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Samba problem
by Chris G 13 Oct '07

13 Oct '07

One of the few remaining problems I have with my Fedora 7 replacement of Slackware 11 is that I can't get Samba to work. First I tried setting up Samba with the Fedora GUI and that just produced total invisibility, i.e. windows machines couldn't see anything. Then I copied my Slackware smb.conf file across to the Fedora installation (and restarted NMB and SMB), now my windows machines can 'see' the Samba server - they recognise the machine name - but I still can't connect. It seems like Samba isn't recognising my password. What's the best way to diagnose this? -- Chris Green

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LVM documentation and/or basic help wanted
by Chris G 13 Oct '07

13 Oct '07

My system has two physical disks. When I installed Fedora 7 I gave it one of the two disks all to itself (having copied the data I wanted elsewhere). Fedora 7 uses LVM2 to manage its disks. Now the installation seems to be well sorted and stable I'd like to use LVM for the other disk as well, it's currently partitioned the 'old fashioned' way. I can (hopefully!) manage the issues of saving the data on the old disk before splatting it with LVM but I need some guidance on the best ways to use LVM - i.e. how to split up the disk etc. Currently Fedora has made the one physical disk it has into one Physical Volume and has assigned it all to one Volume Group. Presumably I'll make the other disk (when empty) into a second Physical Volume. But then I wonder what to do next. Should I add the new Physical Volume to the existing Volume Group or would I be better off adding a new Volume Group? What are the pros and cons of the two approaches? Then should I split the Volume Group into more than the two logical volumes it has at the moment? Currently it's just a huge / and a 2Gb swap. /home is on the 'old' disk at present. Would I be better putting at least /home into a separate Logical Volume (I think the answer to that is 'yes')? Currently /etc/fstab is as follows:- /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 / ext3 defaults 1 1 LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2 tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0 devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0 sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0 proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 /dev/sda1 /slackroot ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/sda3 /home ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/sda4 /scratch ext3 defaults 1 2 /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap swap defaults 0 0 /dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0 One other issue that occurs to me is that there must (I guess) be something on /dev/sda that tells grub that /boot is /dev/sdb1 and I'm a bit worried that this might get splatted and stop the system booting. Or is the boot block sacrosanct from lvm/fdisk etc.? I can understand the basics of LVM, i.e. how to do things, but it would be useful to have a 'why' document. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] HTML question - how to create a sequence of varying indents
by David Reynolds 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

On 12 Oct 2007, at 7:42 pm, Chris G wrote: > I want to lay a list of items out as follows:- > > item1 > item2 > item3 > item4 > item5 Chris, This should be fairly easy to work out searching google or reading the html/css specifications or even just some trial and error! Thanks, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 12 Oct '07

12 Oct '07

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 again next week (Monday 15th October) 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. This month's meeting is mainly social -we're taking a night off from tutorials, as we've had some crackers recently (tho as a follow-up to last week, I'll probably show off the new seamless windows feature in the latest GPL version of VirtualBox, which allows you to run Windows apps directly on a native Linux desktop. 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

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New Member
by Neil Cordner 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

Hi all, Thought I'd join your mailing list in the hope to advance my knowledge of Linux. I'm fairly new to Linux and I'm totally fed up with Windoze. I use Fedora and have found it quite a good learning curve. I also hope to come along on thursday evening. Neil

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Open Office and Word
by Bev Nicolson 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

I sent a document to someone recently and their machine kept crashing when they tried to put changes into it. (They use MS.) I've not had this problem before and I'm wondering exactly how compatible Open Office and Word are. What's your experience? 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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Preventing ouput mail from shell script
by Jenny Hopkins 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

Hullo there, I'm trying to prevent a very simple script in cron.hourly from sending mail when it executes. The script consists of mount -a > /dev/null I hoped the output would be directed to a black hole, but it sends a mail every hour as below. /etc/cron.hourly/checkmounts: mount: knossos:/home already mounted or /nfshome busy mount: xios:/home already mounted or /nfshome-xios busy run-parts: /etc/cron.hourly/checkmounts exited with return code 32 Is the only way to prevent mail output to make the script more complicated with exit codes and whatnot? Thanks, Jenny

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Why does Firefox always use UTF-8 for this page?
by Ross Fenning 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

On 10/10/2007, Greg Thomas <Greg(a)thethomashome.co.uk> wrote: > On 10/10/2007, Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> wrote: > > On Wed, Oct 10, 2007 at 09:11:37AM +0100, Greg Thomas wrote: > > > > > > What you showed originally was the HTML setting the charset, with the line > > > > > > <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> > > > > > > This is embedded in the HTML, and overwritten by any content-type > > > presented in the HTTP headers, which is completely different. > > > > > > What is the CGI script written in? It probably has a line something like > > > > > > print "Content-Type: text/html\n"; > > > > > > change that to > > > > > > print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1\n"; > > > > > There's a line in the config file:- > > > > py["locale"] = "en_US.iso-8859-1" > > > > ... and there's also:- > > > > py["blog_encoding"] = "iso-8859-1" > > > > ... but the output from the browser is still obstinately defaulted to > > UTF-8. > > Is there a way you can examine the headers that the CGI script is > presenting without Apache getting in the way - with Perl you could > just run the script from the command line, and it would send the > output to stdout. Check and see if there is a content-type header > specifying the right charset. I suspect not. Googling turns up > http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/cgi-intro.html which suggests > that the header is output explicitly ('print "Content-Type: > text/html"'). I use pyblosxom too and the issue there is that it's not just the one script for me; it's a whole series of python files and the content-type header is outputted in a dynamic way, i.e. there's no obvious place you can add in the encoding to the end of the header line. I tested with wget and my installation also seems to be sending charset=UTF-8 despite the pyblosxom config saying py["blog_encoding"] = "iso-8859-1". Either pyblosxom is ignoring it or it's not sending one at all and Apache is jumping in with the default charset. Perhaps pyblosxom needs some hacking to send the right headers. I tried to run it from the command line, but the script is too clever: when it runs from the command line, it goes into an "installation verification system" where it checks it's installed correctly. It only outputs HTML when run as a cgi from what I can tell. Ross

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Why does Firefox always use UTF-8 for this page?
by Chris G 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

I have a web page which has a couple of special characters which are ISO-8859-1 encoded, 'View Source' shows that the header is as follows:- <head> <title>Chris Info</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://home.isbd.net/css/infowiki.css" type="text/css"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/xml" title="RSS" href="/blog/rss2.xml"> <link rel="top" href="/" title="pyblosxom.sourceforge.net"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> ... but when started up Firefox always sets the character encoding to "Unicode (UTF-8)" by default and to see the characters correctly I have to manually switch it to "Western (ISO-8859-1)". Is Firefox subtly trying to push me in the 'right' direction or, more realistically, what am I doing wrong? I have tried setting things to default to ISO-8859-1 in Firefox but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. -- Chris Green

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Re: [ALUG] Why does Firefox always use UTF-8 for this page?
by Matthew 10 Oct '07

10 Oct '07

> ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 19:10:03 +0100 > From: Chris G <cl(a)isbd.net> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Why does Firefox always use UTF-8 for this page? > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Message-ID: <20071009181003.GB59524@newred> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > On Tue, Oct 09, 2007 at 06:40:47PM +0100, Chris G wrote: ... > However I'd really prefer to > keep the default Charset as UTF-8 and change it to ISO-8859-1 for just > the /home/chris/webdev/info hierarchy. > > But how do I do it? Adding a .htaccess file with "AddCharset > ISO-8859-1 .rst .txtl" to the directory /home/chris/webdev/info > doesn't seem to do anything, but that doesn't surprise me really > because I don't think my browser ever sees that .rst file. I also > tried:- > > <Directory /var/www/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi> > AddCharset ISO-8859-1 .rst .txtl > AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1 > </Directory> I don't really understand the correspondence between your filesystem location and your URL-space one. Which are you trying to specify here? <Directory> is for filesystem locations, otherwise you want <Location>. As has been said, if it's a request to a CGI script you can set the headers in the script. You should probably do it that way if possible, because I'm sure headers set by CGI trump Apache's default Charset and I suspect also the specific sets. You may find that the script already sets a charset (CGI scripts are required to provide a Content-type: header, I think). Matthew

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Inserting a file into a telnet session
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Hi Folks, Maybe someone knows how to so this! Say I'm logged in to a remote host in a telnet session. At a certain point, I would like to send the contents of a text file to the other end (as if I'd typed them in by hand). OK, in principle I could do this by opening the file in another xterm, and using the mouse to paste the lines into my telnet session. But in this instance I don't want to do that. What I'd really like to do is to be able to "break out" of the direct connection between my keyboard and the far end, and issue a local command to squirt said file down the line via the telnet session. And then break back in again. There doesn't seem to be any method of doing this with normal telnet (as far as I can make out from 'man telnet'). Any suggestions? (After all, one used to be able to do this kind of thing with kermit, when on dial-up via a serial port!) With thanks, and best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 08-Oct-07 Time: 18:09:37 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Flashplayer installation
by Bev Nicolson 09 Oct '07

09 Oct '07

Having trawled through the Ubuntu forums I came across this which looked like it would work to install Adobe Flashplayer (on Ubuntu Dapper 6.06LTS.) << First remove the old paste this in terminal sudo apt-get remove flashplugin-nonfree rm ~/.mozilla/plugins/*flash* then download and save the new to the desktop click the link and get Option 1: .tar.gz http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/downl...ShockwaveFlash now paste these commands in the terminal one line at a time and hit enter cd Desktop tar -xvzf install_flash_player_9_linux.tar.gz sudo mv install_flash_player_9_linux/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ sudo mv install_flash_player_9_linux/flashplayer.xpt /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/ >> It's unpacked it and put an installation file on the desktop. However, when I get to the last line it announces that there is no destination file given as follows: mv: missing destination file operand after `install_flash_player_9_linux/flashplayerxpt/usr/lib/firefox/plugins/' I cannot find any reference to Firefox plugins within my Firefox browser (version 1.5.0.12) and this is where I imagine they would want to go, so I'm assuming I've missed something. Any help gratefully received. 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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Exim4 virtual hosts
by Richard Lewis 08 Oct '07

08 Oct '07

Hello ALUG, I mentioned this on #alug the other day, but I thought I'd just check to see if anyone else has any ideas regarding it - especially as I can go into more detail here. My mail setup on my server has broken. I'm using Exim's virtual host method to forward mail sent to the server to a couple of different places. In /etc/exim4/virtual I have files for the domains: /etc/exim4/virtual +- ariada.uea.ac.uk +- sara.uea.ac.uk +- studios.uea.ac.uk which contain rules like: admin : richard.lewis(a)uea.ac.uk * : :fail: Unknown recipient. Please direct general comments to comments(a)studios.uea.ac.uk I have the necessary config in 350_exim4-config_vdom_aliases and I have: domainlist local_domains = @:localhost:dsearch;/etc/exim4/virtual in 01_exim4-config_listmacrosdefs. I've configured Exim using dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config answering like this: 1) internet site; mail is sent and received directly using SMTP 2) System mail name: musariada.mus.uea.ac.uk 3) IP-addresses to listen on for incoming SMTP connections: 139.222.208.19 4) Other destinations for which mail is accepted: studios.uea.ac.uk; sara.uea.ac.uk; ariada.uea.ac.uk 5) Domains to relay mail for: none 6) Machines to relay mail for: none 7) Keep number of DNS-queries minimal: no 8) Delivery method for local mail: mbox format in /var/mail/ 9) Split configuration into small files? yes When I try to send mail to, e.g., events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk I get the following error in /var/log/exim4/mainlog 2007-10-08 10:07:54 no IP address found for host MAIN_RELAY_NETS (during SMTP connection from mailgate5.uea.ac.uk [139.222.130.185]) 2007-10-08 10:07:54 H=mailgate5.uea.ac.uk [139.222.130.185] F=<richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> rejected RCPT <events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk>: Unrouteable address and I get an "undeliverable" message from the UEA mail server (see below). Does anyone know why my Exim is not forwarding mail correctly? I'm afraid I don't really understand email and consequently I don't know exactly what's wrong here. When a message is sent to, e.g., events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk, does it go to some uea.ac.uk server first (mailgate5.uea.ac.uk?) and then does this server attempt to begin an SMTP conversation with my server? If so, is my server engaging with it correctly? And why is my server rejecting mail? (/Is/ my server rejecting mail?) Is it because it can't forward it to richard.lewis(a)uea.ac.uk? If not, why not? When I first set this up (in June, I think) I'm sure it used to work. Someone on #alug suggested that sending mail to canonical domain names (which studios.uea.ac.uk is) is not a good idea? Could this be the problem? But if it is, why do I see evidence of a connection in my Exim log? Surely if it was not possible to send mail to CNAME domains, it wouldn't even begin a connection? Any information would be very much appreciated. 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 | +-------------------------------------------------------+ > Return-Path: <> > X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.1 (2007-05-02) on aquila > X-Spam-Level: > X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 > autolearn=ham version=3.2.1 > Delivered-To: unknown > Received: from mail.messagingengine.com (66.111.4.52) by aquila > with IMAP4; 08 Oct 2007 09:10:04 -0000 > Received: from compute1.internal (compute1.internal > [10.202.2.41]) by store11m.internal (Cyrus v2.3.9-fmsvn12891) > with LMTPA; Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:07:56 -0400 > X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.3 > X-Resolved-to: richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk > X-Delivered-to: richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk > X-Mail-from: > Received: from mx2.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.201]) > by compute1.internal (LMTPProxy); Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:07:56 > -0400 Received: from mailgate5.uea.ac.uk (mailgate5.uea.ac.uk > [139.222.130.185]) by mx2.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with > ESMTP id D97521DE10A for <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk>; Mon, 8 > Oct 2007 05:07:55 -0400 (EDT) Received: from eximuea by > mailgate5.uea.ac.uk with local (Exim 4.50) id 1Ieoag-0003rn-Fe > for richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk; Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:07:54 +0100 > X-Failed-Recipients: events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk > Auto-Submitted: auto-generated > From: Mail Delivery System <Mailer-Daemon(a)uea.ac.uk> > To: richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk > Subject: Mail delivery failed: returning message to sender > Message-Id: <E1Ieoag-0003rn-Fe(a)mailgate5.uea.ac.uk> > Date: Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:07:54 +0100 > X-Length: 3185 > X-UID: 1742 > > This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. > > A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of > its recipients. This is a permanent error. The following > address(es) failed: > > events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk > SMTP error from remote mailer after RCPT > TO:<events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk>: host musariada.mus.uea.ac.uk > [139.222.208.19]: > 550 Unrouteable address > > ------ This is a copy of the message, including all the headers. > ------ > > Return-path: <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> > Received: from [139.222.131.82] (helo=ueams4) > by mailgate5.uea.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.50) > id 1IeoaU-0003mk-AU > for events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk; Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:07:54 +0100 > Received: from [139.222.208.38] (helo=rjl.mus.uea.ac.uk) > by ueams4 with esmtp (Exim 4.66) > (envelope-from <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk>) > id 1IeoaU-00046I-6a > for events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk; Mon, 08 Oct 2007 10:07:42 +0100 > From: Richard Lewis <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> > To: events(a)studios.uea.ac.uk > Subject: TEST > Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 10:07:40 +0100 > User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 > MIME-Version: 1.0 > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="utf-8" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Content-Disposition: inline > Message-Id: <200710081007.41262.richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> > X-UEA-Spam-Score: -2.8 > X-UEA-Spam-Level: -- > X-UEA-Spam-Flag: NO > > TEST > -- > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > 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 | > +-------------------------------------------------------+

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Postfix problems - local email has stopped
by Barry Samuels 08 Oct '07

08 Oct '07

I was trying to enable SASL support for Postfix but couldn't get it to work and have now tried to disable it again and although outside mail still seems to be arriving local mail is stuck in the queue. Postfix -p gives: -Queue ID- --Size-- ----Arrival Time---- -Sender/Recipient------- 0C8EF34FA4 1892 Mon Oct 8 14:02:04 logcheck@mydomain (mail transport unavailable) barry@mydomain Nothing I've done will shift this. If I restart Postfix I get this in syslog: postfix/master[9161]: daemon started -- version 2.4.5, configuration etc/postfix postfix/postfix-script[9182]: refreshing the Postfix mail system postfix/master[9161]: reload configuration /etc/postfix postfix/qmgr[9188]: 0C8EF34FA4: from=<logcheck@mydomain>, size=1892, nrcpt=1 (queue active) postfix/smtp[9198]: fatal: garbage after numerical service in server description: [127.0.0.1]:10024 smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd postfix/qmgr[9188]: warning: private/smtp-amavis socket: malformed response postfix/qmgr[9188]: warning: transport smtp-amavis failure -- see a previous warning/fatal/panic logfile record for the problem description postfix/qmgr[9188]: warning: connect to transport retry: No such file or directory postfix/master[9161]: warning: process /usr/lib/postfix/smtp pid 9198 exit status 1 postfix/master[9161]: warning: /usr/lib/postfix/smtp: bad command startup -- throttling Some emergency help would be appreciated. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 07 Oct '07

07 Oct '07

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 "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 11th October. It will probably be my last for the foreseeable future as I'm moving back to Northern Ireland in a couple of weeks. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2007-05-ALUG/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2006-02-ALUG/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for - the most recent images are from the meet a few months back. We now have an area reserved for us, so should be easier to find. As you enter through the main door you'll see a small set of steps ahead of you - the area just up those steps and to the left is where we'll be. J. -- ] http://www.earth.li/~noodles/ [] "It only counts as a lie-in if you [ ] PGP/GPG Key @ the.earth.li [] don't get dressed before tea [ ] via keyserver, web or email. [] time." -- Steve Willison [ ] RSA: 4DC4E7FD / DSA: 5B430367 [] [ ----- 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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Determining configure options from debian source packages
by Mark Rogers 07 Oct '07

07 Oct '07

How do I determine the options used for ./configure when a .deb package was built? I want to build a new package from a newer version of the software and make it as close to a drop-in replacement as possible, so getting the ./configure options right is presumably important. As a broader question, is there a generally good way to do this type of thing? I'm currently planning to get the ./configure right, then make / checkinstall -D and see what I get. The package in question is dspam (3.6.8 in repos, 3.8 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

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Stopping Apache running scripts from writeable directories
by Mark Rogers 07 Oct '07

07 Oct '07

Is it possible to prevent Apache from running a script from a writeable directory? It's common these days to have some writeable directories with (for example) CMS packages like Joomla, which use them for uploaded images etc. However I have a server that's been exploited through a badly written plugin which used the normal upload mechanism to upload the script, then ran the script directly via an HTTP request to the uploaded file. That script was used to send spam, so despite the limited write permissions it was restricted to it was still able to do a lot of harm. Any of my own code which requires this always puts the writeable directories outside docroot but that doesn't seem to be an option with Joomla and others like her. I appreciate that they could still be "included" through abuse of a badly written script in a read-only directory, but that's at least an order of magnitude harder. I know that the ability to upload new templates/plugins/etc would break if I achieve what I'm asking, but it's no big deal having a script which adds temporary write permissions whilst installing a module and removes them afterwards. Allowing end users to upload avatars and other images seems to be the way of the world these days though. -- 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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Java plugins
by Yvonne Everett 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

Hi I've got an application that runs through a web browser. While this works fine through IE I cant get the correct plugin to get it working through Firefox on Linux. The plugin for IE is: jre-1_5_0-windows-i586.exe Through Adept (I'm running Kubuntu Edgy) I've searched for "jre" and have selected "sun-java5-jre" to install but this comes back with errors committing changes and doesnt complete. Any suggestions most welcome!!?? -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com

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OT: Possible web server setup work for interested parties
by Ashley Howes 03 Oct '07

03 Oct '07

Hi, I know a few of you in ALUG have experience setting up web servers on a commerical basis. I run my own web development company and have the need for the configuration of a dedicated box. The box will run a single domain with Apache / PHP / mySQL. I need to find someone who has the experience to configure a Ubuntu-based box. Tasks include setting up the domain, DNS, setup mail/SMTP, make changes to Apache config to possibily extend script execution times, etc. If you can help, please email me off-list. Please let me know rates, experience and availability. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide. -- Ashley

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Re: [ALUG] LinuXmas Celebrations
by samwise 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

This time to the list!! On 29/09/2007, David Reynolds <david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk> wrote: > Peter, > > ALUG Christmas meals seem to traditionally happen early in the year > after the Christmas in question - mainly because it's difficult to > book somewhere and organise everyone around the Christmas period. > > Last Christmas' celebration, for example, was a meal earlier this > year at the Reindeer. > > Thanks, > > David David, I'm all for doing something in the new year, if that's easier for people's diaries. You've missed the big point tho ... we're now at two ends of the region. :) Understandable that it's been traditional of late to hold it at the Reindeer, but now we have two groups do we want: a) two separate events (open to all) or b) one combined event (either located in Ipswich or Norwich* with the expectation of travel, or located somewhere between the two) On 29/09/2007, Venura Mendis <venuram(a)gmail.com> wrote: > sounds like a plan pete. happy with go with separate or single big > event. I havent done a night out in norwich! a day out also sounds > cool. Not being v helpful here but am happy either way Nope, support is great - sounds like at least one other person down here would be willing to travel north, which is a good thing to know! If noone else from our end speaks up, I've no problem with us just going up to the belated Xmas meal in Norwich in the New Year ... Peter. * Assuming that the Ipswich meets continue strongly through the next year too, we could alternate years i.e. one year, Ipswich, one year Norwich.

4 6

Where does mysql put its databases - and what are they called?
by Chris G 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

I need to find a database! :-) On my Slackware installation I had (well, still have if I start it) a database called 'addresses'. I want to copy it across to the Fedora installation so that mysql on Fedora can see the database. However I can't find the database. I've tried 'locate addresses' but nothing there looks remotely like a database file (or files). I suspect that mysql buries all of its databases in one big file somewhere but what's it called? Thinking about it maybe what I need to do is boot up the Slackware installation and export the addresses database from mysql, then import it into the Fedora installation. Alternatively maybe I could just copy the whole of the mysql data across over the top of the Fedora files which only have the basics and a root user at the moment. -- Chris Green

4 4

Using a virtual machine to build packages
by Mark Rogers 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

I sometimes find I need to build applications from source for use on a live server. I don't like the idea of installing build tools on the server, so I want to create a virtual machine on my desktop to build the applications so all I need to do is install them on the server. As a specific example, I have an Ubuntu-based mail server using postfix (installed from repositories). However, I need to add virtual mailbox quota support, using the patches here: http://vda.sourceforge.net/ So my theory is that I can create a new Ubuntu VM, install the postfix source package and compile tools, apply the patch, then build the .deb from that to install on the live server, replacing the version in the repositories. Is that a sensible approach? If yes, although I have a rough idea what is needed I'm on the edge of my knowledge. Once I have the source installed and patched (assuming that the instructions with the patch help me get that far!) how do I then build the .deb, and how to I install it so that it doesn't conflict with the existing package from the repositories? PS: Rereading the above before posting, it might come across that I'm asking for help setting up the VM - that bit I can do. It's the step sideways from a complete binary install from repositories which is making me nervous! Mark Rogers

3 8

How to deal with a dependency on an older library?
by Chris G 02 Oct '07

02 Oct '07

I have /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 installed on my system. Firefox (in the 2.0.0.7 version downloaded from mozilla.com) needs /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 to work. Is there any reasonably simple workaround for this problem? I know one *could* build from source but that sounds like rather hard work for Firefox. -- Chris Green

3 4

Re: [ALUG] Flashplayer installation
by Bev Nicolson 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Thanks, Richard. I'll give that a whirl. Btw, I knew someone would ask me why I was installing it. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Richard Lewis" <richardlewis(a)fastmail.co.uk> > To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Flashplayer installation > Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 14:07:45 +0100 > > > On Monday 01 October 2007 13:37:41 Bev Nicolson wrote: > > Having trawled through the Ubuntu forums I came across this which > > looked like it would work to install Adobe Flashplayer (on Ubuntu > > Dapper 6.06LTS.) > > > Are you trying to upgrade to a later version of Flash? > > One possible method may be to download the .deb from Debian unstable > which is version 9 and try installing that instead: > > http://packages.debian.org/sid/flashplugin-nonfree > > Once you've downloaded it, go > $ sudo dpkg -i flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.48.0.2_i386.deb > > and if it complains about dependencies you could try forcing it: > $ sudo dpkg --force-depends -i > flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.48.0.2_i386.deb > > Otherwise, regarding the .tar.gz file from from Adobe: I notice it > has a script in it called "flashplayer-installer". You could try > running it: > > $ install_flash_player_9_linux/flashplayer-installer > > Finally, also check out: > > http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ > > and > > http://www.tola.me.uk/blog/2007/09/21/flash_is_killing_the_web > > 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 | > +-------------------------------------------------------+ > > _______________________________________________ > 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

nspluginwrapper - any experience here?
by Chris G 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

I'm trying to get nspluginwrapper to make sense to me, and so far I'm not having much luck. I'm running Fedora 7 64-bit and Firefox 64-bit. nspluginwrapper is supposed to make it possible to run 32-bit plugins for a 64-bit browser. The plugin I really want is the Adobe PDF plugin nppdf.so. I just can't get it to work properly. It appears to work and creates a 'wrapped' plugin called npwrapper.nppdf.so but that doesn't appear as an available plugin when I go to about:plugins. Has anyone got the PDF plugin working with 64-bit Firefox? -- Chris Green

1 0

SYLEHAM KIT MEETING... OR Walsham-le-Willows
by James Freer 01 Oct '07

01 Oct '07

Message: 8 Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:15:08 +0100 From: samwise <samwise(a)bagshot-row.org> Subject: Re: [ALUG] Syleham Kit Meeting To: "ALUG - mailing list" <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> Message-ID: <c9ae1fc80709280915l5e34d695nf5be5a4fe119f8d8(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Hi, At the last Ipswich meet, James repeated his request for a kit meet, though he's less keen on travelling to Syleham. Is there any interest in a kit meet in the near future? James was suggesting that if only the Suffolk-dwellers would like one, then we could perhaps host one of our own somewhere in the Ipswich area. I'm less keen on that, as last time I went, I enjoyed meeting the wider members of ALUG I don't normally get the chance to see in person. Plus, I think with car sharing that petrol costs etc. shouldn't be a major factor (I'd be happy to drive 3 or 4 people). So, is there any interest in a kit meet some time soon? If so, would you prefer Syleham, or a more local venue? Peter. Hi Folks I met Peter in Tesco just as i was clearing the last of my junk from my old garage there. His first paragraph wasn't quite what i said. I've driven across to Ipswich to meet folk but i get back rather late... i currently look after my old mother and she gets rather confused these days and the returning late is a bit of an issue. I'd be delighted if some folk wanted a meeting at Syleham as it's only about 10 miles for me. I get the impression that folk aren't keen to travel due to the cost... and then there is the cost of the Syleham venue to meet. What i did say was that social meetings are great but i'm keen on learning as much as i can on Linux which is only possible at a venue where we have tables etc and can lay out all our 'kit'. The impression i've got is folk don't want to travel to Syleham and would rather have a meeting in their area i.e. Ipswich or Norwich. However, Syleham is central for all perhaps and that's why it was chosen in the past. A FREE VENUE - is a possibility i.e. where i live in Walsham-le-Willows. We have an Annexe/summer house beyond the garage 10ft x 30ft which is my 'office'.[No comments on proper units of measurement please... the EU have now decided that the UK doesn't have to go metric by 2012!]. Plenty of room now that i've got shot of the junk. I don't use wireless but have broadband with an 8 port ethernet hub and shortly homeplug. This week two of the sliding windows are having new sills but after that... i've got two large dining tables in there - plenty of room for 10-12 folk (or 2/3 car loads). I don't know how long kit-meetings have been in the past but we could make a day/morning/afternoon of it - as long as folk want. Not sure that i could promise a meal for that many but certainly tea/coffee. A pub is just up the road if wanted. Ample parking two doors down in the village car park (free). If well planned - a kit meeting should be worthwhile with all folk going away having got answers to what they wanted to know! I've got two spare machines for experimenting with... james

2 1

LinuXmas Celebrations
by samwise 29 Sep '07

29 Sep '07

Hi, That time of year is rapidly approaching, and the pre-booking season is upon us. Does anyone fancy doing something with the LUG for Christmas? We could have a grand get-everyone-together-somewhere bash, and toast the health of ALUG. That might take some organising, and whether it's a central location or in Ipswich / Norwich, a good proportion of people might have to travel and arrange lifts home (if it's a boozy celebration). Alternatively, we could keep the divide going and just have separate events (if on separate nights, that gives some the opportunity to attend both!). Scale-wise, I was thinking of just going for a meal and maybe a drink or too after - tho I'm open to suggestions. If you want to spend the day bowling, paintballing or karting, I'm sure we can arrange something! So, then. Who's up for it? Would you prefer a whole regional thing, or smaller county events? Plus any ideas on what you'd like to do ... Peter. P.S. Do I have to move this thread to the ALUG Social mailing list, bearing in mind there's a lot ppl not currently on there atm (which is why I raised it here first)?

4 3

Laptop without Operating System
by Nick Daniels 28 Sep '07

28 Sep '07

Hi I am looking for a cheap new laptop without O/S (£300-400) just for my Ham Radio I have found Novatech, does anyone know of, or have used any other company please? Kind Regards -Nick Daniels

5 6

Syleham Kit Meeting
by James Freer 28 Sep '07

28 Sep '07

Hi Folks If you recall our chat on IRC a while back about a Kit Meeting. The suggestion was that i should post some ideas. I've managed to get Ubunutu on my spare machine with no problems - gulp. I've got a Compaq P3 500mb and it seems to run ver 6.10 fine so far. Someone was going to throw it out so i gave it a 'good home'. I was wondering if folk would be interested in a meeting shortly... or series of meets. I've now got loads of questions on linux and on computing in general. While it's fine to chat on IRC i thought it would be nice to get folk together. Topics for a meeting from my point of view: * installing software and using wine [i've Ubuntu Hacks and Ubuntu Linux Bible by Von Hacks but it's still hard going] * pros/cons of different distros [I've chosen Ubuntu as there seemed to be more available for it but would like to see other distros that folk use] * compiling programs from source * computer architecture [modern m'boards for Linux... what's not needed for Linux i.e SATA etc] * using linux for websites to enhance security * internet connection via power sockets [can't remeber what these are called!] As a result of this post and responses we can get a meeting organised covering all needs and interests! james

2 1

[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 28 Sep '07

28 Sep '07

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 again next week (Monday 17th September) 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. This month's meeting includes a comprehensive overview of virtual machines - what they are, what they aren't and what are the options for available for use on a typical desktop system. 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

3 3

Fedora 7, not 100% stable, video drivers?
by Chris G 28 Sep '07

28 Sep '07

Well I'm getting on quite well with my Fedora 7 system. I now have Vmware Workstation 6.01 installed on it. There were problems with Vmware 6 on Fedora 7 but these seem to have been resolved by 6.01. As this is one of the reasons I moved to Fedora from Slackware (simple, no hassle, installation of Vmware) this is a big plus for me. It's also been very easy to get apache up and running, and printers, as regards ease of use, instllation, etc. Fedora 7 has been excellent. However!!! .... It's not 100% stable. I originally thought the problem was with the Gnome desktop so I have reverted to my FVWM window manager and, although that seems to have reduced the frequency of crashes it died in much the same way just now using FVWM. The display simply freezes, no diagnostics, no drama, nothing. Keyboard no longer works, cursor is frozen, can't switch to alternate console or anything. The kernel is still running because I can ping the system from my garage system but no services are running, i.e. I can't ssh into the system to shut it down or anything. The only way out is to hit the reset button. Subjectively it feels like the crash/hang occurs when there's a lot of graphic activity, for example the last crash occurred just as CUPS redrew the whole browser window after installing a printer. Other crashes also seem to be at graphically intensive times and the Gnome desktop does work the graphics harder than fvwm so that might explain why it dies more often using Gnome. There's absolutely nothing in /var/log/messages, there isn't a syslog. The video hardware is Nvidia and Fedora 7 isn't using the same Nvidia drivers that Slackware did. With Slackware I had to compile/install the Nvidia driver myself (downloaded from Nvidia) but the Fedora installation recognised the card and has drivers, the xorg.conf file says:- Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "nv" EndSection Does anyone know if there are any stability problems with the "nv" driver? Would I be better off getting the latest Nvidia supplied one? I'll do some Google searching on this front but any comments would be welcome. -- Chris Green

2 4

pc for sale
by Richard Bensley 28 Sep '07

28 Sep '07

PC for sale: -Core2Duo E6000 4MB -2GB RAM (2x Corsair Twin XMS Pro) -Geforce 7950GT 512MB -2 x 200GB SATAII Maxtor -Samsung DVD-RW+/- SATA -Asus P5B Deluxe Motherboard -Creative Audigy 2 PCI sound card -Hauppage PVR 150 MCE -All inside a MASSIVE Chieftec towercase, plenty of room for expansion, ALL 7 fan bays filled with quiet silverstone fans. (http://www.chieftec.com/ba-02b-b-b.html) -580w Taga modular PSU She's lean, she's mean, previously used for Video and 3D, but the internal drives never saw much use other than OS and software. (NOTE: no monitor, mouse, or keyboard) £450 ono excluding delivery, I am 20 miles outside of Norwich down the A146 in Loddon if you want to pick it up. work phone: 01502 716622 +2371 mobile: 07884112398 Cheers Richard

1 0

Truncating text files at non-ascii
by Mark Rogers 27 Sep '07

27 Sep '07

Does anyone have a suggestion for a quick way to process several hundred files, truncating them where ascii text ends and binary data begins? I'm in the process of recovering data from a corrupt drive, and I've recovered loads of would-be Thunderbird mailboxes (ie mbox files). However, since there is no good way to determine the end of an mbox file from its raw data (that I know of anyway!) what I have is loads of 10M files which start "From - " and end 10MB afterwards. So a 10k mailbox is 10k text and 990k rubbish that was next on the drive, which typically is binary data. So I need to scan the files, find where the ascii stops and the binary begins, and truncate them at that point. (Ideally it will be clever enough to allow a few binary chars through in case of any binary chars in the emails, for example unencoded pound signs etc. But something far more basic would be a good start!) I'm guessing that awk ought to be able to do it, something along the lines of reading line by line, and if the line has more than (say) 5% non-ascii data in it then stop, otherwise print that line and continue. I'm just not sure how to go from pseudo-code to real code (nor whether that was the best place to start anyway). Mark Rogers

2 1

Another bash question - aliases in shell scripts
by Chris G 27 Sep '07

27 Sep '07

How do you get aliases to work in bash shell scripts? At the moment the only way I can get an alias that I have defined in my .bashrc file to work in a script is to explicitly source .bashrc in the shell script. Is this the only way it can be done? The korn shell can do 'alias -x fred=bert' which means that fred will work as an alias for bert in scripts called from a command line ksh where the alias is in effect. Is there no way that bash can export aliases so they work in scripts? A quick Google search suggests that bash really can't export its aliases, which is a pity. Does anyone know otherwise? -- Chris Green

2 2

How to make bash 'forget' a path to an executable
by Chris G 27 Sep '07

27 Sep '07

If you move/change a shell script how to make bash forget about the old location? E.g. I had a wrapper for ctags in /home/chris/bin which was called ctags. I discovered that I only needed the wrapper for Solaris and not for Linux so I moved my ctags from /home/chris/bin to /home/chris/bin/solaris which isn't on my path when I'm on a Linux system. After moving it when I try running 'ctags' I get the error:- bash: /home/chris/bin/ctags: No such file or directory i.e. bash has remembered the path to ctags to save time, how do I tell it to start afresh? (There is a ctags on the PATH at /usr/bin/ctags) In C-shell it's rehash but (not surprisingly) that doesn't work in bash. -- Chris Green

3 3

The fonts dialogue in Firefox, what does that line mean?
by Chris G 27 Sep '07

27 Sep '07

When you go to the font selection dialogue in Firefox:- Edit - Preferences - Content - Fonts & Colours/Advanced There's a horizontal line in the list of fonts you get to select when you click on the Serif, Sans-serif or Monospace selection bar. Does anyone know what this horizontal line indicates? I originally thought the ones below the line might be the monospace fonts but that's obviously not right on inspection. Is it possibly that the ones below the line are bit-map fonts? It would actually make selecting a font much easier if there was some sort of indication against each font to tell you whether it's a monospace or proportional font. Some are obvious but not all. Also, a final question, there are fonts one can select called 'monospace', 'serif' and 'sans-serif'. Presumably if you use these then what you get is the system default which is defined somewhere in the build/distribution, there aren't actual font files with these names. Have I got this right? -- Chris Green

1 0

Kubuntu probs
by elc＠freeola.net 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

I am using Kubuntu 7.04 - Feisty fawn and a broadband connection. When I have booted up, the OS is NOT automatically online via broadband. I need to go to system settings / network settings and enter administrative mode. I then need to disable eth1 and thus leave me with eth0, - which gives me broadband access. However, I cannot apply this setting – Apply – is greyed out. Thus when I reboot I need to repeat this sequence. How can I apply this setting permanently please. elc

2 2

CPU speed control
by Simon Jude 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

Hi, I've got a Sony VAIO that I like to run Ubuntu on. When I run it off the mains the CPU stays pegged at 1.995GHz and the CPU fan sounds like a hoover. When running on the battery the CPU stays at a nice 786MHz (or whatever) and the fan is nice and quiet. Is there a way to switch the CPU speed to the lower speed when it is running on mains to protect my hearing?! I've tried cpufreq-set etc without luck, although I may not have used them properly! Any tips would be appreciated! Thanks Simon

3 3

Terminal window fonts
by Chris G 25 Sep '07

25 Sep '07

Does anyone know where gnome-terminal gets its fonts from? I'd like to use the same font in rxvt if I can but I can't work out what to call it. -- Chris Green

2 1

The photos on Google Earth/Maps
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Hi Folks, This is for people who have been using Google Maps (or equivalently Google Earth, since they seem to use exactly the same sattelite imagery): http://maps.google.com http://earth.google.com It's some weeks since I last had a look around using Google Maps, and I did it again last night (with both Earth and Maps). It seems to me that the terrain images used have degraded. 1: They seem to be fuzzier, and with less vivid colour, at the larger zoom levels 2: I'm sure they are older than they used to be. In particular, the aerial view of my own house used to show a car I owned a few years back parked at the front, from which (and from other vehicles in the neighbourhood) I inferred that the image dated from around 2002 (certainly not before 2001). And the back garden was much as it was when I moved in in 2001: green throughout, with grass and bushes. Last night, however, there were no bushes in the back garden and at the rear was a large brown, presumably cultivated, area. Now the people before the people before me had a vegetable garden there, which tallies with the image, but the people before me did not (having turned the whole garden over to lawn and shrubs), so that puts the date of the photo over 10 years old. Although the displayed images state "Copyright 2007", this clearly has nothing to do with the date of the photography. I'd be a bit miffed if Google had decided to degrade the quality and especially the timeliness of their images! I fairly regularly use it as a resouce for getting an overview of an area, and until now I've relied on the imagery being not more than a few years old. If, as now seems to be the case, it may be over (even well over) 10 years, then the relevance to recent conditions is seriously diminished! Comments from Google Earthers/Mapsters welcome! Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 23-Sep-07 Time: 11:48:20 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

7 7

Fedora 7 does dual boot with Slackware
by Chris G 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Now I have the Fedora 7 installation working rather better I thought I'd see if I can still boot Slackware - I can! It was no effort at all to get the Fedora installation to add Slackware to the boot menu, I just pointed it at the root partition on the drive where Slackware is installed (/boot is in the root partition) and that was it, it just worked! I'm impressed. Now I can go and 'tune up' my Fedora 7 installation secure in the knowledge that if I screw it up really properly I can come back here to Slackware and sort things out (and do some real work too). -- Chris Green

2 1

Fedora 7 network problem resolved
by Chris G 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

I finally found what the problem was. I remembered an odd problem I had had a while ago when trying to connect into my home Linux system from a Fedora system at work (this was several months ago, in April or even a bit before I think). It took me ages to find the problem that time, I eventually spotted lots of errors in my Speedtouch router's error log saying things like:- FIREWALL fast tcp seqnr check (1 of 2): Protocol: TCP Src ip: 192.168.1.1 Src port: 22 Dst ip: 193.128.168.194 Dst port: 51097 I just found that my new Fedora 7 installation at home couldn't connect to the configuration web server on the Speedtouch router. ... and in the error log I see just the same errors being reported by the router. So I have disabled this particular firewall check and now it all works! Hurrah! (I had lost my previous disabling of this firewall check when I reset the router a few weeks ago) I'm still not sure whether this is an error in Fedora or an error in the router. -- Chris Green

1 0

Still stuck with Fedora networking
by Chris G 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Well I've managed to persuade my Fedora system that it has a fixed network address but it *still* won't talk to the outside world. The symptoms are exactly the same as they were before:- I can 'host xxx.yyy.zzz' and I get the right IP address back for whatever I've asked for. I can't ssh, ftp or anything to anywhere outside my local subnet. All other systems on the subnet *can* talk various protocols to the outside world. The Fedora system can talk various protocols to other systems on the same subnet. So can anyone offer any insight, I'm at the swearing at it stage! -- Chris Green

5 7

Fedora - it seems to be a networking issue
by Chris G 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Well I think I can see what's wrong with my Fedora 7 installation but I can't see how to fix it. The routing/DNS/gateway is somehow awry. The symptoms are as follows:- I *can* browse the internet with Firefox so I do have a working connection to the outside world (it's a Speedtouch router which is working for everyone else too). From the Fedora system it loks as if the *only* protocol that works to the outside world is HTTP, any attempt to ssh or whatever just hangs. This is probably why yum is failing I guess. I *can* ssh from the Fedora system to other systems on the local subnet, this is how I'm sending this mail, ssh from Fedora to the garage system and then ssh from there to my hosting provider where I read my mail. DNS does work, I can do 'host newred.gradwell.net' and get the right answer (newred.gradwell.net is my hosting provider), but I can't ssh direct to newred.gradwell.net. /sbin/route returns:- Kernel IP routing table Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface 192.168.1.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 169.254.0.0 * 255.255.0.0 U 0 0 0 eth0 default dsldevice.lan 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth0 Which looks OK (but why does Fedora give my router the silly name 'dsldevice.lan', had me confused for a while). So what's wrong? It's not some horrible IPV6/IPV4 thing is it? -- Chris Green

1 1

Help wanted with Fedora installation
by Chris G 24 Sep '07

24 Sep '07

Well I have Fedora 7 installed but it has not gone quite to plan. I rearranged all the partitions of my old Slackware installation so that everything was on one disk (/dev/sda) and I removed all the partitions from /dev/sdb. I then ran the Fedora installation telling it to use /dev/sdb. That went pretty smoothly and I have managed to mount the old Slackware partitions in Fedora so I can see everything. However I have a couple of problems:- The Fedora system doesn't seem to be able to update/install new software using yum (or the GUI installer). When run it just hangs at the start where it is trying to get a list of packages. Fedora uses grub to start up, Slackware used Lilo. Fedora boots from /dev/sdb. Is there any way I can get grub to dual boot Fedora and Slackware? All the Slackware stuff is still there in its /boot on /dev/sda and I can see the Lilo configuration file. What is needed in grub to tell it to boot from an installation on a different drive? I'm sending this E-Mail from my 'garage' computer, what a good idea that was! :-) -- Chris Green

2 2

Will Fedora 7 play happily with another version on Linux?
by Chris G 23 Sep '07

23 Sep '07

As I said recently I'm thinking of installing Fedora 7, will it "play nicely" with my existing Slackware installation? Has anyone else here got two versions of Linux dual-booting on the same hardware? There's lots of space to spare, the filesystem where Slackware is installed is only 9% used so that could easily be split to make space for Fedora. /home is a separate filesystem and can presumably be left as is for both Fedora and Slackware to use. Any problems likely? Will Fedora offer to squash the Slackware root filesystem and make space for itself there? -- Chris Green

3 3

Using k3b to write an ISO image
by Chris G 23 Sep '07

23 Sep '07

I have just been trying to use k3B to write an ISO image and I really, really can't understand how to do it. E.g. I click on "Tools - Burn DVD ISO Image" and it immediately starts writing, I'm not given the chance to specify what ISO I want to write or anything like that. How do I simply tell it to burn an ISO image of a file I specify? -- Chris Green

3 6

Another k3b problem
by Chris G 22 Sep '07

22 Sep '07

I'm just trying to write some data using k3b now. When I do a 'du -sk *' in my /home direcotry I see:- 49179124 ben 1280276 chris 4 ftp 301972 isbd 16 lost+found 1601772 maxine 474064 zelma However if I drop /home/chris into k3b to be written it says there is 4Gb of data, so why the discrepancy? -- Chris Green

1 0

Linux Astronomy software
by mephi 21 Sep '07

21 Sep '07

A while ago someone posted here asking for Linux software that performed a function similar to a windows package, and as it was one I'd heard of, I think it was either k3CCDTools or Registax. If it was k3CCDTools, then I've just started to use the qastrocam software, which I think does a very similar job. If it was Registax, did you ever find anything? Matt

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Anyone here running Fedora 7?
by Richard Bensley 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

>Here in the film industry, 64-bitness is helping with rendering >performance and also on the desktop where artists need to use vast >chunks of memory for their 3D and even 2D packages. I recently moved over to Red Hat for Softimage. 64bit Softimage is a no go for me, the support and stability under Linux is useless, and it's just about bearable under vista 64bit! As you say for rendering, having debian 64bit dual boot on my core2duo box with mental ray works a treat! I have seen Maya used on 64bit boxes, with a quadro or two and like 8GB of ram, anything to keep that crap from crashing ;) Of course the Autodesk IFFS suites and the like are all 64bit, but I would rather buy a house. Martyn, what 64bit 2D packages are you using?!? The closest thing I have to anything like that is a 64bit zbrush binary in windows :S Rich

2 1

FAX with Linux
by James Freer 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

Hi Mark I read your post with interest - i'd also like to know the best way of faxing with Linux. Winfax i don't think is your best choice. I also have tried winfax and it is quite a complicated app with telephone answering m/c etc. Difficult to incorporate with Wine i would have thought - but i'm only a newbie to Linux. For several years i've used an excellent small programme called FaxNow - printer driver sending any doc from any application (simple but effective). I got it on a pc mag CD. Receiving is the problem as one has to switch the line manually to receive. So i used eFax to receive [free for 20 faxes a month] and this last year Faxtastic [free but needs to receive at least one fax per quarter to keep account open]. I always got better quality faxes than a fax machine and no costs. These were .tif files. I noticed you mentioned pdfs - the ones i've looked at were tiff but pdf you probably pay for. Reading faxes is the problem - what they are read with must be able to read MULTIPLE PAGES. Most viewers are able to read a single sheet e.g. PhotoImpact, XnView. I used the efax messenger for a while just to view - they make their money on sending. I did find a multiple page viewer http://www.tiffsuite.theimageanvil.co.uk/ No one else mentioned this. I can't see how converting files is going to allow for multiple pages. I found the Tiff Viewer basic but reliable - useful for looking through received faxes. Alternatively, when i started using FireFox found a tiff viewer as an addon to FireFox - www.alternatiff.com [this is excellent]. This was in windoze so as far as Linux goes... hopefully someone may know? a] Use alternatiff in Linux (it says only for windows but i've imported my windows themes into Linux Firefox so could work) and use Gfax or Faxnow (through wine) to send. If alternatiff won't work i'm sure the Tiff viewer would as it is a basic .exe app. b] Ubuntufax.com on VmWare - this is quite NEW i haven't investigated this yet but if it sends a pdf to your email problems solved. Ideal solution! b] Simple solution - pay £10-£20 per month for the variety of paid services. I will be keeping windows on a machine for some time so will probably just continue until a Linux solution comes along and i've stopped using windows. I knew an IT consultant a few years back who recommended not using WinFax as he'd had known a lot of problems with it - you're welcome to a copy of FaxNow and the Tiff viewer if they'll run in Wine. I'm not as knowledgeable as some on the IT side but i don't think the answer is converting files or using WinFax. james

9 21

Anyone here running Fedora 7?
by Chris G 19 Sep '07

19 Sep '07

I'm thinking of moving from Slackware to Fedora for my next upgrade. There are a number of reasons for this:- I have Fedora on my desktop at work and have found it quite good (and easy) to work with, an additional advantage of course is having the same distribution in both places. It's more compatible with Vmware, Vmware can be installed on Slackware as a host but it's a bit of a fiddle. While Fedora isn't 'supported' by Vmware, RedHat is supported and Fedora is similar enough to RedHat for Vmware to install simply. I'm thinking of going to a 64-Bit OS and there isn't a 64-bit version of Slackware. Can anyone envisage any bit 'gotchas' if I do this? Are there any major pitfalls when moving from 32-bit to 64-bit? -- Chris Green

6 7

A question about 'relative' and 'absolute' in HTML/CSS
by Chris G 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

The question is basically - what do they actually mean? I have just been playing with setting some font sizes to various 'relative' sizes and the results don't seem to make sense to me. OK, I *think* I know what the 'absolute' sizes mean. If I set a size to "1cm" (yes, I know the quotes aren't necessary in the CSS) I get something that is 1cm high and if I set it to "1in" I get text one inch high. However I'm not at all clear how the system knows how big my display is, if I connect a smaller display to the same output then the text will be smaller even though I have changed nothing. Is the correct absolute size dependent on me having set up my display correctly at some point? Anyway, on to the bit I understand less well, what do relative sizes mean? For font-size we have:- * em (ems, the height of the element's font) * ex (x-height, the height of the letter "x") * px (pixels, relative to the canvas resolution) So what is meant by "the height of the element's font"? It can't be an absolute value (in cm or in) because that would mean the result would be absolute. I can see that there could be a relation between everything and, say, the default BODY text size so that if you change the BODY text size everything else changes in proportion but where does that BODY text size come from? Is it what I set in my browser as the font size? If that is right I sort of follow, everything is relative to the default font size set in the browser. Sizes set in em or ex are then relative to that size. However that leaves pixels, what on earth does "pixels, relative to the canvas resolution" mean? Does it mean a size related to the screen size, but how does one interpret 'pixels' in this context? If I say the font size is to be 16 pixels what does that really mean? If it really means 16 pixels of my screen then surely it's an absolute size. Certainly none of the relative sizes are relative to the browser window size which in many ways would make most sense. If they *were* relative to the window size a web page would (if it used relative sizes) just scale as you grow and shrink the window. As it is, even with relative sizes for things, when you grow and shrink the window the text stays the same size and is re-laid out to fit. Whatever, there's surely a web site somewhere that explains all this, can someone point me at it please. http://www.htmlhelp.com/ is an excellent site for the details of writing HTML and CSS but doesn't really explain the sizing (not for me anyway). -- Chris Green

4 7

Can I use OSS as well as Alsa?
by Barry Samuels 18 Sep '07

18 Sep '07

Debian 'Testing' Kernel 2.6.22.6 Alsa 1.3.3 I have a USB record turntable that works without problems under OSS but won't work with Alsa (which I'm now using). Can I set up OSS and Alsa so that I can switch between them and, if so, how would I do it? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

1 0

UK Suse Linux User Group Announcement
by Julie Grant 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Dear Sir or Madam, We are pleased to announce the creation of The UK SUSE Linux User Group (UK SLUG) the UK forum for Users of SUSE® Linux. The User Group will be formally launched at the next UK Groupware User Group conference on Thursday 25th October at the Burlington Hotel, Birmingham. The group has been formed on the basis of providing an opportunity for users of SUSE® Linux to network on a national basis and share other information with other users and UK Vendors. Initially, the group will run alongside the well established Groupware User Group events that take place quarterly, at locations across the UK including Novell UK offices in Bracknell, Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh etc. The UK SLUG web site is already released and can be found at http://www.ukslug.org.uk . You will find the latest SUSE news, our forthcoming events, links to items of interest for the SUSE user community, polls, snippets and a wealth of information for any SUSE user or administrator. The site is regularly updated and will grow in content over the coming months. We believe the UK SUSE® community can organise and host successful events, that the SUSE® product and its many add-ons and complementary products are a vital and integral part of so many of our organisations and that we are passionate about the need for a platform to share our successes and our frustrations and collectively bring greater clarity for all SUSE® users. Please take a look at our website for details regarding the launch announcement and how you can register as a member either as a corporate organisation, vendor or individual. Web: www.ukslug.org.uk . Email: info(a)ukslug.org.uk Address: UK SLUG, 7 Manor Buildings, North Perrott, Crewkerne, Somerset. TA18 7ST. Tel: 01460-271055 Julie Grant, UK SLUG Registered Address : 7 Manor Buildings, North Perrott, Crewkerne, Somerset, TA18 7ST Registered England & Wales - 3981322 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION This e-mail and any files attached with it are confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient(s) you are prohibited from using, copying or distributing this or any information contained in it and should immediately notify the sender and delete the message from your system. Internet communications are not secure and Blueloop Limited is not responsible for unauthorised use by third parties nor for alteration or corruption in transmission. Furthermore, while Blueloop Limited have taken reasonable precautions to minimise the risk of software viruses, it cannot accept liability for any damage which you may suffer as a result of such viruses, and we therefore recommend you carry out your own virus checks on receipt of any e-mail.

2 1

(no subject)
by jim snyder 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Hi there, I'm a Certified Linux System Administrator & I've just joined. If you have ever used linuxgym.com or done LPI exams could you please email me your opinions of linuxgym & LPI exams to jim.snyder(a)linuxmail.org Cheers :) Tel.: +447914011154 = -- Powered by Outblaze

5 4

HP Photosmart R507 not being assigned usb device number
by Jenny Hopkins 17 Sep '07

17 Sep '07

Hullo there, I'm trying to use gphoto2 on a debian linux box. The camera in question is an HP Photosmart R507, which is detected when usb is plugged, but no device is being assigned in /proc/bus/usb. Any ideas as to why welcome. It works on another debian box okay, and I can see the new device appearing. Thanks, Jenny

2 3

Logik IR100
by Wayne Stallwood 15 Sep '07

15 Sep '07

There has been a bit of discussion regarding these Tabletop Internet radios at Alug Meets and on IRC (mostly as Currys are selling them at £40 at the moment which is quite a bargain) Noodles talked me into buying one at the last ALUG social (it didn't take a lot of effort) For those that don't know the IR100 is a mains powered standalone radio (there is also another version that is designed to plug into a Hifi) that links up via wireless and can stream internet radio stations or play mp3's located on a SMB share. Initially I was quite disappointed to discover that they fall over if scanning shared folders with more than 5000 tracks in them (I have more like 25,000). However gmediaserver v0.12.0 appears to work perfectly with them and also gives you the advantage of faster track access/navigation at the expense of some of the search functionality offered when you use SMB share access. The device is not on the gmediaserver compatibility list (I have just sent them a compatibility report so hopefully it will be soon) so I thought it would be worth mentioning that it works here

1 0

Handling Winfax FXM files in Linux
by Mark Rogers 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

Anybody had the "pleasure" of handling Winfax FXM files on Linux? I've just moved from desktop Windows to desktop Linux, with VMWare for incompatible Windows apps, but because I get faxes arrive as email (and the email client is running in Linux) it would be much better to find somethuing to view them in Linux than have to somehow transfer them to the VM for viewing. -- Mark Rogers

4 6

Gnome question (or actually an "I don't want Gnome" question)
by Chris G 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

I have just started back at work, the place I left a few months ago where I have a two day a week contract starting today. I have got a Fedora based machine as my desktop machine again (Hoorah!) but I haven't got my old customised setup back so I've got to redo it from scratch. The first problem is - how do I turn off the Gnome desktop from being automatically started? Is there a setup option somewhere that selects what window manager I want? I have created a .xinitrc file which starts fvwm2 (the window manager I want) but it hasn't done anything. I suspect what I need to change is buried in the gdm/xdm startup somewhere. -- Chris Green

4 6

cron script causing system to run at 100% cpu usage
by Jenny Hopkins 12 Sep '07

12 Sep '07

Hullo there, There's a script in /etc/cron.daily (on debian-etch server) called 'find', which is starting at around 8.30 am, using 100% cpu power, then kind of sticking there for hours (I just had to manually kill the processes it seems to start, like locate and updatedb and sort). Below is the script, and updatedb.conf. Has anyone any idea why this should be unable to run properly, and would it be a Bad Awful thing to just have it not run? Thanks, Jenny jenny@xios:~$ sudo more /etc/cron.daily/find #! /bin/sh # # cron script to update the `locatedb' database. # # Written by Ian A. Murdock <imurdock(a)debian.org> and # Kevin Dalley <kevin(a)aimnet.com> LOCALUSER="nobody" export LOCALUSER if [ -f /etc/updatedb.conf ]; then . /etc/updatedb.conf fi if getent passwd $LOCALUSER > /dev/null ; then cd / && nice -n ${NICE:-10} updatedb 2>/dev/null else echo "User $LOCALUSER does not exist." exit 1 fi jenny@xios:~$ sudo more /etc/updatedb.conf # This file sets environment variables which are used by updatedb # Global options for invocations of find(1) FINDOPTIONS='-ignore_readdir_race' export FINDOPTIONS # filesystems which are pruned from updatedb database PRUNEFS="NFS nfs nfs4 afs binfmt_misc proc smbfs autofs iso9660 ncpfs coda devpts ftpfs devfs mfs shfs sysfs cifs lustre_lite tmpfs usbfs udf" export PRUNEFS # paths which are pruned from updatedb database PRUNEPATHS="/tmp /usr/tmp /var/tmp /afs /amd /alex /var/spool /sfs /media" export PRUNEPATHS # netpaths which are added NETPATHS="" export NETPATHS # run find as this user LOCALUSER="nobody" export LOCALUSER # cron.daily/find: run at this priority -- higher number means lower priority # (this is relative to the default which cron sets, which is usually +5) NICE=10 export NICE

2 2

adjusting row height in OO
by Peter Alcibiades 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

I've an OO spreadsheet of a reasonable size. It has about four or five sheets, one of which has about 10,000 lines, and it has an array formula to go through and total the categories of this 10k line sheet into an array 6 x 400 cells. Lets say, they could be a 10k list of events, of 400 types, occurring at one of 6 dates. When opening, it takes forever to do something it calls 'adjusting row height'. I can't figure out what it can be doing, since all row heights are default values. Looking on the OO discussion groups, someone has posted this query but got no answer. It makes no difference if its in xls format or odt. Any ideas? Yes, I know one should probably not do this sort of thing in a spreadsheet, and maybe I'll rewrite it in a better vehicle, but the advantage was, done in a spreadsheet its available to any intelligent secretary. Or that was my theory, which was a bit dented when trying to explain how in array formulas multiplication becomes logical and.... It seems simple, but it turned out to be quite hard for them to get their heads around. But its still more accessible than a 'real programme'. Peter

2 1

Re: [ALUG] Clamav issues
by David Reynolds 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

On 11 Sep 2007, at 10:13 am, Brett Parker wrote: > Can we have an ls -lad /path/to/directory/holding/socket, drwxrwxrwx 2 clamav clamav 4096 2007-09-10 17:14 /var/run/clamav/ I may have set these myself when I was fiddling the other day. > preferably the > backend of the clam log when it's restarted (maybe in daemon.log or > mail.log), Tue Sep 11 13:31:41 2007 -> +++ Started at Tue Sep 11 13:31:41 2007 Tue Sep 11 13:31:41 2007 -> clamd daemon 0.90.1 (OS: linux-gnu, ARCH: i386, CPU: i486) Tue Sep 11 13:31:41 2007 -> Log file size limit disabled. Tue Sep 11 13:31:41 2007 -> Reading databases from /var/lib/clamav > the default permissions of the socket... Er, no idea > Err, I think that'd be enough debug info to start with :) > > (Otherwise we're just on speculation!) > > Oh, one other question, does it still start it's networking side up? > i.e. can you connect to the daemon over TCP/IP? Again, no idea. Thanks, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

1 1

Impress
by Bev Nicolson 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

Opening a Powerpoint presentation in Impress I find that one slide seems to be too big for the slide area. The last few lines of text are obscured by a grey block of colour which makes the white text impossible to read. How can I resize it? I would read the manual but I've got no idea where to start looking. (And the one I have got doesn't mention any incompatibility.) Bev. -- _______________________________________________ Surf the Web in a faster, safer and easier way: Download Opera 9 at http://www.opera.com Powered by Outblaze

2 1

How to allow another user to run something on my X desktop?
by Chris G 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

How can I make it possible for another user to run one specific program on my desktop? I don't want to simply remove the X security completely, I'd rather do it by some sort of SUID'ish sort of approach. The first thing I have tried doesn't work though. I changed the ownership of the program in question to be owned by me and set the SUID bit:- -rwsr-xr-x 1 chris root 2497525 2007-02-14 18:54 /usr/local/bin/xvile I thought that if anyone else executes the program they would 'become' chris but it doesn't work. However thinking about it now I suspect that I'd need to add some code to the program to actually change the user as well as setting the permissions as above. So, is there any other way to get what I want? I just want another user (it's just one user in particular if that makes it easier) to be able to run /usr/local/bin/xvile on my X desktop. It's a home system with me as the only real user so there aren't any serious security implications, there aren't any unfriendly users. -- Chris Green

3 4

Clamav issues
by David Reynolds 11 Sep '07

11 Sep '07

Hi, I seem to be having some issues with clamav at the moment. It only seems to be creating the socket file on a reboot. If it gets restarted any other time, I get no socket file and then exim won't talk to it. Anyone have any ideas? I'm running the following versions of clam (on debian): ii clamav 0.90.1-3etch7 antivirus scanner for Unix ii clamav-base 0.90.1-3etch7 base package for clamav, an anti-virus utili ii clamav-daemon 0.90.1-3etch7 antivirus scanner daemon ii clamav-freshclam 0.90.1-3etch7 downloads clamav virus databases from the In ii clamav-testfiles 0.90.1-3etch7 use these files to test that your Antivirus ii libclamav2 0.90.1-3etch7 virus scanner library Thanks, David -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

2 1

Setting paragraph margins using CSS, is it really this clunky?
by Chris G 10 Sep '07

10 Sep '07

Is there really no way to set a lot of margin-top and margin-bottom values for paragraphs without explicitly setting a class= for each paragraph where you want to change the default? Other things (like font-size and alignment) can be changed by wrapping a set of paragraphs in a <DIV>....</DIV> and setting the values in the DIV's class but margin-top and margin-bottom are not inherited so this doesn't work for margins. All I want to do is have a set of paragraphs with bigger margins than the default and it looks as if I'll have to do:- <P class=bigmargin>..............</P> for every paragraph, which rather defeats the object of using CSS, I might just as well write the margin size there. -- Chris Green

5 12

Suspend2 Debugging
by Dan Hatton 09 Sep '07

09 Sep '07

I could use some power management help, please. I like to suspend my system with Software Suspend 2 (or Tux on Ice, as it seems to be rebranding itself) when I'm not using it. However, since I upgraded my kernel from 2.6.20.6 to 2.6.22.5, the system sometimes (perhaps 25% of the time) fails to resume after a suspend. I've got suspend2 logging very verbosely. A successful suspend/resume cycle writes ~11kB of stuff to /var/log/messages, whereas a failed suspend/resume cycle writes ~1.4MB. The first place the two sets of logs differ is that, where the successful cycle writes Stopping tasks ... done. Preparing Image. Try 1. Preparing Image. Try 1. Stopping tasks ... done. Starting to save the image.. Starting to save the image.. - Final values: 23908 and 102848. Writing caches... Writing caches... 20%...40%...60%...80%...100%...done. The failed cycle writes (I've snipped out instances of IPtables logging rejected packets, and some messages from gpm and sleepd.) Stopping tasks ... geset+0x11d/0x1a9 [<c01391b7>] do_suspend2_step+0x2d7/0x649 [<c0139816>] _suspend2_try_suspend+0xab/0xe1 [<c0138678>] suspend2_attr_store+0x180/0x1c6 [<c0193100>] sysfs_write_file+0xa8/0xd1 [<c0193058>] sysfs_write_file+0x0/0xd1 [<c015c58f>] vfs_write+0x8a/0x10c [<c015ca25>] sys_write+0x41/0x67 [<c0103ace>] sysenter_past_esp+0x5f/0x85 [<c0720000>] ieee80211_process_probe_response+0x122/0xe4d ======================= Mem-info: DMA per-cpu: CPU 0: Hot: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Cold: hi: 0, btch: 1 usd: 0 Normal per-cpu: CPU 0: Hot: hi: 186, btch: 31 usd: 30 Cold: hi: 62, btch: 15 usd: 13 Active:0 inactive:0 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0 free:724 slab:2680 mapped:21865 pagetables:670 bounce:0 DMA free:1968kB min:88kB low:108kB high:132kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:16256kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no lowmem_reserve[]: 0 483 Normal free:928kB min:2764kB low:3452kB high:4144kB active:0kB inactive:0kB present:494668kB pages_scanned:0 all_unreclaimable? no lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 DMA: 0*4kB 0*8kB 1*16kB 1*32kB 0*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 1*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 1968kB Normal: 0*4kB 0*8kB 0*16kB 1*32kB 0*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 0*1024kB 0*2048kB 0*4096kB = 928kB Swap cache: add 78, delete 77, find 18/27, race 0+0 Free swap = 505444kB Total swap = 1015800kB Free swap: 505444kB 128736 pages of RAM 0 pages of HIGHMEM 4191 reserved pages 171366 pages shared 1 pages swap cached 0 pages dirty 0 pages writeback 21865 pages mapped 2680 pages slab 670 pages pagetables 20%...40%...60%...80%...100%...done. Any ideas, please? -- Thanks Dan Hatton

3 4

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 09 Sep '07

09 Sep '07

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 "Second Thursday" ALUG Norwich Pub Meet is this Thursday, 13th September. It's at the Reindeer pub on the Dereham Road, just opposite the City Gate. People will be there from 8pm-ish, though there may be a few people there earlier. Topics for discussion will no doubt be as varied as ever. The Reindeer has a reasonable selection of beer as well as decent coffee (with biscuits, if you're lucky). Directions to the Reindeer can be found at: http://www.alug.org.uk/venues/reindeer.html Pictures of some of the regulars, and irregulars, and, well, just some pictures of people that might or might not turn up are available from: http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2007-05-ALUG/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2006-02-ALUG/ http://the.earth.li/~noodles/stilvoid-alug/mp20050811/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2005-01-ALUG-Xmas/ http://www.earth.li/~noodles/Photos/2004-08-ALUG/ Which should hopefully aid those of you wondering who to look out for - the most recent images are from the meet a few months back. We now have an area reserved for us, so should be easier to find. As you enter through the main door you'll see a small set of steps ahead of you - the area just up those steps and to the left is where we'll be. J. -- 101 things you can't have too much of : 49 - Bandwidth. ----- 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

Simple (I hope) HTML/CSS question
by Chris G 08 Sep '07

08 Sep '07

I want to use an image as a background, OK, fairly easy I think, I put the following into my CSS style file:- body { background: white url(sky.jpg) no-repeat; } I only want the image once at the top of the page, hence the "no-repeat". However, big problem, is there any way to tell my browser to fit the image to the width of the browser page rather than the other way around? It's easy enough if I'm displaying an image using the HTML IMG operator as I can set the "width=100%" and the image is scaled to fit across the browser's window but I can't see any easy way to do this when the image is set as a background. I can sort of understand that this might not be possible but it would be really nice if it was possible by some means as I want to use the image as a backdrop for all my page headings. If I can't do it using CSS "background" how can I get two images (or an image and a heading) to be put one on top of the other? -- Chris Green

5 8

Sage alternatives for linux
by Jenny Hopkins 04 Sep '07

04 Sep '07

Hullo there, I'm looking for an accounting system that will run with the backend and the front on linux. Something like Sage, which takes care of accounting and payroll, also customers, jobs and invoices. Sage requires windows running on the workstation, however. I've looked at gnucash but it's scary and unfriendly, with the customer and invoicing side not being what is needed. I'm after a system that can have multiple front-end users and a database backend in postgresql or mysql. Hard cash may change paws, it doesn't have to be free. I did start writing one with a web front end, - the customer and invoicing part is okay but the more I do accounts the more I realise this is a mad, stupid thing to be doing. Thanks Jenny

5 6

Anyone have a use for DAT tapes?
by Chris G 04 Sep '07

04 Sep '07

Further to my clearout, I have about 30 DAT tapes, some still wrapped, some used (but not heavily). They're mostly DDS2 data tapes. Any use to anyone? -- Chris Green

1 0

Various FTAGH items (or even just FTAH)
by Chris G 04 Sep '07

04 Sep '07

My clear out of my old 'electronics' room continues and I'm still finding bits of superannuated hardware. Are any of the following of any use to anyone here:- ISA bus cards Modem (definitely not a Winmodem), boxed, manual Parallel/Serial/IDE/Floppy I/O card, boxed, manual Network card (original NE2000 I think) PCI bus cards USB 2.0 Interface, boxed, manual Modem (no info with it) 24x CD drive, IDE interface All could be posted or brought along to the next meet. -- Chris Green

1 0

FTGH: Various computer bits
by Jonathan McDowell 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

I'm having a clearout and as a result have a fair few random bits and pieces of computer stuff that need new homes. I thought I'd mention it here before I let Freecycle loose on the list, which is at: http://the.earth.li/~noodles/clearout.html In particular I have too many SCSI cables and too many power cables. Surely they must be of use to someone rather than me having to throw them out? J. -- No thanks, I'm already having one. This .sig brought to you by the letter E and the number 28 Product of the Republic of HuggieTag

1 0

Any alternatives to htmlhelp.com?
by Chris G 03 Sep '07

03 Sep '07

The WDG site at htmlhelp.com appears to be down at the moment, can anyone recommend any similar sites which document the basics of HTML, CSS etc. on line? Or are the htmlhelp.com pages available from anywhere else? -- Chris Green

4 7

/ unexpectedly remounted as read only
by Wayne Stallwood 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

One of our servers did a strange thing today. Suddenly at about half 11 this morning it remounted / as read only, I have seen filesystems do this on boot when fsck was unable to repair something automatically but this happened with an uptime of 80 days. Nothing useful was written to the logs (presumably because they are on the same mount point and hence also read only) Seeing as it was in a ro state anyway I ran fsck on the ext3 filesystem and it came back with a large number (100's) of errors, some of which needed manual confirmation before they could be fixed. However / being ro had made a mess of some of the processes that machine runs so I gave it a reboot and everything came back as expected and with an empty lost+found. I ran smartctl on all 4 disks of the Raid 5 array and no errors have been logged and disks look healthy. The mdadm shows all 4 disks as being in normal mode and the array as being healthy. I am going to run extended offline smart tests of the disks over the weekend when the machine is less busy, but in the meantime can somebody confirm that damaged filesystems remounting themselves as ro is normal behaviour and if so what detects and schedules this ? Also any ideas as to what (apart from faulty RAM which again I am going to have to wait until the weekend to test) might have caused such widespread corruption in the first place ?

3 3

Re: [ALUG] Open University and software
by Bev Nicolson 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

It was the way OU said this on their web site that concerned me, Wayne. There is, as you suggest, always the possibility that the software will 'just work' but I felt it wise to check. Another thing. Linux friendly *external* DVD players? Any recommendations? Or can you plug and play with most? Thanks again. Bev. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wayne Stallwood" <ALUGlist(a)digimatic.co.uk> > To: ALUG <main(a)lists.alug.org.uk> > Subject: Re: [ALUG] Open University and software > Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:53:01 +0100 > > > On Tue, 2007-08-28 at 18:22 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote: > > I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their > > web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I > > thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems > > with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they > > say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. Thanks. > > > > Bev. > > Not supported can often just mean "not tested on" if their site works on > both Windows and Mac (and therefore presumably more than one browser) > then there is a very good chance it will work on firefox on ubuntu. > > If software resources are made available for your your course outside > the scope of the website then it may be that only Windows and Mac > binaries are made available. Then your choice is to either experiment > with Wine by following the recent thread on the main list or install > Windows in a virtual machine (the virtual machine can be operated for > free but you will need a Windows licence) and this being an option I > would strongly recommend that you attend the next iplug meet as samwise > is performing a demonstration. > > If the site just wont play in firefox on linux then a last resort may be > http://www.tatanka.com.br/ies4linux/page/Main_Page, but that resource is > intended more for site development than actually using a browser in > anger. > > > _______________________________________________ > 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

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Open University and software
by Bev Nicolson 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

I'm hoping to do some studying with the OU but looking at their web site it basically says that they can't support Linux. I thought I'd ask whether folk on this list have had any problems with software incompatibility (which is for Windows but can, they say, be used on Macs) and Ubuntu. 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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WINE
by Yvonne Everett 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hello Does anyone have a particular good reference guide/notes perhaps on how to get WINE running? I've tried this before to allow me to use MS Money through Linux but have had several problems. So now I have a completely clean install of Kubuntu 7.04 and am ready to try WINE again for MS Money. Any suggestions before I make a start would be much appreciated. Rgds -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com

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X between Xorg and X11R6
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hi Folks, A new question! (All this up-to-date Linux stuff is finding the gaps in my obsolete knowledge ...). I'm currently trying (rather, wanting to try) running X apps remotely on one of my machines, with Gentoo running off the Live CD on the new laptop. So: A = new laptop, latest Gentoo off live CD X is Xorg B = old laptop, Red Hat 9 from 2003. X is X11R6 Normally, when I want remote X apps to display locally, I enter xhost + locally, and get "connection is allowed from any host". And it then works. On A, I again enter "xhost +" and still get "connection is allowed from any host". So far so good, it would seem. However, A has no telnet client, and rlogin won't work, soI have to use ssh to log in from A to B. This seems to work: I log in, I can tour directories, etc. B knows where I'm coming from: B:$ who am i ted ..... (192.168.1.8) which is fine. But it hasn't attributed an X DISPLAY: echo $DISPLAY returns null. So on B I set export DISPLAY=192.168.1.8:0.0 which is what I'd normally do. But now, when logged in to B, I issue xterm There is a delay, and then the message xterm Xt error: Can't open display: 192.168.1.8:0.0 Does this have something to do with Xorg doing things differently from X11R6? The process I went through above would have worked between any of my X11R6 machines. Or might it have somthing to do with my logging in using ssh rather than telnet (Machine B is set up to be friendly to anything on my LAN 192.168.1.*). Any suggestions appreciated! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 27-Aug-07 Time: 18:00:54 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Backing Vista into a corner
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi Again, with repeat apologies! The laptop on which I propose to install Linux has Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed. There is one hard drive: 120GB. Partition info according to Vista is: Vista (C:) 91.2GB free, 104GB total System (S:) 1.41GB free, 1.46GB total Gentoo finds the HD at /dev/sda, and fdisk gives: /dev/sda1 Start=1 End=702 Blocks=5,632,000 ID=27 Type=Unknown /dev/sda2 Start=702 End=893 Blocks=1,536,000 ID=7 Type=HP/NTFS /dev/sda3 Start=893 End=14894 Blocks=110,050,304 ID=7 Type=HP/NTFS Presumably (matching on partition size) /dev/sda2 is the 1.4GB "System" partition which Vista identified (dunno what that's for, though; but at least it's a known filesystem type). And of course /dev/sda3 is the Big One, which Vista has all to itself. And Vista does not see /dev/sda1 at all. This may be something to do with machine boot-up, BIOS config, diagnostics, or the like. Anyway, my real question is to do with backing Vista into a much smaller corner of /dev/sda3. Perhaps I'll be benign and let it have as much as 40GB to run around in, maybe less, however. So this means resizing the /dev/sda3 partition, and adding new partiitions in the space released. There shouldn't be problems with the latter, once the former has been done. But this is the first time I've been anywhere near an NTFS filesystem. While I've done this often enough for DOS/VFAT systems, I don't really know what sort of animal NTFS is, and how kindly it would take to being "downsized". Still less do I know what tool I should use for the resizing, what dangers to watch out for (I don't really want to zap Vista, since it sould come in handy sometime), nor whether the Linux bootloader )e.g. GRuB) will work smoothly with this setup. Also, will the fact that the partitions do not begin and end on cylinder boundaries (see above fdisk info) matter? So I'd welcome experienced advice about these and any related issues that need taking care of when installing Linux alongside Vista. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Aug-07 Time: 20:51:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Ubuntu vs Gentoo [vs etc.]?
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi Folks, Apologies to any who receive cross-postings! I'm poised to install Linux on a newly acquired laptop. I've tried out the latest Ubuntu amd Gentoo live CDs, and both work nicely. (Indeed, with their common GNOME interface, there's isn't superificially much difference between them). However, I've formed a slightly happier impression of Gentoo (for reasons which I can't quite put my finger on -- its more of a "comfort" impression; also, the Gentoo live CD seems to have more stuff to try out than the Ubuntu one does). I'd be grateful for any guidance from folks who have experiance of both, as to which may be the better one for long-term use. I'm also planning to give PCLinuxOS a whirl, and maybe also Zenwalk, if anyone has comments. Also feel free to advocate anything else! Essential are good support for Intel 945GM Integrated Graphics Controller (works with i810 driver), Synaptics touchpad with USB mouse as alternative (I hate touchpads, but this machine has no external PS/2 port ... ). With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Aug-07 Time: 20:27:47 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Why does mozilla/firefox/netscape make this so difficult?
by Chris G 25 Aug '07

25 Aug '07

Why are web browsers (well, Netscape and its descendents) so different from all other programs? All I want to do is run Firefox on another system on my (three machine) network and it's very difficult! My 'main' machine runs Slackware Linux and is in the house in my office, it's on all the time so I can advertise the occasional web page etc. It's the machine that appears on the web (at least as web pages) as home.isbd.net. I have set up another machine in the garage using tatty old hardware so when I want to get some information (thread sizes for bolts, spare parts for tools, wall plug sizes, etc.) I can do it there rather than having to go back into the house requiring cleanness etc. As I want access to the same home directory when I'm out there I have used NFS to export my home and when I log in on the garage system I have all the same files that I have on my office system. Everything works fine *except* Firefox (well everything I've tried so far that is). Firefox won't start on the garage system because it sees the office system's Firefox lock file and says that Firefox is running already and I can't have another one. I can think of various ways around this issue (separate profile, don't use NFS but copy some files across, etc.) but really why should I have to? Just about every other program would run up a second instance without any bother at all, why does Firefox do different? Netscape was the same, it's "ancestral"! :-) Other programs that create a lock file like this or a file with the PID in it are server type programs where it makes sense (like mySql), there having only one copy makes sense and I could use it from both my garage and office systems at the same time without hassle. With firefox though it's just a nuisance and I can't really come up with a neat solution. To describe the problem more completely:- I have /home/chris is the *same* file system on both office and garage computers, it's a local file system on the office computer and an NFS export to the garage computer. I have a few files that are different for the garage computer kept in /home/chris/.garage, these are such things as my window manager configuration because the garage computer has a lower resolution display than the office computer. I want office and garage computer firefox to share their installation and configuration so that bookmarks and other things are the same. I just want to run firefox in the garage, but I can't! Possible solutions seem to be:- Run firefox in the garage with a separate profile, but I'm not sure if this works completely and it means that I have to choose a profile every time I start firefox. It also means that bookmarks etc. are *not* shared so I have to do something about that. Shut down firefox on the office system every time I leave it, not really a sensible approach, I'll forget! I can't think of any other ways to do it! Oh, yes, there is another approach. Have an independent /home/chris on the garage system and have symbolic links from there to all the important directories in /home/chris on the office system. Thus firefox has a local (and thus independent) configuration/installation and I can just link bookmarks.html to the office system one to get the same bookmarks. This also has the advantage that the garage system will be more able to work without the office system being there. It's probably the approach I will take though I'm not quite sure how to keep the symbolic links up to date. -- Chris Green

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Ipswich ALUG meeting tonight
by samwise 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

Just a last minute reminder about tonight's ALUG meeting ... Wayne, if you need anything else from me (stuff installed on PC, if you need it etc.), let me know! Peter.

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LDAP Address Book
by Ben Francis 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

Hi ALUG, Does anyone use LDAP for their address book? I use IMAP for email and iCalendar/WebDAV for calendars so I can store them on a server and access them with multiple clients. I want to do the same with my address book. I think the main problem is choosing a schema because different mail clients use different address book schemas. I currently have an address book in Thunderbird and an address book in my OS X Address Book which syncs with my phone. I want to combine the two but annoyingly, Thunderbird doesn't appear to import vCard address books and the CSV import is painful. I'm also looking for a piece of web based address book software which can use LDAP as a back end, any recommendations? So far I've found Turba (http://www.horde.org/turba/), but Horde is a little bloated. I was hoping the Bongo Project (http://www.bongo-project.org) would support LDAP as a back end, but it doesn't yet. Thank ye Ben -- Ben Francis http://tola.me.uk

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Windows crashes Skype!
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

Hi Folks, I was amused (though also sad) to read of the reasons why Skype went off the air for two days at the end of last week. I quote from their explanation: On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update. The high number of restarts affected Skype's network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact. Normally Skype's peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days. Since Skype typically has upward of 5 million users online at a time, one cam imagine the effect if they all rebooted within an hour or so! But what a lovely DOS mechanism! (Not for nothing, methinks, was M$'s first operating system called MS-DOS -- though the DOS boot was then on the other foot). Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 20-Aug-07 Time: 22:31:31 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Skype, RH9, tribulations; alsa-oss?
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 20 Aug '07

20 Aug '07

Hi Folks, Sorry if you experience cross-posting, but I seem to be on a needle-in-a-haystack hunt here. I'm running Red Hat 9 (2003 vintage), 2.4 kernel, on a Compaq Armada 1750 laptop whose sound card is "ESS 1869 Audioline" (though it works OK with 1868 or 11688 drivers). I want to use Skype. Owing to the age of the system, I'm limited to earlier versions of Skype (library compatibility), and these use OSS sound rather than ALSA. Skype works up to successful calling (the "bell" rings at either end, but when the call is accepted all you can hear at the calling end is a repeated clicking (about once/sec) and at the receiving end in a similar rhythm a noise more like someone hitting wood with a hammer in the distance. At the same time, at the calling end, repeated messages come up: GETOSPACE: Device or resource busy GETOSPACE: Device or resource busy GETOSPACE: Device or resource busy ... Extensive web-searching has thrown up various facts. a) The ESS 1869 is bad news Skype-wise anyway; b) The above situation is a well-known issue with the earlier versions of Skype (the most recent versions have ALSA support, but demand more recent libs than I have). c) Some people have reported sucess with deceitful work-rounds, including: -- skype_dsp_hijacker which intercepts Skype's calls to the sound devices and keeps things in order. However, this has not worked for me. Either I get the same as the above, or "Problem with sound device" in Skype plus error message "/dev/dsp-1: No such device" to the comsoles -- alsa-oss which installs a library and uses a wrapper to convert Skype's OSS format into Alsa format. I haven't tried alsa-oss because, seach as I may, I cannot find a download for it (in any version). Even the link on the Alsa Project http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page draws a blank: it cannot change into the directory for alsa-oss! All other links I've found on the Web are dead. I'd be most gratefull is anyone who's travelled along this road and has successfully arrived could help me out! The ideal would be a compilable source package. And if anyone has found a working alternative solution to the abve probelm, I'd be most interested to hear about this too. With thanks, and best wishes, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Aug-07 Time: 22:31:17 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linux can't connect to the Internet
by CDW (Linux) 19 Aug '07

19 Aug '07

Due to some finger trouble on my part, I lost the Mandrake 10.2 system on my second hard drive which is on my dual-boot machine. The other OS is XP and that's where I'm writing this. Over some weeks prior to my hosing of Mandrake, the Internet side of Linux had been getting distinctly unreliable. I'd say that at least 50% of the time it wouldn't work. Other days I'd boot into it and it would work fine. All the time it would say that the network was up but it wouldn't talk to the router (all static IP addresses as they are under Windows). Having lost Mandrake 10.2, I thought I'd give a later version a go. The install all went well with no problems except that it wouldn't bring up the network to search for updates. I gave up with Mandrake at that point and decided I'd take a look at ubuntu so grabbed a copy of that. I was impressed that it found all the Windows hardware and allowed me to enter an IP address from the GUI prior to install. But it still wouldn't talk to the ADSL router. At this point you might imagine that I had a faulty network card but with no changes, other than to the OS, the network is running fine. I watched the light on the back of the LAN card and as XP was rebooting, the green LED illuminated. At no time does it do so in Linux. It's back with Mandrake Spring by the way now as I couldn't persuade Ubuntu to write a sensible boot loder config and at least Mandrake did that, or should that be Mandriva now? Any ideas as to what I should have a try at now? -- __ __| |_ __ __ .-----------------------------------------------. / _/ _` \ V V / | mailto:cdw_alug@the-walker-household.co.uk | \__\__,_|\_/\_/ |_______________________________________________|

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USB Obesity!
by ted.harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 18 Aug '07

18 Aug '07

Hi Folks, I suspect I've done somthing foolish (OK, maybe several things). Yesterday, browsing round Tesco, I spotted 1GB USB sticks on sale for £9.97. Looked like a bargain, so I bought one. OK, maybe a gamble, but at low stakes. Branded "TESCO / TECHNIKA", "Manufactured in Taiwan for Tesco Stores Ltd."; the info on the front of the pack is in English, on the back in Polish, Czeck, Hungarian and Slovak. After I got home, I gave it a whirl by plugging it in, mounting /dev/sda1 (which is where my USB sticks go) onto /flash (my mount point for this kind of thing), made a directory /Ted on it, and squirted about 300MB at it from one of my "junkbox" directories (which also has a few sub-directories of junk), using cp -a 00_junk /flash/Ted (Maybe "-a" was a mistake). Lots of messages up on the console about not being able to set permissions (OK, expected, since it wouldn't be a Linux file system). Then, after a bit a lot of messages "bad FAT"! Also, at the same time, lots of complaints about multibyte names (which I don't have). A couple of messages about Interrupt from USB. Hmmm. Multi bite, bad fat ... Obesity??? Finally it was done. I could read from whatever had gone in immediately under /flash/Ted, and the sub-directories were there, but if I changed into one of these I couldn't read anything in there. Clearly a bit of a mess. So I deceided to delete everything and think again. Deleting top-level stuff OK, but the sub-directories wouldn't play. Finally decided to start from scratch. Started fdisk on it, blew away all the partitions, planted a new Linux one (type 83), and tried to mkfs an ext2 filesystem on it. Got message that the kernel couldn't make head nor tail of it, and would continue using its stored FAT (previous version) untile the next reboot. Well the previous FAT was no good by now, so I re-booted. Well, you've guessed it -- the thing is now totally useless. Can't do a thing with it! It won't mount on /dev/sda1 of course, since there's no filesystem. So, to come to the point: 1. I'd be interested in any suggestions and expertise about how to set up a Linus partition on a zapped/blank [which?] USB drive. This would presumably involve addressing some /dev/usb*** just as one would for /dev/hda, say, if doing the like for a standard HDD. No big deal if you can't be bothered -- it was only a tenner, so I'll just have to fine myself 4 pints of beer. 2. Also interested in any suggestions about whether I should have bought it in the first place (with implications about possibly ever buying another one). With thanks, and happy weekend to all. Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <ted.harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 18-Aug-07 Time: 08:41:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linutops et al
by Matthew Holland 17 Aug '07

17 Aug '07

Laurie wrote: > I wish there were something out there of a similar size with space for a > 2.5" HDD... While trying to read up on Linutops I found this RegHardware article on alternatives: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/11/30/diskless_linux_web_pcs/ Of particular interest to me is this one, although depending on your app you may need something more powerful: http://www.norhtec.com/products/mcjr/index.html Matthew

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Coin Selector supported by Linux
by Ben Francis 17 Aug '07

17 Aug '07

Hi all, Does anyone know of a "coin selector" or "coin acceptor" with a USB interface which is supported by free Linux drivers? I'm talking about the mechanisms on coin slot machines which send signals to an embedded computer when coins are inserted. I've had a quote for a product which includes an EMP 800 coin selector (http://www.custom.it/ing/money/03-01.htm) and I've managed to get hold of a data sheet for it so I can write my own driver, but I'm wondering if there is a similar product which already has support under Linux. Apologies for cross posting, but I feel I may need to cast the net quite wide for this unusual question :P Many Thanks Ben -- Ben Francis http://krellian.com

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Re: [ALUG] Linutops (was Coin Selector supported by Linux)
by Wayne Stallwood 17 Aug '07

17 Aug '07

On Thu, 2007-08-16 at 22:51 +0100, Ben Francis wrote: > I could use a different thin client computer I suppose... Hmm I have looked at Linutops before (as a plaything/x terminal for downstairs) but really they don't stack that well for price performance compared to a machine built from one of the fanless MiniITX boards unless you really need a machine quite that small. I dunno how the Georde compares to a via chip, but you get many more options for interfacing on mini-ITX and you should be able to easily put together a board, psu, case, memory and flash storage for less than the price of the Linutop. You also get the advantage of expandable ram and other niceties then. You could match the size as well but only by going for nano or pico ITX both of which will push you over the price of the linutop with diminishing extras in terms of interfacing. Also I don't like the way Linutop are using what is obviously xubuntu for their "Plug and Surf key" without appearing to credit Ubuntu anywhere on the website.

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[ALUG Announce] 3rd Monday Monthly Ipswich Social Meeting : The Milestone, Woodbridge Road
by samwise 15 Aug '07

15 Aug '07

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 scheduled again for next week (Monday 16th April) 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! This month's meeting comprises a tutorial by Wayne (aka DrJeep) on video editing, DVD creation etc. using free software. We also need to discuss next month's tutorial and find a suitable volunteer. 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

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Mesages From Netgear Router
by Nick Daniels 15 Aug '07

15 Aug '07

Hi I have had Netgear DG834g for about two years now. I installed Etch on Mon, and since then I have been receiving email such as TCP Packet - Source:209.112.135.123,50394 Destination: xxxx DOS, never had these before. If I start torrent I am getting 20+ per minute, upon turning on this morning there was three timed at 01:00 etc although router was off. BTW Many thanks for help with line speed problem a while back, I ended up asking Plusnet for MAC, line suddenly went from 900k to 4Mb and dropouts ceased almost immediately. Kind Regards - Nick Daniels

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Digital cameras
by Peter Alcibiades 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

This is the advice a friend of mine gives. His cameras cost thousands and he is a prize winning photographer. I am not a photographer, so have no idea of the merits of his advice, but take an interest in it because of a general interest in technology and because I have someone else to buy for. Here is a summary. 1) OS does not matter unless you are using RAW. Otherwise you are using a card reader, and any OS will manage jpeg. If you are shooting in RAW the program to read it in is very important, and not all programmes come for all OSs. There is something about Macs and Canons - the best RAW software seems to come only for windows. 2) More megapixels are not better, in fact they are probably worse in compact cameras, because noise rises as the pixel size gets smaller. You will see this particularly in low light conditions. 3) There are two reasons why SLRs are better, and a lot better, than anything else, if quality is what matters. One is size of sensor. They have big sensors, less noise. The other is that they do not use power to deliver the view through the viewfinder. This means more rapid operation, less power consumption. The difference between the alleged semi-pro small sensor cameras and true SLRs is huge, and way out of proportion to the difference either in cost or size. I think his view is, though he doesn't say this explicitly, that the 'semi pro' ones which look like SLRs but are not, is like lipstick on a pig. The only thing to use, if you are serious about picture quality, is an SLR. The difference, he says, is huge. 4) When considering SLRs, worry about dust. Every time you do a lens change, dust will be attracted to the sensor. Cleaning up the dust in photoshop or equivalent will be inredibly time consuming. He uses these special brushes,very expensive, to get the dust off the sensor. There are different ways of getting the dust off automatically now with different makes. Worry about dust. Worry about how you are going to manage, how much its going to cost, whether you have to return for maintenance to get it done. Think hard about whether you actually need to change lenses, and if not, get the kind of lens that is flexible enough to leave in place forever. If you're a pro you can't avoid changing lenses. As an amateur, plan so you don't have to. 5) More optical zoom is not better. It is impossible to make 12 x optical zoom lenses that are as good at any given zoom as a non-zooming lens. So anything more than 4 or 5 x zoom means compromising quality at all zoom levels. 5) Image stabilisation is fine, but beware of processing that increases sharpness. What you want is a stabilised image, with as little processing as possible. If any sharpening is going to be done, do it yourself on the PC. Otherwise you risk ending up with a pre-processed image where further processing will just degrade quality. 6) He has cameras that cost 5k plus. Nevertheless, the ones that he is surprised to find give him excellent shots and surprisingly good quality are the 200 pound or so compacts with moderate MP and Zoom count. He particularly mentions a Fuji whose model number I have forgotten. It had quite a high MP count. I can find out if you want. 7) Some of these, particularly the more expensive ones, have all kinds of manual controls. He has been surprised to find that they don't appeal to him at all, though in SLRs he is very manual control oriented. He actually prefers simple point and click in compacts, and doesn't quite know why the ones which allow him the freedom he has with his expensive SLRs always seem to get left at home. I found these conversations interesting because they are so different from anything you read in reviews. As a consequence I bought for my nearest and dearest a then high end 3 x zoom 4MP camera, a couple of large compact flash cards, and a reader. It has worked brilliantly. Its easy to use, the quality is excellent, the zoom is about right, its purse or jacket pocket size, and it goes everywhere. Its certainly not what I had in mind before I asked him. Peter

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Respawning a script
by Richard Lewis 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Hi ALUG, I have a Python script which seg faults occasionally. Its running on a server so I don't pay it much attention and the seg faults don't matter particularly. But I would like it to be running most of the time. Does anyone know of a way of making it automatically start again after it has crashed? I guess its kind of like respawning but I don't think I want init to be in control of it. I guess I could write another script which keeps an eye on the first script's pid and restarts the script when the pid disappears. But before I do, I was wondering if there's a more automatic or more elegant way of doing it? Cheers, Richard -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Richard Lewis http://www.richard-lewis.me.uk/ JID: ironchicken(a)jabber.earth.li -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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Are there any Python and/or mail experts here?
by Chris G 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

I'm considering writing a python script to do some mailbox manipulation but I'm finding the documentation a little confusing, or at least a little lacking. I'm looking at:- http://docs.python.org/lib/mailbox-maildir.html http://docs.python.org/lib/mailbox-mbox.html What I can't quite get my mind round is why the Maildir sub-class of Mailbox has list_folders(), get_folder() etc. whereas the Mbox sub-class doesn't have these methods. >From the user's point of view maildir and mbox mail work the same, you can have a list of mbox folders in exactly the same way as you can have a list of maildir folders. In fact the Maildir sub-class documentation is not at all clear about what you get when you call list_folders(), a list of folders at what level in the hierarchy? -- Chris Green

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Digital Camera recommendations
by samwise 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

Anyone got any recommendations or hints / tips for buying a digital camera. Looking at a budget of £100 - £150, for general all-round use - preferably fairly compact. What should I look for when buying a camera for use with Linux? What are the main open source apps and what do they need the camera to support? Is one that connects as a USB mass storage good enough? or should I expect more integration than that with the right camera? Any recommended manufacturers which work best with open source software? Amazon link recommendations welcome! TIA, Peter. P.S. I'm running Debian Testing, if that makes a difference.

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Re: Are there any Python and/or mail experts, here?
by Matthew 14 Aug '07

14 Aug '07

MJ Ray said: > Think what you like, but at least Dovecot seems to share the > requirement. As you note, basic maildir seems not to allow folders at > all. The Python class seems to be using Courier maildir. It wouldn't > be the first time mutt coped with stuff that doesn't follow specs. There's a common restriction on IMAP servers that a folder can contain subfolders or messages, but not both. Is that related? Certainly Dovecot doesn't use true subfolders: it fakes them by prefixing the folder name you asked for with its ancestors, dot-separated. Matthew

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RE: [ALUG] Digital Camera recommendations
by Richard Bensley 13 Aug '07

13 Aug '07

The Casio Exilim is very nice; 7 MP, SD cards, slim, USB etc The Sony Cybershot's always get good reviews too. I also recommend grabbing a copy of What Camera to have a look at their buyers guide, and their roundup reviews. Richard -----Original Message----- From: main-bounces(a)lists.alug.org.uk [mailto:main-bounces@lists.alug.org.uk] On Behalf Of samwise Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 3:21 PM To: main(a)lists.alug.org.uk Subject: [ALUG] Digital Camera recommendations Anyone got any recommendations or hints / tips for buying a digital camera. Looking at a budget of £100 - £150, for general all-round use - preferably fairly compact. What should I look for when buying a camera for use with Linux? What are the main open source apps and what do they need the camera to support? Is one that connects as a USB mass storage good enough? or should I expect more integration than that with the right camera? Any recommended manufacturers which work best with open source software? Amazon link recommendations welcome! TIA, Peter. P.S. I'm running Debian Testing, if that makes a difference. _______________________________________________ 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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