March 2007 - main

I think the hard drives dead
by Chris & Barry Chater 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Hi Would you believe it finally got Ubuntu Linux working on an old laptop, got a wireless card and got that working. then the other day computer froze while watching video on BBC site.Could not get it to shut down, so switched off . Now on start up it says no operating system and it will not let me reinstall Ubuntu, it cant find device to partition. Do you think the hard drive has gone? It also whines when switched off. Is it a big job replacing the drive in a Packard Bell laptop, like pull one out and plug another in or is it deeper than that and more technical. Just trying to work out if it is cost effective to replace drive. Any advice ? Barry

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Debian server crashing
by mephi 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

I mentioned this at the Ipswich meeting, and I've not yet had a chance to do anything about it, so I thought I'd see if anyone here had any ideas too :-) My server crashes roughly once a month. It's not consistent on the day that it crashes, sometimes it can be weeks apart. But it's usually just after 7am (although today I had my first crash at 13:30). The locking up is a bit odd, as the PC still responds to pings, but I can't log in (I can type the username, but it never requests the password), and Apache stops serving files, but samba doesn't. I've got two scripts that run, an rsync backup script that runs at 7am, and one that gathers system info, which runs every 15 minutes. I thought the problem might be something clashing between the two scripts, so I tried stopping the system info script running between 7am and 8am, this obviously hasn't helped. At the Ipswich meeting it was mentioned that it could be the syslog failing, so I'm going to look into redirecting the syslog to another server. Is there anything else that anyone can think of? System: Debian Stable (Sarge, 3.1), 2.6.8-2-686-smp kernel Dual 1Ghz P3 ASUS CUR-DLS motherboard 1Gb of ECC PC100 RAM 2x Silicon Image 3114 SATA cards 6x 250Gb SATA drives in RAID 5 (mdadm) 2x 40Gb PATA drives HP 7170 Dual Port Gigabit card (64-bit PCI) Cheers, Matt

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re: 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer,, Dereham Road
by Dennis 07 Mar '07

07 Mar '07

Hi all, I was thinking of dropping in on the monthly meet, but I was wondering how I would recognise everyone else. How will I recognise you lot ? Dennis

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re: 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer,, Dereham Road
by Dennis English 06 Mar '07

06 Mar '07

Hi all, I was thinking of dropping in on the monthly meet, but I was wondering how I would recognise everyone else. How will I recognise you lot ? Dennis

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- The monthly "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 8th March. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2006-02-ALUG/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for, even if the images are getting a bit old now. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though sometimes we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- [ I'd love to but... I'm having all my plants neutered. ] ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

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Planet ALUG
by Dave Briggs 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

Would it be possible for whoever is currently looking after the planet to delete my old feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/davebriggs) and put my new one (http://davebriggs.wordpress.com/feed/) in? Thanks! -- Dave Briggs

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Annoying shell script problem - calling external binary
by samwise 05 Mar '07

05 Mar '07

Hi, Got an annoying shell script bug. I'm using GNU bash, version 3.1.17(1)-release. Here's a testcase.sh shell script: #!/bin/bash -v myfiles="/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" echo binary --usethese $myfiles binary --usethese $myfiles Relevant output to console: $ ./testcase.sh #!/bin/bash -v myfiles="/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" echo binary --usethese $myfiles binary --usethese /home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt binary --usethese $myfiles $ I want to call an external binary with a parameter made of filenames which may contain spaces. If I run the output of the echo statement above (4th line of output) manually by cutting and pasting into the console, the scanner works fine. However, it always fails if the same command is manually called with quotes around the parameter value: WORKS: binary --usethis /home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt DOESN'T WORK: binary --usethis "/home/samwise/Desktop/file\ with\ spaces.txt /tmp/otherfile.txt" Now, despite me *not* putting in quotation marks in the shell script, it appears that the call on the third line is being interpreted as though I have used them ... and so the call fails. Anyone got any suggestions? Peter.

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Kit Meet?
by Mark Ridley 04 Mar '07

04 Mar '07

I delete all my emails (stupid habit) and the mailing list archive doesn't appear to be searchable, from a mobile browser anyway. So, is there a kit meet soon near or in Ipswich? I have a case with mobo and processor (old AMD), and an Atari ST. Someone (samwise/Peter) wanted one of them I'm sure. The meetings page on the webby was going on about 2006, plus this Treo is too fiddley to mention! :) Ta. -Mark (fed up of working in Switzerland) ----------------------------------------------------------- This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. This information is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete or destroy any copy of this message.

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PC Disposal
by Ian bell 03 Mar '07

03 Mar '07

While we are discussing getting rid of old stuff, I saw on Look East a short while ago and article about a company in Norwich that recycles computer hardware inlcuding peripherals. I have Googleg but all I can find is companies that deal with corporate disposals rather than individuals. Is the dump the only alternative for individuals? Ian

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Firefox help - how it displays directories
by Eur Ing Chris Green 03 Mar '07

03 Mar '07

Yesterday or the day before I saw in passing a web page that had a reference to how Firefox displays directories (i.e. when you open a directory with no index.html and you're allowed to). It had something about extra decorations and how to make things appear in the "Description" column. Can anyone give me a pointer to documentation on this? -- Chris Green

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