December 2002 - main

Re: main digest, Vol 1 #527 - 7 msgs
by Paul Wickham 30 Dec '02

30 Dec '02

The other possibility is that you have to set a jumper on the motherboard to let the bios know that the memory is there. I remember struggling with this years ago, and then noticing just beside the SIMM socket there was a jumper to set the memory size. HTH Paul main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: >Message: 1 >From: "Glen Tyler" <glen.tyler(a)tesco.net> >To: <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> >Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 14:05:19 -0000 >Subject: [Alug] over-riding BIOS memory detection > >Dear All, >can anyone help/put me straight on this. >I have a i486 machine running Slackware 8.1. As a christmas present I bought >it a 32MB Simm, it currently has 16MB installed (one module). When I >replaced the 16MB with the 32MB the bios still only detects 16MB on boot and >everything runs as before. No matter I thought - I have read somewhere that >Linux will override such settings, but I have been unable to get the kernel >(2.4.18) to do so. >I read the lilo.conf man page which indicated that adding 'append="mem=32M"' >to lilo would do it, but the computer would not boot after adding this. A >further search of the internet produced a sort of How-to doc that lists >three options (but I think is written for RedHat). The first of these is the >same as the lilo.conf recommendation, the second involves giving mem sizes >and start locations in hexadecimals e.g. >append="mem=exactmap mem=0x9f000@0 mem=0x1f00000@100000" and the third is >like the 2nd, but in english.. >append="mem=exactmap mem#=640K@0 mem=31M@1M" >all these end in the same result - failure to boot. I have tried these >messages specifying 16MB as the memory size (incase there really was a >problem with the 32MB size) but the result is the same. >In the mini how-to it is suggested that white space is needed between the >start quotes and the first mem statement - but that doesn't resolve this >problem either. >So - am I correct in assuming that the Linux kernel can use this additional >16MB of memory , and if so how do I let it know its there? > >all the best > >Glen > > >

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over-riding BIOS memory detection
by Glen Tyler 30 Dec '02

30 Dec '02

Dear All, can anyone help/put me straight on this. I have a i486 machine running Slackware 8.1. As a christmas present I bought it a 32MB Simm, it currently has 16MB installed (one module). When I replaced the 16MB with the 32MB the bios still only detects 16MB on boot and everything runs as before. No matter I thought - I have read somewhere that Linux will override such settings, but I have been unable to get the kernel (2.4.18) to do so. I read the lilo.conf man page which indicated that adding 'append="mem=32M"' to lilo would do it, but the computer would not boot after adding this. A further search of the internet produced a sort of How-to doc that lists three options (but I think is written for RedHat). The first of these is the same as the lilo.conf recommendation, the second involves giving mem sizes and start locations in hexadecimals e.g. append="mem=exactmap mem=0x9f000@0 mem=0x1f00000@100000" and the third is like the 2nd, but in english.. append="mem=exactmap mem#=640K@0 mem=31M@1M" all these end in the same result - failure to boot. I have tried these messages specifying 16MB as the memory size (incase there really was a problem with the 32MB size) but the result is the same. In the mini how-to it is suggested that white space is needed between the start quotes and the first mem statement - but that doesn't resolve this problem either. So - am I correct in assuming that the Linux kernel can use this additional 16MB of memory , and if so how do I let it know its there? all the best Glen

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Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 30 Dec '02

30 Dec '02

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include tkirc, bitchx, xchat and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://freshmeat.net/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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Soundcards
by Matt 29 Dec '02

29 Dec '02

Can anyone recommend a sound card for Linux, which has a fully supported wavetable and midi interface? Cheers, Matt

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webcams
by Syd Hancock 28 Dec '02

28 Dec '02

Has anyone any experience and/or recommendations for webcams to use under linux? I have used Gnomemeeting to receive from Netmeeting but cannot send as there seems to be no linux driver for my webcam. Cheers Syd

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Phoenix Homepage
by Wayne Stallwood 28 Dec '02

28 Dec '02

Ok so I may have a slight hangover, and thus not really firing on all cylinders. But this is driving me mad. I have Phoenix 0.5 installed. it's working really well for me apart from this one annoying problem. Regardless of what I set as the homepage Phoenix always starts by displaying http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. If I click the home button Phoenix will go to my configured homepage. and when starting up you can see it starting to load it in the status bar at the bottom of the window before going to barnesandnoble. I've greped both my .phoenix/ directory and the installation directory for the URL. found nothing. Done a google search and looked theough the Moz docs all to no avail Any ideas anyone before I start downloading the source and looking through that ? Wayne

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A Postfix mystery
by bsamuels＠beenthere-donethat.org.uk 26 Dec '02

26 Dec '02

I have just replaced Exim with Postfix. There are a few things not yet working as I want them but there is also one oddity. Whenever the system sends an internal mail to root, which is then re-directed to me as a user, it tries to send the same email to a number of non-existant users: <"$h_subject:contains"@machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "$h_subject:contains" <endif(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "endif" <"fax stats"@machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "fax stats" <then(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "then" <if(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "if" <elif(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "elif" <finish(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "finish" <"facsimile received"@machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "facsimile received" <error_message(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "error_message" <"facsimile not received"@machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "facsimile not received" <save(a)machine1.mynetwork>: unknown user: "save" These users are obviously rubbish but I have no idea where it is finding this stuff. This problem does not occur with emails to or from the internet. Some ideas as to where to look would be appreciated. Barry Samuels

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Hidden Knowledge
by Keith Watson 26 Dec '02

26 Dec '02

I've just been having a tidy up of my ALUG Main mail folder. There's a long list of submissions I've kept because they contained info. that I thought might be useful. It then occurred to me that all this info. is already in the mailing list archives anyway. Could we make some sort of search facility available for the archives? or is it better to download the consolidated list and search it locally? If so what's the best way? Keith ____________ BEAUTY, n. The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Kernel Config for Dialup Clients
by Keith Watson 25 Dec '02

25 Dec '02

I'm having a number of silly little problems with my Debian install when setting up the PPP dial up connections. I won't go into detail because I don't think they are the main issue. Trouble is that I've rebuilt the kernel to match my hardware config. In the process I've taken out a lot of the server side networking support as I only intend to use the system as a dialup client. So apart from async PPP support and iptables (firewall) what is the minimum kernel config and services required for a dialup client only system? Oh! and Happy Christmas (Seasons Greeting for the PC minded :o) ) and a Happy New Year, Keith ____________ COWARD, n. One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs. Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Moving directories to a new partition
by Ian Douglas 24 Dec '02

24 Dec '02

The Linux partition on my triple boot Windows/Linux PC has gradually been filling up over the past few months and is now 98% full with just 40MB remaining. I have therefore had a clear out on my Windows partition to create some free space and have been able to create two new small partitions which I can now use with Linux to ease some of the strain. My current setup is: /dev/hda1 Windows /dev/hda2 swap /dev/hda5 /boot /dev/hda7 / I would like to change this to: /dev/hda1 Windows /dev/hda2 swap /dev/hda5 /boot /dev/hda7 /usr /dev/hda12 / /dev/hda13 /home I have formatted these two new partitions and moved /home from hda7 to hda13 ok and deleted it from hda7. I now want to move everything else apart from the /usr directory from hda7 to hda12. What is the best way to tell Linux to move everything except this one directory from one partition to another (hda12 is a lot smaller than hda7 and is not big enough to hold /usr even temporarily)? Ian.

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