Meetings:2010-09-16

=Location= Oak View Branch of the Siouxland Libraries in Sioux Falls, Room 3 at 6:30pm.

=Agenda= It's open mic night at the Siouxland Linux User Group!

Tell us what you've been working on, or what Linux software you can't live without, or maybe just what's on your mind.


 * Rob will discuss what steps he is taking to get virtualization rolling under Ubuntu.
 * Dan may say a few words about ssh tips and tricks.
 * And, if all else fails, Glenn will give a short demo of Peppermint Ice Linux, an easy-to-install web-services oriented distribution aimed at netbooks and older hardware.

But there will be plenty of time for you to tell us what new stuff you've been discovering about GNU/Linux and free / open source software.

Live CDs
We will have free bootable CDs for folks who want to try GNU/Linux without installing it on their computer. Distributions will include Linux Mint 9, Ubuntu 10.04, Kubuntu 10.04, and various flavors of Debian.

Directions
To get to the Oak View branch from Sixth Street, turn north onto North Bahnson Ave. and drive three blocks to Third Street. The library is located at the northeast corner of the intersection.

From Sycamore Avenue, turn west on Third Street until you near the North Bahnson intersection (about six blocks). The library will be on your right.

There is no cost to attend the meeting or to join. New members are welcome!

=Minutes= Prepared by Glenn

General Help Session
The SLUG meeting began at 5:30 p.m. with a general help session. These sessions are an informal way to get your vexing GNU/Linux questions aired -- and probably answered.

The main session started a little late, as the general discussion was rolling along pretty well at the meeting's start time.

Glenn gave a quick overview of Peppermint Linux. Two Linux Mint developers have stripped down Mint to create Peppermint, a lightweight distribution focused on web services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Apps.

Traditional desktop applications are available through the software manager, but are not included in the default installation.

http://peppermintos.com/

Virtualization on Ubuntu
Rob explained the history of virtualization on Ubuntu and how and why it broke with Ubuntu 10.04.

Right now, your best bet for virtualization on Ubuntu is VirtualBox OSE, but Canonical is developing Qemu for future releases.

When Qemu is properly configured, a virtual machine running on one Qemu host can be migrated to a second Qemu host with no downtime, Rob said.

http://wiki.qemu.org/

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox

SSH
Dan explained the ssh command syntax and useful options such as port dynamic port forwarding and compression (when forwarding X sessions or transferring large files).

He spoke about using the ssh_config man page as a resource for building a local ssh config file, and gave examples.

He also spoke about denyhosts, a python program that will track failed ssh authorization attempts and automatically add problem IP addresses to the list of denied hosts.

http://denyhosts.sourceforge.net/

Attendance
Eleven people were present, including one first-time attendee (from the mailing list) and three visitors from Sioux City.

October Meeting
The SLUG will meet at 6:30pm on Thursday, October 21, at the Siouxland Libraries Oak View Branch in Room 3. The room will open at 5pm for setup. A general help session will begin at 5:30pm.

Adam will discuss the differences (and similarities) between BSD and Linux.

We are still looking for 5- to 10-minute demos for October's meeting.

If you've tried a new distribution or found an open source program that makes your computer more useful, show it to the club. A laptop is available for these demos, so you don't need to bring your own machine.

To volunteer, contact Glenn (dakota.son at gmail.com).

November topic
Using the GIMP

December topic
Party!