This is the temporary homepage of the Leicester Linux User Group

page last updated 2009-06-25

Next Meeting - Tuesday 14 July 2009

gPXE and advanced booting - a talk by Mike Preston

gPXE is the next generation of Etherboot. Among its massive improvements are being able to bootstrap operating systems using HTTP, FTP, iSCSI, AoE (ATA over Ethernet) and the traditional TFTP.

The gPXE bootloader can be loaded from Flashed BIOS, USB stick, HDD, PXE+TFTP or CD-ROM.

These along with support for config file chaining and variable expansion allows some interesting options in booting.

Tentative list of demos:

• Booting a rescue system from a server in the states
• Booting a diskless Windows XP system with iSCSI
• Demo of a web based boot selection tool (à la One and One)

Future Meeting Dates

Venue

The meetings are normallly held at the University Of Leicester, in seminar room 527 (or sometimes the room next door) in the Ken Edwards Building. The room is on the 5th floor, but the building entrance is on the second floor, so this is not as high as it sounds.
The Ken Edwards Building is now more visible from the outside as the "School of Management" building.

There is a campus map at

http://www.le.ac.uk/maps/mcampus.html

which marks the KE building. The main entrance to the building is next to the Percy Gee building (students' union).

By 7pm parking should not be too much of a problem, although the entrance barriers may still be down (tell the security guard you have a meeting in the Ken Edwards building, and they should let you in OK). Entrance 1 (by Cannons Health club) or 2 (Mayors walk) are the ones that should be used. There is a web page with details of how to get to the campus:

http://www.le.ac.uk/maps/howto.html

Thanks to Gilbert Laycock for booking us the room, and we hope to see you all there.

Agenda

The following times are approximate guidelines.

7pm-7.30pm Machine set up and problem solving, general chatting, and introductions.

This would give anyone doing a talk a chance to set up any demonstrations etc, and would be an opportunity for people who need help with an installation or other issue.

7.30pm-8.45pm Talk or discussion.

8.46pm-9.30pm Question and Answer session.

9.30pm- No meeting would be complete without a visit to the local pub, usually the Marquis of Wellington on London Road.

Mailing list

There is a mailing list setup for use with the group, managed using 'Mailman' :

leicester@mailman.lug.org.uk

This is the list for the general discussion of Linux related topics that are relevant to the users. Note that this may be used for general help queries as long as you are a local user - other users should look towards one of the Linux related newsgroups or a local user group for aid. This list is also used for announcements (about events, meetings, etc) from the LUG coordinators.

Subscribing to the list

Mailman has a simple to use web interface, which can be found at:

http://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leicester

You will need to enter your email address, and a password.

You will need to approve the subscription, to help ensure that the mail list is not abused. When you receive the approval message from Mailman, follow the instructions in the message.

Managing your access to the mailing list

All list management request (eg subscribing/unsubscribing) can be handled using the web interface mentioned above. Full details will be contained in the introductory email you will receive on joining the list.

Sending mail to the list

All email to the mailing list itself (once you have subscribed) should be sent to leicester@mailman.lug.org.uk - this will then be distributed to all subscribers on the list.

Please note: If you are not subscribed to mailing list, your mail will not be delivered to it. If you wish to send email to the list, you will have to subscribe to it first.

General Behaviour on the Lists

The discussion list is not moderated, so please consider the following when posting. Note that we reserve the right to unsubscribe any user if we feel that the situation warrants such action.

• Please keep to positive statements (remember the Leicester LUG as a body is 'pro-Linux', not necessarily 'anti-anything').
• Please trim replies to the list - there should rarely be a need to echo back the complete text of someone else's email.
  Long messages increase telephone bills for dial-up modem users and mobile 'phone users, and increase the mail server load.
• Please send mail in plain text format, not HTML.
• Off-topic discussions are allowed within reason, but please mark mailings as such by including [OT] in the subject line.
  Discussions on areas such as politics or religon are not permitted, as people will never agree and such discussions often become heated and result in flame wars.
  
• Please do not send any mail which may possibly offend.
• When starting a new thread, please send a fresh mail to the list, do not reply to an existing mail to the list.
  Replying to an existing message annoys users of mail clients which thread messages.
• As a general rule, people are quite helpful on the list, but when asking a question about some aspect of Linux, please consider the following :
  • Have as much detailed information about the query as is possible
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