Hi everyone,

Due to things out of my control, I will have to rebuild my BBS from scratch
on Saturday. I'll be switching from Slackware to Devuan Linux for the OS
and will be setting up a fresh install of MBSE. I will be copying some
stuff from this current install but I will be setting up the messaging
system from scratch. I'll be making a few improvements along the way.

I am not expecting to take too long to do this. If it runs later than
Sunday, I'll ask Andrew to take over hubbing duties so the mail can keep running.

I have been having a rather serious flare-up of my diabetic neuropathy in my hands for unknown reasons and it has been hurting a lot to type for the past week. It hasn't been too bad today and if it continues to stay the same or, what I really hope for, improves, I will get this done.

I appreciate your patience with me on this. An unexpected problem with an unknown cause has crept into my BBS and I suspect it is because of a combination of experimental code and experimental updates to the operating system have caused this issue.

I do have a full backup of the current BBS if there are unexpected issues
but from what I can see now there shouldn't be any.

This is not how I want to spend my Saturday but this will bring improvements
in speed and reliability with my server, both of which are always wanted.

If you have any questions or comments, please netmail me or email me at zc@minftn.net.

Thanks,
Sean


--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Micronet World HQ (618:618/1)

Re: Downtime
By: Sean Dennis to All on Thu Jun 17 2021 10:57 pm

Hi everyone,

Due to things out of my control, I will have to rebuild my BBS from scratch on Saturday. I'll be switching from Slackware to Devuan Linux for the OS and will be setting up a fresh install of MBSE. I will be copying some stuff from this current install but I will be setting up the messaging system from scratch. I'll be making a few improvements along the way.

I am not expecting to take too long to do this. If it runs later than Sunday, I'll ask Andrew to take over hubbing duties so the mail can keep running.

I have been having a rather serious flare-up of my diabetic neuropathy in my hands for unknown
reasons and it has been hurting a lot to type for the past week. It hasn't been too bad today a
if it continues to stay the same or, what I really hope for, improves, I will get this done.

I appreciate your patience with me on this. An unexpected problem with an unknown cause has cre
into my BBS and I suspect it is because of a combination of experimental code and experimental
updates to the operating system have caused this issue.

I do have a full backup of the current BBS if there are unexpected issues but from what I can see now there shouldn't be any.

This is not how I want to spend my Saturday but this will bring improvements in speed and reliability with my server, both of which are always wanted.

If you have any questions or comments, please netmail me or email me at zc@minftn.net.

Thanks,
Sean

Too bad to hear about your hands. I hope they get better soon. We want our favourite operator back
in the fray!

Are you running Slackware -current? I rarely see a troublesome Slackware upgrade. Devuan is quite
an ok distribution though. Then, maybe you could take a stab at OpenBSD :-)

Kind regards.

--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (618:250/24)

Arelor wrote to Sean Dennis:

Too bad to hear about your hands. I hope they get better soon. We want our favourite operator back
in the fray!

It comes and it goes.

Are you running Slackware -current? I rarely see a troublesome Slackware upgrade. Devuan is quite
an ok distribution though. Then, maybe you could take a stab at OpenBSD
:-)

I was running Slackware -current and it broke a lot of things (this was an attempt to fix something else that broke). I've always been a fan of Debian though when they switched to systemd, I quit using it. Devuan is
systemd-free and has so far been functioning quite nicely on my workstation.

I have thought about OpenBSD but quite frankly I am not interested in the learning curve.

-- Sean


--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Micronet World HQ (618:618/1)

Re: Re: Downtime
By: Sean Dennis to Arelor on Fri Jun 18 2021 09:54 am

Are you running Slackware -current? I rarely see a troublesome Slackware upgrade. Devuan is
quite
an ok distribution though. Then, maybe you could take a stab at OpenBSD :-)

I was running Slackware -current and it broke a lot of things (this was an attempt to fix someth
else that broke). I've always been a fan of Debian though when they switched to systemd, I quit
using it. Devuan is
systemd-free and has so far been functioning quite nicely on my workstation.

I have thought about OpenBSD but quite frankly I am not interested in the learning curve.

-- Sean

Well, Slackware -current is not intended for production :-) Maybe the reason why I don't see
Slackware breackage is precisely that I use -stable more often than not...

I used to like Debian, but it turned into a hive for wokes and politics. In fact, this bothers me
more than the systemd drama, even though I think the systemd drama is a synthom of the inner
management problems they have at Debian. I like there is Devuan as an alternative, to be honest,
even though I don't use it much because I am no longer a hardcore fan of the Debian ecosystem.

According to an upcoming interview to Aaron Lin which will hit newstandslater this year (don't miss
your Linux Magazine!), "Contrary to popular belief, [OpenBSD] is a great system for novices to
learn about system administration." Basically, if you use Slackware, you are an inch away from
knowing OpenBSD since the only things you need to learn are firewall management (easy), package
management (easy) and initscripts management (easy). It only gets hard if you need to run software
that is not made to be portable - OpenBSD has its own libc and its own set of system calls, some of
which are WAY COOL, but require proper porting.

By the way, there is another upcoming article about the matter which will hit the newstands around
the same time of Aaron's interview.

I don't want to end the message looking like an OpenBSD fanboy, so:

SCREW POLITIZED DISTRIBUTIONS, LONG LIFE INDEPENDENT OPERATING SYSTEMS!



--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (618:250/24)

Arelor wrote to Sean Dennis:

Well, Slackware -current is not intended for production :-) Maybe the reason why I don't see
Slackware breackage is precisely that I use -stable more often than not...

I'd been running 14.2 for the longest time and then something just broke.
The -current was a "hail mary" and an attempt to see if rebuilding MBSE
against -current would fix things. Remember, I am not running a
"production" box ... it's alpha code most of the time that I write and test
on my live BBS. In all the years I have run MBSE, it has not failed like
this so I immediately suspected the OS.

even though I don't use it much because I am no longer a hardcore fan of the Debian ecosystem.

I'm not a "hardcore fan" but it works and I haven't had any issues with it
for my needs.

that is not made to be portable - OpenBSD has its own libc and its own set of system calls, some of
which are WAY COOL, but require proper porting.

There's another member of the MBSE development team who is running OpenBSD
so I will leave it to him to do the testing on that end.

What we -really- need are OS X users and someone with a SPARC/Alpha machine.

SCREW POLITIZED DISTRIBUTIONS, LONG LIFE INDEPENDENT OPERATING SYSTEMS!

I'm predicting that Windows will be running on top of the Linux kernel
sooner than later now that it is not Microsoft's cash cow.

-- Sean



--- MBSE BBS v1.0.7.22 (GNU/Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Outpost BBS * Micronet World HQ (618:618/1)