Got to NPC around 10:40 with Frank Vlamings waiting around to be let into the meeting room. Anyone can go to the main entrance, south of the Wangert Room door and push the button to ask the guard to electronically unlock the doors. Sometimes the guard won't unlock the the doors if you ask too early.

There are only 17 people that signed the attendance sheet even though there were a few more. The new 4 wheeled hand cart came in handy for at least 3 others for hauling in tube type video displays and non-laptop systems.

There was no formal presentation, so after showing a couple of youtube PC/MAC/Linux(girl) shorts we took Jeff's 7 year old system that he couldn't get Ubuntu install on at home and tried 2 different Ubuntu CD's. Neither one worked so after that we put in a Knoppix 5.1.1 CD and installed Debian. It seems that Ubuntu didn't have some old enough drivers for Jeff's system. It wasn't a pretty install. Then we installed LinuxMint in a second partition. After booting the Debian system even though we had a network connection the browser wouldn't work. After removing a wireless network card, a separate network card and using the MB ethernet connection net access started working. Mike was quite helpful with Jeff's system while I went around the room trying to get helpers connected with those needing help.

Val brought in a lugable system with the wrong(bad?) monitor so we hooked it up to the projector after unplugging the projector to get it going. It seems to have gotten hung-up by switching between Jeff's monitor and the projector.

Val was trying unsuccessfully to get VM going. I pointed him to the 'IRC.FREENODE.NET #LVLUG for online chat' to get some of Heath Petty's expertise. Also recommended that he replug his hard drives to be hda and hdc, not hdb for the second hard drive.

Doug was trying to help someone set up a wide screen display and didn't seem too successful. Anyone have any luck doing that? Please use the lvlug.org mailing list if you have any useful info. Doug successfully also helped Victor with a server-client-flash play problem.

With another group using the room at 2pm, we got pushed out a little early and could have used more time. There was a comment that they thought 11am to 2pm was plenty of time but when we left that we could have used the extra hour we normally have, the rest of the year will be normal meeting hours, 11am to 3pm.

$35 was collected in the Equipment Tip jar, bringing the total to $172.

I'm thinking that a presentation on 'Making Presentations for LVLUG Meetings' on February 23 might be useful. I'll make an outline using OpenOffice and upload it to the lvlug.org site after the meeting for use as a model so others can have an aid for making their own presentations.

Sorry I didn't make it around to everyone to see how they were doing, I was just a little extra busy at today's meeting. Don't be afraid to mingle, that's what the name tags are for. Name, Linux Distribution and CLUE level give you a good starting point. It's a 2 way street folks.

Any suggestions or comments are welcome.

P.S. If you want to know about the first names used in the report check the sign-in sheet in the xcGallery.

Got to the NPC around 10:40 with only Bob from Tuscon waiting to be let in. He helped me set up the tables and chairs. For some reason we set up 4 rows with 3 tables in each row. Little did I know that we'd end up with 5 rows of tables, some with 4 tables in them. Good thing that there are extra tables and chairs in the closets.

24 people signed the attendance sheet, I think there were a few more than that though. I added self stick name tags next to the sign-in sheet for people to put their name, Linux distro and clue (Comprehension of Linux User Experience) level to help others. Most of the folks used them, the name tags sure helped me because I try to talk to most that come to the meeting to see if they are being helped and how they may help others using the same Linux distros.

The room was filled by 11:45 so Frank began his APSFILTER presentation early. Of course it didn't go smoothly. Blinking red light on the printer stopped the show for a while. During the pause I decided to show some youtube Linux videos on screen. Nothing goes smoothly, I brought up 'How to Get Started with Linux' by Chris Pirillo http://youtube.com/watch?v=TdqB5nXJjLU and I didn't have any sound. So after cranking up all of my sound controls I finally un-muted the proper channel and the sound came blasting out. 'Show us your tits' was being shouted and he thought it was 'Show us your tips'. Trying to tone it down and prove I wasn't a complete jerk I kept failing to get the volume down or muted. I think my discomfort was enjoyed by most, especially females. Yes people these are co-ed meetings.

After a while Frank figured out what the problem was and continued on with his demo. This time it wasn't a silent printer anymore, ah the zzzziiiiit sound of a dot matrix. The problem turned out to be a loose nut behind the wheel It helps to have your print driver match the printer your using. Not much detail from me because I was busy taking pictures, see the lvlug.org xcGallery. Others may comment on this News or the mailing list if you'd like to. Today's sign-in is there too. I just can't spend a lot of time deciphering the signatures like I used to.

I had everyone say their name and talk about their experience with Linux. That was very interesting and informative to see where other peoples Linux focus is. I have a 'Kyocera TXCKT10160 Bluetooth Wireless Speaker w/Headset' ordered, $26 with shipping. I bought it mainly for presenters to be heard, but it should also be handy for when others are talking to the group.

Wow! $98 dollars in the equipment tip jar, I think it was Derek that contributed another $2 to make it an even $100. Even Frank threw in $20, which I told him that presenters don't have to contribute, but he insisted anyway. So now the equipment fund is at $195. Thanks again Frank and everyone else that threw some $ in the pot. Hmmmm, maximum attendance when presenters contribute $20. Who wants to present at the January 26 LVLUG meeting for only $20

I need to get another AC extension cord and a few more power strips if we keep getting large turnouts like today. Everyone at the meeting had power and an internet connection, but it looked to me that we were running at over 90% of our capacity. Oh we should be so lucky.

So don't arrive late to the next LVLUG meeting on January 26, 2008 or you might not get the best seats in the house. Of course the best seat is the one the presenter has, hint hint.

Thanks to everyone that helps me to set up and take down all the of cables and equipment.

Happy New Year to all!

Better late than never.

Got to the NPC around 10:45 with a few early birds waiting to get into the building. If you arrive early and the door to the Wangert room is locked you can go to the door south of the Wangert room entrance and push a talk/camera button on the wall to ask the guard to unlock the doors to the Wangert room for the scheduled 11:00am LVLUG meeting. Some guards are a PITA and won't open the door until 10:50, but most don't have a problem if asked at 10:45.

Those that arrived early helped set up the tables and cables for the meeting. I've pretty much decided that 4 rows of tables running east to west with seats facing the north wall seem to work out well if a good 3 to 4 feet between rows is set to allow people to pass by.

I bought 2 8-port switches and a laser pointer for $40 in October. They worked well and we had plenty of connections and power for everyone. During the meeting when trying to do things with my laptop, it was going crazy. Like when I'd key in a character from the KB I would get multiple characters on the screen and make my system do strange things. It took a bit for me to figure out that with a lot of the people in the room using IR mice, the laser pointer IR/USB connection was receiving extraneous signals and making my laptop act a little nuts. Word to the wise is to shield the IR receiver from other sources while it is plugged into your system.

12 people signed the attendance sheet and there were a few that did not. I sometimes use it as a cheat sheet to help me find the names of people in the room. I'm thinking of using name tags with first name, distro and some form of Linux experience level to assist everyone in the mixing and BOF for the meetings. I know that a lot of people think it's a waste of time, but I can't remember everyone that has been to a LVLUG meeting. It also would help those seeking or giving information to know the experience level of whom they are talking to. Plus I don't care about being called sir or 'hey you' even though I always put out my name and distro tent.

Suggested LINUX eXperience Level XL=(Levels 1 to 5)
1 - Never ran a LINUX system.
2 - New LINUX user.
3 - I run LINUX.
4 - Experienced LINUX user.
5 - Advanced LINUX user.

Even though no one showed up to give a presentation there were about 5 groups that mingled and helped each other out with LINUX. Those leaving the meeting said it was worthwhile coming because of the information given and received.

$20 was left in the equipment tip jar, after deducting the $40 spent on the equipment mentioned above we now have $110 in the Equipment Fund.

Pictures of the meeting and the sign in sheet will be posted to lvlug.org.

Some LVLUG members complain that they can never make the LVLUG monthly meetings because of other obligations. I'd like to suggest that anyone can hold a LVLUG meeting at anytime other than the scheduled last Saturday of the month. Just broadcast it on the mailing list. If you can guarantee that at least 4 people will be at your meeting I'll come too with the LVLUG equipment as long as it isn't more then 30 miles from the I-5 and HWY 95 intersection. I don't count as one of the 4 people. I'll put an announcement on the lvlug.org home page when the above criteria are met.

Yes, there will be a December 29 LVLUG meeting. Bring your new LINUX toys to show off or just to get them working. If you get a system the has no OS on it then we will put one on it at the meeting. If you have a friend that needs help with LINUX bring them to the meeting also.

Any volunteers for doing a presentation at the next meeting?

Please start a new subject on the mailing list when responding to items mentioned in this review.

See you there!
Tom

I got to the NPC at around 10:40 and there sat a poor soul, Frank Cole! I got the doors unlocked and Frank and I did most of the table re-arrangement and equipment set up.

For the last 2 meetings I've been setting the tables in 3 to 4 rows with the seats all facing the presentation screen which seem to accommodate everyone at the meeting and makes it easy to set up additional tables if needed, like last month. If anyone doesn't like this arrangement then you can be in charge of setting up the seating anyway you'd like it. ;-p

There were no equipment problems this time, but thanks to Frank's 16 port hub we had plenty of hard wired LAN connections available. I'll keep and eye out for some inexpensive 8 port hubs or switches for more net access for those not running a wireless net connection. I have an extra 8 port switch I usually bring to the meetings so bring your equipment and you'll get connected.

Heath Petty gave his excellent virtualization presentation using OpenOffice Impress. He said he'd get some text added to the visuals to help explain in some detail what they mean and upload it to lvlug.org for posterity and for those that didn't make it to the meeting.

After the formal part of the presentation Heath went into live demo mode using the projector with his laptop for us to see some real time uses by bringing up a Windows(barf) OS while running Linux as his virtualization OS. After that he put in a Damn Small Linux live CD and had it boot under virtualization. Seeing how to use and operate a live virtual machine in real life connected the dots to the presentation and put a lot of real useful information into the minds of those at the meeting.

After talking up the 'Smart Boot Manager' for the last couple of meetings we had some people try it and failed miserably. JR Namida tried to put it on a box he built with Mepis as his OS. First we tried a copy of sbminst on a USB flash drive which I couldn't get mounted. When looking at his messages in /var/log it gave one of those long winded usb-xx.yy-zz names that I couldn't mount. Next JR downloaded the source which was full of errors when trying to compile it. Finally he downloaded the sbminst executable and we got it to run. Boo(t) time, I've never seen a system where you don't get bios on the screen when booting, this system, Compaq, didn't display it. After many tries we got the SBM menu to display and it didn't find any bootable partitions! Figured out that SBM doesn't support SATA drives directly, it is currently being updated.

Next we put the USB flash drive into a Vista machine on a laptop and it couldn't be read. It couldn't be read on any system after that either. I didn't get his name of the guy who loaned us the flash drive, but we owe you one if you can't get it to work. I'll remember to bring a good one in for the next meeting for you.

There were only 14 people that signed the sign-in sheet, but I counted a least 16 at one time during the meeting. The sign-in sheet is being included in the lvlug.org xcGallery
with pictures taken there. $23 was collected in the equipment tip jar which makes the equipment fund total $135.

Yes the next meeting is on Thanksgiving weekend Saturday November 24, 2007. If anyone wants to host a LVLUG meeting in addition to and not lieu of the regular times, set one up and I'll bring the equipment box so the projector and net connections can be set up. Also Christmas weekend Saturday December 29 will be held so you all can show off your new toys.

Toga

P.S. Here's an e-mail Heath sent after the meeting. none of my systems are capable.

During the presentation I got the virtualization flags wrong. To see if you system support virtualization extensions run:

grep '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If that returns something then you have support, if not and you think your system should support virtualzation extensions then check your BIOS to see if its enabled. I'm planning on writing a small howto on getting various forms of virtualization going. Look for it in the next couple of weeks.

-Heath

We now have a nice CD 3-ring binder that holds 208 CD or DVDs. This should alleviate the problem we were having of scratched cd/dvds when trying to install or copy a distro. 2 out of 3 different Linux distros failed to install at the last meeting because of scratches. Now each CD has it's own sleeve in the binder to avoid them rubbing against each other and getting scratched. Cost $22.

I bought 100 DVD-R blanks for $18 for those that wish to copy and burn a CD or DVD distro. I also have added envelopes that will protect them for the trip home. I threw in 24 CD-Rs, 16 DVD-Rs and a bunch envelopes into the binder for use at the monthly LVLUG meeting. If you don't bring a PC to the meeting and would like a distro, ask someone to make a copy for you. That way we won't have missing distros. I will restock the blanks as needed.

I've brought back the #LVLUG channel on IRC.FREENODE.NET. Under normal circumstances from noon to midnight local time. To avoid being ignored when you join the channel, put 'ring-ops' in a message to get an ops attention. I modified a python-plugin to do that. If anyone wants the plugin I'll send it to them when asked. It will work whether your an op or not, if you want a noise to notify you that someone on the #LVLUG channel is wanting to chat. You can become an op if you promise to install and use the ring-op plugin.

Tom