[07:32] <andrewlsd> mornings
[07:41] <andrewlsd> The last 3 days I've been getting "hash-sum mismatched" on xenial-updates for 3 computers that are configured to use either of the two mirrors: archive.ubuntu.com and ubuntu.mirror.neology.co.za   . Curious as to whether anyone else running 16.04.x has also been experiencing those issues.
[07:42] <andrewlsd> I've just done: apt clean ; sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists/* -vf ; apt update and am still getting that error for Err:9 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages                                            
[07:42] <andrewlsd>   Hash Sum mismatch
[07:52] <andrewlsd> hmm. and now after repeating the same set of "clean, rm, clean, update" the error has disappeared. Odd. I guess some file or apt-related process must have still been open 
[07:58] <thatgraemeguy> andrewlsd: FWIW I've been using mirror.wiru.co.za hassle-free for a few weeks instead of the neology mirror
[07:58] <thatgraemeguy> also 1G uplink and seems to update more frequently
[07:59] <thatgraemeguy> I've seen neology's mirror lag 2-3 days behind a few times recently
[08:21] <nsnzero> good morning all have a great day
[08:27] <MaNI> So I  have a few cloudatcost boex (yes I know they suck etc.) that I ran some non crucial stuff on, they mostly work okay but there is this problem where every now and then the filesystem becomes readonly and then the stuff stops working.
[08:27] <MaNI> I figure the easiest fix is to just reboot the machines, what would be the best way to detect that a filesystem has gone read only?
[08:28] <MaNI> cron job, or is there some more automatic way to have it reboot in such circumstances?
[08:38] <nsnzero> hi mani 
[08:38] <nsnzero> if the reboot command work in terminal without asking for sudo password then you can set-up a cron job
[08:56] <andrewlsd> MaNI: tune2fs -l might show if filesystem is currently read-only. 
[09:16] <andrewlsd> thanks thatgraemeguy for the mirror.wiru tip.
[09:17] <andrewlsd> Anyone here know of any cape town-based individuals or (small) companies that I could refer a small organization to for Linux support.  Basically a firewall+proxy setup?
[09:18] <andrewlsd> where "know of" means you'd like to suggest them as worth talking to. rather than have just heard of someone.  Thanks everyone in advance.
[09:33] <thatgraemeguy> MaNI: look at monit, it's designed for that sort of thing
[09:37] <MaNI> thanks, I'll see if I can find some text that describes it's capabilities
[09:38] <MaNI> am I the only one that misses the days when webpages actually had information, instead of being a scroll fest with one line of marketing per overly graphic designed page
[09:39] <thatgraemeguy> andrewlsd: way back when I used to use Clarotech Consulting. I haven't needed them in ages, but I see from their site the management team is still the same, so I reckon they're still just as good as ever
[09:40] <andrewlsd> thanks thatgraemeguy, yeah I know some of the Clarotech people. Good recommendation.
[09:43] <MaNI> monit does look good for the task, thanks
[09:45] <thatgraemeguy> the real fix of course is to see why it does that. you probably have 'errors=remount-ro' in the mount options, so there is an underlying error causing it to remount the filesystem/s read-only
[09:46] <thatgraemeguy> 'dmesg' might have clues, otherwise perhaps the host's support people can assist
[09:46] <MaNI> yeah, I think it's out of my control
[09:46] <MaNI> AFAICT the harddrive performance becomes so poor at times that the system does an emergency remount
[09:48] <MaNI> better to let it do that and reboot than to risk filesystem corruption 
[09:52] <MaNI> or at least in this case, if it were for anything important I'd burn the servers and then get real ones :)
[09:56] <thatgraemeguy> fair enough
[10:01] <andrewlsd> MaNI: you might want to start remote logging, since if root filesystem goes R/O, on a cloud system, then you probably won't get logs written to disk.
[10:01] <andrewlsd> or just get a second disk / partition just for logging to.
[10:43] <MaNI> yeah maybe
[10:55] <theblazehen> MaNI: Can you do a `mount -o remount,rw /`? 
[10:55] <theblazehen> Doesn't work on btrfs, not sure if that applies to all filesystems though
[11:18] <andrewlsd> MaNI: probably btrfs is a _bad_ idea on unreliable storage. (but you probably realized that by now)
[11:19] <andrewlsd> use case for an alpine ^  run in ram, and periodically sync (backup) configs and data to persistent disk.
[11:20] <MaNI> yeah, it's ext4
[11:20] <andrewlsd> phew. ask theblazehen about fun with `btrfs`.  
[11:20] <andrewlsd> where s/fun/data\ loss/
[11:21] <andrewlsd> IIRC
[11:21] <MaNI> I got over playing with filesystems years ago, hehe
[11:23] <andrewlsd> MaNI:  you could set the filesystem error behaviour to panic. That might give you a reboot when there are fs issues. instead of needing to detect RO and reboot.
[11:23] <MaNI> hrm, yeah that would be handy if it works
[11:29] <MaNI> okay, set now to wait a week or so and see what happens :)
[11:31] <andrewlsd> you could test it by creating loopback device with that setting https://serverfault.com/questions/498900/intentionally-cause-an-i-o-error-in-linux/498931
[11:31] <andrewlsd> and manually generate a fs error
[11:31] <theblazehen> Yeah :(
[11:31] <theblazehen> At least, now I know snapshots != backups
[11:34] <MaNI> I had some 'fun' experimenting with murderfs back in the day, and then I ran into a 'rare' jfs kernel bug
[11:34] <theblazehen> heh
[11:35] <MaNI> after that some on and off issues with xfs, and I decided it's best to just stick with the most used/tested filesystems and not try anything different
[11:35] <theblazehen> I'm using btrfs with daily backups to ext4
[11:37] <andrewlsd> whats the SSD fs from samsung called?
[11:37] <andrewlsd> F2FS.
[11:38] <andrewlsd> Flash Friendly Filesystem
[11:38] <andrewlsd> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F2FS
[11:38] <MaNI> oh yeah I also had some fun a few years ago experimenting with the various 'SSD cache' systems in the kernel, bcache etc.
[11:39] <MaNI> my end conclusion was that none of them should be let anywhere near any data that matters :(
[11:39] <MaNI> at least not with the SSD drive I was testing with, maybe people have better luck with other drives
[11:39]  * andrewlsd thinks MaNI and theblazehen reached a similar conclusion regarding RAM caches
[11:43] <theblazehen> Yeah, RAM is no. bcache works well though
[11:48] <theblazehen> Just don't use bcache on a file in /dev/shm
[11:49] <MaNI> I was getting regular corruption in my tests, but this was a few years ago, and it may have been some specific issue with that particular SSD and/or xfs or something
[11:50] <MaNI> the SSD itself has worked 100% reliably since then as a normal SSD, so it wasn't faulty or anything, but maybe still just some funny with it and bcache
[11:52] <theblazehen> Did you have discard enabled?
[11:56] <MaNI> too long ago to answer honestly :/ but I vaguely recall I may have tried both with it on or off
[11:58] <MaNI> I do also use zram, so it's possible theres some weird interaction there
[13:20] <calhax_za> Hi All, hows everyone doing?
[13:35] <K_K_N> anybody here know if Ubuntu will work on a Gigabyte Laptop?
[13:37] <MaNL> thats going to depend very much on the model I would imagine
[13:38] <K_K_N> but generally would you say just the default install should work or do you suspects it might not be that easy?
[13:44] <MaNL> probably, but laptops are fiddly when it comes to graphics drivers, bluetooth drivers, wireless drivers etc. so it's not uncommon for certain laptops to have problems
[14:31] <propagandhi> Hey guys!
[14:32] <propagandhi> Does anyone use WordPress' CLI tool to perform scheduled backups?
[14:32] <propagandhi> something like `wp export` or `wp db export`
[15:45] <paddatrapper> propagandhi: I would just backup WordPress directory and export DB 
[18:54] <calhax_za> Evening :)
[18:55] <calhax_za> join #ubuntu-za
[18:55] <calhax_za> sorry
[18:55] <calhax_za> lol
[18:56] <nsnzero> evening calhax_za 
[18:57] <calhax_za> hows you doing nsnzero?
[18:57] <calhax_za> where are kilos and inetpro? sleeping?
[18:58] <nsnzero> ok and yourself calhax_za 
[18:58] <nsnzero> i havent seen either of them in a while
[18:59] <calhax_za> im good thanks nsnzero, I havent seen you here before, althou I haven't been around for a while LOL
[19:01] <nsnzero> well in that case nice to meet you - i joined fairly recently 
[19:02] <calhax_za> awesome sauce nsnzero 
[19:52] <andrewlsd> evening all
[21:39] <superfly> ohi