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Small Linux USB Wireless
by Simon Royal 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Hi After recent problems with my PCMCIA wireless card I have switched to USB wireless. I have a Pluscom stick and it is quite big. Does anyone recommend a small one - Linux compatible - that doesn't stick out too much, this one I have is about two inches out the side. I like my Pluscom because you just plug it in and it works - as it a RaLink based one. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Mailing List Etiquette...
by Brett Parker 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Hi, Just thought that as we're getting a few more people joining the list, it would be good to actually start documenting the mailing list etiquette. So, I've started a magic page on our wiki, if people have more to add to it, please feel free. The page is: http://www.alug.org.uk/MailingListEtiquette Cheers, -- Brett Parker http://www.sommitrealweird.co.uk/ PGP Fingerprint 1A9E C066 EDEE 6746 36CB BD7F 479E C24F 95C7 1D61

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Re: [ALUG] 10.10 Running Perfectly Well
by Simon Royal 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Marcus I think my locking up problem was down to my wireless card. I have never had this happen before, it is a very reliable Edimax card. I had a Pluscom USB wireless stick floating around and that works out of the box too and so far it seems ok. Fingers crossed it seems ok. I have pulled out the power supply and put it in a number of times. I have also pulled the wireless stick out and put it back in a number of times and so far so good. Brilliant. It also mean I have a PCMCIA slot free for my USB 2 card when I need it. Simon On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 10:56 AM, Marcus Harris <runlevelten(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Simon, > > Hallelujah! > > I'm glad you've got this sorted out. > > By the way, thought I'd drop you a quick note - when you completely > change the subject line, you start a new thread in, well > all threaded mail readers, so we have all got (at least) 6 or 7 > threads on this one subject, and a few more on other problems with > your R31. > > Most reasonable list members would think this makes it a waste of time > to participate in any of them, as you have a bunch of different > threads on that one subject with one or two posts in them, and it > quickly becomes hard to track replies if the conversation gets large. > > Some people will also get annoyed by it enough to (eventually) filter > the offending poster out. > > Just mentioning this so you can have a couple of pointers that will > help you get more help, faster, with greater coherence, and not offend > some people's eyes. > > Glad you're sorted, > > Marcus > -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Gnome 3 Requirements
by Simon Royal 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Hi With the next version of Ubuntu schedule for release in April and it should include Gnome 3. Gnome 3 was supposed to be released in Sept 2010 and included in10.10, but it got put back to Mar 2011 and is being included in 11.04. Does anyone know what system requirements it will need. The latter versions of Gnome 2 required less memory and hardware than previous versions and where better suited for older machines, but what about Gnome 3. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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10.10 Running Perfectly Well
by Simon Royal 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Hi Success! I am now running Ubuntu 10.10 and it is fine with no power issues. It will boot off battery fine and I can also remove the power adapter while it is running. Brilliant. I did a fresh install - no power issues. I ran update manager, all updates installed - no power issues. It must have been an upgrade issue before (from 9.10 to 10.04 to 10.10). Glad I set up a separate partition to save all my files on, it has made this trial and error a lot easier. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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10.10 Live No Power Issues
by Simon Royal 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Hi As you know I had problems in Ubuntu 10.10 where my R31 wouldnt run off battery. It would hang on boot if on battery and if the power adapter came out it would hang too. I wiped it, ran the 9.10 live CD and didnt have this problem. So I installed 9.10 still no problem. I ran the 10.04 live CD and didnt have this problem. So I installed 10.04 still no problem. I just ran the 10.10 live CD and am not having this problem. So would you wipe and install 10.10 or still with 10.04? I am presuming the problem was because I originally installed 9.10, then upgraded to 10.04, then upgraded to 10.10. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.04 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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10.10 Wont Boot Live CD
by Simon Royal 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Hi I am trying to resolve a problem with 10.10. I had it installed on my R31 and it wouldnt run on battery and if you booted from power adapter and then removed it, it would hang the machine. I wiped and installed 9.10, it didnt do it. I wiped and installed 10.04, it didnt do it. I ordered a 10.10 CD from eBay - because I didnt have any blanks or a burner in my ThinkPad. My machine wont boot from it. It will boot live and install from the 9.10 CD I have (which is an official disc from Ubuntu) and it will boot live and install from the 10.04 CD I burnt a while ago on another machine. So why wont this CD boot. I tried it in another machine and it booted ok. So I am lost now. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.04 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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[ALUG Announce] Norwich 2nd Thursday Mub Peet
by Adam Bower 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '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 ----- Norwich 2nd Thursday Pub Meet This months second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on 13th January 2011 (err, tonight!) at The Coach and Horses (82 Thorpe Road, Norwich, NR1 1BA http://www.thecoachthorperoad.co.uk/ although their website currently has no content on it, hah!) There should be people there from 8pm, 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. See you all tonight, so be there or... err, somewhere else. Adam -- New signature required, suggestions on a post card please. ----- 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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R31 Locks when removing adapter
by Simon Royal 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Hi I have an R31. It came with a dead battery. I bought a genuine IBM one from ebay and it works, but if you pull the lead out while it is charging it locks the laptop up. Two of the lights under the screen - caps lock and the screen one - flash. It does it in Ubuntu, but works fine in XP. Any ideas? Simon

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Re: [ALUG] OK, so as an interim measure...
by Anthony Anson 11 Jan '11

11 Jan '11

nev young wrote: > On 10/01/11 17:58, Anthony Anson wrote: >> nev young wrote: >>> There's still my place. We could even get some carry outs from the FC. >> >> Mmmmmm. I has a ½ galleon kerry-oot flask - FC's deposit on bockles is >> somewhat heavy. >> >> Might have to bring walking frame innit. >> > FC does 2 and 4 pt cardboard boxen for free. Troo, but: When in Rome, one takes some home, But when in Norwich, one should forwich For tasty pies and rolls in piles, And spots of WAP and Penguin files Mmmm! With the beef a jar of wallop, Horseradish relish, goodly dollop And, mighty Crashbang! What am I hearing? Has the barman dropped an earring? Ah, relieved looks over faces pass: Not an earring, just a glass... -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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OK, so as an interim measure...
by Anthony Anson 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

Supposing I do decide to dump Xan dross - I can get the contents of this HDD onto a Mini SD card. But, not wanting to burn my boats until I have a decet distro up and running, what do I need to do to copy it so that it's bootable from USB card reader? Or failing that, memory stick? Thinks: prolly better to install the new distro to a memory stick and get used to it first? IIRC, I had prombles getting this (early) Eee to boot from USB. Nev! Marmalade sometime next week? (ALUG minimeet in Fat Cat innit) -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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10.04 No Lock Up
by Simon Royal 10 Jan '11

10 Jan '11

Hi. If any of you are still following my saga, I have more to add. Ubuntu 10.10 would lock my ThinkPad R31 up if the power adapter was removed or if I booted off battery it would lock once into Ubuntu. I booted the 9.10 live CD and it didnt do it. So I installed it. No problems. I then ran the 10.04 live CD and it didnt do it. It ran the 10.04 live CD off the battery and I could pull the adapter out and put it back in, no worries. So it is either a problem with 10.10 in general, or because originally I installed 9.10 upgraded via update manager to 10.04 and then to 10.10 and it something to do with upgrading distros. But anyway it has solved it and I am now installing 10.04 as I write this. Simon

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Battery Lock Up... In 10.10 Not 9.10
by Simon Royal 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

Hi This is a follow up to my email earlier today regarding my battery issues in Ubuntu 10.10. (see it below). I am writing this from within Ubuntu 9.10 Live CD off the battery. OK, so the battery is still not charging properly but this is a battery issue and has the same probs under XP. Under 10.10 if I booted up off the battery or pulled the plug while it was on it would hang the machine, but it isnt doing it under 9.10. This at least gives me a bit of hope that it isnt hardware related or a problem with my ThinkPad more of a Ubuntu issue. Can anyone shed any light on this. I might just go ahead and install 9.10 over 10.10 - at least then I could run it off battery. Simon ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hi I am trying to get round a problem with ThinkPad R31 running XP and Ubuntu 10.10 The battery is a bit flakey and it doesnt always show the correct time left, so the light will flash telling me it is running out of battery but it will run for about 60 mins doing this. Not a huge problem but I have bigger problems in Ubuntu. It will not run off battery. If I boot it on battery once it gets into Ubuntu it will hang and the scroll lock and caps lock light flash. Also if I boot on AC adapter and then pull it out it does the same. It doesnt do this in XP. So while the battery is a bit flakey this is more of a problem with Ubuntu specifically. I have tried editing the boot options in grub - adding acpi=off - but that stopped the machine booting. It just showed a load of text of screen and wouldnt go any further. I managed to remove the line and restored grub. I really would love to resolve this. It is the one thing stopping me from using Ubuntu all the time. Any ideas? Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Re: [ALUG] OK, so as an interim measure...
by Anthony Anson 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

nev young wrote: > On 07/01/11 19:52, Anthony Anson wrote: >> >> Nev! Marmalade sometime next week? (ALUG minimeet in Fat Cat innit) >> > > As long as it's not Tuesday. > Will be out all pee em > > Prolly not a good idea to turn up at the quack at 4 pee em on Monday > issped either :-) Ta - aisle limber-up the planner. In the meantime, delve into the BIOS to see whether I've missed something. I presume the EeeBIOS can be updated if it won't boot from USB in this early version - others with later ones do. And that will mean bringing the Ikea^h^h^flatpack^h^h^flaptop 'cos the Eee won't play with the Portly Pussy wi-fi innit. <cue whinge about oomeback> A bag full of Acer, Eee, peripherals etc really needs wheels. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Battery Lock Up... Please Help
by Simon Royal 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

Hi I am trying to get round a problem with ThinkPad R31 running XP and Ubuntu 10.10 The battery is a bit flakey and it doesnt always show the correct time left, so the light will flash telling me it is running out of battery but it will run for about 60 mins doing this. Not a huge problem but I have bigger problems in Ubuntu. It will not run off battery. If I boot it on battery once it gets into Ubuntu it will hang and the scroll lock and caps lock light flash. Also if I boot on AC adapter and then pull it out it does the same. It doesnt do this in XP. So while the battery is a bit flakey this is more of a problem with Ubuntu specifically. I have tried editing the boot options in grub - adding acpi=off - but that stopped the machine booting. It just showed a load of text of screen and wouldnt go any further. I managed to remove the line and restored grub. I really would love to resolve this. It is the one thing stopping me from using Ubuntu all the time. Any ideas? Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Coverdisc
by Anthony Anson 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

A while ago I bought a Linux and Open Source Genius Guide. I didn't find a genius, but the coverdisc had Moblin 2.1 Beta; Google Chrome OS; Fedora 13 Alpha; Absolute Linux 13 and Ubantu 10.04 Apha 3. I don't intend investigating Google Chrome or Fedora, but are any of the others useful, especially as a replacement for Xandros on the Eee? (I run Debian on the flaptop and the big box...) -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Evolution errors never seem to show the reason, is this normal?
by Chris G 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

My wife uses Evolution as her main mail and appointments program. Most of the time it works OK but it seems most unhelpful when things do go wrong. For example she recently tried to send an E-Mail and "Error while sending message" appeared in the status line, but nothing more, no reason. As far as I can remember from previous errors appearing there's *never* a reason for the error. I remember it took ages to find a simple type in an E-Mail address because of this, it just said "Error while sending message" and left the poor user to work out that there was a comma instead of a full stop in one of the addressees. So is more detailed information logged anywhere and/or can one turn on more detailed information in the status line? (BTW we can't move from Evolution, at least not at the moment, because it's the only program which will synchronise with her Palm. In the longer term the phone will need replacing and then we can consider Thunderbird/Lightning or whatever) -- Chris Green

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Linux assistance needed in Manningtree, Essex
by max＠maxeaves.co.uk 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

Hello Anglian Linux User Group, My name is Max and I just wanted to introduce myself to this email distribution forum. About 2 years ago, I set up an Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on an old desktop for a friend of my father. All has been working well - there is nothing special about this installation [it is mainly used for web browsing and the GIMP], but I was informed that it has now stopped working and the distro will refuse to boot. I moved to Buckinghamshire, so I am not able to physically help out, so there is now the opportunity of a nice little consultancy. I am looking for somebody who knows their way around the command line, and is happy with fixing problems in GRUB2. I know that the person will be able to pay for the problem to be resolved, but if anybody is interested, if you can send me over 'years experience with Linux' and 'rate' you would want to charge. Kind Regards Max

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Re: [ALUG] Evolution errors never seem to show the reason, is this normal?
by Chris G 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

On Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 12:09:40PM +0000, Anthony Anson wrote: > Chris G wrote: > >My wife uses Evolution as her main mail and appointments program. Most > >of the time it works OK but it seems most unhelpful when things do go wrong. > > > >For example she recently tried to send an E-Mail and "Error while sending > >message" appeared in the status line, but nothing more, no reason. As > >far as I can remember from previous errors appearing there's *never* a > >reason for the error. I remember it took ages to find a simple type in > >an E-Mail address because of this, it just said "Error while sending > >message" and left the poor user to work out that there was a comma > >instead of a full stop in one of the addressees. > > > >So is more detailed information logged anywhere and/or can one turn on > >more detailed information in the status line? > > > >(BTW we can't move from Evolution, at least not at the moment, because > >it's the only program which will synchronise with her Palm. In the > >longer term the phone will need replacing and then we can consider > >Thunderbird/Lightning or whatever) > > Not tried Evolution and was thinking of doing so - thanks for the warning. > > I find Thunderbird is fine for mail and not bad for news - though > the filters in the latter are pretty poor. > > In the case of that comma, Thunderbird would have alerted you to an > 'illegal' character in the address and it would have refused to send > it. > That's all one usually needs but Evolution doesn't help. -- Chris Green

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why won't it start?
by Chris Walker 06 Jan '11

06 Jan '11

I've just grabbed a copy of Xara (http://www.xaraxtreme.org/). I remember it from Acorn days and it was a superb program then. I downloaded the AutoPackage Archive and ran that. It complained about some missing files and offered to fetch them. I ok'd that and off it went. But once that was completed, it didn't return to the command prompt. Instead it said it was resuming installation. I waited and waited and gave up in the end and killed it with Ctrl-C. I then restarted the install and this time it went straight through. It has appeared in the menu (I'm running KDE on Mandriva 64 bit) but when I click on it, it produces a bar on the taskbar with a hourglass on it, but the bar disappears with no output anywhere. I've done a 'dmesg | tail' but that doesn't produce anything since a previous error message which I knew about. How can I find out what's going wrong please? Cardboard programmer time! I did a chmod on the install file as root. I then did the install as root. Could that be anything to do with it, and if so, how do I fix it? Apologies if this appears twice. I sent it from the wrong account first time. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

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Request Tracker (RT)
by Mark Rogers 05 Jan '11

05 Jan '11

I've installed RT to be used for managing incoming support emails. Having got it installed and "working" I'm finding it very hard to work out what to do next in terms of actually using it. (Eg I created myself a user, but can't see how to let that user see incoming emails, although I can see them fine logged in as root.) Are there any good guides to using RT around? Google has let me down so far, and the RT wiki seems a bit to broad to get me started. Where I need to get to pretty quickly is having a number of users, any of whom can take a ticket and work with it, or allocate it to another user where necessary. I also need to manage the email process (I have one particular client I want to push in this direction, but to do that I need to make sure they don't get most of the automated emails otherwise they'll be swamped as they send us probably 200 emails a week that will become separate tickets once I get this working). -- 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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Lock Up Resolved
by Simon Royal 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

Hi Following up on my problem with Ubuntu locking up my ThinkPad R31 yesterday. Removing the internal wireless card - an Intel 2200BG - resolved it. Not sure whether it was a general problem with Ubuntu and that card or just my card. It has been floating around in my spares box for a while. Another thing I noticed was yesterday the fan would come on every ten minutes, quite forcefully. I thought it was just because I was doing a lot on the machine - well, I was just surfing, DropBox and Skype, nothing much really. Today, I have heard the machine fans only twice all day. I have done about the same on it. I actually dont do much else ever on my laptop. I am wondering whether it is related. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Sleep/Hibernate R31 Issues
by Simon Royal 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

Hi I've been playing and digging about info on getting a ThinkPad R31 to sleep under Ubuntu. It seems to be a sticky issue under most distros. It goes to sleep but it does not wake. No matter what you do you cannot get it to come back. So, until I could find a work around I set closing the lid to 'Blank Screen' so at least the screen went off. So Suspend (Fn+F4) doesn't work. However, I did get Hibernate to work using both Fn+F12 and setting 'close lid' to hibernate. It takes a few seconds to wind down. Waking up is fairly nippy - faster than Ive had on other machines - it boots, IBM splash screen, grub, 20 seconds of flickering etc and it comes up to a password and bang - everything is there. I can live with that, but I really would like to stop it asking for a password on resume. I cant find any option in under the Power Manager screen. Does anyone know of a way stopping it asking for a password. If anyone know of a way of getting sleep to work properly - ie lid shut, machine shuts off, lid open, machine comes back to life - then it would be appreciated. This seems to be the last glitch - besides the ThinkPad button and audio buttons - to be ironed out. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Simple (?) HTML question, wanted, a way to do nothing
by Chris G 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

I want to implement a link to a CGI script that, when you click on it, does nothing to the currently displayed page. I.e. I want the existing page to continue to be displayed when I click on the link (and as a result of course the CGI script executes). Actually even more perfect *might* be to force a redisplay of the current page as the CGI script will (hopefully) modify the page. This sounds as if it must be something one often wants to do but being naive as regards HTML/CGI I don't know how to do it. -- Chris Green

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ThinkPad R31 Locks Up Ubuntu But Not XP
by Simon Royal 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

Hi I have had my ThinkPad for just under a week. The day it arrived I upgraded it (maxxed the RAM to 2x512MB sticks, upped the hard drive to a 60GB and fitted an Intel 2200BG internal wireless card without antenna) and installed XP Home and Ubuntu 10.10. It has been running fine and I haven't changed the hardware at all. This evening it started locking up shortly after boot. It will run for about 2 minutes then lock up. It requires the power button to be held down until the machine turns off. This has done it about 5 times in the last hour. My default OS is Ubuntu, so I booted into XP and it doesnt do it. I am writing this email on it in XP and it has been running fine for about 30 mins. Any ideas? Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Steep Learning Curve
by Simon Royal 02 Jan '11

02 Jan '11

Hi I've been in and out of Linux for a few years. Various distros (Mint, WattOS, DSL, Xubuntu, Ubuntu,on various machines and architecture. A year ago I used it full time but went to Mac. Now, Im back. It is such a steep learning curve. Ive already had a crash course in GParted even before Ubuntu was running. While Ubuntu is great and user friendly, it is still Linux and requires you to be on the nerdy side. Id like somewhere to start, so I can understand the basics and underpinnings of Ubuntu. It is no good - with any OS really - having it working, but not knowing what to do when it does wrong. Are there any good books or websites you can recommend. I know you are all here to answer my questions, but I would like to read up and really get my teeth into it. Simon Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Re: [ALUG] Sleep On ThinkPad R31 & Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 02 Jan '11

02 Jan '11

Ted I tried pressing it and it did nothing. If you hold it for about 5 seconds it does turn it off. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From:ted.harding@wlandres.net To:ALUG Main Subject:Re: [ALUG] Sleep On ThinkPad R31 & Ubuntu On 02-Jan-11 11:34:44, Tim Green wrote: > On 1 January 2011 17:52, Simon Royal <mrsimonroyal(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi >> My ThinkPad R31 is running Ubuntu 10.10 very well. Everything seems >> to work except resuming from sleep. When I open the lid it doesnt >> wake. What ever key I press I cannot get it to wake. >> Any ideas on how to fix it. > > Press the power button? > > Tim. I was about to suggest the same! I would add: press it *briefly*. Details may depend on what machine you're using, but generally when it is in "sleep" if you press it firmly down and then release it almost immediately it should wake up. On the other hand, if you press it and hold it down for a few seconds this will probably turn the machine off altogether. Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Jan-11 Time: 11:53:28 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ 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!

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Sleep On ThinkPad R31 & Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 02 Jan '11

02 Jan '11

Hi My ThinkPad R31 is running Ubuntu 10.10 very well. Everything seems to work except resuming from sleep. When I open the lid it doesnt wake. What ever key I press I cannot get it to wake. Any ideas on how to fix it. I googled it but I could really find a solution. I have checked in the performance settings and found a way of disabling sleep. Well, it turns the screen off when the lid is shut but not the machine. This is a fairly ok work around, but sleep would be nice. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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unison error
by Stuart Bailey 01 Jan '11

01 Jan '11

I have 2 servers that synchronise data each night using unison. They have been working fine for about 3 months. Just recently we re-organised the data, which caused a large sync event, but was successful. Since then, unison returns a value of 139, rather than 0 (success). The sync seems to work OK, but I can't find what this 139 error code means. Any ideas? The unison command used is: unison -batch -ui text -terse -rsync ssh://backup@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx//home/data /home/data >> /home/backup/backup.log 2>>/home/backup/backup.err 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 http://www.bluetoothadvertising.org.uk -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

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DropBox On Ubuntu
by Simon Royal 31 Dec '10

31 Dec '10

Hi I use DropBox. Ive used it under Mac OSX, Windows and previously under Ubuntu. I have just set it up again under 10.10 but I am not sure whether it is working. I changed it so it was on the default location. It is in my 30GB FAT32 partition so I can access it from both Ubuntu and Windows. The little icon in the menu bar at the top is spinning away, but it does not seem to be doing anything in the folder. I have over 2000 files in one of the folders. There are other folders with only a few files in too. Do I have to wait for all the files to be downloaded in to the folder before it will see any of the files or should it see the files downloading into the folder as they come in. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.10 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Re: [ALUG] [Thinkpad] ThinkPad R31 Internal Wireless
by Simon Royal 31 Dec '10

31 Dec '10

Matt http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220715429673&ssPageNam… Simon On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 3:03 AM, Matt <mwtech(a)ameritech.net> wrote: > Pardon me > > > http://www.jefatech.com/product/IN24-5RD-RSMA/55dBi-Rubber-Duck-Antenna---R… > > http://www.jefatech.com/product/UFLRPSMA6 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Alex Austin > To: Matt > Cc: Thinkpad list > Sent: Thursday, December 30, 2010 6:14 PM > Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] ThinkPad R31 Internal Wireless > > > Keep in mind that antenna has an mmcx connector while all the internal > cards > I've seen have u.fl connectors. I work at a company that specializes in > embedded rf, and I've never seen a converter for those connector styles. > On Dec 30, 2010 6:11 PM, "Matt" <mwtech(a)ameritech.net> wrote: > > > > http://www.jefatech.com/product/RV24-5RD-MMCX/Rover-Portable-Laptop-Mount-2… > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Thinkpad mailing list > > Thinkpad(a)stderr.org > > http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad > _______________________________________________ > Thinkpad mailing list > Thinkpad(a)stderr.org > http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad > _______________________________________________ > Thinkpad mailing list > Thinkpad(a)stderr.org > http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad > -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 running Ubuntu 10.04 & Windows XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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ThinkPad R31 and Ubuntu Install Problems
by Simon Royal 30 Dec '10

30 Dec '10

Hi I am struggling to get Ubuntu installed on my ThinkPad R31. I put XP Home on it today and wanted to dual boot with Ubuntu 10.10. It has a 60GB hard drive split in to 4. 12GB for XP (already installed), 12GB for Ubuntu, 1GB for swap and the rest (which is about 30GB) for files. I've dual booted before by installing Windows and then telling the Ubuntu partitioner to use the largest free space for Ubuntu and this worked, both with Windows and with dual booting on a PPC Mac. However it is not working too well this time. I am manually setting the partitions and it seems to be working fine. 1GB for swap set as a swap partition and 12GB as ext4 with mount point /. This is all fine but when the installer continues it say it cannot install file system. I also tried it with ext3 too but the same answer. I am using a Ubuntu 9.10 CD - purely because it is an official CD and not a burnt one, and it is totally scratch free. I had similar problems before and the answer was to use the Alternative CD. Apparently Ubiquity - the ubuntu graphical installer - can be a bit ropey at times. It worked with me before, although I was getting a different error message before. Is there any mileage in downloading the alt cd and using the text based installer. I cannot get this machine to boot from USB so I am going to have to burn it to CD on another machine and only have a couple of blanks left. Any help would be appreciated. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- IBM ThinkPad R31 with XP Home. Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' with OSX 10.4. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro with 2.1

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Ubuntu Install Fail
by Simon Royal 30 Dec '10

30 Dec '10

Hi My ThinkPad R31 arrived at last, but I am having a problem installing Ubuntu. Im using 9.10 as it is a proper CD not a burnt one. I have a 60GB hd in it. Ive split the drive into 4 partitions. 12GB for XP (which is installed), 12GB waiting for Ubuntu, 1GB swap and 30GB ish for saved files which will be FAT32. XP is installed. Using the Ubuntu Live CD it gets to the partitioner and says 'cant create file system' while trying to create ext3 or ext4 on the Ubuntu partition. Any ideas? Is there any point in using the Alternative CD? I did have problems before using the standard disc and partitioning. Simon

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Free stuff
by David Reynolds 30 Dec '10

30 Dec '10

Hi, Hope you all had a good christmas/holiday break. Whilst having a post-christmas tidy, I have found the following items which may be of interest to fellow aluggers - GP2X: Personal entertainment player (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X) - Amstrad E3 Emailer - runs linux, some people have hacked it to make a VOIP station see: http://www.earth.li/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/e3-hacking for details Will exchange for beer. Any takers? Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Merry Christmas All
by Simon Royal 25 Dec '10

25 Dec '10

Hi Merry Christmas Linux fans. Simon

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Happy Newtonmas to all
by Steve Engledow 25 Dec '10

25 Dec '10

Morning, Just wanted to be the first (on-list) to wish ye all a merry/happy*: * Newtonmas * Christmas * Yule * Confusing day where you're wondering wtf everyone is partying and you're not Eat some apples :) Steve * (Delete as appropriate)

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Scripting help: deleting old directories
by Mark Rogers 24 Dec '10

24 Dec '10

Is there a simple way to locate directories which only contains files older than a certain date and then remove the directories? I can find old files easily enough, but if a directory has more than one file in it and one of the files is new, then I need to not touch the entire directory. It's only where all the files are old that I want it removed. -- 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 Do You Use Linux?
by Simon Royal 24 Dec '10

24 Dec '10

Hi As a Mac user for 10 years I often get asked 'why do you use a Mac', actually it is more in a mocking way than anything but it does make you think. When the rest of the computing world is happy to sit in the puddle of Microsoft there are others who strive for something better either via Mac or via Linux. I moved to Mac after years of slogging it with Windows partly because I started working in a design house but partly because I liked the Mac interface - which at the time was pre-OSX. A year or so later OSX came out and I have been through them all. I was also not impressed with the whole Windows experience. I bought a new machine and it was terrible, it didnt even run the OS it came with very well. I started an interest in Linux about 5 years ago - playing with Ubuntu and Vector to name a few but it wasnt until about 18 months ago that I thought about ditching the Mac and moving over full time. However, funds were very tight and I picked up a low end P2 which gave me a good experience of Linux - Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint, DSL, Puppy to name some - but the hardware was not up to being used as your main machine. I was also missing the Mac, so picked up an old G3 and that is where I am today. I never returned to the Mac with the one fanboying enthusiasm I had. Financially, I do not have a lot of money to spend on computers - my family has expanded in the last few years and funds are tight. Macs are not cheap, even older ones. I had a new Mac which died after only a few years and I have never climbed back again, scrappling with old G3 and G4 models. I did not want to go down the Microsoft route and with a fair amount of Linux knowledge under my belt decided to jump back into the non-Mac world, bought a ThinkPad (which I am still waiting to arrive) and that is where I am now. So in short, what make me a Linux user. Well, an ex-Mac user with a disgust for Microsoft and a fan of being different and a nerd at heart. So what make you lot a Linux? Why do you decide to walk on the other side of M? Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OS9/OSX 10.4/Ubuntu 10.10 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

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Re: [ALUG] Why Do You Use Linux?
by Simon Royal 24 Dec '10

24 Dec '10

Adam S60 is a great mobile OS. I used it for years until moving to Android. It might be old and clunky, but it is highly integrated and the contextual menus and fantastic. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From:Adam Bower To:main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject:Re: [ALUG] Why Do You Use Linux? On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 10:53:56AM +0000, Simon Elliott wrote: > Wayne, you can't attack Mick's figures then come out with something > ridiculous like S60 has "nothing like market share"...! Where'd you > get that from?! http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1466313 says > Symbian S60 devices hold the biggest chunk at 36.6% of smartphone > market share in Q3 2010.. (See table 2) It might be a different story > this time next year though. Only 20% of worldwide phone sales are smart phones too. Although, counting S60 as a smartphone OS is a bit rich imo ;) Adam -- New signature required, suggestions on a post card please. _______________________________________________ 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!

2 1

Looking for simple[ish] drawing program for basic circuit diagrams
by Chris G 23 Dec '10

23 Dec '10

I want to put some simple circuit diagrams on web pages (or at least accessible from web pages) so I'm looking for a drawing program that is either easy to add circuit symbols to or has them already. I was going to use dia but whenever I try to actually use it I don't find it's as easy as it should be, I've Google'd a bit and found xcircuit which is quite a nice program but the mouse/keyboard usage is so non-standard it would take me ages to get used to it. Does anyone have any alternative suggestions or ideas? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Why Do You Use Linux?
by Simon Royal 22 Dec '10

22 Dec '10

James Great email and yes I did read it all. Linux is just about ready to jump in as a realistic competitor against Windows/Mac for the average user. I like Ubuntu 9 and 10 much better than 8. Im not a KDE fan, but I do like Lxde and some of the lighter ones like openbox. CrunchBang, Mint, Mint LXDE, WattOS, Xubuntu even Puppy are great for older machines. But I find in general Linux requires less heavy hardware than Windows so even a modest P3/P4 can run the latest gnome or kde based offerings. Each OS has its place and it is down to what you do on your machine, the environment you are in and the apps you require that defines your OS of choice, but with more and more things being done online and with developers writing more mainstream apps for Linux your OS is slowly becoming irrelevant. I for one am glad to be going down the steep learning curve of Linux and joining such a welcoming and helpful group again. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From:James Freer To:main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject:Re: [ALUG] Why Do You Use Linux? Good idea this post... be interesting to see where folk are coming from! as they say. 2007 i only had an old machine that could still just about run win98. I was given a couple of P3 1ghz. I was going to put win2k on one of them but after a browse in PC world in Ipswich i thought i'd give Ubuntu (ver 6.10 CD enclosed) a go. I had read about Red hat back in about 2000 but didn't get round to trying it. My father had just died and i found myself coping with my mother who was then diagnosed with Alzheimer's. While i was coping with her (a rather stressful disease to cope with to say the least) i tinkered with linux and read as much as i could. I could run all the applications i wanted to in linux apart from a mind mapping app, autocad, turbocad and a scanner. Most of the applications better than a doze equivalent although i'd used OO, Thunderbird and other common ones. But i also wanted to know more about linux. It seemed to me that unix in late 80s and early 90s didn't see the potential of the mini or home PC - microsoft jumped in there. What i liked was the cli - made almost redundant by microsoft and yet very much at the heart of the earlier windows. I have a liking for the simple but effective things in life - like my seven classic cars... there's nothing i can't do on them - can't do a lot on modern vehicles. On linux i enjoy the mix of graphical and cli. To me it's not either or - each have their place e.g. i like llgal (cli) for photo albums [http://jessejazza.110mb.com/photos/dogs/best-09/index.html] but i'll stay with graphical text editors. I got a better machine later and ran ubuntu 8.04 (tried the 9's and 10's and weren't to my liking), and have just bought my first new machine. I'm tinkering at present with what distro to use for a while as i've decided to move on from ubuntu. I'm also GOING TO do a Gentoo, slackware or LFS installation in the New Year - i've been promising to do this ever since i started using linux and still haven't got round to it. The linux 'MUST DO' they say 'then you'll know linux' - yet i've failed to get round to it so far. Perhaps it's worth a mention: what's the future of linux? Linux has certainly come into it's own for websites due to the security. Windows holds it's place in the market for office use and at home. Too many distros i feel give linux a bad name and a fair number produce more than the main three desktops. Yes; linux is about choice but i also wonder about the long term of too much choice. Ubuntu is produced in so many forms now and yet the project is still in the red... and that can't continue for much longer. Do i donate; yes to releases that don't have problems. The three distros i've tried where i feel they have gone the extra mile are Pclos, Mint and Mepis yet these are one-man-bands. But each distro i've tried i find there are things i like and then things i don't. Mepis (kde) ran nicely and faster than ubuntu on the P3 - Mepis gets first place for kde imo. Pclos have taken a step that i feel is significant for the future - 'mini' releases. [This Texstar fellow intrigues me... seems full of new ideas - e.g. in pclos before you can use synaptic (i think there the only rpm distro using APT) one runs a speed test and thus select the fastest download server (don't think anyone else does that)]. The basics are on the CD and you add your selection. With ubuntu i'd remove evolution and a lot of stuff i didn't like and put on Thunderbird and so on. So why don't distros save themselves development time and use mini versions for releases? Another development taking place it seems is the replacement for gnome. Gnome is hard to package (apparently) - slackware have dropped it and as other distros seem to be developing xfce maybe we'll be left with xfce and kde. xfce i gather sits on gnome partly and there's also standalone xfce on some distros. But then again certain distros seem to be keen to develop enlightenment, openbox, lxde - lighter versions for older machines! The majority of users probably have a dual core machine - perhaps the next generation of machines are going to be much more expensive! Currently computers are very cheap compared with what they were a decade ago. Quality certainly down - the motherboard on my old compaq P3 is vastly superior in my view. Bit like a landrover compared with a car - all rugged and reliable. Anyway rant over - got to ice the Christmas cake. james On 22 December 2010 14:59, Mark Rogers <mark(a)quarella.co.uk> wrote: > On 22/12/10 14:24, mick wrote: >> >> Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive enough to think that "linux is >> inherently more secure than windows", nor am I blind to the problems of >> application level exploits running in that universal firewall bypass we >> all love (i.e the browser, which to make things even worse may run >> flash). But I do like the fact that Linux in all its variants is a >> very, very, small and specialist target so malware developers leave it >> alone. > > I disagree with this. I agree that Linux isn't absolutely bullet proof, but > there are a number of reasons why Linux is better prepared for the threat > than Windows. The fact that anyone can audit the code really is a strength, > but also the fact (that you alluded to) that with Linux, most of the > software you want is an apt-get away, rather than downloaded from PirateBay > or similar. The package management also makes it a lot easier to keep things > up to date; Windows does a reasonable job these days of installing system > updates but you're very much on your own when it comes to application > updates, and the myriad of "update available, click here to install" > messages you get on Windows is a gift to trojan writers. > > Windows has improved from a position of real weakness (eg the Windows > equivalent of sudo), but it still suffers from things like driver > validation, which (because most aren't) requires that users get used to > clicking past the warnings. > > And the worst browser is still IE (at least with all the legacy versions out > there - and a lot of systems that cannot update past IE6), which although it > is way better now than it used to be has again started weak then got better, > rather than starting strong where most Linux applications have taken > security seriously for longer. Of-course it "helps" that the cost of a > Windows licence is substantially offset on most PCs by kickbacks from > security software trials, so the incentive isn't fully there to fix the > problem. Whilst the business model includes selling updates, it's "useful" > that old versions have problems that you have to pay to upgrade, and > upgrading between distro releases is way easier than between Windows > versions in any case. > > Linux distros would be wise not to be complacent (but I don't think they > generally are). Being a smaller target is part of why Linux is currently > safer but it really is not the whole story. A bigger concern would be a > major shift to closed-source drivers and applications on Linux (it's no > coincidence that Flash is one of the biggest problems right now). > > -- > Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 > Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG > > > _______________________________________________ > 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

Mint 10
by Simon Royal 22 Dec '10

22 Dec '10

Hi Has anyone tried the new 'Julia' version of Linux Mint. Its version 10. I used Linux Mint 9 LXDE a few months ago and it was amazing. Stable, gorgeous and very fast even on a P3 500mhz. Im thinking of putting 10 on my ThinkPad when it arrives. Simon

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Xmas Dinner
by seansurfcentre＠aol.com 20 Dec '10

20 Dec '10

Hi all, wife has gone down with the sickness bug today so I cannot come tonight after all. My apologies and hope to see you in 2011. Best wishes Sean Myles

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[ALUG Announce] Christmas! 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 19 Dec '10

19 Dec '10

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 20th December, 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. This month, being Christmas and all, we're going to see if we can get together enough ppl to go for a Christmas meal. There hasn't really been enough demand to warrant a pre-booking, so please turn up promptly at eight and we'll head off at about quarter past, to whereever we feel like it on the night. There should be four or five of us, at least, I hope. If you're going to be late, you're welcome to email me for my mobile number so that you can catch up with us when you arrive (or the hardcore few may return to McGinty's after the meal). All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hopefully, see some of you 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

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Alternatives to SMTP when the network fails
by Mark Rogers 19 Dec '10

19 Dec '10

Can't think of a good subject for this, sorry! I have a customer with an ADSL line and direct delivery of email via SMTP to their external IP (into Exchange). The MX record for the domain points to one of my servers running Postfix, which basically forwards mail to their IP if it is up. So far so good.... However, they've just suffered a BT-inflicted ADSL outage that's lasted several days and they want to have a backup for the future. They're going down the 3G backup route (using a router which falls over from ADSL to 3G), but this will give them a dynamic IP when on 3G and, more importantly, we've found out the hard way that in general 3G providers do not allow us to make incoming connections (whether on port 25 or any other). So, my question is: what is the best solution to this? I have come up with several options: - Move the email to POP3 delivery, ie mail ends up in a POP3 mailbox on my server, they collect periodically from that box. From experience this causes problems with Exchange, although I don't recall what exactly. - Provide some kind of POP3/IMAP access to the Postfix mailqueue, so in normal use mail comes via SMTP, but when they switch to 3G they can access the mailqueue (using POP3 or IMAP, and then by extension via webmail) as a temporary measure, with the mail coming in via SMTP as normal once the connection is restored. However, I have no idea if this is even possible? - Drop everything to a POP3 mailbox on the server, but configure fetchmail to deliver it to them via SMTP if the connection is up. Sort of half-way between the two above options. - Setup a VPN between the mail server and the exchange server, and deliver to the VPN address. This seems like the "best" option although I have no idea whether it is practical having never tried it. I'd assume OpenVPN as the best VPN solution? I also don't know how well it would scale if I want to then do this with lots of other sites? -- 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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SQL question - how to find the 'nearest match', a sort of 'FUZZY LIKE' select?
by Chris G 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

This is a wierd sort of question I know but I can't find any other way around the problem at the moment. I'm writing some code (in PHP, in a Dokuwiki plugin) which retrieves data from a database when a link is clicked. The link one clicks is a town name but, because it's a link, Dokuwiki massages the name to make it not have any 'difficult' characters in it - i.e. it switches to all lower case, accented characters are un-accented and non-letters are changed to underscores. E.g. :- Deûlémont becomes deulemont Halluin/Menin becomes halluin_menin In my plugin I get the massaged town names and I want a way to run a select on the database to get the data for those towns. Can anyone suggest a way that one might be able to do this? I guess I can change all underscores to wildcards, that gets over that issue, but I can't see how to handle the accented characters, i.e. :- deulemont won't match Deûlémont even using LIKE I'm using the default Sqlite3 at the moment, does anyone know if any of the more 'heavyweight' databases have a way to fuzzy match accented characters with their non-accented equivalents? I can quite easily switch to mySql or postgresql. -- Chris Green

1 1

"Warning: we recommend you do not upgrade to ubuntu 10.04"
by James Freer 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

performance / high load average problems - mint 9 too? I read this last evening about ubuntu 10.04 - any of you developer folk tested it by any chance? http://linuxforums.org.uk/ubuntu/warning-we-recommend-you-do-not-upgrade-to… I found ubuntu 10.10 unusable and yet these folk say it's ok. I was wondering if it was solved for xfce Mint 9? Or is this why Mepis decided on debian distros? yours james

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How to make ssh reverse tunnel as secure as possible?
by Chris G 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

As per previous discussions I'm going to set up an ssh reverse tunnel from my eeePC on the boat to my server at home. I will use autossh to run the ssh command on the eeepC so that it will get restarted if it dies for any reason. The ssh command run on the eeePC on the boat will be something like:- ssh -R 54321:localhost:22 user(a)my.home.server this then allows me to do the following to make an ssh connection from the home server to the eeePC on the boat:- ssh -p 54321 localhost So far, so good, that works fine (I've checked it out with a netbook at home). However I'd like to make it as secure as possible, the 'hole' I would like to plug is that I have generated an ssh key without a passphrase on the boat eeePC (which is copied to the 'user' login on the home server) so that the 'ssh -R ....' command runs without requiring any passphrase or password. (I can't use an agent really, it needs to be able to work completely unattended from power up) The 'user' login is dedicated to the ssh connection so doesn't belong to a real person and doesn't own any files, it would allow passwordless access to a shell though at the moment. Is there any way of allowing ssh to connect still but to prevent it from actually doing anything at all? There's no need for 'user' to be able to do anything and if it can be set up so there's no shell or anything the passwordless login doesn't offer an intruder anything useful really. -- Chris Green

3 2

Best virtualisation tool to run Linux on Windows
by Mark Rogers 15 Dec '10

15 Dec '10

I need to create a small VM to run a Linux server on a Windows PC. The server will be headless and provide a web interface so its own memory requirements should be fairly low, so I'm looking for something to run the virtual server with the least resources I can get away with. Ideally I need the host PC (Win7 32-bit 1GB RAM) to still be functional as a PC with the virtual machine running.... -- 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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Isn't the default way that 'locate' works rather useless?
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

I like the *idea* of the locate command but find that the way it works by default is pretty useless. When I say 'locate filexyz' I want to find a file (or maybe a directory) called filexyz, I don't want to see every file which has filexyz as part of its name, nor do I want to see every file in the hierarchy below a directory called filexyz. Surely it would be more useful if the default was to do something similar to 'find' which will only find exact matches unless you specify otherwise. It would also be useful to be able to limit the search to a specified directory hierarchy but I don't think locate can do that at all (whereas find does it by default). As locate works by default one almost inevitably gets about ten thousand lines of useless 'hits' which completely hide anything useful. It's only if you happen to want to find a really oddly named file (or directory) that you get a sane number of hits. I know that one *can* make locate more selective but it's hardly intuitive to say:- locate -b `\filexyz' to get an exact match. Sorry, this is just a rant really after having my screen once again filled up with thousands of unwanted/useless hits. If anyone can offer a way of getting the same result as:- find . -name filexyz but with the speed of using locate's database then I'd live to hear of it. (OK, the find syntax is hardly user friendly but I'm more used to it) -- Chris Green

1 0

Recommended dynamic DNS services - and how to configure them?
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

I want to make it easy to find my eeePc server that I'm going to leave running on my boat in Belgium, it's connecting using a 3-G router which offers four possible DDNS services:- dyndns.org freedns.afraid.org www.zoneedit.com www.no-ip.com Does anyone have any experience of using any of these services, any recommendations? Next - I've tried to set up with freedns.afraid.org and I don't really unbderstand what I'm doing! I've created an account there and have entered the details of that account into the 3-G router configuration. What I don't understand is the last parameter it asks for which is DDNS. Presumably DDNS is the domain name tat you select as the one to access the dynamic IP server - however I don't understand where I get that from at freedns.afraid.org. -- Chris Green

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openvpn - beginners guide wanted
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Since Brett recommended openvpn as a way to handle communications with my difficult to access eeePC I have decided to give it a try. I have installed the Ubuntu openvpn distribution on the eeePC and haven't run out of space which is a good start! :-) Now I'm a bit lost, presumably I need to install openvpn on my server at home too, that's easy enough, but what next? I can't find any simple 'how to' guides that tell me how to enable communication between the two systems. My basic need is to have the eeePC out in Belgium start up the connection but then to be able to access that eeePC from the server at home. I've looked at the documentation at openvpn.net but it's a bit overwhelming. Any ideas or reecommendations for 'gentler' ways in would be very welcome. -- Chris Green

3 8

Adding routes
by James Bensley 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

Evening all, I posted this on another mailing list but I think there are a couple here that might be able to help. I am struggling to get the syntax right to add an equal-cost multi-path route under BSD and wondered if anyone out there could correct my mistake? I'm running FreeBSD 8.1 (actually its pfSense 2.0 Beta 4!). I have a virtual sand box on the go, I'm trying for something along the lines of: route add -net 0.0.0.0/32 equalize nexthop via 192.168.0.1 nexthop via 192.168.0.2 With the intention of balancing per-packet across each of these gateways except I get this error instead: route: writing to routing socket: Network is unreachable add net 0.0.0.0: gateway equalize: Network is unreachable I'm rather tired, this stupid box has no man pages, so I stabbed again with: route add -net 0.0.0.0/32 via 192.168.0.1 via 192.168.0.2 equalize route: bad address: via Clearly my syntax is way out, but I'm tired and stuck for ideas. Anyone have clue to spare? -- Regards, James. http://www.jamesbensley.co.cc/ There are 10 kinds of people in the world; Those who understand Vigesimal, and J others...?

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Reverse ssh set-up and/or alternatives
by Chris G 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

So I don't seem to be able to make connections *to* my eeePc that's sitting connected to a 3-G router, so the alternative is to get it to connect 'outwards' using ssh and to tunnel through that ssh connection from outside to enable me to connect to the eeePc and do anything necessary remotely. I really only need command line access. Are there any alternative ways of doing this or is ssh port-mapping the best way to do it? The other issue is somehow to restart the connection if/when it goes down (which it does fairly frequently, this is a somewhat flakey area for 3-G) - any clever ideas? -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Dual Boot & Partition For Files
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Simon I am intending on using Ubuntu as my main, but would like the option to switch distros if I fancied it, and would prefer not to have my files tied in with my os partition. Would like to try Mint and Mint LXDE on it too. Also I used the mac-fuse 3g drives for ntfs and it is very ropey and unstable in osx. Out of the box, native reading sounds good to me. I am not a fan of ntfs. I can see the plus side on large drives, but I am only using a 60gb drive. Simon ----- Original Message ----- From:Simon Elliott To:Anglian Linux User Group Subject:Re: [ALUG] Dual Boot & Partition For Files On 13 December 2010 10:24, Simon Royal <mrsimonroyal(a)gmail.com> wrote: > [snip snip] > > Am I correct in thinking to have read/write from both Ubuntu and XP the 'files' partition would need to be FAT32 and not NTFS? This was the case a few years back but Ubuntu supports read/write to NTFS with the 3G fuse drivers. sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g will sort that out. Similarly, there's a freebie app for Windows that allows it to read ext3. http://www.fs-driver.org/faq.html#acc_ext3 http://www.fs-driver.org/download.html If you're going the whole hog, using the Ubuntu install as your "main" OS on the laptop, I'd go for a small partition for XP, leave the rest of the space to Ubuntu and access the files in /home/user on Windows using the above app. Cheers, Simon _______________________________________________ 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!

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Dual Boot & Partition For Files
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Hi I am awaiting the arrival of my ThinkPad and when it arrives I have some RAM and internal wireless card and a 60GB hard drive to slap in it. Im intending on running Ubuntu and XP Home on it. Ive dual booted before no problems. What I would like to do is have a small 10GB partition for each OS to install on and the rest for a place to save files so I can access it from both OSes. Am I correct in thinking to have read/write from both Ubuntu and XP the 'files' partition would need to be FAT32 and not NTFS? Simon

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Back With A ThinkPad
by Simon Royal 13 Dec '10

13 Dec '10

Hi After some searching I picked up a cheap ThinkPad R31. Hopefully it will be here before Christmas. Then I can be back on the linux route. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside XP. Simon

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Laptop wanted preferably Thinkpad.
by Simon Royal 12 Dec '10

12 Dec '10

Hi Does anyone have a laptop for sale. I am looking for one about the 1Ghz mark, preferably a ThinkPad but will consider anything. I'll be using it for Ubuntu or Mint. I have cash waiting or swap for an iBook G3. Simon

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Re: [ALUG] Linux printing and Laserjet 1000
by Phil Wade 12 Dec '10

12 Dec '10

On 11 Dec 2010 18:22 Wayne Stallwood wrote: <snip> > Wait....are you telling me you have a LaserJet 1000 that still works ? > > :) > Yep. It was given to me a few years ago by a customer when the toner ran out. It sounds like changing the car when the ashtray is full, but she wanted a colour printer... I've re-filled it a couple of times, and it still works fine - with Windoze. >> > Has anyone, ever, been able to get on of these Laserjet 1000 things to >> > work with any flavour of Linux? If so I'd be very grateful to learn the >> > secret. > I think I am right in saying that series of printers needs a firmware > file shooting up it's USB port before it will run. Try looking at the > foo2zjs driver, you'll probably find that you already have it but you > need to do some magic to download a firmware image and shoot it up to > the printer as it initialises. > > Sorry I can't help more Thanks for that though. I have the foo2zjs downloaded and installed. With all my failed attempts, I can get the firmware to load each time the computer boots (the printer acknowledges with LEDs flashing and the usual grindy noise) and Linux (usually Ubuntu) can see the printer and thinks it's printing to it - but then nothing. Not even a failure notice or a stalled print queue. I seem to remember others with the same problem when I was Googling, but no-one had a better answer than "try it again". With laser printers so cheap now, maybe I should just give up and get one that I know works with Linux. But, I hate discarding something that works - especially when it was free!

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Gnome help please!
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 11 Dec '10

11 Dec '10

Hi Folks On an older laptop [A], running Debian Etch and Gnome 2.14.3, my "power managment" blanks the screen (totally) after about 10 minutes idle time. Then, when I do anything (e.g. move the mouse or press Ctrl) it instantly comes back again, with no nonsense. This is how I like it. On a more recent laptop [B], running Debian Lenny and Gnome 2.22.3, the screen blanks after idle time (though still faintly glowing, which I would rather not have). Then, when again I do anything (as above) it comes back again, but with a window which requires me to enter my password (and this I definitely want to get rid of)! Looking at the Power Management configuration menus, they are similar (though not identical) on the two machines. I seem to have essentially the same settings on both, so I would like to expect identical behaviour -- and, in particular, no requirement to enter the password on [B]. What am I missing? Or is the newer Gnome just like that? (And why do they have to mess about with something so basic?) Settings: On [A]: Desktop --> Preferences --> Power Management "Running on AC": "Put display to sleep when computer is inactive for" 30 minutes "Put computer to sleep when it is inactive for" Never "Running on Battery": "Put display to sleep when computer is inactive for" 5 minutes "Put computer to sleep when it is inactive for" 20 minutes "Actions": "When battery power critical:" Shutdown "General": "Sleep type when inactive:" Do nothing on [B]: Desktop --> Preferences --> Power Management "On AC Power": "Actions" "Put computer to sleep when inactive for" Never "When laptop lid is closed" Blank screen "Display" "Put display to sleep when inactive for" 20 minutes "Set display brightness tlo:" 100% "[] Dim display when idle ([] not checked) "On Battery Power": "Actions" "Put computer to sleep when inactive for" Never "When laptop lid is closed" Suspend "When battery is criticall low" Shut down "Display" "Put display to sleep when inactive for" 20 minutes "[] Reduce backlight brightness" ([] unchecked) "[] Dim display when idle" ([] unchecked) "General": "Actions" "When the power button is pressed" Ask me "When the suspend button is pressed" Suspend (Plus options for notification icons and "extras") With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 11-Dec-10 Time: 17:32:13 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linux printing and Laserjet 1000
by Phil Wade 11 Dec '10

11 Dec '10

Hi, I've been trying to use Linux (any version) as a print server for the PCs on my home network that use Ubuntu, Mint, XP and 7. I have two Epson printers that work fine on any distro. However, my default printer is an HP Laserjet 1000. Very basic, but perfect for everyday printing in monochrome. I cannot get it to work with Linux. I've spent hours Googling and trying out various suggestions. These have included downloading stuff from HP and stuff that needed to be compiled. No luck. Not a single page. I've currently got an old Compaq laptop running XP that does it without any effort (dammit) but I'd much rather use my main desktop machine that sits next to the printer and dual boots Ubuntu and Mint. Has anyone, ever, been able to get on of these Laserjet 1000 things to work with any flavour of Linux? If so I'd be very grateful to learn the secret. -- Phil Wade

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Strange man pages with .1so suffix, roff 'symbolic links', documented anywhere?
by Chris G 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

I'm having a frustrating time trying to configure some man pages provided by owfs (1-wire file system). I have configured and built the software OK and it works but it would be really nice if I could read the man pages that come with it. The man pages are in a slightly 'out of the way' place:- /opt/owfs/share/man but that's OK if one adds the above directory to the file /etc/manpath.config, so I have done that and a couple of man pages are now visible. However when I run mandb to rebuild the man pages index I get loads of errors like the following:- mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/device.1so: whatis parse for device(1so) failed mandb: can't open /opt/owfs/share/man/ownet.1: No such file or directory mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/ownetlib.1: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/configuration.1so: whatis parse for configuration(1so) failed mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/format.1so: whatis parse for format(1so) failed mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/timeout.1so: whatis parse for timeout(1so) failed mandb: can't open /opt/owfs/share/man/owshell.1: No such file or directory mandb: warning: /opt/owfs/share/man/man1/owdir.1: bad symlink or ROFF `.so' request It turns out that the .1so files are some sort of nroff/troff internal sort of symbolic link though I can find out little more. Does anyone know how these are supposed to work? Google is useless becauser it generates thousands of hits for ISO which mask anyhting useful. All I want to do is read the man pages! -- Chris Green

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Bash Substitution
by Richard Parsons 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

If I do: echo "1 2 3" > test and then cat test, then I can see the contents of the file, including the new lines. However, if I do: VARIABLE=$(cat test) echo $VARIABLE then the output has spaces instead of new lines. Why is that? And how could I stop that from happening? TIA, Richard

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X vs "WayaAnd"??
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

Apologies to any of you that may be afflicted by my cross-posting ... I have (quite accidentally) come across the news that Ubuntu seek to implement a graphics system called "Wayland" as a replacement for X-Windows, on grounds like "We don't believe X is set up to deliver the user experience we want, with super-smooth graphics and effects," Shuttleworth explained. There is an article in PCWorld about it: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/210018/ ubuntu_will_adopt_wayland_graphics_system.html (Equivalently: http://tinyurl.com/3ygzme3 ) and, it seems from other sources, Fedora plan to do the same (though I'm not seeing any such signs on the Debian front). Wayland may be more glitzy (for all I know) and more likely to pull in users who currently prefer the Mac experience and the like. But I am seriously perturbed by the following (in the above article): "Among the X11 capabilities not included in Wayland is network transparency." The Joy of X has been that one can run different programs on different machines all the while sitting at the one machine, with X happily transmitting anything X-ish over the network to be happily displayed by the X-server on one's own machine. Would this cease? And, in the case of the other machines which may be old and running only X, even if Wayland can offer "network transparency" could it provide a display server on the Wayland machine for X applications running on other machines (and not just in Linux -- other machines running "real" Unix with X can communicate just as well)? If not, then Linux as we know it could cease to exist! Transparent networking with X is one of the joys of Linux/Unix. Any views/news? Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Dec-10 Time: 19:45:57 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Ubuntu-xerox-cups won't print large files
by Jenny Hopkins 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

Hi ALUG, I have an annoying CUPS printer problem: Printer: Xerox workcentre pro 128 Driver: v3015.103 Cups server running on Ubuntu connection socket://{xerox_ip} The problem is when trying to print a large file (the test file is a 731K pdf doc). Error log for cups shows D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:41 +0000] [Job 2972] Wrote 4096 bytes of print data... D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:41 +0000] [Job 2972] Read 4096 bytes of print data... D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:41 +0000] [Job 2972] Wrote 4096 bytes of print data... (for many many lines.. ...and then....) D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:41 +0000] [Job 2972] Read 8192 bytes of print data... D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:41 +0000] [Job 2972] Wrote 8192 bytes of print data... Then it comes out with some cupsd type stuff like: D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:45 +0000] Returning IPP successful-ok for Get-Notifications (/) from localhost D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:45 +0000] cupsdSetBusyState: Printing jobs and dirty files D [09/Dec/2010:14:29:45 +0000] cupsdReadClient: 12 WAITING Closing on EOF then back to the 8192 thing, then it hangs and the Xerox dies and has to be turned on and off. Cups web page error says: "Unable to write print data: Broken pipe" I changed connection from socket to lpd but not much difference, apart from the cups web page changed to: "/usr/lib/cups/backend/lpd failed" I tried printing to cups-pdf then printing from the generated doc, but no difference. Does anybody know if this means the printer itself hasn't enough memory, or if the cups server has a file limit set somewhere? Or any other ideas? Many thanks, More log files can be supplied on request but I've just been trawling about trying to find a solution to this, and reading through page after page of people posting up their entire cups error logs had started to get very tedious.... Jenny

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How to get to single user mode from boot?
by Chris G 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

I have got myself locked out of my old eeePC 7" netbook, I don't understand why, but anyway - is there a way to get to single user mode without a CD or USB memory stick to boot from? I'm out in Belgium away from home with this netbook (Acer Aspire One) which is all working OK and the old eeePC 700 serie that I want to configure and leave here. I can download a certain amount here (3-G connection) but big downloads are out. Is there maybe a minimal download I can do to create a bootable memory stick to sort out the eeePC? (I have a memory stick and can download tens of Mb without too much problem) -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Travelodge Wifi
by Jim Rippon 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

Mark, Keith and Tim, Thanks for your replies - I was a bit short on useful information in my last message, sorry. I can associate with the AP and obtain an IP fine, my problems are that once connected I can't get the registration page to load. In Window$, it comes up fine (in both Chrome and Firefox), but in Ubuntu I just get a broken img artefact and a message to the effect of "service not available try again later" I'd be happy to just use something else, but as I paid for wifi with my room, I kinda feel a bit cheated that I can't use it for is intended purpose to practise and revise my coursework. Thanks for your input :) Jim Sent from Samsung mobile

5 5

Travelodge Wifi
by Jim Rippon 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

Hi all, I'm stuck in a Travelodge in Marylebone this week while renewing my RHCE certification. Unfortunately I can only get connected to the travelodge wifi from Windows on my laptop - doesn't seem to make much difference which browser choice I make when back in Linux where I want to me. Any suggestions more than welcome :) Jim

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Laptop
by Steve Engledow 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

> Id love a new Mac but cant afford it. No you don't, that's just the conditioning talking ;) > So I am looking for suggestions. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside > Windows (for those times when you have to use Windows). If you've had a mac for 11 years, what times do you face when need Windows? Go the whole hog, you'll love it :) Life without Gates, Jobs, or other corporate monsters with plural nouns for surnames is far shinier. In the REM sense. > It needs to be fairly small, with a built in CD drive, USB, PCMCIA > slot and built in sound. I know that all sounds fairly standard but > Ive had machines in the past few years without some of these. > > It really needs to be at least a 1Ghz machine capable of 1GB RAM - > DDR preferably but PC133 would be ok. I bought a low-end Toshiba jobbie a while back and it's done me pretty well over the years. Anything brought out within the last 5 years or so is likely supported fairly well. I now await the reply which shoots that down ;) HTH, HAND Steve P.S. Sorry Simon, I blindly hit the reply button forgetting that I wasn't in mutt.

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Laptop
by Anthony Anson 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

Brett Parker wrote: > imagemagick was definitely part of lenny, so yes :) Found the bag lurking, so shall install it. (The app, not the bag) Ta. (There's so much on those discs, and most of it isn't self-exlanatory. There's probably a list somewhere too. If so, any idea where it is, and what it's called, and does it give a brief indication of what each app is for? -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

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Re: [ALUG] Linux Laptop
by Steve Engledow 06 Dec '10

06 Dec '10

On Mon, 6 Dec 2010 12:59:23 +0000, Brett Parker <iDunno(a)sommitrealweird.co.uk> wrote: >> And don't say "The Gimp" - IMO it's a pile of poo. > > That's your opinion, and you're welcome to it. It's just as intuitive > as > either that you've listed (i.e. not at all). Personally I can find > things a hell of a lot quicker in GIMP than in PSP or Photoshop, and > I > used to use PSP "rather a lot". This conversation comes up an awful lot. I think the intuitiveness of gimp is relative to whether or not you're expecting it to be like Photoshop. The photoshop fanboys would necessarily find it unintuitive because it uses a different interface. For the record, I've been using gimp for years and, a couple of years ago, had occasion to use photoshop when on a friend's PC and found it to be /horribly/ unintuitive. Out of interest, has anyone tried gimpshop? I gather that was/is a project to make gimp seem familiar to photoshop users. Steve P.S. Bloody done it again! Sorry Brett. I'm coming from Roundcube jooi

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Re: [ALUG] main Digest, Vol 66, Issue 5
by Seansurfcentre＠aol.com 05 Dec '10

05 Dec '10

Hi I am Ok fo 20/12/10. Regards Sean Myles In a message dated 05/12/2010 12:00:19 GMT Standard Time, main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk writes: Send main mailing list submissions to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk You can reach the person managing the list at main-owner(a)lists.alug.org.uk When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of main digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: FW: What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? (keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk) 2. Re: Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) (samwise) 3. Re: Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) (Anthony Anson) 4. Re: Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) (samwise) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 16:01:55 +0000 From: <keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk> Subject: Re: [ALUG] FW: What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? To: <cl(a)isbd.net>, Alug <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Message-ID: <SNT116-W282079EE3EEC52B52FC25EF1290(a)phx.gbl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Chris With the name being "oldchris" it might not register its name with the DNS server, once it gets it IP via DHCP. And so the server does the nslookup ? Just a thought. Keith ---------------------------------------- > Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 17:32:19 +0000 > From: cl(a)isbd.net > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] FW: What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? > > On Fri, Dec 03, 2010 at 03:50:33PM +0000, keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk wrote: > > > The command > > > > > > > root@mws:~# host oldchris > > > > > > does a hosts lookup, I assume in the local tables, and gets > > > > > > > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > > > > > > ... and then does a DNS lookup and .... > > > > > > > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > > > > > > ... as is on my machine... > > > > > OK, but why does it try the second lookup? If I do other 'host' > commands I don't get the same result:- > > chris$ host chris.zbmc.eu > chris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.4 > chris$ host dps.zbmc.eu > dps.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.2 > chris$ host oldchris.zbmc.eu > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > chris$ host backup.zbmc.eu > backup.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.88 > chris$ host laptop.zbmc.eu > laptop.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.84 > > Note that 192.168.1.4 and 192.168.1.2 are 'static' in that they're in > the /etc/hosts file on the machine that is the DNS server, the others > get their address using DHCP. > > I'll ask on the dnsmasq list too, the DNS server uses dnsmasq. > > -- > Chris Green > > _______________________________________________ > 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! ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 16:13:52 +0000 From: samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Message-ID: <AANLkTin983umjj-BX1avK0QGsQz3B328RBjcyksEBRUT(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Apologies for the repetition of this email, but I've had only two responses to this so far, and only one of those is able to attend, which at the moment is making a gathering of three. There were quite a few ppl at the last meet who sounded like they were up for this again, so can I ask if anyone just hasn't responded yet, can you do so soon? If I get some more interest, I'll book somewhere, otherwise we'll make it a normal meet and maybe try an ad-hoc meal out somewhere, depending on the feeling on the night. Thanks, Peter. On 18 November 2010 10:35, samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> wrote: > Hey, all. > > It's that festive time of year again. ?We talked about this at the > last Ipswich meet and there was a groundswell of approval for another > Christmas meal again this year. > > I'll nominally start by proposing 20:00 on the the same date as the > usual Ipswich ALUG meet (20th Dec), but please drop me a line if you'd > like to attend but think that would be an awkward date for you as I'm > sure we can re-arrange it, when I have a list of who's coming. > > Everyone is welcome - no need to be a LUG regular. > > Please mail me off-list, if you'd like to join in. ?When I have a list > of ppl who'll be there, we can settle on where we want to go and > finalise the date. > > Cheers, > > Peter. > ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:34:32 +0000 From: Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) To: alug list <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Message-ID: <4CFA6D98.8000300(a)girolle.co.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed samwise wrote: /Invitation/ 'Fraid travel to and from Ipswich is out of the question from this corner of the South Norfolk Triangle. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/ ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sat, 4 Dec 2010 16:36:23 +0000 From: samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably) To: alug list <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Message-ID: <AANLkTiktUaLRTLUQ=_+iGSv_EmaAm8MBuiL24KkzeUMR(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 No worries, Tony. I wasn't intending to guilt anyway, just catch up any stragglers. Our numbers tend to fluctuate so sometimes we have large meets, other times very small. If December is just on the small side, we'll play it by ear. I've had at least one more possible respondee tho, so the numbers are creeping up. :) Peter. On 4 December 2010 16:34, Anthony Anson <tony.anson(a)girolle.co.uk> wrote: > samwise wrote: > > /Invitation/ > > 'Fraid travel to and from Ipswich is out of the question from this corner of > the South Norfolk Triangle. > > -- > Tony Anson > www.girolle.co.uk/ > > _______________________________________________ > 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.anglian.lug.org.uk/ http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main End of main Digest, Vol 66, Issue 5 ***********************************

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Annual ALUG Ipswich Xmas Meal - 20/12/10 (probably)
by samwise 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

Hey, all. It's that festive time of year again. We talked about this at the last Ipswich meet and there was a groundswell of approval for another Christmas meal again this year. I'll nominally start by proposing 20:00 on the the same date as the usual Ipswich ALUG meet (20th Dec), but please drop me a line if you'd like to attend but think that would be an awkward date for you as I'm sure we can re-arrange it, when I have a list of who's coming. Everyone is welcome - no need to be a LUG regular. Please mail me off-list, if you'd like to join in. When I have a list of ppl who'll be there, we can settle on where we want to go and finalise the date. Cheers, Peter.

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FW: What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN?
by keithjamieson＠hotmail.co.uk 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

---------------------------------------- > From: keithjamieson(a)hotmail.co.uk > To: cl(a)isbd.net; main(a)lists.alug.org.u > Subject: RE: [ALUG] What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? > Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 15:10:21 +0000 > > > Chris > > The command > > > root@mws:~# host oldchris > > does a hosts lookup, I assume in the local tables, and gets > > > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > > ... and then does a DNS lookup and .... > > > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > > ... as is on my machine... > > keith@laptop:~$ host oldchris.zbmc.eu > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > keith@laptop:~$ nslookup oldchris.zbmc.eu > Server: 192.168.1.254 > Address: 192.168.1.254#53 > > ** server can't find oldchris.zbmc.eu: NXDOMAIN > > keith@laptop:~$ dig oldchris.zbmc.eu > > ; <<>> DiG 9.7.1-P2 <<>> oldchris.zbmc.eu > ;; global options: +cmd > ;; Got answer: > ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 42469 > ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0 > > ;; QUESTION SECTION: > ;oldchris.zbmc.eu. IN A > > ;; AUTHORITY SECTION: > zbmc.eu. 10635 IN SOA a.dns.gandi.net. hostmaster.gandi.net. 1290680931 10800 3600 604800 10800 > > ;; Query time: 21 msec > ;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254) > ;; WHEN: Fri Dec 3 15:08:37 2010 > ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 96 > > keith@laptop:~$ > > HTH > Keith > > ---------------------------------------- > > Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:01:56 +0000 > > From: cl(a)isbd.net > > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > Subject: [ALUG] What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN? > > > > What might cause this somewhat confusing response to a 'host' command? > > > > root@mws:~# host oldchris > > oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 > > Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) > > > > > > > > -- > > Chris Green > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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! >

2 2

Newer ThinkPad 240x
by Simon Royal 04 Dec '10

04 Dec '10

Hi I'm in and out of Linux all the time and would like to settle with it again. I had a ThinkPad 240x and loved it but it was a bit old. Is there anything of similar size around the 1Ghz P3/P4 mark good for running Ubuntu. I dont want an Atom based machine and if it didnt have an internal CD/DVD drive then it would need to boot from USB - something my 240x didnt have. Simon -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OS9/OSX 10.4/Ubuntu 10.10 - iBook G3 running OSX 10.4 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro running 2.1

2 3

Running PHP script in background goes into "Stopped"
by Mark Rogers 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

I'm trying to make a PHP script run in the background: $php -q myscript.php & [1] 12345 $jobs [1]+ Stopped php -q myscript.php If I force it into the foreground (fg 1) it runs fine, and if I then stop it (ctrl-Z) and force it into the background (bg 1) it continues to run just fine. It's just starting in the background that seems to be a problem. The script is very simple for test purposes: <?php echo "hello"; ?> (I've tried various scripts, and obviously if I want to stop it and force it into the background it needs to run longer than this, so I just add a sleep(10); to the code.) Googling hasn't got me anything except suggestions that what I am doing is fine! I have no idea if this is a PHP issue or a Linux one? Mark -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 1

FireFTP
by Anthony Anson 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

I've tried to download FireFTP and it shows all misty blue in Tools/add-ons, with only the 'Uninstall' button standig out like a wossname in the snow. It doesn't feature in Opt/Firefox/Add-ons Can it be that my FriedFox is too old? (Some sites complain about it, or try to send me off to get Shockwave (!) or somethng I don't want.) Trouble is, I can't unearth the version of FriedFox I'm using. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

3 2

Ehhh?? [OT]
by ted.harding＠wlandres.net 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Good morning folks! I hope you are keeping warm and not suffering too much from travel problams. This is one of those off-topic things that I'm posting because so many of you know things that I don't know ... I'm increasingly seeing in emails (usually sent by organisations) a sentence like the following in the footer area of the message: "To ensure these emails reach your inbox please add <sender> to your address book." Ehhh?? If an email is delivered to me, it is delivered to my inbox. Punkt. So what's behind such a statement? And are people to whom such a thing might apply supposed to have all possible senders listed in their adress books (otherwise they may not have emails delivered)???? I smell a certain kludgy software company in the background! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)wlandres.net> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 02-Dec-10 Time: 09:00:23 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linux Laptop
by Simon Royal 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

Hi I am looking at switching - once again to Linux on a more permanent state. Ive been a Mac user for 11 years with an interest in Linux. Last year I switched to Linux on a low end laptop but moved back to Mac. Now I am triple booting on an old Mac (OS9, OSX and Ubuntu), but it is a bit old an PowerPC Linux is very unsupported. Id love a new Mac but cant afford it. I cant even afford a half decent one. The only funds I have will be from the sale of mine, which luckily should be about £100 and will buy a failry decent PC laptop. So I am looking for suggestions. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside Windows (for those times when you have to use Windows). It needs to be fairly small, with a built in CD drive, USB, PCMCIA slot and built in sound. I know that all sounds fairly standard but Ive had machines in the past few years without some of these. It really needs to be at least a 1Ghz machine capable of 1GB RAM - DDR preferably but PC133 would be ok. It needs to be good with Linux, no odd hardware that needs major tweaking to work. So suggestions please. Simon

1 0

Linux Laptop
by Simon Royal 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

Hi I am looking at switching - once again to Linux on a more permanent state. Ive been a Mac user for 11 years with an interest in Linux. Last year I switched to Linux on a low end laptop but moved back to Mac. Now I am triple booting on an old Mac (OS9, OSX and Ubuntu), but it is a bit old an PowerPC Linux is very unsupported. Id love a new Mac but cant afford it. I cant even afford a half decent one. The only funds I have will be from the sale of mine, which luckily should be about £100 and will buy a failry decent PC laptop. So I am looking for suggestions. It will run Ubuntu or Mint alongside Windows (for those times when you have to use Windows). It needs to be fairly small, with a built in CD drive, USB, PCMCIA slot and built in sound. I know that all sounds fairly standard but Ive had machines in the past few years without some of these. It really needs to be at least a 1Ghz machine capable of 1GB RAM - DDR preferably but PC133 would be ok. It needs to be good with Linux, no odd hardware that needs major tweaking to work. So suggestions please. Simon

1 0

And another can't...
by Anthony Anson 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

While Gargle finds a few hits and Ixquick a lot more, typing "Offbyone Linux download" brings up a lot of Offbyone downloads, but no Linux ones. I am (fairly) reliably informed that therre is a Linux version, but the only reference I can find (but no download) is to Red Hat. I use Xandros on the Eee and Debian on the Acer and the whoppingbigbox. -- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/

1 1

How can I find what this apache "file does not exist" error is referring to?
by Chris G 01 Dec '10

01 Dec '10

I'm getting errors like the following in my apache2 error log:- [Wed Dec 01 17:57:58 2010] [error] [client 84.45.228.40] File does not exist: /var/www/dte-test/httpdocs/images, referer: http://dte-test/ The directory /var/www/dte-test/httpdocs/images doesn't exist but I can't work out any way to find out what's referring to it. Any ideas? -- Chris Green

1 1

A git question now I have the basics mostly fathomed out
by Chris G 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

So, we have a git repository set up on a web server machine 'out there' somewhere. I make my local copy of the repository on my computer and do some editing etc. Then 'git commit' commits the changes to my local repository and a 'git push' sends the changes back to the remote repository. However I don't see how the files get to 'go live' on the remote web server, my 'git push' has simply put them back into the repository on that system. Presumably someone/somewhere has to extract the files from the git repository on the remote into the working directories from which the web server displays them. Is there a specific git command for doing this or would one use the standard 'git clone' to do it, or what? -- Chris Green

3 3

Very strange "No such file or directory" messages - help!!!
by Chris G 29 Nov '10

29 Nov '10

I have a symbolic link from my home directory to another home directory:- chris$ cd chris$ ls -l total 988 ... ... drwxr-xr-x 3 chris chris 4096 2010-11-20 14:33 dte lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 10 2010-11-22 18:58 isbd -> /home/isbd ... ... and, as expected, if I "cd isbd" I arrive at /home/isbd and can see its contents with an ls. However referring to "/home/chris/isbd" sometimes produces a "No such file or directory" error (but not always, as I have just discovered). I'm stumped. What started the problem was running rsync to backup the contents of /home/chris/isbd:- chris$ rsync /home/chris/isdb cheddar.halon.org.uk:backups/isbd rsync: link_stat "/home/chris/isdb" failed: No such file or directory (2) rsync error: some files/attrs were not transferred (see previous errors) (code 23) at main.c(1060) [sender=3.0.7] chris$ ls /home/chris/isdb ls: cannot access /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory It appears to be something to do with whether I have been in /home/chris/isbd but also seems to be time dependent. It's as if bash 'remembers' where /home/chris/isdb is for a while but then forgets unless I do a "cd isbd" from my home directory. The target (/home/isbd) is simply another part of the same disk that /home/chris is on, nothing special. Another example sequence:- chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd chris$ cd isbd /home/chris/isbd chris$ cd / chris$ cd /home/chris/isdb bash: cd: /home/chris/isdb: No such file or directory chris$ cd chris$ cd isbd /home/chris/isbd I've never had this problem before with a symbolic link to a directory, what on earth is going on? -- Chris Green

2 3

Mobile phone software
by Bev Nicolson 27 Nov '10

27 Nov '10

I have a fairly basic Alcatel OT S319 phone. There is no hope of expanding the memory so I would like to find some software to help me transfer the text to my PC. What should I look for? I have found a list of possibilities but I've no idea which would be the most Linux compatible. Thanks. Bev.

3 5

A question about git
by Chris G 25 Nov '10

25 Nov '10

I'm just starting to get down to the details of using git to co-operatively manage the contents of a web site remotely. I've managed all the basic set-up etc. such that I can connect to the site and get files etc. but I'm a little unclear about how things are supposed to go back to the remote/live site. So, I have used 'git clone' to get the files from the remote system and I have done some changes to the files. I then 'git commit -a' to commit my changes in my local repository, so far so good and it's what I'm (sort of) used to from previous experience of source code control. However what do I do next to actually get the changes back to the remote site? Or, what does the 'manager' who controls the code, do to get my changes integrated into the code on the remote site? Does 'git push' send my changes back to the site - it's not totally clear from the man page if this is what it does. The man page says "git-push - Update remote refs along with associated objects" which is a bit opaque. I *think* the following does copy the committed changes to the remote but I'd like to be sure:- chris$ git push --all --dry-run To chrisgreen@donttravelempty.com:/var/www/vhosts/donttravelempty.co.uk/subdomains/test/httpdocs 0474601..d6eb8a0 master -> master -- Chris Green

2 2

Launch xterm with smaller font than specified in .Xresources
by Dan 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

Dear All, On my system, fonts are served up by XFS. The font I usually use in xterms is set in my .Xresources file as follows XTerm*VT100.Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 XTerm.Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 XTerm*Font: -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--20-200-75-75-C-100-ISO10646-1 However, for one particular task, I want to launch an xterm with a much smaller font. The command xterm -fn fixed Gets me part way there, but I want an even smaller font than that. Any ideas, please? -- Thanks, Dan

2 2

Back With Linux
by TheMactivist 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

Hi I flit in and out of this group when I pick up Linux again. Ive been a Mac user for the past ten years, Windows user before that and the last few years developed an interest in Linux. About a year ago I left Mac and went full on Linux with older ThinkPads. I then went back to Mac and am now triple booting between OS9, OSX and Ubuntu on an old Mac laptop. It was a struggle getting them all to work nicely together but I am back with Linux and writing this in it now. TM -- --- Twitter: http://twitter.com/SimonRoyal - LowEndMac: http://tinyurl.com/macspectrum - Skype: Simon-Royal. --- Apple PowerBook G3 'Pismo' running OS9/OSX 10.4/Ubuntu 10.10 - iBook G3 running OSX 10.4 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro.

2 1

What would cause this lack of decision about a host on the LAN?
by Chris G 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

What might cause this somewhat confusing response to a 'host' command? root@mws:~# host oldchris oldchris.zbmc.eu has address 192.168.1.140 Host oldchris.zbmc.eu not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) -- Chris Green

1 0

why won't xterm start?
by Chris Walker 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Having given up on the idea of installing a Nokia SDK on my base machine, I thought I'd try creating a Ubuntu system in VirtualBox. I did that using an iso of 10.10 - Maverick Meerkat. But partway through the install, it's meant to fire up an xterm offering me a choice of installs, but it fails. I can start xterm simply by issuing the command but the script fails every time. I've googled this and others have had similar problems when they've upgraded from 10.4 to 10.10. I haven't. I've gone straight in with a vanilla 10.10 build. I've tried various tweaks and hacks but the script still fails. For info, this is what I'm trying to run - http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Maemo_5_SDK_installation_for_beginners It does the scratchbox install ok. It's when I get as far as the SDK install it fails. The ./maemo-sdk-install_5.0.sh script displays an agreement and I page down using the space bar. It then asks me to press the Enter key. At that point, it's supposed to open up a terminal window to enable me to choose an option. It falls over with an error - unable to open xterm. Any ideas? As I'm playing with VirtualBox, I did grab a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 and that ran through the whole thing so I do have an almost working copy of the setup so it's something peculiar to 10.10. The 'almost' working bit refers me not being able to see the host machine from the guest OS but I'll persevere with that. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

1 0

hexdump formatting
by Mark Rogers 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Has anyone here got any experience of hexdump output formatting? If I use hexdump -C I get: $hexdump -C -n32 /usr/bin/lsof 00000000 7f 45 4c 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.ELF............| 00000010 02 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 60 97 04 08 34 00 00 00 |........`...4...| 00000020 What I want to do is extend the number of bytes per line to 32, but as there isn't a format for it that means using the horribly complicated -e option. I have got as far as: $ hexdump -n 32 -e '"%04.4_ao: " 16/1 "%02X " " " 16/1 "%02X " " " "xx" "\n"' /usr/bin/lsof 0000: 7F 45 4C 46 01 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 03 00 01 00 00 00 60 97 04 08 34 00 00 00 xx .. but haven't worked out how to insert the ascii values in place of "xx". -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 0

Is there any way to run an rsync daemon/server on-demand as a non-privileged user?
by Chris G 23 Nov '10

23 Nov '10

Is there any way to do the equivalent of running rsync from an entry in inetd.conf that can be done by a non-provileged user? I want to run rsync from cron to backup files to a couple of places where I have shell logins (but not the privilege to make additions to inetd.conf). I suppose I could just run rsync in daemon mode using a cron job on the remote system (and kill it later) at the right time but that seems a little crude. -- Chris Green

2 6

An odd bluetooth problem
by Barry Samuels 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

I have just got Bluetooth working on my Thinkpad (Debian Testing/Squeeze) and it will pair with my Android 'phone but the signal keeps fluctuating. The link quality between 100% and -1%, the strength between 58% and -1 and it does this at around 2-5 second intervals. It does it even when the 'phone is next to the laptop. Can anyone suggest a reason for this? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

3 5

Re: [ALUG] [ALUG Announce] Free Teeth Whitening for you
by Steve Engledow 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

Well I don't know about you, but I'm convinced. Does this whitening kit run on linux though? Cheers, Steve On Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:33:16 +0000, "paul Frei" <onetofifteeneco(a)aol.com> wrote: > Untitled Document > > Get a Pro Whitening Kit 30 Day supply and two touch-up pens Free - > only pay £2.95 P&P. > > ? They know how important their smiles are and they've spent > thousands > and thousands of pounds to have the whitest teeth. Now you can have > the celebrity smile you deserve with . Try our today! > > People seeking better smiles spend £1.74 billion per year to have > white teeth. Celebrities know their success depends on having a great > smile. They are no different than you. __, and you can with . > > Get the white smile you've always wanted. will give you the bright, > celebrity smile you deserve. See if you qualify for your today! > > "I was so excited about my wedding until I tried on the perfect dress > and looked in the mirror. The dress was perfect and white, but my > teeth were yellow. I looked horrible. So I tried __ and it saved my > wedding." > > "I had an interview scheduled for the job I really wanted and needed, > but years of smoking and coffee drinking had stained my teeth so > badly > I knew the impression I would make would be bad. I tried __ and am > amazed at how white my teeth are." > > Be Attractive & Confident > ! > > We all want to look younger, happier and more confident. Everyone > would like to be attractive, successful and > have an incredible > relationship. > . > > in 3 simple steps with > Choice White advanced- > formula gel. > > if you do not wish to hear from us again please reply with cancel in > the subject line

2 1

HDD errors
by Mark Rogers 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

I have a hard disk connected via a IDE/USB convertor. I was asked to look at the disk because of issues, and with a combination of tools (surprisingly mount and cp did most of what I needed!) have managed to recover most of his files (well the ones that matter anyway). However, I'm getting lots of the following in /var/log/messages: Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430217] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Unhandled sense code Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430221] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430225] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current] Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430230] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] Add. Sense: No additional sense information Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430234] sd 10:0:0:0: [sdb] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 01 00 95 a0 00 00 08 00 Nov 11 10:44:28 user-desktop kernel: [268615.430248] __ratelimit: 41 callbacks suppressed .. and I was just curious to learn what they were telling me about what was wrong with the drive? I've Googled for some of the key phrases but don't seem to get a clear picture. I've seen references to Sense Key etc before with problems in the past (often USB thumb drives) so I figured a little extra knowledge might be no bad thing! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

8 10

Is there a fairly easy way to allow two users to write to the same hierarchy of files?
by Chris G 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

I want to enable two users to write to a specific hiearchy of files and I really can't see an easy way to do it. To be specific I have a hierarchy of files making up the data files of a wiki which I (mostly) edit directly but also need to be able to edit in the normal wiki fashion. Thus they need to be writeable by the apache2 process (which is user www-data) and directly by the user (which is me, user chris). Can anyone suggest a way to allow these to be writeable by both users? When a user creates a new file it must be editable by the other user as well so simply creating a common group to which both users belong won't work as, in general, the umask won't give files user write permission. -- Chris Green

4 5

Snapshots
by Chris Walker 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

Is it possible to take a snapshot of a running system rather in the way it's possible to do in things like VirtualBox? I'm thinking of installing some software but am not sure that once installed, I will be able to back it out with leaving files everywhere. Hence the idea of a snapshot. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |______________________________________________|

3 3

Sharepoint alternatives
by Mark Rogers 19 Nov '10

19 Nov '10

A customer has asked us to look at setting up a hosted sharepoint server for them. What are the best FOSS alternatives I should look at to give them some options? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0844 251 1450 Registered in England (0456 0902) @ 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

2 2

SBCs that run Linux - someone mentioned some a while ago
by Chris G 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

A while a go when we were discussing low-powered backup solutions someone here mentioned a couple of Linux based SBCs (Single Board Computers). At the time I was looking for something somewhat different but now I think I might have a use for such a device. Can someone point me in the right direction (the mail list archive isn't searchable so doesn't help much as I haven't a clue how long ago it was). -- Chris Green

3 5

Mostly OT: Kindle 3G
by Mark Rogers 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

There seem to be some Kindle fans here? £150 for the Kindle 3G seems like a good deal. I'm just looking for someone to persuade me to part with the cash! Any experiences with the "experimental" web browser? The relevant bit to this list: Any PC interaction I have with it will be from my Linux (Ubuntu) box. Any reason to have any concerns? I've never owned an eBook but I gigure something like Calibre should allow me to convert between ebook formats (the wife is concerned she'll buy an ebook from Waterstones that she can't use on it, for example; my concern is more about keeping her off MY Kindle in the first place!) -- 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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