- main - earth.li

Re: [ALUG] Red Hat Enterprise insanity
by Richard Bensley 24 Nov '08

24 Nov '08

> Been handed a Red Hat Enterprise 4.x box that needs nagios plugins. > > Problem: How do I download and install together with dependencies. I'm a > Debian user myself, so going after the individual rpm files is driving > myself and my colleague crazy. Don't really want to go down the tarball > route either. > > We've been under the impression that these issues must have been resolved > years ago, but I can't find much help through Google. > > TIA > > James Hi, I assume you don't have a support contract? Best to do would be to add the rpm repositories (https://rpmrepo.org/RPMforge). RHEL is pretty useless without support. CentOS is built off the same source but you don't need a subscription. I can highly recommend centos. To do things apt-get style use the program 'yum' i.e.: sudo yum install PACKAGENAME Synaptic can also be used for RPM repositories. Rich

1 0

Gnome "Wastebasket" puzzle
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 23 Nov '08

23 Nov '08

Hi Folks, Something's happened whilch puzzles me a bit; and also I don't know how I should deal with it. What I did: 1: Insert a USB stick that I wanted to delete the files on. When it's Icon appeared on the Gnome desktop, I opened that. I could see the files stored on the USB stick, but the menu for each file (right-click on file icon) offered no explicit option to delete it, except "Move to Wastebasket". So, for each file I did that. 2: I then unmounted the USB stick, removed it, and opened the Wastebasket (to empty the files out of that). There I found two Icons: A: "Ted's Downloads" [folder] B: "Ted's Downloads (Copy") [folder] I have no idea how they got there. When I look in them, they contain the files which are in my real "Ted's Downloads" folder. Some of these were on the USB stick too, but only a few of them. My Dilemma: I do NOT want to destroy the real "Ted's Downloads". However, the only vaguely relevant Menu option I can find is "Empty Wastebasket". Presumably, this would destroy the real "Ted's Downloads" folder, since apparently that (with its full current contents) is apparently now in the Wastebasket, though still accessible both from its own Desktop icon and from the command line. If, in the command line from /home/ted, I do: $ ls -l .Trash total 4 drwxr-xr-x 2 ted ted 4096 2008-09-17 20:42 Ted's Downloads lrwxrwxrwx 1 ted ted 19 2008-09-17 20:52 Ted's Downloads (copy) -> /home/ted/Downloads and: $ ls -l Desktop total 8 drwxr-x--- 2 ted ted 4096 2007-10-30 17:07 Downloads -rw------- 1 ted ted 474 2007-09-22 23:29 Google-googleearth.desktop lrwxrwxrwx 1 ted ted 19 2008-09-17 21:35 Ted's Downloads -> /home/ted/Downloads What I want to do: Get "Ted's Downloads" out of the Wastebasket (if it's really there ... ) without destroying it, so that in future I can move other files to the Wastebasket and "Empty Wastebasket" without destroying "Ted's Downloads". And: NO, I did not find any of the files I "Moved to Wastebasket" from the USB stick where I would have expcted to, namely at the top level of Wastebasket (i.e. Trash). Any ideas, comments? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 22-Nov-08 Time: 18:43:57 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 5

1TB External Hard Drives
by Mark Reid 22 Nov '08

22 Nov '08

Hi Folks I'm thinking of getting a 1TB external hard drive to use as file storage. I plan to connect via USB. Does anyone have any experience of using one on a Linux system and can warn of any potential problems or pitfalls? I'm running Ubuntu Intrepid on a Dell Inspiron 6400. Thanks Mark Reid

3 2

Wiki upgrade
by Jonathan McDowell 22 Nov '08

22 Nov '08

I've upgraded the wiki to the latest Moin release; we were somewhat out of date. I think it should all be working fine but let me know if you have any problems. J. -- If it was easy, the hardware people would take care of it.

1 0

Red Hat Enterprise insanity
by James Green 21 Nov '08

21 Nov '08

Been handed a Red Hat Enterprise 4.x box that needs nagios plugins. Problem: How do I download and install together with dependencies. I'm a Debian user myself, so going after the individual rpm files is driving myself and my colleague crazy. Don't really want to go down the tarball route either. We've been under the impression that these issues must have been resolved years ago, but I can't find much help through Google. TIA James

1 0

USB, hard drive, media player sort of question
by Chris G 21 Nov '08

21 Nov '08

If I have (well I do hope to have) a television which will display pictures from a USB memory stick plugged into it, what format(s) will it expect on the USB stick? The manual for the TV isn't all *that* helpful, it says (among other things) :- This TV Supports on JPEG and MP3 Only a USB storage device is recognizable Please use only a USB storage device which was formatted as a FAT32 file system provided with the Windows operating system. In case of a storage device formatted as a different utility programme which is not supported by Windows, it may not be recognized. File alignment method of USB storage device is similar to Window XP and filename can recognize up to 100 English characters So, OK, the USB stick needs to be formatted as FAT32 and have Windows XP compatible file names. That shouldn't be a problem. Does there have to be any particular directory structure? Oh a few more bits from the manual:- PHOTO(*.JPEG) supporting file Baseline: 7680 x 4320 • You can play JPEG files only. • Only baseline scan is supported among JPEG (SOF0, SOF1 only). • Non-supported files are displayed in the form of bitmap. Does anyone know what any of the above means, in particular "Baseline" and SOF0, SOF1? Going on from the above could one plug a USB disk into the same TV? The manual says "It doesn’t support USB HDD" but I don't really understand how it would know, sure a USB storage device looks the same whether it's a flash drive or a disk drive. This is all with a view to choosing a new TV on which I want to display photographs which are stored on my PC. I've decided that TVs with a network connection (ethernet) are too expensive and/or aren't particularly good in other ways so I'm looking at the alternative ways of transferring pictures. Quite a few TVs have a 'PC' input (either or both of Sub-D and HDMI) but that requires the PC to be reasonably close to the TV and/or a dedicated PC. If I can get the pictures off the network via USB it would be easier. Any/all information would be welcome, it's not something I know much about. -- Chris Green

6 6

Free stuff
by David Reynolds 19 Nov '08

19 Nov '08

Hi, Anyone want any of these: Belkin PCI Firewire card Belkin PCI USB card RealMagic EM8300 MPEG decoder / TV Out card. Free to a good home .. I just ask that you either collect, or pay postage. Anyone want? Cheers, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

2 3

OT: Search engine optimisation
by Mark Rogers 19 Nov '08

19 Nov '08

Not really on topic here but I think this is the most likely group of people (I know) to have anything to offer... Does anyone here know someone with SEO skills they can recommend (or are they that person themselves)? I have a couple of customers interested in paying for the services of someone, but while it's easy to find people who claim to be great at SEO its definitely something I'd only want to pursue with recommendations. PS: I'm only interested in White Hat SEO, no tricks or "guaranteed top 10 in Google" rubbish. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

3 4

formatting a hard drive in linux
by Barry Chater 19 Nov '08

19 Nov '08

hi I am intending to take a hard drive from a laptop and place it in a windows desktop.This drive has Ubuntu on it and so as not to cause any problems in windows, i would like to erase the operating system on it before removing from the laptop. Any tips on the best way to do this? Once in the desktop i plan to install Ubuntu back on it( i still have the live disc). thanks Barry

7 9

Technical Arts Show: Curiosity Collective - forewarned is forearmed
by samwise 18 Nov '08

18 Nov '08

Hi, this might be of interest to the technical bodgers on the list. The Curiosity Collective is a techy arts groups who create pieces of art, using technical wizardry, in this case based around the theme of proverbs. I saw their last exhibition in Ipswich, and they had some neat pieces. They use Macs as well as Linux ... :) Peter. The Curiosity Collective present, "forewarned is forearmed" - a preview of our forthcoming proverbs show. We are a group of artists, inventors and mad scientists working in Ipswich, who make interactive curiosities. In our new show we shall give you a sneak peak at our reinterpretations of proverbs - many as strange machines and computer trickery! The show will be on from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th November, in St Mary at Quay (http://www.google.com/maps?q=52.052847%2C+1.156300), Key Street, Ipswich (thanks to the cooperation of Key Arts - http://www.keyarts.org) Friday: 5pm to 9pm - reception at 7pm Saturday: noon until 5pm Sunday: 2pm to 5pm - talk at 3pm The final show will be in the New Year; for details of this and our various projects keep an eye on our website: http://www.curiositycollective.org Ipswich Borough Council and Turnstone - Arts Grants aided

1 0

Report on low power PC exercise
by Chris G 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Well I have my low power[ish] PC put together now, I had a couple of issues while assembling it. 1 - The Foxconn G31MG-S isn't available anywhere, it looks as if it won't become available for a few weeks yet. Since I want the computer now I have used a boring/generic/cheap Foxconn motherboard instead. As a result consumption is rather higher than predicted but is still quite acceptable at around 50 watts when idling with two disk drives and a CD/DVD drive. I could save a watt or two by unplugging the CD/DVD but it's hardly worth the effort. 2 - Some power supplies don't handle SATA drives well. I wasted a load of time on this. I ordered a case *and* a power supply when I ordered the parts for the system. The case (to my surprise) came with a 355 watt power supply so I though I might as well use that and keep the ordered (430 watt) one as a spare. I built the system and it worked OK until I added a second SATA drive, or at least I saw the same symptom a few times with only one SATA drive but put it down to misconfiguration. However when I tried to get it going with two drives it always just powered up for two or three seconds and then powered down again. A bit of searching suggested that it *might* be a power supply problem and so it was, using the 430 watt supply instead has made it work perfectly. Amazing that a system which idles at 50 watts and always uses less than 100 watts can't start up with a 355 watt power supply. Apparently SATA drives hit the 12 volt rail harder than IDE drives used to. I'll probably buy a Foxconn G31MG-S when they become available, more for the fun of seeing how low power I can be than for any real saving. The difference of 20 watts will only save about 0.5KWh per day so the annual saving is only around £20. -- Chris Green

6 9

32 versus 64 bit
by Peter Alcibiades 17 Nov '08

17 Nov '08

Tim wondered: would you recommend upgrading to a 64bit environment? Definitely not. In fact, the solution to my own problems might be to do a clean install of a 32 bit environment. Its just not worth the aggravation. Maybe if you need to be able to address more memory. Or if you don't install all kinds of odd things that are 32 bit only - something which has given me untold grief. There don't seem to be any gains, and there is lots of aggravation. I have narrowed down the FF .xsession-errors issue a bit further, it seems to have something to do with the user, and to be not just with FF. I created another user, started up FF, exercised it a bit, and the errors file was empty. So another and less drastic action than doing a new clean install might be to create a new user and move all the files over. But equally, maybe the thing to do is just get it over with and move to 32 bit. Peter

5 4

Video Conversion
by Steve Fosdick 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

My G/F has a Sumsung E100 pocket media player. Whilst this supports a nice range of audio formats including Ogg/Vorbis and FLAC the video capabilities seem rather restrictive - MPEG4 (in an AVI container) or VMV9. I have an MPEG2 transport stream that I'd like to be able to put on that player which means converting it to one of those two supported formats. Does anyone have any recommendations of software to do this? TiA, Steve.

2 1

what a nightmare - firefox 3 - spoke too soon
by Peter Alcibiades 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

Spoke too soon. Now its filling up with stuff like this: ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** (firefox-bin:7254): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment So the nphelix stuff has stopped, but these messages were there before and are not fixed. What a total pile of ***. Have to move over to Konqueror, which will take the better part of the morning owing to the insane way it handles bookmarks. Peter

2 1

what a nightmare - firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 15 Nov '08

15 Nov '08

It may be fixed, and if anyone else finds themselves in this nightmare, this is what it took. It seems to have been a real player library which was 32 bit, to which the 64 bit FF 3 was pointing. At least I think this is what nphelix.so is. So, reinstalling FF does not help. This generated all the error messages and segmentation errors. The smart thing to do on realizing this would just be delete all realplayer files manually from /opt/mozilla.. Now they tell me! Instead I found a real player uninstall script, which declined to run until it was pointed at /opt, and then simply deleted /opt! Fortunately there was nothing terribly vital in it, just realbasic, and and old copy of openoffice, and who needs them? Well, lots of codecs and stuff, so maybe the problems will show up later on. But at least missing files are fixable. Then I reinstalled FF again, and it seems to work. There are still sites which it fails to display correctly, but at least it is now, touch wood, not filling the hard drive with xsession error messages. Peter

2 1

Re: [ALUG] xsession errors file absolutely huge!
by Peter Alcibiades 14 Nov '08

14 Nov '08

Following Ted's suggestions and checking while .xsession-errors is small enough to cat, this is what we see (it goes on for pages already, this is just an excerpt). Probably it would be smart to reinstall Firefox. But how can it have happened, its just a perfectly standard Lenny installation, with FF upgraded to v3 through Synaptic? Real Player isn't installed by the way. And all plugins have been disabled. Peter _____________________________________ ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment ** (firefox-bin:4231): WARNING **: Exception in gr::RangeSegment LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /opt/mozilla/nphelix.so [/opt/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so [/home/peter/RealPlayer/mozilla/nphelix.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32] LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) LoadPlugin: failed to initialize shared library /usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so [/usr/lib/totem/gstreamer/libtotem-complex-plugin.so: undefined symbol: _ZN13nsTArray_base9sEmptyHdrE] ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1) ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2) ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)

1 0

xsession errors file absolutely huge!
by Peter Alcibiades 14 Nov '08

14 Nov '08

There is probably a simple explanation of this bizarre event. I got a popup message in Gnome saying that /home was out of space. It is a 200G partition, and there is not a whole lot on it, so this was puzzling. I did (after a few false starts) find . -size +10G and was astonished to be told there was just one, xsession-errors. OK, tried it with 20G.....same. Well in the end xsession-errors turned out to be 150G. Scratched my head for some minutes and then decided, why not, so I did rm. It went with no fuss. Then did du, and /home was now about 50G which seemed about right. This seemed weird enough that help was needed. Now unable to start kmail. Logged off, now unable to log back in! It wasn't the WM, since it would not work with any of them. Rebooted, and now it invoked fschk on hda6, which is where /home is, and finally after about a minute or two, it fixed something that was orphaned. And now it has loaded OpenBox and kmail perfectly fine. All the files seem to be where they should be. I am just praying that it will launch Gnome, and still more, that the files will be there when it does. What can it be? Anyone seen this before? This is Debian Lenny. By the way, sorry to have missed the Reindeer tonight, I am still not quite well enough. Next time. Peter

4 3

Re: [ALUG] Low powered PC - I've ordered some bits
by Chris G 13 Nov '08

13 Nov '08

Re: my question yesterday about low power PC suppliers I hunted around on Google for a while and found an article on the (venerable) "Tom's Hardware" site about building a low power, but capable, system. They built a 4Gb, Intel core 2 duo system that consumed only around 30 watts when running. I've ordered bits for a similar system, it uses a FoxConn motherboard with Intel G31 chipset. My parts cost for a 4Gb system with 7400 processor (the most expensive bit, 7300 was out of stock) and a 500Gb hard disk was about £250. Compared with Mini-ITX systems and/or Intel Atom based systems this seems good value to me and gives me lots more processor power and room for expansion (i.e. adding hard disks). When the bits come and I've built it I will report its actual power consumption. -- Chris Green

4 6

Linux sound analysis software?
by Srdjan Todorovic 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Hello folks! I'm looking for some sound analysis software for Linux. I wish to be able to pass it a PCM wav or an MP3 and have it generate some statistics and preferably some graphs. In particular, I'm looking for amplitude/frequency graphs and harmonic analysers. I've just emeged sweep, and will play with that. I also intend to check out Audacity. http://liarliar.sourceforge.net/ is not really what I'm looking for. A google search gives me http://www.cmis.csiro.au/maaate/ (from 2002) but I can't list the contents of that directory. I had a look at sox, but that doesn't do what I want. I will keep looking, but was hoping that some kind soul would throw me some pointers. Having the ability to tag sound sample files or tag certain events (ie. tag a specific PCM sample or selection of samples) would certainly be a bonus. If nothing exists, I could be tempted to have a stab at making a similar program from scratch. Or would consider using libraries/classes in a custom app. Any thoughts, ideas or flames? Thanks, Srdjan

3 3

An PC suppliers who quote approximate power consumption?
by Chris G 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Does anyone know of a PC supplier (or component supplier) who quote the actual power comsumption of their PCs? I'm looking for a moderate powered PC to run 24 hours and thus want reasonable power consumption but I want a bog standard PC not a mini ITX (or Shuttle) system as they seem expensive for not much gain. To my surprise my new Asus P5Q-VM motherboard system with 8GB of memory and 500Gb hard drive only consumes around 60 watts. That suggests that it should be possible to get a lower specification system down below 50 watts or so which would be quite acceptable. -- Chris Green

1 0

Eeepc 900
by Barry Chater 12 Nov '08

12 Nov '08

Hi Has anyone put Ubuntu 8.04 on a Eeepc 900. If so any major problems. Barry

4 3

How to diagnose this crash on exit from X?
by Chris G 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

I have just installed xubuntu 8.10 on new hardware. It is based on a an Asus P5Q-VM motherboard (all Intel, including graphics) has 8Gb of memory and a quad code processor. It all installed OK without any problems and ran OK. However since I set the graphics resolution to 1600x1200 (the display's default) it crashes *totally* on exiting from X. It's a total, hard, crash - CTRL/ALT/Fn won't switch to a text console, I can't ssh into the system (which I can before it has crashed) and I can't ping the system. There is one other symptom, when I try and switch to a text mode console (using CTRL/ALT/Fn) even when the system is running OK I get a message from my monitor saying "this mode isn't supported" which seems a little odd on a monitor capable of 1600x1200 at more than 60Hz. The monitor is a Dell 2001FP and I'm using the DVI-D input. Does anyone have any ideas how to diagnose this problem? I have hunted around the files in /var/log but I can't see anything that looks significant there. The xorg.conf file is totally uncustomised:- Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Device "Configured Video Device" EndSection -- Chris Green

4 5

Ripping HD-DVD disks to XVID
by Mark Rogers 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

I have recently bought some HD-DVD disks as they're getting very cheap now that HD-DVD has been killed off in favour of Blu-Ray. I have an HD capable TV with an XVID capable DVD player built into it. And I have an HD-DVD reader (& DVD writer) to plug into my PC. At the moment I haven't connected it up because it's SATA based and I've run out of SATA connectors so some juggling is going to be required (or I can stick it into a Windows PC). So, before I go too far, does anyone have any hints as to how I can rip HD-DVD content and convert it into XVID to burn back to a DVD? I want to basically get a full DVD in MPEG4 format from an HD-DVD. Will I even be able to read the HD-DVD in Linux? (My desktop is Ubuntu 8.10.) I don't have any other HD-DVD player so buying the disks was a bit of a gamble really :-) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

4 14

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 11 Nov '08

11 Nov '08

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 17th November) 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://pjmcginty.moonfruit.com/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich, not far from our old haunt - The Milestone. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around a laptop! This month, we promised to provide a beginner's tutorial to a standards-based VoIP (i.e SIP) alternative to popular proprietary applications like Skype. Following the discussion last month, we'll aim to demonstrate how to get an easy client installed under Windows and Linux, and explain how they can interoperate, as well as being able to break out to the PSTN network. The intention is to show attendees how the Skype feature-set can be replicated using standards-based and open software. We'll aim for a practical demo, but are happy to delve into the real techy stuff, if you have questions - at least one of our members works with VoIP full-time. Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see 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

1 0

How to deal with MS .docx files?
by Chris G 10 Nov '08

10 Nov '08

Is there any Linux application that will handle MS Word .docx files successfully? A .dox file is a compressed archive of .xml files but unpacking it doesn't really produce anything very usable. -- Chris Green

6 13

Sat Nav and Linux
by mbm 09 Nov '08

09 Nov '08

I am considering buying a satnav and would welcome some advice. I've never used one and I'm assuming any setup software, map updates etc will need a Windows PC. I don't have such a thing and want to avoid buying a satnav which I can't then fully use/update/configure or whatever for lack of windows availability. Any suggestions? Or am I worrying unnecessarily? Cheers Mick --------------------------------------------------------------------- The text file for RFC 854 contains exactly 854 lines. Do you think there is any cosmic significance in this? Douglas E Comer - Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume 1 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc854.txt ---------------------------------------------------------------------

3 3

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 13 November 2008
by David Reynolds,,, 07 Nov '08

07 Nov '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Dear ALUG, The monthly second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on 13th November 2008 at The Reindeer (10 Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 4AY; tel. 01603 762223). It's very near the junction of Dereham Road and the Norwich inner ring road (Grapes Hill) and serves a selection of real ales, nice pub food (if you fancy going early to eat) and coffee. There are generally people there from 20:00 onwards and we tend to sit to the left of the main entrance. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

help with wpa_supplicant please
by CDW (Linux) 02 Nov '08

02 Nov '08

Can I say first off that I'm trying to make wpa_supplicant work with DesktopBSD so apologies if some of you feel I shouldn't be asking for help here. I have an old IBM Thinkpad and having tried various brands of Linux, DesktopBSD was the only OS that installed correcly. I then wanted to make it to talk to my other machines which meant networking. It doesn't have a LAN port so I bought what I thought was a good wireless card. I was wrong. It's a Netgear WG511v2 and I've had to install it using ndisgen. I can get the thing to recognise my wireless LAN and if I run ifconfig, it reports :- ndis0: flags=8842<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 ether 00:1b:2f:d0:69:59 media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps) status: associated ssid ss2_scanning channel 11 bssid 00:0f:3d:34:d6:f6 authmode WPA privacy OFF txpowmax 100 bmiss 7 My /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file looks like this ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant ctrl+interface_group=wheel network={ ssid="ss2_scanning" proto=WPA key_mgmt=WPA-PSK pairwise=TKIP group=TKIP psk="c:(vo.............$-" } So the question is, does the psk data have to be in quotes and in hex? If so, how do I translate my ascii line into hex? I've read lots and lots of stuff online about all this and to be honest, I'm thoroughly confused. I'd appreciate any help. -- __ __| |_ __ __ .-----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |_______________________________________________|

5 7

Print Postage (Royal Mail)
by Steve Fosdick 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Has anyone had occasion to use the "Print Postage" service from Royal Mail? Does it reply on installing any proprietry software on your PC (including Adobe Flash) or is it usable from a normal web browser? Regards, Steve.

4 4

Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Just upgraded to this. Am I alone in finding it very disconcerting? In fact, its so disconcerting that I'm seriously thinking of migrating to Konqueror. First there is the way fonts behave. Completely weird. Large spaces between words. It looks sort of like monospace, but for words, and the spacing on the page of a chunk of prose is weird. Tinkering at great length with the fonts helped a bit, I finally found one of the MS ones that looks not normal, but relatively bearable. Then there is the way that they have helpfully made the tab closures look all the same, whether for the open tab or others, so you can no longer see easily by the fact that the active one is red which it is. Then some pages simply don't display properly - ones which used to in 2.x That is, chunks of them are simply missing. 90% of the themes do not work with 3.x yet, so your ability to change any of the appearance is limited. Perhaps most disconcerting is the way autocompletion now seems to work. When you type in a url, it produces a list of suggestions in large font, with legends under them, most of which appear not to have been ones you've previously visited, and most of which I have no intention of ever visiting. It feels like a sort of weird spam. What on earth was wrong with just giving you a list in some reasonably sized and neutral font? Is there any way to get back to that? And is this actually advertising? Its hard to see that it could be, since many of the links are to sites that would likely not pay. Is it some idiot's idea of how to be helpful? I'd be on K now, except for the fact that migrating the bookmarks is a horrendous process. K seems to do imports in such a way that you end up with everything on one huge page which totally occupies the screen. Why it cannot simply import them in the folders they are in....! Or is this just me? Does everyone else think its the bees knees, the dogs unmentionables and so on? Peter

7 7

Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Here is another weird thing. Downloading, everything slows to a halt - FF at least. You can't open another site without a 5-10 second delay. Then after a short period speed falls from the normally scintillating tiscali 120k to around 5k. Gradually. Is this sounding like memory leak? Peter

3 3

Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 31 Oct '08

31 Oct '08

Wayne, it is really weird. This am Slax looks just fine. Then I go to another site, Climate Audit, look at the first post which contains some graphs. They are all black. Click on them, the enlarged versions are all just fine. Go back, the smaller ones are totally black. Close FF and restart it again, now they display perfectly with a white background. Its not the settings of the background or colors either, because when I checked use system colors, the charts did not change, but most everything else turned black! The right thing must be to uninstall and then reinstall probably. Very odd. Peter

2 1

Firefox 3
by Peter Alcibiades 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

What doesn't display? Slax org of all things! The page itself displays, but in the background and around the edges there is a sort of collage of other bits of Firefox. Iceweasel actually. Repeated several times over. Only way to get to the page is with.... Konqueror! Maybe I have to get it from Mozilla direct, this one is an upgrade from the Debian Lenny repository. Peter

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Intercepting TCP comms
by David Reynolds 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

On 29 Oct 2008, at 11:05 am, Mark Rogers wrote: > In contrast, netcat seems to need scripts to be written to spawn > processes when connections are made and is altogether more complicated > for this task than socat. If it weren't for the pointers to netcat I'd > not have found it, though, so thanks again all! We did have a chat about that in IRC and it was pointed out that Netcat might not be able to make to do it without a script. At least it was some help in enabling you to find socat ;) -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

2 1

Intercepting TCP comms
by Mark Rogers 29 Oct '08

29 Oct '08

I'm trying to write some application code which will communicate via a TCP connection to a device. I have complete control of my application (which runs on a server to which I have SSH access) and no control of the device. At the moment my comms code is not working and I want to debug it at a binary level. For sake of argument, let's say the server connects to port 10000 on the device. I want to (a) listen on port 10000 on my desktop, (b) configure the server to think the device is my desktop, (c) forward any data I get on port 10000 to port 10000 on the device, and send any replies back whilst (d) logging everything going to/from the device. Any suggestions as to how I might do this? Or some suitable terminology to Google for? My desktop is Ubuntu and I have the luxury of a GUI there if I need it. The application is a Modbus/TCP driver for an industrial unit if anyone is interested. The protocol is simple, but binary. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

4 6

Re: [ALUG] Firefox 3
by Bev Nicolson 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

<<Just upgraded to this. Am I alone in finding it very disconcerting?>> <<Perhaps most disconcerting is the way autocompletion now seems to work.>> It was bit odd the first time I upgraded. I couldn't see how to go back several pages it's all become clear now. The spellcheck feature is a genius idea so that also helped to win me round. I don't mind the autocomplete feature. Most of the suggestions are of url's that I have typed in or looked at recently. The only wrinkle in this otherwise delightful browser is its tendancy to pick unicode/whatever for the character encoding so the question mark in the diamond appears where a pound sign should be etc. It can be changed manually but it has to be done fairly frequently as there is no option to save the setting. Sigh. I hope this gets fixed. Bev. -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

1 0

Looking for SDRAM PC133 *ECC Buffered*
by Richard Bensley 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

Hey all, does anyone have ECC Buffered/Server grade PC133 SDRAM they don't mind parting with or selling? Looking for sticks in the region or 512-1GB to get a total of 2GB for a server. Cheers Rich -- Richard Charles Bensley richardbensley(a)gmail.com http://www.richardbensley.co.uk 07846466530

3 3

CodeWeavers Linux Software - free download for 24 hours
by samwise 28 Oct '08

28 Oct '08

Thought this story might be of some interest ... Peter. CodeWeavers download-only Pro version will be available for free download for 24 hours, starting tomorrow: http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/press/20081027/

5 7

Print Postage (Royal Mail)
by Steve Fosdick 27 Oct '08

27 Oct '08

Has anyone had occasion to use the "Print Postage" service from Royal Mail? Does it reply on installing any proprietry software on your PC (including Adobe Flash) or is it usable from a normal web browser? Regards, Steve.

1 0

Ipswich ALUG meets: change of day discussion?
by samwise 21 Oct '08

21 Oct '08

Hi, all. At some point I promised someone, I forget who, I'd raise a discussion on the mailing list about whether we should change the "third monday" rule of thumb of the Ipswich ALUG meets. We've tailed off on numbers a little bit recently, tho that might just be the fine summer weather ... :) Anyway, so long as it doesn't majorly trouble any of the current regulars, then I don't see any problem with rearranging the day. So ... is there anyone who would find it more convenient* if we changed the date and, if so, what days would you prefer? Peter. * Yes, it would probably also be more convenient if I could regularly remember to send the reminder email out the week before. I'm working on that ... ;)

1 0

PGP/GPG private key management for offsite backups
by Srdjan Todorovic 21 Oct '08

21 Oct '08

Hi, I've got an offsite backup of some of my data, in case my apartment burns down etc. Since I dont have full control of the backup machine, I encrypt my data using PGP/GPG, and then upload to the backup service host. This is so far well and good. The GPG private key is on the machine in my apartment, beside possibly a copy being on some old floppy or CD-R. What happens if my apartment burns down? I will have my data backed up nice and snug on the backup service host. But since I cannot remember a 4096bit PGP private key pair, I would be in a bit of a bind. Could anyobne please offer some strategies to overcome this? I think someone on irc suggested some time ago that I mail my parents a copy of my key pair... but I'm not sure I'd want to do that (they might lose it). Thanks Srdjan

5 4

[Fwd: Re: copy and paste facilities]
by Barrys linux mail 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [ALUG] copy and paste facilities Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:49:45 +0100 From: Barrys linux mail <bazubuntumail(a)tiscali.co.uk> To: Chris Glover <lists(a)glover.uk.net> References: <48EFA7AE.5040305(a)tiscali.co.uk> <48EFAD62.7020607(a)glover.uk.net> Chris Glover wrote: > Barrys linux mail wrote: >> Hi >> I dont seem to be able to copy and paste text from firefox3 into Open >> office word as i can with windows. installed a clipboard program called >> glipper but still cannot copy and paste.I really need something with a >> graphical interface as i am not too good using commands etc. has anybody >> got any ideas on a program that will do this copy and paste for me? >> >> Barry >> > > What happens when you hightlight the text you want to copy and then > click with the middle button (or scroll wheel) in Open Office? > > That's the standard way to copy and paste in X. > > HTH > > Chris > > _______________________________________________ > 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! > Yep, that works, why did i not think of that instead of using copy and paste from the firefox menu !!! Thanks Barry

4 3

Why does Ubuntu set my resolution to 1152x864?
by Chris G 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

I'm trying out Ubuntu 8.10 on my new system. It insists on setting the resolution in X to 1152x864 by default. This is a real pain because it looks awful on my Dell display which has a native resolution of 1600x1200. I can set the user desktop to 1600x1200 but that doesn't change anything else, for example the gdm login is still at the lower (fuzzy) resolution and if I change to anothe window manager that's at the lower resolution too. Where does the 'default' come from now that there are no explicit resolutions in xorg.conf? Can I put 1600x1200 explicitly in xorg.conf and, if I do that, will it cause any problems? -- Chris Green

4 8

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 20 Oct '08

20 Oct '08

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 tonight (Monday 20th October) 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://pjmcginty.moonfruit.com/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich, not far from our old haunt - The Milestone. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around a laptop! Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see 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

1 0

Re: [ALUG] Visio alternative?
by Rob Grant 17 Oct '08

17 Oct '08

main-request(a)lists.alug.org.uk wrote: > 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. Visio alternative? (Yvonne Everett) > 2. Re: Visio alternative? (Srdjan Todorovic) > 3. Re: Visio alternative? (David Reynolds) > 4. Re: Visio alternative? (Wayne Stallwood) > 5. Re: Visio alternative? (Jan T. Kim) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:34:21 +0100 > From: "Yvonne Everett" <ye103910(a)googlemail.com> > Subject: [ALUG] Visio alternative? > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Message-ID: > <25b8c930810160734nc7f9e72qf9c722b5ff66d2a0(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi > > Does anyone know of a good alternative to Visio? I have some network > diagrams I need to draw up but have had enough of the windoze > applications.... > > Thanks > > You might like to try www.best4c.com . It lets you draw cobweb diagrams for networks, UML, general concept maps and the like via your browser. You can then make the diagrams available online so that others can view them or copy a version to develop further. The interface is very smoothly done and results look good. I've been searching for something like this to use for collaborative curriculum development with colleagues at UEA, also for personal brainstorming/concept-mapping. I only came accross Best4c ia couple of days ago and it is the closest I've found so far- except that when I created an account and tried it out none of the diagrams I created would save, which is kind of a show stopper. Still good enough for me to try again soon though, could have been some latency in new account setup maybe. For a desktop app there is Cmaptools from http://cmap.ihmc.us/ that I have used on and off for a while. Rather resource hungry and insists on putting big things into windows profile space which causes problems with our odd UEA setup. Pretty intuitive and flexible though when not eating CPU. Seems crazy that when I want to chuck out ideas and play around linking and rearranging them paper is still hard to beat. Surely there is a better app somewhere? Rob -- Rob Grant Lecturer in Economics School of Development Studies University of East Anglia r.grant(a)uea.ac.uk +44(0)1603 592324

2 1

Visio alternative?
by Yvonne Everett 17 Oct '08

17 Oct '08

Hi Does anyone know of a good alternative to Visio? I have some network diagrams I need to draw up but have had enough of the windoze applications.... Thanks -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com Mobile: +44 (0)7881 727213

5 4

Basic mail functionality with attachments
by Mark Rogers 15 Oct '08

15 Oct '08

I'm sure I should be able to solve this one easily with help from Google but I've drawn a blank so far. I have a basic box installed with Ubuntu-server (8.04), pretty much a default install. I want to send a couple of files from that box as attachments by email. I'm looking for the minimum necessary to do this. I don't really see the need for a mail server (it just needs to do a DNS lookup for an MX record then SMTP direct to that). I have so far installed mutt but that's unable to send without something extra being installed. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

7 14

EeePc900
by Barry Chater 14 Oct '08

14 Oct '08

Hi just bought a Eeepc 900 from Morrisons for £199, I like it but am amazed to find no firewall installed,and as yet cannot find a way to install one. Still using the original linux OS. has any of you Eeepc owners managed to get a firewall installed? second question, Is it possible to fit an ide hard drive from a laptop into a desktop pc as a second drive, Thanks Barry

3 4

Correctly configuring hostnames
by Mark Rogers 14 Oct '08

14 Oct '08

I'm sure this is trivial but all the info I've found online has been too vague to help me sort it. If I want a Linux box (Ubuntu/Debian) to have the FQDN of mybox.example.com, where do I set it? I understand that /etc/hostname should contain the "mybox" bit, but where does example.com go? I would expect the following queries and responses hostname -d Should give "example.com", gives "" (empty string) hostname -s Should give "mybox", and does hostname --fqdn Should give "mybox.example.com", gives "mybox" I even managed to get "hostname -s" to return "mybox.example.com" earlier, although I can't now reproduce it. NB: I do know that after changing /etc/hostname I need to run hostname -F /etc/hostname -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 1

RAM issues - Help!
by Steven Rose 13 Oct '08

13 Oct '08

I'd really appreciate any help on this matter, not really being all that knowledgeable in the hardware at hand. I am running a Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H (rev 1.0) motherboard with the latest BIOS, F6 I believe. The proc is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+. The operating system at present being Ubuntu 8.04.1, fully updated and so forth. (http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ClassVal…) The manual clearly states that the four DIMM slots run at a voltage of 1.8, this is also very clear in the CMOS settings. However, I have purchased a set of Corsair DDR2 800MHz XMS2 DHX, 2x2gb (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/142433) before realizing my potential issue. In the extended specifications it mentions something regarding 2.1 volts as it also does on the side of the heat-sinks. They are both currently in this particular machine and seem to be working fine, my concerns arise when running a memtest via GRUB. I have altered nothing in the BIOS merely replaced the old RAM and attempted to boot, which works fine, the memtest is stating something along the lines of 5-5-5-18, which I presume is related to the latency, however the RAM is branded as being 4-4-4-12, I am blissfully unaware as to whether it is running at the correct speed, or indeed voltage to work fully. Another point would be the system only displaying itself as having 3.2gigs rather than four, although this I presume could be normal as I am under 32bit userland. If my hardware will allow, of course, I wish to run this memory at its full capabilities. Any aid in this will be a great help. Cheers, Steve

3 3

Removing a disk drive, will it confuse things?
by Chris G 12 Oct '08

12 Oct '08

I want to remove one of the disk drives from my 'main' system (running Fedora 8). The drives on that system are currently:- /dev/VolGroup01/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/VolGroup01/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0 # # # Additions to see Fedora 7 partitions # /dev/sdb1 /f7boot ext3 defaults 0 0 /dev/VGa2/LVa2 /a2 ext3 defaults 0 0 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 /f7 ext3 defaults 0 0 The disk I want to remove is /dev/sda which is (mostly) that /f7 mount point /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 (and also some of the swap). The two drives I'm leaving are currently /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc. I can see if all is well in terms of the contents of the drives by simply removing the two lines from /etc/fstab and rebooting, that will check that there's nothing needed for the system to run on /dev/sda. However will the resulting changed names of the underlying physical drives that (I presume) will occur when I remove /dev/sda cause any problems? I.e. will it stop the system booting/running? If so would it just be a matter of booting off a CD and going into single user mode to sort things out or is it messier than that? -- Chris Green

2 2

copy and paste facilities
by Barrys linux mail 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hi I dont seem to be able to copy and paste text from firefox3 into Open office word as i can with windows. installed a clipboard program called glipper but still cannot copy and paste.I really need something with a graphical interface as i am not too good using commands etc. has anybody got any ideas on a program that will do this copy and paste for me? Barry

3 3

To install "stright-through" via CUPS??
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

Hi Folks, Confession: I've never had much luck with CUPS (as opposed to the old lpd system which I could get dancing to any tune)! Anyway: My printer is a PostScript-endowed HP 1300. I only ever produce PostScript files for printing. Therefore, I just want to be able to send the PostScript stream straight-through to the printer, i.e. not using any drivers. But when I try to set this up on CUPS (Gnome interface) it insists on going through the Maunfacturer/Driver routine. I've tried "Generic PostScript", and also "Apple Laserwriter II", installing PostScript drivers from the foomatic list. But the result is that, when I do 'lpr filename.ps', the printer starts printing reams of sheets with a single line of garbage on each. Don't ask me why! There's a complication, in that here I'm running Linux in VirtualBox on Vista, so there may be interference from Vista; but if I could get "straight-through" set up I think I should be OK. So, Question: How to set up straight-thorough in CUPS? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 09-Oct-08 Time: 15:30:38 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 1

VNC Repeater
by Mark Rogers 10 Oct '08

10 Oct '08

If I have two Windows users, one needing to use VNC to view the desktop of another through various firewalls etc, what can I set up on a publically accessible (Linux) box to allow them to connect? Assume very little technical knowledge at each Windows end so I need to do something as simple as possible for them. The outbound connection from the vncserver end (the desktop that needs to be "seen" by the other end) will probably need to use some common port like 80 to get through the firewall, which will be fun as all my Internet servers have web servers on them, but I'll fall off that bridge when I come to it. The viewer end is marginally more technically capable (ie they'll follow instructions more carefully) than the server end. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

5 7

Re: [ALUG] VNC Repeater
by Mark Rogers 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

Phil Ashby wrote: > What I suggested does use an outbound at each end - one pushes the port > forward (-L) one pulls (-R)... :) > Oops, misunderstood because of your references to port-forwarding. I'll investigate further, thanks. [Phil's email was sent off-list but given its content I've assumed that was an error hence the on-list reply. All of Phil's reply is above.] -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 0

Session saving not working - or am I confused?
by Chris G 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

I can't get Gnome to save sessions, at least I can't get it to do what I'm expecting it to do. Running Ubuntu 8.10 beta. I go to System - Preferences - Sessions and select the Options tab. There I'm presented with a selection box for "Automatically remember running applications when logging out" and a button which says "Remember Currently Running Application". Whichever I use *nothing* appears to be saved, i.e. if I log out leaving some terminals running they don't reappear when I log back in again. Am I misunderstanding what this is supposed to do or is it just totally broken? Google searches seem to suggest that it is supposed to do what I'm expecting but there don't seem to be any reports of it not working, even less of some sort of fix for it. -- Chris Green

1 0

Shell script query
by Stuart Bailey 09 Oct '08

09 Oct '08

I'm trying to run a process that outputs to screen and file using tee. I allo want to capture the pid of the first process (not tee) into a file. I'm using the following command line - the pid I want is that of xterm. xterm -title "Test Terminal" -e 'bin/process | tee logfile' & echo $$ > /tmp/process.pid But I'm getting the pid of tee. How can I change the command line to get the pid of xterm? Many thanks Stuart -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ---------------------------------------- -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

2 2

New system, almost perfect but some X/Video questions
by Chris G 08 Oct '08

08 Oct '08

So I ordered my new system (in bits) from Lambdatek over the weekend and it all arrived on Tuesday which, considering it came in four batches via four different carriers is pretty good. It's an Asus P5Q-VM motherboard, Intel quad core processor and 8Gb of memory with all other bits 'generic'. Ubuntu 8.10 beta installed without any problem at all, which is a good start. However..... I sort of knew the Intel G45 graphics was probably a bit risky being so new, and I was right. To get it to run without X crashing I have to add 'Option "NoAccel"' to the device section of xorg.conf. It's a know problem and there is a fix out there which will appear in the Intel X drivers in due course. I don't really need the acceleration at the moment so I can wait. However there is another minor problem, I can't get as high a display resolution as I want, the maximum I'm offered is 1152x864 and I normally run 1600x1200. The display is actually capable of more than that I think. Currently I'm running the new (Ubuntu 8.10) system on the VGA input of my monitor and the old (Fedora 8) system on the DVI-D input of the monitor. I did try swapping them round but the the Ubuntu 8.10 system just failed to start video at all, I had to ssh into it to shut it down. It looks as if the display/screen detection in the Intel X drivers is completely broken. The display is a Dell 2001Fp and is detected without any problems by the Fedora 8 system. How can I tell the Ubuntu systems X configuration all about my display without too much hassle? Is there any utility which will interrogate the display and spew out xorg.conf configuration parameters? -- Chris Green

3 4

Linux Job
by Tracy Dickerson 08 Oct '08

08 Oct '08

Hello, I have just been sent this link as it might be of interest to people here. http://eadt.jobs24.co.uk/doc.html?_a=view&ctx=list&id=247400 Hope it is of help to someone. Tx

1 0

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 9th Oct
by Richard Lewis 07 Oct '08

07 Oct '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Dear ALUG, The monthly second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on * Thursday 9th October * at The Reindeer (10 Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 4AY). It's very near the junction of Dereham Road and the Norwich inner ring road (Grapes Hill) and serves a selection of real ales, bar snacks, and hot drinks. Things normally start around 20:00 (though sometimes people are there earlier). New comers and old goers welcome! Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+ ----- Send discussion replies to main(a)lists.alug.org.uk (Reply-To set) Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce

1 0

Any ODBC experts here (connecting Access to mySql)
by Chris G 05 Oct '08

05 Oct '08

I managed something similar to this once before but now I can't make it work again. I want to export some Access database tables to mySql. I am trying to use ODBC. It's all installed and set up in my Windows machine (Vmware). In the "ODBC Data Source Administrator" the connection I have set up to the mySql database tests OK. However when I try to Export from my Access database I get a pop up box saying:- [MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver]User cancelled A Google search for this error doesn't reveal much of help. I've tried turning on the logging for the ODBC connection and I'm none the wiser really. What I can't really understand is that when I do the export it doesn't allow me to select the database to export to, how can it do an export of a table without knowing the database name? If I click on the Database pull-down in the export configuration it says "Loading database list not implemented for SQLDriverConnect()". Any ideas anyone? -- Chris Green

1 1

linux alternative to file shredder
by Barrys linux mail 04 Oct '08

04 Oct '08

Hi. As I am in the process of moving completely from xp to Ubuntu Linux I wondered if there is a Linux alternative for my windows file shredder software ( which will overwrite files several times to make them unrecoverable). as I have been stumped on replacing this program which I value greatly as a security item. Thanks Barry

7 12

What I actually bought
by Chris G 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Well after faffing around for 24hrs or so I've ordered a system in bits from Lambdatek. I decided to go for an Intel G45 based system which might be a little bit "too new" for safety but what the heck. It's an Asus P5Q-VM motherboard, core 2 quad processor, 8Gb RAM, 500Gb disk drive, £473 (incuding a few more bits I haven't listed). I *nearly* ordered from efficientpc.co.uk but in the end the above system just about beat them to it. -- Chris Green

1 0

Where to buy basic system unit for Linux? (Chris G)
by Peter Alcibiades 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

I used to use Komplett, who were brilliant, but how about Novatech as an alternative? Peter

2 1

Where to buy basic system unit for Linux?
by Chris G 03 Oct '08

03 Oct '08

Does anyone have recommendations for buying a reasonable base unit (i.e. no screen/keyboard/mouse/etc.) I think I'd prefer an 'all Intel' system as that's any easy way to be (fairly) sure it will all work in Linux (though I'm willing to listen to alternatives). I want something like - desktop/tower system, intel core two quad processor, 4Gb RAM (with space for more), 500Gb or thereabouts hard disk. My last system was a 'select the bits yourself' custom build from Komplett but they no longer exist. A company like them would be good. -- Chris Green

9 17

Linux PVR boxes
by Mark Rogers 01 Oct '08

01 Oct '08

Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of commercially available Linux PVRs, such as http://www.darkbox.co.uk http://www.dreambox.org.uk A customer asked me about them as his "Linux guru" (a title I really don't live up to!) and I'd not heard of either of them. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

4 12

Installing NX on a headless remote server
by Mark Rogers 30 Sep '08

30 Sep '08

Is there any reason why I should not be able to install NX (www.nomachine.com) on a remote server (to which I have root access)? If I try to install using dpkg and "apt-get -f install" to resolve dependencies I'm getting connection errors which I am pretty sure relate to there being no X server installed. What would be the minimum I need to do to get X installed so that this would work (assuming my guess is correct)? What I am trying to do is reach the point where I can connect to a box in a remote office and use (eg) Firefox on the box to view locally hosted web pages, although once I have remote access to a "desktop" there are other ways I could (ab)use that. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

3 8

non-empty DVD shows up empty.
by Torben Stones 29 Sep '08

29 Sep '08

I've got some pictures that I backed up to a DVD earlier this year. But now when I put it my computer to recover some of them it shows up as an empty DVD+R. I can see from the surface that it has been written to, but the computer just isn't seeing it. Is there any programs that I can use to try and recover what is on the disk? Any help would be greatfully recived. Thanks Torben -- You've got a lot of choices in your life. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.

2 2

books on perl
by robert johnson 28 Sep '08

28 Sep '08

I was wondering whether there was any books on Perl programming, more importantly making games using Perl.Thanks Robert

2 1

How-To: Dual-Boot Ubuntu Linux Desktop Along Side Windows XP
by Barrys linux mail 27 Sep '08

27 Sep '08

Hi Below is a link to a step by step guide of how to boot two hard drives Ubuntu/XP it may help somebody as it helped me Barry http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/2006/06/02/how-to-dual-boot-ubuntu-606-dapper-l…

1 0

National Archives: Open Doc Format Petition
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 26 Sep '08

26 Sep '08

Hi Folks (and sorry for any cross-posting you may experience), It looks as though the result of the e-petition may have been positive! (Or maybe it was already OK). See: http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page16957 Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Sep-08 Time: 17:30:46 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

Twiceler is making me paranoid
by Sagr 24 Sep '08

24 Sep '08

I have noticed an increasing number of visits from a web bot called Twiceler (ID String: Mozilla/5.0 Twiceler-0.9 http://www.cuil.com/twiceler/robot.html). It's initial visits seem to come from IP:208.36.144.6 but I have also noticed it appearing from IP:38.99.44.101 et al. I initialy thought it was a Hacker Bot as it seems to occasionaly cloak it's identity and claim to be the Google Bot. However the multiple IP address hopping and ID cloaking kind of became insignificant when my inbox started to become flooded with Hacker Alert emails from some of my PHP scripts who were reporting they were being probed with an assortment of invalid input parameters by this Bot. In short this Twiceler Bot appears to behave like a Hacker Bot deliberately designed to probe websites and scripts for vunerabbilities. However looking at it's website it gives the impression of complete innocence... What on earth is going on??? Have any other ALUGers found their website being checked for vunerabilities by Twiceler? Time for me to baracade the door and hide under the bed with tins of corned beef and bottled water??? Sagr.

2 1

Flash/Gnash!
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 24 Sep '08

24 Sep '08

Hi Folks, I want to install a standalone FlashPlayer on a Debian Etch 4.0 system (regularly updated), just as I once did in the increasingly distant past on a RedHat-9 system! I have the FlashPlayer plugin working nicely in Iceweasel, but I also want the standalone version. Adobe's FlashPlayer web-pages do not seem to have the standalone version for Linux available (the one page where it is alleged that it is available as part of a "developer" package has no content). Question 1: Can anyone point me to a site where it IS available? A possible alternative might be Gnash, the OSS development of a flash player. Having entered deb http://www.backports.org/debian etch-backports main (as recommended on a forum that came up on Google) into /etc/apt/sources.list, I can search for 'gnash' in the synaptic package manager and find a selection [A] of gnash and related packages. However, If I attempt to mark gnash for installation, I get [B] To be installed libcurl3-gnutls and is I then mark that for installation I get gnash: Depends: gnash-common but it is not going to be installed even though gnash-common was listed at [A] above. So I go back to the [A] listing, and mark gnash-common. I then get To be installed libcurl3-gnutls just as at [B]. And when I try to mark this again, I get: gnash-common: Depends: gnash-common but it is not going to be installed Depends: libboost-date-time1.33.1 but it is not installable Depends: libboost-thread1.33.1 but it is not installable Depends: base-files (>=4.0.1~) but 4 is to be installed So I'm right royally going round in circles. GNASH GNASH GNASH!!! Question 2: Can anyone suggest a way out of all this? Either a pukka Adobe standalone for Linux, or an escape from the Gnash labyrinth? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 24-Sep-08 Time: 17:14:51 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

[FTAGH] Atari 800XL + Mac IIsi
by Mark Ridley 23 Sep '08

23 Sep '08

Apologies for the non-Linux related mail, but I'm moving abroad and I just can't bring myself to throw these away. Mac IIsi, monitor, keyboard etc. Fully working. [ex-BT kit, give to me when I left] Atari 800XL, 1050 floppy drive, PC/SIO connector, a bit tatty but works. [my first computer, what a beauty!] Free! But you'll need to come get them from Norwich Road, Ipswich. Reply to me if interested, and we can a rrange a time. -Mark

1 0

[Fwd: Drive image advice required]
by Barrys linux mail 20 Sep '08

20 Sep '08

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [ALUG] Drive image advice required Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 21:25:10 +0100 From: Barrys linux mail <bazubuntumail(a)tiscali.co.uk> To: Anglia Linux group <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Hi. I need some guidance on copying a windows xp drive,copying the hole drive including the operating system to another hard drive(the original drive is on its last legs). Wow Thanks for the advice,what i think i will do is look at the drive copy software mentioned and also look at the one on www.easus.com/disk-copy and see if i can back it up to DVD. Then install Ubuntu on a new hard drive and see how i get on with it. It has worked fine on my laptop for over a year, but that has no cd/dvd burning facilities and the new desktop has. It is possible to connect two desktop boxes to one lcd monitor isn't it (by a double connector)? Would really like to move completely to Linux as Don't want Vista and fed up with Microsoft money grabbing new operating system launches to get us to buy more powerful systems.What next minimum Ram 50GB? Well i ain't a buyin Mr Gates (oops sorry you don't work there anymore!) Thanks again chaps (and ladies) Barry

4 5

Asterisk installers
by Mark Rogers 19 Sep '08

19 Sep '08

I'm interested in installing an Asterisk phone system, but it'll be in an environment that'll want someone who knows what they're doing to install and support it. Does anyone here have any knowledge of (and preferably recommendations) for companies who install Asterisk-based phone systems? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

1 0

Drive image advice required
by Barrys linux mail 19 Sep '08

19 Sep '08

Hi. I need some guidance on copying a windows xp drive,copying the hole drive including the operating system to another hard drive(the original drive is on its last legs). (1) does drive image software work ? as i thought for copyright reasons it was not possible to copy all of windows. (2) If it works does the receiving drive have to be the same size as the original drive. (3) what would happen if i put this new drive into another computer with a different processor and video card,will windows throw a wobbly? The reason for all these questions is i have the chance of a cheap second hand desktop computer with a hard drive that is getting very noisy, so i want to fit a new drive.I do not have the xp disks so i need to if possible copy windows onto the new drive.Then install ubuntu on the same drive as a dual boot(if i am right ubuntu will partition the drive as i require and do the dual boot settings.My own computer has a better version of xp (professional)on it but the processor and video card are different.Would like to put that on the new if possible. I really want to change fully to ubuntu but not sure if it will be happy with a games type video card which the previous owner had put in the computer. OR should i say what the heck and just put ubuntu on the new drive after running checks with the live disk? Barry

8 8

How to get around missing gstreamer.pc (pkg-config) file?
by Chris G 19 Sep '08

19 Sep '08

I'm trying to build gnome-alarm, when I run ./configure I get:- ... ... checking for GTK... yes checking for GNOME_VFS... yes checking for GCONF... yes checking for LIBGLADE... yes checking for GST... configure: error: Package requirements (gstreamer-0.10 >= 0.10.2) were not met: No package 'gstreamer-0.10' found Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you installed software in a non-standard prefix. Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GST_CFLAGS and GST_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config. See the pkg-config man page for more details. I *do* have gstreamer installed:- home# yum list gstreamer Installed Packages gstreamer.x86_64 0.10.15-1.fc8 installed gstreamer.i386 0.10.15-1.fc8 installed but it doesn't seem to come with a gstreamer.pc file. I have checked on another system which also has gstreamer installed (a different version) and that doesn't have gstreamer.pc either. So "adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable" isn't going to help me because there's no gstreamer.pc to be found. I don't really follow the other suggestion "you may set the environment variables GST_CFLAGS and GST_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config". I can't see any reference to GST_CFLAGS and GST_LIBS in the pkg-config manual page. Can anyone help? -- Chris Green

5 11

Zone file help wanted
by Chris G 18 Sep '08

18 Sep '08

Zone files always seem a bit of a black art to me so before I screw things up I thought I'd ask here. My domain isbd.net is hosted at gradwell.net and I can customise the zone file. The only change I have made is that I have added a CNAME entry for 'home' with a data value of 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net (note that this is a web form with columns for these values, it's not the actual raw zone file). This has been working fine for the past couple of years so I can access my home machine as home.isbd.net. The 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net is my EntaNet (via ukfsn) domain with a static IP. However 84-45-228-40.no-dns-yet.enta.net seems to have gone AWOL, the DNS name that is, not the actual connectivity to 84.45.228.40. I've contacted them and they don't really know why but the names are about to be changed so maybe something has happened ahead of time. Anyway I'd like to change things so that I can give the raw IP address for home.isbd.net rather than relying on Entanet's name for it, so my question is how do I do this? Do I need to add an A record instead of a CNAME, or do I need both, or what? I suspect that all I need to do is to delete the CNAME I have added and then add an A record for 'home' with data 84.45.228.40, is that right? -- Chris Green

2 4

Re: [ALUG] FoxGM carrier
by Wayne Stallwood 18 Sep '08

18 Sep '08

On Wed, 2008-09-17 at 14:59 +0200, Granville Paulse wrote: > Hi Wayne > > I've basically re-soldered the whole of J6 and J7. These are the files that > I am using: > > gprs-options: > /dev/ttyS2 > 9600 > defaultroute > user "" > connect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/gprs-connect" > disconnect "/usr/sbin/chat -v -f /etc/ppp/gprs-disconnect" > > gprs-disconnect: > ABORT 'BUSY' > ABORT 'ERROR' > ABORT 'NO DIALTONE' > TIMEOUT 30 > '' '+++\c' > SAY " + sending break" > 'NO CARRIER' 'ATH' > SAY "\n + dropping data connection" > OK 'AT+CGATT=0' > SAY "\n + disconnecting from GPRS" > OK '\c' > SAY "\n + disconnected." > > gprs-connect: > TIMEOUT 60 > ABORT 'BUSY' > ABORT 'ERROR' > ABORT 'NO CARRIER' > '' 'AT' > OK AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","Unrestricted","0.0.0.0",0,0 > OK ATD*99***1# > CONNECT '' > > ppp-start: > /usr/sbin/pppd file /etc/ppp/gprs-options > > pap-secrets: > '' * '' * > > In gprs-options, it mentions ttyS2 but there is no mention of ttyS3. Is this > ok. I am using pppd 2.4.2b3. Is this ok? Are you using a different version? > What does your connection script look like? That looks pretty ok to me from a quick glance, ttyS3 is only used if you have the gps/gprs module for the GPS bit..I actually have ttyS3 tagged off board as I need the serial port for something else. My fox is currently not with me but I will take a look at my backup of my scripts later and tell you if there is any obvious difference. The only other test I can think of is to compile some sort of teminal emulation command line app for the fox and then try and talk to ttyS2 direct and see if the modem is responding..I suspect not as I can't think of any other reason ppp would fail like that. The only other thing I can think of is that the telit module isn't connecting properly via that multiway connector on the bottom (but obviously well enough that the power, status and start pins are connecting) either that or you have a faulty foxGM board but as I say the traces are pretty much straight though so I can't see what would be wrong. What sdk/firmware image are you using..I am on the phrozen one

1 1

Scripting a crontab re-read
by Mark Rogers 18 Sep '08

18 Sep '08

Does anyone have any idea how to force cron to reload its user-based crontabs? I have a setup script for a system which does a lot of things, amongst them copying a crontab into /var/spool/cron/crontabs and settings its permissions, however cron ignores it until I crontab -e and make a change (eg add and delete something) and save it. Restarting cron or even the box is not sufficient to make it reload. I discovered that the mtime of the crontabs folder is relevant, but "touch"ing it hasn't solved the problem. (System is Ubuntu 8.04 server.) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

2 2

Help with gnome desktop icon please!
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Hi Folks, On my (debian Etch) Gnome desktop there are some icons, one of which is named "ted's Home". When I double-click on this, up comes a window which displays the contents of /home/ted So far so good ... One of the directories in /home/ted is Downloads, i.e. /home/ted/Downloads I want to put an icon on the desktop such that double clicking on this will open /home/ted/Downloads and display its contents (rather than having to double click on "ted's Home" and then double click on "Downloads"). I can NOT suss out how to do this!!! Help please! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 17-Sep-08 Time: 20:00:41 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 2

Free Text Terminal
by Steve Fosdick 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Further to my last message, an HP 700/92 text terminal availbale to anyone who will collect. This is one of the models that understands both the HP proprietry escape codes and the DEC/ANSI codes. Uses a non- PS2 keyboard (supplied, not pictured). Has 25 pin D connection for connection to host and a printer port. More details: http://pelvoux.gotadsl.co.uk/freecycle/index.html Steve.

1 0

Free Stuff (computer desk, Monitor, PC)
by Steve Fosdick 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Free to anyone prepared to collect: A PC desk, Width 762mm, Depth 755mm, Height 710mm A 17" monitor (1280x1024@60Hz or 1024x768@85Hz) An AMD K6 PC More details here: http://pelvoux.gotadsl.co.uk/freecycle/index.html

1 0

Self-hosted DDNS
by Mark Rogers 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Are there any free (preferably as in speech) dynamic DNS packages, to provide services similar to those offered by DynDNS? Just to be clear, I'm not looking for something like ddclient (which connects to services like DynDNS), I want to set up my own DNS server which can be updated by those types of clients. (The application is industrial hardware we're supplying as part of other solutions which will often be set up with Internet access, often with dynamic IP, and we want to keep track of them.) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

2 3

Looking for an alarm/reminder program for Gnome (or X)
by Chris G 17 Sep '08

17 Sep '08

Having decided that there's no application out there that can manage both my calendar/time management *and* my reminder/alarm requirements I've decided to look for a dedicated alarm program. My requirements are:- Must run in the background or be driven by cron so that alarms will appear regardless of what I'm doing (I will be running an X desktop but that's the only guaranteed thing, actually not quite, Firefox is always running too). When an event is due I want to be able to pop up daily reminders from a specified number of days before the event and to be able to stop them when I have 'done' what is required. I'd like the pop-up (flag, whatever) to be permanent until I acknowledge it, something like an icon in the Gnome Panel would be OK. Events need to be specified by date, time of day is unlikely to be significant. For most things a yearly repeat would be fine (e.g. a 'birthday' type reminder), I also have several which are quaterly but I'm prepared to deal with them by setting up four annual reminders if necessary. Kalarm seems to fulfil most of my criteria - any other ideas? Is there something more 'Gnome friendly' or generic maybe? A PIM or groupware application which can do this might be of interest but I will *not* be running it all the time so note the first criterion above. -- Chris Green

3 8

Text munging tool...
by Ruth Bygrave 16 Sep '08

16 Sep '08

The Mac, and other Unix systems, have fairly good text-munging things for mapping typos to corrected words etc. I use TypeIt4Me for on-the- fly corrections of mistakes I make all the time. I'm having a go at OCRing a book that fell apart: what's the best 'black box' for regex text munging (i.e. pour file in, get corrected file out?) for patterns that turn up again and again? Obvious examples from the book include: digits in whitespace between lower-case alpha characters (meaning page numbers); the string 'ddThe' (goodness knows how this happens, but it seems to be a scanning error for ". The"); lower-case letters with a spurious line- break between them; and so on. These are obvious simple regexes without false positives. Do I: 1) Try to use sed? 2) use something someone has already written in perl or python? or 3) try to write something in applescript? (posted to Alug because it's much more of a Unix question than a Mac- specific question) Regards, Ruth

4 4

Debian 3.1
by CDW (Linux) 15 Sep '08

15 Sep '08

My son has picked up a Sun Sparc workstation which has Debian 3.1 on it. It was from a freecycle mail list but the preson donating it was a bit clueless - he said he worked for an Apple Store but the iMac he was also trying to make work, didn't. That was due to a blank boot CD and a dead hard drive. The Sun works and gets to a login prompt but that's the problem, no userids or passwords as you might expect. As my son doesn't have broadband and so can't easily download a full CD, is there an easy way to recover the machine, perhaps by blowing away a file containing the afore-mentioned userids? If so, what can I do to help him? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .-----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |_______________________________________________|

3 2

Re: [ALUG] How's the EEE-PC keyboard - does anyone here have one?
by Bev Nicolson 14 Sep '08

14 Sep '08

Bamboozled and Confused, I wouldn't worry about it. regards mostly harmless. Bev. > > On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 08:17:21PM +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > > > > Micro Mart also ran a comparison article in this week's edition. They > > > > > concluded that the Elonex WebBook was "best value". Apparently > > > > > CarPhone > > > > > Warehouse sell a version with ubuntu loaded. > > > > > > Huh! Last time I spoke to Carphone Warehouse (asking about > > > > Linux-compatible broadband dongles, no-one in the dhop had even heard of > > > > Linux... > > > > > > Someone needs to tell PC World that as they're running an ad that > > > compares their notebook with the one Carphone Warehouse are offering > > > and making it sound (to me) like Linux is a bad thing... > > > Bev. > I'm confused! > > How d'ye do, Confused: I'm pleased to meet you. I'm bamboozled. > > But, I keep a special bargepole with which not to touch PC World. I've > got another one now for not touching CarPhone Warehouse. > > <OT> Did you hear about the dyslexic pimp? > > He bought a warehouse... > > </OT> > > -- > Tony > http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/ > > _______________________________________________ > 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! > -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

2 1

Alug Library
by Wayne Stallwood 14 Sep '08

14 Sep '08

As most of you know I have been the ALUG Librarian now for some time. However as of sometime around Christmas/Early next year I will be moving to a house with one less bedroom and I think I may run into problems storing the books, Also the house I am moving to is likely to be a building site for some time and really the less things I have around the easier life will be. Therefore this is a call for a new librarian to stand up or for us to discuss the future of the library. I am completely happy to continue to host and maintain the online library catalogue..it is only the actual storage of the books that might present a problem. This might actually also make more sense if someone who attends the meetings more regularly than me took over. Also this might be a good time to discuss the future of the library, at the moment and since I took over it is almost completely inactive. Part of this is I think due to the logistics of the books being in Bury St Edmunds in the possession of a member who rarely attends meets but mostly I think because the collection is quite out of date. The O'Reilly group membership has been processed and we have received exactly one book. To receive more free we really need to get something up to promote the books (or at least review them on our site) or actually request specific books and see what happens. There is also a group discount for members who want to purchase books, but I have not had time to figure out the logistics of this. These bits would require more time than I currently have whilst amongst house clearing/renovation to get set up but would hopefully result in a selection of up to date books for the library. Another option is to prune the existing collection somewhat to a size where it is more manageable for a member to take over (or perhaps even for me to continue to manage) and then for me or someone else to take steps to get some book donations to replace the purged books with more recent/more interesting books. Alternatively with minimal effort on my part the online library can support a distributed library where members share responsibility for storing the books and the loan is "permanent" until a member leaves or someone else wants to borrow it. The site can then mail the relevant person for each book to tell them that someone else wants to borrow it etc. Your collective thoughts and/or offers to store the library as it stands would be appreciated.

2 1

Re: [ALUG] How's the EEE-PC keyboard - does anyone here have one?
by Bev Nicolson 13 Sep '08

13 Sep '08

Someone needs to tell PC World that as they're running an ad that compares their notebook with the one Carphone Warehouse are offering and making it sound (to me) like Linux is a bad thing... Bev. > > Micro Mart also ran a comparison article in this week's edition. They > > concluded that the Elonex WebBook was "best value". Apparently CarPhone > > Warehouse sell a version with ubuntu loaded. > > Huh! Last time I spoke to Carphone Warehouse (asking about > Linux-compatible broadband dongles, no-one in the dhop had even heard of > Linux... -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

3 2

How's the EEE-PC keyboard - does anyone here have one?
by Chris G 13 Sep '08

13 Sep '08

My wife's laptop has just expired (or at least XP on it has started BSOD'ing, needs a re-install at the very least) so she's looking for a replacement. She doesn't *really* need a full-blown laptop and size and weight are important because she does have to lug it around with her quite a lot so the EEE PC might be a good choice. However she needs to be able to touch type on it, does anyone here have an EEE PC? Is the keyboard OK? Is the 'bigger' EEE PC keyboard better? Any other suggestions? -- Chris Green

7 7

Linux PIMs and synchronisation
by Chris G 13 Sep '08

13 Sep '08

I have recently bought a Nokia E71 smartphone, mainly for its full keyboard and built in GPS, I'm looking for ways to connect it to my Linux box. Getting the data across isn't actually too difficult, I have it working with Funambol already but my problem is that there doesn't seem to be a simple and straightforward desktop (or web) application that lets me access (and edit) my contacts and calendar. It *feels* like Linux is going the Windows way of humungeous applications that do everything. There are lots of "groupware" applications that will talk to Funambol but they're all huge with web site maintenance, E-Mail and lots of other things that I most definitely don't want (as part of my PIM anyway). There seem to be no simple desktop PIMs that will talk to Funambol. The nearest things to what I want are Evolution (which needs some faffing about to get it to work, it's not "out of the box) and the Mozilla Sunbird and Lightning calendars (but what do I do about contacts?). The demo application that comes with Funambol just about works but it is a *bit* clunky, however it's about the nearest to what I want. Does anyone have any better suggestions for this whole thing? As it is it seems to me that Funambol is a bit OTT, there's about 200Mb of it! All I really want is a PIM that will talk SyncMl direct to my Nokia, I don't really need a server (Funambol) that allows me to synchronise with Outlook, Groupware systems, and everything else as well as my Nokia. -- Chris Green

2 4

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : McGintys, Northgate Street
by samwise 12 Sep '08

12 Sep '08

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 15th September) 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://pjmcginty.moonfruit.com/ McGintys pub is in the centre of Ipswich, not far from our old haunt - The Milestone. It's directly opposite the town's central library and has a reputation for good Irish beer. All are welcome, novices and experienced users. Hopefully, it shouldn't be too hard to find the pack, look for those huddled around a laptop! Feel free to ask for further information on the Main ALUG mailing list. Hope to see 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

1 0

Reindeer
by Richard Lewis 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

Anthony, have you been there? Or just heard? I went home via the Reindeer on Friday (5/9). The lights were on, but the door was shut and there was a crude notice saying something like closed until further notice. I'll try and have another look tonight. And then post an announcement a.s.a.p. regarding Thursday's meeting. We met at the Alexandra Tavern last month. It was nice, but may be a bit out of the way. City centre pubs are probably better. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+

5 7

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 11th Sep
by Richard Lewis 11 Sep '08

11 Sep '08

ALUG Announce Please send announcements to Announce(a)lists.alug.org.uk Unsub, change settings via http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/announce ----- Dear ALUG, The monthly second Thursday social meeting of ALUG will take place on * Thursday 11th September * at The Reindeer (10 Dereham Road, Norwich, NR2 4AY) which has now re-opened! I took a short detour on my way home last night to have a look. The door was open, the lights were on, there was someone at the bar, and I saw a man sitting at the window with a pint of beer. Therefore I'm confident that we'll arrive on Thursday to find an open pub. I intend to be there from about 20:00. Others may be there earlier. On a personal note, I'm moving to London soon and this is likely to be my last pub meet for a while. :'( We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.| |http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html | +-------------------------------------------------------+ ----- 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

4 3

What's happened to GnomeFiles?
by Torben Stones 09 Sep '08

09 Sep '08

Is it just my connection at work or has something happened to www.gnomefiles.org? When I type that address I get sent to www.osnews.com. Does anyone know what has happened? Torben -- You've got a lot of choices in your life. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you're not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.

2 2

Calendar/contacts list recommendations wanted
by Chris G 09 Sep '08

09 Sep '08

I'm looking for a simple Calendar and Contacts list for Gnome (doesn't have to be a Gnome application really, I run fvwm) which can do syncMl synchronisation. There are a couple of full-blown productivity suites that do what I want but they're too big really, I don't want E-Mail and/or groupware. Any suggestions? I have looked using Google and on freshmeat.net but can't really find a *simple* utility. The best so far seem to be:- eGroupWare - PHP/web based, does *way* more than I need Simple Groupware - similar to eGroupWare ScheduleWorld - closer to what I want but seems to expect me to use their server I don't actually need a web based solution but it's OK if it is web based. I'd rather like command line access to the addresses at least so I can get E-Mail addresses into mutt. (I guess if it's mySql based it would be easy enough to write a script to do this) -- Chris Green

3 2

2 laptops, 2 wireless LAN I/Fs, and ... ?
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 08 Sep '08

08 Sep '08

Hi Folks, Given two laptops, each equipped with a wireless LAN interface, it seems to me that each should be able to find the other on a "point-to-point" basis (i.e. wireless equivalent of a CAT cable), without the need for each to connect to a wireless hub. But I'm not seeing how to achieve this! With both I/Fs switched on, neither seems to be aware of the other (when I start up a connection setup "wizard", and ask it to search for a network, though capable of detecting my next-door neghbour's BT Home Hub). Any suggestions? (And I have no experience whatever of using wireless networking, so keep it gentle ... )! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 08-Sep-08 Time: 13:34:45 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 2

Can anyone help?
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 06 Sep '08

06 Sep '08

Hi Folks, Machine: Advent 8117 laptop Problem: While lifting up the keyboard to access the second RAM slot to install more RAM, I accidentally popped off two of the keys (adjacent). They are: (a) "Prt Sc"/"SysRq" (b) "Pause"/"Break" I'm not anticipating problems popping them back on again, but I can't remember which way round they should go! The top row of keys is: Esc F1 F2 F3 ... F11 F12 XXX YYY NumLock ScrollLock and one of XXX or YYY is (a) above, the other is (b). Does anyone know which way round it should be? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Sep-08 Time: 16:12:33 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

5 5

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

main