reboot kernel updates.
Um, you will need log files as you dive more deeply into the.
into the problem. And it's probably a good idea to check for errors in the kernel log.
We'll talk about how to do that. As we go on.
through the network. Network hardware often has lights you can look at.
Look at them, see what they look like. Check the interface names.
I have a story here. Debian, by default, names Ethernet interfaces according to the attaching bus and the position on that bus.
This is very predictable, as long as you've got complete and correct knowledge of all of the bus configurations.
No. Consider what happens. If you remove a serial attached SCSI.
Sorry, Hos bus adapter, which… Well, your LTO tape drive failed, so you're going to pull out the host bus adapter.
Because you want to be certain that the cable you order for the replacement LTO tape drive.
Which is going to be, you know, one step up, a 7 instead of a 6.
will fit at both ends. And you know that there are a number of different SAS connectors.
You need to make sure of which one it is.
Oh, guess what? The enumeration of the devices on the bus just changed.
The name of your Ethernet interface just changed.
It's static IP address doesn't get assigned anymore. Ouch. So… Be aware of that, um… In some cases, it may make sense to… forced the… interface names to be static.
And not determined according to that way. And finally, check the IP addresses. Uh, if it's supposed to be a static address, is it the correct static address?
If it's signed by DHCP or by some other mechanism.
Is it within the correct range?
Cruising on down our list of categories, software. What's installed?
Is it being updated? Is it what you think it is?
Um… Are there any unusual software repositories in use?
Is there any unusual locally installed software? I solved a problem for somebody.
On a system where they were… They were trying to install their database software from two different locations.
And updates just wouldn't work right. Um, so, we'll take a look at how you can.
see these things.
More on software. What's your one… what is running now? What services are running?
Are they the expected services? What runs on a scheduled basis?
Grown jobs. On Debian at least, there are a bunch of different places where cron jobs.
Uh, can be set up. Is there anything running that shouldn't?
For example. Are there any jobs out there running that belong to a recently fired ex-employee?
Worth checking. And our last category… Are the fans running?
Depending upon the situation, is the AC running?
And I have a story to go with this, sort of.
Back in the days of disk drives the size of washing machines.
Until 256 megabytes. And no, I'm not joking.
Um… system… PDP11 systems typically had, uh… Monthly preventative maintenance, where, uh.
A tech would come in from digital. And we're in some diagnostics, and generally check things out.
And one of the techs who worked on a system I was administering would always.
walk past the back of the disk drives with his hand over the exhaust vents.
To make sure that… They were blowing as hard as they ought to be.
and keeping cool. Of course, if it's a remote system, then doing this kind of thing is harder.
Either because it's a system in the cloud, or it's a system that belongs to someone else.
And you're trying to solve their problem without actually being on site.
And finally, uh… Display issues, I find it useful to run a simple video diagnostic.
Um… just… Is… are basic operations working?
So that peeks us through… The… the concepts, the ideas that we're going to be look… You… we're going to be using… And the categories… in these categories to.
carry out specific operations. All right.
Here are my categories again. But we're going to have specific commands in these different areas.
So this is the section that you could convert to a checklist or a shell script.
You may want to check that the tools you need are installed.
As, you know, as part of the shell script.
Um… all the examples are from Debian, so people with other systems will probably have more homework.
Ooh, something else I was going to say. Oh, yes.
I mentioned that I made… I made a suggestion that you might want to have.
a, uh, terminal window open. So that you could try out typing in these commands.
And, uh… Now's the time.
All right. First one here. Is it the CPU you expect?
Um… I've… I've learned that people sometimes do not know what's in their machines.
And, uh, sometimes it makes a difference. So, following the con… the, uh… comment, pound sign. We have… an alternative which will give you the same information using INXI.
It's nice in some respects to use the tools which ship.
with the operating system, because some of the other things, like INXI, might not be installed.
On the other hand, INXI works on a really wide variety of systems.
So… that's also an advantage. Um, the sensors command can provide temperature data.
Um… Planning side- yes, and… "-XD can provide temperature data about the CPU and the disk drive.
Does the CPU need firmware or BIOS updates?
Um… FW… UPD, MGR… Um, can help with that.
Here is some sample output from a system, uh… It's a Dell Optiplex.
Small form factor desktop with a. Horizon CPU.
And, um… It needs to have a few firmware updates installed.
Now, whether or not that's going to affect the.
particular problem that you got called in for is another question, but.
There it is.
This… the, uh… Output of this slide was… rearranged slightly. This would normally be in… 6 columns instead of 3 and 3.
Um, but I wanted it to be big enough to be seen.
So, as we mentioned before, is it the expected amount? Is all the memory that you're expecting to be there report again?
is the available amount. reasonable, you know.
Is there enough memory for something else to run if… that needs to happen.
Obviously, that's going to require some… Some additional local knowledge to answer.
But you need to have this data to work with.
To, um, to explore that issue. Here is an alternative way of.
getting that information, uh, carried out on a different system.
Uh, in this case, it's actually reporting. The kind of memory and what is present in each slot.
Disks, okay. DF-H dash H gives us the.
Human readable output, so it's in… M&G?
Rather than in, uh… 7 or 9 digit numbers.
Um, did you… Again, is everything here that you expect to be there?
And is anything unexpectedly full or unexpectedly empty? either of those situations.
probably call for you to go. digging some more and find out why that is.
Um… There's probably various approaches that you could take with smart CP.
CTL, um, but here's a simple one. If you don't get a past result.
You've got a problem.
date, what time is it? Um… As a quick check… Compare it to the time on your phone.
Uptime. Yes, well, this particular system has been up too long.
Um, this is a personal system belonging to me.
Um… I would point out that excessive uptimes may tell you something about the UPS protecting the system.
This is a system which, uh… operates the zone minder cameras.
Uh, at my home. And, uh… It just works, it doesn't have.
much in the way of internet contact.
And getting it updated has not been at the top of my list.
You know, here we do learn something about, you know, how has this system been taken care of?
Are log files being updated? Um, on this system, you can see that.
most recent log… most recently changed log files were all changed on the.
On the 17th of January. Which is the date that I captured this information. So, in this case, the answer is yes.
If the log files aren't being updated, there's the question of why, and also there's a good likelihood that.
It's going to be difficult for you to find out what's going on.
The DMessage command displays the in-memory contents of kernel log.
dash L lets you select only particular log level messages.
Now, these are all warnings, it turns out. Um, some systems may support a.
Warn plus syntax instead of a list of all the different levels you actually want to see.
But the contents of the in-memory log can be.
hundreds of lines. And… Specifying the levels this way.
lets you sort out quickly. the things that are most likely.
To require your attention. So, there you go.
Look at the lights. I don't know how to put that into a script.
Um… Here we are looking at the network, we can see… IP address… And the device names… And… And the question is, are they the ones they're supposed to be?
Okay. So, in this…
Yeah. So here we're looking at… Ah, the repositories that have been set up.
For apt, uh, on a Debian or Debian-like system.
Um… sources.list is usually for Debian itself. sources.list.d, there are other things.
get added locally. Um, this… doesn't cover… Snaps for flat packs.
Um, honestly, I have a lot less experience with those. If you… Think those might be present on the system you're looking at, then you'll need to figure out how to check those.
Um, since I don't have any, I don't know whether ionics i-R would show… would show those.
It's also worth taking a look. at user local.
and slash opt. Um, because… Software that is, you know.
Outside of things installed from the repositories. associated with, you know, your distribution.
will often end up there, and it's… Probably a good idea to… Know what's out there.
First, go ahead.
Can we go one slot back? Um, the, uh… the dot list versus the dot list dot D.
I didn't quite understand what the distinction between those two were.
Importantly.
Oh, certainly. So, sources.list is a text file. It's in slash etsy slash app.
sources.list.d. is a directory or a folder.
And it can contain. additional text files, which refer to additional repositories.
Uh…
And, uh, Ken, a slight correction here. from Debbie forward?
Yes, sir.
all sources will live in a dime. the sources.list is deprecated.
Oh, really? Okay, well. Obviously, I need to be keeping up better. Thank you, Andrew.
Yeah.
I'm sorry, Andrew, the… They all live now in which name?
In sources.list.d.
So the dynamic… I am a conclusion from the dot D.
Got it.
is how many systems will. configuration files.
Thank you.
So… And the first thing here, we're looking at the end.
of the depackage log. Um… let's see… Hmm.
It's a first cast at finding out. If updates are happening.
Um, what that ought to show you is the most recent updates that have occurred.
It's conceivable that. The logs have been rolled over.
Since the last time. updates happen, in which case, you'll… Need to do a deeper search, depackage.log.1.
2, and so forth. Um… Unless that rollover.
Period is excessively short. Um… You have to go to .2 to find them, you probably have a problem there.
Deb sums is an interesting command. It's basically going to compare.
the… installed files from packages on the system.
To the contents of the packages themselves. Um… now… A competent invader.
Certainly would replace debums with their own. Um, so that it would not reveal anything to you.
But… it's still not a bad idea. You know… There are other ways for things to go wrong besides.
Someone invading your system and making changes. Again, this particularly probably applies to the unfamiliar system or the.
the new job situation. And finally, we talked about, is there anything out there that.
Blogs running that belongs to the… recently fired employee.
Um, if there is, you'd better get that stopped.
And also, find out… How that happened.
Um, can… on a… back on the slide, yeah.
Yes.
on multiple occasions. I have found production.
Running equipment. Running production services.
via screen or TMX? employee. And so, you don't want to… Kill the surface.
want to understand it.
Fair enough.
All right. So…
what services are running now.
What services were running but failed.
And… What's out there… in the cron directories, and what's the contents of the root cron tab?
Um, that's basically the… what gets run on a regular basis.
And you may wish to pay special attention to items that are.
locally supplied.
Um…
So… these folks provide a video display test at their website.
Um, I've used that to have at least some confidence in correct operation.
This is not a. Detailed test of every possible.
aspect of a video card or a display. Um… It's… Really, you know, just the basics.
But, you know, it will give you some… some idea that, yep, that seems to work.
Not as opposed to, oh, that's obviously broken. And finally, we're back to, are the fans running, and is the AC on?
So, um… that you can get to the system yourself, you can check those things. If it's somewhere else, you can ask someone.
And then, of course, you're stuck with evaluating. The reliability of their answers.
All right, we're into the final wrap-up section here, down the homestretch.
Great systems are a lot of work. Um, Andrew has a suggestion.
for a discussion of this. Um, I think it's worth a read. Um, how much of it makes sense to apply in your particular case? It's something you'll need to decide.
But I think these things are worth thinking about.
So… Consider the type of system.
Divide and conquer. Break it up into… different areas, examine each one with an eye to.
What you need to pay attention to in that area.
Look for more than one problem. There is no guarantee at all that there's only one thing wrong.
And… It's not surprising for more than one thing to be wrong.
And checklists are powerful tools. Um… I use checklists in my work.
On a regular basis. for different kinds of things that I need to do.
They're a way to help me. make sure that… I got everything done that I intended to get done, or.
that I checked everything that I intended to check.
Um… Don't… don't overlook the value and.
Uh. value and the power of checklists.
So… I would be happy to take any remaining questions.
I suppose I should go and look at the chat.
Yeah, based on my… my talk many, many, many moons ago.
There's… a lot of people get a deer in the headlights situation when they're asked to address.
Or an emergency or a problem. Um, in 1994.
I was asked by the police to investigate a bunch of stuff, and so I learned about.
Forensic troubleshooting. And so, that's a great way to get started on this.
Um… Let's see here…
I put a timer's example in there. Or you can, in the chat.
Yeah… I'm… Okay, that worked.
Is anybody familiar?
I'm trying to figure out… I'm trying to figure out how to actually, uh… to actually scroll down… Through the chat on the system that I'm using for… Um… My…
Is anybody here familiar with the. System D… Timers, and how they have replaced Kron.
No, but it sounds like I will be soon.
Vaguely. Vaguely.
I'd say it's worth elaborating if you could, Andrew.
Um, Lee or Gary, could you mute one of your microphones? Thank you.
Um, yeah, so System D has a built-in timer system, which is meant.
For running things on a timer. And it completely replaces AT and Cron.
And on some systems, if you upgrade to System D, it will automatically.
Disable any crimes it finds. I'll ruin your day if you don't know what's going on.
Okay, good to know.
Are there other comments or questions?
Uh, yeah, way back at the beginning. One of your first slides, uh, talked about distinguishing between.
laptops, pies, and… And large systems, and… desktops, uh… It almost seems like.
For someone who's doing this on a frequent basis.
It would be good to… pre-make a number of checklists based on those different categories. I think that's what you're.
Your slide was basically insinuating. You have to work on those differently?
Well, um…
Off hand. I'm not so sh- I'm not sure if… Um… At least, initially, if… I'm not sure that I would so much be changing the script as I would be.
Uh, you know, changing the way that I look at it.
I mean, on a router or an embedded system.
It seems like there's a pretty good chance that they're only going to be using.
One… You know, one mounted file system.
I mean, there's nothing… Preventing something else?
Um…
being the case, but… Certainly, the… go ahead.
Yeah, my… My answer for Gary would be that, um, embedded systems and laptops are more likely to have soda on them.
Oh, beer.
There's… see, there's a reason why you drop by those ThinkPads with the drain holes.
Um. Yeah, I guess for me, what it would be more a matter of.
Once I got the output. what am I looking at?
You know, what am I… how am I interpreting it?
So, um, Ken, in my mindset, I usually call this layer 8.
through 10. So, a lot of times we use the 7 layers of networking to discuss things.
Sure.
And then we have the human eyeballs. And then we… overbearing managers.
And then the finance people.
swap who is at levels 8, 9, and 10.
More of them, if you'd like. But yeah, eyeballs are really kind of the, um… The place to remember.
So, for example, um… You may have received a call about an emergency because a.
Because Stan cannot find the Zoom window.
Which is an eyeball problem.
Yeah, makes sense, makes sense.
Other questions?
I would… I want to encourage people to stay until we talk about the announcement page.
I see that, uh… Some individuals have already left.
Because they thought you're… session was over.
Oh, well, that's unfortunate.
So… Yeah, well, I've got a very important thing to talk about at the… on the announce page, at least I think it's extremely important.
Okay. Well… Um…
It sounds to me…
Again, unless you're running off somewhere, I mean, if… If you feel you're at a… a pause here, waiting for more questions.
Uh, we can go… Review the things that Stan was talking about in the announcements, and then.
Just go back to, uh, answering questions here on the talk.
Yeah, no, that's fine. That's fine. Um…
Andrew, you gonna be able to stay, too?
Oh yes, mischievous Andrew's here.
Uh, good, good. Okay. Um, Stan, you wanna… Go to, uh… Perfect.
I'm gonna try starting my share here.
Okay, boom.
Everyone stay with us for a few minutes, and we're going to do some announcements, and then we're going to get back to.
Questions for our speaker this evening?
Zoom really sucks. Got it.
Stan, tell us what you really think.
Wyatt… Makes no sense at all. Makes no sense at all.
I'm having some problems. I've never seen these kind of problems before, and it's.
I think it all relates to… I've come in on Firefox, and it's, uh, just… a brand new version of Firefox just came out.
And it ruined not only what's going on now, but it ruined my them.
editor that I use in the Thunderbird. I don't know what the going on.
You can't see your screen, though, to see an L.
Um, is there…
You are seeing my screen? Well then, alright, well then, I'm gonna cheat here.
Absolutely.
Okay, browser… All right, come on.
That didn't work.
Alright, where the did it go? It's gone again.
Alright, can somebody else share the St. Louis Linux User Group home page, please?
Because I can't do it.
Sure, I'll get it.
Okay, now…
Okay. Uh… Down in this paragraph online sessions, at the bottom entry, there's an entry in what order or sequence are the meeting events held?
Click on that link, if you would, please. That'll bring up the PDF that the normal slides. Go up at the top and mark it.
Uh…
Anyway… There… okay, go to the second slide.
That's just a list of all these other sites. Go to the third slide.
Gary, you could… you could talk about these, and try not to spend more than 10 seconds on each slide.
Okay, so we… till we get to the announced slide, okay?
Okay. Okay.
Okay, so about us, yes, as I said, St. Louis Linux Unix users group is kind of the overall organization. We run about 4 meetings that are… orient it more to the public each month.
Two of them have preset presentations, the other two are more of workshop sessions, where.
Uh, the attendees basically drive the topics of the meeting.
Uh, we'll talk more about those. Next slide.
Okay, next slide.
Okay, our mission is to try and keep people educated, informed in where they can go for more information on open standards, open systems.
Agenda. Gotta scroll up. There we go.
Next slide.
Okay, uh, meetings, uh, the meeting usually comes online, or electrically at 6 p.m. That gives you a chance to test your mics.
Your screens, your sound, 6.30, uh, we usually start with the introductions, the announcements, and uh… Uh, this set of slides, uh, 645, then we usually.
Uh, go with the presentation. Um, next slide.
Introductions.
Introductions. Okay, um, chair of the, uh, log is James Conroy.
Uh, James is here this evening, but uh… Uh, he was also somewhat occupied with something else, and so, uh.
Uh, I'm taking over as the MC this evening.
Um, our host is Lee Lambert, he. is the principal scientist at Omnitech, and uh… Omnitech provides all of our good, uh, things like mail.
mail systems, web servers, all of our good stuff, so thank you, Omnitech.
Also, a plug here also for Ken. Our speaker tonight, uh, he's responsible for keeping our meetup operation going, so… Thank you, Ken. Uh, chat monitor, uh, we haven't really had a separate person do that this evening.
Topic Wrangler. Hey, anybody who wants to help out.
Finding speakers, determining what could be interesting topics, and, you know, whether we find the speaker first or the topic first, it'll work.
Okay, announcements, next slide. By the way, yeah, somebody should volunteer to be a.
Oh.
Topic Wrangler, speaker wrangler. Please, um… An announcements, uh… The next St. Louis, uh, Linux meeting is February the 19th. That's the third.
Uh, Thursday in February. our speaker that night will be Red Hat, Red Hat from the, uh.
Kansas City office. Their topic is going to be Boot C, uh, how to, uh.
How to boot Linux systems out of containers. And, uh, that's already on the calendar. If you go to sleeve.org slash calendar.
Uh, you can look at that date, and you'll see kind of the preliminary write-up, and we'll probably.
Refine that as we get a little closer.
Uh, Pen, can you refresh your screen? Or, you know, the, the, the link.
Because this is, uh, it's not showing the updated announcement page.
Come on.
Okay… um… Hold on.
to control art.
Maybe…
You control R, Ken.
Got it and work in your browser, that browser?
Yeah, I think… That's…
Got him back to the beginning of the stack of slides.
Go up to the little half-circle thing and hit the rewind.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now, go to the announce page.
Okay. Go, Gary!
Five days from now, usually the fourth Tuesday, is the monthly new Linux users meeting.
Uh, the Slack meeting is usually the. first Thursday of each month. Uh, new Linux and Slack do not have set presentation topics. They do not have a set speaker.
Those are the two meetings that are driven by.
The people who show up, the questions they ask, the… the direction they want to take the meeting.
Uh, the SLUG General Meeting, uh, the next one on there is the second Wednesday of the month.
Uh, that one covers just about any sort of open standards, open systems type technology.
And that one and the meeting tonight. are the two that have preset topics that we try and have a.
a title and an abstract for. Microsoft Windows ended life in October, uh… And, uh, let's see, this month… Uh, I'm sorry, next month, February.
is our annual meeting on our general meeting. That's also the month that we do elections.
Uh, this group is run by a 5-person board of directors.
As a legal corporation, and two of those seats are up for re-election next month.
So, uh, anybody who has attended. two meetings in the previous calendar year.
Uh, you are a member of this organization, whether you like it or not, and you can vote.
There are no dues, you just vote. So, uh, be prepared to vote for a couple of directors next month, and uh… will also be an informative vote.
Um, if you have any suggestions for the officers, we'd love for you to vote on the officers.
Uh, as Stan always says. Uh, pay us, uh, or pay Stan $10 if you don't want your name to appear in the elections.
Uh, so… um… Project Hail Mary on March the 20th.
It's a link to the official trailer there. Um… Dan, do you have anything you want to say about Hail Mary?
That's a private interest, a movie I really, really want to see before I have a stroke and pass out and die.
Anyway, and the next… okay, but that's just a private thing, so that's a movie coming up. It's a… it's, uh… I think it's a very good movie.
Okay.
Uh, next item. The end of December 2027 is a deadline for applying for the Missouri Radiation Exposure Compensation Act benefits.
The point is that in July of 2025, this bill was passed, and what it essentially does is it covers people that live in certain.
St. Louis and St. Charles zip code areas. for a period of… 24 months, any 24 months since 1949.
If you ever lived in St. Louis in any of these areas, you can apply.
If you come down with cancer or one of your relatives had cancer and passed away.
There's a $25,000 death benefit. If you come down with cancer, they'll cover your, your.
Medical expenses, if you got the, uh, all the, uh, out-of-pocket, uh.
receipts and stuff, or you can get a one-time.
$50,000. tax-free, uh, reward.
And, you know, if you have been diagnosed with cancer.
Anybody, I encourage anybody to go, and you… if nothing else, do a Google for Missouri Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
And there's a link on that PDF, if you pull down the PDF, it'll allow you to go to the link.
But I think it's very important. The problem is that.
I just found out about this in the 10th of January, this month.
And there's people out there that knew about it since.
July of last year. And I've got… already got… got my two, three cousins that applied for it, and they never bothered telling me about it.
And it covers all… everybody that was… went to high school. It's Francis Howe High School senior.
uh, school… it's 2 miles from the radiation. area, uranium processing plant in Weldon Springs area.
Now, the thing is, there is… Anybody that's lived in this St. Louis area, St. Charles area.
Needs to check out and see if they lived in any of those areas, because if they come down with cancer between now and the end of.
2027, they could apply for this. If they had somebody in their family that came down with cancer and diagnosed with cancer.
And it's treating for it, they can apply for it.
Sure. It's very important, because the word is not getting out. I've got a mailing list of all my high school.
classmates, 114. I've got a list of 60-some, uh.
email addresses, and I've been sending out. Notice about this in the last week or so.
And only about 10 out of 60 of. come back to me to say that they even got my email, because.
Good old email systems is dumping. Half of them entered their spam folder, and since they're… most of them are as old as I am, they don't know what a spam folder is.
So, I think just the most important thing is I let people know about this, and I'm gonna cover it every meeting.
Now, I can. Questions?
Uh, Stan, how do you really feel?
Uh… I… the black helicopters would show up, okay?
Um, Stan, if it makes you feel any better, um, several reservoirs.
for water in Colorado have been closed because. excess radiation.
Yeah. And this is a… this, uh… Bill was actually the Missouri Extension on this was an amendment to an existing.
uh, federal program. And I've heard. Uh, anecdotally from… One of my classmates said he has a cousin that was a nuclear scientist.
involved in the cleanups, and he said there are many, many more radiation.
contaminated areas than there have been. covered by any of this.
So it's gonna be an ongoing problem.
I talked with one of the drivers in the St. Charles transport.
And he said that they all… Congest dumbest person to drive the trucks.
Yep.
My late wife passed away from a covered cancer.
And I'll… She grew up in, in, uh…
Or foul in areas, covered area. I've got cousins that grew up there.
I grew up there. I've been living in the… I've been living close to the airport. That's a covered area.
I've got a cousin that. lived in St. Charles, he grew up and was raised in St. Charles.
But he was not in a covered area. However.
He had breast cancer when he was a kid, and later had thyroid cancer, and he took his, you know, thyroid out.
And, uh, unless I can… come up with proving that he worked at the airport for.
24 months, he won't be covered.
How about you talk about the election?
Okay, anybody that does not want their name on the ballot, send me $10.
The ballot will be up later, either next week or in February. You can vote.
any time during February… February, as long as the ballot gets to.
The, uh, steering committee. board by the, uh, next, uh.
steering committee meeting, which will be the second, I believe the second of March.
And, uh… If you email the.
ballot to us, it's not secret, but if you print it out and put it in an envelope and put a stamp on it and mail it by the post office, if we get it before the.
Meaning, it'll be treated as a secret ballot, the way we manipulate those.
Um, Stan, if… I have a question.
Anybody that… anybody that… anybody that attended two… two meetings in our sponsored, um, groups in the last calendar year can… is eligible to vote.
And the ballot will be on a link up on each of the web pages.
when I get it done. I got it. Go ahead.
Andrew had a question?
Uh, yeah, can… can a member like Ken… Do $20 and a ballot that.
provoke somebody who paid you 10.
Well, it depends on who's watching me while we count the ballots.
Remember when you vote, use small, unmarked bills.
Preferably $3 bills.
Vote early, vote often.
That's true. And how much money you send in.
That's it, that's it.
And that's all I want to say.
Okay, let's move on to the next slide. Bye-bye Windows 10, uh… Let's see… Andrew, can you scroll up one slide, please?
I buy Windows 10. Windows 10 did officially go end of life back in October.
Uh, obviously, if you pay Microsoft Corporation, if you're a big corporation yourself, and.
You need something done, they'll take care of it, but for the rest of us, you're running on naked, unsupported software, so God only knows what Windows 10 will be infected with.
A lot of people are asking about switching to Linux, so… By all means, direct them to our group, or some other group, or help them yourselves to get off Microsoft Windows and.
This is a nice 200 and some page, uh.
Move over to Lex. Or Unix.
PDF or, or… Kindle thing that, that half of it.
talks about how to use Linux Mint, the other half talks about how to.
get your Windows 10 to go to 11 if you really want to do that.
Next slide, please. Totally free, yes.
And the PDF version is free.
End of 10 slides next. Uh, that's the end of 10… dot org is a site that's in Europe, and they started up for.
showing people, uh, different websites and links to people that will help install or talk about.
how to do Linux and whatever, and I've been submitting stuff.
And I'm not sure how far along it is. Very few people in the U.S. Know anything about it, but I try to cover that all the meetings don't inform people.
So, it… It includes people that, you know, charge $10 to install Linux, or $50, or… people, it'll do it for free over the phone, you know, like we do with our groups.
Next slide. Please take brothers watching, anybody can be recording this stuff.
Next slide.
Yeah, next slide.
We have presentation archives.
Your recent patient archives. presentation archive. If you look down in the lower right-hand corner of the.
Home pages, that's usually shown down there. Both the general meeting and the LUG meetings. We try and keep a.
Uh, recorded, uh, video, recorded sound. Uh, the slide work, things like that, and it's available there in the archives.
Next slide. Please.
We try and keep our own meetings on the calendar, they're usually the ones highlighted in red. We also try and keep, uh.
local St. Louis technical or techie type meetings on the calendar.
Even if they're physical and not, uh… Well, whether they're physical or.
Uh, online, and uh… out of town meetings, uh, if there's good technical meeting that seems like it would.
fit well with our mandate for open standards and Linux.
Unix-type systems. Uh, we'll put that on there, too, if you can get at it, uh, by Zoom, or Jitsi, or some other.
Um…
Next slide.
Can I make a comment about that before? On the calendar.
Sure, Phil.
Go ahead. No, you can't. Go ahead, ask your question.
Yeah. I saw you… had a number of them, and you had, like, an X in the front of them.
I assumed that was some that, uh… We're no longer active, or… And so you just put an X in front of them.
to let people know that. You know, go ahead.
Right, I mean, and… We… we have been… Moving more, you know, we started that, I guess, when the COVID was going on, and people were just suspending meetings.
And so some of those groups claim they're still alive.
Um, but yeah, if they don't… show up for a couple of years, or a year or so. I'm starting to just put an X there, and then… Uh, getting ready to archive those groups off into.
You know, the deceased. user groups. So, hate to do it, but yeah, if you're not around for a couple years, I'm beginning to suspect you're not coming back.
And too many of those groups don't update their webpage, you know, we don't know whether they're meeting or not.
Next slide. Please.
Those are our sponsored groups, as I mentioned before.
Oh, wait a minute, go back one, go back one, mailing list, we forgot to talk about the mailing list.
We do the presentation.
The balance is very limited traffic, it's, uh, you know, usually only a couple of messages a month. It basically.
we have mailing lists.
It's cluing people in to… our own meetings, usually, or something.
That we think is really going to be interesting to everybody.
Um, discuss is, uh, not a moderated group. Anybody can join, discuss, and… start posting messages. You can say what you're working on, you can ask questions.
Sometimes you'll get two dozen answers in an hour's time.
Sometimes you'll put something out there, and you just get crickets for a week.
Uh, so, uh, but some of it's really interesting, so… Steering committee, that's where you see sausage being made, uh, when we sit around and talk about.
Uh, what people might like to hear as a presentation topic, who might be a presenter.
Uh, what we can do to keep our mailing systems or our, uh.
Uh, archives, uh, working. Um, sysadmin is, uh… Uh, basically.
where our volunteers as admins who keep those systems running, so, uh… Um, so yeah, those… Anybody can really join steering committees, just admin.
We make a little more restrictive. Next slide.
Okay, uh, the… four basic groups with, uh, slug right now.
is our general meeting, as I've said, once a month, the SCL Linux meeting, which is what we're doing tonight.
Both of those are presentation-oriented speakers, abstract. The next two, new Linux, Slack.
The new Linux one is basically driven by whoever says they are the.
Newest person using Unix there tonight, or using Linux?
And, uh, whoever claims to be the most novice, they get to ask the questions that drive the meeting.
Until their questions are answered. And the next newest person. Uh, the Slack meeting is more… Computers in general, it's maybe a little more hardware-oriented, will even talk about Microsoft.
Um, so, uh, again, that meeting, the new Linux meeting, have no fixed topic.
Next slide. Call for help. Um, so, uh, Ken is still with us, so… Uh, he's willing to go back and ask.
Answer questions or make comments about tonight's presentation. Uh, maybe after we get past.
Things specifically on tonight's presentation. Uh, we'll broaden out, and just if you've got any question at all on a Linux topic.
Uh, or any comment, throw it up, and we'll all try and talk about it.
Next slide. Linux presentations.
Oh, okay, that's basically… Yep, yep, that's what we did. Next slide. Next slide.
That was the actual presentation he did.
Feedback. Okay, this is your chance, folks. Got any more questions for Ken, first off?
Questions, questions.
Or Anderson. He kind of is the, uh… Uh, historical originator of this topic.
I'm gonna lead off with not so much a question, but a comment. You guys picked a great date to do this, or Ken picked a great date to do this.
Uh, because yesterday is the anniversary of the, uh… Mars rover.
That, uh, went dead on the surface of Mars.
It turned out it had some sort of a memory management error.
And as it was rolling across the surface of Mars, all of a sudden.
It stopped communicating, and uh… So I took NASA about 15 days, I think.
The.
To, uh, somehow upload the right corrections. Keep the machine awake and alive long enough to accept the corrections, and uh… And then get it rebooted, so… That's something you may put as your new opening slide, Ken, is, you know, first determine.
How far away the computer you're fixing is, in case the one on ours. As far as I can think.
Well.
On average, it was about 22… well, about, uh… About 17 light minutes away, so that's how long it would take.
the radio signal to get from here to there.
Um, Kim… or, I'm sorry, not Kim, but Gary, correct?
Um, this rover was already beyond… Its lifespan, correct?
Mm-hmm.
Um, you know, I don't really remember, uh… It was, okay.
It was. So, so when things are… warranty lifespan.
You can, uh, do whatever you want.
Okay, any other questions for Andrew or Ken about tonight's topic?
Okay. Broadening it out. Um, any questions just in general about, uh.
about Linux, or if you want to push it even farther, just about open standards.
I'll, uh…
This is Stan. I'd like to make a comment about, uh… The problems with Zoom. Yes, I know about Alt-Tab and jumping through the different windows and everything, but it wasn't working.
It normally does work, so I can find Zoom, but I couldn't find Zoom. It was completely gone.
I don't know what the deal was. Yes, I've run practically every possible.
problem that anybody can have with Zoom, I've had it over the last 6, 8 months.
Period. And I'm not eating. Yeah.
Stan, pro tip here on Zoom. Video conferencing, if you… Search on your search engine of choice.
Yeah.
You can find an interface where you can…
You're breaking up, I can't hardly hear you. Andrew.
I'm sorry, there's a test interface. Where you can practice using Zoom.
Well, 4 times a month is about all the practice I want.
But you said you just…
Where is that interface? Uh, Andrew, could you post a link, please?
Well, Andrew does that. I'll point out that Andrew also just posted a few minutes ago.
Uh, Windows 10 cleanup using Winhance. And he, uh, posted the link of how to get to Winhance.
That's already in the chat.
I've already bookmarked it and even. copied it down to my computer using a single file.
scan, I put the URL in the chat there. It's zoom.us.
So that should be pretty easy to remember.
I'll look at… I'll look at it when we download the, uh, Zoom recordings.
post those up on the archives page.
Um, I also can't… to my wiki page on the… STU Linux website.
Just added the… regional presentation from 2016 link to the bottom of it, just in case.
Okay, um, see… I've got kind of a traditional question that I haven't asked in quite some time.
And, uh, so kind of lost… Lost track of where a group is at, uh.
I want to know who's using what distro? Um… So, you may have more than one answer to this.
But, uh, um… I guess for starters, just go ahead and shout out, um… Just go open your mic and tell us what distro you're using.
So, um… I'm using Debian distros.
Um, there's… a distro called Bunsen Labs.
Which is basically a slightly customized Debian that comes set up a particular way.
Um, it uses OpenBox, it's… fairly lightweight. I have… A number of, uh… Let's see, we can call them older computers.
Um, like an X220 sync pad. And, uh… I like using it on those.
Yeah, that was a descendant of Crunchbound.
Yes, it was definitely inspired by Crunchbang. Um… I was… I was never a Crunchbang user, was never very familiar with it.
Yeah, that was… and in effect, that's what it was, was… the main guy that did Crunch Band gave up.
And then, uh… Or was it Bunsen Labs, and then there was also a Crunch Bang Plus Plus, but I don't know.
I know Bunsen Labs is still going, I don't know about the Crunchbank++, but… Yeah, I used to use that. That was a good little operating system.
Uh, I almost want to ask…
I pasted the timeline in the chat for any of you that want to spend the next few hours reading the.
timeline of every Linux distribution.
Oh, wow. Um, so… it's easiest to do a show of hands, if you all know how to get to the raise your hands button in the, uh, Zoom.
Um, uh… How many people are, uh… primarily, or at least occasional Debian users.
Um…
I use Debian-based, uh, distro called MX Linux.
Okay.
So, I did… I did work on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the 90s.
Hello.
and they were all Debian-centric, and I've stuck with Debian since then.
Let's see…
I don't think it matters, but… I don't know how to raise my hand, so there you go.
Three people who raised their hand on that one, okay.
Uh, who's got a different favorite. Susie? Susie, how many SUSI uses we got out there?
Two of them?
Linux from scratch?
There we go. The hardcore.
But there was Gentoo. Yeah, yeah, that would be.
Okay, uh…
One of the… I contribute to is called distrales.
Which is a secure container environment. I have rebuilt that many, many times. I can paste a link to some of the.
How can we never talk about Arch?
What?
It's too complicated for me.
Um, our article for their wiki? But their community is toxic.
It's not a lot like a moving target. I mean, it's, uh… such an active, uh… distro, I mean, I guess if you want to.
Play with that thing and constantly be updating and.
Doing that kind of stuff, but maybe it's a good one to work with, but uh… If you just want to get work done, I'm not sure that that's… at least for me, that wouldn't be the way I'd go.
Well, yeah, it's a rolling release, so, yeah, that does complicate things, but…
It's always rolling.
But there's this fedora rolling release, too, so it can't be done, right?
Yeah, I've been experiencing.
You can do practically… you can do practically anything with any Linux, so what difference does it make?
And still be stable.
Well, it's hard to do rolling with Debian.
W is slow, but they, uh… They do it on purpose, they want security, or I, excuse me, stability.
That kind of leads me then to my next comment.
Uh, next month, uh… Uh, next month for the LUG meeting, the third Thursday of the month, February the 19th.
Uh, we're going to have a speaker from Red Hat.
This topic is going to be, uh, Boot C.
Uh, your first tutor is The Wonderful World of Atomic Linux.
And, uh, basically, he's gonna explain how to use bootable containers.
And, uh, um… Build them, get them ready, and just how to boot directly from a container.
And, uh, so that… That will be our presentation on February the 19th.
Uh, there is a request… not a request from him, but.
Uh, he's willing to do… that talk in Zoom.
Um, or he says he's also fairly conversant in Google Meet.
So, uh… My initial thought, since most of our people are used to using Zoom with some complaints.
Uh, we want to suggest to him we just stay on Zoom?
Are the people in this meeting think we should go ahead and.
Let him entertain us with Google Meet. Last time we tried Google Meet, we ran out of users.
Okay. I don't know if it's changed yet. I don't know if it's changed or not. Alright.
I don't understand, what?
Last time we tried Google Meet, we ran out of users, because it's not… It was, like, 10 users, and you couldn't add any more users.
Oh, okay. Limited number of users, okay.
Right. But like I say, that was 5 or 6 years ago, so I don't know if it's changed.
And I would guess, since. This is Red Hat.
would be hosting it, they'd be willing to… gen it up and make sure that they've got enough so they can get more than 10 people on it.
But yeah, I'm not familiar enough with it to know, so… Okay, well, unless I hear people saying otherwise, I'm going to suggest to them, we try and keep it on Zoom.
Um, unless he's got a good sales pitch for me.
Well, that way I wouldn't complain more.
Okay. What other things have people been doing to keep themselves out of trouble, or in trouble?
For the last month or so.
Gary, the question I always asked is, who broke what today?
Yeah, we go. Yep.
Well, Stan broke Zoom.
Or maybe it broke him.
you break Zoom every meeting, Stan.
Wow, that's true. Gotta be consistent, you know. But I break it different ways every time.
True.
So, Stan, whenever I wake up in the morning.
Yes.
the all-modern software side. And that I should be happy if any of it works.
And that's how I work on stuff.
Well, I say it's all magic, some of it's good magic, but most of it's black magic.
So…
I guess due to the fact that Andrew is here, maybe we should ask.
Yep.
What's your favorite cat video?
Yo?
I'm thinking… I think my favorite of all time is the one where the cat's laying on its back, and somebody.
fish on it, and it goes crazy trying to get the fish.
So…
Andrew being currently based out of town. Did you happen to notice on… national news media, uh, that for a little over a week now, St. Louis has been in the news because of the.
Uh, the monkeys being on the loose.
Oh, no, no, I chat with my ex-neighbor all the time, so I understand what's going on.
I'm taking silence as a no, so, uh… So this story…
Oh, okay, okay, okay. Well, for those of you who haven't been keeping up with it.
Uh, the, uh, St. Louis Police Department now, after, oh, like I say, a week and a half.
Has, uh, kind of admitted that, well, one of the police officers who said he saw a monkey.
was probably misquoted. And… so the popular people who have been reporting this.
who were showing photographs that they supposedly took. Well, as we all know, right now.
AI is pretty good at faking photographs. I can do it in GIMP, you don't need AI. It finally occurred to people that not just the monkeys on people's lawns and front porches and automobiles.
But people finally started figuring out when it had the monkeys.
Going down slides at the City Museum. sitting behind the bar and mixing drinks. These may be AI-generated images, and we may.
Maybe we don't have a whole herd of monkeys on the loose in St. Louis, so…
We're starting to have too much phone, Gary.
Yep, yep. Well, I think we predicted that, this group, uh, some months ago, when.
People started thinking AI may be a bit too powerful.
On the subject of cat videos. Andrew, there's… One that I found pretty humorous that involves someone who has.
One of those big exercise wheels for their cat.
And the cat gets on the wheel, and it makes pitiful sounds.
Encouraging its owner to, uh… Turn the wheel for it.
Hmm.
The owner is not convinced, and so they set up a camera.
to run at night. And they capture the cat.
running at full tilt. On the wheel. At night.
by itself.
Anyway… Um, thank you for dropping by, Andrew, I appreciate your help with the session.
Uh, thanks everyone else for listening. Unfortunately, I need to attend to some other chores yet this evening.
So, I'm gonna need to drop off. See you later.
Ken, thank you very much.
Thanks for the presentation.
Sure, you're welcome. Good night.
Thanks, Ken.
Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Ken.
Thank you, Ken.
Andrew, thanks for coming this evening, we've been missing you. Come back anytime, please.
Oh, well, so… so Ken has been having this… We've been emailing about this, uh, kind of topic for.
I don't know, only a few times, but over the past 5 years, so… Happy to get back to it.
Uh-huh.
Mm-hmm.
Fantastic.
Well, Andrew, have you upgraded to the latest Tourist Omnia yet?
Um, as soon as we can get them in the U.S, yeah.
Mmm, okay.
I think they've cleared all of U.S. Inspections, but uh… Yeah, with tourists is next generation is launched.
And it is… Awesome. I put the GIF for my favorite cat.
Thing in the chat.
tourists there.
Looking forward to it.
I'm sorry, I'm not… I'm not clearly hearing the word. What are we talking about?
I pasted a link in the chat there, Gary, because not a lot of people can spell that word.
Yes.
What, cat?
Yeah, you're talking about the Taurus Omnia. router.
tourists.
So, uh, um… Background for everybody.
Um, in… the Czech Republic.
They're not Czechoslovakia anymore, they're Czech Republic. Uh, the government sponsors an open source group.
Which produces a lot of the software that runs the backbone of the internet.
And one of the government-sponsored programs is to create a.
High quality. For every resident or citizen of the country.
Which is called the Tourist Project. The Omnia is a model.
Interesting.
Um, so yeah, it's all open source, it's all open hardware.
Um, I've… I have two here of the previous model.
I've been using for. well over.
Oh, good. Sounds pretty interesting, the, uh… Andrew? Cool.
I think I did a talk on this many years ago, somewhere.
I have to admit, I don't recall it, but.
Uh, so…
Back and look…
going for the new version. the previous version was, um… One of those… Indiegogo or whatever things that… was funded, like, a million times more than it was asking.
They was funded more than a million times?
Oh, it was fantastic, yeah.
You're saying that they receive way more funds than they originally asked for? Is that it?
many more.
Yeah, yeah. I'm talking the most overfunded project ever.
But, um, so Nick… Nick CZ is also the… The Czech Republic is also the… money behind… Bird routing software.
If any of you work with routing. They're the background behind the knot.
DNS service, which is… The prominent DNS server these days.
Um, and then they have a bunch of other software that you may be familiar with.
And I'm a developer with them.
Uh, any other, uh… Topics, questions?
Anyone wants to bring up at this point?
Okay.
Sure, I'll throw my hat in on that. I'm, um… I have a, um… Dabian 13.
system. I have, um… the HDMI cable plugged into an NVIDIA card?
And I want to switch to, um… the monitor, I want to switch the monitor to the DVI port.
So how do I switch my desktop? tell to use the DVI port.
besides just rebooting, because that would be too easy, because.
You know, never learn anything doing stuff the easy way.
It should auto-sense the. If you're HDMI.
It should auto-sense the removal, because it's a… physical connection check.
Um, HDMI and just… Playport used the same protocols.
Yep, yeah, but it's a converter, though. I have the… I have a converter on the DVI port.
Uh, Ethernet, basically. So…
that converts it to HDMI, so is that… is it still going to sense it, that, or…
Yeah, annuity is what's checking, basically.
Alright, I'll try it again, I don't know. Maybe because I didn't… maybe because I didn't have it on, or my desktop was locked, it… I wasn't getting any screen.
Yeah, you make sure that everything was turned on first, Tony, before you plugged it in?
Yeah, the monitor it was on, it was just, uh, you know, in power save.
And the desktop was locked, obviously, because, you know.
After 15 minutes of locks.
I have seen problems with some adapters. They're made really cheap, and they only work on Windows.
Yeah.
So…
How would I tell?
Well, Steve's point right there. It's possible… it's possible that you could get a cable from a vendor today, and it would be dead on arrival.
So you might want to find somebody else's system that can check your cables.
Great, thanks. But there's nothing in the, um… you know, the desktop settings on XFCE that… You have to change.
I know that the NVIDIA… controversy with their drivers may cause a headache.
Yeah. I'm very sorry that you have to deal with that.
Yeah, it's on Novo, it's on Novo drivers.
Yeah, me too. I've been looking for, um, radion… old Radeon cards to plug in, but…
Any other intriguing questions? comments?
So… so nobody broke anything today?
Oh, I did. you know, broke Stan, Stan broke stuff up.
You know, yeah.
Zoom. Zoom, okay, that counts.
I have a question. My question is, has anybody seen any really interesting.
technical books lately on. Whatever topics they're interested in.
I have an excellent antique book on transistor to transistor logic controls.
I got a first edition.
Ooh.
I also have a wonderful. frame relay.
that, uh, will really confuse anybody under the age of 40.
Yeah, I know. Ed Holland, it's.
You say a book on frame relay? Yeah.
Ed Howland's really interested in that kind of stuff, so if you mentioned that to him, I know you… Occasionally converse with him.
Anyway…
I used to… I used to run a lot of frame relay, that was back in late 80s, I guess?
And then, uh… Uh, Contel Telephone here in St. Louis. They were also running a lot of frame relay.
I had a lot of co-workers and students who.
Started at the university with me and went over to Contel.
Well, if no one has any further comments, I hate to suggest that maybe we wrap this up.
Going once, going twice…
I know that we adjourn the meeting, do a bookend, Gary.
Alrighty. This is been the, uh, monthly St. Louis Lug meeting.
Linux user group meeting. The date is Thursday 22nd of January, 2026.
Our speaker tonight was Ken Johnson. And he was talking about the first 10 minutes on a new system.
Uh… Compendium of what things you should look at, and if you're trying to figure out what went wrong, then a system you're not familiar with.
So, uh, this was kind of a redo of Andrew Latham's talk from, uh.
Uh, 2020? 16? I believe that was right, right, Andrew?
Hmm.
One decade.
So, uh, so yeah, so it was a good, good talk, entertaining, and we learned a few things.
And, uh, so thank you, Ken, and thank you, Andrew, for the original concept.
With that, thank you all for coming. As I said before, we will have a speaker from Red Hat.
Uh, next month, on February the 19th. There's also the general meeting on the second Wednesday of next month. They don't have a topic for that yet. Thank you!