Rogue Penguins
1999

RPLUG Has Its Own Domain:  That's right, sooner than I expected, RPLUG has moved and is up and running at its own domain, www.rplug.org, graciously hosted free on a Cobalt RaQ Linux server at Project A in Ashland. You probably noticed the switch on your way here. You can visit Project A's site by clicking on their logo at the bottom of the home page. You can also get to the SAO site from there. Click on the RaQ image to find out more about the server. Thanks to Jim Teece, and to Paul Steele for the hosting preparations.
    Any suggestions for modifications/additions are welcome - email me.
--Rik Nilsson

Misc. News:   Newbies || I have added some links to pages with tips for setting up basic services like PPP and printing, taking screenshots, etc. To see the tips, use the nav tree on the /home page; click on /Resources/RPLUG/HOWTOs/Tips.
     RPLUG Moving || Some time in the near future, RPLUG may be moving. Project A has offered to host us free, and that will open up my personal site space a little and allow maintenance of the site by others. I will leave a forwarding page here, when that happens, so we don't lose you.
    Any suggestions for modifications/additions are welcome - email me.
--Rik Nilsson

Rogue Penguins Is Registered:  Back in June of this year, I registered us at Linux.org, and Saturday I also signed up at Linux Journal under GLUE (Groups of Linux Users Everywhere). This list is supposed to be the most comprehensive, so I guess this makes us legit. As of today, though, RPLUG did not appear in the list as a member, and I notice that the site isn't very current (last updated in June, 1999).
    Please visit the Rogue Valley Chapter of Software Association of Oregon to see the announcement of our SIG status, and the SAO home site.
    Here's a Christmas present for those those who were interested in LOAF - Linux on a floppy.
    NEWBIES: Get Linux for under a buck! (well, almost...) Visit LinuxMall 99centCD to order.
    Any suggestions for modifications/additions are welcome - email me.
--Rik Nilsson

[See meeting pictures here!]

First Regular Meeting: WOW! - Was I surprised, boyz and grrls! By my count there were 33 of us there at Project A last night, eager to find out what Rogue Penguins was all about and where we were going. Those who showed up were automatically made members, of course. We all logged in on a real legal pad, and that list will be used to update the mailing list - thanks Marie, I just got it.
     I'll say right now that Jim Teece and the Project A staff are most accommodating and gracious hosts. That's the first time in 17 years I've been so cordially offered a GREAT(!) cup of coffee first thing upon entering a business establishment. Jim's usually adequate meeting room turned out to be a tad small for our unexpectedly large group, and I appologize to the half-dozen of you who had to stand in the hall. I'm not a frequent group speaker, and my throat dried out and I'm afraid they missed a lot of the proceedings. Thanks for hanging in there guys, we'll find a larger area for next time.
     The majority who could hear me were given a quick overview of the origins of Rogue Penguins (chronicled on this page also), then Jim described Project A and welcomed us into the SAO (Software Association of Oregon) as the Rogue Valley Chapter's first SIG (Special Interest Group). I admit I feel proud to be part of a group starting out with such a prestigious tie. Next, we all introduced ourselves and I was happy to see such a large variety of how folks hoped to apply Linux, and also the range of experience levels. We passed out just under twenty free SuSE Linux CDs courtesy of SuSE.
     Plans made for future meetings/events included:

Install Fest We decided this is best held off until after the holidays (although I'm sure those who received their free SuSE CDs are going to attempt installation soon, and if you do and need help, post to the RPLUG BBS before trying the newsgroups [comp.os.linux......] .) Newbies are advised that it is considered bad form to post to newsgroups before you have exhausted all other on-line resources such as searching deja.com's archived messages, reviewing the appropriate HOWTOs (see RPLUG's resources list menu item on our home page for starting points), and local LUGs like Rogue Penguins. Those of you who have some experience are encouraged to visit the BBS regularly and offer assistance - that's what we're all about, right?
     A time and place for the install-fest will be announced within the next two weeks.

Next Meeting Meeting frequency preference seemed to be monthly. We decided to pursue alternative meeting locations to equalize the travel requirements, since members live up to 35 road-miles apart. Ideally a rotating schedule would include Ashland, Medford and Grants Pass locations. Tentatively, the next meeting will be held in the second week of January, 2000, same time, possibly in Grants Pass. First round of negotiations for meeting at SRC VISION on Hwy 62 is affirmative! I volunteered to describe building a simple inexpensive home network including pricing and buying sources for hardware and software needed (none - Linux comes with everything you need!) how to test the network, set up IP forwarding and IP masquerading, and starting print serving. Other HOWTO volunteer presenters are welcome. Topics we heard requests for are: NDS serving, DHCP services implementation, setting up a list server, setting up a web server, tutorials on telnetting, ftp-ing, remote login (console), remote login (X server).

    Again, my thanks to all for coming, you made my Christmas, I hope you had as much fun as I did, and big thanks to Jim for his hospitality. This is as I can best recall. Merry Christmas! Any suggestions or modifications are welcome - email me.
--Rik Nilsson

First Regular Meeting Announcement:  OK, here it is - The first regular meeting will be 5:30 PM Thursday December 2nd at Project A, 340 A Street, Ashland. I extend an invitation to and urge all Linux users to attend. This will be a special meeting in that it will be the first after the public announcement of our inaguration as an SAO/SIG on November 9th, it will be a kickoff at our regular meeting location, and we will be establishing the group's goals. Tentative agenda:

Opening at 5:30PM
- Introduction and welcome, history of RPLUG (yours truly)
- Welcome to Project A, intro to SAO/SIG (Jim Teece)
- Statement of RPLUG mission (yours truly)
- Proposed structure, status of RPLUG (yours truly again)
- Newbie intro to Linux, handout getting-started links, SUSE intro CDs, scheduled install-fests (someone else?)
- Open forum to list projects desired by the group (moderated)
- Q & A/General discussion session (moderated)
- Close.

    Any suggestions for modifications/additions are welcome - email me.
--Rik Nilsson

Next Project: A Meeting Hall WE'VE GOT ONE! I met with Jim Teece, founder of Ashland's "Project A" software developer. Jim has graciously offered to host at least the next RPLUG meeting. He is also president of the local chapter of Software Association of Oregon, and has suggested we become the SAO's first Special Interest Group(SIG). SIGs will comprise user groups and other not-for-profit organizations involved with public education and use of software in the region. Becoming an SAO/ SIG is painless, free, and IMHO, elevating.
    Regarding the next meeting - I extend an invitation to and urge all Linux users to attend. This will be a special meeting in that it will be the first after the public announcement of our inaguration as an SAO/SIG on November 9th, it will be a kickoff at our regular meeting location, and we will be establishing the groups goals. The agenda will be, roughly: Opening at 5:30PM - Introduction and welcome, history of RPLUG by yours truly - Welcome to Project A, intro to SAO/SIG (Jim Teece) - Statement of RPLUG mission - Proposed structure, status of RPLUG (yours truly again) - Newbie intro to Linux, handout getting-started links, SUSE intro CDs, scheduled install-fests (someone else?) - Open forum to list projects desired by the group - Q & A/General discussion session - Close.
    Any suggestions for modifications/additions are welcome - email me.
    I will post a date and time for the meeting here and at the RPLUG BBS as soon as I clear it with Jim. (To use the BBS, you must register - but it's safe, no spam will come of it, I promise!)

Next Project: A Meeting Hall I'm trying to find a place to meet regularly. It would be nice to have a room capable of holding 20 or 30 people, with good lighting and internet access. Jacek has asked Jim Teece of Project A, but there's no word from him yet. I hope that means he's trying to set something up.

Corrections Dept: My apologies to Jacek - the LinuxPPC crash I experienced at the demo was a result of two things beyond his control: 1) The original LinuxPPC installer performed an incomplete installation - critical gnome libraries and authority files were missing, and 2) my 1GB hard drive was insufficient space for a full install *plus* Applixware, although Applixware's installer let me attempt it anyway. My new 6.4GB drive allowed a *complete* install and I've successfully added a couple of user accounts, no problemo. It wasn't your fault, Jacek.

Linux Demo Days Project:  Well the first annual RPLUG Linux Demo Day is over. I lost five pounds lugging monitors and minitowers around! (Maybe we should do this more often?)

Click here for the full story.

Linux Demo Days Project:   We have created and tested a network of three machines, Telnetted amongst them, and set up IP forwarding and IP masquerading. Any of the stations can access the ISP through a modem on one of the PCs. We will add a fourth and fifth machine when we set up Friday night at Connecting Point, or early Saturday if we run out of time. I received a "care" package of freebie stuff from SuSE yesterday; 35 SuSE Linux CDs (trial version), a couple of teeshirts and hats, and a complete SuSE distribution in the box. We'll hand out some of the SuSE CDs at the demo.

Linux Demo Days Project:   Still on track and getting closer! Tom will be placing an ad with an announcement of the demo, soon. He's printed the banner for the front of the store, and I have created a number of tabletop display sheets to stand up here and there for visitors to read, and help with explanations. I sent a News Release to the Mail Tribune, we'll see what they do with it. The text of the release can be seen on the RPLUG bulletin board. Robin and I are planning to be in the demo room most of the day on the 18th. Any volunteer help would be appreciated, even newbies; time between visitors would be good time to practice using Linux.

Linux Demo Days Project: WE'RE ON FOR SEPT 18TH!
I met with Tom Pentland at Connecting Point last evening, and things are looking better than my wildest expectations! Tom is allowing us to use a large room at the back of the store, providing tables for the equipment, and offered to print up a large banner for directing traffic to us. He's also agreed to putting a little "Linux Demo Days" notice in their regular newspaper ad. I've printed up some color handouts about Linux, with screen shots and web addresses.
Systems: Looks like we'll have a Linux PC server and two workstations on a three-node LAN, plus a stand-alone system. LinuxPPC, RH6, and Linux Mandrake will all be demonstrated.

Linux Demo Days Project: I spoke with Jeff, the manager of Connecting Point, this afternoon and he sounded VERY positive about hosting our participation in Linux Demo Days. I will be working with Tom Pentland next week to firm up the event preparations. Robin and I will be setting up the server this weekend. Looks like we might be getting this project going next week, finally.

General: Mouse over the image of Tux on the home page.

Linux Demo Days Project: Doug trashed his 486sx and got a new PII/400. He's got TurboLinux on it and we're life testing it until Jacek returns next week, at which time we hope to try out the new box as a server.

General: I reworked the site a little, adding a few pages on which there will be some content at a later time, as it becomes available. Members are encouraged to contribute - and BTW, what else would you like to see here? If anyone runs across a free guestbook script, let me know.
     I also installed and tweaked a rather polished public-domain navigation tree in the home page (what you used to get to here!) If you'd like to use it yourself, the source is at the bottom of this page.

Linux Demo Days Project: Jacek has volunteered his hub and cables for the host machine. Now we need a machine to act as host, and another for the 'enterprise' system; maybe a point-of-sale register? Come on boyzngrrlz, I need some help here! :)

General: I listed us with Linux Today and got confirmation this morning that we are listed as a headlines provider... that should bring some hits to the site.

Linux Demo Days Project: Loran & I talked awhile about the Linux Demo Days and he suggested we have an old 386 machine with RH5 on it to show how little it would take to get your feet wet. That and my laptop with RH6 networked to a higher-end server would make an impressive show. All we need (I think) is a $40 ethernet hub and the host server rig.

Who is RPLUG?  We're a loose-knit group of folks with diverse backgrounds and occupations.
We meet whenever...mostly online at our BBS forum.
     We're not the first Linux users in the area, but I think we're the first LUG. We inaugurated the RPLUG at The Golden Spike pizzaria on June 10th, 1999. This is our first web page, put up to establish public presence of the group as the Rogue Valley's first LUG, and enable registering for the Linux Demo Days in September. We intend to participate to some extent.

We've collected an extensive selection of links, documentation,
and all major distributions on CD:

• RedHat 5.1, 5.2, and 6.0
• LinuxPPC 4 and 5
• Debian 1
• Caldera OpenLinux 2.2
• TurboLinux, and
• a nine-CD set with these and others

Lending library contacts: [email protected] or [email protected]