Sunday 12th May - Linux Logical Volume Management (LVM) The regular monthly meeting. 6.30pm, Comlab. Maps at http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html Followed by drinks at the Lamb and Flag. More details below.

Sundays 19th May - 9th June. A special introductory series. All are welcome! Please help to publicise these meetings! More details below.

Sunday 19th May - What is this thing called Linux? 6.30pm, Comlab. Maps at http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html

Sunday 26th May - InstallFest (full day) 10am - 6pm, 22nd Oxford Sea Scout Hut. http://www.oxlug.org/linuxday/

Sunday 2nd June - Where do I go from here? (Part 1) 6.30pm, Comlab. Maps at http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html

Sunday 9th June - Where do I go from here? (Part 2) 6.30pm, Comlab. Maps at http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html

Other news: Linux Expo Birmingham is cancelled. http://www.linuxexpobirmingham.com/

Linux 2002 Bristol - Early booking deadline 31st May. http://www.ukuug.org/events/linux2002/ Until 31st May the cost is GBP 47 (students: GBP 20) plus UKUUG membership fee for non-members; Oxford University staff & students are already covered. The latest additions to the programme include Sony's PlayStation 2 Linux and Kylix.

Other InstallFests (various dates): http://www.linuxinstallday.org/

Festival of Extreme Computing, June 9, London http://www.xcom2002.com/ LinuxTag (Germany) June 6-9 http://www.linuxtag.org/ SANE (Holland) May 27-31 http://www.nluug.nl/events/sane2002/ Australian Linux Technical Conf, 22-25 Jan 2003 http://conf.linux.org.au/ Ottawa Linux Symposium (Canada) June 26-29 Almost fully booked! http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2002/

Alasdair. -- agk@oxlug.org

Sunday 12th May - Linux Logical Volume Management (LVM)

LVM is the established standard for on-line disk storage management under Linux. It is included in the 2.4 kernel series.

The aims of my talk are: To introduce existing LVM concepts and tools under Linux; To discuss the architecture used for the new LVM2/device mapper and the extra features and performance improvements provided.

The current LVM system reached maturity with the 1.0.x series, adding a variety of improvements and new features over the 0.8 series (such as snapshots, the ability to move live volumes).

LVM2 is a new downwardly-compatible implementation of LVM using a lightweight kernel driver known as the "device mapper". This provides generic support for volume management. All volume managers - not just LVM - will benefit from this work.

The new LVM2 framework allows yet more features to be implemented, including: Writeable high-performance snapshots Sophisticated remapping tools Greatly enhanced configurability Human-readable (and editable) configuration backups Atomic metadata updates Improved data recovery in the event of disk failure Cluster-awareness

Alasdair Kergon, Sistina Software UK

Sunday 19th May - What is this thing called Linux?

This will start off with an introduction to what Linux is, its strengths and weaknesses and what OxLUG is and what it does. It'll then move on to a description of what will happen at the InstallFest, and we'll run through a sample installation of Mandrake, the distribution we'll be recommending at the InstallFest.

This event is for everyone in OxLUG, whether old hand or newcomer, as well as anyone else in Oxfordshire (or beyond!) who wants to find out more. We'll be handing out penguin badges to the usual regulars so that new people can identify them.

Sundays 2nd and 9th June - Where do I go from here?

Getting started with a newly installed Linux system - things like installing new software, changing configuration settings, and a basic introduction to what's "under the hood". More details nearer the time.