bootstrapping from a USB stick
by D. Hugh Redelmeier
I have an oldish PC that only understands booting from 512-byte
sectors and then only with MBR disks.
I want to install large new disks on it, and no old disks. These
don't even pretend to do 512-byte sectors: 4k all the way (3T and 4T sizes
aren't good for MBR either).
I was thinking that I should be able to use a USB flash memory stick
as the boot device, loading GRUB from there, and then having it boot
the OS from a big GPT hard disk. The stick would be permanently
plugged in.
Is there any reason that this might not work? Is there a better way?
Are there special GRUB modules that I need to convince GRUB's
installer to put on the USB stick?
What filesystem type is best for the USB stick? My guess: ext4 is
fine.
9 years, 7 months
Cannot unlock screen after prolonged period of time
by Where Where
Greetings everybody!
I'm a new convert to Fedora. I finally got it installed (hurray!) but ran
into this issue:
If I lock the screen using mod-L and immediately enter my password to
unlock, the screen unlocks.
But if I leave my computer be for an hour and unlock, Fedora doesn't accept
my password.
Some peculiarities of my setup:
* I am using full disk encrypting using an LVM volume. Fedora setup set up
my partitions for me.
* I'm using a recent Macbook.
I have all the latest updates installed for Fedora 20. My architecture is
AMD64, and I'm using the standard (GNOME) spin.
How may I move forward?
Thanks for your attention!
9 years, 7 months
Secure Transactions
by Tod Merley
Hi all!
I have been using Windows monitored by Norton used almost exclusively to do
on line transactions and banking. The strategy is simply that I do not use
it otherwise. Transactions only.
But then the W8 laptop Norton would not update or scan!! First attempts at
fix failed and refresh and reload – well – simply have not worked out so
far (long long story). Then the crazy windows update problems this month
have made me a bit shy to use the W7 installs I have.
So I made up some Fedora 20 flash drives to more or less imitate the basic
“used exclusively for transactions” function I was using Windows/Norton
for. So far so good! Indeed I find banking using FireFox on Fedora simply
easier to use (better fonts, colors, I think).
I am simply seeking thoughts on the basic approach, alternatives, other
things to do to make a secure transaction environment.
Thanks all!!
Tod
9 years, 7 months
su - Authentication failure - reinstall fedora ?
by Angelo Moreschini
Hi,
after that I installed fedora 20, I am not able to get the login as su.
When I try to sign me as super user, I always get the answer
"Authentication failure".
I don't think that I really type wrong the password that I set at install
time:* I typed it twice*.
Rather I think that they are some funny characters inside it.
So I lost the hope to try to guess the password and I think to re install
Fedora.., but I have a problem.
My computer is dual boot with Windows XP and I am not sure how uninstall
Grub (how to manage the MBR when to the computer start) before to uninstall
Fedora...
Some time ago I tried to fix this problem using Windows in recovery mode
(command fixboot) and, at last, I had to reinstall also Windows XP (further
that Fedora)..
Can I have an advice how to arrange the dual boot on my computer, before
to uninstall Fedora??
Thank you
regards
Angelo
9 years, 7 months
F20 + Old but unused hardware continually core dumps
by Philip Rhoades
People,
I have been trying to build a usable PC out of old - but previously
unused hardware (motherboards, CPUs, RAM, 80GB Seagate disks, power
supplies) - but whatever combination I use I continually get core dumps
- I have reinstalled on numerous occasions and sometimes the PC works
for hours without a problem and then fails - but quite frequently it
fails on bootup! I have tried with 2G RAM but that had problems so I
went back to 1G thinking that one SIMM might be faulty but no
combination works for any reasonable length of time.
http://www.foxconnchannel.com/ProductDetail.aspx?T=Motherboard&U=en-us000...
I can't do screen captures of course but I have taken a photo of the
most recent crash and I can see:
- at 21s:
search_binary_handler+ . . .
do_execve_common+ . . .
SyS_execve . . .
Code: . . . string of two digit hex numbers
EIP: . . .
CR2: . . .
--[ end trace . . .
firewalld[461]: segfault at . . .
.
.
.
- at 3308s:
----------------------[ cut here ]---------------------------
kernel BUG at fs/ext4/inode.c:2393!
invalid opcode: 0000 [#2] SMP
Modules . . .
CPU 0 PID: 29049 . . .
Hardware name: /865M01, BIOS 6.00 PG 12/25/2004
task: . . .
EIP: . . .
EIP: . . .
EAX: . . .
ESI: . . .
BS: . . .
CR0: . . .
Stack: . . .
.
.
.
Call trace:
.
.
.
Code: . . .
EIP: . . .
--[ end trace . . .
I can put this 2.3M photo somewhere if it is of use for anyone to look
at? Any ideas what the problem(s) might be? It sort of looks like a
RAM problem to me but ALL the SIMMS can't be faulty . .
Thanks,
Phil.
--
Philip Rhoades
GPO Box 3411
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
E-mail: phil(a)pricom.com.au
9 years, 7 months
/boot/efi in a dual boot system
by D. Hugh Redelmeier
As I type this, I'm installing Fedora 20 on a UEFI system which already
has CentOS 7 (and nothing else).
Should the two systems share /boot/efi?
As I understand it, the answer is yes: /boot/efi is universal on a
machine. It is where the firmware goes to load things. Not just OS
bootloader: manufacturer-supplied EFI utilities can live there too.
But Fedora, by default, wants to create a new /boot/efi.
What is the right thing to do? What will work?
In the current installation, I've forced Fedora to use the existing
/boot/efi. I guess I'll see how that turns out.
I could not see any guidance in the Fedora 20 installation guide.
<https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/20/html/Installation_Guide/s1...>
In fact, the appendix on disk partitions didn't deal with
EFI/UEFI/GPT, something I could have used. (After 20 years of living
with MBR, I kind of got the hang of it.)
9 years, 7 months
Re: F20 + Old but unused hardware continually core dumps
by Philip Rhoades
People,
See inline responses to three replies:
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 17:22:23 +0930
> From: Tim <ignored_mailbox(a)yahoo.com.au>
>
> On Sun, 2014-08-31 at 14:12 +1000, Philip Rhoades wrote:
>> It sort of looks like a RAM problem to me but ALL the SIMMS can't be
>> faulty
>
> Well, they can... When it comes to recycling, all bets are off,
> particularly if nobody took anti-static precautions while handling the
> parts.
I haven't had that sort of bad SIMM frequency before but it is possible
I guess . .
> But, for the sake of a simple thing to try, I'd try cleaning the
> contacts in the RAM sockets, and the on the RAM sticks, with electrical
> contact cleaner and lubricant. Likewise, for other plug-in cards.
OK, I will try that when I am on site again in a week or so.
> If you have another power supply to try, substitute it.
Yep, did that with a new (current) PS - crashed on bootup . .
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:48:37 +0200
> From: Ralf Corsepius <rc040203(a)freenet.de>
>
> On 08/31/2014 06:12 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote:
>> People,
>>
>> I have been trying to build a usable PC out of old - but previously
>> unused hardware (motherboards, CPUs, RAM, 80GB Seagate disks, power
>> supplies) - but whatever combination I use I continually get core
>> dumps
>> - I have reinstalled on numerous occasions and sometimes the PC works
>> for hours without a problem and then fails - but quite frequently it
>> fails on bootup! I have tried with 2G RAM but that had problems so I
>> went back to 1G thinking that one SIMM might be faulty but no
>> combination works for any reasonable length of time.
>
> Which CPU are you using? Unless it's a hardware defect somewhere, I'm
> inclined to believe you could be trying to run an incompatible kernel.
Hmmm . . that MB is for Socket478 processors and I definitely installed
the 32 bit F20 (LiveCD install) - how could it be incompatible? Would
F20 64bit even install?
> Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 02:48:40 -0700
> From: Tod Merley <todbot88(a)gmail.com>
>
> Yes, I think a HW list along with the SW being tried would likely prove
> helpful here.
OK, that will have to wait till I can get back on site again too - of
course my remote ssh connection doesn't work now because of another
crash - I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did!
> On Sun, Aug 31, 2014 at 1:48 AM, Ralf Corsepius <rc040203(a)freenet.de>
> wrote:
>
>> On 08/31/2014 06:12 AM, Philip Rhoades wrote:
>>
>>> People,
>>>
>>> I have been trying to build a usable PC out of old - but previously
>>> unused hardware (motherboards, CPUs, RAM, 80GB Seagate disks, power
>>> supplies) - but whatever combination I use I continually get core
>>> dumps
>>> - I have reinstalled on numerous occasions and sometimes the PC works
>>> for hours without a problem and then fails - but quite frequently it
>>> fails on bootup! I have tried with 2G RAM but that had problems so I
>>> went back to 1G thinking that one SIMM might be faulty but no
>>> combination works for any reasonable length of time.
>>>
>>
>> Which CPU are you using? Unless it's a hardware defect somewhere, I'm
>> inclined to believe you could be trying to run an incompatible kernel.
Thanks people - more info to come later!
Regards,
Phil.
--
Philip Rhoades
GPO Box 3411
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
E-mail: phil(a)pricom.com.au
9 years, 7 months
md5 encryption
by Dustin Kempter
hi all, I just had a question. so I have been hearing that md5 has been
compromised, how much of a security threat does this impose? if it is
something that poses a large concern is it possible to change the
encryption method from md5 to crypt? or another method that is not
compromised?
thanks
-dustink
9 years, 7 months
Fedora 20 and Dell Latitude e6400
by Brian Johnson
Hello all,
I was recently gifted an old Dell Latitude E6400 laptop and, given its age
and what I've read, I thought getting Fedora 20 going on it would be smooth.
And, to some extent, it was. I was primarily concerned with the wireless,
but that seems to have been fixed for some time.
Sadly, it wasn't without issues. I'm currently having issues getting my
trackpad and my webcam going. I've done some looking around with no luck.
For the touchpad, I get basic functionality. I can "tap to click" and use
the pointer, but I can't use the scroll areas on the side/bottom for
scrolling. Clicking both physical buttons don't perform a middle-click, and
tapping with 2-fingers don't give me a "right" click. Going under "mouse &
touchpad" in Settings only gives me very basic options.
Running "xinput list" shows it being seen as a "PS/2 ALPS DualPoint
TouchPad". Searching for Fedora and this don't yield much/anything.
I'm running Fedora 20 updated as of today. Kernel is
3.15.10-200.fc20.x86_64.
I also would like to get the webcam going. When I try to run Cheese, I get
a "no device found" error. Running lsusb doesn't show a camera attached.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Brian
9 years, 7 months
Fedora on MacBook Pro: need to disable graphical boot screen
by Where Where
Hello everyone!
I'm attempting to switch to Linux from Mac OS on a Macbook Pro model number
MacBookPro10,1 with the latest BIOS and firmware. I need to have full-disk
encryption for work, so I allowed the fedora installer to set up an
encrypted LVM volume alongside my Mac partition (I'm dual-booting). But
alas! Upon booting for the first time, I get this error message:
(In yellow) [3.226029] pci 0000:00:01.0: ASPM: Could not configure common
clock
[4.258867] i915 0000:00:02.0: Invalid ROM contents
The boot then hangs...and nothing happens.
i915 refers to the graphics chipset on my laptop. I had previously tried
Ubuntu (which didn't end up being what I was looking for) and found that
when I installed the server version, without the graphical boot, Ubuntu
booted, but when I installed the desktop version, with a graphical boot, it
did not.
So I currently wish to disable graphical boot in Fedora. I'd also be happy
to do a new installation to get rid of the graphical boot if that's what it
takes.
Any kind advice?
Daniel
9 years, 7 months
