Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG)

SLUG's monthly meeting. Meetings are open to the general public, and are free of charge.

Where:

We are trialling a new venue for this meeting!

Our venue for this meeting is Google, 48 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont. It's across the road from Star City Casino. A map of the area can be found here. Appropriate signage and directions will be posted around the building.

You will need to sign-in to enter the venue. This can be performed when you arrive, but to save time we recommend that you do so online beforehand. If you are unsure, please sign up as a 'maybe'. This allows us to organise adequate meeting space and facilities. You do not need to create an account to indicate your attendance.

We start at 18.30 but we ask that people arrive at least 15 minutes early so we an all get into the building and start on time. Please do not arrive before 18.00, as it may hinder business activities for our host!

This month's sessions are:

General Talk
Paul Wayper: SELinux for Everyday People

Much has been written on SELinux, and a lot of it seems confusing.  It's buzzword heavy, involves locking your computer up, has a strange new set of permissions that are obscure in architecture and silently fails where things used to just work.  Why use it?

Well, for most people, it's not actually that hard to understand.  In this talk, Paul Wayper talks about how to make sense of what SELinux does, and how to keep it out of the way and get on with using your computer.  In the process Paul will deal with the background to SELinux, what it's main aims are, and how you really do want it turned on.

In-Depth Talk
Paul Wayper: SELinux for Sysadmins

In his previous talk, Paul talked about getting your system to work with SELinux.  This involved setting the security on your files and directories so that they worked with SELinux.  However, many people have customised their Linux installs and want SELinux to do what they say, not the other way around.  Sysadmins in particular are not 'run of the mill' users, and they have different requirements to what typically comes out of the box.  Situations such as serving web pages from NFS shares or non-standard directories, or installing applications in custom locations, need specialised configuration of SELinux in order to make it work with your needs.

This talk will deal with those situations.  Fortunately for Sysadmins, much of the work in developing SELinux policies for Linux has focussed on their requirements.  Paul will show you a few of the things behind the scenes that make your job as a Sysadmin much easier and safer with SELinux.

SLUGlets

General discussion and Q&A about Linux, free software and open source.

Meeting Schedule

See here for an explanation of the segments.

• 18.15: Open Doors
• 18.30: Announcements, News, Introductions
• 18.45: General Talk
• 19.30: Intermission
• 19.45: Split into two groups for:
• In-Depth Talk
• SLUGlets
• 20.30: Dinner

Dinner this month will be held locally, not at Golden Harbour as originally planned. Details are TBA.

We will be taking numbers at the beginning of the meeting. If you have any particular dietary requirements (e.g. vegetarian), let us know beforehand. Dinner is a great way to socialise and learn in a relaxed atmosphere :)

We hope to see you there!