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Hardware Issues (Display / X11 and Mouse)
by Jan T. Kim 26 May '08

26 May '08

Hi All, I've got two issues mainly concerning hardware: (1) I've recently bought an Asus W202S display (1680x1050) and connected that to my laptop (Asus X51, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics, running the closed-source ATI X server). Things basically work, but it takes some sort of "warm-up time" before the picture stably settles in -- initially, areas with a checkerboard raster (e.g. scroll bars of xterm and other Athena GUI applications, also the default meshwork pattern shown by X11 upon startup) are quite blurred. I can fix this by adjusting the "Phase" setting in the display's on-screen menu system, but the phase will drift, resulting in gradual build-up of blur, and it stabilises only after 20 minutes or so. I wonder whether there might be some Modeline hack or similar to generate a video signal that the display can lock on to reliably, regardless of some drift. In text (console) mode the display doesn't work ideally either, the display "sees" 1024 x 768 while the laptop's display shows 1280 x 800 (and presumably also sends that through the external monitor interface), so some amount of stuff is cut away from the margins. I've tried everything with the on-screen menus of the display (there isn't very much), to no avail -- so is there anything on the Linux side of this that I could try? (2) On a completely different topic, I have an optical mouse which seems to have a sensor problem, the mouse pointer is jumping and dancing wildly, with some trend (towards the lower left, I think). Some mice I had used to do something similar when slightly lifted from the surface. Is there any more or less known fix for such malfunctions? Best regards & thanks in advance for any comments, Jan -- +- Jan T. Kim -------------------------------------------------------+ | email: jtk(a)cmp.uea.ac.uk | | WWW: http://www.cmp.uea.ac.uk/people/jtk | *-----=< hierarchical systems are for files, not for humans >=-----*

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Kubuntu 7.04 updates make firefox crash
by Srdjan Todorovic 24 May '08

24 May '08

Hi, Got this annoying issue. If I do any kind of updates on this Kubuntu 7.04 box, using Adept Manager, and then start firefox, it crashes with a segfault. The dump isn't very informative, the only reference seems to be something to do with a syscall AFAIR. I put a bugreport on launchpad ages ago about it but it has been closed [in part due to my stupidness]. Essentially the advice was "reboot computer after an update". This seems silly and very Windows-y. Firefox segfaults even on updates that would have nothing to do with any component firefox uses or depends on. Firefox crashes invariably after any adept update. Have not tried using plain apt-get on command line. This machine ran memtest for 15 hours, no problems. CPU model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz RAM: 2GB lspci: 00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 I/O APIC Interrupt Controller 00:00.6 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Security Device 00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 Host Bridge 00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge 00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller 00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. P4M890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller 00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80) 00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07) 00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0) 00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge 00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8251 Ultra VLINK Controller 00:13.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge 00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GT] (rev a1) 04:05.0 Ethernet controller: ADMtek NC100 Network Everywhere Fast Ethernet 10/100 (rev 11) 04:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8169SC Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10) 80:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA High Definition Audio Controller (rev 10) Linux ubuntu 2.6.20-16-generic #2 SMP Tue Feb 12 05:41:34 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux Any suggestions? Thanks, -Srdjan

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Server to server backups
by Mark Rogers 24 May '08

24 May '08

If I have two (virtual) servers online (ie out in the real world, not on my LAN or behind ADSL connections) and I want one to be used to backup the other, what method would anyone suggest? I'm thinking of data backups rather than disk images. I'd like (a) to have rolling backups so I can roll back to before any specific **** up, (b) to have a sensible way to backup MySQL databases I can't think of any other specific requirements. Bandwidth between the two servers isn't a major issue but not something I want to ignore completely. Similarly disk space isn't a problem, but wasting it by having multiple copies of unchanged files would still be a bit silly. On the other hand, both servers will have public IPs and therefore I need to consider the security implications of opening up the live server so that the backup server can access it, and (to a lesser extent) vice versa. -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Cheap server machine spotted
by Chris G 23 May '08

23 May '08

If anyone is looking for a cheap server machine to stick in a cupboard somewhere the HP ProLiant ML115 is being offered at knock down prices at the moment for some reason. The cheapest I could find with a quick search is:- http://www.kikatek.com/product_info.php?products_id=40254&source=froogle £105 for a machine with 1Gb memory, 160Gb hard disk, gigabit ethernet and space for expansion seems pretty good to me. -- Chris Green

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cheap desktops - with ubuntu?
by James Freer 22 May '08

22 May '08

As my desktop video card seems to be 'ill' - i thought i'd take a look at current prices of desktops. Looking on ebuyer i was surprised how cheap they were - #144828. For just a plain desktop i was wondering if they were worth considering? http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144979 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144828 Alternatively [as i have a couple of cases] what would folk recommend for a ubuntu motherboard & cpu -- after all there are 000's. thanks james

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[Somewhat OT] a Google question
by Chris G 21 May '08

21 May '08

Has anyone else been annoyed/frustrated by Google asking "Did you mean: " and then, whether you like it or not, searching for what it thinks you meant rather than what you actually typed? I'm sure it didn't used to do this, it quite reasonably asked the "Did you mean: " but then actually searched for what you entered. -- Chris Green

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Do I need anti-virus & spyware with Xubuntu desktop?
by paul 21 May '08

21 May '08

Hi all I'm using Xubuntu as a desktop for web surfing and emails etc. I'm connected to the Net with a wired router (with hardware firewall) and using FireStarter software firewall. Should I be using anti-virus & spyware for Linux as well? The comp is dual booting machine with XP Pro with AVG and Zonealarm. It's a P4 2GHz 512mb RAM with onboard graphics so could handle some realtime monitoring without harming performance. Cheers Paul --------------------------------- Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email.

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Re: [ALUG] MythTV - recording TV
by James Elsey 20 May '08

20 May '08

Hi James, 2008/5/20 James Elsey <james.elsey(a)serengeti-systems.com>: > Has anyone setup MythTV to record TV shows? I've been using Myth for the past 4 or 5 years with version of Linux and a few different cards. I've used the Nova-T cards for recording from freeview. They were good because they output into an MPEG2 stream directly (using hardware encoding) and therefore I could use a less powerful PC for my TV box. Myth also pulls the program guide from them directly so you don't even need a 'net connection but if you don't do that it will use XMLTV to pull listings from RadioTimes. Is it possible to not record the advert breaks, or even to record multiple simultaneous channels? I'm currently using a Hauppauge PVR-150 to record from my cable box (s-video) to MPEG2 (using hardware encoding) and I've previously used a normal TV card with the software encoding. I've used Mini-ITX boards with hardware based MPEG2 decoding to get even lower CPU usage but none of that is necessary. How much am I likely to pay for a freeview TV card? If you have good freeview signal I'd recommend getting a Nova-T card (maybe one of the dual encoder versions so you can record two channels at once. The Myth wiki and the dvb linuxtv.org website are the best sources of information on compatible cards. Ah, one slight problem, I don't particulary get a good signal in my area, sometimes its ok, but for it to work I'd need to hook it up to a larger area that my TV uses, is that possible? In general, my PCs seem to suffer most from the database load (although I am using low power machines) and the commercial detection has varied in quality over the years. I suspect it's best at US TV :-) What sort of size would a 1 hour TV show take on disc? I'm guessing this could in turn be run thru a converter to reduce the filesize? Thanks

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Re: [ALUG] MythTV - recording TV
by Mark Ridley 20 May '08

20 May '08

On Tue, 20 May, 2008 11:20 am, James Elsey wrote: > Has anyone setup MythTV to record TV shows? > > I've been experimenting with MythTV for a few weeks with various media > formats, but I'm quite intrigued to see how TV recording works. > > Most of the tutorials I've found are based on US TV, apart from myth, are > there any other apps that are good for recording from TV / Freeview? > > If anyone has this setup, can you let me know what TV card/apps are best? I have a Myth setup, originally I used Fedora and installed by hand, but recently tried MythBuntu, wow! I didn't really have to do anything but wait for it to install, it detected my hardware and configured it automatically. As for channels, I answered all the questions from the installer, and it just worked. I have two cards, I use a Nova-T PCI for terrestrial TV, and a Nova-S for satellite, although I have not set this one up yet. As a side note, the MythGames plugin works a treat with sdlmame, and I have an X-Arcade dual joystick, which makes 42" Defender heavenly! :) Cheers. -Mark ----------------------------------------------------------- This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information. This information is intended to be read only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are on notice that any review, disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete or destroy any copy of this message.

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Re: [ALUG] [ubuntu] /home backups
by James Freer 20 May '08

20 May '08

Keith Zak provides me with rabbit and hare in quantity - wouldn't fit in a hot dog. james 2008/5/20 <keith.jamieson(a)bt.com>: > James > > ahhh ... nice doggy ... ARGHHHHHHH > > And you cant outrun these ! > > ... fills the hot dog buns nicely though ;) > > > > Keith > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: James Freer [mailto:jessejazza@googlemail.com] > Sent: Mon 19/05/2008 11:04 PM > To: Keith > Subject: Re: [ALUG] [ubuntu] /home backups > > > > 2008/5/19 <keith.jamieson(a)bt.com>: >>>2008/5/19 Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk>: >>>> On Mon, 2008-05-19 at 16:34 +0100, James Elsey wrote: >>>> >>>> BTW anyone now thinking of breaking into my shed to get a 500GB drive >>>> full of music and videos and all my email...I have to warn you I have >>>> guard cats ! >>> >>>I better pop round with my Greyhound and Lurcher! >>>"Guard cats" may last a second. >> >> lol ... lion, tiger ? Cheater ;) >> >> I was after one of these, it keeps the door-to-door sellers away ! >> >> Keith >> > > Zak also provides some keep! > http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l59/jessejazza/suzie/?action=view&current… > http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l59/jessejazza/suzie/?action=view&current… > > james > > >

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MythTV - recording TV
by James Elsey 20 May '08

20 May '08

Has anyone setup MythTV to record TV shows? I've been experimenting with MythTV for a few weeks with various media formats, but I'm quite intrigued to see how TV recording works. Most of the tutorials I've found are based on US TV, apart from myth, are there any other apps that are good for recording from TV / Freeview? If anyone has this setup, can you let me know what TV card/apps are best? Regards James Elsey Junior Developer Serengeti Systems Limited Serengeti House Kersey Maltings Kersey, Ipswich IP7 6DP Company registered in England & Wales Registration No: 3578108 T: 01473 825 002 D: 01473 825 013 M: 07841 343 879 Skype: james.elsey1 E: James.Elsey(a)serengeti-systems.com URL: www.serengeti-systems.com <http://www.serengeti-systems.com/>

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Re: [ALUG] [ubuntu] /home backups
by James Elsey 19 May '08

19 May '08

>>Depends on your back-up frequency, I find once a month serves me fine >>and once you've set the partitions up, that's it. > - buy a USB drive (50 quid will get you 350-500G) and backup >>Actually a very good point and an option I'd been seriously considering >>(not only for back-ups). The price of HD storage is silly these days so >>back up to optical media is a bit illogical. I have always been concerned of hard disks malfunctioning (too many bad experiences in my early days. And if the PC catches fire, then that other logical drive really isn't much of a good backup :P > to that.(Hell, if you are really skint and live close enough > to Long Stratton to pick it up I'll /give/ you an 80Gig USB drive) > >>There you go James, one can't say fairer than that!! :o) I'd be very grateful! :D > - use rsync to backup to a remote system (I backup hourly to > a separate networked system) > > Mick >>Yes, looked at rsync, nice utility but hourly would probably be to >>frequent for me. Daily would be good. Keith ________________________________ IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail, and each of any attachments transmitted with it, is confidential, is the property of Kewill Systems plc ("Kewill"), and is intended solely for the information of the individual/entity to whom this e-mail is addressed. It may also be privileged or protected by other legal rules. If you have received it by mistake, please notify the author immediately by replying to this e-mail and then destroy/delete this e-mail and all attachments (if any). If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, copy, print, or rely on this e-mail. In accordance with Kewill's internal policy e-mails sent and/or received may be monitored. Whilst Kewill takes reasonable precautions (including use of anti-virus software) it accepts no responsibility for any loss or damage should this e-mail contain any virus, or similar destructive or mischievous code. C Kewill Systems plc 2007. Kewill Systems plc (1037515) - registered in England at Bramley House, The Guildway, Old Portsmouth Road, Artington, Guildford, GU3 1LR.

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[ubuntu] /home backups
by James Elsey 19 May '08

19 May '08

Hi Can anyone suggest a good backup procedure whereby I can backup all my photos/mp3s/videos etc under /home? I could back them up to a separate drive, but I only have old hard disks (10gbs) and don't really trust them. I'd like to backup onto DVD but my /home is around 80gb Are there any good compression tools that can compress image files for backup? I'm on ubuntu 8.04 Thanks James Elsey

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Firefox / Ubuntu Greyscale Weirdness
by Martin Collins 16 May '08

16 May '08

Hi, is anyone experiencing the same weird greyscale issue as I am? I don't know if it's Firefox 3.0b5 or Ubuntu 8.04 or Gnome 2.22.1 or Xorg or even my Nvidia drivers that are responsible, but whilst using Firefox it will momentarily (few seconds) lock-up and the Firefox window will turn greyscale (similar to when you click on System -> Quit). It is just the Firefox window because you can bring other still coloured windows to the front and then back again and Firefox is still greyscale? The greyscale will revert back to colour after two or three seconds, will unlock and will then be usable again. It's not a big problem but particularly weird and something I have never experienced before. I am starting to think that this might be a "feature"? I have googled around a bit and can find nothing much - I think I'm alone on this one!! Thanks all. Rgds, Martin

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OU software compatibility
by Bev Nicolson 16 May '08

16 May '08

I'm about to start another OU course and have been sent a CD ROM which has some course info on it. I know some of you have studied with the OU before so I wondered if you knew what software they use for the video clips? I tried asking computing support but 'they don't support Linux...' <sigh.> (The plan was to find out then ask you lot about it.) Thanks. Bev. -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

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Applet or dock app for birthdays/anniversaries wanted
by Chris G 15 May '08

15 May '08

I'm looking for a minimalist application that will display a list of upcoming events (e.g. birthdays, anniversaries, todos) in as compact a fashion as possible so I can park it permanently on my dekstop. I have found a couple of rather old applications that do something like what I'm after but one (wmbday) is a dock application (and I don't have a dock). The other (cstermin) is OK'ish but it's written in perl which is not my preferred language if I want to modify it. Here are some screenshots of the two of them to show the sort of thing I'm after:- http://buzzinhornetz.ath.cx/wmbday/screenshot.php http://cstermin.sourceforge.net/ Can anyone suggest anything more recent which can do the above sort of thing and/or some sort of development framework or libraries that would make writing such a thing easy? Ideally I'd like the data to be in iCalendar format but that's not vital really. -- Chris Green

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cron problem, probably something to do with quoting, how to diagnose?
by Chris G 14 May '08

14 May '08

I have a couple of backups that run overnight which use rdiff-backup to send files to a remote system. The crontab (as shown by 'crontab -l') entry is as follows:- 25 03 * * * rdiff-backup --remote-schema 'ssh -C %s /home/isbd/bin/rdiff-backup --server' isbd(a)shell.gradwell.net::. /rdiffBackup/gradwell If I run the rdiff-backup from the command line (copy and paste the above excluding the '25 03 * * * ' then it runs perfectly without errors. However the cron job is failing and sending me the following mail:- /bin/sh: -c: line 0: unexpected EOF while looking for matching `'' /bin/sh: -c: line 1: syntax error: unexpected end of file So what's going wrong? It's almost as if the line is too long for cron but it's not *that* long. I have checked thoroughly that it really *is* one line. How can I diagnose what's going wrong? Other entries in the same crontab are working OK. -- Chris Green

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Silly regular expressions!
by Mark Rogers 14 May '08

14 May '08

I have some legacy code which uses "[[:punct:]]+" in a regular expression replace (using PHP's ereg_replace) to remove all punctuation chars. Eg: ereg_replace('[[:punct:]]+', 'test1-2,3.4:5', '') returns 'test12345' What I want to do is remove all punctuation except "-", ie to get the result "test1-2345". I can't currently think of a regex that will do it, other than [^\.,:]+ where I list all punctuation except - between the square brackets, but that would be a nightmare to create and maintain. Is there a way to invert [:punct:] somehow so that [^-[:inverted-punct:]]+ would work? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Alsa Gain levels
by Wayne Stallwood 13 May '08

13 May '08

Is it just me or is ALSA a little bit pessimistic about maximum gain levels for inputs and outputs. Of a sample of 3 machines (old desktop with a SB Audigy, New desktop with Intel HDA and my Fuji laptop) none of them seem capable of getting the volume out of their speakers that they were capable of in Windows. Also I am having trouble getting any of them to work with a selection of passive (and in one case a USB) microphone at anything like the input gain I need to use them with things such as skype. Is there any way to tweak the input/output gain of my soundcard beyond the limits of the mixer sliders in alsamixer ? My USB Mic is a particular problem as I can just about live with the maximum output volume. But the USB mic is part of a USB camera and with the gain at maximum I can just about be heard with everything set to max if I speak directly into the mic/camera but with it mounted where it needs to be on top of my screen I am barely audible unless I shout. Not that I think it is device specific as it seems to affect even the analogue microphone inputs but my webcam/mic combo is ID 0c45:62c0 Microdia

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Silly sudoer: Lost fstab - help!
by Mark Rogers 12 May '08

12 May '08

I just carelessly overwrote my /etc/fstab file with the following: echo /dev/md0 /storage ext3 defaults 0 1 | sudo tee /etc/fstab .. when I meant: echo /dev/md0 /storage ext3 defaults 0 1 | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab (-a means append) Any suggestions for recovery? This is a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.04 Server, so worst case I will have to reinstall the O/S but I'd like to recover if possible, not least so I know how to do it next time I am silly! [Feeling very foolish right now...] -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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How to get rid of the dreaded "Stale NFS File Handle"
by Chris G 09 May '08

09 May '08

If my 'NAS' system in the garage gets powered down and then up again the NFS mounted directories on my desktop system (not surprisingly) stop working and give the message "Stale NFS File Handle". The problem isn't so much the error but how to get rid of it. I.e. how do I tell my desktop system to throw away the old NFS connections it had to the system in the garage and start again? I just tried:- umount --force /nas/backup mount /nas/backup and it just says "mount.nfs: Stale NFS file handle". What's "left behind" in the client system that causes this? It can't be at the garage end because that has powered down and rebooted. There must surely be *something* I can remove or kill to get rid of all memory of the old NFS connection in the client. -- Chris Green

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mencoder and AVI options
by Mark Rogers 08 May '08

08 May '08

I have a .MOV (Quicktime) file I want to convert to an AVI, because I need to read it into some software which only handles AVI files. The movie is only a few seconds, and monochrome without sound, and at present is 1MB in size. I'm not too worried about filesize, although if I convert to a raw (uncompressed) video file it comes out to about 350MB, which isn't good. So far, I have found: mencoder -ovc xvid -xvidencopts fixed_quant=4 test.mov -o test.avi .. to be pretty good. Now, what I'm trying to achieve is to get the file into a format which (a) is as close as possible to the original (ie little loss of quality, not that the original is high quality anyway), and (b) likely to work on a different PC (Linux or Windows) with minimal codec issues. Are there any "standard" video formats I can rely on? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Backup solutions wanted
by Chris G 07 May '08

07 May '08

I currently use a mix of rsync and rdiff-backup to backup my home system. The basic backup is an rdiff-backup of all of /home to the NAS server in the garage. *However* (and it's a big however) this has one huge hole in it, rdiff-backup does *not* copy the 'contents' of symbolic links. All it does (if you tell it to) is to copy the symbolic link leaving it on the resulting backup as a symbolic link which points at nothing. This is all very well if you live in a perfect world where all of your system resides in one neat partition etc. but my home directory has symbolic links to old (and not so old) data on other filesystems and partitions. Thus rdiff-backup doesn't back these up. I'm looking around for something like rdiff-backup that does incremental backups but *also* copies *everything* that is part of /home/chris whether it's via a symbolic link or not. Can anyone recommend anything? -- Chris Green

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 8th May
by Richard Lewis 07 May '08

07 May '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 8th May * 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. I intend to be there from about 20:00. Others may be there earlier. We should have a table reserved at the back of the pub just to the left of the bar. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |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

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upgrading to 8.04lts
by Barrys linux mail 02 May '08

02 May '08

Hi just upgraded to Ubuntu 8.04 from 7.10 all seems ok thanks for your help. since this version seems to be supported for 3 years it will last the life of this laptop.

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Re: [ALUG] OT: Recovery of data from dead HDDs in RAID array
by Mark Rogers 02 May '08

02 May '08

Robert Tillyard wrote: > [...]I was annoyed that we had already supplied them with enough > information for them to know they couldn't help and yet they still > asked us the send the disk and charged us for the work (if any). Thanks for the heads-up on that. I'll keep an eye out for that kind of thing. How long ago was it? -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Ubuntu upgrade
by Barrys linux mail 02 May '08

02 May '08

Hi I am thinking of upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04 Lts, but not sure if it will work on my laptop which has 380 meg memory and Pent 3 processor, also when I upgraded from 7.06 to 7.10 it lost all the wireless wep settings. How do I avoid this this time if I upgrade? Has anyone upgraded yet? Also see that new version better with utube video, which seems to broken on my system know even though it did work. something to do with Adobe flash ! Barry

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Re: [ALUG] OT: laptop repairer near Ipswich?
by Dave Cooper 30 Apr '08

30 Apr '08

Thanks Wayne, that'll be great. I think this laptop's been lying around in an 'apparently dead' state for a month so there's no enormous urgency. I'll pass this on to Andy this evening and he'll bring the machine along. thanks again, Dave Cooper Wayne Stallwood wrote: > Hello Dave, > > We take in laptops for repair on a no success no fee basis and also have > access to HP service info and spares. At the moment the workshop is > pretty full so I can't promise a great turnaround time but we would do > what we can to get a quote to him ASAP. > > We have an office in Stowmarket so I am sure we can arrange something > regarding getting it dropped off..Give your friend my office email > address and I can arrange with him direct. > > wayne(a)crimsontechnology.com > > Kind regards > Wayne > > >

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OT: Recovery of data from dead HDDs in RAID array
by Mark Rogers 30 Apr '08

30 Apr '08

Hopefully someone here will have some recommendations.. I have a customer with a Dell server, 4 disks in a RAID5 array, with 2 "dead" disks (I believe they have suffered hardware failures). As they have no backups and need the data (doh!) they've asked me for advice. As far as I am concerned it's a specialist job, but my experience of specialists is that I'd rather go by recommendation than random website claims of competence. So does anyone here have any recommendations? If they were my own disks I'd have a play with some Linux data recovery tools, but they're not so I had better not! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

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Re: [ALUG] [Fwd: Re: OT: laptop repairer near Ipswich?]
by Dave Cooper 29 Apr '08

29 Apr '08

Yes Andy, and they understand about email addresses as well! Sorry, everyone! Thank you, Keith! Dave Andy Turner wrote: > > Hi Dave - gosh they speak a different language don't they? I presume he > is saying its not economic to repair? I'll bring it tomorrow anyway. > > Attached are the pics we took at Medemblik and a brief report of the > event. See you tomorrow at Wells SC 7pm. > > Andy > > > > Dave Cooper wrote: >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> Subject: >> Re: [ALUG] OT: laptop repairer near Ipswich? >> From: >> <keith.jamieson(a)bt.com> >> Date: >> Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:31:54 +0100 >> To: >> <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> >> >> To: >> <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> >> >> >> Dave >> >> I had a friend who had the same on their Christmas Present, a Melidon >> (SP?) which I put the disk into their sisters laptop and pulled off his >> info before they took it back under warrantee. If they don't have their >> info off the disk then I have had success using an external USB 2.5" >> disk caddy to copy off other laptop info. >> >> Can you get into the BIOS ok? Will it boot of a CD ? This will eliminate >> some issues, ie memory and cpu >> >> I would volunteer but I'm very busy ATM and with older laptops its not >> economically viable to repair them. I know its only 2 years old in this >> instance. >> >> Regards >> >> Keith >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> main(a)lists.alug.org.uk >> http://www.alug.org.uk/ >> http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main >> Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >> >> > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >

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OT: laptop repairer near Ipswich?
by Dave Cooper 29 Apr '08

29 Apr '08

Hi, sorry this is off-topic, but I wonder if any of you Ipswichers can recommend anyone to fix a laptop in the your area? A friend has a 2 year old Hewlett Packard that starts to boot when it's switched on and then just powers down again. He was talking about taking it to PC W*rld, so he definitely needs our help! Thanks, Dave Cooper

2 1

re blue tooth
by Barrys linux mail 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Hi just a line to say thanks for the help with blue tooth,i downloaded a blue tooth file transfer program and now i can get the photos from my phone to the computer. thanks again. Barry

1 0

Perl problems
by Ruth Bygrave 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Am trying to install some Perl modules for creating/modifying mobipocket files. Perl version returns 5.8.8, which is apparently correct. On trying any install package I get perfectly correct ftp &c messages from CPAN, followed by a failed make with no explanation. The following is the final set of messages from the Palm::PDB package: "WARNING: LICENSE is not a known parameter. Checking if your kit is complete... Looks good 'LICENSE' is not a known MakeMaker parameter name. Writing Makefile for Palm -- NOT OK Running make test Can't test without successful make Running make install make had returned bad status, install seems impossible" so it apparently happens perfectly correctly up to the make pass, which chokes it. Regards, Ruth

3 3

For Sale: Blackmagic Decklink PCI SD
by Richard Bensley 26 Apr '08

26 Apr '08

Hey All I am gutting one of my G5's and I have this decklink card going spare. Great for any Final Cut users who want to start using hardware based keying, ripping from things like digidecks or just for the sake of haivng access to fast affordable 10bit uncrompressed footage. This however does NOT include the breakout cables as I bought two of these originally OEM and I only bought one set of cables. This card barely saw, I only used it go gain access to the features it was providing on my main machine. This is PCI, not PCIe or PCI-X. I don't know if it will work n a G4 chassis. I am looking to get £80 including delivery. Or £70 with pickup, I live about 15 miles outside Norwich in Loddon. Email me or call me (number in signature). For a connection diagram see page 27 of this pdf manual: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/downloads/manuals/decklinkmacmanual.pdf For a wee piccy see here: http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/public/product_images/18_08_2005blackmagic_d… Cheers Rich -- Richard Charles Bensley richardbensley(a)gmail.com http://www.richardbensley.co.uk 07846466530

1 0

Does anyone have any use for "thin ethernet" hardware?
by Chris G 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

I have quite a lot of old "thin ethernet" computer networking hardware, e.g.:- Lots of 50 ohm coaxial cable (originally 100 meters, but in pieces now, some quite long pieces though) Lots of 50 ohm BNC connectors, T pieces, terminators, etc. One or two PC network cards with BNC connectors. An Axis print server with BNC connector. A hub with a BNC connector (and RJ45 connectors). Free to a good home if anyone wants it, I'm near Ipswich, might be able to deliver in the area. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Curiosity Collective Ipswich Exhibit Tomorrow
by samwise 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

On 25/04/2008, Simon Elliott <alug(a)sionide.net> wrote: > samwise wrote: > > They have re-imagined > > semaphore for the 21st Century, music made with Nintendo GameBoys > > > > Different artist but sounds a lot like what Bitshifter does... > > http://www.last.fm/music/bitshifter Yes, the guy doing the game boy music under the Curiosity Collective banner this week is Pixelh8 who has collaborated with a number of ppl doing similar work online ... Peter.

1 0

Curiosity Collective Ipswich Exhibit Tomorrow
by samwise 25 Apr '08

25 Apr '08

Hi, I don't know if anyone is interested, but the Curiosity Collective that we've discussed at the Ipswich meets a few times is coming up to the last day of their exhibit. They are a local technological arts group who have set up in St. Mary's on the Quay church, on Key Street in Ipswich. They're in there all-day tomorrow, and have some really cool exhibits - I've been to one of their preview meetings. They have re-imagined semaphore for the 21st Century, music made with Nintendo GameBoys, mysterious hybrid-portrait-photographs and interactive-kaleidoscopic-video! http://curiositycollective.org/ Anyway, if you've not got anything on, I reckon it's well worth a walk down if you're around Ipswich town centre. Peter.

2 1

PostPost problem with PlanetPlanet
by Ben Francis 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

I've been wondering (probably for years now). Why do all my blog posts get repeated twice in Planet ALUG? The RSS feed looks OK. Ben -- Ben Francis http://tola.me.uk

3 3

Re: [ALUG] upgrading from 6.06 LTS to 8.04 LTS
by Bev Nicolson 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

<<Oh yes, and is there anything important I need to do, that I have forgotten, before upgrading?>> > > Backup ? Yes, that might be a good idea! Thanks. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Stallwood" <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] upgrading from 6.06 LTS to 8.04 LTS > Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:46:08 +0100 > > > On Thu, 2008-04-24 at 16:53 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I've done what the Ubuntu website says and gone to system > admin > > > update manager and installed the last batch of updates but it > > doesn't mention anything about the new version when I click on > > 'upgrade' again. Am I a) being a bit impatient or b) is there > > another (simple!) way round this? Oh yes, and is there anything > > important I need to do, that I have forgotten, before upgrading? > > Backup ? > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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

1 0

Router conundrum
by Chris G 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

iIn the past several weeks I have upgraded our home ADSL (which is also our small business internet access) to make it more robust. We have two telephone lines so I got ADSL enabled on the second one so now if one goes down we can still connect. (OK, I know if someone takes the wires out between us and the exchange we probably lose both but there are limits to what's worth doing). The second ADSL is a BT business connection and a free BT Business Hub router comes with it, actually a 2Wire 2700HGV. When it came it installed without fuss and worked, I made its IP address 192.168.1.254 with our original ADSL router as 192.168.1.1. I "shared" access by setting up Maxine's computer to use 192.168.1.254 as its default route and mine to use 192.168.1.1. So far so good, it worked fine, but of course I'd have to manually change things if either ADSL connection went down. So, my next improvement was to get a new Draytek Vigor 2820n router for the not-BT ADSL. I mainly got this for the better (or at least easier to configure) firewall but it offers sharing facilities for two WAN connections and this is where the fun starts. WAN1 on the 2820n is the ADSL connection (EntaNet), WAN2 is an ordinary ethernet connection which can be connected to another router/modem. So I removed the 2Wire router from the 192.168.1.x subnet and plugged it into the WAN2 port of the 2820n. I have set the WAN2 'subnet' to be 192.168.13.x and the 2Wire router is 192.168.13.254. After a few hiccoughs I have got it working but the 2Wire router is causing some issues. For some reason the 2wire router sets itself up so you can access it as http://gateway.2wire.net/ rather than just its IP address (or a name you put in /etc/hosts) on the local LAN. This initially caused some fun and games when I tried to access it but after a while it asked if I wanted to set 192.168.1.x (or maybe 192.168.13.x) as a DMZ and all was well. However I now have another issue caused by this http://gateway.2wire.net/ thing. I want to be able to set up the routers remotely, rather than opening their browser interface to the outside world I'm creating an ssh tunnel to my home machine and port forwarding the router IP. E.g. for the 28820n I do:- ssh -L 50080:192.168.1.1:80 home.isbd.net and it works perfectly, Firefox at work connects to localhost:50080 and sees the 2820n web interface. Similarly I can connect to our DECT SIP phone set up web pages and configure that. The problem is that if I do:- ssh -L 50080:192.168.13.254:80 home.isbd.net and try connecting to localhost:50080 it gets a page not found error because it's trying to connect to http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL00 Can anyone suggest a way around this problem? (Sorry for the long winded explanation) -- Chris Green

1 0

'selectors' for rsyslog, where are they documented?
by Chris G 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

I'm trying to log messages from my router, it can send messages to syslog. However I can't find anywhere any documentation on what 'selectors' should look like in /etc/rsyslog.conf, let alone how I would select messages from my router. Can anyone point me at anything useful please. -- Chris Green

4 6

Blue tooth
by Barrys linux mail 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

Hi Has anyone successfully used a usb bluetooth dongle with Ubuntu 7.10. I can get it to pair with my mobile phone on the laptop, but when i try to send a photo from phone to laptop, the phone does not detect the laptop.Made both phone and laptop visible but still no connection. I must be doing something wrong but what? Not to clued up with blue tooth! All suggestions gratefully received. Barry

6 11

Problem rebooting debian server after power down
by Jenny Hopkins 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

Hullo there List, I powered down a debian etch server yesterday, for the first time in several months. When powered back up, it is mounting the hard drive read only for some reason, with no hostname. The kernel is 2.6.18-5-amd64, if I boot into older kernels I get the same problem. I've run fsck several times and found no errors. I remounted the drive rw and started trying to manually start services. I tried setting the hostname thusly: jenny@(none):~$ sudo /etc/init.d/hostname.sh start /etc/init.d/hostname.sh: line 19: /lib/init/vars.sh: No such file or directory jenny@(none):~$ Looking in /lib/init, there are no files, only an empty rw directory, but on my other system there are a bunch of startup files. I see the package initscripts is supposed to provide these files, -dpkg says v. 2.86.ds1-38 installed. I went to remove and reinstall it but got such a scary warning i haven't dared yet. Has anyone any idea what on earth is going on? Thanks, any pointers appreciated. Jenny

2 5

Further report on MSI Titan 700 NAS and USB drive
by Chris G 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

It's all done now. :-) I formatted the external USB drive as ext3 last night, it worked without a hitch. I have mounted the USB drive on the system in the garage and have exported it using NFS and mounted it on my desktop Fedora system. I changed my overnight backup script in /etc/cron.daily to write across the network to the USB drive on the MSI system and that ran flawlessly apart from one base directory I had forgotten to create. That works *much* better than trying to backup direct to the Freecom NAS drive (that is now the USB drive on the MSI system). Since the Freecom NAS only offered FAT32 lots of things failed to backup to it properly and I had to jump through hoops with rsync to get it to work at all. rdiff-backup just didn't want to know. -- Chris Green

1 0

Can one force apt-get to download rather than use CD?
by Chris G 23 Apr '08

23 Apr '08

I'm finding my way slowly with Ubuntu Server, now I have a minor problem with apt-get. It wants me to put the Ubuntu Server CD into the machine which, since it's in the garage, is a bit of a pain. Can I force it *not* to use the CD but to always got to the internet to download packages I want to install? If so, how? -- Chris Green

5 5

MSI Titan 700 via based system
by Chris G 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Well the MSI Titan system I was talking about arrived yesterday, it's certainly very compact, but with all the 'bits' you could want. I have installed Ubuntu Server 7.10 on it, it installed without a hitch, not a single problem except that I somehow mis-typed my password during installation and couldn't log in when the system booted. Oops! However running 'rescue system' from the CD allowed me to run as root and modify the password file. It runs from a little 60 watt external power supply which is just luke warm after being on overnight so around 20 watts or so consumption seems about right. It's not incredibly quiet, the fan is quite noticeable with it sat on my desk, that's not an issue for me as it's going to be in the garage but it might be for some people. I've got an external disk drive sat on top of it at the moment so it may be a bit warmer than it should, the fan is CPU controlled. I've already got the external USB drive working with it, I haven't dared try and re-format it yet though (any answers on that front?). All in all I'm very pleased with it, exactly what I want at not too bad a price. -- Chris Green

2 3

Lenovo Thinkcentre A61e USFF
by Tim Green 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

After Wayne's recommendation I bought one of those Lenovo Thinkcentre A61e USFF thingies. He's not kidding about expansion options - no PCI slots! I think there is a mico-PCI slot free next to the (laptop) memory slot, so WiFi is possible. On the back there are 3 audio ports, 4 USB, 1 Ethernet, one VGA and the DC power socket. That low price of £195.73 + VAT (=£229.98) also includes a sturdy keyboard, a very lightweight optical mouse, and an XP licence, but no CDs and no monitor. The concept is not far off a MacMini, but about three times larger, and black. I'll be installing Hardly Heroin when it's released at the end of the week, and I'll let you know how it goes. Regards, Tim Green.

1 0

Tools to clean "empty space" on disks
by Mark Rogers 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Are there any tools around that can clean empty space on disks? I'm not too worried about doing this for secure deletion purposes, I just want to get a good result from a compressed image of the disk. NB: I tend to use: dd if=/dev/hdb | gzip > hdb.dd.gz .. but there's probably a much better way to do this. Usually it's an NTFS disk but in this particular case it is ext3. -- 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 1

Firefox toolbars - help!
by Chris G 21 Apr '08

21 Apr '08

I've been playing with Firefox themes and have been customising the toolbars. A while ago I added a new toolbar, basically as a separator for the theme I was using but now I need it no more. So, how do you *remove* a toolbar you've added? You can turn view off for the toolbar but I couldn't make that 'stick', every time I restarted Firefox the toolbar was visible again and I had to turn view off again. So I clicked on "Restore Default Set" in the toolbar customisation window. That got rid of my added toolbar permanently which is something, but now I have loads of icons in the Navigation Toolbar that I don't want. It says "You can add or remove items by dragging to or from the toolbars", no I can't! I can add items by dragging them too the toolbar but I can't remove them by dragging them from the toolbar. How on earth does one remove items? -- Chris Green

2 3

[Fwd: Re: [ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road]
by Dave Crisp 20 Apr '08

20 Apr '08

It looks like I'm actually going to be at this one. I'm scared..... On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 11:49 +0100, Tracy Dickerson wrote: > Hello, Guys and Gals, > > Rick and I will try and be there this month. Sorry for our absence, I > hope all is well. > > Tracy x > > On 15/04/2008, samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> wrote: > > 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 21 April 2008) at 20:00: > > > > > > The Milestone Beer House > > 5 Woodbridge Road > > IPSWICH > > IP4 2EA > > > > Tel: 01473 252425 > > Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA > > > > The Milestone pub is in the centre of Ipswich, near the now-defunct > > Odeon cinema and not far from The Regent Theatre. > > > > There is more information on the venue, including car parking info, on > > the ALUG wiki: > > > > http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/Meetings > > > > 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 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! > > > > _______________________________________________ > main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > http://www.alug.org.uk/ > http://lists.alug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/main > Unsubscribe? See message headers or the web site above! >

1 0

Free to a Good home
by Wayne Stallwood 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

Alphaserver 800 5/333, in a rack case, 512MB of RAM, 3 4.2GB hotplug disks with a carrier for a 4th, DAT drive (untested), CD ROM. I have OpenVMS installation media (it's up to the buyer to obtain a free hobbyist licence) it had BSD on it I think but one of the disks has failed. The remaining two disks go through block test diags fine however. As a system it probably still has ebay value, I just can't be bothered to deal with listing it, packing it for postage etc Also Last call for my original media server, headless 833Mhz PIII with 128MB RAM, no disks installed, small form factor case. You need to be able to do a serial console installation or attach a pci gfx card and usb ports to do a local console one. Also HP PA-RISC machine, series 9000 model C110. I took this from Noodles before he moved on behalf of another ALUG member who then didn't want it after all. I know nothing about it other that it boots and it is now officially in my way. All of the above need to be collected either as a whole or in part, however you might be able to convince me to attend a meet with some/all in my car boot :)

1 0

What I've decided to buy as a low power system
by Chris G 19 Apr '08

19 Apr '08

I've found this MSI Titan 700 system:- http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=21448 I've not actually bought it from CCL because they're out of stock at the moment, I bought it from Lambdatek (slightly cheaper too). Low power VIA processor, all ready put together for me, Gigabit LAN, what more could I want? Hardly any more expensive than a NAS and much more capable. -- Chris Green

4 4

How to talk to something configured for a different subnet?
by Chris G 18 Apr '08

18 Apr '08

What's the easiest way to 'talk' (i.e. connect) to a device that's set up for a different subnet from the one that your local subnet is using? This is a common recurring problem in two situations:- You have a subnet that's *not* 192.168.1.x and you want to use a router (or whatever) that comes with its default address set to 192.168.1.1. You have set a router (or something) to a different subnet for some reason and want to 'get it back'. I have done it a few times by editing /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to the new subnet and then rebooting, doing what I need to do and then changing ifcfg-eth0 and rebooting again but this seems a little laborious. Is there an easier way? Could I just run ifconfig from the command line to do what I did above, but rather more quickly and easily? Are there any other ways to do this? -- Chris Green

3 2

PHP+MySql bod required
by Steve 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

Arternoon list, My boss' other company is looking for a PHP and MySql guru to take over and maintain a number of systems. The website is at http://www.thefeedbackcompany.com/ If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll pass details on. Cheers, Steve

1 0

Low[ish] power PC building
by Chris G 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

I'm coming to the conclusion that the most sensible approach for my 'garage server' will be to build it myself. A Mini-ITX system would be ideal but the prices are still silly compared with boring old ATX and ATX related systems. In addition I have an ATX case that I can use. Size isn't an issue, I have two huge garages. Noise isn't an issue, I don't sleep in the garage or watch TV there. :-) So it would seem that a motherboard with an AMD BE series processor would give me a start for a low power system. Is there any way to decide how power hungry motherboards are? I'm open to alternative recommendations for the processor but Googling about suggests that an AMD BE-2400 or something like it is probably the best low-power/price compromise, so I'm looking for an AM2 motherboard with video and ethernet on board with low power consumption. -- Chris Green

3 4

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '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 21 April 2008) at 20:00: The Milestone Beer House 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 252425 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA The Milestone pub is in the centre of Ipswich, near the now-defunct Odeon cinema and not far from The Regent Theatre. There is more information on the venue, including car parking info, on the ALUG wiki: http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/Meetings 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

2 1

Hello
by John Herd 14 Apr '08

14 Apr '08

Hello Alug... I didn't think that there was a Linux users group in Suffolk until I stumbled across your web page. Hopefully the group is alive and well. I see that you have meetings at the Milestone Beer House - when is your next meet? I'm guessing the 21st from your web page. Anyway I could ramble on forever about what I use Linux for but it boils down to this: my missus uses Ubuntu Gutsy because she it does what she wants it to do (and the BBC finally got a beta out the door for iPlayer). I use Linux because it's easier to work with (haha, but seriously it's getting easier to work with) although I hanker after games. I randomly nuke my machine and put a new distro on there, run virtual machines and then remember I didn't back up all my data to that spare disk under my feet. Favourite distro: Ubuntu. Least favourite: Gentoo, although friends of mine swear by it I swear at it. If there's anyone out there - please give me a shout back. John.

7 11

gnome-terminal not starting - how to diagnose?
by Chris G 13 Apr '08

13 Apr '08

I suddenly have a problem on my fedora 8 system at home, running gnome-terminal doesn't work, it just hangs. This started happening after I rebooted the system when trying to diagnose something else. I have an fvwm configuration that automatically starts up about six gnome-terminals on different pages. It now doesn't start up all of the gnome-terminals, only two or three appear (it's not even consistent) and I can't start up any more gnome-terminals, if I enter "gnome-terminal" on the command line it just hangs, no message or anything. Some other gnome applications seem to be affected too, I can't start gnome-panel for example. Other terminal applications work fine, e.g. xterm and others. Any ideas what may be wrong anyone? ... and/or how can I can diagnose it? -- Chris Green

1 1

Getting FTP to work through a NAT router - or not
by Chris G 11 Apr '08

11 Apr '08

I have just changed my ADSL router from the Speedtouch 716WL that I have been using for a year or two back to a Zyxel 660H that I had used for a while. The reason is that I no longer need the VOIP ports on the Speedtouch and its firewall is difficult to configure, Web configuration is limited and CLI configuration is arcane! The Zyxel 660H has all the facilities I need now and the Web configuration of the firewall is comprehensive enough for my needs. After a bit of head scratching I have got just about everything working as I want, all the machines on the LAN can see the outside world 'transparently' and some bits of the outside world can see into the LAN as follows:- Any IP address can get to my apache server on port 80 A (very) limited number of IP addresses can connect to my ssh server on port 22 One outside address can get to the router's web configuration which I have moved from the default port 80 to 50080. Very useful for fixing things from work! However I can't get FTP into my NAS to work at all, all I get is a stony silence. I appreciate that there are several oddities about getting FTP to work and it *may* be that it just isn't possible with this router but it would be nice if I could get it to work. What I have done so far is:- Ports 20 and 21 are forwarded from "any outside IP" to the NAS which has the FTP server on it. The firewall allows ports 20 and 21 through. I have disabled the FTP access to the router completely (i.e. as I understand it I have turned the router's FTP server off, it's for Firmware updates etc.) No joy at all. Looking at the router's logs all I see when I try and connect is an incoming packet from the outside system which gets to the NAS and that's it. However I'm not really sure that the logging is showing me everything. By default the FTP clients are using passive mode so, as I see it, everything should be started from the client end. Any ideas anyone as to what I might try next? Even someone saying "it isn't possible" would save me some time! -- Chris Green

8 17

Re: [ALUG] Getting FTP to work through a NAT router - or not
by cl＠isbd.net 10 Apr '08

10 Apr '08

On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 02:28:13PM +0100, Dennis Dryden wrote: > Only thing i can think of is that the NAS ftp is broken or not liking > your client. I take it you can connect to the NAS in the same way on > your local network? > Yes, I can ftp to the NAS without problems from within the LAN. -- Chris Green

3 2

John Atkinson RIP (Ancient John)
by John Woodard 08 Apr '08

08 Apr '08

I have some sad news. Those of you who have attended the Syleham Kit Meets might like to know that Ancient John has passed away aged 84. He was the old fellow who always brought his wife's home made biscuits to the meetings and always seemed to be the first one to turn up. A Linux stalwart, he used it to do good things for his deaf/blind grandchildren giving them the ability to read and write. His widow Evelyn told me that he suffered a severe stroke which impaired him totally so he chose to refuse hospital treatment to prolong his sad state. He had his wishes granted so was able to pass away with dignity in his own home with his family around him. She told me he died very happy and asked me to pass this on to all of the Aluggers who have helped him in the past. BJ

5 4

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thurs Pub Meet 10th April
by Richard Lewis 08 Apr '08

08 Apr '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 10th April * 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. I intend to be there from about 20:00. Others may be there earlier. We should have a table reserved at the back of the pub just to the left of the bar. We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |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

[OT?] Finding a spamming virus
by Mark Rogers 07 Apr '08

07 Apr '08

One of our customers has managed to install a virus (Windows, of-course) which is sending spam. My job is to try to track it down. Virus scans haven't found the problem. Although they have MS Exchange on-site, I am sure that the virus will not be sending through it (unless the virus is on the exchange box itself), so in theory it should be fairly easy to find out which PC is initiating lots of outbound SMTP connections. That's why I don't think this is OT - I reckon my best tools for the job will be Linux ones? Either way any suggestions welcomed, particularly ones I can work on via a VPN connection rather than going to site. NB: I've played with programs like Ethereal/Wireshark in the past, and I'm sure that's what I should be looking at, but I've always found myself looking at too much information and unable to see the wood for the trees. So pointers to tutorials gratefully received! -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

8 24

8GB Eee PC
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 06 Apr '08

06 Apr '08

It seems the 8GB Eee PC (with 2GB RAM) is now available, even in the UK: http://eeepc.asus.com/uk/product.htm (Not available in Lush Pink/Sky Blue/Lush Grseen, though. in case you're fussy about such things :)) However, browsing around, I can't seem to find anywhere that has them in stock. PC World only list the 2GB and 4GB models, and Toys R Us are (as always) "out of stock" on any version! Any suggestions? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 06-Apr-08 Time: 13:17:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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FW: [man-lug] [Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition]
by Ted.Harding＠manchester.ac.uk 05 Apr '08

05 Apr '08

Folks: You may be interested in this! Best wishes to all, Ted. -----FW: <47F7B788.9010406(a)army.com>----- Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:31:52 +0100 Sender: man-lug-admin(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk From: Tim Dobson <personalwebsite(a)army.com> To: man-lug(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk, sheflug(a)sheflug.org.uk, linux-users(a)lists.manchester.ac.uk Subject: [man-lug] [Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition] -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Fsuk-manchester] ODF Petition Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:32:00 +0100 From: Mac <Ammonius.Grammaticus(a)googlemail.com> To: fsuk-manchester(a)nongnu.org You may already know of the petition for the National Archive to use ODF and not M$ OOXML as planned. If not, here's the URL: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ODFinNA/ Mac _______________________________________________ Fsuk-manchester mailing list Fsuk-manchester(a)nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsuk-manchester -- www.tdobson.net ---- If each of us have one object, and we exchange them, then each of us still has one object. If each of us have one idea, and we exchange them, then each of us now has two ideas. - George Bernard Shaw ---------------------------------------------- http://lists.manchester.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/man-lug ManLUG WWW Pages: http://www.manlug.mcc.ac.uk/ --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)manchester.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Apr-08 Time: 19:12:37 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

How to use tee to pipe stdin to two scripts?
by Chris G 02 Apr '08

02 Apr '08

I want to send standard input to two places, both of which are shell (well, actually python and perl) scripts. I assume I need to use tee but it's not obvious how to do it. My actual requirement is for .forward to send incoming mail messages to an (old) perl script and a (new, replacement) python script while I write and debug the new python script. The existing .forward file is:- | /home/isbd/bin/filter.pl How do I change this so it sends its standard input to both /home/isbd/bin/filter.pl *and* /home/isbd/bin/filter.py? -- Chris Green

4 4

HTML Mail / Asus EEE PC for £186.70 at Marshall Wards
by Martin Collins 01 Apr '08

01 Apr '08

Guilty. But I was unaware that I was doing it as I was using the web interface of GMail rather than KMail as I've temporarily lost access to my laptop. It's not glaringly obvious how to send plain text via the GMail web interface but when composing a message, there's a line just above the message-text entry box that has Bold and Italic and Underline symbols...on the end is a blue link that says << Plain text - Doh! I suppose the Bold, Italic and Underline symbols should have told me something!! Guilty, guilty, guilty. The original message was this but unsure now whether it's still active. Hi, thought some of you might be interested in this. Got this info from http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/163077/asus-eee-pc-4gb-blk-or-white-186-70/ If you goto Marshall Wards site and (register) order an 4GB Black or White Asus EEE PC and enter the code XX214 you'll get 20% off, bringing the price down to £186.70. In stock delivery in 7 days. A Linux bargain! Rgds, Martin

3 2

blocking net but not lan on one pc
by Peter Alcibiades 30 Mar '08

30 Mar '08

Thanks guys for all the helpful suggestions. The easiest and most manageable for the people who have the system is probably to just do fixed IP address for this particular station and to not have a default route. I should have thought of that myself. I guess you could do the same thing and just not have DNS server defined, which would be good enough in this environment. Then if they want to turn it back on again, they just go back to DHCP, which is a one click change and easy to explain. The router is a netgear wired 5 port router/modem, but it doesn't seem to have blocking of access by MAC address. Yes, that would otherwise have been almost as simple. There are only three machines in this little network, the only real reason they are on a network is to print, and the one in question is in a public part of the building. Tts not accessible by the public, but whatever is on screen is visible to visitors, its a reception desk machine with displays that vary in response to what the staff do, and that the visitors do need to see. I'm not quite sure why they don't want it to have outside access, its more at the level of a general feeling than anything else. But its their decision. Of the other two machines, one is not on public view and is only used by a couple of specialists, and they are not bothered about it, the other does all the office admin, email and so on, and that one they obviously need to have full access. But it is in an office and so not available to all the staff, and not visible to the public. Thanks again! Peter

1 0

blocking net but not lan on one pc
by Peter Alcibiades 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

What is the simplest way to prevent one of the accounts on one of PCs on the lan from accessing the net? It does not have to be super secure, just require a modicum of knowledge to bypass, which the users will not have. Famous last words. The account should have access to the LAN however for network printers. If its more convenient, it would also be OK to block all accounts. Is this something best done through groups? Al

5 10

Is there any way to set a glyph (correct word) for a single character in HTML?
by Chris G 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

Is there any way that I can set the glyph for a single, specific, character in HTML (or CSS)? I have some auto-generated HTML which I can't edit directly and I want to make one particular character invisible. If I could set the glyph for the character (in included CSS or in a header, which I can generate easily enough) to a blank that would do what I want. -- Chris Green

2 2

Thunderbird Import/Export Add-on
by chestep 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

Hello Alug I recently raised a query about archiving/exporting complete folders of emails from Thunderbird to a separate drive on my computer. Several people replied - thanks to all. In particular 'James' said he copies emails like this all the time using the import/export add-on. I had trouble getting the add-on to install when I tried it before, so closed down Zone Alarm & Avast while I tried to install it. I then received some info on how to install an alternative (SmartSave) and saw through this that I should be using the Tools/Add-ons menu which I wasn't familiar with. It's now installed and working fine, but I'd appreciate comments about ZA & Avast possibly being involved; and also any comments on SmartSave v Import/Export 1.6.1. Thanks ac

3 2

"Incorrect" auto-complete in TB
by Mark Rogers 28 Mar '08

28 Mar '08

I just managed to send some confidential docs intended for someone at one customer to someone with the same name at another customer... Completely my fault, it's been a long day. Does anyone have any clever solutions for this kind of thing? I can't think of one myself. (Maybe its a shame I don't have a disclaimer telling the recipient its all their fault not mine?) -- Mark Rogers // More Solutions Ltd (Peterborough Office) // 0845 45 89 555 Registered in England (0456 0902) at 13 Clarke Rd, Milton Keynes, MK1 1LG

9 14

Samba problem - "force user = xxxx" not working apparently
by Chris G 24 Mar '08

24 Mar '08

I have a number of Samba shares on my fedora 8 machine that I use from the Windows XP guest that runs on the same machine. They are working OK in the sense that they are accessible but I'm trying to use the Samba "force user = userx" option so that files in certain shares are created by specific users. I.e. at the end of my smb.conf file I have:- [Scans] comment = Digikam scans for chrisx path = /home/chrisx/pictures/Scans writeable = yes ; browseable = yes force user = chrisx [xpIsbd] comment = ISBD on XP path = /home/isbd/xpIsbd writeable = yes ; browseable = yes force user = isbd However when I access the above shares from my XP guest (on which I am user chris) I still act as user chris when creating files etc. I want to be chrisx and isbd respectively. I thought I had it working once but now it seems to have stopped again, has anybody any idea what may be wrong? Both chrisx and isbd are real users on the fedora 8 box and have been added to the smbpasswd file. -- Chris Green

1 1

Is it possible to rename a duplicate Volume Group?
by Chris G 21 Mar '08

21 Mar '08

Help!! My Fedora 7 system at work was slowly dying due to a failing disk drive, so I have an installation on a new disk drive. However the old disk has been left in the system (so I can retrieve data from it) but with the *same* Volume Group name as the new installation. So, when I do 'vgscan' for example I see:- [root@localhost ~]# vgscan Reading all physical volumes. This may take a while... WARNING: Duplicate VG name VolGroup00: Existing P6sqp0-rIos-JYmi-8L32-ymtN-LzB4-g5BdLL (created here) takes precedence over TdWFKp-H4tw-UrVq-Jmre-26hv-zmyE-IZXQLI Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2 Found volume group "VolGroup00" using metadata type lvm2 [root@localhost ~]# How can I sort this out? I have root access and everything, can even get to single user mode I guess. Do I need to do something desperate like boot the old installation (which is still possible), go to single user and rename the Volume Group? Or is there a simpler way? -- Chris Green

4 7

Another apache question - about Allow/Deny directives
by Chris G 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

I'm trying to prevent outside access to a sub-directory of a directory which *does* allow outside access. In my httpd.conf file I have:- # # # Allow access to /var/www/html from LAN and work or with # password from elsewhere # <Directory /var/www/html> Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from 192.168.1 193.128.168.194 84.45.228.40 Satisfy Any AuthType Basic AuthName "ISBD Home Server" AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf/passwd Require valid-user </Directory> # # # Deny access to xyz from anywhere except home systems # <Directory /var/www/html/info/xyz> Order Deny,Allow Deny from all Allow from 192.168.1 </Directory> # # # Allow access to /var/www/html/public from anywhere # <Directory /var/www/html/public> Order Deny,Allow Allow from All </Directory> What's happening is that when I try to access /var/www/html/info/xyz from outside the home LAN it's not denying access, it's asking for a username and password. I.e. the "Satisfy Any" section of the /var/www/html Directory is being acted on. How do I prevent this and totally deny access from outside to /var/www/html/info/xyz? -- Chris Green

3 5

List admin reminder about html email.
by Adam Bower 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Hi all, Just a reminder that if you want email to get to the alug list quickly then please send *only* plain text. If you send a multipart message with an html part then it will have to be moderated (and might get rejected) and creates work for me, John and Rob. If you were to send an html only email then it would be rejected the first few times and you could end up being banned from sending to the list altogether. This isn't aimed at anyone in particular but I've let a few html multipart messages through to the list recently and it would be easier for me if everyone can check their settings for sending to this list. If anyone needs help with configuring their mail client for this then please send a mail to the list (i'll approve it if there is html) telling us which mail client you are using and the problem you have and we will try to help. Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li

1 0

(no subject)
by James Elsey 20 Mar '08

20 Mar '08

Hi Guys Just joined the mailing list, and the email asked to reply giving a heads up why I joined, so here goes! I'm 21, been in the IT sector for 1 year now (only graduated last year :P) so still a young'un. I have sampled suse8 and slackware 10 back in college, and since then I've always had a curiosity to learn about linux. I don't get to use it in my workplace, but at home I've wiped XP off the slate and have now successfully been running 1 desktop, 1 server and 1 laptop on ubuntu/kubuntu/xubuntu for well over 6months, never going back to the darkside now! I've joined the ALUG mailing list to basically extend my network of friends, and to find other likeminded individuals that enjoy a good "geeking session" in their free time. Would love to attend one of the Ipswich meets and trade some info/advice etc etc. If anyone from the Sudbury/Suffolk area wants to chat about the glories of linux over a good pint, shout me on msn at jimmy(a)teamstag.co.uk Regards James Elsey Junior Developer Serengeti Systems Limited Serengeti House Kersey Maltings Kersey, Ipswich IP7 6DP Company registered in England & Wales Registration No: 3578108 T: 01473 825 002 D: 01473 825 013 M: 07841 343 879 Skype: james.elsey1 E: James.Elsey(a)serengeti-systems.com URL: www.serengeti-systems.com <http://www.serengeti-systems.com/>

3 2

dhclient and nameservers
by Dan Hatton 19 Mar '08

19 Mar '08

Dear All, Sometimes, I bring my computer out of suspend-to-disk in a different network environment than the one where it was originally suspended. It automatically runs /etc/init.d/network restart (this being Fedora 8), and dhclient happily gets an IP address for itself and one for a nameserver, putting the latter in /etc/resolv.conf. I can connect to network resources by name, and all is well. Until a couple of minutes later, when something automatically edits resolv.conf, changing the nameserver address back to the one that's appropriate for the old network environment. Any ideas what's going on, please? -- Thanks Dan Hatton

2 1

info
by chestep 19 Mar '08

19 Mar '08

Hi Alug I'm interested in computers in general, ie Apps, maintenance, networks, programming; I'm fairly aware of the main arears. I've seen Linux demonstrated, but not used it yet, though I intend to. My main concern at the moment is with something different, ie. the Thunderbird email app. *I need to post this query*, can you tell me the best link to use? Query I store my emails in folders I create within Thunderbird, then hope to export those I need to keep longer to my main drive outside of Thunderbird. This is fine for just one/individual email, as I can do a SaveAs to file. This is not fine if I want to export/save a whole folderfull of emails, as the 'File or Template' option of File/SaveAs/File or Template is greyed out. I seen discussions on Mozilla and elswhere about saving profiles outside of Mozilla, but this doesn't seem to address the problem I have, maybe I'm wrong. Also maybe it's not possible to Save/Export the emails in bulk. Thanks very much AC

3 2

Fwd: info
by member jessejazza 19 Mar '08

19 Mar '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: member jessejazza <jessejazza(a)opensuse.us> Date: 19 Mar 2008 10:00 Subject: Re: [ALUG] info To: Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> On 19/03/2008, Wayne Stallwood <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> wrote: > > On Mon, 2008-03-17 at 12:01 +0000, chestep wrote: > > Hi Alug > > > Hi there > > > > Query > > I store my emails in folders I create within Thunderbird, then hope to > > export those I need to keep longer to my main drive outside of Thunderbird. > > This is fine for just one/individual email, as I can do a SaveAs to file. > > This is not fine if I want to export/save a whole folderfull of emails, > > as the 'File or Template' option of File/SaveAs/File or Template is > > greyed out. > > > I am not a thunderbird user but can't you select multiple messages by > holding down the control key ? or a block of messages by clicking on the > first one and then holding down alt when you click on the last one ? > What happens to the SaveAs option then ? > > Alternatively if there is an export function can it not select specific > folders to export from or can it only do the whole of your mail store ? > If you only get an option for Inbox, Drafts, Sent etc then can you > create a new folder called archive at that level rather than a sublevel > of the Inbox and then just export that ? > > Sorry mostly guesswork there > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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! > I have used Thunderbird for several years now. It is the only email client i know that has an Import/Export addon which is ideal for archiving a years emails to another folder [several options html, eml] which you can then read from Thunderbird or Firefox. Just looked it up again it's called ImportExportTools. I don't know what other folk do but this is the only email client i'm aware of offering such a useful function and the reason why i've stayed with Thunderbird. I've actually gone back to using webmail as i use several machines but still use Thunderbird for archiving. james

1 0

usb ethernet adaptor
by Jenny Hopkins 18 Mar '08

18 Mar '08

Hullo there, Can anyone recommend a usb-ethernet adaptor easy to configure for ubuntu? Are they generally pretty reliable devices? It is required because of a wobbly ethernet connection on a motherboard. Thanks, Jenny

3 4

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 17 Mar '08

17 Mar '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 December) at 20:00: The Milestone Beer House 5 Woodbridge Road IPSWICH IP4 2EA Tel: 01473 252425 Map/Directions URI: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+2EA At 20:30, however, many of us will be going to Mr. Wing's for a Christmas buffet: Mr. Wing 7 St Helens Street IPSWICH Suffolk IP4 1HE Tel: 01473 212884 or 212885 Google Maps: http://maps.google.co.uk/?q=IP4+1HE We'll return to The Milestone after we've eaten - probably at about half nine, but to be sure where we are, feel free to call one of our attendees. If you need a mobile no. for one of them, request it on the main mailing list. Both The Milestone pub and Mr. Wing's are in the centre of Ipswich, near the now-defunct Odeon cinema and not far from The Regent Theatre. There is more information on the venue, including car parking info, on the ALUG wiki: http://www.alug.org.uk/wiki/moin.cgi/Meetings 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. This month's meeting is the Xmas celebration. On top of that, I have some more games working under Linux, including both Simon the Sorcerer's in ScummVM, and American McGee's Alice and Road Rash in WINE. Finally, we've invited along a guest who we hope will be bringing along his OpenMoko phone - the Linux geek's equivalent to the iPhone (albeit it doesn't quite make calls yet!). 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 1

RTC Alarm Wakeup
by Barry Samuels 13 Mar '08

13 Mar '08

kernel 2.6.23 I want to be able to start one of my machines with RTC Wakeup Alarm but it isn't working and I've just found out why. If I cd into /sys/class/rtc/rtc0 and set the wakeup time as follows: echo $(( $(cat since_epoch) + 300 )) > wakealarm and then look to see what is there: cat wakealarm I get something like 2059580189 (which converts to a time in April) whereas from 'cat since_epoch' I get someting like 1204369402 (which converts to the current date/time. Any ideas as to what may be happening here? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

5 9

Any problem/issue with running apache as a different user?
by Chris G 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

Would running apache as myself cause any serious security or other issues? (apache 2.2 on Fedora 8 if it's of any significance) It's on my home system where I am really the only user and apache is used mainly for 'local' browsing though there is one directory which I have opened up the apache permissions on so it's visible from the outside world. The only major issue I can see is that someone else browsing using apache *might* be able to see some of 'my' files that they wouldn't be able to see if apache was running as apache. Alternatively can anyone suggest a scriptable way of allowing myself to become user apache so that I can create files, do fuse mounts, etc. as apache? -- Chris Green

3 3

A question about the newgrp command
by Chris G 12 Mar '08

12 Mar '08

I need to change gid so that I can successfully execute a fusermount command (it's indirectly via encfs). If I don't do "newgroup fuse" then the mount fails with a permission denied error. However I want to wrap this up in a script and, as I have discovered when trying to do it, when you execute newgrp you get a new shell so the script that is running newgrp only continues when you exit from the newly created shell. While it may be inherently necessary for newgrp to execute a new shell I wish the man page had told me as it was rather confusing initially. So, how do I automate changing GID? All I actually want to do is:- newgrp fuse encfs /<encrypted directory> /<unencrypted mount> -- Chris Green

1 1

Converting to PDF
by Barrys linux mail 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '08

Hi I wonder if anyone knows of Linux software that works like Visage eXpert PDF converter. This works like a virtual printer as is puts the PDF printer in you printers folder and when selected will convert the file to PDF format. This is very handy when wanting to save Emails as you just print them to PDF eXpert and you have a saved PDF file. I could do with something like this for Ubuntu as i do not have a printer connected to my laptop. But would then be able to print out files saved from a Flash Drive on my Windows Desktop. Any Idea's? Barry

4 4

rsync and ssh
by Barry Samuels 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '08

Is it possible for me using a combination of rsync and ssh, on my computer, to copy files from a remote server which does have ssh access but doesn't have rsync or is it necessary to have rsync on both ends? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

3 2

[ALUG Announce] ALUG Christmas Dinner / 2nd Thurs Pub Meet
by Richard Lewis 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '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 ALUG Christmas Dinner (2006, we think) will be held at * 19:30 on Thursday 13th March * 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). This will coincide with the monthly 2nd Thursday Pub Meet. Anyone who would like to come for drinks later on will be more than welcome. If anyone would like to eat and hasn't yet booked, there a few places left so get in touch a.s.a.p. via the list! We look forward to seeing you there. Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- +-------------------------------------------------------+ |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

Re: [ALUG] Debian screen problem
by paul 10 Mar '08

10 Mar '08

I am assuming you really do have an ADI GD-790 monitor ? > Either that or there is something going horribly wrong with the nv > driver. > >I thought modern X could read the monitor's EDID >which should have at >least one detailed video timing for the preferred >mode. This is >particularly important for LCD screens which expect >lower pixel clocks >than the traditional CRT timings for the same modes. Yes it is an ADI GD-790 monitor Adding 'HorizSync 30.0 - 100.0' to the Xorg.conf file did the trick. It boots fine now into Desktop and I can change resolution via Desktop - Prefences - Screen Resolution. thanks wayne & tim Before that fix the desktop resolution the 1600x1200 85Hz setting gave a sort of virtual desktop. i.e not all the desktop was shown on screen but when the mouse reached the screen edges the desktop scrolled to reveal more. that exact resolution option isn't available now. only 1600x1200 75Hz. Was that scrolling a bug or a separate feature of Gnome thats now turned off? Best wishes Paul A __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. The World's Favourite Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

1 0

Perl
by Ruth Bygrave 09 Mar '08

09 Mar '08

I want to use the mobiperl library for creating/modifying Mobipocket ebooks, as there is no executable for this except for Windows. The mobiperl page asked me to download a number of modules from CPAN, including Palm::PDB, Image::Size and some XML stuff. Tried installing these as asked using install. These seem to run correctly up to the point where they ask to use make and then throw an error and cannot complete. What stupid thing am I doing? Perl version: Perl 5.8.8 (which is apparently the version I should use. OS version: Darwin (unix version for OS X) Regards, Ruth

2 1

Debian starting problem - looking for help/advice
by paul 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

Hi all I'm fairly new to Linux and am installing Debian as a desktop. However the system booting stops at black screen "input signal out of range". pressing 'crtl-alt- +' takes you to normal GUI desktop. I haven't been able to find the solution on the net. Is the system not loading my AGP driver properly or is it an X-org problem? If I try to change resolution from the desktop it reverts to black screen "input signal out of range again. the section of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file reads Section "Device" Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 420]" Driver "nv" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "ADI GD-790T" Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "nVidia Corporation NV17 [GeForce4 MX 420]" Monitor "ADI GD-790T" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 1 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 4 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 8 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 15 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "720x450" "720x400" "640x640" "640x480" EndSubSection EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Default Screen" InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" InputDevice "Configured Mouse" EndSection Section "DRI" Mode 0666 EndSection Best wishes Paul Adams PS I came along to the last ALUG meeting at the Reindeer. Paul, 40ish, brown hair ponytail, bit overweight, drinking diet Coke, didn't say much!! __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. The World's Favourite Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html

3 3

Does anyone else find the default LS_COLORS settings poor?
by Chris G 07 Mar '08

07 Mar '08

I've just upgraded to Fedora 8 (from Fedora 7) and once again I have to disable the ls alias that automatically gives coloured directory listings. I really can't understand how the default values can work on any normal terminal! :-) The colours that I *can* read OK are the (bright?) blue used for directories and the (bright?) magenta used for graphics files. However I *can't* really read bright green (it's a .doc file in my case) nor (even worse) bright cyan which is used for symbolic links. On a white (well actually a very pale grey in my case, grey90 I think) background few of the bright colours work well at all so why does the default use them, surely most people use a light background nowadays. Anyway from a Google search it seems that the defaults work even less well on a dark background. Does anyone have a more sensible set of colours that they could share? I don't think I want/need any of the file type colouring but colours for directories, symbolic links (especially broken ones) and a few other things might be useful. If not I think I'll go and design my own. -- Chris Green

3 5

Question for the wikimasters
by MJ Ray 06 Mar '08

06 Mar '08

Anyone want to/able to produce a similar linking for the ALUG wiki? If so, please announce it here and I'll tell lugmaster. -- MJR Message-ID: <47CFED80.5080903(a)ppcis.org> From: Brian Ronald <brian(a)ppcis.org> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 13:11:28 -0000 In the spirit of inter-lug cooperation, I've produced a set of interwiki links. Alas, this is designed for MediaWiki installations, but hopefully many of you can benefit from a reduction of duplicated effort on Wiki articles. http://www.tyneside.lug.org.uk/wiki/Image:Lug_interwiki.sql This link will show the *effect* of the interwiki links, as well as provide a text file of SQL commands for anybody who wants to include these links in their own MediaWiki installation. I might well have missed some. If other wikis show up or change over time, feel free to let me know; I don't mind maintaining this file. The Midlands LUGs wiki has been represented though the Northants URI; theirs was the prettier. Let me know, Midlanders, if you'd rather a different URI was used. Brian Ronald Tyneside

1 0

E-mail, IMAP and Accessing Mail from Anywhere
by Steve Fosdick 04 Mar '08

04 Mar '08

What do people here do to access e-mail when away from their normal PC? Web mail services seem to be very popular these days. Another solution that occurs to me is to use IMAP. I have already set up a local IMAP server so I can easily switch mail clients without having to worry about changes to their mailbox formats. On the subject of mail clients, has anyone had any success at persuading any of mail clients that they should not attempt to access any mail directly, with the exception of any cache, i.e. not attempt to read the default mail spool and keep the "Inbox", "Sent" and "Drafts" folders on an IMAP server? Regards, Steve.

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ALUG Unannual Dinner in Norwich
by Elisabeth Fosbrooke-Brown 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

Second call (Paul at the Reindeer is asking for numbers). Suffolk people would be *very* welcome. These people have booked: Definitely: Robrob, Eccles + Kaz, MTM, Srdjan, RichardL, DaveR, Stilvoid, Paul_C Possibly: Sio + Kat, Adam Vague hope of one other, if he's near Norwich at the time. After the meal we'll continue with the usual ALUG Second Thursday. -- e

2 1

Thunderbird as webmail server
by Mark Rogers 03 Mar '08

03 Mar '08

Does anyone know if there's anything around to make Thunderbird behave as a webmail server? In other words I want to connect to thunderbird with a web browser to read the email in my onbox (and other folders). This is for remote access to my email, given that TB is running permanently (and is as much about accessing old email as new). If not it seems like something that ought to be possible as an extension, something of a rainy day project, but I can't think of good Google query to find out if something already exists. There are plenty of plugins to allow TV to collect mail from a webmail server, but that's the opposite of what I want. -- 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 9

ADSL "Embarras de Richesse", now, how to configure it?
by Chris G 01 Mar '08

01 Mar '08

I have just had our BT business line ADSL enabled, going for their "BT Business Total Broadband" Option 1 means we'll probably pay no more to BT in total (we had a BT business phone line anyway) and now we have a backup ADSL connection. It was scheduled to start working on 3rd March but I plugged in their supplied router today and it all burst into life. I have to say it was dead easy and the router (a 2Wire 2700HGV) and its software seem pretty good. The 'advanced' tabs in the router set up seem to give one a fair amount of control. So now to my "Embarras de Richesse" dilemma, I now have two ADSL connections, what's the best way to set it up? I have two similar ADSL routers each providing about the same bandwidth (both 448kb/s up, both around 4Mb/s down), what's the best way of using them to full advantage. There are some obvious things I have to do:- Change the address of one of the routers so they're not both 192.168.1.254 Turn off DHCP on at least one of the routers (unless I split subnets, see below) But I can arrange things various ways and I'm not at all sure which will work best.... Leave everything on one subnet (192.168.1.xxx) or split into two subnets? At the moment I can't see any really significant advantages in splitting subnets and it would be quite a lot of hassle I suspect so, unless anyone can come up with some really good reason for doing it, I don't think this is a sensible option. We have two main users, it *feels* like it would make sense to use one ADSL router as the default gateway for one user and the other ADSL router as the default for the other user. Then set up so that the 'other' router is the alternative gateway. Are there any downsides to this approach? I don't think there's any easy way to use both routers from one system (to use up all the bandwidth) is there? At least there isn't without a lot of hassle. Any advice and ideas gratefully received. -- Chris Green

2 4

Error about gnome-terminal configuration at startup - how to diagnose?
by Chris G 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

I'm getting a pop-up error when I start up my Fedora 7 desktop which says:- An error occurred while loading or saving configuration information for gnome-terminal. Some of your configuration settings may not work properly. If I click the "Details" button it tells me:- Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: IOR file '/tmp/gconfd-chris/lock/ior' not opened successfully, no gconfd located: No such file or directory 2: Failed to convert IOR '' to an object reference) Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ for information. (Details - 1: Failed to convert IOR '' to an object reference 2: Failed to convert IOR '' to an object reference) The "Details" really are duplicated like that so I'm not convinced that they're really telling the truth. I have looked at http://www.gnome.org/projects/gconf/ but it doesn't seem to say anything directly relevant. I have been mucking about with my network setup, changing the (private range) IP addresses of my Fedora machine and the router but it's all working OK (web, ssh, etc.) apart from the above gnome-terminal error. Any ideas anyone? -- Chris Green

2 2

Transfering Live CD to hard disk
by Mark Rogers 29 Feb '08

29 Feb '08

I have a bootable Linux (Debian-based) LiveCD, that I want to duplicate onto a hard disk so that it boots from that instead. The hard disk can (should) be mounted read-only, although a writeable swap partition might be useful. The LiveCD is a web kiosk (www.webconverger.com). The reason I want to transfer to hard disk is so that I can mount the disk read-write, make a few changes, then remount it read-only. As a read only disk it can be "reset" by restarting the PC, the whole point is that no user data gets stored. Any ideas how I'd do this? -- 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 5

Does this "cpu MHz" figure seem right?
by Chris G 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

On my system /proc/cpuinfo contains:- processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 6 cpu MHz : 1632.000 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 0 cpu cores : 2 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4897.97 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: processor : 1 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 15 model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz stepping : 6 cpu MHz : 1632.000 cache size : 4096 KB physical id : 0 siblings : 2 core id : 1 cpu cores : 2 fpu : yes fpu_exception : yes cpuid level : 10 wp : yes flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm bogomips : 4895.38 clflush size : 64 cache_alignment : 64 address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual power management: Should I be seeing more than that 1632.000 value for cpu MHz or is the nominal 2.40GHz figure for Core 2 Duo 6600 just that a 'nominal' CPU speed? -- Chris Green

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