November 2001 - main

thanks for pages_failed info
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 06 Nov '01

06 Nov '01

Ta to all for help with the alarming pages_failed messages. I now understand that 1. I shouldn't set a large cronjob to run every minute by mistake ;-) 2. Kernel 2.2.18 is not so hot on memory management and i need to do my first new kernel installation 3. I need to set sysrq in some boot script or other to avoid crashing out like i had to yesterday. Now I can spend the next month trying to find out *how* to do these things...whoohooo! Sorry if I caused any confusion cross-posting on two lists. Some interesting merge talks coming out of it though. Jenny.

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RE: clug Re: [Alug] "VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for nmbd"
by Ian Wells 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

> > I've managed to avoid upgrading a kernel up till now. How > tricky is it on > > a scale of 1 - 10 for someone slightly above the level of complete > > incompetence? > > If you have some idea of what hardware is in the system (or a .config > file hanging aroudn from last time), then it's pretty simple, > really. Some people find the kernel-package package in Debian is > helpful, but I tend not to use it. I recommend make menuconfig... After last night, and making a kernel with the IPSec patches in by just typing the right (one) command, I've decided that make-kpkg is lovely. Now all I have to do is switch my firewall box over to Debian. And repair its disk. And ideally find it a monitor which hasn't got 20 second phosphor persistence... Incidentally, when I've used SysRq I've found it needed enabling with an echo 1 >/proc/sys/kernel/sysrq on boot. Do it. It's invaluable when your machine goes tits up. (Especially when it's a general workhorse machine that everyone uses, with 40G partitions and a strange intermittent kernel bug that makes it impossible to reboot.) -- Ian.

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Re: [Alug] "VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for nmbd"
by MJ Ray 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

John Fremlin: > MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> writes: > > Hold AltGr and SysRq, then tap out s u u b (sync, unmount, unmount, boot) > You should sync after umount too or else you'll probably get spurious > fscks on boot (it needs to write a clean umount flag to the superblock) Surely a sync won't do anything to a read-only disk? (OK, I lied: "u" is actually remount-read-only.) -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] "VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for nmbd"
by Jenny_Hopkins＠toby-churchill.com 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

MJRay wrote: >Yes, .17 and .18 blew up quite spectacularly on tsw a few times. It seems >that certain situations end up with swap being consumed and never released. >.19 (or maybe .20 now?) cured the problem. I've managed to avoid upgrading a kernel up till now. How tricky is it on a scale of 1 - 10 for someone slightly above the level of complete incompetence? Jen

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Free to a good home
by Chris Allen 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

The following hardware will shortly go in our skip unless anybody would like it... 1 x Sun 3/80 workstation with 19" mono monitor. Unknown amount of memory/hard disk - although was running as my DNS server until a year ago. 1 x Sun 3/50 workstation with 21" mono monitor. This box is *ancient* - it is 68000 based and incredibly solidly built. Unknown amount of memory hard disk (if any). Has not been plugged in for several years. Assorted tapes, cables, mice and other junk to go with the above. All free to anybody that can be bothered to come to Eastbridge (near Leiston in Suffolk) to collect it...

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Debian, Slackware, hardware, BIOS and what am I doing wrong?
by John Seago 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

I have at last managed, with help, for which many thanks, to get my BIOS set up properly so that I could install Mandrake 8.1. However I am still unable to get Debian or Slackware in. I was told this afternoon that I may get some more suggestions if I post to this list again, so here is a reiteration of my position and the problem. I have two hard disks, one 10 gig as the primary master (with `Windows' on), the second 40 gig disk, (with partitions for Linux, and Mandrake 8.1 installed on /dev/hdc5 is the secondary master. The CD drive is set as the primary slave. I can get Debian to install as far as the base system, but on rebooting into it it can not access the CD drive. Slackware does not install as when one gets to the point where the system is installed it reports all sorts of stuff not installed from an earlier part of the installation. Am I trying to do something which is impossible, should I only be installing one set of linux, am I trying to do it in the wrong order? I could get rid of windows from the first disk, but I would prefer to keep it for the better quality printing it provides, (although I could be persuaded that the other benefits of Linux outweigh it). Suggestions and advice would be welcomed. John seago

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Announce digest, Vol 1 #5 - 2 msgs
by announce-request＠lists.alug.org.uk 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

Send Announce mailing list submissions to announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to announce-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk You can reach the person managing the list at announce-admin(a)lists.alug.org.uk When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Announce digest..." *** Please send replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk, not announce... *** oMMMoMo Mo MMMMMMMoMo " "o"o"o"o oMMMoMoM oMMMMMM"MMM" " " " " " "o"o "oMMMoMMM " oMo"M"oo MM" " MoMoMMMMMMM oM " " "oMMM " " MoMMMMMoMoMoooo Mo MMM MoMoMMMMMoMMMMM o" MoM " MoMM "MMo"oMoMMMoM"" MM " MMMMo MMMMMoMMMMMM" oM " MoMMM MMMoMMMo"MM Mo" "MMoMo ooMMMMMMMoMo" oMo oMoMMM " "oMoMMMoMoMo MoM oMoMMM MMMMMMMMMoMMM "oM oMoMMM "M"M"MMoMMMo" " o "oo " MMMM" MMMMMoMoM o" " "oM " " " "o MMMoMMMo"o M " oM " " MMMMMMMoMo o" "oMoMoooMo" " o " " MMoMMMoMoMo " "o"o MM"""""""oM oM " "MMo oMMMMMoMMMoMo " """ """ " o"MMMMoMMMoMMMo"MMo"o" o o o oo MMMMMMoMMMoMMMoMoMo MMMMM MMMo oMMM MMMo MMoMMM oMoMMMoMMMoMMMoMMMo"o oMMMMM MMMo oMMM "MMo MMM "MM MMMMMMMoMMMMMMMoMMMM" " " MMo"MMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM" """ " MoMMMoMMMoMMMo" " " MMMoMMMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM"oMoMo " "MMoMMMoMMM " " MMMMMMMo MMMo oMM" MMMo oMM" "MM oMMMoMoMoMMMoMMMoMo" " oMM" "oMM" "MMMMM" "MMMMM" MMMoMM" ooMMMMMMMoMMMMMMMoMMMoMo "M" " " " " " """ """ "oM """oMM" " " "MMoMMMoMMMoMM" " " " " " " " alug-announce : The Newsletter of the Anglian Linux User Group Today's Topics: 1. [Robin Marjason <RobinM(a)belkin.com>] [uklugs] Linux support with Belkin UPS (MJ Ray) 2. Death of alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk (MJ Ray) --__--__-- Message: 1 To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk From: MJ Ray <markj(a)cloaked.freeserve.co.uk> Organization: Cat-killingly bad Date: 19 Oct 2001 01:53:56 +0100 Subject: [Alug Announce] [Robin Marjason <RobinM(a)belkin.com>] [uklugs] Linux support with Belkin UPS From: Robin Marjason <RobinM(a)belkin.com> Subject: [uklugs] Linux support with Belkin UPS Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 09:25:35 +0100 Dear Sir, I am not in the business of sending unsolicited mail but have received some positive feedback from Linux users regarding our range of Uninterruptible Power Supplies that you may find interesting. It seems Belkin may be unique as it offers free shutdown software that supports Linux. This software (Bulldog Sentry) facilitates a safe shutdown during an extended power outage. If you need any further information feel free to contact me (details below) or visit the relevant page at http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=4 83&pcount=&Product_Id=120918&Section.Section_Path=%2FRoot%2FPowerProtection% 2FUninterr%2E%2E%2EerSupply%2F I hope this information proves useful. Yours sincerely, Robin Marjason Belkin Ltd Mob: 07876 745508 DDI: 01604 678381 Tel: 01604 678300 Fax: 01604 678330 E-mail: robinm(a)belkin.com http://www.belkin.co.uk --__--__-- Message: 2 From: MJ Ray <markj(a)luminas.co.uk> To: announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Date: Sun, 04 Nov 2001 23:37:57 +0000 Subject: [Alug Announce] Death of alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk At around 8pm on Monday 5 November 2001, the old email address alug(a)stu.uea.ac.uk will be finally disabled. Subscribers should ensure that they have the new email address main(a)lists.alug.org.uk in their address books and settings, which has been in use for several months. This is in preparation for the UEA Student Union ceasing to operate their mail server some time in December. Most people shouldn't notice any change, as the lists were moved many weeks ago. Thank you for listening. -- MJ Ray Email: markj(a)luminas.co.uk Director Tel: +44 (0)20 8553 6622 Luminas Internet Applications Fax: +44 (0)870 28 47489 This is not an official statement or order. Web: www.luminas.co.uk --__--__-- _______________________________________________ Announce mailing list Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce End of Announce Digest

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Re: clug Re: [Alug] "VM: do_try_to_free_pages failed for nmbd"
by MJ Ray 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

Matthew: > > apt-get install kernel-image-2.2.19 > You get much better performance if you roll your own kernel, IME. The > default Debian kernel contains a whole pile of cruft that you Just > Don't Need. Indeed, but there's nothing inherently "wrong" with it and the original query was how tricky is it to *upgrade*, not compile. Use make-kpkg if you want to tune things -- it's not that hard -- but in a hurry, the debian kernel-image packages are an easy upgrade. -- MJR

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Re: [Alug] RedHat7.2 memory shortage?
by MJ Ray 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

Glen: > faster than Mozilla - is there a suite of 'lighter' programs that I should > choose? Any recommendations? There are two things I feel happy with recommending at the moment: http://www.icewm.org/ or http://www.xfce.org/ Which you'll get on with better depends on your personal taste and whether you mind having to put it together yourself. XFCE has a website being put together for it called "XFCE IP" or something similar which will list applications that work well with it. -- MJR

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RE: clug List proposal (admin)
by Ian Wells 05 Nov '01

05 Nov '01

> I was told that the CLUG listserver maintainer is long gone, > however. So > changes to CLUG are probably not advisable / impossible. It's majordomo. Youcan control it remotely, but nobbing over the global settings isn't possible. > Keeping UseNet discipline and self-moderation is probably > best for clug - > just be (self) disciplined about threads? An FAQ can be > supported if the > anarchy / total freedom approach breaks down irretrievably. I'd say - very small mailing lists don't work so well because no-one has the information others need - medium sized mailing lists work well, because the information's available and people pay attention to conversations they're not actively participating in, so that the same questions aren't repeated over and over; and - in big mailing lists, there's too much noise to continually pay attention, which means that people with answers give up replying to questions and others don't spot the useful information in the flow of traffic, leading to the same things being asked over and over. Given Wells's theorem of mailing lists, I think that a CLUG+ALUG list should be about the right size to get useful discussions going and that (judging by the volume of technical traffic, as opposed to 'anyone coming out this Sunday') the CLUG list alone isn't quite big enough. -- Ian.

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