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re: Information (or lack of it) about SATA and AHCI on Linux
by den 17 Oct '06

17 Oct '06

Can't you just use a ready made kernel with everything rolled into it, and use information like the modules used along with the information provided by hal about how all the parts of your system are connected to one another ? Just an ignorant guess about how you might investigate your system further, so don't shoot me down to harshly if it's not good advice. dennis

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Information (or lack of it) about SATA and AHCI on Linux
by cl＠isbd.net 16 Oct '06

16 Oct '06

This is a mixture of a comment and a question. There seems to be very little hard information about using SATA drives in Linux yet, in particular I can't find anything much for the *user* on how to set up a SATA/AHCI system. In particular there seems little help on which kernel one should choose to install a SATA/AHCI based system. The SATA drives appear as SCSI drives to the software when they are AHCI ones but nowhere tells you whether you need a SCSI kernel or an ATA/IDE one in this situation. Considering the possible permutations of AHCI on/off and possible kernels one might choose it could take a long time to get it right! I've got my system working OK now but I'm still unclear on how much IDE support I still need compiled into the kernel, I may not need any at all but there seems nowhere to find out. The best information I've found so far is at:- http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html ... but this doesn't help a lot on the actual 'how to configure it' front. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Firfox/Mozilla Cache
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 16 Oct '06

16 Oct '06

Hi Folks, Where does Firefox (or Mozilla for that matter) keep its cache? In Netscape it was easy -- a whole slew of directories under ~/.netscape/cache/ But I can;t find abything with "ache" in its name that has anything to do with Firefox! With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Oct-06 Time: 14:58:12 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Linux World Expo, ALUG Trip
by Simon Elliott 15 Oct '06

15 Oct '06

Hey all, Linux World Expo is rapidly approaching.. There has been some chatter at pub meets about a group of ALUGers going along. I've got tickets coming soon, all you need to do is sign up on the website (for free) to get your pass. http://www.linuxworldexpo.co.uk/ All the information you want to know is on the website. What I was wondering is, if people are going to be driving - whether lifts could be arranged or getting the train as a group - if so which one? Etc etc. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, let us know.. At a rough guess, there will be 4 people travelling- that I know about anyway.

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Networking question
by cl＠isbd.net 14 Oct '06

14 Oct '06

If a system has more than one NIC then what happens by default regarding connecting to thre resto f the local network. Does it simply choose the first NIC that 'appears' during boot to be the one that is used for 'itself'? I realise that one can have multiple NICs and different routes etc. but I want to know what happens if (as I have at the moment) you have a system with three NICs (one real card and two on board ones). I have nothing clever configured, I just told the installation what the system's IP address was, what the default route was and what the DNS server was. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Sharing disks between Linux boxes
by cl＠isbd.net 14 Oct '06

14 Oct '06

What's the simplest way to network disk drives between Linux boxes? I just want to make the drives on my 'old' Linux server visible to the new Linux server so I can copy/merge configuration files, copy /home directories etc. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Sticky Jelly
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 14 Oct '06

14 Oct '06

Hi Knowledgeable Folks One of you can probably help me. There is a kind of sticky jelly such as is often used to attach a DVD to the cover of a Linux magazine (thus making this post on-topic). I could find handy uses for this stuff, since the attachment is stable, but is easily peeled off, and the jelly can easily and cleanly be removed by rolling it off with a finger. But I don't know what it's called, nor the sort of shop where one might be likely to find it on sale. Any help? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Oct-06 Time: 18:39:02 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Mostly-OT: Strange ADSL issues
by Mark Rogers 14 Oct '06

14 Oct '06

I have two ADSL lines from completely different providers (Demon and The Phone Coop (www.thephone.coop), both behaving the same. The lines are both in the Peterborough area but on different exchanges. Although this isn't a Linux problem I think Linux is most likely to give me the tools to resolve it. Basically, some of the time the ADSL lines just work: I can browse the web, collect email, download ISOs, etc. However the rest of the time (and its becoming increasingly "most of the time") I can't. To all intents and purposes the connection has gone. Except, and this is what's throwing me, connections which were already up will continue to work (eg if I have an SSH connection somewhere it'll still work, I use Hamachi (www.hamachi.cc) as a VPN client and I can still access my home PC from work and vice-versa through it when the connection is otherwise useless, if I'm downloading an ISo using BitTorrent it'll usually continue just fine). The ADSL router isn't showing anything unusual (I have different hardware at home from at work and have swapped both with no effect). All I have managed to do is: (a) Confirm that DNS is not the problem. DNS doesn't work properly during an "outage" but equally I can't access sites/email/etc by IP address either (b) Small packet stuff seems OK. Often (not always) I can ping a site which I can't view. (c) Following on from the above, if I tweak the ping packet size so that fragmentation occurs the ping becomes unreliable. (d) Optimised sites like Google are far more likely to work than non-optimised sites with lots of data. There's no obvious patterns to the time of day/day of week (non-peak times are probably better but its not clear cut). Rain makes things worse (but our office ADSL line has never liked rain, and I think that's a different problem). Any idea what is going on or how to find out? The ISPs so far haven't been much help, but since I have the same problem with two different ISPs I don't think its an ISP problem. A traceroute from my office to somewhere and from my home to the same place don't show any obvious points of commonality until they reach the destination (ie I'm pretty sure that apart from going through BT cables the two ISPs aren't sharing the same hardware/connectivity somewhere). At home my router uses an embedded Linux which I can SSH into, so suggestions for things I can try from there welcome. It uses BusyBox and has limited tools but there may be some useful stuff under /proc if I knew what to look for. PS: This has been going on for a few weeks but is definitely getting worse. -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

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Meeting Report: Thursday 12th Oct 2006
by Simon Elliott 13 Oct '06

13 Oct '06

A short warning before I begin; [02:22:16] <Sionide> my meeting report is going to be rubbish, but nevermind - better than nothing and people can always reply with corrections / more info And so I'll begin... Hello all, Summary: A good pub meet up, with 2 new faces - Jerry and Michael, which is great and is definitely what I like to see... So if you're reading this and haven't been to one of our pub meets, make sure you come along next month! Role Call: Jerry Michael Martjin (mak) Myself, Simon (Sionide) Adam (quinophex) Mike Paul (paul_c) JT (mChicago) Ross (RossF) Richard (ironChicken) Neil (or maybe Neal?) and a late appearance from Joe (Joeboy) I think it was Paul who had the bright idea of reserving the tables at the Reindeer as we've had problems getting decent seats in previous meets. We should probably continue this for future meets... So there we were in the corner by the door, and discussing, as we do, open-source, linux as well as other general rubbish & nonsense.. *coughJTcough* Discussed Topics: (which I heard) -Development of Scouting through the ages. -Adam's new job. -NiLith Batteries, pros and cons. -Lost, the TV series. -Rock Linux. -Can you drive tanks on the road? -The possibility of creating a huge aerial using 4.6km of wire to receive 9KHZ radio signals. -Discussions of Paul's very "flashy" looking camera (haha, I'm so not funny) If anyone remembers anything else talked about or would like to continue any of these particular discussions on the mailing list, feel free! Mak said I had to mention the fact that JT came straight from work, wearing his suit. Hehe... Well, it tickled us at the time anyway. Thanks for coming every body, see you next month! -Simon

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How to get mouse working (Slackware 11)
by cl＠isbd.net 13 Oct '06

13 Oct '06

I have finally got Slackware 11 installed on my Abit AB9 motherboard system - hurrah! However the mouse doesn't work. It's a standard PS/2 mouse and worked in other installations so I'm prety sure it's connected right etc. An "ls -l /dev/mouse" shows that /dev/mouse is linked to /dev/input/mice. What else should I be checking? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Problem with lilo on suse 10.0
by John Woodard 11 Oct '06

11 Oct '06

My apologies if this appears twice but I'm not sure it sent. Suse 10.0 box the lilo bootloader has been corrupted. I'm trying to get it to boot but I'm coming up with errors I don't fully understand The system has an IDE disk which has a vfat windows partition hda1 and an ext3 partition mounted as /home and a scsi disk with an sda1 being swap and sda2 ext3 mounted as /. So far I've used a Suse 10.1 instillation DVD to get into the machine via rescue system option. I then mount the root partition as /mnt and chroot to make it the root filesystem. Running lilo gives me the following error message. **************** Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not exist, disk scan bypassed. Warning: The boot sector and map file are on different disks. Added Windows Fatal: open (Hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz: No such file or directory **************** Windows will boot from this lilo configuration. It needs to be able to boot between windows and suse 10 and at a later date have a suse 7 installation added to it. Below is a copy of linux.conf. Any help here would be really appreciated. Cheers, BJ lilo.conf **************** # Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Oct 9 12:33:56 BST 2006 menu-scheme = Wb:kw:Wb:Wb timeout = 80 lba32 change-rules reset read-only prompt default = 2.6.13-15-d boot = /dev/hda other = /dev/hda1 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows### label = Windows ###other = /dev/fd0 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy### ### label = Floppy image = (hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz label = 2.6.13-15-d append = "selinux=0 resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent showopts" vga = 0x317 root = /dev/sda2 ****************

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Problem with lilo on suse 10.0
by John Woodard 10 Oct '06

10 Oct '06

Suse 10.0 box the lilo bootloader has been corrupted. I'm trying to get it to boot but I'm coming up with errors I don't fully understand The system has an IDE disk which has a vfat windows partition hda1 and an ext3 partition mounted as /home and a scsi disk with an sda1 being swap and sda2 ext3 mounted as /. So far I've used a Suse 10.1 instillation DVD to get into the machine via rescue system option. I then mount the root partition as /mnt and chroot to make it the root filesystem. Running lilo gives me the following error message. **************** Warning: '/proc/partitions' does not exist, disk scan bypassed. Warning: The boot sector and map file are on different disks. Added Windows Fatal: open (Hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz: No such file or directory **************** Windows will boot from this lilo configuration. It needs to be able to boot between windows and suse 10 and at a later date have a suse 7 installation added to it. Below is a copy of linux.conf. Any help here would be really appreciated. Cheers, BJ lilo.conf **************** # Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Mon Oct 9 12:33:56 BST 2006 menu-scheme = Wb:kw:Wb:Wb timeout = 80 lba32 change-rules reset read-only prompt default = 2.6.13-15-d boot = /dev/hda other = /dev/hda1 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows### label = Windows ###other = /dev/fd0 ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy### ### label = Floppy image = (hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz label = 2.6.13-15-d append = "selinux=0 resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent showopts" vga = 0x317 root = /dev/sda2 ****************

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

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, 12th October. 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. I will unfortunately not be present this month. 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/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. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though sometimes we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- "'And the beast shall come forth surrounded by a roiling cloud of vengeance. The house of the unbelievers shall be razed and they shall be scorched to the earth. Their tags shall blink until the end of days.' from The Book of Mozilla, 12:10" -- about:mozilla ----- 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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SATA CD/DVD has solved most of my installation problems
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

Well, just to report success, the SATA CD/DVD drive I bought in the hope that it would overcome my installation problems on my Abit AB9 Pro motherboard has done just that. I can now successfully install any current relase of Linux (well at least the ones I have tried so far, Ubuntu, Suse, Mandriva and Slackware). It needs a reasonably up to date kernel to work but not the latest, latest, latest version. You have to turn on AHCI in the BIOS (for some distributions, Suse seems to manage without this somehow) and, of course, connect the SATA CD drive to the main (Intel chipset) SATA interface which the hard drives use as well. You also can't then boot from "SATA CD" you have to boot from the actual CD drive detected by the BIOS, presumably a consequence of turning AHCI on. >From there on it's plain sailing, installations run with the nowadays expected smoothness. Strangely I found that the sata.i kernel (2.4.33) in Slackware didn't work but the 2.6.xx alternatives were fine. Other distributions I tried were all 2.6.xx kernels I think, you don't get a choice. I guess only the newer kernels have the Intel SATA chipset support. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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how to buy a SATA power adapter cheaply?
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

I need a SATA power adapter, one of those things to connect a standard (Molex) 4-pin power connector to a SATA drive. They're about a quid each or less (best I've found is 68 pence for a two-way one) but carriage charges make that irrelevant. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I could get one at a reasonable price in the Ipswich area and/or a company that sells them that will stick one in a jiffy bag and send by Royal Mail for a pound or so? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Help with grub
by cl＠isbd.net 09 Oct '06

09 Oct '06

I have what would appear to be a very simple grub question but I can't find the answer in the grub info or the grub-install info. How do I remove a partition/OS from grub? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Gnome "calendar" is incorrect!
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 08 Oct '06

08 Oct '06

Hi folks, A distraction from this weekend's ADSL woes. Specifically: The "calendar"/"clock" application in the Gnome panel is incorrect for the year 1752 (and therefore for all preceding years). It is described as the "Clock Applet", and its Help only describes its time functions. However, when you left-click on it a calendar comes up, which is what I'm referring to. This is not described anywhere that I can find. Nor can I locate what program is executed for the "Clock Applet". Any thoughts? [trivial question of course...] 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-06 Time: 15:58:22 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

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Wierd routing/DNS problem
by cl＠isbd.net 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

I'm playing with a Suse 10.2 installation on my new hardware. It's all basically working locally but routing/DNS is broken. I can traceroute to anywhere, I can ping anywhere but I can't actually communicate with anywhere - i.e. I can't connect Firefox to any web sites and I can't ssh to anywhere. So what's set up wrong? /etc/resolv.conf has the right things in it (same as my other system anyway) and the default gateway is the same as my other system. I'm stumped. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Re: [ALUG] Re: Re: Re: TCP Problem *NOT* routing (was: Wierd routing/DNS problem)
by Nick Daniels 06 Oct '06

06 Oct '06

Hi Bit of topic, but I installed, the latest Kororaa yesterday and it has (a version) Kernel 2.6.18, always used the previous edition, when i had problems with "odd hardware",....." 2.6.18 CK patchset based kernel, KDE 3.5.4, Gnome 2.14, updated installer" Regards - Nick Daniels

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Ubuntu 6.10 server beta works!
by cl＠isbd.net 05 Oct '06

05 Oct '06

The saga of my Abit AB9 Pro motherboard continues. The Ubuntu 6.10 server beta installation CD recognises the CD drive on the JMicron SATA/PATA interface - hurrah! However it didn't initially recognise the hard disks on the Intel ICH8R SATA interface, turning on AHCI in the BIOS fixed this though. (Strangely the Suse installation recognised the hard disks without AHCI turned on). So now I'm installing Ubuntu 6.10 beta, I'll probably upgrade to the proper 6.10 when it arrives but the beta will allow me to play for a while at least. A couple of questions:- Is there any peformance penalty using the AHCI BIOS? Why doesn't Ubuntu Desktop 6.10 beta work in the same system? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Someone interested in some PHP/mySQL work in the next few months?
by Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

Hi, I run my own small software/web development company and we may have the need in the next couple of months to sub-contract / out-source some PHP/mySQL work. Please can interested people email me off-list at work(a)ashleyhowes.com. Please indicate in your email whether you have professional indemnity insurance, whether you use a particular development methodology / approach, and your approx. rates. -- Ashley T. Howes, Ph.D. http://www.ashleyhowes.com/ "May your spirit be renewed in earth's solitary places." - Native American Indian Blessing

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Suse 10.1 has installed but ....
by cl＠isbd.net 04 Oct '06

04 Oct '06

Well I'm back from my rather busy week-end (totally away from computers) and, after a few more clicks, the Suse 10.1 installation on my new hardware has completed. However it does have on little oddity, when booted/rebooted it doesn't show anything on the display. It is working though as I assumed there was a login prompt and was able to login 'blind' as root and shut the system down. All the dmesg stuff appears it's just after that the display goes. If I boot in Suse's "safe mode" the normal login: prompt appears and, in addition, I can log in and run startx to get X windows up. So, it's all working pretty well really except for the default console mode. Does anyone have any ideas how to remedy that? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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How soon will 2.6.18 kernel appear in stable releases?
by cl＠isbd.net 03 Oct '06

03 Oct '06

As per the title - how soon do the 'main' distributions tend to offer ready made upgrades to the latest (currently 2.6.18) kernel? ... and having asked that which of Mandriva, Ubuntu and Suse is likely to offer it first? Being lazy I'd prefer not to have to compile my own kernel though I have done it before. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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RE: [ALUG] Re: Trackball for Linux?
by Keith Watson 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> From: Chris Green Sent: 29 September 2006 13:27 > .... > Question: can you program one of the Marble Mouse buttons to > do a double click? Well if you can for other trackballs I suppose you can for the Marble Mouse (under Windows is comes with it's own utilities which do all sorts of wonderful things but I've only used it fully configured with GNU/Linux). The guarded answer is, yes, if by double click you have a specific operation in mind. E.g. with a scroll mouse under Ubuntu the standard setting for the wheel click button is paste (ctrl+v) but with the Marble Mouse there's no direct equivalent. So I've set the left-hand small (upper) button act the same as a wheel button click (which works quite well for me because I can highlight something by holding down the lower (bigger) left-hand button and moving the track ball and then spin to where I want to paste and click the upper button on the same side). Regards, Keith ____________ APPEAL, v.t. In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw. - Ambrose Bierce - The Devil's Dictionary

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Anyone used Linux Emporium recently?
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

I sent an order to The Linux Emporium a couple of weeks ago and apart from an acknowledgement nothing has happened at all. They used to be very good, even after the original owner moved on. Has anyone else used them recently or heard any adverse comments? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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RE: [ALUG] Trackball for Linux?
by Keith Watson 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> From: Chris Green Sent: 29 September 2006 12:43 > > Does anyone here use a trackball? I've been using a Logitech Marble Mouse (http://www.euroffice.co.uk/itm_show.asp?G7544=Logitech-Marble-Mouse&AFF =GG00006373 for example, but if you shop around you can get them cheaper) for a while now and I'm quite pleased with it. (I'm left handed so all these so called ergonomic shapes are a complete waste of time for me :o) ) I'm running Ubuntu Dapper and needed to do a bit of web searching for information on setting up the buttons as I'd like, but an evenings work sufficed to get it set up as I wanted. > > I've been using a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is a > trackball) for many years and would like something similar > that will work well with Linux. > > Requirements are pretty simple:- > Must be a trackball > Must have at least three buttons, preferably four. > Should be able to program buttons (e.g. my button four does double > click of button one). Marble Mouse has four buttons. >From what I've remember my research suggested that all trackballs seems to have a fairly standard mouselike interface so, unless it's some weird and wonderful h/w, the main considerations for setting it up are in the Xorg.conf settings. Fortunately the Marble Mouse seem pretty standard. Regards, Keith ____________ If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a hyacinth - Persian Proverb

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Trackball for Linux?
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

Does anyone here use a trackball? I've been using a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is a trackball) for many years and would like something similar that will work well with Linux. Requirements are pretty simple:- Must be a trackball Must have at least three buttons, preferably four. Should be able to program buttons (e.g. my button four does double click of button one). -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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[chris@isbd.co.uk: Re: I'm getting nearer, network install help wanted]
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

> > However I have one big problem, I can't find anywhere that tells me > what directory of the FTP site I need to point it at. I can't find > anyhwhere on the www.opensuse.org site that tells me where to get the > files from when doing a network install. > > It tells you how to do a *really* difficult install when you have no > CD at all but doesn't tell you what to do when you've booted from the > mini-iso CD. > > So, can anyone tell me where I should point it and/or point me at some > documentation? > .... it's OK, I got there in the end, it's hardly easy/intuitive though! I'm now installing Suse 10.1 from the Internet, it'll take a while so I'm off to bed now! .... and now I'm back at work in the morning, much of the install has completed but it needs some more manual input before completing. I'm away for the week-end (shouts of joy from the list) so the rest will have to wait for next week. However I now seem to have a reasonably easy/reliable route for installing Suse at least. I have to say that the instructions (or total lack of them) were crap, for it to work you have to know:- The IP address of the system itself, i.e. it has at least to be on the local subnet. The IP address of the gateway. The IP address of your DNS server. What protocol you're going to use to get the files (there's about five or six offered). The IP address (not the name) of the server you're going to use. The full path of the directory where the files are, this was the one I had problems with, firstly there's no clue as to what files it wants so how do I know what directory it is, secondly it's about ten miles long and is typed into a 20 character or so wide window. OK, it's do'able but you really need another system working to be able to get all the information you need. It would be well nigh impossible if you only had one computer. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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I'm getting nearer, network install help wanted
by cl＠isbd.net 29 Sep '06

29 Sep '06

Well I'm making (slow!) progress. The Ubuntu Edgy CD didn't do any better than the Ubuntu 6.06 one so I decided to try a network install. I have put an RTL8139 based network card into the system and it's recognised by my Suse 10.1 mini-iso, hurrah! After a few minor hiccoughs I have it configured and it can see the outside world. I have ven got as far as pointing it at an FTP site. However I have one big problem, I can't find anywhere that tells me what directory of the FTP site I need to point it at. I can't find anyhwhere on the www.opensuse.org site that tells me where to get the files from when doing a network install. It tells you how to do a *really* difficult install when you have no CD at all but doesn't tell you what to do when you've booted from the mini-iso CD. So, can anyone tell me where I should point it and/or point me at some documentation? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Progress (or lack of it) on my new system
by cl＠isbd.net 28 Sep '06

28 Sep '06

Well I haven't made a lot of Linuxish progress on my new system. The essential problems which make it difficult to install any Linux on it are:- The JMicron PATA controller isn't recognised by install versions of the Linux kernel. There is (I believe) support for it in the latest 2.6.18 kernel but the problem is how to get that kernel built on the system. The Realtek Gigabit RTL 8168 NIC interface isn't supported in current kernels. A driver is available but needs to be, yes you've guessed it, compiled into a new kernel. I have currently got Windows XP64 Professional installed in a partition on the new system, that was moderately easy though one has to feed it several floppys during the install and it's a bit of a guessing game which ones should be used at times. So, anyway, I have at least proved the system works and can copy stuff to and fro even if only in Window'ish formats. I need to come up with a strategy for getting a basic system onto my new box that will then allow me to compile a new kernel with the required bits in it. One question this raises is one that I originally asked - what Linux version should I choose? The original answers here were along the lines of "try them all" but I really don't fancy having to recompile kernels for all of them (and I don't believe one recompiled kernel will work for all, each distribution will almost inevitably have its own tweaks I believe). I think the three choices are Suse, Ubuntu or Mandriva. Suse 10.1 seems to have the fullest support for Vmware Server so, if nothing else seems to point elswhere, I may go for Suse. So, how do I get a system loaded? The options would seem to be:- Get the distribution files onto the disk using Windows XP and install from there. Question - can Linux installers read Windows file systems? Add a "well known" NIC to the system (I have spare PCI slots) and do a network install, this I think may be the simplest approach. Do a USB drive install (I'm not sure I have a big enough USB memory thingy). Any comments or ideas? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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Problem installing on an all SATA system
by cl＠isbd.net 25 Sep '06

25 Sep '06

I am trying to install ubuntu 6.06 server on my new hardware. The system is intel core 2 duo based with all SATA drives (including the CD/DVD drive). The installation CD boots OK (presumably because at this stage it's using the BIOS to access the drives) but after starting the Linux kernel and setting the language I get a message "No common CD-ROM detected" (or something like that anyway). I.e. there aren't drivers for a SATA CD/DVD drive. It then asks me to either select one of the old non-IDE drivers for the CD-ROM or to install a floppy with the drivers on it. So, how do I get this to actually install? I guess that the floppies with the SATA drivers for windows aren't going to help much, or will the ubuntu install recognise windows drivers? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

4 11

Hosting issues for not-for-profit image site
by Mark Rogers 22 Sep '06

22 Sep '06

I've been in contact with a website which hosts a large range of images (www.bioimages.org.uk). The images are "a large selection of pictures of Natural History objects, mostly British in origin", which currently amount to around 400M of HTML (autogenerated from a database) on IIS, and 3-4GB of photographs hosted separately. The site is currently offline due to attempted site rips causing load and bandwidth problems. I've offered to help look at the problem, but due to the capacity required I don't think I'm in a position to help with the hosting, although I may be able to help technically. Several issues comes to mind which I'd like advice on. I think there are Apache modules which can help to control the abuse aspect, but I'm not sure where to start - any suggestions? There are options like scripting the site (eg using PHP) and limiting the number of downloads per session. I could probably come up with a solution but its not something I have experience in managing. If anyone has suggestions for a generous host that would be useful too. What he's currently looking for is hosting for the HTML but not the image library, but cites bandwidth as the biggest problem. I need to work out why that is - I'd be surprised if the bandwidth fotr the HTML itself is a huge problem (although I think the way the pages are generated means that they are static pages with new timestamps after each generation, so search engine traffic alone could be massive). I have no direct connection with the site; its a friend who manages a site which makes reference to the images that brought the problem to my attention. I am inclined to help because I think this sort of thing is what the web should be about (ie decent libraries of decent information). -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

4 5

Putting Exchange out of business?
by Christopher Dawkins 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

>> Or you could install an imap or pop server on the machine and point your >> mail client at it, can be especially useful if the machine breaks for >> some reason and can't send mail as you notice that you either can't >> connect to it any more or that you at least get the messages (or notice >> a lack of them). > > That sounds like a challenge. If it worked, I could put Exchange on > their win servers out of business :-) It does work. Of course it works. It's been working on my servers for over a decade now, with sendmail and postfix and pop and imap, humming away with 100% reliability and no problems (apart from some caused by clients running a system I believe is called "Windows"). It's been working reliably since long before this thing you call "Exchange" was thought of. Yet, for inexplicable reasons, some places use this thing you call "Exchange", and despite problems with things I believe are called "viruses" (my experience is limited: these have never troubled the machines I use) they have continued to use this thing you call "Exchange". The whole business is quite incredible to a rational being, but it happens. Basically, there's no point in an alternative that is undoubtedly both more reliable and more economical. They'll stick to this thing you call "Exchange". I suppose we are lucky that it remains technically and legally possible for us to choose the better alternatives. There are already many ways in which we become digitally deprived if we do not conform to the herd mentality (flock? sheep? what is the collective noun for lemmings?). Our freedoms hang on a very narrow thread. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DS cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

2 1

[Fwd: Re: [ALUG] server mail forwarding]
by Wayne Stallwood 21 Sep '06

21 Sep '06

Sounds like you need to edit /etc/aliases (depending on your server setup, should work for most machines) and change the line that looks something like root: jenny to root: jenny@ordinary-email-address Isn't it better to create a .forward file in Jenny's home dir, the contents of which (on the first line) are the external address. Can't think why it is better that way (apart from the user not needing to be su to change the address later) but it's the way I've always done this in the past.

3 2

Evolution
by Wayne Stallwood 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

As some of you may have noticed, wordwrap in my copy of evolution seems to have become broken. If I just simply type a reply then it stays on a single line to a seemingly unlimited width. But only it seems when I reply to a message. Googled about and looked in all the preferences I can find, but I can't see anything that sets a fixed column width in the composer. It was fine until tonight and I haven't applied any updates or deliberately changed anything for a number of weeks now. Any ideas ?

1 0

server mail forwarding
by Jenny Hopkins 20 Sep '06

20 Sep '06

Hullo there, All mail for root, admin, postgres etc on my server are aliased to jenny, so it gets sent to jenny@localhost. How can I request it is sent to jenny@ordinary-email-address instead? I never remember to go and read mail on the server. Thanks, Jenny

2 4

Possibility of work
by David Reynolds 15 Sep '06

15 Sep '06

Hi, I have been asked if I know anyone who would be interested in doing some work for a customer of ours. I figured I'd post it here and see if anyone was interested. There is some system administration tasks along with a bit of Perl hackery, from what I can tell. Here are the details: > What I need is as follows. > > 1. Some ftp accounts that have been setup in a GUI interface called > plesk > need to have additional accounts set up for ftp. The problem is the > default > setting in plesk allow for only one account and it can see the cgi- > bin which > we don't want. > > 2. I need form mail setting up for use by 4 web sites. However the > version > of form mail needs to generate the following exactly as the data is > then > parsed to a outlook object and then into an access database where > the data > after the : is stripped out. > > Below is an example of the form that is currently generated. If you > know > anyone who is interested in this and some other Linux based admin > please ask > them to get in touch. They need to be 100% honest and reliable. > > Title: Mr > > requiredFirst Name: REMOVED > > requiredLast Name: IN > > Interest4: THE > > requiredTelephone (Evening): NAME > > requiredAddress: OF > > City or Town: PRIVACY > > County: > > requiredPostcode: > > Email: > > howFound: Google > > previous_purchase: No > > Data Protection: Please do not give my details to other companies > > SUBMIT: Submit Request Pretty basic sounding stuff. If anyone is interested, you can ask me for further details of contact the guy directly, here: xxxx xxxxxxxxxx Tel: xxxxx xxxxxx E-mail: xxxxxxx(a)xxxxxxx.co.uk Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

3 2

Which of the following distributions will I dislike least?
by cl＠isbd.net 14 Sep '06

14 Sep '06

Another facet of my new system...... I want to install Vmware server on the system and so it would seem to make sense to use one of the Vmware supported distributions. I will still probably run my existin Slackware setup as a guest system. So the choice lies between:- Mandriva Suse RedHat Ubuntu Which will I find least different from Slackware? I have previously run Mandriva (when it was Mandrake) and Suse but I found both rather too GUIfied for comfort which is why I went to Slackware. I suspect there's not much to choose between them all really, I have a (very) slight leaning towards Ubuntu but I'm willing to be persuaded otherwise. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

9 21

Linux support for two displays?
by cl＠isbd.net 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

While I'm planning my new system the possibility of a dual display arises (at very little cost as far as I can see). Does Linux support dual displays and, if so, in what sort of way does it do it? I going to go very 'main stream' by choosing an AMD Dual Core processor and Nvidia graphics unless there's a very good reason to choose anything else. (I might be persuaded to go 'all Intel' with a Core 2 Duo processor if there are good reasons for doing so though) -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

3 2

[OT-ish] Web hosting
by Mark Rogers 13 Sep '06

13 Sep '06

Another day, another outage with my current hosts... The only thing stopping me switching to a new host is being confident that I can do what I want elsewhere. I currently host at DSVR with a dedicated machine, split into a number of virtual machines (a few of which I have sold on to my customers as complete virtual servers, the rest we use to host sites on). Each virtual machine has a web admin thing (which is crap but workable) for adding new virtual hosts etc. DSVR handle all the OS patches etc and they're they only ones with root access. We have an "admin" log-on with privileges to do almost anything which doesn't compromise DSVR's ability to handle OS updates. We can, for example, install applications from source. I'm looking for something which provides me with a similarly high level of functionality with a similarly low level of responsibility. Everywhere I look I seem to get the option of either a web front end only (eg Plesk), or full root access. I don't want root access (or, rather, I don't want the responsibility for testing and installing patches and maintaining the security of the system). I need a number of virtual hosts ranging from a few hundred MB to a few GB in size, all of which are currently adequately handled by our existing dual Xeon 2.4 system with (I think) 1GB RAM. NB: The reason we have a dedicated server rather than a collection of virtual machines is that we previously had problems with others on the shared host causing us problems, despite that not theoretically being possible. If that's no longer an issue I'd probably prefer them just as normal virtual machines spread across multiple hosts - at least that way one dead PC doesn't mean all my clients ring me! We've never (touch wood!) had a server outage yet; the problems have all been infrastructure (today's being 9 hrs down due to a power outage), but silly things like having both our name servers on the same network bother me a lot. OS-wise: DSVR only let us have their bastardised version of RedHat (RH9 I think), but I'm not too bothered about that. They use their own virtualisation but Xen or vmware would suit me. It's really only the need for a reliable host who manages the virtual servers without leaving me at a web front end for all config that I'm particularly fussy about. -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

1 0

Re: VMware/qemu
by Christopher Dawkins 12 Sep '06

12 Sep '06

> I've started another thread asking about Vmware. > Is anyone here using Vmware? I was for a few years, but am now using qemu. It's better for me, but that may be because I use FreeBSD and VMware ports for FreeBSD aren't as up-to-date as VMware. It's also cheaper. -- Christopher Dawkins Garnetts Corner, Braintree Road, Felsted, Dunmow, Essex CM6 3DS cchd(a)pjcd.org 07816 821659 01371 821076

5 9

Forward of moderated message
by announce-bounces＠lists.alug.org.uk 12 Sep '06

12 Sep '06

3 2

[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 11 Sep '06

11 Sep '06

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, 14th 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/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. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though sometimes we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- "Never test for an error | .''`. Debian GNU/Linux Developer condition you don't know how to | : :' : Happy to accept PGP signed handle." --Steinbach | `. `' or encrypted mail - RSA + | `- DSA keys on the keyservers. ----- 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

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 11 Sep '06

11 Sep '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

Re: [ALUG] S.T. -- Doors
by David Noble 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Hi Ted Tried both links with Opera on Debian Sid; empty page. Tried with MSIE on win virtual machine; empty page (http://mrdaven.mine.nu/timesonline.png) dave.

1 0

S.T. -- Doors
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 10 Sep '06

10 Sep '06

Hi Folks, Would anyone oblige by running a crosscheck for me? I wanted to look at the SUnday Times "Doors" section on-line this morning. Not for the first time, although the page which comes up is headed "The Sunday Times - Doors", is has no content. I was using Firefox. I then tried on a different machine with Mozilla and Netscape, with similar results. It may be that the page really has no content this morning, or it may be that it's a "browser compatibility" problem. I'm not in a position to try using I.E., so can't check whether it's a case of the Sunday Times making unwarranted assumptions. The direct URL to "Doors" is, apparently, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,2776,00.html and the indirect route from the top level is 1: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ 2: Scroll down until you find "Newspaper Edition" under "Services"; click on this 3: Pick "The Sunday Times" from the days 4: Click on "Sunday - Doors" As I say, I've experienced this before, though not often. I'd just like to settle whether it's my browser[s], or the fact that I'm not using Internet Explorer [when of course all right-headed people should], or the Sunday Times has not put any content onto the page this weekend. With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 10-Sep-06 Time: 09:17:43 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 4

Anyone using Vmware?
by cl＠isbd.net 08 Sep '06

08 Sep '06

Is anyone here using Vmware? My Win2k machine is getting a bit flaky so I'm looking at buying some new hardware (system unit only probably) and setting it up as a Linux box with Win2k running in Vmware. This would replace my existing two machines running Slackware Linux and Win2k. I know there are some issues with running Vmware on a Slackware Linux box but these seem fairly easy to overcome, they are basically only to do with the startup scrips (BSD versus SysV). Does anyone here have any experience of doing this? In particular how good is the hardware support for Win2k in VMware, I want to be able to use a scanner from Win2k in particular. I suppose I ought to ask about good hardware too but I'll make that another thread. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

5 22

qemu - a love/hate relationship
by Barry Samuels 08 Sep '06

08 Sep '06

I had not heard of qemu until someone recently mentioned it and as I have one item of Windows software for which there is no Linux equivalent I thought I'd give it a try. I downloaded the Debian package which gave me an installed version of qemu (v0.8.1-1). I installed Windows98 using this and have a working version of Windows98 running on my Debian box - whoopee! I have installed the Windows package I want to use and it appears to work very well but the data I want to use is on the host machine. I would like to access this using networking and that is where I have come severely unstuck. Whatever I do I cannot get the virtual Windows98 machine to connect to my local network. I've searched and read Howtos with no luck. When I start Windows a network interface, tap0, is created on my Debian box with an IP address in the same sub-net as the real eth0 interface but what do I do then? Giving Windows an IP address in the same sub-net doesn't work. If I run Network Neighbourhood (I can't bring myself to spell it incorrectly) and double click on 'Entire network' I get a message: 'The network is not accessible' and that is as far as I've managed to get. So near and yet so far. I've been trying this all day without any success. Is there anyone who has done this before able to offer some tips? Please! -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

1 0

Social aspects of computer misuse - lecture
by sfr 08 Sep '06

08 Sep '06

The BA Joseph Lister Award Lecture - "Computer says no": the social aspects of computer misuse. Today (Friday) 13:00 Webcast on http://www.sciencelive.org/content/view/95/50/ "Zombies, botnets, Trojans, worms, viruses, phishing, spam and just plain hacking. Alongside the benefits to society, the growth in computing power and availability has brought a new and expanding world of computer misuse which is often (wrongly) thought of as computer crime. Why do individuals commit computer misuse? How do they see the virtual world? This lecture will provide an insight into the motivations that underlie computer misuse and explain the difficulties the law faces. Stefan will consider alternative complementary means of cyber-regulation before discussing the ways in which individuals and organisations could become more resilient to cyber-attack." Should be on archive later. -- eli

1 0

New system (hardware) advice wanted
by cl＠isbd.net 07 Sep '06

07 Sep '06

As I've said elsewhere I'm thinking of buying a new system unit to run Linux (probably Slackware) and Win2k as a virtual machine. I think I'll probably go for a dual-core processor as they seem to have reduced to sensible prices now. What's the current thinking as to which is best value for money between the AMD Dual core processors and the Intel Core 2 Duo ones? Is there anything else fundamental that will affect the performance (well obviously there is!) that I may miss? I don't need anything super whizzy in the graphics department as I don't play any games, good 'business' graphics is all I need. So a big fast disk drive and lots of memory seem to be the other obvious requirements. Any/all suggestions welcome. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

3 3

That KVM issue
by Jenny Hopkins 07 Sep '06

07 Sep '06

And whilst I'm on the subject of posting solved problems: I posted a while ago about a mouse problem with a set of eight debian boxes running from a Belkin KVM, and Wayne pointed me in the direction of the firmware of those particular KVM models. I set our hardwarey bloke on to the task and he was sent a few different firmware changes to make. He did this and reported the changes, none of which solved the problem, and finally Belkin requested we send the switch back to them for tests. They promised to send a reply-addressed box for this. Two weeks later, still no box, and since several weeks had gone by before that with these eight production-essential machines out of action, we had to shrug and order a known-to-work DLink KVM. This was a great shame, as the Belkin was an easier to use design in that you could select the channel required at the press of a button, whereas the DLink you have to tab round. Also because i was pretty pleased that Belkin were being so supportive and helpful and then disappointed they couldn't even post a box. So the solution was that we didn't solve it but bypassed the problem. Jenny

5 10

Tesco Internet Phone?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 07 Sep '06

07 Sep '06

Hi Folks, Anyone been using a Tesco Internet Phone with Linux? Any comments? Thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 07-Sep-06 Time: 12:53:46 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 1

rsync problem
by Jenny Hopkins 07 Sep '06

07 Sep '06

Hullo there, A colleague of mine is having problems using rsync to the server I run that he accesses over an openvpn connection, since he made some changes at his end. I've asked him to type out the problem so I can ask on this list. He says: <startnick> While trying to rsync using openvpn and the Vonage supplied Linksys RT31P2 router, the file transfer stalls. This is true whether rsyncing via ssh, rsync server or nfs mounted volume. Using rsync without openvpn or without that router and all is well. No other app seems to have the same problem though I haven't tried many but ssh seems fine for example. Openvpn (v 1.6 I think) only uses udp packets AFAIK so shouldn't need GRE or any other sneaky protocol passthrough. The rsync stall seems to happen after the initial preamble of authorisation and making file lists. Some directories are created but no files are sent. Any clues most welcome. My problem is that I want the Vonage router to be close to the main feed so that its QoS can optimise its VoIP channel. Nick <endnick> Thanks, Jenny

4 8

MS SBS 2003 replacement
by Wayne Stallwood 05 Sep '06

05 Sep '06

Has anyone looked at either of the following http://www.scalix.com/ http://www.open-xchange.com/ I am looking for an alternative to SBS to offer small businesses. The key points are point and click manageability for everyday tasks such as adding users, mail account administration etc, Simple deployment, and inter-operation with Outlook (preferably with most if not all features supported (public folders, calendar sharing etc etc.) As to the other SBS features, VPN's, File and Print sharing and some thing to replace sharepoint I already know how to do quite well in linux so the only missing link is a point and clicky administration interface (some of which is filled by webmin) but these are secondary requirements to the Exchange like functionality. Open-Xchange looks to be pretty suitable, however the GPL version is a complete pig to install unless you are running SuSE or Redhat enterprise products. Also it is pretty dependant on the paid version (with closed source additions) to get the desired functionality (too much dependence on closed source additions puts me in the same boat as SBS and if I include Redhat or SuSE server products, puts me in at the same or higher price point) However I would be interested to hear of any experience with these (or any other similar) products.

2 1

DGS
by Bob Dove 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

Hi folks, I suppose you've all picked yourselves up of the floor after hearing the news that DGS (Dixons/Currys/PC World) are creating two thousand jobs in a new advisory service aimed at users of 'technology.' It doesn't matter where you bought your technology - you'll get straight talking expert advice DGS expect to earn billions from this venture - they haven't told us how but one has to presume a very expensive call centre. A story needed to bring mirth to a Monday morning! Ho Ho Ho! Perhaps some of the 2K new experts will advise them on how to explain a dual core processor! Cheers, Bob Dove.

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 04 Sep '06

04 Sep '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

I'm so glad ... [OT]
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 03 Sep '06

03 Sep '06

Hi Folks, Found on the Sunday Times "Doors"/"Don't Panic" web page this morning: The Sunday Times - Doors The Sunday Times September 03, 2006 Don't panic Nigel Powell answers your technology queries Q: I have an AVI file that I cannot delete. Help! Waleed El Tair, via e-mail A: Try creating a simple text file. Give it the same name as the file you want to delete, and copy it into the same directory. When Windows asks to overwrite, click yes, and delete. Alternatively, change your Windows Explorer view to icons and try again. If this fails, go to Start, Run and type in "cmd". Once the command prompt appears, type regsvr32/ u shmedia.dll, then delete the file. That's pure Kafka! I'm so glad I don't live in that world! Good morning! Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 03-Sep-06 Time: 08:38:33 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 2

A network conundrum
by Barry Samuels 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

Briefly this is the mystery: If I connect my laptop to my home network using an ethernet cable it can 'see' the printer but if I connect the laptop using wireless it cannot find the printer (neither can I ping it). Setup details: Computer A has two ethernet ports. Computer A connects to the router via an ethernet cable (eth0). Computer A also connects to the printer (eth1) - ethernet port and printer are on a subnet. Computer B also connects to the router. At first it could not find the printer until I set up a static route on the router which cured that problem. If the laptop is connected to the router via cable (eth0) it can find the printer but when connected via wireless to my wireless access point (which is connected to the same router) it cannot see the printer unless I add an appropriate line to the routing table on the laptop. Can anyone explain, to satisfy my curiosity, why this should happen? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

4 4

Seen on Jobserve...
by Keith Watson 30 Aug '06

30 Aug '06

...and might be of interest to list members... http://www.jobserve.com/W619E63A067AC6062.job Regards, Keith ____________ Can there be bliss when all that lives must suffer? Shalt thou be saved and hear the whole world cry? - HP Blavatsky

1 0

Dying DVD Drive?
by Martin Collins 29 Aug '06

29 Aug '06

Hi, can anyone decipher the following kernel messages. These occur when I put a DVD in the drive and it tries to mount and fails. I previously had Suse 10.1 on my HP Pavillion laptop but have recently switched to Ubuntu 6.06. These messages don't occur with pre-recorded media (mag cover discs) and don't occur with writable media burnt in other computers. Media previously burnt under SuSE which read fine under SuSE, now don't read under Ubuntu but media burnt under Ubuntu does read in other computers but not this one. It's quite bizarre - it seems if it was burnt in this laptops burner, however long ago, under whatever Linux version or with whatever media brand, they now don't read but do in other computers? Mmmm, maybe the reading laser on my DVD drive has had it? But how come it can read writable media burnt in other computers? I tried turning off dma with hdparm but no difference: martin@linux-laptop:~$ sudo hdparm /dev/hdc Password: /dev/hdc: IO_support = 1 (32-bit) unmaskirq = 1 (on) using_dma = 0 (off) keepsettings = 0 (off) readonly = 0 (off) readahead = 256 (on) HDIO_GETGEO failed: Invalid argument Anyone experienced anything like this before, particularly with a dying DVD burner perhaps? Thanks & best regards, Martin Kernel messages follow:- Aug 28 20:21:42 linux-laptop kernel: [4295833.959000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:42 linux-laptop kernel: [4295833.959000] hdc: rw=0, want=68, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.481000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] hdc: rw=0, want=4607396, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606372, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606148, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.482000] hdc: rw=0, want=4607388, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606364, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606140, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606796, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.483000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] hdc: rw=0, want=4605772, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] hdc: rw=0, want=4605548, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] hdc: rw=0, want=4606788, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.484000] hdc: rw=0, want=4605764, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.485000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.485000] hdc: rw=0, want=4605540, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.485000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.487000] hdc: rw=0, want=3780444, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.487000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.487000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779420, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.487000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779196, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] hdc: rw=0, want=3780436, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779412, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.488000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779188, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779844, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] hdc: rw=0, want=3778820, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] hdc: rw=0, want=3778596, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.489000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] hdc: rw=0, want=3779836, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] hdc: rw=0, want=3778812, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] hdc: rw=0, want=3778588, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.490000] hdc: rw=0, want=1252, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.491000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.491000] hdc: rw=0, want=1028, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:43 linux-laptop kernel: [4295835.491000] UDF-fs: No partition found (1) Aug 28 20:21:45 linux-laptop kernel: [4295837.445000] attempt to access beyond end of device Aug 28 20:21:45 linux-laptop kernel: [4295837.445000] hdc: rw=0, want=68, limit=4 Aug 28 20:21:45 linux-laptop kernel: [4295837.445000] isofs_fill_super: bread failed, dev=hdc, iso_blknum=16, block=16

2 2

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 28 Aug '06

28 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

"Firewall" directory perms possible?
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 26 Aug '06

26 Aug '06

Hi Folks, I've been toying with the following kind of question. Is it possible to setup a directory (say ./invis) such that it is impossible for anyone (even the owner) to do 'ls' on it, or 'cd' to it, thus not being able to find out the names of files and subdirectories under./invis, but such that if you name such a file or subdirectory explicitly than you (as owner) have access to it? I.e. in order to access anything under ./invis you have to know its name. E.g. cat ./invis/myfile cd ./invis/mydir Ordinary "chmod 000 ./invis" will not work, since this prevents all acess of any kind ("permission denied"). But I have a feeling that this sort of thing should be possible somehow (without having any idea of how to do it). Any comments? Thank, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 26-Aug-06 Time: 12:42:46 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 1

Smartd and Hard Drive errors
by Barry Samuels 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

smartd[6119]: Device: /dev/hda, 1 Currently unreadable (pending) sectors smartd[6119]: Device: /dev/hda, 1 Offline uncorrectable sectors Do the above error messages indicate any serious (potential) problems? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

4 13

FW: [sheflug] Dinnington.net Presentation 5th September 2006
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi Folks, I'm taking the liberty of forwarding this from the ShefLUG list. As well as the URL for the September 5th event itself at Dinnington, I also looked at the main Dinnington.net website at http://www.dinnington.net/ whi8ch makes very interesting reading! Dinnington is a somewhat out-in-the-sticks-ish place between Worksop and Sheffield. Not unlike a number of our own communities! This is so interesting that I might go up there for it. There are several pertienent fundamental questions that I'd like to know the answers to. For example -- what "pipe" do they tap into, and how? And how can they provide it for free -- where's the money coming from? If anyone else is interested in a possible trip up, maybe we can coordinate? (It's not at all certain I shall really go, but it's quite a possibility). Best wishes to all, Ted. -----FW: <200608251747.56972.richard(a)sheflug.co.uk>----- Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 17:47:54 +0100 Sender: sheflug-bounces(a)sheflug.co.uk From: Richard Ibbotson <richard(a)sheflug.co.uk> To: sheflug <sheflug(a)sheflug.co.uk> Subject: [sheflug] Dinnington.net Presentation 5th September 2006 Hi Bob Holland has been circulating some information about an event which takes place on the evening of the 5th of September over in Dinnington. This is of interest to anyone who uses or has some use for Free or Open Source software. To quote Bob's e-mail.... " Starting in September, we are beginning a series of Tuesday evening events in Dinnington to raise awareness of the project. The first of these - on September 5 - is a technical introduction to the system we have put in place in Dinnington. It is aimed primarily at those in our community who have already expressed an interest in supporting and extending the system, but I would like to extend an invitation to those from the wider FLOSS community who may be interested in finding out more about the project and how the FLOSS components are working together. Full details of the event can be found here... " http://www.dinnington.net/click-tuesday/dinnington-net-the-project -- Richard ___________________________________________________________________ Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html GNU the choice of a complete generation. --------------End of forwarded message------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 25-Aug-06 Time: 18:39:10 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 0

HDD --> Flash??
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 25 Aug '06

25 Aug '06

Hi Folks, This morning's Guardian "Technology" section has an item about the possible replacement of the classic HDD by flash-memory modules. See: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1856508,00.html While reading the article (mostly about cost comparisons), I was wondering about whether the data stored on a flash module would be as solidly stored as on a HDD. Finally, there was a brief discussion of the issue: "But besides cost, there are other obstacles for Flash memory replacing hard drives. Flash memory is typically guaranteed for around 1m read/write cycles, which sounds a lot, but in the context of the working life of a PC (which is continually writing, erasing or rewriting data) is not. So designers have to use techniques known as wear-levelling to shift data around the Flash memory block to reduce the risk of data error. "We can design around the problem," says Walsh." I was also wondering about how long data would "stay in place" over time anyway. Does the "bit-state" of an element on a flash module tend to "diffuse" away over time? Admittedly I have never experienced data corruption on a flash drive (though the number of read/writes to such that I've made is far from the millions); aqnd I've certainly had problems with hard drives! (But then I do hammer these). Any views? There's also an interesting insight into XP and Vista. Booting XP from a flash would be 25%-50% faster than from a HDD. And, it says, "Vista is about five times bigger than XP, and what comes along with that large size is a speed issue, even with faster CPUs. We've been working with Microsoft on ways to speed up booting and application loading by complementing the hard drive with Flash." Hmmm 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: 24-Aug-06 Time: 10:54:16 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 4

PC World TV Advert
by Ian bell 22 Aug '06

22 Aug '06

PC World's latest TV advert has a saleman extolling the virtues of a dual core Pentium. Dual core? asks the customer. Yes, replies salesman, Let's you do more than one thing at a time. At the very least misleading to the average punter. I have complained to the advertising standards authority. ian

11 21

New Gnome User Needs Help
by Martin Collins 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, after using KDE for many years now, I've defected to Gnome with Ubuntu's Dapper Drake. After using it for a few days I really like it and I'm getting along great. I had tried to use it a few times previous but always gave up and went back to KDE. Everything I use and need is available in Gnome, except one thing. In KDE I always used Konqueror for navigating around my folders and when needing to revert to the command line simply clicked on the Konsole button in Konqueror (which I placed on the toolbar) and a terminal popped open in my current working directory. I can't seem to do this in Gnome/Nautilus. I have to open Gnome Terminal separately and cd into the directory that I want. It's only a minor niggle, but I've just seemed to have fallen into working this way. I do remember, I think it was Mandrake 8.2, that Nautilus did used to have a function like the one described above. Does anyone know if this is possible in the latest Gnome/Nautilus? Thanks all. Martin

2 2

Exim - deny rule ignored
by James Green 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi, I'm trying to change the behaviour of exim 4.50 such that as soon as a RCPT TO: foo(a)domain.com is received, it checks if that recipient exists and if not, denies service. deny !verify = recipient Should do it, at the top of the acl_check_rcpt rule. exim -bH shows the rule being loaded, but completely ignored. Indeed testing from my gmail account results in the standard mail rejection notice complete with spam index, instead of an SMTP-level deny. Any clues? Cheers, James

1 0

PC World
by Bob Dove 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

Hi folks, PC World - a good place to shop as undoubtedly almost anyone who enters the portals knows more than the staff employed. My most famous encounter was at the specialist desk wherein I enquired after a hard drive caddy or drive case. "Nah, don't make 'em anymore, no call for them." I looked on the shelves and found a Belkin device that looked as if it would do the job (it does - still) and I took it back to the specialist counter and asked the same bloke if I could mount an IDE drive in it. He concurred that what was wrote on the box was correct. I asked that as they didn't do 'em anymore - no call for them - was there a special price? They must be aware of their reputation? I worked for Dixons for ten years. In my time even the junior had a full product knowledge and was actively encouraged to join clubs, go to college or adult learning centres to learn more and more about the subject. It is embarrassing at times to overhear the sales patter! But go into any multi selling almost anything. You'll find Sales Managers, Sales Advisors, Key Account Executives (the person that knows how to write an invoice) Team Leaders but no team or any lowly sales persons. Most of these companies are driven by accountants who have know knowledge of the product. A famous photographic company I was once in frequent contact with had a policy of not employing anyone with photography as a hobby - 'we want them to sell boxes, we don't want them to like the product.' The reps main line was always 'how many outers do you want?' No trying to buy one item to replace the one you sold last week. Many more boxes - don't matter what's in 'em. These people also employ ad agencies at vast sums of money to produce these facile and incorrect ads. The ad agencies are briefed (obviously inadequately) by Sales Directors. Ah Whale! Bob Dove.

1 0

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 21 Aug '06

21 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://xchat.org/windows/ - the UNIX client has a windows port! http://www.mirc.com/ (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

ALUG Contrib blockage
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 20 Aug '06

20 Aug '06

Hi Folks, Browsing just now on the ALUG home page http://www.alug.org I found that everything that points to anything under http://www.alug.org/contrib/ ends up at http://www.alug.org.uk/blocked.htm with the page: ACCESS DENIED You have been blocked from accessing this site due to the security settings in place If you feel this in error please contact the mailing list for assistance. This is only a temporary measure until stricter posting rules are put in place. I know this is an old issue, but I'm windering how it's going. It doesn't look too good to have 4 out of the 9 links on the home page going nowhere! 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-06 Time: 18:11:25 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

1 1

Sensors
by Barry Samuels 18 Aug '06

18 Aug '06

Now that I've changed over to a 2.6 kernel some of the sensors modules will not load automatically. When the machine boots i2c_core and i2c_amd756 are both loaded but w83781d and i2c_isa are not but if I load w83781d manually using modprobe after booting both these 'missing' modules load and sensors then works. I have an lm-sensors file in /etc/modprobe.d which contains (can't stop the line wrapping in my mailer): install w83781d /sbin/modprobe i2c_amd756; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install w83781d # Supplied by Tyan options w83781d force_w83782d=0,0x2d force_subclients=0,0x2d,0x48,0x49 force_w83627hf=0,0x2c force_subclients=0,0x2c,0x4a,0x4b init=0 Any ideas? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

2 1

Flash
by Bob Dove 17 Aug '06

17 Aug '06

Hi folks, Will flash be the death of the internet? A company I do some PR work for has for the past two years employed a young 'whizz kid' (MD's son) to liven up their website. Has lots of 'flash' flash (the company do manufacture Studio Flash equipment) animations &c, but takes so long to load that potential customers move onto a competitors site in 'penny plain' HTML. Despite being told that the only people who can be bothered with flash are other website designers who do not buy their products they do persist. I suppose the MD's son has to be employed at something! What do ALUGers think. Are we getting too clever by far and missing the point? Cheers, BD.

10 10

I'm flummoxed too!!!
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 16 Aug '06

16 Aug '06

Hi folks, I have been trying to follow up a story on the BBC News website: " Tests flummox trainee teachers" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4793655.stm which describes how trainee teachers were failing basic tests in numeracy, literacy and information technology. The above URL gives some examples of test questions in literacy and numeracy, but none from ICT. So I followed a link on the right of the story "Sample ICT test" at http://www.tda.gov.uk/skillstests/practicematerials/ ict/practicematerial.aspx [all one line] to see how I would get on. Until I read the "Minimum specifications". Now I'm flummoxed too. And depressed. 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: 16-Aug-06 Time: 00:01:55 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

5 7

PCI wireless network card
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

One of my computers, currently connected to the network by cable, may have to be moved to another room where connecting by cable is not practical. I do have a wireless access point so can anyone recommend a PCI wireless network card that will work with Linux (Debian Etch/Testing) without a lot of messing about. I don't want to use the software, the name escapes me, that uses Windows drivers as I've had problems using that in the past. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

4 16

Re: [ALUG] 2.6.17 kernel firewall problem
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

On 15/08/06 10:44:30, Brett Parker wrote: > On Tue, Aug 15, 2006 at 10:14:42AM +0100, Barry Samuels wrote: > > > > "No chain/target/match by that name" > > > > Can anyone explain what might cause this? > > I expect that you've got some version of a firewall script somewhere > and that you've missed some of the iptables options when compiling > the kernel and that's what's causing the issue - probably worth > checking what Guarddog is trying to do. > > Cheers, > -- > Brett Parker Is there any way that I can identify what iptables option the error message refers to? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

1 0

2.6.17 kernel firewall problem
by Barry Samuels 15 Aug '06

15 Aug '06

Recently in another post I mentioned that using kernel 2.6 on my machine caused a 5 minute delay before it started to boot which is why I'm still using kernel 2.4. I tried a number of different 2.6 versions as they appeared but they all produced this boot delay. Then I decided to try the latest - 2.6.17 and now find that the delay has disappeared. Having compiled this kernel and booted it I now get four error messages all the same when I run the firewall (which is generated by Guarddog): "No chain/target/match by that name" Can anyone explain what might cause this? When I've tried earlier 2.6 kernels I haven't had these errors. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

1 0

[OT] BBC News 24??
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

Hi Folks Sorry for OT but there are not many other informed people I can consult! Q: What's happened to BBC News 24 on-line?? Until the end of last week I could find it on the BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk and indeed had it running for extended periods keeping a "background" ear on the news about air travel etc. Yesterday and today I can't find a direct link. The alleged "BBC News 24 Home Page" at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_news_24/default.stm is simply blank, and while you can find the schedule listing (with link to above "Home Page") at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcnews24/listings/ index.shtml?service_id=4352&day=today [all one line], there's no link to watch it on-line. Anyone know what's happening? With thanks, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 14-Aug-06 Time: 10:55:15 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

2 2

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 14 Aug '06

14 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

How to get a transparent background in Gimp
by cl＠isbd.net 12 Aug '06

12 Aug '06

The title says it all really, is it possible to get a transparent background in the Gimp? I have an image I've created with one of the script-Fu utilities and I can get the background window up but there seems to be no way to say 'no background'. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

4 3

gawk on gnuwin32
by Ted.Harding＠nessie.mcc.ac.uk 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Hi Folks, I appeal to the ALUG Linux Consulate to rescue me, a citizen of Linux, from a foriegn and dangerous land! I want to experimentally try running gawk on a Win98 system (the background is that a friend, currently working in Africa and stuck with Windows, could have the daunting task of restructuring the records in a CSV file solved in an awk 2-liner, instead of pulling hair out trying to do it in FoxPro). Since I've never tried running any GNU stuff on Windows, so cannot offer any advice based on experience, I thought I'd better acquire some before shooting my nouth off. This I went to http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/gawk.htm and downloaded the "Setup" package (a 6.6MB .exe file), planted it in [excuse my language] C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\gawk [maybe that was a mistake?] and ran the setup file gawk-3.1.3-2.exe All seemed to go smoothly, the files being installed in the above directory. Then I tried (in a DOS box) to run gawk '{print "Ted"}' and got an error that the "'" character was illegal! So I feel stuck! Has anyone been there and succeeded, and can offer advice? With thanks, Ted. PS If there are any FoxPro experts out there who could short-circuit the problem by advising how to do it in FoxPro, I can send a mini-example of the job that needs to be done. It's really simple, logically speaking, but has a twist which might mean a little neat footwork. In which case very many thanks for that! -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding(a)nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 05-Aug-06 Time: 21:03:11 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

3 3

Kaspersky Antivirus
by Stuart Bailey 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Please forgive the commercial nature of this mail. I have negotiated a deal with Kaspersky for their Linux Workstation product. They normal only sell in batches of minimum 5 licences. However, they have offered me to buy batches of licences and then to resell the to others. The cost would work out at £30 inc VAT each licence. If anyone is interested, contact me off list. Many thanks, Stuart -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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Passing TAB character as commandline parameter (to xls2scv)
by Mark Rogers 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

I'm playing around with xls2csv (part of the catdoc application). Something simple like: xls2csv -c~ products.xls > products.txt does what I'd expect (exports the XLS, using "~" as the field separator). Any suggestions how I can make this create a tab separated file instead? I think this is more about how to pass the TAB through the shell (ie more to do with bash than xls2csv) but I could be wrong. -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

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Meeting report - 10th August 2006
by David Reynolds 11 Aug '06

11 Aug '06

Attendees: Myself (Dave|Paperface), J (mChicago), Simon (Sionide), Rob (robrob), Jonathan (Noodles), Peter (not on IRC), Joe (Joeboy), Adam (quinophex) and Eli (sfr). The weather was not quite so nice this month starting to rain about 5 minutes before I got to the pub. We still had a reasonably good turnout nevertheless. We sat in a different place (up in the restaurant bit) so that Simon could have power for his laptop for which the Reindeer staff kindly let us use an extension cable. Simon brought along a USB coffee cup warmer and it was discussed whether or not it broke the USB spec. Conversation included: PHP being crap (will there ever be a pub meet where PHP isn't mentioned), Windows Vista, mounting of ntfs filesystems in DSL, talk about Plan 9 [1]. Rob wondered why ethernet adaptors don't appear in /dev/ when every other device does. Peter brought along a problem which Noodles helped him with which involved exporting a proprietary database to XML and then rendering the XML in a web browser. They also talked a bit about formal database design. Simon and I discussed plans for the website and this was turned over to the rest of the group and we talked about the different lugs in the Anglia region including PLUG and Cam-LUG. Hopefully, I've not missed anything. Cheers, Dave [1] http://cm.bell-labs.com/plan9/ -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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Utility for converting text to image
by cl＠isbd.net 10 Aug '06

10 Aug '06

Are there any simple utilities out there for converting a few characters of text (colloquially known as a 'word') to an image for use on the web? I.e. convert text to .png or .gif. It would be nice if one could set style, colour, etc. as well as size. -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

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[ALUG Announce] 2nd Thursday Norwich Meet : Reindeer, Dereham Road
by Jonathan McDowell 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

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, 10th August. 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/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. We're /normally/ just to the left of the main entrance, though sometimes we've ended up at the far end of the pub beside the pool table, as there are comfy seats at that end. J. -- 101 things you can't have too much of : 48 - Pies. ----- 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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Data recovery
by Stuart Bailey 08 Aug '06

08 Aug '06

I have a customer who's laptop hard disk has crashed, and he needs to recover data from it. Can anyone recommend anyone specialising in data recovery - possibly in the Cambridge area? many thanks, -- --------------------------------------- Stuart Bailey BSc (hons) CEng CITP MBCS LinuSoft (Owner) Linux Specialist (0845) 6583563 http://www.linusoft.co.uk ----------------------------------------

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Digital TV Card
by Nick Daniels 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

Hi Can anyone reccomemed a digital TV Card for use with Linux. Kind Regards - Nick Daniels

5 4

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 07 Aug '06

07 Aug '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

1 0

Web maintenance via the web - good tools?
by cl＠isbd.net 05 Aug '06

05 Aug '06

I am using TWiki to enable me to maintain some web pages remotely. While it does a fairly good job it's not the ideal tool because it's designed for co-operative use. There's lots of TWiki that I don't need:- Version management Multi-user management There's some bits I really like:- Simple formatting (easier than full HTML) Simple links There's some things I'd like that it doesn't have:- Scripting and dynamic HTML I'm sure there's others but I can't think what at the moment Is there something out there designed for web site writing and maintenance via the web that might fulfil my 'single user' requirements better? -- Chris Green (chris(a)halon.org.uk)

2 2

Updating Redhat 9 system
by Mark Rogers 05 Aug '06

05 Aug '06

I'm trying to update a RedHat 9 system that's not been updated in a while. If I try: up2date -u I get: RPM package conflict error. The message was: Test install failed because of package conflicts: package krb5-libs-1.3.1-1 (which is newer than krb5-libs-1.2.7-14) is already installed How do I get past this? [FWIW: This server is a development server with lots of Apache vhosts, MySQL databases and not a lot else. It is only ever accessed via SSH/http/samba.] -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

9 27

Digital TV Card
by Nick Daniels 05 Aug '06

05 Aug '06

On Saturday 05 August 2006 10:19, Alan Pope wrote: > On Sat, Aug 05, 2006 at 09:38:23AM +0100, Nick Daniels wrote: > > Hi > > Can anyone reccomemed a digital TV Card for > > use with Linux. > > I have two Freecom DVB-T USB sticks which work well under Ubuntu Dapper. > > Cheers, > Al. >I have heard good things about this one >http://www.mediaatlantic.com/product.php/25397/1/ >I have a WinTV-HVR900 personally (but I have never managed to get this >to work on Linux, even though it is supposed to be possible) Many thanks for replies: I have a very old Win TV card, which worked until I installed Suse 10.1, but since it no longer works in Ubuntu either I assume it is dead. Since I intend to dual boot Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop / Ubuntu, I will give the Freecom a try. Kind Regards - Nick Daniels

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SDRam
by David Reynolds 05 Aug '06

05 Aug '06

Hi, Does anyone happen to have any spare PC133 or PC100 SDRAM laying around that they don't need? A small amount would be ok - 64MB or so, although the more the better ;) Cheers, Dave -- David Reynolds david(a)reynoldsfamily.org.uk

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wireless community network in norwich
by Adam Bower 01 Aug '06

01 Aug '06

Hi all, I saw a small bit on the news today about a community wireless network being setup in Norwich and going live from today. A bit of googling and digging around shows that the homepage for the project is here: http://www.norfolkopenlink.com/index.htm Looks like they're going to fund it only until April 2008, so in which case I sense that it's been a big waste of money already as the total cost for the project is 1.1 million... my personl idea would have been they could have wifi enabled all the libraries in Norfolk for less than that and still had some money over to offer a few hotspots over other places in the county and provide funding for them for much longer than less than 2 years. Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex(a)jabber.earth.li Avoid ID cards, renew your passport: http://www.renewforfreedom.org/

2 1

SpamAssasin and gocr/jocr
by Mark Rogers 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

Has anyone here experimented with defeating imgae-based spam using something like gocr (jocr.sf.net)? I've seen one attempt (http://wiki.apache.org/spamassassin/OcrPlugin) but I've not tried it (I'm not convinced by the method it uses, since it uses a fixed word list). My thought was that it ought to be simple to automatically OCR any image attachment and add some headers to the email containing the image text, then have SA check those headers for content (does SA check headers?) That way any words appearing in the image that have previously been seen in spam as plain text will get caught. It also occurred to me that OCR accuracy might not be too important. After all, if the same image spam is seem multiple times and marked as spam, then the OCR misinterpretations of the words will be common to each scan even if the words found are wrong. However, I have no real idea how to go about implementing this. -- Mark Rogers More Solutions Ltd :: 0845 45 89 555

8 23

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 31 Jul '06

31 Jul '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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20" monitor to go!
by Guy Eastwood 28 Jul '06

28 Jul '06

I have a CTX 20.5" (according to the measuring tape) CRT monitor I want the get rid of - is an EX1300F I think. Worked perfectly last time it was used, I just want the space back! If anyone is interested let me know.. I'd appreciate a few quid for it as it wasn't cheap when originally bought. New owner to collect from me in Sutton (next to Stalham, NR12). If anyone is interested mail me an offer! G

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USB Hubs
by Bob Dove 26 Jul '06

26 Jul '06

Hi folks, Re USB Hubs. In the early days of USB - 1.1 I think - I had a hub that had its own power supply. This was used for a sort while 'til I got fed up and installed USB 2 card. Later silly boxes equipped with USB 2 anyway. I have two hubs - free gifts with software - mainly to make it easier to plug devices rather than the tangle of wires (worse than Hi-Fi) at back of machines. These are unpowered and everything I have connected (printer, scanner, external drives) work well except the external drives are slow when compared to those inside the box. Cheers, Bob Dove.

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USB again: input devices and hubs
by MJ Ray 25 Jul '06

25 Jul '06

Does anyone here know how to 'tie' a particular input device to a particular window? I'd like my usb keyboard to work one particular window, rather than be a general X input device. Which USB are good buys right now and do any *not* work with Linux's EHCI/OHCI driver? (I ask because when I don't get a recommendation, I seem to buy the most awkward hardware available...) Thanks in advance, -- MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ irc.oftc.net/slef Jabber/SIP ask

3 4

Weekly IRC reminder
by Brett Parker 24 Jul '06

24 Jul '06

This is the automated ALUG IRC meeting reminder sent to remind you that there is an IRC meeting tonight (Monday) at 8.00pm. Historically, these used to be the only time a lot of us would be about, now the channel has some usual faces that are there most of the time (except at silly o'clock, when we might be sleeping, or on the second thursday of the month, where we might be drinking in the Reindeer), so don't feel limited to visit during this time, come visit us when ever you feel like it! The meeting takes place on the irc server irc.alug.org.uk in the #alug channel. Most IRC clients should allow you to get there with the commands "/server irc.alug.org.uk" and "/join #alug". Popular IRC clients include xchat, irssi and EPIC on Unix, and Mirc under windows. Here are some links to help you get started with irc. Unix http://www.xchat.org/ http://www.irssi.org/ http://www.epicsol.org/ Windows http://www.mirc.com (loads of help with irc for newbies!)

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