Topic: Hypervisors in the Homelab with Xen Orchestra
Presenter: Jeff Moore
When: Thursday, 11 September 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording To Come

Summary:

This month, join Jeff Moore as he talks about homelabbing with Xen Orchestra!
Xen Orchestra has become a popular hypervisor due in part to the licensing changes in vSphere. this will be a walkthrough of an overview of Xen Orchestra, exploring how it is deployed and the design decisions behind those choices, and explore in-depth some its advanced features and how they are used within a broader homelab environment. Topics include things like: VLANs, VM automation, backups, BGP, load balancing. If there's time and/or interest, there will also be an overview of how the popular media streaming app Jellyfin is deployed within Xen Orchestra and Kubernetes.

Jeff is a site reliability engineer and former TriLUG chair who enthusiastically maintains a homelab and enjoys pickleball.

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:30 PM.

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks. That link is: TriLUG Meetup

Note that TriLUG meetings start at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Adventures in Hardware Security : Attacking Systems
Presenter: Maryam Abkar
When: Thursday, 14 August 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording

Summary:

This month, join Maryam Abkar as she talks about Hardware Security.
This talk will cover opening up hardware devices and trying to see how deep the rabbit hole goes! This is a beginner's talk covering extraction of firmware, reversing, and some common hardware hacking attacks.

Maryam Abkar is an IT Specialist working for the US Forest Service and is currently part of the TriLUG Steering Committee. She recently graduated from North Carolina State University and is a former member of their cybersecurity club HackPack and their University LUG.

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:30 PM.

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks. That link is: TriLUG Meetup

Note that TriLUG meetings start at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Free as in Freedom: A History of Free Software
Presenter: Lee Warren
When: Thursday, 10 July 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording

Summary:

Even if you have never used Linux, there's an almost 100% chance you have used Free Software at least at some point. Software like Blender, Audacity, GIMP, Krita, and even Firefox are Free Software. Beyond that, there are entire ecosystems dedicated to the principles of Free Software, such as operating systems like Linux, FreeBSD, Illumos, and many more. But what even *is* Free Software, and what makes it "Free?" What's the difference between "Free" and "Open Source", and why does that even matter? And how did it become so popular that it seems like almost everyone uses it, even without realizing it? Join Lee Warren as he explains the story behind Free Software's origins as a philosophy during the pioneer days of computing, and how a small band of determined hackers created Free Software from simple programs to entire operating systems.

Lee is an undergraduate at NC State and a computer enthusiast. He was recently elected to the Steering Committee, acting as Public Relations for TriLUG.

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:30 PM.

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks. That link is: TriLUG Meetup

Note that TriLUG meetings start at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: The Evolution of System Administration with NetActuate and TriLUG Elections!
Presenter:
When: Thursday, 12 June 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording

Summary:

As technology infrastructure evolves, so too does the role of the system administrator. What was once a role defined by hands-on hardware management and server uptime has grown into a dynamic, automation-driven, and highly strategic discipline. In this talk, Craig Jackson from NetActuate explores the transformation of system administration from traditional break-fix and maintenance tasks to modern expectations that include infrastructure as code, cloud orchestration, cybersecurity awareness, observability, and cross-team collaboration. We'll examine how the rise of DevOps culture, containers, and platform engineering has reshaped not just the tools sysadmins use, but also the mindset required to stay effective and relevant. This session is both a retrospective and a call to action: to embrace adaptability, continuous learning, and the shift from "keeping the lights on" to becoming infrastructure architects and enablers of innovation.

A lifelong Linux and Unix enthusiast, Craig got his start as a hobbyist in his adolescence, eventually working in dial-up internet support through the 90s and early 2000s. During college, he interned at a healthcare hosting company, where he deepened his understanding of infrastructure and real-world operations. He later took a career turn into healthcare, stepping away from tech for a time. When he returned to the internet world, he found a landscape transformed—where scripts became pipelines, servers became containers, and sysadmins became automation engineers. Now established in the cloud networking and DevOps world @ NetActuate, he's been on a continual path of rediscovery, bridging old-school fundamentals with modern infrastructure requirements.

TriLUG Elections are upon us!

Due to various circumstances, the TriLUG Steering Committee Elections were postponed from the May meeting until the June.

TriLUG elections are upon us! TriLUG needs YOU to help with the week to week operations and steer the direction of TriLUG for the next year (May - May). As described in About Steering, there are 5 positions:
- Chair
- Vice Chair
- Treasurer
- PR Officer
- SysAdmin

Candidates do not run for a specific position, but to become a member of the overall Steering Committee.

Together, the individuals elected to these positions do things like:
- Curate speakers for monthly meetings
- Manage TriLUG infrastructure/services
- Coordinate on various TriLUG concerns

Please fill out the form at Nomination Form to put yourself or another as a nominee on the ballot. During the meeting, we will vote on the top 5 nominees who will then become the new Steering Committee for 2025-2026. There will be a lot of challenges in the upcoming year, but there will be ample opportunity to network with others and grow community organization skills.

The Talk:

Watch this space! The TriLUG Steering Committee is working on finalizing speaker details for the June meeting. The description and title of this meeting will change once details are confirmed.

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:30 PM.

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks. That link is: TriLUG Meetup

Note that TriLUG meetings start at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Elections and a speaker
Presenter:
When: Thursday, 12 June 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Will not be Recorded

Summary:

The June meeting is nearly here! That means two things - elections and another great talk!

For the elections, Due to various circumstances, the TriLUG Steering Committee Elections were postponed from the May meeting until the June.

TriLUG elections are upon us! TriLUG needs YOU to help with the week to week operations and steer the direction of TriLUG for the next year (May - May). As described in About Steering, there are 5 positions:
- Chair
- Vice Chair
- Treasurer
- PR Officer
- SysAdmin

Candidates do not run for a specific position, but to become a member of the overall Steering Committee.

Together, the individuals elected to these positions do things like:
- Curate speakers for monthly meetings
- Manage TriLUG infrastructure/services
- Coordinate on various TriLUG concerns

Please fill out the form at Nomination Form to put yourself or another as a nominee on the ballot. During the meeting, we will vote on the top 5 nominees who will then become the new Steering Committee for 2025-2026. There will be a lot of challenges in the upcoming year, but there will be ample opportunity to network with others and grow community organization skills.

The Talk:

Watch this space! The TriLUG Steering Committee is working on finalizing speaker details for the June meeting. The description and title of this meeting will change once details are confirmed.

As usual, pizza and beverages will be provided and the meeting will be held at the North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207, 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606 at 7:30 PM.

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks. That link is: TriLUG Meetup

Note that TriLUG meetings start at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Elections and Keyboard Firmware with Keeb.io
Presenter: Danny, founder of Keeb.io
When: Thursday, 8 May 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording

Summary:

The May meeting is nearly here! That means two things - elections and another great talk!

For the elections, Fill out the form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1qxAzYXltiYvxQgKlLr1TXI6Se3BoA-b9ZQmTtS2mn4g to put yourself or a nominee on the ballot. During the meeting, we will vote on the top 5 nominees who will then become the new Steering Commitee for 2025-2026. There will be a lot of challenges in the upcoming year, but there will be ample opportunity to network with others and grow community organization skills.

The Talk:

Danny, founder of Keeb.io, will discuss the state of keyboard firmware - including QMK, ZMK, and lesser known keyboard firmware. Additionally, he will discuss other open source keyboard projects.

Keebio is a small, local business operating for 7+ years and now specializing in split ergonomic mechanical keyboards. You are empowered to build your own keyboard from their kits, or the Keebio team can build your keyboard custom for immediate use after unboxing! Keebio keyboards use the open source software, QMK, to give the greatest accessibility.

Full details are in https://www.meetup.com/trilug/events/306680640/ .

Please sign up using the Meetup link so that an accurate headcount can be gathered for pizza and drinks.

If you'd like to learn more about Keeb.io, feel free to visit their site at https://keeb.io/

Pizza and beverages will be provided! Additionally, there will be PCB keychains and other swag available for attendees!

Note that TriLUG starts at 7:30 PM this year due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM.

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Apr 10 - Mobile Development in 2025: Working with React Native and Expo
Presenter: Brandon Mathis
When: Thursday, 10 April 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Meeting Recording

Summary:

Join Brandon Mathis for a hands-on, live coding session where we dive into the world of modern mobile development with React Native and Expo. Learn how to leverage these powerful tools to build fully native mobile applications using only JavaScript —no prior native development experience required!

We'll walk through the entire process, from setup to deployment, covering key concepts, best practices, and common pitfalls. Expect an interactive, no-filter session where we’ll code together, troubleshoot in real-time, and embrace the inevitable mistakes along the way. Bring your questions and get ready to build!

Pizza and beverages will be provided!

If you can, RSVP on Meetup at https://www.meetup.com/trilug/events/306862740/

Note that TriLUG will be starting at 7:30 PM instead of 7:00 PM due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org

Topic: Adventures in Basic Embedded Security: Design
Presenter: Maryam Abkar
When: Thursday, 13 March 2025 - 7:30 to 9:00pm
Where: North Carolina College of Textiles, room 2207 at 1020 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh NC, 27606
Parking: There is an underground parking deck next to the College at the Monteith Engineering Parking Deck. Parking is free after 5 PM. Detailed parking instructions can be found at https://trilug.org/meetings/
Map: Google Maps
Video: Will not be Recorded

Summary:

Maryam Abkar will speak on the considerations and pitfalls of learning Embedded Security on the fly for MITRE's eCTF competition with NCSU's cybersecurity club. She will explore some of the preliminary attacks we want to defend against, security concepts we can use to build a secure system, as well as some of the open problems we are grappling with.

Maryam Is an IT Specialist working for the US Forest Service and is currently part of the TriLUG Steering Committee. She recently graduated from North Carolina State University and is a former member of their cybersecurity club HackPack and their University LUG.

Pizza and beverages will be provided!

Note that TriLUG will be starting at 7:30 PM instead of 7:00 PM due to a change in venue availability. Please adjust accordingly

Call for speakers and topics

We are always looking for potential speakers! If you or someone you know would like to present on a topic please let us know. Contact the TriLUG Steering Committee by email at steering@trilug.org