June 2007 - main - earth.li

Wireless NICs
by Matthew 08 Jun '07

08 Jun '07

Hi all, I'd like to play with hostapd to use a wireless interface card as a access point, but the application currently supports a fairly limited range of drivers. Having tried to research a range of prospective cards I found one (D-link DWL-G510) that seemed to have the right chipset. I bought it only to find that I actually have the revision with the same chipset as my existing card. Most of the common cards have either the wrong chipset or have a variety of revisions which makes them troublesome to buy. Can anyone recommend a reliable way of acquiring an 802.11g card that uses one of the following drivers? # Host AP driver for Prism2/2.5/3 # madwifi (Atheros ar521x) # Prism54.org (Prism GT/Duette/Indigo) I'm now using the tables at http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ to check chipsets, but if anyone can suggest any others that might help. If anyone has such a card spare (or would mind risk swapping it out for another) I'd gladly trade an equivalent one that uses the rt61 driver (or rt2x00, if you're on a recent enough kernel to use it). Thanks, Matthew

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Problem with 'find' and 'basename'
by Chris G 08 Jun '07

08 Jun '07

I'm trying to change the suffix of all files in a directory hierarchy. Trying to diagnose my problem I have run the following command:- find info -name '*.txt' -exec echo `basename {} .txt` \; A section of the output from the above command is as follows:- info/motorbikes/zzr1200service.txt info/motorbikes/luggage.txt info/motorbikes/index.txt info/motorbikes/restindex.txt info/motorbikes/zzr1200info.txt info/motorbikes/lifts.txt info/index.txt info/test/test1.txt info/test/test2.txt info/test/test3.txt So the `basename {} .txt` is doing nothing at all, why? Looking further it seems as if the `` inside the find are causing the problem as:- find info -name '*.txt' -exec basename {} .txt \; produces the expected output:- zzr1200service luggage index restindex zzr1200info lifts index test1 test2 test3 The actual command I want to execute is:- find info -name '*.txt' -exec mv `basename {} .txt`.rst \; to change the .txt suffix to .rst. Any ideas how to do it? -- Chris Green

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[Fwd: Re: [ALUG] Wireless NICs]
by Barrys linux mail 08 Jun '07

08 Jun '07

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [ALUG] Wireless NICs Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:54:28 +0100 From: Barrys linux mail <bazubuntumail(a)tiscali.co.uk> To: Matthew <matthew(a)aleaiactaest.com> References: <46687E17.4020904(a)aleaiactaest.com> Matthew wrote: > > > Most of the common cards have either the wrong chipset or have a > variety of revisions which makes them troublesome to buy. Can anyone > recommend a reliable way of acquiring an 802.11g card that uses one of > the following drivers? > # Host AP driver for Prism2/2.5/3 > # madwifi (Atheros ar521x) > # Prism54.org (Prism GT/Duette/Indigo) > > Thanks, > Matthew > Hi Try this site http://www.linuxemporium.co.uk/ They are very helpful in supplying cards and scripts if wanted. also Ubuntu 7.04 supports some of the wireless cards they sell I have used them and very pleased with service Happy hunting Barry > _ >

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Re: [ALUG] wintar floppy archive
by Richard Bensley 07 Jun '07

07 Jun '07

Hey Ted thanks for the input, as of yet I have not encountered any split archives. I have no doubt I will though. Cheers Richard

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wintar floppy archive
by Richard Bensley 07 Jun '07

07 Jun '07

Good morning all. I have myself a slight dilemma. I have in excess of 500 floppy disks containing an archive of what are called surface files (Wayne could probably inform those curious a lot better than myself). Said floppy disks were created using a piece of software called WinTar to a SCSI floppy drive (it seems). And of course is on it's own unreadable. Has anyone else had any luck accessing WinTar'd media via linux? I'm all googled out! Cheers Richard

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RE: [ALUG] wintar floppy archive
by Richard Bensley 07 Jun '07

07 Jun '07

Thank you so much Wayne! Dd to tar did the trick. Right only a gazillion more to go, then the 30 odd TK50 tapes, and about 300 CD's!...it's going to be a long few weeks. Thanks again Richard

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Ubuntu installation problem
by Chris G 06 Jun '07

06 Jun '07

I am trying to install Ubuntu 7.04 on a system for my mother in law. It boots from the CD OK and works fine as a "Live CD" system. However, when I start the 'Install' program to actually install on the hard disk the window the Install program opens is too large and can't be resized such that the important buttons at the bottom appear on the screen. Thus I can't progress the install. Is this a problem that anyone else has seen? Any ideas on how to fix it? -- Chris Green

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Can anyone recommend a webcam for a laptop?
by Barry Samuels 06 Jun '07

06 Jun '07

Can anyone recommend a webcam for a laptop, a Thinkpad R51 to be specific, that will work with Debian (Testing - kernel 2.6.18)? I'd prefer the type that clips on to the lid/screen and that is small enough to go in the laptop carrying bag. It does NOT have to produce out of the ordinary results but I don't want to pay more than about £25 and preferably less. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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"!!" in /etc/passwd
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 06 Jun '07

06 Jun '07

Hi Folks, Can anyone interpret the following for me? I can't find it referred to in 'man' documentation. Some "user" entries in /etc/passwd have "!!" in the encrypted password field, e.g. sshd:!!:74:74:Privilege-separated SSH:/var/empty/sshd:/sbin/nologin rpc:!!:32:32:Portmapper RPC user:/:/sbin/nologin mysql:!!:27:27:MySQL Server:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/bash postgres:!!:26:26:PostgreSQL Server:/var/lib/pgsql:/bin/bash For the acounts which have /sbin/nologin as "shell" I cannot of course gain entry, even from root. On the other hand, for the accounts (mysql, postgres) which have a normal shell, I can 'su' from root without entering a password; while if I try to 'su' from any other user I'm prompted for a password (which of course does not exist). I'm wondering what the full interpretation of the "!!" is. I know about "*" in the encrypted password field: there is no possible password which encrypts fo "*", so such accounts cannot be logged into. I've already found out something (see above) about "!!" accounts, but is there more that I should know? In particular, if I were (as root) to use the 'passwd' command to give a "!!" account a real password, would I be treading on any toes in the system? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Jun-07 Time: 11:53:29 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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OK, next Ubuntu graphics question/problem
by Chris G 06 Jun '07

06 Jun '07

OK, I now have Ubuntu 7.04 installed and working, network connection up, pretty OK in fact. However it will still only allow me a best resolution of 800x600 even though there are higher resolutions in the xorg.conf file. What else limits the resolution and how do I change it? -- Chris Green

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