June 2004 - main - earth.li

Graphical 'diff' with proper X cut and paste
by Chris Green 21 Sep '04

21 Sep '04

I'm looking for a graphical (GUI/X) diff command which allows proper X cut and paste. I've found xdiff (well, one of them, there are a couple) and mgdiff but neither allows one to select lines from the display and to paste them elsewhere. They both expect you're trying to merge the diff'ed files into an output file so the select actions only decide whether what you have selected goes into the output file or not. What I need to do is to be able to see differences between two files and paste them into a third file which is (probably) open in a different window. I can't find a diff utility which allows me to do this. Does anyone have any recommendations? It needs to be fairly 'generic unix' as I want it to run on a Solaris box. I'm quite happy to compile stuff but I'm not happy if the program needs lots of specialist libraries. -- Chris Green (chris(a)areti.co.uk)

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Silly question No. 1 (Mail servers)
by bjsamuels＠beenthere-donethat.org.uk 06 Jul '04

06 Jul '04

My ADSL comes with a fixed IP address and I gather that, among other things, it would enable me to run my own mail server. After reading my ISP's instructions about running an SMTP mail server, in double-dutch of course ("A" records ???), it all sounds a little daunting. I already run Postfix locally if that has any bearing on the subject and I don't, as far as I know, run a DNS server locally. What advantages would this give? Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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RE: [ALUG] dpkg-dist error on installing postgresql
by Jenny Hopkins 04 Jul '04

04 Jul '04

Keith wrote: > Sounds like apt thinks that postgresql is already installed > at the latest release. You could try; > > 1) doing and uninstall followed by an installl (but I'm a bit > wary of that as uninstall can also clobber other packes you don't want > uninstalled) > > 2) try reconfiguring the package with dpkg --configure > [package name] - check the syntax of that via the man page > > 3) I think there's an apt-get option that will force a > re-install of an existing package, again check the apt-get man page. > > Keith > ____________ > Yes, the full story is that I had postgresql v7.2 installed, and when I upgraded to testing from stable postgresql attempted to upgrade to v7.4. Halfway through the upgrade it failed becuase it couldn't upgrade the data from 7.2 to the latest format. I apt-get removed postgresql and ripped out the existing data directory. Now it keeps giving this error when i try to install, as in your option (1). I get the same error with option (2). Re. option (3) - I've just done and apt-get clean, an apt-get check and tried using the f to force option, but with the same error. Any option (4) suggestions? :-)) I shudder to think what would have happened if this was my live box and not the playpen. Thanks, Jen ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

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Meetings, Talks, Demonstrations and Kit
by Brett Parker 03 Jul '04

03 Jul '04

Right, here goes nothing... We've never really had a good result as far as talks/demonstrations run, there's either generally not the turnout, or the interest in the talks, or enough spare time in the world. What I'd like to see, sometime, (and this goes doubly for the lurkers on the list) is some suggestions for talks, what you want to learn about, etc. It'd be good to see more of the hundreds of subscribers to the list turn up to meetings, if only to say hello. Is the problem that the meetings are on the wrong days? or in the wrong places? I'm sure there are many of us willing to travel to other places if there's a meeting held there. Basically, I think what I'm trying to say is this: * We can't do talks without topics * We can't do talks without people interested in the talk (i.e. turning up to said talks) * ALUG is a community, we have no real "leadership", the decisions to do things are made by the members. So, maybe it's time to find out what people want out of the group? Do we want a full from scratch to desktop linux install demonstration? If so, which distribution? Certainly we have quite a few debian developers in the group, maybe we should go right through an install from the beginning to having X running, with KDE/Gnome/XFCE4? Do we want a demonstration on reuse of old kit for small servers, samba, LDAP, HTTP, FTP, etc? How about someone talking on how to give talks, maybe that'd be useful? Maybe demonstrations of what other Free operating systems can do? Do people want to know about specific topics, like 3d, DVB, graphics, DTP, Office applications? Without a starting point we'll never get any talks written. Do we actually want talks, or a quick guide on the website for how things work? should we be using the ALUG wiki more? should there be more technical documentation/recommendations available from the site? Maybe we should start with a set of subjects, perhaps as part of the ALUG wiki, and go from there? Thoughts, suggestions, and anything else to the list. :) Thanks, -- Brett Parker

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Suse 9.1 disappointment
by Robert Frusher 01 Jul '04

01 Jul '04

Not really a question, but a little insight. I am an avid Slackware Linux user, but on seeing Suse 9.1 available for download I thought I would give it a go. The install is flawless, with its auto-configuration, although I see nothing wrong with Slackwares curses install. A little while later it was installed. I couldnt get grub boot loader to play nicely with XP so it went in the MBR. I reboot and this is the disappointment... it is REALLY slow, granted nice, but nothing really new. I have a pretty good spec machine and Slack flies compared with Suse. DMA was on but it just seemed to take forever to boot, and sluggish when it gets there. Do you reckon it was the new kernel? I tried 2.6 with Slack and it seemed even faster. SO on seeing 10.0 Slackware out I got rid of Suse, and am back at home. Rob

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Newsforge: gLabels: Ready for prime time
by kpwatson＠pop3.ukfsn.org 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

gets a good write up*, any one here used it recently? Particulalry interested in how well it works with CD labels. Keith * http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/06/15/1833205 gLabels, a GNOME program that makes and prints all sorts of labels and business cards, seems to be capable of handling just about any task you throw at it. It's at release 1.93.3, a developer release on the way to a stable 2.0 version, but it's in very good shape.

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RE: [ALUG] dpkg-dist error on installing postgresql
by Jenny Hopkins 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

> Any option (4) suggestions? :-)) Someone suggested I try: dpkg --purge postgresql apt-get install postgresql and this worked. Thanks, all. Won't try this one with the live db in a hurry. Jen ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

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dpkg-dist error on installing postgresql
by Jenny Hopkins 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

Hi, I'm having problems installing postgresql when it gets to the post-installation script, output is below. ducati:/etc/init.d# apt-get install postgresql Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done postgresql is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 20 not upgraded. 1 not fully installed or removed. Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B of additional disk space will be used. Setting up postgresql (7.4.2-4) ... mv: cannot stat `/etc/init.d/postgresql.dpkg-dist': No such file or directory dpkg: error processing postgresql (--configure): subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: postgresql E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) Does anyone know what could be going on here? Thanks, Jen ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________

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UEA Meeting on 27th June.
by Jonathan McDowell 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

Not a huge turnout - only 1 person who doesn't normally come to the 2nd Thursday Norwich meets. We wondered if this might be due to it being outside UEA term time, but then there's not usually a large turnout of UEA undergrads at any time, is there? Attendees were: Eli (who kindly organised it), James + Kaz, Ashley, Brett, Adam, Kirsten, me. Discussion topics included MiniITX boards and rackmounts, interrupts on highly pipelined CPUs, change giving algorithms for soft drinks machines, the annoyance factor of people who blindly suggest Cisco for all networking bits, networking problems we have known, Nethack vs Angband, DVB (ie Freeview and the like) and Brett's car. There were a couple of laptops present (that didn't even get turned on), but no other kit - I presume all the people who've been wanting kit meets in Norwich where unable to make it? Those present thought that a nice beer garden would have made a more suitable venue given the lack of kit, at least until it started raining. As UEA term time is over it was thought that we should take the Norwich Internet Cafe up on their very kind offer of a venue for the next Sunday meet. We don't seem to have any more meets organised for the rest of the year though, except the regular social meets? J. -- Game over, boys! This .sig brought to you by the letter O and the number 8 Product of the Republic of HuggieTag

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Linux Laptop
by Wayne Stallwood 30 Jun '04

30 Jun '04

I don't usually post stuff I'm trying to sell to the list, but I remember a few conversations a while ago regarding cheap Linux Laptops I'm selling my dedicated Linux laptop as VMware on my main one does 99.9% of what I need. It's a Dell Latitude C800 currently running SuSE 9.1 with almost everything working, the modem and suspend/resume have issues but only since moving to a 2.6 kernel. Power management, 3D, thermal control and the CPU Throttle (will go down to 700MHZ when under a light load if on batteries) all tested. Feels pretty snappy and comfortable on KDE, the 1400x1024 screen helps, would be even better with a boost to the ram. It's an 850Mhz PIII with 256MB Ram (a slot is free to add more) ATI M4 with 16MB of Dedicated video memory (this is interchangeable with other ATI and Nvidia daughterboards, ones from the Inspiron 8000 also fit) 10GB HDD (cheap to fit a larger one) CDROM and Floppy Fitted with the 1400x1024 display, no dead pixels and nice and bright. Has all the usual ports. USB, Firewire, serial, parallel, VGA, PS2, 100baseT Ethernet, Modem (not working in Linux, but I haven't tried very hard, google says it's possible) and two PCMCIA slots. Comes with the Dell case, Charger and Modem lead, Windows 2000 OEM license (no media) CD-R with the Dell drivers on, CD-R with SuSE 9.1 personal. Good condition overall, couple of small marks here and there. Battery life is quite poor, replacement is available from Dell for £75 plus VAT. £300 As I say I normally don't post thing like this, so sorry if it causes anyone offence.

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