[sf-lug] SF-LUG meeting notes for July 7, 2019

[Bobbie Sellers]

Hi LUGers,

     Well as Tom remarked we had a busy meeting.

     I arrived at 10:25 due to a 38R with very few passengers.
     Setup went without problems.

     I had barely set up when John S. showed up with his NUC which still 
will only
boot to the MS program launcher despite a re-installation that should 
have fixed
the problem.  After spending the better part of 2 hours working on this, 
the Grub
menu would just reboot itself unless that MS program was selected.
     The original problem was that apparently this was a MBR install of 
Windows
which I failed to note.  I had installed and created the prior install 
as a GPT
which of course failed to work very well with the MBR.   I changed that and
deleted the old PCLinux install then created a set of 4 logical partitions,
/boot, /, /home and Swap.
     Why Rescatux would not boot on the system?  Well it would once I 
changed
the Flash Drive formatting to FAT 32.  But it came up with the same problem
saying that GRUB could not be installed when it obviously was installed.

     A bit later Ken S.  showed up and brought his Intel Computer Stick 
with a 12
inch flat panel monitor and spent most of his time assisting Tom T. with 
problems
on his older notebook computer.  Tom has already thanked me and you are 
welcome
Tom.   All I did was produce a copy of an iso file to a Flash Drive via 
a PCLinuxOS64
program called "ddcopy".  DDcopy by the way will also produce DVD & CD 
if you
have an read/write optical drive installed.  I am pretty sure this is a 
Python
script.   I read that you got a xfce version but I tried to provide as you
requested, Tom, a Ubuntu 18.04.2 desktop for amd64.

     Aaron C.  was close behind Tom and brought along a older smaller 
Lenovo
netbook(?) as well as a larger device.   He had installed Debian 10 to 
the smaller
device and was looking to pass it on to a user.  He had brought along 
those neat
Flash Drives that were Debian Buster 10, non-Free Firmware Net-Installers
that could get the firmware for some older computers.  I took one of these.

     A bit before Noon, Jim S. showed up.  He had something for lunch or 
breakfast
then before leaving asked the group assembled about volunteers to take 
over some
administration tasks.  Sadly no hands went up.   I think that most of 
our members
presently attending lack the necessary skills for the tasks.
     Also I think(I know, big mistake) that we need some younger blood 
on these jobs
so that the LUG will have them around for a while.    I will be 82 next 
month and
don't plan on living forever despite the excellent company.   I started 
with the LUG
while I was still in my 60s (tbmr) when I needed help with Linux, using 
Mandriva
at the time,  because i needed help with LiLo and WiFi principally. When 
Jim asked
me I volunteered to show up at the new meeting site (after JavaCat 
coffee shop
shut down) for each meeting as I had previously helped with Commodore LUGs,
supporting C=64 and Amiga.
     So if anyone out there wants to help keep the LUG a presence both 
online and
in reality, contact Jim.   Maybe we need an in-person meeting for this?  
Maybe
training for different tasks?

     Finally before the end of this meeting Joseph P. showed up and with 
some
persuasion he decided to take custody of the Lenovo Netbook that Aaron 
had brought
along.  This solves a problem for both of them.

     About 1:05 PM all except for Tom who was using the WiFi at the Cafe 
Enchante
we left and Jim gave several of us rides to home in my case and next 
destinations
in other cases.   Thanks for your assistance with my computer case, Joseph.

     The next meeting at the Cafe Enchante will be on Monday July 15th a 
week from
tomorrow.  I hope to have time next week and the wits about me to 
demonstrate
Whonix which is also based in Debian 10, is setup on my Dell E6520 and 
it only
runs under Virtual Machines to give you a great deal of privacy and 
anonymity...

     I will not be sending a separate meeting notice tomorrow or before 
the next
meeting unless I have something of interest to relate or if someone asks 
a question
I can answer.

     Anyone attending the meeting is free to correct my omissions or
incomprehension of the activities and asked to do so asap so that the
membership not in attendance will not be mis-informed any longer
than necessary.

     Thanks for reading if you bothered.

     Bobbie Sellers