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Tyneside Linux User Group	Sticky article	PRINT
Welcome to Tyneside Linux User Group Tyneside Linux User Group is an informal, loose organisation of Linux users and advocates in the general Tyneside area. There is no formal membership, and all are welcome to our meetings, which are largely social in nature. You may log in as guest (use a blank password). If you wish to have your own login, please email one of the LUG Co-ordinators. Email addresses can be found in the directory. We have two mailing lists: * The announce list is a low volume, read-only list where the LUG's coordinators can inform subscribers of meetings, events and important changes to our resources. * The general list is where subscribers can discuss pretty much anything they like. Related link: https://tyneside.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Submitted by Brian Ronald

Meetings	Saturday 28th June, 2008	PRINT
Next Meeting Our next meeting will be in the The Discovery Museum on Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne. It will begin at 12:00 (noon), to end two or three hours later, on Saturday 5th of July, 2008 which follows our regular pattern of the first Saturday each month. You can find us in the classroom on the ground floor. Submitted by Brian Ronald

Meetings	Saturday 14th June, 2008	PRINT
There will be cake July sees the ninth anniversary of Tyneside Linux User Group. As such, there will be cake. Submitted by Brian Ronald

Linux and Free Software	Sunday 08th June, 2008	PRINT
Community Choice Awards Nominations Open Nominations are officially open for the 3rd annual Sourceforge.net Community Choice Awards. This year, for the first time, the awards will be open to ALL open source projects, not just those that count SourceForge.net as home. The nomination period is open until June 20th, then there are 6 weeks of voting on the finalists for each category. It leads up to the awards party during OSCON at the Jupiter Hotel in downtown Portland on July 24th. Last year it was a pretty big deal, with over 500 open source people attending. It's not a boring awards ceremony...we try to make it wide open and fun, with food and drink and geeky prizes. Nominations are open until June 20th! To nominate, go here: http://sourceforge.net/community/cca08 Related link: http://sourceforge.net/community/cca08 Submitted by Anonymous User

Software	Thursday 24th April, 2008	PRINT
Ubuntu 8.04 released Ubuntu 8.04 is the April 2008 release of Ubuntu, a Linux based operating system. This release, also known for some reason as Hardy Heron, is a "long term support" release, and will have an extended lifetime when it comes to updates and security patches. Ubuntu is a free and commercial Linux operating system, with support provided by Canonical and development paid for by the Ubuntu Foundation. Related link: http://www.ubuntu.com/ Submitted by Brian Ronald

Security	Monday 17th March, 2008	PRINT
New SSL certificate from Comodo Our thanks go to Michael Fowler and the rest of the team at Comodo for sponsoring Tyneside Linux User Group with a free-of-charge five year SSL certificate. Now our members can rest assured that nobody is going to see the passwords they use when they log in to our web site as well as the passwords on our POP3 server. Comodo were the inventors and maintainers of Trustix Secure Linux, and are not new to the concept of free software. Customer services at Comodo have been very supportive to us, and we're very grateful to them for their kindness. Related link: http://www.instantssl.com/ Submitted by Brian Ronald

Linux and Free Software	Thursday 21st February, 2008	PRINT
National LUGs site gets massive overhaul After many years of being stuck in the 90s, the guys at UK LUGs have given the national LUG portal a complete overhaul. It now features syndicated news articles from many of the LUGs around the country (which you will know, if you're reading this on their site). Finding local LUGs through the site is now much more easy, with up to date contact details and information on the status of individual groups. The whole site is easier to navigate, and basically looks great. Well done to all those in the UK LUGs server team who worked on it! Related link: http://www.lug.org.uk/ Submitted by Brian Ronald

Security	Sunday 10th February, 2008	PRINT
Kernel security issue I'd like to bring your attention to a Linux security problem. If you have a Linux server where users have shell access, and are running a kernel between 2.6.17 and 2.6.24, you are vulnerable to your users. There is an exploit which allows users to get themselves root permissions without knowing your password. It uses the vmsplice syscall, which has always had this problem. There is a fix. This fix is a simple kernel module, which can be compiled and inserted without rebooting, which disables the vulnerable system call. Linked below is the solution. It's a kernel module, which can be compiled and inserted without rebooting. The module catches any attempts to make a vmsplice call, and cancels them with a "not available" error. Any vulnerable system admins should consider using this module until such time as they can update their kernel with a secure one. Instructions: Download the file, then: tar xf novmsplice.tgz cd novmsplice make then as root: insmod novmsplice.ko We do not have control over the target of the link below. I have read the code and tested the module, and I am confident that it is benign. As a precaution, I have created a PGP signature of the file as I downloaded it, so you can be sure you have the same one that I tested. This signature is available on the files section of this web site, in the "software" folder as novmsplice.tgz.asc Related link: http://www.linux.it/~md/software/novmsplice.tgz Submitted by Brian Ronald

Events	Sunday 03rd February, 2008	PRINT
Presentations a success I'd like to thank Adny and David for joining me in giving presentations on methods of remote control for the February meeting. The turnout wasn't huge, but there were enough people there for it to be worthwhile, so I'd also like to thank those who came along. We're happy with the venue for this purpose (once Phil from the museum corrected the lighting for us) and we plan to have further presentations in the future. Future presentations should be shorter, giving time afterwards for socialising and providing Linux support to those who come along looking for it. They will be announced here as and when the details become available. We're still interested in having people along to give presentations of their own! Submitted by Brian Ronald

Events	Friday 25th January, 2008	PRINT
Remote Access Tyneside Linux User Group plans to give talks about remote control at the February meeting. Speakers will be presenting brief introductions to VNC, NoMachine, ssh and X. There is no admission charge either to the museum or to the meeting. Submitted by Brian Ronald