April 2003 - main

RE: [Alug]RH9 Opinions?
by Adam Bower 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

> From: Martyn Drake [mailto:martyn@drake.org.uk] > In my industry we have little choice over what distros we can > use, simply > because when you purchase expensive things like Maya or > Pixar's Renderman, > you're tied to what they support and both these products will > only support > Red Hat 7.2 and 7.3 at the time of writing. People have > tried Debian with > RenderMan only to have been told that it's not supported in > any way shape or > form. Of course, it's not just the industry that I work in > that has this > problem. I'm sure that most commercial Linux software Not supported doesn't mean it won't work though :) The Matrix was rendered with renderman (and other bits) running on FreeBSD through the Linux compatability system. What I found with the movie industry was that people were unwilling to try things which were "unsupported" as they equated it with "not working". Adam

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[Alug]A file system puzzle
by Barry Samuels 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

I am trying to change the contents of a bootable floppy to include a specific module. On the floppy is a file 'miniroot.gz' which I have copied to my hard drive. I can gunzip the file and mount the resultant file system 'miniroot' using mount -o loop. If I unmount, without changing anything, and re-gzip the file the result is the same as the original. If I delete a file when the file system is mounted then unmount and re-gzip I end up with something that is larger than the origianl which doesn't seem to make sense to me. I want to replace one of the modules (98k) within the file system with one of my own (68k) but always end up with a compressed file system that is larger than the original and won't fit on the disc. Could someone please explain, to a 'bear of little brain', what I must be doing wrong? Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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[Alug]booting Gentoo install
by Glen Tyler 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

wanting to try a new configurable linux I have been sent a gentoo x86 1.4 rc3 CD. At the top level there is one file livecd.cloop and two directories gentoo - (containing the three level tarballs) and isolinux (with initrd and gentoo.lss files in it among others). I'm guessing that the livecd.cloop file should be a boot.img or something like it as I don't think that gentoo can be installed unless you can boot from the CD. Normally (i.e. never before) I have no problem booting from CD's. Can anyone give any pointers? Glen

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[Alug]Netbox
by Wayne Stallwood 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

I was at an Auction in Ipswich today and I spotted two boxed Netgem Netbox's (A Web/eMail Set Top Box thingy) Nearly walked past them but then a Penguin on the box caught my eye (They run Linux 2.2.something) Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that they were an unsold lot from a previous auction waiting for collection by the seller. Anyway a quick chat with the Auctioneer afterwards had me getting them for reserve (£15 each) One is missing it's Smart Card (and they seem to need this in some way) but the other is booting fine. I have no interest in STB's but given that these have Linux, an ethernet interface, sound, TV out and a remote keyboard. I figure that as a toy to hack around with they may fill a rainy night (not that we seem to be getting those at the moment) I am away for the weekend so can't play until sometime next week, but would the list be interested in me posting details of what I find ?

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[Alug]Spell checking greyed-out in Sylpheed-Claws
by Ian Douglas 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

Hi folks, I have just installed sylpheed-claws 0.8.11 on my PC but the "spelling" option is greyed out in the compose window. If I type "which aspell" (or ispell) my system confirms that they are installed in /usr/bin so I am not sure why the spell checking function is not available within Sylpheed. Does anyone have any ideas about what I need to tweak in order to get this function working? Ian.

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[Alug]Weekly IRC reminder
by Neill Newman 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

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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[Alug]Debian 'Testing' CD images
by Barry Samuels 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

Does anyone possess the above and would they be prepared to create CDs for me if I provide the blank CDs and cover any costs involved. I have only a 56k modem connection and I think that downloading these CDs would take rather a long time! Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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RE: [Alug] Newsforge: NVIDIA's Latest Drivers and the Quadro FX
by Adam Bower 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

> From: MJ Ray [mailto:markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk] > > Oh. I just had someone raving at me about the latest ATI > cards (currently > out around the 250-300 quid mark?) but I don't think even > their support is > full under free software at the moment. Their "offical" support is non-free the same as Nvidia and from what I have heard is far worse in both terms of what capabilities they give you and the installer is very rpm focused. As for what they actually give the free software community so that people can work on to support their products it looks about the same as Nvidia, i.e. not much. and they certainly are giving nothing important away. :( Adam

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Zauruss (Zaurui?)
by BenE 17 Apr '03

17 Apr '03

Does anyone know of a place in Norwich that sells the Sharp Zaurus PDA pls? I've been looking to buy one for a while now and since they are *relatively* cheap, as I've discovered tonight, I'm even more tempted :-) Has anyone had any experience of them? I assume being linux based there would be no problems connecting my desktop to it. I've now realised that's prolly quite a big assumption, hmm? *googles* cheers, BenE

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[Alug]Free Ink-carts for Linux printers!
by Edenyard 17 Apr '03

17 Apr '03

I have here three inkjet cartridges which are unused and unwanted - they're free to a good home. (All "compatible" types and made by JR): 1 off black for Epson Stylus 400/800/800+/1000 2 off colour for Epson Stylus Color II/IIs/820 To make this message legal, they must be used with Linux printers!! They're lightweight, so I could post - alternatively they could be collected from Martlesham. Please contact me off-list if interested. Cheers, Gerald.

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