Messages

126

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« on: October 21, 2015, 04:53 PM »

Yes, AFAIU, it also uses Xen so your concern seems valid.

I wonder what the cost of verifying is?   (Specifically, that the games you are interested in really don't perform as well as you'd like.)

127

Non-Windows Software / Re: Manjaro and UEFI

« on: October 21, 2015, 04:05 PM »

Do you have a good method for restoring?

128

Living Room / Re: What books are you reading?

« on: October 21, 2015, 08:11 AM »

http://www.thelostwo...7/more-free-books-2/

-panzer (October 21, 2015, 03:14 AM)

FWIW, the above worked from here.

129

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« on: October 21, 2015, 01:14 AM »

Yes

130

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« on: October 20, 2015, 11:53 PM »

I've wanted to try Xen as well for some time, but some how things never quite worked out.

I don't really have good answers to your questions, but perhaps you might find Qubes to be of interest.

131

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« on: October 20, 2015, 07:49 PM »

I do, but not with Qemu running under Windows.

132

Non-Windows Software / Re: *NIX: Relatively Minimal Host OS for VirtualBox Use

« on: October 20, 2015, 08:00 AM »

Status update: have been using NixOS for over a year now, has been quite good, though took quite a while to get used to.

Also tried Guix -- a bit more to my liking (based on pieces of NixOS), but still has a ways to go.

Tried Manjaro again (thanks to phitsc) -- the brief experience I had with the Fluxbox 15.10 edition this time has been nice so far.

Wondering whether to try out Qubes -- this appears to be a focused effort to carry out an idea of isolating execution of programs (perhaps among other things).  Anyone else try this already?

133

Non-Windows Software / Re: Manjaro and UEFI

« on: October 20, 2015, 05:08 AM »

FWIW, I try not to dual/multi-boot these days -- swapping out the storage media seems to work better (though physically more work).  May be that's not so practical for your case...

Good luck in any case.

134

N.A.N.Y. 2016 / Re: Idea Thread for NANY 2016

« on: October 19, 2015, 05:12 PM »

Just tried out qemu-launcher:

  https://screenshots....cher/14020_large.png

Part of what it does is provide a GUI for creating / editing sets of information for launching the qemu emulator.

Was thinking that a general GUI tool to do this sort of thing for any command line program (i.e. rather than specifically just for one program) could be handy.

Perhaps one could provide (for each supported command line program) a template describing options, corresponding GUI layout, and how what's specified gets translated into command line parameters.  A motivated user might provide / share their own templates.

IIUC, some of this is done by Drag and Drop Robot -- the creating / editing sets of information part at least.


Insert usual comment about if suitable thing doesn't exist already

135

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: October 19, 2015, 04:10 AM »

Glad to hear it!

136

N.A.N.Y. 2016 / Re: Idea Thread for NANY 2016

« on: October 19, 2015, 12:39 AM »

Some folks have been noticing that over the years, various apps appear to "phone home" from time to time.

For example, Firefox seems to contact a variety of locations -- they do provide some info about this and often how to disable:

  http://kb.mozillazin...on_startup_-_Firefox
  https://support.mozi...utomatic-connections
  https://support.mozi...-US/questions/755147
  https://superuser.co...m-when-i-open-firefo
  https://support.mozi...US/questions/1076594

but there does not appear to be a single preference one can select to disable all such behavior (or alternatively, turn stuff off temporarily and restore later).  Also it turns out in some cases it's a plug-in (e.g. IIUC, NoScript may talk to secure.informaction.com -- please point out if this is incorrect).

I also noticed that at some point one of the tracking related settings had gotten enabled here   In general, I'm not too happy about settings changing behind my back...

So this leads to an idea...

A policy-checking / reporting plug-in or app -- perhaps at first for FF, but may be also for other apps.  A rough idea of it is to be able to specify a policy (e.g. no non-user initiated connections) and then get a report on whether it's followed and perhaps to warn when the policy appears to be violated.  Being able to load / save various policies might be nice too.

I realize that doing this in detail is likely to be a fair bit of work -- was just thinking something simple might be possible to gain a fair bit of benefit.  Perhaps something that just checks a certain set of settings -- not actually try to monitor app behavior.

May be such a thing exists already, but if not...

137

Non-Windows Software / Re: Manjaro and UEFI

« on: October 18, 2015, 07:53 PM »

Didn't manage to get passed a certain point, but perhaps the following will be of some help...

I tried booting from one of the XFCE 15.09 isos and saw a screen of text with some lines offering among other things a UEFI option.  The text I saw was something like:

Manjaro Linux x86_64 UEFI DVD (default)
Manjaro Linux x86_64 UEFI DVD (nonfree)
UEFI Shell x86_64 v1
UEFI Shell x86_64 v2
EFI Default Loader
Reboot Into Firmware Interface

FWIW, to get this to show up, I needed to enable UEFI in my BIOS as I try to avoid using UEFI whenever possible.


Update

One notebook I tried with didn't get far beyond the initial text menu, but a second notebook reached the graphical desktop.  This was the case for both the DVD media as well as a USB stick with the content of the DVD media on it.

I noticed that there's a 15.10 Fluxbox edition, so just tried that.  Was able to get to the graphical desktop on the "problematic" notebook.


On a related note, there appear to be a few prerequisites such as disabling secure boot and installing to GPT-using storage.

Don't know if it will help and it's a bit dated, but FWIW:

https://forum.manjar...dex.php?topic=7138.0

138

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: October 16, 2015, 08:26 PM »

Is it possible to have an arrangement where it's possible to make new content available soon and gradually add in older content?

139

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Announced

« on: October 14, 2015, 09:35 PM »

Wouldn't you have to load it into a VM anyway?  I never hears of Windows running directly on Macs.

-MilesAhead (October 08, 2015, 08:33 AM)

May be I misunderstood, but isn't BootCamp one way to run a variety of Windows OS' on Macs?

140

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Official CMS Migration Progress Thread - September 2017

« on: October 14, 2015, 04:26 PM »

So...how's it going?

141

Living Room / Re: IPFS - Is this the future of the internet?

« on: October 08, 2015, 05:32 AM »

So, where's Ren?

142

Living Room / Re: Security: Stagefright Vulnerability (Android)

« on: October 07, 2015, 01:33 AM »

Further Stagefright-related patches (plus others) included in recent update:

The most severe of these issues is a Critical security vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected device through multiple methods such as email, web browsing, and MMS when processing media files.

via https://groups.googl...-updates/_Rm-lKnS2M8

IIUC, these are related, but not the same as originally reported.

143

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: October 07, 2015, 01:25 AM »

I really like some of the ideas behind Git (such as how blobs automatically handle de-duplication of data), but I hate the tools I've used to try to interact with Git.

-Deozaan (October 06, 2015, 07:56 PM)

Which ones have you tried?

I also wasn't too happy with many of the tools I tried -- a couple that helped a fair bit though were SmartGit(Hg) and magit.  These days the command line seems sufficient for many tasks, but while still learning the ropes, I found the aforementioned tools to be handy.

144

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: October 07, 2015, 01:11 AM »

Why not?

-Tuxman (October 05, 2015, 03:21 AM)

I don'r recall clearly

I think it had to do with a hiatus and having picked up git along the way.

145

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: October 05, 2015, 03:20 AM »

I used to use Mercurial, but haven't lately.

146

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: October 04, 2015, 07:14 PM »

I found the explanation of rebase in terms of cherry-picking to be useful and diagrams seemed appropriately employed in explanations (will there be a UI at some point that allows manipulation of repositories via graphical means? [1]).

In general I found the order of presentation to be sensible.  A bit odd at times where things that seemed quite basic were explained given the title of the talk (e.g. about abbreviating commit hashes), but found it worth watching.

Thanks again, phitsc.


[1] Came across this recently: https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit

147

Developer's Corner / Re: Resources for learning git?

« on: October 01, 2015, 05:27 PM »

Hadn't seen that one.  Thanks for sharing!


Here might be the slides:

  https://speakerdeck....wolfboy/advanced-git

FWIW, the fourth side gives an overview of what's covered.

148

General Software Discussion / Re: TrueCrypt alternative

« on: September 30, 2015, 07:24 AM »

Fix two TrueCrypt vulnerabilities reported by James Forshaw (Google Project Zero)
  CVE-2015-7358 (critical): Local Elevation of Privilege on Windows by abusing drive letter handling.
  CVE-2015-7359: Local Elevation of Privilege on Windows caused by incorrect Impersonation Token Handling.

via https://veracrypt.co...itle=Release%20Notes

149

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« on: September 28, 2015, 01:16 AM »

[Select]

>netsh interface ipv6 show privacy
Querying active state...

Temporary Address Parameters
---------------------------------------------
Use Temporary Addresses             : enabled
Duplicate Address Detection Attempts: 3
Maximum Valid Lifetime              : 7d
Maximum Preferred Lifetime          : 1d
Regenerate Time                     : 5s
Maximum Random Time                 : 10m
Random Time                         : 5m27s

-Deozaan (September 28, 2015, 12:12 AM)

I tried the command for a Windows environment and observed "enabled" as well.

when I check out ipconfig /all, I see my MAC in my IPv6 address...

FWIW, for ipconfig /all, when I look at the value for "Physical Address" and compare it with "Link-local IPv6 Address", I don't see much similarity.

150

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 10 Privacy Concerns

« on: September 27, 2015, 06:08 PM »

Thanks for the links.

IIUC, it may be relatively straight-forward to check from a terminal app in Android whether privacy extensions are in use:

[Select]

ip a

The result may show information for various network interfaces -- for WiFi, a typical interface name is wlan0.  Examine the displayed MAC address and IPv6 address -- roughly, if the last 3 bytes are the same in both, I think it's a good bet that (at least for that interface) the extensions are not in use.