JLUG Meet Up

a section of the audience keen on the presentation

Yet another successful meet up went down this past Thursday, one that was quite the special occasion. Our main act for the night was none other than Imani, and needless to say he’s a man who needs no introduction; but I digress.

Linux Repositories

What are Repositories?

There are literally thousands of Ubuntu programs available to meet the needs of Ubuntu users. Many of these programs are stored in software archives commonly referred to as repositories. Repositories make it very easy to install new software onto Ubuntu using an Internet connection, while also providing a high level of security, as each program available in the repositories is thoroughly tested and built specifically for each version of Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu software repositories are organized into four separate areas or "components", according to the level of support offered by Ubuntu and whether or not the program in question complies with Ubuntu's Free Software Philosophy.

The repository components are:
Main - Officially supported software.
Restricted - Supported software that is not available under a completely free license.
Universe - Community maintained software, i.e. not officially supported software.
Multiverse - Software that is not free.

Overview of the default Ubuntu software repositories

Software repositories

To organize the software, Ubuntu repositories are categorized into four groups: Main, Restricted, Universe, and Multiverse. The rationale used to determine which software goes into which category is based on the level of support that software development teams provide for a program and the level of compliance the program has to the Free Software Philosophy.

The standard Ubuntu Install CD contains some software from the Main and Restricted categories.

If your system is connected to the Internet, many more software programs are made available for installation. For example, the “Universe” and “Multiverse” repositories are only available over the Internet.

Please note: The Multiverse repository contains software which has been classified as non-free. This software may not be permitted in some jurisdictions. When installing each package from this repository, you should verify that the laws of your country permit you to use it. Also, this software may not include security updates.

Update repositories

The Update Manager automatically finds software updates for your computer when they are available. It regularly gathers information on potential updates from a number of online update sources.

If you click System → Administration → Software Sources and select the Updates tab, you will notice that four update sources are available. An explanation for each of these is provided below:

Important security updates: Updates which fix critical security flaws are made available through this source. It is recommended that all users leave this source enabled (it should be enabled by default).

Recommended updates: Updates which fix serious software problems (which are not security flaws) are made available through this source. Most users will want to leave this source enabled as common and annoying problems are often fixed with these updates.

Pre-released updates: Updates which are currently being tested before being released to everyone are provided through this update source. If you would like to help test new updates (and get fixes for problems more quickly), enable this source. Be aware that these updates may not yet be well tested; it is not recommended that you enable this source unless you are prepared to experience occasional problems.

Unsupported updates: When new versions of popular software are released they are sometimes “back-ported” to an older version of Ubuntu so that users can benefit from new features and fixes for problems. These backports are unsupported, may cause problems when installed and should only be used by people who are in desperate need of a new version of a software package which they know has been backported.

Second Meet Up of the Year

A Section of the Audience Keen on a Presentation

A sizeable crowd at hand, presentations at the ready and as always some new faces seated front and it was yet another successful meet up; this being our second for the new year. first up was Sigu who was on hand with useful tips and tricks stemming from our Linux/Unix background which no doubt welcomed the new faces as well as reminded us all of what drives the club as a whole; the open source spirit, having options and embracing different ways of looking at the challenges we face in ICT and coming together to find innovative solutions that will power tomorrow's technology today.

First meeting of the semester..

We had our first meeting of the semester on Thursday 22nd. The meeting involved a recap of what had happened earlier at the beginning of the semester, case in point the G|Kenya conference. Andrew took us through a brief description of how the event was.

Registration for the G|Kenya sessions

"Maserati" and friends were in attendance.

Introdoctory session Oh, did I mention that the Africa Android app challenge was won by two Kenyans? Here is a link to more info on the projects that won. Also, here is a link toThe G|Kenya team if you would like to know more about them. Some of them are not even I.T. or Comp science grads but are doing good stuff. It was an amazing experience. later, we were taken through the process of creating an apt-on-CD and Christine showed us some basic android coding. The code jam sessions as discussed late last semester started with a big bang on Saturday. If you missed the session, make sure you get to attend the subsequent ones. Let's all meet this Thursday again and do what we do best-Opensource!! PS: 17 days and counting to the JKUAT Tech expo.......

JLUG Meet Up 14 July

Yet another successful meeting happened this past Thursday with a host of presenters at the ready. Denis was first on the floor and made a presentation on a structured exception handling(SEH) based buffer overflow exploit. He was running Backtrack 4 on his machine as well as Windows XP via virtual box. Using the program Metersploit which comes pre-installed in Backtrack, he able to gain access to the XP system and manipulate quite a few features and programs based on vulnerabilities attacked. Full details on this can be found here.
The next presentation was by George on the .NET Framework, and yes you are reading it correct, the .NET Framework! He detailed quite a few points on this platform, among them:

• the .NET Framework itself which is pretty much like the java API or C/C++ Library
• the C# language and its robustness in terms of speed and ease of use especially with Visual Studio software
• a feature presentation on silverlight

Mike was on there after and provided quite an invaluable and essential workaround on recovery of the Grub Loader for Linux. Through these two lines of code:

• sudo mount /dev/sda1/ mnt...(replace sda1 with your root partition number) ,and
• grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ dev/sdx...(replace the x in sdx with your partition alphabet)

one is able to recover the grub loader in situations where one is running a dual boot configuration and the loader for the Linux system is overwritten by Windows or is otherwise lost or corrupted.
On a separate issue, the frequency of meetings has been unilaterally changed from twice weekly to once every week, same time same place. See you then and tag a friend along!

Government Open Data Portal Official Launch

Happening this Friday at 8.30am is the official launch of Open Data Portal initiative by the Kenya ICT Board and the Government at the KICC. Get your tickets and more info here

Fourth JLUG Meeting

Yet another successful fourth meet up this past Thursday and although our featured guest could not make it, still it proved to be a rather engaging and candid discussion on the myriad viewpoints and issues discussed.
Top on the list was a question raised by most of the new members present for their first ever meeting which centered around just exactly what the club is all about. From the conversation that answered that question, it was made clear that it's all about the Linux experience, free software that works just as good if not better than 'the establishment' and the commitment to ensuring that we are part of the global community spreading the word as it were.
Hot on the heels of this topic was the discussion on the various software solutions available and the best platform on which to run it. Perhaps the best answers came from quite a few of the members sharing their own personal experiences most of which were all things Linux. Sigu, for example, gave countless renditions on just how versatile his particular distro was on the hardware, how reliable it is and the efficiency and throughput it gives him when running his applications and programs.
The challenge as Ian, our moderator, so rightly put it was to try out the various distros available and embrace the Linux experience on one's own. As a club, we are always there to assist in case of any questions or difficulties.
The next meeting is on in a fortnight and new members are always welcome.