The divorce is final. Now to ditch MS for good! (And a bit of useful info.)

[Condobloke]

Evil Maid Attack

An evil maid attack is an act of hacking a device through physical access. The name refers to a scenario where a hotel employee compromises a laptop, smartphone, or tablet left in a room. Other versions of the evil maid

encyclopedia.kaspersky.com

How to prevent an evil maid attack​

Experts recommend the following to avoid having a mobile device or a computer compromised in an evil maid attack:

• Avoid leaving your device unattended where it can be accessed by strangers;
• Protect your device with a strong password and set a minimal lock screen timeout;
• Use full disk encryption;
• Keep system software and device drivers up to date;
• If possible, set up the BIOS to restrict direct access to device memory through communication ports such as FireWire, Thunderbolt, PCI, and PCI Express.

 

[KGIII]

How to prevent an evil maid attack

I figure anyone with enough time, sufficient motivation, and physical access has ownership of the device.

 

[Condobloke]

I see those devices that @APTI linked to as being extremely useful. They could well be the answer to a prayer for the average Joe who has a pc at home and would never come in contact with someone 'invading' his home with the sole intention of purloining aunt maud's fruit cake recipe from his pc.

Not a great cost, so well worth considering

I read one of the reviews by a tech on the amazon site, and he remarked that there are zero instructions provided with them...so that could turn a few people away from them, or at the very least give them cause to hire a tech to fit them.

I would have no hesitation in using them, if and when the need for a dual boot comes along.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm so aggravated I don't even remember now what I was going to reply about! It was something to Brickwizard.

All I know is this:
It seems that every time I think I've got some time to ditch MS, a catastrophic event occurs.

The hot water hose to my washing machine decided to end its miserable life. Thank God I was home! Water started sprayed all over the hallway, creating lakes in my kitchen and bedroom. It seeped under the wall into my closet.

First, I ran outside to shut off the main water line. Of course it was buried under soil. Luckily it didn't take long to dig around with my hands to find it. I ran back inside to get everything out of my closet. I had those newly created lakes to wash my muddy hands before desperately tossing everything on the closet floor to middle of my bedroom.

Then to address the floods of water on the floor. This one of those times I'm grateful for my Wet Dry Vac. I had to empty the 5 gallon canister a couple of times, but I did manage to get all the water up. Well, at least what I could get to. Couldn't do anything about the water that seeped under the kitchen counters.

I didn't have an extra hose and I recently rigged a leak in the supply line pipe behind the washing machine. I had it pulled out and the already damaged dry wall was barely clinging to the studs. May as well fix everything now. I ordered everything I needed and waited for it to arrive. Mean while, I had no water. Luckily, I haul in drinking water from town. The water from the well is fine for bathing and washing laundry, but not so much for drinking.

After 3 days without a shower, my supplies arrived Saturday afternoon. I got to work right away. Having replaced and repaired water lines before, I knew it wouldn't be long before I could take a desperately needed hot shower. Deodorant can only do so much.

That's what I thought anyway...

A repair that should take at most 30 minutes still wasn't finished Sunday night. I live in an old mobile home with 3" studs instead of the standard 4 inch. I had to cut the box and rig the fasteners to set it into the wall securely. I did a good job too! That thing wasn't going anywhere. But there's not a lot of wriggle room behind the or between the hot and cold water connections. I've never had more trouble smoothly wrapping Teflon tape around the threads of a connection. I didn't think the twisted tape and inconsistency be a problem. I put it all together, went outside to turn on the water.

Before my very much needed shower, I checked my handy work. Still leaking. But the plumbers tape isn't the only problem now. The connection itself is also leaking. No shower, back outside, back to work.

After 2 more attempts, it was still leaking. I'm was tired. WHAT was I doing wrong? This should have been finished hours ago. The hardware store was closing in 30 minutes and too far away to get there in time. I made a phone call. I made plans to take all the new pex pipe and connections, my pipe cutter with a video of the leak in the next day. Maybe they would see something.

No problem with the pex pipe. Nothing wrong with my pipe cutter and my cuts look fine.

There's a reason the push fit connections I bought cost a lot less than Shark Bite. Looking at them side by side, the reason is obvious. The guy recommended plumbers paste instead of plumbers tape.

Things are about 20% more expensive at this store, but the people actually know what they are talking about. The other hardware stores are about 40 minutes away. If I ordered Shark Bite connections, it would mean at least 3 more days before a shower. I forked out the cash and went home. That guy is an actual plumber. He has experience. This should fix my problem and I could finally wash my hair.

You would think that was enough torture. But it wasn't.

The connection to supply line wasn't leaking anymore. Glad I got Shark Bite, but the plumbers paste didn't help a thing. In fact, that leak was worse.

I tried again.
I called the hardware store.
He can't help me because he can't see my project. He gives a the number. This guy is a friend of his. He's a certified master plumber. He said his friend would probably try to help me over the phone. If he couldn't help he would give me a good price to fix it for me.

Fix it for me.

I have worked on construction sites. I built the last computer I owned. I have never ever had to pay to have my computer fixed or help me figure out what the problem was. I have never paid to have repairs on my home. I haven't paid anyone to fix any vehicle I've owned since 1996. Last year, I changed my CV axles. I did it without ANY help.

I was NOT going to PAY someone to fix this FOR ME!

I called the guy. He asked for a video. He said I need to re-Teflon the tape.

OMG! How many times did I already do that???

I wasn't messing around this time. I took that washing machine box back out. I scraped off all the plumbers tape and plumbers paste. THIS TIME, I would wrap the plumbers tape BEFORE putting the box in the wall. If I'd known there would be such little space to work in, I would have done that in the
first place. I didn't care how secure the box may or may not be when I put it back. I just wanted my shower!

Hallelujah! Success! I could feel the hot water! I pushed the washing machine back. Attached the hoses...

But my problems STILL weren't over. A few minutes later, it started leaking again.

I had no choice. I had to turn off the water. My shower had to wait some more.

I cried while I took a sponge bath with the purified drinking water I hauled in from town.
I had to go back to work the next day. You know it's bad when you're nauseated by the smell of your own arm pits. I got clean enough. On Sunday night I went to bed, resolved to figure it all out next weekend.

Everything ended a few days later when I ended up staying home from work. I finally figured out that the problem was not the water supply connection or the plumbers tape, at least not THIS time.

It was the washing machine hose. The brand new one. I checked to make sure it had a rubber washer. It did, but it was a shitty one. I'm a landscape designer, but I couldn't find another rubber washer. I was pissed. I was DONE. I got my plumbers tape. I had 3 rolls of unopened tape. I didn't care how much I had to use!

A couple of weeks later, it's not leaking.

This is only one of tragedies I've suffered since last trying to get away from Microsoft. Most recently, four raccoons followed my cats to their secret entrance into my house. They trashed it. Yesterday, Microsoft tried to f*** with my computer again. it rained. I woke up this morning with a big puddle of water in the kitchen. I thought I was going to have some free time soon to get used to Linux.

I have no idea now when I'll get the Micro Soft problem solved. But I do remember now what my question was for Brickwizard.

How many gigabytes should my new USB drive have and does the speed matter. All I want to do now is install Linux on my other hard drive. In fact, I'm desperate to install it on my other hard drive. Please take pity on my poor soul by answering as soon as possible. The whips have left deep wounds on my back. They sting and it's hard to sleep. You can help ease my pain.

 

[The Duck]

Any usb flash drive 4.0 GB or larger will work for installing Linux.
Usb flash drives a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 either will work.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Evil Maid Attack

An evil maid attack is an act of hacking a device through physical access. The name refers to a scenario where a hotel employee compromises a laptop, smartphone, or tablet left in a room. Other versions of the evil maid

encyclopedia.kaspersky.com

How to prevent an evil maid attack​

Experts recommend the following to avoid having a mobile device or a computer compromised in an evil maid attack:

• Avoid leaving your device unattended where it can be accessed by strangers;
• Protect your device with a strong password and set a minimal lock screen timeout;
• Use full disk encryption;
• Keep system software and device drivers up to date;
• If possible, set up the BIOS to restrict direct access to device memory through communication ports such as FireWire, Thunderbolt, PCI, and PCI Express.

Would this protect me from Microsoft?

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Any usb flash drive 4.0 GB or larger will work for installing Linux.
Usb flash drives a USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 either will work.

Thank you!

 

[Brickwizard]

Some generalised waffle.
The speed a USB operates is controlled by both its max design speed and the speed of the terminal it is connected to.
USB 3.2 is currently the fastest, but is also backward compatible with USB 2 and USB 1.2 so if you're going to use it in modern equipment go for a usb 3.1 or 3.2 for best performance, if speed is not essential then a usb 2 will be fine for making bootable ISO installation drives.
for installation pen drives I usually recommend 4 -16 GB
for USB with persistence, I would recommend a min 32 GB [preferably more]
and for a multi booting pen drive, i would say as big as you can afford.
My one caveat is always buy a quality branded pen-drive cheap unbranded ones often cause problems

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

...I would recommend a min 32 GB [preferably more]
and for a multi booting pen drive, i would say as big as you can afford...

In your tutorial you recommend not more than 16 GB...

I'm looking at a 1TB and a 512 GB USB drive. Right now I'm just trying to cut my teeth. I want versatility in thumb drive, but not something I can't use for my immediate goal.

The hard drive I want install Linux on is an old 500 GB Seagate. Right now that's as specific as I can get about that drive. My PC is 9 years old. I can boot from a USB drive.

UEFI BIOS

I don't know if this matters or not, but I can and have entered the legacy BIOS on this machine.

Specs

• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• Asus M51AD-B08
• Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790S CPU @ 3.20GHz
• Motherboard
• Asus H81M-E
• DDR3 16 GB
• TOSHIBA DT01ACA200 2TB
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 3.9 GB
• Some of the USB ports are 3.1
• Recycled Cardboard Box, holes punched in the sides for cooling

 

[MikeWalsh]

@STaylor :-

I wouldn't like to say anything about 1 TB flash drives. I know they're about, but a flash drive THAT big just sounds, I dunno.....somehow not quite right to me. And even 512 GB ones I'm not too sure about.

However, I CAN thoroughly recommend these:-

SanDisk 256GB Ultra 'Fit' USB 3.1 flash drive

I treated myself to a refurb'd 2009 Dell Latitude lappie off eBay last year, to replace an even older Inspiron lappie that was lumbered with a 32 bit-only P4 CPU and a gig of ancient DDR1 RAM. After 22 years, the graphics adapter had finally given up the ghost. I was sad to see it go, but it did give me an excuse to "upgrade" to a more modern 64-bit dual-core CPU, along with 4 GB DDR2 and a 120 GB Kingston SSD that some idiot had shoe-horned Win 10 onto.....

That was the first thing to go. Nuked, with extreme prejudice. Blearrgh!

I quickly installed a pair of Puppies on there, and set things up with a whole bunch of the 'portable' apps & browsers a few of us in the Puppy community have developed between us. Less than 4 hours later, both Pups were up-and-running, fully-customized and with the official drivers compiled & installed for the Nvidia mobile Quadro GPU this thing came with. Not bad going, if I do say so myself....

~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I use this thing in the front room, when I keep Mama company of an evening. As a full-time carer for a 90-yr old, some days I'm rushed off my feet, other days I'm at a loose end, looking around for summat to do.......so the Latitude often gets quite a bit of use on 'slow' days.

I have my main rig, an HP Pavilion desktop - Intel Pentium 'Gold' quad-core running at nearly 4 GHz, 32GB DDR4, 5½+ TB of storage and a discrete Nvidia GPU - in the bedroom. The Latitude can pull stuff from the Pavilion remotely across the LAN, but trying to stream movies this way is still a bit 'iffy', so a 'local' source for my large movie collection was a must.

I've currently got a pair of the above-mentioned SanDisks plugged permanently into the two USB ports on the right-hand side; one thing older Latitudes WERE blessed with was plenty of USB ports, so I have part of my extensive movie collection and a lot of my Puppy development stuff on this additional half TB of 'permanent' flash storage. Even through a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.0 drive still seems to run faster than a purely USB 2.0 drive would, so read speeds are more than sufficient for watching movies.

I did more or less the same thing with the ancient Inspiron; it's a simple way to add extra 'permanent' storage without having to open up the machine and fiddle about with the main drive. I've done plenty of this in the past, but I'm getting lazy in my old age!

~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The one big advantage to these over an external drive comes when I sit outside in the summertime of an evening. An external drive invariably needs a cable to connect it, so that means finding somewhere to sit the thing while I'm using it.......whereas these 'nano'-sized flash drives are basically an integral part of the lappie; they barely protrude at all, and are in no danger of catching on anything or getting broken off.

I MAY upgrade to a pair of the 512 GB SanDisk Ultra 'Fit's; I don't know yet. We'll see. But I can recommend the 256 GB variants without hesitation; they have a halfway decent write speed, a very fast read speed (for flash storage) and - touch wood! - have so far proved to be 100% reliable.


Mike.

 

[Condobloke]

That post No.24)...https://www.linux.org/threads/the-divorce-is-final-now-to-ditch-ms-for-good-and-a-bit-of-useful-info.46489/post-208702
Was the best chuckle I have had in ages. !!!.....It is good to know that I am not the only truly experienced plumber/handyman/carpenter/roofer....that Murphy visits every now and then and wreaks havoc while he is here

How many gigabytes should my new USB drive have and does the speed matter. All I want to do now is install Linux on my other hard drive

SImple.

Buy a few 8gb usb's.......when you just need something to put an os on, this all you need. And if you happen to wipe it it is not a big deal. Don't buy cheap junk....San Disk are good stuff.
In addition, get something big..........for whatever purpose you have for it.
The simple thing re speed is....if the usb ports on your pc show a blue tongue....they are capable of running usb 3.....if the tongue you see is black, I believe they are limited to usb 2
Mine are all black. I dont have any qualms re speed. I am a patient man. I go and make another cuppa
My cpu also has eight cores.......so I can do other things until it finishes. It is not a biggie to me.

When you have time and inclination. you could explore Ventoy, Using this quite remarkable little app, you can load more than a few .iso files onto it by simply dragging and dropping them....or copy and pasting them.
@bob466 can tell you more. He will see his name here...no need to find him.

And lastly, if you ever decide to retire from whatever work you do.......consider journalism/blogging

You have a definite gift.

I mean that.

 

[The Duck]

That post No.24)...https://www.linux.org/threads/the-divorce-is-final-now-to-ditch-ms-for-good-and-a-bit-of-useful-info.46489/post-208702
Was the best chuckle I have had in ages. !!!.....It is good to know that I am not the only truly experienced plumber/handyman/carpenter/roofer....that Murphy visits every now and then and wreaks havoc while he is here

And lastly, if you ever decide to retire from whatever work you do.......consider journalism/blogging

You have a definite gift.

I mean that.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

That post No.24)...https://www.linux.org/threads/the-divorce-is-final-now-to-ditch-ms-for-good-and-a-bit-of-useful-info.46489/post-208702
Was the best chuckle I have had in ages. !!!.....It is good to know that I am not the only truly experienced plumber/handyman/carpenter/roofer....that Murphy visits every now and then and wreaks havoc while he is here

A friend of mine calls them monkeys. I've had a disproportionate number of visits from them lately.

When I get home from work I make a mad dash to the front door praying they don't know I'm home. I slam the door shut and locked the bolt. When the see me running they try to follow me in. They're quick!

I had to buy some of those black out curtains. I hide from them in the dark everyday now. I really miss the sunshine. They stare at me through the window. Their eyes follow me everywhere. It's REALLY creepy. At night, crowds of them gather around the house banging symbols, drums, metal trash can lids. They have no sense of rhythm. They don't even try. Just random banging, clanging and screaming while they jump and down on the roof top. What ever it takes to destroy my serenity and keep me up at night.

One of them recently got hold of an old saxophone. I've got to figure how to get rid of them.

 

[Brickwizard]

In your tutorial you recommend not more than 16 GB..

and for a multi booting pen drive, i would say as big as you can afford... [this is if you are making a multi boot pen-drive [one with say 4 or more different distributions on it using Ventoy or similar]

 

[Vektor]

@STaylor

I have had errily similar water problems as you. I ended up replacing all pvc with copper. Sweat soldered. Bullet proof.

I also installed brass ball valves on all equipment connections.

There is a system that senses water leaks and shuts off the supply. Do a Duck search for that.

Vektor

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

@STaylor

I have had errily similar water problems as you. I ended up replacing all pvc with copper\

Vektor

This isn't my house and even if it was, it's not worth that kind of upgrade.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

Maybe now???

After multiple set backs, I'm expecting it to go something like this:

Buy appropriate pen drive_Done

Because it's so small, put a bunch of bling stuff on the microscopic pen drive so you don't lose it.

No! I know you like to personalize things, but that's entirely too much. You won't be able to find your pen drive under all that junk! Okay, that's better.

Next, wipe the drive on your ex-father-in-law's lap top that #4 left behind.

Pray that Microsoft hasn't done something to make this an impossible task. On that thought, make sure it's a DOD wipe. I wouldn't put ANYTHING past a company that high jacked PC's when they were pushing out Win 10. And don't forget about all the extra work you've been doing lately to keep them from f***ing around with you.

If you get this far and it hasn't already happened, start watching for the next catastrophe to come along. If it shows up, remember to breath. Don't blow your top. It will pass. You made it this far. You're strong, you're determined.

Eventually, hopefully sooner than later you'll be free. Yes, you're probably going to need psychotherapy to manage the PTSD you'll surely have after the years of abuse you took from Microsoft. The bruises will heal, but the scars will remain. And yes, you will have nightmares. One of them will be something like this...

A few nights ago MS crept in during the night while you slept to chain you to the bed. You're very thirsty, three days with no water. The cats are screaming to be fed, they don't have water either. Just take comfort in the idea that you won't die alone.

 

[Condobloke]

On that thought, make sure it's a DOD wipe.

nah.....Linux install will take care of it

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

On that thought, make sure it's a DOD wipe.

nah.....Linux install will take care of it

That's a comforting thought. However, I'm not hatching any eggs before I count. I've had a seemingly non-stop run of less than good luck lately. I don't see any monkeys right now, but there are a lot of places out here.

 

[Sherri is a Cat]

I'm in the process of downloading Linux Mint 21.2 (from the link on this forum). Because I live so far out in the country my internet speed is pretty slow, right now VERY slow. It's taken about 20 minutes to download less than 20%. Because it's so slow, I'm wondering a few things:

• I still have the last version I downloaded a few months ago, 21.1. That was when I found a few more reasons to ditch Microsoft.
  • It seems like it would be fine to use this older version to start out, right?
• I could also download it with a torrent.
  • Is it faster this way?
  • Is it safe?
  • I've heard some not so great things about torrents and a bad experience of my own. I relate torrents with pirated software, illegal movie downloads and other suspicious activities.
• I think someone told me that some download links are faster than others.
  • How do I know which one is faster for me?
• Finally, why is it that I can watch Ultra HD movies and watch IPTV but downloads are so slow?

I'll update this post if my download finishes before someone sees this