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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 11th August
by Viperfang 08 Aug '11

08 Aug '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 11th August at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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Can't cope with these new fangled GUIs - help wanted with Thunderbird IMAP/SMTP setup
by Chris G 05 Aug '11

05 Aug '11

I'm trying to get Thunderbird to connect to a fairly standard E-Mail account and I'm failing miserably at the moment. The apparent problem is that I don't seem to be able to tell Thunderbird that the user name for both IMAP and SMTP authentication is user(a)isbd.co.uk. I've gone into manual setup for the account and changed the user name to user(a)isbd.co.uk but now when I tell Thunderbird to get mail it says:- Enter your password for user@isbd.co.uk@mail.gridhost.co.uk which is fairly stupid! How do I get Thunderbird to allow me to set the user name to something which isn't <user>@<name of domain>? The correct mail server to use *isn't* related to the name of the domain where the user's mailbox is. The domain for the user's mailbox is isbd.co.uk but the mail server (if you're using SSL) is mail.gridhost.co.uk. -- Chris Green

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Obscure PHP / FTP issue
by Mark Rogers 04 Aug '11

04 Aug '11

Not sure if anyone here will be able to shed some light on this but Google isn't helping. I have some PHP code that opens a connection to an FTP server (running Pure-FTPd), writes a few lines to a file, then closes the connection. In other words: $fh = fopen('ftp://user:pass@ftp.example.com/test.csv','w'); for ($i=0;$i<=100;$i++) fputs($fh, "blah blah blah\r\n"); fclose($fh); The problem is that when I look at the uploaded file it's contents have been truncated. Putting a suitably long sleep() before the fclose "solves" this for some definition of "suitably long" but obviously isn't a real solution. Inserting an fflush($fh) makes no difference. I'm not sure if this is a PHP issue (specifically with the FTP wrappers to fopen/fclose), or a generic FTP issue, or a problem specific to Pure-FTPd. I have however tried to two different servers running very different versions of Pure-FTPd with the same effects. If there was a standard issue here I'd have found something with Google, surely? Otherwise I don't know where to go looking? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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A new appp!
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 02 Aug '11

02 Aug '11

First, my apologies for cross-posting (which I know will affect some of you), but this is one of those news gems which deserves the widest publicity. I just received my ISP Zen's latest News letter. One item therein is: Powerpoint politics There's a new political party in Switzerland and its sole aim is to have PowerPoint outlawed. The Anti-PowerPoint Party says banning the application would allow people to get back to doing some real work. In the party's blog, it claims that so many government institutions use PowerPoint that about 11 per cent of more than 4.1 million employees have to waste time on presentations on a regular basis. The ban might happen. Citizens can force a referendum on any subject in Switzerland. All it takes is 100,000 voters to sign a petition demanding one. URLs in the Zen article: [techeye.net: "Switzerland demands Powerpoint's death"]: http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFFZ-0/c.aspx Sample quote: "Looking at the problem Europe wide, SAP thinks that Powerpoint costs the 110 billion Euros which is coincidentally how much the Greek debt bail-out will cost." [techeye.net: US Army declares war on Powerpoint"]: http://zen-mail.co.uk/IJT-HCUP-3BFWEB-6SFG0-0/c.aspx Sample quote: "Sam Nuxoll, a platoon leader in Iraq, seems to have shaken the Pentagon with a quote that said he was spending most of the war making Powerpoint slides. Instead of spending his time dodging bullets, he was making bullet points." ===================================== And I shall add one of my own favourite APP diatribes (much inspired by Edward Tufte, one of the great experts in the presentation of information, and a pioneer in formulating the principles of good presentation): http://services.exeter.ac.uk/cmit/media/audio/ Microsoft-Powerpoint-And-The-Decline-Of-Civilisation-BBCR4-2004-10-18.mp3 (equivalently: http://tinyurl.com/42al9e9 ) [BBC Radio 4, 18 October 2004. Duration 14 minutes. Which was a delightful surprise to me that day, with R4 casually on in the background] See also the Wikipedia article on Tufte: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_tufte There's a good (bullet-pointed???) summary of his views on PowerPoint in Section 2.2 "Criticism of PowerPoint". Best wishes to all! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 01-Aug-11 Time: 11:37:35 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Missing files
by James Bensley 30 Jul '11

30 Jul '11

So I made a boo boo today... Like a fool I pulled my NTFS external USB drive out of my Ubuntu 10.04 laptop a second too early. I was moving some files from the laptop to the drive and just as the bar was reaching complete I pulled the USB cable out. It was a load of files and folders I had looped and "right clicked > cut". I would have thought that say the last file of the selection wouldn't be there because I interrupted the cut process right at the end but no, all the files aren't on the external drive and because it was a cut not a copy they are gone from my laptop. Anyone know how I can scan my external drive for the presumably unclosed files and "close them" or something data recovery-esq like that? -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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Re: [ALUG] Why is the time correct on my virtual machine?
by Mark Rogers 29 Jul '11

29 Jul '11

On 28 July 2011 17:39, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk <mailto:tony.anson@girolle.co.uk>> wrote: Is there any possibility of a crosslink with the two virtual machines? Both running in Virtual Box, mayhap? They are both inside vbox, yes. However, I installed ntpd on the second virtual machine and checked its time against the time server, and it was different, albeit only a few seconds. So coincidence is looking more likely? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Why is the time correct on my virtual machine?
by Mark Rogers 28 Jul '11

28 Jul '11

I have a server (running Ubuntu 10.04/Zentyal + VirtualBox). It's time is about 5 mins out (it doesn't seem to have any time sync built in). Hosted on it are two virtual machines, both with accurate times. One has (in root's crontab): */10 * * * * /usr/sbin/ntpdate -s uk.pool.ntp.org .. so that explains that one being correct. However the other one does not, and I can't see anything that would be keeping it in sync. I've looked in root's crontab, as well as all of /etc/cron*. There's no ntpd script in /etc/init.d. It's running Ubuntu 11.04 (server). How would this one be staying correct? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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Pinging Server's 127.*.*.* subnet
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 25 Jul '11

25 Jul '11

Hi all, I was trying to add a extra IP address to my server's localhost because I wanted to run a apache virtual host on a separate IP address. I used sudo ip addr add 127.0.0.5/32 dev lo and then I could ping 127.0.0.5 successfully. When I'd finished, I ran sudo ip addr del 127.0.0.5/32 dev lo which didn't return any error messages. I than ran ping 127.0.0.5 and still got responses. I ran sudo ip addr del 127.0.0.5/32 dev lo again and it told me that it could not do it "RTNETLINK answers: Cannot assign requested address" It may be that the ip addr add has nothing to do with it, but on this machine, my server, I can ping any address I've tried in the 127.*.*.* range and get a response. Is this normal, or have I messed something up? If so, what have I messed up? Is there anything I can run that show's what's providing these ports? It's an Ubuntu machine, running dnsmasq, apache. Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS Any ideas? Or am I being thick??? Steve

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Network delay issue
by Stuart Bailey 22 Jul '11

22 Jul '11

I have a mid sized network, around 80 users. Most of these users are using windows clients, with a few macs. There are 3 Linux servers, 2 for file services (samba and netatalk), and one as domain controller (Samba) and email (cyrus / postfix). There is also a windows server used for Sage. We have recently started to notice periodic delays in network traffic. I am not aware of any changes to the network at the time when this problem started - it has been fine for 18 months or so. This has been noticed as follows: 1. remote ssh into Linux server - typing gets momentarily delayed, for about 5-10 seconds, then resumes. This occurs randomly, but typically every minute or so. 2. Remote desktop (to a windows client), freezes, and occasionally drops out. 3. File access to samba shares sometimes takes a very long time, or times out. Then a retry works almost instantly. 4. There is also a DOS (runs in XP command window) based database, whose files reside on a samba share. When scrolling through records, this occasionally freezes, then resumes. The delay periods are all fairly consistent - ie, they affect the above for roughly the same periods. I have monitored tcpdump from the Linux server whilst accessing the database, and can see server responses from samba to the DOS client, immediately before a delay occurs. I am certain the servers are not responsible, since it affects services on different machines, and can see samba packets from the server at the right time. Also, I've monitored the broadband traffic, and can see nothing unusual. The network has gigabit connections from the servers to 3 stacked switches. Fibre between buildings - although the problem affects all buildings. Clients are typically on 100M connections. the windows clients are all running NOD32 AV. RKhunter and chkrootkit are run on the servers overnight, and show nothing. I'm not sure what else to look for. I've monitored the servers with wireshark, and they look normal. Any ideas would be welcome, please. Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6308 (20110719) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

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SSH keys
by Mark Rogers 21 Jul '11

21 Jul '11

I have a remote server that I want to allow SSH access to but only to certain people, and I don't trust passwords, so keys are the way to go. However, all I know about setting up keys is based on the user creating a public/private key pair, and the server adding that user's public key to it's trusted keys to allow access. Ideally what I want to do is the other way around, in that I want to generate the key pairs on the server and copy the relevant key to the clients so that they all share the same key (there won't be many users and I just want to give them a key rather than have them create keys themselves). What is the "correct" way to do this, or am I doing something horribly wrong? I figure that I can set up the key pair myself as usual, but then copy the private key from my PC to anyone else who needs access, but I'm not sure if that's the right approach. (I'm quite OK with the idea of creating different keys for different users, adding them to the server, then issuing the keys to the users, so I can revoke access from any given user quite easily if I need to; I just don't want the users having to do the key creation bit.) If it's relevant, most of the users other than me will be connecting via Windows (PuTTY), and will need to be able to tunnel through the SSH connection for various apps. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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CSS/HTML question - how to vary a CSS value easily?
by Chris G 20 Jul '11

20 Jul '11

I have done a Google search for 'dynamic CSS' and I can see large scale ways of doing what I want to do but I was wondering if anyone has a simple way of doing it. What I want is a way to insert a variable amount of vertical space between blocks of HTML. The particular case I'm interested in is where I have a <UL> below either a <P>...</P> or below a heading <Hx>. The problem is that the HTML is generated by a Wiki so one doesn't have *direct* access to the generated code and the text above a list is *always* a paragraph, it's not possible to turn it off. The existing CSS setting margins for paragraphs and headings works right for 99% of cases but when you have lists under heading *and* lists under paragraphs it's very difficult to get things right using just the CSS. So, a quick (and dirty?!) approach to fixing the few places where the spacing is too small or too large would be to have the ability to insert an empty block/paragraph where one could set the height/margins easily. A quick, single case, bodge is something like:- <DIV id=unvert><P></P></DIV> With CSS for div#unvert setting appropriate size/margins. However what I'd *really* like to do would be to enable setting of the margins or height of the paragraph from the code somehow, that would allow one to insert more/less space as required rather than needing lots of different CSS ids, one for each different spacing. Any ideas, or completely different approaches, or am I missing something entirely? -- Chris Green

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Surprised at different 'rm -f' operation when root or not root work?
by Chris G 20 Jul '11

20 Jul '11

I have just discovered that 'rm -f' (also 'rm -fr') only overrides permissions when run as root. I.e. if I have a file I own that is read only I *can't* delete it if I am the user that owns the file, even using 'rm -f', however if I sudo to root privileges then 'rm -f' will remove the file even if there is no write permission. Strangely the man pages on my system don't seem to document this difference between root and non-root use of rm. For the -f option it just says:- `-f' `--force' Ignore nonexistent files and never prompt the user. Ignore any previous `--interactive' (`-i') option. Which seems to be the non-root case, i.e. it *doesn't* remove a file where you don't have write permission even with '-f'. So where is the 'do it regardless of permissions' action which happens when root uses 'rm -f' documented? Finally, the thing that caused the problem, how do I guarantee that an 'rm -fr' run by a user will be able to delete everything in the specified directory tree? Do I have to do a 'chmod -R +w' first? -- Chris Green

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Scripting question - how to get *relative* directory within a bash script?
by Chris G 19 Jul '11

19 Jul '11

I need to find what the relative directory (relative to $HOME that is) within a bash script and, at the moment, I can only see rather messy ways of doing it. To go into more detail I want a way to generate a string of the form ~/subdir1/subdir2 when a script is run from ~/subdir1/subdir2. The best I can come up with at the moment is to get the full path to the current directory using pwd and then to remove $HOME from that string using sed, e.g.:- fullpath=`pwd` relpath=`echo $fullpath | sed s#$HOME#~#` Actually that's not quite as nasty a I thought, but it still feels like there should be a neater way. (I haven't tried it so there may well be issues with quoting etc. but you can see the idea) Any ideas? -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 18 Jul '11

18 Jul '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- After an inexplicable absence in June, the monthly "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back tonight, Monday 18th July, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I'll definitely be there, so if any one new wants to drop in, look for the guy in the corner with the latest copy of LXF ... ;) We're normally in the downstairs-from-the-bar-bit, nearest the entrance on the library side. Peter. ----- 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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Installing Ununtu server to degraded RAID
by Mark Rogers 13 Jul '11

13 Jul '11

I want to set up a server using software RAID1 as follows: - Install single disk, do the OS install (Ubuntu server 11.04), creating RAID array (but degraded as only one disk) - Boot the system and check it all works - Install second disk and add to array The install works fine (I create an md partition and an array of 2 devices but only add one to it), and install grub to /dev/sda1 as usual. However it won't boot. Grub starts and gives me my menu, but gets no further. Suggestions? Am I doing this all wrong? (Reason for doing this: migrating an existing RAID1 array using the onboard RAID to an mdraid array; I want to keep one of the original disks to recover some files off once the system is up before wiping it and adding it to the new array. But also I want to confirm that my new array will boot with only one disk otherwise there's not a lot of point to it!) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) 21 Drakes Mews, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ER

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 14th July
by Viperfang 11 Jul '11

11 Jul '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 14th July at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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Reg Exp question
by Stuart Bailey 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Hello, I'm trying to search for a file name by pattern that will output the full path and timestamps. I've tried using ls -Rl | grep "^\." to show all the directories. but then I need to show all files within those directories that match my pattern, eg *abc.png Can I do this with my reg exp? Find does not give the timestamps. Many thanks, Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0) 1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6276 (20110708) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

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Re: [ALUG] Reg Exp question
by James Bensley 08 Jul '11

08 Jul '11

Classic school boy reply-to-person-not-to-list fail On 8 July 2011 11:37, James Bensley <jwbensley(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I'm not sure i' I under stand your request but are you looking for: > ls -Rl | grep ".abc.png" > > -- > James. > http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

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APC UPS Batteries (RBC18) going spare
by Mark Rogers 07 Jul '11

07 Jul '11

If anyone is interested I have a box of used but working RBC18 battery sets from APC UPS's. Basically they've been replaced as part of routine maintenance, they've been in use approx 2yrs. I need to know asap (today) if there's interest else they'll probably go off to recycling. They'd need collecting from our office in Peterborough. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] svn tags, branches, etc
by Phil Ashby 06 Jul '11

06 Jul '11

Mark Rogers wrote: >> After an hour or so of reading tutorials and trawling Google I'm >> still stuck on something. I find the best place to start is the on line official book. Here's chapter 4 on branches (and merging): http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.using.html >> Suppose I want to call my current software tree "v1", and create a >> copy to become "v2". The software is a PHP web library and basically >> the purpose of v2 is to start removing all the old PHP3/PHP4 >> compatibility code, and tidy things up, thus breaking backwards >> compatibility. >> >> I think I start with something like: >> svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v1 >> svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v2 >> >> My current code is already in a directory ~/mylib/v1, and I want to >> keep that as it is (several apps on the server are using it), and >> checkout v2 directory ~/mylib/v2; new apps will start to use that >> version. AIUI, you should be able to create a branch for v2 development without affecting the v1 tree, just by doing this: svn copy -m 'making v2 branch' <repo>/mylib/v1 <repo>/mylib/v2 >> So far so good. Where I'm stuck is how to make sure that ~/mylib/v1 >> stays on the v1 branch so I can continue to fix bugs and add >> features (unlikely but possible) to it if I need to, and ~/mylib/v2 >> similarly stays on the v2 branch. Both will have regular commits to >> their respective branches, and I may want to merge fixes from v1 >> into v2 (and vice versa). In other words v1 will become v1.0.1, >> v1.0.2, ... and v2 will independently become v2.0.1, v2.0.2, ... >> whilst sharing common history and allowing me to migrate some >> changes between branches. According to the book, you can now check out your v2 branch to a separate working area: svn checkout <repo>/mylib/v2 ..where you can continue development of v2 separate from the v1 working area. These two work areas will initially be the same of course, however changes checked into v2 will not appear in v1 and vice versa. If you want to 'tag' specific releases of anything, you simply copy the relevant tree again, but give it a tag name eg: svn copy <repo>/mylib/v1 <repo>/mylib/v1.0.3 ..this is the same as creating a branch, thus the *humans* have to understand that this directory should not have changes committed (you can also use the paranoid access control mentioned in the book to prevent this happening). Merging is covered in the next page of the book (after branching): http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.branchmerge.basicmerging.html ..where you will want to merge specific changes (that fix specific bugs) from one branch to the other. This works well as long as the humans don't commit bug fixes with other work, preventing the selection of changes by a changeset number (read the part on cherrypicking). HTH, Phil

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svn tags, branches, etc
by Mark Rogers 05 Jul '11

05 Jul '11

After an hour or so of reading tutorials and trawling Google I'm still stuck on something. Suppose I want to call my current software tree "v1", and create a copy to become "v2". The software is a PHP web library and basically the purpose of v2 is to start removing all the old PHP3/PHP4 compatibility code, and tidy things up, thus breaking backwards compatibility. I think I start with something like: svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v1 svn copy -m "v2" <svnrepo> <svnrepo>/tags/v2 My current code is already in a directory ~/mylib/v1, and I want to keep that as it is (several apps on the server are using it), and checkout v2 directory ~/mylib/v2; new apps will start to use that version. So far so good. Where I'm stuck is how to make sure that ~/mylib/v1 stays on the v1 branch so I can continue to fix bugs and add features (unlikely but possible) to it if I need to, and ~/mylib/v2 similarly stays on the v2 branch. Both will have regular commits to their respective branches, and I may want to merge fixes from v1 into v2 (and vice versa). In other words v1 will become v1.0.1, v1.0.2, ... and v2 will independently become v2.0.1, v2.0.2, ... whilst sharing common history and allowing me to migrate some changes between branches. I think all I need to do is make sure in each directory I switch to the right branch and then any commits/copys will apply to that branch only, but everything I've read talks in terms of the branch being temporary while a new feature is added, rather than permanent with the intention of maintaining v1 and v2 as separate versions going forward (and no doubt spawning v3 from v2 at some point down the line). Before I go too far I just want to be sure I'm on the right track. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Unwanted "600" perms from Acroread
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 04 Jul '11

04 Jul '11

Greetings! Maybe someone has an answer to this! If I open a PDF file in Acrobat Reader (ths file initially having '644' permissions), and then "print to file" (so that I have a PostScript version of it), the permissions of the PS file generated by Acrobat Reader are '600'. This is not a particular problem when I am working in the same directory as the file is in. However, when that machine is NFS-mounted to the machine that does my printing, and I 'lpr' the PS file from the printing machine, then the '600' prevents printing (I get error message "empty file"). This is because the '600' does not allow outsiders to access the file. All is well if I manually change the PS file permissions in the original directory to '644', since this now allows access. So my question: Is there a way to get Acrobat Reader to store the PS file it outputs with '644' permissions instead of '600'? I've had a bit of a look at the Acrobat Reader menus, without seeing anything helpful. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Jul-11 Time: 22:17:31 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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How to diagnose an intermittent web access 'hang'?
by Chris G 02 Jul '11

02 Jul '11

I have a strange problem when I try and access my home LAN web server from home. Once in every three or four connections the web server hangs for several minutes before the data is delivered. This happens when I access the pages as http://zbmc.eu/xxx/yyy. I was going to say that the data is eventually delivered but one I just tried returned a "The connection has timed out" message. If I access the same pages as http://localhost/xxx/yyy then it all works perfectly, no hangs. Now the 'fly in the ointment' as it were is that my ADSL connection uses two ADSL providers on two telephone lines, the sharing is provided by my Draytek Vigor 2820n router. I *suspect* that its the sharing in the router that causes the problem, but it doesn't happen for other URLs, just for http://zbmc.eu/ URLs. Any suggestions for how to diagnose what's going on? -- Chris Green

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Imaging Windows dynamic disks using Linux
by Mark Rogers 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I have a guy on site trying to replace a hard disk in a server (W2003); simple job: shut the server down and image it to a new disk, boot from new disk, walk away. Except it turns out not to be a single disk, it's two disks using Windows dynamic RAID which I know nothing about, but his imaging software doesn't handle it (Acronis). Anyone have any experience of imaging these disks using any of the various Linux options? Ideally I'm looking for something that'll be a small download as he only has limited Internet, and it would be even better if he can boot it from a USB thumb drive as he doesn't have a blank CD with him, although he can probably scrounge one from someone if he has to. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

3 7

2600 meeting
by Ben Bewick 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

Hello Aluggers, A few people from alug have expressed and interest in the 2600 meetings, Stevepdp and I are attempting to relaunch the Norwich group. The meeting will take place today (Friday 1st July) at 6pm at the old Borders entrance to Chapelfield Mall, under the Big-Screen TV. Just to be verbose, we are not trying to poach alug members, we are by example attending both meets. There is alot of crossover of interests, we hope that both communities can benefit from each other. For those who are interested and can attend, see you there. If you are interested but cannot attend, maybe next month? For more information you can see our specific group information at http://norwich2600.co.uk or you can get a more generalised view at http://2600.net Viper

2 1

Loosing IP address
by James Bensley 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I expect this is totally obvious and I'm being a complete buffoon but I can't work it out. Every time I disconnect my Ethernet cable on my laptop I loose my IP address (dropping to none configured) [Ubuntu 10.10]. I am constantly unplugging my cable and plugging it in different switch ports configuring switches all day, and I have to keep a terminal window open in the background so I can quickly switch to it, hit "up" and "enter" to re-run "sudo ifconfig eth0 1.2.3.4". I takes 5 seconds but man its annoying. Anyone got any idea? -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

3 3

1 July 2011
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

Greetings All! Today is the 1st of July. I am wondering if the following is 3 months late: http://tinyurl.com/6hmmame Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 01-Jul-11 Time: 10:50:38 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

Motherboard software RAID vs Linux FakeRAID
by Mark Rogers 01 Jul '11

01 Jul '11

I have an HP server with on-board RAID, ie it takes two drives and presents them to the O/S as a single drive, but the management of that drive utilises the main CPU not a RAID controller. If I use it, how would I be able to detect the RAID status? Or should I just use software RAID and mdtools? lspci reports: 00:11.0 RAID bus controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 SATA Controller [Non-RAID5 mode] (rev 40) If I decided to move to software RAID, what are my chances of migrating the existing install to RAID without re-installing? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

3 6

Minimal GUI for server (kiosk?)
by Mark Rogers 30 Jun '11

30 Jun '11

I have a server which will be running a web server and the primary means for accessing it will be via a web browser. I need to also provide a screen and keyboard/mouse for local use. Basically that means providing a mechanism for running a web browser. I don't *have* to limit the GUI to only running the browser, but it seems like that wouldn't be a bad idea (in which case the browser needs to stay running, ie be restarted if it dies for any reason). Chromium crossed my mind but as I understand it that's not really ready yet. My base OS install is Ubuntu Server, so ideally I'm looking for something that would be an apt-get install away from Ubuntu Server rather than a different OS or distro. Suggestions? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

4 4

Cheese, again
by Anthony Anson 29 Jun '11

29 Jun '11

Anyone with an Eee using Tellytubbies Linux know if Cheese is lurking there? I can't find any trace of it, not even round the biscuits... -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

1 0

Cheese
by Anthony Anson 26 Jun '11

26 Jun '11

Can't find the thread, but thanks muchly to whoever pointed me at Cheese to get a CCTV onna stick thing working, and not least because I've just been given an old microscope USB camera which the donor insisted worked OK on Win 98, but the software wasn't compatible with XP, and when I told him that I intended to use it in Linux, his anticipation of success dropped to zero. He was most surprised when it worked in Cheese without demur. I hope to proselytise... So, thanks again for the pointer. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

1 0

Where has all the free space gone?
by nev young 25 Jun '11

25 Jun '11

Good morning ALUGers. I have noticed something a little odd about the space allocation on my disks. Prompted by the disks getting rather full. Taking two in particular I see (using system monitor) device type total free available used /dev/sdb1 ext3 1386.0Gb 79.8Gb 10.0Gb 1306.2Gb 99% /dev/sdc1 ext3 1386.3Gb 111.0Gb 41.2Gb 1275.2Gb 96% Ok. total = free + used but why only 10Gb / 41.2Gb available? I find it hard to believe that there is 69.8Gb of disk lost by sector padding at the end of files or is allocated to the directory. Even more odd that both disks appear to have "lost" 69.8Gb. I get the same numbers (to 1Kb precision) if I use du and df to check the space. I don't know the ext3/4 file system layout and would like to know if these numbers are normal or exceptional. Could I have done something at mkfs time to "improve" on the above? BTW, Trash is empty. I'm not overly worried by this, it's just a "want to know" thing. The disk almost full problem will go away on the 3rd July when the automatic backup program deletes all the incremental backup data for June from these disks, which are my first line of system backups. I've had a very heavy month processing VHS tapes to mpeg4(xvid).avi files. -- nev

5 5

Meet In Ipswich.
by Bradley Simpson 24 Jun '11

24 Jun '11

Hello i was wandering iff anybody was going to be at the nexzt meet in Ip-swich as i went along last week Laptop in hand and a load of questions ready to be asked and nobody showed up. Please say some one will be next time. Bradley.

2 1

text authorship analysis
by Peter Alcibiades 24 Jun '11

24 Jun '11

Does anyone know any packages that do word recurrence intervals, something called the trigram markov model etc to test for same authorship of two passages? Obviously a linux package would be best, but windows would be ok. Whatever works. Peter

2 1

EA-Meet Up
by James Bensley 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

The only Anglian meet-ups I am aware of are the Norwich ones (my old stomping ground) and the Ipswich ones as those are the ones posted on this 'ere mailing list. Firstly, are there any others? Perhaps small meets that don't get advertised on the list and/or are rather ad-hoc? Secondly, has there ever been an "Anglian meet up" where everyone gets together? I think this would be good fun personally. -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/

3 2

Why does permission on home directory affect ssh?
by Chris G 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

I just spent a long time diagnosing why I couldn't get a public key ssh login to work. It eventually transpired that ssh doesn't allow one to have group write permission on one's home diectory. That's *not* the permission on the .ssh directory, it's the permission on the one above that. A quick Google search confirms that this is the case, ssh refuses to do public key authentication if the user's home directory has group write permission on it. I can't see any way to disable this (turning StrictModes off seems to disable too much) and I don't really understand the reason for it either. I only want group write set on one particular user, can anyone suggest a way to allow ssh public-key login to that user? -- Chris Green

3 4

Message from (mostly friendly) List Admin about conduct, was Re: My Internet experience...
by Adam Bower 23 Jun '11

23 Jun '11

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 03:14:29PM +0100, Anthony Anson wrote: > > That's gets my vote. I'm always reluctant to ban someone outright - > after all, we all have (probably) adequate filters on threads and > particular e-addies if necessary. I have just come back from work and found this thread. Joy. I have sent a further warning to Krishna about being on topic and not upsetting members. Krishna's account is now set that all posts will have to be approved by the list administrators now before they can go the list and I have explained that seeking a way around this will result in a permanent ban. I don't believe that seeking an outright ban is the way forward in this situation, people can learn from their mistakes and when I see mail that contributes to this list from Krishna then I will remove the moderation flag from their email address. I think other members have quite rightly pointed out what the problems are here. Please be nice to each other kids. Thanks Adam -- New signature required, suggestions on a post card please.

8 13

Norwich Meet/Coach And Horses Refurb
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

Hi Folks, Dunno if it coincides with a Norwich meet, but thought I should point this out in case it does. "The Coach and Horses in Thorpe Road will close at about 6pm on Sunday, June 26 and reopen in the afternoon of Thursday, July 7." http://bit.ly/mqaLGR Regards Steve

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Survey
by Krishna Birth 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

> Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:07:24 +0100 > From: Richard Lewis <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Survey > Message-ID: <87vcw0bnqb.wl%richard.lewis(a)gold.ac.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII > > OK, at the risk of sounding like some sort of purist, I'm just going > to come out with it: this sort of multi-posting to LUG mailing lists > is, in my opinion, spamming. Please don't do it. It's in your own > interests to refrain if you'd actually like to get a response from > mailing list readers. > > LUG mailing lists are great communities full of interesting and > helpful people and we're very lucky that they're willing to share > their knowledge and experience. Please don't abuse these communities. > > Richard > -- > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > Richard Lewis > ISMS, Computing > Goldsmiths, University of London > Tel: +44 (0)20 7078 5134 > Skype: richardjlewis > JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li > http://www.richardlewis.me.uk/ > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- I don't believe it is spamming. It is on-topic, related, computer/software issue generally and also in this case corresponding and 2-way. Finding answers related to Linux is difficult because the user base is not huge, a sub-set in this group are techies which reduces the pool even further, then there are holidays, time away from the mailing list, sickness etc reducing further, then there are member personalities who based on either my posting or my profile, self-interest etc don't want to answer, this reduces the respondent pool even further. Regards Meeku

3 2

My Internet experience in the West at times is comparable to female foeticide
by Krishna Birth 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

I believe that I am being banned, treated badly and threatened to stop posting from certain Linux, PC, Software and Font internet forums and mailing lists because I have a beyond religion or spiritual realm cause in the projects that I am posting about. When I read / listen about female infanticide / female foeticide, it shows that this is happening why -- there is the cultural factor operating. My content is different and thus that is the reason that I am being banned, treated badly and threatened to stop posting from certain Linux, PC, Software and Font internet forums and mailing lists. To be fair there are some useful responses on some internet forums / mailing lists and threads. Not all members are the same. On the other hand for example in Britain Linux User Groups (LUGs) -- Swlug (South Wales) has banned my posting to it's Linux group, Staffslug (Staffordshire) only yesterday threatened me with banning. Oxlug (Oxfordshire) does not allow me to post. Same with the other Sheflug (Sheffield). Some not all internet forums/mailing list organisers need some educating and need to educate others for example by having some by-laws and rules so that I am treated without these problems. Regards Meeku

10 13

How to produce an 'easy to edit' vertical time line or similar?
by Chris G 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

Can anyone suggest a way to produce an easy to edit/change vertical line with annotations on a web page? This can be anything from an editor with special capabilities to a wiki-like "do it over the web" application. It could even be something that is wholly off-line and generates an image file (though this is probably my least preferred method). I want to be able to have something which 'flows' down the page, preferably with an actual line of some sort that one can label. Then I want to be able to attach chunks of text description to symbols or markers on the line. Ideally I also want to be able to add further notes/numbers to the sections of the line between the symbols. Imagine something like a route description with a 'road' running down the screen, distances between places on the road and chunks of description applied to places/features on the road. Any ideas would be welcome. I guess it's a *bit* like a flow chart but there's no branching required and quick/easy editing facilities are more important than a large range of symbols and cleverness. -- Chris Green

2 3

Re: [ALUG] My Internet experience in the West at times is comparable to female foeticide
by Krishna Birth 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 9:47 AM, <main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk> wrote: [precis] > 8. Re: My Internet experience in the West at times is comparable > to female foeticide (Bev Nicolson) > 9. Re: My Internet experience in the West at times is comparable > to female foeticide (Brett Parker) http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/dyed-in-the-wool

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Survey
by Krishna Birth 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 11:00 AM, <main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk> wrote: > 4. Re: Survey (Brett Parker) Please could you explain what you mean when you said that if I tweek a popular distro I am narrowing my support choices and have interesting software licensing combinations? Please see that it is a specific distro in the already small Linux desktop arena. I am not a techie, and have a resources budget, thus I am hoping to use a popular distro for the kernel / apps infrastructure and security updates rather than build it from scratch. Nonetheless there are specific tweeks. Please see these responses to some other users on another mailing list: The thing about Linux is that it is not a monopoly in comparison to Microsoft Windows. There is not a Linux distro monopoly either. Thus based on these generics I don't see you have a valid argument. Regarding specifics, basically there is no other distro doing specific k/K alteration for the users in the West/Internationally, rail modelling from a spiritual perspective amongst other differentiators and all this based on a Spiritual Master's wishes and philosophy. .....Also it is a root based philosophy, thus this distro is for a wider audience. The other popular distros have a big development base though it is only material. This distro is for beyond religion, the spiritual realm. This root based philosophy says water the root of the plant and not it's leaves because then it is successful. ......I hope these responses bring some progress for this important project. Regards Meeku

3 2

Updating to newer version of Debian
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 22 Jun '11

22 Jun '11

Greetings all! I'd like to ask about something I've never found clear information on. Suppose one has an older stable version of Debian. For example, on one machine I have Debian 4 ("Etch"). on another Debian 5 ("Lenny"). But the current stable version is Debian 6 "Squeeze"). What are my chances of successfully upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze? And how to do it? And then what about upgrading from Etch to Squeeze? And what is likely to happen to packages (some external) installed on these obsolete Debians? (Especially where I have made my own modifications to software, most often configuration files and the like)? I should add that within each version I have been happily and successfully following the upgrades from Debian for the various Debian packages. All information and guidance welcome! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 21-Jun-11 Time: 18:54:28 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 3

Survey
by Krishna Birth 20 Jun '11

20 Jun '11

I would be grateful for answers to this survey, please number your answers for relating them to the questions below. This ( Linux User and Dev. Magazine #101 Build Your Own Distro http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/magazine-issues/linux-user-developer-issue-101-i… ) has choices for building your own distro. For the ones that interested me it says: susestudio.com is easy, polished, good documentation and web-based though it's Suse only instalinux.com has choice and is web-based though not polished interface uck.sourceforge.net is easy though Ubuntu only, not customisable look/feel and start from scratch approach to changes geekconnection.org/remastersys is very flexible and copies environment though Debian/Ubuntu only, not in Ubuntu yet and needs separate installation linuxfromscratch.org is flexible though requires manual steps revisor.fedoraunity.org is easy and offers possibilities though Fedora only 1. What tool is best for a non-techie to build linux distro? 2. Could the other distros logos / firmware gui be changed on them? 3. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which is best for non-techie? 4. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which is best for the distro customisation/flexibility (similar to question 2)? 5. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which is the quickest to produce the distro for the non-techie? 6. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which is best for consultant/expert to produce distro? 7. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which is easiest for non-techie to upgrade over time? 8. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which offer to the non-techie easiest live and installable distro? 9. If a consultant/expert was to use susestudio, remastersys or revisor, how much time would be spent to remove all fonts and put 2 fonts perhaps bitmap one font also, the distro logo and a live, installable, bootable media and downloadable distro? 10. If a non-techie was to use susestudio, remastersys or revisor, how much time would be spent to remove all fonts and put 2 fonts, the distro logo and a live, installable, bootable media and downloadable distro? 11. From susestudio, remastersys and revisor which offers the most quality community help? 12. Do any offer paid options where their team creates the distro for you for a fixed fee? Regards Meeku

4 3

auto restart an application
by Peter Alcibiades 19 Jun '11

19 Jun '11

Hi all, I am setting up another sort of kiosk now, and using pessulus to lock everything down, however there is an application not covered by pessulus, so it can be closed by the user. There are only two apps going to be available, this one and ephiphany. Ephiphany can be locked to fullscreen by Pessulus. I've found Pessulus excellent for what it does, by the way - very simple and pretty foolproof. How do I set it so that the other either cannot be closed, or alternatively, if it is closed it immediately restarts? I seem to remember a command option that does that but can't seem to find it or recall what it is. Something to do with respawn? I will be using devils pie to make it open in a different desktop and with the right geometry, but what I need is something to keep it open all the time. Peter

2 1

(OT) CSS Question, was Re: CSS question about using float
by Mark Rogers 17 Jun '11

17 Jun '11

[Apologies to Greg, this was sent to him direct (and truncated) rather than to the list first time.] On 11 June 2011 19:05, Greg Thomas <Greg(a)thethomashome.co.uk> wrote: > Well, I consider myself a pragmatist rather than a purist, but yes, I think > what you have meets both the spirit and letter of the standards (if you > tidied it up a bit to make it 100% HTML compliant ;)). That's a good start then! Yes, I need to tidy up the code a bit but I was just playing at 1am so I will forgive myself for laziness when I really should have been in bed :-) > However, > >> #menu, #content { >> display:table-cell; >> } > > may give you problems with IE7 (which doesn't support it) and IE8 > (which does, but requires a proper !DOCTYPE). Yes, I was aware of this, but I'm hoping that since the structure in the HTML isn't too far removed from more typical attempts at table layout in CSS, I should be able to have an alternative stylesheet to fall back to for IE. My latest experimental version is here: http://www.more-solutions.co.uk/alug.html - I'd appreciate comments about the approach I'm taking (aside from the issue of IE6/7 for now). Basically it's for what will become a web application so controlling the layout makes sense, and the right hand "content" pane will likely be loaded using AJAX and it makes sense that it should scroll independently from the (tree) menu on the left which could get quite long if all nodes are opened. I'm a long way from being a CSS expert and I'd really like to try and learn how to do this "correctly" as far as I can. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

2 4

Excel/Open Office to SQLite
by Chris Walker 15 Jun '11

15 Jun '11

I have a spreadsheet which is currently in OpenOffice ods format but obviously can easily be saved in another format should I need to. The spreadsheet holds roughly 6200 rows with 8 columns. I'd like to import 6 of those columns into an SQLite database and more to the point, do it automatically/programmatically rather than by hand. There is another difficulty (it's difficult for me, it might not be for you!) is that I want the tables to be created from the names in column 3. Some of those columns are numerical and SQLite doesn't appear to like that. The columns look like this :- Name1 Number Name2 Y/N Where Notes Unwanted1 & Unwanted2 For Name2, the rows repeat so there might be half a dozen of the same names, like 1648, 8Sail, Abbeydale against the rows in Name1. Is there somehow I can run a program, Perl, Python or whatever to extract the data and automatically squirt it into a database? I've searched online for something to help and did grab a Python script but it doesn't work for me and as my Python skills, like all my other programming skills amount to zero, I'm stuck, hence the question here. I'd appreciate any help or pointers you could give. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

4 16

Re: [ALUG] Bring Your Own Server
by Krishna Birth 14 Jun '11

14 Jun '11

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 9:00 PM, Krishna Birth <krishnabirth(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> Message: 1 >> Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:06:02 +0100 >> From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> >> To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Bring Your Own Server . . >> I think you are all missing the point a bit. I could be wrong but I >> think the objective is to make the server water cooled with some holy >> water as a kind of marketing gimmick. . . . Not gimmick. Regards Meeku p.s. double posted because subject line needed correcting

1 0

Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 72, Issue 13
by Krishna Birth 14 Jun '11

14 Jun '11

> Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:06:02 +0100 > From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Bring Your Own Server . . > I think you are all missing the point a bit. I could be wrong but I > think the objective is to make the server water cooled with some holy > water as a kind of marketing gimmick. . . . Not gimmick. Regards Meeku

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC?
by Krishna Birth 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

> > Message: 9 > Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 16:03:03 +0100 > From: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC? > Message-ID: <4DF4D527.6090709(a)digimatic.co.uk> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > On 12/06/11 12:43, David Crisp wrote: > >> >> Mineral-free ultrapure water has a resistivity of 18.2 megaohm . cm. I'd >> call that "pretty damn non-conductive", personally. >> >> Of course, eighteen megaohm water is capable of leaching sodium ions out >> of glass, so... > > Yeh this is kinda my point...it is possible to make water fairly non > conductive (although domestic grade distilled water is unlikely to be at > the purity you define) but it is damn near impossible to keep it like that. > > I have access to Reverse Osmosis systems that can produce water that > achieves something like 0.06 microsiemens/CM of conductivity (which > equates roughly to 18meg/CM resistance) but the only way they can do > that is by keeping the water in the RO loop in constant cycle through > the filters let it stop doing that and it will quickly go up. > Wayne, You have access to Reverse Osmosis systems then could you filter a few litres holy river water from India, what are the costs and procedures for doing this? Regards Meeku

2 1

Bring Your Own Server
by Krishna Birth 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

I am not a techie and thus could any expert please say if there are any data centres in GB offering inexpensive, 'Bring Your Own Server' service with possibility to set up the India holy river water cooled PC into a server for hosting websites? Sorry if this mailing list post is a bit different to the what you are used to. Regards, Meeku

4 3

Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC?
by steve-ALUG＠hst.me.uk 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

If Quiet is what you want, I've had stuff from QuietPC that's made a tremendous difference. Not particularly cheap though. (Satisfied customer, otherwise, no connection) On 10/06/11 15:39, Matthew Green wrote: > Why do you want one? > > If you're looking to build something to help overclocking the inexpensive > kits are generally worse than high end air-cooling. > > If you're thinking about reducing noise then passive air cooled heatsinks > and maybe a large slow system fan would be a better direction. > > Matt > > -----Original Message----- > From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] > On Behalf Of Krishna Birth > Sent: 07 June 2011 19:39 > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC? > > I am interested also in having a water cooled PC. I am on a budget. > Thus it should not be expensive. The watercooling kit should be open > not closed / sealed unit because it should allow me to put the > distilled water. > > Regards, > > > Meeku > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above!

1 0

PDF manipulation, how to print a misconfigured booklet with 'two pages per page'?
by Chris G 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

I have a PDF document downloaded where the (landscape) pages are actually delivered as two pages per 'page'. Thus if you print it in the normal way you get two landscape pages across each sheet of paper. Is it possible, relatively easily, to tell Acrobat Reader (or any of the alternatives) to print each 'page' of the downloaded PDF as two pages on the printer? -- Chris Green

2 2

Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC?
by James Bensley 13 Jun '11

13 Jun '11

On 10 June 2011 15:39, Matthew Green <matthew.j.green(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: > If you're looking to build something to help overclocking the inexpensive > kits are generally worse than high end air-cooling. I agree... > The watercooling kit should be open > not closed / sealed unit because it should allow me to put the > distilled water. Unless I have miss-understand, this is a bad idea. In the event of a leak you want to be using non-conductive coolant liquid. $friend had water cooling, it sprung a leak 'thankfully' over only one part, one of this graphics cards, which after being drained and dried still worked. -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/ There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who understand Vigesimal, and J others...?

5 7

Re: [ALUG] Bring Your Own Server
by Krishna Birth 12 Jun '11

12 Jun '11

n.b. I am re-posting with subject line corresponding to the original post, is that the way to respond to mailing list digests? There was an item quite interesting. This was from: eweekeurope.co.uk http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/liquid-cooling-gets-sun-co-founders-backi… "Liquid Cooling Gets Sun Co-Founder’s Backing" Regards Meeku

2 1

Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 72, Issue 9
by Krishna Birth 12 Jun '11

12 Jun '11

There was an item quite interesting. This was from: eweekeurope.co.uk http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/liquid-cooling-gets-sun-co-founders-backi… "Liquid Cooling Gets Sun Co-Founder’s Backing" Regards Meeku

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC?
by David Crisp 12 Jun '11

12 Jun '11

On 11 Jun 2011, at 20:11, Matthew Green wrote: >>> >> Distilled water *is* virtually non-conductive. It's only the salts >> and >> impurities in tap water (and/or river water etc.) that make it >> moderately conductive. > > > It's not only the salts. There is some natural ionisation that will > result in free H+ and OH- ions. You can't really escape that so even > mineral free ultra pure water in a perfectly sealed sterile container > (of a material that won't release minerals as the water desperately > tries to leach them) will still be *slightly* conductive. Mineral-free ultrapure water has a resistivity of 18.2 megaohm . cm. I'd call that "pretty damn non-conductive", personally. Of course, eighteen megaohm water is capable of leaching sodium ions out of glass, so... DC.

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC?
by Ricky Bruce 11 Jun '11

11 Jun '11

On the subject of mineral oils, i am sure most people have already seen this, but it is still cool, especially if you like Bioshock http://imgur.com/a/jYv3X Ricky On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 8:11 PM, Matthew Green <matthew.j.green(a)ntlworld.com> wrote: > Yeah, you can go for cooling fluids which are basically distilled water with > additives (Which is what I've gone for). But the only options for proper > non-conductivity are mineral oils (which can be a bit viscous) or another > option is Fluronert by 3M which was used by Cray, but that's more expensive > than fine champagne. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] > On Behalf Of Wayne Stallwood > Sent: 11 June 2011 17:36 > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Could you build a water cooled PC? > > >>> >> Distilled water *is* virtually non-conductive. It's only the salts and >> impurities in tap water (and/or river water etc.) that make it >> moderately conductive. > > > It's not only the salts. There is some natural ionisation that will > result in free H+ and OH- ions. You can't really escape that so even > mineral free ultra pure water in a perfectly sealed sterile container > (of a material that won't release minerals as the water desperately > tries to leach them) will still be *slightly* conductive. > > Also pretty much as soon as it came into contact with the guts of a PC > it will absorb enough minerals to become conductive rather quickly if it > hadn't already done so in the cooling loop of a cheap Watercooling system. > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

1 0

CSS question about using float
by Chris G 11 Jun '11

11 Jun '11

I have a little CSS conundrum. I want to have a heading (H1 or H2) followed by some small and different coloured text on the same line. I can't do much manipulation of the headings because they are generated by a Wiki, but I can apply CSS to them as well if necessary. So, I have got as far as something like:- <html><div class="textright">&nbsp Text on right</div></html> <html><h1>Heading 1</h1><html> with CSS:- .textright { margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; float: right; } This works to an extent, the 'Text on right' does appear on the same line as the H1 heading as I want. However it's right across on the RHS and I really want it nestled up against the H1 text. Is there any reasonably easy way to get what I want? I'd really prefer not to have to make the heading 'float: left;' as this causes all sort of other fun and games, mainly because there's no easy way to 'clear: both;' afterwards. What I want is a box that occupies the whole width of the page the the right of the heading and then place the 'Text on right' within that box aligned to the left, but how do I get a box to place itself like that? -- Chris Green

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Could you build a water cooled PC?
by Krishna Birth 10 Jun '11

10 Jun '11

I am interested also in having a water cooled PC. I am on a budget. Thus it should not be expensive. The watercooling kit should be open not closed / sealed unit because it should allow me to put the distilled water. Regards, Meeku

2 1

Could you change the fonts on Bios via the video card?
by Krishna Birth 08 Jun '11

08 Jun '11

I want to change the font on the Bios which is separate from the operating system. Have any LUG members experience with changing the font on Bios via the video card? Regards, Meeku

2 1

Re: [ALUG] (no subject)
by Dalibor Zeman 07 Jun '11

07 Jun '11

I am really sorry for last e-mail from me. Somebody spoofed my e-mail box lately. @Scott, sorry I didn't opent that link. Dali On 7 June 2011 14:48, Dalibor Zeman <dalibor.zeman(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I am really sorry for that. Somebody spoofed my e-mail box lately. > > BTW. It doesn't matter what OS you have when you use browser based e-mail > account. Unfortunately spoofing picked main(a)lists.alug.org.uk e-mail > address. > > Thank you. > > Dali. > > > On 7 June 2011 14:10, Alex Scotton <alex.scotton(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Don't click the link.. >> >> It's another joyous Fake AV Malware app.. >> >> Hilarious this has been sent to a Linux mailer group :P >> >> Alex >> >> On Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 11:28 PM, Dalibor Zeman <dalibor.zeman(a)gmail.com>wrote: >> >>> <http://shop.graphicplanet.net/images/mysite.html> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >>> http://www.alug.org.uk/ >>> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main >>> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> *Alex Scotton* >> mob: 07950 524744 >> home: 01603 768361 >> * >> * >> Web Design | Graphic Design *|* MySQL Design and Optimization *| *SEO, >> advertising and Marketing Services | Computer Repairs | Network, Active >> Directory and Streaming Services | NLB and Bandwidth Shaping >> * >> * >> *http://goo.gl/FIbia* >> >> >> >> >

1 0

(no subject)
by Dalibor Zeman 06 Jun '11

06 Jun '11

http://shop.graphicplanet.net/images/mysite.html

1 0

[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thursday 9th June
by Viperfang 06 Jun '11

06 Jun '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 9th June at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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Re: [ALUG] Could you build a linux distro?
by Krishna Birth 05 Jun '11

05 Jun '11

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 7:37 PM, Krishna Birth <krishnabirth(a)gmail.com> wrote: > I want a linux distro. Could you tweek an existing distro e.g. Ubunto or > Fedora? > > Please tell me if I wanted a logo installed, put fonts, remove other fonts > at console/terminal, verbose, gui, apps and perhaps put a keyboard app, > startup browser with specific website, what would you charge for live or > install distro and also for regular maintenance? > > > Best, > > > Meeku Press Release “onlliinnee” is meant to be an opensource foss operating system. It is meant to be free os and a linux based distro. What is meant to be different and planned about onlliinnee is: only unique fonts, software, development, a specific website home page on the browser, startup screen connects to video website/s, related with model railroad / railway, diecasting and ‘automation over internet protocol’ (AOIP) especially Rail Model AOIP (RMAOIP) and is for Srila Prabhupada: the always on eternal spiritual initiating and education guru. Regarding any questions about this, send message to: identi.ca/onlliinnee (after joining identi.ca) www.onlliinnee.net copyright 2011 onlliinnee. all rights reserved worldwide.

1 0

Postfix (Sendmail) problem
by Barry Samuels 03 Jun '11

03 Jun '11

I sent this mail directly to Brett by mistake - sorry Brett. Here it is again: On 02/06/11 20:16:25, Brett Parker wrote: > I'd almost bet if you google for the address it's already out there, but > meh. It's not. > > All emails sent, using my standard mailer (Balsa), are directed > > through my ISP i.e relayhost= in the Postfix main.cf file and don't > > give any errors/problems. This current problem happens only when using > > /usr/sbin/sendmail directly which of course is what procmail does when > > forwarding a copy. > Which won't (neccessarily) send from a valid e-mail address, and the > relayhost is (correctly) rejecting it. > > So, you want to make sure that the sending address is correctly > qualified, the server is checking that, and then going "hang on, that > address doesn't resolve". > -- > Brett Parker You are quite right of course. I discovered that when using sendmail directly with the -f option it does work. I've now engineered a procmail recipe involving sendmail -f that also works. So all is now back to working the way it did before. Thanks for your help and if I ever come across a chocolate teapot you'll be the first to know. -- Barry Samuels

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Re: [ALUG] Blackberry vs Cyrus
by Stuart Bailey 03 Jun '11

03 Jun '11

On Thursday 02 June 2011 18:20:27 Wayne Stallwood wrote: > On 02/06/11 10:44, Brett Parker wrote: > > They'll then complain that "my mail on my blackberry and thunderbird > > aren't in sync! I deleted that! ARGH!" instead. > > I think this is one of the reasons I hate crackberry. > > For me having a full and complete state sync of email on my phone is > important. So if I read an email on the phone I want it marked as read > on the desktop mail client. If I respond I want the response in Sent > items on the desktop client and certainly if I delete a mail I want it > deleted on the desktop. > > This way I know I only need to look in one (either) place to get a full > and complete picture of what emails I have dealt with and how I > responded to them. > > I guess to get around the 3rd party password problem I'd have to run a > local BES and last time I looked at that it looked pretty evil and > overcomplicated. > I have found an alternative to BES - funambol. I haven't yet installed it for this customer, but I've heard good things about it. Stuart Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0)1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk http://www.bluetoothadvertising.org.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6175 (20110602) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Blackberry vs Cyrus
by Stuart Bailey 03 Jun '11

03 Jun '11

On Thursday 02 June 2011 10:44:34 Brett Parker wrote: > On 02 Jun 10:29, Stuart Bailey wrote: > > I have a customer running Cyrus IMAP and Postfix. They have users with > > Thunderbird clients on their desktops and some Blackberries using the BIS > > service. > > > > They are complaining that sometime emails appear on the Blackberry 10 > > mins before they appear in their mailbox on Thunderbird. > > > > Apparently the BB is polling every 5 mins, and Thunderbird every minute > > Any ideas what may be causing this delay? > > Simples - if the blackberry poll hits at the time that the mail comes > in, it'll mark things as having been grabbed, and so the Recent flag > stops being relevant and thunderbird won't notice until it does a full > proper check (usually, I'd guess that it asks for a status from the imap > connection, notes there's nothing Recent and carries right on, and > probably doesn't check Unread). > > Simple, easy test: set the blackberry to check a different mail account > and set postfix to deliver mail to both accounts - see if they then stop > complaining about it... > > They'll then complain that "my mail on my blackberry and thunderbird > aren't in sync! I deleted that! ARGH!" instead. > > Also, BIS stores passwords in plain text on their end (have to so that > they can auth with the mail server)... I Really Don't Trust RIM to get > this right consistently, so I tended to make it so that RIM had a > different account and password to the main user (damage limitation!). > > Cheers, Thanks Brett. that is helpful. I have found that turning off polling in Thunderbird and using IDLE instead may help. I'm evaluating this at the moment. Stuart Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Managing Director) Linux Specialist & Software Developer ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Phone: (0845) 658 3563 Direct: +44 (0)1953 878162 Fax: +44 (0) 1603 858583 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.linusoft.co.uk http://www.bluetoothadvertising.org.uk __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6175 (20110602) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

1 0

Postfix (Sendmail) problem
by Barry Samuels 02 Jun '11

02 Jun '11

Debian Testing/Wheezy, kernel 2.6.38, Postfix I've had a procmail receipe in place for a few weeks now and it's been working well. :0 * ^(TO|FROM):.+@mydomainname.* { :0c # Send a copy to the other email account. ! someone(a)anotherdomainname.com # File the original as normal :0 foldername } Then a few days ago, probably after some OS updates, it fails with: status=deferred (host mail.*******.*****.com[000.00.00.0] said: 451 4.4.0 DNS temporary failure (chkuser) (in reply to MAIL FROM command)) (I've removed the data identifying the destination) I have also tried sending an email directly using /usr/bin/sendmail and that produces the same result, whatever the emails destination, so I'm assuming it must be my setup. I can't explain why it worked before but doesn't now though. I have really no idea what this means as Postfix configuration is a series of magical incantaitions which I don't understand. Some help would be much appreciated. -- Barry Samuels

2 3

Blackberry vs Cyrus
by Stuart Bailey 02 Jun '11

02 Jun '11

I have a customer running Cyrus IMAP and Postfix. They have users with Thunderbird clients on their desktops and some Blackberries using the BIS service. They are complaining that sometime emails appear on the Blackberry 10 mins before they appear in their mailbox on Thunderbird. Apparently the BB is polling every 5 mins, and Thunderbird every minute Any ideas what may be causing this delay? Many thanks, Stuart __________ Information from ESET Mail Security, version of virus signature database 6172 (20110601) __________ The message was checked by ESET Mail Security. http://www.eset.com

3 2

Java woe
by Bev Nicolson 27 May '11

27 May '11

I'd like to test my broadband speed but the BT test page says I don't have Java installed. I do. I've got sun-java6-jre. I don't seem to be able to enable it though via Firefox (or Chrome for that matter.) Have I missed something blindingly obvious? Help. Bev.

5 7

Freebies
by James Bensley 26 May '11

26 May '11

Hi Everyone, Im moving away on Monday so I have some stuff that is free to anyone that wants it, just come and pick it up. I have a black ATX tower case (might have a spare PSU not sure) and a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 mobo. I can provide pictures if anyone wants them. -- James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/ There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who understand Vigesimal, and J others...?

1 2

Want to get my printer connected
by Bev Nicolson 26 May '11

26 May '11

I'd quite like to get this new printer to do some printing but it says it doesn't seem to be connected. The following is from the troubleshooting thing (whatever you call it.) I hope someone can read this and make a diagnosis. Please. Thanks. Bev. Page 1 (Choose printer): {'cups_dest': <cups.Dest object at 0x8703100>, 'cups_instance': None, 'cups_queue': 'HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1102', 'cups_queue_listed': True} Page 2 (Check printer sanity): {'cups_device_uri_scheme': u'hp', 'cups_printer_dict': {'device-uri': u'hp:/usb/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1102?serial=000000000Q81BALRPR1a', 'printer-info': u'Hewlett-Packard HP LaserJet Professional P1102', 'printer-is-shared': True, 'printer-location': u'', 'printer-make-and-model': u'HP PhotoSmart P1100 Foomatic/hpijs, hpijs 2.8.2', 'printer-state': 4, 'printer-state-message': u'', 'printer-state-reasons': [u'connecting-to-device'], 'printer-type': 135196, 'printer-uri-supported': u'ipp://localhost:631/printers/HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1102'}, 'is_cups_class': False} Page 3 (Printer state reasons): {'printer-state-message': '', 'printer-state-reasons': 'connecting-to-device'} Page 4 (Print test page): {'test_page_attempted': True, 'test_page_job_id': [801], 'test_page_job_status': [(800, 'HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1102', 'Job_Application_Form_General_Appointments'), (801, 'HP_LaserJet_Professional_P1102', 'Test Page')], 'test_page_successful': False} Page 5 (Printer state reasons): {'printer-state-message': '', 'printer-state-reasons': 'connecting-to-device'}

1 0

(OT/Rant) Why can't Linux be as easy as Windows?
by Mark Rogers 25 May '11

25 May '11

I've just been working on a new Dell server. It shipped with 2008 Foundation Server R2. It turns out the application to be run on the server needs 32-bit, and all R2 releases are 64-bit only. I can't downgrade Foundation, so I need to first upgrade to Server 2008 Standard R2, from which I can downgrade to 2008 Standard (not R2) which has a 32-bit option. I say "first upgrade" but actually the upgrade option is more expensive than buying a new licence, so I've ordered a new Server 2008 R2 disk that I won't use (because I need the older version, which thankfully I am able to download from MS). So, that's the licensing sorted for a mere £700 (Foundation + 2008 Standard), all I need to do now is install it. Using an old 2008 server disk, I try to install, but having booted from the CD the first thing it complains about is not having drivers for the CD drive, so I can't proceed until I locate the driver, which of-course I'm not given any useful information to locate and the Dell site gives me several options, but I get there in the end. These days MS Server is quite advanced, so as well as supplying drivers on a floppy disk I can also use USB stick or CD, so that was something. Once the O/S is installed I need drivers for several unknown devices, which Windows can only tell me are unknown, so I download all the drivers I can find and eventually find the half-dozen I need. This was made extra fun because Internet Explorer blocks pretty much everything except MS website by default (so I made an exception to allow me to download firefox....). In the meantime I downloaded updates, and (as required) rebooted; after the reboot another half dozen updates are there, and after the subsequent reboot a couple more, and so on. I'm nearly there now though, having installed an alternative to the wonderful "notepad", a database server (MySQL), a web server (Apache), and an office suite (LibreOffice). Oh, and a task scheduler (nncron) and half a dozen other things. So yes, I remember the days when Linux was this easy. Well nearly. Pah! [The reason for posting? It's times like this that I'm reminded just how much better Linux is at so many things, and including things like "installation" that Windows is apparently better at. Perhaps it is, when you have your hardware vendor's pre-configured install disk, although I'd probably still disagree. I think most of the time I forget just how lucky I am that I don't get forced to use Windows daily. Anyone who thinks Linux is better just because it would have saved me £700 is missing the point!] -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

4 9

getmail + email2trac
by Mark Rogers 25 May '11

25 May '11

I sent this originally to the trac mailing list, but the more I look at it the more I think this is a getmail or other issue, so I wondered if anyone here had any ideas? I want to read an IMAP folder and inject into trac. (I'm using the packages in the Ubuntu 11.04 repos (trac 0.11).) I have things working so that I can manually inject into trac: echo "Subject:xx\n\nxx" | email2trac -p myproject .. but when I try injecting from getmail I'm getting errors: msg 1/5 (72687 bytes) msgid 646810065/INBOX/6 from <myemail> 2011-05-20 17:22:33 Delivery error (command email2trac 3118 error (1, )) (etc) I'm not exactly what you'd call proficient in either trac or getmail, which doesn't help. My getmailrc file contains: [destination] type=MDA_external path=/usr/bin/email2trac arguments = ("--project myproject", "-f /etc/email2trac.conf") .. and I'm just running it manually from the same directory as the config ("getmail -g.") My email2trac config has varied a bit with my experiments but it currently reads as follows - an anyone spot the obvious flaw in my setup? [DEFAULT] project: /path/to/trac/default debug: 1 umask: 022 spam_level: 5 reply_all : 0 mailto_link: 0 email_header: 0 trac_version: 0.11 enable_syslog : 1 alternate_notify_template : alternate_notify_template_update : drop_spam : 0 verbatim_format: 1 strip_signature: 0 email_quote: > strip_quotes: 0 ignore_trac_user_settings: 0 black_list: MAILER-DAEMON@ drop_alternative_html_version: 1 log_file: /path/to/trac/email2trac.log log_level: INFO [myproject] project: /path/to/trac/myproject spam_level: 1 enable_syslog: 1

2 2

GNU Screen Locale Settings
by richard.lee.parsons＠gmail.com 24 May '11

24 May '11

Hi all I'm having difficulties with GNU Screen and the pound sterling sign. If I enter the sterling sign at a bash prompt then it works fine. If I run Screen and then enter one then I get the wrong character--I don't know how to describe the weird character that I get. I have tried to set my locale this way: export LC_ALL="en_GB.utf-8" What am I doing wrong? Is there something I should be setting in my screen conf file? Many thanks Richard

3 2

Anyone understand this rejection message?
by Chris G 17 May '11

17 May '11

I'm suddenly getting rejection messages as follows from a mailing list I've been using successfully for years - anyone know what it means? ----- Forwarded message from Mail Delivery System <MAILER-DAEMON(a)the-hug.net> ----- Return-Path: <> X-Original-To: chris(a)zbmc.eu Delivered-To: chris(a)zbmc.eu Received: from the-hug.net (the-hug.vm.bytemark.co.uk [89.16.174.230]) by dps.zbmc.eu (Postfix) with ESMTP id A0BD2100061 for <chris(a)zbmc.eu>; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:18 +0100 (BST) Received: by the-hug.net (Postfix) id 4A18D2B8002; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:18 +0100 (BST) Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:18 +0100 (BST) From: Mail Delivery System <MAILER-DAEMON(a)the-hug.net> Subject: Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender To: chris(a)zbmc.eu Auto-Submitted: auto-replied MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status; boundary="1FBA42B8003.1305659658/the-hug.net" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <20110517191418.4A18D2B8002(a)the-hug.net> This is a MIME-encapsulated message. --1FBA42B8003.1305659658/the-hug.net Content-Description: Notification Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii This is the mail system at host the-hug.net. I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below. For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster. If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message. The mail system <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>: Command died with status 255: " tee /tmp/listmail/`date +%s` |/usr/local/bin/thumf3 uk-riders". Command output: Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_file_contents() in /var/www/hosts/the-hug.net/www/mailman/thumf3 on line 429 --1FBA42B8003.1305659658/the-hug.net Content-Description: Delivery report Content-Type: message/delivery-status Reporting-MTA: dns; the-hug.net X-Postfix-Queue-ID: 1FBA42B8003 X-Postfix-Sender: rfc822; chris(a)zbmc.eu Arrival-Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:18 +0100 (BST) Final-Recipient: rfc822; uk-riders(a)the-hug.net Original-Recipient: rfc822;uk-riders(a)the-hug.net Action: failed Status: 5.3.0 Diagnostic-Code: x-unix; Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_file_contents() in /var/www/hosts/the-hug.net/www/mailman/thumf3 on line 429 --1FBA42B8003.1305659658/the-hug.net Content-Description: Undelivered Message Content-Type: message/rfc822 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Received: from localhost (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by the-hug.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1FBA42B8003 for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:18 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at the-hug.net X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Spam-Score: -4.271 X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.271 tagged_above=-999 required=2 tests=[AWL=-1.672, BAYES_00=-2.599] Received: from the-hug.net ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (the-hug.vm.bytemark.co.uk [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id Dw80ZWyTtuhG for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:12 +0100 (BST) Received: from relay3-d.mail.gandi.net (relay3-d.mail.gandi.net [217.70.183.195]) by the-hug.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D9C512B8002 for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:12 +0100 (BST) X-Originating-IP: 217.70.178.134 Received: from mfilter4-d.gandi.net (mfilter4-d.gandi.net [217.70.178.134]) by relay3-d.mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id AFDAAA8073 for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 21:14:12 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at #File managed by puppet, do not edit locally Received: from relay3-d.mail.gandi.net ([217.70.183.195]) by mfilter4-d.gandi.net (mfilter4-d.gandi.net [10.0.15.180]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id chIXraWmUjqc for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 21:14:11 +0200 (CEST) X-Originating-IP: 84.45.228.40 Received: from chris.zbmc.eu (unknown [84.45.228.40]) (Authenticated sender: smtp(a)zbmc.eu) by relay3-d.mail.gandi.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id E4000A8074 for <uk-riders(a)the-hug.net>; Tue, 17 May 2011 21:14:08 +0200 (CEST) Received: by chris.zbmc.eu (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 6DD21560248; Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:07 +0100 (BST) Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 20:14:07 +0100 From: Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> To: uk-riders(a)the-hug.net Subject: I'm having trouble posting at the moment Message-ID: <20110517191407.GC12286@chris> Mail-Followup-To: uk-riders(a)the-hug.net MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) So this is just a test message. ... BTW Mikey is definitely over his laminitis but is still a bit creaky in other ways,. -- Chris Green --1FBA42B8003.1305659658/the-hug.net-- ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Chris Green

2 2

Serial terminal recommendations wanted
by samwise 15 May '11

15 May '11

Hi, Can anyone recommend a serial terminal program? Ideally, I was looking for cross-platform (incl. Windows) and GUI-based. PuTTY seemed ideal, but my list of requirements is: USB com ports, 115200 Baud, RTS/CTS hardware handshaking and binary file send & receive That final requirement, binary file send & receive, is where I don't think PuTTY can help, nor any of the other GUI serial terminal programs I've looked at. Text-only minicom is the only terminal which I *think* has the ability to send & receive files (from looking at the man page), though I won't actually be able to try it out with the use-case I'm looking at for a weeks. Meantime, I just wondered whether anyone had any recommendations for programs I may have overlooked? Thanks, Peter.

5 8

In-kernel memtest
by Dan 14 May '11

14 May '11

Dear All, I have in-kernel memtest enabled. It lets me know it's there at boot time by writing the stuff I've appended below to /var/log/messages. But can I expect it to write something to a log anywhere if and when it finds and isolates any faulty RAM? -- Thanks, Dan 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957840+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] early_memtest: # of tests: 17 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957865+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957888+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957911+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957956+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.957981+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958004+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern ffffffffffffffff 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958027+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern ffffffffffffffff 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958051+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern ffffffffffffffff 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958075+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern ffffffffffffffff 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958097+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern ffffffffffffffff 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958121+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 5555555555555555 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958908+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 5555555555555555 2011-05-08T12:29:09.958988+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 5555555555555555 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959015+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 5555555555555555 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959039+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 5555555555555555 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959063+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959087+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959109+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959132+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959155+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959178+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 1111111111111111 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959201+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 1111111111111111 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959245+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 1111111111111111 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959271+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 1111111111111111 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959295+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 1111111111111111 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959319+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 2222222222222222 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959342+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 2222222222222222 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959366+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 2222222222222222 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959496+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 2222222222222222 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959526+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 2222222222222222 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959549+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 4444444444444444 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959568+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 4444444444444444 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959611+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 4444444444444444 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959637+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 4444444444444444 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959661+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 4444444444444444 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959684+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 8888888888888888 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959707+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 8888888888888888 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959731+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 8888888888888888 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959755+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 8888888888888888 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959910+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 8888888888888888 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959939+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 3333333333333333 2011-05-08T12:29:09.959985+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 3333333333333333 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960009+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 3333333333333333 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960032+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 3333333333333333 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960055+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 3333333333333333 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960079+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 6666666666666666 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960102+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 6666666666666666 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960126+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 6666666666666666 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960148+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 6666666666666666 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960172+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 6666666666666666 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960194+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 9999999999999999 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960242+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 9999999999999999 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960268+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 9999999999999999 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960291+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 9999999999999999 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960315+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 9999999999999999 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960339+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern cccccccccccccccc 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960362+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern cccccccccccccccc 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960386+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern cccccccccccccccc 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960410+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern cccccccccccccccc 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960434+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern cccccccccccccccc 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960477+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 7777777777777777 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960503+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 7777777777777777 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960527+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 7777777777777777 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960549+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 7777777777777777 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960572+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 7777777777777777 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960595+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960618+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960642+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960664+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 2011-05-08T12:29:09.960687+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961470+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern dddddddddddddddd 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961501+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern dddddddddddddddd 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961526+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern dddddddddddddddd 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961548+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern dddddddddddddddd 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961571+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern dddddddddddddddd 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961592+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961613+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961635+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961656+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961676+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961719+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 4c494e5558726c7a 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961743+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 4c494e5558726c7a 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961765+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 4c494e5558726c7a 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961831+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 4c494e5558726c7a 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961856+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 4c494e5558726c7a 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961880+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] early_memtest: wipe out test pattern from memory 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961903+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000010000 - 000009a000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961927+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000009f000 - 000009fc00 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961951+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0000100000 - 0001000000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.961996+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 000164f244 - 0001b1f000 pattern 0000000000000000 2011-05-08T12:29:09.962021+01:00 hydrographer kernel: [ 0.000000] 0001bf6000 - 00377fe000 pattern 0000000000000000

1 0

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 13 May '11

13 May '11

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 "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back next week, Monday 16th May, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see some of there! Peter. ----- 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

1 0

Fwd: ASDA online shopping -- website doesn't seem to like linux?
by James Freer 13 May '11

13 May '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: James Freer <jessejazza(a)googlemail.com> Date: 13 May 2011 06:32 Subject: Re: [ALUG] ASDA online shopping -- website doesn't seem to like linux? On 24 March 2011 12:43, Martyn Smith <martyn.developer(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > I did Asda online shopping for the first time (and only time) a few months > back. > > I believe I was running Ubunutu 10.04 -- using the latest version of Firefox > at the time. > I did not have any problems. > > This must have been around January... so the site may have gone some > changes...????? > > I just chose not to continue doing online shopping, mainly so I could get > atleast some exercise in > on a typical Sunday morning. Shopping bags are my religious dumbbells. ;-) > > On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 12:42 AM, James Freer <jessejazza(a)googlemail.com> > wrote: >> >> using Ubuntu 10.04 [also tried on my old machine on 8.04 and clean >> install on spare PC Xubuntu 10.04] >> >> Does anyone shop online with Asda. >> >> I've been using it for over a year now. End of Feb it started coming >> up with "our website is experiencing difficulties... please try again >> later". So i did... and got the same message every time i tried. I >> thought i'd made a breakthrough when instead of first 'booking a >> delivery slot', did the shopping (didn't get their message) and then >> after booking the slot back it came. >> >> I telephone and filled out their online form and apparently the >> website is working fine. >> >> It seems >> a] their website has been updated and doesn't like linux (which >> doesn't make sense using Firefox browser) >> b] Macintosh machines seem to get the same message >> >> It would appear they've done something on the website so linux users >> have problems. Does anyone else shop online with Asda by any chance... >> any problems? Any suggestions from a geek what could be wrong or what >> i could suggest in my next letter? >> >> thanks >> james >> >> _______________________________________________ Well thanks for your comments. My letter clearly did some good. I tried Asda a few weeks later and all worked ok again. However, as someone said Tesco are better for online shopping [not that Waitrose are bad but that much more expensive]. A letter of complaint is taken seriously these days if written appropriately. I remember my bitter experience Virgin media and their cunning "auto-upgrading" on broadband. Of course i had no proof until in one of the reply letters was an admission - next time i had a letter from the debt collection company i replied with a copy... no further communication. [Should anyone have any trouble you must continue to communicate with a dispute... debt collection cannot touch you]. james

1 0

Re: [ALUG] JTAG
by keithjamieson＠hotmail.co.uk 11 May '11

11 May '11

Re-sent cos this PC defaults to Rich Text. Sorry Admins. From: keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: RE: [ALUG] JTAG Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:05:28 +0100 Mark JTAG is used to use a PC to program an embedded device. I have made one the parallel port of a PC to recover my Linksys WRT54G. It also, I think, can be used to debug the device. Its a "standard" which is adopted by manufactured, althought I have not heard of the newer one you mentioned. But I have not been in this field for some time! In the older times you would remove an EEPROM and pur it into a programmer, then put it back into your device. This is the lead to illiminate that need. Keith

3 4

www.servercircle.com
by Peter George 11 May '11

11 May '11

Hello Anglian Linux folk, I'd just like to publicise a project a couple of us EdLuggers have been working on, which may be of interest to you Linux server hackers out there; - Server Circle - ask and answer server questions www.servercircle.com Server Circle - Ask experts technical questions about anything Server related and earn reputation points or even financial rewards when you answer questions about Server problems. - Server Circle - ask and answer server questions There's a lot of Linux server Q&A activity on the site already. So, we hope this is of interest, do come visit, sign up, ask and answer questions, and get invovled! Follow us on Twitter @ServerCircle :-) Regards, P -- Peter George

4 5

Changing the location of an SVN repo
by Mark Rogers 10 May '11

10 May '11

Assume I have an SVN repo accessed via http at http://svn.example.com/svn/myapp. The URL http://svn.mycompany.com/svn/myapp is an alias for the above (ie same server, same login details). How do I tell an svn client that's already checked out a working copy to use the new URL given that nothing apart from the URL is changing? As an aside, if the new URL was on a different server with different user/pass but contained an identical repository (with a view to moving to a new host), how would that affect things? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

2 2

Is there anything 'ready made' to add suffixes to ordinal numbers (in dates in particular)?
by Chris G 09 May '11

09 May '11

I'd like to output dates like:- 1st September 2009 23rd August 1967 I.e. I want the 'st' and 'rd' suffixes for the day. It doesn't look like strftime() offers an option to do this. I can obviously do it myself with a switch/case or some if/then/else statements but I was wondering if there's anything ready-made that I've missed. -- Chris Green

3 4

The 'Elite' Man
by Chris Walker 09 May '11

09 May '11

If anybody here remembers David Braben, he's active again with something different from Elite. Take a look at http://www.raspberrypi.org/ When I looked at it, I had in mind Chris Greens webcam on his boat and whether something like this could be used. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

1 0

TCP/IP logging
by Mark Rogers 09 May '11

09 May '11

I have a simple application which connects to port 50000 on a Linux box, communicates, then disconnects. I'd like to log the entire communication in each direction in an easy-to-read format so that I can see what is going on. The protocol is ASCII but with a few control chars thrown in (eg STX/ETX/ACK/etc, and I wouldn't like to rule out NULL chars ever appearing in the data). I can easily run the server side at (say) port 50001 instead and have "something" listen on port 50000 and connect to port 50000 and pass the data back and forth between the two, logging it as it goes, although I don't know what to choose for "something". Or I could look at Wireshark, which I've played with in the past but never in anger, and my general feeling is that unless I learn how to sort the trees from the wood then this is going to give me too much information and I'm going to spend more time sorting through it than I do resolving the issues in the protocol. Or maybe there are better alternatives altogether! [If it's relevant: the Linux server has no GUI but is a VirtualBox virtual machine on another Linux server that does have a GUI where I could run Wireshark. The device connecting to the server is not a PC and has no diagnostic capability built in.] -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] ALUG Norwich Pub Meet Thurday 12th May
by Viperfang 09 May '11

09 May '11

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Hello Aluggers, Our monthly ALUG Norwich social meeting will be held this Thursday, 12th May at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA). The meeting officially starts at 8pm, although some people may arrive earlier. More information on those people can be found on the list and the IRC channel. If you are unsure if you will recognise us then make yourself and your intent to attend known by either posting on list or visiting us on IRC so we can look out for you rather than hiding in the corner. Optionally you could ask at the bar if they know where the geeky computer weirdos are and they'll point you in the right direction (seriously!). Another possibility is look for heaps of electronics on a table that may possibly look like movie props that would used for detonating explosives. Feel free to bring electronics/laptops/gadgets to the meet, you will by no means be alone. Ben Bewick aka Viperfang NB: This mail is automated, please refer to the usual sources for more information. ALUG Contact Details: Website : http://www.alug.org.uk/ IRC : #alug on irc.alug.org.uk List : http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo Twitter : http://twitter.com/anglianlug Identica: TBA Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2381613902 ----- 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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where is allegro?
by Chris Walker 06 May '11

06 May '11

Perhaps somebody can point me in the right direction as I'm getting nowhere searching online. I'm trying to compile rpcemu as per this site - http://www.riscos.info/index.php/RPCEmu_Linux_Guide I grabbed everything before the marutan site disappeared. The error I'm getting is ./configure: line 4557: ` AM_PATH_ALLEGRO(, , as_fn_error "building RPCemu requires Allegro to be installed" "$LINENO" 5)' My system is Mandriva 2010 64 bit in case that's important. If I do 'urpmi -a Allegro' it tells me 'Packages lib64allegro4.4-4.4.1.1-1mdv2010.1.x86_64, allegro-jack-plugin-4.4.1.1-1mdv2010.1.x86_64, allegro-4.4.1.1-1mdv2010.1.x86_64, lib64allegro-devel-4.4.1.1-1mdv2010.1.x86_64 are already installed' but looking for the cause of the error, I found this 'This comes about because aclocal cannot find allegro.m4.' on here - http://wiki.allegro.cc/ If I look in the places pointed to by that error, allegro.m4 is nowhere to be found and it's not found by Dolphin when I do a search. What am I doing wrong? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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FW: Re: "Small print" ... !!!
by mark fernandes (IFR) 29 Apr '11

29 Apr '11

Scammers – google them and you get several forum posts about them (after their actual page natch) See http://www.domainscams.co.uk/domain-name-scammer_42_Domain-Renewal-Group.php They probably sell ‘domain theft’ insurance as well… ☺ Regards, Mark Fernandes http://codingscience.blogspot.com/ http://bbn.ifrn.bbsrc.ac.uk/gary/main.html http://www.ifr.ac.uk<http://www.ifr.ac.uk/> When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it. But when you cannot, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. { William Thompson aka Lord Kelvin of Larg (1824-1907) }

1 0

JTAG
by Mark Rogers 28 Apr '11

28 Apr '11

Looking at some of the embedded Linux units, eg the GuruPlug that I have sat on my desk and have never got around to playing with, a lot of them mention JTAG. It's been a long time since I played with this type of kit and it seems that things have moved on from the days of UV lamps for wiping EPROMs, but I can't find anything useful but short about what JTAG is/does and whether JTAG is just JTAG or it's one of the standards that require you to pick the right JTAG programming kit to match the hardware. Anyone around these parts able to give me a quick intro, or point me to one? At this point I really just want to know whether it's even something I need to know about! The High Level guide here: http://www.xjtag.com/support-jtag/jtag-introduction.php .. looks great but is still a little to low level for me at this stage! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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"Small print" ... !!!
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 28 Apr '11

28 Apr '11

Greetings Folks! Background: My email hosting is by 1and1.co.uk (and many thanks to Bev for suggesting 1and1 last September -- the service has been very good). I created the domain name "wlandres.net" for this purpose, and that domain is registered with 1and1. I have just received a letter from "Domain Renewal Group, Domain Name Renewal Service", telling me: "As a courtesey to domain name holders, we are sending you this reminder that your domain name registration is due to expire in the next few months [September, in fact ... ]. When you switch today to the Domain Renewal Group, you can take advantage of our best savings. Your registration for wlandres.net will expire on September 5, 2011. Act today!" This, on the face of it, looks like a blatant attempt to poach my registration with 1and1 from 1and1. Do other people get this sort of ***t? And, for what it's worth, the "small print" on the back of the letter is the smallest print I have ever seen! Measuring and counting on the longest paragraph, I find 7 lines of print on 13mm of paper, which comes out (if I've done my sums right) at 5.25 points/line of print (1 point = 1/72 inch). Allowing for inter-line spacing (aka "leading"), that's a close approximation to 4-point type size! If I put on 2 pairs of glasses at once, I can just about read it. Counting the characters in a sample line, I get 322 in one line across A4, length 20.4cm. I don't think they want me to read the small print ... Any comments? Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 28-Apr-11 Time: 08:23:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Bash related question
by Bev Nicolson 24 Apr '11

24 Apr '11

I've got so far installing Skype but on checking the README file as the books suggest, I don't know how to string this lot together (see below) to make a decent command. Help gratefully received. (I mean I know copy is cp but beyond that I'm stuck). << copy the binary to /usr/bin and install /sounds /lang and /avatars in /usr/share/skypedirectory >> Bev.

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Squeeze wireless
by Anthony Anson 20 Apr '11

20 Apr '11

Have Squeeze on the laptop now, but I can't suss the wireless connection - I know it works because it did last night, but with an experienced pilot. I am away on the other side of the country this weekend and thought it would be nice to use a screen I can see easily. The Eee's connection is easy - it detects and flags-up any wireless within reach, and you can then highlight it and enter the key (if required), then Bob's yer uncle. I've opened 'Preferences/network connections, added a connection and put in its name, and 'applied' it, but can get no forrarder - nothing's asked me for the key. Any kind Alugger able to provide a step-by-step list of destructions, pretty please? -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Laptop HDD size and Linux
by Mark Rogers 18 Apr '11

18 Apr '11

I decided to install Linux Mint on my trusty "old" Fujitsu Siemens V5535 laptop (it's about 2 yrs old). I bought a new 2.5" 250GB SATA drive to replace the old 80GB (Windows) drive, and set off on the install. However, I got all sorts of disk errors, so (assuming the disk to be faulty) I got another (different brand) 250GB SATA drive and started again - same results. I'm also seeing issues at the POST stage (eg sometimes the BIOS doesn't report a disk being present, sometimes there's no drive to boot from, etc). Is it reasonable to conclude that the problem is that the laptop doesn't like the new disks? If so, how would I find out what the maximum disk is that the laptop will support? I can't seem to find much from a Google search. I did find a BIOS update and installed that but it changed nothing. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Virtual Server performance testing
by Mark Rogers 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

Can anyone recommend a simple tool for benchmarking a virtual server? Everyone quotes equivalent CPU figures (eg one one server I have the equivalent of 1x0.35GHz Xeon cores) but I'd like a tool that would give me a quick benchmark that I can run on several virtual servers to make comparisons between them. I don't really care if or how the results compare with "real" CPU's, I just want to know if server A is better or worse than server B, and ideally by how much ("twice as good", etc). I don't want to hammer the virtual server or run tests for hours or days. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 15 Apr '11

15 Apr '11

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 "Third Monday" ALUG Ipswich Social Meeting is back next week, Monday 18th April, at 20:00: P J McGinty & Sons 15 Northgate Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 3BY Tel: 01473 251 515 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP1+3BY WWW: http://www.pjmcgintys.co.uk/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. We're usually to be found in the lowest section of the bar, near the library entrance to the pub. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. I went along to one of the recent developer meet-ups over in The Dove and can report back on who I met and what it was like. Peter T will be on hand to make a humbling apology on why, as deputy, he failed to send out the email reminder last month, whilst I was in Cuba (probably because I forgot to remind him before I went). Plus I've been messing with C++ recently and am beginning to learn just how dangerous it really is. Hope to see some of there! Peter. ----- 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

1 0

Virtualbox RDP
by Mark Rogers 13 Apr '11

13 Apr '11

Does anyone here use RDP access to a VirtualBox host? I have a couple of VBox 4.0.x installs, one on a Windows host, one on an Ubuntu host. Both are configured to allow RDP access on port 5000. Neither actually allow it but I'm not getting any useful errors to tell me what might be wrong. Eg changing the RDP client (mstsc or rdesktop) to a different port without changing the server port (thus guaranteeing a failed connection) gives me the exact same symptoms as giving the correct port details. Googling all I find is lots of instructions on what to do (and it isn't hard to configure), with very few people seemingly having any problems once they've set it up, so I don't understand why I'm having problems on multiple machines. (I've tried a few times before without success too, and I've never once had it work, so I'm sure I'm the problem!) In the past I've just worked around it but I now need to set up a headless virtual machine so I'm going to be a bit stuck if I can't get it to work. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

3 3

ssh problem, why can't I public-key authenticate to one particular login?
by Chris G 12 Apr '11

12 Apr '11

I want to be able to become www-data on my desktop machine so I can edit HTML files etc. directly without problems. So I have tried to set up a passwordless ssh login to www-data but I can't get it to work. Doing identical things to another login works perfectly. Before using ssh-copy-id :- chris$ ssh -l zelma chris zelma@chris's password: zelma@chris:~$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ ssh -l www-data chris www-data@chris's password: www-data@chris$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ Use ssh-copy-id to set up both logins:- chris$ ssh-copy-id zelma@chris zelma@chris's password: Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'zelma@chris'", and check in: .ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting. chris$ ssh-copy-id www-data@chris www-data@chris's password: Now try logging into the machine, with "ssh 'www-data@chris'", and check in: .ssh/authorized_keys to make sure we haven't added extra keys that you weren't expecting. chris$ It works to 'zelma' but not to 'www-data' :- chris$ ssh 'zelma@chris' zelma@chris:~$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ ssh 'www-data@chris' www-data@chris's password: www-data@chris$ exit logout Connection to chris closed. chris$ So there's something different about www-data but what is it? There's nothing special in the sshd_config file and I've completely removed both zelma's and www-data's ~/.ssh directories before starting the above. Any ideas/suggestions anyone? -- Chris Green

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