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This document is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the Triangle Linux Users Group (TriLUG). It is mainly intended as a helpful reference point for the TriLUG mailing lists, though it is a good starting point for anyone interested in TriLUG in general.
If you have any suggestions, additions, or corrections for this document, please contact the following:
Or, since this FAQ is kept in the TriLUG wiki, feel free to edit it directly.
These are general questions about TriLUG.
TriLUG is the Triangle Linux Users Group. It is an educational nonprofit (incorporated as a 501(c)3 for tax purposes) in the State of North Carolina. Our primary point of contact is our web site at www.trilug.org. For further information including a copy of our articles of incorporation and bylaws, please visit our web site at www.trilug.org.
As an educational nonprofit, TriLUG devoted to teaching and otherwise helping people use Linux and other free/open-source software. We have monthly meetings, active mailing lists, and installfests.
Under our current articles of incorporation, all North Carolina residents are invited and welcome to join!
In addition to our mailing list (which is open to everyone, not just members, and is an EXCELLENT source of free linux-related tech support), membership provides voting privileges and discounts at many local vendors. See our web pages for further details.
To join, come to one of our meetings and and we'll gladly issue you an official membership card, member number, and further details. Memberships are also taken at installfests, hamfests, and other events at which TriLUG has a presence. If you can't come to any of these events, you may be able to meet a Steering Committee member personally. Memberships must be submitted in person.
Monthly meetings, our web server, the treasury, and other organizational and day-to-day issues are the responsibility of an elected Steering Committee (contact available via the Contact TriLUG form) on behalf of the members. The function of the Steering Committee is not to "run the show", but rather to bring member requests to fruition. Sometimes, the Steering Committee makes decisions about, sets, or writes policy, but every effort is made to openly discuss such decisions and to involve the membership in the process.
The steering committee is elected by majority vote once per year at the May meeting of the general TriLUG membership. Though all committee members have individual addresses, it is a good idea to send official correspondence via the Contact TriLUG form since this generally results in a speedier response. The Steering Committee is comprised of a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, Webmaster/SysAdmin, and Public Relations/Outreach Officer. Steering Committee members must reside in the state of North Carolina. For more details on the Steering Committee, please see the Articles of Incorporation.
The TriLUG Member Service FAQ has been rolled into this document. Please see the TriLUG Services section.
Visit the Contact TriLUG form
Questions and "Netiquette" for the mailing lists.
Currently, there are several TriLUG lists. Information about most of them can be found at http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo.
All the lists currently run off of our mail server. The only current list archived is the main one at http://www.trilug.org/pipermail/trilug
Several historical lists are still archived at the following URLs:
The rules for "appropriate content" on the TriLUG lists are simple:
In addition, the following guidelines are also a good starting point:
Occasionally the list will drift slightly off-topic, it happens. This is a community. The best thing to do in those occasions is to just wait and let the thread die. Past experience has shown that attempts to squelch a particular topic usually result in a flame war that dwarfs the off-topic thread. Before you respond with a 'THIS IS OFF TOPIC' sit back and read your response. Does it contribute? Is it merely prolonging a thread that would otherwise have died? Will it cause the list to errupt in flames (most likely)? If so, don't post it. If you really feel a need, send your response to the steering committee. They'd be happy to chat with you about it.
In general, the TriLUG list stays on topic. We have great discussions and question & answer posts that help not only our membership, but others that read posts via the web archives (thanks to Google). It's a great list, it's a community. There is some noise, for sure, but the signal far outweighs it.
So please, don't take it upon yourself to tell people what they can and cannot post. People are generally smart enough to think before they post. Occasionally, when someone hits the send button a little too early, or cannot find a better outlet, something way off in left field will slip through. Just let it go. If you really feel a need, send it to the steering committee contact. If it's way out there, the SC will likely send the original poster a direct e-mail, politely requesting they stay on topic. Please, don't take the law (as it were) into your own hands. :)
Finally, before asking a question on the list, it might help to read How To Ask Questions The Smart Way (http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html) by Eric Raymond.
The easiest way is to visit the mailing list website and add yourself to the list!
http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/
There are many reasons why you may not get a response to your question:
That being said, there are several things you can do to increase the chances of a meaningful response.
Spam is many different things to many different people. There are several different kinds in particular that will get you in trouble:
Well, good question... *grin*
In practice we have had very few problems with off-topic posts, flames, and other list annoyances. If they do become a more serious problem, the steering committee will first remind the offenders. If the problems persist, various defenses including moderation and banning of abusers may be implemented. We hope that it won't be necessary.
In the past, jobs posts were not allowed on our lists. More recently, the steering committee has voted to allow posts under specific circumstances. Thus, if the job post in question meets the following criteria:
then it is welcome on our main discussion list. These posts are not welcome on the announce list. If there are any questions or if these policies need clarification, please feel free to contact the steering committee and we'll be glad to help. If you decide your job post is not appropriate for our mailing list, you might instead consider posting it in the triangle.jobs newsgroup.
General advertisements to the TriLUG discussion list are strongly discouraged. Note that other kinds of "ads" are possible through sponsoring pizza and soda for our monthly meetings. An exception that might be acceptable is a one-time promotion of a "junk sale" of old computer equipment, but this must be posted only once, not be for commercial gain, and should not be a habit.
The TriLUG Meetings are at Red Hat Headquarters on NC State's Centenial campus. You can find a map of our meeting location here.
The TriLUG meetings are always the 2nd Thursday evening of each month at 7pm.
Absolutely! If you have any ideas for a future talk, please post them to the main discussion list. Even better, please post if you think you might like to give a talk. We're always open to suggestions.
We're always looking for sponsors! Please contact the Steering Committee (Contact TriLUG) if you or your company would like to be an official pizza sponsor for a meeting. In return for your sponsorship, we will allow you to give a 10-15 minute talk at the beginning of the meeting. If you have further questions or any other proposals, please contact us.
TriLUG provides several ISP functions to our membership. They include:
To get a shell/webmail/services account, you will need your TriLUG Membership number, and your registered e-mail address.
Once you have determined this information, go to this URL to fill out an account request : https://www.trilug.org/accountrequest/. In order to avoid a certificate error, you may wish to import the CACert CA; see the CACert Root Certificate web page for instructions on how to do this.
After filling out the form, a TriLUG system administrator will create your account. You will receive an e-mail response at this point letting you know it's ready. Be sure to change your password immediately (by logging into the shell server and running "passwd").
A TriLUG Shell account also gives a member access to the IMAP and SMTP servers that TriLUG runs.
You must join TriLUG to get a shell / mail server account. Membership is free.
It's all free! Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors and member donations, we're able to provides these services free of charge. We welcome your donations; you may bring donations to any meeting, or contact the steering committee (via the Contact TriLUG form), chair, or treasurer if you'd like to donate. TriLUG is a 501(c)(3) educational organization, so your donation may be tax-deductible. A receipt will gladly be provided for donations of $25 or more.
Yes. Create a directory called public_html, make sure it has permissions of at least 755 (read/execute for everyone). Make sure your home directory has permissions of at least 711 (execute for everyone). PHP is allowed as well as CGI access through su_exec. Upload files via scp or sftp through your ssh client. Your web URL will be http://www.trilug.org/~username/. For CGI/su_exec access, give your executables the ".cgi" extension, and make sure they have permission 755 or less (su_exec doesn't like group write permission). (You can even use permission 700 since su_exec runs as your user id.)
You probably logged in using ssh key exchange and thus haven't generated a Kerberos ticket. Simply run the "kinit" command followed by your current password to generate the ticket. Then you can change your password with the "passwd" command as you normally would.
These are general questions about the TriLUG Mail Server.
Thanks to the generosity of many individuals and companies, TriLUG now offers a mail server to its members. Special thanks go to Sunguard, one of our Platinum sponsors, which provides co-location and Internet bandwidth for our server cluster.
You can use any mail client that supports IMAP via SSL or TLS. If your client doesn't support IMAP over SSL, but does support IMAP, you can use stunnel to make the SSL connection. Here are a few clients that we've tested:
kinit to get a new Kerberos ticket before starting pine; otherwise you'll be prompted for your IMAP username and password.
mail.trilug.org/user=USERID/ssl/novalidate-cert" where USERID is your username. You probably want to delete the "local folder" collection which was the only way I could get INBOX to appear in the right place.
inbox-path variable to read this:
{mail.trilug.org/user=USERID/ssl/novalidate-cert}INBOX
set imap_authenticators="login" ; set spoolfile=imap://USERNAME@mail.trilug.org/INBOX ; set folder=imap://USERNAME@mail.trilug.org/ ;
No, the TriLUG IMAP server is running Cyrus IMAPd and supports Sieve.
Sieve is a language created specifically for filtering e-mail. You can find more information about using Sieve at the following links:
You can setup your sieve rules through a web browser at this link. Or, alternatively, you can select the "Filters" link from within the TriLUG webmail.
Go to the TriLUG sieve link and log in with your TriLUG username/password. Click "[Advanced Options]" link near the top of the page. Make sure "Activate Script?" says "Yes". Change "Script Mode:" to "Advanced". Now select the "[View/Edit Rules]" link. You will be presented with a large text entry field. Enter this into the text entry field:
redirect "emailaddress@domain.com";
(Make sure to enter the e-mail address you want to forward to.) Click the "Save Changes" button and then log out. Your mail should now be redirected to the e-mail address you specified.
Spamassassin is installed and is running sitewide on the mail server. Currently, it is set up to scan and tag all email, but it will not delete any spam. You should probably setup a sieve rule to forward tagged spam to a different folder, so you won't see it in your INBOX all the time.
You may also want to look into Bayesian learning program, as well as other options for your ~/.spamassassin/user_prefs file, such as white- and black-lists. See the man pages for sa-learn and Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf, as well as http://www.spamassassin.org for more information.
Go to https://www.trilug.org/webmail/ and log in with your username and password. Make sure you have the CACert Root certificate loaded into your browser or you will get SSL Certificate errors.
Yes, it's at jabber.trilug.org. Though at this time, it has been down for an extended period and no ETA on repair has been announced.
Point your jabber client at jabber.trilug.org and sign up for an account.
Yes, it's at bz.trilug.org. Games generally start at 9:15pm on Friday nights. Come and get your bz kicked by some of the best players in the Triangle.
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